
OTHERS' VIEWS
Anambra North senatorial constituency comprises seven local government areas (LGAs). These are: Anambra East, Anambra West, Anyamelum, Ogbaru, Onitsha North, Onitsha South, and Oyi. The contest to represent it in the election to the senate in 2007 turned out to be memorable for all the wrong reasons. Voting in the election occurred on 28 April 2007. At the end of the contest, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) returned Joy Emordi, the incumbent senator and candidate of the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), as the winner.
In the race for the party ticket which preceded the election, Senator Emordi beat out the challenge of a little-known member of the House of Representatives, Ubanese Alphonsus Igbeke. Having lost the contest for the party ticket, however, Ubanese promptly defected to the opposition All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), which granted him the ticket to fly its flag in the contest for the election to the senate in Anambra North.
Following the announcement of the election results by the INEC, five of the losing candidates headed to the election petition tribunal to challenge the announcement of Senator Emordi as winner. They included Jessie Balonwu of the Labour Party, and Ubanese of the ANPP. An essential complaint was that there was no lawful voting in Anyamelum and Onitsha South LGAs. If their complaint was upheld, the logic would have necessitated a re-run. Over one year after the conclusion of the election, on 14 June 2008, the tribunal dismissed the petitions, and affirmed Joy Emordi as duly elected.
The losing candidates appealed.
Jessie Balonwu’s appeal was the first to be decided. On February 10, 2009, a Court of Appeal panel comprising three Justices of Appeal – Victor Omage, Ladan Tsamiya and Olukayode Ariwoola – found that there was no evidence in support of the claim that there were no elections in the two LGAs. The court of appeal, therefore, affirmed the decision of the election petition tribunal. At the time, appeals concerning elections to the senate ended in the court of appeal.
Like the other losing candidates, Ubanese lost his case at the election petition tribunal. Like them, he also appealed. Nearly three years after the election, on March 24, 2010, another panel of the court of appeal, this time comprising Amiru Sanusi (who was not on the earlier panel) as well as Ladam Tsamiya and Olukayode Ariwoola – both of whom had decided Jessie Balonwu’s case nearly a year earlier – nullified the election of Joy Emordi, declared Ubanese the winner of the election and ordered INEC to issue a certificate in his favour affirming his victory.
Six years after that judgment, the National Judicial Council (NJC) sacked Ladan Tsamiya as a judge in connection with judicial corruption in another election case from neighbouring Abia state.
Returning to the Anambra North senatorial contest from 2007, Senator Emordi applied to the supreme court for a review of the two ostensibly conflicting decisions of the court of appeal but the court struck out her case, holding that it did not have jurisdiction to hear her. With one year left to run on the tenure and armed with the judgment of the court of appeal, Ubanese ousted Joy Emordi from the senate in May 2010 to become the senator for Anambra North. Once there, he promptly defected back to the ruling PDP from the ranks of the ANPP.
That was not the first time that Ubanese would be returnee as legislator by the votes of judges alone. His first tour of duty as a legislator in the House of Representatives in 2003 was made possible also by judicial decision.
He was not the only one to be selected in this manner in 2003. In the contest for the Anambra South seat for the senate, the court of appeal in Enugu manufactured victory for Ugochukwu Uba – who was not a candidate in the election. Ugochukwu Uba’s younger brother, Andy, was a very influential presidential confidante at the time.
2010 was not the last time that Ubanese’s entire electorate would comprise members of the Nigerian judiciary. ThisDay newspaper famously described him as “the serial senator who never wins an election”.
In 2011, another high court in Abuja also issued an order requiring the INEC to return Ubanese yet again as Senator for Anambra North after the election had been concluded and a winner declared. The order was stupefying because only an election petition tribunal could issue it.
This time, the Attorney-General of the Federation had Ubanese arraigned before the Federal High Court in Abuja on charges of forging and altering the outcome of the party primaries that he lost, misrepresenting to the High Court in Abuja that he had in fact emerged as the winner.
Ubanese was ultimately unsuccessful in returning to the Senate in 2011 but had pioneered an electoral business model that would prove both lucrative for all involved and resilient beyond his wildest imagining.
Ubanese showed judges how a joint enterprise with politicians could prove effective in making both sides influential, wealthy and powerful while at the same time sidelining the voters from the constitutive enterprise of deciding who controls their destinies. This guarantees that elections no longer end in the polling units. Instead, what we call elections only pare down the candidates who are required thereafter to proceed to court units, where the ultimate selection is determined by judges who alone have the right to vote. The cost of entry into this stage is prohibitive.
Only the truly moneyed dare to show up.
The constitution may have anointed the people as the electorate but, in Nigeria, the winners and losers in elections are now decided by a judicial selectorate who do not feel themselves beholden to anything that the constitutional electorate may wish, seek, or say.
According to a former national vice-chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Lukman, “citizens can vote but winners are decided in the courtroom by conclaves of judges.” Former president, Goodluck Jonathan, acknowledged in Asaba, capital of Delta state in June 2024 that Nigerian judges increasingly “declare who doesn’t win the election that they are winners.”
Selectorate Theory explains how elites access and retain power. It distinguishes between three categories of actors for this purpose. Interchangeables notionally have a role but hardly fit the part. Influentials sometimes may do so. But the focus is on a small category of “Essentials” who decide nearly everything. The clever power seeker focuses on doing a deal with the Essentials at the expense of the Influentials and the Interchangeables.
In Nigeria, the judges have made themselves the indispensable Essentials in winning power and retaining it. The people have become very expendable Interchangeables. The national exchequer, meant for the people, now goes to financing the fancies of these electoral Essentials in order to protect the joint enterprise with the politicians. This is all done under ruse of law which, it is claimed, is indispensable to democracy.
The “ownership” of judicial figures has thus become an essential political accessory in Nigeria. Every ambitious politician knows that they need to own some judges or at least one. This political business model is a deeply Nigerian variant on Selectorate Theory which is now taking firm root across Africa. For this export, we must thank Ubanese Igbeke and the Uba brothers of Uga in Anambra state.
This week, publishers Narrative Landscape will be releasing, The Selectorate, my book which tells the story of how Nigerian judges toppled the people. It is a story that has been long in the making.
A lawyer and a teacher, Odinkalu can be reached at chidi.odinkalu@tufts.edu
“We must therefore not shirk from accusing our friends, or praising our enemies, nor need we be afraid of praising or blaming the same people at different times; since, it is impossible that the men [and women] who are engaged in public affairs should always be right; and unlikely they should always be in the wrong. We must therefore detach ourselves from the actors [and actresses] in our story, and apply to them only such statements and judgments as their conduct deserves” – Polybius, c200-118 BC.
Once again, I find myself risking being misunderstood by the millions of political opponents of President Tinubu and the Federal Government.
There will be those who might read into what follows an attempt to secure an appointment or benefit somehow from it. That is a cross everybody regularly in the public domain must carry.
But, if it will help to persuade the doubting Thomases that there is no ulterior motive behind this, let me disclose that I am so physically challenged, any President must be out of his mind to offer me an appointment.
I will need a straight jacket if I accept. I can hardly walk; and can’t seat for long.
Perhaps, it is worth repeating that it had been my personal principle to stay out of politics and to be neutral and objective in my comments of national affairs.
I have religiously kept out of partisan politics – so much so, no Head of State, military or civilian, has escaped the sharp point of my pen.
I don’t intend to stop now.
In fact, the matter of solar panels at Aso Rock, to any economist, is primarily an investment decision – before any other considerations.
Unfortunately, this is not the best of times for Tinubu.
THE BEST DECISION BY FG
“It is part of a king [or President] to do good to his subjects and be maligned for it” – Alexander the Great, 356-323 BC
Few rulers are loved by the majority of their subjects – particularly when several things are going wrong; as they now are in Nigeria.
Nothing seems to be going right at the moment and the promises made two years ago are becoming difficult to redeem. All these are perfectly understandable.
Let us now address the investment decision involved in this needless controversy.
But, first a personal example would help to illustrate the point devoid of associated sentiments.
Three years ago, I invested in an inverter; after being persuaded that it was cost effective.
Like every economist, there was a need to keep a strict record of all transactions. Primarily, after paying my DISCO’s fraudulent bills, petrol still had to be bought for the generator.
Records of fuel purchases for the gen-set were kept meticulously for two months before the inverter was installed.
Record-keeping continued after the inverter was installed.
In two months, we saved 30 per cent of the cost of the inverter plus installation.
In eight months, the inverter had paid for itself. A friend who opted for solar power, about the time I was going for inverter, had a similar happy story to tell.
The first truth is; solar or inverter power supply constitute huge savings on power generation costs; and they are far more environmentally-friendly.
Objectively, the switch from DISCO to solar power is the best investment decision the federal or any state government can make right now.
The facts, devoid of emotions, speak very clearly for themselves.
If for a mere, the word mere is deliberate, N20 billion investment, the Presidency can save annual Disco bills of N70 billion or more, we should all be urging them to do it as quickly as possible.
Obviously, the critics are not being objective.
Like subjects since time immemorial they must grumble at measures taken by the ruler – even, when in this case it serves their own economic interests.
The second truth is: after the initial cost of N20 billion, annual maintenance charges are frequently less than ten per cent or N2 billion.
Who would want government in any country, especially the Poverty Capital of the World, to spend N70 billion annually providing power to the seat of power; instead of N2 billion?
One of the sharpest critics of the expenditure was the nurse with the placard pointing out that several Teaching Hospitals in Nigeria have been disconnected by DISCOs and implying that it was wrong for Aso Rock to budget N20 billion for solar power.
It was an emotional appeal – not an economic one.
I have lived very close to the Universities of Lagos and Ibadan since 1974. Each of them is a sprawling institution – almost as big as Aso Rock.
Yes, they, as well as other universities, need regular power supply. But, the existing reprehensible situations did not arise yesterday. They built up gradually. Teaching Hospitals should also come forward with their own plans to go solar and leave DISCOs strictly alone.
At any rate, I fail to understand the logic implied in the position.
Are those who have latched unto the protest saying that Aso Rock should have no power supply if Teaching Hospitals don’t? That would be absurd.
Government’s seat of power must have power supply irrespective of who occupies the office of president.
And, in this case, they want to reduce the cost of power supply!!! What is wrong with that?
ASO ROCK AND WHITE HOUSE COMPARED
“Comparisons can sometimes lead to misleading conclusions.”
The unexpected blistering attack on social media and the political opposition drove the president’s spokesmen to want to justify the investment by drawing attention to the fact that America’s White House also has solar power panels installed. The defence made a good case worse.
To begin with, the White House is not faced with a crippling bill by any power provider in Washington D.C.
So, there is no immediate need to switch fully to alternative source of power supply. Furthermore, the solar panels were installed by the late President Jimmy Carter, in the 1980s – whose foresight regarding solar energy was not shared by his fellow countrymen.
No other president has shared his vision. Donald Duck will certainly not shift to solar during his four destructive years in office. The occupants of the two presidencies are not faced with the same problems; neither are they compelled to offer the same solution.
Tinubu’s decision makes perfect sense for Nigeria; and he does not need comparison with any other country.
The challenge to the critics is for them to fault the economic soundness of the decision; not to indulge in playing to the gallery on a matter which is clear.
IS IT VALUE FOR MONEY?
“Nobody should be condemned on suspicion.” That is one of the pillars of fair comment.
Some critics, unable to find objective reasons for opposing the initiative, have resorted to declaring that the contract would be inflated and awarded to a political crony. To be candid, I cannot vouch for the FG that in the end, the nation would receive value for money.
While approving the decision on purely economic principle, it is not possible for me to determine whether or not the cost is inflated for reasons known to government. For that reason, I would suggest that the contract be subjected to the most open and stringent process of competitive bidding. If not for anything else, but to minimise the impact of mindless opposition to this profitable project.
IS THE PRESIDENCY ISOLATING ITSELF?
“The Presidency is isolating itself from the problem faced by other Nigerians” – A critic of the project (name withheld).
Several television talk show hosts had a field day with the matter.
In addition to the “Tinubu can do nothing right” gang, others not so biased also objected to the acquisition because it isolates Aso Rock from the problems confronted by Nigerians.
I agree with their observation absolutely. But, permit me to quickly add that self-indulgence by rulers, irrespective of type of government – monarchy, dictatorship, democracy or theocracy – rulers are always insulated from the pains of the common man.
One example would help to make the point.
During the Second World War, while the ordinary citizens in England and Germany were under aerial bombardment by hostile forces, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, 1874-1965, and Fuhrer Adolf Hitler, 1899-1945, a democrat and a dictator, were both protected in secure bunkers – from which they governed.
No Briton or German begrudge them their secure positions.
Furthermore, as food scarcity made life more miserable for ordinary people, the bunkers were fully provisioned.
Exceptional treatment comes with the territory everywhere – not just Aso Rock.
THE REAL WASTE – SPENDING $2BN ON REFINERIES
“Hitting the ground running can have disastrous consequences.”
That was my warning to newly-elected President Tinubu shortly after he pronounced that “fuel subsidy is gone” to global applause – before the repercussions brought him up short on his victory lap.
To regain momentum, he allowed himself to be persuaded by Mele Kyari and the Directors of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, that the quickest way to bring fuel prices down was to revive the four refineries.
He believed them; and authorised $2 billion to be released immediately.
It was a great blunder.
Nobody, not even Donald Trump, should spend that sort of money without asking a lot of questions.
But, even without being asked, some of us were warning Tinubu to forget the scraps called refineries.
Former officials are reportedly singing at the EFCC Headquarters; Warri refinery is shut down despite wasting $897 million on it; Port Harcourt refinery is in limbo.
Altogether $2bn hastily approved has gone down the drain. That is the real waste; to be charged to Tinubu’s account.
From independence in 1960 till a few years ago, Nigeria’s most credible arm of government was the judiciary. It is certainly no longer so. But because it was designed to be the last hope of the common man,to reverse the situation and restore the judiciary to its old place of pride is a thing that must be done.
Happily, the starting point of this restoration has begun as the National Judicial Council (NJC) under the leadership of Chief Justice Kudirat Kekere Ekun is now attempting to redress the negatives in the system that vocal critics have been highlighting. In other words, the critics are not enemies of the NJC as some people imagine, they are instead the well-meaning and best friends of the Nigerian judiciary.
The week before, the NJC handed down a one-year suspension without pay to three judicial officers, including one Justice of the Court of Appeal, for actions considered as judicial misconduct. An official statement by the NJC listed the affected officers as Justice Jane Inyang of the Court of Appeal, Uyo Division; Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja Division, and Justice Aminu Baffa Aliyu of the Federal High Court, Zamfara Division. Although the weight of the NJC’s hammer may not immediately assuage the huge public dislike for the judiciary, it is certainly encouraging that the intervention has come to remind citizens that perhaps Justice Kekere Ekun, is set to implement her promise to restore the judiciary’s dignity.
Notable groups and individuals almost immediately applauded the NJC for sanctioning the erring judges. One of such groups, Citizens’ Gavel, a civic-tech organisation promoting access to justice, transparency, and accountability in Nigeria, praised the NJC for implementing disciplinary measures against erring judges over acts of judicial misconduct.On his part, Professor Akinseye-George, President of the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies (CSLS), said the NJC’s recent actions serve as a beacon of reform and integrity which deserves commendation for its principled and courageous decisions. No one should however be surprised that not every analyst is prepared to commend the NJC’s efforts. Indeed, some critics are not convinced that the sanctions are strong enough to deter other compromised personnel.
In fairness, the sanctions do not quite fit the offences but it is praise worthy as a departure from the posture of homily of the immediate past leadership of the NJC. Rather than dealing squarely with the specific judges who issued conflicting directives on the same Emirship tussle in Kano, Justice Ariwoola-led NJC decided to summon the heads of the relevant courts to a meeting with the then CJN. The promise to tackle the unnecessary struggle for territorial power at the expense of societal harmony by the judges concerned never saw the light of day; making the historic city of Kano to become a throne with two Kings. Interestingly, the current sanctions are not related to the Kano debacle. If it is still coming, it qualifies to be recorded as a clear case of a disciplinary action that was deliberately delayed.
One of the current decisions of the NJC to restore sanity to our judiciary is its intervention in the plot by politicians to play politics with the appointment of a Chief Judge (CJ) for Imo state. It is good that the NJC intervened swiftly to restore the old constitutional order which states that theChief Judge of a state or indeed any judge “cannot be removed or disciplined without the input or participation of the National Judicial Council NJC.”The danger of the executive and legislature colluding to remove a CJ that is difficult to manipulate speaks for itself. The prompt intervention of the NJC in the Imo case would certainly push states such as Benue away from politicising the office of the CJ. Thepositive point here is that the NJC has successfully thwarted the cherished goal of state governors who are anxious to replace CJs that are difficult to be compromised.
However, one must necessarily be cautious in applauding the NJC for its current professional standing because history tells us that the Council is always only able to do so at state level as it did in the past in Kwara, Abia, Rivers, Plateau and Ekiti states. But whether it can similarly behave when it concerns the position of the CJN where the other side to the case is the President is not certain. Our position is influenced by the story of how Justice Walter Onnoghen was wrongly replaced by Justice Tanko Muhammad as CJN in 2019. In that case, it was the executive branch headed at the time by President Muhammadu Buhari that removed Onnoghen without the NJC’s consent.It was the same President that solely proceeded to appoint and swear in Justice Tanko Muhammad to serve as Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria. The NJC neither rejected Buhari’s action nor did it penalize Tanko Muhammad for accepting a constitutional breach which favoured himself.
That was not all. The NJC was also coerced into taking two questionable steps. First, it recommended an extension of Tanko’s illegal acting appointment and second, proceeded a few months later, to confirm the same appointment.Since then, the NJC is yet to tell the nation why it timidly accepted the President’s position to which it had made no input as required by law. Now that the NJC is rejecting the same unconstitutional posture from the Imo state governor, is it a case of double standard or a reflection of better leadership by Justice Kekere Ekun? Until the latter is able to reject such behaviour from the President, we can only clap with one hand for now as it would be easier to rescind the half-hearted clap if latter events suggest that the applause was rather in a hurry.
If the intention of the NJC as currently constituted is to win back the confidence of the public, it should deal quickly with the cases which have turned the spotlight on the judiciary. An obvious bad trend is the struggle between federal and state high courts for territorial empire. This should not happen as no one can change the fact that the federal high court is a court of limited jurisdiction. It therefore has no business getting enmeshed in chieftaincy matters by fashioning some cases with the garb of enforcement of fundamental human rights.Even non-lawyers know that this has the been stand of the Supreme Court in the case of Alhaji Umar Abba Tukur V The Governor of Gongola State which was decided about four decades ago. Should the NJC have tolerated for one minute, the refusal ofthe federal high court in Kano to faithfully abide by the principle of stare decisis?
Many members of the public were expecting not only a speedy handling of such cases but huge fines imposed on the lawyers who filed them before the wrong courts. That did not happen just as the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) surprisingly failed to perform better than the NJC that many of its members often criticise. Otherwise, what has happened to the call by a former NBA President, Y.K Mikyau, SAN that the lawyers who filed the cases before the wrong courts be investigated and be sanctioned by the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee of the Body of Benchers if found wanting? Has the call been swept under the carpet or handled secretly so that we all forget about the case in due course?
Then, there is the annoying issue of the NJC making retirement from office, the punishment for criminal offences such as perjury. It is not only that the punishment does not fit the crime, it allows lay persons to suspect the existence in the judiciary of discrimination in some cases while in others, it projects a deepinstitutional hesitation which seeks to protect the principle of esprit des corps. Perhaps those who are dissatisfied with the stand of the NJC are hyper critical but we need to answer Professor Ndikalu’s question: ‘Will a judge who is suspended for one year without pay not more likely to come back more hungry and more corrupt?’
Finally, the greatest challenge today in our justice delivery system is located within cases emanating from politics and elections. They are therefore those that the NJC should handle with iron fists. We are thus at a time when the nation is in dire need of judicial activism in which politicians should no longer be helped to cover their reprehensible acts. Political events that are widely known or transmitted on national television are notorious facts. In a good system notorious facts need no proof; instead, judicial notice is taken of them. This is a courageous posture that can keep Nigerian politicians at bay.
Today, icon of Akure Kingdom in Ondo State, foremost Yoruba leader and one of the major twines holding together the Yoruba nation, Baba Reuben Famuyide Fasoranti, clocks 99 years on earth. Born on May 11, 1926, Fasoranti is also a noteworthy bridge linking the highly romanticized First Republic politics and governance to the current order of things. Fasoranti’s political trajectory and ideology are deeply rooted in progressivism and Yoruba ideals and principles. As a politician, he affiliated with and imbibed the political philosophy of Yoruba’s ancestor, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Through the Action Group (AG) party and later the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) Fasoranti served his political tutelage under leaders like Awo himself, Chief Michael Ajasin, Abraham Adesanya, rising to be the leader of Afenifere, Yoruba political cultural group. During the Second Republic, Fasoranti served as Commissioner of Finance in old Ondo State between 1979 and 1983. Legend has it that Fasoranti was Awolowo’s choice for governorship of old Ondo State but the content Fasoranti rejected it for personal reasons.
During the bloodthirsty military despotism of General Sani Abacha, Fasoranti was one of the NADECO leaders whom that regime attempted to assassinate. In 1996, a clear attempt was made on his lift by regime goons. While the likes of Fasoranti are alive today by Providence, the Alfred Rewanes were not that lucky.He is held today as a symbol of the never-dying spirit of resistance against forces of tyranny and oppression. Fasoranti’s politics has never been about himself but the advancement of his people, a philosophy upheld by his resilience and fortitude in the face of visible danger and personal losses. When his daughter was killed by herders on the Akure-Ore road some years ago, Fasoranti, like the biblical Job, took Providence’s judgment with astonishing equanimity and stoicism. As leader of Afenifere, Baba Fasoranti has held the forte for Yoruba like his predecessors, canvassing and holding aloft solidarity to the unity of Yoruba people, supremacy of Yoruba ideals and the betterment of the lot of his people.
Fasoranti’s trajectory as a teacher must have imbued in him the principles of integrity, leadership, service and a teachable spirit. As a young man, he meandered through a primary school in his Uso village, to Ondo Boys’ High School, Yaba Higher College in Lagos, and the University College, Ibadan, the latter being where he bagged a higher degree in English/Geography. Upon beginning his career trajectory, it was his Alma Mater, Ondo Boys’ High School, that Fasoranti pitched his tent. He later became Principal of Oyemekun Grammar School and Iju-Itaogbolu Grammar School. Fasoranti is today held by his people as a legend who dedicated his life to the advancement of education and the place of knowledge in the advancement of society. As an underscore of his obsessive love for education, Fasoranti established the Omolere Nursery and Primary School and Akure High School, which today are his huge and imperishable imprints on the rock of education.
Regardless of my views, I must confess that my people of Akure hold President Bola Tinubu, through Baba Fasoranti, in a very high esteem. A chemistry works between the duo that is difficult to decipher. Could it have been forged in the smithy and grits of the NADECO years? When Afenifere delegation visited Tinubu in Aso Rock in 2023, the president did the near-centenarian the rare honour of personally wheeling him about in his chair. Akure people also say that never in the history of federal governance in Nigeria have they witnessed the kind of gale of federal projects that are coming to them under this government. The hitherto impassable Akure-Ikere road which our son, Ademola Adegoroye, gave impressionable fillip to as an 11-month minister, has received huge financial backing from Tinubu. So also the dualization of the Akure-Ore road where Baba Fasoranti’s daughter was unfortunately killed. The dualization of Ilesha-Akure-Benin road, I am told, has also been awarded. In the same vein, the most massive project ever in the area, the Akure Teaching Hospital, is sprinting so well that I am told Tinubu wants Baba Fasoranti to see it fructify in his life time.
While praying to God to grant Baba Fasoranti centenary and post-centenary existence, in good health, I salute this great son of Akure Kingdom today on his 99th birth anniversary.
My new friend is 86 years old, Albertus Johannes Venter, famously known as Al J. Venter, with Boer and German ancestry. He is a white South African war correspondent, documentary filmmaker and author of more than forty books. Venter initially served in the South African Navy between 1956 and 1960, rising to the rank of Acting Leading Seaman. He was twice wounded in combat, by a Soviet anti-tank mine in Angola and by sub-machine gun fire. Venter was in Nigeria in 1965 to work for John Holt, and during the Nigerian 1967 civil war, covered it as an Africa and Middle East correspondent for Jane’s International Defence Review, which produced the war memoir, Biafra’s War: A Tribal Conflict In Nigeria That Left A Million Dead (2016). In coverage of the war, he was in the company of his friend, Frederick Forsyth, who was BBC’s war correspondent for Biafra.
In my piece of November 24, 2024, with the title, Obasanjo and Tinubu’s Tańtólóhun dogs, I critiqued Nigeria’s presidential media team’s reactive and oftentimes combative approach to communication. In it, I drew a parallel between this bellicose communication approach and German art enthusiast and scholar, Horst Ulrich Beier, famously known as Ulli Beier’s narrative about the power and powerlessness of dogs. For a media team, President Bola Tinubu apparently or ostensibly keeps a kennel of Rottweilers dogs who, like Beiers’ Tańtólóhun dogs, almost every time get unleashed on perceived haters of their principal.
Outgoing African Development Bank (AfDB) President Akinwumi Adesina seems to be the latest victim of the blood-baying incisors of these Tańtólóhun hounds. In the last two years of this administration, the presidential groove must be brimming with dry bones of top-placed Nigerians whose fleshes have been mercilessly torn into pieces by these insufferable dogs. As president of AfDB, Adesina has variously commented on the economies of virtually all countries in Africa. He had been a passionate bother about the slide in African economies and how, in the immortal words of Chinua Achebe, African leadership had left its plates unwashed and a swarm of flies now holds conferences inside its dirty plate.
Following this path, which has variously earned him kudos as a concerned African, Dr. Adesina, in a keynote address delivered at Chapel Denham, an investment firm’s 20th anniversary held in Lagos, issued a stern warning that, if Nigeria desires to attain a globally competitive and industrialized status by 2050, it must radically transform its economic model. He then warned of a looming deeper economic depression which he saw manifest in his mental computation. His bother was that, with a current per capita of a mere $824, Nigerians are significantly worse off than they were in 1960 at independence.
Silence as an answer was golden. Weren’t we warned that it is not all clothes that are spread to dry under sunlight? Replying Adesina with such gruff is akin to a proverbial man lost his virile sexual potency, and who, rather than insert into where his effort was needed, claimed he could insert a thread inside the eye of a needle! Street wisdom counsels silence in this regard. Between the duo of American president, Abraham Lincoln and celebrated American humorist, Mark Twain, a quip credited to either of them dictates the route to follow by the presidential media office in the circumstance. It says it is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubts. The moment our boss, Bayo Onanuga, chose to disobey Twain and Lincoln, he let the cat out of the bag.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) by the media office, we were entertained to a caterwaul of boring statistics. Adesina’s “figures (that) do not align with available data”, it said, and his comparative analysis of Nigeria’s GDP per capita in 1960 and 2025, misleading. “GDP per capita is not the only criterion used to determine whether people live better lives now than in the past. Indeed, it is a poor tool for assessing living standards,” the post stated. Apparently still fuming that anyone had the temerity to have another opinion about the Eldorado government Aso Rock runs today, Onanuga argued that GDP does not reflect economic realities: “GDP per capita is silent on whether Nigerians in 2025 enjoy better access to healthcare, education, and transportation, such as rail and air transport than in 1960,” he said.
However, the Tańtólóhun dogs did their comparative analysis and reached a conclusion favourable to their narrative. “We can comfortably say without contradiction that it (the economy) is at least 50 times, if not 100 times, more than it was at Independence,” they said. They also recalled that, “in 1960, Nigeria had only 18,724 telephone lines for about 45 million people” but, “today, over 200 million Nigerians have access to mobile and digital services.”
The tirelessly whining old Ọkọ Idọgọ train eventually arrived its destination. According to the Nigerian presidency, which reads 2027 into every patriotic call for a governmental sanity, Adesina’s statement was politically motivated. It compared him to the Villa’s tormentor and Achilles’ heel. “Adesina spoke like a politician, in the mould of Peter Obi, and did not do due diligence before making his unverifiable statement,” Onanuga said. The question that needed to be asked the Tańtólóhun dogs was asked some decades back by another Juju music great, Chief Ebenezer Obey, in an evergreen vinyl. In a situation as imponderable as this, Obey asked the Woman cloth seller who held a whiplash as she stood guard of her clothes, what correlation that existed between cloths and goats that could necessitate her standing sentinel over clothes with a whip: Do animals eat lace cloth materials? (Kínni Màmá Aláso ńtà t’ó y’egba dání, àb’éwúré ńje lace ni?) We are asking the Tańtólóhun dogs same Obey question over this statement against revered Dr. Adesina.
Venter’s Takka Takka Bom Bom: A South African Correspondent’s Story is a 27-chapter book of 399 pages, with a chapter entitled “Nigeria: Crazy, but I love it!” It was a title he got from his first report for Argus Africa News Service describing his experience in a 5-year-old post-independence Nigeria. Compared to other countries he had been, the then 27-year-old Venter said he spent “next to nothing” commuting from Calabar, through Port Harcourt, Onitsha, Benin across land to Lagos. “It was significant that I never once encountered any hostility throughout my Nigerian peregrinations, political or otherwise. Lagos was then among the most secure cities in Africa,” Venter wrote, stating, “We were out every night, often on foot, moving around the bars on Lagos Victoria Island or up to Yaba and Ikorodu Roadway – often until the wee hours.” Is the situation same today in Tinubu’s Nigeria? The plenty in Nigeria of the time can effortlessly be found in Venter’s fluid narrative. It is also in the people’s sense of nationalism. Take, for instance, an American Peace Corps female volunteer whose story is in the book. She had sent home a postcard which referred to Nigeria as a disgusting filth pile and slums. All hell was let loose when somebody in the post office passed the card over to someone in government. Not only was the lady kicked out of the country, Nigerians were still disconsolate until Washington apologized for this indiscretion.
Statistics on poverty rates, income growth, and factors like affordability of housing, commute times, and environmental quality are also indicators of overall well-being of a people. The Villa should have availed us that. A few days ago, the World Bank alerted that poverty rate among Nigeria’s rural population had slid to an alarming 75.5 per cent.
Now, we have the Nigerian government gloat on a claim of its having paid up IMF debt. The reality staring us in the face is that the suffering of Nigerian people is spreading like bushfire in the harmattan. If the Villa voodoo media doctors can, for a minute, open the shutters and see beyond the comfy Aso Rock, what will confront them is the reality that, every hour, Nigerians slide into poverty and die because they cannot access healthcare and food. Thousands also slant into depression. Flaunting apocryphal statistics of citizen comfort across ages that are as smelly to the senses as the “remains of dead animals, birds, reptiles and much more” won’t work. The description of smell was given by Venter of Lome witch-doctors’ Akodessawa Fetish Market while filming a documentary in Togo. Citing Venter, the Villa statistics-bandying, without corresponding description of the people’s plight today, finds simile in “using magic to communicate with supernatural spirits and dead people.”
Today, while Aso Rock is winning the war of political demographics and idolatry bow of opposition parties by its feet, it is not winning the hearts of the people. Nigerian political parties, governors, senators, Reps are jumping inside the dirty pond of APC to swim in the mud preparatory to 2027. Great that a Charles Soludo, desperate for a second term, has found an “ideological” liaison in a combine of APC and APGA for an illicit romp. Yes, the president is now “Dike si mba Anambra,” (warrior from the Diaspora) a chieftaincy title conferred on him on Thursday by Igwe Chidubem Iweka who said it was a title “by all the royal fathers from the 179 communities of Anambra State.” What war has the president won since he secured the tenancy of Aso Rock that makes him a Dike, warrior? Hunger war? Hopelessness war? Insecurity war? War against corruption? After politicians finished their trade-off huffing and puffing at the Alex Ekwueme Square, Awka that Thursday and federal largesses exchanged hands, did the people of Anambra go to bed happier or hungrier?
It is apparent that the statistics juggling by “Dike si mba Anambra”’s people are all geared towards 2027. Beautiful. While they appear to have tightened the nuts and bolts of the human factor, I wish they spare a minute to screw together God’s nuts and bolts, too. It is like hunting a game, killing and disemboweling the animal but failing to reckon with its bile busting to foul up a neatly-dressed venison. This reminds me of a gory picture Juju music maestro, King Sunny Ade, painted in one of his 1970s songs. KSA’s imaginary enemies had sent a kid on an errand to the l’éku-l’éja market, almost similar to Lome’s Akodessawa Fetish Market. The kid’s assignment was to buy some fetish bric-a-brac with which they hoped to put a final seal of spiritual victory on their enemy. The fetish objects comprised one of the most lethal assemblages ever, but effete in the real sense of it – dry head of a cobra, bought for six pence; seven carcasses of the animal called Itun; seven bitter seeds of Abere and seven seeds of alligator pepper, all of which were pounded with a traditional black soap. Little did they know, sang KSA, like nincompoops, (Paddy Ode-nsin) that they had been sold a dummy!
“If the problem is in the name or nomenclature employed by Utomi, then, we may have to search for a less “provocative” name, but no one should tell us that our democracy does not need a vibrant opposition or that the institutions in place at the moment are up to the task. They are not! Can we, therefore, appropriately refer to what Utomi has cobbled together as a “shadow government”? I do not think so. Think-tank, maybe! Pressure group, fittingly! Who elected you our leaders? And who make you rulers and judges over us? That, I think, is the point the Minister of Information was trying to make before he overshot the tarmac “
PROFESSOR Pat Utomi, man of many parts but better known these days as a political activist and relentless critic of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu presidency, has announced the formation of what he has described as a “shadow government” whose purpose, ostensibly, is to hold the feet of the Tinubu administration to the fire for the purpose of safeguarding the good health of our renascent democracy, ensuring good governance, and the delivery of the much-vaunted dividends of democracy to the mercilessly-abused and long-suffering Nigerian people. My suspicion is that many Nigerians will consider the Utomi move a welcome development, especially with the rag-tag opposition parties that exist only in name and appearance and not in contents and substance.
A gale of defections has hit the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which is the largest opposition party, running it ragged; the next party after it, the Labour Party, is in disarray, with multiple factions laying claim to its leadership, while the former governor of Kaduna state, Nasir el-Rufai’s defection into the Social Democratic Party (SDP) appears a non-starter. Serial presidential candidate and ex-Vice-President Atiku Abubakar’s talk of a merger or coalition that will give Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) a run for their money in 2027 holds no promise but jeers. The National Assembly is seen by many as rubber stamp; the judiciary is looked at suspiciously as compromised while Labour at best is a caricature of its former vibrant self. Student unionism that once stood as a beacon of hope for national redemption has itself fallen into the cesspit of corruption that epitomises the country’s political landscape. Any hope, renewed or rehashed, appears forlorn. And in the absence of nothing, anything goes.
Story of the Tortoise
Nature abhors a vacuum; hence the void that Utomi seeks to fill with his shadow government, which appears more at home in a parliamentary system of government than in the presidential system that we operate here. An enemy more powerful than the Tortoise one day invaded Tortoise’s home and bound him hand and foot, Tortoise made a last plea: That he be let loose and set on his feet again just for a moment. Wondering what magic he would perform, his captor obliged. Tortoise then scratched the ground with his hands and legs and said, “Let it be recorded for posterity that I protested and gave a good fight before being carried away into slavery”! If all Utomi’s shadow government achieves is for history to record that some people scratched the ground with their hands and legs when, in their view, the country was turning the corner into a one-party state, let it be so recorded for posterity to judge!
Why “shadow government”?
An online medium reported Utomi’s endeavour thus: “Economist and political advocate, Professor Pat Utomi, has unveiled a shadow government established to serve as a credible opposition to President Bola Tinubu’s administration. The initiative, which he described as a ‘national emergency response’, was launched virtually under the banner of Big Tent Coalition Shadow Government. Utomi said the body was created in response to what he described as worsening economic and security conditions under President Bola Tinubu’s government.
“According to him, the new body draws its membership from a cross-section of Nigeria’s opposition parties and is tasked with regularly scrutinising government actions, identifying policy failures, and proposing alternative solutions in key areas, including the economy, education, healthcare, infrastructure, law and order, and constitutional reform. He said, ‘The recent spate of defections to the All Progressives Congress provides further evidence that all is not well with democracy in Nigeria. The imperative is that if a genuine opposition does not courageously identify the performance failures of incumbents, offer options and influence culture in a counter direction, it will be complicit in subverting the will of the people.’
“He explained that the group would meet weekly to review public policies, offer alternatives, and push for reforms in key areas, emphasising the importance of focusing on integrity and transparency, which he said are sorely lacking under the current administration. ‘This shadow team must also address issues of ethics, transparency, and integrity, which continue to challenge this government at every turn. Nothing is more urgent than tackling the rising poverty across the country. Multinationals are shutting down, and millions are unemployed…’, he said.
“Utomi further noted that the immediate priorities would include stimulating local production, decentralising security, and promoting inclusive governance. Today, I bring to this pioneer body the desperate cries of a people troubled by how their reality seems bound for serfdom. I challenge you to awaken these people who wrongly believe that everything is fine as long as they can manage a share of what little still trickles down from crude oil sales,” he said.
“Utomi also criticised the economic direction of the current administration, especially its handling of the petroleum subsidy removal. He accused the government of using broad consensus among politicians as a cover for poor planning, saying, ‘Making propaganda of most leaders being in agreement on removing the petroleum subsidy was to cover up policy errors of how to remove it without further structural damage to the economy.’
“On the issue of security reform, Utomi called for decentralised policing, arguing that communities should be empowered to maintain their own security infrastructure through a layered approach involving local forces, state police, and a Federal National Guard… We will travel farther if we get the communities to have their own armed and well-trained police forces, which will be layered with state police and the Federal National Guard,” he said, adding that corruption and centralisation have contributed to the resistance against such reforms.
Speaking on the makeup of the shadow cabinet, Utomi noted that it includes a range of professionals and public figures drawn from across the opposition. He said the team would operate not only as a think-tank but also as a policy watchdog, offering credible alternatives to government decisions.
“Among those appointed is human rights lawyer Dele Farotimi, who will lead the Ombudsman and Good Governance portfolio. Farotimi joins other prominent voices such as Oghene Momoh, Cheta Nwanze, Daniel Ikuonobe, Halima Ahmed, David Okonkwo, and Obi Ajuga on the policy delivery unit.
The broader shadow cabinet includes a diverse lineup of experts and professionals: Dr. Adefolusade Adebayo, Dr. Peter Agadah, Dr. Sadiq Gombe, Chibuzor Nwachukwu, Salvation Alibor, Bilkisu Magoro, Dr. Victor Tubo, Charles Odibo, Dr. Otive Igbuzor, Eunice Atuejide, Gbenga Ajayi, Dr. Mani Ahmad, Peter Oyewole, and Dr. Omano Edigheji. Additional members include Sidi Ali, Ibrahim Abdulkarim, Adenike Oriola, Promise Adewusi, Prof. Ukachukwu Awuzie, Ambrose Obimma, Rwang Pam, Dr. Kingsley Anedo, Prof. Auwal Aliyu, Dr. Ghazali Ado, Nana Kazaure, Aisha Yusuf, Dr. Charles Gilbert, and Olujimi Akiboh.”
Caveat emptor!
I do not think there are many Nigerians who would say that the problems itemised here by Utomi are not real or that they do not need confrontation; not even the government can say that because the government itself has not only similarly identified the problems but President Tinubu himself has said now and again that it is confronting them head-on. How successfully, effectively, and efficiently, however, remains the bone of contention. Now that Utomi’s shadow government is poised to present alternatives, Nigerians will be in a better position to determine which option is better – the government’s or Utomi’s.
My suspicion, however, is that no government in power where the system of shadow government is alien will not tend to see any other “government” not recognised by law as subversive and treading on the dangerous path of treason. Therefore, there must be understanding and caution on both sides. The APC government must understand that vibrant opposition is the fulcrum of democracy. It must also not forget that a few years back, it was in the opposition. If it had been clubbed to death at the time by the ruling party, it would not be in power today.
It is in this respect that the Federal Government’s response to Utomi’s shadow government is ominous. The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, was reported to have criticised the initiative, describing it as unconstitutional and unsuitable for Nigeria’s presidential system. Said he: “At a time when our nation is set to celebrate 26 unbroken years of presidential democracy, the idea of a so-called ‘shadow government’ is an aberration. Nigeria is not a parliamentary system where such a system is practised, and there is no provision for such in our statute books. While opposition politics is a central feature of democracy, it must be practised at all times within the bounds of propriety. This idea of a shadow government sadly does not pass that test. Our bicameral legislature amply features members of the opposition, and it should be the right place to contest meaningful ideas for nation-building.”
If the problem is in the name or nomenclature adopted by Utomi, then, we may have to search for a less “provocative” name, but no one should tell us that our democracy does not need a vibrant opposition or that the institutions in place at the moment are up to the task. They are not! If the opposition parties, legislators, judiciary, Labour, etc are already doing the needful, there would have been no use for Utomi and his co-travellers. It is the failure of those institutions that now necessitates the emergence of Utomi’s “shadow government” or whatever else we may choose to call it.
Win-win situation
By the way, what is a shadow government? In our context here, a shadow government has been defined as “a government that is prepared to take control in response to certain events, especially one made up of the leadership of the largest opposition party in parliament, which would assume control should the ruling party be displaced in elections”. Usually, a shadow government is composed of a shadow cabinet, albeit with no executive powers, with portfolios assigned to respective senior members of the opposition party whose duty it is to scrutinise the policies and actions of the government as well as to offer alternative policies. In short, it is government-in-waiting, as we have it in the United Kingdom.
Can we, then, appropriately refer to what Utomi has cobbled together as a shadow government? I do not think so. Think-tank, maybe! Pressure group, fittingly! Shadow government? No! Who elected them our leaders? Who made them rulers and judges over us? That, I think, is the point the Minister of Information was trying to make before he overshot the tarmac – like Utomi himself has also done. Apart from the reservations that I have about the composition of Utomi’s think-tank, I also do not think its task should be limited to only identifying the “performance failures” of the government. Utomi and company should be honest enough to give credit, and applause, where it is due. Otherwise, it will not be long before they begin to sing like a broken record and sound like brass and tinkling cymbals.
Where is the owner of the dismembered hand dangling from the mouth of this dancing ape? And where is the body from which he amputated the human foot he is using as a clapper in his celebration orgy? In which unfortunate country did this happen? Where was the law when these beasts were on the prowl? Who is going to redress this unspeakable transgression?
As members of the global human family, what hope for the rest of us, the unarmed survivors, who are usually told to patiently await our turn to be guillotined, with our body parts used in a mock-dance.
Mercifully, I’ve since learned that the video was shot in Burkina Faso by their own religious lunatics who are nonetheless as cannibalistic as the Nigerian variant. Thanks to PRNigeria, an online medium, we now know that “The viral video originated from Burkina Faso. The men seen dancing with what appear to be human body parts are militants from that country, celebrating the defeat of their enemies.
“If you have also seen the video, may I ask you how it makes you feel? Or, have you reached the stage of being unshockable – which the late educationist, Dr. Tai Solarin, warned us against many years ago?
No, we must not allow society to get used to these numbing depravities regularly posted on social media by subhuman monsters who should never have been born. Boko Haram started the trend with colourful video clips of decapitation. Then, its leader, Abubakar Shekau, posted even more horrifying videos of himself personally slaughtering helpless victims.
Borno And Middle Belt
Even the mere retelling of just a tiny slice of the horror we have been through gives goose pimples. Now, we are being bombarded daily with even more horrendous stories of whole families dismembered and then incinerated in Benue and Plateau states by bands of terrorists who, in some cases, have since taken over the villages.
Governor Zulum of Borno State was almost reduced to tears the other day when he was calling for help. It was pathetic, more so because Zulum has been one of the more forthright and competent administrators among the current generation of governors. Horror has its limits. For Boko Haram to be knocking on the door of the state capital when we all but thought that those demons had been consigned to the bottomless pit, was galling.
Perhaps because of the trauma, and for want of better intellection-based solutions, Professor Zulum then went on to ban the sale of alcohol throughout the state. I would have thought that, as an academic, the governor would commission social scientists to help him establish the causative factors of the state of anomie so that appropriate actions could then be taken. I was therefore taken aback when the good professor simply announced the ban on alcohol.
I haven’t yet done a research on the subject but I suspect that irresponsible parenting which exposes children to homelessness, begging, narcotics and anti-social behaviours would feature prominently among the causative factors. The almajiri system provides a ready army for Boko Haram and other terrorist organisations using religion as a cover.
Truth be told, the traditional milieu in which parents can just abandon their children (some as young as three years old) to a mallam for religious training, does not belong to the 21st Century. Such impressionable children are gullible enough to be pumped with anti-social sentiments and queer religiosity which ties their candidacy for paradise to the number of skulls they harvest.
If the political elite want to end the odious almajiri system tomorrow, they can; but will they? If it’s a matter of political realignment or demanding more political appointments, the elite will show up in their resplendent voluminous robes. But which of them is looking out for the children of the poor?
Security Summit
The Senate has recently been wrestling with the idea of a national security summit to address the state of insecurity in the country. We have had several such summits in the past and they came to naught. We all know that talk-shops mean different things to different people: contract to the contractor, honorarium to the academic, photo-op to the politician, mudslinging latitude to party apparatchiks, visibility to the ambitious ‘in-coming’, etc.
There are many recommendations from past summits/conferences gathering dust in abandoned files in the federal and state government’s offices. Let’s task the relevant committees of the National Assembly, in collaboration with the security agencies to update what had been done in the past.
We don’t have all the time in the world, so we must treat this issue with the urgency it deserves, Already, the terrorists have retaken villages earlier seized from them by the army in the Northeast. They’re collecting taxes. They’re torching and renaming villages in the Middle Belt. They’re killing hunters and vigilante members in the Southwest. And, if social media revelations are anything to go by, hundreds of newly imported foreign fighters are massing around Kwara State with the aim of attacking the Southwest.
If their progression continues unchecked, who says they will not forcefully declare a republic someday soon? After all, their unmourned leader, Abubakar Shekau, once declared a caliphate.
What To Do
It is my considered opinion that we have to do the following urgently: The armed forces are overstretched and should be limited to the worst areas of insurgency and banditry in the Northeast and Middle Belt and selected strategic infrastructure (for example, oil installations in the creeks). The strategy of the savages is to open up many fronts of engagement to overstretch the elastic limits of the armed forces.
Relevant laws should be amended to allow hunters and vigilantes, under the supervision of the state police, to bear arms up to the calibre of AK 47, the favourite weapon of the vagabonds. If not, people in the rural areas will start acquiring their own superior weapons in a bid to counter the terrorists.
All states should establish their own police forces immediately. All states should also constitute vigilante groups for their villages under the supervision of the state police.
The diplomatic corps should be sensitised on the criminal activities of their nationals, e.g., Chinese cyber criminals exposed in Lagos.
To side-step traitors within the system and expose sponsors of terrorism, the federal government should contract an independent ‘digitracker’ to help expose how the ransom money of bandits is laundered between various accounts.
The federal government should release the list of terrorist sponsors identified by the UAE government.
Habemus Paparam
The declaration, “Habemus Papam” reminded me of my Latin classes in the days of yore. By the time the identity of the new pope was revealed, the announcement triggered shock waves around the world. Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost went into the second day of the papal conclave as a voter and came out as Pope Leo XIV.
A 1977 graduate of mathematics who later read Philosophy and bagged a doctorate in Theology, he is the first Augustinian friar and first American/Peruvian to become Pope. Augustinians embrace a lifestyle of poverty, travelling, and living in urban areas for purposes of preaching, evangelisation, and ministry, especially to the underprivileged. His motto indicates his spiritual egalitarianism: In illo uno unum -“In the One, we are One”. May his reign be impactful.
Those who couldn’t tolerate the late Pope Francis’ advocacy for the poor should hold their breath until they hear this new pope. What are Augustinians if not advocates for the poor?
The Tinubu presidency has shown utter disrespect for Nigerians. It is above all insensitive to the suffering and hardship of most Nigerians. Instead of rendering a sensible mid term account of its mandate, the administration is celebrating the onset of the 2027 presidential election race. A clear two years to the end of its tenure, major political voices in the ruling party are already predicting a sweeping Tinubu re -election victory and his coronation as the king hereafter.
The administration has cornered public opinion and its vulnerable opponents into a mindset that the most urgent national challenge of the moment is the 2027 election. The central question of the polity is being recast as: who succeeds Tinubu? Of course, there is a truism that groundless optimism is the most common disease of political animals. Show me a politicians that is not optimistic of victory at the next election and I will point at a platoon of wise fools!
We are at the mid term of a tenure that promised Nigerians nearly every opposite of the Buhari interregnum. Mr. Buhari, easily the most disastrous leader of modern Nigeria before the Tinubu catastrophe, had run the nation literally aground before tenure expiration saved him from himself and rescued the nation from what was clearly the world’s most tragic instance of bad governance. Mounting debts, incoherent policies, perennial absenteeism of the leader, disastrous elocution, embarrassing aloofness and industrial scale corruption were the hallmarks of the Buhari era. In the history of Nigeria, never had a Central Bank Governor been charged with the magnitude of treasury looting as Buhari’s Godwin Emefiele.
Then came Tinubu on the wagon of one of the most disgraceful elections in national history. A mandate secured on a razor thin majority of less than 30% of registered voters ushered in what has so far turned out to be Nigeria’s most clueless dispensations. Tinubu promised nothing. He said little that any one found coherent. No one recalls making sense of his campaign gibberish, They said he promised to right the wrongs of the Buhari era even though he was running on the same party ticket as his Daura friend. In all fairness, no one remembers what exactly Tinubu said he was going to do with power. His only mission was to pack into a rent free Aso Villa. But two years after, here we are with a presidency that has turned our lives into two years in purgatory. The only Nigerians who now harbor any hope of a reprieve from hell are the few partakers in the feast of pork and patronage in Abuja.
Nearly every indicator of hardship is on digital display in today’s Nigeria. The majority can ill afford the next meal. Hunger has emerged as a national epidemic for the first time in our history. Access to electric power has shrunk to the extent that even the Presidential Lodge in Abuja can hardly afford to pay its power bills and now has to install a solar panel to save costs.
Insecurity has enveloped the entire national space, compelling informed people to suggest that the Ministry of Defense should be scrapped and replaced with an omnibus Ministry of Internal Security as all available security infrastructure and personnel all over the country have been deployed to joint internal security operations with hardly any tangible results.
Bandits, kidnappers, serial abductors and sundry gun men and women rule the highways and streets while official security personnel have since been outgunned by non -state agents and vigilantes of unknown nomenclature. A supposedly modern Nigerian state with well funded armed forces and over decorated officers is now shamelessly enlisting the services of native hunters, medicine men and charmers to stave off the forces of insecurity across the land.
It is this myriad of afflictions and failures that threaten the existence of the Nigerian state. It is these threats to national existence and the integrity of the Nigerian state that those who voted in 2023 are demanding that Tinubu and his gang should account for. At this mid term hour, Nigerians are asking for affordable food, essential drugs, affordable building materials, access to affordable education in schools without leaky roofs and guarantee of basic safety in their daily lives. It is accountability for these pressing basic needs and problems that demand urgent attention as the Tinubu government marks two years in office. National political offices that were meant to go round and give us all a sense of belonging to one nation have been cornered into one corner of our commonwealth.
To ignore these basic needs of the people and shunt public attention to the 2027 succession political battle is the height of insincerity and political deceit. To jump from that fraud to speculation as to why Tinubu deserves a second term in office is worse than mass deceit. It can only be that the administration is investing more energy in mass deceit and amnesia than the real grind of governance. The efforts of the government seem to be geared more towards succession politics than real time governance on a daily basis.
The obstacle to this deceptive politics is perhaps the possibility of an opposition coalition to challenge the APC in 2027. To counter this obstacle, whatever fickle opposition there is in the political space is being squeezed into a survival mode. The Peoples Democratic Party and its mascot, Mr. Atiku Abubakar, have been reduced to an unsettled chaotic herd. No one knows which executive now runs the party as conflicting factions engage each other in either fisticuffs or silly litigations in various courts across the land. Corrupt judges that have to adjudicate in these cases are having a ball with their bankers. The special squad of destabilisers led by the ubiquitous FCT Minister, Mr. Nyesom Wike, are having a busy time disorganising the PDP all over the country. If indeed the PDP survives between now and the eve of 2027, it will be a ghost of its former robust self.
The Tinubu taskforce on political ‘realignment’ is leaving nothing to chance. It recognises the potential danger posed by the Peter Obi–led Labour Party. An increasingly popular political movement led by a charismatic political ‘good man’ cannot be ignored. Obi’s Labour Party and its back-up Obidient Movement presented a veritable threat to Tinubu’s ascendancy in 2023. Therefore, two active factions of demolishers are at work on the Labour Party.
One faction of thugs led by one Lamidi Apapa has been busy challenging both the legitimacy and very existence of the party in court. A slightly more targeted attack is being led from within by Mr. Abure who ordinarily would be the Chairman of the party. In a recent move, Mr. Abure and his fellow travellers have suspended a slew of high level party members including a senator and the only state governor on the ticket of the party, Mr. Alex Otti of Abia state.
Beyond these party based destabilization antics, the incumbent government and ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has unleashed squads of recruiters all over the country who are busy attracting defectors and converts from other parties into the ruling party. So far, the results have been impressive. The most spectacular outcome has been recorded in Delta State where the incumbent governor and his immediate predecessor have defected to the APC. In addition, these political leaders decamped from the PDP with all their local government leaders. It is significant that Dr. Okowa, the immediate past governor of the state was also the vice presidential candidate of the PDP in the 2023 election. The Delta defection is therefore an arrow in the heart of the PDP in the strategic Niger Delta region.
There have been numerous other defections into the APC from other parties and political formations across the country. There is now a palpable fear in the political space that if the rate continues, the vast majority of politicians in the country would by the eve of the 2027 election be in the APC.
Fears have been expressed about the possibility of Nigeria ending up as a one-party democracy with other parties ending up as fringe minority parties. Former president Goodluck Jonathan has added his voice to those of opposition politicians like Atiku Abubakar in this regard. But some key opposition politicians have waved this possibility off, insisting that what is going on is the result of a political herd mentality.
Politicians are trooping to the ruling party where they think the bulk of patronage is flowing. Nigerian politics is principally about instant pork and patronage. Very few Nigerian politicians want to be left out in the cold of political wilderness. The APC has deployed poverty to attract membership.
There is however an overriding political curiosity and worry about the gale of defections and mass migration into the APC in particular. At a time of grave national disquiet about worsening social and economic conditions throughout the country, it is curious that the mass of political followers should be tempted to join the very political party whose leadership has literally run the country aground. Clearly, there must be forces beyond naked political sentiments driving the entire movement.
The consequences are many and could be dire. An early start of campaigns for elections that are two years away could lead to a vast dissipation of resources and political energy that would in fact make the fledgling opposition forces more attractive. The gathering of divergent political interests and tendencies in one inchoate ruling party could inject disequilibrium into the mechanism of the ruling party and lead to a pre-election implosion. A very large political party could prove difficult to manage and therefore come apart on its own weight.
This is not to under estimate the optimistic projections of Mr. Tinubu’s strategists and planners. On the more optimistic side, it is quite possible that what APC strategists are planning is for a 2027 race with little or no significant internal or external opposition movement. If most political voices were to be drowned inside one party, the choice of candidates, especially the presidential candidate, would be a serial ritual endorsement. In a more or less one party configuration, Mr. Tinubu would literally be returned unopposed as his party’s candidate at every party primary convention and be elected with minimal opposition. In line with that simplistic line of thought, Mr. Tinubu could head effortlessly to a coronation at Eagle Square.
There is a lazy trait in this line of thinking that conforms to Mr. Tinubu’s authoritarian mode of politics and leadership. He has railroaded the National Assembly into becoming a glorified rubber stamp conclave with literally no opposition on vital legislations like the reversion to the old National Anthem, tax bills, successive national budgets etc.
More worrisomely, Mr. Tinubu has carried on more like an emperor than a democratically elected president. He identifies his interests in the system. He then gets people to convert these interests into legislative bills or projects. He then proceeds to procure a National Assembly rubber stamp or Executive Council approval. It is popularly speculated that each approval sought by the president has a price tag and once the transactional details are fine tuned, the road is clear either to railroad an unpopular legislation or the award of yet another Lagos to Calabar Alaskan highway contract.
The road to a second term coronation for the Tinubu presidency is however strewn with booby traps and political land mines. The assumption that all politically minded Nigerians will end up in the APC by the eve of 2027 is naïve and even a bit foolish. The vast majority of voting Nigerians will hardly become card carrying members of any party.
Irrespective of who is in the parties, the solid majority of ordinary Nigerians remain the victims of the incompetence of this government. They are not about to join any parties and do not need to do so to reject an unpopular government at the polls. The greater the level of incompetence of the government, the higher their demand for voters cards and the greater their hunger to vote out the fraudulent bunch. We had a foretaste of this in 2023. The combined population of voters for both the Labour Party and the PDP overwhelmed the minority that voted for the APC.
It was the instrumentality of INEC’s dubious complicity and the division in the votes of the PDP and Labour Party that saved the APC thinly from deserved humiliation.
What is likely to abort the infantile projection of a Tinubu coronation in 2027 is therefore the continued rejection of the APC by the majority of the poor, deprived and angry Nigerians who do not care about formal party membership. The challenge of the next election is for INEC to expand its voter portal to accommodate all those who want to vote in 2027. And for the majority of Nigerians, the challenge of 2027 is not the mass migration of members into the APC. Party members are always a negligible variable in voter turnout. It is the mass of non- partisan voters that troop out to make their voice heard that matter most. They will decide who succeeds Tinubu, not the unthinking herd of “follow follow” party migrants.
Ultimately, then, the political destiny of the country still rests with the calibre of opposition coalition that the incompetence of the APC forces into existence. That opposition coalition must be everything that the APC has failed to be. We desire and deserve a credible, competent and coherent opposition with a clear national outlook. It must consist of persons of character with proven records. Above all else, we need a social democratic coalition that can carry the majority of Nigerians along a populist path to create and distribute Nigeria’s wealth for the good of all.
There was an outbreak of controversy recently over statements made by Mr Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party in 2023, about Nigeria at an international forum. Speaking at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, the US, Obi compared poverty statistics in Nigeria to those of Vietnam and China. He said more people were getting poorer in Nigeria whereas the other countries had pulled millions of their citizens out of poverty. Obi said: “The question then is, what exactly did these countries do to be able to achieve the desired growth and development? That is where political leadership comes in. These nations, unlike Nigeria, have competent leadership.”
Many Nigerians kicked, pointing out that his statements at foreign events often paint the country in bad light. Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos state angrily accused Obi of having a “disturbing pattern of behaviour” which “de-markets Nigeria” abroad. Sanwo-Olu said: “Obi made unflattering remarks not just about the incumbent Nigerian government, but also about Nigeria. I also find Mr. Obi’s pattern of behaviour disturbing. When prominent Nigerians go overseas, they ought to project Nigeria positively. They do not have to do that for the government. But we all owe a duty to market Nigeria on the global stage rather than de-market her. That is what true patriotism is about.”
Sanwo-Olu accused Obi of contributing to the poverty problem, adding: “I find it somewhat ironic that a man like Mr. Obi, who did not build a single school or a stand-alone hospital throughout his eight-year tenure as governor of Anambra, or sustainably provide credit facilities, would criticise the government of Nigeria which is actively doing that.” Obi has defended himself, maintaining that he was only telling the hard truth about Nigeria. “World Bank has just shown that 75% of Nigerians in rural areas are poor. Is World Bank demarketing Nigeria?” he fired back. Obi also pointed to UNICEF’s statistics which say Nigeria has the second-highest number of malnourished children in the world.
Interestingly, I very much understand Obi’s position as well as Sanwo-Olu’s reaction. I have a story to tell. While I was studying for a master’s degree at the University of Sussex in the UK in 2005, I had experiences that challenged my takes on Nigeria. My classmates were from all over the world — Ghana, Kenya, Mexico, Argentina, Italy, India, Estonia, the US, Japan and Azerbaijan. Holding seminars with students and teachers who had different worldviews and reading assorted academic essays by authors who had conflicting positions broadened my horizon and made me conclude that the world is actually not as simple as black and white. We tend to ignore grey and its many shades.
My first challenge was: how do I present my country to the world truthfully and wisely? Should I deceive myself by lying that everything was going well and we were on the right track? Should I tell the “hard truth” by washing our linen before foreigners, thereby further reinforcing the global cynicism about Nigeria? As time went by, I realised that my classmates, including the ones from other African countries, were discussing issues about their own countries with tact and optimism. They hardly uttered bad words about their countries even when we know they had serious challenges common to developing countries. They discussed their countries frankly but positively. I was amazed.
Until then, I had taken pride in highlighting all the bad things about Nigeria, particularly how corruption was stalling our development — all in an attempt to be “honest”. In fact, when I was about to choose a topic for my dissertation, my suggested topics revolved around corruption in Nigeria, but my supervisor, Professor Mick Moore, nudged me to write on something less sceptical, something that would contribute to the discourse on governance and development in my country. I came up with a proposal to do a research on informal sector taxation, with Lagos state as my case study. I got support from the Centre for the Study of the Future State, of which he was the director.
I had had a somewhat embarrassing experience during one of the seminars when I took a course on management of public finance. I was asked to make a presentation on tax reforms in Nigeria. The course conveyor was Charles Harvey, a professor of economics who had worked extensively in Africa. He helped in setting up Botswana’s central bank in 1975 and also lectured at the University of Botswana. He had enormous knowledge about Africa, having also worked in Zambia and Burkina Faso during his 30-year sojourn on the continent. I presented a case study of the reforms at the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), then led by Mrs Ifueko Omoigui. I thought I did a decent job.
But after all my sweat, Harvey announced: “Your problem in Nigeria is corruption. You have no reason to be where you are.” Should I say he was lying, especially when I had just received a text message from home informing me of the sharing of N50 million bribes at the National Assembly to get support for President Olusegun Obasanjo’s third term bid? In my weekly column, I myself had often been writing about corruption. I went mute, unable to decide the answer to give Harvey. He went further: “Is it true that your crude oil is stolen every day in connivance with government officials?” Should I say yes? Should I say no? I tried to play safe by saying: “It’s not impossible.”
I went away feeling like a hypocrite. There was nothing Harvey said about Nigeria that was a lie. But having seen how my colleagues were not badmouthing their own countries to prove that they knew how to speak the truth, I was beginning to recoil into my shell and was becoming more circumspect about the things I said about my country before foreigners. I realised along the line that if foreigners want to hear the most negative things about Nigeria, it is Nigerians themselves that will tell them. They don’t need to go asking Ghanaians or Kenyans. On our own, we will download everything, even more than they asked for. Anytime I read Wikileaks on the US cables concerning Nigeria, I cringe.
Our own Eedris AbdulKareem sang “Nigeria jagajaga” to speak “the hard truth” about his country (and I did not detect any lie in that song). King Yellowman, the legendary Jamaican reggae DJ, sang: “Jamaica nice! Jamaica nice! Jamaica nice!” Bob Marley sang lovingly about Trench Town. Peter Tosh reminisced adoringly about Westmoreland. Till today, Jamaicans sing about their country’s beautiful beaches and lovely islands. As a teenager, I longed to travel to Jamaica and even wanted to live there based on these songs. It was much later I realised Jamaica was also in the grip of poverty, drug abuse, gun violence and political turmoil — some morbidities you find in many developing countries.
While I was still struggling with how to present my country to foreigners during my time at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex, I attended a one-day conference at the Said Business School, University of Oxford, in May 2006. It was put together by Oxford Entrepreneurs. The first session I attended was addressed by Mr Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, then MD of Access Bank Plc. He spoke on the topic: “From Ideas to Profits — An Investors’ Guide to Africa”. He narrated how his team bought the bank and transformed it in just four years. This, he said, was an indication of what the African economy had to offer to those with the ideas and the right attitude.
What I found quite interesting in Aig-Imoukhuede’s presentation was that he took time to highlight Africa’s problems. He did not shy away from facing the truth. He listed the problems associated with the legal system, financial system, economic and social indicators, political stability, infrastructure, human capital and bureaucracy. At a stage, I was like: “Isn’t this guy discouraging investors?” But he was obviously setting the stage for how to transform the problems to prospects and prosperity. These same problems actually offer opportunities for the world to invest. He listed fertile areas for investment as infrastructure, agribusiness, telecoms, tourism, finance and natural resources.
“Africa, with a population of 800 million people, is the second largest continent,” he elucidated. “There is growing demand and limited competition. It is an emerging market, far from mature. Africa is a virgin market. It is untapped. Currently, only about 1% of the private capital in the world is invested in sub-Saharan Africa, yet African markets easily outperformed the world averages last year and over the past three years. Africa currently offers the highest returns on foreign direct investment of any region in the world and African stock markets have soundly outperformed the S&P 500 in last four years. Egypt topped the global table. Ghana’s stock market was the world’s third-best in 2005.”
Aig eventually narrowed down to Nigeria, citing the telecoms sector as a clear evidence of the “hungry” nature of African market. “Nigeria has witnessed tremendous growth in tele-density from about one million GSM subscribers in 2001 to about 22 million by December 2005. MTN is Africa’s (Sub-Sahara) fastest growing telco with nine million subscribers in four years. IBTC Equity Fund is Nigeria’s largest and most successful mutual fund with over 163% returns since 1999. Citibank Nigeria is most profitable Citigroup franchise in Africa. It accounts for 20% of Citigroup’s Africa operation,” he said. He ended his presentation with a battle cry: ignore Africa at your own peril!
As I boarded the train on the three-hour journey from Oxford back to Brighton, I was a happy man. I had finally found a way out of my dilemma. I felt I could now talk about Nigeria without being apologetic or deceptive. I wouldn’t pretend that there are no problems. We have plenty problems. Embarrassing problems. But I would also not be so negative as not to talk about our little progress and the plenty opportunities that abound. Indian, Lebanese and Chinese entrepreneurs are all over Nigeria exploring opportunities and making billions. This same country. Truly, we cannot all see Nigeria the same way. But my conclusion remains that the world is not always either black or white.
AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…
FIRST OF ALL
The federal government has, once again, launched the “Nigeria First” initiative, making it compulsory for MDAs to prioritise locally made goods and services in all government procurements. It is only what is not locally produced that can be sourced abroad. If it works, it should improve local capacity, output and job creation. Virtually every administration launches “Nigeria First” in one form or the other and makes good noise about it before it peters out right before our eyes. I don’t want to be negative about this, so I would just advise that, for a start, government officials should start flying Air Peace — instead of British Airways and Virgin Atlantic — to London. Am I communicating? Simple.
RENT POLICE
Kogi state has joined Lagos in the rent control craze. The Kogi house of assembly is working on a bill to establish a rent control board and set up a rent control task force to enforce standard rates and compliance across the state. As I wrote last week, our lawmakers (and policymakers) often define an issue by the “solutions” they already have in their heads. They avoid sequential analysis of a knotty problem and bypass the rigorous thinking needed to solve it. The rent situation in Nigeria today is a result of the housing deficit and the fallen naira which affects landlords and tenants alike. Rent controls will only encourage willing landlords and willing tenants to trade in the dark. Inevitable.
PINCH OF SALT
Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, founder of Loveworld Incorporated (you know it as Christ Embassy), is a globally renowned conspiracy theorist, hitting the height five years ago when he linked 5G technology to COVID-19. He has manufactured a new one: that Africans are being asked to avoid salt so that they would buy sodium-infused drugs. He asked his church members to “eat more salt”. In fact, nobody said Africans should not eat salt — the instruction is to eat less. Too much salt has been scientifically proven to be injurious to cardiovascular health and is implicated in high blood pressure, stroke and kidney failure. Fellow Africans, please proceed with sense. God will not shame us. Amen?
NO COMMENT
Mrs Ify Obinabo, the Anambra commissioner for women and social welfare, has raised the alarm over a prolific 18-year-old apprentice who has impregnated 10 girls (women?) in the last five months. He is so deft at this thing that his roll call includes the daughter of his boss. This earned him instant dismissal but did not end his promising career as he returned to his village to continue his mission, impregnating eight more girls in three months. This is no mean feat by global standards. At this rate, he will have fathered 84 more children by the time he’s 25. On a serious note, though, are we sure the young man is not targeting a place in the Guinness World Records? Impreg-a-thon. Hahahaha.
Do you still remember the story of my friend who said he loves women with big breasts? Each time a woman with full frontal endowment passed, he smacked his lips. He will not date a woman with less than 34DD specification. He can 'manage' if her southern region is not rich or even outright flat. As long as there is something full to cushion his stress after a long hard day. But his wife, yes, the Madam of the house, is almost flat-chested. Yet my friend is married, happily married. In fact, his wife is in charge of his businesses. The 38F or 36FF specs are for his side chics, not his wife. Madam is allowed to be barely breasted but when my friend wants the big big things, he knows where to go.
Like he once confided in me, ‘Funke, you know my wife is my life, my everything. She is my prayer warrior, my prophetess and my spiritual mother. She is my pillar and she has always been more than just a body since I knew her. Yes I love big breasts but what she means to me is way more than a curvy body.
They say it is women that are difficult to understand but this my friend, like many men leave me confused many times. So he married a pillar of support but keeps a harem of big-breasted side chics to satisfy his fantasy. There are also men which no matter how beautiful a woman is, if she cannot cook, they are put off. You will be shocked at the numbers of rich men who now eat meals prepared by chefs but actually married their wives for their cooking prowess. Maybe they did not know they will be rich eventually or their future lifestyles would include French and Spanish cuisine. Their number one criteria when they were shopping for a wife 25 years ago is ‘she must be able to cook or else there is no deal’.
There are men who love big backside. The rounder the better. Just sway and roll it in front of them and they will forget all the great manners their Momma taught them. Some men will do anything to date or bed a fair skinned woman, and those ones are many. Isn’t that the major reasons why too many women are bleaching even at deathly risks of their organs and future? Come to think of it, Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL), breast enlargement, tummy tuck, etc, are they not the handiwork or brain children of men to make or remake women into images that work for them? Women, we have suffered, right? We bleach for them, go under the knife to please them, change our ambition even to make men happy. Is something wrong with women or what? Then, the crux of the matter for today is, is it wrong for a woman to insist on marrying a man who has money?
‘I cannot marry a poor man’
‘He has to have some money’
‘I cannot marry a man who is a beginner. ’
‘He must be able to provide me a certain level of comfort’
‘I cannot even date a man who does not have a car. ’
This is the point where most men’s eyes are shooting daggers at this space. I can hear them.
‘Materialistic women’
‘Selfish Delilahs’
‘Does her own father have a car?'
‘Bloody gold diggers’
So what is wrong with a woman being a gold digger? What is she expected to be digging for, dust? The man who screens women for everything, from cooking skills, humility traits to sexual compatibilities, what are those ones digging for? Clay?
Why should a man have a marriage shopping list but a woman can’t? Come on guys, is that what you are teaching your sisters and daughters ? That they should not have criteria and benchmarks? How is the marriage institution supposed to survive and thrive if we are all pretending to be living in the 19th century? Why should a woman from whom the society expects so much from expected not to have expectations, goals, for marriage and the kind of man she wants to spend the rest of her life with? Why does the society want her to pretend to be what she’s not?
It’s okay for a man to want his bride to be beautiful and brilliant. She’s expected to be humble and a goal getter. She should be a woman who will support him when things get tough, pay the bill when he’s down and be a caring carer when he’s sick. But the woman cannot have marital ambitions and goals?
It is unfair really. If a woman is going to be everything the society prescribes, to ask for just one thing, one simple thing: that the man be not a poor man, is only fair.
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Re- 21 ejaculations per month, as how?
Egbemode's question and answer was very instructive and succinctly dissected. Same question has been on my lips and many like mind. Thank God, her assertion from different angles will lay to rest those for and against especially some males with excessive sexual drive and female folks affected by nymphomania syndrome rooting for it and justifying their position based on numerous bloggers and YouTube doctors' recommendations without consideration of what becomes of a man thereafter.
It may interest us to know that some creatures had sex only once in a lifetime. They do so only when they are ready to give up the ghost, a supreme heavy price to pay for such pleasure which is death. But still for procreation to take place for their generation to continue it's compulsory they pay the price anyway. That's the world of Praying Mantis.
I wonder what would become of a man if we had to live the life of Mantis.
- Mr S. Aize
Lagos
More...
Haiti Under the Duvalier’s, comprising “Papa Doc” and his son “Baby Doc”, ruled Haiti from 1957 to 1986 after Papa Doc won a controversial election. Their kleptocratic regime was marked by extreme corruption and systematic brutal plundering of national wealth. Under their rule, the economy deteriorated, poverty became widespread, and public funds were diverted for personal enrichment, leading to a severe decline in public services and a growing gap between the wealthy elite and the impoverished masses. They also led an extravagant lifestyle, contrasting starkly with the poverty of most Haitians, and invested minimally in education, healthcare, and essential services. The Duvalier era remains one of the most damaging periods in Haitian history to date! – (Papa Doc, Baby Doc: Haiti and the Duvalier’s).
Zimbabwe, formerly known as Rhodesia, gained independence from Britain in 1980, with Robert Mugabe becoming the country’s first Prime Minister and later President. Initially, Zimbabwe experienced economic growth and was considered one of Africa’s most prosperous nations. However, Mugabe’s tendencies and policies such as Corruption, Mismanagement, Increased Borrowing, Capital Flight,Inefficiency & Printing of Money led to economic decline, with the worst period being the 2000s hyperinflation crisis,when Zimbabwe’s inflation rate reached 89.7 sextillion percent (89,700,000,000,000,000,000%) per month making the Zimbabwean DollarWorthless and In 2009, Zimbabwe officially abandoned its currency and adopted a multi-currency system.(The Economic Decline of Zimbabwe: Neither Growth nor Equity)
As Nigeria hurtles towards the path of Haiti or Rhodesia or both, lets delve into the issues that will help us decide.
The VPs House
According to Worldometer (A United Nations real-time estimate data centre)., the current population of Nigeria as of April 11, 2025, is estimated at 236,413,198.The Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa (CAHF), Country Profile for Nigeria, highlights the housing deficit as at 2023 to be28 millionhouses and growing,requiring an estimated sum of NGN35.5 trillion to finance the housing deficit.
On Friday, June 7, 2024, after 14 years, the official residence of the Vice-President was commissioned. The cost of this remarkable Heaven on Earth House is a staggering obscene amount of NGN21 billion, amidst a struggling populace, skyrocketing prices for basic utilities, electricity now rationed, often on an apartheid-like basis, a plummeting naira, and the removal of essential subsidies.
They said, providing a suitable residence for the Vice-President is not merely a matter of convenience, it is a symbol of respect for the office and the individual who occupy it.They also said, it is a commitment to transparency, accountability, and efficient resource utilization.
That’s how sadistic and morally bankrupt they are!
The 73rd Birthday Bash
No one, none at all has a hand in the presence of commercial crude oil in Nigeria yet they said they have removed subsidy from our God- given oil before 12 pm on that fateful day! And to add salt to injury, at “a sight to behold”73rd birthday party of the president they referred to him as courageous for removing the subsidy.
Now our question is ”is it culturally, morally and politically right” for a country’s president to use state resources for personal celebrations before or after removing subsidy from petrol and electricity especially with the current economic challenges where multitudes of citizens did not see food to eat that fateful day, while all that grace the occasion have foodstuff busting at the seams, in their houses. May be it is a State Event!
The True Value of Life and That of The Naira
To understand how the naira is becoming a Zimbabwean currency, let’s take a look at the report of the National Moon-sighting Committee of Nigeria, based on the value of gold as at March 28, 2025.
Zakat Nisab is NGN12,921,120,00.To put it graphically, in Islam, a person that has NGN12,900,000.00untouched for a whole year, is poor and is not expected to pay zakat on that sum of money.
Theft Threshold is NGN161,514.00.To illustrate, in Islam, a person that unjustifiably consume an amount/resource that belongs to someone or some people equivalent to NGN161,514.00upon conviction, is liable to have his/her hand cut off.
Blood Money (Diyyah) is NGN646,056,000.00.Also to illustrate, the cost of a life in Islam is over half a billion naira. Meaning any one that kills an innocent soul, upon conviction is liable to pay that amount to the family of the deceased.
The 2025 Budgetand the Excessive Borrowing
The approved budget for 2024 was NGN27.5 trillion (let’s assume it is not padded), and if we may dare ask, what was the budget performance in 2024?
The 2025 approved Nigerian Budget of Restoration (minus padding if any)isNGN54.99trillionfrom NGN49,7trillion earlier presented. Debt servicing is NGN14.32trillion. Meanwhile the projected deficit is NGN13.08 trillion, to be financed through borrowing!
The precise total borrowing by the present administration from May 29, 2023 to datecan safely be said, is none existent or at best it shows incompetency as neither theNational Bureau of Statistics (NBS): “Nigerian Domestic & Foreign Debt Q1 2024” report.and Debt Management Office (DMO): “Nigeria Public Debt Statistical Bulletin Q3 2023” can give one asensible figure.However,based on the latest complete breakdown (Q3 2023) and the total debt figure for Q1 2024, the Federal Government’s debt stock, excluding that of the sub-nationals, is estimated to be around NGN114 trillion as of the first quarter of 2024.This is aTicking Time Bomb.
The Erosion of Democratic Principles and Human Rights
The suppression of dissent, as exemplified by the #EndBadGovernance and other protests, highlights the government’s disregard for democratic principles and human rights. The use of excessive force and the fresh-in-our-mind arrest of innocent children yet to reach puberty and peaceful protesters are a grave violation of fundamental freedoms as stated in Chapter IV (Sections 33 – 46) of the Nigerian Constitution of 1999 (as amended) and Article 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
The Naira-For-Crude Deal
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) in July 2024 directed the NNPCL to sell crude oil to Dangote Refinery in naira. This FEC directive is essentially more like a scam on Nigerians or the height of impunity of government.
In Nigeria, the use of foreign currencies for domestic transactions is generally prohibited, with specific regulations reinforcing the primacy of the Naira as the sole legal tender. This is anchored on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) 2007 Act,Section 20(1), which stipulates that the Naira is the only legal tender in Nigeria. Any pricing or payment for goods and services in foreign currencies within the country contravenes this provision. Furthermore, Section 20(5) of the Act, criminalizesand stipulates that any person(s) who contravenes this provision is guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a prescribed fine or six months imprisonment. Additionally, the CBN has issued directives through its circulars, warning individuals and businesses against denominating or demanding payments in foreign currencies for domestic transactions. Violations are to be reported to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the CBN for appropriate action.
Certainly, a government official or officials who refused to abide by this law should face the consequences of his or their actions.
Dumping the National Power Grid for a NGN10bn Solar Grid
Nigerians, don’t forget, in late December 2022, someone promised Nigerians that, “If I don’t give you constant electricity for four years, don’t vote for me when I come back for second term.”
The abandonment of the national grid by the by the Aso Rock Occupants is nothing short of impunity, lack of accountability, opacity in government dealings and crude policies of government. It was a photo-shop opportunity when the clueless government proudly approved the removal of electricity subsidy, increase in electricity tariff and creation of ascam and apartheid banding system with the Villa finding itself in Band A. and to cap it all, the minister that mislead the president to increase tariff unnecessaryis still sitting pretty on his seat instead of facing the consequences of his actions.Our take here is that“finally, the chicken has come home to roost”.
ṢṢummun, bukmun, ‘umyun fahum lā yarjiʿūn
In line with their crude political exigencies towards the run-up to the 2027 elections, the government seem ill-equipped to stem the tide of economic decline and only obsessed with acquisition of pecks of office and directing government affairs to activities that benefits them only.
In the final analysis, what we see is government’s response and that of the legislature, which appears to be a flurry of additional naivety, impunity and decamping of elected officials that shows they are “deaf, dumb, and blind, as they are unable to return to righteousness.”
• Hon (Alh) Adamu Rabiu is a Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist on Policy, Finance, Risk, Politics, Good Governance & an Advocate for Sustainable Development and writes from Kaduna.
(A remark on World Press Freedom Day when the Editors and SERAP celebrated it)
On March 16, 2015 the then candidate Muhammadu Buhari told the NPAN officials: I won’t tamper with press freedom.
Buhari, who then said a change revolution was imminent in the country without firing a shot also assured the influential members of the Newspapers’ Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) and the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) at an interaction in Abuja: “I want to give you my full assurances that in this democratic dispensation, I will ensure that the Nigerian constitution is upheld. This includes respect for the media, respect for the right to free expression and freedom of speech….I have said elsewhere that I cannot change the past. But I can change the present and the future. Dictatorship goes with military rule as do edicts such as Decree 4…However, I am a former head of state, note the emphasis on the word ‘former’– military ruler and now a converted democrat, who is ready to operate under democratic norms. “I give you my full assurances that the Nigerian media will be free under our APC government.”
In the end, the loose cannons and spokespersons in the administration gave the journalists of conscience the Jones-Abiri treatment: link them to terrorism and other related criminal activities, detain them and tell the human rights and international press bodies that the journalists are all criminals and scoundrels.
Even when they report the truth, they can be charged with a dead law such as sedition and there will be court orders to detain them as they just did to Premium Times Samuel Ogundipe the police curiously detained and asked to disclose the source of his information about a police letter.
Under the same Buhari we can recall the ordeal of Jones Abiri before The Guardian’s robust editorial exposed the lies of even a friend of the press then and a hit-man for government during the IPI’s first Convention in Nigeria. Recall that when the International Press Institute (IPI) asked for the release of Jones Abiri on 23 June 2018 when President Buhari was declaring the IPI’s first Conference in Nigeria open in Abuja, the Federal Government through the then Town-crier of “Fake News” and “Hate Speech’, the Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, said there was no such thing and the then Chairman of NJI Board of Trustees Ismaila Isa Funtua corroborated Lai Mohammed’s lie that there was nobody in detention.
Same for citizen Samuel Ogundipe: some local newspapers never published the detention of the Premium Times reporter just as some others curiously kept the story inside. Recall too that that the Inspector General of Police then who meretriciously responded to the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo’s directive to overhaul SARS that same day with just a name change and replacement of Commissioner in charge of SARS, ordered the arrest of three journalists of Premium Times that same day.
Remember that the same Buhari who assured the people as a candidate that he was born again got his pioneer DG,DSS Lawal Daura to evict a former DG, DSS from his Lagos home on December 2, 2015, also detained Jones Abiri for two years and denied it, raided the homes of Court of Appeal and Supreme Court Justices at dawn, broke into Akwa Ibom Government House’s cash vaults and claimed he carted away dollars never reported as exhibits anywhere.
Remember too that barely four months after he was sworn in, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu also assured the officials of the same NPAN of freedom of expression. In a December 2023 interaction with the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), Tinubu was clear that his administration would always respect media freedoms and divergent views.
They always assure us that they will not tamper with freedom of expression, but as Idi Amin of Uganda, then a strong man, once noted, unfortunately, there would be no freedom guaranteed after expression.
First, they came for the jugular of free and independent press when they collaborated with the federal legislature to introduce an anti- social media bill, sponsored by Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah (APC, Kebbi State).
The sponsor said then that the bill was intended to prevent unwarranted negative spotlight on public and political office holders. All stakeholders roundly rejected the hateful bill as a masked gag on the media. Then in March 2018, they came with another toxic one called “Hate Speech Bill” again sponsored by Senator Sabi Abdullahi (APC, Niger State), who said the bill, which carried a death sentence seeks “to eliminate hate speech and discourage harassment on the grounds of ethnicity, religion or race among others. According to a provision in the bill, “any person who uses, publishes, presents, produces, plays, provides, distributes and/or directs the performance of any material, written and/or visual, which is threatening, abusive or insulting or involves the use of threatening, abusive or insulting words, commits and offence”.
The penalties are scary: a jail sentence of not less than five years or a fine of not less than N10 million or both and a death sentence “where any form of hate speech results in the death of another person”. Both bills are dead but the snake is only scotched, but not killed as Shakespeare noted. There is an anti-media bill in National Assembly now that has passed through some stages. We have to be vigilant.
The fear now
Data collected by Media Rights Agenda (MRA), a frontline press and freedom of expression advocacy organization indicates that 45 attacks on journalists have occurred in Nigeria since 2023. The MRA data spotlighted security agencies, which were responsible for 62 percent of the 45 cases of attacks documented, while hoodlums were identified as being responsible for 16 percent. Unidentified actor such as kidnappers, armed individuals, and others were reportedly responsible for 15 per cent. Further breakdown of the data by gender showed that 37 of the incidents were targeted at male journalists, representing 82 per cent while four of those targeted were female, representing nine percent of the total attacks.
In one of the disturbing cases in which freedom of the press, and the rights of a journalist were undermined under the current administration, Editor of First News online newspaper, Segun Olatunji was picked up by soldiers from his home on March 15, 2024. The arbitrary use of the military for the purpose of effecting the arrest of journalist in a democratic setting was widely condemned by press freedom watchdogs. Olatunji was held incommunicado for fourteen days until he was released following widespread calls by scores of press freedom advocates.
The story was similar for Daniel Ojukwu, a reporter for the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), who spent 10 days in arbitrary detention after he was abducted in Lagos and flown to Abuja. It again took the intervention of civil society and press freedom organizations who organized a protest at the Police Headquarters before he was released.
Ojukwu’s ordeal in the hands of the Nigeria police followed an investigative report published by his platform, which exposed corruption in the office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on the sustainable Development Goals. Even more challenging for journalists, is the emerging trend of law enforcement officers using the Cyber Crime Act to hound reporters blowing the whistle or putting the spotlight on issues of accountability in governance. Specifically, the Cybercrime Act, 2015, now the Cybercrime Act of 2024, after it was amended by the National Assembly and signed into law by President Tinubu, has become the law of choice for the arbitrary detention, persecution and harassment of journalists.
Government officials and politically exposed persons who are averse to critical media reporting on issues of corruption and lack of accountability in the use of public resources, have found a potent weapon of persecution using the law. It is pertinent to observe that the most prominent cases of arbitrary arrest of journalists since the onboarding of the Tinubu Presidency have affected reporters who put the spotlight on issues of use of public resources.
Section 24, which dwells on “cyber stalking” and the punishment of three years imprisonment or a fine of N7,000,000 has made the work of journalists across the one of high risk. Significantly, the apprehension within media and press freedom circles, is the notion that journalists can no longer merely rely on regular proclamations about the government’s readiness to protect press freedoms. President Tinubu in his days as a pro-democracy activist was an ally of the free press. It is quite ironical that on his watch, the press is having a raw deal.
Meanwhile, we are here to restate the role of the media as clearly spelt out in Section 22 of the constitution – to monitor governance and hold public officers to account. Only good and independent journalism can deliver this tough job. This is where people will feel that the news media actually promote public good. In other words, development agencies should not lose sight of this fact: that only a truly independent news media can monitor governance, lest they become lapdogs. That is why Sina Odugbemi, former Programme Head, Communication for Governance and Accountability Programme (CommGAP) at the World Bank (Institute) once observed in a (World Bank) publication titled, “Public Sentinel: News Media and Governance Reform” that, ‘A focus on strengthening institutions like the news media is not yet seen as a core business in many development agencies. That is therefore why opportunities to strengthen the news media will always depend on the situation in each country and will always depend on the interplay of forces within each country.
Odugbemi in the same vein believes that, ‘the political economic realities will always determine what can be achieved’. What that means is that those who want to improve media systems in their own countries must learn to build effective coalitions. That is where work is really needed. In that treatise, Odugbemi says nonetheless, it is possible to bring together what we know right now about how news media can contribute to good governance outcomes. Second, it is possible to draw the necessary policy implications. That is why the collaboration with SERAP and others is critical. This is where the political economy of a free press that has become a huge challenge is relevant in understanding why the economic policy of the present administration too is affecting press freedom.
To be continued…
This is an excerpt from remarks by MARTINS OLOJA, Former MD/Editor-in-Chief, The Guardian, Fellow of the Nigerian Guild of Editors at the 2025 WPFD Press Conference by Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) & SERAP At Radisson Hotel. GRA, Ikeja. May 3, 2025
President Tinubu was in Anambra. The timing of the visit was ominous. Anambra governorship elections are due in November. Southern first-term governors from opposition parties are defecting in droves to Tinubu’s party. Soludo didn’t defect but a defection might have been more hygienic. Soludo showcased his projects and swore allegiance to Tinubu. Soludo was within his right to twerk for Tinubu, but did he have to spit on Peter Obi to magnify and enchant the president?
The first line of Soludo’s speech was reeked with pettiness. He said that the last time a President visited the state was in 2021 to commission the Premier Breweries which he called a private brewery project. That Soludo’s preferred hook was puerile. Some might say it should be seen as political banter. But did Soludo need to introduce that famed line of bigotry peddled by Tinubu’s men in this welcome address to the president to the home of Peter Obi, Tinubu’s arch-rival?
Soludo was free to preach unity or choose churlish partisan politics. He was free to say Tinubu is the father of modern Lagos who tamed the Atlantic and transformed a jungle into a bustling city. Nobody would challenge hyperboles. But Soludo didn’t have to sound like MC Oluomo or Bayo Onanuga riling up a Shinedu. He didn’t need to use Peter Obi as the red carpet. If Peter Obi had a dog in the November fight, Soludo might have had a little justification. But Obi, it appears, isn’t interested in the Anambra governorship, so why would Soludo seek to aggravate Obi’s supporters with a gratuitous motor park remark?
Soludo is brilliant but many have said he lacks political tact and emotional intelligence. But tact isn’t required to abstain from irritating the youths in a state you govern. A brilliant Anambra governor in 2025 doesn’t need emotional intelligence to know that while courting Tinubu he must not fart into the faces of Peter Obi’s supporters. Even if that would titillate Tinubu. It’s political maths. Obi will win any presidential election against Tinubu by a wide and wild margin. Soludo knows that. It wouldn’t matter if Soludo took APGA to live in the boys’ quarters of the APC. I understand the haste to ensure Tinubu doesn’t avail Nicholas Ukachukwu of the APC federal forces of coercion to attempt the Edo experiment, but did Soludo have to serve Obi as nkwobi to Tinubu to fatten his ego? Has Tinubu now become the oba of Nigeria at whose feet governors must grovel without compunction? Or is Soludo’s sporadic pettiness now incurable?
Soludo once suspended a traditional ruler because he conferred a small village title on a serving senator, who was Soludo’s political opponent. That unnecessary act of vindictiveness attracted a long letter of rebuke from the usually quiet Obi of Onitsha.
Soludo once attended the funeral ceremony of the mother of a popular catholic priest in Anambra. At the funeral service, he cast aspersion on the bereaved priest and his family because they printed posters and brochures for the funeral. He said the burial contravened the state’s burial laws, which he dusted up on the assumption of office. Soludo’s outburst attracted an acidic letter of reprimand from the Catholic Archbishop of Onitsha. The Archbishop said the governor had abandoned critical affairs of government to pursue shadows. He urged the governor to distinguish himself with big ideas rather than cantankerousness. So perhaps Soludo’s penchant for the demystification of Peter Obi isn’t envy.
Soludo had a first class. Obi had a colourless degree certificate. Both are from the University of Nigeria. Soludo raced to become an Economics Professor and Adviser to international financial institutions. Obi on the other had a shop while he was a philosophy student at the UNN. He was probably eager to leave school and become a member of the famous OMATA. Their paths couldn’t be wider apart. While Obi became a trader importing wines and groceries, Soludo lectured, researched and advised. Soludo went on to become chief economics adviser to President Obasanjo and later the central banker governor.
Obi survived the streets and the odds to become a billionaire, Chairman of a commercial bank and Anambra governor. At levels, Soludo had no reason to envy Obi. Both of them have now governed Anambra state. Soludo, who fancies himself as the Solution is perhaps the better intellectually endowed of the two. Peter never discusses Soludo. Soludo never misses an opportunity to mock Obi. Peter Obi has become a national political colossus. Is Soludo’s thinly veiled animosity borne of disdain or envy? Does Soludo harbour contempt for Peter, seeing him as a lucky political charlatan riding the wave of luck? Or does Soludo envy Peter Obi as the new dominant political figure in the Southeast? Why is Soludo bellyaching?
Soludo had contested against Peter in 2009. In 2013 Peter backed Willie Obiano when a few thought Soludo was a better candidate. Willie became governor and fell out with Peter Obi. In a beautiful irony, Willie Obiano chose Soludo in 2021 and defeated Peter Obi’s protégé. So Soludo and Peter have enough tension between them. But there could be more. President Yar’adua once toyed with the idea of grooming Soludo to be president. He recalled Soludo from the UK to get him to run for Anambra governor in 2009. Yaraduas death truncated that mission but the seed had been sown in Soludo’s heart. Obi parades an endearing simplicity, empathy, and a sense of frugality that has charmed the masses. Soludo, despite big ideas and great efforts, hasn’t been able to create that magic. If Obi goes to the villa, Soludo’s chances evaporate. Soludo owes Obi nothing. But he owes himself and the state political maturity. To worship Tinubu with dignity: to bow but not roll on the floor.
It was good to assemble all the traditional rulers in Anambra to bestow a title on the president. It’s courteous. But thanking the president for giving many Anambra citizens prominent federal appointments was going too far. That’s called shameless suffering and smiling. Tinubu’s Yorubacentricism is astonishing. Nobody expects Soludo to develop balls overnight and champion oppositional politics. In addition, Anambra needs to secure funds to check rampaging erosion. Anambra needs railway lines. Anambra needs to tap its gas resources. But Soludo could have conducted his good charm offensive without becoming a fact-bending Otimkpu. Anambra has only a junior minister. Ogun has more senior ministers than the entire Igbo land. Why does Soludo say things that would aggravate the sensibilities of his people?
If Soludo wants to win Anambra votes for Tinubu, he must do more than twerking and spitting at Obi. He must tell Tinubu the truth about Tinubu’s Terrible Tribalism. He can find him more traditional titles and even build him a retirement home in Awka but he must tell the president the truth of his pompous disregard for the southeast. The president may come to commission a thousand state projects and blow kisses at the people, but Soludo must point at the second Niger Bridge, which Buhari built, and inform Tinubu that the southeast needs one or two multi-trillion naira project like the Lagos Calabar road. But this time, they must follow due process. Nigeria belongs to the Igbo too. Soludo should have told Tinubu that those who masterminded targeted violence against the Igbo in Lagos in 2023 wounded the foundations of the country, and Tinubu ought to have condemned and punished the perpetrators.
To win in Igbo land in 2027, Tinubu must stamp out the insurgency militarily and address its root causes politically. He must renew the hopes of the Igbo in the Nigerian project. He must offer a transformative leadership that spreads peace, fairness, equity, unity and inclusive prosperity. A transformative leadership for national cohesion and development will treat opposition leaders like Peter Obi as indispensable partners rather than enemies and objects fit for ridicule.
Soludo has a big brain. I don’t know if he has a large heart.
In a nation where survival has become a daily miracle, and where hunger, inflation, unemployment, and insecurity have become the norm rather than the exception, the spectacle of government officials and politically connected elites engaging in open display of wealth, what is stylishly coined “escalading” in this context, is not only insensitive but dangerously provocative. In fact, one must boldly state that in the face of worsening economic hardship, it is absolutely inadvisable for anyone in public office or with public funds to flaunt luxury, splendor, and extravagance. To do so is to spit on the suffering masses.
Let us be clear from the outset: the word “escalading,” as used in the Nigerian socio-political context, is derived from the brand name of the Cadillac Escalade, a luxury SUV often associated with affluence, prestige, and power. In the context of this piece, to “escalade” means to show off in a high-end car, particularly in convoy or during public events, often in the midst of people who cannot afford a square meal a day. It has become a symbol of everything wrong with Nigeria’s political class, a class that continues to wallow in opulence while the majority are neck-deep in misery.
It is no longer news that Nigeria is in the throes of an economic meltdown. The naira has continued to plummet, inflation has pushed basic food items beyond the reach of common citizens, and the cost of living is unbearably high. From Lagos to Sokoto, from Owerri to Maiduguri, stories of hardship, desperation, and despair echo through the markets, motor parks, and street corners.
Recent statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) confirm what the average Nigerian already knows by instinct: food inflation is above 40%, general inflation is nearing 30%, and over 133 million Nigerians are multi-dimensionally poor. These are not just numbers, they are real human beings, real households, real stomachs going empty, and real dreams being dashed daily. So, when politicians drive by in convoys of Escalades and exotic cars, with sirens blaring and security personnel in tow, it is not just a display of wealth, it is a slap in the face of the downtrodden.
As gathered, the 2025 Cadillac Escalade is a luxury SUV with a price tag that reflects its premium status, starting at a hefty MSRP of \$90,295 and climbing to an eye-watering \$164,695 for the high-performance V-Series. Even the base model, which some listings show at around \$83,890, positions the Escalade far beyond the reach of the average buyer. While discounts of \$2,553 to \$5,382 may be available depending on trim and equipment, the lowest trims still approach six figures, with upper-tier models like the Premium Luxury Platinum and Sport Platinum priced at approximately \$112,690. In short, the Escalade is not just a car, it is a financial commitment.
There is an old African saying: When the house is burning, the wise man does not chase rats. Yet, in Nigeria, it appears that while the nation is metaphorically burning, our leaders are chasing luxury, image, and extravagance. It is highly inadvisable, indeed reckless, for public servants to be seen flaunting wealth during times of collective national suffering.
Take, for instance, the many political gatherings where convoys of Escalades, Land Cruisers, G-Wagons, and other high-end vehicles stretch for kilometers, while the roads themselves are riddled with potholes and death traps. Consider the birthday celebrations, wedding ceremonies, and private parties of government officials, events that could easily pass for Hollywood red carpet galas, with guests arriving in private jets, adorned in million-naira attires, and dining on imported wine and seafood.
What message does this send to the unemployed youth? What signal does it give to the market woman in Ijebu Ode who has had to halve her food portions to feed her children? Or to the university graduate roaming the streets with a CV that nobody wants to read? The answer is simple: “We do not care about your suffering.”
At this juncture, it is expedient to recall that the French Revolution was not sparked by mere political ideology. It was the visible, shameless disparity between the aristocrats and the starving populace that ignited the powder keg. Marie Antoinette’s infamous quote, “Let them eat cake”, whether apocryphal or not, captured the arrogance and disconnection of the ruling class. Nigeria is not far from such a tipping point if current trends persist.
With every show of affluence in the face of public agony, the political class inches closer to sowing the seeds of a revolt. Social media is already ablaze with resentment. Protests, although often clamped down, are beginning to simmer beneath the surface. The youths are watching. The masses are groaning. The patience of the Nigerian people, long known for its elastic resilience, is wearing dangerously thin.
It is no coincidence that attacks on politicians’ convoys, public jeering of public office holders, and online outrage are increasing. These are signs of a brewing social volcano. And the more our leaders “escalade” in the face of escalating hardship, the more they stoke the fires of public dissent.
Leadership, especially in hard times, is not just about policies and programs; it is about symbols. The masses read meaning into every gesture, every appearance, and every public statement. When leaders choose to fly commercial instead of private jets, citizens take notice. When they reduce their convoys and delay lavish celebrations, people feel seen.
Unfortunately, symbolic leadership is almost alien to Nigeria’s ruling elite. The president, governors, ministers, and lawmakers continue to live as if they govern Switzerland rather than a third-world nation battling debt, poverty, and underdevelopment. Meanwhile, fuel subsidy removal has left millions gasping for breath, with transport costs doubling and businesses shutting down.
A responsible leadership would, at the very least, cut back on excessive spending as a show of solidarity. They would freeze new luxury car purchases, slash estacode allowances, shrink convoys, and prioritize local hospitals over medical tourism. But that would require empathy, a virtue seemingly lacking among those at the helm.
It is time for Nigeria’s political class to have a sober reflection. The continued display of wealth in a country writhing in economic pain is morally bankrupt and politically unwise. The people are not blind. They may be hungry, but they are watching. And while they may appear docile today, hunger has a way of waking the boldest spirits.
The concept of “inadvisability” may not be found in any English dictionary, but its message is clear: It is inadvisable, imprudent, and out rightly stupid to flaunt wealth when your people are starving. It is an insult to intelligence and an affront to decency.
Let every leader, politician, and public official note: you may escalate your convoys today, but tomorrow, it may be the people who escalate their anger.
The country is at a critical juncture, and what Nigeria needs now is not another Escalade SUV, not another champagne party, not another foreign trip for ‘medical checks’, but humility, sacrifice, and true service.
Because in the end, it is not the glitter of your cars that history will remember, it is the footprint of your conscience in the sands of national suffering.