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Charges that the judiciary is complicit in the executive rascality that has seized this country since the Fourth Republic began in 1999 never cease to rear its ugly head. The charges are not from aggrieved politicians alone but also from the top echelon of the Bar. Retired judges have also been known to express dissatisfaction at the performance of some of their colleagues still on the Bench. Truly, that the judiciary plays second fiddle or is subservient and servile to the Executive branch of government is not in doubt; the rulings and comportment of many of them embarrass even a lay man like me. I wonder why such judges have chosen the path of destruction, not only of themselves but also of their profession. Whimsical desecration of the hallowed chambers of justice by men and women constitutionally empowered to act mini-God, able to take the life they are not able to give, cannot be taken lightly. These are men and women who, on their own volition, without compulsion, swore on oath to dispense justice without fear of favour, with neither malice nor affection to anyone, regardless whose ox is gored. To turn afterwards, treat these with levity, and even laugh their oath to scorn!
Is it fear? Is it the love of money? Is it a lack of understanding? Montesquieu’s theory of separation of powers apart, the judiciary is the branch that should hold the two other arms of government – the Executive and Legislature – to ransom. Because it wields the power of life and death over all of us. Because it has the final say – at least here on earth. In heaven it may be Jehovah (Who has the final say/Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah/Has the final say!). But here on earth, the judiciary has the final say. It is the only branch of government empowered to overrule the two other arms. In doing that, brilliant judges who are so minded have been known to make laws while interpreting the law. They have the powers to strip anyone – including even the most powerful office holders – of privileges and entitlements; they are known (in other climes at least) to strip governors and presidents of their office; even sending them to jail. Why, then, are they effeminate here? Who or what emasculated them?
I moaned for the judiciary, often touted as the last hope of the common man and mourned for the common man himself when I read the intervention of Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, SAN, and former chairman of the Human Rights Commission. Shall we call it a dirge or requiem for the judiciary? It is titled “Yahaya Bello and a complicit judiciary”. I will return with parting shots.
“Josiah Majebi is the fifth Chief Judge of Kogi State (in north-central Nigeria) in four years and the fourth to exist almost entirely in the pocket of the state governor. He has been in office as substantive Chief Judge since the beginning of February 2023, having acted in that role since 26 June 2022 when his predecessor, Richard Olorunfemi, retired. Henry Olusiyi served in that office for just under seven months from the end of June 2020 until January 2021. Sunday Otuh, who succeeded him, spent eight months in office before retiring in September 2021.
The last Chief Judge of Kogi State who attempted to hold that office with dignity and independence, Nasir Ajanah, paid with his life, unmourned and exiled from the state. He was the second Chief Judge of the state to be politically lynched by the government of Kogi State in one decade.
At the beginning of April 2008, the Kogi State House of Assembly, defying an order of the state High Court, adopted a resolution asking the state governor to remove long-serving Chief Judge of the state, Umaru Eri. On that basis, then acting governor, Clarence Olafemi, promptly announced the sack of the Chief Judge on 2 April, 2008 and designated another judge, Sam Ota, to act in his place.
In his defence, Umaru Eri claimed that his crime was that he had declined the request of the politicians to act as go-between in bribing the election petition tribunal on behalf of the then state governor whose election was in dispute. On 16 May, 2008, AlabaAjileye, a judge of the High Court of Kogi State, reversed the sack and reinstated Umaru Eri.
Eleven years later, on 18 June 2019, AlabaAjileye presided again in deciding a case that seemed uncannily to reprise issues in his earlier decision. As with the 2008 decision, the claimant in 2019 was another Chief Judge of Kogi State, Nasir Ajanah, with his Chief Registrar, Yahya Adamu. The defendants included the Kogi State House of Assembly, its Speaker, and the state governor, Yahaya Bello.
At the directive of Gov. Yahaya Bello, the Secretary to the Government of Kogi State wrote on 14 November, 2018 to Chief Judge Nasir Ajanah, asking him to provide “the payroll of judicial staff for the ongoing pay parade of civil servants in the state”. At the time, the governor was a defendant in the court of the Chief Judge; so the Chief Registrar responded to the letter and explained that the judiciary was a self-accounting and co-equal branch of government supervised by the state Judicial Service Commission.
An affronted Gov. Bello wrote under his own name to Walter Onnoghen, then Chief Justice of Nigeria and chairman of the National Judicial Council (NJC), asking the NJC to find the Chief Judge guilty of misconduct requiring that he “step aside and (an) Acting Chief Judge (be) allowed to take his place”.
While his petition was still waiting for the attention of the NJC, Yahaya Bello resorted to political self-help. He referred the perceived effrontery of Nasir Ajannah to the State House of Assembly, which promptly constituted an investigation committee. The Chief Judge sued. While his suit was pending, on 2 April, 2019, the State House of Assembly adopted a resolution asking Yahaya Bello to remove the Chief Judge and also requiring disciplinary action against the Chief Registrar. On 18 June, 2019, AlabaAjileye sitting at the High Court of Kogi State in Kotonkarfe, determined that the Kogi State House of Assembly and the governor acted unlawfully in seeking to remove the Chief Judge.
The reaction of the governor was bestial. He first went after AlabaAjileye, a man of courage and learning whose judicial record was unblemished. With a doctorate degree in law, AlabaAjileye is an expert in the rarefied subject of digital evidence. Following this judgment, however, Yahaya Bello’s government made it known that they could no longer guarantee his safety. Yet, when he was put forward for elevation to the Court of Appeal, the same Kogi State government actively blocked it. A man who would easily have adorned the Supreme Court with distinction, AlabaAjileye retired from the High Court in February 2023 and has since then forged a career as a scholar and academic.
Turning to the state Chief Judge meanwhile, Yahaya Bello made life unbearable for Nasir Ajannah. He began by banishing the man from official state functions. When Chief Judge Ajannah attended the swearing-in of the new Grand Khadi of Kogi State on 21 May, 2020, the Chief Security Officer to Yahaya Bello informed him that the governor gave a directive that he should not be allowed to attend the function.
In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Bello made Nasir Ajannah persona non grata in the state. As a result, he was forced into internal displacement in Abuja, where his personal arrangements were worse than transitory. While in hiding in Abuja, Nasir Ajannah contracted COVID and died in isolation in Gwagwalada in the Federal Capital Territory on 28 June, 2020. His death went unacknowledged and even the institutions of the judiciary were reluctant to mourn his passing.
The men who followed Nasir Ajannah in the office of Chief Judge of Kogi State learned to stoke the vanities of Yahaya Bello and avoid his anger. Ahead of his departure from office at the end of eight years as governor of Kogi State in January 2024, Josiah Majebi as Chief Judge and chairman of the Kogi State Judicial Service Commission prepared a list of candidates for nomination as judges of the High Court of Kogi State. At the top of the list was a wife to Yahaya Bello, the basis of whose claim to the nomination was the dutiful fulfillment of the duties of connubium in Yahaya Bello’s bedroom. For the Chief Judge, it was also proof that he had truly abjured any pretensions to a mind of his own.
Alarmed at what they saw as perversion of the system of judicial appointments, a group of seven Senior Advocates of Nigeria from the State wrote to Josiah Majebi to dissuade him from this course of action. In January 2024, they sued, challenging his judicial nominations. Pending the outcome, the NJC suspended the process of appointment to the Kogi State judiciary. On 18 April, 2024, James Omotoso, a judge of the Federal High Court in Abuja, many of whose judgments usually have something of a smell problem about them, implausibly ruled that these senior lawyers had no legitimate interest in the process of appointment of judges in their state and that, in any case, the discretion of the NJC in appointment of judges was effectively not open to review!
It was the day after Yahaya Bello’s chosen successor and blood relative, Usman Ododo, chose to turn his predecessor into a fugitive from legal process and two days after Mr. Ododo opened his case in the petition questioning the lawfulness of his election as governor of Kogi State. As a bungling Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) waited to arrest Yahaya Bello in Abuja, one I. A. Jamil, a judge of the High Court of Kogi State, issued an order claiming to restrain the Commission from doing its job.
According to the order of the judge, the case, which was filed over two months earlier on 8 February, was hurriedly assigned while the siege was on-going in Abuja, was argued, heard and decided and the judge quickly signed the order and handed it to Gov. Ododo to take with him to Abuja from where he spirited his cousin away from legal process in a blaze of gunfire! The court was almost assuredly disingenuous about the date of filing. In all likelihood, the case was filed the same day on 17 April, 2024 and then back-dated!
The EFCC now claims it has declared Yahaya Bello a fugitive but the real question will be how a compromised and complicit judiciary will treat the nomination of his unqualified wife as a judge and the petition against the declaration of his violent cousin as governor of Kogi State. The judges who currently control Nigeria’s criminal politics now must show how much they owe Yahaya Bello!”
Knowledgeable men and women have said that the core problem of the judiciary is the process of recruitment to the Bench. Where merit is sacrificed on the altar of godfatherism, competence takes the back seat while incompetence and mediocrity strut the stage like a colossus. Wherever corruption is rife, justice takes fight!
I was filled with regrets after watching a documentary by the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) titled ‘Fuel Subsidy: Lifting a Nation’s Burden’. I started ruminating over what might have been. In the opening, Dame Winifred Akpani, founder and CEO of NorthWest Petroleum and Gas Company, reminds us of how fuel subsidy came into being. It was in the mid-1970s when oil boom made us believe we were so rich we could buy the entire world. It probably made sense at the time that as Nigeria was raking in billions of dollars from oil export, some of the benefits should be passed to Nigerians via cheap/fixed prices of petroleum products.
Akpani recalls how the military government added petroleum products to the price control list in 1977, officially introducing fuel subsidy in Nigeria. I am looking back today and thinking: if we knew the inter-generational quagmire we were getting ourselves into, we probably would have done things differently. If we sit down to calculate the billions of dollars we have sunk into fuel subsidy since 1977 and how this could have developed the critical infrastructure necessary for Nigeria’s development, we cannot but wonder what might have been. But rather than get stuck with lamenting about the past and what might have been, we should be learning from our mistakes as we head into the future.
Let me state this clearly: I am not against subsidies. The US, the global flag bearer of market economy, heavily subsidises its domestic agriculture, and some aspects of energy, housing, and car manufacturing — all geared towards increasing investment in those sectors. The UK, which is also a market economy, subsidises areas identified as key to economic growth, notably the automotive sector, aerospace and clean energy. Public transport fares are capped and government pays part of the difference, which runs into billions of pounds yearly. But government shares the subsidy burden with commuters through yearly adjustments in the fares charged by the transport companies.
The problem with Nigeria is that we subsidise the wrong points in the production and consumption chain. This is because we probably asked the wrong questions or came up with the wrong answers while designing the policies. The questions should be: why are we subsiding? Can we afford it? How are we going to fund it? How long will the subsidy be in place? What happens when the funds are not flowing like rivers again? Should we be responsible for 100 percent of the subsidy or should we stick to a percentage and pass the rest to Nigerians so that regular adjustments can be made? We went for a blanket, no-questions-asked subsidy policy and Nigerians became infinitely entitled.
This was a major negative outcome of the oil boom. Rather than see the boom as a boon and deftly utilise it to develop other critical sectors and build a robust economic base for Nigeria, we thought the petrodollars would continue to flow without let or hinderance till the end of the world. We plunged into a spending spree, flooding the country with an unsustainable expenditure profile. Isn’t it remarkable that the era we still celebrate as the best in Nigeria’s economic development — the 1950s and 1960s — was when there were neither fuel nor electricity subsidies? Public funds were concentrated on education and building infrastructure by the federal and regional governments.
Today, we lament that some Asian countries that were at par with us in the 1960s have overtaken us and become world beaters. I have never disguised my belief that oil booms have done more harm than good to us. Not just to the economy, but also to politics, security and public morality. Nigeria was not a perfect country before the oil boom — after all, there were several cases of corruption and abuse of office before and after Independence — but the impunity that came with oil wealth is beyond compare. We moved from an era of “10 percent” corruption to the age of phantom contracts. Insane impunity! We have moved from robbing revenues to looting loans. Insane!
Let me be fair. By introducing energy and meal subsidies in the 1970s, the military governments obviously meant well, even if their economics was questionable. With high crude oil prices, petroleum products also became more expensive. Our leaders were probably asking themselves: why should Nigerians pay more for petrol? Shouldn’t cheap products be a fringe benefit of being oil producers? We also needed to encourage more Nigerians to have university education by introducing a number of incentives. You can fault their choices but you cannot fault their desire to make life more comfortable for Nigerians. Rather than cry over spilt milk, we should be thinking about the lessons.
Lesson No 1: never introduce a privilege that you cannot sustain. Withdrawing what has come to be seen as an entitlement is akin to courting war. Gen Olusegun Obasanjo discovered as much when he tried to reduce or remove subsidies when oil prices began to fall. While the boom was a feast for us, it was a funeral for industrialised countries. They began taking measures to reduce fuel consumption: manufacturing fuel-efficient cars and introducing the “pool car” system in offices to encourage sharing, among others. The US — the world’s biggest consumer of petroleum products at the time (and till today) — also started oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. You see, they did not go to sleep.
The biggest implication of these initiatives was that oil demand started dropping and prices began to fall. Obasanjo, on becoming head of state in 1976 following the assassination of Gen Murtala Muhammed, had started preaching the gospel of agriculture, launching Operation Feed the Nation to encourage Nigerians to be individually and collectively self-sufficient in food production. In 1978, he increased fees payable in the universities — although tuition remained free — and reduced the meal subsidy, raising the cost from N1.50 to N2 per ticket. Hostel accommodation fee tripled from N30 per session to N90. (Ironically, it was still N90 in 1989 when I enrolled at the University of Lagos).
Like I said, never introduce a privilege that you cannot sustain. Be ready for war if you want to withdraw it. University students, under the auspices of the National Union of Nigerian Students (NUNS), rejected the reduction of these subsidies and embarked on a nationwide protest, unforgettably tagged “Ali Must Go” (or, comically, “Ali Mungo”). The students demanded the resignation of Col Ahmadu Ali, then minister of education, because of the astronomical fee increases. At the end of the protests, which the military and police tried to suppress, there were at least eight dead bodies. That did not change anything as Obasanjo insisted the increases were necessary.
Lesson No 2: adjustment is no child’s play. As most Nigerian leaders have discovered in the last 50 years, it is easier to maintain the status quo than to disrupt it. Most African countries do not subsidise energy consumption. As soon as oil and gas prices change in the international market, citizens expect adjustments in energy prices: petrol, diesel, electricity and all. There is nothing to debate. Ghanaians and Togolese are not poorer than Nigerians yet they pay the market prices for energy. The difference is that Nigerians have successfully given petrol a political status. We buy yams, beans and tomatoes at market prices but treat petrol as a political entitlement. Yes, since 1977.
Adjusting prices and fees has become a perennial problem for both the government and the citizens. The government is always reluctant, or even scared, to make changes because they know the street can catch fire. The default response of the citizens, who are perpetually under economic pressure, is to resist any attempt to adjust prices and fees. The fact is that we are not used to it. It is not in our culture. Nigerians who migrated abroad are seeing the realities of price adjustments, although they console themselves with the fact that “we can see what the government is doing with the money”. Very well. People-led accountability is a democratic culture we also have to imbibe as Nigerians.
Lesson No 3: delayed adjustment comes with even more pains. When President Muhammadu Buhari came to office in 2015, two things were begging for attention: the exchange rate — which had become glaringly unsustainable with falling oil income — and petrol subsidy (please note that government stopped subsiding other fuels ages ago). The exchange rate was N197/$ while petrol was N87/litre. Buhari was reluctant to move the needle for one reason: the inflationary impact on millions of poor Nigerians. While that was considered socio-politically expedient, the economy was the worse for it. Some of the adjustments came rather late in the day and then stalled at some point.
By the time President Bola Tinubu assumed office in May 2023, he was faced with three tough options. One, retain the suicidal status quo and risk a return to the 1984-scale crisis when we started queuing up to buy rice and milk because of FX crunch and falling revenue. Two, adjust gradually, although there is a risk of getting mixed results. Three, go full blast, with the attendant short-term pains and long-term gains. Tinubu gave us the impression that he went full blast, but all I can see around me is chaos. It is glaring that there was no plan and his government is just making things up per time. The PR machine is doing very well — I give them credit for that — but I think we are stuck.
Nevertheless, the basis of my argument today — after watching that beautiful documentary produced by Ademola Adedoyin and Zik Zulu Okafor — is that the introduction of fuel subsidy in 1977 has hurt us more than we think. We created a culture of privilege that will be extremely hard to discard. Also, our failures to adjust to new realities in several areas of public expenditure since the oil boom era will continue to hurt us if we don’t change course. If we were adjusting where and when necessary all along, we would not need to be facing sudden killer shocks all the time. We have gone too deep into the abyss. We need a miraculous reorientation to be able to change our ways.
AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…
EFCC VS BELLO
The American International School Abuja (AISA) has refunded the fees paid for the children of Mr Yahaya Bello, according to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Bello, the former governor of Kogi state who is engaged in a running media drama with the commission, allegedly paid $760,910 in advance as fees for five of his children from the coffers of Kogi state. However, by a previous court ruling in the case of Chief James Ibori, the ex-governor of Delta state, the money will now have to be returned to Kogi state. And the current governor of Kogi state is Mr Usman Ododo, who was handpicked and installed by Bello. Are you thinking what I am thinking? Rebound.
MEDIA MENTOR
When I was studying mass communication at the University of Lagos, the common joke at the department was that those who wanted to specialise in journalism would die poor and those who wanted to make money should go into PR and advertising (PRAD). Mr Azu Ishiekwene, who has seen it all as a reporter, writer, editor and publisher, has a better story to tell the current and future generations in his book, ‘Writing for Media and Monetising It’, published by Premium Times Books and due for release anytime soon. It is the basics of journalism and media entrepreneurship. I have received an advance copy and I am currently unlearning and relearning journalism. Reinvention.
GOOD NIGHT, MALLAM
Mallam Abdul Ndubuisi Okwechime, the journalist who came into limelight in 1986 for daring the devil to interview Lawrence Anini, then Nigeria’s most wanted armed robber, abruptly drew his last breath on April 19, 2024. He was my friend despite being my senior in age. We met in 1998 when he spearheaded the media campaign of the late Alhaji MD Yusufu, who was a presidential aspirant. I was recently on the phone with Mallam Abdul, who had suddenly fallen ill. He encouraged me to always call rather than send texts because he was finding it difficult recognising alphabets. I was devastated. I didn’t know the worst was still coming. May God comfort his loved ones. Painful.
NO COMMENT
Trust Nigeria to always provide premium content. On Wednesday, 118 inmates escaped from the Medium Security Custodial Centre in Suleja, Niger state. According to the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS), a rainfall ravaged parts of the prison and brought down the walls. The NCoS used the opportunity to cry out that the prison walls are generally weak because they were built — now you won’t want to believe this — during the colonial era. Nigeria gained independence from colonial rule 63 years ago and, in fact, we are still making use of a facility that was probably built 70 years ago without improving the structure. Is it because powerful people are not in that jail? Wonderful.
On many fronts, America is showcasing the many burdens and benefits of democracy. Most Washington politicians are united in their support for Israel. But out on the streets, many Americans are opposed to Israel’s raging genocidal onslaught on Gaza and other Palestinian enclaves. While Congress had little trouble approving a further $20 billion in military aid to Israel, there is anger on the streets and mostly on university campuses. Opposition to the naked aggression against Palestinians has united the American streets and campuses against political Washington. A gale of anti-semitic protests has recently endangered lives and interests associated with Israel. This has now been followed by a whirlwind of campus protests all over America and even beyond.
In American courts, Donald Trump has kept the judiciary busy with legal arguments which now sound more like staged one-man campaign talk shows. The court appearances for Trump’s multitude of criminal and civil transgressions have become opportunities for a rehash of his boring campaign messaging. In a sense, Trump and his advisers are testing the legal limits of liberal democracy. It is all about trying to justify the right of an authoritarian demagogue to impose his private ambition on America’s long established democratic institutions and traditions. Simply put, a political deviant and serial transgressor wants to return as president. Twice impeached, severally accused of infractions ranging from campaign fund malfeasance to dubious business records and dodgy book keeping, Mr. Trump insists on his entitlement to the throne. Whichever way the legal outcomes go, a lot of issues in American democracy are likely to come under severe test with each verdict in Trump’s litany of court cases.
By far the more concerning issue in the United States now is the series of pro-Palestinian protests and demonstrations now sweeping through the campuses of American universities. These are not just ordinary universities. They are mostly Ivy League universities. From Colombia to Yale, from Harvard to New York University, UCLA, University of Southern California to University of Pennsylvania, and Emory University, large groups of students of diverse nationalities have trooped out daily to protest against Israel’s violation of the rights of the Palestinian people in its prolonged war on Gaza and other Palestinian enclaves.
So far, the protests have disrupted normal academic and other activities on the various campuses. The police have made numerous arrests of the protesters in a bid to restore normalcy. Some of the universities have opted for closure and discontinuation of academic activities to avoid the protests degenerating into violent encounters and disruptions.
The pro-Palestinian protests have multiple implications for America’s democratic culture. The right to freedom of association and expression remains inviolable. But the responsibility of the political leadership to pursue foreign and domestic policies in line with the national interest are sacrosanct. The students have a right to protest actions and policies of government that run counter to their convictions. Normal civility demands that such protests should not be violent or infringe on the rights of those who do not share these convictions to go about their business.
In the affected campuses, however, the groundswell of these protests have been so huge that no normal academic and social activities can proceed on these campuses. While police and law enforcement have a responsibility to maintain law and order and protect the rights of students who may not share the beliefs and convictions of the protesters or want to join the protests, the scope and spread of the protests indicate a clear political line on the part of the student population. While no one expects the protesters to have carry the day, it is also true that no responsible political establishment can ride rough shod on the feelings of such a large body of protesters.
Throughout American history, the university campuses have served as theatres for the expression of political views and beliefs that often run counter to the political temper of Washington. On the Vietnam war, on Civil rights, on Black Lives Matter, on police brutality and systemic racism and variety of other sensitive public issues, the University campuses in the United states have consistently indicated an independent line of thinking that often runs counter to the main current of official Washington. Through these protests and demonstrations, the university campuses have been able, over time , to pressure politicians in Washington to at least listen to contrary views. At critical moments, such protests have succeeded in getting the government to reconsider aspects of foreign and domestic policy.
Already, some key politicians from Washington have visited a number of protesting campuses to appeal for calm and press home their perspective. The students have however stood their grounds, just as the pro-Israeli politicians have pressed their arguments. It is not likely that any argument will be strong enough to justify the long standing oppression of the Palestinians especially the blockage of their right to a free and independent homeland.
The present scene on America’s university campuses is reminiscent of happier days on Nigeria’s university campuses. There was a time from the immediate post independence days to the days of military rule when Nigerian university campuses served as the catalyst of social and political ideas for national unity and progress. For instance, it was Nigerian students at the University of Ibadan who staged massive protests to compel the newly independent Nigerian government against signing a defence pact with the departing British colonial government.
In the days of military dictatorship, Nigerian university students served as the remaining voice of democratic instincts. Students campaigned for the rights of common people, against authoritarian impositions and the habitual arbitrariness of military rule. Students protested against frequent petroleum price increases, against unlawful detentions of opposition figures. When in 1978 General Obasanjo’s education minister, Colonel Ahmadu Ali, tried to increase university tuition frees, in Nigerian universities, students rose in unison during the “Ali Must Go” demonstrations and pressed for his removal from office.
From the 1960s to early 1990s, the Nigerian university campus remained a litmus ground for testing public policies. Political and military leaders sought a certain degree of acceptability among university students and their lecturers. Understandably the Nigerian university campus also became the hotbed of radical ideas. During the ideological polarization of the Cold War era, our universities became a friendly terrain for radical progressive anti bourgeois ideas. This led to an understandable radicalization of student union politics and even the politics of organized unionism among academics. The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) became an arrowhead of radical student unionism. These were the origins of ASUU’s aggressive trade unionism which has largely survived to recent times.
There was consequently a certain unanimity of perspectives on national issues among students in campuses all over the country. From Ife to Nsukka, from University of Ibadan to Ahmadu Bello University, from Port Harcourt to Calabar and Ilorin, Nigerian students and academics were united in their perspectives on military rule, corruption, the plight of the poor and the commonality of poverty among underprivileged Nigerians.
As undergraduates then, we shared a common ideal of a better nation. We trooped out to protest unkind policies. We faced police truncheons and tear gas and even military jackboots and live bullets. We did not habour these silly divisions along ethnicity, religion and region. We did not despise the poor but fought for the smashing of the chains of poverty. We thought our youth and idealism was enough to transform the country into a happy place for all. For us then, the Nigerian revolution was an achievable and imminent possibility. Our idealism contrasted with whatever ideas were fueling the policies of politicians and military leaders in Lagos and later Abuja. We held strong views on contemporary issues and most times embraced alternative truths to those of governments of the day.
We took a stand on most domestic and foreign policy issues that were burning central at different times. We took a stand on Southern Africa; on independence for Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola. We vehemently stood shoulder to shoulder with the Murtala and Obasanjo governments on Apartheid. We stood with the world on the Palestinian struggle and the heroic stance of the then Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) of Yasser Arafat.
Key politicians understood the crucial place of the campus as a vital platform for the galvanization and aggregation of ideas for national development. Key politicians therefore often chose to deliver the annual Convocation lectures of the various key universities as a way of generating novel ideas for the development of the nation. Such strategic lectures also served as means of bridging the distance between town and gown and as praxis in the struggle for a better society.
It would be recalled that at the height of the debate of how best to accommodate the military in future power arrangements, Nigeria’s first President Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe used the opportunity of the convocation lecture at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, to advocate the theory of Diarchy as a power sharing arrangement between civilian politicians and military leaders. Similarly, Chief Obafemi Awolowo used one of the convocation lectures at Ife to question the efficacy of fruitless probes of past governments as an anti corruption tool. Those were the glorious days of the Nigerian university campus. Then they were universities. There were scholars, patriotic students and as Achebe lamented, there was once a nation.
In today’s Nigeria, the campus is virtually dead either as a centre of national consciousness or an incubator of new ideas. The universities have died as cultural laboratories or as the breeding ground of a responsible national elite. The Nigerian university campus has died as a centre of serious positive thinking or purposive national action for progress. In place of fiery nationalism and idealism, we now have a student unionism that apes and imitates the decadent culture of our nasty politics.
Contest for NANS leadership has become a sad replica of the politics of ‘stomach infrastructure’ and money bazaars. When elected into office, the leadership of our students unions want to drive huge SUVs like Abuja politicians. They appoint innumerable personal aides with nomenclatures borrowed from our wasteful national political culture and idiom. The broad mass of our students are now united by cultism, cyber crimes, bloody rituals and killer squads in a hunt for human body parts for ritual.
Our student population has degenerated into conclaves of cults, cyber crimes and a descent into the dark precincts of occultism , witchcraft and ritual. Places established to pursue enlightenment and modernism have now become covens of modern day witches and ritual murderers. At other times, the only language that flies around our campuses is that of quick mega cash fuelled by the hunger for designer clothing, outrageous automobiles and luxury mansions. Every undergraduate aspires to become an internet ‘influencer’, stage musician, naked model or narcotics courier irrespective of the courses they are registered to study.
Among the academics themselves, we now have serial racketeering for contracts, a thriving trade of blackmail of ‘sex for marks’. Professors are now standing trial for openly blackmailing their female students into sexual rumps sometimes in open offices. The deployment of juju and cultism for promotions and appointments have replaced the previous dedication to merit, national good and the pursuit of academic excellence.
As America’s university campuses continue to witness a wave of protests of universal moral condemnation of America’s support for Israel’s systematic genocide in Palestine, we need to look again at what has killed the Nigerian university.
Three ugly forces have invaded our university campuses: dark money, bad politics and godless religion. To rescue our universities and redirect them back to being factors of national unity, progress and progressive development, we require a political leadership with the will to chase away and neutralize this trinity of negativity.
The decision of President Bola Tinubu to inflict a census on the Nigerian school system is a welcome one. Education planning and development of a nation’s human capital industry without reliable data is like heading into battle armed with guesswork about your enemy’s military capabilities. Until a few years ago, the nation paraded the claim that Nigeria had 10 million children out of school. Development partners, the National Assembly, education planners and the Federal Ministry of Education swore by this data.
Then, without any basis in logic, study of demographic trends, or commonsense whatsoever, a new figure of 13 million out of school children was announced by everyone – and by no one in particular. Just like that! And that was after bandying around the 10 million out of school children figure for about 11 years. Pathetic, is it not?
Let us do a little math and, perhaps up-end the spurious statistics about out-of-school children in Nigeria, generally. Let us suppose that 19 states of the North each has one million children out of school. Let us also suppose that 17 southern states each has half a million children out of school. That will give you nearly 30 million out of school children in Nigeria. If you, however, decide to move from guesswork to actual calculations, knowing the contribution of states like Kano, Sokoto and a few others to the number of out of school children, then you must conclude that we have been cheerfully kidding ourselves; perhaps for too long, about statistics, national planning and national development.
That is why the presidential directive, calling for a census that would provide reliable and real-time data for meaningful planning, is a development that would enable the detection and better understanding and management of the number and specific needs of all schools in Nigeria, from primary to tertiary level. This is really more of an audit, to determine their present conditions and live-in facilities, their proximity to each other, and their infrastructural needs.
Beyond the foregoing, part of the expected outcomes includes reliable data on the number of teachers in the country, their qualifications, training support received, the self-development initiatives they can explore, as well as the number of pupils and students in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions. Not to be left out in the gamut of data to be gathered are the gender, academic performance and other indices that would give a holistic picture for meaningful interventions in the sector.
Looking at the government’s Data Repository, Out-of-School Children Education, Teacher Training and Development, and Skill Development and Acquisition (DOTS) policy initiative, the only conclusion one can draw is that the aim is to completely and comprehensively transform the education sector and upgrade overall human capital development. This would mean bringing about different, and improved, learning outcomes, skill acquisition and overall academic security of the nation’s learning demographics.
Because the information to be derived will aid federal and state interventions in teacher training, provision of teaching aids, etc., it is expected that the resulting data on gender-specific learning at various levels of the educational system, drop-out rates, indigency, and more will be monitored through dedicated portals/dashboards in the Federal Ministry of Education, offices of state governors, and local government chairpersons.
At least that is the idea and intendment. The hope is that the implied gain that is presupposed by this drive, which should help the government track the progress of students and use evidence-based, data-driven machinery to guide its interventions are realized. This should be very useful when you consider the problem of planning for out-of-school children, the girl child and others with specific learning disabilities.
In contrast to the foregoing, there was a lot of idle pretensions about educational development under the immediate past President, Muhhamadu Buhari. He left on a rather questionable note on education matters. Recall that his last Federal Executive Council (FEC) proved the sum of 4.7 billion for the construction of seven Model Schools in the six geo-political zones of the country, and Abuja. That decision prompted an article on this page on May 31, 2019, titled “Objection Mr. President”.
The article under reference, in objecting to the initiative, said: “The federal government can choose one Unity School from each of the geo-political zones and upgrade it to a Model School, or school of reference of some sort, instead of starting fresh school projects. A simple costs-benefits analysis shows that 4.7 billion Naira will go a very long way in rescuing the schools. To build new model schools is to award building contracts to “reliable” contractors. Construction of the schools will probably take some two years, or more, to be followed by the provision of state-of-the-art amenities; which essentially boils down to a series of procurement contracts”.
The article continued: “The seven Model Schools will not make any impact whatsoever on human capital development, or contribute to the growth of education, one way or another in Nigeria in the next five years. But upgrading some Unity School will do just that within the same timeframe. So, the proposed new schools will be nothing but a major capital project, resting on the mistaken assumption that the provision of learning infrastructure is the same thing as sustainable investment in education”.
On the matter of the unwisdom of the move, the article continued thus: “It is not right that we should have a huge budgetary provision that will go down on record as proof of government commitment to education when it is not. We should not be content to celebrate cash evidence of massive government investment in education, when in fact the name of the Nigerian child is being taken in vain by contractors and government jobbers. Who builds models schools without simultaneously training Models Teachers? Should part of this freshly budgeted sum of 4.7 billion not perhaps go into strengthening the National Teachers Institute (NTI), the Teachers Registration Council (TRC) and probably reinvigorating the academic content and quality of various faculties of education nationwide/ do our teacher-producing facilities not need specialized short courses on contemporary teaching and learning paradigms and much more?
My take today, regarding the current move of the Tinubu government on school census, is that the Presidency must note and emphasize the difference between investment in physical infrastructure for education, and/ or learning environment, and investment in learning, teacher education, teacher knowledge upgrade, up-scaling of learning outcomes and other measures that would impact the quality of the products of our school system.
That article pointed out that “The expenditure of most states of the federation on education over the last twenty years of our democracy shows huge budgetary allocations to education, at the same time that we also show a precipitous decline in educational standards and learning outcomes. Some states with very high records of expenditure for classroom rehabilitation, the supply of desks, books, etc., also have the worst teacher training, school enrolment and retention records. Check the investment of the federal and state governments on the training of teachers, provision of teaching aids and more in the last 20 years. So, let us pull the blinkers off our eyes and get real”.
Besides the above objectionable intervention of FEC under Buhari, referenced above, this column had also cause to pick on the government of Kebbi State, on June 14, 2021; for the same blunder of mistaking investment in physical infrastructure for realistic investment in education. That was after the state government pulled the sum of N4.5billion for the construction and renovation of schools; with other reports suggesting that the state government was also to build brand new schools in every local government of the state.
Though the case of Kebbi was almost made less offensive by the fact that no fewer than 758 primary school teachers were said to be undergoing training on methodologies to impart more knowledge on students at the same time that the construction work was going on makes, the following questions were still addressed to the Kebbi State Government by the article, at the time: “(1) Is there a difference between expenditure on education infrastructure and actual investment in education and human capital development? (2) How many candidates enrolled for SSCE and related examinations in the last 10 years, and why? (3) Are your secondary teachers so versed in their respective teaching subjects that what they need now is “methodologies to impact more knowledge on students.” (4) Can you say, in all good conscience, that less than seventy per cent of your state’s education budget of the last 20 years have not been more of procurement contracts? And (5) Has there been an improvement in enrolment, retention and education outcomes?
As the Tinubu government zooms off with a commendable data-sensitive focus in education, for better planning, let us all bear in mind that this must not turn into another case of investment in education census for the records, as distinct from census for better national human resource development. The results should help the nation with measurable, and sustainable, outcomes.
If the expenditure of most states of the federation on education over the last twenty years of our democracy shows huge budgetary allocations to education, but with very embarrassing decline in educational standards and learning outcomes, it means that the problem of education in Nigeria goes beyond mere funding. Several states with recorded high expenditure in classroom rehabilitation, procurement of desks and supply of books, do not have wonderful teacher training, school enrolment and retention records. What is the level of the investment in the training of teachers in moder teaching methods in the last 20 years, nationwide?
All states of the federation need more schools, better equipped schools, better qualified, teachers and verifiable statistics for sustainable planning and development. More than that, they need authentic data, for meaningful planning. The planned school census is better late than never; and should leverage new era of education administration in Nigeria – if properly carried out and its deliverables fully implemented.
A persistent but entirely illogical and factually inaccurate response to my column on former Kogi State governor Yahaya Bello revolves around the notion that his terrible, thuggish, thieving record as a governor somehow delegitimizes youth participation in government and undermines the “Not Too Young to Run” bill.
First of all, Yahaya Bello became a governor at 41 in 2016. There's no country in the world where 41 is regarded as "youth." He is a full-grown adult.
The UN defines youth as people between the ages of 15 and 24. In the United States, it’s between 15 and 24 years. In the European Union and the United Kingdom, it encompasses individuals aged 15 to 25.
The Commonwealth limits it to the ages of 15 through 29. But the African Youth Charter, which has perhaps the most elastic definitional compass of youth in the world, defines it as “any individual between 15-35 years of age.”
The Nigerian National Youth Policy obviously derives inspirational strength for its conception of youth from the African Youth Charter because it also officially refers to people between the ages of 18 and 35 as belonging to the “youth.”
This is all a giant irony, of course. Nigeria, which has an average life expectancy of 55 years, regards 35 years as “youth” (which means, on average, Nigerians spend only 20 years as “adults”) while industrialized societies with higher average life expectancies (it’s 77 for the United States and 81 for the European Union) have a lower age threshold for youth.
It’s even worse in the general Nigerian population, which regards a 48-year-old man (who has already lived more than half of his life) as a “youth” and uses his indiscretions, ineptitude, infantilism, and larceny as justifications to shut out young people from governance.
Yahaha Bello didn’t need the “Not Too Young to Run” legislation to be a governor. The minimum age required to be a governor in the 1999 constitution—before the "Not Too Young to Run" bill was signed into law on May 31, 2018—was and still is 35. The bill did not change the age requirement for governorship positions.
That was why we had many people who were elected governors in their 30s in 1999. For example, Ibrahim Saminu Turaki was elected governor of Jigawa State at the age of 36. Donald Duke was 38 years old when he was elected governor of Cross River State in 1999. Orji Uzor Kalu of Abia was 39. Ahmad Sani Yerima of Zamfara was 39. Enugu State’s Chimaroke Nnamani was 39.
With a few exceptions, the rest of the governors in 1999 were in their 40s (Delta State’s James Ibori was exactly 40), which is consistent with Yahaya Bello’s age. Why didn’t critics of youth participation in government invoke the failures of much younger governors than Bello at the incipience of the Fourth Republic to delegitimize “youth” participation in government?
The obsession with the youth of people in government in Nigeria is particularly strange because we have had Yakubu Gowon, a then 31-year-old unmarried man, as Head of State. Olusegun Obasanjo was 38 when he first became the head of state. Muhammadu Buhari and Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi were 41. IBB was 44.
In fact, most of the early leaders we venerate today were elected/appointed into their positions when they were in the same age group as Yahaya Bello. For example, Sir Ahmadu Bello assumed office as the Premier of the Northern Region on October 1, 1954, at the age of 44.
Chief Obafemi Awolowo became the Premier of the Western Region in 1952 at the age of 44. Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was 47/48 when he became the Prime Minister of Nigeria in 1960. Murtala Muhammed was only 36 when he became the Head of State of Nigeria on July 29, 1975.
The examples are legion, but the point is that there is nothing unusual about someone of Yahaya Bello’s age being a governor. That’s why I find the focus on his age both ignorant and ahistorical.
Of course, more than anything, all that this points to is that people who got into government in their 30s and 40s two or three decades ago are still in power or hanging around the corridors of power, which leaves only a little space for new entrants from that age bracket.
So, the few people in their 30s and 40s who make it to the circles of political power in contemporary Nigeria come across as novel, as marvels of young people in government, and as generational curiosities whose missteps are exteriorized to all people within their age range who are outside the orbit of power and who might want to get into it.
That’s unfair. Just like the incompetence, callousness, and venality of older politicians shouldn’t be used against all older people, Yahaya Bello’s villainy and corruption should not be used against people in his age bracket— or younger.
This attitude implies that had Yahaya Bello been a geriatric fuddy-duddy, and not a 48-year-old man, he would not have been the debauched, profligate thug that he is, which is absolute flapdoodle.
After all, Abdullahi “Gandollar” Ganduje was 69 years old in 2018 when he was secretly filmed stuffing wads of dollars into the morally stained pockets of his babban riga while grinning sheepishly from ear to ear like a clown. His advanced age didn’t insulate him from moral putrefaction.
Age has no effect on integrity and probity. It is defeatist and evinces low self-worth for young people to beat themselves up because a 48-year-old man who became a governor at 41 turned out to be a rotten, incurable crook who pillaged his state without the slightest tinge of compunction and then installed a slavish, empty-headed puppet as his successor.
It’s mostly young people—in the peculiar way Nigerians understand young people—who are saying Yahaya Bello’s spectacular incompetence and depravity symbolize the failure of “youth” in governance and that the older generation is justified in its reluctance to share power with young people.
In other words, if a few “youths” in government mess up, all youth should take the blame for it, accept that the failure of one of them is the failure of all of them, and then step back for the older order to continue to misrule exclusively.
Notice that no one, certainly no older person I know of, says older people shouldn’t be allowed to govern because they’ve been messing up all these years. Only the “youth” are delegitimized on account of their age when they mess up. That is reverse ageism, that is, the idea that only old age, not youth or knowledge, should confer authority or respect on people.
We are more than our ages. We embody a totality of multiple influences. The fact that Yahaya Bello was a grasping, primitive bandit in government doesn’t mean every 41-year-old who becomes a governor will be like him. That’s ridiculously reductionist.
In any case, youth or old age are not permanent states. They are in perpetual flux. It is yesterday’s youth that become today’s older people.
Nigeria is one of the world’s youngest countries with a median age of 16. Yet, when we look at the corridors of power, the vibrancy of youth is conspicuously absent. This gap between our young population and their representation in governance is not just a gap in numbers, but a gap in fresh ideas, innovation, and the spirit of our nation.
Yahaya Bello did not fail because he was young. He failed because he never prepared to succeed, and that wasn’t a function of his “youth.” Donald Duke was the second youngest governor in 1999, and he is credited with making tremendous marks in governing Cross River State.
Yes, age and experience have their place. But so does youth. An Igbo proverb, after all, says “If a child washes his hands, he could eat with Kings.”
[ZOOM MEETING] CITY TALKS WITH REUBEN ABATI: The exit of businesses from Nigeria - Marcel Okeke
AdminCity FM is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Programme: CITY TALKS WITH REUBEN ABATI
Time: 12:00pm
Guest: Chief Marcel Okeke (Chief Economist)
Topic: "The exit of businesses from Nigeria"
Date: 27th April, 2024
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It is another World Malaria Day (WMD) today, one year after the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended two candidate anti-malaria vaccines for the prevention of the mosquito-borne disease which afflicts more than 247 million people worldwide causing some 619,000 deaths.
Africa bears the highest burden of malaria attacks (more than 90% and loses more than USD$12 billion a year in unearned income), with pregnant women and children under age five as the most vulnerable groups.
Apart from billions of dollars lost to cocktails of treatment drugs, preventive measures and hospital admissions, malaria also costs the World millions of man-hours of labour and missed school attendance.
Unsurprisingly, Nigeria the most populous Black nation, has along with Ghana provisionally approved the use of R21/Matrix-M vaccine, with a 77% efficacy rate shown in initial trials and significantly higher antibody levels than the first vaccine - the RTS,S.
WHO member States instituted the WMD in 2007 to raise awareness, mobilize global action, and celebrate progress in the fight against the mosquito-borne disease.
The theme for 2024 is Accelerating the fight against Malaria for a more equitable World.
Malaria’s human and material devastations may not be as dramatic and headline-catching as the Russia-Ukraine or Israel-Hamas conflicts, but the war against Malaria matters because the disease kills more people annually than many other wars combined.
After avoidable losses due to the delay in the development of anti-malaria vaccines, governments and the international health community, especially the influential pharmaceutical companies owe the World a moral duty to fast-track the mass production and supply of anti-malaria vaccines for seamless accessibility and availability of the vaccines to needy populations worldwide
An impressive collection of dignitaries gathered at the Worship Center, Uyo, on Wednesday for a thanksgiving service to celebrate the 60th birthday of the Akwa Ibom State governor, Pastor Umo Eno. There were songs, prayers and speeches from many, but it was Mrs. Ekaette Unoma Akpabio, wife of the Senate President, who surprised the crowd the most with her profound philosophical rendition. One after the other, she recognized the dignitaries and had something nice to say about them. Gov. Eno; former Governor Udom Emmanuel; former President Goodluck Jonathan; political leaders, clergies, business leaders and traditional chiefs were all present. Gaily dressed women added a peculiar hue to the colourful event. When she got to the immediate past governor of the state, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, Mrs Akpabio went spiritual and philosophical, drawing both laughter and applause from the audience.
‘’I am here to represent our leader, our father, the father of Gabriel Udom Emmanuel’’, she said, referring to her husband, adding, ‘’and by extension, I am the mother of Gabriel Udom Emmanuel’’. There were laughs and applause. In 2015, Gov. Akpabio invited Udom Emmanuel, then an executive director at Zenith Bank, into partisan politics and made him governor of the state in a typical Nigerian succession politics. She continued, ‘’I want to thank you, your excellency, our immediate past governor, Gabriel Udom Emmanuel, for propelling us to go to the center. If you had not propelled us; if you had not moved, Akwa Ibom people would not have been at the position they are today. So, I greet you Sir. God ordered your footsteps’’.
Mrs. Akpabio was essentially recalling the frosty relationship between her husband and Mr. Udom Emmanuel, and how that turned out to a blessing for Akpabio. She was therefore grateful that God used Udom Emmanuel to ‘’propel’’ her husband out of Akwa Ibom politics into national politics. Now, soon after Udom Emmanuel succeeded Akpabio as governor, the relationship between the two broke down, something not uncommon in our politics. Akpabio had contested and won election to the senate in 2015, and so, the two men managed to keep their rancour from public knowledge for the first two or three years. In August 2018, Senator Akpabio decamped from the PDP to the APC, leaving his godson, Gov. Udom Emmanuel in the PDP. A big political turmoil erupted in the state, leading to Akpabio’s failure to win a reelection to the senate in the 2019. He became minister in 2019 and the political gulf between the two widened more and more. In 2023, he contested again for the senate, telling Akwa Ibom people that he would be the Senate President if he won. He won and, to the surprise of many, became Senate President, under APC while Eno became governor, succeeding Udom Emmanuel, under PDP.
Things now began to work differently. Eno discarded politics of war and quarrel, and reached out to Akpabio and others in APC, creating a never-seen-before political harmony in the state. Last year, Eno attended Akpabio’s inaugural ceremonies as senate president and since then, has been very deferential of the senate President. Akpabio has also reciprocated the gestures from the governor and yesterday, his wife represented him at Eno’s birthday celebration. This rearrangement of the contours of politics in the state therefore afforded Akpabio’s wife the opportunity to go spiritual yesterday.
Mrs Akpabio’s assertion that it was Udom Emmanuel who ‘’propelled’’ her husband to return to the senate and eventually become senate president is therefore correct, and reflects the depth of her spirituality. It’s a testament to an adage that says that when one door is closed, another is open. If Akpabio and his successor had not fallen out, maybe he would still have remained in the PDP and would not have become Senate President. The quarrel catapulted Akpabio to seek relevance in national politics. It is a classic case of turning a disappointment into a blessing. An English adage says that. ‘’If life gives you a lemon, turn it into a lemonade’’. My own favourite saying which I have on my WhatsApp profile is, ‘’If you stumble on the dance floor, make it part of the dance’’. The Bible expresses it differently. ‘’And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good…’’ (Romans 8:28).
I was very pleased to hear Mrs. Akpabio, a devout Catholic, express her thoughts in this spiritual context. She had come to understand that her husband’s fight with his successor was his stepping stone to a higher responsibility. That’s why she told Udom Emmanuel yesterday, ‘’God ordered your footsteps’’. Many people have their own experiences of how personal disappointments have turned out to be a blessing. I have mine.
Whatever the disappointment that you face, look carefully, another door is open, or ajar. I will therefore advise Barr. Nyesom Wike and Mallam Nasir el Rufai to turn their quarrels with their successors into opportunity to do nobler deeds. There are other open doors for everyone out there!
Bobrisky has been in public glare for quite a while, but more compellingly following her imprisonment for six months two weeks ago. Her life has been controversial and so, predictably, her imprisonment. A trans-gender, she has been an editor’s good copy and delight for what many consider as her defiance in life, charting her own course as she deems fit. In her own words, on her Instagram page, she posted in October last year and as reported by this newspaper, The Guardian: “Immediately I got mature enough to differentiate between my right and left, I told myself I wanted to be a woman (in caps for emphasis). There is nothing bad about being a man. But I see myself doing better in life as a woman.”
So, in 2019, she jetted out, headed for Dubai to go under the knives to transform from a man into a woman. The risks of the surgeries made her to give herself the name Bobrisky. Again, in her own words: “Ever since I started transitioning into a woman I gave myself this name Bobrisky because I took a lot of risk going under several knives to be a woman today. I’m a successful woman today with so much fame, houses, cars etc.”
Bobrisky is well educated. She was born as a boy on 31 August, 1992, at Ebute Metta, Lagos, and appropriately christened Idris Olanrewaju Okuneye. He grew up there before going to King’s College. He graduated from the University of Lagos with a Bachelor of Science (BSc.) degree in accounting. Before he went to transform into a woman, he had this ardent longing for a sex change and he set out as a transvestite, that is, a person who enjoys being in the attire of the opposite sex. Dark skinned, she went for creams to change her complexion. She then took to establishing a cosmetic firm, marketing skin-lightening products. She has also been more known as an internet influencer, a platform which gives her considerable following of both admirers and as expected, stern critics. The enterprise fetches her a lot of money. She is into some other businesses. She also moves in high social circles where some billionaires find her glamorous and adorable.
To the chagrin of the world, on 12 April, this year, Bobrisky found her sensational world crashing down at the gates of a jail house. There was outrage with commentators arguing that as a first offender, she should have been given an option of fine. She did not also waste the time of the court seeking adjournments. The counter argument has been that a fine option is discretionary on the part of the judge. Bobrisky was charged on April 5 of Naira currency mutilation. The prosecution accused her of spraying N400, 000 at an event in Lekki. Video clips of two other instances she sprayed N20, 000 at Ikorodu and Oniru, Victoria Island were shown, all to which she admitted she was guilty. Justice Abimbola Awogboro of the Federal High Court announcing his verdict said: “The act of mutilating the Naira notes has become a menace which has continued to damage the country’s image. Enough of people mutilating and tampering with our currencies. It has to stop. This will serve as a deterrent to others.” She herself has pleaded within the last few days that she should be let off with a fine of N200, 000 which she is ready to pay immediately.
The interest of this column is not so much in the nauseating age-long cultural practice of money spraying in the land. The matter, distasteful a practice no doubt it was and has been–throwing away N400, 000 mindlessly at a go just like that– it merely scratches the surface considering what unfolded in the saga.
During the trial, Justice Awogboro did ask Bobrisky about his gender–whether she was a man or a woman to which she responded that he was a man. Five years ago when he transformed into a woman, he had said he cleared off all the physical features associated with a man. This should suggest to us that despite his vaunted trans-gender status she is going through an internal struggle with himself—outwardly a woman, inwardly a man. It is at this point we should recognise the need for us to overwhelm him with love and prayerful thoughts that he may overcome in the struggle with himself. His condition thus invites us into deep introspection. The condition demands even more from him—unceasing reflection in the closet the Ikoyi Correctional Centre is affording him: Who am I? Man, know thyself! Self-knowledge was demanded in ancient Greece, and so the Temple of Apollo at Delphi carried the inscription: “Know thyself.” Herbert Vollmann says in his book, A Gate Opens: “Man certainly needs the courage to be prepared to make unpleasant discoveries in the contemplation of himself…Self-knowledge is the first step to improvement.
“ If the improvement towards what is good continues, it leads towards dropping of faults and unswervingly to severance of evil threads of fate.”
Idris Okuneye was privileged to attend reputable institutions, King’s College and the University of Lagos, Akoka. He read accountancy. He had a promising future spread out for him. He must consider it strange that despite the beckoning of glitters in his life, the thoughts that kept assailing him were those urging him to change from being a man to transforming into a woman. Why were those thoughts banging on his soul? From where were they coming? Answers he must find to them.
Some years ago, a survey was reportedly carried out in one of the countries of Western Europe. And the question asked was: “If you were to come into the world once more, would you rather be a man or a woman?” The answers were predictably interesting: 61 per cent of the women respondents, acknowledging their sex, said they would want to come back and remain as women; 25 per cent would like to be men in the said reincarnation; while 13 per cent were undecided. Of the men, 88 per cent said they would like to return and live as males and only 8 per cent would elect to come next time as females. What lies behind a desire for a gender change?
In the enlightenment of higher knowledge available on earth today, it is revealed that as we left the Spiritual Realm embarking on our descent to this earth for our development, although we left as unconscious spirit germs, there was an inner, awakening urge which sought to incline towards a more delicate activity or to a coarser, positive working. If the urge increased in inclination towards the delicate, it was determined as female and it kept a part of the higher spiritual essence. (I refer to our descent to this vale of matter for our sojourn in the past tense because there are no new spirits coming to this earth). The female is thus enriched with higher spiritual make-up. If inclination of the urge leads towards coarser, positive tasting and activity, the spirit germ defines itself and it is so determined as male. Being male, it is gradually divested of the delicate and finer part of the higher spiritual part as it will inhibit its working. The female holding to her own is put in a situation that she is a firm link and channel of radiations and influences from higher and purer Light Realm, indeed, Paradise. She is thus blessed with richer intuitive and perceptive faculties to sense the Will of God at all times and in every situation so she can guide man. The urge that triggers the inclination becomes a resolution to be either a female or male. That first resolution of the spirit germ, we learn from higher knowledge, is decisive and fundamental for its whole existence, not just for life on earth but the entire existence. It is once and for all! No matter the changes that may have occurred, the spirit itself always remains what it had originally chosen at the start of its wandering through Creation. It is bound to that one single and decisive free will.
This special spiritual enrichment for women accounts for their charms which impact fully as from puberty upwards. The charms are to arrest the male folks and turn their gaze upwards to the Light. However, out of ignorance and the so palpable decline of woman, the role of the charms p is perverted; they are used today only to seduce.
Standing as she does half a step higher than man even psychically, and by virtue of her make-up, she is able to absorb the rays of power and she thus becomes the store house of power from On High. She mediates the rays to the dense men thus passing strength to them for use in their coarse activities. She pulls them up; she dispenses to them, spreading beauty, ennobling the environment and directing affairs to a glorious end. Nature has endowed woman with a finer essence which her body mirrors so that in the ensuing homogeneity with the finer and purer currents of life, she may easily link up with these forces, and absorbing from them, mediate strength to her menfolk, who being coarse and alien to these forces cannot reach out to them on their own. All women carry these abilities. They are inherent in their essence from the very beginning. Man senses some power emanating from woman, and he the sturdier one feels drawn to protect this inexplicable treasure, for balance in reciprocity.
As I once explained, man, through science has encountered this overwhelming power in nature but has been unable to relate it to the nature of female species in whatever form at all levels of being. In the tiny atom, a storehouse of power, the nucleus holds the active-prone electrons together in orbiting the shells. In the gigantic solar system, the storehouse is the sun. The galaxies and the universes, too, have their own storehouses and so does humanity. And that storehouse is woman! For all species of life are subject to Law, the Will of the Creator which affects every species according to its nature. This is the storehouse which women want to abandon to become men. Men, too, seek to abandon their roles and become women as in the example of Bobrisky.
From trends observable in modern times, there will be more cases of men seeking to become women in the future. They are already filing their applications in the psychic sphere with men plaiting their hair; some wear wigs; some wear ear rings; many in their thoughts or distorted conceptions either adopted voluntarily or received through upbringing. Since becoming a woman is nourished, in the next incarnation the man will have his longing answered according to the law that what a man strongly desires returns to him. Weakening their masculinity, they distort their souls. They are males inhabiting female bodies. In their reincarnation, they may be women; they assume only partially features of women to begin with. They are marked by distinctive characteristics such as narrow hips and aggressive disposition. Contrary to the accustomed naturally quiet posture of genuine women, they express strong opinions. Where the distortion is not yet complete, the person can come back as a bisexual person. She begins to wonder why she is different from other young girls and women.
However, the distortion is more prevalent among women. In modern times, women not fully aware of their roles in Creation and out of ignorance of the consequences, imitate men, seeking to share roles with them or even take over. From the words alone, it can be easily recognised that man is different from woman and each has its roles assigned by Nature. The aping is manifested in positive activities, diversion of energies to wrong and harmful pursuits, such as footballing; weight lifting; crane driving; excessive cultivation of the frontal brain which is the seat of the intellect. This has the effect of blocking the outflowing of their intuition. The craving for political power and kindred executive activities steel them. When genuine womanliness is repressed, the delicacy of perception measured in the sharpness of the sixth sense that it represents, is walled in and distorted by the intellect.
With the forced changes in roles, the distortion of the inner man begins and disequilibrium sets in. The threads of fate are woven in the tapestry of life; the woman concerned must reincarnate as a man. This is because after the suppression of the true womanliness, only the coarser spiritual elements prevail. In most cases the female body harbouring a distorted maie soul will have features that are distinctive such as narrow hips sliding towards the male structure. She could grow muscles.
Whether it is a man or a woman who is involved in the distortion of the soul, there is restlessness as neither feels welcome in the gathering of genuine men or genuine women as the case may be. The male in a female body, for example, finds that a genuine man is unable to feel happy in her vicinity. There can hardly be a harmonious and successful marriage between a genuine man and a distorted woman’s soul, and vice versa. A genuine man finds no understanding for a false woman.
The inexplicable urge from within to do something about the inability to fit joyously into any circle of friends or gathering or have a stable marriage union intensifies. Then, there is recourse to seeking public acknowledgement and renown to fill the gaps through various means and by all means. Some take very desperate and abhorrent steps!
The question remains for all drifting towards such unwholesome experiences: Who am I? Bobrisky upon deep reflection, grappling with seeking to find an answer to the all-important question may find the closet and experience the correctional facility affords him more of a blessing than a curse. The situation is reversible in the long run. It depends; as there is not much time left for all mankind, all of us to straighten our ways.
Having a firm volition for what is good and nursing no ill-will towards anyone is the first step in the quest for freedom from enchainment, inwardly and outwardly, as freedom within is freedom without. We should all lovingly wish Bobrisky well and help from Above, from the Throne of Grace. Above all, we should seek knowledge—knowledge that answers all questions of life and existence!
Like a pack of cards, the corruption charges filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission against former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke, have crumbled, further exposing the commission’s poor investigation and prosecution.
Aformer Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke, last week finally surmounted every plot to convict him or hang corruption allegations on his neck since he left office in 2015.
As part of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government’s efforts to hold individuals accountable for their actions during the previous administration led by Goodluck Jonathan, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) brought charges against Adoke. These charges stem from his purported involvement in transactions linked to the alleged defrauding of Nigeria of approximately $1.8 billion. Central to the accusations are Adoke’s alleged roles in the complex ownership transfers concerning the OPL 245 dispute with Malabu Oil and Gas Limited.
Adoke promptly filed a suit marked, FHC/ABJ/94/446/2017, against the then AGF, Abubakar Malami, praying to be freed from any criminal liability in respect of the transactions and declaring his prosecution by the EFCC null and void.
In his defence, Adoke argued that his actions in the deal were carried out under the direct orders of President Jonathan, thus making him immune from prosecution. He petitioned the court to deem his prosecution by the EFCC as unlawful. However, Attorney General Malami contested the claim, insisting that Adoke should stand trial.
But in her ruling, Justice Binta Nyako declared that Adoke could not be held accountable for his involvement in the OPL 245 transactions. She reasoned that Adoke merely executed lawful directives from President Jonathan, absolving him of any wrongdoing in the deal.
Justice Nyako resolved all the issues raised for determination in favour of Adoke and dismissed the preliminary objection raised against the suit by Malami. She granted four of Adoke’s prayers but refused one which sought a declaration that his prosecution was null and void.
The judge noted that contrary to the defendant’s contention that the plaintiff exceeded the directive of the President and in the process committed a crime, Exhibits 19 and 20, which remained uncontradicted and unchallenged, confirmed that the plaintiff actually remained within the confines of the lawful directives given to him by the president and is therefore protected by law.
THISDAY gathered that Malami himself had in his reasoned legal opinion to the EFCC confirmed that he had reviewed the Settlement Agreement and could not find any illegality in the transaction.
Even the then Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, had also written an opinion to the President through the Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, where he explained that the transaction was for the benefit of the country as it would enable the development of the oil block.
Despite these exonerating opinions and the subsisting judgment of Justice Nyako, the EFCC under Ibrahim Magu in 2020 proceeded to charge Adoke and others for corruption, money laundering and other sundry offences.
This he did through two criminal charges prepared against him at the Federal High Court in Abuja and the Federal Capital Territory High Court.
While the charges at the Federal High Court bordered on money laundering, those of the Federal Capital Territory High Court were on fraud, bribery and conspiracy.
In the charges before the FCT High Court, EFCC charged Adoke along with Aliyu Abubakar of Malabu Oil and Gas Limited, Nigeria Agip Exploration Limited, Shell Ultra Deep Nigeria Limited, and Shell Nigeria Exploration Production Company Limited (SNEPCo).
The anti-graft commission accused the former AGF of collecting a gratification of N300 million from Abubakar over the OPL 245 resolution. It also accused him of conspiring with other defendants to “commit the offence of public servant disobeying direction of law with intent to cause injury or to save a person from punishment or property from forfeiture.”
But Adoke denied all the allegations, maintaining that he was a victim of political victimisation by former President Buhari on behalf of the late General Sani Abacha’s family who felt cheated in the OPL 245 transaction.
Delivering his judgment on March 28, 2024, Justice Abubakar Kutigi dismissed the charges against Adoke, saying the EFCC failed to adduce credible evidence to prove the allegations contained in the charge. The judge proceeded to reprimand the EFCC for filing “frivolous” charges against the former AGF.
While upholding the no-case submission filed by Adoke, Justice Kutigi commended the prosecution for conceding that it did not have sufficient evidence to oppose the no-case application, but he criticised the anti-graft agency for wasting four years prosecuting the case.
The judge added that the defendants ought not to have been charged in the first instance, stressing that the allegation of illegal tax waivers granted to Shell and Eni was not corroborated by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) or any authority.
Justice Kutigi said the EFCC failed to prove its charges of fraud, bribery and money laundering and ruled that the defendant has no case to answer, adding that the EFCC did not provide the necessary evidence to prove the alleged N300 million bribe said to have been given to Adoke by Aliyu Abubakar.
“It is argued that people can be arrested circumstantially. But every trial, more so, a criminal trial is a different ball game which must be undertaken with utmost care and attention to detail, particularly, the quality of the evidence and availability of witnesses.
“It cannot be right or fair, that in this case, for example, nearly about 30 counts in the case involving forgery, the documents subject to these counts were not presented in evidence and material evidence led to situate the elements of forgery.
“I must therefore make the point that the whole trial process, whatever its inherent imperfection, is entirely evidence-driven, evidence which requires quality and probative value. This is so whether it is at this stage of situating a prima facie, as in the present situation, or at the point of determining guilt, or otherwise of the defendants.”
With the absence of evidence, the judge stated that allowing the proceedings to continue is to inflict undue hardship and injustice on the defendants.
“In my final analysis, and for the avoidance of doubt, my firm decision on the basis of the provision of section 302 of the ACJA 2015 is that the evidence adduced by the prosecution on record is not sufficient to justify the continuation of this trial.”
The money laundering allegations against the former AGF also came as a result of the commission’s desperation to nail Adoke at all costs. Hence, it failed to conduct a proper investigation of the case.
In 2011, Adoke had taken a mortgage of N300 million from Unity Bank to buy a property valued at N500 million from Abubakar. However, he failed to pay his own equity contribution of N200 million and the mortgage was cancelled in 2013.
Abubakar said he returned the N300 million to Unity Bank after finding a new buyer – the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
But in 2017, the EFCC accused Adoke of handing the dollar equivalent of N300 million to Rislanudeen Mohammed, then acting Managing Director of Unity Bank, to refund the loan.
The commission said it was a breach of money laundering laws as it was above the N10 million threshold allowed, arguing further that a Bureau De Change (BDC) – which the bank used to convert the dollar to naira – is not a financial institution. It accused Adoke and Abubakar of conspiring to commit the offence of money laundering.
Mohammed, in his testimony as a prosecution witness for the EFCC, claimed he collected $2 million cash from Adoke and gave it to a BDC to convert to naira to refund the mortgage. He said after the money was repaid, the bank returned the land documents to Abubakar and closed Adoke’s mortgage account.
Mohammed, however, said it was not a case of money laundering since a BDC is legally a financial institution. He said he did not report the transaction to the security agencies such as the EFCC and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) because there was nothing suspicious about it, and that his office did not reprimand him as he did not commit any offence.
Delivering a ruling on the no-case submission, filed by the former AGF, Justice Inyang Ekwo held that the EFCC failed to establish a prima facie case against Adoke. He also held that the anti-graft agency did not provide any evidence to prove the essential elements of Adoke’s offence.
THISDAY gathered that Mohammed later apologised to Adoke in private, saying the EFCC had threatened to arrest his wife and daughter if he did not agree to testify — albeit falsely — that he collected the cash directly from the former AGF.
Adoke said even the former acting Chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, who oversaw the charges, has also apologised to him.
Responding to the judgments in a statement, Adoke described them as a vindication, adding that despite his ordeal in the hands of the EFCC, his faith in Nigeria remains unshaken.
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84-year-old renowned Belgian painter and writer, Erik Pervernagie, says: “People die from lack of shared empathy and affinity. By establishing social connectedness, we give hope a chance and the other can become heaven (“Le ciel c’est l’autre”).
No institution has been so disparaged and stigmatised as the Nigeria Police. It is treated with so much contempt and neither appreciated nor celebrated. Rather, anything bad or despicable is attributed to the police. An average policeman is held in utmost and never enjoys any empathy or affinity from most Nigerians. Although the police are the friend of the people, the mutual reciprocity from the people is seemingly non-existent. The compensation is abysmal while the motivation is infinitesimal.
That is why in its years of existence, no one has remembered to honour its men and officers who have excelled in their professional outings until the coming of IGP Olukayode Egbetokun. Hence, the maiden edition of the Nigeria Police Awards and Commendations Ceremony held in Abuja last Monday was long overdue and an emotion-laden event. This was the first time the Nigeria Police celebrated itself by recognising gallantry, rewarding excellence and professionalism, thereby boosting the morale of officers and men, which has over the decades been at an all-time low.
By this maiden award, the present Inspector General of Police has jump-started a new Nigeria Police Force whose personnel are ethically compliant, professionally focused, and stable with a strong reward culture and post-service incentives. The IGP has also, through this event, instituted a reward system and reputation management process that will ultimately change the general perception our people hold about the Nigeria Police. Going forward, the men and officers of the force will be motivated and energised to give their all in spite of the negative reception from the public and compete to be recognised and honoured.
Putting the icing on the cake was the effervescent President of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio, CON, who stole the show. It was, however, devoid of an elaborate sense of humour or trademark jokes nor hilarious laughter. It was the underpin of the inspirational remarks by the number one Legislator in Nigeria.
In a delivery reminiscent of the oratory of a Barrack Obama, Luther King, William Churchill or Nelson Mandela, Akpabio’s speech evinced the feelings of empathy and affinity. Call it Sermon on the Mount, and you will be damn right! Because he gave the Nigeria Police Force a thump-up for the timely, strategic, and innovative strategies it has adopted in the cutting-edge reputation management of the organisation and the morale-boosting initiative adopted to foster professionalism, innovations, competition, and courage amongst its workforce.
The admonition of Senator Akpabio falls within the prism of constructive stakeholders’ engagement and an urgent demand to integrate the force into a citizen-police cubicle. Drawing allusions from the Holy Books (the Bible and Koran) to drive home his message, Akpabio said, “I see hope in today’s event. The story is told of how Prophet Elijah (known in the Koran as Ilyās), after three and a half years of drought, asked his attendant to go and look for a rain cloud. After seven attempts, the assistant came back and told him that he had seen a small cloud, the size of a man’s hand. Not minding the size of the cloud, Elijah declared that a torrential downpour was impending”.
Continuing, the Senate President was eclectic: “In this country we have had a deficit of heroes. Not because Nigerians are not heroic but because we do not celebrate our heroes. Yet heroes play a vital role in society through the provision of inspiration, motivation, hope and serving as representations of values and character. Celebrating heroes could bring the much-needed change we need in the fabric of our society and make our country a better place.
“So today, I can see in this award ceremony a small rain cloud, the size of the hand of a man. But I declare, like Elijah, that out of this event shall come a mighty downpour of recognition of heroes and heroines in all sectors of the public service, law enforcement and allied service”.
Delving into the literary world, Akpabio navigated the thoughts of one America’s finest naturalist, essayist, poet and philosopher, Henry David Thoreau. He said, “It is apt that the police should set the ball rolling for us in this hero’s recognition affair. Many have sought to hang the police to dry for all our many vices. But the truth of the matter is that the police are all members of our society. Down the ages the popular philosophical thinking was that man could not be better than the society because the society makes the man, socialises man, and orients him with a sense of right and wrong. But Henry David Thoreau came with a counter narrative that man can surpass societal limitations, and rise above societal norms and expectations”.
According to Akpabio, “This is what the police are trying to do with this event under the current leadership. This leadership understands that the role of the police in a democracy cannot be overstated. They are the custodians of law and order, and they ensure the safety and security of the citizens.
“In a democratic society, it is imperative that the police uphold the highest ethical standards in carrying out their duties. They are entrusted with the responsibility of protecting the rights and liberties of the people, while maintaining law and order.
“Once again, I commend the police for this maiden effort in organising this awards ceremony. It is a testament to IGP Egbetokun’s commitment to giving honour to whom it is due. By recognising the gallant, selfless, and patriotic contributions of individual officers, will not only motivate them for higher performance but also reinforce the new policing agenda of the force. This agenda focuses on internal ethical regeneration, restoration of professional standards, and the enhancement of the anti-corruption drive”.
He left some words of admonition: “However, let us not ignore the challenges faced by the police in Nigeria. The ever-evolving landscape of crime and the increasing sophistication of criminal gangs pose significant obstacles. More so, as we honour the good officers, let us weed out the bad ones because a chain is as strong as its weakest link. We must address these issues and work together to find solutions. The police need the support and cooperation of all stakeholders, to overcome these challenges and build a stronger and more effective police force.
“I congratulate the awardees who have excelled in their respective fields of policing. Their dedication, bravery, and integrity have set them apart and made them deserving of this recognition. I commend every one of them for their outstanding performance and commitment to the service of our nation. I urge them to remember that to whom much is given, much is expected.
“As the leader of the National Assembly, I pledge our full cooperation and support for the better policing of Nigeria. We recognize the importance of a well-equipped and motivated police force in ensuring the security and well-being of our citizens. We will continue to work tirelessly to provide the necessary legislative framework and resources to enable the police to carry out their duties effectively”.
This is what our institutions need now, this is the quality Nigeria is looking for and the leaders that deserve to be at the helm of affairs. Senator Akpabio was generous in the act and in the heart of his personal support to the families of the posthumous awardees.
Hon Eseme Eyiboh is the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity and the official Spokesperson to the President of the Senate
UNLESS they spoke English or their speeches were translated, to me, they spoke Greek. It was an achievement for my old friend, Juan Ignacio Sell, the Spanish Ambassador who introduces me as his nephew. The setting on Thursday, April 25, 2024, was the ‘Day of Spanish Language’. It was the first time the delegations of Spanish-speaking countries in Nigeria gathered to celebrate the Day. Seated on the high table were Ambassador Sell, Special Guest and Education Minister, Professor Tahir Mamman and the Spanish-Speaking Ambassadors in Nigeria, including those of Cuba, Colombia, Equatorial Guinea, Mexico, Venezuela and Argentina.
Language divides, it also unites. But the latter is true in this case. The organisers said their aim was to celebrate the richness, diversity and international presence of “one of the most spoken languages in the world, as well as acknowledge the role the Spanish language plays in fostering dialogue, understanding, and cooperation among communities”.
So, the assembled countries saw Spanish as a unifier. The gathering aimed to highlight the importance of the language spoken by some 500 million people and studied by almost 22 million persons. Also, with English and Chinese, Spanish is one of the three most spoken languages in the world.
In my conversations with the Mexican Ambassador Alfredo Miranda – in English language of course – he spoke on the impacts of Spain and Spanish on his country. He said: “Mexico was colonised by Spain for 300 years during which we received not just the Spanish language, but also its religion and culture. Today, Mexico which has a population of 130 million is the largest Spanish-speaking country. Spain has smaller population: 47. 78 million; so, in a sense, the sons have become the parents. Spanish is a very important language and within it, we have developed a new culture. Mexico itself has 68 local languages which we continue to keep and develop.”
In his speech at the occasion, Miranda joked that the venue, Casa Mexicana, a Mexican restaurant which collaborated in hosting the Day, is “Mexican territory” to which he welcomed everyone. The Spanish language, he said, not only provides a good opportunity for business in Latin America, but also in the United States of America, USA, which has 50 million Spanish speakers.
His Excellency Francisco Ngua Mangue, the Ambassador of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea said, on a number of occasions, he had been asked why, as a Blackman, he speaks Spanish, and his response often, is to refer such people to Goggle. He said his country which has boundaries with Cameroun to the north, Gabon to the east and south, and embraces the Atlantic, was originally colonised by the Portuguese. He explained that Portugal exchanged his country in 1778 with Spain in return for the later ceding large areas of South America to it. He said this was how his country acquired Spanish as its official language, and an official language in the African union, AU.
Argentina’s four main languages are Spanish, which is the dominant; Italian, the second most spoken; Quechua and Guarani. Nicolas Perazzo Naon, Counsellor of Argentina discussed the impact of the Spanish language thus: “Generally, Spanish is the language I live on as an Argentine and diplomat. The thing I love about this language is that it enables me to communicate with millions. The wonderful thing about the language is that although it is coming from Europe, it is very rich and impacts on us all. I am from Argentina, but when I go to Latin America, I have to learn different new words. It is a sign of how the language has developed; this level of development I have not seen in any other language.” Naon added on a jovial noted: “There is Queen’s English, but there is no King’s Spanish. We just speak Spanish.”
The spread of the Spanish language owes a lot to the four voyages of Christopher Columbus which began in 1492 and ended in 1504. He travelled mainly in the Caribbean through places like Cuba, Jamaica, Bahamas and the coasts of east Central America, and north South America. In the process, he spread Spanish.
Cuba Ambassador Miriam Morales Palmero spoke on behalf of the participating countries on what has become of the language after these voyages: “Spanish is a language very rich in expressions, synonyms, adjectives, words that have entered the language from different contributions. Specialists agree that it has more than 100,000 words, with estimates varying from 195,000 to 300,000 depending on the consideration made of the meanings, Americanisms and other variations established in the different regions and countries where it is spoken.”
In analysing the future of Spanish, she said: “Recent estimates affirm that the Spanish-speaking population will increase to 7.7 per cent in the year 2050. The date shows that the future of the Spanish language is promising in the short term and, will continue to expand throughout the planet, despite the dominance of English and the rise of Chinese.”
The Spanish Embassy Third Secretary and Head of Consular Section, Patricia Gomez Lanzaco, said the Spanish-speaking populace in Nigeria n should popularise the language and make it accessible. She informed that as part of this measure, a Spanish lecturer was brought into the country in September 2023. Lanzaco said the embassy hopes to collaborate with the Nigeria Ministry of Education, other agencies and organisations to expand the use of Spanish in the country.
The Colombia Honourary Consulate, Maricel Cantillo Romero said her country wants to expand relations with Nigeria. She informed that Nigerians who want to study in Colombia will be given an opportunity to apply. She added that successful applicants will be offered scholarships to study in Colombia, including undergoing a Spanish language training programme.
Education Minister Mamman, who greeted the audience in Spanish, said language is a major vehicle for promoting culture and that it distinguishes human beings from other beings. He commended the organisers for marking the Day despite the diversity of the countries involved. He pointed out that Nigeria is also a country known for its diversity. The Minister said the participating countries have a lot of work to do, promoting the Spanish language in Nigeria.
After the Minister declared the Day open, and went through the exhibition of the collaborating countries, a programme of students learning Spanish from various schools in Abuja took off. The organisers said the general idea of this and the follow-up programmes, including with people having a strong interest in the language, the Spanish-speaking community in Abuja, a Gastronomic Exhibition and a Salsa Night, is to “celebrate our language and we want to do it with all Nigerians who are as passionate as we are for Spanish and wish to learn it further.”
[Vanguard]
At the University of Jos, where we studied general and applied psychology as undergraduates, we learned about an intriguing experiment involving a white rat and a boy called Little Albert. The white rat was repeatedly associated with loud noise, so Little Albert was classically conditioned to become afraid of it. This fear then spread to other stimuli that were similar to the rat, such as a fur coat, some cotton wool, and a Santa mask.
The former Kogi state governor, Yahaya Bello, now cuts the terrified image of Little Albert. A few weeks ago, he prided himself on being the White Lion as he left office. But since then, he’s been hiding like a scared mouse. Power is indeed ephemeral, but did Yahaya Bello realise this when he governed Kogi with an iron grip?
When Bello was governor, he was always a sight to behold, particularly when he worked out. He trained like a heavyweight boxing champion; he had a considerable tonnage and was well-built, a lady’s man with six packs.
Bello took several months off from governing Kogi to campaign for the APC presidential ticket in the 2023 election. Had his gamble paid off, Nigeria’s President Yahaya Bello would have been making headlines across the world. He refused to concede the race to Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the candidate of choice, fighting to the bitter end.
Lord Acton wrote to Bishop Creighton as early as 1887, stating that “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Absolute power corrupts absolutely, which means that a man’s morality is weakened or corrupted by power and that a man’s corruption increases with his level of power. According to this idiom, persons in positions of power frequently don’t have the interests of the populace at heart, and Bello was an absolute ruler as they came!
Bello selected current Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo as his successor, defying convention and common sense to put in office a pliable successor. Departing governors always try to serve as a proxy for a third term in government. Ododo established Bello’s office as the previous governor within the government house in a way never seen before.
The EFCC had taken notice of the messy corruption in Bello’s Kogi state administration before he departed from office. Ali Bello, the chief of staff of the current Kogi state governor, Usman Ododo, was re-arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a revised 17-count accusation of fraud. Ali Bello, as you may wish to know, is the nephew of Yahaya Bello. Ali was docked before the federal high court in Abuja because of the allegations that he participated in the misappropriation of more than N10 billion from the state coffers under his uncle Yahaya Bello.
Ali Bello was named chief of staff by Ododo even though he had been on trial since Yahaya Bello’s days as governor. Likewise, the EFCC has charged Bello himself with appearing in court on more serious charges of power abuse and corruption involving more than N80 billion.
Bello’s refusal to make himself available and his resistance to being taken into custody resulted in a siege at his Abuja home, where he had hidden himself a few days earlier. Bello was said to have been taken away by Governor Ododo, and it is currently unclear where Bello is. It’s also possible that the EFCC is attempting to obtain legal clearance for his arrest in light of the court order that prevented Bello from being arrested and arraigned; this order is currently being reviewed by the court of appeal.
Remember, Bello’s rise to power was entirely due to divine intervention. Bello was selected by the All Progressives Congress to succeed Abubakar Audu, who had won the race as governor but passed away before the results were announced. Bello was proclaimed the victor of the 2015 Kogi gubernatorial election. On November 16, 2019, he defeated PDP candidate Musa Wada to win a second term in office.
More significantly, upon taking office in January 2016, Bello became the youngest governor since 1999. He was not even forty. The country was full of optimism when it welcomed the young governor and anticipated that Bello would serve as a test subject for what the new generation of leaders could provide for modern governance. Bello’s performance received a generally negative rating, much to the disappointment of all Nigerians who had misplaced their confidence in him.
It’s as if Bello serves as a benchmark for young people’s ability to hold public office; no one would elect a young Nigerian to office again. It was a betrayal of hope. Many people are against the proposed state police because of what people like Senator Natasha Agboti-Uduaghan went through during the height of Bello’s reign and abuse of power.
Apart from his incapacity to deliver, state governors’ abuse of power—which Bello has been accused of—should be a bigger concern. There isn’t a single Kogite who didn’t benefit from his administration that would give Bello a pass mark. For example, Bello’s 8-year reign is said to have recorded not a single legacy project.
But it’s crucial to remember that Bello is not by himself alone. The majority of governors treat their states as their personal estates and continue to operate carelessly. The concept and essence of separation of powers that characterise presidential democracies are conspicuously absent from state governments, where the executive, legislative, and judicial branches are fused under a single governor.
Not even the LGs created by the constitution are allowed to function by the governors who sit on the monthly amounts that the LGs receive from FAAC, according to the text and spirit of the 1999 Constitution.
Bello is being questioned by the EFCC regarding funds he received from the FAAC and Kogi’s LG allocations during his eight years as governor. Rather than act as Peter Ayodele Fayose did when he left office as governor of Ekiti state, Bello chose to go into hiding and use the legal system to prevent his arrest and arraignment.
Indeed, states make up the federating units of the Nigerian federation. Generally speaking, as states are autonomous in a proper federation, the EFCC shouldn’t have authority over them. However, Nigerian federalism is amorphous and obtuse. States receive funding from the federation and are consequently required to report to the EFCC on how such funds are expended.
While the EFCC may not be able to inquire about state-generated income internally, it is unquestionably necessary to account for the money obtained from the FAAC and special funds (such as ecological, salary bailouts, and other intervention funds) from the FG. Yet Bello, refusing to account, feels that he is not answerable to the EFCC. This is the height of impunity.
The protesting little group of supporters of Bello is another development from the Yahaya Bello tale. These young people were hired, and it’s possible that they were given some naira notes to pretend that their former governor was being harassed and persecuted. Similar events have been occurring in Nigeria since the country’s return to this purported democratic regime in 1999.
On a final note, Bello should be informed that this is the ideal moment to live up to his claim as the White Lion. He ought to get over hiding like a rat in a hole. He ought to confront the situation like a lion would—with courage, even if it means serving time in prison for corruption if guilty. He should not wait to be smoked out and picked up like a rabbit.
So also, governors past and present, as well as all other public officials elected and appointed, should be aware that their time will come to give account. They will be rushing from hole to hole like rats and rabbits being pursued by a ravenous predator if they are not prepared for the day of reckoning, as it seems Yahaya Bello is not.
No public office or public fund belongs to the occupier of the office. It belongs to the Nigerian people. Public officials should know this and know peace in and out of office.
Nigeria’s three main political parties – the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the Labour Party (LP) – are in turmoil. They have been infested by little foxes that threaten to damage and, potentially, destroy them.
I know that discipline is not a virtue of political parties in a presidential system. In Nigeria’s own version, however, indiscipline governs everything.
Whether the political parties are winning or losing – of course, it is worse when they’re losing – politicians never forget that the party is simply a convenient tool, serviceable only when it can help them get to power, but certainly dispensable immediately afterwards.
See what is happening in the PDP, the party which lost its way after 16 years in power. The same forces led by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar that snatched defeat, not once, from the jaws of victory, are still determined to bury what is left of the sick party alive.
To be fair, Abubakar has paid his dues. He has done so with the generosity of a rolling stone, gathering moss from PDP to the Action Congress of Nigeria (AC), then to n-PDP, and from there to APC, and back again to PDP. At each point, never failing to leave a mark in pursuit of the prophecy of a marabout about 26 years ago that he would one day become Nigeria’s president.
Ambition, what price?
Ambition is not a crime. For a man of Abubakar’s political accomplishments, however, not knowing when to stop is a bad thing. He not only abandoned the PDP for years, he worked against it openly by running against the party as the AC presidential candidate in 2007. It was bad enough for him to abandon the PDP and return to it to fight for a presidential ticket at a most ill-advised and inauspicious time.
But what is worse was for him to take a front-row seat at the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Abuja last week, plotting if not to run again as president, then to decide who runs the party. While this was happening, one of the party’s altar boys, Emeka Ihedioha, was resigning with a heavy heart from the PDP, perhaps casting one eye at his grandfather, Abubakar, the remaining dinosaur among the founding fathers present at the Abuja NEC meeting.
It was one meeting Abubakar should not have attended – or if it was inevitable, he should have come at least shedding crocodile tears in remorse for his role in how the party snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in the 2023 general elections. But he came, as we say, with his full chest.
Accuser and accused
I looked at the press photos from the event twice to believe he was actually the one sitting there in the front row at the NEC meeting. As if that was not heartbreaking enough, some folks – governors/landlords of the party –lined up behind him, asking not for him to account, but that the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, who sustained the party while Abubakar was in exile, should be disciplined for “anti-party activities.”
Wike has his problems, but they do not include political prostitution. Or trashing the party’s constitution (as Abubakar did) which clearly provided that it was not the North’s turn to field a presidential candidate. When will the PDP learn?
Humpty Dumpty
I’m told that after separate meetings with Abubakar and Wike by the PDP governors (four of whom appear to be leaning towards Abubakar, seven for Wike and two undecided) the party is considering setting up a reconciliation committee headed by former Senate President Bukola Saraki, to mend Humpty Dumpty.
I wish Saraki luck in his task of doing what all the king’s horses and all the king’s men have failed to do. But as surely as six follows seven, the record of all known attempts to settle intra-party conflicts by indulging the hubris of the instigator have ended in futility. There’s not much time left before the party’s congresses in June and all the drama at the Abuja NEC was about control of the party ahead of that congress.
With Umar Damagum still in the chair as acting Chairman – the last thing that Abubakar wanted before the NEC meeting – the former vice president’s grip is more tenuous than it ever was and his relevance in decline.
Proxy wars
The PDP can, however, take comfort that it’s not alone in keeping the foxes out of its garden. Even the ruling APC and Labour are having torrid times of their own. APC Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje, has been fending off petitions and attacks from his state, Kano, by persons who not only want him out, but also want him tried on charges ranging from bribery to diversion of funds, misappropriation and criminal breach of trust.
What is happening in Kano is a continuation by other means of the long-running war between NNPP leader, Rabiu Kwankwaso, and his former deputy-turned-adversary, Ganduje. Of course, APC members in Ganduje’s Kano ward are being used against him in this proxy war, but his real foe is Kwankwaso.
There has been talk of party members in the North Central eyeing Ganduje’s chair. But party insiders insist that the main issues remain the potential return of Kwankwaso to the APC and who between him and Ganduje has more strategic value for 2027.
Musical chairs
Party chairmanship is perhaps the ficklest of positions. Ganduje is the sixth APC chairman in 10 years and three national election cycles, while its older cousin, the PDP, has produced 18 in 25 years, with only two – Barnabas Gemade and Ahmadu Ali – completing their tenure. Even Labour, just one-year-old, cannot keep one chairman safe.
Ganduje knows he is on a hot seat, held only at the pleasure of the president, as we have seen from the days of President Olusegun Obasanjo. Changing Ganduje is hardly President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s problem. His headache is whether with the North’s growing unease about his administration, he can find someone else to replace Ganduje that he can trust.
Tinubu can also hardly ignore the anti-Nasir El-Rufai stirrings in Kaduna, which not a few have suggested may have been instigated by Abuja. There’s a double imperative for Tinubu first to secure Kano, the North West’s vote bank; and also, to keep El-Rufai, an influential politician in the region, on a leash. The jury is out on who, between Kwankwaso and Ganduje, would be the better battering ram.
The leper and the milk
The party chairman is like a leper. He may not be able to drink the milk that nourishes his appointor’s position, but he sure can spill it. And the perfect fit, often, is someone with something around their neck, which if they ever forget, can be used to constantly remind them of their vulnerability. Since Kwankwaso and Ganduje cannot possibly sit in a room without a referee in protective gear, a middle ground is out of the question. Tinubu will have to choose who to work with between the two.
While he is at it, party administration will continue to drift and Ganduje’s authority will continue to ebb.
Labour in vain
But again, this is not significantly different from what is happening in Labour, where two factions of the party – one headed by Julius Abure and the other by Lamidi Apapa – have brought the party to its knees, raising speculations of the possible exit of the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
With the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) taking a stand against Abure and splitting the party’s executive right down the middle, it won’t be long before Obi decides whether he can save this ship or risk drowning with it.
The moment of decision for the parties may seem far off, if you count three years until the next general elections. But in politics it is not the years before the next election that count; it is the events that shape those years. And those events are lining up at a speed that suggests that if the campaign for 2027 has not started already, it might be upon us sooner than later.