“A judge shall avoid developing excessively close relationship with frequent litigants – such as government ministers or their officials, municipal officials, police prosecutors in any court where the judge often sits, if such relationship could reasonably create an appearance of partiality.”

Rule 2.8, Revised Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers in Nigeria (2016)

Sylvanus Nsofor was a little-known Justice of the court of appeal when he breathed oxygen into Muhammadu Buhari’s political aspirations with his dissent in the presidential election petition in 2007. Eight years earlier, he had launched a unique career in the history of political litigation in Nigeria.

The case arose from the election into the office of chairman of the Obio/Akpor local government area (LGA) in Rivers state in Nigeria’s Niger Delta on December 12, 1998. Cyprian Tasie Wike was the candidate of the All Peoples Party (APP). Cyprian Chukwu flew the flag of the Alliance for Democracy (AD). After screening aspirants on November 24, 1998, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) settled on Ezenwo Nyesom Wike as its candidate. 

At the time, local elections were conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the PDP initially submitted Nyesom Wike’s name as their candidate. However, sometime before election day, the party substituted his name with Samuel Rogers Icheonwo. When it announced the results, INEC declared the candidate of the PDP as the winner with 40,370 votes, beating the candidate of the AD into second place with 11,441 votes. 

Nyesom Wike sued, claiming that INEC had announced Icheonwo as the winner when he was not lawfully sponsored by any party in the contest. The election petition tribunal struck out the petition, holding that it lacked jurisdiction “to resolve the issue as to who was sponsored by PDP.” 

Nyesom Wike appealed. In his judgment on behalf of a three-person panel of the court of appeal on 6 March 1999, Sylvanus Nsofor nullified the result announced by the INEC and ordered a re-run of the election with Nyesom Wike as the candidate of the PDP. Wike duly won the re-run to emerge as the chairman of the Obio/Akpor LGA.

In 2008, he became chief of staff to a Governor of Rivers state whose emergence rested on a somewhat improbable piece of judicial machination. 

After a stint as minister of state for education, Wike emerged in 2015 as the candidate of the PDP for the governorship of Rivers state. Following the election on 11-12 April 2015, the INEC declared him as the winner ahead of  Dakuku Peterside of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Peterside petitioned challenging the result declared by INEC. The tribunal granted his petition and initially set aside the result. The court of appeal agreed with the trial tribunal.

On 12 February 2016, the supreme court set aside the judgment of the court of appeal on a specious technicality and restored Nyesom Wike as duly elected. The author of the supreme court judgment was Kudirat Kekere-Ekun. 

In the past week, she and Nyesom Wike resumed mutual acquaintance. In the intervening nine years, Kekere-Ekun had risen to become Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) while Wike emerged in August 2023 as minister of the Federal Capital Territory. The venue was the flag-off of the construction by the minister of 40 units of judicial housing in Abuja. 

This was the latest chapter in Wike’s durable track record as Nigeria’s most prolific judicial benefactor. 

As governor of Rivers state, he gave 41 Range Rover sports utility vehicles (SUVs) to judges in the state. Customary court judges were not left out. He gave them 29 Renault SUVs while complaining about the “unfortunate unwillingness of the judiciary in Nigeria to seek true independence to discharge their functions.” 

The irony was clearly lost on him. 

In 2020, Wike donated 24 luxury duplexes to judges in Rivers State and reportedly “handed out $300,000 in cash to judges who preferred to build their own houses.” It was presumably tax-free. Then CJN, Tanko Muhammad, slavishly “applauded his generosity saying the gifts spoke of the ‘love the Rivers State governor has for the judiciary.’”

The love was fully requited. 

The previous year, in January 2019, the judiciary had made Wike’s re-election an electoral non-event when it disqualified the opposition APC from fielding any candidate against him.

Before leaving office as governor in 2023, Wike launched yet another construction of quarters for judges also in Rivers state, this time on a site “where his administration recently demolished flats initially belonging to Bayelsa state.” 

Now, as minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Wike’s political generosity has become fully federalised under the judicial benediction of yet another CJN. At the launch of the 40 new units of judicial housing in Abuja this past week, the minister had in attendance both the CJN and the PCA. Presumably keen to impress such high judicial presence, Wike serenaded them with testimony as to how he summarily revoked the land previously allocated to construction conglomerate, Julius Berger, in order to make it available for building suitable judicial digs. 

The high judicial figures present looked nothing if not suitably impressed, but the minister was only getting started. According to him, it was important “to build houses for judges so they would not be susceptible to temptations from unscrupulous politicians.” 

No one around had the presence of mind to ask him to look in the mirror. 

This has been described charitably as convenient overreach. A better description of it will be judicial subornation. In full public glare, the two senior-most judges in the country looked rather giddy as they advertised an undisguised breach of the Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers, whose effectiveness depends on their combined leadership and example. 

There is no political litigant in the country more prolific than the current minister of the FCT. He has an almost extra-terrestrial ability to normalise outcomes that defy all cannons of lawful judicial enterprise. If anyone fits the description of the prohibition in Rule 2.8 of the Judicial Conduct, it is Minister Wike. Yet, for him, the Chief Justice of Nigeria is happy to retrench that same Code of Conduct. 

It was not supposed to be like this. 

Jerome Udoji, one of Nigeria’s best-known lawyers and public servants, was born in Ozubulu in present-day Anambra state around 1912. Udoji was also the first indigenous district officer in the colonial civil service. He ended his civil service career as chief secretary to the government of the Eastern Region under the military coincidentally in 1967, the same year in which Wike officially was born.

When he got the opportunity to undertake a retrospective on his public tour of duty  in 1995, fifteen years before he died in 2010, Udoji chose to issue his memoirs with the title “Under Three Masters.” The three masters whom he served, of course, were colonial administrators, post-colonial civilian politicians, and their military usurpers. 

Each set of masters was not without exertions in seeking judicial subservience. Until now, they had usually encountered judicial resistance. Under the current dispensation, however, it is almost as if the government has a minister responsible for judicial subornation. To many, the leading judges have simply become Wiked and the country has a CJN who appears happy to have the judicial branch fully Nyesomized.

A lawyer and a teacher, Odinkalu can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Mr Macaroni has revealed how his ordeal with the Lagos police — following his arrest at the #OccupyLekkiTollGate protest in 2021 — left him shaken but ultimately fearless.

The skit maker, whose real name is Debo Adebowale, was among 40 people arrested for allegedly flouting COVID-19 protocols on public gatherings.

In an interview on the WithChude podcast, Mr Macaroni recounted how he was “stripped naked and molested” by police officers, who he claimed took pleasure in his suffering.

The 31-year-old also alleged that the police warned him to stop disturbing certain individuals, implying that he was being targeted for his activism.

However, Mr Macaroni said the experience has made him fearless and more determined to use his platform to advocate for the oppressed.

“I feel I should be involved because I think God has given me the platform today, not so I can be popular, but so that I can use the platform that I have to speak up for not just me, but for those that cannot speak up for themselves. How can I ask others to make sacrifices I am not willing to make,” he said.

“It was after that experience that all the fear in me disappeared. That is the twist. I wondered how that happened. Before that moment, I used to be afraid. I felt these people we know them and they can just come in and kill somebody. It was after these guys tortured me., saw the hate in their eyes. I saw how angry they were. And they did all that they could. And I am sure if not that I was released, they could have done more. It was at that moment I said so this is it? So right now we are back.

“The skit I made does not do justice to what I went through in that place. I had to do it so that people could watch. I was completely naked. These guys stripped us naked. I was molested. It was a thing of joy for them. They were happy. They were mentioning names. They were saying I was disturbing some people.”

[TheCable]

THE much-awaited cabinet reshuffle by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu came last Wednesday but I will be surprised if the shape and character of the reshuffle did not disappoint many. Most of the new names qualify as unknown quantities. Add this to the fact that many of the existing cabinet members were also names that did not ring a bell. If I attend an interview where I am asked questions on Ministers and their portfolios or even the state that they represent, I confess I will fail woefully! I cannot even claim to know the Minister or Ministers representing my state and their portfolio! I must admit that this may partly be a function of my own limitations. Some folks are silent achievers, though. We are likely to find them in the Tinubu cabinet, such that as time wears out, some of them may etch their name in gold with their stellar performance. They may come in incognito but leave as national heroes and heroines or even as international celebrities. I wish and pray for such to happen!

Cabinet reshuffles present presidents and governors with a vista of opportunities to chart a new course and enact a new beginning; correct mistakes made; reinvigorate the cabinet; energize it; recalibrate it; weed off dead woods; place round pegs in round holes; bring in new hands; transfuse fresh blood into the system; play around with fresh ideas and new ways not only of thinking but also of doing things; set new templates, parameters and mandates; respond to criticisms and new challenges, thereby demonstrating that its feedback mechanism is alive and well; re-invent the government and recover lost ground, lost trust and lost confidence; and line up the citizenry solidly behind the government and its plans, programmes and policies. For Tinubu whose campaign mantra was “Renewed Hope”, the cabinet reshuffle was a golden opportunity for him to restore the sagging hope of the people in his leadership and point them in the way forward. Did he succeed in doing that?

What is certain, however, is that Tinubu is a man of immense courage, great daring and audacity. It is not every president or governor that summons the courage to reshuffle their cabinet – the same way many of them shy away from signing death warrants! In his eight years in office, Buhari removed only two of his Ministers. In a little less than one-and-half years in office, Tinubu has deemed it fit to reshuffle his cabinet, removing five Ministers at a go. We may still expect more to come. Give it to Tinubu, he is a man imbued with a large dose of courage. In his allocutus during the orchestrated sedition trial (1963), the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, quoted Hugh Walpole, author of “Fortitude”, as saying: ‘Tis not life that matters, but the courage you bring to it”.

To escape from the vile dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha, into self-imposed exile and become an important member of the opposition National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), is courage. To escape the President Olusegun Obasanjo-contrived tsunami that uprooted all other Alliance for Democracy governors of the South-west in 2003 demanded uncommon courage. To go forward and not only survive the same President Obasanjo’s seizure of Lagos State local government funds but also leverage the challenge to make Lagos, perhaps, the only state out of the country’s 36 that can survive without allocations from the Federation Account takes courage.

Ever before the country’s Independence in 1960, efforts by politicians to form alliances have floundered at the altar of greed and suspicion and for Tinubu to succeed where even the founding fathers failed abjectly, in cobbling together the All Progressives Congress (APC) that wrested power from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party in 2015 demands courage and uncommon foresight. Yes, it takes a man imbued with foresight to deny himself today with the hope of reaping tomorrow. What a gambit! Hence his “Emilokan” desperation when he was about to be denied what he thought was rightfully his! When the trophy he had laboured for and sacrificed so much for was slipping through his fingers, he opened mouth, as they say!

It takes a man of unequalled courage to stoically suffer all the indignities he was subjected to throughout the eight years of Buhari’s rule without losing sight of his goal. Many times they gave him a bloodied nose; he was undeterred. His head, too, was bloodied; yet, unbowed! Tinubu literally stooped to conquer.

To snatch the APC presidential flag from the Buhari/Daura cabal hallmarked Tinubu’s political sagacity. To win the February 2023 presidential election despite the daunting obstacles stacked against him – unwavering, unhasting, unrelenting – shows the stuff of which Tinubu is made. I am bold to say that he is made of sterner stuff than many of his political adversaries! Mere mortals would have fainted when Tinubu waxed stronger. Other men would have turned their back where he undauntedly forged ahead.

Did Tinubu make Proverbs 24: 10 his forte? That scripture says if you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small! Other scriptures say men ought always to pray and not to faint (Luke 18:1). Galatians 6:9 admonishes us not to become weary doing good for in due course we will reap if we faint not. This is not to say anything of the courage Tinubu reportedly suddenly “summoned” on his first day in office while reading his inauguration address to blurt out that “fuel subsidy is gone”, which, unfortunately, the whole country suffers from today. This shows that not all courage is positive or advisable. The elders counsel that if you wield power; learn to temper it! M’oja; m’osa!

How will Tinubu’s cabinet reshuffle resonate with the people when virtually all the critical areas where people had hoped there would be some rethinking were left untouched? Does it mean that the president is satisfied with the performance of the helmsman manning those positions? The security architecture was left untouched despite the worsening state of insecurity in many parts of the country. Is there anything the president knows that the ordinary citizens are not aware of? Power supply is another area where the people are being roasted alive; yet, the Minister in charge survived the cabinet shake-up. Once it became certain that a shake-up was imminent, power became relatively stable in my Agege area of Lagos state. Is this a hoodwink, deceit or bribe? The cost of foodstuffs has become prohibitive and no one knows what the Ministers in charge of Agriculture are doing about it; yet, they escaped the axe! Finance and the Central Bank also sit pretty despite the “palongo” that the national currency, the Naira, dances daily in the foreign exchange market. The unrelenting depreciation of the Naira is responsible for the hike in the price of virtually everything – imported and local.

The Oga Patapata of them all, the General Overseer of them all is the Petroleum Ministry/NNPC where nothing has been done to rejig the unholy alliance causing the citizenry so much pain. Tinubu himself sits pretty as the Minister of Petroleum Resources; he did not sack or reshuffle himself. Many had expected he would at least hand off the Ministry as well as rejig the whole NNPC apparatus. Had he done that, he would have given Nigerians something to cheer for!

Any positives from the cabinet reshuffle? Of course, yes! It would have been scandalous had Betta Edu returned as was being whispered all over the place. So, with her not returning, many will heave a sigh of relief. It is also in order that the woman in women affairs was asked to comot, as they say. She amassed two scandals in quick succession that cannot be easily glossed over. I don’t know much about the others who were sacked; so also about many of those newly enlisted. Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu (nee Onoh) is the only household name among the lot – whether for good or bad reasons is a topic for another day!

The sack of the Education minister, Tahir Mamman, raises questions: Is it because of the JAMB/admission age controversy? It could not have been because the law is extant, as they say; the sacked Minister only insisted the law be enforced. Maybe he did not do his homework well with the implementation, in the same way no proper homework was done before “fuel subsidy is gone” was blurted out. In both instances, we saw the chaos that followed! I wasted no time in throwing out of the window the other suggestion that Mamman’s alleged rapport with the unions might have been responsible for his sack! How can that be? His tenure, short-lived as it was, witnessed industrial peace on our campuses. At the last JAMB stakeholders meeting, his soundbites were positive: He emphasized the need for cordial relations between management and labour unions in the institutions of higher learning; he also warned Governing Councils against leveraging their positions to fleece the institutions and taxpayers.

Well, I give it to the president that he knows what he is doing, even though his cabinet appears more like a cabinet of the anonymous. Tinubu’s saving grace is, if, in the end, his cabinet delivers the good and proves every critic wrong. Otherwise…

BARELY 72 hours after his first cabinet review, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been asked to consider relinquishing the position of Minister of Petroleum resources, which he has been occupying since May 29, 2023.

Mr. Osita Okechukwu, one of the founding members of All Progressives Congress (APC), made the call while reacting to the recent reshuffle of ministerial portfolio in the Federal Executive Council.

While commending President Tinubu for compelling all the ministers to be on their toes; by exercising the executive powers conferred on him by Section 5(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic, Okechukwu noted that the President’s action is a milestone.

“Secondly, Mr. President deserves kudos for adhering to the ageless doctrine of Key Performance Index index (KPI) evaluation, which is a major management tool that guarantees transparency and accountability. “In the same vein, I wish to appeal to Mr President to complete the reshuffle process by relinquishing the post of Minister of Petroleum Resources as a matter of urgent national importance. This step would go a long way to stem, if not weed out the buccaneer antics of the less than transparent Oil Mafia,” he stated.

Okechukwu, who is also the immediate past Director General of Voice of Nigeria (DG, VON), recalled that the cabinet review, which was announced during the Federal Executive Council Meeting last Wednesday, was a signpost as it resulted in the dismissal of five ministers and reassignment of few.

He stated that to help bring sanity in the Petroleum sector and not only position the President effectively as General Overseer of the entire Federal Ministries; but an enablement for the Hadiza Bala Usman Coordinating Policy Unit to effectively sanitize the oil industry.

Okechukwu submitted that, “it would be strategic if His Excellency, President Ahmed Bola Tinubu, GCFR, willingly vacates the office of Minister. I am making this humble appeal on the grounds that it is practically unimaginable and absolutely impossible for the Coordinating Policy Unit headed by Hadiza Bala Usman to monitor or even take a cursory glance at the Petroleum Ministry as it would amount to supervising her principal, the President, who is the Minister.”

The Public Relations Consultant also cautioned the President not to fall into the toxic state capture trap of Minister of Petroleum, which made the operation of the oil industry opaque and made it impossible for former Presidents to even fix one out of four petroleum refineries in over two decades.

According to Okechukwu, “the failure to make any of the country’s four refineries functional made Nigerians to lose faith in democracy, just as it has generated hunger and multidimensional poverty. Nigeria has also over the years suffered great economic haemorrhage by squandering over $70 billion on importation of refined petroleum products as well as undue imbalance on the country’s foreign exchange earnings.”

While reiterating his appeal on President Tinubu to forthwith relinquish the Petroleum Resources portfolio, Okechukwu stressed that many of us APC members want him to succeed and win the 2027 presidential election via free and fair ballot not controversy.

As I was concluding this piece, my eyes caught a presidential sledgehammer which landed on the head of Conscience Nurtured by Truth – The Guardian. In a release issued by the State House yesterday, authored by erstwhile Editor-in-Chief of TheNews, Bayo Onanuga, the newspaper was accused of a crime almost similar to what General Sani Abacha accused it of in 1994 which led to its closure. The “NADECO government” of Bola Tinubu merely rehashed the allegation. I will address it presently.

All over the world, the Lady Justice is sacred, representing the divine order, law, and custom. It is also an allegorical persona depicting the moral force of the judicial system. Originating from the Ancient Roman goddess called Justitia, her attributes are a blindfold, scales and a sword. When a leader is depicted to have raped this personification of justice, he has violated the deity of goodliness in society. Last week, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, narrated how he revoked the Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) of some plots of land allocated to Julius Berger in the Katampe District of Abuja. It was shortly after he had dinner with the Managing Director of Julius Berger. By his own admission, he then deployed same for the construction of 40 Judges Quarters. Wike’s revocation of the land is most likely justified if indeed the German construction giant held it undeveloped for fifteen to twenty years.

The judiciary is reputed in the playbook of democracy to be the last hope of the common man. Of recent, stenchy oozes coming out of this last bastion of hope for a regressing Nigeria are really scary. In the triad of Wike-judges-Julius Berger above, the major fear is how judges who benefitted from allocation of those lands will, without favour, dispense justice in any matter that has to do with Wike, now or in the future? It is most likely the avoidance of such dalliance that Rule 2.8 of the Judicial Code of Conduct frowns at unholy matrimony between judges and would-be litigants. It says “A judge shall avoid developing excessively close relationship with frequent litigants – such as government ministers or their officials.” It goes ahead to say that any of such appearance of alliance is incestuous and “could reasonably create an appearance of partiality.” A last week editorial of the Nigerian Lawyer affirms this when it states that the relationship was questionable. It also says that, “beneath the surface of this supposedly ‘noble’ project, serious concerns about integrity, impartiality and manipulation may emerge.” If in the near future, Wike and Julius Berger engage in a legal tango, can FCT courts be impartial arbiter?

The above incestuous relationship between the executive and the judiciary reminds me of my March 6, 2022 piece with the title, Buhari’s serial rape of the Lady Justice. It referenced an award-winning cartoon published on September 7, 2008 by the Johannesburg-based Sunday Times authored by Jonathan Shapiro. Shapiro’s cartoon identity was Zapiro. That cartoon triggered a huge ball of fire in South Africa. Named ‘Rape of Lady Justice’, it bore then leader of the African National Congress (ANC), who was to later become the South African president, Jacob Zuma, loosening his trousers’ zippers for a sexual romp with the effigy of the Lady Justice. He had a shower tap placed on his head. An impish but salacious smile lit his face. Before him, flung on the bare floor, was a blindfolded lady with a lapel inscribed, “Justice System” hung on her chest. Four hefty and menacing-looking men knelt by the Lady Justice’s side, holding down the “wench”, whose skirt was half peeled off. They were political surrogates of Zuma in the ANC, which included Julius Malema, then leader of the ANC Youth League, among others. The scale of justice had fallen down beside the Lady Justice, with Mantashe smilingly beckoning on Zuma to clamber her for a rape binge, “Go for it, boss!”

That cartoon shot Zuma into a fit. Indeed, he immediately sued Zapiro for the sum of £700,000. Massive reactions followed it, ranging from the condemnatory to the laudatory. The ANC, SACP and ANC Youth League pilloried it as “hate speech,” “disgusting” and “bordering on defamation of character” and then petitioned the South African Human Rights Commission for redress.

Zapiro’s cartoon depicted the rape of the South African justice system, as well as other institutions, by Zuma. “He (Zuma) is raping the justice system and they (Zuma’s political allies) are complicit in that,” said the cartoonist in an interview. By this time, Zuma, a notorious polygamist who had six official wives as president, many more by unofficial account and 22 children from the liaisons, was a kingpin of lechery. Not long ago, the court discharged him of a rape romp with an HIV-positive AIDS activist, who was the daughter of his friend. Though Zuma pleaded that the sex was consensual, he however admitted that he had unprotected sex with the lady. He then stunned the world when he maintained that he had “showered afterwards to cut the risk of contracting the infection.” The shower tap Zapiro placed on his head represented this bombastic claim

If Zapiro were to sketch that cartoon in Nigeria today, he will replace Zuma with the Bola Tinubu administration. His groveling National Assembly and its coterie of fawners would be Malema and co. Together, they can be more fittingly described as in a serial rape of our country. Virtually all institutions and systems in Nigeria today are being mercilessly raped to a point that they lack energy to saunter on. Tinubu, through surrogates, is presiding over a literal rape of the Lady Justice. However, his government’s version of executive rape of the judiciary is of different colour. Only recently, while Rivers State was undergoing its local government election, the name of Wike and alleged interference in judicial decisions became a singsong. Courts of coordinate jurisdictions at both state and federal levels issued contradictory rulings which were felt to have political imprimaturs. These have made the judiciary a laughing stock. In Kano State, similar rape of the judiciary was at play with the state and federal judiciary issuing rulings at loggerheads with each other.

The dilemma of Nigerians today isn’t different from that of the traditional clothes launderer the Yoruba call the Alágbàfò . The river constitutes his major economic source. He depends on it for his existential survival. As the Alágbàfò  goes into enmity with the water/river at their own peril, so also will the enmity of the akara (bean cake) seller with the frying oil surely end in disaster. So, in a case where the Alágbàfò heaves the load of white clothes to the river for laundry but finds out that the river is polluted, the Alágbàfò  finds self at the three footpath juncture that troubles the stranger to a town. Like the Alágbàfò  above, Nigerians are marooned on an island. Their waters, the main source of their existential survival, are polluted. President Olusegun Obasanjo put their dilemma in perspective. In an interview on the News Central Television on Thursday, he painted the canvass of hopelessness very meticulously. This he did in a narrative of “a Nigerian president” – the people’s water, the river of their existence – who they voted into office but who rules like a voodoo priest. Voodooism isn’t about science but probability and permutations. While not specifically naming anyone, Obasanjo told the tale of “a Nigerian president who came to office without a plan” and who “then… woke up and just said, ‘three-point plan.’ What are the three points? What are they going to achieve? Who are the people who have worked on it? You came and you just opened your mouth and made a pronouncement on something that has not been.”

Everywhere you turn in Nigeria today, the river is tainted, polluted and coffee-brown. For the people, it is double jeopardy. Two sayings of the Yoruba encapsulate the Nigerian dilemma. They both border on a raped trust. One, which mirrors frustration, asks whether, in the rules of fidelity, the one upon whom a disabled reclines, if they are about to shift from the space they occupy, should not have the honour of notifying the disabled of their intention to shift? (Eni a f’èyìn tì, bí ó ba yè, wíwí ní í wí). Nigeria today runs a struggling economy powered by trust deficit towards leaders who are believed to have questionable financial and moral fidelity, who flex misplaced ability. Nigerians are powerless like the disabled. Their leaders, upon whom they reclined for social good, have broken their spines.

The second jeopardy also hangs on a misplacement of trust. The one the people thought would save them from captivity has eventually turned out to be their captor. Uttered in a moment of underwhelming results from overwhelming expectations, Yoruba say, eni a gb’ójú okùn lé, kò jo eni agba. It is similar to the tale of the Alágbàfò and a dirty river.

What Nigerians are doing today is, like the hopeless drycleaner, sitting by the dirty river bank and watching whether indeed, from within the constricting thorns (ìgbágó), the palm-frond (màrìwò) shoot out. Which is very unlikely. Our dirty river has equalized and democratized suffering and hopelessness. While Nigerians are daily engrossed in a festival of lamentations and regret everywhere, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that our dirty river is clean and snow-white. Bretton Woods gave our hunger pass-mark. Homeless roam-about children, hitherto exclusive preserve of the north, are today everywhere in the southern part of Nigeria, too. The Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Olakulehin Owolabi, raised this alarm last Thursday when the Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Almajiri and Out-of-School Children paid him a courtesy call in his palace. All over the streets of Nigeria, the hungry and ferocious looks on the faces of children and even elders are frightening. Under this government, Nigeria has become one huge IDP camp and everybody is a scrounger and scavenger.

If the executive is a true reflection of the dirty waters that have constituted existential turbulence for our Alágbàfò , the legislature is an affliction. Nigeria’s twin legislature is struggling to outdo itself in the fawning sprint and self-mockery. Take for instance the bill for the establishment of a Bola Ahmed Tinubu University of Nigerian Languages. It has gone through the second reading. Sponsored by Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu and eight others, the bill sponsors said their aim was to have a university for the promotion of the learning of Nigerian languages which will “encourage the advancement of learning and to hold out to all persons without distinction of race, creed, sex or political conviction, the opportunity of acquiring a higher education in Nigerian languages and cultures.” Brilliant conception.

But, why then do Kalu and his legislative cohorts think that the man worthy to have his name affixed to the university is the president? If they were not suffocated by the smell of legislative groveling, no university of Nigerian languages should be named after any other person than Ayọ̀ Bámgbóṣé. Bámgbóṣé was an academic linguist and the first professor of Linguistics in Nigeria. In 1984, Bámgbóṣé became the first African linguist to be conferred the honorary membership of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA). He made tremendous contributions to education and linguistics. Bámgbóṣé’s 1963 journal article titled “A study of structures and classes in the grammar of modern Yoruba” is a locus classicus in linguistics. So, what qualifies Tinubu to be so named? In which of the Nigerian languages did he excel? Certainly not Yoruba, a language he speaks with bumbling understanding. His English is almost an aping of the Cockney. So where did Kalu and his fawners of power get their wild muse?

If the House of Representatives is a home for grovelers by the feet of the executive, the senate is worse. Godswill Akpabio, head of the senate, figuratively wears the Tinubu lapel on his arm and cap literally on his head with baffling shamelessness. He is reputed to adjourn senate sessions to enable him quickly shuttle to Aso Rock to ask for its mind. Thus, if Nigerians expect a legislature that will hold the executive to account, they are waiting for Samuel Becket’s legendary Godot in their legislators.

The combination of a dilemma of the Alágbàfò  and the serial rape of virtually all institutions in Nigeria today foretell a grim tomorrow for the Nigerian people. It was the palpable frustration of Nigerians that The Guardian lead story of October 25, entitled “Calls for military intervention: misery, harsh policies driving Nigerians to desperate choices,” reflected. It warned of chaos in the polity if the Tinubu government does not stop its bumbling misgovernance. “Nigerians were exhilarated with the return of democracy in 1999, but 25 years on, the buccaneering nature of politicians, their penchant for poor service delivery, morbid hatred for probity, accountability, and credible/transparent elections, among others, are forcing some flustered citizens to make extreme choices, including calling for military intervention in governance… Deep despondency permeates every facet of the polity consequent upon soaring cost of living. And while the political elite splurge on fine wines and exotic automobiles amid poor service delivery, calls for regime change could become more strident in the days ahead even though military insurrection holds no solution to the country’s woes.”

As usual, Onanuga, in his servile reading of every criticism, took time to pen a presidential doggerel as reply to the story. He called it inflammatory and an open advocacy for regime change. Are we sure this Onanuga is not the doppelganger of the Onanuga we used to know? Does he know that that The Guardian story is a cyclostyle of what Nigerians are saying on the streets? If it is, want does he expect the respected newspaper to write? What “deliberate agenda” could the newspaper harbor other than newspapering? What “fairness and objectivity” is he talking about if not a reportage of the narratives on the street and the hopelessness encircling the air? If you read through the so-called State House release of Onanuga, it bears semblance with Sani Abacha’s criminalizing of journalism, leading to the jailing for life of the Kunle Ajibades, his colleague in TheNews. It appears to me that Onanuga, like the Shappiro cartoon, is one of those fawners holding the wench of good governance by the thighs while his boss smilingly loosens the rope of his trousers. If you know what happened to that dog that was given a bad name, you will appreciate why all genuine democrats must rise in protection of the truth.

Dupe Baruwa-Dada: I lost a sister

In 2011, less than six months into the birth of a new government in Oyo State, a proposal was brought for the celebration of a festival in the state. The memo got to the topmost decision-making organ of the state, the Executive Council. A the Exco, a very suave and articulate man marshaled points on the need for the festival and everybody who spoke gave the memo thumbs-up. However, I constituted the one-man kanda, the stone in the bowl of his rice. So, I raised my hand and the governor, Abiola Ajimobi, gave me the go-ahead to speak. “Your Excellency, sir, beautiful as this proposal is, if we go ahead with it, the people of Oyo State will stone us. Our administration hasn’t constructed roads nor succeeded in bringing development to the people. A festival now will be a disaster,” I said. God bless his soul, without mincing words, the governor immediately canceled the memo.

As I stepped out of the Exco Chambers, someone called my number. It was my friend of, by then, 15 years, Dupe Baruwa. She said, “Boda Festus, tomorrow, my children and I will pack our baggage and move to your house for sustenance.” Alarmed, I asked why. “You just shot down the memo presented to the Oyo State government by my husband!”

In 1996 or 1997 – I can’t remember now – a ravishingly beautiful lady was posted to the Sunday Desk of the Nigerian Tribune newspaper and we became very good friends. We became each other’s confidants and advisors. Dupe confided in me on virtually every issue of her life and I did same to her, too. At some point, she even took me to Ijebu-Ode to go see her mother. When it came to my life-time consort, Dupe’s decision on who I would marry was the loudest and carried the day.

As fate would have it, in 2019, while in a tutorial class at the Nigerian Law School, Lagos, one evening, I beheld a man downstairs. He looked like the man I was his nemesis in 2011. So I called his name. As he turned, I knew he was the man whose memo I voided in the Oyo State council, Dupe’s husband. We hugged and became even closer during our period at the Law School, sharing same Group 8 class together. His family became mine, too.

When I woke up last Sunday to check the social media, I saw a post that nearly ran me mad. The post wished the soul of Dupe Barruwa-Dada a sweet repose. I was alarmed and aghast. How could Dupe die? Why did Dupe die? It must be a daydream. I had called her a few months earlier to commiserate with her on the loss of her mother and was waiting to attend Mama’s burial in Ijebu-Ode. It was not until I attended her funeral in Ikeja last Thursday and Dupe’s casket was wheeled into the church that it dawned on me that the angel had flown away afterall.

If angelic behavior could confer immortality on one, Dupe will be alive today. She symbolized the sapphire in intelligence, good-naturedness and purity of heart. She was amiable, obliging and amiable to anyone she came in contact with. Dupe’s death at the age of 48 tells me further about the brevity of life and its comparison by the Holy Writ with vapour which whooshes with such vigour but disappears in a minute.

In Nigeria’s bustling political landscape, few figures captivate public attention as consistently as Asari Dokubo, the self-styled leader of the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force. With his recent, almost ritualistic critiques of President Bola Tinubu on social media, Dokubo has once again thrust himself into the limelight. His unabashed denunciations, sometimes with disarming fervor and unrestrained language, are not merely the grievances of an aggrieved activist, they highlight a deeper, transactional nature of Nigeria’s current political culture. By regularly taking to social media to berate Mr. President and his administration, Dokubo brings to light some troubling facets of Nigeria’s political system, where alliances, loyalty, and vociferous criticism often intertwine in a complex web of expectations and disappointments.

In Nigeria, politics has often been described as an elite game of alliances forged and dissolved by promises, obligations, and compensations. This dynamic, typically referred to as transactional politics, has become the defining hallmark of power relations in the country. Transactional politics in this context refers to a system in which alliances and loyalties are heavily predicated on personal gains and rewards rather than ideological commitments or genuine service to the populace.

Nigerian political figures frequently enter alliances or build support based on the expectation of personal benefits, ranging from political appointments to lucrative contracts. Leaders and influencers use their platforms, including social media, to both vocalize support for and critique powerful figures in government. In a way, the relationship between such political figures and the government is reminiscent of a high-stakes transactional contract: support is expected to yield rewards, while lack thereof can lead to public displays of grievances. Dokubo’s recent outbursts are a classic example of this dynamic at play.

Asari Dokubo is no stranger to the complexities of Nigerian politics. A former militant leader turned political figure and self-described protector of Niger Delta rights, he has long been an active voice in Nigerian affairs. Throughout his career, Dokubo has championed the cause of the marginalized Niger Delta communities, claiming to fight for their rights and better treatment from the federal government. However, his activism is often tinged with personal political motivations, as seen in his shifting allegiances and public displays of dissatisfaction when things don’t go his way.

In the run-up to Tinubu’s administration, Dokubo was a vocal supporter of the president. He used his platform to bolster Tinubu’s campaign, calling him the leader Nigeria needed to address the country’s myriad challenges. Many Nigerians perceived this support as a demonstration of loyalty, a move that would eventually translate into some form of recognition or compensation from the new administration. But when such rewards did not materialize, Dokubo’s tone shifted dramatically.

In recent months, Dokubo’s social media posts have taken a decidedly critical turn. His previous endorsement of Tinubu has now given way to a barrage of complaints and accusations. The once-loyal ally is now one of the president’s most vocal critics, often lambasting him in videos that go viral within hours of posting. In his posts, Dokubo alleges neglect and betrayal by the very administration he once fervently supported. He highlights unfulfilled promises and insists that the president is failing the people who put him in office.

This public dissent is telling. It speaks to a system where political alliances and loyalty are rarely based on shared ideology or a commitment to public service but rather on a perceived expectation of rewards. Dokubo’s grievances, aired in the open forum of social media, suggest that his loyalty was conditional upon certain benefits he expected from the administration, benefits that, in his view, have not been realized.

Dokubo’s outbursts against the president serve as a stark reminder of the deeply transactional nature of Nigerian politics. They highlight a concerning trend where political alliances and endorsements are increasingly seen as commodities to be bought, traded, and ultimately criticized when transactional expectations go unmet. In a political landscape like Nigeria’s, the allegiance of powerful individuals and groups often shifts based on self-interest, with little regard for long-term stability or genuine public service.

This situation has grave implications for governance in Nigeria. When political relationships are driven by transactional expectations rather than genuine commitment to progress and development, it becomes challenging for the government to implement consistent policies. Leaders may feel compelled to appease influential figures to secure support or stave off criticism, even at the expense of national priorities.

Furthermore, transactional politics perpetuates a culture of patronage, where leaders are more focused on satisfying powerful individuals than addressing the real needs of the masses. This undermines the very foundation of democracy, shifting power from the electorate to a select group of individuals whose support or criticism is contingent on personal gain.

In the age of social media, figures like Dokubo have a powerful tool at their disposal to publicly express grievances and garner support for their causes. Social media platforms have become the modern-day pulpit for political discourse, enabling individuals to broadcast their opinions and rally supporters without the constraints of traditional media channels. For Dokubo, social media provides an ideal platform to voice his dissatisfaction and criticize Mr. President in real-time, capturing the attention of millions of Nigerians.

By regularly airing his grievances on social media, Dokubo is essentially leveraging public sentiment to pressure the administration into meeting his demands. His vocal criticisms serve as a warning to the administration and other political figures that failure to uphold transactional agreements could lead to damaging public backlash. In this sense, social media has not only amplified Dokubo’s voice but has also transformed him into a formidable force capable of shaping public perception and influencing political outcomes.

Dokubo’s actions underscore the urgent need for a shift from transactional politics to value-based politics in Nigeria. In a value-based political system, alliances and support are grounded in shared principles and goals rather than personal gains. Such a shift would require political figures to align their actions with the needs of the Nigerian populace rather than focusing on their individual interests. A value-based system would promote accountability and transparency, making it more difficult for powerful figures to manipulate the government for personal benefit.

To achieve this transformation, political leaders and influencers must prioritize the welfare of the citizens they claim to represent. Political appointments and alliances should be based on merit and genuine commitment to public service rather than transactional obligations. By fostering a culture of value-based politics, Nigeria can create a more stable and effective governance structure that serves the collective interest of the nation rather than the individual interests of powerful players.

Asari Dokubo’s penchant for dragging Mr. President on social media provides valuable insights into the transactional nature of Nigerian politics. His criticisms, while ostensibly personal, reflect a deeper issue within the political system: a culture where alliances and support are conditional upon personal gain, and grievances are publicly aired when these conditions go unmet. This dynamic has eroded the foundations of Nigerian democracy, prioritizing personal interests over national progress and compromising the government’s ability to address the pressing needs of the populace.

For Nigeria to move forward, there must be a conscious effort to shift away from transactional politics and embrace a system grounded in shared values and a commitment to public service. Political figures must be held accountable for their actions and alliances, ensuring that the government remains focused on serving the interests of the nation rather than a select few. As Dokubo’s actions continue to draw attention, they serve as a powerful reminder of the consequences of transactional politics, and the urgent need for a value-based approach to governance in Nigeria.