The other Friday, some of us met at a restaurant in Lagos, at the instance of Mr. Lanre Idowu, a veteran journalist, a very dear Egbon of the boys, mentor to a younger generation of journalists, and the spirit behind the annual Diamond Awards for Media Excellence. His co-conspirator was Azubuike Ishiekwene, ace prose stylist, newspaper columnist, author, mediapreneur, editor of editors. What could a group of notorious, middle-aged journalists be possibly up to wining and dining in an upscale restaurant?

We were not planning any form of secession or an assault on the Buhari administration with our pens – two things I hear give them insomnia and acute indigestion in Aso Rock these days. We were there to celebrate two of our own, drink to their success and share in the glow of their achievement:  Debo Adesina, former editor of the African Guardian, former Editor of the Saturday Guardian, former Editor of the Guardian, former Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian who is now Nigeria’s Ambassador to Togo. And Oma Djebah, ex-Guardian, former Political Editor of ThisDay, former Commissioner of Information, Delta State, former Special Adviser on International Affairs to Delta State, publisher, entrepreneur, writer and artist, who is now Nigeria’s Ambassador to Thailand and Myanmar.

Nigerian journalists do not often celebrate their own colleagues. They prefer to promote others and pull down their own. But I am glad to see a changing trend. You needed to have been in the room. We were all so happy that President Muhammadu Buhari has chosen to include two journalists in the recent list of non-career ambassadors. For us, this is an achievement for the media industry. The Nigerian media, one of the oldest institutions in the making and the unmaking of Nigeria, has over the years occupied the frontlines. The industry has produced leaders and icons. It is good to see that the tradition is alive and well, and that again and again, the quality represented by the profession is acknowledged. Debo Adesina, a man we usually call The Prince found it a bit difficult being addressed as Your Excellency, Ambassador Adesina. Oma Djebah didn’t even know whether to sit or stand up, at a reception in his honour by some of the persons who used to be his Editors.  We told both of them they will soon get used to it, and that they can rely on the support of the Nigerian Media Mafia and Cabal as they go forth to represent Nigeria!

We had a good time. As I left the event, I also remembered my dear brother, Alhaji Sarafa Tunji Ishola who has been appointed Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the Court of St. James, that is the United Kingdom. President Buhari could not have made a better choice in that regard. Sarafa Ishola is a natural diplomat, a very loyal, disciplined and honest man. He has been Chairman of Abeokuta North Local Government, Special Assistant to a Minister, Secretary to the Ogun State Government, Minister of Steel and Mines Development. He is also a community leader, an astute campaign manager and a very responsible man in his immediate community. He is fair-minded and completely without malice- qualities that will stand him in good stead. He is the right kind of person who will help deepen Nigeria-UK relations. I can vouch for him, and for Debo Adesina and for Oma Djebah. Thank you, Mr. President.  

The roads leading to the two Nigerian ports in Lagos have been for many years an abiding source of heartache and nightmare. Businesses have had to relocate from that part of the city for that very reason. Residents tell horrible stories of traffic gridlock, mental health stress and the destruction of a neighbourhood that used to be a highly regarded commercial hub, while also serving as home or investment space for some notable and principal members of the Lagos elite: the Awolowos, the Fanikayodes, the Fagbayis, the Odutolas, the Clarks, the Ibrus, the Abraham Adesanyas, the Folawiyos, the Adedoyins…

In the 1950-80s, Apapa was a highbrow estate in Lagos. It would later become more popular for the ports of Lagos: the Tin Can and the Apapa Port, in addition to shipping and construction companies and other businesses. There also used to be a functional rail line linking Apapa to the rest of the city. But Apapa which is a local government area unto itself, soon collapsed in literal terms. Its story is the story of Nigeria - a country where every good thing eventually goes to waste. How did Apapa become a problem to all and sundry? The roads leading to the area collapsed. Potholes everywhere. Many houses could not be accessed or if at all with so much distress. For years, it was impossible to get to the ports through the Mile 2 end: a whole stretch of the in-bound lane was unmotorable. Access to the ports through the Carter Bridge or Western Avenue was also frustrating. Apart from the bad state of the roads, the main problem was the long queue of trailers and trucks going to the ports to pick up containers or those trucks returning with heavy containers, clogging the roads, making life difficult for everyone. The traffic congestion caused by these trucks conveyed an image, in every elemental detail, of the failure of governance in Nigeria.

However, since the return to civilian rule in 1999, one administration after another has made efforts to solve the problem.  There has been so much talk about ports reform to ensure efficiency and better performance, and to save Nigeria’s face and revenue. Like this: ports in Cotonou, Togo and Tema, Ghana have been far more efficient. Goods meant for the Lagos ports are routinely diverted to better maintained ports in the sub-region. The Jonathan administration even set up a Task Force to streamline the multiplicity of agencies at the ports, stream line bureaucracy, and ensure a 24-hour turn-around time. Trailer parks were created to get the trucks off the roads.  There were talks about fixing the roads, and getting the rail line to Apapa working again. One Governor of Lagos after the other talked about the same ports. The Buhari administration has sustained the efforts to find a solution. Vice President Osinbajo must have visited Apapa more than once to demonstrate the present Government’s determination. At some point, the Buhari administration shut down the ports with Nigeria’s neighbours. Inefficiency at the ports affects the country’s revenue very badly. Whereas the roads can be fixed: the main challenge has been, as we see it, what to do with the many trucks to-ing and fro-ing the ports, blocking the roads permanently. On a daily basis, hundreds of trucks go in and out of Apapa in a disorderly manner. Whereas there are alternative ports in the country: Warri, Onne, Calabar, and Port Harcourt, importers and exporters rely heavily on the Lagos ports. The roads to and from the Lagos ports are also congested because there are no functional, alternative, multi-modal means of transportation.

The most strategic intervention so far would seem to be the decision by the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) now under the leadership of Ms Hadiza Bala-Usman to modernize the call-up system for the trucks going to the ports. In an interview with her on Arise News, The Morning Show, about a month ago, she was emphatic about what she called an electronic call up system called “Eto”. That is a Yoruba word. It means “to örganise something in an orderly fashion in order to get results.” The late Chief MKO Abiola, in one of his famous witty repartees made that word even more popular when he was reported to have said on one occasion, that if you see any photographer who is very agile and diligent, taking pictures from every angle and not missing a shot at a public event, it is all about “eto”. The sharpness of the wit and the infectious humour is lost in translation. “Eto ni gbogbo e”. I don’t know whether this is the inspiration for the NPA’s “eto” but the whole idea is to get people to do their work efficiently and deliver good results for the benefit of all parties concerned. What the NPA has done is to introduce an electronic app, and create a portal. Instead of queuing up on the roads leading to the ports, importers and exporters are supposed to log in online to indicate the movement of their trucks towards the ports. The Ports Authority would then give the necessary approval to ensure that the inflow and outflow of trucks is orderly. Under that framework, the Nigeria Ports Authority has provided 17 designated and approved truck parks where trucks are required to wait before they are given what is called truck pass. It is a pre-gate system. You are called up. You wait at the provided pre-gate location. When it is your turn you approach the ports, or exit. Cargo owners are also required to stop returning empty containers to the ports.  

This sounds very simple. Ordinarily it should address the crisis of having trucks parking on the main roads leading to the ports for weeks, even when the containers that they are assigned to collect are still on the high seas. For years, truck drivers and their trucks have thus constituted complete nuisance around Apapa. The studio of Arise News TV used to be in the ThisDay Headquarters on Creek Road in Apapa. I didn’t find it funny going to that part of the city. The Chairman of Arise News on many occasions encouraged the use of his boat from Victoria Island to Apapa and back. Until one day, there was a small incident close to the anchor point and we needed to rely on the waves to take us ashore. Ask Professor Bola Akinterinwa. I saw a new side of him that day. I don’t want to embarrass the senior citizen by reproducing the torrents of stream-of-consciousness elegy that came out of his mouth, as our fate depended on the sea. It was the last time he and I took the boat to the studio. We had to endure the nightmare of the roads.  I consider Hadiza Bala-Usman’s Eto initiative commendable. It would be of great benefit to the Ports, and the ordinary citizen going about his or her normal businesses around Apapa. It would further reduce the menace of those trucks ferrying unlatched containers which tend to fall off now and then, causing avoidable loss of lives and property. Hadiza Bala-Usman’s initiative is about the ease of movement and the ease of doing business.

But what have we seen? Since the introduction of the e-call up system, those who have always benefitted from the old regime have been reportedly doing whatever they can to circumvent it. Many Nigerians hate innovation. People guard what they are used to because they think change will disrupt their lives. In the case of the attempt to de-congest the road to the ports, it is disturbing to see that even traffic congestion is an organised source of livelihood for some Nigerians, in fact an organised crime!  This includes the middle men who claim to be assisting the truck owners and their drivers; the security agents who collect bribe from motorists looking for free passage, the area boys who collect ground rent from everyone, and the owners of the trucks, very powerful forces, who imagine themselves to be above the law.  About a week ago, the Managing Director of the NPA, had to suspend the outflow of all export cargoes. Despite the e-call up system, the Ports Authorities were having to deal with a backlog of 600 export cargo trucks, all approaching the ports. The trucks could not be granted a pass or called into the pre -gate because many of them had no proper export documentation, or as is the case with many, the necessary certificates were incomplete! To worsen matters, despite the “Eto” system, cargo evacuation is difficult because the Nigeria Customs Service in 2021 has no scanners, and so in the absence of scanners, customs officials at the ports are still busy doing manual inspection, opening one container after another physically in search of spare parts and stock-fish!      

In an interview with the Daily Champion, Monday, March 29, 2021, at page 24, the NPA MD says owners of cargo exports have been given two weeks within which they should align with the new framework, and she is optimistic that within 3 months all stakeholders will be able to understand how the “Eto” platform works. I like her optimism about how whatever challenges she may be facing are surmountable. But she needs to give herself more than 3 months to sort things out. It is not that straightforward. The big problem are the rent-seekers she says are pushing back. Those rent-seekers don’t give up easily. They won’t. There must be sanctions. If any truck is sent to the ports without proper documentation, such trucks should be seized. Penalties should be imposed. Transporters and owners of cargo who defy simple processes and frustrate others must be told that they cannot place themselves above the law. What is clear is this: for Eto as it is called to work at the ports, the NPA will need the co-operation of other government agencies: the Customs Service that needs to stop behaving like a 19^th Century unit of government, the security agencies that must wield the big stick against rent-seekers and the Export Promotion Council that needs to act right. In other parts of the world, heavy cargo is transported through the rails. The ugly sight of trucks on Nigerian roads bearing unlatched containers is a sign of underdevelopment, if not madness in the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.  More importantly, other ports around the country in Onne, Calabar, and Warri should be made more active to further reduce the pressure on Lagos. Hadiza Bala-Usman clearly needs all the support she can get. But a lot will also depend on the courage she brings to the table. Rent-seekers, area boys, cargo owners, thieving customs officials will test her resolve. She must be firm and resolute, and it is only by doing so, that she can help end the failure of Apapa.

I have written on this subject before now: the politics and drama of OPL 245 involving ENI, Royal Dutch Shell, Malabu Oil and Gas and the manner in which President Goodluck Jonathan’s officials were dragged into the matter, particularly Emeritus Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke. The big issue is that there were allegations of corruption, money laundering and unsavoury practices in the transactions.  On Thursday last week, after more than three years, and 74 hearings, and about 200 witnesses, the Italian court looking into the matter ruled that none of the parties involved in the matter has a case to answer. In other words, the trial court discharged and acquitted, Etete, Adoke, ENI, AGIP, and Shell.

What the Italian court has said is that there is, there was not, any fraud over the transfer of the ownership of the OPL 245 and government’s management of the process. OPL 245 was projected by interested parties as one of the biggest symbols of corruption in Nigeria, from Presidents Obasanjo to Yar’Adua, and as a major minus for the Jonathan administration. The Italians in whose courts the natter was first initiated have now just ruled that there is no case to answer. We are right now at this point after reputations have been destroyed, family lives have been disrupted, and the wrong narrative has been put out there. It is terrible and condemnable the way the Nigerian government in the last six years has gone about this particular matter.  What is even more telling is that in a public statement titled “A Trilogy of Acquittals”. Chief Dan Etete insists that the agreements on the transfer from Malabu to Shell and ENI were never cancelled by the Federal Government of Nigeria. The Court,  he points out, has confirmed that no bribes were paid to anyone and that there is indeed no case to answer.     

In other words, the prosecution raised the following issues:  The legality of the transaction has been affirmed by the Italian courts. Before now, the impression given to Nigerians is that the OPL 245 Resolution Agreement was tainted with corruption, hence the prosecutions going on in Milan and Nigeria. Now that the transaction has been confirmed to be legitimate, it is expected that the Nigerian authorities will do the needful by terminating proceedings in Nigeria and publicly apologize to those maligned unduly by the EFCC and other state actors and their cohorts. In some jurisdictions, compensation will be offered. Nigeria ought to learn useful lessons from the Italian Prosecutions and the subsequent discharge and acquittal of the parties. Public Officers such as the Attorney General and other prosecutorial agencies must be guided by the pursuit of justice and national interest in the advice they give to ground a prosecution rather than serve narrow selfish private interests or the desire to even scores with people who have held public office. What exactly is the level of investigation that our prosecutorial agencies carry out before they decide to charge someone to court? We target people and try to rope them in, based on prejudices. Malicious prosecution is a direct assault on the rule of law.

This point must be made: Nigeria must not be made to look like a rogue state in the eyes of the international community where things can never be done right or government business is conducted in such a manner as to promote ulterior motives. In addition, malicious prosecution should be avoided because of its inherent danger to the state and the colossal loss it can occasion for the state when redress is sought against the state. What if Etete, Adoke, and the oil companies proceed against the government for the losses incurred during these years?

The Attorney General of the Federation indeed failed the legal community, the Justice system and  his Oath of Office when he failed to give effect to the Judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja, Coram, Binta Nyako, J to the effect that Mr. Adoke could not be held personally liable for carrying out the lawful directives and/approval of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to implement the OPL 245 Settlement Agreement of 2006. In other climes, the Attorney General of the Federation would have moved to terminate all proceedings in obedience to the Judgment of the Court.

Nigeria’s image has been badly damaged internationally needlessly and public confidence in our state institutions greatly eroded by the actions taken by the EFCC, the Federal Ministry of Justice and other state actors to discredit a transaction that to all intents and purposes was legitimate and beneficial to the country. Now is the time to close the book on the OPL 245 saga.

The right thing can still be done by relevant prosecutorial agencies to remedy the situation and right the wrongs. The AGF should immediately proceed to terminate the ongoing proceedings in Nigeria and offer a public apology to all the parties concerned. That is the main take-away from Italy.  

Ogun State has been in the news for the wrong reasons lately over what I prefer to call for the want of a better term: much ado about a cargo airport. All the parties involved need to be told that the provision of a Cargo Airport in the state should not become a matter of geography, individual ego, arrogance, mischief or ethnicity. The main consideration should be the interest of the people of Ogun State. A Cargo airport in Ogun State will, to state the obvious, create employment, open up the state, and deepen the development process, and also provide an alternative to the congested Lagos port facilities. It will shore up state revenue. The great advantage or disadvantage that Ogun State has is its proximity to Lagos.

With regard to the former, the increasing scarcity of space, and the over-congestion in Lagos, has resulted in the last two decades in an urban sprawl from Lagos towards every part of Ogun State which is its nearest neighbour. The effect is that housing schemes, industrial projects and other investments that could ordinarily have been located in Lagos, are being moved to Ogun State, along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway on the Southern front, and towards Epe and Ijebu Ode on the Northern axis. Whoever runs Ogun State as Governor therefore has a responsibility to prepare Ogun State for this advantage, for it is the best option for turning the state into an industrial hub, not just for proximity purposes but also as the gateway to the East and the neighbouring countries of Benin, and Togo. The disadvantage which needs to be addressed is that as Ogun State merges with Lagos, and with many Ogun State residents working in Lagos, commuting daily between the two states, the bulk of the tax that should go to Ogun State ends up in Lagos State coffers. No Governor has been able to find an answer to that yet. Most of the people living in Ifo 2 Constituency and Obafemi Owode Local Government, for example, live in Ogun State and pay tax in Lagos. The proximity between both states is such that in places like Alagbole, for example, some of the residents have their living rooms in Lagos State and their bedrooms on the Ogun State side of the divide!

But that is not the real subject matter. It is this: in 2007, Engr Gbenga Daniel as Governor of Ogun State decided to set up a Cargo airport in the state, to attract business and investment, and TO take full advantage of the proximity of Ogun State to Lagos. Lagos, Nigeria’s main commercial centre and the host of two sea ports and an international airport is congested, creating nightmares for both residents and businesses. The clearing of cargo in Lagos at the time and even now was an abiding source of frustration for business and industry. Why not set up an alternative in Ogun State and draw economic benefits? This was the vision of the Gbenga Daniel administration. And it made sense. The chosen location for the Cargo airport was Ilishan-Remo part of the state, close to Sagamu. Governor Daniel got the necessary approvals from the Federal Ministry of Aviation and the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), and did the ground work. But the Cargo airport was not completed before the end of his tenure. In 2007, Governor Daniel was succeeded by Senator Ibikunle Amosun as Governor of Ogun State. The new Governor also saw the good sense in what had been initiated by his predecessor but rather than continue with what he met on the ground, Amosun decided to start an entirely new Cargo Airport and chose as new location, a part of the state called Wasimi.

This is where the problem lies. Daniel was a Governor of Remo extraction. When he decided to locate the Cargo airport in Remoland, the Egbas accused Daniel of taking every important project to his part of the state. When Amosun took over, he looked towards his own territory, Egbaland and hence decided that the proposed Cargo airport was best for his own people. Wasimi to Ilishan Remo is less than 30 minutes. The change of location served no special purpose other than the psychological comfort it brings and the ethnic rivalry it projects. Amosun would end up doing a lot for his Egba people. He changed the face of Abeokuta, the capital of the state. He also gave them a flyover in Ijebu Ode. But the cargo airport has now become a source of concern. This whole hustle over location is just across the bridge and less than 30 minutes in terms of distance!

A week ago, the matter came up before the Senate Committee on Aviation, following disagreements between Governor Dapo Abiodun and former Governor of the state, Senator Ibikunle Amosun. The former is interested in building the Ilishan-Remo airport. Governor Abiodun, like Daniel is from Remo. Amosun wants the Agricultural Cargo Airport in Wasimi, in Egbaland. The Senate Committee on Aviation reportedly visited the two sites, and both Governors have been struggling to persuade the Senate to include their preferred project in the federal budget. By the way, the last time I checked, Senator Amosun was no longer the Governor of Ogun State. With due respect, why is he trying to dictate to his successor? He would never have accepted such meddlesomeness as he now allegedly puts up, from his own predecessors: Governor Olusegun Osoba or Governor Gbenga Daniel. As it turned out, the representative of the NCAA told the Senate Committee on Aviation that the agency has no record of any approval for the establishment of a Wasimi Cargo Airport, but it has all the necessary documentation for the Sagamu cargo airport. The Chairman of the Senate panel, Senator Smart Adeyemi subsequently resolved the matter by saying that Ogun State has the capacity to manage two airports. What kind of talk is that? Smart Adeyemi’s statement is supported by politics, double-talk and hypocrisy, and not the facts. Ogun State does not need two Cargo airports. One is enough. The state cannot afford two airports. That is a fact. The Senate panel on Aviation must be truthful and not take any decision just to please Amosun, who is currently in the Senate.

It is most unfortunate that governance in Ogun State as is the case in other states of the Federation has been reduced to the distribution of privileges based on ethnicity. I think Governor Abiodun has done well by continuing with a worthy project introduced by Daniel, which Amosun abandoned. It is completely beside the point that Abiodun and Daniel are from the same geographical zone. The overall target should be continuity in governance. That is how they do it in sane and developed economies Abiodun has completed some of Senator Amosun’s projects even in Egbaland, and the most conspicuous is the road leading to Abeokuta all the way to Kuto. He should also pay attention to Amosun’s projects in Ifo 2 Constituency to show good faith. As for Senator Amosun, can he just concentrate on his new assignment in Abuja and allow his successor to govern, the same way his own predecessors gave him a breathing space? Dapo Abiodun was our opponent in the 2019 Gubernatorial election in Ogun State but having won, he should be allowed to govern and make his own choices and mistakes. The state should not and cannot have two Governors. All that talk about what Amosun wants is mere politics and very cheap politics at that. I have no doubts that Amosun’s kinsmen will praise him for his Egba nationalism but we cannot afford to have an atomistic Ogun state where every Governor that emerges is more interested in his or her own narrow goals. A Cargo airport in Remo will be a Cargo airport for all the people of Ogun State. Can we just focus on that and subtract the politics of it?

Established in 1948 as a campus of the University College, London, somewhere around Eleiyele in Ibadan, the University of Ibadan as it later became known when it assumed an independent status in 1962, has the history of Nigeria, its greatness and challenges written into every grain of sand, every piece of grass, every sound in its chambers, the minutest echo in its premises so much that any encounter with the University of Ibadan is an encounter with a piece of history. It is Nigeria’s first university. It has produced some of the brightest minds that Nigeria can ever boast of, and has served the country as a factory for the training of generations of skilled workers. At the height of its glory, every university in Nigeria was referred to by ordinary people as UI as in UI of Nsukka, UI of Kano, UI of Maiduguri, UI of Port Harcourt…

For years, indeed, the University of Ibadan, as symbol, signifier, and object of public imagination, embodied in every sense, what John Henry Newman calls “The Idea of a University”.  As Nigeria degenerated and small minds replaced visionaries at the commanding heights of governance, and touts became new superstars in a country once destined for greatness, the country careered down the downhill path and every value failed. The first place to notice the effect was in the education sector at all levels and in that very department, iconic institutions took a fall: from the primary to the tertiary level. The town and the gown began to look alike, sometimes with the latter sounding less informed than the former in a reversal of roles. The idea of the university was trampled upon by an emergent anti-intellectual Nigerian elite that sought to dictate the processes, and standards for the production of knowledge and ideas. When the rogue class wanted to destroy Nigeria, they started with the intellectual class or anything at all that they thought could stand in the way of the planned emergence of thugs, bandits, thieves and terrorists as the new elite.

The University of Ibadan was badly hit over the decades. The teachers, among whom were some of the best in the world were targeted and demoralized by their less talented colleagues who had “connections in high places.” UI once had the best Chemistry laboratory in Africa. One night, it went up in flames. UI once had the best library in West Africa. In due course, that library became something of a museum. UI had the best archival library in Africa. Somehow, that also failed. UI had the richest zoo in West Africa. It turned out that the animals in the zoo, a great attraction for tourists, were eaten up one by one or sold by those who were employed to conserve them. Once, a zoo keeper who had been converted into a growing wave of Christian Pentecostalism, went into the zoo and proclaimed himself “Daniel in the Lion’s Den”. He confronted a hungry lion. You know how the story ended. But that did not stop some of the brightest Professors in the University joining the Pentecostal bandwagon too. Prayer rooms and night vigils became bigger attractions on campus.    

When some countries or institutions lose it, and the elite go astray, they manage to retain some value, a residual zone of redemption. But when things go wrong in Nigeria, they simply travel from bad to worse. This is the background to the current situation at the University of Ibadan, a metaphor for the overall Nigerian condition. Which is why it is so sad, and this is the point of this piece, that the University of Ibadan, once the breeding place of “national diamonds” has now become a melting pot of the Nigerian factor.  And to think that there are actually persons within that system not knowing the difference between the town and the gown, or they probably do, but they really do not care that the rot in town has so infiltrated the university; it may no longer matter anyway. It is particularly a crying shame that the University of Ibadan since November 2020 has not been able to appoint a substantive Vice Chancellor, after the expiration of the tenure of the former Vice Chancellor, Professor Idowu Olayinka. There may have been issues with the Vice Chancellorship of the University in the past (Kenneth Dike, Tekena Tamuno). There was also once a Cross vs. Crescent war between Christians and Muslims on the campus but what is now going on at the University is truly a new low.  Every alumnus of the University must be concerned that his or her alma mater is now a war zone for religious and ethnic politics, and that both faculty and staff are embroiled in a do-or-die fight over the position of Vice Chancellor.

I once served on the Governing Council of a University – Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Ogun State. I was Chairman of the Establishments Committee and a member of the Appointments and Promotions Committee (known as A & P). Ordinarily, when a substantive Vice Chancellor is due to exit the position, the process for the recruitment of another would have begun more than three months before the scheduled exit to ensure a hitch-free transition. At the University of Ibadan, Professor Idowu Olayinka’s tenure was due to end by November 2020.  For one reason or the other, the University Council slept off, more or less on the matter of succession and did not activate the necessary processes in line with the Universities Autonomy Act.

In the face of that omission, mischief makers with their own agenda found an opportunity to step into the fray. They exploited the situation in typical Nigerian fashion. The emergent dominant position would eventually be defended as follows: the most vocal interest groups said they wanted an Ibadan indigene as Vice Chancellor of the University because no Ibadan person has ever been VC of the University. They even went a step further to insist that the next VC must be a Muslim. This is in a University that was once specially categorized as a Research University and as a Centre of Excellence. In 2020, its Professors and non-academic staff were busy fighting over the religious and ethnic extraction of a future VC. Several attempts have been made to resolve the impasse but they have proved futile and inconclusive.

In the midst of that confusion, the university’s Senate reportedly met and decided to appoint Professor Adebola Ekanola, Professor of Philosophy, as Acting Vice Chancellor, with effect from Dec. 1, 2020. Ekanola did not previously show interest in the position. He served under VC Olayinka, as DVC Academics. The main gladiators were Professor Kayode Adebowale – a Professor of Chemistry, and a Christian, believed to be Olayinka’s anointed successor. He served under Olayinka as DVC Administration. The second candidate was/is Professor Abideen Aderinto, a Muslim and a Professor of Sociology. Aderinto is said to be the candidate of Professor Isaac Adewole, who after serving as Minister of Health, has since returned to the College of Medicine in the University. It is widely believed that he is using his Abuja connections to seize control of the University and to determine who becomes the next Vice Chancellor. We have several levels of conflict here: Adebowale vs. Aderinto (candidates seeking the office of VC); Olayinka vs. Adewole (conflict of egos between two former VCs trying to control the university by proxy); Ibadan indigene vs. outsider (should indigeneship be a factor in the appointment of the Vice Chancellor of a Federal University?) and finally Christians vs Muslims (and I ask: do we now have bandits and kidnappers among the Ibadan academia?).  

These may perhaps be some of the considerations that led the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu to suspend the process of appointing a new Vice Chancellor at the University of Ibadan indefinitely. But in taking that decision, the Minister merely complicated the process. He should have allowed the university to run its own affairs. His decision to stop the process has fuelled the suspicion that the Ministry or the Minister himself is a party to the conflict. On the streets of the University of Ibadan today, there is great suspicion and masked tension.

The tenure of the present Chairman of the Governing Council, Nde Joshua Watlek Mutka ends in April. He cannot be compared to Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN who served as Chairman of the Governing Council of the same University before him, or the likes of late Mr. Gamaliel Onosode, who also served with distinction as Chairman of the UI Governing Council. Waklek throughout his tenure as Council Chairman of the University of Ibadan has functioned like a victim of Peter’s Principle. But then this is Nigeria: he is father in-law of the Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, an APC Governor! In today’s politics, that is big political capital. But to drop the ball and draw Nigeria’s Premier University into the vortex of religious, party and ethnic politics is most unfortunate. Who cares whether the Vice Chancellor is an Ibadan indigene or not? And what has being a Muslim or Christian got to do with University Vice-Chancellorship?  

The Minister of Education must revisit this issue quickly. If he waits till the end of the tenure of the current Chairman of Council before the University gets a substantive Vice Chancellor, it would be correctly assumed that Abuja has imposed the politics of Godfatherism on the country’s premier University.  The University’s Alumni have also been too quiet.  They must not play possum and watch their alma mater turned into a battle-field of ambitions and egos.

Idris Wase is the Deputy Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives. There is a video in circulation that shows him presiding over a session of the House of Representatives in the absence of the Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila. The matter before the House was the attempt by Rep. Mark Terser Gbilah representing the Tiv Federal Constituency to present a petition by his constituents writing under the umbrella of the Mutual Union of Tivs in America (MUTA). These concerned citizens in the said petition sought to register their protest about the maltreatment, utter neglect and the wanton violation of the fundamental human rights of their kith and kin back home in Nigeria who as a result of the attack on their homesteads and farmlands by herdsmen have been rendered homeless in the past few years and are now stranded in refugee camps in the Middle Belt. Members of MUTA want their people’s plight to be addressed by the Nigerian government and their seized lands returned to them.

You need to watch the video. The evidence is compelling. The content is horrid. The Speaker in session, Idris Wase, did not even allow Rep. Gbilah to make the presentation. He dismissed Nigerians living in Diaspora as a company of ignoramuses who do not know what is going on in Nigeria. Really? In this age of the internet? He said he would rather listen to a petition coming from Nigerians living in Nigeria, but not anyone in Diaspora. Thus, Wase robbed Diaspora Nigerians of their right of expression and even their citizenship! He even argued that these are people with dual nationality. Here is a lawmaker, a No. 2 member of the House of Representatives who is supremely ignorant of the fact that the Nigerian Constitution allows dual citizenship. “Do they really know what is going on if they are in America? Do they have dual citizenship?”, Wase asked with astonishing arrogance. He eventually asked Rep. Gbilah to be so advised and sit down. And poor Gbilah took the advice like a -beaten chicken and put down the petition he was about to read. The evidence is graphic. It leaves Wase no opportunity to claim hereafter that he was quoted out of context or that the video was “doctored”. Other members of the House in attendance at that session looked as if the matter at hand was not their business. Are we surprised? No.

I was indeed so shocked that I had to rush to the internet to double-check Wase’s profile. He is described as a graduate of Plateau State Polytechnic! It was hard to believe. He actually spent some years in a school of higher learning? And wait for this: we are further told he is also a graduate of the Kennedy School of Government at the University of Harvard, United States. Wase went to Harvard! “How? as what?  as a tourist?”, I wondered. And yet he sounds like that? He is on top of it all, a fourth-time member of the House of Representatives and he has been either a member or Chair of various committees of the House since 2007. The Idris Wase video should be circulated widely. It is a perfect illustration of the crisis of leadership that Nigeria faces and the failure of the country’s leadership recruitment process. The Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDO) representing the entire Nigerian Community in Europe, the Americas, Asia, Oceania and Africa has jointly expressed its outrage in a letter dated March 14 and addressed to the Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila. NIDO definitely has every right to ask whether the only thing its members are good for is Diaspora Remittances!

Idris Wase owes NIDO and MUTA an apology for speaking so rudely and contemptuously about a group of Nigerians who continue to represent some of the very best that the country offers on the global stage. And Abike Dabiri, CEO of the Nigeria in Diaspora Commission must visit Idris Wase, post haste, to take him through a quick tutorial on the significance and relevance of Nigerians in Diaspora, and the folly of his cow-brain, dishonourable comments. Whenever House Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila returns, he must ensure that Rep. Gbilah gets the opportunity to present the petition of the Mutual Union of Tivs in America (MUTA) - with Idris Wase in attendance!      

On March 8, 2021, the Vanguard newspaper online in a story titled “Delta Committee makes all-inclusive recommendations to end Idumuje-Ugboko crisis” by Emma Amaize reported that a committee set up by the Delta State Government which investigated “the kingship tussle and land acquisition crisis at Idumuje-Ugboko Kingdom, Aniocha North Local Government Area of Delta State has concluded its assignment and made far-reaching submissions to the state government on how to bring lasting peace to the troubled domain. In October 2020, some concerned stakeholders reportedly approached Senator Ifeanyi Okowa to intervene to ensure peace in Idumuje-Ugboko, an agrarian community in Delta Ibo part of Nigeria that has not known peace since the death of its former monarch in 2017. The main conflict is between Prince Ned Nwoko and Prince Chukwunomso Nwoko on one hand, bitterly opposed to each other over land acquisition issues, and between the latter and other stakeholders who are challenging his right of ascension to the throne. Idumuje-Ugboko has thus been gripped by a fratricidal, filial conflict that has affected the entire community. Cases have been filed in court. There have been accusations of murder, threats of assassination and the spread of bad blood in the community.  

The details of the committee’s recommendations have not been made public, but Senator Ifeanyi Okowa must be decisive in dealing with the situation. Peace should be the main target, and getting the various gladiators to sheathe their swords. Idumuje-Ugboko is like a typical Nigerian community where a few persons think that they are more important than others just because they have a fat bank account or their palm kernels have been cracked for them by benevolent spirits. They should be told to heed Chinua Achebe’s advice in Things Fall Apart and be humble. Such persons often fail to realise that the people who suffer at the end of the day when they embark on ego conflicts are the ordinary people as has been the lot of the ordinary people of Idumuje-Ugboko in the last four years.

Prince Ned Nwoko whose stories and engagements I follow closely in part because of his marriage to Nollywood star and beauty queen, Regina Daniel is a key actor in the Idumuje-Ugboko story. He wants to build a university and a golf course. He wants land and more land. It is alleged that his cousin, Prince Chukwunomso Nwoko, heir to the throne, thinks he already has more land than he needs. Prince Nomso wants to ascend the throne. He is having issues because according to some accounts, Prince Ned Nwoko, a man of no small means and influence is blocking him. Without Ned Nwoko’s support, Prince Chukwunomso may not get the endorsement that he needs and a staff of office. There have been public fights in the kingdom. People have been arrested. Prominent members of the community like Dr. Gabriel Ogbechie have been dragged into it. In one public intervention (Vanguard, May 23, 2019), Dr, Ogbechie of RainOil sued for peace. He says Prince Ned Nwoko is his friend.  Prince Chukwunomso is also his friend. But in the community, no one trusts the other. The Idumuje-Ugboko Development Union (IUDU) is divided down the middle. The matter has gone so messy that even Edgar Joseph, my Akwa Ibom brother, had to write about it in this newspaper. Can you imagine how the people of Idumuje-Igboko not being able to manage their own affairs are attracting busy-body attention from everywhere?  Even a man from Akwa Ibom is now trying to make peace in Idumuje-Ugboko!

These are the kind of village square fights that show us the other side of Nigeria, and they cannot be taken for granted.  In the 21^st Century, Nigerians are still fighting over land and traditional stools, and who is the biggest man in the clan. I think Idumuje-Ugboko is blessed but the people are behaving badly. It has prominent sons like Prince Ned Nwoko and Dr. Gabriel Ogbechie of RainOil, and many others in a state that is richly blessed with some of the most prominent Nigerians in the world today. Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, the Governor of Delta State, should step in and stop the reign of madness in that kingdom. A Delta Ibo from neighbouring Ogwashi-Uku, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, just got a job as the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Some of her contemporaries are busy back home fighting over ancestral land and title and they are so determined about it.  Some people are just shameless.

The people of Idumuje-Ugboko deserve to have a king that is their choice according to tradition. Ned Nwoko wants to build a university. He should be encouraged to do so. He must put the community’s interest first. If Gabriel Ogbechie wants to build a refinery in Idumuje, why not? He too should be encouraged to do so. If Prince Chukwunomso wants a staff of office, the kingmakers should look into it and ensure that justice is done. They must all stop fighting and give peace a chance. For Prince Ned Nwoko’s benefit, I will like to recommend a story titled “How much land does a man need?” by Leo Tolstoy, with best wishes to Regina.                             

On April 14, 2014, 276 Nigerian female students of the Chibok Girls Secondary School were abducted by Boko Haram terrorists. It was a very disturbing moment for Nigeria and the rest of the world. Most of the abducted girls were Christians. Six of them reportedly died. About 57 escaped subsequently, but till date, more than six years later, many of the Chibok girls are still in captivity. Four years later, on February 19, 2018, history repeated itself. About 110 school girls were abducted from Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi, in Yunusari Local Government Area of Yobe State. Following negotiations between government and the abductors, 104 girls were released about a month later, on March 21. One of them Leah Sharibu, is still in captivity because she refused to renounce Christianity. She is a prisoner of faith and victim of the Nigerian problem.

In December 2020, more than 300 boys were abducted from the Government Science Secondary School in Kankara, Katsina State. 344 boys eventually regained freedom. The Katsina State Government had to negotiate with the bandits. There was also Kagara, Niger State. On February 16, 2021, 27 children were kidnapped in a night-time raid on a boarding school, along with 12 of their relatives and three staff members.  On February 25, 2021, the terrorists struck again. They kidnapped 317 girls from the Girls Science Secondary School, in Jangebe, Zamfara State. 279 girls have since regained their freedom.  There have been in-between many other cases of abduction of boys, girls, men and women in parts of Northern Nigeria, but the aforementioned specific examples have been cited because of the recurrent pattern that they present. Altogether, they paint a picture of anguish, and the tragedy of the failure of the state to protect young, vulnerable Nigerians, and even the old, and all citizens generally, from the menace of terrorism.

Boko Haram, the name by which the local terrorist group in Nigeria is known is propelled by the ideology that “Western education is a sin”. This clearly explains the focus on schools, particularly boarding schools. In each of the cases - from Chibok to Jangebe, the terrorists targeted boarding schools, and abducted young children between the ages of 11- 18. In terms of numbers, young girls have been the majority of victims. They are dehumanized, raped, subjected to the most inhumane conditions possible, turned into sex slaves or even forcibly put in the family way by their abductors. They are carted away over long distances, and security agents are unable to intercept the unholy movement by gun-wielding criminals. After a pattern, the authorities suddenly raise an alarm when the incident has occurred, only to embark on the same routine: assurances that the students will be rescued, reports of negotiations with the bandits, eventual release of some or all of the abducted students, reunion with their parents, and shallow promises that the government will take every step to keep our schools safe. Oftentimes, indeed, in virtually every case, there are discrepancies in the reported numbers. Nigeria is one country where a human being can disappear, say from a school, and there will be no record, absolutely no trace of that person’s existence on the register. I mean, yes, literally. What do you expect in a country where population data is unknown and identification is a problem?   

This is tragic. The North is the most educationally disadvantaged part of Nigeria. Most of the over 15 million children that are out of school, are from the North. And now the ones that are in school face the constant threat of abduction. No one should be surprised that some of the students who recently regained their freedom declared that they would rather not go back to school. They are traumatised. Their parents are scared. Boarding schools have become unattractive. School itself has become a place of fear and danger. Every school that has been a target of terrorist attack, is said to be without perimeter fencing and adequate security. Terrorists stroll in, pack the children and a few teachers like chicken and lead them into the forest. The terrorists may be opposed to Western education, but they seem to be more interested in science schools (Dapchi, Kankara, Kagara, Jangebe). In a country where science education should be encouraged, terrorists are turning science students in the North into objects of trade. No state government, not even the Federal Government has ever admitted that ransom was paid to the kidnappers, but it is very obvious that kidnapping has become a source of livelihood for those we call bandits. It is the new big business, not just in the North, but across Nigeria. Widespread unemployment, poverty, hunger and bad beliefs and choices have turned kidnapping into a lucrative option. Just carry a gun, abduct a few persons, children are easy targets because they are defenceless, then negotiate with government and smile to the bank. Official spokespersons would step forward to make the usual noises that no ransom was paid and that government will not tolerate any act of impunity. Just like that. Lori iro!

Governors of the Northern states, according to a report in ThisDay newspaper, March 8, are now taking steps to “tighten security to curb abduction of school children.”   In total, 11 states are said to be adopting measures including the merger of boarding schools, provision of security, perimeter fencing, operational vehicles for the police, sensitisation of school authorities to be more security conscious and so on. I am sceptical. I hope this is not one of those usual excuses to award contracts and profit from other people’s agony. The Northern elite have been holding meetings about how to develop and promote education in the North since 1959. They meet. They talk. Nothing happens. In May 2014, the Nigerian Government embarked on a Safe Schools Initiative in collaboration with the UN Special Envoy for Global Education, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the Global Business Coalition for Education and another NGO - A World At School. This was in response to the Chibok girls’ abduction. The Federal Government of Nigeria committed a sum of $10 million; seven years later, not much has been achieved. The schools remain unsafe. The Jonathan administration also built 165 primary schools across the North – what became known as the almajiri schools with the primary goal of getting children off the streets, and back into classrooms. Many of those schools have been abandoned by the state governments. The children are still out of school. President Buhari most recently stressed the importance of the Safe Schools Initiative. Keeping the schools safe should indeed be a top priority at all levels of government.  But is anyone doing so? If terrorists succeed in instilling fear in children who have a whole future ahead of them and drive them away from the classrooms, then they would have won a major psychological war, with far-reaching implications for the future.

There is a lot that government can do to provide security. But the Northern elite must embark on serious introspection. The security of the North lies in education, and that requires ensuring that the emerging generation is given every opportunity to go to school, and acquire skills that can fit into a world that has become more competitive. The Northern elite must be ashamed that right in the first quarter of the 21^st Century, - the age of Artificial Intelligence, electronic vehicles, space science and high-end tech -  it is more preoccupied talking about cattle rearing and nomadism! The real revolution that the North needs is greater investment in education and the people. The Governors should stop making empty promises and get to work. Otherwise, when next another boarding school is attacked and school children are kidnapped in any part of the North, we would remind them of their own criminal negligence.

It is most unfortunate that the proposed appointment of new judges for Nigeria’s Court of Appeal has been controversial since the announcement of a shortlist in December 2020. The President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem has now found herself in an uncomfortable situation where she has to defend the integrity of her Court and the process that led to the emergence of a list of 20 preferred candidates and a list of additional 20 reserved candidates. To have the judiciary dragged into the mud of Nigerian politics and the usual culprits: ethnicity, religion, Federal Character and nepotism playing a prominent role in the matter, is disheartening. Why is it so difficult in Nigeria to have at least one sacred institution, a special symbol, that no one can desecrate? As it is, that seems increasingly impossible.

I asked this question as I read over the weekend, a statement attributed to the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Dongban-Mensem in which she had cause to protest that persons who have been complaining about the alleged manipulation of the ongoing process of appointing Judges for her Court are seeking to destabilize and scandalize the judiciary. She argues that the appointment process has so far followed “due and usual process” and that the allegation of “favouritism” is a false campaign of calumny: “A total of 80 nominees were shortlisted and recommended for the appointment of 20 Justices to fill the existing vacancies. I state on my honour that any of the 80 nominees could be appointed”, she writes. “It is unfortunate that some people have elected to go to the press without hard evidence which are readily available to those who seek to know. I hereby state that the current recommendation pending determination by the National Judicial Council was done without any preference for tribe, creed or association.”

The problem here is that many stakeholders and interested parties do not think so, Mi’Lord. Shortly after the list was made public, the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) was one of the first groups to cry out in protest. The group alleged that the published list favours only Muslims from the North and does not in any way reflect the fact that Nigeria is multi-ethnic and multi-cultural. Thirteen out of the 20 preferred judges are from the North, including three Sharia Judges. The SMBLF asked to know if there is no Christian judge at all from the North and the Middle Belt who can be considered good enough to be a Judge of the Appellate Court! Along the same lines, a civil society group, the Global Integrity Crusade Network (GCIN) petitioned the Chief Justice of Nigeria to ask that the National Judicial Council should not go ahead to approve the “fraudulent” list before it. Stakeholders from the South East of Nigeria also cried foul. In a petition to the President of Nigeria and the Chief Justice of the Federation, the Alaigbo Development Foundation led by Professor Uzodinnma Nwala pointed out that the proposed list of new Court of Appeal Justices is meant to deny the South East its quota in the Court of Appeal based on the principles of Federal Character as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution.   

The ADF  puts the matter thus: “…it is very unjust and unfair for only one Justice to be appointed from the South East out of twenty (20) justices that are being appointed from the six geo-political zones, whereas the other zones were allocated as follows: North West (8), North East (3), North Central (2) South West (4), South South (2)”. Before the ADF, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) also found it necessary to express “ïts feelings of sadness, disgust and anger at the insensitivity demonstrated by the FJSC in compiling the list.  It seems undeniable that the recklessness displayed by the FJSC suggests a steady and gradual descend (sic) to a process of Islamising the Judiciary of Nigeria...”

It is possible to dismiss all of these as rather too familiar: the typical Nigerian response to appointments and processes in the public sector but it must be noted that protests such as this speak to a major crisis that Nigeria is now grappling with on a daily basis: the menace of ethnicity, religion and geography. For this reason, nobody believes that the country is fair to anybody. There is a crisis of trust between the government and the people, and among the people themselves. More than 60 years after independence, Nigerians have reduced every institution of state to the politics of proximity and advantage. There is a prolonged and unending struggle over who gets what, and who controls power. The effect is that this dominant tendency brings out the worst in all of us. The educated man in the North who is a first-class intellect is likely to defend a bandit who kills and maims just because he thinks that by doing so, he is protecting his kinsman against other Nigerians, of different ethnic and religious extraction, who are insisting that justice must be done.  Similarly, a Southerner of the same pedigree would defend his own kinsman against the Northerner for no reason other than the fact that they both speak the same language or belong to the same region or religion.

This is the ugly drama being played out in Nigeria. It is not new but the melodrama is now tragic. What is disturbing is that the judiciary, the last refuge of the common man, and the expected bastion of the rule of law is now these days, dragged into the crisis of nationhood in a manner previously unseen. Before now, the Nigerian judiciary faced the challenge of military rule and the abbreviation of its Constitutional rights. It survived. Today, the same judiciary is now accused of everything from nepotism, to mediocrity, corruption, incompetence, complicity in the Nigerian mess and if care is not taken, eventual irrelevance. The last point is the main reason caution is advisable.

The judiciary must stay above dirty politics, very far away from it. Its gates must be locked against politicians by all means possible. Nigeria already suffers from too much politics: the politics of ethnicity, religion, difference and mischief. But whereas the involvement of the legislative and executive arms of government in cut-throat, dirty politics may be excused on the grounds that these two arms of government are dominated unavoidably by products of partisan politics, there is cause for worry when the third arm of government, under the doctrine of the separation of powers, becomes a pawn in the hands of politicians, or becomes even so openly mired in politics that its neutrality becomes a subject of analysis, speculation, and even protest. It is worse when the judiciary is accused of partisanship and desperately so. The court, the work-place of the judiciary, is expected to be a temple of justice and everyone who works therein, an honest, untainted officer.

It is the duty of the judiciary to interpret the law and ensure justice, and provide a refuge for all persons whose rights may have been violated, and at the same time, punish according to the law, those errant characters in society who violate the public order and return society by their conduct to the state of nature as defined by Thomas Hobbes. The law exists therefore, to restrain animal conduct and remind all of us of the need to be human. The judex are at the apex of the ladder. Given the privileged position that they occupy, they are expected to be above board, unimpeachable in terms of integrity, most deserving of their positions and of such moral and professional competence to be able to deliver justice without prejudice. When the judiciary however, becomes a target, subject, victim of partisan politics, or rank emotionalism, this goal cannot be achieved. A politicised and compromised judiciary is a threat to the same rule of law that it is required to uphold and enforce.

This re-affirmation is necessary against the background of what looks like the current politicisation of the proposed appointment of additional Justices for Nigeria’s Court of Appeal. Justice Monica Dongban-Mesem is in order to defend her Court. The Court of Appeal is too important in the hierarchy of courts to become a playground for public prejudice and suspicion. Men and women who sit on the Appeal Court must be seen to merit their positions on the basis of their accomplishments and experience. Trust and confidence in the “due and usual process” of the appointment of judges is relevant to the subsequent level of confidence in their performance in office. But with due respect, Her Lordship’s rebuttal does not go far enough. The “hard evidence” that she talks about in terms of what is available in the public domain and what is known contradicts her own declarations. It provides a strong justification for an interrogation of the queries that have been raised and why the National Judicial Council must review the list of proposed Judges before it takes any action.

A review of all the complaints so far would suggest that the Court of Appeal indeed followed “due and usual process” in the screening of the judges that applied for appointment into the Court of Appeal, but problem arose after the President of the Court forwarded the decision of the Committees to the Federal Judicial Service Commission (FJSC). The key allegation is that the FJSC turned the list upside down and ignored the recommendations of the Court of Appeal. Is the President of the Court of Appeal defending the FJSC? Would she be willing to publish the original list that she submitted to the Judicial Service Commission to provide greater clarity and allow the public to compare and contrast? And just in case the list that is in circulation is incorrect, no one has said so.  The hard evidence that is currently in circulation is that 13 out of 20 nominated judges are Northerners and Muslims. The 13 Muslim Judges are from Niger, Plateau, Adamawa, Yobe, FCT, Kano, Kaduna, Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, and Katsina, the home state of the incumbent President, which has two nominees. The entire South East is represented by one Judge from Imo State. The South South has two slots: Bayelsa and Delta State. The entire South West has 4 – Ondo (2) plus Ogun, and Lagos. The reserve list of 20 follows more or less the same pattern! By what criteria on earth did the FJSC arrive at such a list which can only fuel the anger about how under the present dispensation, there is an alleged deliberate attempt to grant undue advantages to a section of the country – from cattle rearing, to public appointments?

It may be argued that ordinary people have no business raising questions about the appointment process in the judiciary. But that would be a terribly wrong thing to say. Judges are first and foremost human beings. They are part of society. They have rights too. A lawyer who has chosen a career on the Bench expects that he would be promoted according to his ability. If he is denied the opportunity for advancement and self-actualization, just because his kinsman is not in power or he does not know people in high places, he would be disturbed. He or she will be demoralized. We expect the judiciary to dispense justice, but should such an institution also promote injustice and unfairness within its ranks? However, where are the judges who believe that they are qualified to be on the preferred list? Why are they not the ones writing petitions? Civil society groups may crow as they wish, but their efforts will ultimately raise the question of locus standi? Should judges who push this same principle be seen to be sleeping on their own rights?

There have also been snide remarks about the competence of some of the judges on the FJSC’s proposed list. I have no “hard evidence” in that regard. Elsewhere in the United States for example, there will be open access to the judgments that judges about to be elevated have written, their positions on key judicial matters and their contributions to the development of the law. Here in Nigeria, there is so much politics and secrecy. Judges who think that they are more deserving are bound to feel discouraged. Last year, there was so much controversy over the appointment of the Federal High Court Judges in Abuja. This year, we are at the same point with the appointment of Justices of the Court of Appeal. At other times, there have been issues over the appointment of Chief Judges at the state level, and the thorny issues have been more or less the same: merit, ethnicity and religion (re: Kebbi, Adamawa, Cross River). Who will judge the judges? It has also been said that the current list before the National Judicial Council does not include senior members of the Bar and persons from the academia whose inclusion in line with the enabling Guidelines can broaden the scope of the Court of Appeal, and provide needed depth.

Finally, the President of the Court of Appeal is a Christian. Right under her watch, we have this controversial issue of 13 nominee-Justices of the Court of Appeal out of 20 who are Muslims and Northerners? Whatever she says, it will be recorded that the deed is hers. Was she intimidated or influenced? What other “hard evidence” do we need? What else would she be willing to defend on “her honour?” These are issues that the NJC must consider.

The biggest piece of happy-ending news in Nigeria in the month of February 2021 is the endorsement of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the next Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) by the United States. The South Korean candidate for the position, Yoo Myung-hee whose candidacy had enjoyed the backing of the United States under the Trump administration, withdrew and the South Korean authorities have since pledged their support for Dr. N.O. Iweala. The South Korean’s earlier refusal to step down had made it difficult for Dr. Iweala to be confirmed by consensus when she got the majority of the votes at the end of the selection process in October 2020. The WTO chooses its Director General by consensus. The Trump administration rejected Iweala on the grounds that she did not have requisite experience in “trade negotiations”. The process had to be kept on hold until after the US Presidential elections of November 2020.

Luck is a very powerful factor in human affairs. As it turned out, Donald Trump lost the election. His loss is not a gain for the Democrats and Joe Biden/Kamala Harris alone, it was also a major gain for Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala who has now benefitted from the change in the United States, as a globalist, liberal President emerges in the White House. One of Biden’s earliest tasks in office was to undo the damage left behind by his predecessor, and a resolve to re-establish America’s leadership in the international order, especially with regard to such issues as climate change, and America’s role and place in the world through such multilateral institutions as the UN, the World Health Organization and the World Trade Organization. On Monday, February 15, the WTO officially announced Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the next Director General of the WTO (March 1, 2021 – August 2025). You should have been in Nigeria or on Nigerian Social Media on that day.  

Nigerian Twitter exploded with shouts of excitement and expressions of delight. Nigerians did not talk about luck. (But imagine if Trump had won and that guy called Robert Lightizer had remained US Trade Representative). They talked about the history made by a great Nigerian ambassador, a woman of destiny, and an accomplished person. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s triumph was the stuff of history: the first woman to emerge as DG of the WTO, the first African and also the first Nigerian to assume that office. This means a lot to the people. In a country where ethnic sentiments run deep, nobody talked about Okonjo-Iweala’s ethnic group. Nobody talked about her religion. Her achievement was something far more significant, a subtle projection of the fact that the same Nigerians that promote mediocrity routinely, appreciate and applaud distinction when they see it. As a people we indulge in mischief and unproductive wrangling for selfish reasons. But Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s making of history was far too iconic and legendary to be reduced to such base instincts. The joy that was expressed revealed a gift of humanism that is often masked in the Nigerian character. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations.  

It is early days yet under the Joe Biden administration but the new US President has signalled that there is now a new dawn in the United States and the world. Within the same period that the US dropped its opposition to the candidacy of Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, President Biden earlier expressed his readiness to work with and support the African Union. President Trump, before him, was not too enthusiastic about Africa. He dismissed some of our countries as “shithole countries.” Nigeria was identified as one of such countries. Today, four Nigerian-Americans are in the Biden/Harris team. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has also been endorsed. The Biden administration would do well to build on the goodwill that it currently enjoys in Africa. In addition, African leaders deserve commendation for the solidarity that they demonstrated with their support for Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s candidacy.

As we have seen in the case of Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus as DG of the WHO in 2017, and Dr. Akin Adesina’s re-election as AfDB President in 2020, in the face of again, Trump-America’s opposition, when African leaders unite around a goal, they can be more assertive within the international community. Back home, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari also deserves praise for the statesman-like, non-partisan support that he has given Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and before her, AfDB’s Dr. Akin Adesina. In June 2020, President Buhari nominated Okonjo-Iweala for the position, and withdrew the earlier candidacy of another Nigerian, Ambassador Frederick Agah. In October 2020, as the Americans tried to become a cog in the wheel of WTO progress. Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala visited President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja to thank him for his support and to ask that Nigeria should continue to mobilise support for her candidacy. “Mr. President, put a smile on my face. I am very proud of my country”, she said.  President Buhari told her: “I assure you that we will do all that we can to ensure that you emerge as the Director-General of WTO, not only because you are a Nigerian, but because you are a great Nigerian. You deserve this…I did the same for Dr Akinwunmi Adesina for President of the African Development Bank. Both of you served the country under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).  You are both highly qualified. We will continue to support you. I will immediately make those calls.” President Buhari has kept his promise. We are impressed. This is an act of mature leadership that we will recall positively.

NOI is of course eminently qualified for the position that is now hers. Twenty-five years at the World Bank as a technocrat, rising to become Vice President and Managing Director of the global body. Two-time Minister of Finance of Nigeria. One-time Minister of Foreign Affairs. Board Member, Twitter. Chair, GAVI Alliance. Special Envoy on COVID-19 to the African Union. Author. Public Intellectual. Ph.D, Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Development Economics, with proven distinction in learning and character. Recipient of many awards and distinctions. Eminent global citizen. Even with the best of credentials, nonetheless, anyone seeking the leadership of a strategic body like the 164-member WTO would need a lot of support. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala got this in great supply.  The return of the United States to the WTO fold, and the home support that she enjoys in Nigeria and Africa will make her assignment more manageable in many respects. Even more so would be the folk hero status she now enjoys among the African populace.

Last week, many of her compatriots took to the social media to celebrate. You may have heard of the Hillary Clinton pantsuit campaign or the Kamala Harris single strand, coral necklace celebration. The pantsuit is Hillary Clinton’s signature costume. During the 2016 Presidential campaign, her female supporters donned the pantsuit to demonstrate their solidarity for the then US Democratic Presidential candidate under the social media hashtag: #PantsuitNation. They were all over Facebook too as they projected the pantsuit as a symbol of Hillary Clinton’s messages: power, equality and a level playing field. Conservative and formal in her pantsuit, Hillary Clinton cut the image of a professional who could hold her own a in a room full of male politicians. She thus highlighted the connection between psychology and clothing. In 2020, we saw this on display again with the emergence of Kamala Harris as first female, first Asian, and first Black woman Vice President of the United States. On inauguration day, January 20, 2021, her admirers also wore her signature pearl necklace - not just a piece of jewelry, but a symbol of power, sisterhood and solidarity. They also created a Facebook page: “Wear Pearls on January 20, 2021”.  In the last week, the new WTO DG has had her own costume moment.

Ngozi Okonjo Iweala is famous for her signature costume: the African wax two-piece attire, also known as “Ankara” capped with a head tie popularly known as “gele” in the South West of Nigeria. She probably in her younger days wore the regular female attires, pantsuit, skirts and blouses, but since her days as Nigeria’s Minister of Finance under the Obasanjo administration, Nigerians cannot remember seeing her in official capacity in anything other than the Ankara dress and gele. The head tie is a major fashion statement among African women, and the usual styles are quite flamboyant. Tying the gele in itself is an art. a thriving small-scale enterprise exists around it. Many men and women earn a living from helping to tie the gele, in very artistic. creative styles, the most striking for me being the multi-deck, layered, skyscraper type, or those types that are meant to make onlookers turn their heads to take a double look. Compared to other fabrics, the African wax is considered cheap because it comes in various shades of affordable grades, often difficult to distinguish in terms of cost or class by simply looking at it. In the early 2000s, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala adopted the African wax as her formal wear to official functions. Her adopted head tie style, which she said she stumbled upon by mistake, not knowing how to tie the gele properly, was often the butt of jokes – a flat wrap- around, strewn together bunch of cloth, like a male cap, with a knot at the back, what Yoruba women refer to as “osuka”. I don’t know the English word for that, sorry. In this signature two-piece, African wax costume, and the accidental gele, she made a powerful statement about simplicity, identity, authenticity and power. This same costume has now made it to the mainstream. It is hilariously remarkable.

On February 15, 2021, Ms Temi Giwa-Tubosun (@temite) wrote on Twitter: “Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s tomorrow! #NOIgoestoWTO. We are giving away N100k to the best dressed! Dress up like NOI and send her a message of support as she goes to WTO!” This caught on like wildfire, and was shared under different hashtags: #AnkaraArmy, #NgozigoestoWTO, #BeLikeNgoziChallenge and #JustlikeNgozi. The Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Ankara skirt and blouse soon became ubiquitous on all social media platforms, with the gele of course tied in the same manner, and some of the participants adding the NOI eye-glasses for effect. The interesting part of it is that some men actually joined. In Africa, at least in our part of it, it is unusual for a man to tie the gele, such an appearance could be interpreted as a sign of malady. But her male fans could not be bothered. They joined the women and the young ladies. I do not know when the winner of the prize was announced or who the winner is. I have not bothered to find out. We were all so consumed with the Ngozi-mania, the celebration and the euphoria, it did not matter who won and who did not.

My favourite entry, however, was posted by Tolulope Adeleru-Balogun (@tolulopeab} showing her daughter dressed like NOI, head to toe, tipping down her eye-glasses imitatively as she said: “Congratulations, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.” The #NOIchallenge will continue as promised on March 1, the day Ngozi goes to the WTO.  If the Swiss authorities would be willing to give out visas as requested, to every African, many will follow Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to the WTO to announce her arrival!  They should therefore be prepared for a colourful Ngonization of the WTO headquarters because as the saying goes, “Naija no dey carry last”. One more thing: the symbolism of it all is inspirational.  

Despite the many achievements, historical and contemporary, of the African woman, there are still many institutional, religious and cultural barriers, very resilient and damaging, which limit the potential of the African girl-child and woman. This dilemma has been well written about in literature, as in Tsisi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions, Buchi Emecheta’s The Slave, Second Class Citizen and The Bride Price.  Add Zulu Sofola’s Wedlock of the Gods; in politics as in the discrimination and marginalization of women in public life despite years of rhetoric about affirmative action; in business and governance as evidenced in continuing inferiorization and commoditization of the African woman and the wanton feminization of poverty. The likes of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala shattered the glass ceiling long ago. She is a successful career person, a mother, a community leader and an international citizen, who inspires other Africans with how she has successfully managed to balance many goals. Many parents want their daughters and sons to be like her.

One Swedish newspaper however, referred to her as a “grandmother”: “This Grandmother will become the boss of the WTO” (Luzerner Zeitung): How sexist and crass! The reference to her feminism and reproductive status is entirely misplaced. They make it sound as if she is going to the WTO to baby sit: what Igbos in Nigeria’s South East call “Omu Ngwo”. But come to think of it: perhaps that is exactly what the WTO needs: a grandmother’s instincts to straighten an institution that some bad, errant boys have spoiled over the years. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala says she is going there with “clear eyes and ears.” We are beginning to see the signs. She is going to the WTO to save the organization, and the rest of the world. Africans have high expectations too. What does her new status mean for Africa, Nigeria and African trade in the context of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCTA), beyond the symbolism of her African-ness?

She goes to Geneva as an African but as a global leader and citizen. And there is a lot to do. She has given a signal of what to expect with her initial statement about the threat posed to internationalism by “vaccine nationalism”. She says “no one is safe until everyone is safe.” That is precisely the kind of clarity that the world needs right now