REUBEN'S VIEWS
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Nigeria’s main opposition party, is currently in the throes of a commotion that threatens to destroy the party’s capability to put up any strong showing in the 2023 general elections. Party stakeholders argue that there are enough strong internal mechanisms that would rescue the party and restore it to good health, but those mechanisms do not seem to be working. It may not be too long before the party finds itself on oxygen support, as it struggles with a self-inflicted ailment that is threatening to become a pandemic.
At the height of its power, the PDP was in charge of Nigeria as the dominant political party for 16 years: the party that produced Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo (1999 -2007), Umaru Musa Yar’Ádua (2007 -2010) and Goodluck Jonathan (2010 -2015). In 1999, with the return to democratic rule, the PDP held 214 seats in the House of Representatives. This increased to 263 in 2007, but dropped to 208 and later 137 in 2011. As of 2007, the party controlled 28 states, and 87 seats in the Senate, this dropped to 71 seats in 2011. That same year, PDP was left with 23 Governors. Up till 2011, it controlled 23 states of the Federation out of 36, plus the FCT. Today, the PDP is a minority party although it bears the comforting title of Nigeria’s major opposition party. The changing fortunes of the PDP in terms of its scope of control over the legislative and executive arms of government indicated a greater crisis.
The best illustration of this was how the party lost the 2015 general elections to an emergent Special Purpose Vehicle called the All Progressives Congress (APC) – an association of strange political bedfellows whose only ambition was to put an end to the Jonathan administration and the PDP’s continued stay in power. By the time the 2015 elections ended, PDP lost the Presidency. It was down to 13 PDP Governors. It also lost its majority status in the National Assembly. Many of its leaders abandoned the party. They include Alhaji Adamu Muazu, then Chairman of the PDP, former Chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and former Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Mr-Fix-It, Chief Anthony Anenih. In 2015, the PDP could not fix anything. Much damage had been done earlier to the party when former President Olusegun Obasanjo who served for eight years as President under the platform of the PDP publicly directed that his party membership should be torn into pieces.
There have been many theories as to why the PDP lost steam and eventually the 2015 General elections. The commonest submission is that after 16 years in office, the party could not manage its success, or that the party had been taken over by those who wanted a Northern President and no-second-term for Jonathan or nothing. But whereas one side of the story does not usually capture the full scope of a manifold experience, it was true that the PDP was sabotaged by the crisis of internal democracy, and the many tendencies within the party pursuing their own narrow interests without a thought for the future. The eventual pain that the party suffered was self-inflicted. The party played into the hands of both fifth columnists and the opposition. It will be recalled that in August 2013, the Convention of the party at the Eagle Square in Abuja witnessed an unusual spectacle.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, and the governors of Adamawa, Kwara, Sokoto, Jigawa, Kano, Rivers, and Niger and all their delegates walked out of the Convention in anger. They later reconvened at the Yar’Ádua Centre to address a press conference. The issue at stake was the election of persons into the 17-member National Working Committee of the party. The Convention continued, but the party was already split down the ranks. This was the incident that led to the emergence of a new PDP, which became a partner in the APC Coalition, and it was widely believed that other aggrieved persons that did not walk away on that occasion, chose to remain within the party to wreak havoc. Alhaji Bamanga Tukur who was Chairman of the party at the time, lost his position to the crisis and was replaced by former Governor, Adamu Muazu who was hailed as “the game changer.” Indeed, the game changed for the PDP. But could the party have survived the 2015 election if there was greater cohesion among its ranks?
It was perhaps in sober realization of this and the fact that many PDP candidates who initially won during the 2015 general election eventually lost their positions at the election petition tribunals and the courts, that the party now decided to do an audit of the 2015 general elections. In November 2015, the party held a National Conference in Abuja on “The Sustenance of Democratic Ideals in Nigeria.” As the party grappled with its post-election crisis, Prince Uche Secondus from Rivers State, emerged as the party’s Acting National Chairman. Still, the party was not yet out of the woods. Secondus was challenged in Court by Hon Ahmed Gulak who asked the court to remove Secondus because the position he occupied had been zoned to the North East. Justice Hussain Baba-Yusuf who presided over the case ruled in Gulak’s favour and sacked Secondus - who along with the PDP appealed the judgment. The party was under heavy pressure on all fronts. It lost the Kogi Gubernatorial election to the APC. It had issues with the Gubernatorial election in Bayelsa state. Key officials of the party and those who served in the Jonathan administration were subjected to heavy harassment, policing and interrogation by the new APC government. The APC accused the PDP and the Jonathan administration of being the cause of Nigeria’s woes. Oil prices had dipped. The country faced both revenue and debt crises. It would soon slip into recession.
Later, in 2016, the PDP held a National Convention at the Sharks Stadium in Port Harcourt. It was an exercise in chaos as the party was before then divided between supporters of the incumbent Chair of the National Working Committee Ali Modu Sheriff and other members of the party. Sheriff left Port Harcourt in a huff, brandishing a court injunction that was ignored. It was the same Port Harcourt Convention that produced former Governor Ahmed Makarfi as Chair of a National Caretaker Committee. The party never recovered from the tussle for legitimacy between the Sheriff and Makarfi factions. In December 2017, the PDP held yet another National Convention which led to the emergence of Prince Uche Secondus as Chairman of the National Working Committee. But the seeds of discord and division that had been sown within the party had germinated, and grown leafy branches. Each time there had been a conflict within the party, the leaders tend to focus more on the party at the national level. They overlook the damage that had been done down the line, all the way to the wards, states and local councils. Before 2015, PDP was the party of choice for many Nigerians. The crisis at the Eagle Square in 2013, the loss of the 2015 general election, and the inability to pull the party back from the brink merely created greater tension from top to bottom. In 2019, the PDP practically donated the election to the APC. The APC won in many states, not because it could boast of a better record of performance but because the PDP was yet to wean itself from the politics of ego and personality conflicts.
Less than two years to the 2023 general elections, the party’s leaders have started again. They seem not to have learnt any lessons from the past. At a time the party should be organizing and strategizing to take power from the APC, and provide Nigerians with an alternative that they badly need now more than ever, they are busy promoting the perception that there isn’t much difference between the PDP and the APC. The way the PDP is managing its politics, it will end up donating the 2023 Presidency to the APC. Governors are major stakeholders in every Nigerian political party. They control the constituencies. They are overlords in charge of the wards and organs of the party in their states. They do and undo. And that is why in the PDP today, the main conflict is between a governor (Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers) and the party Chairman, (Prince Uche Secondus). Once upon a time, they were bosom friends but not anymore. Party members are taking sides. Some are defecting to other parties for both personal and pragmatic reasons. The future of the party as a dominant vote-winning machine hangs in the balance. The party is back to where it was in 2013 before the 2015 elections, and where it was in 2016 before the 2019 election.
I make these comments as someone who experienced and witnessed first-hand in 2014/15 and again in 2018/2019 how the stubbornness of political gladiators can sabotage a political party’s chances. I was the Deputy Gubernatorial candidate of the PDP in Ogun State in the 2019 elections. A year to that election, it was widely believed that the State Gubernatorial election would be won by the PDP. The APC in Ogun State was practically in disarray. It had split into factions. The incumbent Governor did not support the candidate of his own party. The PDP, was also similarly divided, a victim of the Modu Sheriff/Makarfi factionalisation of the party at the centre. Both factions were in and out of court till three days to the election. When eventually the court ruled in favour of the Buruji Kashamu faction, it was expected that other stakeholders would respect the agreement that was reached earlier that whoever won in court would be supported and outstanding matters would be resolved after the party had achieved the objective of beating the APC at the polls. Meetings were held. Leaders of the various factions waved the olive branch. But as it happened, within 24 hours after the court judgment that favoured the Kashamu faction, those who swore that the party was more important to them than their own interests had dissolved into either the APC or its break-away faction, the Allied People’s Movement (APM). Their conspiracy cost the party dearly.
The point cannot be overstated that politicians in Nigeria do not believe in anything other than their own ambitions. In our political parties, the Machiavellian ethos reigns supreme. Nigeria’s political party system is underdeveloped, driven as it is by all the ugly narratives of the Nigerian experience. Today, in the PDP, after the cliché that the party’s internal mechanisms would be used to resolve the crisis, the other thing you hear is that the APC is trying to sabotage the party, and yet no one can say exactly how the APC is responsible for the collapse of amity between the Chairman of the party and the Governor of Rivers State and others. Secondus is a tested fighter. Wike is a man of courage who likes to win wars. Both gladiators know each other too well. All the persons taking sides in their matter are actually the ones who want to destroy the party. Secondus and Wike are allowing themselves to be used by forces that they met in the course of their political journey from the creeks of the Delta to the blinding heights of Abuja. They both owe themselves a duty to resolve whatever differences they may have. They have both helped each at various times in the past. They can both help the PDP now by burying the hatchet! What does Wike want? Does he want to be a President or Vice-Presidential candidate in 2023 or a Godfather? What does Uche Secondus want? Does he want to have a say in who becomes the standard bearer of the PDP in 2023? Or does he want to succeed Wike as Governor of Rivers State? They should not allow their personal ambitions to ruin many years of friendship and brotherhood and should not drag down the party. Enough damage has been done already. Although APC leaders have more serious problems of their own, they must be in one corner laughing with all corners of their mouth. The worst legacy Secondus can leave behind is to hand over the 2023 general elections to the APC on a platter of gold.
The other problem are those lawyers running from Port Harcourt to Kebbi and to Calabar, all in one week, to secure orders ex parte to ensure the removal of Secondus from office. For many Nigerian lawyers, every election season, before, during and after, is the season for them to eat, to make money. They forget the standards and ethics of the profession and transform into ambulance chasers, looking for any desperate politician who needs an injunction from the courts to gain advantage over a rival. Lawyers are trained to be officers in the temple of justice and respect established procedures. It is one of the reasons why since 1985, every Chief Justice of Nigeria and virtually every Chief Judge of the Federal High Court has warned against the abuse of interim orders ex parte, which is a remedy in civil law procedure that is expected to be given under circumstances of a real urgency. But many judges have turned such orders into an opportunity to jump into the ugly arena of dirty, partisan, politics. They promote personal interests in the process and bring the judiciary to ridicule.
In the on-going PDP crisis, judges presiding over the same courts of co-ordinate jurisdiction have been granting injunctions with appellate import which amounts to an abuse of the justice system. It is shameful and reprehensible. I understand, however, that the CJN has now summoned about six Chief Judges whose courts have been involved in this abuse with regard to the PDP case and election matters in Anambra, Jigawa and Imo. Judges must be restrained and lawyers must be called to order. The judiciary is the last hope of the common man. If it is turned into the playground of profiteers and desperate politicians, the heavy cost will be borne by the entire society. But while it is good to hear that CJN Ibrahim Tanko Muhammed is making efforts to remind the judges involved of established directives, is it not the case that the CJN himself emerged as a beneficiary of a controversial ex parte order on the basis of which the Federal Government removed Walter Onnoghen, CJN (as he then was) before appointing him in his place? Nigeria is never in short supply of ironies.
From what we have seen and heard so far, it seems most likely that the race for the 2023 Presidential position would end up as the fiercest, most contested, and perhaps the most controversial since Nigeria’s return to civilian rule in 1999. We all must keep an eye on 2023. In 1999, President Olusegun Obasanjo emerged not because he was a known, seasoned, politician but because the country needed a pair of steady hands and a strong character, with the right connections and experience to save the faltering ship of state, and move the country beyond the evil annulment of the 1993 Presidential election. Obasanjo delivered. But he ran into troubled waters with his succession plans: the politics of Third Term, the bitter quarrel with his Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and his open endorsement of Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, whose health status and eventual death in office defined the highest office of the land. President Goodluck Jonathan who succeeded his boss, Yar’Adua was a collective product of the law, and the majority insistence on what was right. His presidency was a turning point and a major historic landmark for Nigeria, an affirmation that Nigeria could also be a land of dreams where a man of humble beginnings could rise to the top.
By 2015, the forces of elite conspiracy and ethno-religious myopism, organised an acidic campaign against the Jonathan Presidency and got him out of office. He was succeeded by President Muhammadu Buhari, a former military Head of State, who had sought the Presidency of Nigeria as a civilian three different times – 1999, 2007 and 2011. In 2015, he was propelled into office by an electorate that had embraced his managers’ promise of change and hope. He was yet another rallying point for great expectations. In 2023, the circumstances would be different. There is no coalescing, propelling force, at this time behind any aspirant, on such a national scale, and of such a momentum as we saw with Obasanjo, Jonathan, and Buhari’s cult-like popularity. And this is why the 2023 Presidency is fast becoming a desperate gamble, a ‘try-your-luck’ kind of proposition, without any core basic agreements. A kind of anybody’s game, generating tension, so early, so far from the commencement of the 2023 electoral process.
There is no consensus on any issue. The people of the South East argue, rightly that, it is their turn to produce the President of Nigeria. No Igbo man has been President since 1999, although Igbos have helped to put others into office. They want the marginalisation of Igbos to end. They want it on record that the Igbo race is not inferior to any other group in Nigeria. Igbos are the third largest ethnic group in the country. They have been told by Northern spokesmen that nobody will offer them the Presidency on a platter of gold, and that in any case, they should go and organise themselves and reach out to other Nigerians especially now that there is an internal debate in the South East about identity politics – who is Igbo and who is not and who is more Igbo than the other? Many persons consider this suggestion, an insult! The people of the North East and Central zones also insist that it is their turn to have their kinsmen inside the Presidential Villa and that after the Presidency has gone round the six geo-political zones, we can then begin to talk more seriously about those principles of merit, competence, knowledge – the same issues the other privileged geo-political zones never stretched when the Presidency fell into their laps.
Constitutional provisions on eligibility for the Nigerian Presidency are stated in the 1999 Constitution. There is no mention of ethnicity or geographical zone, although Section 14(3) and (4) mention Federal Character, diversity, unity and justice. The two major political parties have since agreed on an unwritten code of Rotational Presidency, but this is beginning to look more like a tool of political expediency. Ahead of the 2023 general elections, Nigeria’s two major political parties – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) are both engulfed in crises that could be counter-productive. There is no clarity on both sides about how the 2023 process could be used to address the people’s concerns. Not even the National Assembly is serious about the provision of an electoral framework that can inspire trust and confidence. In 2021, Nigeria’s 9th National Assembly, dominated by the ruling party, voted to prevent the adoption of electronic transmission of election results. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it is possible and doable, the politicians disagree. In smaller, neighbouring African countries, electronic transmission of results is not a problem. In Nigeria, it is a source of crisis.
But what I find even more disturbing is the bad rhetoric that is beginning to build up, the high velocity intolerance and the threat of violence that hang dangerously in the air, and the refusal of some emergent “stomach democracy activists” to engage in decent conversation. This has been a bane of Nigerian politics. But it is getting worse. It could even become more frightening. The professional political class must seek counselling for its growing mass psychosis. The right of Nigerians to choose, to express their differences and choices must be respected. Nobody has a monopoly of the right to Nigerian citizenship, or the corridors of power. The way some interested parties are carrying on is deplorable. I recall writing once in this column about likely candidates for the 2023 Presidency titled “The South West Presidential Hopefuls” (April 20, 2021). I made some categorical statements about the chances of those who were in the news at the time: Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Senator Ibikunle Amosun and Dr Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State. It was my own review of the political situation and the possibilities. But what did I get in return? Those who felt I was critical of their masters went after me with a sledge hammer. I read one reasonable piece in which the author tried to respond to the issues raised but the others were so poorly written, I couldn’t waste my time reading till the end. Bad writing gives me migraine and there seems to be a large supply of hacks around many of our political figures. In the 80s and 90s, we used to have quality debates in Nigerian newspapers. Today, the space is dominated by hacks without brains. Well maybe I was lucky. They didn’t abuse my parents.
Since that piece, the conversation about 2023 has gained greater momentum, beyond zoning and possible Southern candidates to a full-blown obsession. This reached a peak recently with the prescriptions by former Head of State and President, General Ibrahim Babangida during an interview with Arise TV, ahead of his 80th birthday on August 17, 2021. I wrote a review of some of his submissions in the context of what marked his 80th birthday: an attempt at revisionism on certain key historical points, but again I got thoroughly abused by one of the key organizers of the IBB white-wash. I have made my point. (See Reuben Abati, “IBB’s Birthday Interview”, ThisDay, August 10, 2021). The IBB interview, considering his own stature added oxygen to the 2023 Presidential debate. ThisDay newspaper followed up with a front-page list of 31 likely candidates, and a review of those who can lead Nigeria in 2023. I take all of that as a healthy promotion of public conversation. But it merely ended up showing a certain trait that I think can pose a threat to the journey towards 2023: the thinking by some people that the Presidency of Nigeria is already an acquired right. How? When? Where?
One of the immediate reactions to the ThisDay list came from Dr. Doyin Okupe, veteran politician, spokesperson to a political party, the defunct NRC, and media adviser to two former Presidents. Dr. Okupe, appearing on Arise TV Morning Show, said there are only three possible candidates: Senator Bola Tinubu, his good self and incumbent Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in that order. We later hosted Mr. Sonny Iroche, Chairman of the Anambra League of Professionals, who thought that Dr Doyin Okupe must have been joking, and that he, Iroche, would make a better candidate. Before Iroche, Malam Kashim Ibrahim-Imam, President of the Kings College Old Boys Association, and Chairman of the Board of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) also appeared on the Arise TV flagship show to discuss the state of the nation. He had kind things to say about Tinubu, leader of the APC but he made it clear that he, Kashim-Imam, would be the best man for the job.
Somehow, within the South West and the APC, every man who considers himself a potential President manages to defer to just one man: Senator Bola Tinubu. Those who say anything that is off-key in that regard or fail to pay homage get knocked no matter how sensible they may sound. This then, reminds me of the case of Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State who has been a target of heavy pummelling for having the effrontery to have told Senator Tinubu in an interview with the Daily Trust newspaper that the senior politician should allow his “children” to take over the Presidency of Nigeria in 2023. Yahaya Bello obviously considers himself a Tinubu “son”. Whereas the leader of the APC has not yet announced formally that he wants to be President, there is already an army of Tinubu Support Groups out there pushing the 2023 Tinubu for President agenda. As far back as May 2021, Governor Bello had announced in a television interview that “Nigerian youths, women and all Nigerians, including very objective elites” were asking him to run for President in 2023. Bello was immediately dismissed by Professor Itse Sagay, SAN, who reminded him that the Presidency in the APC had been zoned to the South, and that being a youth cannot be an automatic qualification.
Indeed, much earlier, Eniola Bello in his ThisDay column – “Yahaya Bello: The Ugly Face of APC” (March 8, 2021) had made even more damning remarks about the Governor. But Yahaya Bello has been resilient in saying he wants to be President. His latest effort must have been prompted by the renewed debate about age and 2023 Presidential politics. His reported interview in the Daily Trust newspaper of August 22, 2021 is titled “2023: Buhari, Tinubu Pact not Binding on APC Members – Kogi Governor.” Having confirmed that he would run for President in 2023, Governor Bello said of Tinubu: “Senator Tinubu is one of our leaders and I respect him so much. He has played a very significant role in Nigeria’s democracy and has built a lot of people. He has paid his dues, and with all respect, as a son to him, my simple advice is that it is time for him to allow his children take over the mantle of leadership and do it to the glory of God and his admiration. He should see that those children he raised are now doing well. Let him see how we manage this country in his lifetime. However, he has a right to run, nobody is questioning that. I always urge everybody to respect him for the role he has played in this country’s democracy. He is a man of integrity, to be candid.” He was then asked: “Do you think the APC would survive if Tinubu is denied the party’s ticket and he pulls out with the South West?” Bello, who says he believes it is the turn of the North Central to produce the next President responds: “You don’t build a house and destroy it. I don’t think he will do that. He has grown past that. As an elder statesman, he will not say that the country should be destroyed in his lifetime, not even after his demise, so I don’t see him doing that.”
These are the words Yahaya Bello said, except he was otherwise misquoted by the Daily Trust newspaper. But for these respectful, almost subservient expressions of admiration for the party leader, and the affirmation of his own future ambitions within the APC, Yahaya Bello has been severely rebuked by the Tinubu Support Group. In a statement signed by the Director-General of the TSG, Umar Ibrahim, Yahaya Bello has been called a “disgrace, a failure and a betrayer.” He is advised to channel his efforts into “begging and praying for forgiveness for all the sufferings you have inflicted on the good people of Kogi State, rather than eyeing the Presidency.” Ibrahim insists that Tinubu is the most qualified person for the Nigerian Presidency in 2023.
I have never met Governor Yahaya Bello personally. I don’t need to. I have in fact been very critical of him: his re-election in 2019, and his many gaffes about COVID-19. But I think he, like every Nigerian, of eligible age, can aspire to the Presidency of Nigeria, and that the rest of us have the right to express an opinion and an interest without being mauled by any group that claims a monopoly of insight about the future of Nigeria. There is nothing that Yahaya Bello has said that was not implied in the Babangida criteria for the 2023 Presidency. Where was the Tinubu Support Group? Why didn’t Umar Ibrahim go after the elder statesman? Given the level of interest that the 2023 Presidency has generated, there would be more persons expressing views. How many views and expressions of interest will the TSG shut down? It may be possible to intimidate persons in the South West and the APC, but there are enough Nigerians who will also lay claim to the Presidency of Nigeria. The Tinubu Support Group does him great disservice. This is a leader who made great sacrifice to promote democracy in Nigeria. He invested a lot in building a generation of leaders. He earned a reputation as a master political strategist. Today, he appears to be surrounded by a group of political vultures and hacks on the question of 2023. Whoever and whatever they may be, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu owes us a duty to call the TSG, as presently constituted, to order. They are damaging his brand. Their campaign should be more focussed on selling his ideas, not motor-park politics.
Going forward, two key questions are pertinent: Is there a dark horse and a third force in the political space who may emerge as President in 2023? And is there enough time for such an alternative to make any meaningful impact, timing being a major factor in politics?
One of the first things I picked up very early in this business of public affairs analysis is something senior colleagues referred to as Afghanistanism. If you were told a column, story or essay, you had submitted for publication reeked of Afghanistanism, it was clearly a subtle kind of condemnation. It meant dabbling into a remote subject that was not of immediate consequence whereas you could have chosen a better topic of greater local value and relevance. In other words, the phrase “Afghanistanism”, was not a compliment. It was a label for absent-mindedness, an obsession with far-away places and events, sounding eloquent about other people’s issues while overlooking the same problems at one’s doorstep. Afghanistanism was thus projected as a perfect exemplification of parachute journalism. But here we are, at this time, in the past two weeks, and in the past few days, Afghanistanism is now suddenly no longer a flight of fancy. It has become the symbol and the very definition of much that is wrong with our world. It is the news of the moment, not so distant anymore, but a source of worry for the entire world. I guess it is now possible to indulge in Afghanistanism without being accused of an idle journey to distant places.
Over the weekend, Afghanistan imploded. Its President, Ashraf Ghani abandoned the Presidential Palace and fled towards the direction of Tajikistan. The Vice President went in another direction. Security agents including the police and the military dropped their weapons and fled too. Ordinary citizens headed towards every available border to become refugees in neighbouring countries. The United States which had been involved in the politics of Afghanistan since 1999 is also on the run out of the country, as it shuts down its embassy in Kabul, burning down sensitive documents, and rushing to airlift its citizens out of Afghanistan. The British, and NATO soldiers who had both supported the US in Afghanistan, are also on the run. It is an unfolding chaos and tragedy, the exact end of which no one knows, and that is precisely what makes all of this a sad day for the rest of the world. The fate of the people of Afghanistan hangs in the balance. Their future is uncertain. Their government has collapsed. A bunch of radical extremists, terrorists, ideologues and tribal warlords, known as the Taliban, are now in charge. They have taken over the Presidential palace and the entire country. In the 1990s, they were in charge of the country. The people of Afghanistan have just been taken back to the 20th Century. That country has turned full cycle to the age of fundamentalism, the oppression of women, disdain for education and abuse of human rights. Tragic.
The crisis in Afghanistan speaks to the failure of American diplomacy and specifically of US foreign policy. Diplomatic relations between the United States and Afghanistan dates back to 1935. In the course of that relationship, the United States was responsible for setting up in that axis, a bunch of extremists known as the Mujahideen as part of the Cold War with the Soviet Union and China, two countries with which Afghanistan shares borders. The Mujahideen would later become the Taliban. They gained control of Afghanistan. If America thought it was exporting its Western style democracy to Afghanistan, a majorly Muslim country with strong ethnic cleavages, and that the people would adopt American ideology, it was grossly mistaken. The Muslims of Afghanistan were not willing to abandon their religious and ideological beliefs, and many resented the Western way of life. It did not take long before Afghanistan became the home of religious fanaticism and the headquarters of the Al Qaeda. Matters later took a turn for the worse when the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1267 which created the al-Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee, and the classification of both groups as terrorist groups with sanctions over their funding, travel and activities.
Osama Bin Laden in the face of this rose to the top. In 2001, Ahmad Massoud, commander of the Northern Alliance, an anti-Taliban coalition was assassinated by the al-Qaeda, which by then had grown in strength and scope. As it happened, later, on September 9, 2001, terrorists struck in the United States, in the tragedy now known as 9/11. The US and its allies promptly launched a retaliatory offensive: Operation Enduring Freedom, and later, Operation Freedom’s Sentinel against the Al-Qaeda. The Taliban and its totalitarian government fell in the face of this offensive and hence resorted to a guerrilla warfare against the West and the government installed by the US in Afghanistan. Over 2, 400 US soldiers have died in the war against the Taliban. Over 20, 000 were wounded. Washington has spent over a trillion dollars. The British have also lost over 450 soldiers to the battle. But even with the negotiations over the years, and America’s training of Afghan soldiers to keep the Taliban at bay, the intervention in Afghanistan by the US and NATO has proved futile and unwinnable. With the return of the Taliban to Kabul, the war against terror in Afghanistan has proven to be a colossal failure. America has been humiliated. What we are witnessing is two decades of bad judgment and miscalculations. In July, President Joe Biden boasted that Kabul would not fall and the day would not come when the Taliban will overrun the country. It took the Taliban just ten days to overrun the entire country. America and its allies were overwhelmed. The now deposed Afghan government and the US have been trading blames. But after the initial denial that this is not another Saigon in South Vietnam, 1975, it is interesting to see American diplomats eating their own words. Anthony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, and other Washington policy wonks, have now come to the realisation that this is a failed mission for the United States as was similarly the case in Vietnam, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Sudan, Iraq, and Libya.
America did not need to stay in Afghanistan forever. It is simple and direct logic that the Afghans would have to clean up their own mess, at some point, but the leaders of Afghanistan failed to govern properly, and America’s hasty withdrawal plan was a mistake. America misread the politics of Afghanistan. It underestimated the Taliban. It also overestimated the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces (ANDSF). The US spent loads of dollars training what became known as the Afghan Special Forces. It was thought that they had received enough training to be able to secure their own country against the terrorists. But that was pure fiction. The ANDSF lacked real capability. The Forces were mismanaged by the local authorities. When the Taliban launched an onslaught, the ghost army that the US and other nations thought they had set up took to its heels. The disaster that has now occurred was long in coming. It was a disaster foretold. In February 2020, the US struck an agreement with the Taliban in Doha. That has failed too, in part because even the Afghan leaders were excluded from it.
The regional warlords who both the US and the Afghan government thought would resist the Taliban did not raise a finger as The Taliban overran the provinces all the way to the Capital. The US thought Pakistan would help. Instead, Pakistan became a sanctuary for the Taliban. The US may well claim in the end that in 20 years it helped to reduce the scope of terror and the growth of terrorism in the world, but the failure in Afghanistan, spanning about four US administrations, looks ironically as a reinforcement of terrorism. The return of the Taliban is bound to embolden terrorist groups across the world. It will grant them confidence and hope that they can also achieve the same kind of triumph. Twenty years later, the US may have lost so much but it is the entire world that is at risk. The thinking that the US and its allies can save humanity, or that any country at all can rely on the omnipresence or the “indispensability” of the United States has been exposed as one of the biggest lies of the century. When it suits its purpose, the US will review its own priorities and it would not matter to the average American taxpayer whether you sink or float.
And it is at this point that the prompt intervention by Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari becomes relevant. In an article published in the Financial Times of London, the same day Kabul fell to the Taliban, Buhari placed his fingers rightly on the threat that the fall of Kabul poses to Africa. He referred to Africa as “the new frontline of global militancy” and called for global action to fight terrorism. He says: “We must not complacently assume that military means alone can defeat the terrorists. If Afghanistan has taught a lesson, it is that although sheer force can blunt terror, its removal can cause the threat to return.” Indeed, there are many lessons to learn from the Afghan debacle. He would go on subsequently to say that “a lack of hope is the chief recruiting sergeant for the continent’s new brand of terrorism.” This commentary was on point in every regard. I am tempted to suspect they just recruited someone with a sharp brain into the Nigerian Presidency. When the President returned from the UK, we were told he and his delegation would go into isolation in line with official regulations. And then from isolation, the President has just signed the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) into law. I digress. The big point about Afghanistan is the need to realise its implications for the global war against terror, US Foreign policy, and the balance of power in the world. Professor Bolaji Akinyemi on Arise TV, analysing the dilemma that the world faces spoke about the “clash of civilizations” (an apt reference to Samuel P. Huntington) and the likely emergence of “a new world order.” But is Africa prepared?
The failure of US policy in Afghanistan has occurred under the watch of President Joe Biden, even if it is an inherited crisis. Will it affect his rating? Is the average American bothered about whatever happens to the people of Afghanistan? What does the future portend for Afghanistan? The international community would probably make the usual noise about the need to protect human rights and refugees and the rule of law, and perhaps the UN Security Council would threaten to impose sanctions, but in the end, it is only the Afghans that can determine their own future. There is no way the Taliban can overrun Afghanistan, chase away a sitting government and seize power without the people’s tacit compliance. America must learn not to dictate ideological choices to others, in a diverse and complicated world.
As a secondary student, one of the compulsory literature texts that my set read for the West African School Certificate Examination (WASCE) was a book titled Zambia Shall Be Free by Kenneth Kaunda. Our teacher had a funny way of pronouncing Zambia. He would turn Zambia into “Zam-bi-u Shar-lll -Be Friii” by Kerr-nnerthi- Kar uuun dar”. Till today, some of my old classmates in that literature class still refer to Zambia as “Zam-bi-u”. Fond memories of those old days. Kenneth Kaunda, the author of that literature text, in which he documented the independence struggle in his country, died recently at 97. He was Zambia’s President from 1964 – 1991. There have been six Presidents in Zambia since 1964. The seventh was elected this past weekend, August 12, and it was the third time power has shifted peacefully from a ruling party to the opposition since independence. It is unfortunate that Zambia like other African countries gained flag independence from colonial rule, but the dream of concrete freedom articulated by Kaunda and other African leaders has not yet been realised. Zambia in particular has been unfortunate. Rich in copper but poor in leadership. I see the election that was concluded on August 12 as an attempt by Zambians to take back their country. They made a powerful statement about people power. They resolved that Zambians deserve to be free from the grips of corruption, nepotism, neo-colonialism and the forces of retrogression. The just-concluded parliamentary and presidential elections in Zambia offer an indication that the people’s voices and choice should matter most in a democratic process.
It was a referendum on President Edgar Lungu’s languid leadership. When Lungu succeeded Michael Sata in 2015, he promised to put an end to nepotism and inefficiency. He was hailed as a reformist but he ended up as a hypocrite. As recently as last month, when he went to London for a Global Education Summit, he had three members of his immediate family in his entourage and he shamelessly tried to defend himself. He even forced an amendment of the Constitution to allow him have a third term in office. He is leader of a Pentecostal Assembly with a Ph. D in Theology but he ran Zambia like the chief priest of a local cult. He readily boasts about the infrastructure that he has provided, but Lungu sold the soul of Zambia’s commodity sector to the Chinese. He incurred debts. The country went into recession. Ahead of the August 12 elections, he deployed the military to intimidate the opposition. He shut down the internet. He threatened to jail Hakainde Hichilema, Presidential candidate of the main opposition party, the United Party for National Development (UPND). In 2016, Hichilema lost the Presidential contest to Lungu by a mere 100, 000 votes.
Last week, and as announced yesterday by the Zambian Electoral Commission, this time around, Lungu lost to Hichilema, 1.8 million votes (39%) to 2.8 million votes (59%). The defeated incumbent President is now saying the election was not “free and fair” and that his supporters were intimidated. The same Lungu is condemning an election that he controlled by every means possible. Zambia has a registered voter population of 7 million out of a total population of 19 million citizens. Voter turn-out was 70% on election day, mostly youths who have now sent a strong and clear message that Lungu has overstayed his welcome. Hichilema, 59, has his job cut out for him: to ensure the freedom of Zambia from the forces of neo-colonialism, economic failure, nepotism, cronyism, incompetence, COVID-19, and elite stupidity. Above all, he must learn from the mistakes of Edgar Lungu.
General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB), Nigeria’s military Head of State, 1985–1993 is arguably the most controversial person to have ever led Nigeria since independence. He turns 80 next week, August 17. Ahead of that birthday, he granted an interview to Arise TV, aired Friday, August 6, which has understandably generated considerable interest. It has been a while since Nigerians heard directly from IBB. More recent stories about him focussed on speculations about the state of his health. Given the controversial nature of his place in Nigerian history, many also obviously waited for that interview out of curiousity. There have been reactions from different quarters. The most telling reaction for me was someone making the remark that she was pleasantly surprised that IBB is still alive. I was shocked.
She added that no other Nigerian President has been more abused by Nigerians, and if curses could kill, IBB should have been long dead and forgotten. In the wake of the annulment of the 1993 Presidential election by the Babangida junta, activists in the South West rained curses on IBB. Old women stripped themselves naked, based on the general cultural belief that if an old woman curses anyone with her exposed chest, such a person is doomed for life. Hurriedly- made wooden coffins were paraded on the streets of Lagos, and mock funerals were conducted. IBB’s offence was his annulment of the 1993 Presidential election. The lady remarked that her only take-away from the Babangida interview is how God has a way of preserving the wicked. That is the kind of man IBB is. He evokes extreme passions of opposite variety with near-equal intensity. For me, the very idea of the interview alone was useful. Getting IBB to talk at all was an achievement for Arise TV, and a special career moment for Ngozi Alaegbu, the anchor.
At 80, IBB has aged quite well. His faculties remain sharp. He was articulate, and witty as ever. His responses showed maturity and diplomacy, but a closer interrogation reveals that he is still the same foxy manipulator of public perception. Nonetheless, there were parts of the interview that one could easily agree with and others that sounded rather fishy. IBB was right to have complained about how the major problem with Nigeria today is the “tyranny of the elite”. Other countries are able to move forward and achieve more than their potential, and inspire the people to greatness because of a certain elite consensus in that direction and the impact of responsible leadership. But here in Nigeria, “there is a disconnect between leadership and followership” as IBB argues. The people do not trust their leaders. The leaders themselves do not care enough. IBB blames them for sowing the seeds of disunity in the country. What I did not hear him say is how he is one of the same leaders that he blames.
On the question of the economy, IBB expressed the view that there is too much control in running the economy and that there is need to open it up further. Perhaps he is right. Government tends to ruin every investment it manages by itself in the long run. He says the Nigerian military is overstretched, and that for Nigeria to make any difference in the war against insecurity, our soldiers need to do more, believe in what they are fighting for, they must be well-trained, well-led and well equipped. He also talked about inconsistency in government policies. Well, that didn’t start today. There are critics who would trace that inconsistency back to the Babangida era. On the state of the Nigerian economy, IBB says the fact that the economy has not collapsed is an indication that the government is working. If the economy were to collapse, we would all be dead, the way we died a little when the Babangida administration introduced the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in the mid-80s. It was also interesting to see the senior citizen defending the supremacy of the rule of law, when he said “nobody should disobey lawful orders in a democracy.” But should anyone do so at all, at any time? Under the Babangida junta, the courts were routinely disobeyed. IBB is now a democrat defending the rule of law!
The more common-sensical aspects of his interview should be easier for many Nigerians to deal with, but there were a few controversial points made by the retired General, and elder statesman, which have set the tone for public discourse in the last few days. He does not consider zoning or rotational Presidency a good idea, rather he defends merit and competence, and that the democratic process must produce a candidate of merit, regardless of where such a candidate comes from. The problem with this is that there are Nigerians whose geographical zone in the country has never produced a Nigerian Head of State since the return to democracy in 1999. They want the Presidency zoned to their own area also, in line with Sections 14(3) and 14(4) of the 1999 Constitution to ensure a sense of common ownership and to allay fears of marginalization. Is IBB aware of the conversation around this? Is he aware of the Igbo agitation for Presidency? Or the position of the 17 Southern Governors in the South who have specifically demanded that the Presidency of Nigeria in 2023 must be zoned to the South? The future of Nigeria depends in part on how the matter of common rights under the law is resolved democratically and not through the mechanism of the tyranny of a minority elite.
He thinks that a “one-party state” cannot happen in Nigeria because Nigerians “will not allow it to happen”. Fact-check: the country is already drifting towards a one-party state system with the gale of defections from other political parties into the ruling All Progressives Congress, and the looming implosion within the major opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The relevance of the two-party system that IBB recommends as the best option for the country is belied by the crisis in the country’s two major political parties. The view that the various other political parties do not really matter contradicts his other views about the need to practice democracy the way it is done elsewhere. In the United States, two political parties may be dominant but there are so many other political parties representing the views and beliefs of others, including minority groups and it is the existence of such pluralism and diversity that democracy is all about. We should understand where General IBB is coming from. He was the architect of a political system that limited Nigeria’s democracy to two political parties: the SDP and the NRC, but that experiment failed because the reduction of Nigeria’s political system to a vague synecdoche: “a little to the left and a little to the right” made it possible for the military and civilian elite to manipulate and violate the people’s will in the 90s. Nigeria is yet to recover.
General IBB struggled to use the interview to defend his legacy and rewrite history, and he made quite a spirited effort in that direction. His repeated references to the importance of democratic rule and the supremacy of the rule of law are at best ironic and revisionist. He tells us that the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) of 1986 was a sound economic policy and that his administration has been proven right. When his attention was drawn to how SAP created problems for the country, his quick response was that “other people took advantage of what we did.” SAP was the beginning of our economic woes and the root of other ills in the Nigerian society. After the introduction of SAP, which was meant to be a life-saving economic policy, Nigeria began a journey towards the precipice. The first major fuel price increase in Nigeria was under SAP in 1988. Three decades later, IBB speaks of SAP so proudly. He can do so because Nigerians tend to forget so easily. We are so tied to the present, and so troubled, memory is a burden. But anyone who lived through the period of the 80s should not forget the SAP riots of 1989. The many, including students and unionist that were murdered in cold blood. The collapse of the education system, and the gradual impoverishment of Nigerians. By the time IBB decided “to step aside” in 1993, Nigeria was no better than an accident victim on life support, with broken limbs.
It is again one of those ironies that IBB can boast that he and other members of his junta were saints compared to the present administration. He talks about how his government fought corruption. “So tell me who is better at fighting corruption?” For the benefit of those who may have forgotten, once upon a time in this country, General Babangida was considered a villain. In fact, the 1989 riot was in part a protest against institutionalised corruption! It is a sign of how bad things have become since then that the same leader can look straight into our faces and tell us that the epithet, Maradona that was used to describe him was an acknowledgement of his “deft, political moves”. He even laughs at the oxymoronic description of his persona: “the evil genius”: “I marvel at that. The contradiction – you can’t be evil and then a genius.”” To tell ourselves the truth, yes, a genius can be evil in the deployment of his talent, and the corresponding impact. The term “Maradona” referred to his foxy and manipulative tendencies. In the quarter final match between Argentina and England in the 1986 FIFA World Cup, Argentine football genius, Diego Maradona scored a goal with his hand. He later called it “The Hand of God” goal. In these days of VAR technology in soccer, that goal would have been disqualified, but he got away with it. IBB as Nigeria’s leader was infamous for such devious manoeuvres.
But perhaps the most astonishing part of the retired military ruler’s revisionism is his excuse for the annulment of the June 12, 1993 Presidential election. He says “If it materialised, there would have been a coup d’état – which could have been violent. That’s all I can confirm. It didn’t happen thanks to the engineering and the “Maradonic’ way we handled you guys in the society. But that could have given room for more instability in the country.” Afenifere and NADECO chieftains and others have appropriately taken up General Babangida to remind him of the truth. Nigerians elected Bashorun MKO Abiola, as Nigeria’s President. The election was free and fair. For the first time in Nigerian history, a Presidential candidate secured majority votes in virtually every part of the country. It was a truly historic, myth-defying election with a high voter turn-out. But IBB and his friends truncated the process because of the fear of a coup. These were Generals who were master coup planners. IBB was so good at planning coups it was said he had taken part in every coup in Nigeria since July 1966. In 1985, he decided to take charge directly by removing Major-General Muhammadu Buhari from power.
IBB himself would not tolerate any such act of treason and treachery. When his friend, the soldier and poet, General Mamman Vatsa was implicated in a coup against the Babangida administration, IBB got him killed. The same man now tells us, he was afraid of a coup so he annulled a people’s election. He staged a coup against the people of Nigeria. MKO Abiola was his friend too. MKO died in that struggle. And now IBB dances on his grave. And on the graves of many other Nigerians who lost their lives, leaving behind widows, widowers and orphans. If this is meant to be another Maradonic move, it is important to call it out for what it is: cruelty. It would have been better if MKO Abiola had been allowed to claim his mandate. Even if a coup was organised against him, IBB owed him and the people of Nigeria a duty to make that coup impossible. Even if MKO Abiola died in that imaginary coup, it would have been on record that he died in the palace of democracy not in the hands of tyrants. How does IBB feel today, now that Buhari has recognised June 12 and MKO Abiola?
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Today, General IBB is the same man now prescribing criteria for Nigeria’s next President in 2023. Hear him in his own words: “I have started visualising a good Nigerian leader. He should be a person who travels this country and has friends in every state of the country; a person who is very vast in the economy, a person who is a good politician who is ready to talk to Nigerians. I have seen about three already. The person should be in his 60s and I believe if we get such a person, Nigeria will get it right.” I disagree with his emphasis on an age bracket. It amounts to needless politics of exclusion. The problem with Nigerian leaders is not their biological age. It is the age of their ideas. In the United States, Bill Clinton became President at 47. President Barack Obama at 48. But after Obama, Americans elected Donald Trump, a 71-year old man. Current President Joe Biden came into office at 78.
We need a mixture of every demographic category to move Nigeria forward from the old order to a new place. But IBB is right about the knowledge of economic issues and the need to have a bridge-builder and a nationalist in office. My only worry is that Bashorun MKO Abiola met all the criteria outlined by IBB. In 1993, when he won the Presidential election, MKO was 55. He was also a man who had a great knowledge of the economy having established himself as a global entrepreneur. He was in addition, a Chartered Accountant. He also had friends from all parts of Nigeria and the entire world. No Nigerian before now fits IBB’s criteria better than MKO. As the General turns 80, is his conscience beginning to prick him, hence he recommends a future President in Abiola’s image?
The story of Abba Kyari, the Deputy Commissioner of Police and erstwhile head of the Nigerian Police Intelligence Response Team speaks to the fate of all men who are overtaken by hubris, that flaw of character from which tragedies have been written from Sophocles to Shakespeare. Every tragic hero or anti-hero soon begins to create illusions of his or her own importance and then soon faces unexpected nemesis. Oedipus in ancient Greek mythology solved the riddle of the Sphinx, but fate caught up with him and he ended up killing his father and he married his own mother. Medea, a woman of extreme jealousy, and pride killed her own children in order to prove a point – one of the earliest feminist figures in classical literature. Agamemnon was King of Argos and also commander of the Greek army, but he was immature, unwise and emotional. This was his undoing. He was a great warrior but he was impetuous. Coriolanus, the Roman General could not become Consul in Ancient Rome. He waged war out of vengeance after he had been banished. Consumed by passion and vengeance, he led an assault against Rome. He eventually lost his life. Julius Caesar was one of the most decorated leaders in ancient Rome, but he became a dictator, evoking the envy and conspiracy of his own associates.
I have taken these examples from classical literature and mythology and from Shakespearean tropes detailing an important aspect of human experience and cultural identity: how glory does not guarantee a happy ending, how man experiences the mystery of suffering in order to learn, how what is called happiness is culturally relative. Modern fictive and interpretive representations have also shown that tragedy is not only for great and well-placed persons, but that all men are flawed, and many have fallen due to hubris, not necessarily fate, but error of judgement, pride, or wrong choices. Managing one’s temptations could be the best protection but then what is life if not the rising and ebbing of the tides of time? Life ends as a comedy for many, but for others, it is a tragedy.
DCP Abba Kyari is facing a tragic moment in his career as a policeman. Like all tragic tales, he would attract the pity of friends, fear among colleagues who may well imagine that they too could suffer the same fate, as well as the empathy of a few. But the majority should draw lessons from his experience. He was arguably the most honoured police officer of his time. They called him the Super Cop. He led the Police Intelligence Unit and was acclaimed for his prowess. He was a celebrity cop too. On one occasion, he was specially recognised by Nigeria’s House of Representatives. Not many police officers in Nigeria have enjoyed such privilege. Given the trajectory of his career, no one would have been surprised if the super cop ended up as Nigeria’s Inspector General of Police. But now all that is ended. Whether Kyari is eventually extradited to face trial in a US District Court or not, the white garment of honour that he once wore has been tainted, soiled, splattered all over with palm oil. Even if he is cleared of all wrong doings, the perception that he was fingered by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation in a matter of conspiracy to commit electronic fraud and abet criminal behaviour is bad enough. This same officer who used to be the subject of saccharine panegyrics, is now the butt of internet memes. Those who wear immaculate white attires should stay away from retailers of palm oil. The case against Kyari is that he failed to do this.
His nemesis is a certain Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, aka, Ray Hushpuppi, who is now facing a likely jail term of 20 years for engaging in high tech organised crime. Arrested by the FBI in June 2020, Hushpuppi has been singing like a canary and yelping like a puppy. He identified Abba Kyari as one of his allies, an influential police officer in Nigeria who helped him, Hushpuppi, to arrest one of his gang members with whom he had a dispute over a deal. The FBI in the deposition that was unsealed in court on July 26 provided copious and embarrassing details of conversations between Hushpuppi and the senior police officer. It is alleged that Kyari sent a bank account number into which money was transferred to take care of “the team” for services rendered. What service? One Kelly Vincent Chibuzor was arrested and detained for more than a month by Abba Kyari’s team. Even when it was discovered that the allegation by Hushpuppi against Chibuzor was incorrect, there was no evidence to indicate that the Super Cop took any step to get Hushpuppi sanctioned for misleading the police and for wasting the time and resources of the Nigerian State. The FBI document further indicates that Super Cop Kyari even visited Hushpuppi in Dubai as a special guest. Since these details became public, Kyari’s strongest defence is that he is completely innocent and that the only connection between him and Hushpuppi is that he helped him to sew some native wears. How on earth did a cop in charge of Nigeria’s Police Intelligence Response Unit become a tailor and fashion consultant to a man of international security interest, who by the way, flaunted obscene wealth on social media pages? Certain associations are not good for a person’s brand. The association with Hushpuppi in any form whatsoever was bad for the senior cop. Hushpuppi knows clearly that he is down. The same way he used the Nigerian Police to “discipline” one of his gang members, he has also shown no scruples in dragging policeman Aba Kyari along with him. Yesterday, matters went further South when the FBI released more information to confirm that Kyari collected N8 million in that hire-a-senior-cop case.
Whatever anyone may say, this is not good either for the country’s image. Ordinarily, Nigeria has been labelled a prolific source of potential or actual fraudsters, even when this same country has produced some of the brightest and accomplished persons in all fields of human endeavour. Few foreigners give us the benefit of the doubt. What has happened to DCP Kyari is also not good for the image of the Nigerian Police. Even before the October 2020, #EndSARS protests, the average Nigerian policeman was routinely criticised for bribe collection, brutality and abuse of human rights. It is for this reason that Kyari may not have too many people out there who are ready to sympathise with him. Since the FBI incident, there have been remarks not just about Kyari but the Nigerian Police Force: how, it is said, Nigerian policemen work with criminals, how they extort money and how any one can hire a police man to violate other people’s rights. Those who have an axe to grind with DCP Kyari have also been all over the social media further rubbing salt into his wounds. When a man is down in this life, there are many who would kick him where it hurts most. Kyari must be wondering what is happening to him. Every tragic hero eventually experiences anagnorisis and catharsis. But it is not always that a tragedy ends as a comedy.
The US District Court of Central California has issued a warrant of arrest for DCP Kyari. But it is not as easy as that. Nigeria is a sovereign state. A court in the United States cannot simply order the arrest of a Nigerian living inside Nigeria, and expect that Nigeria, as a sovereign state would simply hand over the person. The relationship between sovereigns is governed by rules and due process. Given the weight of the allegations, and the attention the case has generated, the Inspector General of Police has ordered a probe by a 4-man Committee. The Police Service Commission which is responsible for appointments, promotion and discipline within the Police has sent Abba Kyari on suspension. Fair enough. The investigation must be thorough and transparent. Nigeria has every reason to take up this matter with all the seriousness that it deserves. Kyari committed the alleged offence in his privileged position as a Deputy Commissioner of police, and Head of Police Intelligence Response Team. Did he abuse his office as alleged? Did he conspire to commit wire fraud as an officer of the law? The “Team” referred to in the FBI document, who are members of the team? Whose bank account received the N8 million paid by Hushpuppi? Did Kyari and his team violate the Police Code of Conduct, especially with regard to Principles Six and Seven dealing with integrity and conflict of interest? What lessons can the Police itself learn from this in terms of its internal oversight processes and how police officers conduct themselves in society? Those questions would be useful for a reform of the Nigerian Police. There should be no cover up. If DCP Kyari is found guilty, he should be sanctioned accordingly and handed over to the Americans in line with extradition processes. DCP Kyari should have his lawyers on standby. Everything that he represents is at stake.
I find it completely odious however, that there has been a useless attempt to read ethnic and political meanings into Kyari’s travails. The Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) was reported in the newspapers yesterday as saying the FBI’s plan to arrest Kyari is “totally unacceptable”, and that “nothing must happen to him”. The AYCF further said “all Nigerians who are truly patriotic should stand behind a man who has made an unrivalled mark on the sands of time by diligently serving his fatherland” … because the FBI’s proposed arrest is “an attempted intimidation of a police officer right inside his independent fatherland”. The statement is credited to Alhaji Yerima Shettima, described as AYCF President. Such drivel coming from anyone at all is shocking! If that doesn’t shock you enough, then consider the more laughable intervention of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN). MACBAN is accusing the US FBI of colluding with some leaders in Southern Nigeria to indict police officer Abba Kyari and the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) of folding its hands and failing to defend “sons of the North who have distinguished themselves in different fields (and) are constantly being persecuted and maligned at the height of their careers.” One Dr. Garus Gololo speaking on behalf of MACBAN added that “The United States is the most dishonest country in the world. What they are doing to Kyari, they did it to Al Gore. Let him stand firmly and defend himself because he is Nigeria’s future Inspector General of Police, and he mustn’t allow himself to be rattled.”
Dr Garus Galolo’s garrulousness on a subject he knows nothing about is absurd. He should shut up. Ethnicity is not the important issue in the Kyari case. The FBI does not care about whether he is from the North or the South. Apparently, the leaders of the NEF are more discerning and that is why they have been silent and watching. Dr Galolo may well be accused of trying to incite cattle breeders against the US and the NEF. The security agencies have a duty to investigate his claims. What has Kyari’s travails got to do with cattle rearing? The AYCF should also be reminded that the FBI is not interested in the dangerous little games we play here in Nigeria with ethnicity. Kyari does not represent the North. He is a police officer being accused of roguish conduct. And that point about some Southern leaders colluding with the FBI: How?
If this would be of any comfort: there was actually a semblance of Federal Character and diversity to the names mentioned in the Hushpuppi/Kyari case. The affidavit sworn to by Andrew John Innocenti, special agent with the FBI mentions the following names: Ramon Olorunwa Abbas (Nigerian/Yoruba), Abdulrahman Imran Juma (Kenyan), Vincent Kelly Chibuzo (Nigerian/probably Igbo); Abba Alhaji Kyari (Nigerian/ Kanuri), Rukayat Motunrayo Fashola (Nigerian/Yoruba) and Bolatito Tawakalitu Agbabiaka (Nigerian/Yoruba), all accused of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to engage in money laundering. At paragraphs 23 -30, the investigator identifies Abba Kyari and establishes his connection with Hushpuppi with copious references to phone numbers, conversations, newspaper articles and account numbers. So, where is the collusion with the FBI to ridicule a “Northern star?” But that is Nigeria. We play politics with everything. Instead of focussing on key issues, we reduce everything to ethnic identity. We need to know that when persons conspire to do wrong things, they don’t operate on the basis of their ethnic origins. They are united by a common purpose that is beyond ethnicity or religion. In this matter, a Ramon is caught in the same web with a Vincent and a Rukayat and Tawakalitu. They are united by a different purpose.
This cautionary point is also meant for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). The party’s spokesperson has launched an attack on the Buhari administration over the Kyari matter. Must we play politics with everything? No. It is enough to insist that nothing should be swept under the carpet and that due process must be strictly followed. This is not a Buhari matter. Kyari must answer his father’s name.
There are more lessons. The Nigerian Police can learn a lot from the diligence and professionalism of the US FBI. The depositions were first taken to court in February, again in April, but the contents were only unsealed in July. Nothing leaked. The document did not suddenly vanish from where it was kept. There was no reported case of arson that would have led to the destruction of valuable evidence. The FBI monitored conversations across long distances and gathered evidence. Young Nigerians for whom the indecent display of wealth is a major attraction should remember the stories of Hushpuppi, Invictus and all such characters and have a glimpse of their own future undoing. Hushpuppi was so popular on Instagram; many young Nigerians wanted to be like him. He wore Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Versace and displayed exotic cars. Today, he is in a lonely place. He is so lonely. He is singing and sinking. Let the law take its full course then. We hear DCP Kyari has been promptly replaced by DCP Tunji Disu as Head of the Police Intelligence Response Team. That’s life.
“Ore, I looked for you yesterday? Where were you?”
“I dey for house now? Where I for dey?”
“I actually thought you had gone to a court somewhere to do amebo. You know you like to poke-nose into other people’s matters? And yesterday was a special, historic day, with four court cases that generations yet unborn will read about”
“You have started again. You are actually the real Mr. Amebo of Nigeria. Every little thing you are ever-ready like Ever Ready Battery to do chor chor chor. Don’t you ever get tired?”
“Ever Ready Battery. Ha. You don’t forget things. Do they still make such batteries? That was when Nigeria was Nigeria and the manufacturing sector produced so much locally, and people had jobs and the country was prosperous. My uncle used to go to London almost every weekend. Money was not a problem. Nigeria itself was ever ready. But now see see…the country is a shadow of its former self. That is why you have so many angry youths all over the place. They have no sense of values. They have no memory of Nigeria’s greatness. They have been brought up on a diet of Satanic negativity.”
“Ï know. I know. I still hear some people talk about Ever Ready though. But do you know when I tried to look for Ever Ready Batteries the other day, it turned out what they now call ever ready was some sort of aphrosidiac, some kind of herbal concoction that is supposed to increase your libido, result in instant enlargement and give you unimaginable joy of celestial proportions. It was actually a woman that recommended it to me.”
“Ha. A woman. Your battery failed, and they recommended Ever Ready. I know. I know. Nigeria has become a house of sin. You are talking about a multi-billion-dollar business, by the way. From Suruka to Surutu, Kolagbo, Osomo, Koboko, Techno, Monkey Tail. Pasa-Bitters, Erujeje,..”
“Ëx-cu-se me?”
“Wafekulaleyi, Ali Baba, Wasalaye, Baby Oku, Kick and Start, Oga Nla, Jeko mo, Agbara, Dorobucchi, Opa Eyin, Dadubule, Pakurumo, Bajinotu, 301, Stone, Jabra, Japata, Jakomu….”
“Can you stop? I don’t want to talk about aphrodisiacs and the obsession of Nigerians with sin.”
“That is your problem. It is not every thing that is about big grammar. I am giving you an idea of how Nigeria has failed. How a country that used to produce scientists and intellectuals is now producing a generation of celebrities and heroes who are making billions from selling sex or beer and pleasure. We have become a nation of consumers of all sorts of depravity. We are no longer a nation of producers of ideas or executors of grand schemes. Old money in Nigeria was represented by the productive class. New money is dominated by a generation of consumers, exhibitionists and their mad, bad agents.”
“Look, this man, leave me alone. Whoever wants to drink whatever with their mouths should go ahead and do so. Our only point of agreement is that something terrible has happened to this country, and things could get worse, morally, politically and socially if we do not exercise caution and care. We need to remind ourselves of basic normative values and have a conversation around that. You see all this your beer parlour, street talk, won’t help.”
“Dey there. Dey there dey form. We are all human beings at the end of the day, I beg. You mean you don’t know that it is the entire world that has gone mad? Humanity has crossed the point of no return. That is why some wealthy men are already planning to relocate to outer space. Elon Musk. Jeff Bezos. When the human planet fails, they will enter their space jets and escape. Na you and me and people like us go remain for this Earth. Our only problem is that we will be stuck in this place called Nigeria, in the midst of rapists, kidnappers, bandits, terrorists, corporate thieves, drug barons, yahoo masters, and vote-riggers.”
“Not even Alvin Toffler was this pessimistic in The Future Wave.”
“Toffee what? Who is that?”
“Never mind. Never mind. You are not likely to know someone like that. You were talking about court cases before you digressed in your usual manner. You need to see a therapist. What about the courts?”
“I told you there were four major court cases yesterday that were of historic and significant interest, and I wanted to know whether you attended any one of them?”
“Why should I? I told you I was at home. Which cases are these?”
“You don’t mean it? Don’t go and say this in public please. People will think you have a problem.”
“I don’t get it”
“Okay let me help you out because you are too young to have dementia. Yesterday, in Abuja, Nnamdi Kanu’s case came up again at the court of Justice Binta Nyako. He was not produced in court. The security agents did not allow his supporters to even approach the court premises. At a point the Court was even closed. Lawyers were shut out of court. Imagine! His lawyers were not even notified according to due process. There were security men all over the place, harassing journalists and every one. People were arrested.”
“Hen Hen.”
“I thought you would have been there to observe and analyze the situation”
“To get involved in a matter before the court? How? That would be sub judice”
“That is not the issue here. This is a political trial. The issue is self-determination which is recognized under Article 1 of the UN Charter.”
“I am sorry, I can’t discuss this matter with you. Whatever I say will be misinterpreted by an illiterate, rampaging, insecure mob. We have lost the culture of reason and debate in this country. Every one is in their own ethnic capsule. A country that has destroyed its intellectual class is in real danger. This is what has happened to Nigeria. You were looking at Nigeria from the perspective of human libido, I am sorry, the bigger tragedy is the apparent death of ideas and the failure of capacity to think even among the most educated.”
“Who needs education anymore in this country? Just make money. Take aphrodisiacs. Dominate women and men and recruit idiots with all sorts of fake certificates and titles to worship you. That is the new Nigeria. What do you think of self-determination?”
“Ï have nothing against self-determination. It is a universal right recognized under Article 1 of the 1949 UN Charter. Many countries have broken up: India in 1947, Pakistan broke up in 1971 to produce Bangladesh, in 1776, the United States emerged out of the UK, in 1965, Singapore rose out of Malaysia, in 1993, the old Czechoslovakia became two countries: Czech Republic and Slovakia. Sudan and South Sudan used to be one country.”
“So what are you saying?”
“Ï am not saying anything. Read my lips. It is in a neutral mode. The way this country is today, you won’t know what you’d say it will be misinterpreted. That is what I was telling you earlier: the bigger tragedy in Nigeria today is the triumph of intolerance and abnormality. There is a supremacy of the lunatic fringe at work, playing all kinds of games: ethnic, political, cultural and opportunistic. When you say something, they twist it. When you don’t say anything, they put words in your mouth and use that to blackmail you. They are so energetic, the only conclusion you can reach is that this is now a country in the grips of mass psychosis. We need help.”
“So, is that why you didn’t go to Abuja?”
“Ï cannot answer that question. Did you go there yourself? Too many of you want other people to act and speak on your behalf in the public space but you are all busy acting like cowards and paid hacks. Many don’t even have the courage to bear their own father’s names. I am all in support of justice, fairness and due process, but nothing beyond that.”
“But what of Cotonou? Did you follow the court trial of Chief Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho?”
“Yes, I did, as an observer”
“You mean you were there, physically?”
“No”
“Why not?”
“Ï don’t have to be anywhere physically to know what is going on. Every revolution is on television.”
“But you know, I think it is a shame that Nigeria that used to be described as the giant of Africa is now having such domestic issues that every body is now talking about how Kenya got involved in Nigeria’s affairs, and how Republic of Benin, the same Benin that is generally regarded as the 37th State of Nigeria is now a major factor in Nigerian matters. How are the mighty fallen?”
“Kenya and Benin are sovereign states. They are independent jurisdictions. I know there are many rich Nigerians who go about boasting that the President of some African countries are their boys and Personal Assistants but it is important to know that at critical moments those same countries will assert themselves as sovereign states.”
“You mean the Republic of Benin next door will disobey the Nigerian government?”
”The last time I checked Kenya and Benin Republic are sovereign states. Nigeria is not in a position to dictate to them. Benin even has a different justice system. Its leaders would rather listen to France, their former colonial masters, certainly not Nigeria.”
“If they misbehave in Benin, common Benin, we can shut down our borders against them.”
“The last time you did, what happened? Did Benin disappear as a country?”
“You are supporting Benin Republic against Nigeria? You are one of the hidden secessionists?”
“I am not going nowhere. I am here. Na inside Nigeria I go live and die. You push me, I push am, na inside Nigeria I go live and die.”
“The more reason you should take a stand.”
“Äre you deaf? This country is becoming very tough. We all have to be very careful”
“The man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny.”
“You try. Too many Nigerians quoting statements they know nothing about.”
“You are professing cowardice. We must take our country back.”
“Why not? Go ahead. Just let me be.”
“With the way you are talking, I am sure you did not even bother to show interest in Baba Ijesha’s case on Monday? The rape case involving the Nollywood actor who was accused of raping an under-aged girl and who is now facing trial?”
“The case is now in court. It is before the judicial system. I don’t support rape or violence of any sort. But why should my going to court be an issue?”
“As a concerned citizen”
“Me?”
“Yes”
“No. Were you there yourself? Marketer of Surutu and Suruka? Is that not the same case where one Babalawo predicted the death of one actress and he, the Babalawo died before the trial began and the actress whose death he predicted was all over the court yesterday?”
“What has that got to do with you?”
“Everything. I am a Christian. I don’t walk near the valley of the shadow of Death. Those Nollywood people, their own matter na aye mo juba.”
“You are just a coward. But how about the fourth case? Yesterday Uduak Akpan, the killer of Iniobong Umoren was arraigned before a State High Court in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. He pleaded guilty.”
“Am I a spirit? You want me to be in Abuja, Cotonou, Lagos, and Uyo in one day. Look at this way: Inside Buhari’s Nigeria, everything don spoil”
“I hear say him don travel sef. He don go London.”
“Can you see now that you are a bad person? With all the things you have been saying, the man that Nigerians elected as President decided to leave town the same day, and you are asking me to put my head.”
“He went to London for medical check-up and a virtual conference about how these matters can be addressed.”
“Wh-a-at nonsense is that? How can a President go to London for a virtual conference? Don’t we have internet in Nigeria?”
“He is not alone. The President of Malawi also travelled to London with a 10-person delegation for the same virtual conference because the internet in his country is bad...”
“You are not making sense. Okay, me I dey here for Nigeria.”
“Doing what?”
“Keeping safe. Chopping isi ewu. And watching the Olympics”
“Olympics? You think Nigeria can win anything?”
“The Olympics is not about winning. It is about participating and the spirit of being part of it. Team Nigeria does not need to win anything”
“Don’t write them off. It is too early to do so.”
“But the country is not in a winning mode. That is why the other thing I do these days is to watch Big Brother Nigeria Season 6.”
“I thought you used to criticize the programme.”
“Yes. But the kind of girls that are on that programme this time around, e be like say dem get special craze. I need some therapy. Watching them alone calms down my nerves.”
“You see you are also a sinner like the rest of us. You dey watch Abeg and Patricia.”
“I confess, bros. Go see those girls first. Something dey there, no be small.”
The sociology of death and funerals is an important aspect of the African cosmogony. Parents pray that their children should outlive them in order to give them a befitting burial. They liken this to the same manner when fire dies out in the hearth, it is replaced by ashes, and when a banana tree withers, a sapling sprouts in its place. When Africans die, it is believed that they have merely travelled to another realm, and become ancestors, and hence, a funeral ceremony is a send-forth event. The death of a young person however, is considered a tragedy. This is why such obituaries are prefaced with the solemn declaration that “The wicked have done their worst”, “We love you but the Lord loves you more” or “A Painful Exit.” The tone of the elegy at a funeral is thus a function of the circumstances of the death, or the religious inclination of the family as in “With Total Submission to the Will of God…”, “Inna Lillahi wa inna Ilayhi Raji’un”. Age is indeed a factor. If the dead lived up to an old, ripe age, you are likely to see such announcements as “A Glorious Exit”, “With Gratitude for a Life Well Spent” or “Ä Celebration of Life”.
Among the Yoruba of the South West, the death of an old man or woman is described as “oku eba”, that is - a transition that is worth celebrating, with generous dollops of cassava paste. Other groups in the country also have varying patterns of burying their dead. Among Muslims generally, the burial of the dead is carried out swiftly in line with Islamic injunctions. The simplicity of Muslim burials, the solemnity and dignity of it, is incomparable to anything else I have seen, even if Muslims in the South West of Nigeria, still find an excuse to throw lavish parties that have more to do with the culture of the people, rather than the religion. One dictionary describes the Yoruba as the “fun-loving people of the South West Nigeria.” But in general, the manner of burials, the scope of the rites, the scale and tone, is a reflection of cultural norms and dominant values, at both community and individual levels across Nigeria. What is noteworthy is how the loss of a beloved family member could suddenly end up as a celebration, and the explanation for that is as complicated and diverse as the Nigerian society itself.
In this regard, something happened last week, in Oba, Anambra State, Nigeria: the funeral of the mother of a man popularly known as Obi Cubana, which would seem to be a metaphor for the collapse of values in Nigeria generally, the effect of poverty – spiritual, mental and physical – and how that pushes the people to desperate ends. The burial of Cubana’s mum may be seen as a form of celebration, she died at 75, but it was a lavish send-forth that was terribly obscene. The town of Oba has certainly never witnessed anything like that. Not even in the entire Anambra state has anyone organised anything so loud and extravagant. This was not a celebration of life. It was a celebration of Money. Obi Cubana’s mother died in November 2020. It took him more than seven months to plan the burial and when he decided that it was time for the dead to be sent forth, his obvious intention was to organise the mother of all burials, such that even the living would envy the dead and wish to die. The only problem is that not many Nigerians would rather die knowing that it is not every one that would ever get that kind of burial. Oba is ordinarily a quiet town of nine villages, located between the commercial town of Onitsha and the industrial town of Nnewi. During the civil war, it was the last frontier of the Biafran Army. But that community will now be remembered for a long time, for the burial of the mother of a certain Obi Cubana. The role played by the social media, and by Cubana’s friends is remarkable: how a country lost its moral centre and has produced a generation of new Nigerians who worship money, ego, kudi. The excitement generated among young Nigerians who could not make it to Oba but who followed the event on social media and became excited, is a measure of the extent of the crisis that Nigeria faces.
By Friday, the spectacle had begun to unfold. Social media managers of the burial who apparently had been engaged to do so – they are called influencers – told us and showed pictures, about the Obi Cubana Festival of Money. The first of the videos that I saw was that of a young man throwing Naira notes around, on the streets as if he was distributing candies to children. The notes were in packs, crisp new notes, and as each bundle was thrown at the crowd, people fell over themselves and rushed to pick up pieces. This was like a John the Baptist display. Many of Cubana’s friends and guests would soon arrive, and before they did, many of them posted on Instagram, the stacks of money they were going to spend. Cartons of Naira notes. In one post, a group of women were shown swimming in a pool, others were hanging around, scantily dressed, all looking like they had adjusted their biological features. That is now standard practice among a category of Nigerian women. They do a breast job, acquire a surgical, traffic-stopping butt, and they all look alike, fully bleached to their knuckles, with fake hair, strange eyelashes that protrude like pins, and of course foreign accents that have a combination of every dialect from Wales to mid-West America.
The boys by the pool threw money into the water and the girls scrambled to grab their share of the offering. This was the pattern throughout the burial. Naira notes, sorry bundles of Naira, were thrown about, sprayed, pasted so recklessly you would think this was a future Olympics Game, in which the athletes were preparing for a Gold Medal. Obi Cubana himself was at the centre of it all. One lady, simply identified as Livy was shown in one video throwing so many bales of money at Cubana that he exclaimed that he would need a Chest X-Ray! The way money was being thrown like pieces of cement blocks, I also thought that an ambulance should have been on standby. “Killed by money at Cubana’s mother’s burial” would have been an appropriate headline in the circumstance. The public was later informed that Obi Cubana got about 300 million Naira as contributions by his friends to bury his mother. He also received over 100 rams, and 400 cows, 46 out of that was supplied by one guy called Cubana Priest who not only announced the donation but also said that was just a tip of the iceberg.
Cubana himself did not disappoint. He wore a diamond pendant that was valued at N50 million. His mother’s casket, specially imported from wherever was said to have been about N40 million. This celebration of money was so unbelievable, the burial became a matter for social media punditry and the creation of emojis. Some people said it was certain Obi Cubana’s mother was already in Heaven as a saint, sitting on the right-hand side of the Almighty. Nobody has been to Heaven to confirm that, so we have no proof. Others said with the volume of money spent at the funeral, the Nigerian government should henceforth approach Obi Cubana for a loan and stop disturbing China, IMF and the World Bank. Other observers were worried about the source of the money that was being thrown around like confetti. Nigerian banks would also readily tell you that they don’t have new notes. They give out dirty notes to their customers. But there were more crisp, mint notes in circulation at Oba over the weekend than in the entire Nigerian banking system. And the notes were abused.
The Central Bank Act of Nigeria – Sections 5, 21 (4-5) prescribe penalties for the abuse of the country ‘s national currency. The law forbids the sale, purchase, and the plunking of the Naira, and prescribes penalties: six months imprisonment or a fine of N50, 000 or both. The penalties are so light, I don’t think they mean anything to Cubana and his friends or their likes. And why should that bother them anyway when the Oba funeral was attended by the same law enforcement officers who should know that it is an offence to abuse the Naira (truth is: policemen joined others to collect the notes that dropped on the floor), and there were lawmakers and prominent politicians in attendance too. In fact, nobody should be surprised if Cubana ends up as a Governor or Senator tomorrow. He has effectively used his mother’s burial to prove a point: that he has cash and the courage to spend it. Nigerians worship money. And that was why throughout the weekend: the popular saying was: who no dey Oba, na wahala him get? Women were turned into objects and debased. Whoever had not seen his girlfriend or wife was advised to go to Oba in Anambra State. And there was a particular video of one lady who collected up to three big bags of money, by just picking money from the floor like a mendicant! Nollywood stars fell over themselves to be seen and heard. One respected actor even got so carried away he began to act like an Area Boy on Instagram. I won’t mention his name because he is a man I like very much. Money is a Devil in Nigeria. It turns even the most enlightened into clowns.
At Obi Cubana’s mother’s burial, so-called celebrities, some of these characters who describe themselves as brands (whatever that means!) became ushers, bodyguards, “all-right-sirs” and videographers. Obi Cubana has every right to bury his mother the way he wants. But who is he? How did he make his money? How much tax does he pay to the Nigerian government? The Oba burial is over now, but the only thing anybody will remember is the Bacchanal orgy of money. I am not sure half of the people at the event even know who Cubana’s mother was. What kind of person was she? How did she relate within the community? Did she even ever see, handle, spend, a bundle of crisp Naira notes in her lifetime? Who are Obi Cubana’s family members? Does he even have siblings or extended family members? They were all blanked out! Members of the Oba community were advertised as crumb eaters. They struggled to grab the Naira notes that were thrown into the air. They stared at the money-miss-road invaders from a distance. When it was all over and the waka-come-Cubana crowd left, they struggled over the left-over crumbs of cow-meat barbecue. They were effectively reminded of their poverty.
Obi Cubana would probably not visit that community again until he needs to organise another show-off. Would it not have been better if he built a hospital in his mother’s memory? Or a school? Or a church? And then the people will remember her, and not how her son and his friends put money to shame at her funeral. And who are these friends? The kind of names that have been mentioned sound unfamiliar to me: E-Money, Internet Money, Pablo Cubana, Escoba, Jowizaza, Livy, Cubana Priest. Is the Nigerian Immigration Service, in charge of aliens and expatriates, the Nigerian Identity Management Commission (NIMC) in charge of National Identity Registration and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in charge of Homeland Security, aware of the presence of these people inside Nigeria? Who are they? And why do they spend money like that? Not even Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, or Warren Buffet will throw money around like that!
The burial of Otunba Mike Adenuga’s mother in 2005 has been compared to that of Cubana’s mother’s burial, and certainly Otunba Adenuga should feel maligned. It is an unintelligent comparison. The point that has been made is that when Adenuga was burying his mother he donated a cow to every street in Ijebu-Igbo, his home town. Yeah. But there were no drunkards throwing bales of money on the streets or cleavage-bearing women, bleached from head to toe, with artificial physiognomy and a mass of excessive protoplasm, promenading here and there, with shameless, bedmatic display. Last weekend, we saw a new definition of womanhood in Oba.
My point is about taste, class and values, not melodrama, or the right of persons to live as they wish. And here, I also draw attention to the burial about the same time of the mother of the former Managing Director of Access Bank, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, which took place in Lagos at the Tafawa Balewa Square. The contrast is striking but I bring it up because it also says something about Nigeria: the emergence of two polarized publics, both of seemingly strong weight and whose difference lies is the inherited future of our children because of the way Nigerian leaders have failed the people. The burial of Apostle Mrs Aig Imoukhuede was a dignified, classy event attended by the Nigerian establishment from politics to business and civil society. It was the celebration of a woman who achieved distinction in her own right and whose accomplishments in that regard were properly show-cased. The funeral was not about her first son, the banker, investor, philanthropist, friend of every important figure. It was, most appropriately, a celebration of her life. Nobody had any need to throw money around. Even if Mrs Imoukhuede was a trader at Oyingbo market, there would have been no need to turn her funeral into a festival of money. And yet the richest and most influential Nigerians with the strongest pedigree were there. One weekend, two burials, different tales! I leave it to you to stretch the comparison. I have made my point: Nigeria is in trouble. Young Nigerians, products of a failed leadership, worship money and fakery. The gentrified class train their children in the best schools abroad, but those same children will return to a country that would have been taken over by the Oba crowd who are sadly, the future of Nigeria. Obi Cubana, and Aig Imoukhuede, our commiserations.
It is not often that cases before a court of law become so important that they get discussed in beer parlours, open places, other rooms and generate so much public attention beyond the court room, even after judgment has been delivered by a court of competent jurisdiction. But it happens, presenting, relative to context, the spectacle of concurrence and/or populism or a conflict between the court of law and the court of public opinion. This in itself is a reaffirmation of the role of the judicial system as a social modulator, beyond strict positivism, rather than a derogation from the relevance of the judiciary. Such cases are known in legal circles as “cause celebre” either for the attendant popularity and public interest or the precedence that they establish. Nigeria found itself confronted with such a case recently with the decision taken by the Court of Justice Taiwo Taiwo (Federal High Court, Abuja) in the matter between Oluwakemi Adeosun, former Minister of Finance of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Attorney General of the Federation. This is an interesting case that has the prospects of becoming a locus classicus, in its present form or on appeal (if that happens) with regard to the issues of citizenship, appointments into public office and participation in Nigeria’s National Youth Service Corps Scheme (NYSC). I will tone down the legalisms involved, but what are the facts before us and what conclusions can we draw from this particular case?
In November 2015, Kemi Adeosun, born in 1967 in London, England, to Nigerian parents from Ogun State Nigeria, was appointed Nigeria’s Minister of Finance by the Muhammadu Buhari administration. Before that appointment, she had worked in the United Kingdom as an accounting assistant at British Telecom, London, also at Goodman Jones as a senior audit officer, as a manager at London Underground, and later at Prisms Consulting. She was also a senior manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers. In 2002, she returned to Nigeria and took up an appointment as a Financial Controller with Chapel Hill Denham Management. She became Managing Director of that company in 2010. In 2011, Adeosun was appointed Commissioner of Finance in Ogun State by then Governor Ibikunle Amosun who promised to turn around the fortunes of his home-state. Four years later, Kemi Adeosun was further elevated when she ended up as Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, after President Buhari and Governor Amosun won a second term in office as President and Governor respectively.
It was widely assumed Mrs Adeosun earned that promotion due to Amosun’s influence. Amosun is a well-known Buhari ally and a prominent member of the ruling party. As Minister of Finance of Nigeria, Adeosun, an Economics graduate of the University of East London and a Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, further ended up as Chairman of the Board of the African Export-Import Bank (AfreximBank). Her profile was something made out of a fairy tale: amazing, well supported.
In 2018, that fairy-tale turned sour when an online newspaper, Premium Times Online alleged that Mrs Adeosun illegally obtained her NYSC exemption certificate. In Nigeria, no citizen, who is a graduate, is allowed to be employed in either the private or public sector, without having gone through a mandatory one-year national service. This requirement is spelled out in Section 12 of the NYSC Act and embedded in the 1999 Constitution. Premium Times, after calling out Mrs Adeosun, promised to conduct an investigation. And it did, with unsavoury outcomes. This generated tension, ethnic politicking and a heavy dose of blame game. In the middle of all that, and the ugly implications for the integrity of the Buhari administration, Kemi Adeosun resigned from her position as Nigeria’s Minister of Finance on September 14, 2018. Her resignation letter, addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari is available online. But let me quote the following paragraph from it. She writes: “I have today become privy to the findings of the investigation into the allegation made in an online medium that the Certificate of Exemption from National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) that I had presented was not genuine. This has come as a shock to me and I believe that in line with this administration’s focus on integrity, I must do the honourable thing and resign.”
Kemi Adeosun’s resignation was an unusual thing to do in Nigeria. Most of her compatriots would never have done so. Resign from such a “juicy position” as Nigerians call it? No! But she did. And there were questions about whether she jumped or she was pushed. Other questions were asked: was she set up and sacrificed by the same man who made her Minister of Finance, her former boss, Governor Amosun? Did she herself get too big for her boots, and forgot her own beginnings? Who blew the whistle about her NYSC Exemption Certificate? As pundits went to town, Adeosun left town. She has now returned three years later, with a bang. A month ago, she got a generous mention in the newspapers as the founder of a Foundation – “the Dash Me Store”, an online thrift-for-charity initiative that she has now established to support the vulnerable in society. It was her first major public appearance in 3 years. And it wasn’t meant to be just one of those events. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo was in attendance for all the possible symbolic reasons, as Chair of the occasion. That was great optics. Adeosun may have left the country in 2018 for controversial reasons, but she has returned on a high note, with perfect timing.
For me, this was particularly confirmed by the court ruling dated the 7th Day of July 2021 in suit No: FHC/ABJ/CR/303/2021 between Folakemi Adeosun - (Plaintiff) and Attorney General of the Federation – (Defendant) before His Lordship Hon. Justice Taiwo O. Taiwo in the Federal High Court of Nigeria, Abuja Judicial Division. As it were, Kemi Adeosun had approached the Federal High Court to seek declaratory reliefs to the effect that (i) she was not under any constitutional disadvantage or prohibition at the time of her appointment as Minister with regard to her participation in the NYSC scheme, (ii) she cannot be subjected to any disability or disadvantage on the ground that she did not participate in the NYSC and that ((iii) being a United Kingdom Citizen as at 1989 when she graduated from the University of East London, UK, at the age of 22 years, she was ineligible to participate in Nigeria’s NYSC. The learned Judge observed as follows: “In brief the fact of this case is that sometime in 2018, while the plaintiff was serving as the Minister of Finance of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, it was being paraded in the public space that she did not participate in the NYSC scheme and as such ought to have been disqualified from holding the office. It was further alleged that the said insinuations have remained unabated, thereby, consistently putting the plaintiff at disadvantageous positions in the pursuit of her career, both within and outside the country, this has therefore necessitated the plaintiff to file this action.” Counsel for the defendant relying on Section 12 of the NYSC Act and Sections 147 (5) and 192 (4) of the 1999 Constitution responded accordingly. The Court decided in favour of the plaintiff and granted the declaratory reliefs in her prayers before the Court. The ruling has been heavily criticised in the court of public opinion, and that has generated as much interest as the substance of the case itself.
First, there is this argument that the court did not address the issue of certificate forgery which was the basis for Mrs Adeosun’s resignation in the first place. Those who push this line of argument forget that this was not the matter before the court. A court of law is not duty bound to embark on a voyage of discovery or offer what has not been pleaded before it with admissible evidence. Procedure is critical in law and in common parlance, the court is not a Father Christmas. In this matter, a civil suit by the way, Kemi Adeosun had approached the court to protect her reputation, to which she claims much damage had been done by the circumstances of her exit from the Nigerian government in September 2018. It is perfectly within her rights to do so, one’s reputation being so fundamental to everything else.
Second, some persons have expressed concern about the citizenship question raised in the ruling. They ask: Granted that as of 1989, when she graduated Kemi Adeosun was not a citizen of Nigeria, and therefore ineligible for participation in the NYSC scheme, under the then extant 1979 Constitution, when she then returned to Nigeria to work, what steps did she take to become a Nigerian citizen? They point out that the 1999 Constitution after all, does not automatically confer citizenship. There is a proper definition of citizenship under Chapter 3 of the 1999 Constitution, so at what point exactly did Mrs Adeosun become a Nigerian? And how could she have been appointed a state Commissioner of Finance and later, a Federal Minister if there was no understanding that she had become a Nigerian citizen although entitled to dual nationality? And why would she sue the Attorney General of the Federation? Again, these questions were not raised by the defence counsel before Justice Taiwo Taiwo. The issues for determination were clear and specific. What has been offered is a technical, Constitutional interpretation of what the law says with regard to participation in the National Youth Service Corps Scheme of Nigeria, and the legal status in that regard of all persons, of Nigerian parentage but foreign nationality, caught between the 1979 and 1999 Constitutions with regard to eligibility to participate in the scheme and the question of their citizenship. But does the ruling of the Court meet public expectations? No.
Third: Will the office of the Attorney General of the Federation appeal this ruling? I doubt. Will the Federal Government now file a suit to accuse the former Minister of Finance of the forgery of a certificate that everyone is saying is the main issue? Hmm. That won’t happen. This is Nigeria. Mrs Kemi Adeosun’s reputation with regard to the NYSC matter has been judicially restored, and all insinuations about her involvement in this quasi political-legal tango have been laid to rest. Her brother Dele Ogun has been quoted as saying Premium Times, the online newspaper, has questions to answer. So, should she sue Premium Times that generated the storm in the first place? She shouldn’t bother. There is no point fighting a battle she can’t win. Only the naïve would pick up battles with the media like those thick-headed characters who believe that they can restrict the freedom of information in society. I hope their advisers have seen the robust push-back by the Nigerian media community which started yesterday. Nigerian newspapers are now carrying placards against the government: from front-page advertorials to editorials!
It has been said that Kemi Adeosun’s legal victory is a victory for all Nigerians who were born abroad before the 1999 Constitution and who do not have to participate in the NYSC. Except that this is one case where the law does not answer all the questions. It must indeed be a fit and proper thing to serve one’s country, or even die for it. The NYSC was introduced in 1973, to move Nigeria beyond the pains and tragedy of the civil war and to promote national unity and integration. If things were normal, there would have been no reason for anyone to avoid the opportunity to serve the country. Kemi Adeosun was 22 in 1989, and she was not a Nigerian citizen. When she returned to Nigeria in 2013 at the age of 34, she was already beyond the age of eligibility for the NYSC. She has now succeeded in proving her case in court. But other foreign-born Nigerians with an eye on the future should study her case closely and learn a critical lesson about the importance of one’s roots. They need to realise that the Adeosun case does not automatically offer them any protection under the law. Adeosun probably never imagined that she would ever have anything to do with public life in Nigeria.
Many Nigerians in diaspora, a growing generation of children with Nigerian parents and foreign citizenship often overlook the umbilical manner in which they are linked to Nigeria by blood. They are proud to say that they have nothing to do with Nigeria and that they belong to other countries. But the pull of home and ancestral roots is forever strong. Most of the athletes in the D’Tigers Basketball team who represented Nigeria a few days ago and made history beating Team USA, the most dominant basketball team in the world, probably do not have a Nigerian passport, and may never have been to their ancestral home. They wore shirts emblazoned with the message: “Naija no dey carry last”. They stepped up and proved it. Every Nigerian child born in diaspora should look beyond Kemi Adeosun’s legal victory. A sense of home and roots, is the strongest DNA in our veins. The river may flow downstream into the oceans, without looking back, but it is bound to dry up if it loses touch with its source.
What is most unfortunate, however, is the crisis at home that drives a wedge between Nigerians at home and those in diaspora. While we urge the latter to identify with home, connect and remember, Nigerians born and bred at home, are in despair. They are either seeking to emigrate or secede. If they are lucky to graduate from a higher institution, they are not even happy to participate in the NYSC or serve the country. Nigeria is so insecure parents do not want their children posted to certain parts of the country. Nigeria has a way of killing dreams. The NYSC is one of those dying dreams. And that is why the Adeosun case, controversial as it seems, is bound to end up as just one of those things in the court of public opinion.
When a few weeks ago, President Muhammadu Buhari declared that those who seek to overwhelm and undermine the Nigerian state would soon be spoken to in the language that they will understand, this was immediately interpreted to serve as a signal of a declaration of war against the people of the South East because the President spoke in the context of war, as he referred to the civil war of 1967 -70. Subsequently, the President made it clear that the language of engagement would be communicated not just in the South East, but in every part of the country including the North West and North East and elsewhere in the country where attempts are being made to sabotage the sovereignty of Nigeria, and the government’s responsibility to ensure the security and welfare of the people.
Last week, Nigeria found itself in the grips of a security turmoil, and that promised confrontation with “language.” Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), and founder of the Eastern Security Network (ESN), two organisations promoting separatism or secession and committed to the actualization of a Republic of Biafra to be carved out of Nigeria, was intercepted, re-arrested/extradited, and rendered Nicodemously, back to Nigerian soil. Nigerians got to know about the operation through a press conference by the Attorney General of the Federation/Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami SAN who disclosed that Kanu was intercepted with the help of intelligence and security services. Kanu was re-arraigned in court on Tuesday, June 29.
The presiding Justice ordered that he should be remanded in the custody of the Department of State Services until July 26. Second incident: in Soka, Ibadan, DSS officials stormed the home of Chief Sunday Adeyemo, a.k.a, Sunday Igboho, the Yoruba co-promoter of the idea of an Oduduwa Nation, a modern-day defender of Yoruba territory against the incursion of criminally-minded Fulani herdsmen into the South West. The DSS has since declared Igboho a wanted man. He has reportedly said nobody can intimidate him, because he has not committed any crime and that he is in his house despite the attack on him, his aides and his properties by State Security. Third incident: the brusque manner in which the Nigeria Police put an end to the Yoruba Nation rally at the Freedom Square, Ojota, Lagos, on Saturday, July 3. Not only did the Police block the people’s right to protest (which is condemnable), the life of a young lady was snuffed out, according to one account by a stray bullet, but the police insist that she died from a knife-stab. She did not deserve to die.
These three incidents can be taken as an indication of “the language” that the President recently spoke about. It is the language of power, in form of an affirmation of the supremacy of the state. The only problem is the politics of it, the tone, nature and fall-outs and how the Nigerian government is doing the right thing in a wrong, untidy and controversial manner. What is right? And what is wrong? The Buhari administration has consistently insisted on the sovereignty of Nigeria, its indivisibility and indissolubility in line with the Preamble of the 1999 Constitution and Section 2(1) thereof, in addition to its resolve to uphold the same principles and provisions. In the face of calls for secession, restructuring and a referendum on the future of Nigeria and the state of the Union, government spokespersons have argued that whereas the Constitution can be amended, and the country can be restructured, as the people wish, this has to be done through the legislature, and not outside the extant Constitutional framework. Those who insist that the 1999 Constitution is a “military invention” and not a “Peoples Constitution” have also been told that the latter which they seek through a referendum, without the National Assembly would amount to an unconstitutional proposition. There is no provision for a people’s referendum, or any contemplation of secession or separation by any part of the Federation known as Nigeria, in the 1999 Constitution.
This is the source of the difference between the separatist groups led by the likes of Chief Sunday Adeyemo and Nnamdi Kanu and other ethnic nationalists. The latter argue that Nigeria’s 1914 amalgamation has since expired and since government is not prepared to re-negotiate the terms of the union, in the face of so much injustice, mis-governance and inequity in the land, it is better for those aggrieved groups within the Federation to re-define their own destiny. Self-determination is a universally recognised right under Articles 1(2) and 55 of the United Nations Charter. The Nigerian Government has been careful not to openly use that phrase, self-determination, but it rails against any effort to achieve that objective through the means of violence, or deliberate mobilisation to undermine Nigeria. “No responsible government will fold its arms” and allow non-state actors to overwhelm it is the common phrase we hear. Or something like the government’s responsibility to defend the rule of law or that the unity of Nigeria is non-negotiable. This is of course readily dismissed as hypocritical by those who accuse the Nigerian government of having no regard whatsoever for the rule of law, and hence no moral high ground to stand upon.
Sunday Igboho is committed to the actualization of an Oduduwa Nation, which means the South West of Nigeria pulling out of the Nigerian Federation. He also defends the Yoruba territory. He has led rallies across the South West, in Ibadan, Osogbo, Akure, Abeokuta, Ado Ekiti to sensitize and mobilize the people. The proposed Oduduwa Nation has its own anthem and a national flag. The latest rally was scheduled for Lagos, July 3. Two days earlier, the DSS attacked Igboho’s residence in Ibadan in the middle of the night. In the case of Nnamdi Kanu, he had been arrested by the Nigerian government in 2015, and taken to court on a nine-count charge of treasonable felony and other offences. IPOB which he leads was later proscribed and declared a terrorist group. In April 2017, Kanu was granted bail, under strict conditions. In September 2017, he jumped bail and became a fugitive from the law. He was declared wanted.
While on the run, Nnamdi Kanu and his associates sustained an attack on Nigeria through propaganda and other organised activities in the South East. Without a doubt, both Igboho and Kanu had become persons of interest to the Nigerian state. Igboho had been invited in the past by the police. There was also an unsuccessful attempt by state agents to kidnap him on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway on one occasion. Igboho has remained undeterred. He has pursued his Yoruba Nationalism with gusto. It is not beyond the state to take an interest in him. As for Kanu, what the state has proven in his case is that whereas the will of the state may be slow, it will eventually prevail, and that nobody is above the laws of the land. The argument that Kanu is a British citizen offers neither a defence or immunity under the law. Dual nationality which Nigerian laws recognise does not grant anyone the right to or seek to, overwhelm the Nigerian state and expect the affected state to look the other way.
What is wrong is how Nigeria has handled the two cases in question. Igboho’s house was attacked in the dead of the night, ostensibly without prior notice, in a Gestapo style reminiscent of those locust years of military dictatorship. The DSS claims that its team was attacked as it approached Igboho’s residence. So? In the absence of any prior notice, the DSS team could well have been regarded as intruders coming to do harm. Given his circumstances, any reasonable person would expect Igboho to have security arrangements at his home to keep intruders out. Did the DSS officials identify themselves before approaching the house, like the use of a Public Address system asking Igboho to surrender himself? In trying to assert the might of the state, the DSS adopted extra-legal tactics. Two persons were killed including an aide who was reportedly on a praying mat. Wives, including Igboho’s wife, were carted away, and released later. 13 persons ended up in custody. The vehicles in the compound were sprayed with bullets and damaged. This certainly cannot be a standard security agency operating procedure. DSS said it was acting on a tip off that Igboho was stockpiling arms in his home. The man says the few arms and ammunition that have been paraded do not belong to him. He is a traditionalist he insists, who deploys metaphysical powers. The DSS team was looking for arms, but they also ended up killing and arresting Igboho’s cats. Cats! Ologbo Iya agba. Ologbo Ijeun. Meow, Meow. Pussy Cat. How ridiculous. Did the cats also resist the invasion of Igboho’s residence?
The international community must be having a good laugh at Nigeria’s expense about this cruelty to animals and the ethno-theological assumption that it is possible for Sunday Igboho, a human being, to turn into a cat to escape arrest. The US SEAL Team came all the way to Nigeria in October 2020, on a special security operation to rescue a 27-year-old Philip Walton who had been kidnapped in Niger and brought to Nigeria. It was a precision operation, driven by science and professionalism. Nigerian security agents are always busy looking for fetish objects. Many of our own security agents will be better off joining the Vigilante, the Amotekun, the hunters’ guild or Ebube Agu. Igboho’s cats have not yet been paraded by the DSS. Those cats should also be allowed to have their day in court and their charges properly read out to them. I have no doubts that there will be more than enough lawyers who will take up their matter, pro bono, to make the simple argument that under Nigerian laws, an animal is not a juristic entity. Until that matter is determined, nothing must happen to those cats. Everything must be done to ensure that they do not end up in anybody’s pot of soup as a captured delicacy and spoil of war!
It is this same sloppiness that we have seen in the Kanu case. Ordinarily the matter should not have generated any controversy at all. A man runs away from the law. The law catches up with him. Simple. He should have his day in court. But the whole thing has been turned into something else because of the lack of clarity about the circumstances of his arrest. The Nigerian Government has not even disclosed how and where he was arrested, the international agencies or governments that provided support, and how he was brought back into the country. The secrecy has now given room to needless speculation, confusion, and conspiracy theories. The Kenyan authorities have said for example that he was not arrested in Kenya. Persons close to him insist that not only was he arrested in Kenya, he was also tortured by Kenyan officials before he was handed over to the Nigerian authorities. By doing the right thing wrongly, the Nigerian government is gradually turning the narrative against itself, and turning both Igboho and Kanu into heroes among their supporters, and across ethnic constituencies in the South and the Middle Belt. We have now reached a point whereby Nnamdi Kanu’s supporters in the South East are supporting and defending Sunday Igboho of the South West and vice versa.
The emerging conversation is gradually focussing on due process, the right to self-determination and why in speaking language to power, the Nigerian state has not deemed it necessary to arrest anyone involved in attacks on the sovereignty of Nigeria in the Northern parts of the country. Questions: Can the point be confidently made, that it is only in the South that non-state actors challenging the integrity of the state can be found? How about the Boko Haram and ISWAP in the North East and the bandits in the North West? Only yesterday, Boko Haram reportedly appointed a Governor of its own to oversee parts of Borno State. Why is the government not going after whoever is the co-called Boko Haram Governor? Will he appoint Commissioners too and collect tax? Why are Boko Haram terrorists being approached for negotiation and offered chances of rehabilitation unlike agitators in the South? These are the kind of questions being raised. No government that expects to be taken seriously can afford to lay itself open to such charges of double standards. Other commentators have gone further to insist that what needs to be addressed are the specific issues that continue to throw up non-state actors who question the value of the Nigerian state: these are issues of equity, fairness, justice, good governance and ensuring a collective sense of ownership and belongingness among Nigerians, not through vapid rhetoric but concrete actions. It is not an accident that these latter points are captured in spirit, in the communique issued at the conclusion of the meeting of the 17 Governors of Southern Nigeria held in Lagos on Monday, July 5, 2021.
The Government of Nigeria needs to manage the crisis of confidence it faces. It needs to rebuild trust. It can start by ensuring that the right things are done in an open and just manner, that is fair to all parties concerned. And the security agencies must play their own part by always acting professionally. On Saturday in Lagos, a young lady who was not even part of the Yoruba Nation rally lost her life. In less than 24 hours the Lagos Police Command told the public that no policeman fired any shots at all (something that was seen on television!), and that the victim did not die as a result of gunshot wound (did the police carry out an autopsy to determine the cause of death so fast?). State officials must learn to be truthful, otherwise whatever they do or say will be politicised and treated with doubt and suspicion.
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“Where have you been, you this guy?”
“Omo, I no go deceive you. I just meet this girl wey dey turn my head. Shey you know, I no go deceive you. You don’t need to die to discover Heaven. Heaven is right here on earth, except you have not been lucky to discover it. This my new babe hen, I am convinced that she descended from Heaven at a special moment of the Lord’s intervention”
“I hope nobody has given you vegetable to eat. You sound like you are under a spell. I asked you where you have been and all you are telling me is how you met a girl as if you are in a trance. Well, I must assume you are talking about your wife”
“Which wife? That one? You don’t get it.”
“Ï don’t. Whatever has come over you, I pray in the name of the Lord Jesus will leave you. Because I don’t know why men will see danger and embrace it with their full chest.”
“Leave matter. Don’t Pastors also see women they love and desire, and they keep their Bible aside and obey the call of flesh, the evidence of their eyes and submit themselves to their own humanity and nature? Leave matter.”
“So, when are you going to introduce me to this your new woman that you are so ecstatic about? What is her name? When do I get to meet her?”
“Whenever you want to meet her. Almost a virgin. Fresh. Innocent. Her name is Chidinma.”
“Yeh! Blood of Jesus! Blood of Jesus!”
“Are you alright?”
“What did you say her name is, just now?”
“Chidinma”
“Oh Jesus! Ore, why are you doing this to yourself? You wan die? One Chidinma has just been paraded by the police in Lagos in a homicide case. She has been accused of killing one of your type, a successful young man with a great future, an entrepreneur with skills and talent, who gave access to a young woman, and ended up dying through her. Such a tragic story, such a sad event, it should make every man run away from any woman that bears the name Chidinma”
“Are you okay? Are you listening to yourself? You run the risk of group defamation. Every Chidinma in Nigeria should sue you, individually and collectively.”
“Na you sabi. I beg. Ï am speaking for myself. Since that tragedy was reported, I have been thinking of the pains of Michael Usifo Ataga’s family. He was someone’s son, cousin, brother, husband and a father too. He had a whole world ahead of him. It was even a day to his birthday. His family was looking forward to celebrating him at 50. And then the devil showed up in the shape of Delilah, Cleopatra and Helen of Troy, and destroyed him. I feel the pain in my bone marrows. These days, when I hear the name Chidinma or Adaora, I break out in sweat.”
“You see, this is the problem with you people. You like conspiracy theories. So, because one Chidinma committed a crime, every Chidinma has now become a villain. For your information, Chidinma means “My God is beautiful”. And Adaora means “the daughter of all,” that is the people’s daughter. What is in a name? When a crime is committed, it is for the police to do their work, and ensure justice. The case you are talking about has nothing to do with the name of the suspect. Candidly, I no longer understand how people reason in this country. Is it the poverty? Or the bad politics?”
“After what happened last week, if I hear Chidinma or Adaora, na race be that oh. A girl of 21 years, going out with a man of 50, and yet she killed him in such a gruesome manner. The whole story does not even make sense to me. It does not add up. It is a story about poverty, greed, peer influence, drug abuse, parental upbringing, infidelity, and frustration. Yes, every man should be careful and avoid an amoral life, but that is no reason why the Chidinma, undergraduate of the University of Lagos should kill, drug, tie up and destroy.”
“What if you hear Mary? You go run?”
“That is my mother’s name. Don’t bring my mother’s name into this matter.”
“You see yourself then? Are you aware that the alleged murderer had a fake identity with the name: Mary Johnson.? Will you now start running away from every Mary? What has happened is not funny? Nigerians should stop misbehaving, creating all kinds of theories and misinforming people. In case you don’t know, the Ataga family has issued a statement, appealing to the public to stop turning a family tragedy into a material for malice and mischief. I think their feelings should be respected. The police should be allowed to do their work. All self-appointed detectives should be told: Enough! And that should be enough”
“Since you know all of that, then people like you should learn your lesson. Stay with your wife. If you must have a girlfriend, then Know Your Customer. It is called KYC. Stay away from girls from problematic backgrounds. Don’t get carried away by young girls with so-called innocent looks. Mata Hari had innocent looks but she was evil. Every femme fatale is a vamp. Delilah. Helen of Troy. Cleopatra. And above all, don’t play around with drugs.”
“Thank you, preacher. Let he who is innocent cast the first stone.”
“Very sad the way tragedy occurs in this country unabated. It can get to somebody, you know, and it is beginning to get to me. I was reading the newspapers the other day, just going through an accumulated pile. I was depressed. If Chidinma is not murdering Michael, Maryam is killing Abubakar, Funke kills Femi, one husband kills his wife because of N2, 000, one fellow accuses his mother of being a witch and decides to kill her, a jealous step-mother throws her step son into a well, someone abducts another man’s wife and rapes her for five months, herdsmen kill farmers, farmers kill cows and herders and their kinsmen, a group of avengers claim they will ensure the permanent recession of Nigeria and humiliate the government, some other groups want to secede.. Is there hope? Tell me, where does our hope lie, those of us who fought for this democracy? Can someone help me make sense of this unending deluge of sad news?”
“Oh come on, there is hope. This is the way it has always been with Nigeria since independence. Things go wrong. But just when you think the country will collapse, it suddenly bounces back. What we need is Love. Unity. Understanding. The problem is that too many of our people are quick to imagine the worst. But I can tell you, Nigeria will survive.”
“But some prophets have said the country will break up. I know one or two Pastors who insist that Nigeria has come to an end.”
“You must stop listening to those spellbinders, futurologists and shamanists. Most of them do not know what they do.”
“It is the word of God. Can’t you see the signs?”
“What signs?”
“Are you not aware that a group of Southern and Middle Belt leaders have approached the African Union, the UN, the World Bank and the IMF that they must no longer do business with Nigeria, and must never give the country any loans, because the sovereignty of the country is now being disputed?”
“Don’t worry yourself. Nothing will come out of it. I can assure you that all of those institutions you have mentioned will continue to do business with Nigeria and even grant more loans.”
“But what of the restive youths of the Niger Delta who are threatening to humiliate the entire country? There is Operation Humble by the Niger Delta Avengers which is even led by a woman, former Field Commander of Operation Red of 2016 now Brigadier General Tu-ere, also known as Queen of the Creeks. A woman! There is also the Reformed Niger Delta Avengers, leading Operation No Mercy Alpha Piper Zero Oil. We also have the Niger Delta Liberators. They all want to cripple Nigeria.”
“No worry yourself. Na today?”
“There are separatist groups everywhere. In the East. In the West. In the South South.”
“Na so e dey be any time a major election is around the corner. Everything na hustle. Nobody dey go anywhere. Is it not this same Nigeria all of us dey inside?”
“Ï think it is different this time around. People are genuinely aggrieved and upset. Nigeria is at a breaking point. You make everything sound so light.”
“Too much grammar. That is our problem. And I keep saying do not focus on the moment, do a trend analysis of Nigerian politics over the years. When people need something, they will make noise, agitate, threaten to pull down the roof but when you speak to them in the language they understand, they will calm down and Nigeria will move on”
“Of course. That is exactly how Nigerian leaders keep postponing the evil day until one day, monkey will go market he no go return. This is the root cause of the civil war, the June 12 crisis, the menace of military autocracy, the #EndSARS protests, the thinking that some people can seize the reins of power and treat the people shabbily, refuse to listen to them and simply assume that nothing will happen. But I think we are dealing with a new Nigeria. There is a new generation that has emerged that can no longer be taken for granted the way their parents were. They are fighting back in all ways, from rented slaughter beds, short-time joints, to the streets.”
“That is what you think.”
“That is what I know. The dynamics have changed. This new generation is on drugs, they are high on all kinds of substances, they don’t care, they are not afraid of any authority figures. On top of it all, they are educated and outspoken, and they have access to technological means of instant communication. My advice is that the political elite should stop daring them. They will kill and maim, and look innocent. Nigeria has created demons, waiting to strike.”
“Can I make some predictions?”
“Ï thought you just condemned prophets and pastors a while ago”
“Yes, I did. But I want to speak as a pragmatist. Stop giving yourself hypertension. Nigeria is this. Nigeria is that. For example, have you not seen the desperation with which politicians have been fighting over party primaries in all the major political parties in Anambra State? The desperation. The theatre. PDP. APC. APGA. Does that give you the impression that everyone has given up on this country? No. All the gladiators have followership. They are all convinced that there is still something of value in this country. After their crisis-ridden political primaries, they have all rushed to Abuja to take instructions from the centre.”
“The Igbo political elite do not represent their people”
“Who told you that? So do the Yoruba or Fulani political elite represent their people?”
“Ï don’t know”
“My friend, wake up. Stop getting sick over Nigeria’s problems. Spread love. Get yourself one young girl who can make you happy, and drive away your sorrows.”
“God forbid. I choose to be on the level.”
“Everything God. God. Have you forgotten that everything good and ugly, the Lord makes them? It is the way of the universe. It is the way the Grand Architect has made it all.”
“No. I am okay. And you have not answered my original question before you went off on a tangent about how Nigeria is in a safe and secure place and how the obvious signs of implosion mean nothing to you”
“What was your question again?”
“Is there something to hope for? I no longer feel safe in this country. I can just pack my bags now, take my children and relocate to Canada with all my frustrations! Arrrgh!”
“And I told you to stop panicking”
“When even a nationalist and stateman like Baba Olusegun Obasanjo is panicking. He says population explosion is a ticking time bomb in Nigeria. By the year 2050, Nigeria could be the third most populated country in the world. A time could come when Nigeria could be the country with the largest population. Imagine the crisis that will occur. There will be an explosion of poverty, criminals, separatists, decayed infrastructure and too many useful idiots in high and low places.”
“Are you sure you the former President made that statement?”
“Yes. He was very factual, analytical and on point. Brilliant submission as always.”
“Of course. But I recall once reading a book by the same Baba Obasanjo in which he listed his biological and adopted children. I believe I saw more than 20 names, his direct personal contribution to the Nigerian population, not to add an emergent family tree that includes grandchildren and great grandchildren. Baba is my role model. I will like to be like him, and when we get to that stage, can we then discuss the population of Nigeria?”
“You always like to twist people’s thoughts.”
“Listen to me, don’t let anybody give you headache in this country. Get smart. Niger Delta Avengers claim they will humiliate Nigeria. I hope they have heard that electric cars are now in Nigeria, even at the University of Lagos, and that the same Nigeria has accidentally discovered about 206 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves in addition to another 600 billion cubic feet. Accidentally! And the man that disclosed that information is a son of the Niger Delta, Minister of State, Timipre Sylva”
“The gas belongs to the people of the Niger Delta. That is the elephant in the room. The accidental discovery does not change anything.”
“You still don’t get the language. Okay. Okay.”
“Nothing is okay”
“Okay then”
Some of the major challenges bedevilling the electoral process in Nigeria, and thus abbreviating the integrity of democracy in the country include over the years: lack of access to polling units, the location of polling units in problematic parts, overcrowding, conflict, violence, the designation of places like shrines, mosques, churches and private residences as polling units which grant the owners of such premises unassigned powers of control over the voting process. There is also the general climate of fear, opaqueness, insecurity and manipulation during every election season. Last week, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) made notable progress in addressing these challenges when it announced the completion of its delienation of new polling units for the country.
The last time new polling units were defined in Nigeria was 25 years ago by the defunct National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON), as INEC was then known. At the time the country had on the voters’ register, 50 million voters. Over the years, it worked with an estimate of 120, 000 polling units across the country but an eventual census put the exact figure at 119, 973 polling units. As the number of voters nationwide increased, the number of polling units remained static. Section 22 of the Electoral Act says each polling unit is not supposed to have more than 500 registered voters. But as more persons attained the age of franchise (18 in Nigeria), the polling units became congested, with many of them serving up to 2, 000 to 3, 000 voters. As new communities also emerged, especially in urban centres, voters had to travel long distances to get to the next available Polling Unit (PU). Many did not even bother, because of the stress involved, and so voter turn-out in every election was not a true reflection of the people’s commitment. Analysts often explained this away superficially as voter apathy whereas there were underlying constraints that needed to be addressed.
In 2007, the predecessor of the current INEC Chairman, namely Professor Attahiru Jega tried to update the polling units in the country to reflect the changing voter statistics and demographics. The exercise ran into troubled waters on the grounds of ethnicity and religion. Jega’s INEC was accused of trying to give advantage to the North. He tried again in 2014. The exercise was, after a pattern, sabotaged by the politics of suspicion and motive-reading. In 2019, Jega’s successor, Professor Mahmoud Yakubu also tried to bring the polling units in line with realities. He also failed. What is common to all those earlier efforts is that the exercises were proposed very close to the elections in 2007, 2015, and 2019, and hence, in a country where there is mutual suspicion and angst, and doubts about the integrity of electoral umpires, the populace was sceptical. So, what has Mahmoud Yakubu done this time that is different? It has been a week since the new polling units were announced: a total of 56, 872 new polling units have been added, bringing the country’s total number of polling units up to 176, 846. Despite the fact that the 19 states of the North and the FCT got additional 31, 196 polling units, and the 17 Southern states an additional 25, 676 polling units, there has been no usual outcry about ethnicity and imbalance or complaints about any surreptitious attempt to manipulate the figures. The expected reaction may be delayed, especially as INEC has promised to publish the entire list of polling units in 37 volumes ahead of the commencement of the Continuous Voters’ Registration Exercise on June 28.
What is different however, is that INEC has conducted this exercise far ahead of the 2023 General elections. The new polling units have been created out of voting points and voting point settlements which the electoral body introduced during the 2019 general elections to enhance access and the sovereignty of the voter. When the process of reviewing what was done in 1996 began, the Joint Senate and House of Representatives Committee on INEC received over 10, 000 requests from 26 states of the Federation for new polling units to be created in their areas. In the end, INEC has arrived at an addition of 56, 872 polling units. It also consulted not just the National Assembly but groups in civil society, including the political parties and development partners. The inclusiveness of the process must have helped but INEC must now go a step further and publish the entire volumes of the designated polling units. Transparency is crucial. That should provide opportunities for scrutiny, review and amendments where necessary.
INEC’s efforts in solving a 25-year electoral riddle is commendable. With the expansion of polling units, voter access and representation will be enhanced. The average voter would not have to travel across kilometres to get to the nearest polling station. The problem of congestion has also been addressed. Room has also been created for the test-running of the new structure long before the 2023 General elections. These new polling units will first be used beginning with the November 6, 2021 Gubernatorial election in Anambra state, and subsequently in the Area Council elections in the Federal Capital Territory, February 12, 2022, Ekiti state gubernatorial election on June 18, 2022 and the one in Osun state scheduled for July 16, 2022.
What many Nigerians would even find more instructive is the announcement by the INEC Chairman that 749 polling units have been removed from inappropriate places: shrines, churches, mosques and private residences. The figure that has been announced is probably modest. The publication of the polling units must provide room for the electorate to help identify more of such strange locations where the integrity of the electoral process has been routinely compromised. This may sound strange to the international community or even to the uninitiated in the mores of Nigerian politics. But it is true. Can you imagine anyone walking into an open, communal shrine in a village, with the Chief Priest wearing INEC tags, asking the voter to support a particular party? How much freedom of choice can voters exercise under such circumstances? Every election season, pastors and imams also become agents for candidates and political parties as they struggle to support members of their own faith, and clients. They help to rig elections and cheat in God’s name. Nigerian clerics do not see anything sinful or criminal in this regard. Their moral compass is dictated by the conviction that “heaven indeed only helps those who help themselves.” There is so much doubtful spirituality in Nigerian politics.
Traditional rulers are just as notorious. You can’t run for an electoral office in Nigeria without visiting the traditional rulers in your constituency. They are regarded as men of influence and authority who can determine electoral outcomes by simply telling their people what to do. Many of them are partisan politicians in traditional garbs. When they tell you that a traditional ruler does not promote any political party, or that he is everyone’s father, believe that and deceive yourself. Even if a particular traditional ruler would not support you and you know, you still must go to his palace to pay homage and receive prayers and the blessing of ancestors. Yes, those ancestors! Nigeria must be one of the very few countries in the world where the dead also have a say in elections: they are served kolanuts, bitter kola and exotic drinks! During the 2019 elections, we visited a particular traditional ruler, a few days to the election. When the king invited us to his living room after a reception in the palace premises, the first thing I noticed was a big box beside the king’s throne. It contained voters’ cards! Someone had actually told us that every election season, this particular king controls most of the polling units in his domain, and no one would dare challenge his directives. On election day, there were reports in other communities as well, of traditional rulers similarly acting as party contractors, and landlords threatening tenants with eviction or increased rent.
It is therefore, precisely for this same reason that I think good as the expansion and enhanced delineation of polling units by INEC may be, certain other critical steps would still have to be taken to safeguard the integrity of Nigerian elections. First on my list is the legal framework for elections. In 2018, the proposed amendment of the Electoral Act 2010 ran into troubled waters because the President refused to give his assent to the Bill, the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2018, as passed by the National Assembly. The excuse then was that the process was out of time, given the closeness of the submitted Bill as amended, to the 2019 general elections. The President refused to give his assent on three different occasions. The 9th National Assembly, upon its inauguration in June 2019, promised to make the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, a major priority to be treated expeditiously. Public hearings on the Bill have been concluded since December 2020, there was even a retreat of lawmakers over it in January 2021 but the federal legislators have been crawling at snail speed over this Bill and others, such as The Petroleum Industry Bill. They have been playing deaf and dumb.
It is as if there is a deliberate attempt to frustrate demands by the electorate and other stakeholders for a modernisation of the electoral framework in Nigeria in line with observed realities and omissions. The Senate President, Dr Ahmad Lawan even promised that the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2021 would be ready by May 2021. One major concern is that in 2021, Nigeria should be able to have an electronic voting system, INEC must have a national data base through which results can be collated real-time with the aid of technology in order to ensure the transparency of outcomes. Many stakeholders have also called for a review of the cost of electoral participation, access for persons living with disabilities, and specific provisions to enhance women participation. There is obviously no political will to reform the electoral system. Ahead of the Continuous Voters Registration exercise beginning June 28, INEC has now introduced an online Voter Enrolment Device to enable voters register online. It should be possible for Nigerians to vote online as well. A hybrid system can be experimented with, whereby disadvantaged voters without access to technology can vote physically at polling units while in the urban centres, technology can be deployed. For this to work, INEC must have enough time to test run the new reforms. As things stand, the extant Electoral Act 2010 makes no allowance for the use of technology. Without the much-needed electoral reform, INEC’s innovations may be of no serious consequence.
The reviews of the 2019 elections by INEC and the high volume of litigations that followed the elections clearly indicated that the politicians and the political parties are part of the problem, if not the main problem, with elections in Nigeria. In the absence of an Electoral Offences Tribunal and the lack of capacity to pursue electoral offenders, big or small, to bring them to justice, Nigerian politicians have learnt to operate like bandits. They kidnap votes, disrupt the system, cheat, rig, promote violence with the aid of able-bodied thugs, high on dangerous, mind-altering drugs, and they get away with it. INEC Chairman Mahmoud Yakubu has also been preaching to Nigerian politicians to ensure internal democracy among their ranks, and to avoid a situation whereby excessive litigations place electoral outcomes at the mercy of the courts. Professor Yakubu’s admonitions sound like mere wishful thinking. For the Nigerian politician, the end justifies the means. He is groomed to win elections by any means possible, and those means do not exclude the assassination of opponents, arson, blackmail, and assault. The key strategy is this: win at all costs and let the opponent go to court. When the matter gets to the courts, another level of mischief is initiated. Nigerian judges are not as neutral as they should be in election matters. From dubious arithmetic to inverted judicial activism, Nigerian courts have gifted elections in surprising manners without ever stating their reasons. The INEC Chairman may preach as he wishes, but what powers does he have to stop the Nigerian judiciary from jumping into the arena of partisan politics?
Insecurity is another thing to worry about. In the last two years alone, 42 INEC facilities have been attacked in 14 different locations across the country. It got so bad INEC had to appeal to the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency over INEC units nationwide. The leadership of the electoral body also visited the President to present a detailed report. They were told that the government would ensure that those attacking INEC facilities will soon have “the shock of their lives.” Nobody knows what that means. What is known is that the biggest threat to future elections is the general insecurity in the country. INEC has increased the number of polling units. It does not have enough staff to man every polling unit. Every election season, it recruits ad hoc staff, which means from November 6, 2021 in Anambra, INEC would recruit more ad hoc staff. But who will allow his or her daughter or relation to work for INEC when there are threats that no election will be allowed in the South East? With kidnappers and separatists running riot? It is the same in the South West where promoters of the Oduduwa Nation have warned politicians to stay away from the 2023 elections. Will the Nigerian government provide security and protect the integrity of future elections? Otherwise, INEC will be grossly handicapped.
Matters have not been helped by the President’s contemptuous and divisive rhetoric on the key issues agitating the minds of the people. President Buhari says nobody will be allowed to restructure Nigeria under his watch because there is nothing to restructure. “No country will allow that”, he says. He is also opposed to the idea of a completely new Constitution. He has declared that his government will speak to those who want to dismember Nigeria in “the language they will understand”. President Buhari at the twilight moment of his tenure should be more concerned about his legacy. The least he can do, is to leave behind a Nigeria that does not tip over the edge of the precipice, after him.
I have been privileged to interview quite a number of world leaders in the course of my journalism career. These include President Olusegun Obasanjo, President Ketumile Masire of Botswana, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Commonwealth Secretary General Shridath Ramphal, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan etc..not to talk of holding the microphone across the world in the presence of countless Presidents in my then capacity as President Goodluck Jonathan’s spokesperson. But no other encounter held as much memory and nostalgic feelings for me as my return to the Aso Rock Presidential Villa on Wednesday, June 9 to interview Nigerian incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari.
It was my first return, not to the Villa itself, but to the President’s Residence since President Jonathan was driven out of that environment on May 29, 2015. As I walked from the parking lot in the Residence as we call it, I took in the familiar surroundings. I recalled I used to walk along the same paths, on a daily basis, as frequently as duty demanded. One day, we all followed our principal out of the Main Gate. How transient power can be. A sense of home and exile is definitely imprinted on the pavestones in the corridors of power. Today, you can pound it as if you were the mason who arranged the interlocking stones. Tomorrow, you could be exiled by circumstances from the same space, and your brief sojourn, with the effluxion of time, becomes a distant, fading memory.
As I stepped on every stone leading to the Residence, my mind travelled to the past. I felt as if I was in a trance. I was soon woken up by the words of welcome of the security men at the entrance. I was surprised some of the boys from the past were still on duty. Past the security check-point is the Red Carpet, the outer reception of the Residence. I walked in and sank into a seat. Red Carpet! This was where President Jonathan held his early morning devotions, with members of his family and some aides who were always in the Villa for early morning worship. The Christian devotion usually started around 6 am, by which time, in those days, the President would have shown up at the Red Carpet to start the day with prayers. Christian Presidents in Nigeria usually appoint a Chaplain for the church in the Villa. His job includes overseeing this early morning devotion. The red carpet was also where we, members of the President’s Main Body – Special Adviser Media, Chief Physician, SCOP, CSO, ADC, Chief Detail, PA, often sat if the President was sitting in the main living room, attending to a guest and we needed space to chat and relax. I saw some members of President Buhari’s Main Body last week also sitting in that same Red Carpet, as we waited. It was like old times. I was in the Villa with Prince Nduka Obaigbena, Chairman of the Arise/ThisDay Media Group, owners of ThisDay newspaper and Arise TV, along with Olusegun Adeniyi, former Presidential spokesperson during the Yar’Ádua administration, now Chairman of the ThisDay Newspaper Editorial Board, and Ms Tundun Abiola, lawyer, daughter of the late Chief MKO Abiola, winner of the 1993 June 12 Presidential election and Arise TV anchor, to interview President Buhari.
The interview was aired on Thursday, June 10 during The Morning Show on Arise TV and has been repeated in other bulletins on the station since then. This is one media interview that has generated more commentary than any other in the past five years in Nigeria. Quotes have been taken from it. It has been curated to the last detail. It has been reproduced on virtually every channel, local and international. Essays have been written on it and every part of it dimensioned for analysis. This particular media interview has thus exerted an elephantine impact on the public imagination with each viewer or commentator slicing off his or her own share of the meaty conversation. Others have described it as an exclusive and a scoop.
On Friday, June 11, another interview with President Buhari was aired by the government-owned Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) but that has been treated as an anti-climax, an afterthought and a veritable evidence of the lack of trust in government and its institutions. Nonetheless, the excitement that has been demonstrated over the Buhari interview(s) owes in part to the status of public perception about the President’s unwillingness to communicate directly with the people who elected him into power in 2015 and 2019. For the better part of his six years in power, President Buhari has engaged more with Nigerians through third parties, spokespersons and press statements. Other Presidents before him appeared regularly on Presidential Media Chats during which they responded to the people’s concerns. Not this President. In six years, he has not granted one Presidential media chat. Other Presidents gave one on one interviews to media houses, or even stand-up interviews with reporters. This President has been unusually reticent and absent. On the few occasions that he has spoken to the press, he did so with foreign journalists, a counter-productive move that merely infuriated Nigerian stakeholders. As his spokespersons churned out press releases and statements clarifying previous releases, in the face of rising wave of insecurity, violence and confusion in the land, Nigerians demanded that they would rather have the man they voted for speak to them.
The absence of the President’s personal voice eventually resulted in conspiracy theories which flourished unabated. Opposition elements argued that Nigeria no longer had a President but a Presidency that had been taken over by a cabal. They argued that the elected President died a while ago and had been replaced by a body clone called Jibrin from Sudan. For effect, they added that even the First Lady was aware of this and hence, her trenchant criticisms of the government and her husband’s aides. Commentators like Farooq Kperogi, claiming insider knowledge of Aso Villa and its actors, in seductive prose, told Nigerians many tales about how their President had succumbed to a combination of dementia and senility and government had been taken over by unscrupulous persons who call the shots in the President’s name. The big lesson in retrospect is that when a President distances himself from the people, and refuses to engage them as we see leaders in other parts do, he unwittingly encourages conspiracy theories about a vacuum in power and the politics of absence and/or indifference at the highest levels.
Whoever advised President Buhari to grant media interviews last week and also address the nation on Saturday, June 12, did him a big favour. The intensity of media appearance was a good move, even if it came rather late. Nigerians may disagree with some of the things the President said in his media outings, but many of the myths constructed around him have been exploded, and that must be helpful to his administration. The man that our team sat with and interviewed didn’t sound like a Jibrin from Sudan. He was alert, alive, informed, confident, relaxed, witty and capable of disarming humour. He was not the invalid or the senile old man that his critics say he is. He didn’t sound weak either. As the interview progressed, he had another function that he needed to attend, and we didn’t leave the Villa until about 11 pm. Less than 12 hours later, the same man, the following day was in Lagos to commission rail, maritime, and security projects. His submission to a media conversation is also a form of protection for his spokespersons. Many have accused Garba Shehu, Femi Adesina and Alhaji Lai Mohammed of speaking for themselves, and not for the President, but we have all seen a President, speaking for himself, whose views do not contradict what his aides have been telling us. Our interview with him also proved the point that there is no doubting the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari is effectively in charge. He knows what is going on. And he showed no hesitation in restating some of his reported views and taking ownership of them despite the controversial nature of those views. Every President has his or her own style but deliberately playing possum should not be part of that style. President Buhari should speak more often to Nigerians. He should sit down at Presidential media chats. Nigeria is not a feudal system where the aristocrat treats the people with disdain. In a democracy, the man of power is accountable to the people who expect their leaders to continually justify why they must be in power and office.
The reactions to our interview have been mixed, I guess, understandably. The problem with being a journalist however, is that everyone claims to know the job better than the man in the arena, more so because Nigeria is afflicted by a yet undeclared pandemic that I have since labelled opinionitis. We must get a vaccine for that. Nigeria is the only country I know where everybody is a universal expert on every subject, including the mating habits of porcupines and the nightlife of witches and wizards. People wake up in the morning with ready-made opinions even about news that they have not read or seen, and they are ready to go town with all the energy they woke up with. With due respect, I think our team asked serious and relevant questions, which brought out Buhari, the man, the person, the persona and the leader. But Nigerians still raise questions. I have been told for example that when the President said he would keep the question about what his government intends to do about Twitter to his heart, we should have followed up with an attack. Fine. The President spoke his mind. But were we supposed to rip out his heart from his chest to find out what he was keeping there? His answer was revealing enough. When he spoke about the neighbouring Republic of Niger, he focussed more on the economic advantages of engaging Niger, on government to government, business to business and people to people basis, but the only word his critics heard was that he referred to having cousins in that country. Were we expected to turn into his media advisers at that point? I do not intend to defend our work. But the conversation and debate that have been generated by the Arise TV interview is enough proof that this was a useful, impactful, and path-finding contribution to public conversation. What we did was not a celebrity showcase, but serious journalism.
The ground-breaking nature of that interview must be further situated within the context of the different reactions to it along the North-South Nigerian divide. It must be noted that the feedback from the North has been overwhelmingly positive. From the South, majorly negative. The President referred to IPOB, the Indigenous People of Biafra, as a “dot in a circle”. He proceeded to talk about how IPOB, he meant Igbos, are in every part of the country and how they will not be allowed to exit. He repeated the point that if they try to do so, government will speak to them in the language they will understand. The police and the military will be sent after them. Southerners including the Yoruba Afenifere group are angry about this. But the Hausa/Fulani are happy that the President spoke firmly. It didn’t matter to them that he also added in that interview that bandits in the North will also be spoken to in “the language that they will understand.”
When asked what he will do after retirement, whether he will set up a Presidential Library or not, the President did not refer to any library, he said he will return to his farm in Katsina and tend the cows in his farm. In that breath, the President identified with every cattle owner in the country. Southern commentators think he should set up a library, but the man made it clear he would rather attend to cows. He would later talk about grazing routes that need to be reinstated in line with a First Republic Gazette. Southern Nigerians have been up in arms because of that statement. They are quoting the ruling of Justice Adewale Thompson in Suit AB/26/66 of April 1969 in the Abeokuta Division of the High Court in which the learned Justice described the grazing of cows as “repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience”. That ruling has not yet been set aside 52 years after. They also quote Sections 1 and 2 of the Land Use Act which vests ownership of land in the states, which means that in 2021, the President is not in a position to enforce a 1960s gazette on open grazing, more so as states of the South and the Middle Belt have imposed a ban on open grazing in their jurisdictions. Many Northerners think Southerners are talking nonsense, and are just being intolerant.
When asked about zoning and succession within his party, the President made the point that determining the future of the party is the responsibility of the party not his, and that it is not something that anyone can sit in Lagos and decide. This turned out to be the most salacious part of the Arise TV interview. Southern commentators have stretched that comment to its point of elasticity and attached a name to it: that of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The Presidency has had to issue a statement to debunk the auto-suggestions. Southern Nigerians are not impressed. They see this, and the President’s laboured justification of his nepotism in appointments as a confirmation of the fault lines in his government. Northerners don’t see any issue here. Similarly, there have been, in the course of the weekend, equally partisan, ethnic responses to the President’s claims about creating 10.5 million jobs in 2 years and the sectional spectacle of June 12 protests and celebration. What came across to Buhari’s opponents is the persona of a President with a military mind-set, an ethnic champion who is still fighting the civil war, and who cares little about public opinion.
The Buhari interview has further revealed how divided we are as a nation, and the crisis of social cohesion that we face. Nigeria is more divided today than at any other time in our history. And certainly, the President’s responses reinforce this conclusion because his main constituencies and supporters see nothing fundamentally wrong with his media statements in the last few days. With his responses, Buhari chose his audience tactically. People should stop saying he did not understand the questions. He did, and he made his point. And I insist: that was a very good interview, and an opportunity for the entire country.
PHOTOS FROM THE INTERVIEW
“Omo, I see you are still on Twitter. How you dey take do am? Come and teach your brother…”
“Eishhh, Ishhh…Will you keep quiet?”
“But I noticed you tweeted something not long ago, despite the suspension of Twitter operations in Nigeria”
“Hey…hey. My family offend your family? This man. I commit crime to know you? What is the matter with you? Have you not heard that anybody that uses Twitter in Nigeria is now considered a criminal? You want to send me to jail? Please, please, please.”
“But I saw a tweet that came from you?”
“Hey he. Which kain enemy of a friend, friend of an enemy be this?”
“I just want to if you have joined VPN. I have been looking for someone to teach me how to by-pass the suspension and join VPN. I hear it is the only option available to users of twitter in Nigeria.”
“I am not saying anything to you. If you want to go to jail, God help you. But don’t come and drag me into it. Where were you when the Federal Ministry of Justice said that any Nigerian that uses twitter should be ready for prosecution?”
“Oh, I get you now. You dey fear? All of you are afraid. I can tell you for free, nobody is going to any jail for using Twitter. Dem just dey Shakara you. If all of us use Twitter, where dem go put us? Dem go jail us tire, hey, hey, hey, dem go jail us tire, how many people dem go kill. This is the time for us to show our power.”
“Dey there. I don’t want to show any power. In fact, as you see me, I no get any power. I am busy looking for money to send to my children who are in school abroad. Naira is now N720 to the pound sterling, N500 to the dollar. If I get locked up because of Twitter, who will help me? Jack Dorsey is running his own business. If he and the Nigerian government are fighting over a tweet or a video, how does that help the government of my bedroom? If they tell us not to use Twitter, then let us leave them and Twitter to fight themselves. Do I know Jack Dorsey? Does he know me? Why should I fight the Nigerian Government because of him?. Even the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria have since complied. They have since blocked access to Twitter on their networks.”
“Cowards. Those ones are cowards.”
“They have a duty to obey their regulator. Regulatory risk is the biggest threat to business in Nigeria. Why should telecommunications operators risk their own business to protect Twitter which is another man’s business?”
“Bootlickers. The speed with which they even complied is laughable. They didn’t even try to spare a thought for their customers. They acted like zombies. Shut down Twitter now! Yes sir! …. I will like to see someone take them to court and sue for damages.”
“I can’t blame them. Even the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has directed all broadcast stations in Nigeria to get off Twitter.”
“NBC? What has NBC got to do with Twitter? When the Minister kept referring to NBC, I actually thought he was mixing things up. The telecommunications spectrum is regulated by the National Communications Commission.”
“Both are involved. It is the case of Okeke and Okereke. NCC controls the network infrastructure. NBC controls the content on the networks. They are both determined to teach Twitter and other social media networks a lesson. I don’t want to be anybody’s scapegoat.”
“You have to stand up for the freedom of expression, and the right of every Nigerian to protest.”
“You are already doing so. Continue to do it on our behalf. No carry me join wahala.”
“What people like you do not know is that the suspension of Twitter operations in Nigeria means nothing. The internet network is an open system. Once you are online, nobody can ban you. It is a world wide web. It is not a Nigerian web. Twitter doesn’t even have a Nigerian office not to talk of operation. When Twitter decided to set up its headquarters in West Africa, they chose Ghana. They avoided Nigeria because as they put it, Nigeria is not a good environment for free speech.”
“Grammar. The way you are carrying on. When they arrest you, you will go and prove all these points in court.”
“Under which law?”
“The Attorney General of the Federation has told you that when you get to court, they will tell you which law binds both you and Twitter.”
“Who des that? Nobody can be prosecuted for an offence under a non-existent law at the time the alleged felony was committed. Section 36(12) of the 1999 Constitution. Aoko vs. Fagbemi. A.G. Federation vs Isong.”
“We are both saying the same thing. You don’t need to quote the law here. Go and do that in court. But when they first arrest you to make an example out of you, don’t forget that they will start by keeping you in detention for as long as they wish.”
“No. The maximum time is 48 hours, Okay, may be 72 hours, otherwise that will amount to a violation of my fundamental human rights which we will enforce.”
“I say don’t worry! We are both saying the same thing. Just remember that before you go and create problem for yourself and your family, judicial workers have been on strike for months. They will lock you up and tell the public that your matter cannot be determined until the courts resume. When the courts return, they will then get some injunctions to keep you for another two weeks. While you are languishing in one dingy cell, the Federal Government of Nigeria and Twitter will settle their matter. Twitter top executives will even pay a courtesy visit to Nigeria. By the time they finally remember you and sign your release warrant, you will be lucky if you don’t get home only to discover that your wife is already pregnant for another man.”
“Don’t insult my wife. I will not take that.”
“Ah sorry oh. Wetin be my own?.”
“Everything you have said is the theology of the coward. We are dealing with tyranny in Nigeria. We are back to the era of military dictatorship. This is a time when real men must stand up and speak truth to power.”
“The thing go shock you, choke you. The President of your own country has told you categorically that those who are trying to pull down the country will receive a shock treatment. He has threatened that he will speak to them in the language that they will understand. And now, he has taken the first step by descending on social platforms, and you are here quoting the law and lawyers, fundamental human rights. Are you aware that the enforcement of those rights will cost you money? And affect your family? Why not focus on what is important to your life? Twitter? Didn’t we live when there was no Twitter?”
“You don’t get it. This is the problem with many of you. Twitter censored President Donald Trump in 2020. He got angry and issued an Executive Order to restrain big tech. In January 2021, after the attack on Capitol Hill, Twitter went a step further and banned President Trump for life. Facebook has also banned him. Nothing has happened. Nothing has happened because the institutions in the United States work for the people. But here in Nigeria, the President only needs to sneeze and all departments of state will start running up and down. What we have is the rule of one man, not the rule of the people. Haven’t you seen the way government appointees and institutions have been running up and down to abuse Twitter, and show that they are loyal to the President? What has Twitter done? It has only enforced its community rules?”
“You are comparing apples and oranges. I don’t agree. Twitter Community Rules. Are those rules superior to the corporate existence of Nigeria which the Federal Government of Nigeria says has been constantly violated on Twitter? Shouldn’t international companies and multinationals be subject to the national laws of their host countries? If you were President of Nigeria, you will fold your arms and allow one tech platform to become a forum for promoting propaganda, hate and secession?”
“Just a moment, please. In 2015, and 2019, this same government used Twitter and Facebook and WhatsApp to campaign for elections and promote propaganda, and demonise the opposition. Why are they now protesting? They don’t want to hear feedback? The truth hurts?”
“What truth?”
“The truth that Nigeria is not working and government has failed. The truth that Nigerian youths are angry. The truth that there is violence and insecurity in the land. Unemployment is 33.3%. Stagflation. Hunger. Banditry. Arson. Terrorism. Ethnic violence. A near-complete return to the state of nature.”
“Clap for yourself. Just listen to yourself. See how you are de-marketing Nigeria, your own dear native land.”
“No. I am not a native. In fact, I am so angry, I would prefer to relocate to the United Africans Republic (UAR) where I can tweet and enjoy my human rights.”
“When you get to that UAR in your head, may be Twitter won’t work there or it may get suspended, banned or abolished. I put it to you that one of the big challenges we face in the world today is the tyranny of big tech companies. There are countries that have refused to cede their sovereignty to the supremacy of technology. Nigeria has not done anything extra-ordinary. Twitter has been either banned or suspended in China. North Korea, Egypt, in 2011, during the Arab Spring protests, Turkey, Iran, Uganda, Cuba, Turkmenistan, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Pakistan.”
“Look at the countries you are comparing Nigeria with. Dictatorship. Tyranny. I just hope that one day, the Nigerian Government will not wake up and we will be told that oxygen has been banned because it poses a threat to the Buhari administration.”
“Excuse me. That is hate speech!”
“I will rather say fair comment because the way we are now carrying on, this government will blame anything and ban anything. The people who are considered enemies of government are the ones asking for justice and equity, and human rights. People with access to platforms. Protesters. Writers. Opinion leaders. I really won’t be surprised if the Nigerian government wakes up one morning and decides to ban access to oxygen in certain parts of the country.”
“I don’t have to argue with you. I think it is good that you and people who think like you understand the point that after God, it is Government. If you disturb government, government will disturb you. And if you ask me, I actually think that some people don’t deserve to enjoy Nigerian oxygen and work against the same country.”
“You will support that oxygen should be banned in Nigeria?”
“Why should you enjoy Nigerian oxygen if you don’t believe in Nigeria? We are in the age of technology. Go and ask Twitter to give you oxygen.”
“Before it gets to that stage, some of us will speak up. We will stand up. We will remind people like you that on June 12 democracy we stand. We will go to the streets and say No. On June 12, we will shout on top of our voices. We will write poetry on the streets of Nigeria.”
“You will go and confront people who have told you that you will be taught the language that you will understand. And that you will be shocked? As a Christian, I don’t encourage people to commit suicide. You know I like you, even if I don’t agree with most of the things you say.”
“I am not afraid to be part of the Nigerian Revolution”
“Sure? Have you visited Omoyele Sowore who got a small warning for talking about Revolution? Na ordinary tear gas cannister one Nigerian police woman take joke with am the other day oh, and him get wound. If anybody tries any protest on June 12, these government people, na armoured tanks dem go take send message oh.”
“They will attack Nigerians with armoured tanks? The same tanks that they can’t deploy to fight insurgents and terrorists? We don’t ever get our priorities right. Who advises government?”
“Nigerians like you and I. The ones who don’t want to go to Oduduwa Republic, Biafra or the proposed UAR. The push-me-I-push-am, na here I go dey crowd. “
“When something is not working, allow it to develop a rhythm of its own. It is possible to renegotiate the expired amalgamation of Nigeria. What are we afraid of? I’d rather die”
“Why not? It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. But don’t commit suicide.”
“Those of you who do not want a new reality can stay in Nigeria and die in it. Some of us are ready to have a new country. Even Daddy G.O. Adeboye has joined us. Pastor Kumuyi too.”
“You people have a hidden agenda”
“Oh, are you now afraid to die inside Nigeria?”
“No. Our Lord Jesus Christ saved the faithful with His Blood on the Mount of Calvary. Every living being, every good thing, will pass away and the world will be renewed. What we can do is to watch and pray.”
“Watch and obey. Your kind obeys every government commandment.”
“Pastor Temitope Joshua of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) just ascended to the Heavens to join the Saints Triumphant. His death leaves a very strong message for Nigeria.”
“Are you okay?”
“Have you not noticed that all the Saints, in our midst, are returning to Heaven, one after the other? They are leaving Nigeria. Can’t you see it?”
“What I see is that the demons have seized control”
“Be careful. These are dangerous times.”
“So when are you leaving, Mr Saint, so you can go and join Twitter Nigeria in Purgatory.”
“Ï shall not die any death.”
“Then keep safe and stop knocking your head against people who have served notice that they will shock anybody like potent electricity.”
“Bad sign. What will tomorrow bring?”
“Let tomorrow worry about itself. Most of the people who claim they will die for Nigeria have dual citizenship, multiple visas in their passports, an open ticket to other countries, and foreign bank accounts. The only thing you have is your mouth. When things get rough, they will be gone in a jiffy. My friend, don’t end up as an unknown corpse. Dem don warn you well, well oh, make you borrow yourself sense na im remain. This our Nigeria no balance again”.
“No. We no go gree oh. We no go gree.”