This day, July 19 should go down as a special moment in the economic history of Nigeria – the day when the country’s main vehicle for economic survival, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is officially unveiled by the incumbent President as a commercial venture. The transition took effect on July 1, in line with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), 2021. But by noon today, NNPC would have formally made that transition from being a corporation to become a limited liability company, a company limited by shares, to be known hereafter as NNPC Limited, that is a commercial venture. In some of our media platforms in the last few days, the NNPC hierarchy has been staging a song and a dance over the fact that the NNPC was indeed about to become a new entity. What does this mean in real terms for Nigerians? While we are all obsessed with politics, the Osun Gubernatorial election being the latest menu on the plate of the commentariat and the political elite, it seems to me that the transition that is to be unveiled today at the NNPC deserves some interest. Established in 1977, 45 years ago, the NNPC manages Nigeria’s crude oil, gas and petrochemical resources, the joint venture between Nigeria and oil multinationals, and also engages in petroleum exploration and production through the country’s four refineries. 

Crude oil accounts for more than 80% of the country’s foreign exchange earnings. With Nigeria identified as the sixth largest oil producer in the world, and with the country blessed with the sweet, low-sulphur, top grade Brent Crude variety, crude oil was effectively Nigeria’s equivalent of manna from Heaven. In due course, we were told that Nigeria is even more of a gas producing country than an oil dependent country. Milk and honey practically flow under Nigeria’s soil. It has been NNPC’s business to manage all of that, and bring profit to the country. Nigeria is not the only country that has been so privileged. They have oil and gas in Saudi Arabia, Russia, Qatar, UAE, Venezuela (bad reference in the circumstance), Libya, Kuwait, the United States, Norway and quite a number of other countries. Whereas oil and gas resources have brought some countries power and glory, Nigeria’s experience has been mixed and problematic. From being a resource-rich country in the 70s and 80s, crude oil in particular has turned out to be a source of agony and pain for Nigeria. We squandered the riches. A terrible economy developed over the years around oil and gas. Politics, ethnicity, greed, corruption and all the other ailments that assail the country found a home in the oil and gas sector. This should not be surprising. The easiest way to make money in Nigeria is to get into the oily business. It was a matter of time before the people would begin to agitate for reforms and a change of regime. And it happened. Oil resource became the target of seething anger within the system. Those who believe that the oil and gas that come from their soil in the Niger Delta is theirs see no reason why anyone, any group or any region that does not produce oil and gas should benefit from other people’s endowments in a supposedly federal system.  Oil became political. Politics became oily and gassy. Right at the centre of this conundrum was the NNPC, and the country’s Ministry of Petroleum Resources and everything attached thereto.

To address both the sentiments and the substance around this issue, there have been calls for resource control. From Adaka Boro to Ken Saro-Wiwa and beyond, there have been calls for true federalism, secession, respect for the rights of ethnic minorities, and counter arguments along geographical lines with the North pitched against the South on the question of who owns what, who should get what, and what share – Nigeria’s main revenue being oil and gas. In due course, the Petroleum Industry Bill was introduced to address many of the issues: governance, regulatory frameworks, community relations and management. When President Muhammadu Buhari unveils a new NNPC this morning, with a new brand, logo and identity, NNPC Limited emerging in place of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, he would be giving effect to a major plank of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).  President Buhari can comfortably claim the PIA as one of the achievements of his administration. For decades, Nigerians complained about the need for reform in the oil and gas sector. They asked for a review of joint venture frameworks. They wanted a new NNPC that would be organized for productivity and efficiency and not a mere government parastatal bogged down by politics and graft. Oil bearing communities also had their demands relating to justice, equity and fairness and how these have been treated shabbily within the larger Nigerian equation.

For decades, the Nigerian legislature toyed with the law. Under Buhari, the law was passed. It seeks to provide a new governance framework in the oil and gas sector. The law removes the subsidy in the downstream sector especially with regard to petrol. It decrees a transformation of the NNPC into a profit making, independent, commercial venture. Before now, the NNPC has been run as a cash cow for the Nigerian Government, as a dependent public sector agency. It manages the oil and gas resources of the country, makes money, transmits same to the Treasury. Every month, state governments carry bowls in hands, rush to Abuja and at what is called the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee meeting (FAAC), collect their own share of the national cake. Everyone got so greedy, everything got so mismanaged, NNPC got to a point it started protesting that there was very little to share or add again.  For months, the NPPC using the excuse of under-recovery and subsidy has not been able to contribute as much as it should to the national purse. This is one reason why its reform is imperative. The PIA has offered a window but how open is that window?

The unveiling of a new NNPC should be seen correctly by industry watchers as a positive development. The need for the transition as proposed is justified by how Nigeria’s national oil company performs badly against its peers. In the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war, Russia has been using its energy resources as a weapon against Europe which depended on Russia for about 40% of its energy needs. Russia simply turned off the Nord Stream 1 pipeline for routine maintenance, and asked for payments in rouble, to push Europe into confusion, and energy prices to the roof. Countries with high demand for energy are groaning. Countries that are rich in oil and gas are smiling: Saudi Arabia and other countries of the Middle East are being wooed as the West looks for alternative sources of energy. The United States is wooing Saudi Arabia afresh. It has tried to soften a bit on Venezuela. Sri Lanka in the Indian sub-ocean is in trouble in part because it cannot provide fuel, food and medicines for the people. Pakistan is hanging on to the IMF to bail it out. Cost of living crisis is a major issue in Great Britain. While Europe is looking towards Algeria, Tunisia, and Angola for solutions and alternatives, Nigeria has been caught flat-footed. Rather than turn the current global crisis into an advantage, we are busy here lamenting that rising oil prices amount to a curse for Nigeria. We are not befitting because we are not ready. In today’s global energy mix, Nigeria pays a huge price for its own failures in managing its main resource and the plain view reason is this: the failure of leadership.  

NNPC wears a new toga today. We have made that point. Restructuring of the public sector has been a recurring decimal in Nigeria’s economic history. The question has always been: how can public enterprises be made more profitable: commercialization, privatization or liberalization? Liberalization as in the telecommunication sector has resulted in growth and innovation and the end of the inefficiency of the old, state-owned NITEL. That is one good example. In a deregulated regime, the state has no control over price. It can only regulate quality. Under a privatization regime, the state can regulate, but the entity is controlled by its shareholders. The fundamental thing is: a private entity is after the maximization of profit and minimal cost.  What has happened to the NNPC is commercialization, not privatization. But don’t get it twisted: NNPC still remains in the public sector. That is why it is still called Nigerian National… The only difference is that as a commercial entity, it will now have to pay more attention to its profit and cost centres. While there is a limit to which it can dictate price and profit, it must be noted that it can no longer do business as usual.

What is also new is that while the NNPC may still have a relationship with government, the same government can no longer have control over the staffing of the NNPC. The control of the Minister of Petroleum will be limited. As a commercial entity, the NNPC is beholden to its shareholders. Competence, quality will determine recruitment. The old practice of anyone in government sending notes for NNPC allocation or positions would be untenable under the new arrangement. Nobody can send in a note anyhow. The influence of rent collectors would be watered down, if not completely eliminated. It also means that the country can no longer depend mainly on NNPC for Federation Accounts returns (FAAC). The Federal Government would be entitled strictly to returns on its shares.  In all of these regards, today’s development, NNPC’s transition into a commercial entity is a laudable development. The Group CEO of the new company, the erstwhile Group GMD of the NNPC whose title has thus changed, has alluded much to this when he made it clear in the past few days that (i) NNPC going forward is responsible to its shareholders as a limited liability company, (2) whatever service it provides for the Federal Government would be for a fee, (3) subsidy is not the responsibility of the NNPC, but that of the Federal Government and (iv) NNPC is committed to transparency and accountability, and accounting rules.

At the unveiling today, the Buhari government can commend itself for seeing through the PIA. But the skeptics are unrelenting and they have raised issues that we need to worry about. They argue for example that it is indeed a good and proper thing to seek to make the NNPC as efficient and as profitable as Saudi Arabia’s ARAMCO and other peers elsewhere but the problem is that NNPC is still tied to the apron strings of government. Most of the workers are still workers of the Nigerian government. As a commercial entity, it should be possible for the company to source its own expertise, consultants and staff from anywhere without the Nigerian government imposing the constraints of ethnicity and federal character.  The NNPC of old ran a Nigerian-factor regime where some characters thought access to political power and influence granted them automatic control over the resource management company. Such a system would not be acceptable under the new mode of doing business. That has to change forthwith, to send the strong signal that it is indeed no longer business as usual. Second, the much-talked about NNPC shareholders are the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MoFI) and the Nigerian Treasury, which are both government entities. NNPC says it will send debit and credit notes for services rendered to demonstrate its own accountability and commitment to EITI principles. MoFI can claim that it represents the Nigerian people. What will NNPC Ltd do if government fails to pay – this same government that does not pay electricity bills or ASUU salaries? And as things stand, it looks like NNPC truly can no longer be held responsible for monthly contributions to the Federation Account.   

Nonetheless, the NNPC as a commercial entity can only succeed as much as the Federal Government wants it to. As long as the NNPC is government-linked, there will be issues. For the NNPC to succeed, it needs to function under a government that understands the meaning and implications of profit and loss. There is a need for deep reform, for the people’s overall benefit. The meaning of the new dispensation is that NNPC would have no option but to send debit notes to the Federal Government, because the company won’t be able to hide the gaps in its balance sheet. The Buhari government does not have this profit and loss orientation mindset that is required to birth a new NNPC.  The responsibility for that would have to be taken up perhaps by a new government. We can only hope that the would-be next President of Nigeria, whoever he turns out to be, is thinking of this, from both an economic and national security perspective. A food for thought is the position that in the long run, the NNPC must be privatized. Its board must not be a political Board, it must be a commerce-oriented Board. The experts must be allowed to do their job, not politicians, seeking rent. NNPC shares must be sold directly to the public as a company under the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA).

There is the unresolved issue of refineries. There is nothing wrong in Nigeria having a national oil company, but to save the NNPC, it is important to keep the fundamentals in mind. NNPC’s transformation comes at a time when the world faces an energy crisis, and a cost-of-living dilemma. It makes no sense that the country’s four refineries are grounded, or running at a loss. It is shameful that Nigeria cannot meet its OPEC quota. It is scandalous that it is only just now that we are beginning to talk more seriously about transparency and accountability in the management of the country’s most strategic resource. The emergence of a new NNPC is a good idea, but it seems to me that the best that the Mele Kyari-team can do, for now, is to lay the foundation for a more far-reaching process. Under Mele Kyari’s watch, the NNPC published its first audited accounts in 43 years in 2020!   The new NNPC is expected to do things differently to attract investment, promote innovation, eliminate corruption and inefficiency, and ensure clarity. It must measure up like Saudi Arabia’s Aramco, and Brazil’s Petrobras. Its business model must work for the country’s benefit. The new NPPC must represent a transition in real terms into a new style and philosophy.

The ruckus that has been generated by the announcement of former Borno State Governor, Senator Kashim Shettima as running mate of the Presidential standard bearer of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), for the 2023 Presidential election is a perfect illustration and yet another sharp reminder of how religion has driven a wedge among Nigerians. Religion, etymologically, is derived from the Latin word, “religare” which means “to bind together”, but rather than bind the people of Nigeria together, religion has divided them along sectarian lines. It is the oxygen of devious power politics, sectarian politics, mass murder, terror, instability, and the plague of amorality. This is ironic, for Nigeria is clearly one of the most religious countries in the world, with every street, every corner boasting of either a church, a mosque, a shrine or a temple. The business of religion is also perhaps the most lucrative in Nigeria, with many religious groups noted more for commerce, hustling and mass hypnotism rather than piety, with a yawning gap between private and public morality, as the people commit atrocities in the name of God.

The evidence abounds in the weaponization of religion, even if the Nigerian Constitution states expressly that “the government of the Federation or of a state shall not adopt any religion as state religion”, the resort to violence on the basis of religion as has been witnessed over the years in the Middle Belt, Southern Kaduna and other parts of the country, the politics of Sharia, and the cruel exploitation of religion by political leaders. The easiest way to ignite violence in Nigeria is to play the ethnic or religious card as in Kafanchan, Kano, Jos, Zango-Kataf, Maitatsine riots, Kano, the slaughter of priests, incessant attacks on churches. Many have died for no just cause: Gideon Akaluka, Mrs. Christianah Oluwatoyin Oluwasesin, Deaconess Eunice Olawale, Mrs. Eunice Elisha, Pastor Bolanle Ibrahim, Deborah Yakubu Samuel, all made worse since the return to civilian rule in 1999, by “the religion-inspired war” unleashed on Nigeria by Boko Haram and a band of terrorists and their international partners. Nor does it matter whether the perpetrators of violence are educated or not. Indeed, once upon a time, the University of Ibadan nearly witnessed an open warfare between Christians and Muslims within the community over the location of a Chapel Cross, which the Muslims asked to be removed because it was visible from the direction of the University Mosque, hence allegedly hindering the faith of worshippers! Between 1985 and 1986, this became known as the Cross and Crescent crisis in Ibadan. Religion is so sensitive that both Nigerian Muslims and Christians have learnt to live in an atmosphere of mutual suspicion. Such measures and groups as the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC), Interfaith Mediation Centre (IMC) and Inter-Faith Dialogues have not necessarily promoted tolerance enough. The fear of likely domination by the other worsens the situation. Every election season, religion plays a major role in the selection of candidates giving rise to the need for zonal, ethnic, and religious balancing.

This is the general context of the emotions attached to the kind of ticket which politicians present to the electorate most especially at the Presidential and Gubernatorial levels. The convention is to have a balanced Muslim – Christian ticket or vice versa, to do otherwise is to exhume and oxygenate religious passion and prejudices. This is exactly what the Presidential candidate of the ruling APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has done by choosing a fellow Muslim as his running mate. Virtually every Christian group in the country, including the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Arewa Christians and Indigenous Pastors Association, and the Christian Global Network has kicked against this. No other general election in this country in recent memory has attracted as much religious sentiment. Faced with unprecedented assault in the last few years, the Christian community has been vocal in seeking to defend itself physically, and by mobilizing the congregation to vote, and defend Christian choices.

Christians have been advised by some of their leaders to take up arms to defend themselves. Many churches have turned the possession of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) into an access card to church. Those without PVCs have been told to stay away. Some major Christian denominations have also set up Departments devoted exclusively to politics and voter mobilization. Out of distrust and fear of the havoc that has been wreaked over time in the name of religion, Nigerian Christians want their own men and women in positions of authority. The other political parties that have announced their Presidential running mates so far have exercised great caution in this regard, more so as the churches warned before now that in 2023, a same-faith, Muslim-Muslim ticket would not be acceptable. The Bible enjoins Christians “to turn the other cheek.” Christians in Nigeria have since abandoned that injunction. They are on their way back to the Old Testament.   

Is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, APC Presidential candidate not aware of this? Of course, he is. He has been in politics long enough to know that politics in Nigeria is driven by sentiments. But in choosing a Muslim like himself as running mate, he provides a robust even if rhetorical, defence that has been questioned by members of his own party and outsiders alike. He has been accused, for example, of promoting the politics of exclusion and discrimination against Christians. An APC member, Daniel Bwala has resigned from the party in protest. Another APC member, Senator Elisha Abbo (Adamawa North) has resigned his membership of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Campaign organization. Tinubu however says: “To re-envision and reshape the nation, I must compose the best team possible, a team put together with but one overriding purpose:  to forever establish, just, capable and compassionate governance for the people of Nigeria without regard to religion, region or ethnic origin.”  

The problem here is that it is impossible to do anything in Nigeria without “religion, region, or ethnic origin.” Is this part of the candidate’s statement written by a foreigner? Nigerians, Christians and Southerners, have said they don’t want another eight years of Northern leadership or any arrangement that excludes Christians completely.  A few paragraphs later, Tinubu says: “A dominant theme of my political history and my personal life is my staunch belief in our diversity…My selection of a running mate comports entirely with this longstanding inclination.” So, how exactly does a Muslim-Muslim ticket promote diversity?  He goes further to state that he is aware of the “energetic discourse concerning the possible religion of my running mate…today, I announce my selection with pride because I have made it not based on religion or to please one community or the other.” The counter-argument by Christians is that a Muslim-Muslim ticket will definitely please the Muslim community, and make Christians feel alienated. Asiwaju Tinubu’s attempt to discount the factor of religion is a hard sell. The Nigerian Christian community is not impressed.

Tinubu sells Shettima to the electorate: “as a man with the talent, maturity, strength of character, and patriotism” and adds that “he has my implicit confidence and faith.”  He obviously feels comfortable with Senator Shettima, and that is fine – compatibility, apart from electoral value is an important consideration in choosing a running mate. Shettima was a major player in Tinubu’s emergence as APC Presidential candidate. He was director of his campaign. Both men also have a good relationship: Shettima is after all, a major exponent of the “Emi Lo Kan” – “It is my turn” - agenda. He is being rewarded for his loyalty. Tinubu further talks about “the need to place competence above religious sentiment”.  There is no doubt that Senator Shettima is a competent man. He is educated, brilliant, experienced, articulate and fit. He holds a B. Sc. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Maiduguri, and an M. Sc. in the same discipline from the University of Ibadan. He has worked as a University Teacher and as a Banker. He has also served as a commissioner five times in his home-state of Borno in different Ministries, Governor for eight years and Senator of the Federal Republic for 4 years. He can read a book and understand what it says, he can even quote Shakespeare effortlessly. Except that the biggest obstacle is the question of his faith. He is a Muslim, running a ticket with a Muslim. Tinubu says that should not be a problem.  He argues that “the spirit of 1993 is upon us again in 2023.”  I have heard some persons in response to that saying Tinubu should speak for himself. The spirit of 1993 may be upon him as a person, but some people draw attention to the fact that we are in 2022, not 1993 and the times are different.

Tinubu is referring to the Muslim-Muslim ticket of Chief MKO Abiola and Alhaji Baba Gana Kingibe on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 1993 Presidential election. Tinubu has practically replicated the Abiola-Kingibe model. Kingibe like Shettima, to drive home the appropriation, is a Kanuri, from the same state of Borno in the North East geo-political zone. But that is only as far as the comparison should go. In 1993, the Muslim-Muslim ticket may not have mattered because Nigerians wanted democracy badly. They were tired of military rule. Besides, religious conflict had not yet assumed its current hydra-headed, octopoid shape. As Simon Kolawole pointed out earlier in a piece titled “The Awkward Muslim-Muslim ticket” (ThisDay, June 18, 2022) - “before the late 1980s, religion was not a defining factor in national politics.” Under the Shehu Shagari administration, Shagari was a Muslim, and Fulani, but the Senate President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and all his Service Chiefs were Christians. This was not an issue. In 1979, Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo, candidate of the Unity Party of Nigeria ran a Christian-Christian, all Southern, Ogun-Anambra ticket with Philip Umeadi. Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Presidential candidate of the Nigeria Peoples Party (NPP) picked his running mate from Southern Kaduna, Dr. Ishaya Audu, a Christian. That was once upon a time in Nigeria, but not anymore. Some observers have talked about Governor Nasir el-Rufai running a Muslim-Muslim ticket in Kaduna State and getting away with it, but Kaduna is not Nigeria. A state with a population of a little over 9 million cannot be compared to a complex country like Nigeria. In today’s Nigeria, it will be difficult for anyone to run an entirely Southern or an entirely Northern Presidential ticket with the candidates being of the same faith. Such a proposal would be dead on arrival – that is the extent to which religion has divided us. The APC proposal as it is therefore, seeks to test the established order and sentiments. It is a bold move. But what are Tinubu’s strategic thoughts? How strong are his propositions?

No 1: Electoral value. Politicians make choices in order to win not to lose. Senator Shettima is Kanuri from the North East. Would it have been better to pick a running mate from the North West which has more voters compared to the entire North East? A running mate to Tinubu from the North West would have meant picking from the same zone as the outgoing President and from a zone that had previously produced late President Shehu Shagari, late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, former Vice President Namadi Sambo and a couple of former military Heads of State (Murtala Muhammad and Sani Abacha). The North East has to date produced only Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa from Bauchi State. The Kanuris are not as populous as the Hausa-Fulani but would the Northern voter worry about that or be more concerned that the Presidential running mate of the APC is a Muslim? Besides, Senator Shettima is from the same geo-political zone as the PDP Presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar. His presence on the APC ticket could swing significant votes in favour of the party and divide Atiku’s votes. I had in fact argued in a piece titled “June 12, 1993, Running Mates and 2023” (ThisDay, Tuesday, June 14, 2022) as follows: “If Tinubu must pick a Muslim running mate as has been argued, his best choice is Kashim Shettima, former Governor of Borno State.”

No. 2:  Religion. We have established that this would remain an issue. The ready argument by those who do not consider it an issue is that Christians constitute a minority in the entire North where the population is predominantly Muslim. But is that why Northern Christians should be excluded? Are there no Northern Christians that have the clout and the credentials to win big-ticket elections? Or that is “competent, reliable, capable and able?” By choosing a Muslim as his strategists advised, and as he has done, Tinubu is obviously leaving himself open to the accusation that he has no regard for the Christian community. He is nonetheless considered by many a liberal Muslim. His wife is even a Pastor in a Pentecostal Church. He also knows that whereas it would be easier for him to defeat his major opponents in the South West and parts of the South, the main battle ground for his candidacy would be in the North. A Muslim-Muslim team is an attempt to woo and win the votes of the Muslim majority in the North. Examined closely, this is a cold-blooded, Machiavellian move. But did Tinubu at any time make any effort to consult the Northern Christian leadership and try to carry them along, before making his announcement? If he has not done so, let him do so now.  

No 3: Finally, does religion necessarily make our leaders good men and women? Absolutely not. Religion is that affective thing in our consciousness which may have no bearing whatsoever with our daily conduct or character. Some of the most religious people are also some of the worst human beings ever. Nigerians are looking for good leaders, leaders who can address the major issues that affect their lives, and who can make Nigeria a better and safer place for all.

The strongest value of democracy is that it offers the people an opportunity to make their own choice. In 2023, it is up to the Nigerian people to vote according to their conscience. There are options on the table. The electoral umpires must provide the enabling environment for the people to vote freely, without any form of hindrance, and every opportunity to ensure that their votes count. In the end, that is all that matters.   

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Nyesom Wike, Governor of Rivers State is the biggest issue in the politics of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) at the moment. To put it differently, Nigeria’s major opposition party, the PDP, has a Wike problem. The extent of that has now been formally acknowledged by the party when the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Walid Jibrin, announced that major stakeholders in the party led by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and his chosen running mate, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta, all PDP Governors, members of the BOT and other major stakeholders must go to Port Harcourt to appeal to Wike not to leave the party, not to get angry, and not to do anything against the party. Wike is the Governor of Rivers state. He claims that since the PDP lost power in 2015, he has been the one carrying the party on his back, providing resources and leadership at a time the PDP, out of power, began to behave like fish out of water. Wike filled the void. And now in 2022, he presented himself as an advocate for the shift of power to the South, and his good self as a Presidential candidate.

By some alchemy, the PDP ignored Section 3 its own constitution and decided through a 37-member committee that the party would jettison its zoning formula, the same formula, that was appropriated by the rival All Progressives Congress (APC), Nigeria’ ruling party, and hence, the party threw the Presidency on its platform open. Nyesom Wike didn’t think that was right and so he threw his hat into the ring and decided to run for the position. His ambition has turned out to be a teachable moment and a reality check, and perhaps, in the long run, a reminder of his own naivety.  Twenty-four hours to the PDP Presidential Convention, held in Abuja on May 28 everyone thought that the Southern agenda would prevail and that Wike or any of the other Southern aspirants including former Secretary to the Government Anyim Pius Anyim, and former Senate President, Bukola Saraki would get the nomination of the party.

Within the said 24 hours, everything changed. Northerners are better politicians than Southerners, be it in the PDP or any other political party. Southerners talk too much. Northerners think and strategize. While the latter think of community and group interests, the egoistic, Mercedes Benz crowd down South thinks only of ego and personal ambition.  At the PDP National Convention, as it happened, Governor Aminu Tambuwal stepped forward and openly declared support for Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. This was a game changer. In 2019, Nyesom Wike, Governor of Rivers State, supported the same Governor Tambuwal. On May 28 2022, Tambuwal disappointed him and threw him under the bus. I have not seen or heard of any attempt by Governor Tambuwal to say sorry, or reach out. Instead, he got a hero’s welcome on his return to Sokoto and has since picked up the PDP Senatorial ticket for Sokoto South.   

Wike did not just suffer the open humiliation and treachery by Governor Tambuwal, he came second on that account. Tambuwal is from the North West, a zone which controlled majority of delegates at the PDP Convention. Wike’s supporters continue to blame Tambuwal for Wike’s loss. They insist that he violated the principle that “one good turn deserves another.” Wike came second in the PDP Presidential primary process. What then remained was for the party to choose a running mate, and even in that regard, Wike lost out. Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State behaving like a Wike henchman said on international television, that Wike is the best thing that has ever happened to the PDP, post-2015 and that a committee of which he was a member having selected him as the right person to be running mate to Atiku, feels doubly disappointed that Atiku chose someone else – Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, the PDP Governor of Delta State. He admits nonetheless that Okowa is eminently qualified having run the entire gamut of public service administrative experience from Local Government Chairman all the way to the top. But he thinks Atiku Abubakar has erred by rejecting Wike who was chosen by 14 out of a 17-member panel. Wike’s supporters are mourning. They think they have been short-changed. They think Wike’s contributions to the party have been thrashed to spite and humiliate him.  Politics is a mad house. Wike’s supporters also want to prove that they cannot be treated shabbily. There is indeed a new brand of madness growing like marijuana in the PDP that may offer an undeserved advantage to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), or the now much identified Third Force in Nigerian Politics represented by the Labour Party and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).       

It is therefore, good reasoning that the leadership of the PDP is reaching out to Nyesom Wike. It also makes sense that the Chairman of the party’s BOT, Alhaji Walid Jibrin has told party members and stakeholders to stop misbehaving. There are persons within the party who have said Wike is a nobody and can be discounted. They forget that in 2019, Rivers State under his watch delivered the highest number of votes to the PDP. The big problem with the PDP is that it has too many big men, who think they are larger than life. They seem to have forgotten that the party failed to rule for 60 years as a party leader once predicted and that the times have changed. Following the BOT Chairman’s directives, Atiku Abubakar and Ifeanyi Okowa should visit Wike and make peace.  The simple principle is that you cannot spank a child and not expect him to cry. Let him cry. He cries. You mollify him. But the question to ask in that regard is: why Wike? Why is he the only one weeping? There were others in that race: Anyim, Saraki, Ohuabunwa, Dele Momodu, Bala Muhammed, Mohammed Hayatudeen, Ayo Fayose, Udom Emmanuel… 13 aspirants, so why is Wike the only one crying as if he has lost his precious toy? Why does he and his supporters feel so entitled?

Atiku in particular needs to pay attention. In 2019, it was said at a point that he had chosen or had promised now embattled, Senator Ike Ekweremadu that he would be his running mate. He ended up choosing Peter Obi. In the Presidential 2019 election, he didn’t get the kind of support he expected from the South East, because he, himself mixed things up. Obi went into that election with him, with many of his own kinsmen, divided by Atiku’s choice. In 2022, Atiku has done the same thing. As former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s Vice President, the same issue that Atiku faced was that of trust and loyalty. He says he wants to unify the PDP, the community and the general society.  He must embark on that task without trust deficits. What is his response to the PDP BOT Chairman’s directive that a high-powered PDP delegation would visit Wike?  As of the time of this writing, I have not seen or read any direct response from him, but whatever it is, he must refrain from the twin temptations of contempt and arrogance. Let him visit Wike. Politics is all about Recognition, Respect and Relevance (the three Rs). That is all Wike wants. He needs that even if all it does is to energize his political libido.  Let him visit all the aggrieved stakeholders of the party too if he must.  

There are some Wike extremists within the PDP who insist that Okowa must be removed and replaced with Wike. I don’t think that would happen.  The party and the candidate have gone beyond that. Governor Okowa in his own right has excellent credentials, although he too, can’t find his Secondary School Leaving Certificate!  He is eminently qualified and experienced, they tell us. Nobody doubts that.  It would be stupid to stay that he should step down. Indeed, his own supporters claim that the furore that has been generated by Wike not being chosen as Presidential candidate and his being ignored as a possible running mate is a strong vindication of Atiku’s choice and the preference of a quiet stakeholder and partner like Okowa. Someone in fact told me that Wike has shown that he would have created conflict in the Presidency, if the party wins. I was tempted to say that Atiku did precisely so during Obasanjo’s second term, and such a future situation would have been Karmic. But I kept quiet. Politicians don’t always like to hear the truth. What we know is that compatibility is crucial, and Atiku has chosen the man he feels comfortable with.

So, what is next?  Wike’s supporters argue that if Okowa cannot be dropped, then Senator Iyorchia Ayu, the party Chairman, must go. Within 48 hours after the PDP presidential Convention, Senator Iyorchia Ayu went straight to visit Tambuwal in Abuja to declare him the “hero of the convention.” I thought that was very bad conduct on the part of the party Chairman. He was meant to be an impartial umpire, but by showing his bias so openly, he courted the current enmity that has been thrown at him. But beyond that is his own promise that if the Presidential candidate of the party came from the North, he would step down and allow a Southern Chairman of the party to emerge. Balance. Federal Character. Equity. Since the Convention, Senator Iyorchia Ayu has refused to move. He is the easiest victim within the PDP leadership hierarchy, nonetheless. If there must be a sacrificial lamb that would bring peace to the party, he must be willing and ready to take the bullet. He won’t be the first party Chairman to make such sacrifice. Let him know this: Even if Wike and gang forgive Atiku and embrace Okowa, they would not tolerate Iyorchia Ayu. Bite the bullet, Senator Ayu.

Already, Peter Ayo Fayose, former Governor of Ekiti State has been saying that the PDP cannot overlook the principle of Federal Character in Section 3 ( c ) of its Constitution. And when an attempt is finally made to reconcile with Wike and others, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar must lead the group personally. It is not for him to send for Wike or to send emissaries. He is the one who wants to be President. He needs everybody on board. He has promised to unify the party, the community and the country. He cannot do so from a high horse. He must “stoop to conquer”. One of the things being said by Wike’s supporters, for example, is that they are being treated as if they do not matter. They want to prove that they matter.  Candidly, PDP leaders must not behave as if they have been cursed by the trickster god, known as Esu in Yoruba mythology. They must learn from the lessons of history. In 2015 and again in 2019, they lost the Presidential election because their home was divided. The situation today is similar. The thinking that Atiku gets all his votes from the North and would do so again this time around is entirely myopic. Every vote in every part of the country matters, including Wike’s only vote and the votes of his placard-carrying supporters, and all the overlooked aggrieved members of the party of which there are many.    

 Nyesom Wike has since returned from his much-publicized vacation in Istanbul, Turkey where I guess he ate a little turkey and licked some ice cream. My advice to him is that he needs to chill out as they say. When a child is beaten, he has every right to cry. When an adult is betrayed, he has every reason to be angry. Wike wanted to be Presidential standard bearer. He failed. He also lost the running mate slot. He was betrayed by those he didn’t expect would do so. He has been openly angry enough. The whole world has heard him. But he must take one lesson away from it all: in Nigeria, when you want something so desperately, nobody will give it to you. There would be more than enough people who would deny you that which you crave, to humiliate and humble you. Wike is without doubt, a victim of his own hubris and expectations, but he is also a victim, for the want of a better term, of the sadomasochism of the Nigerian elite political class. He should stop knocking his head against the wall.

Traditionally, when a child is aggrieved and he starts crying, every effort will be made to mollify him, but if he keeps on crying and wailing, after a while, he would be left alone and those seeking to appease him would adopt a wait and see position in the expectation that once he gets tired, he would keep quiet. Wike should not stretch his matter to that point. He also needs to avoid a situation where he would become the easy and convenient reference in the event that the PDP loses the 2023 Presidential election or the butt of jokes if the party triumphs. No tree makes a forest, except of course you are cut in the mould of an Obafemi Awolowo. And Wike is not of that mould.

The only group enjoying all of this would be Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) Camp, and may be perhaps the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), the Kwankwasiya party and also, the Labour Party and its Obi-dient crowd who claim that Peter Obi is the answer, or that the PDP belongs to the museum of political relevance or that Peter Obi left the PDP because he saw tomorrow. They all exaggerate of course. But leaders of the PDP must be careful not to lose the election before it takes place, with their own misconduct and greed. Senator Walid Jibrin, Chairman of the party’s BOT has already warned the rank and file to desist from acrimony. He has a point. Years back, a prominent member of the party told me that the result of any election is usually known six months earlier. He predicted correctly at the time that the PDP would lose the 2015 Presidential election because the party was divided right down the middle. The PDP has found itself in the same situation today. The party is running against time and opportunity. It is mismanaging its internal politics to the advantage of the opposition. It is about time Atiku Abubakar began to unify the party as promised. He must cut short his long vacation and get down to work. More importantly, he must beware of the aggrieved who have chosen to be calm and silent. Wike is a symptom, not the real problem.             

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Programme: CITY TALKS WITH REUBEN ABATI

Time: 12:00pm

Topic: The Ekweremadu Saga

Date: Saturday, July 2, 2022

Guest: Akintayo Iwilade (Lawyer)

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Yesterday, Nigerians before mid-day, were treated to the news that Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) had resigned his appointment on health grounds. Arise TV   broke the news, and it was my lot to make the announcement, with Arise News quoting impeccable and credible sources. It was a day of excitement for me: it looked to me really as if the CJN had overstayed his welcome but at the same time it was on the same day that the Legal Practitioners and Privileges Committee of the Nigeria Bar Association, (NBA) shortlisted the name of Mrs. Abimbola Onikepo Braithwaite, editor of the Law pages of ThisDay newspaper, for the second year in a row as a potential Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) under the academic category. Mrs. Braithwaithe has been a major force in the legal profession, using her platforms in the media and in practice to advance the cause of the rule of law, to explain the law, and promote enlightenment and the cause of justice on a weekly basis through the exalted platform of the This Day newspaper law pages. Her commitment in this regard has been exemplary. I find her analysis and choice of contributors and subjects consistently on point, making her law pages a weekly must-read for the learned and the unlearned and the general community, seeking deep insights into fine points of law. I pray she succeeds this time.

The final selection of the SAN Class of 2022 should be rigorous and thorough. The Silk must be a true garment of distinction, not a chieftaincy title. But of course, the bigger news was the sudden announcement of the resignation of His Lordship, Justice Tanko Ibrahim Muhammad as CJN. I wondered after reading the news: did he jump? Was he pushed? Is this just about his health?

What has been reported is clear: he resigned on health grounds. Ordinarily that should be enough. The job of a Supreme Court Justice requires that he should be compos mentis and enjoy the agility of the highest order to lead a nation-wide body of judex, provide leadership at the Bar and the Bench and at the same time run the activities of the apex court of the land. The CJN is also the Chair of the National Judicial Council, with all of that body’s sensitive responsibilities. He is the de facto head of the judiciary under Sections 6 and 231 of the Nigerian Constitution. Any drama, change, or withdrawal at that level of government cannot be taken lightly.  A change of command at the apex court in an election season that has begun and the general elections just about seven months away, is also a matter of serious national consideration with implications for the entire democratic process, the judiciary being an aspect of that. Let no one be under any illusion: Tanko Ibrahim Muhammed’s sudden resignation as the Chief of Justice of Nigeria is not just one of those events. It deserves closer interrogation. 

He assumed office as CJN under controversial circumstances, he has now stepped down in an even more controversial manner.  He became a Justice of the Supreme Court in 2007, from the Court of Appeal where he served for 13 years, and became the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, first in acting capacity on January 25, 2019, and then substantively, on July 24, 2019. He succeeded Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen whose exit from the Supreme Court Bench is probably the most controversial ever in the history of the Supreme Court. Many believe that Onnoghen was pushed out of office more for political reasons than for his own infractions.  Onnoghen himself two years after his removal had cause to disclose that he was unceremoniously removed from office by the Buhari government because it was believed that he had a secret meeting with former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in Dubai before the 2019 general elections. Atiku at the time, as he now is, was the Presidential standard bearer of the opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)

In January 2019, a month to the general elections, Onnoghen was removed from office, via the instrumentality of an ex parte order, and tried before the Code of Conduct Tribunal on a six-count charge of corruption, including false declaration of assets, and the ownership of foreign currency accounts which were never declared.  Onnoghen was convicted on all six counts and banned from holding public office for 10 years. He was additionally ordered to forfeit all the five accounts said not to have been declared by him between 2009 and 2015. Thus ended the tenure of the 15^th substantive Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN). Questions were raised about procedure, especially why the CJN as he then was had to be taken before the Code of Conduct Tribunal, instead of the National Judicial Council (NJC). Onnoghen insisted that he had done no wrong. Many Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) and others observed at the time that, whereas Justice Onnoghen may have committed one or two errors of oversight, his removal was more about the 2019 election, and the attempt by the ruling party to seize control of the post-election process. Wherever he is today, Onnoghen must be having a smirk on his face. It is election season again, soon it would be time for another round of election petitions and tribunals, and another CJN has had to go.

Many in the know would readily whisper that Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammed has been very scarce in circulation for a while due to ill-health, but these persons also express concern about the timing of his exit, and the events leading up to his resignation. Last week, a letter was leaked in the public domain accusing the now former CJN of mismanagement of the resources of the Supreme Court and poor leadership. Fourteen Justices of the Supreme Court accused Tanko Muhammed, CJN (as he then was) of travelling up and down with his “spouse, children and staff” while Justices of the Court were not even allowed to go on training or travel with assistants. They said they work long hours daily without adequate access to power supply or internet services, and that the state of affairs in the Supreme Court of Nigeria had become deplorable. They accused the CJN of running a one-man show and ignoring important matters of welfare. They said “this is unacceptable”. They threatened “to take further steps”.

The CJN fired back through his spokesperson, Ahuraka Yusuf Isah, who wrote that the Supreme Court is “affected by the economic and socio-political climate prevailing in the country.” It is standard practice these days for persons in leadership positions to blame climate change and the environment for their own failures. I was surprised Justice Tanko Muhammad did not blame the Russia-Ukraine war for the lack of diesel and internet services at the Supreme Court of Nigeria! He accused his brother Justices of “dancing naked at the market square”, and gave a small, incoherent lecture about how budgets are made and managed, and an additional rigmarole about deaths and transfers at the Supreme Court. He concluded: “the general public should be rest assured that there’s no hostility or adverse feelings amongst the Justices of the Supreme Court, as everyone is going about his normal duty.” Of course, that is not true. The judiciary, the third arm of government under the doctrine of the separation of powers, has never been more divided. The import of the letter by the 14 Justices was that they had lost confidence in the leadership of Justice Tanko Muhammed. The letter was so strongly worded, the tone so dismissive, it was evident that I.T. Muhammad, JSC had lost the moral authority to lead the apex court. He cited ill-heath as the ground for his resignation. It is God that heals. Anyone can fall ill, even the Constitution recognizes this at Section 231(4). We should wish Justice Tanko Muhammed speedy recovery, but it was best he withdrew himself from further embarrassment, and the Supreme Court from further ridicule.

Indeed, before he threw in the towel, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) through its President, Olumide Akpata waded into the matter and concluded that “there is a clear need for mechanisms to be put in place to ensure that the Judiciary (with the Supreme Court leading the charge) is providing the necessary template to other arms of government on transparent procurement and budgeting.  This will reduce the perception in some quarters that the judiciary is not accountable to anyone and is also not self-regulating.”  As if it was meant to be a follow up to this, a human rights lawyer and activist, Malcolm E. Omirhobo through his law firm, Malcolm Omirhobo & Co wrote a Freedom of Information (FOI) request letter to the former CJN asking for details of transactions of the Supreme Court from 2019 till date. The FOI Request letter demanded: (1) “proof of receipt of total funds disbursed to your Lordship from the National Judicial Council as head of the Supreme Court of Nigeria; (2) The Financial Statement of Accounts of the Supreme Court of Nigeria from the 1^st day of January 2019 to date; (3) Proof of the total expenditure of the Supreme Court for the period of 1^st January 2019 to date… (4) Payment vouchers for projects; (5) The total amount realized from Internally Generated Revenue…” For record purposes, Malcolm Omirhobo is the same lawyer who showed up at the Supreme Court on Thursday, June 23, 2022, to protest against the judgment of the court sanctioning the use of hijab by female Muslim students in Lagos state public schools (per Lagos State Government vs. Asiyat Abdulkareem). Omirhobo, claiming to be expressing gratitude and solidarity over the ruling abandoned his regulation dress code as a lawyer and showed up as an “Olokun” priest in court. He has since continued to show up in court in the same attire while urging everyone to emulate his example and go to work in their religious habiliments. His protest is a fine piece of satire and sarcasm.  

This was not the least episode in Justice Tanko Muhammad’s histrionic tenure as Chief Justice of Nigeria.  He assumed office at a time of low confidence in the Nigerian judiciary. He has left it in a worse place, further eroding the integrity of the entire system. Under Justice Tanko Muhammad’s watch, there were frequent cases of indiscipline on the Bench which the National Judicial Council struggled to address without success. Judges and lawyers openly abused court processes, with courts of equal jurisdiction violating elementary rules of procedure. Ex parte orders became so commonplace you would think ex parte was the name of a special delicacy at a fast food joint. Within three years of the former CJN’s leadership, it became difficult to tell the difference between judges and politicians in many parts of the country. Lawyers were so desperate they became forum and ambulance chasers!  Many appointments to the Bench including the Court of Appeal were controversial. Judgements were delivered based on technicalities with the most notable in this regard being the mathematical conundrum in the Imo Governorship case.

The age of judicial activism and robust intellection was gone. Judges who would love to make the extra effort probably did not bother, confronted as they were, with contradictions in their place of work – the temple of justice. Justice Tanko Muhammad was the 16^th Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN). In terms of ranking in that office, he would probably literally be ranked in that same position among his peers. President Muhammadu Buhari probably has a different opinion as I guess, many others. In his remarks at the inauguration of Justice Olukayode Ariwoola as Acting JSC, on Monday, June 27, 2022 at the State House Abuja, he conferred, after a fashion, the second national honour of the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) on Justice Tanko Muhammad. He also said of him: “History will be kind to Justice Tanko Muhammad for his modest contributions to Nigeria’s judiciary, the strengthening of our democracy and national development.” It seems to me that time is the final arbiter of all things, and of course, time will tell.        

But the point has been made in some quarters that perhaps Justice Muhammad was pushed out of the door, - and not for health reasons - but because his brother Justices who had lost confidence in him, were beginning to show signs of anger and restlessness. They even threatened to stop sitting. Imagine Justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria going on strike!  In fact, a Supreme Court that some people believe is rather lenient with political leaders suddenly delivered a hammer blow the other day. For example, in a recent ruling, in the matter of Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act 2022 brought before the Court by President Buhari and the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, SAN, the Supreme Court practically rebuked both the President and the AGF for seeking to use the court to violate the legislative supremacy of the National Assembly. A panel of seven Justices dismissed the suit as an abuse of judicial process!  Does this have anything to do with the former CJN’s exit?

Whatever it is, there is still some unfinished business around and about his resignation. Justice Walter Onnoghen lost his position in 2019, as a result of a petition by a civil society activist, raising issues of corruption. The Federal Government pounced on this and hounded him out of office. Justice Tanko Muhammad was openly accused by his own team in the apex court, including the next person to him in terms of seniority, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola who has now succeeded him in an acting capacity, pending the activation of due process leading to his own eventual confirmation. The former CJN should not just exit like that. His colleagues, the NBA and the activist, Malcolm Omirhobo have raised questions about transparency and accountability. Those questions must be addressed. Really, how much was collected? How much was spent? What kind of budgeting and expenditure systems exist at the apex court?

Justice Ariwoola who has now taken over the mantle of leadership at the Supreme Court has his job cut out for him. The first thing is to rebuild morale within the judiciary, starting from the apex court. The second is to dispel the clouds left behind by his predecessor with regard to funds management and welfare. The third is to do everything to raise the profile and integrity of the judiciary. He has the lessons of history behind him, and the experience of his two immediate predecessors and their circumstances.  

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Programme: CITY TALKS WITH REUBEN ABATI

Time: 12:00pm

Topic: FUEL SCARCITY

Date: Saturday, june 25th, 2022

Guest: Comrade Edafe Igbini Emmanuel

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“Wahala be like bicycle” is an expression that most people familiar with Nigerian street lingo would easily identify with. It refers the unusual, the dramatic, a shocking development in the course of normal business. “Wahala” is actually a Hausa word, in terms of its linguistic origin, since incorporated into the normal run of Nigerian expressions. The phrase has also since been turned into music by UZBOI featuring TEESWAG (January 2021). It would one day get into the Oxford Dictionary of Modern English.  

This is of course not the same thing as that recent bicycle event of 79-year-old US President Joe Biden getting his feet hooked in the pedal of his bicycle in Delaware, and falling down. Biden stood up and did some small jumping up and down to show that all was well and his doctors confirmed same to be true. The “Wahala” that this piece discusses is of a problematic kind: enormous “walaha” and crisis in the Supreme Court of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Supreme Court, here or elsewhere is the apex court of the land. It is, in defining its character, not an infallible court, but it is final because its decisions are final; per Oputa JSC in Adegoke Motors vs Adesanya (1989). 

The only recourse beyond the Supreme Court is God, not even the West African Court of Appeal can overturn this apex court. Only the Supreme Court can rehearse its own decisions and reverse itself. Its word, so to speak, is law. It is indeed for this reason that the Justices of the Supreme Court and the entire judiciary, deriving their locus and powers under Section 6 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, and the doctrine of the separation of powers as articulated for eternal relevance and coherence by Baron de Montesquieu in 1748, constitute a major pillar of the balance of powers in society and the protection of the rule of law. It is not for nothing that the Supreme Court has been celebrated as the last hope of the common man, that final temple of justice where the law lords define the law, give the law and interpret the law to modulate and to ensure social justice.  Years ago, I had the great pleasure of writing a long Man-of-the-Year-Essay in The Guardian newspaper of Nigeria, in which the Editorial Board of the newspaper chose the Nigerian judiciary as the most impactful defender of the people’s rights and the rule of law. It was my job to write the essay. I waxed lyrical.

It is therefore sad that the same Nigerian judiciary is now being spoken about by the same Nigerians and the same country that once looked up to it, as a victim of the proverbial Nigerian factor, a shadow of its former self, and at best a parody. The condition of the Supreme Court today, is particularly pathetic. The kind of abuse, humiliation and ridicule that the Nigerian courts have been subjected to, especially the Supreme Court of Nigeria and its justices, has very few precedents elsewhere, except may be notably, India and Pakistan. A compromised judicial system and a divided, disoriented Supreme Court is of no use to the advancement of the rule of law or the democratic process.  The judex are expected to be above board and to be impartial unto death. Their code of conduct forbids them from jumping into the arena of partisan politics. They are required to be independent, utterly without bias and guided strictly by the law, and their oath of office to interpret the law and deliver justice without fear or favour.

With regard to these principles and their value in Nigeria, there is cause for worry. And it is indicated in the following shape. Yesterday, 14 Justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, wrote a letter now in circulation, and addressed to their boss, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Tanko Abdullahi (CJN), titled: “The State of Affairs in the Supreme Court of Nigeria and Demand by Justices of the Court.” It is a blistering, sucker-punch, indictment of the sitting CJN. It is important to reproduce some of the stated concerns. Their Lordships, 14 of them, wrote as follows: “My Lord The Honourable Justice of Nigeria, we, the Justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, carefully reviewed the state of affairs in this Court, and unanimously resolved to write formally and draw the attention of Your Lordship to our demands. As a Preamble, let it be clearly understood that the resolution to write Your Lordship was reached with sense of responsibility. We are serving this country diligently and to the best of our ability. We resolve disputes between the Executive and the Legislature including all manner of disagreements, between governments and individuals. We are responsible citizens of this country.  It would be a tragedy if the Nigerian public were to know that we are unable to resolve our problems internally without going public. The decision to write you formally must be seen by Your Lordship as an effort on our part to preserve the dignity of the Judiciary and the respect accorded to us by Governments and the people of Nigeria. God forbid the day that our internal issues become a matter of National discourse.”   

My take: Sorry, Mi’Lords, that day has passed. The rot in the Nigerian judiciary has since been a matter of enduring concern. The harassment of judges by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the abuse of ex parte applications by judges and lawyers, the blatant violation of rules of procedure and practice directions, and the utter disrespect for the Bench by both lawyers and litigants, with spoken and unspoken allegations of corruption, compromise and sheer abuse had served the signal that all has not been well with the Nigerian judiciary. Now that there is turmoil even at the level of the Apex Court, the country’s court of last resort, there is cause for anxiety, if not outrage. Their Lordships talk about not going public, again sorry, the matter is now public and it is a proper subject for national discourse. Whoever leaked the letter to the CJN for public consumption and attention has done so intentionally. It is however, good that we are allowed to know that the Supreme Court of the land has internal problems. Really?: The CJN has  completely ignored the report to that effect since March 24?  Justices of the Supreme Court claim further, that they have no access to the internet. They also do not have enough complement of vehicles, and even the ones that they have are “either refurbished or substandard”.  Justices cannot go for trainings either but the CJN travels with his own “spouse, children and personal staff.” They even suggest corruption: “We demand to know what has become of our training funds, have they been diverted, or is it a plain denial? Your Lordship may also remember that the National Assembly has increased the budgetary allocation of the Judiciary. We find it strange that in spite of the upward review of our budgetary allocation, the Court cannot cater for our legitimate entitlements. This is unacceptable!”  

I cringed reading the foregoing lines. But the letter is even far more damning with serious additional complaints about lack of medical care for judges, decadence of the courts, and “the implication that this arm of Government is potentially shut down”. The other day, magistrates in Cross Rivers State carried placards and went to the streets in protest. The emerging Supreme Court debacle is very much after the same fashion. What exactly is left of the rule of law and the justice administration system if justices of the land’s apex court begin to carry placards about their conditions of service? I have searched in vain so far for a denial of the contents of the letter in question, to protect myself, from the error of contempt ex facie curiae involving the apex court of the land, but I have not seen any statement by any of learned Justices disowning the damning statement that has been in the public domain so far. What rings in my head, and is beginning to give me headache, is their threat to the CJN: “It is either you quickly and swiftly take responsibility and address these burning issues or we will be compelled to (take) further steps immediately. May this day never come.” What further steps? Would the Justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria stop sitting? That indeed would be the day!  

The fact that a statement such as the one above, hat I have quoted in extenso regarding the Supreme Court in Nigeria, is in circulation is an indication of the rot within the Nigerian system. It simply means that no section of Nigeria is immune from violation. Nigeria, it is commonly said happens to people, classic euphemism for failure and collapse. If Nigeria happens to the common man’s last bastion of hope, routinely identified as the Supreme Court, then everything is lost. A deprived Supreme Court and judiciary as described can of course, be easily compromised. In an election season, that would be a prescription for anarchy. Those who condemn the Nigerian judiciary already observe for example, that basic civil cases are piling up at the Supreme Court while political cases are treated with the speed of light! This is all things considered, a sad development. There are critics of the Nigerian judiciary who consistently posit that the golden days of the Nigerian Supreme Court are long gone. Shockingly, it has been more than 30 years since the Supreme Court of Nigeria was considered golden.

Once upon a time in this same country, and notably, under military rule, this was the same Court on which Bench sat legends of the law like Kayode Eso, Chukwudifu Oputa, Andrews Otutu Obaseki, Ayo Irikefe, Chukwuenike Idigbe, Augustine Nnamani, Mohammed Bello, Adolphus Karibi-Whyte, Ephraim Akpata, Bola Babalakin, Anthony Aniagolu and others. On both the Supreme and Appellate Courts, these justices gave Nigeria an image of the role of the law as an instrument for nation-building. For more than a decade they spoke the law to power. They were fearless, independent, firm and robustly intelligent. They were leaders of an incorruptible court, dramatized for posterity in D. Olu Adegoke’s play, The Incorruptible Judge (Evans Publishers, 1962).  The men we remember were first class jurists, with background in law and the humanities – Classics, Philosophy, Literature. Some of them could speak Latin, they could quote Shakespeare, and deploy wit, depth and wisdom in an effortless manner. They used the law as an instrument of value and as a social modulator, for the benefit of humanity. They were judicial activists whose heroism could be seen in the manner in which they stood for the rule of law and against military and civilian potentates who sought to violate the people’s rights as seen in such cases as Federal Civil Service Commission vs. Laoye; Ojukwu vs. FG; AG Bendel vs AG Federation; AG Ogun State vs. Federation; Garba vs. University of Maiduguri; Gani Fawehinmi vs. NBA. Their story has been told in a more nuanced manner in Professor Itse Sagay’s Book, A Legacy for Posterity: The Works of the Supreme Court, 1980 – 1988.

I had a more personal and direct intimation of the heroism of this class of Justices during a conversation recently with Dr. Wale Babalakin, SAN, son of the legendary Justice Bola Babalakin. I was waiting at an elite lounge of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport for a private jet, to take me to Abuja, when Babalakin walked in and asked me if I would join him, since he was leaving immediately. Don’t ask me what a journalist was doing in a private jet lounge. Na today?  Nigerians like to abuse and insult journalists, wrongly and stupidly. Some useless people in fact, just recently attacked my colleagues who had gone to cover the arrival of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Presidential candidate of the ruling party, the APC, from Abuja to Lagos, and I hope those guys will be identified and punished. The whole drama was pointless anyway. Peter Obi, Presidential candidate of the Labour Party went all the way to the Land of the Pharaohs, in far-away Egypt and came back, there was peace, nobody’s skull was cracked. Asiwaju Tinubu went to common Abuja that everyone goes to, and Lagos would not rest. He was the one, not Peter Obi, that brought back a pyramid of chaos. My friend, Gbenga Omotoso, Lagos Commissioner for Information and Strategy says it is all lies. But let me go back: Here was an opportunity, the other day, for me to get to Abuja early, and Babalakin is a good guy, so off I went with him.

In the course of our hour-long trip to Abuja, we ended up discussing this and that, and the state of the nation’s judiciary was our main topic, not knowing that there would be a bombshell coming from that direction in a matter of days. He was restrained. He did not want to make comments about serving Justices. But he was ready to talk about his Dad - what he learnt from Justice Bola Babalakin and also from Chief Rotimi Williams, the first Nigerian to become an SAN, the legendary Timi the Law - who for more than five decades dominated the Nigerian litigation landscape like a colossus, and who took him under his wings.  It was not yet Father’s Day, which was celebrated only a few days ago, but Babalakin could well have been singing Luther Vandross’s classic song, “Dance with My Father” (2003) before Father’s Day. Justice Bolarinwa Oyegoke Babalakin, JSC, CON, CFR, certainly made a great impression on his son.  He spoke about him from Lagos to Abuja. It was a story of responsible leadership at home, in the community, and the country, a man who held his own on all fronts at home and in the outside community, a jurist who remained a shining light and reference point till the end of his life. I could feel the chemistry between father and son, even if one was dead and the other is the inheritor of a distinguished legacy.  I thought Wale Babalakin, SAN, sounded like he would love to be like his Dad but the times are different. His Dad, from his own account was a simple, modest man, who shunned the glitter and just wanted to serve humanity. Generations of jurists trooped to Gbongan, a quiet, rural community to drink from the fountain of Justice Babalakin’s wisdom.

It is sad that the same supreme Court that he and his contemporaries and immediate successors helped to build into a great institution is now the same place where, if care is not taken, would be dragged ridiculously on social media and trashed unapologetically by politicians who would not allow any cheap opportunity to pass. We need to rescue the Nigerian judiciary from the pedals of “wahala.”         

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Yesterday, Nigeria declared a public holiday, and marked the 29^th anniversary of June 12, 1993, the day Nigerians trooped out en masse to elect Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, a South Westerner, a Yoruba man, as President of Nigeria. On that day, Nigerians discounted primordial sentiments and ignored the centrifugal forces at the heart of the Nigerian question. For the first time since the first legislative election was held in Nigeria under the Clifford Constitution in 1922, the usual divisive factors of religion, geography and ethnicity, did not matter. Abiola was a Yoruba man. He won convincingly in more than the two-thirds of the states required by the Constitution. He even beat his main opponent, Bashir Tofa, of the then National Republican Convention (NRC) not just in the pre-election debate and campaigns, with his wit, humour, knowledge, stature and charisma, he went ahead to trounce Tofa in his own ward and state in Kano. It is instructive that Bashir Tofa has remained a footnote in Nigerian history since then. He was no match for Abiola and has not even been able to match him in death.

Abiola did something unusual. He presented before Nigerians, a Muslim-Muslim ticket. His running mate was Baba Gana Kingibe, another Muslim, a Northerner. Nigerians didn’t bother about that. They wanted change. They wanted progress. They sought freedom from the shackles of military tyranny. Abiola preached a message of hope. Since the January 1966 coup led by Major Kaduna Nzeogwu, truncating the liberation from colonial rule, Nigeria found itself in the grips of corrosive, corrupt, and obnoxious military rule. There was a brief spell of civilian rule between 1979 and 1983, but the military seized power again, at a time when strong-man, military rulership was the mode in most African countries. In the 1990s, a wave of democratization eventually took hold in the global arena and Nigeria feeding on this, under General Ibrahim Babangida, launched a political transition programme that became an exercise in trickery and deception.

This also was the season of glasnost and perestroika, a big unraveling and the end of the Cold War and the beginning of transformations across the globe. Nigeria got caught in that cauldron of change. MKO Abiola, as events happened, won the election. But he was denied victory on June 24, 1993, with the annulment of the election. General Ibrahim Babangida, IBB as he is also known, was the head of the military junta that committed this perfidy, this subversion of the people’s will, and although he has claimed that he was not alone and that his hands were tied, the event of June 12, 1993, an election won by a man he considered his friend, will remain a day in infamy as a symbol of betrayal, insincerity and political suicide of the first rank. It must be remembered that Abiola’s victory would have marked a second liberation for Nigerians, liberation from the shackles of military tyranny, even if now in retrospect, nobody can say definitively how that denied Presidency would have turned out. It was all a matter of justice, democracy and the people’s sovereignty. It is therefore poetic justice that June 12 has remained a major signpost in Nigerian history. It is also remarkable that President Muhammadu Buhari is the one who decided to move Democracy Day from May 29, the traditional day for handing over of batons in the nation’s calendar, every four years, to June 12, to remind all Nigerians of the significance of that date. This will form a major substance of Buhari’s legacy, at the level of simple commonsense, if not any heavy substance.   

What endures is the symbolism and martyrdom of MKO Abiola, and what Buhari has done is to take that phenomenon to an appropriate location in national memory in a country where it is ever so convenient to forget. For the benefit of those who may have forgotten, Nigeria became a pariah nation. The international community turned against Nigeria. Civil society groups rose against the Nigerian government. The green passport became a source of embarrassment in all parts of the world. It was a difficult season to be a Nigerian. The media, the church, and progressives of all hues took to the streets and stood at the barricades to demand an end to military rule and the restoration of Abiola’s mandate. IBB, now known as the Maradona, stepped aside. An interim government led by Chief Ernest Shonekan, better described by the Yoruba phrase “fidihe” government took over, but that government lasted only 83 days. It was eventually booted out by the dark-goggled General Sani Abacha, who imposed a reign of terror on the country. Journalists were murdered. Where the husbands could not be found, their wives and new babies – Dapo Olorunyomi’s new born baby for example, were targeted by “the wereys” that had taken over Nigeria. MKO Abiola stood firm. He had the support of committed democrats and progressives from every part of Nigeria. He led the struggle with courage and resolve at great personal risk.  On July 11, 1994, he made the Epetedo Declaration.

It was a statement of defiance, bravery and heroism. He eventually paid for that with his life. What Buhari has done in this part of Nigerian history by declaring June 12 - Democracy Day, is to deal a mortal blow to the revisionist attempt to reduce June 12 to a Yoruba struggle. It was not. It was a pan-Nigerian attempt to save Nigeria.  The beneficiaries of the martyrdom and the heroism of others have not necessarily been the right persons. Joe Igbokwe has written an instructive book in this regard titled “Heroes of Democracy.” There is also June 12: The Struggle for Power in Nigeria by Abraham Oshoko. Other books of interest would be those by direct participants in the saga including The Struggle for June 12 by Frank Kokori; The Tale of June 12 by Omo Omoruyi, Clapping with One Hand: June 12 and The Crisis of A Nation by Olawale Oshun;  and Humphrey Nwosu’s Laying the Foundation for Nigeria’s Democracy: My Account of June 12, 1993 Presidential Election and its Annulment. Nwosu was the Chairman of the National Electoral Commission (NEC) that conducted the 1993 elections. The June 12 crisis destroyed his career in the public arena.    

June 12, 1993, this year is being commemorated at an auspicious moment. The Party primaries have been concluded. Presidential standard bearers have emerged. It is no longer the season of military rule – Nigerians have since said “Never Again” to that but old anxieties have not disappeared. In 2014/2015, Nigerians thought they wanted change. They asked for it. The only change they got was the change of personalities, and the worsening of the Nigerian condition. Eight years later, nobody can boast that the Buhari administration has been able to change anything or inspire hope. Rather, Nigerians are looking back to the past in anger. Many even thought former President Goodluck Jonathan should return to rescue the country that he handed over to the exceptionally clueless gang that took over from him. That has not happened, and I hope all the noisemakers who thought that was even possible in the first place would be humble enough to think twice. Where then, are we, as a country?

We are preparing for the 2023 general elections. We have 17 or 18 Presidential candidates. INEC, the electoral umpire has set a deadline of June 17 for the uploading of  names and affidavits on the INEC Nomination Portal. The INEC Chairman, Yakubu Mahmood has announced the relevant conditions and guidelines. As of the time of this writing, only the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has announced its Presidential running mate; by this time next week, all running mates at the Presidential level would have been announced. Given the nature, structure and circumstances of Nigerian politics, the 2023 process has already been reduced to a two-horse race, between the PDP and the APC. Some commentators argue that attention should be paid to the Peter Obi phenomenon. Quite rightly so. He was a two-time Governor in Anambra State under the platform of APGA. He later switched to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In 2019, he was chosen as running mate to Atiku Abubakar of the PDP. In 2023, he declared interest to run on his own on the platform of the PDP. He has since gone to the Labour Party (LP) where his major challengers have turned out to be his own Igbo kinsmen, Callistus Okafor and co, at a time when Ndigbo, having been denied a top spot placement in the PDP and APC needed a platform of their own to project the idea of an Igbo Presidency.

There are about five Igbos as standard bearers in the 2023 process:  Dumebi Kachikwu (Delta Igbo- ADC)..Peter Umeadi (APGA), Peter Obi (Labour Party), Okwudili Nwa-Anyadike (NRM) and Dan Iwuanyanwu (ZLP) but Ndigbo is not talking about their own. They are talking about a meeting to decide who to choose between Atiku (PDP) and Bola Tinubu (APC). Peter Obi is clearly the frontrunner among the Igbos on the list. He enjoys massive support among young people of Nigeria, particularly from the South. They call him Obi-Bangladesh, Obi-China because of the transformative ideas that he espouses. But he is at best, probably a man ahead of his time. Social media does not win elections. On the practical field of play, Peter Obi does not have Atiku’s or Tinubu’s kind of money in an election that is already a cash and carry affair. On that list of standard bearers, there is also Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), a man who is defined by Kano politics and his own politics of personality. Kwankwaso’s best bet is Kano, not Nigeria.

There is also Lateef Kola Abiola, the first son of Bashorun MKO Abiola, as flagbearer of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP). My suspicion is that LKA is just showing face, but his effort is noteworthy: The son who wants to redeem his father’s legacy! Omoyele Sowore (AAC) wants to take Nigeria back to the people who truly own it, but the established rent-collectors, “the political profiteers, the swindlers, the men in high and low places that seek bribes and demand 10 percent, those that seek to keep the country divided permanently..., the tribalists, the nepotists, those that make the country look big for nothing before international circles, those that have corrupted our society and put the Nigerian calendar back by their words and deeds” will not allow him. They did not allow Awolowo. They did not allow Abiola. They will certainly not allow Obi, Sowore or anyone who sounds like they want change.     

This is why the two prominent figures we are left with are Atiku and Tinubu. The duo offers us, same of the same. They have both been promising change, progress and development. They are both not in a position to change anything. They won’t. Nigeria is in a difficult place, confronted with the equivalent of a Hobson’s choice. It is also perhaps why the major argument today is the choice of a running mate for Atiku and Tinubu. Ordinarily, a Vice President occupies “an awkward office” as US Vice President Walter Mondale once argued. Thomas Marshall, Woodrow Wilson’s Vice President for eight years said “The only business of the Vice President is to ring the White House every morning and ask - what is the state of the health of the President?” The Vice President of Nigeria does not even have as much power as the VP in the United States who has a voting slot in the event of a tie in Congress. Nigeria’s VP is a creation of Section 141 of the 1999 Constitution. He is a member of the Executive Council of the Federation, also, the National Security Council, Chairman of the National Economic Council, and a number of parastatals including the National Boundary Commission. His real and relative power however depends upon the duties delegated to him by the President who within the purview of Section 5 of the 1999 Constitution is a monarch, regardless of Section 141 of the Constitution. The value of the Vice President is provided for strictly with regard to the obvious purposes of ethnic and geographical balance, federal character, inclusion and willy-nilly, as a spare tyre in the event of the President’s travel on holiday, death, permanent incapacity, removal from office, or resignation as defined in Sections 143 – 146 of the Constitution.  

This matter is so important that after the conclusion of the party primaries on Thursday, June 9, 2022, the main task is now the announcement of running mates by the Presidential candidates. Everything is tied to this ahead of the June 17 deadline that has been announced by INEC. The focus is on the two main candidates: Atiku and Tinubu. For Atiku, the task is probably easier. His choice is limited to a Southern running mate of Christian extraction. He cannot choose a Muslim. He cannot choose a Northerner. To do so would be suicidal. In the last week, his choice has also been narrowed down to two names: Nyesom Wike, Governor of Rivers State and runner-up to Atiku in the PDP presidential primary, and Ifeanyi Okowa, former Senator and Governor of Delta State. Both are Christians. Of the two, Wike is Atiku’s best bet. He may come across as brash and intemperate, unlike the more urbane Okowa, but Atiku does not need an “ice cream seller” or “a tomato seller” who cannot win massive votes. Wike has built for himself a broad network of influence across Nigeria that can help the PDP. He has strong administrative experience: Chief of Staff, Minister of State and two-term Governor, and enough financial war-chest that can shock even Elon Musk. Okowa has issues even in his own home state. He has very little name recognition. Atiku can choose Wike and tame him to learn how to be sober.

Tinubu has a bigger challenge. He wants to win. He and Atiku are on the last mile with their ambitions. It is now or never for them. Whereas it would be easy for Atiku to narrow down his choice for a VP, for Tinubu, it is a different ball game. We understand he is better off with a Muslim from the North, preferably from the North East. There are good and bad Muslims. If Tinubu must pick a Muslim running mate, as has been argued, his best choice is Kashim Shettima, former Governor of Borno State.