The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the 19 Northern States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja has lamented that mass poverty, hardship and hunger have continued to ravage Nigerians, urging the Federal Government to put in more efforts at addressing the challenges.

The group said life was becoming a living hell as prices of food, transportation and other essential commodities have gone up beyond the reach of the poor masses

It noted that terrorism and other forms of insecurity have remained unabated, saying that it was not yet Uhuru in Northern Nigeria as far as operations of criminal elements was concerned in the region.

The Northern CAN called on all security agencies in the country to up their games to ensure that the terrorists are eliminated from the region and the country in general.

This was contained in a communiqué issued and signed by the Public Relations Officer (PRO)of Northern CAN, Chaplain Gilbert Jechonia.

The communiqué said the meeting, presided over by the chairman of the association, Rev. Yakubu Pam, was attended by leaders of the association in the 19 Northern States and FCT. The communiqué read in parts: “There is mass poverty and hunger in the land. Many Nigerians are barely struggling to make ends meet. Many businesses have collapsed as a result of the harsh economic situation in the country. Unemployment has pushed many young people into crime.

“The meeting commended security agencies for fighting insurgency and banditry which has contributed to the destruction of our economy.

“However, it is not yet uhuru as the bandits continue to terrorise communities, especially in the north. Almost on a daily basis, these criminals attack communities, killing and abducting people. Many people cannot go to their farms for fear of being abducted or killed.

“We call on the federal government not to relent in empowering and supporting security agencies to crush the criminals. The meeting called on President Bola Tinubu and governors of the 36 states of the federation to live up to the expectations of Nigerians, by ensuring that the economic and social problems bedeviling the country are addressed.

“The President and governors must run an all inclusive government and ensure that development projects are distributed fairly to give every section of the country or state a sense of belonging.

“The meeting called on President Bola Tinubu to do everything humanly possible to address the issue of food crisis in the land. Nigerians are suffering as a result of the removal of petrol subsidy. Life is becoming a living hell as prices of food, transportation and other essential commodities have gone up beyond the reach of the poor masses. The prices are on the increase on a daily basis. The free fall of the naira to the dollar and other foreign currency is a threat that the government must address for the good of our economy. The meeting also commended the government for taking steps to cushion the effect of the removal of petrol subsidy by way of providing palliatives.”a

…Says some governors risk being removed

The two leading opposition candidates at the last Presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of Labour Party (LP) have been admonished to reconsider their plan to seek redress at the Supreme Court following last week’s judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal which affirmed the victory of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Primate Elijah Ayodele of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Lagos, gave the advice while restating his earlier prediction over the contested outcome of the February Presidential Election.

The popular man of God had in July prophesied that only God could remove Tinubu when he said the spiritual implication of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s election mantra, Emi l’okan, covered the election petitions against him and declared that ‘only God can stop Tinubu from completing his tenure as President.”

Primate Ayodele said the spirit behind Tinubu’s Emi lokan’s mantra was far too powerful beyond what could be imagined by anyone, insisting that, “only God can remove Tinubu because of the power behind ‘Emilokan’. Ten million judges cannot remove him. Obi and Atiku should go and rest.

“Atiku and Obi missed it right from the time before the election. The right way to go is to seek God’s face first before stepping into any political race. “Emilokan has gone far. Is going to the Supreme Court an answer? Definitely no. They cannot get anything from the apex court. Who is going to interpret the law when the power behind Emilokan has arrested everyone that has anything to do with the election?”

“People are not seeing the power behind Emilokan mantra. When Tinubu uttered Emilokan was there any enchantment to counter that pronouncement? At this stage, ten million pastors cannot help Obi neither can ten milion Imams help Atiku. It is only God that can arrest the spirit behind Emilokan. Tinubu is God’s plan not God’s purpose. Going to the Supreme Court is a waste of money. Obi and Atiku should use the money they intend to spend to pursue their cases at the apex court to support the suffering Nigerian masses.” Primate Ayodele foretold.

Speaking on other pending petitions at various election tribunals, the foremost seer said, “We are still going to witness more drama at the tribunals. Tribunals will still unseat more Senators. More House of Representatives members will still go. In fact, some governors are at risk of losing out at the tribunals. Nigerians’ confidence in the electoral system is waning. After the Supreme Court’s judgment, the confidence level will depreciate further because the power behind Emilokan will cover whatever loophole is in the last election. It is not Tinubu that is at work, it is the spirit behind Emilokan that is at work and it has already defeated Obi and Atiku.” Primate Ayodele said.

Says territorial expansion allegation is false

Urges governors in region to protect herders and their cattle

The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MACBAN) in the Southeast and South-south zones has opposed the profiling of its members as criminals and kidnappers operating in the southern region.

The group emphasized that their presence in the South is solely for the purpose of cattle breeding and not for any territorial expansion as erroneously believed by some individuals.

While acknowledging that no group is entirely free of individuals with questionable character, MACBAN asserted that they have been actively working to rid themselves of such elements.

This declaration was made during a joint executive council meeting held in Enugu yesterday.

The event was attended by MACBAN’s national executive members, zonal chairmen, Fulani traditional rulers, and state chairmen, from both zones.

MACBAN’s National Vice Director, Alhaji Gidado Sidiki, who addressed the media after the meeting said that the persistent reports of friction and insecurity experienced by their members in the various localities across the Southeast and South-south regions necessitated the meeting.

“Our members are getting increasingly uncomfortable with the growing suspicion with which they are treated by a good number of people in the Southeast and South-south.

“The leaderships of MACBAN in the two zones are worried about the demonization of herdsmen and the manner of their often being tagged and treated as criminals. This suspicion is rooted upon the speculations that herdsmen are harbingers of Fulani territorial expansionism.

“The convoking of the meeting does not presuppose an unusual provocation of the conflicts that our people experience with their native landlords.

“The leadership of MACBAN in the Southeast and South-south has continued to dialogue appreciably well with the individual state government in the zones. The dialogues give hope for better understanding between our members and their host communities.

“The meeting rigorously deliberated on the daunting challenges our members encountered in the course of their business of cattle rearing in the Southeast and South-south. It, however, recognized that such problems are not limited to the zones.

“The meeting recognized the need to correct the faulty impression that our members’ interests in the Southeast are beyond economic pursuits. The meeting acknowledged the government as the chief custodian of lives and property across the country.

“It, therefore, encourages and charges the government to live up to its mandate of providing security to its citizens across the country. Let it be noted that the leadership of MACBAN will not hesitate to report any herdsman suspected to be criminally inclined to the police.

“We jointly resolved to fully lend our efforts towards fostering an enduring harmonious relationship between our people and their host communities, as it is only in a peaceful environment that our business will thrive.

“The meeting was hopeful that the governments of Southeast and South-south states will ensure greater protection of our members and our cattle. It equally expressed great hope that the governments of the zones will speak in one voice in this regard,” Sidiki said.

The Minister of Works, David Umahi, has said his decision to defect from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) has yielded fruits.

Umahi defected to the ruling party in 2020, after winning his second term election as governor under the platform of the PDP, citing the injustice meted out to the South-East by the PDP.

After the completion of his second term as governor, Umahi won the Ebonyi Central senatorial election but was subsequently appointed as minister of works by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Umahi, during his visit to Governor Francis Nwifuru, as part of his tour of the state to inspect federal roads, said joining APC almost took his life, but it finally paid off.

He said, “That decision (to join APC) nearly took my life, my properties were burnt and I became the enemy of the entire Igbos.

“The decision fetched all of us our present position. So, support the governor to deepen the party in the state and southeast zone,” he said.

“I urge the Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Mr Peter Obi, and other Igbo stakeholders, to support Tinubu.

“The president gave us the foremost ministerial position even when we didn’t vote well for him,” he said.

It is no longer news that the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal has given its verdict on the petitions challenging the INEC declaration of the APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as the winner of the Saturday, 25 February presidential election, defeating 27 or so other presidential candidates, three of whom felt so dissatisfied with the INEC declaration that they challenged it at the tribunal. Last Wednesday, judgment was given and the five-man tribunal, made up of Court of Appeal judges, not only upheld the result as declared by INEC but also had sobering admonitions especially for two of the litigants, the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi. Dissatisfied, again, with the tribunal’s verdict, the two have given notice that they will appeal the judgment to the Supreme Court, which is the final bus stop on the matter.  It is within the ambits of the law and their constitutional right to do so. It also deepens our democracy as more light is thrown on gray areas. This is to be preferred to a resort to self-help, which may let anarchy loose on all of us. So, rather than feel irritated at what have described as the antics of the litigants and their supporters or be impatient with them, respecting their rights and patiently staying the course is a task that must be done. Ultimately, there will be an end to litigation.

For many of those dissatisfied with INEC when it declared Tinubu as the winner of the presidential election, INEC was bought; don’t ask me how much! Of course, you know by whom! Now that the tribunal has upheld the INEC declaration, the judges, too, have been bought! Again, you know by whom! Why their opponent is buying but they are unable to buy baffles me! Is it not a free market? Ever before the tribunal announced the judgment date – in fact, while it was still sitting – social media had been awash with allegations that the judgment would be sold and bought; supporters of some of the litigants had cried themselves hoarse, threatening fire and brimstones when all that was required was for them to mobilize funds and enter the market, like the European football clubs do, chasing their preferred targets. The tribunal judges in particular and judges in general must have put up with a lot of bashing during this election cycle. One former minister who is also a Senior Advocate of Nigeria had to cry out at some point that he was not in the business of writing judgments for judges! It got that bad. Which judge will be happy with the source or sources of such shenanigans? No one pours hot water ahead of himself and thread on cool soil. What you sow, you reap! Am I then saying that there could be no corruption in the judiciary? Far be it? A number of judges have been penalised for corruption in this country, haven’t they? Corruption has permeated every fabric of the Nigerian society and no section or sector is spared, be they churches, mosques, traditional institutions, the three arms and tiers of government, name it! But most times when we point an accusing finger at someone else, the remaining four fingers point in our own direction; that is to show how endemic corruption is here; the cankerworm has eaten very deep into every fabric of our society. A blanket condemnation of judges or anyone or groups for that matter is offensive, especially when there is no concrete evidence to back it up.

It was a good thing the judgment was broadcast live; it afforded everyone the opportunity to hear it from the horse’s mouth, as it were, Their Lordships reeled out so many errors made by the lawyers of the litigants that many were left with no option but to say that the lawyers were the ones that messed up their clients’ case. Were they not competent enough; yet they paraded an intimidating array of titles and credentials! Or were they themselves bought? Once again, I am sure you know who could have done the buying! Jokes apart, we must realise that election petition cases are very difficult to win, unless God is on your side and your opponent is a dunce; otherwise, the onus of proof weighs heavily against the petitioner. To discharge such and within the limited time given, is an uphill task. This s why I agree with the suggestion of my comrade, Ebun Olu Adegboruwa (SAN) that rather than the onus of proof being laid on the petitioner, it is the INEC that conducted the election in question that should respond to allegations raised against the conduct and sanctity of the election it spent hundreds of billions of hard-earned tax-payers money to conduct. Going forward, we must take this suggestion seriously. The facts and figures a petitioner is expected to gather all over the country and marshal in a proper and convincing order is a daunting task.

We heard the judges say that the petitioners’ case stood on shaky grounds. They called few witnesses, maybe for lack of adequate time, in a case as gargantuan as a presidential contest, and many of these were found unworthy by the tribunal. They couldn’t state how many lawful votes they were denied; how many unlawful votes the respondent was gifted; they couldn’t do the simple arithmetic to arrive at how many states/votes they lawfully won and how these surpassed those of the respondent. In other words, they were loud and voluble on accusations and allegations but miserably short in facts and figures to prove their case. You don’t win even a councillor’s election petition case that way.  Hence, they grabbed at straws; one of which was winning at least 25% of Abuja votes. This, in my view, was the dumbest of the “jokers” trumpeted all over the place by the Atiku and Obi supporters. It was hare-brained, to say the least, that Abuja, which is not up to a state, will hold a veto, so to say, over all the 36 states of the federation put together. I can go on and on!

Someone said the tribunal, rather than declare Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential election, should have ordered a re-rerun! Hare-brained! Where will the hundreds of billions of Naira for another election come from? And what is the assurance that another election will not end up a fiasco? Judges usually say they rely on evidence placed before them to arrive at their verdict; the judges in this case said the same thing. My response is: Yes and No. Yes, because they often do and that is also what they will say in public. But they do not live on the moon. They are citizens. They watch television. They read newspapers. They follow social media; otherwise, how did they know that social media tried to intimidate and blackmail them? So, judges are not tabula rasa. When they sit to listen to cases, they are not blank and there is no way they can purge themselves of what they knew from other sources outside of the evidence joined in their court. For instance, is it possible for judges not to have had an opinion on the last election, even if they did not vote? Did the tribunal judges get to know that they would sit on the case before, during or after the presidential election? They must have an opinion on whether the election was free or fair. They must have followed its conduct and the discussions in the various media about it. So, when the litigants came with allegations that they were rigged out by someone, what if their Lordship also saw how these same litigants rigged in their own strongholds? He who comes to equity must come with clean hands! If you allege that you have been rigged, you, too, must not have participated in the rigging. Where you did, but was only out-rigged, then you lose your right to allege rigging.

Also, when a litigant begins to tug at the integrity of his opponent, has he forgotten that those listening to him are aware of the skeletons in his own cupboard? Who was mentioned in the Pandora papers? Who was mentioned in the Halliburton bribery scandal? So, when the pot begins to call the kettle black will their Lordship not be amused? B. J Neblett says: “We are the sum total of our experiences. These experiences – be they positive or negative – make us the person we are, at any given point in our life. And like a flowing river, those same experiences, and those yet to come, continue to influence and reshape the person we are, and the person we become. None of us are the same as we were yesterday, nor will be tomorrow” Maya Angelou puts it this way: You are the sum total of everything you have ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot –it is all there. Everything influences each of us…”

Everyone’s past will haunt them! Lick your wounds if you got caught today. Not to worry, those who escape today will have their own date with history sooner or later.

Israel Adesanya has reacted to his defeat by Sean Strickland who pulled off one of the biggest upsets in UFC history defeating the Nigerian to win the middleweight title in Sydney.

The 32-year-old American beat Adesanya at the UFC 293 on Sunday to dethrone the Nigerian, who is one of the sports’ finest.

The match ended in favour of Strickland 49-46.

“I hate losing, but I love living. What a life!” Adesanya tweeted on X.

In a video shared with family members seen by THE WHISTLER, Adesanya showed his bruises, saying “It is not that bad. Nothing broken. We are great baby. I’m still thriving and it is all good. I am driving.

“(I am) hanging out with my family first then I will address the people. Right now, I got to put me first.”

For the greater part of Wednesday September 6, 2023, the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT) presented to Nigerians its verdict on the conduct of the February 25, 2023, presidential elections. At the end of it all, the panel resolved that the petitioners were unable to prove any of the allegations they made against the party/candidates that had been declared winners of the election. Whereas those who lost called the verdict a sham, the winners believed that no tribunal in the history of Nigeria has been as detailed and transparent as the one led by Justice Haruna Tsammani. As usual, the case ended as a two-sided concern. It would however have been more useful to the nation if something was done to answer the intractable question for which election tribunalsare set up, namely: to unravel the real winner of an election and uphold the unalloyed choice of the electorate. In other words, public interest ought to be at the front burner of elections.

After several years of election petitions in Nigeria, our judiciary is yet todesign an effective framework for arriving at verdicts that can really makemajority of Nigerians feel and see that justice was done. Instead, the verdict of last Wednesday was essentially an effort to prove that certain qualifications and nominations were in order. Indeed, the tribunal went one step ahead to remind the nation that the regularity of a nomination is irrelevant because, it is a party affair that should end with the party. If so, why werepolitical parties, much earlier,placed under so much stress with rules onwhere, when and how nominations should be made? There are critics who believe that those ruleswhich were actually informed by the conduct of some political actors were discountenanced by our courts in their bid to work to the answer. Is this true?

Nigeria has never had free and fair elections because of numerous challenges; among them is what can simply be called insider abuses by electoral officials. Except the conduct of such officials are placed under proper scrutiny during election petitions, we can never know the real winners of elections in Nigeria. That was the real substance that many looked forward to the Tsammani-led tribunal to tackle.

Instead, the tribunal assumed that figures credited to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were regular. The veracity of those figures amidst claims of ballot snatching and mutilationof result sheets were not adequately interrogated. Such a posture was probably informed by the popularity of the legal term ‘those who assert must prove.’ But considering that petitioners cannot apprehend and bring those who perpetuate electoral frauds to the tribunal, Nigeria may never go beyond the search for hitch-free elections

During the proceedings of the tribunal, some of the petitioners claimed that INEC placed hurdles on their way to retrieve required evidence to prove their claims. It would be unfair to doubt this allegation because it is a notorious fact. In Nigeria, it has become the norm for petitioners to cry in vain for help to the tribunal to assist them to access materials used by INEC for an election. In the last governorship election in Osun state, for example, the then governor Gboyega Oyetola who was defeated in the election cried more than once to the relevant tribunal for help. This also happened in the presidential election petition that has just ended. If INEC belongs to us all, it should not be allowed to take sides by immediately standing with a winner during an election petition as if it has something to hide. The commission should also not be allowed to toy with court orders requiring it to bring certain information/documents to court – a conduct that is clearly regarded as contemptuous in other climes. 

Bearing in mind that it is from tax payers’ money, that the electoral body is generously equipped to perform, it should not, after voting, become a revenue generating body that charges huge sums of money for releasing public information to contestants. There is also the need to dissuade INEC from the practice of hoarding information under the guise that such data are in its state offices. Are those state offices not part of one INEC? If INEC headquarters can access all the information it collated into a complete presidential election result from all the states, it should not become impossible to access materials when the request is from a party that participated in the election. The point to be made is that in an election-troubled society, people can become more convinced that an election tribunal has done a good job, if in addition to asking petitioners to prove their case, it also requires the body that conducted the election to establish herthoroughness.  

Otherwise, the criticism that the tribunal was unnecessarily too well disposed to INEC may leave room for people to suspect some collusion. For example, not many were impressed with how the Tsammani-led tribunal validated INEC’s use of discretion concerning the transmission of election results.  During electioneering campaigns, INEC gave unambiguous assurances to the world at large especially in Nigeria and at Chatham House, London that votes would be transmitted real time and electronically from polling units. According to Festus Okoye, the former INEC spokesman, “we canvased for the inclusion of the BVAS and the electronic transmission of results in the Electoral Act. We therefore have a responsibility to keep faith with our own innovation aimed at the conduct of transparent election driven and propelled by technology.”Let’s not forget that Section 64 of the Electoral Act 2022 makes the transmission of polling unit results mandatory.

We agree that INEC has a discretion in determining the manner of transmitting election results which was what we thought it did when it opted for ‘electronic transmission.’ It was a discretion that was applauded by many who saw it as the game-changer in Nigeria’s problematic electoral process in which the collation of results has remained the elephant in the room. Analysts in fact congratulated the commission for dismissing rumours that it might alter the discretion. Many were therefore shocked when INEC reneged on its promise at the last hour and in the middle of the game without finding it necessary to inform those it had led to have faith in the commission. It was probably more hurting to hear that the failure of INEC to keep faith was virtually commended by the tribunal. 

Just before the tribunal began its work, the president of the Nigerian Bar Association, (NBA), Yakubu Maikyau, SAN, called for live broadcast of the proceedings. He argued that such “live broadcasts will give citizens the opportunity to follow the proceedings, have better knowledge of the facts and an understanding of the reasoning behind decisions of the courts in those matters.” On April 9, 2023, this column with a piece titled ‘Televising election petition proceedings in Nigeria’ beckoned on our judiciary to follow global practices by adopting open justice for election proceedings. As a professional I had testified that Ghana and South Africa had been doing so for more than a decade. Neither my plea nor that of the NBA president persuaded our judiciary. After barring Nigerians from watching the proceedings so as to truly follow the process, it organized a live telecast of its own 12-hour long commentary on the proceedings. How could such report have made great impact on the same people? 

Rather than impress people, it made many to raise several questions on the report. For instance, the tribunal opted to see Abuja as one of the states of the federation, by suggesting that there was nothing special about Abuja. But every state except Abuja has its own legislature and governor. Again, every state has 3 senators, Abuja has one, yet Abuja is not special? There is also the argument that Abuja voters ought not to be allowed to have an edge over other voters in a presidential election, why then are Abuja voters allowed to be disenfranchised during governorship elections, thereby making other states have an edge over Abuja voters, are they second class citizens? Questions such as these arise because technical justice can hardly satisfy many. Until we find a way to identify the real choice of the people in an election, instead of technicalities we shall continue to have definitions and counter definitions.

Before tomorrow’s low-key encounter, Nigeria had already qualified for the AFCON with one match left to be played. So, there is no pressure on the Super Eagles when they return to Uyo, the city with the best football ground in Nigeria currently. It should be an easy match, one that will be good advertisement for a new, winning Super Eagles.

Even the great Arsene Wenger, former legendary manager of Arsenal FC, was quoted last week to have described the Super Eagles as ‘under-achievers’ considering the quality and quantity of Nigerian players playing at the highest levels of football in Europe.

Wenger is right. That’s partly why I had the audacity to ‘arrogantly’ and ‘recklessly’ predict, last week, that Nigeria shall not only win AFCON 2024, but shall also use that success as a springboard to kick-start a new era in Nigerian football. It will also serve as a catalyst for faster development of the Sports industry in the country, as fuel for Sport and Diplomacy to drive the global cause of the African, and to justify leading West Africa to jointly bid for and host the 2034 FIFA World Cup. The height of my prediction is that the Super Eagles will win it!

So, for the match tomorrow, I send my best wishes to the Super Eagles.
The next big Sports development project!
These days, my head only conjures and relates with big dreams. Nigerians should look forward to the end of November this year.

A small seed is being planted in the ancient city of Abeokuta in Nigeria from which a sports event of global dimension shall sprout and add great value to any current effort to grow sports at the grassroots.

Segun Odegbami International College and Sports Academy, SOCA, in conjunction with all relevant sports authorities, is organising the first Lee Evans Memorial Annual International Invitational Athletics Meet, an event that shall catalyse the revival of effective sports programs in schools for the development of sprinters and jumpers for Nigeria by borrowing a leaf from a formular that has taken Jamaica from ‘nowhere’ to become the ‘Sprinting and Jumping’ capital of world athletics.

Other Caribbean Islands are latching on fast to that formula of tapping into the already abundantly available natural resource of people with the basic genetic ingredients found in the descendants of West and Central Africans. These ingredients make them naturals with great advantage for some sports events that require power, speed and strength.

The East Africans have used the advantage of their geography, the high altitudes in the Eastern part of Africa (Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda) to breed humans that have been dominating middle and long distance races forever. Egypt, Morocco and Algeria have also been exploiting their ties with desert conditions to also breed tireless long-distance runners.

West Africans, particularly Nigerians, have always been known to harbour nature’s gifts of physique and power that produce excellent sprinters, boxers and jumpers.

Even a casual look at Nigeria’s greatest successes reveals the preponderance of sports events requiring explosive speed and power – the sprints and jumps. The evidence is found in the long list of some of the best athletes in the country’s history – Chioma Ajunwa, Gloria Alozie, Mary Onyali, Falilat Ogunkoya, Tobi Amusan, Ese Brume, Modupe Oshikoya, Christy Okpara-Thompson, Innocent Egbunike, Sunday Bada, Ene Udo Obong, the Ezinwa brothers, Charlton Ehizuelen, Yusuf Ali, Olapade Adenekan and so on. All these goddesses and gods of athletics have either been sprinters or jumpers, or both.

What has been missing in establishing a proper tradition of excellence in the world is a clear vision of a production line with institutions, curriculum, process, facilities, funds and the ‘drivers’.

The most important resource, the gifted boys and girls, are in abundance in secondary schools all over Nigeria, waiting and wasting like flowers in the desert. What are needed are programmes within the schools to identify the talented ones, a program on how to train them, and high-level competitions to complete the honing process.

Developing young talents does not require knowledge of rocket science. A system once existed and worked well in Nigeria. Schools bred the best young athletes that eventually went on to compete for Nigeria, even though the final honing process still required a transition to the American collegiate system.

The good news is that late Lee Evans has been ‘resurrected’ in a new athletics project starting in November 2023 to complete the work he started in SOCA.

Lee Edward Evans was a legendary African/American athlete, one of the greatest sprinters in history – Double Olympic Gold medalist, World Record Holder for over two decades with world records in 11 different sprints events. When he became a coach, he was recognised as one of the best sprints coaches in the world.

The last eight years of his life were spent in Nigeria with the last two as a teacher and head coach of athletics at the Segun Odegbami International College and Sports Academy in Wasimi, near Abeokuta. He helped to create a pathway for several of the student/athletes in the school to transit to American colleges to further develop their sports talents.

His ultimate dream was to establish a local training program with indigenous facilities so that the annual migration to America by a few would be complimented by development for most others here in Nigeria.

Lee spent a good part of his life as a coach of athletics in Nigeria, with stints in the University of Ife, the National Sports Commission of Nigeria, Cross Rivers State and Lagos State.

He intermittently led several Nigerian national athletics teams to various meets for several decades from the 1970s to the 1990s.

He died over two years ago, and was buried inside the campus of SOCA where he now rests peacefully,

His name and international influence are now to become tools of this new program, fueling and driving a most ambitious ‘sprints and jumps’ development program in Nigeria.

It is not by accident that Jamaica has become the sprinting capital of the world. SOCA is adopting the Jamaican model (and more) to ensure a rich harvest of great sprinters and jumpers of world-class standards from the international competition. The catalysing agent is COMPETITION!

SOCA has chosen to immortalise Lee Evans and his great works by establishing this international athletics event and naming it after him. It will involve schools and clubs from Nigeria and several other countries. It will drive renewal of interest in sports within schools, and to fast-track athletics development.

The first edition of the Lee Evans Memorial Annual International Invitational Athletics Meet, comes up this year from November 21 to 26.
Selected schools in Nigeria and abroad are being invited to send in student/athletes, boys and girls between the ages of 15 and 18, for the event. 24 schools in all are expected to participate. Athletics-proper shall be for two-days.

There shall be other social engagement programmes attached to make the event memorable for all those that attend. Scouts from Europe, the USA and even the Caribbean Islands will be around to scout for gifted athletes amongst participants for their Collegiate programs.

The children are guaranteed some of the best times of their lives. They will be accommodated in the posh, secure and luxurious environment of Green Legacy Hotel, inside the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library complex with its first class facilities in leisure, recreation, theme parks, a zoo, museums of history, art and culture, cinemas and so on.

The events shall be in sprints and jumps only, and shall take place on the tracks and field of the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abeokuta.

Very Special guests from the world of Sport and Diplomacy, including some of Lee Evans’ African/American Colleagues from the United States may be attending to honour him and to be a part of the historic Mausoleum to be built around his graveside in Wasimi Orile.

Through Lee Edward Evans, Nigerian athletics will have a new platform to take off and join the league of the best in the world within a very short time, indeed. Coming this November. Watch out.

The removal of fuel subsidy announced by President Tinubu on May 29, 2023, need not have resulted in the mass misery that has further alienated Nigerians from their government, if only the plans ceremoniously rolled out by the immediate past government to provide succour for the people before fuel subsidy was abolished, had been faithfully implemented.

In Nigeria, we tend to throw money at problems. When there is a problem, government operatives gather to decide how many billions can be hauled at the perceived solution. A gleeful announcement is made on national television with the movers and shakers of industry in attendance. The picture of a more abundant tomorrow is orally painted to whoever it may concern. 

A foreigner watching the spectacle on TV would think that finally Nigeria had come to terms with what it needed to do to make life more abundant for the people. Then… silence; followed by rumours that the billions announced to solve the particular problem in question had started growing wings, or that some powerful people had started eating the budget. Yes, as we found out in the much celebrated case of the former Accountant General of the Federation, money is considered a culinary delicacy by some government officials.

Palliative Plan

Back to the subsidy issue and the grand plans to lessen the pains. The government actually planned to provide free conversion of one million cars from petrol to CNG between 2020 and 2023. If the plan had been faithfully implemented, at least one million cars would have been converted by now so that the announcement of May 29 would not have triggered the panic that it did. 

The plan did look good on paper. Even self-confessed cynics were willing to cast aside their doubts and believe the sweet music blaring from the loudspeakers of the triune powers — the Petroleum Ministry, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (now NNPCL).

In September 2020, the CBN, in a document titled “Framework for the Implementation of Intervention Facility for the National Gas Expansion Programme”, announced that it was resolved to improve access to finance for private sector investments in the domestic gas value chain. It said its intervention would stimulate investments in the development of infrastructure to optimise the domestic gas resources for economic development. Towards this end, it introduced a N250 billion Intervention Facility for the National Gas Expansion Programme for the commercial utilisation of the country’s natural gas reserves of 188 trillion cubic feet (tcf).

The National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP) was introduced to make CNG the fuel of choice for transportation and LPG, the fuel of choice for domestic cooking, captive power and small industrial complexes. Provision was also made to support large industries, such as agriculture, industrial applications, textile etc The facility was to be implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Petroleum Resources (MPR) with the overall goal of improving access to finance for private sector investments in the domestic gas value chain; stimulating investments in the development of infrastructure to optimise the domestic gas resources for economic development; and accelerating the adoption of CNG as the fuel of choice.

As published by the CBN itself, acceptable activities under the intervention include: establishment of gas processing plants and small scale petrochemical plants; establishment of gas cylinder manufacturing plants; establishment of LCNG regasification modular systems ; establishment of autogas conversion kits or components manufacturing plants; establishment of CNG primary and secondary compression stations; establishment and manufacturing of LPG retail skid tanks and accompanying equipment. Others are — development/enhancement of auto gas transportation systems, conversion and distribution infrastructure, enhancement of domestic cylinder production and distribution by cylinder manufacturing plants and LPG wholesale outlets; establishment/expansion of micro distribution outlets and service centres for LPG sales, domestic cylinder injection and exchange; and any other mid to downstream gas value chain related activity recommended by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources (MPR). 

Loan Accessibility 

The CBN gave an elaborate breakdown of how it would disburse the funds: “Aggregators, manufacturers, processors, wholesale distributors and related activities will be funded under the Power and Airline Intervention Fund (PAIF) while small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) and retail distributors are to be funded by NIRSAL Microfinance Bank (NMFB) under AGSMEIS. The term loan for manufacturers, processors, wholesale distributors, etc., will be determined based on the activity and will not exceed N10 billion per obligor while working capital is set at a maximum of N500 million per obligor. Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Retail Distributors term loans will be determined based on the activity and will not exceed N50 million per obligor with working capital pegged at a maximum of N5 million per obligor.” 

The Bank stated that the interest rate under the intervention would not be more than 5.0% p.a. (all inclusive) up to February 28, 2021, after which interest on the facility would revert to 9% p.a. (all inclusive) effective from March 1, 2021.

As usual, there followed a period of stasis. Details of how the intervention was being implemented reverted to the usual opaque recesses of secret conclaves where stakeholders and interested local investors had to rely on rumours or outright fibs designed to mask the scent.

It was gladdening therefore when the then Petroleum Minister, Timipre Sylva, assured Nigerians on behalf of the Buhari administration in January 2022 that he would work with marketers to convert 200, 000 vehicles from petrol to compressed natural gas (CNG) within the year. Many people said they had heard such a  rumour before. But Sylva was insistent. He told marketers that the government was planning to provide 50 percent funding for them to bring equipment from Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) for both vehicle conversion kits and petrol station conversion technologies. He said that the government was desirous of having the CNG system running across the country as alternative fuel before petrol subsidy would be removed .

He stressed the need to have a critical number of vehicles converted and a requisite number of dispensing stations in place. “If not, you will have a situation where converted vehicles do not have places to refuel or you will have a situation where fuel stations do not have converted vehicles to fuel”. He confirmed that the funding would come from the N250 billion provided by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

What Could Have Been

Since that time, the government relapsed into silence again until the recent flurry of activities in the wake of the removal of fuel subsidy which has generated so much anger nationally. Imagine what the atmosphere would have been today if the original plan to convert one million vehicles between 2020 and 2023 had been followed through!

The immediate task before the Tinubu administration is to first identify where the N250 billion budget earmarked for the project is. This step is urgent to prevent pythons from swallowing it. Then, the government should ensure a transparent disbursement of the loans to genuine players, big and small, so that the transition to autogas will be a truly all-encompassing productive activity. 

The new Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas) Mr. Ekperikpe Ekpo, needs all the support he can get from his substantive minister to untie this gaseous knot to enable Nigerians breathe easier. Fortunately for him, his minister is also the President.

For 14 or so hours on Wednesday, the presidential election petition tribunal delivered its judgment on the petitions filed against the declaration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the president of Nigeria. The unanimous verdict, in one word, was: dismissed. Needless to say, this verdict disappointed supporters of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and, most especially, Mr Peter Obi. Of course, the petitioners will appeal to the Supreme Court. Only Chief Olu Falae, joint candidate of the Alliance for Democracy/All Peoples Party — remnants of which co-founded the APC in 2013 — stopped at the Court of Appeal but that was well over 24 years ago.

The overall determination of the tribunal is that Atiku, who flew the flag of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Obi, the torchbearer of the Labour Party (LP), merely alleged rigging without providing proof. In the final results of the presidential election declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu had polled 8,794,726 votes, Atiku 6,984,520 and Obi 6,101,533. To establish that irregularities affected the final scores, Atiku needed to prove how the gap of 1,810,206 between him and Tinubu could be upturned. Obi, at his own end, needed to prove how the 2,693,193 gap owed to irregularities. The tribunal said neither of them provided concrete proof.

The rest are technicalities — whether or not electronic transmission of results via iRev was mandatory; whether or not the forfeiture of monies linked to illicit drugs amounts to criminal conviction and an automatic disqualification of Tinubu from the presidential race; whether or not he was qualified to run based on his academic credentials; whether or not Alhaji Kashim Shettima had double nomination for senate and vice-presidency; and whether or not scoring 25 percent of votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is mandatory to being declared as president. None of these arguments was upheld by the tribunal, leaving a bitter aftertaste in the mouths of the petitioners.

I was quite eager to get the judicial interpretation of Section 134 (2) of the 1999 Constitution which says: “A candidate for an election to the office of President shall be deemed to have been duly elected where, there being more than two candidates for the election: (a) he has the highest number of votes cast at the election; and (b) he has not less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all the States in the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.” The petitioners interpreted this to mean FCT has a special status in the presidential election. They demanded a run-off nationwide since the APC candidate scored only 20 percent in FCT.

The tribunal ruled that the entire constitution has to be read as a document and not in isolation. Justice Haruna Tsammani, who read the lead judgment, took us through the preamble of the constitution which says every citizen shall have equality of rights and obligations. “It cannot be read in any way to mean superiority should be attached to any voter above others,” he said. He quoted Section 299 of the constitution which says: “The provisions of this Constitution shall apply to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja as if it were one of the States of the Federation.” Except the Supreme Court upturns this judgment, this should finally settle the question on the 25 percent requirement.

I always felt there was something unconvincing about the petitioners’ argument. Theoretically, it means a candidate can win all the 36 states and still not be declared president if he/she fails to get 25% in FCT. The obvious intention of the constitution was not to confer an extraordinary status on FCT. The spread criterion is to ensure a presidential candidate has presence across the country. The constitution does not prescribe that 25 percent has to be secured in any state, including the most populous or one with biggest landmass, but just two-thirds of the states. Is there any country where a candidate must win a percentage of votes in a particular city to be declared president?

When we insult the drafters of the 1979 Constitution (which is what was amended and repackaged as the 1999 Constitution), we are just being uncharitable. This constitution was written by academics, lawyers, and other accomplished Nigerians, not roadside mechanics. The requirement of geographical spread was to address a weakness in the parliamentary system of the first republic in which a party could be limited to a region and still form national government. By requiring the president to score at least one-quarter of the votes cast in at least two-thirds of the 19 states, the 1979 Constitution ensured that no candidate could hope to be elected by his/her own region alone.

But as with all human contraptions, there is no perfection. The 25 percent requirement ran into a hitch at first attempt in 1979 when Alhaji Shehu Shagari met the threshold in 12 out of the 19 states and also polled the highest votes. What is two-thirds of 19? Would it be 12 or rounded off to 13? When the late Prof Bala Usman raised the issue at the 1978 Constituent Assembly which worked on the draft constitution, many members scoffed, but he included it in the minority report. As it turned out, it became a major issue in the presidential election. The Supreme Court would rule that it should be 12 states and two-thirds of the 13th state — hence the famous “12 two-thirds” judgment.

This is my matter of interest in this tribunal judgment. Now that it is interpreted as “36 states plus FCT”, making 37, what is two-thirds of 37? Will that be 24, 25 or 24 two-thirds? Going by the Supreme Court judgment in 1979, it would logically be 24 states and two-thirds of the 25th state. We now need constitutional clarity. Developments of this nature can help improve the laws. Even though Tinubu met the requirement in 30 states, it can become a problem in the future. If the Supreme Court upholds this verdict, we have to consequentially amend the constitution to reflect the judicial interpretation of “36 states and FCT” and to also spell out what “two-thirds of 37 states” means.

The second matter of interest: the tribunal threw out APC’s petition that Obi was not qualified to be the LP candidate having joined the party a couple of days to the primary election, whereas the Electoral Act 2022 stipulates that the party must submit the membership register 30 days prior. The Electoral Act, meanwhile, does not provide for waivers. By this verdict, which declared that it is a party that has a right to decide who are its members, it means you can join a party in the morning and contest for its ticket at noon. I support removing this. If the Supreme Court does not make a contrary finding, it becomes law. We would need to amend the law to eliminate any confusion.

Three, the tribunal verdict may be erroneously interpreted to have devalued BVAS and iRev. I hope this is not going to be a problem going forward. The tribunal only said not using BVAS and iRev does not invalidate an election. It didn’t say we should stop using them. By the way, I have noticed that many Nigerians appear not to know the difference between the two. BVAS is for accreditation of voters at the polling unit (PU), storage of voting data and transfer of results to the INEC server, while iRev is a portal for the uploading of results transmitted to the server. In fact, BVAS was used during the presidential election — the issue in dispute was the failure to upload results real time to iRev. 

Lawmakers had argued that there are general problems associated with technology — network connection, device failure and security. This may explain why they made the Electoral Act flexible in section 47(2) by adding: “…or any other technological device that may be prescribed by the Commission.” In trying to justify the huge sums it spent on technology, INEC hyped the use of BVAS and iRev as the ultimate marker of credible polls. With iRev not used real time during the presidential poll (and there has been no convincing explanation for this till today), this became a strong point for those who lost. Nevertheless, APC still won the majority of votes in the elections where iRev worked.

The irony, of course, is that even in governorship and legislative elections where BVAS and iRev worked seamlessly, those who lost still went to court to challenge the outcomes. That means the acceptance of the credibility of an election does not depend on BVAS, iRev or live transmission, contrary to the impression we might have got from the dispute over the presidential poll. The tribunal said it would have been helpful is there was a table showing the differences between the results declared by INEC and the result sheets signed by party agents at the polling units. I strongly believe BVAS and iRev have improved the electoral system and must not be cast away or relegated.

In sum, I doubt that any presidential election will be upturned based on technicalities, especially those that could have been settled pre-election. The stakes are high. I also think that tribunals should be dealing more with the smoking gun from the elections, such as proofs that if the lawful votes were counted, the outcome would be different. That was how Obi won his Anambra governorship petition in 2006. He presented the result sheets signed by all party agents as well as INEC officials and proved that what was officially declared was different. When he promised to do that again after the 2023 presidential election, I told myself: “INEC has messed with the wrong guy again.” Oh well.

While we may have our different opinions on the verdict of the presidential election petition tribunal — I have read tonnes of comments, some purely emotional and some quite rational — I am glad that all the threats of war and rumours of war came to naught. I want to believe that we are learning how to be angry or excited within the confines of the law. The Supreme Court offers a final opportunity for Atiku and Obi to prove their case that they won the election. This they will do by puncturing the contentious aspects of the tribunal’s verdict. Democracy could be a pain-filled journey, but no matter how frustrating the rule of law and due process are, I will never promote alternatives to democracy.

AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…

MODUPE ATANDA

Days after Deborah Modupe Atanda, a 200 level student of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), went missing, her body was found in a shallow grave around the school. Her eyes were reportedly gouged out, an indication that she was killed for ritual purposes. This evil is unimaginable in a society where most of us claim to be Muslims or Christians and where we punctuate every statement we make with “God”. Sadly, another woman has fallen victim to violence again. This trend should worry everyone because it is now an established pattern. Police must get to the root of this, even though it will not bring back the poor soul. But doing justice will at least bring some closure. Wicked.

HOPE RISING?

President Tinubu is in India for business, as it were, ahead of the G20 Summit. Four Indian conglomerates, including Indorama Petrochemical Ltd and Jindal Steel and Power Ltd, have pledged to invest $14 billion in Nigeria. This is huge, even for a promise. The investments will go into fertiliser production, petrochemical, power and steel, among others. However, commitment is one thing; action is another. I believe action will depend on the fulfilment of Tinubu’s promise to make Nigeria “one of the most conducive places on earth” for foreign investments. Return on investment is believed to be high here but the bureaucracy, security and infrastructure are key elements. Killjoys.

STATESMANLY STATEMENTS

After the verdict of the presidential election petition tribunal which affirmed the election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, I must say I was impressed with the public statements of the petitioners. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the PDP presidential candidate, said: “However, the disappointment in the verdict of the court can never destroy my confidence in the judiciary.” Mr Peter Obi, the LP candidate, spoke similarly, saying “we respect the views and rulings of the court, but we disagree with the court’s reasoning and conclusions in the judgment it delivered”. Their disappointment is very glaring, but they weighed their words with a sense of responsibility. Cute.

AND FINALLY…

Nigeria’s oil production has risen to 1.6 million barrels per day, according to Mallam Mele Kyari, the CEO of Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd. This is some good news, given that our production went as low as 900,000bpd some years ago. And with crude oil prices now rising to $85/barrel, this should ordinarily mean more revenue and more forex inflow for us, although I am aware we have tied most of our share of production to some commitments. But there is a hanging question: with crude oil prices rising, will pump prices of petrol also rise since “subsidy is gone”? Also, have we finally learnt how to manage oil windfalls or normal service will resume? Watching.