Last week, it was widely reported that the President Muhammadu Buhari assented to 16 new bills sent to him by the National Assembly, most of which relate to the amendment of the Constitution. This has been in the pipeline for a long time, being a ritual with every legislative regime in Nigeria. It is taken as job for the boys, to enable certain privileged legislators go around the country in the name of gathering the views of the people for constitutional amendment, at the end of which we were usually fed with stories of lack of cooperation by the State Houses of Assembly and then it will end up as another case of money down the drain. So much money was spent on this project, so much time went into it and sufficient resources was amassed such that it would have been a great disservice to our dear country should these efforts be rendered futile.

For this and other reasons, the National Assembly deserves commendation and the President himself has earned his place in history for making these tireless efforts to have achieved some form of federalism, no matter the manner it was done. However, it would seem that the ruling party was very frugal in the consideration of the real issues that require amendment in the Constitution, given the time and resources that went into this exercise. No other body could have achieved constitutional amendment apart from the National Assembly.

Deliberately and without mincing words, the framers of the Constitution in section 4 thereof established the legislature as the first arm of government, because law is needed to define all other aspects of human existence. It is thus expected that through its additional powers of approval and oversight functions, the legislature will work to curb the excesses of the executive arm of government, especially in situations where retired military men have hijacked the democratic process, having in their prime usurped power through the ignoble strategy of coup d’etat, only to turn around in retirement to transform themselves into democratic dictators. Let us now consider the tokens delivered so far, at least from the news reports, by way of constitutional amendment.

The President was said to have signed into law 16 bills seeking to amend various portions of the 1999 Constitution. According to the information from the Office of the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ahmed Wase, who is the co-chairman of the Committee, the bills assented to by the President included those devolving powers from the Federal Government to the States as some items were moved from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent List in the Constitution.

The power devolution bills that passed legislative requirements include those on power, railway, airports and prisons as well as biometric and criminal records. While the President signed the Bills seeking to grant state legislature and judiciary autonomy, the majority of the state Houses of Assembly opposed independence for local governments. The National Assembly in January transmitted 35 Constitution Alteration Bills passed by the state Houses of Assembly, out of the 44 bills sent to the states. To amend a clause in the Constitution (two-thirds or four-fifths) majority of each of the Senate and the House need to approve the amendment after which it will be transmitted to the state Houses of Assembly, where two-thirds or 24 out of the 36 of them have to concur. Out of the 36 states, 27 Houses of Assembly – Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Imo, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kogi, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Osun Rivers and Yobe – forwarded their resolutions on the bills. Let us look at the Bills assented to by the President, in detail.

Independence for the State Houses of Assembly and State Judiciary

This is christened as the bill to provide for the financial independence of state Houses of Assembly and state Judiciary; and for related matters. This has been a major project for the present administration, spearheaded by the President himself. To the credit of the federal government, most legal practitioners prefer the federal bench largely because of the seeming independence and the welfare packages. A good example is the case of a highly-respected couple who both retired from the bench. The husband was immediately paid his pension and gratuity by the federal government whilst the wife was subjected to harrowing lamentations by a State that could afford to pay the salary of all judges in Nigeria put together. It is the same story for the legislature as the National Assembly enjoys greater independence in its operations and even in its funding, than the State Assemblies, which are run more as appendages of the executives.

Power Generation/Electricity

This is titled as the bill to allow States generate, transmit and distribute electricity in areas covered by the national grid; and for related matters. I was virtually jumping up in my spirit, to read of this final liberation from the powers of darkness and backwardness. By all means, not only States but also local governments, property developers, institutions and corporate entities that have the capacity to do so should be able to generate and distribute power for themselves and also for the use of those in their various localities. That is the only way to galvanize the industrial revolution that our nation needs desperately. Going round my neighbourhood recently, I discovered that almost every home has a generator and this will be the same for companies, schools, religious centres, institutions and all places of human existence. The amount of money spent on the procurement of generators, on petrol and diesel to power them and then on maintenance of generators are enough to bail us out of our economic quagmire. The task before the States is to urgently take steps through detailed legislation to in turn devolve power on electricity generation to the local governments and the corporate entities in order to achieve mass involvement. The economy of Nigeria is just waiting for the full implementation of this law to kick start our growth and development. Businesses have collapsed due to the rising cost of production, the most basic of which is power supply.

The Cabinet

 This is titled as the Bill to require the President and Governors to submit the names of persons nominated as ministers or commissioners within 60 days of taking the oath of office for confirmation by the Senate or state House of Assembly; and for related matters. I have been at the forefront of this struggle to get the executive moving. This was necessitated by the delay by the President to constitute his cabinet well over six months after he took the oath of office in 2015. A suit was filed in Court in which locus standi became the focal point of judicial intervention. It is indeed gratifying that the legislators have risen to the occasion.

The Missing Links

The centralization of education by the Constitution has no place in a federation, whereby the federal government will determine the mode of admission of students into a university established and funded by a State. There can be no basis under our present circumstance, for sustaining the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, which destroys merit as the basis of seeking and acquiring knowledge, by cooking up figures for admission into tertiary institutions in the name of cut off marks. This is one of the frustrating factors for our youths, who are daily exiting Nigeria to other climes for greener pastures. Then of course is the issue of resource control. The ninth Assembly should not have missed the opportunity to make a statement for the existence of true federalism, unity and equity. People should be allowed to take their destiny into their hands and to determine what to do with the resources that God has endowed them with.

 It is difficult to imagine that governors of the states still oppose autonomy for the local governments, which are the agents of development closest to the people. Money cannot be the root of this retrogression, given the monumental losses that our people have been subjected to over the years. Yes, it has been touted in the past that the issue of joint account between the states and local governments has been the bane of development and autonomy for the latter. Presently, the local governments only exist on paper, as no activity of any meaningful description is going on in those locations.

The duties assigned to the local governments under the Constitution, such as the control of markets, cemeteries, billboards, radio and television licences, environmental sanitation, waste disposal, road construction, etc have all been taken over by the states. This has in turn crippled the local governments such that most of them cannot pay the salaries of their workers. I appeal to the governments to please review their position on the issue of local government autonomy in order to place this third tier of government in the best position to discharge their responsibilities under the Constitution. In all, what we have in the name of constitutional amendment falls short of our expectations and indeed the promises made by the ruling party in its own manifesto. There is still time to do the needful, before handing over.

Adegboruwa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), writes from Lagos

Given the ongoing intense lobbying for the topmost position of the leadership of the 10th National Assembly among critical contenders, a periscopic incursion into the inner mind of the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT) – at this time – will provide ample insights into whoever clinches/emerges the President of Senate between the duo of Senators Orji Uzor Kalu and Godswill Obot Akpabio. This is essentially so because the leadership quotient of the Senate (cum the National Assembly) is intricately tied to the overall performance (or otherwise) of the executive arm of government. Put in plain language: the Senate President must share/imbibe the mind, aspirations, vision, intents, goals, struggles, hope, aspirations, and desires of the Country’s president, and invariably, the such aspirant must possess distinct qualities that resonate with that of the executive president himself. Recall that in our earlier piece, we had narrowed the race for the Senate presidency between Senator Orji Uzor Kalu from the South Eastern (SE) zone, and Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio from the South-South zone based on the rotational guiding principles of the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). Our prognoses had affirmed Senator Orji Uzor Kalu as the most favoured of the duo premised on several predetermined considerations and centrally considered variables. But are the stated leadership propositions in tandem with those of the president-elect? In other words, can we infer that the quality highlights of the prospective candidate (Senator Orji Uzor Kalu) tally with the inner recess of BAT to see through his projected ‘2023 Renewed Hope Agenda’?

For one, Asiwaju Tinubu is a great mind, an exemplary visionary leader, one with a deep-rooted passion for a progressive, prosperous and united Country, and it follows that whoever must drive the leadership of the National Assembly should key into such belief. From all intents and purposes, the visionary’s quest readily throws up Senator Orji Uzor Kalu (OUK), representing the Abia North Senatorial District of Abia State under the platform of APC, as the most qualified, among other prospective contenders for the coveted seat. Remember that both aspirants are astute and consummate democrats of high capacities among their exceptionalities. Nonetheless, viewed from the prisms of the need to maintain the balance of political power, and ensure a sense of inclusion among the ethnic groups in the Country, the choice of Senator Orji Uzor Kalu would seem a perfect fit for many reasons. Oozing from the political barometer of Nigeria’s temperature, the stakeholders from the five (5) States of South East zone have been obviously in a state of flux, anxiety, and despondency sharing in the Country, and their concerns need to be addressed with a view to enhancing further democratic deepen of Nigeria’s growth and development. The incoming administration of Asiwaju BAT, against the need to correct the perceived anomalies in the marginalisation of ethnic entities in the polity, it’s apt to streamline the power-zoning of the critical positions of the ruling party to address injustice, unfairness and inequality. And in consideration of this proposition, the South East zone, like the other afflicted ones, deserves the slot of the Senate President as a compensation balancing trophy. Ensuring my hand on my heart, visionary leadership will naturally resolve the nagging issue of national balancing before advancing into other critical areas of governance to fulfil the balancing stand of progressive governance body of knowledge for robust service delivery and delivery of dividends of democracy to all Nigerians. It’s reasoned that once the Eastern-necessity propositions are imbibed by the cross sections of political players (North and South), the search for the most qualified, experienced, resourceful, devoted and committed team player from the zone becomes easier to accomplish, and it’s within this context that the candidature of Senator Orji Uzor Kalu for the Senate Presidency is x-rayed and positioned.

Two, the president-elect is known for assembling a quality Team, and weighting the variable in support of the most qualified and best possible choice for the coveted position of Senate President of the coming dispensation, distinguished Senator Kalu stands taller above others as the most qualified of his peers. His progression from current Senate Chief Whip makes it logical as the 4th highest ranking Senator from the South East, and has served as a two-term tenure Executive Governor of Abia State from May 29, 1999, to May 29, 2007 (the same period that the president-elect served at the State level) gives him added advantage to appreciate the dynamism involved in leading a vibrant and complimentary National Assembly. A seasoned private sector guru, it is equally important to take into account his successful first term as the Senate Chief Whip of the 9th National Assembly, which earned him the respect of his peers, most notably the Senate President, Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan, who considered him “the most influential Chief Whip in the history of the Nigerian Senate”.  Hence, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu is definitely the most qualified and best possible choice.

Three, the coming Administration would need to hit the road running in terms of a series of tasks of governance, and such requires support from the legislative arm with sterling leadership qualities. Achieving success of tasks before an assemblage of distinguished legislators with varied idiosyncrasies dwells more on the character of exemplary leadership which must have been acquired for service. Throughout his political career, Senator Kalu has led by example, articulated his vision (and realised it), demonstrated integrity, made hard decisions, communicated effectively with his fellow lawmakers, empowered his subordinates and constituents, and been a source of inspiration and motivation for those around him. He has also displayed tremendous leadership and has always backed up his words with action. Senator Orji Uzor Kalu’s achievements in public office over the years speak volumes and his unwavering commitment to good governance and a better Nigeria is irrefutable. These are attributes that would ensure his success in this role.

Four, political pedigree is yet another major determinant variable for consideration in pitching a tent over a sensitive position of a would-be Senate President. The BAT’s Team understands that the position of Senate leadership requires a personality with demonstrable political sagacity, capable of navigating the rough waters of Nigerian sociopolitical and cultural diversities. As mentioned earlier, there aren’t many politicians and public office holders with the pedigree and vast array of accomplishments of Senator Orji Uzor Kalu in this regard. The position of the 10th Senate President requires a politician with considerable experience in governance and lawmaking. All of these qualities he possesses in spades along with the fundamental tools to thrive in the role.

Five, the senatorial experience required for the tasks ahead is a major factor that the president-elect would be considering in pitching his tent with any candidate for the position of Senate leadership. The distinguished Senator Kalu has made giant strides in the legislative practice to affirm his first-among-equal status for the position. During his first Senatorial term which began on June 11, 2019, he remarkably sponsored 51 bills and 28 motions, making him the highest-rated among lawmakers from Abia state. Similarly one of the best performing and most highly regarded Senators in the country. As a further step towards crowning his senatorial gains, the foremost aspirant for the Senate president position has ensured the democratic dividends in his District by way of infrastructural development. Senator Kalu’s immense contribution to the infrastructural development of his Senatorial district, Abia North during his first four years in office, cannot be invalidated. He has undertaken several projects in that region such as the construction of roads, and the renovation of schools and hospitals. Other projects include the installation of street lights, sinking boreholes, supply of equipment to local farmers, and processing machines for local farm produce. The aspiring Senator continues to empower people in his constituency, particularly the youth and remains committed to more developmental projects in his second term.

Five, leadership comes with its concomitant price of being courageous, bold, and reliable at the critical time of reckoning. Asiwaju Tinubu understands these variables very well because they resonate with his personality. For Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, these qualities are most obvious through his unwavering support for Tinubu’s campaign immediately the APC declared Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu the party’s Presidential Aspirant for the 2023 Elections.  Senator Kalu has been the most prominent and consistent voice of support for Asiwaju Tinubu, especially in the South East. This support has been even in the face of public scrutiny, ridicule, and backlash from the media, and opposition from rival parties as well as within his party. Rather than buckle under immense pressure, he remained brave and steadfast in backing the President-elect. It’s the pay-back time in terms of Asiwaju machinery’s support for Kalu’s ambition. And understanding the leadership personality of BAT, Senator Kalu can be assured of being an ally in the president-elect for his senatorial strive.

Six aside from the earlier variables of prognoses listed, a contender for the outstanding position of the Senate President (like the President of the Nation) must necessarily come to the field with nationalist and detribalized credentials. In becoming the president-elect, BAT has demonstrated exemplary winning traits in progressive governance and far-exceeding Apt, and nothing less is expected of the would-be President of the Senate. Senator Orji Kalu is known for his detribalized mindset. His name has a high degree of National appeal from all geopolitical zones, and he has repeatedly displayed a willingness to work with all Nigerians. And being the nationalist, he would also prove most beneficial in stabilising and unifying all Senators regardless of their respective ethnic backgrounds, states/regions of origin, and party differences.

Seven, just like the president-elect, being resourceful and pragmatic are sine-qua-non to holding forth the realms of affairs at the Senate, and by purposes and intents, the aspirant possesses the qualities. Orji Uzor Kalu is the chairman of SLOK Holding, a successful business endeavour. Pragmatism and resourcefulness qualities are among his greatest strengths. He is a man with the Midas touch, a captain of industry who has investments in many areas including the media – he owns the Sun and the Telegraph newspapers. I dare say that, a tested and trusted vessel like Senator Kalu fits the bill for a presumably marginalized geographic zone of our vibrant compatriots from the eastern front. Similarly, his experience in the private sector will help sustain a workable national development plan for Nigeria.

Conclusively, the prognosis of guessing the president-elect’s choice of a Senate leadership revolves around, among other propositions, a cerebral personality who can play the balancing act in a delicate political environment like Nigeria at this critical time; a personality with patriotic zeal for unifying the diverse nation; a team player who gets tasks achieved with minimal delay, and an experienced legislative player who is never a rookie. All these attributes are found in Senator Kalu, a ready-made tool needed to deepen democratic experimentation as Senate President for the convocation of the 10th National Assembly. For certainty, Senator Kalu is amendable, dependable, reliable, and dogmatic not to rock the boat of governance for the Asiwaju Tinubu/Shettima Administration.

Sometimes it feels like we have been childhood friends. That we have known each other forever. For over 30 years since our paths crossed, I can’t remember how many times I’ve called him “Louis,” much less “Louis Osaretin Odion.” 

Even now, it feels awkward to write it. I call him by the name that the closest circle of his friends has come to know and call him for nearly three decades: “Capacity!” 

And that’s what he calls me too, even though he retains the proprietary right to the moniker. He earned it from the odysseys of a life of sailing against the wind when many of his mates walked a road paved with comfort and relative safety.

His struggles through early school life in Ikare Akoko, Ondo State (where his parents stayed after leaving Edo, then Bendel State), his decision to set forth early to fend for himself and make his own luck by accepting and applying himself even in lowly jobs, and his abiding faith in a future that rewards hard work and diligence all combined to toughen his resilience. 

These experiences have done at least two things for him. One, they have given him wisdom beyond his years. It sometimes feels like he was 50 long ago. And two, his experiences have not only benefited him, they have also strengthened his shoulder for many who would lean on him along life’s journey. 

I’ve been one of them. Even though Capacity started out first as a stenographer in Concord newspapers in the early 1990s, we didn’t know each other well until he began to make editorial contributions to the Op-ed pages and later, the back page of what was then one of Nigeria’s most prestigious newspapers.

It was a matter of sheer serendipity and generosity of heart that Tunji Bello, the Group Political Editor of Concord at the time spotted Capacity, encouraged him to get a university degree and later redeployed him from secretarial duties to the editorial department of Concord. But I still didn’t know Capacity well enough at the time.

We began to bond more closely around 1995 when he moved to ThisDay, after the closure of Concord and following General Sani Abacha’s assault on the press, and particularly on MKO Abiola who was detained unto death after he won the 1993 presidential election.  

At ThisDay, Capacity started a weekly column, “Bottomline”, which soon became a national must-read. Week after week, he brought to bear on his commentary a rare quality of insight and fearlessness which kept his growing fan base locked in and the political elite on edge. 

Capacity was a columnist that other columnists had to read, especially on politics and current affairs. One particular article in 2002 bears recalling. Entitled, “Before the Babangida candidacy”, Capacity had taken on a faceless writer whose article was published in ThisDay, promoting the candidacy of military president Ibrahim Babangida.  

After claiming he had stepped aside, Babangida was obviously still toying with the idea of running for the presidency exactly 10 years after he annulled the June 12, 1993 election and was forced out by General Sani Abacha. 

In his usual bang-on-the-nail style, Capacity hammered the hack writer saying that even if the devil had tempted Babangida and he couldn’t summon the will to say no, he ought to have borrowed the sense of shame to resist it.

Two prominent pro-Babangida acolytes and public intellectuals descended on Capacity in a co-authored rejoinder. They attacked his motive, insisting that Babangida was exactly what a broken, wounded country needed. Then the fireworks began. The June 12 faithful-in-residence at ThisDay led by Bello, Kayode Komolafe, Sam Omatseye and Waziri Adio, launched a counterattack. 

For me as Editor of Saturday PUNCH at the time, and a columnist too, it was riveting punditry and entertainment. I recall Bello accusing the two pro-Babangida public intellectuals who were in their fifties at the time, of “ganging up to silence a ‘small boy’!” 

I was later informed that ThisDay Chairman and Publisher, Nduka Obaigbena, was obliged to call a truce, which also effectively signalled the end of the editorial road for the pro-Babangida merchants hoping to deploy the newspaper in the service of their principal. 

This fearless quality of attacking injustice or hubris which he showed early in his career remains the hallmark of his journalism. We sometimes joke that it is a carry-over from his unfinished career as an amateur boxer. Anyone who knows Capacity knows he doesn’t choose his battles carelessly. He is a fighter you would rather have in your corner.

My interest in his work and our bond deepened after he left ThisDay as Deputy Editor and joined SUN in 2002 as the first Editor of its Sunday title. To be a title editor in SUN on the watch of the exceptional Mike Awoyinfa and Dimgba Igwe, ex-Concord staff members and SUN top guns who made Weekend Concord a soar away brand, was quite a task. 

As Editor of a weekend newspaper myself, I watched Sunday SUN initially struggle to define its identity – a cross between a wannabe red top and something a bit more serious. And then, as Capacity grew into the job, the brand slowly pulled away to become one of the most authoritative newspapers for political interviews and consequential stories. It forced me to reset Saturday PUNCH. I think my friend and Sunday PUNCH Editor at the time, Remi Ibitola, also did the same.

But it was not until after Capacity’s tour of duty at SUN and later, National Life (where he was Managing Director/Editor-In-Chief), that we became really close. 

As MD/Editor-In-Chief, he was now straddling the delicate and often potentially hazardous line between business and editorial survival of the new title. It’s not what you find in journalism textbooks. Well-funded newspaper companies abroad are protected from such miseries, too. Their editorial departments are walled off from the business side of the operations. 

In a typical newspaper organisation in Nigeria, however, the MD/Editor-In-Chief is – or has to be – an expert at everything from circulation to advertising and from editorial content to digital marketing, if he or she really wants the business to survive. 

As Controller at the time, I was also involved in the business aspects of newspaper operations at PUNCH. It was while Capacity was trying to find his footing not as an editorial man, this time, but also as a business manager, that he began to knock on my door more often, to compare notes. 

Later, we worked together on a few entrepreneurial ventures, one or two of which we got our fingers burnt, but all of which only further deepened our bond of friendship.

When he accepted to work as Commissioner of Information in his home state, Edo, under Governor Adams Oshiomhole, he did so with great reluctance for some reasons. Capacity has no patience for bureaucracy, the worst kind of which is the mainstay of public service in Nigeria. Even though his job as a journalist has forced him into the public eye, he remains an intensely private man. 

Above everything else, accepting the job meant dividing his time and attention between Lagos and Benin, perhaps for eight straight years? He was concerned about the effect of the job on his mother whom he remains deeply fond of, and also his young family.

Yet never one for half measures, once he took the job, he took it, at a great personal cost. He brought to his office extraordinary goodwill, professionalism and competence, for which he earned great respect and admiration. 

I used to tease him that he is one of the few public officers who drove around without a police orderly, even though he had one, and quite often spent his own money to run the office.

Outsiders who didn’t understand his misery hardly flinched from pressing their demands, mostly financial, on the “Honourable Commissioner” to “do something.” He tried but when he had had enough, he resigned voluntarily mid-way into Oshiomhole’s second term in 2015 in spite of pressure to stay on.

His appointment in August 2019 as Senior Technical Assistant on Media to the President (under the office of the Vice President), is well known. But positions have never been what binds us. At the core, we share a deep, filial bond for family, profession, faith and justice. 

Capacity has an extraordinary network of friends and contacts across age, tribal and occupational lines whose loyalty and friendship he covets. Still, he maintains that space, which Germans call lebensraum, that allows him to enjoy the respect, loyalty and confidence of friends, and yet keep his privacy.

If as Andrew Marr says, every editor needs an editor, Capacity is mine. He has been for as long as I can remember. He is often among my last “gatekeepers,” adding insight, challenging arguments and re-drafting awkward sentences.

And the owl that he is, I’ve sent my articles to him week after week for the last over 20 years, and have gone to bed only to wake up to his feedback in the morning. This is one of the very few editions I won’t share with him before press. I can’t be grateful enough for his labours of friendship in good times and in bad.

Since he insists that he is just 50, I’ll have to accept. But by my reckoning, which of course is not just a number, he has gifts far, far beyond his years!

Mallam Mamma Daura is easily one of the most powerful Nigerians today. Not only because he occupies the amorphous ‘Office of the First Nephew’ as the supreme commander of ‘Aso Rock Cabal’ but also because he knows how to play the power game. Daura is hardly ever seen in public neither does he court media limelight, despite his professional accomplishments. So, when a man who prefers anonymity decides to speak publicly, especially on such a hot potato issue as zoning, people are bound to pay attention. That was precisely what happened three years ago. In a rare interview with BBC Hausa Service in July 2020, Daura was quoted to have said that the 2023 presidential election in Nigeria should be based on competence rather than on zoning.  

Such was the uproar generated by the interview that the presidency had to dissociate itself from Daura’s position. “It is important that we state from the onset that as mentioned by the interviewee, the views expressed were personal to him and did not, in any way, reflect that of either the President or his administration,” presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, wrote in a statement. “At age 80 and having served as editor and managing director of one of this country’s most influential newspapers, the New Nigerian, certainly, Malam Mamman qualifies as an elder statesman with a national duty to hold perspectives and disseminate them as guaranteed under our constitution and laws of the land. He does not need the permission or clearance of anyone to exercise this right.” 

Not surprisingly, fierce criticisms of Daura’s position came from several quarters. But I paid more attention to the views canvassed by Southeast politicians. The kernel of their argument was that the idea of ‘merit’ was being floated by Daura to deny the Igbo people what was generally considered their turn at the presidency. Based on my reading of the situation at the time, I believed an elite consensus could indeed be forged on the issue in the interest of equity in diversity. I decided to intervene with a piece titled, ‘Thoughts on Igbo Presidency’. As I reasoned, the Ndigbo had more claim to the presidency in a nation where citizens had long been conditioned to a tripodal (WaZoBia) political arrangement. But I also argued that it would be more productive to stake the Igbo claim within the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) than in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

I rested my thesis on the fact that the Southeast people had been loyal to the PDP from inception so could easily negotiate for the party’s ticket. Besides, I could recall a conversation I had with the Katsina State Governor, Aminu Bello Masari in 2016 while writing my book, ‘Against the Run of Play: How an incumbent president was defeated in Nigeria’. Masari had told me then (seven years ago) that after President Muhammadu Buhari, it would be the turn of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to pick the APC ticket and that many of his colleagues in the north were already committed to working for that outcome.   

As I often do when I write on sensitive issues, especially when they border on ethnicity or religion, I shared the draft with a few respected friends for counsel. The consensus was that even though I made a compelling argument for ‘Igbo presidency’, the draft could still be misconstrued by those who already believed at the time that Buhari was planning to hand over power to someone from the Southeast on the platform of APC. By my own assessment, PDP was a more realistic route to power for the Southeast. At the end, I decided to err on the side of caution by not publishing the draft.   

While the content of my unpublished column may have been overtaken by recent events in the polity, let me share some of the views that prefaced the intervention. In July (2020), former Governor of Anambra State, Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife, warned that not allowing an Igbo man to succeed President Buhari in 2023 would not be in the national interest. “My view is the general view. We are talking of equity, we are talking about fairness, and we are talking of justice. All these considerations require that power should move to the South and within the South, it should go to the Southeast. Unless some people are not interested in what happens to Nigeria then they can deny the Southeast,” Ezeife reasoned.   

Same week, former PDP National Chairman (and erstwhile Enugu State Governor), Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo, said: “the Igbo, 50 years after the war, have been so marginalised as if the civil war was still on. To heal that wound and to put that war behind us, I think if the country reaches out to the Igbo (for the presidency), it will be the masterstroke to heal the wounds.” The then President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo, who spoke through his Media Aide, Emeka Attamah, also insisted that it was the turn of the Southeast: “Daura’s comment is self-serving. He should have said this before the 2019 elections. They ganged up against former President Jonathan because they believed it was the turn of the North to produce the President. Having benefited from his nephew as President, he now wants the principle of rotation jettisoned…Now that it is the turn of the South, precisely Southeast, Daura is mouthing qualification and competence. Equity is a constant flagship for peace and good governance. Without it, there will be continued agitations and crisis. At his age, Daura should stand for equity and fairness.”  

The foregoing subtext provided the background to the primaries of the political parties last year. In the PDP, Mr Peter Obi was easily the most prominent Southeast politician bidding for the party’s ticket. But when it became obvious that some power brokers within the party had other ideas about where the ticket should go, Obi left to become the flagbearer of the Labour Party. By accident or design, he had also become the toast of young Nigerians on social media. Meanwhile, shortly before the APC primaries last June, Tinubu was in Abeokuta to meet with the Ogun State delegates. Speaking in an angry note at a period his aspiration for the APC ticket appeared to be floundering, he reminded his audience of the role he played in theemergence of Buhari in 2015. He ended with the famous line, “Emilokan”.   

Although Tinubu spoke against the background of whatever agreement he and Buhari may have struck in putting together the political special purpose vehicle called APC, it was not lost on many politicians from the Southeast that a Tinubu presidency would be at the expense of their legitimate group aspiration.When ‘awalokan’ (it is our turn) jams ‘emilokan’ (it is my turn), it is no surprise that we have this crisis between the Yoruba and Ndigbo. It may be unspoken but in the words of a writer I once referenced, the most dangerous part of an iceberg is not the part you see; it’s usually the part beneath the water surface.  

However, having had a Yoruba man (President Olusegun Obasanjo) who spent eight years in office with another eight years by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, there is no group aspiration in the Southwest for the Number One job in the country. But the fact that Tinubu is a Yoruba man is a problem even if he plotted his way to power by forging alliances that have paid off for him. Meanwhile, the challenge of the moment has been compounded by theoutcome of the presidential election on 25^th February in Lagos followed by recourse to violence, ethnic baiting and unbridled brigandage during the gubernatorial election last Saturday.   

I am going to unpack that election and all the associated issues but that is not for today. We have two immediate challenges on our hands. One is about the distribution of political opportunities in a way that excludes a significant section of the country. The second is on inter-ethnic relations, harmonious living and the danger that comes with profiling. In a plural society such as ours, profiling not only creates and perpetuates a poisonous social environment, but it also makes peaceful co-existence very difficult. I derive no satisfaction in saying that I saw this problem coming but it is on record that I warned about it. In my column, ‘At the End, Only One Will Win’ published just two days before the presidential election, I illustrated my point with the story of how in 1825 a new Russian Czar, Nicholas I, cancelled the pardon granted dissident, Kondraty Ryleyev because of what he said after miraculously surviving hanging.

I concluded the column with the following words: “…many Nigerian politicians and their supporters have refused to learn: That words spoken or written in moments of anger or sometimes for fun, have consequences. Beneath the sabre-rattling we have witnessed in recent weeks is a certain mentality of politics as warfare. However, my concern is not the damage their words can do to themselves but rather to the peace of our country and national security, especially after the votes are in. With the presidential election just hours away, it is important that the leading candidates and their supporters watch what they say, regardless of whether they win or lose. Given how the BATified, ATIKUlate and OBIdients have gone overboard during this campaign, especially on social media, one cannot rule out gloating or even ethnic baiting by members of the victorious side at the end of the process. Yet, one insensitive tweet or a reckless Tiktok video post could trigger violence in a contest that unwittingly stands on Nigeria’s ancient tripod…”  

Whether we want to admit it or not, Nigeria now has a problem that the political elite must confront. With the current arrangement based on north-south oscillation of power, a psychological exclusion of an important ethnic group for a long time cannot help the development of our country. As we therefore seek to navigate this tricky period in our history, those “whose palm kernels were cracked for them by a benevolent spirit should not forget to be humble,” to borrow from the wisdom of the late literary icon, Prof Chinua Achebe. 

It is to the eternal credit of the late Professor Akinwunmi Isola that in writing the script of the movie, ‘Magun’ (Thunderbolt), he chose to make the Yoruba character the villain. So, it is easy to recommend it at a time like this. Incidentally, I first deployed the message embedded in the movie in August 2013 in my column, ‘Yoruba, Igbo and Media Warriors’ where I wrote that the “Igbo this, Yoruba that” argument that dominated the period “detracts from what should be the focus of our attention…It is time we put an end to the on-going nonsensical debate between some Igbo and Yoruba commentators and face the real issues of poverty, development and national unity.”   

The cast included seasoned professionals like Adebayo Faleti (now also of blessed memory), Bukky Ajayi, Uche Obi-Osotule (one of Nigeria’s most adored actresses of my generation), Lanre Balogun, Wale Macauley, Ngozi Nwosu and the late Dr Larinde Akinleye. The story is woven around Ngozi (Uche) and Yinka (Balogun) who met and fell in love at the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) orientation camp. Feeling insecure, the Yoruba husband laced his Igbo wife with ‘Magun’, the mysterious chastity control which instantly terminates the life of any man who dares to ‘climb’. Efforts to break the spell on the faithful Igbo wife provided the entertainment and drama of existence in the movie. In the final analysis, Ngozi’s redemption came from the family of her irresponsible Yoruba husband, the Yoruba native doctors, her local Yoruba guardian and finally the love-struck Yoruba medical doctor who offered himself as a guinea pig to test the efficacy of ‘Magun’ on the altar of a five-minute enjoyment!   

Twice on this page, I have used the Yoruba/Ndigbo online war that has been going on for almost two decades to illustrate the danger of blaming the conduct of one person on an entire group. That happens to be the central message in ‘Magun’ which, as I also wrote in 2017, “speaks to a time like this in our nation when some Yoruba and Igbo irredentists are promoting hate speech in the name of a meaningless superiority war that glorifies some distorted accounts of the past.” In ‘Magun’ (produced by Tunde Kelani’s Mainframe), when the tribulation of Ngozi was over and she was confronted with the prospect of another Yoruba suitor, she was hesitant. But her father, who started out as a Yoruba antagonist, saved the day by giving us that memorable line: “A man is a man; and a race is a race”.  

At this point, let me state that no side is innocent in this never-ending ‘supremacy battle’ between Yoruba and Igbo, fuelled mostly by those in the Diaspora. Because of it, I have on several occasions suffered unprovoked online insults and abuse which I usually ignore. While social media platforms amplify voices of the fool and the wise alike, the consequences are always more dire when those in responsible positions engage in toxic and hateful speech. That sadly was lost on Mr Bayo Onanuga, a respected senior colleague who was at the frontline in the struggle against the Sani Abacha dictatorship in Nigeria. By the position he holds in the APC campaign, Onanuga’s words carry the imprimatur of authority. And because of that, he cannot say certain things.   

It is true that some Igbo irredentists in Lagos have needlessly been making provocative statements because I also get a lot of their posts on WhatsApp. But there is a huge difference between some random guy on TikTok saying Igbos have conquered Lagos, and the official spokesman for the president-elect saying Igbos are not allowed to participate in the civic life of the state they reside and in which many were born. He may claim to be speaking in his private capacity, and Tinubu’s call for healing shows they do not share the same view on the issue, but the toxic tweet is nonetheless still dangerous to the health of our society.   

It is therefore important that Onanuga be compelled to retract and apologize. The damage is done, but there will at least be the symbolic acknowledgement that there are certain lines we must not cross, even in the pursuit of power.   

Ikpeazu’s Commendable Gesture

When on Monday someone told me that the Labour Party (LP) gubernatorial candidate in Abia State, Dr Alex Otti, had been declared winner, I quickly made a call to congratulate him. Otti, former Managing Director of Diamond Bank, was until recently a member of THISDAY editorial board. He sounded so buoyant on the phone that I didn’t suspect anything was amiss. I was therefore surprised when on Tuesday afternoon, Otti called that he had arrived Abuja for a press conference, asking me to join him. That was when I learnt that the result of the election had not been declared because the incumbent Governor Okezie Ikpeazu was plotting to tinker with the result from Obingwa local government to upturn his victory, the same way it happened in 2019. Ikpeazu had been plotting to have his former Chief of Staff and PDP candidate in the state, succeed him.

Although I couldn’t join Otti on Tuesday, I followed all the drama until the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) finally released the result yesterday. By the account of Otti, it was the use of technology, particularly the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) that eventually saved the day. But the moment the result was announced yesterday, Ikpeazu released a statement that I find quite commendable.

Here is what Ikpeazu said: “Since we have come to the logical end of this battle, it is appropriate to congratulate the winner, Dr Alex Otti on his hard-fought victory. In every battle, there will always be a winner and in the spirit of sportsmanship and love for our state, the Governor-elect must see his victory as a higher call to service to the people of Abia State. Having myself spent about three and half years in different courts and having experienced first hand, the distraction such cases can cause a leader, I appeal to every candidate in this election not to distract the incoming administration with court cases, so that they will settle down and deal with the very demanding business of governance. Let us break this negative trend of subjecting our Governors to endless litigations and allow them to concentrate on providing good governance”.

I congratulate Otti on his victory at the poll and I commend Ikpeazu for his decency.

I am tearing away today from the iron grip of politics to re-direct my gaze to something more ennobling, something more uplifting which is the primary purpose of this column.

Some questions have been received on some of the subjects treated in this column. I am addressing three of them today. One arises from the article on Leadership and Responsibility published last month, specifically on 24 February, in which I stated that we cannot but take life seriously. In it, I referred to experiences in the Beyond as captured in the book, “A Wanderer in the Spirit Land” transmitted by an Italian who had passed on, named Franchezzo. There is also one on the challenge of being mentally challenged and the third one is on what is called hermaphrodites arising from the publication captioned Tearing Down the Barriers following the new attitude of the Church of England to same-sex marriage and the response to it by the Anglican Communion in Nigeria, also referred to as Church of Nigeria. It was featured on this page on 16 February.

Question:
I sometimes wonder what type of experiencing people with learning difficulties have to learn in a particular earth-life. Some of them are hardly aware of their surroundings to make any learning useful.

Answer:
The challenge mentally retarded people have concerns the affliction of their frontal brain. The physical body is a tool for the spirit encased therein. The brains are parts of the physical body. The body does not have a life of its own, being a tool, until it is animated by the spirit. The spirit cannot be diseased; it can only be walled in  and constrained. A person with a handicapped brain can be likened to a healthy man with a defective tool. Such a person is constrained all right. We may wish to note that the man and his tool are not the same. The situation makes the physically challenged to be a burden to himself and his surroundings on which he is absolutely dependent. The hampered balance in the exchange between inflow and outflow of experience-radiations causes him great pains. In most cases, such people often have liver problems, and the liver is connected with life. In his monumental work, “A Gate Opens,” Herbert Vollmann states: “The word hypochondriac (a sufferer from morbid depression) is related to ‘hypochondrium’, by which is meant the area under the arch of the ribs, thus the region of the liver, which points to the fact that this disease is associated with the liver. Not for nothing has the word liver an identity of sound with life.” Mr. Vollmann quoted an English researcher, Caspar Blond, M.D. who wrote in a medical journal, ‘Hippocrates’ (Vol.11, 1956)…”Cancer is the result of a chronically progressive liver insufficiency. There is no doubt that food poisons play a part in this.” ‘(Liver insufficiency means an inadequate working capacity of the liver.)”’
All the pains and attendant struggle a mentally retarded person goes through to be free from the constraints give the spirit maturity. The struggle, pains, and love of relations and those who may cross his path help to enrich his inner worth. Outwardly, the experiencing of such people may be deficient, in reality, it could be beneficially rich through inner struggle and pains with the hind brain, cerebellum, keeping memories and transferring same to the spirit. In the end, we find that there is no experience that is not beneficial. The spirit with hardly any fresh karma incurred absorbs all experiences for its necessary development and maturity.

Question:
Having known what happened to us when we die, why do I still feel sad when someone I know passes over? Does this mean that my faith in the scheme of things is shaky? If so, how do I improve on the vacuum I feel when a friend or family member passes over?

There are two issues the question has highlighted. There is the impact of the death of a friend or a family member on the living. There is the reaction to the death. The impact generates a feeling of emptiness. And there is sadness as a reaction, arising from perhaps a feeling of emptiness or from the sheer occurrence of death. Or from both. With death comes the realization of a definitive parting. The impact of this realization is capable of engendering a feeling of a vacuum in the life of a relation or very close associate, a friend, or a loved one, depending on the closeness of the relationship. The sadness will depend on our understanding of what has taken place as well as the level of our maturity, brought about by experience and using the appropriate knowledge therefrom.

The departure of a friend or a relation from earthly life often presents an instructive experience for the living. Indifference is impossible. Sadness that often overtakes us, especially when it is momentary, may arise from coming to terms with the definitiveness of the separation. Because death is a momentous step into the Beyond, its occurrence is often accompanied by sobriety and in many cases, fear. Sobriety by its very essence imposes moments of reflection on the living however fleeting. Indeed, no matter the level of our maturity, death cannot be a moment for overt rejoicing. Reflection brings in its train a sudden recognition that it would inexorably be our turn one day with the concomitant self-examination of what may lie in wait for us. This may result in fear. Knowledge of what happens to us when we depart earthly life is knowledge of where our path leads us when we pass over. From time to time we have a glimpse of this in our dreams. The dreams may show how much ground we still have to cover from the nature of the environment we often find ourselves in vivid dreams. Of course, radiations from over-exerted frontal brain, cerebrum, can distort the picture especially when the exertion takes place close to when we go to bed.
For a knowing one, sadness may arise from concerned and loving sensing without being judgmental that the departed could have done more in terms of adequate preparation for his departure. There may also be a subconscious fear for the departed which may arise from an unconscious contact by the departed for whom life on the other side is perhaps a strange shaking experience, as was transmitted by the Italian referred to in the foregoing, captured in “A Wanderer in the Spirit Land”. What is called for on such an occasion are prayerful wishes that the departed may receive help on his path and in his new experiences. A weak faith may be a reason for sadness. It is possible there are still areas that constitute knowledge we may be grappling with. Knowledge leads to the conviction which in turn gives rise to faith. Knowledge gives confidence and victorious calmness in the ever-present help of our Maker, Lord, and Creator. The vacuum which occurs upon the death of a family member or a friend will be filled gradually and sadness eliminated as faith grows and inner maturity increases. With maturity, there is a greater hold on our emotions and control on activities we may permit ourselves generally.

Question:
How does it happen that a person can be both male and female at the same time carrying organs of both genders?

Scientists who occupy themselves with the phenomenon call it hermaphrodites. It is a phenomenon, which, over the ages, has perplexed scientists and made nonsense of all theories. One of the theories is that the situation may have arisen out of an excess of “X” chromosomes over “Y” chromosomes. Even if the excess theory of one type of chromosome over the other were plausible, it is only a pointer to the observation by the science of a development, of excess of one property over the other, not the cause. The cause certainly lies deeper — beyond what science, great and helpful as it has been, can ever unravel. However, where science fails, observation may give us a partial clue. But it is only partial. It is in the enlightenment contained in the higher knowledge spreading on earth in these times that we have the total picture — In the Light of Truth – It answers all questions of life and existence.

There have been reports of human beings who have undergone what is generally referred to as sex change by some hermaphroditic people. When the change occurs, the latent characteristics are permitted to blossom and the seemingly suppressed parts are removed. A well-known figure who has undergone such sex change is Bruce Jenner, renowned as a US Olympic gold medalist, stepfather of Kim Kardashian, the reality TV star, and in his own right a media and also reality TV star. Born William Bruce Jenner in October 1949, he went under the knife to become a woman in 2015 at the age of 65. From then, he became known as Caitlyn Marie Jenner. He did say at the time: “For all intents and purposes, I am a woman…I was not genetically born that way and as of now I have all the male parts…But I still identify as a female…It is hard for people to understand but that’s what my soul is.” He said to ABC and was reported by USA TODAY: “…being transgender is not the same as being gay, I am not gay.” He added: “I lived a lie my whole life and I can’t do that any longer. Let’s take the damn ponytail out.” He is father of six, two fathered by him while Kris Jenner, his wife, brought four to the union from a previous marriage, among them Kim Kardashian. “I am not a girl in guy’s body. I hate that, I am a person, and it’s who I am. My brain is much more female than it is male,” he said to the world of his admirers.

Many women seeking recognition and public acknowledgment, and driven by public adoration steel themselves. Some of them are weightlifters, boxers, and footballers. They are crane drivers; they run marathon races. In the process, they develop muscles. The refinements peculiar to women become suppressed when masculine activities become intensified. With time, the refinements sever themselves for lack of development and use. All these, before they manifest physically may take more than one earth-life. But due to the propensity of the female soul for masculine activity, she has spun threads that she puts in life which sooner or later she will live through. This column has said repeatedly that every one of our thoughts or activities takes on a form. But these forms do not immediately manifest physically because of the density of the physical body. In another earth-life, a body conforming to her earlier wishes which have already taken on form becomes her garment which we call the body. This means since she likes masculine activities, Nature allows her to have her way. The consequence is that she has a female soul in a male body. Where the distortion of the soul has not been complete, the case of hermaphroditism occurs.

A female soul in a male body feels drawn to a male soul as any gender can bring about a distortion of its soul. In the case of any distortion, neither the woman nor the man can have children except where the distortion has not been completed. I must emphasize, however, that this is not the only cause of childlessness. An abortionist, for example, may become childless in another earth life. A human being whose soul has been distorted feels misunderstood by the society, and is frustrated and restless out of a feeling of inadequacy. Men who hanker after feminine activities will at some point in their existence inhabit female bodies as well. It is unnatural for a man to become a woman and vice versa. Therefore, where there is hermaphroditism, it is a distortion brought about by those concerned themselves. But in the goodness of the Creator, the Almighty, as soon as such people realise their errors and swing fervently to what they should be, their radiations change, they clear their own path and the distortion will gradually be corrected. It is, for this reason, women are admonished to be women, taking on only female roles of nurturing, caring, beautifying, and ennobling. And men should be men. But modern thinking is that what a man can do, a woman can do better. It is considered unfashionable to admonish women to steer clear of wearing trousers, or other masculine thoughts and activities. It is obvious from trends that there will be more cases of hermaphrodites in years and decades to come because both men and women are busy breaking down the gender barriers wisely put in Creation by the Creator. Teachers encourage it. Society does not see anything wrong with it, all in the name of modernity and progress which may be described as sham progress! All the perpetrators and converts are only deceiving themselves and will have themselves to blame. The Laws of Nature, also known as the Laws of Creation or Divine Laws, do not need human opinions or concepts, nor go by them. What a man soweth, even in thoughts, that shall he reap, multiplied, we are told. Adamantine and self-enforcing are the Laws!

Considering the appalling tone of his offerings, one is inclined to wonder how many people read the surfeit of tweets from a past Governor of Enugu State, Sen. Chimaroke Nnamani! Employing adolescent English favoured by teen boys writing love letters to nubile girls they are wooing, Nnamani’s tweets were characterised by such banal words & expressions as “staccato”, “voluptuous masses of protoplasmic dribblers”, “hogwash gibberish trinity”, “a moving mass of hate, bile and vacuous bunkham”, “could not stand their kerfuffle”, “devious opium”, “trancelike orgy of tribalism and rabid religiosity”, among others. One can always detect in his continued tweets – glaring tissues of puerilities, iniquities, insults, imprecations - something akin to pompous rhetoric. There are so far, uncharacteristically, no lucid intervals in this madness. We miss in them a sense of orderly synthesis, and find merely a congeries of uncoordinated parts, lies, episodes, and personalities.

With alarming indecency, he said of Mr. Peter Obi: “Peter ‘Gringory’ Obi has set the Igbo political trajectory 24 years back. He has become a twin blight and scourge on the land.”Elsewhere, embittered by failed ambitions and concomitant resentment, he explained his overall aim by describing the conduct of his target practices as action of those “who thought they were killing the dream of a Senate Presidency.”

Recently, we also heard Sen. Orji Uzo Kalu saying that a Muslim-Muslim ticket was the best for Nigeria; with the illogical contention that it must be balanced by a Christian Senate Presidency! And, because of that quest, Kalu said that Igbos were not ready for the Presidency! A Senator from Anambra State echoed the same sentiments from the vision of fixation on the Senate Presidency.

The correlation of the thinking of the trio has finally taken form. As they speak and tweet, their ultimate vision & mission has become clearer. Due to their day-dreams of becoming the Senate President, they attack the quest for an Igbo man to become the President of Nigeria with irrational ruthlessness. For them, Igbo Presidency must be destroyed at all costs. This is the action of a man who foolishly set a building on fire because he wanted to smoke out a rat he was desirous of having for dinner.

Thus, the statements by Chimaroke Nnamani have revealed to discerning Nigerians and Nigeria-watchers the inherent selfishness and myopia of some Igbo politicians and so-called leaders. They are eternally ready to sell their brothers for something less than noble. Imagine destroying Igbo presidency because of the dream of becoming Senate President! For them, it did not matter that the man they supported is far less qualified than their brother. They are aware of the man’s short-comings: weakened by age and excessive indulgence, he has, in no metaphorical sense, become senile. It is manifestly shameful that even when their brother won as could even been literally seen by the blind, rather than stand with the truth and support him they are crying over what amounts to nothing when compared to what is at stake. It is good they are exposing their thinking to all men and women of goodwill.

But then who really is this Chimaroke Nnamani that has provoked this write-up and what moral authority does he possess? He remains by all accounts the worst Governor Enugu State has had. A full understanding of the man in public office would first require a record of his “achievements” as the Governor of that State. Across the land, he is easily best remembered as using 50 million Naira of the State’s funds to publicise mini-projects he used 10 million Naira to execute in the State. Under him, Enugu State experienced more unexplained deaths than any other State in Nigeria.

The greatest horror in this saga was that while Enugu State bled, Chimaroke Nnamani acquired the following: Rainbownet Telecommunications, properties at Hill Gate Estate, Cosmo FM, 22 duplex buildings at Ebeano Estate and many others across the State and outside Nigeria. There were also Rainbownet billions of Naira shares in Zenith Bank and Guaranty Trust Bank as well as ownership of Capital City Automobile Nig. Ltd., Renaissance University, Mea Mater (My Mother) Elizabeth High School. All these and many that were criminally concealed from prying eyes were acquired while he was Governor between 1999 and 2007.

The extent of his pillage of the State’s resources was universal. While EFCC was making their discoveries about the grand theft and larceny, the US Federal Bureau of Investigations [FBI] was ordered by a US court to seize millions of Dollars Chimaroke Nnamani stole from Enugu State. A federal court in Nigeria similarly gave an order for the seizure of 5.1 billion Naira he also stole from Enugu State.

When his ravaging tenure ended, it left behind it a fatally-disrupted economy, schools in ruins, government seriously-divided, dilapidated infrastructure, and a population shattered in soul. The wise Gov. Sullivan Chime understood that the only way to return sanity to the State was the keep Nnamani at bay and he did that with resounding success. The political temperature in the State rose to a boiling point where it presently simmers as Gov. Ugwuanyi brought Nnamani back and tried vainly to re-package him.

It was because of people like Chimaraoke Nnamani that the youth believe that the country needs to be cleansed. The logic is simple: if nonsense such as Nnamani is not weeded out, growth will remain impeded. The urge to cleanse and sanitise the country through voting out corrupt leaders led to the birth of the “Obidient” movement. Just the result of its first withering flame has left some nonsense that need to be consumed crying blue murder. Again, the logic here is simple as it concerns Chimaraoke: we shall not entrust the fortunes of this country to men who, like Chimaraoke, have bad records of criminality, and are also intrinsically evil and practically incapable of positive change.

Peter Obi is not the “Obedient” movement nor its mover; but the explanation is simple: the mood of the time called for a voice, and found it in him. He had been a Governor like Nnamani, but unlike the latter, he left a positive heritage. While, for example, Nnamani left billions of Naira debt in Enugu State, Obi cleared all debts he inherited and left a surplus of over 75 billion Naira, which his successor, Chief Willie Obiano, like Nnamani squandered.

Nigerians, shocked by his morals, fascinated by his mind, and appreciating the grandeur of his vision, saw Obi as the instrument they need for the birth of a new Nigeria. They applied to him again and again the epithets coined by Matthew Paris: “stupor mundi et immutator mirabilis” – “the marvellous transformer and wonder of the world.”

He did not disappoint. His campaigns were master-pieces of conception and execution. He travelled to all parts of the country. Sometimes, he was caught between the hot fury of the sun and the swirling fire of the sands, but he persevered. He did not call names, he did not appeal to tribalism or religion, but kept telling Nigerians what was wrong with their country and how he would solve the problems. Another irony of fate is that these same brothers of his are those trying vainly to put on him the toga of tribalism and appeal to sectarianism. Too bad!

What else, the man Nnamani used the most uncouth words to attack has, in his usual genial leisureliness, responded to him through an open letter. If after reading that letter, Chimaraoke Nnamani does not apologise for his crudity, them he is simply demanding the taming of barbaric tendencies.

Events in the country, keep proving late Prof Chinua Achebe right that Nigerians of all other ethnic groups will probably achieve consensus on no other matter than their common resentment of the Igbo. Achebe added that in trying to attach a tag of guilt on the Igbo, their fellow countrymen often accuse them of being aggressive, arrogant and clannish – a case of giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it.

This has become the norm at every election cycle in the country, especially in Lagos State, where the Igbo has literally become the metaphorical scapegoat. The scapegoat in African Traditional Religion (ATR), is a male goat upon whose head are symbolically placed the sins and transgressions of an entire community. It wanders around the community and bears a burden of atonement for sins it did not commit.

This is what the Igbo in Lagos, are going through in the hands of narrow-minded chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the ruling party in the state. Since the conclusion of the party primaries in which Peter Obi, former Anambra state governor, emerged the presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP), the Igbo who had hitherto lived peacefully with their Yoruba neighbours, have been targets of attacks. Obi was perceived as the obstacle to the APC candidate, Bola Tinubu realizing his presidential ambition. For this, his kinsmen living in the state, must pay the price. Suddenly, the rootless allegation of the Igbo claiming that Lagos is no man’s land, sprang up, in a bid to project the people as covetous.

As if that was not enough, with the governorship election slated for tomorrow and Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour flying the Labour Party flag, the Igbo are seen as his major backers and must pay dearly for it. Two factors majorly inform the unreasonable hostility. Rhodes-Vivour’s mother is Igbo and his wife, also an Igbo. These are considered capital sins by the Igbo, according to the foot soldiers of the APC ethnic jingoists. For these, the Igbo living in Eti-Osa side of the state, were summoned by the local chief of the community and handed a threat that they must vote the APC or face the consequences. At Ije-Ododo axis of Ojo Local Government Area, similar threats were allegedly made. In Oshodi, the Chairman of Lagos State Parks Management Committee, Musliu Akinsanya, otherwise known as MC Oluomo, was caught on video, spitting fire against any Igbo that would attempt voting another party other than the APC. Some younger irredentists took to the social media, issuing all manner of threats against the Igbo. In the face of these assaults, the government does not guarantee the people of safety or protection.

Rather, by strange coincidence, LP supporters and business premises of the Igbo have been attacked by hoodlums, suspected to be on commissioned missions, the latest being the motor spare parts market in the slums of Ajegunle where at least one person was murdered. A similar event took place in the Isolo/Ikotun area of Lagos where the selective destruction of shops and merchandise owned by Igbo traders was said to have been supervised by a Royal father of the community, the Baale.

The question therefore, is; what are the issues? What really have the Igbo done to deserve this undisguised animosity? A leading Igbo group, Anya-Ndi- Igbo, has answered it, eloquently, that there are no issues. What we are rather seeing, are desperate manifestations of erroneous belief that the Igbo will not vote for the APC. This is hogwash! In fact, the assumption flies in the face of logic and begs the question. The Igbo ethnic group is not a political party. It is not contesting the election. As a distinct ethnic group, the Igbo has no preferred candidate in the governorship election in Lagos state. Igbo people are members of numerous political parties including the APC on their individual choices and are supporting their parties’ candidates. No Igbo man is contesting the election for the office of governor. They have no dog in this fight and should not be made the victim.

The politicians of the Lagos State APC should desist from pitching Yoruba against Igbo with vicious falsehoods. APC or any other party can win the governorship election and any other contest without shedding Igbo blood or any other blood for that matter. Perhaps, it may suffice, at this juncture to recall the immortal words of former governor of the state, Lateef Jakande, that: “any party that has been in government for one term of four years does not need to campaign for votes. It is the visible work it has done for the people that should constitute its campaign.” With many years in the saddle, APC as a ruling party should have profile of accomplishments to market its candidate. Trying to set the Yoruba against the Igbo, is the most disingenuous in the campaign.

The Igbo and Yoruba have lived happily together in love and mutual understanding and respect. Any attempt at breaking this cord, will have disastrous consequences. The two ethnic groups and other Nigerians are facing the common enemy in bad leadership across the land. The parties and their candidates need to tell the people their programmes for tackling insecurity, youth unemployment, dilapidated infrastructure, the comatose health sector and falling standard in education, among others. These are challenges confronting the average resident in the state, not stoking the ambers of ethnic unrest.

There must be an end to the routine harassment of the Igbo in Lagos. They cannot be continually treated as scapegoats of Lagos politics. In 2015, it was the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwanu Akiolu, threatening to drown the people in the lagoon, if they did not vote the APC. This is not the way to go. The Igbo are Nigerians. The laws of the land permit them to live in any part of the country they choose and pursue legitimate livelihood. The constitution also permits and guarantees them freedom of association, freedom to belong to any political party or none at all, and freedom to vote for any party of their choice.

Nobody should deny them these rights under whatever guise.

DURU is the Editor, TheNiche Newspapers, Lagos (08054103327, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)