Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has called for urgent removal of the entire electricity value chain from the exclusive list, so as to grant states the power to generate, transmit, and distribute electricity for themselves.

Though Electricity Act has put electricity on concurrent list, but the bulk of power generation and distribution are still within the purview of the Federal Government.

Atiku in a tweet on Saturday, saw no reason why an industrial dispute with the Federal Government in Abuja should affect industrial activities in any of the states or cities of the country.

“Even as we focus on investments in additional generation, there’s a compelling need for capacity for the complementary transmission and distribution infrastructure to transport the supplementary energy produced,” he said.

The former vice president expressed worry that for the past three week, South East and the entire states of the North West and North East that have been in complete blackouts.

He noted that considering that energy opportunities exist in different parts of the country, “the strategy should be a viable mix of renewable (hydro, solar, wind and biofuels) and non-renewable (coal, gas).

“I wish to restate my earlier recommendation to encourage private investors to invest in developing multiple green-field mini-grid transmission systems to be looped into the super-grid in the medium to long term.”

Atiku called every government department responsible for addressing the problem power failure to be quick in its intervention and restore electricity back to the distressed geopolitical zones.

[newtelegraphng]

Many victims are trapped under the debris of a collapsed building in the Sabon Lugbe area of Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.

Details of the incident are sketchy as of the time of this report, but some social media users said the affected building caved in on Saturday evening.

“People are under this rubble. It is a building under construction.

“We are calling on the government and relevant agencies to come and rescue those who are trapped here,” a witness disclosed to newsmen.

This development follows a similar incident some days ago on Amusu Street, in the Orile Iganmu area of Lagos State, where a two-storey building collapsed.

The building as seen in a trending video, collapsed, leaving residents close to the house to seek for safety.

According to a newspaper report on July 15, 2024, Nigeria experienced 135 building collapse incidents between 2022 and July 2024.

[DailyTrust]

As fuel consumption plummets nationwide due to soaring prices, oil marketers have expressed concerns over significant losses, with around 10,000 oil dealers about to shut down.

Data from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority indicate that fuel consumption dropped to 4.5 million litres per day in August 2024, down from 60 million litres per day in May 2023—a staggering 92 per cent decline.

The data also show that only 16 out of the 36 states received fuel from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited in August, leading to widespread shortage.

Since President Bola Tinubu announced the removal of fuel subsidy in May 2023, petrol prices have surged by about 488 per cent, rising from N175 to over N1,000 by October 2024.

The continuous price hikes have strained the economy, driving up transport costs and fuelling inflation, as struggling Nigerians lament the hardship. The situation has also forced many motorists to abandon their vehicles, opting instead for public transportation.

The national leadership of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria said the drop in fuel consumption had caused the association huge losses, adding that about 10,000 of its members were on the verge of shutting down.

Speaking with Sunday PUNCH, the PETROAN National Public Relations Officer, Dr Joseph Obele, said the cost of a truckload of PMS had moved from N7m to N47m in the last 16 months.

“Three days ago, there was a meeting at the national headquarters of PETROAN. At the meeting, there was, an indication that about 10,000 of our members would quit business in the next 45 days because their trading capital had been severely affected,” Obele stated.

He claimed that the affected marketers had a total staff strength of about one million.

“That was why we wrote a letter to Mr President, dated October 21, requesting a grant of N100bn to save the affected marketers’ businesses from shutting down in the next few weeks.”

The President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Abubakar Maigandi, also confirmed that there had been a reduction in fuel consumption, adding that members of the union were equally affected.

He said, “There is a drop in consumption and the price of a truckload is higher now. So, we have reduced the quantity of fuel we buy. For instance, someone who bought 10 trucks before can only buy eight now. So, we haven’t been getting the right quantity that we are supposed to get. We sell only the little quantities we get.”

The leadership of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers said the inability of oil marketers to buy products had resulted in job losses for truck drivers and petrol station workers in the country.

In an interview with our correspondent, the NUPENG Secretary-General, Mr Afolabi Olawale, said, “The economy is not smiling at all. Many petrol station owners cannot even buy a single truckload, and this has affected our members. Those of them that are truck drivers hardly get loads to carry anymore. Many petrol stations have closed down and our members who are petrol station workers have lost their jobs.”

When asked to give the actual number of NUPENG members affected, Olawale said, “This is an unfolding situation. It’s evolving, so I may not be able to give you the actual number of people affected now because we have those in the informal and formal sectors. We have people in the upstream, downstream, and midstream. But I don’t have the statistics right here with me to give you.

“Though everybody is affected, those in the downstream are the most affected. It affects those in the downstream sector directly because they are truck drivers, station workers, and the representatives of the marketers at different depots.”

Obele said the hike in fuel price had also blocked the cross-border racketeering of the product.

[Punch]

The death a few days ago of Professor Humphrey Nwosu, the outstanding Nigerian who supervised the famous June 12 1993 presidential election no doubt reminded many Nigerians of how best to organize an election. Although the winner of that election was never formally declared, everyone knew who it was and across the globe, the contest was unanimously accepted as the best Nigerian election in history. The accolade is yet to change.

Those who knew Nwosu’s strength of character especially those of us who worked with him on the elections must have been elated for the first time hearing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in a tribute describing Humphrey Nwosu as “as a bold and courageous administrator as well as a patriot and national asset,” who played a major role in shaping Nigeria’s democratic journey. The description was simply apt.

Before Tinubu, all our respective first citizens pretended that the 1993 election deserved no recognition because it was supposedly not concluded and as such had no winner. The nearest the nation heard about the election was President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision in 2018 to bestow on Moshood Abiola, the winner of the election, the highest national award – the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic GCFR reserved for only the nation’s presidents. Those who packaged the award by Buhari must have had their own hidden agenda which portrayed an assumption that there was no need to also honour Humphrey Nwosu for his great performance. Whereas the addition of the legendary Gani Fawehinmi to those honoured along with Abiola was popular and laudable, it was disheartening to see that a few politicians who colluded with the military to jettison June 12 were also honoured.

It is hoped that President Tinubu would find time to offer Nwosu a befitting national honour as well as to name after him a national monument or edifice. Humphrey Nwosu was not just an ordinary chairman of an electoral body; he visibly did a marvellous and persuasive job by applying all his strength and capacity to embrace innovations for achieving his goal. As chairman of the defunct National Electoral Commission from 1989-1993, he successfully conducted nationwide local government elections in 1990, governorship elections in 1991, national assembly elections in 1992 and the presidential election in 1993. The problem that was imposed on his last election in 1993 had nothing to do with electoral logistics or processes and procedures; rather, it was a set of military officers along with some politicians and a few traditional authorities that colluded for personal reasons to stop the declaration and swearing in of the winner.

The electoral body headed by Nwosu did more than the conduct of elections as it was also mandated to midwife the entire transition to civil rule political programme. To this end, Nwosu’s team is entitled to taking full credit for the rigorous guidelines it evolved for the emergence of 13 political associations out of which two, the Social Democratic Party SDP and the National Republican Convention NRC were formally given the green light to function as political parties. Unlike what we see today, the electoral commission of the time neither breached its own guidelines nor did it give room for politicians to derail its arrangements. If Nwosu introduced any electoral device it was made available everywhere and diligently implemented nationwide without allowing local prejudices to affect the process – a sharp contrast to devices like Card Reader or INEC IREV that were deliberately configured to be temperamental.

The prevailing circumstances during each election were always taken into consideration in determining electoral guidelines for use each time. For example, the credibility problems created at the beginning of the transition programme as a result of the nation’s long military rule, made Nwosu to introduce the Open ballot system which made it easy for people to accept the simple, credible and on-the-spot results. In due course, with complaints by political analysts that some people were scared of openly voting against their spouses, landlords or teachers etc, the Open-Secret ballot was introduced to ensure that although the casting of ballot was done in the open, each voter was given an opportunity to mark his/her ballot in an enclosed compartment provided by the commission. To ensure the emergence of truly national leaders, what was known as Option A4 was introduced to make winners emerge through several stages from local to national levels.

Different societal institutions such as the judiciary and security agencies assisted the electoral body in our days but none of them was allowed to take over the process. For instance, only the electoral body could postpone an election unlike now when for security reasons unknown to even INEC, election could be postponed. It should also be pointed out that no electoral offender could be apprehended by the police without the consent of the relevant electoral officer thereby keeping the electoral body in charge. In like manner, the judiciary had powers to review our decisions but had no power to stop the commission from performing its duties. Accordingly, when Justice Bassey Ikpeme attempted to stop the June 12 1993 elections a few hours to voting, the fake order was ignored because it was clearly in breach of Section 19(1) of the relevant Decree 13 of 1993.

During Nwosu’s time, the judiciary was allowed to nullify an election which failed the integrity test but no court at whatever level was empowered to determine winners of elections. Unlike what happens these days, the courts were not allowed to use ‘judiciary-mathematics’ to add up figures which ended up producing winners that scored more votes than voters. Instead, where an election was nullified, a repeat election was held to ensure that winners were determined by voters and not by judges. One can predict with ease that we are likely to return to the same situation someday if nothing is done to stop the judicial activity of conflicting orders between state and federal courts. Luckily, Nwosu’s team was not challenged by this practice of using the judiciary to win elections. 

Another advantage which Nwosu’s electoral commission enjoyed was that its members were made up of men and women of transparent integrity in line with international standards which require every umpire to be truly impartial and above board. Today, majority of our electoral commissioners are agents or card carrying members of the ruling parties making it obvious that the expectation of free and fair elections is a tall order. Again, those recruited during Nwosu’s days as ad hoc staff such as returning officers were well known in society for their self-respect, dignity, track record and personal discipline and were thus fit for the job. Today, our returning officers who are top academics announce fake results and argue that they only read what was given to them. No one can say if the same returning officers are not the architects of examination malpractices in our higher institutions.

Against this backdrop, the charge by President Tinubu to our electoral umpires to behave like Humphrey Nwosu as a champion of democracy by upholding “credible, transparent, and democratic elections that embody the people’s right to choose their leaders” is a challenge they can hardly meet if we do not return to the golden days when elections were organized as a game played by its rules. Most importantly, the reference to Humphrey Nwosu by President Tinubu as a bold and courageous administrator would remain eternally remarkable. Until his commission was suspended and later dissolved, Nwosu challenged every wrong step taken by the authorities to intimidate his team. He went to the Court of Appeal to challenge the plan to scuttle his work but had to give up only when the election was instructively annulled a few hours before judgment.

History would no doubt be kind to Nwosu who ran a patently independent electoral commission even though his commission was never formally empowered to act as independent. Indeed, his was an electoral body set by the military and run with decrees. It is hoped that although the president of the day, Ibrahim Babangida took vicarious liability for the unfortunate annulment of the June 12 1993 election, memoirs and books would emerge sooner or later to expose all those who played ignoble roles in the development. Adieu Humphrey, exceedingly brilliant first-class political scientist and innovator who left his name in gold in the history of elections in Nigeria. May his soul rest in peace.  

The camps of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and that of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike, in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have returned to the drawing board to re-strategise ahead of the rescheduled National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting scheduled for November 28.

Wike had, while addressing his supporters in Port-Harcourt at an event, last week, promised to continue to be “a problem for Atiku, Obi and some PDP governors”, who are politically opposed to him and President Bola Tinubu.

Sunday Vanguard gathered in Abuja that Wike and his loyalists have been holding meetings in Abuja and Port-Harcourt to safeguard what they consider a string of court victories in the intra-party power struggle.

The camp considered it advantageous that the NEC meeting was rescheduled to November because it would save time for its poster boy, the PDP Acting National Chairman, Amb. Umar Damagum, to remain in office.

In contrast, the Atiku camp has been licking its wounds since the former substantive National Chairman, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, resigned his position and moves to replace him with a candidate from the North Central has been stalling.

A decision by a Federal High Court in Abuja to restrain the NEC and the party’s Board of Trustees from removing Damagum from office has further complicated matters.

Appealing court order

Party insiders, however, confirmed to Sunday Vanguard, that a team of lawyers under the guidance of two prominent Senior Advocates of Nigeria is being assembled to appeal the court order.

A member of the party’s NEC familiar with this development who spoke on condition of anonymity, for fear of retribution said, “Of course, we are appealing the court order.

“Go back to the resolution of our 98th NEC meeting held on April 18th. It was resolved that the NWC should conduct congresses at the relevant levels in states where the tenures of their executives have lapsed and prepare grounds for a replacement for Dr. Iyiorchia Ayu who resigned from his position.

“But for some strange reasons, Damagum has found one excuse or another to cling to power in an acting capacity by refusing to convene NEC.

“To further complicate matters, he caused his lieutenants in Yobe State, to go to court to restrain the Board of Trustees and NEC from removing him from office.

“This man is still the Deputy National Chairman (North), a position he also holds today.

“How can a man who says he has the party’s best interest at heart, go to court and tie our hands by removing one of the main items on the agenda of our NEC meeting?

“We have news for him, he can’t be acting chairman in perpetuity. That judgement or whatever it is will be appealed and vacated.”

The source further explained that it was out of place for the Wike camp to celebrate the latest shift in the date for the NEC meeting.

Ondo election

The source said, “The shift in the date for the NEC meeting was a win-win for everyone. Irrespective of which camp any of us belongs to, no one wants to be blamed if anything goes wrong with the Ondo State governorship election.

“Yes, the postponement gives Damagum more time but it also affords others the time to go to Court and get the contentious order vacated. “

The North-Central is however not giving up on its demand to produce Ayu’s replacement.

A former PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said it would be wishful thinking for anyone to imagine the zone will give up on its desire to have the letter and spirit of Section 47 (6) of the party’s constitution respected.

He said, “The PDP is a party built on the rule of law as enshrined in our constitution. Our party is the only institution that has survived this long as a political party.

“The reason is simple; we have always bounced back even when some people think we are finished.
“Our demand that the North-Central produce Ayu’s successor to complete what is left of his tenure is intact.”

Already, party chieftains from Benue State where Ayu hails from have started signifying interest in the position.

A former governor of the state, Gabriel Suswam, had told those who cared to listen that he is interested.

Also, a businessman turned politician, Conrad Utaan, who has also declared interest, said the PDP National Chairmanship should not be the exclusive preserve of those who have held one public office or another.

Utaan said, “It is my desire to lead this party with humility, with sacrifice, and the only person who can, the only people who can help me drive this message are you that is sitting here around this table, because I may not have what it takes.”

While recognizing the influence of governors and ex-governors of the party in the scheme of things, he maintained that he would join other stakeholders to ensure the right things were done.

He said, “They could be perceived owners of the party- the governor’s. That’s a huge block that cannot be ignored in the party. But then there’s also an issue of law and morality.

“But maybe I’ve come again to bell the cat. It is not about who is interested in the North Central or not. It is about the law and interpretation of the law, and trust me, we have what it takes to extract that interpretation.”

[Vanguard]

The United States of America team scored once in each half to send Nigeria crashing out of the FIFA women’s under-17 World Cup with a 2-0 defeat in the quarter-final encounter at the Santiago de los Caballeros Stadium, Dominican Republic.

The Flamingos were more fancied but their opponents were tactically outstanding, with Kennedy Fuller and Kimmi Ascanio punishing Bankole Olowookere’s team.

The Americans stifled their Nigerian opponents’ usually creative midfield. They denied the attackers service and found joy in attacking from the wings.

Their perseverance paid off when Fuller evaded Shakirat Moshood and powered into the penalty area before the latter brought her down for a spot-kick awarded following a video assistant referee review.

Fuller dusted herself up and converted for 1-0 to the USA on 43 minutes, taking the lead into the break.

Nigeria was presented the first big chance of the second half when a defensive mix-up allowed Taiwo Afolabi a good opening to equalize but her shot was saved by Evan Osteen, US goalkeeper.

The United States upped the ante and doubled their lead on 71 minutes. Ascanio slotted low into the bottom corner to seal their passage into the semi-finals while the Nigerian team crashed out of the tournament.

[TheCable]

Those in search of the human asset to help salvage our country have one major place to look these days: the departure lounge of the international airports. Some of the best minds of the nation are either on their way out of the country to assume leading positions or are returning to their international duty posts in major centres of the world. Hardly any day goes by without an outstanding Nigerian making  the headline in some newspaper somewhere in the world. Our exceptional citizens are making the news waves with stories of achievements that should make us proud.

Our citizens are being elevated to and celebrated in strategic positions around the world. Some are scoring unusual goals  in ground breaking research or scoring the best marks in universities all over the world. Our star footballers and athletes are household names around the world. A select few are occupying cardinal positions in apex global public and private organizations.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has held fort at the World Trade Organization (WTO), using the instrument f trade to help redefine the world. Professor Akinwumi Adesina has maintained an enviable lead at the AFDB since his appointment and has continued to lead that bank as a leading global engine of development for Africa. Mr. Adebayo Ogunlesi has, since acquiring the airport, resurrected Britain’s Gatwick Airport into a major global hub. The current Deputy Treasury Secretary of the United States, Mr. Adewale Adeyemo, fondly called  “Wally” at the highest levels of the US government is a major force  in Washington’s power circles. The examples and instances are multiple and ever expanding.

We can of course not ignore the nuisance of the ugly Nigerians:  cyber criminals, scam artists, rough and random street cultists and other ugly Nigerians who also make news headlines that taint our green passport. Every great nation has them in all shades but are better judged by their brighter shades than by their brackish dregs.

Earlier in the week, yet another significant Nigerian has joined the elongating line up of ambassadors of excellence flying Nigeria’s flag in the places that matter.  Kingsley Chiedu Moghalu, former Deputy Governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank and international economics scholar has just been appointed the founding President of the new African leadership university, the African School of Governance (ASG) based in Kigali, Rwanda. The ASG is a tertiary level institution deliberately established  by significant African leaders and statesmen to promote the cause of enhancing Africa’s leadership culture  at a time of grave challenge.

The ASG comes on stream as a continental training ground for a new generation of leaders especially from among the youth. The institution is target specific; it aims to train and provide leadership human resources for the entire continent.  It is the brainchild of a select group of outstanding African statesmen and worldclass technocrats who have themselves been shining examples in the transformation of their own countries in the modern world.  

The founders are led by Rwanda’s poster kid President, Paul Kagame, Ethiopia’s former Prime Minister, Hallemariam Dessalegn. Others include Mr. Mekhtar Diop, Managing Director of the International Finance Corporation and Senegal’s former Minister of Finance and Economic Cooperation as well as  Dr. Donald Kaberuka, former president of the African Development Bank,  Professor Hajer Gueldisch , former professor at the University of Carthage, Kishore Mahbubani,  Former Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy are also among the founders and board of the new school.

African School for Governance will offer a broad range of services and programmes directly related to the enhancement of public policy leadership in Africa. For training programs it will offer short term programmes leading to post graduate degrees in public policy. It will also offer short term on –the- job training for African policy and government operatives as well as render services to African governments and public institutions on a continent wide basis. All these activities will be managed and coordinated from the school’s base in Kigali, Rwanda. ASG comes as a fully loaded package of progammes, services and collaborations of a scope and spread that is unprecedented in Africa to date..

The mission and vision of ASG are honed at today’s Africa where a deficit of appropriate public policy leadership summarizes the current crisis of development on the continent. It has come to be acknowledged that the critical deficit in Africa’s development and progress is a certain embarrassing paucity of knowledgeable leadership. Most African leaders are politicians who have not undergone much formal education on modern public leadership. The result is that while Africa’s challenges have grown in scope and complexity, the manpower resources to address them at the level of leadership has remained undeveloped. Yet the world cannot wait for Africa to catch up or bridge the yawning knowledge gap that currently separates Africa from the rest of the world. This broad challenge is the definition of  Prof. Moghalu’s new assignment which makes it both grueling and unique in Africa.

Moghalu comes to his new position very well equipped. With a rich and brilliant academic background in international economics and copious practical experience working with the World Bank and other leading financial institutions around the world. Moghalu has in addition considerable experience working in multilateral institutions like the United Nations where he was mentored by such illustrious diplomats as the late Kofi  Annan, former UN Secretary General of the UN.

Thereafter, he   was appointed Deputy Governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank where he worked under Lamido Sanusi Lamido, Emir   of  Kano during the tenure of President Goodluck Jonathan. The Central Bank under Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was essentially a reformist institution. It introduced a number of innovations in Nigeria’s banking sector including the Bank Verification Numbers(BVN) to identify all account holders as part of an anti -graft measure to reduce  abuses in the Nigerian banking system.

After his tenure as Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Moghalu was appointed professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University in 2015. s.

In the 2019 presidential contest, he ran unsuccessfully as the presidential candidate of the Young Peoples Party (YPP). His manifesto was typically idealistic and a bit academic.  After the political adventure, he returned once again to the world of academics. In 20021, he was appointed Visiting Fellow by Oxford University.

 In the 2023 contest, he made yet another unsuccessful attempt at the presidency with little success. This second time, he fared worse than he did in the first attempt at partisan politics. It was an experience where he came face to face with the murkiness of Nigerian politics. He encountered subterfuge, corruption and nastiness as we have come to know them as trademarks of Nigerian politics. He did not need any further disincentives to know that it was time to bow out of partisan politics.  He had no alternative than to return to his forte of academia, research and consulting especially in especially in the areas of international finance and economics. He was back to his Washington based consultancy from where he was appointed the President of ASG.

Moghalu took to his political journey a predictable idealistic obsession to make Nigeria work for the people. His vision was to work towards a functional state with institutions that work efficiently in the service of the people. His informing national aspiration was a medium income and medium power nation that would stand shoulder to shoulder with its peers in the shortest possible time. He wanted to harness and deploy the best energies of the nation to this end. In his mind, he was the candidate of the youth. But he was to discover differently to his utter chagrin.

He took to his brief political foray his energy and habitual dedication to mission. He travelled the nation, met and mixed with the political high and mighty. He touched base with the shakers and movers of political Nigeria , paid homage to the main shapers of national political opinion. Understandably, he was accepted and endorsed by all those he paid homage to. Quite significantly, he was endorsed by Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka who used to wield considerable political heft at the level of opinion and ideas.

His mission was easy since  he carried no major political baggage. His politics was one of ideas and values. No one could pin him down to the fixed verities of Nigeria’s sectional and hegemonic politics. Though a man of Igbo descent, his politics was essentially a nationalistic one predicated mostly on the evolution of a modern institution- based Nigerian state that would work for its citizens and compete with its peers in the new modern world. He belongs to a post war less ethnocentric Nigeria which equipped him with a more nationalistic sense of the Nigerian nation.

Here then is a man with a rounded background in academics, public service, a bit of politics and international affairs. At a personal level, he is laser focused and avidly result oriented.  Therefor, Moghalu brings to his new position as President of ASG a rich background that should enrich his career and glorify the objectives of the new institution. One quality that marks out Prof. Moghalu for his new role is his fervent commitment to African modernity. For him, a modern and progressive Africa is an urgent possibility that can no longer wait.

Our eyes are on Kigali where one of the jewels of Nigeria’s intellectual property reservoir is now on loan to the rest of Africa.

Peter Obi and the Yakubu Gowon Conundrum

The social media and the streets found a bit of excitement in the past fortnight. The 90th birthday events of Nigeria’s war time leader, General Yakubu Gowon, provided an opening for the older generation of Nigerians to reflect on aspects of Nigerian history especially the civil war.  Gowon’s birthday provided an avenue for interactions among historical personages  alive ,  young and ageing. It was especially an opportunity for younger Nigerians to learn snippets of national history.

Understandably, the politics of the moment was not immune from that past. Mr. Peter Obi, easily the most visible image and audible voice of what may be described as the present Nigerian political opposition, felt a duty to join the long queue of Nigerian political heavies and significant others to salute General Gowon. As a politician, Obi could not but greet Gowon whose political symbolism remains strong. By the nature of his historical being, Gowon can only be greeted in the language of politics. Peter Obi knows that too well and his congratulatory tweet was in line.

Fire from the pit of hell was let loose. Mr. Obi’s swarm of social media acolytes, perhaps for the first time, disagreed with their icon and said so. In the view of most of them, General Gowon remains a villain who presided over a war time killing machine that claimed over 3 million Nigerians in the civil war of 1967-70. He does not therefore qualify to be greeted by Obi.

Most of those on social media today have come to see Mr. Peter Obi as a symbol of a new, more innocent Nigeria who needs to keep his distance from the rotten pillars of old Nigeria. Running through the bulk of the social media posts that greeted Obi’s Gowon tweet is a stubborn sense of hurt especially among the youth of South-eastern extraction.

This unexpected outrage forced Mr. Obi into the difficulty of  ‘explaining’ himself using mostly moral grounds to justify the Gowon tribute. As a Christian, he felt a compulsion to forgive “an enemy” even in the context of national politics. Moreover, as a politician, he cannot afford to harbor ill will for longer than necessary. 

Some followers have forgiven Obi. Others have shown understanding of his position. The more ethnocentric few have swallowed hard, insisting that Gowon remains a war ‘criminal’ who is undeserving of forgiveness by those who feel the hurt of the civil war most. The most interesting thing about this exchange is that we are over 60 years from the end of the civil war and the majority of those who are bitter on the social media were hardly born even a decade after the end of the war. Yet the bitterness endures.

Peter Obi’s mini cyber travail over the Yakubu Gowon birthday tweet has exposed certain problems in Nigeria’s current political thinking. In a political culture rooted in regionalism and ethnocentrism, politicians and their followers seem to have a problem defining themselves in plain national colours. Peter Obi who was hardly ten years old when the war ended. Yet he is having difficulty defining himself free from the labels of that hostility. Though his political identity is rooted in the new post-1970 federalist Nigeria, many of his followers would want him to identify himself primarily as an Igbo pro-Biafran politician. That would be futile.

On the contrary, Mr. Obi’s aspiration is for the leadership of a united Nigeria. He is not traversing the length and bread of Nigeria seeking to avenge the Nigerian civil war or the millions of Igbos killed in that war. His mission is not one of ethnic revenge. Rather, I see him as an apostle of new Nigeria, freed at last from the contagion of ethnicity and regionalism. Obi is, in my view, an apostle of a new modern, detribalized  Nigeria led by the youth, a nation state that works for all Nigerians in a truly democratic context.

As a serious apprentice statesman, Peter Obi needs to see more in Gowon than the blood letting in the war years. Gowon means the state structure. He means the National Youth Service Corps, the Unity Schools, driving your car on the right hand side of the road like the rest of West Africa and the establishment of ECOWAS. These items f nation building cannot be reduced to simplistic and emotional binary categories of hero and villain or saint and sinner.

Even with their individual failings as mortals, leading national figures like Emeka Ojukwu, Yakubu Gowon and Olusegun Obasanjo tried, through visits and photo opportunities, to reach across the divides of war to send the message of peace, forgiveness and reconciliation.

Given the ethnic basis of our political culture, hardly anyone emerges on the national political scene without carrying the baggage of an originating  ethnicity (the state of origin syndrome!). There may be nothing wrong with that. Every politics is primarily local and ethnic in the end. What matters however is where the politician in question pitches the beacons of his/her consciousness. The politician who places the imperatives of the nation over and above those of his ethnicity is the truly national leader. The opposite is the definition of the ethnic politician in national political costume. We have them in abundance.

And in any event, the national political leader who does not feel the historic wounds of his own people is counterfeit. Still, the aspirant to national leadership who wears the historic injury of his people as a signpost on his political forehead should not be trusted with the fate of a multi ethnic nation like Nigeria.

The Peter Obi and Gowon conundrum raises larger questions of political leadership typology. Specifically, on Gowon, the question is a complex one: Can one man be both hero and villain simultaneously? To the advocates of a united Nigeria, General Gowon as the leader of the Nigerian war of unification, was an undisputable hero who won the war.

But for the predominantly Igbo population of defunct Biafra, Gowon was and remains an unmitigated villain. They hold him responsible for the collective evil of the war and the massive loss of lives. The passage of time and all the political whitewash of peace, reconciliation and national unity cannot wipe away the hurt of war and the loss of kith and kin.

Praise the Lord! President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has directed ministers and heads of departments and agencies to reduce the number of vehicles in their convoys to three and their security personnel to a maximum of five. This is to “reduce the cost of governance” (I prefer to call it “government’s running cost” because “governance” is broader and deeper). We don’t know how much this directive will save the treasury in these hard times since the government did not state any monetary value. Before now, Tinubu had announced a reduction in his entourage from 50 to 20 officials on foreign trips and 25 on local trips. We have never counted, so we are not really sure if this is being implemented.

But wait a minute. Many of us did not even know that ministers and agency heads had more than three cars and five security aides in their collection in these hard times. What a revelation. But what on God’s green earth is an agency head doing with three cars and five security aides? There are over 1,000 federal agencies. My math has been pathetic from my secondary school days, but I have just calculated over 4,000 police and over 1,000 DSS officers for agency heads. Wow! So, this is what the new directive means? When we demand the reduction of government’s running cost, is this it? What a wasteful country! We have refused to come to our senses since the oil boom era of the 1970s.

When President Olusegun Obasanjo came up with the monetisation policy in 2003, it was supposed to bring about a major cut in the cost of running government. It was supposed to reduce the financial burden of maintaining political office holders and senior civil servants. Until then, federal government provided residential houses and bought official vehicles for ministers, federal lawmakers and their likes. It was also responsible for maintaining the residences and the vehicles, settling the utility and medical bills, and paying for their aides, cooks, gardeners and drivers. With monetisation, the federal government started paying consolidated sums, prorated per month, as remuneration.

But what did we see? All over Abuja, appointees were still moving in motorcades filled with some of the most exotic and exquisite SUVs money can buy. Some MDAs found a way of accommodating the profligacy in their budgets through what they call “project cars”. Some are still renting houses for ministers and paying for their egos and libidos through all sorts of subheads created to subvert the monetisation policy. Federal legislators are still buying choice SUVs as “project cars” despite monetisation. Everybody in government wants to eat double portion. They are having their cake and eating it. When they become ex-this, ex-that, can they maintain this lifestyle from their sweat?

And this brings me to the topic for today: what I call the three Ps of politics. The first P is “politicking” — the path to political power. The second is “performance” — the purpose of politics. The third is “perks” — the juice of office. Anywhere politics is played in the world, these are three major facets. The details may differ from country to country and from society to society, but politics is essentially alike. Anywhere, you have to politick to win or hold on to political power. Anywhere, you are elected into office presumably for the greater good of the society. Anywhere, you are entitled to certain perks which come with the fact that you are in power. There should be no debate about that.

In politicking, politicians play to win. Some play it clean, some play dirty. In most cases, it is mixed. Politicians undermine each other with propaganda, selling half-truths and absolute lies to voters. They may play up ethnic, religious and other divisive sentiments. But then, when they get into power, the second “p” is expected of them: performance. Socrates, according to Plato in ‘Gorgias’, argued that the goal of politics is to make the citizens “as good as possible to live the best lives”. No matter the divisive electioneering rhetoric, nobody wants a governor, president or lawmaker to leave them worse off. Nobody appoints ministers, commissioners or agency heads hoping that they will fail.

The third “p” is perks. The perquisites of office. This obtains in varying degrees everywhere. By reason of holding certain political positions, you enjoy a number of benefits in addition to your salary. Citizens living in a country where these perks are well defined and minimal and where political office holders are honest and accountable should count themselves lucky. In many developing countries, the perks are fat and unlimited and there is nothing the people can do about that. The ruling class has constituted itself into parasites on the perquisites and never want to let go, even when the treasury is broke and the citizens are eating from the dustbin. They cannot be bothered.

Sadly, while politics has the facets of politicking, performance and perks everywhere, the typical, buccaneering Nigerian public office holder cherry-picks “politicking” and “perks”. It is mostly about personal benefits — eating the national cake. Performance is the unwanted “p” and gets the least attention. I would not mind governors flying in state-of-the-art jets and lawmakers riding Porshe as official vehicles if it is evident that public schools, hospitals and roads are first-class and the citizens are enjoying good governance, with security of lives and property to boot. But in a heavily-indebted country where citizens are in severe pains, I cannot understand what is motivating this profligacy.

Our reality is that many, if not most, Nigerian politicians and political appointees are only interested in the perks of office. Take away those perks and they will feel little. What is life as a government official without plenty security escorts and siren? How would the people know that you are now a tin god? How would you distinguish yourself from ordinary citizens when you don’t ride in a motorcade with police, DSS and NSCDC officers dotting all over you and carrying your files and polishing your shoes and all that? Unfortunately, Nigeria is not rich or prosperous enough to sustain this waste — not with our meagre income and miserable budgets that cannot cater for 200 million citizens.

If you live in the UK with a GDP of about $3 trillion, inflation rate of 1.7 percent, and per capita income of $48,000, you will never see a minister or MP riding in a motorcade and going around with five security aides. But in Nigeria with a GDP of $200 billion, inflation rate of 32.7 percent, and per capita income of $1,621, government officials will be blowing siren all over the place and chasing lesser mortals off the road, ignoring traffic lights and throttling at full speed like Lewis Hamilton. If government officials of any country deserve to live large, it should be where poverty has been conquered and the people enjoy basic social services. It should be a reward for performance.

If really the “greater good of the society” were the priority of politicking in Nigeria, we would not be where we are today. In my book, ‘Fellow Nigerians, It’s All Politics!’, I argued that to the archetypal Nigerian politician, power is an end in itself. Or, put more fittingly, power is a licence to become a deity, to amass and flaunt obscene wealth in the midst of wretched poverty, and to deploy raw state power to oppress or suppress others. To be fair, some politicians still remember to build the odd road, whitewash public schools and sink boreholes here and there. Some, surprisingly, build bridges, drainages and hospitals. But, come off it, we know this is not the most common story in Nigeria.

While I am somewhat pleased that Tinubu has once again announced measures to reduce government’s running cost, the directive on three cars and five security aides does not cut it for me. It is, at best, cosmetic. It serves a good purpose of signalling, but how much are we going to save? We expect something comprehensive. Compare the new directive to the one Tinubu issued on February 26, 2024 that the Oronsaye Report should be “fully” implemented. He announced “the merging, subsuming, scraping and relocation of several agencies of government” in a “very bold move”. Eight months later, we have only created new mega agencies, including four “NDDCs”.

Nevertheless, I implore Tinubu to enforce monetisation to the letter and implement the Oronsaye Report, even if not fully. His message of sacrifice must go farther, starting from him. If there is a Nigerian president who should not care much about personal comfort at the nation’s expense, it should be him. He has told us he was very comfortable before coming to office. In that case, he should set the right tone from the top. He should lead by example in the hope that the governors will follow suit. Profligacy has been so normalised in Nigeria that we think prudence is extraterrestrial. Politics is about the people. Politics is about performance. Tinubu should lead the way. It won’t hurt.

AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…

HONOURING HUMPHREY

Prof Humphrey Nwosu, the man who conducted the June 12, 1993 presidential election, died on Thursday in the US, aged 83. Nwosu, who chaired the National Electoral Commission (NEC, now called INEC with the prefix of “Independent”), was stubbornly announcing the election results in batches before suddenly disappearing from public view as the military government arrested and detained him. Chief MKO Abiola was heading for victory but the election was annulled, plunging Nigeria into a prolonged crisis. Nwosu never showed up in public again until 2008 when he claimed Gen Babangida was not to blame for the annulment. He has died without telling the full story. Sad.  

DAM IT!

The governments of Lagos and Ogun states have asked residents living within the flood path of Oyan Dam to relocate — without offering any help. From time to time, there is a systematic release of excess water from the dam in Ogun state to avoid a collapse, which would be a major disaster — as we saw in Alau, Borno state, recently when dozens died and over 400,000 rendered homeless. The Oyan Dam water release always displaces thousands of people. What I would expect the states to do is to make a temporary plan to relocate those affected, most of whom are low-income earners. I wonder how many of them can afford the costs of relocation in this economy today. Distressing.

PLAYING WITH FIRE

When you hear that 180 people were killed in a fire disaster while scooping petrol from a fallen tanker in Jigawa state, the logical thought in your head is that this would serve as a natural warning to others. You are wrong. A few days later, a tanker fell in Akamkpa, Cross River state, and people did not hesitate to swoop and scoop (luckily, there was no fire). After the Jigawa incident, I had posted in a WhatsApp group that it would not be the last, that we never learn any lessons in Nigeria. When the Cross River incident happened, I posted the news link in the same WhatsApp group and said: “We discussed this last week.” A friend replied, cynically: “We also discussed it next week.” Troubling.

NO COMMENT

President Tinubu reshuffled his cabinet on Wednesday as if he didn’t. Okay, the comedian (or is it comedienne) in charge of women affairs has been “discharged”. She should start a career in skit making on Instagram. Well, the minister of education — who appeared to think all the problems in Nigeria revolve around the age students take university entrance exams — has also been discharged to the relief of millions who would have been stuck at home for two years because of someone’s brainwave. We can now hope his successor will get his priorities right. Otherwise, there is nothing earth-shaking in the reshuffle as widely anticipated. Except there is more to follow. Wonderful.

The Labour Party leader and Presidential Candidate in the party in 2023 polls, Peter Obi, has described the late National Electoral Commission Chairman, Prof Humphrey Nwosu, as an exceptional Electoral Umpire who was ready to risk his life for democracy.

In a short tribute to the former Chairman of the National Electoral Commission, NEC, who passed on during the week, Obi said he was a principled academic who brought to bear in his job the principle he taught in the classroom as a political scientist.

In his message titled "In Prof Nwosu, A True Democrat Exits," Obi wrote in X handle, "I have just received the sad news of the death of the former Chairman of the National Electoral Commission, NEC, Prof Humphrey Nwosu.

"Prof Nwosu was a true Democrat, an outstanding academician whose love for democracy and its values was copiously demonstrated in the way and manner he carried out his responsibilities as an electoral umpire between 1989 to 1993.

"His courageous defense of democratic principles, even under a non-democratic government, put him out as a man who was ready even to sacrifice his life for the sake of democracy and good governance.

"For his pivotal role in holding and upholding the 1993 presidential elections, Prof Nwosu’s name will remain indelible in the history of Nigerian democracy. He stood for the truth In Nigeria for standing for the truth and the best tenets of democracy when it was delicate and even dangerous to do so.

"It’s, however, disheartening to note that what Prof Nwosu did when the nation’s electoral commission was not even legally independent and when billions of taxpayers' money were not deployed as it is today with an accompanying updated technology could not be repeated in contemporary times in a supposed full democratic system.

"As an academic, Prof Nwosu brought to bear all the principles he taught in the classroom as an erudite professor of Political Science, unlike these days when professors are procured to aid electoral malpractices, including announcing results of elections they did not verify.

"For the new Nigeria we desire, the country needs more of Professor Nwosu, who will risk their lives for democracy.

"I pray God to forgive his shortcomings while on earth, grant his soul eternal repose, and his family and all lovers of democracy who mourn him the gratitude to bear the huge loss. 

"May God Almighty grant Nigeria the likes of Professor Humphrey Nwosu in her future elections.

A new Nigeria is indeed POssible"

Signed 

Ibrahim Umar 

POMR SPOKESMAN