ON January 24, at the Federal High Court in Ilorin sitting over the matter of Asa Investment vs. Attorney General of Kwara State, counsel representing the plaintiff, in this case the Olusola Saraki family, informed the court that both the family and the state government have agreed to “an amicable out-of-court settlement.”  At a previous sitting, the Court had advised that this option should be explored, in the interest of peace, so obviously both feuding parties heeded the advice of the Court. Counsel to the Saraki family confirmed in open court that the State Government had in fact written a letter to the Sarakis, and that a meeting had been scheduled for January 27. The presiding judge commended both parties and adjourned the case till March 2, 2020, for a report on the “amicable out-of-court settlement”. There is nothing wrong in the Court’s proposal, and it is most reasonable that the parties in the dispute have agreed to settle the matter of the “legality or illegality” of the possession/ownership of the stretch of land known as “Ile Arugbo” amicably. An amicable settlement simply means what it suggests: the resolution of a dispute or a disagreement before or after court action, in a friendly manner and in an atmosphere devoid of conflict or rancor. It is an alternative dispute resolution mechanism, involving mediation and conciliation. It saves time, and in a potentially volatile matter such as the conflict between the Olusola Saraki family and the Kwara State Government, heavy politicized as it is, the resort to amicable settlement should bring the matter to a happy ending for all concerned: a little face-saving here, doing the right thing there and locking out the mischief-makers who could exploit the matter to cause havoc and disrupt public peace- this should ensure that all ends well indeed. 

What are the facts of the case? On January 2, 2020, the Kwara State Government deployed a team of state officials at 4 am, to take possession of a plot of land known as Plots 1, 3, and 5 along Ilofa road, Ilorin, and displace whoever is occupying the said stretch of land. The occupant of the land is the Olusola Saraki family, which allegedly took possession of the land, under the name of Asa Investment, and subsequently put the land to use as a waiting shed for visitors and a holding place for political meetings. 

A shade or shelter on the land was reportedly demolished. The position of the state government was that the land, which adjoins the State Secretariat is meant for the building of a parking lot and a state civil service clinic and that it had been illegally acquired by the late Dr. Olusola Saraki when his son, Dr. Bukola Saraki was Governor of Kwara State in 2005. The State Government insisted that it has no record that the Sarakis ever paid for the land, or were issued a Certificate of Occupancy, or that any documentation was done on the land beyond a letter of application for right of occupancy which required the claimants to the land to pay a certain sum which was never paid. The State Government added that it was determined to take over the land, because it belongs to the people, and then put it to use in the public interest as originally intended. We were further informed that the state Government has the backing of a State House of Assembly Resolution and the relevant laws on Land Use.      

The Saraki family kicked. Dr. Bukola Saraki, eldest child of Dr. Olusola Saraki, Governor of Kwara State, 2003-2011, and Senate President, 2015-2019, protested that the demolition and revocation of access to the plots of land known as Ile Arugbo was an assault on his father’s legacy, an attempt at vengeance and a deliberate attempt to embarrass the Saraki family.  He pointed out that a bill had also been initiated by Governor Abdulrazaq to change the name of the state university which had been named after his father, Dr. Abubakar Olusola Saraki. He told Governor Abdulrazaq that he had “crossed the line” and that he must be “delusional” to think that his will be the last administration in Kwara State, or that his ‘act of vengeance” will stand. Senator Bukola Saraki was obviously angry.  He told the State Governor that he was also being victimized: “Perhaps I should let it be known that if Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq thinks he is taking all these actions to get at me, he is only deceiving himself. There is no basis for competition between us. Our paths cannot cross because the status that he is struggling to attain, Almighty Allah has given it to me many years before now. I became Governor 16 years before him and served out my constitutional limit of eight years.” Thus, everything went haywire in due course. 

When Senator Saraki referred to “all these actions”, he was also probably referring to the fact that the state government had also taken away from him an Alimi Chalet property in Ilorin GRA which was said to be a government property which he, Bukola Saraki, acquired illegally. And the fact that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) investigating his tenure as Governor, with the alleged co-operation of the Kwara State Government, and the endorsement of the APC-run Federal Government had also attached his properties in Ilorin and Lagos.  But the biggest action was the displacement of the Saraki hold on Kwara State politics in the 2019 general elections. Bukola Saraki who had inherited his father’s political influence in Kwara State, failed to sustain it in 2019. His candidates were outsmarted, out-rigged and beaten in the 2019 general elections in the state. He himself was chased out of the town literally and symbolically as the people chanted “O too ge” – a Yoruba phrase that means “Enough is Enough”, in reality an APC-invented, propagandized assault on the Saraki legacy in Kwara state politics. For decades, Dr. Abubakar Olusola Saraki, a medical doctor turned politician and statesman held Kwara State politics in his grips. As Senate Majority Leader in the Second Republic, he was the ally of Northern Nigerian politicians, who helped to hold Kwara State and parts of the North Central against the overwhelming politics of the Awoists in the South West who saw the politics of Kwara state as an enactment of the Yoruba-Hausa Fulani rivalry of the 19^th century. 

Indeed, in the Second Republic, the Unity Party of Nigeria, Awolowo’s party, managed to assert itself through the impact and influence of JS Olawoyin in Kwara politics, but it wasn’t until 1983 that the Awoists had a foot in the door through Chief Cornelius Adebayo who was civilian Governor for a short period of three months (October – December, 2003). The most dominant force in Kwara politics was unarguably Senator Abubakar Olusola Saraki, who with the return to civilian rule in 1999 was more than amply rewarded for his alignment with the politics of the North. He became the Godfather of Kwara politics. He was a great tactician and strategist who pitched his tent with the people. He understood the dynamics of power and he used that to the fullest extent.  He had allies in every part of the country, in the media especially and among the grassroots who worshipped him literally. I mean, they adored him. He installed Mohammed Lawal as Governor in 1999. When Lawal tried to assert himself and disobey the now fully established Godfather, Saraki replaced him in 2003.  He installed his own son, Bukola Saraki as Governor in 2003. Saraki, the son, served for two terms, by which time he had become a political juggernaut in his own right. When he completed his second tenure in 2011, he had become strong enough to install his own protégé as Governor. He defied his father, and emerged as the new Godfather of Kwara politics.        

In 2014/2015, Dr. Bukola Saraki further helped to sabotage the Goodluck Jonathan government when he and others became the arrow-head of a new PDP, (n-PDP), as it was called, and helped to form what is today known as the All Progressives Congress (APC). He dumped the PDP and joined the APC. He was clearly an architect of the APC plot against the PDP in 2015, but he would soon have issues with the APC when he outsmarted the party leaders to grab the Senate Presidency through his own machinations. He practically ran an anti-APC Senate and before the 2019 general elections, he ended up in the same PDP that he left in 2014. He supported Alhaji Atiku Abubakar against President Muhammadu Buhari. Whatever is happening in Kwara State is therefore, not so much about the legacy of Dr. Abubakar Olusola Saraki, the father, but more about the politics of Dr. Bukola Saraki, the son. Saraki, the father would probably have played a different kind of politics. The son, in seeking to become the father, should be asked to study again “the wisdom of Silenus”: how does a son become the father?    

What has been played out in the politics of “Ile Arugbo” in Kwara State is very complex politics at various levels. One, the family level: this is being seen as an Abdulrazaq family vs. Saraki family affair. Perhaps. The Abdulrazaqs and the Sarakis have dominated Kwara politics and specifically Ilorin public space for decades. The current Governor’s father was active in the politics of the First Republic, but he was also highly regarded for another reason – for a professional reason. He is the first lawyer from the old Northern Nigeria. Alhaji Abdul Ganiyu Abdulrazaq emerged as Northern Nigeria’s first lawyer in 1957, and he happens to be Yoruba after Sapara Williams, the first Yoruba-Nigerian lawyer who was called to the Bar in 1879, and Louis Mbanefo, the first Ibo lawyer who became a lawyer in 1937. In the North Central, the Abdulrazaqs have maintained the path of educational achievement and distinction and have rarely politicized their identity. One of them, Khairat Abdulrazaq ended up as a Senator, even at a time the elderly Saraki held sway in Kwara politics. Her brother, Abdulrahman is now Governor. The emergence of an Abdulrazaq is seen as one rival family taking over from the other. This is not helped by the fact that there is serious politics within the Saraki family which dominated Ilorin and Kwara politics for decades and suppressed the likes of the Abdulrazaqs. Another Saraki, Gbemi Saraki, a member of the APC, a former Senator, who is now a Minister of State, also had to speak up to defend her father’s legacy.  But she sounded more like she was saying: “Brother Bukola, see what you have caused with your funny politics? I speak up because I don’t want you to destroy my father’s legacy.”  

Two, there is ego conflict involved: my-family-is-better-than-yours, my-children-are-better kind of primitive, African family politics. Three, there is also party politics in the matter. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the same party that Bukola Saraki abandoned and later went back to, wasted no time in attacking the APC government to say that Saraki is being persecuted because of the politics of 2019. The APC having engaged in an “O too ge” campaign seems determined to crush and rubbish the Saraki influence in Kwara state politics. Bad politics on all fronts. 

Still, the key issues are as follows: Was the Ile Arugbo land properly allocated and assigned?  Is there a document of title available which can establish ownership? Can anyone appropriate land, family or state-owned, without proper assignment and rights of alienation? Can the Governor of a State, by virtue of the Land Use Act, revoke right of occupancy, and re-assign land in overriding public interest? If the Sarakis have the title documents to the said land, is the onus on them or the state government to prove same? Can any citizen, no matter how highly placed, just take land as he or wishes, either for public or private interest without recourse to due process, as stated in extant law?  And can anyone, in good conscience, justify the problematic acquisition of public property under any  guise? And can the government retrieve such property? 

These are some of the issues to be determined by the courts were the case to proceed to full trial. But to take the legal option is to roil the waters of Kwara politics and encourage such politics of revenge that may survive generations. I commend the wisdom that has prevailed: from the courts to the feuding families to the state government and the community. Two days ago, Kwara APC Elders supported the peace and reconciliation moves initiated by the Court.  The Afonja Descendants Union of Ilorin also asked for peace. 

But whatever comes out of the January 27 meeting and any other mediation meeting and the eventual report to the Court on March 2, observers of this Kwara state elite-family-crisis can learn a few lessons from the narrative so far. One, government is very powerful. Whoever is in charge of government at any time can look at the books and use the rule book against anybody no matter how privileged or powerful. Governor Abdulrazaq has just shown the Sarakis how vulnerable they are individually and collectively, and in case they don’t agree, he just wants them to know that he is in charge. Point well made! Two, Nigerians take everything for granted. When they are in power, they do as they wish. In Kwara, we have just being told that due process is iportant. If you overlook due process, the day you are no longer powerful, you may be asked to give account and you could find yourself in very difficult circumstances. Who could ever have thought that a king would come to the throne in Kwara State who would disregard the Sarakis and call them to account? Third lesson: nothing lasts forever. You may be the king in the ring today and end up as the little end of the stick tomorrow. The laws of nature are ever so immutable.  

But there is one more lesson and that is for Governor Abdulrazaq of Kwara State: while it is not so difficult to figure out the party that may have eaten the humble pie in this case, he too should resist the temptation to “show” power. The Abdulrazaq government will not be judged on account of how it humiliated the Saraki family and turned “O too ge” into state policy. It will be judged on the basis of its actual performance. 

“You look so downcast. Everything okay? Cheer up, man. This one that you are looking as if a trailer just crushed your legs.”

“I won’t deceive you. I am not happy at all. I am sad. Heart-broken.”  

“What happened? You lost a contract, or someone swindled you? Whatever it is, just cheer up. When there is life, there is hope” 

“I just look around and I wonder why this world is the way it is.”

“Don’t’ sound like that. The world has always been the way it is, and it will always be as it is, life without end.” 

“So is that why bad things should always happen?”

“Good things happen too. Everyday. Life is a terrible mixture of good and bad. Be philosophical my brother. Without philosophy, we would all be sad and depressed and waiting to die.” 

“So is that why Kobe Bryant should die in a helicopter crash, along with his 13-year old daughter, and seven others?”

“Very sad. Tragic. In that helicopter crash, a dream died. The future was erased.”

“He was just 41. He had to die at a time he should be enjoying his retirement. He had great hopes that his daughter would step into his shoes and become a great basketball athlete, the same way he too took over from his Dad, who was a basketball player. And just like that, the helicopter burst into flames putting an end to it all.” 

“I am not a basket ball fan but from the little I have read in the news; he must have been one legend of a guy on the basketball court.”

“You don’t know Kobe Bryant? What are you? An alien?” 

“Football is my game. I am a football person.” 

“Kobe was one of the greatest human beings that ever played basket ball.  He spent 20 seasons with the LA Lakers and made history with his talent. He is in the class of Michael Jordan. Off the basketball court, he was a humanist. We have lost a gem and a hero. He was NBA champion for a record five times. Most Valuable Player. NBA scoring champion. Olympic Champion. O ye Hills of Calabasas! May whatever demons that live therein remain cursed.”

“From what I read, it looked like the crash was caused by weather problem. I understand the weather was so foggy even the police grounded all their helicopters.” 

“Kobe always shuttled around in his helicopter to avoid busy traffic. That was not the first time he would use his helicopter.” 

“Accidents happen.”

“I know. But this one should not have happened.”

“There were other people in the helicopter.”  

“I know. Their death is also tragic. John Altobelli, the coach of the Orange Coast College baseball team, his wife, Keri, their daughter Alyssa and Christina Mauser, a basketball coach at the Mamba Sports Academy.”

“Take heart. His legacy will no doubt endure. The way people have been reporting the incident, I am beginning to show interest in basketball. You are not alone. I have seen many Nigerians who have expressed so much sadness.”

“People are mourning all over the world, from the US to Italy to the Philippines.”

“I hope someday Nigeria will produce such a great athlete too, in any of the sports, who will capture the public imagination and evoke empathy in life and in death, not because of where he or she comes from, but on account of the quality of his or her contributions and achievement.” 

“Do we value anything here? In a country where people are beheaded or killed in cold blood, and there is just no outrage? Isaac Promise, who distinguished himself representing Nigeria in U-20, and U-23 football died the other day, nobody from the Nigeria Football Federation attended his funeral. A Christian leader in Adamawa was abducted by the Boko Haram. He was later beheaded. Did anybody consider that unusual? We don’t care enough. Human lives mean nothing in Nigeria not to talk of the lives of accomplished persons who inspire others to greatness” 

“By the way, I understand that one Prophet in Ghana has said that he can raise Kobe Bryant from the dead if 10% of his net worth is given to him.” 

“Please. I am not in the mood for that. Too many charlatans parading as prophets. I am talking about death, you are quoting an idiot.”

“Talking about human lives, I have just read the story of the conviction of that lady who killed her husband in Abuja, because the man was seeing another woman.”

“Maryam Sanda. That is another tragic story. I understand after the judge read out his ruling, and pronounced death by hanging, she ran out of the court.” 

“That was a tragic moment, with the judge reminding everyone in court that “Thou shall not kill.  Whoever kills in cold blood shall die in cold blood.”  

“You know these days when I attend a wedding, my prayer for the couple is that may they find everlasting love in each other’s company. Too many cases of domestic violence these days. Husbands killing their wives. Wives killing their husbands. Where then is love?” 

“You know as I was going through the Maryam Sanda story, I saw another story, about how a 19-year old housewife in Malumfashi in Katsina also killed her husband yesterday. And somewhere in Abia State, one Mr. Kalu also shot his wife citing infidelity. Angry youths in the community captured the man and killed him.”

“When we have this kind of incident, so much is affected. Families are thrown into grief. The children in the marriage become orphans. It is one tragedy after another. Take the case of one 29-year old lady in Umuahia. She caught her husband in bed with their housemaid. She was so enraged she poisoned herself and her two children.    

“What nonsense is that?”

“It is called the Medea Complex”

“Who is Medea?” 

“I don’t want to bore you with Greek mythology. But if you have the time, try and read the ancient Greek play, Medea by Euripides.” 

“Must you always quote a book? Look, I don’t have time for any ancient story. And I don’t need to read a book to know that there is depression in the land and that many couples are just tolerating each other. Why would a man shoot his wife? Why would a wife kill herself and her children because of a man? Because of infidelity? Well may be with the Maryam Sanda case, people will learn some lessons. You can’t just get angry and kill another person.”

“But do you think she stands any chance of winning at the Appeal Court? She has two children. Who will look after her children?”

“In this country, anything can happen. After that Supreme Court ruling on the Imo State Gubernatorial election, I concluded that anything can indeed happen in our courts. But talking seriously, a miracle may happen in the Maryam Sanda case. Afterall when one lady, Yewande, killed her husband in Ibadan in 2016, she was sentenced to only seven years imprisonment. She was later granted state pardon by the state government. Today, she is free. She will marry another man and move on.”

“The facts of the case may not be exactly the same. But murder is murder. Jealousy kills. Anger destroys. Hopefully, her lawyers will pursue the case all the way to the Supreme Court. Who knows?” 

“Supreme Court. That reminds me. Emeka Ihedioha who was removed as Governor of Imo State, is going back to the Supreme Court to ask for a review of that controversial judgement?”

“I am aware of that. It is like giving the Supreme Court a second chance to correct its own mistakes. I hope their Lordships will find the courage to do the right thing. And I hope no ambulance lawyer will come up with the inane argument that the referee’s decision is final. Even in football these days, there is something called VAR. The Supreme Court needs to take a second look at the Imo case.”

“Are you optimistic that the Supreme Court will reverse itself? I don’t see that happening. There must be an end to litigation.”

“Still, justice must be done. Justice, not law.”

“What if the Court insists that it has done justice?”

“And what if the Court reverses itself and returns Ihedioha as Governor?” 

 “So that people like you can abuse their Lordships”

“Nobody will abuse them. Just answer my question, what if…?”

“I don’t think we can comfortably comment on something that may or may not happen.”

“Let us just assume”

“I don’t know. I don’t know. But if that happens, I would like to see the reaction of all the members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Imo state who immediately defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC), the moment Ihedioha was removed by court order and Senator Hope Uzodinma was installed as Governor.” 

“Those ones? They will simply abandon the APC and return to the PDP. They will do so with straight faces and justify their conduct.”    

“No ideology”

“There is nothing called ideology in Nigerian politics. There are only stomachs. And some stomachs are bigger than other stomachs.” 

“My belle oh.. my stomach oh.” 

“Even the people are interested in their own stomachs too. That is why they sell their votes to the highest bidder.”

“Our democracy is in trouble.”

“You can say that again.” 

“Hen hen. How far with this their Operation Amotekun thing in the South West, now that the Federal Government says the security network as proposed is no longer illegal? Have you seen any of the Amotekun officials on the streets of the South West?” 

“I have seen pictures of Amotekun vehicles on social media. I have seen pictures of hunters wearing charms and amulets. I have also seen pictures of some pretty ladies wearing Amotekun fabric, each one of them with “come and do” eyes. I tell you, if those are the kind of ladies that will be recruited into the Amotekun squad, I may consider a change of vocation and join the Amotekun”  

“Very good. I will be the first to let your wife know your plans. Whatever happens to you, you are on your own. Of all the things that have been said and written about Amotekun, the only thing that you are excited about is the images of women, who have nothing to do with the security outfit by the way, but who are just part of the dark humour that the Amotekun has generated on social media.”

“We joke too much in this country. That is part of our problem. But did you see the T-shirts that some people have made with Amotekun labels, and which they are now selling online?”

“That’s called enterprise. I have no problem with that. It is certainly better than what one Pastor is trying to do in Abuja.”

“Which Pastor is that?”

“I don’t know his name. I only know that he is now selling what he calls “miracle pants and bras” specially designed for single ladies who are looking for husbands. It is said that the miracle pants and bras will attract men. And you know some desperate girls will actually patronize the Pastor.” 

“These Pastors! Where in the Bible do you have miracle pants and bras? He is actually promoting promiscuity and pre-marital sex. Too many people hiding under religion to mislead people in this country.”

“It is terrible. It is just like one Muslim group which has been quoted as saying Muslims in the South West should reject theAmotekun because it has Biblical origin.” 

“How? Amotekun is just a Yorba word for the Leopard.  Amotekun also has symbolic meanings in Yoruba cosmogony as a totem.”

“The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) is complaining that there is a reference to the leopard in the Bible. Specifically,  Jeremiah 5: 6 which says “A leopard shall guard over their city.” The group claims that Amotekun is meant to be a Christian outfit, that will parade pastors, bishops and archbishops alone”.

“What is wrong with some people, though? Why do we have so many idle people in this country?”  

“It beats me.” 

 “Please let me come and start going. I’ll need to take an Okada back to the office. I didn’t come with my car. I don’t like driving up and down during office hours. I left my car in the office.” 

“Okada? Have you not heard that the Lagos State Government has banned motorcycles and tricycles on the streets of Lagos?”

“That wont be until February 1. And in any case, it is not an outright ban, it is more like a restriction of movement. The state government merely wants to enforce an existing law. I only hope they will insist on certain regulations such as the use of helmets and ankle guards particularly by the motorcyclists and their passengers, and penalties for overloading.”

“They should ban all motorcycles and tricycles. They are a nuisance. I detest them.”

“And what jobs will you create to absorb the motorcyclists and tri-cyclists? You want to create an army of armed robbers and petty thieves? The poor should also be allowed to live. We only need to enforce the laws to save them from themselves.”

“E-eee-hei-shun!!!”

“What’s that? Did you just sneeze?”

“What does it look like to you?”

“Please come and be going before you come and give someone Corona Virus. Ha. Ha. Have you not been reading the public health advisory issued by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and the Federal Ministry of Health?”

“There is no Corona Virus in Nigeria”

“Who says? For your information, it is already in Ivory Coast. It is on its way. Please, I beg, don’t sneeze again anyhow. And don’t make the mistake of shaking my hand… Bye!.” 

Virtually everything in Nigeria no matter how well-meaning ends up getting ethnicized, or politicized, or religionized.  So it is with Operation Amotekun: the Western Nigeria Security Network whose recent launch by the Governors of the South West, on January 9, has thrown up key questions at the heart of the Nigerian dilemma as well as the fault lines of the Nigerian state. 

Today, in all the six states of the South West, there is a planned Amotekun Solidarity Walk to be led by state co-ordinators who are members of a group called Yoruba World Congress – an umbrella group for all Yoruba socio-cultural and self-determination groups. A statement issued by the Congress says: “All Yoruba people are urged to come out in their millions anywhere they are in Oduduwa land on Tuesday to show to the world that Amotekun  has come to stay.” Yorubas in Kwara State have been asked to join the protest. Non-Yoruba residents in the South West have also been told that Amotekun is for the protection of everyone in the South West, not only Yorubas. The planned rally may strengthen the position of those who argue that Amotekun  is an attempt by the South West to assert itself within the Nigerian Federation, and a hidden plan to introduce state police or regional police through the back door or perhaps an initial move towards the South West’s demand for restructuring. Nonetheless, the suspicion that this is an anti-Federal Government initiative or a form of political rebellion cannot stand: 5 out of the 6 Governors spear-heading Operation Amotekun are members of the ruling All Progressives Congress. Only Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State belongs to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party. 

Whatever shape the Amotekun  Solidarity Walk assumes in terms of attendance, the organisers have a duty to ensure that it is peaceful and it is well-organized. They have the right to express an opinion on an issue of public interest. They are also entitled to a legitimate right to protest. The police and other security agencies must see the need to facilitate the expression of those rights. The Inspector General of Police and his men must tread with caution and be completely professional. We do not expect to read reports of either accidental discharge or abuse of fire-power/ tear gas tomorrow morning. Without knowing it, the Federal Government by declaring Operation Amotekun “illegal” has simply further divided the country along geographical lines: North vs. South; and provided fuel for the politics of solidarity in the South and the Middle Belt and the oxygenation of identity politics in the South West. 

This is the import of the questions that have been raised about the Federal Government’s objection to Operation Amotekun. The Attorney General of the Federation quoting Article 45 of the Second Schedule of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which gives the Federal Government exclusive powers over the police, insisted in a statement that the Western Nigeria Security Network is unlawful. Malami is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). He is also Chief Law Officer of the Federation and Legal Adviser to the Federal Government. The Amotekun  Solidarity Walk is meant to remind him that he is not in a position to give orders to the six states in the Western part of Nigeria. It is an open, people-driven rejection of his interpretation of the law. Other Silks like him (Femi Falana, Olisa Agbakoba and Chief Afe Babalola) and a senior legal scholar, Professor Itse Sagay who is pro-Buhari, pro-APC, and pro-establishment has also had cause to give the Attorney General a brief lesson in elementary law. The Attorney General owes the public another statement in response to the counter views that have now been expressed quoting the same 1999 Constitution. 

Do the people of Nigeria, whatever may be their ethnicity, have a duty to make useful contribution to the well-being of their communities as stated in Section 24 of the Constitution?  Is the Attorney General of the Federation also aware that President Muhammad Buhari reaffirms the value of this section of the Constitution each time he proclaims that national security requires the contribution of every Nigerian and every community? Chief Afe Babalola has also drawn the attention of the AGF to Sections 40 and 45 of the Nigerian Constitution. In rejecting the position of the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation, various stakeholders are convinced that he was merely expressing a personal opinion and that he has no powers to enforce his own declaration. They want him to go to court if he so wishes, and thus allow the courts to offer an interpretation and pronounce accordingly. 

Operation Amotekun is a product of the politics of protection and the failure of the same Nigeria Police that the AGF Malami seeks to protect. It has been said that Amotekun  is an attempt to create state police or regional police. If so, what is even wrong with that? We need to be reminded that state police or regional police is not such an abstraction as many make it out to be. The police in Nigeria has colonial origins. Between 1861 and 1930, Nigeria had a totally decentralized police system: every part of the country: the Lagos Colony, the Niger Coast, the Northern and Southern Protectorates, Native Authorities and Local Governments had their own police forces.  Under the indirect rule system, local police forces were under the control of traditional rulers, especially in Western and Northern Nigeria. The Native Authority Ordinance (No 4 of 1916) and later, the Protectorate Laws (Enforcement) Ordinance (No 15 of 1924) empowered traditional rulers to prevent crime and arrest offenders in their jurisdiction and employ persons for police work. 

In the West, the kings had “akodas and olopas”; in the North, there was the dogarai or yan dan doka. There were also Constabularies. In 1930, the colonial authorities merged the Northern and Southern Nigeria Police Forces. It was the first time a national police force would be established, but even then, that national body co-existed with local police forces in Western and Northern Nigeria. While the people accepted the latter, they distrusted the national police which was largely regarded as a cruel instrument of oppression and intimidation used by the colonial authorities to suppress the people. The people were largely afraid of the colonial police. In 1966, the Aguiyi-Ironsi regime set up the Gobir panel to re-examine the idea of having two police forces –local and national. The report was eventually submitted to the Yakubu Gowon regime and in line with the recommendations of the Gobir panel, the local police forces were disbanded on the grounds that they were corrupt and open to abuse by politicians.  

The national police, the Nigeria Police Force was retained, even if nothing was done to transform it in terms of essence, character and culture. The Nigeria Police after independence retained its character as a tool of oppression and intimidation, feared rather than respected by the people. It has since then remained a tool in the hands of the powerful. Between 1966 and 1979, the police hierarchy featured now and then in the governance process, but in due course, military rulers of Nigeria crippled the police, by starving the institution of funding, equipment and personnel. The military didn’t want a rival security agency. Since the return to democracy in 1999, the fortunes of the Nigeria Police have not changed. The two former military leaders who became President during the period have paid more attention to the armed forces. They can claim that they have had to deal with the emergent crisis of insurgency in the South-South and the North East and an asymmetrical war of terrorism but the truth is that the Nigeria Police is handicapped. It remains linked to its colonial character as a tool in the hands of powerful forces to be used to oppress and suppress the people. There is no guarantee that any former soldier in office as a civilian President of Nigeria would ever reverse the fortunes of the Nigeria Police or accept the idea of a state police. 

The inefficiency of the Nigeria Police and its slavish character have made matters worse. Complaints about police brutality indicate the scope of the alienation between the people and the institution but it is the gross inefficiency that has been reported that is the main problem. Since 1999, there has been a strong agitation for the creation of state police, especially in the Southern part of Nigeria. The people want to control their own security. Section 214 (1) of the 1999 Constitution recognizes only a national police force viz: “There shall be a Police Force for Nigeria, which shall be known as the Nigeria Police Force, and subject to the provisions of this section, no other police force shall be established for the Federation or nay part thereof.”  Section 215 establishes the office of the Inspector-General of Police and State Commissioners of Police and defines the source of authority, being the President or whoever he authorizes in Section 215(3). Still, the truth is that the Nigeria Police as it is, suffers a crisis of legitimacy and confidence.       

The response to this has been the emergence of all kinds of security outfits across the country since 1999 to take care of community interests. Vigilantism in most parts of Nigeria in the form of neighbourhood guards, alternative, private sector security guards, estate protection units, and vigilance groups set up by state governments (more than 23) and the erosion of confidence in the national police illustrate the extent of this situation. In parts of the North, there is the Hisbah police, which enforces Sharia rules. In the North East, the Borno state government set up the Civilian Joint Task Force to assist the military and other security agencies to fight the Boko Haram, and ISWAP. The bravery and contributions of the Civilian Joint Task Force have been praised by both local and international analysts. In South West Nigeria, there was the Oodua Peoples Congress, in the East, the Bakassi Boys, in the South South, the Egbesu Boys. Every other community has tried to make an effort to defend and protect itself. In fact, some of the states in the South West at some point set up Security Trust Funds to provide support for the under-funded, formal, extant security agencies and vigilante groups.  

And now, the Attorney General of the Federation complains about Operation Amotekun. Was he just being politically correct to align with the misguided views of some Northern youths and elders? We should be surprised that he has not declared as unlawful, the employment of security guards by virtually every home, every neighbourhood and every community in Nigeria. When you attend any of the parties held every weekend in Lagos, you are most likely to find private guards providing security. Nobody calls the police. They are afraid that the police will collect bribe and allow all sorts into the hall, in addition to the fear of accidental discharge.  

Operation Amotekun is a community response to the challenge of insecurity in Nigeria. President Muhammadu Buhari says ensuring security of lives and properties is an important part of his three-dimension pact with the Nigerian people but Nigerians still feel very insecure. His harshest critics compare the present situation in the country to the season of anomie that was the civil war of 1967 – 1970. Hence, Amotekun, given the spike in banditry, pastoralist vs. farmers conflicts, kidnapping, insurgency, armed robbery and terrorism. What the Governors of the South West have demonstrated is that they have a “Responsibility to Protect” their people.  Their recognition of that responsibility can only be meaningful in terms of intervention. Hence, Operation Amotekun . They deserve to be commended and not harassed by an over-bearing Federal Government interpreting the law rather selectively. Good enough, the Attorney General of the Federation has been reminded that there is more than one rule of interpretation in law. 

The conversation is however altogether useful. Operation Amotekun has generated fundamental questions around the 1999 Constitution and the police as an institution. Shouldn’t someone in the National Assembly propose a Bill for a reconsideration of Sections 214 and 215 of the 1999 Constitution, to move Nigeria away from the threshold of imperial policing to people-focused, community-based policing? The colonial forces constantly re-organized police forces in Nigeria between 1861 and 1930. Why is the Nigerian State in a season of innovation and creativity in the world, so trapped in the past, unable to provide security for the people? This is the main question. .  

Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives (2011 -2015), and Governor of Imo State (May 29, 1999 – January 14, 2020) was removed from office by a seven-man panel of Supreme Court Justices in what would be remembered for a long time as one of the most earth-shaking moments in the history of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. By failing to make its ruling available promptly, and the reasons for its decision to award victory to Senator Hope Uzodinma who came fourth in the March 9, 2019 Gubernatorial election in Imo State, the Supreme Court of Nigeria has created room for speculations and for imaginations to run riot. 

The Ihedioha case is test case for the maxim that “justice must not only be done; it must be seen to have been done.” No matter what their Lordships say, now or later, the dominant public opinion is that justice has not been done. Wittingly or unwittingly, the Supreme Court has turned every observer into a mathematician. How on earth, the people ask, did the Supreme Court arrive at a final tally of votes that exceed the number of registered and accredited voters? The protests in Imo state on Sunday and similar protests across the country, even in non-PDP states, is an indication that it is our fragile democratic process that is threatened. Hope Uzodinma loses in winning. Ihedioha is the real winner. His loss has transported him to a higher place of reckoning. He is the Prince of the People’s Hearts, beyond legal technicalities.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) Awards 2020 has come and gone – the event was held in Hurghada, Egypt on January 7, but the dust is yet to settle on what is now known as “the betrayal” of Asisat Oshoala. Asisat Oshoala, 25, is the winner of the CAF Africa Women Footballer of the Year, 2019. She is Nigerian and one of our country’s greatest ambassadors in women football. Her latest award is the fourth time she would be declared Africa’s Best Female Footballer, making her equal the record of her compatriot, Perpetua Nkwocha with whom she now shares that distinction. CAF winners are chosen by members of the Technical and Development committee, journalists, football legends, coaches, and representatives and captains of national teams of Football Federations. Nigerians have always been strong members of CAF in both professional and administrative capacities. This year, five Nigerians were part of the final decision process in the women’s category. Ahmed Yusuf (aka Fresh), Osasu Obayiuwana, Chisom Mbonu, Tunde Adelakun, and Perpetua Nkwocha. 

What shocked most Nigerians and what has now been termed “an act of betrayal” was the realization that none of these five Nigerians considered Asisat Oshoala good enough as the Best Female Footballer in Africa in 2019.  Oshoala was voted for and rated the best by outsiders and international football Federations. Ahmed Fresh did not vote at all; he alleges that he did not receive the voting papers from CAF. Osasu Obayiuwana rated Oshoala 3^rd, Chisom Mbonu thinks she is second best, Tunde Adelakun voted her 2^nd best, while Perpetua Nkwocha rated her 5^th in Africa, even when the judges were to choose from a final shortlist of three. No one would have known the pattern of the vote, were it not for CAF’s transparency. CAF’s openness is commendable. 

But was Oshoala betrayed? Osasu Obayiuwana who has had to defend himself vigorously on twitter insists that he wasn’t on the panel of judges as a Nigerian to defend Nigeria’s interest but as an expert who is expected to be professional and fair-minded. In his own opinion, Oshoala was not the best female player in Africa in 2019. He and Mbonu insist that Tabitha Chawinga of Malawi is more deserving of the recognition. Tabitha Chawinga plays as a forward for Jiangsu in China. She won the best goal scorer award in the Chinese Women’s Super League, 2019. She is without doubt one of Africa’s great exports. She is a younger version of Nkwocha, Mercy Akide, Cynthia Uwak, and Asisat Oshoala, and an immensely gifted player in her own right. She has been shortlisted twice for the African Female Footballer of the Year, and now thrice. She is 23, with big potentials. I understand where Osasu Obayiuwana and Mbonu are coming from. 

When Nigerians accuse them of “betrayal”; it would seem as if those critics are recommending favouritism or partiality or cronyism in a process that should reflect fairness, merit and choice. The only problem is that with all five denying Oshoala of Nigerian votes, it really looks as if there was a Nigerian gang-up against a lady who is probably currently at the peak of her game. Nkwocha whose record (2004, 2005, 2010, 2011) she has now equalled even rated her 5^th out of a shortlist of 3. Is that a subtle way of suggesting that she did not deserve a place in the final shortlist in the first place? Is this a case of sibling rivalry? Is Nkwocha uncomfortable with her own record being broken by a compatriot? It is in the light of these questions that Nkwocha’s warm congratulatory message to Oshoala, after winning in spite of her 5^th-grade rating, has been dismissed as sheer hypocrisy. 

Osasu Obayiuwana and Mbonu have defended the choice that they made. But they really do not owe anyone any explanation. CAF is satisfied with the process and I guess their participation. The fans across Africa are pleased with the outcome. A judge is committed only to the rules of engagement and the criteria governing his or her assignment. He or she should not be bound by either umbilical or nepotistic attachments. I consider absolutely unnecessary therefore, the attempt by both judges to explain themselves to Oshoala’s supporters. Nigerians should get used to the right of persons to make their own choice, as long as there is no supportable evidence of ill-will, mischief or malice. The truth is that the Nigerian team’s seemingly unanimous rejection of Asisat Oshoala even makes her victory more convincing and credible. She didn’t win because the Nigerian team supported her. She emerged as Best Female Footballer on the basis of her impressive performance and her high estimation in the eyes of others. 

While the controversy over her being betrayed or not may have further projected her, her response to the Nigerian judges is pointless. She has exchanged a couple of messages on twitter with Osasu Obayiuwana. She has also reportedly blocked him on Twitter.  Asisat Oshoala must realize that the distinction that she has enjoyed and the accolades she has received both come with responsibilities: the biggest responsibility is for her to conduct herself in a disciplined, humble and mature manner.  She does not need to create unnecessary enemies for herself. Osasu Obayiuwana has been in this game long before she kicked her first ball.  She should UNBLOCK him. He is not on the CAF Technical Committee as her publicist. He is there to serve Africa and he or any other person can discharge that responsibility only to the extent of their own understanding. Didn’t Nigerian representatives vote for Ms. Oshoala during the three previous occasions when she emerged as African Female Footballer of the Year?  Those who have their palm kernels cracked for them by benevolent gods must learn to cultivate a sense of proportion. So, Asisat Oshoala, no more twitter tantrums. It is bad PR for you. It is better to stick to your initial response which is: “For me, I don’t think that anyone should be obligated to vote for anyone… The only thing in my head right now is how to help my team to win a lot of laurels as much as we can this year…I also have the African Women’s Cup of Nations…” Stick to these lines and shun needless drama. 

But why are other Nigerians accusing the five Nigerian judges of “betrayal”? This is for a couple of reasons. One, many Nigerians believe and considerably correctly so, that our country is governed by a “Pull Him or Her Down (Ph.D) Syndrome”: the more successful you are, the more you are the target of envy, intrigue and mischief in Nigeria. People think your success is a reflection of their own failure and so they opt for a “crab mentality.” They will do whatever it takes to drag you down, if only to show that you are not as special as you imagine. Human beings generally have dark sides whoever they may be, but pulling the other person down or working hard to sabotage the other person is a very dark side of the Nigerian character. Envy is not always the cause; it could be differences in ethnicity or religion or some totally irrational primordial sentiment. In sports, there are hundreds of tales about lack of support for those who excel, and even those who fall sick, or who become destitute for one reason or the other, and those who die after years of service. The House of Sports in Nigeria is a House of Horror.

Rashidi Yekini, the first Nigerian footballer to score a goal for Nigeria at the World Cup (1994) ended up as an invalid and died unsung. The legendary Chairman Chukwu of Enugu Rangers and former Captain of the Super Eagles took ill. It had to take the intervention of billionaire philanthropist, Femi Otedola, before those who should have helped suddenly realized he still existed. Isaac Promise, Nigeria’s representative at the U-17, U-20 and U-23 levels, and captain at every turn, including captain of an AFCON gold-winning team in 2005 and an Olympics silver winning team at Beijing 2008, died in October in the United States. His family duly informed the Nigeria Football Federation. Even with that three-months’ notice, no NFF official showed up at his funeral. The NFF has offered an unconvincing explanation. The NFF should shut up. Bash Ali, the Nigerian who made history in 1985 as the first WBF African cruiserweight boxing champion wants to be the oldest man (at 63) to seek a world title. Nigeria is not supporting him. Grace Aluko, former Rivers Angels and U-20 goalkeeper needed help. She didn’t get it. In 2016, some Nigerian athletes who were to represent Nigeria at the Olympics had to resort to the internet Go-Fund-Me platform to plead for financial support when they couldn’t get help from the Nigerian Government. Many of our athletes, male and female, have had to acquire other nationalities because Nigeria does not care enough. Asisat Oshoala and many others in other sports owe their achievement not to any support – financial or emotional -  from Nigeria but to the benevolence of outsiders and foreign institutions.  

And now, two, you have Asisat Oshoala, standing out at CAF Awards 2020, only to hear that not even one Nigerian gave her the vote. Two out of the five Nigerians that rejected her are women! Nigeria as a country, didn’t even show up well at this year’s CAF awards. No Nigerian male footballer could make the list of best XI in Africa. How are the mighty fallen? Nigerians ended up celebrating Sadio Mane, of Liverpool and Senegal, as Best Male Footballer in Africa. We spent time talking about Mohammed Saleh of Egypt and Liverpool, and Riyadh Mahrez of Man City and Algeria. The Women’s National Team of Cameroon took the trophy making the Super Falcons team of Nigeria, easily the most accomplished female team in the continent, staring at empty hands. The argument that the Francophone bloc has hijacked CAF and that the awards are political is unacceptable to me. 

The truth is this:  In four years, Nigeria has not won any major male football tournament or championship. We have a national coach, Gernot Rohr, who stays in Europe, and makes his contribution by remote control. He collects Nigerian salary but he doesn’t think Nigeria is good enough for him. Someone should remind Rohr that one foreign coach like him once came to work here for the Eagles, and he ended up marrying a Nigerian lady from Akwa Ibom. Long after the man’s contract ended, I understand he is still in Nigeria enjoying great hospitality. Rohr must be ready to do the job if his contract is renewed. Absent minded stakeholders in the sports arena create problems, they don’t solve them. However, what I am trying to say is that the biggest news in Nigerian football, male or female, in 2019, is Asisat Oshoala’s victory in female football at the CAF Awards in Egypt. Forget about the choice made by the five Nigerians, Oshoala got 351 votes, 30 more than Cameroon’s Ajara Nchout and 103 votes more than Thembi Kgatlana of South Africa and Beijing BG Phoenix F. C. Five Nigerian votes would not have made any difference! In Nigerian-speak, the stone that was rejected at home is the pillar that holds the building. Oshoala was our only claim to glory at the CAF awards.  

She is certainly most deserving of the award and it is not true that she did not distinguish herself in the year 2019. 

Asisat Oshoala’s career has been driven in more than one decade by sheer talent, passion and extra-ordinariness on the field of play and single-minded consistency. She is a multiple winner of Golden Ball, Golden Boot, and Youth Player of the Year awards.  In 2014, she won FIFA’s U-20 Women’s World Cup Golden Boot, FIFA’s Women Golden Ball and the African Women’s Football Golden Ball.  In 2015, she was BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year. In 2017, she was Top Scorer in the Chinese Women’s Super League. This was when she played for Dalian Quanjian F. C.  Oshoala is African Women’s Footballer of the Year – 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2019. She has played for Liverpool, Arsenal Ladies and currently she is with the Spanish Club, FC Barcelona Femeni, to which she was loaned in 2019, and where she distinguished herself most impressively, resulting in the announcement of her full transfer to the club until 2022.  She was a key player at France 2019 and a nominee for the goal of the tournament award. She also helped Barcelona to a runner-up position in the Primera division. In 2019, she was Africa’s highest female goal scorer. Before and since she won the 2019 African Women’s Footballer of the Year award, Oshoala, on her return to FC Barcelona has performed feats that have shown her mastery and dominance. To borrow a typical Nigerian cliché, “she has been on song and on fire!”.  Two days before the award ceremony in Egypt she scored two goals, a brace, and her 10^th goal for Barca in 13 games this season. Barca won 3-0 against Athletic Club.  On January 11, 2020, four days after she won the award as best female footballer, she scored four goals in a Barcelona Femeni 6-0 win against CD Tacon. Oshoala is a true Queen of the pitch. She stands ready and certain to beat her own record. 

Three lessons from all of this: (i) don’t ever rely on the support of kinsmen but don’t betray yourself either, (ii) work on your talent, it is the only asset that won’t fail you; … “always remember that this world is so hard and so stony…” (iii) and also remember that we live in a mysterious world where we are all pawns in the hands of the Master Builder… Here, then, is to your good health in a song!... Congratulations, Asi-STAR!, winner of “the three jewels” and one more. Keep shooting… 

The Buhari administration has given Nigerians a most unusual and disturbing New Year Gift, in the form of a proposed increase in electricity tariffs, enforceable from April by the Electricity Distribution Companies (Discos) and to be completed by the end of 2021, with the full backing of the regulator, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC). What happened? I am in a state of shock. What we knew, what we saw, before now, indeed what we were told, was that the electricity distribution companies were the weakest links in the electricity supply chain. They were accused of different infractions by the Ministry of Power, the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trader (NBET) and the NERC which included, failure to abide by the provisions of the National Electricity Power Sector Reform Act (EPSRA), violation in particular of Section 74 thereof; failure to make due remittances to the Bulk Trader resulting in huge debts that had become a problem for the sector, and failure to comply with the metering system. 

By October 2019, the NERC had served notice that it was prepared to revoke the licenses of the 11 Discos, should they fail within a 60-day deadline, to give reasons to the contrary in defence of their continued presence in the electricity market. The standard official line was that the Discos were incompetent and ineffective, making the value chain difficult for both the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and the Generating Companies (GENCOs). The DISCOS insisted that they had done nothing wrong. They complained about (i) the huge cost of doing business in the sector; (ii), the failure of government to enforce cost reflective tariffs in line with the Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO); (iii) electricity theft, (iv) the non-availability of gas due to vandalism, (v) government’s refusal to engage with stakeholders in the sector and (vi) they alleged that government is the biggest debtor in the market due to the refusal of government departments and agencies to pay electricity bills.

The big take-away for me was the persistent threat by the Federal Government of Nigeria that the DISCOs will be scrapped, or that their licenses will be revoked and re-assigned. It was said quite loudly that the current owners of the licenses got involved in the electricity sector not because they have the technical know-how or the financial muscle, but simply because they were close to the Jonathan administration, which accelerated the power sector reform process. Cast in that shape, the electricity sector became part of the unending navel-gazing, Jonathan-caused-it card that has been consistently played by the Buhari administration.  

What is shocking however is that the decision to increase electricity tariffs raises more questions than answers. On the surface of it, the Federal Government and its agents have capitulated to the DISCOs. How and why? At what point did the Federal Government buy into the argument of the DISCOs that the most important challenge in the electricity sector is the payment of cost-reflective tariffs? And how was the 77% increase arrived at, with consumers in the South East having to pay more than the rest of the country? Is this a case of ethnic discrimination? Do consumers under Enugu Disco use more electricity? What formula determined the new proposed rates? Well, they tell us it is all based on “changes in macroeconomic variables and available generation capacity”. Please, what does that mean in common man’s language? We have also been told that the proposed tariff hike is a retrospective adjustment to make up for revenue shortfall for the DISCOs from 2016 -2018. So, should the consumer be punished for the regulator’s failure to respect its own enabling Act?  And by the way, in the last four years, electricity tariffs have increased by about 300%. 

What we see is an excessive emphasis on revenue and profit by those in charge of the service delivery sectors of the Nigerian economy in general.  Nobody cares about the consumer. On all fronts, the Nigerian consumer is left unprotected. He or she is perpetually served the short end of the stick, and violated without consultation or respect for his or her right to be heard. The electricity sector is one of the most inefficient sectors in Nigeria. The national grid collapsed more than 10 times in the year 2019. Every month, we were told that gas pipelines had been vandalized. The DISCOs complained endlessly that they were having problems, but they were merely giving excuses. The regulator towards the end of the year introduced a compulsory metering policy and urged consumers to get properly metered to avoid the menace of estimated billing and the grand corruption that comes with it The DISCOs resisted the metering policy and virtually either refused to support it or adopted measures to frustrate it. They circumvented the terms of the policy. Today, most consumers of electricity remain unmetered. They do not enjoy efficient service. They are billed on the basis of some nebulous categorization called “status.” What “status”? The owners of  Yola DISCO pleaded force majeure and threw in the towel, but other DISCOs continue to operate without offering the people premium service. This has angered customers across the country. In Benin, the people once carried placards against the electricity distribution company, the BEDC. In other parts of the country, DISCO officials have been beaten up and given a bloody eye. 

On top of it all, the proposed increase in electricity tariffs is insensitive to the feelings of electricity consumers. Many Nigerians insist that they are willing to pay for electricity if they get it on a regular basis – for now, we are a nation in darkness. The people want transparency – the pervasive estimated billing system does not promote that, the DISCOs simply charge as they wish on the basis of nebulous factors. The people want meters, but nobody is taking that seriously. The timing and announcement of the proposed increase are also unfair. It is an unkind New Year Gift to a people confronted with a year of more taxes, with Value Added Tax jumping from 5% in 2019, to 7.5% in 2020 along with other taxes under the Finance Act of 2019. Nigerian workers expect that the increase in the new national minimum wage will be fully implemented in the year 2020, but it is obvious as we enter the new year, that the new minimum wage has already been wiped out by increased inflation and taxation. It is ever so convenient for government to punish the common man. In other countries, governance is aligned to the people’s interests and welfare. In Nigeria, our governors seek to inflict pain and punish the people. 

The opaqueness in the electricity sector is another problem. It promises to be worse than what we have seen so far in the oil and gas sector and the inefficiency of the oil corporation, NNPC. We are told on one hand that electricity tariffs will go up in April, while at the same time, the regulator announces that the Federal Government will underwrite N544.8 billion Electricity Tariffs Shortfall in 2020. How? Is that a subsidy? And if so, is there a provision for it in the 2020 Budget? N544.8 billion? How was that figure arrived at? 

The Federal Government says the intended increase in electricity tariffs is meant to get the sector back on track. Taxing the poor and the impoverished is not the best way to get anything back on track. The electricity sector is in urgent need of a general review and reform, and there are many issues to be addressed. Cost reflective tariffs under the MYTO regime may make the investors happy, but making consumers happier and protecting their interests should be the priority of government. Will increase in tariffs translate into efficiency? I doubt. Efficient service delivery is important. Will government agencies, the biggest debtors in the electricity sector now pay their debts? We don’t know. Or has there been a quid pro quo at the people’s expense? Is government planning to write off the debts of the DISCOs, and forgive their sins? What has happened to the plan to revoke operational licenses in the sector? Too many questions. But that is Nigeria for you. Nothing is ever straight-forward.

On New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2019, Pope Francis slapped a woman’s hand as she clung to him, and grabbed him while he was making the rounds greeting pilgrims at the Vatican. The following morning, the Pope apologized for what he called “yesterday’s bad example”. The footage of the Pope, freeing himself from the woman, with a scowl on his face, has since gone viral, but I am pleased that there are more people in support of the Pope than against him. Significantly, there has been no outrage.  The Pope’s apology came swiftly in less than 24 hours but he actually didn’t need to apologize because he did no wrong. 

What is established is that the Pope, often decorated with the toga of spotlessness, perfection and sainthood is human after all. He is like us. He is one of us. Like everyone else, if he feels threatened or unsafe, he will try to protect himself. The Pope was reacting to an invasion of his space. It is fine to shake hands but some people don’t know when a handshake sends a different signal. They grab. They linger. Women probably understand this better. The moment a handshake becomes an unwanted and unwelcome gesture; the other party is bound to recoil in horror or anger. That is precisely what the Pope did. He slapped the woman’s hand twice and freed himself. 

 I do not agree with those who argue that this is an indication of lack of clarity about Church teaching or that it is a case of “violence against women.”  In any case, the Pope’s hand swat was just a mere tap. This wasn’t a case of an Anthony Joshua slapping an over-eager Asian woman at St. Peter’s square. Where was Vatican Security by the way? In his Angelus remarks on January 1, the Pope delivered a message of hope and preached about “violence against women.” He has been accused of hypocrisy for that but his critics are again unfair to him because the equivalence that they seek to establish with the event of the night before is false. 

For me, by offering an apology, the Pope sets a good example and tone for the new year and decade. He reminds us of a value that is increasingly missing in social relations between the powerful and the ordinary in our world. The Pope is leader of over 2.1 billion Catholics in the world. He controls minds and imaginations. To see the head of such a large congregation getting angry in public, and even getting “physical”, is a reminder of the commonality of human emotions, but his apology in an age when many, especially the powerful and the privileged have lost the capacity to say “I am sorry, I didn’t mean to do that” is the most ennobling aspect of the incident. When last have you as a person, tried to say: “I am sorry”? In today’s world, we rarely apologise for the gaps between acts and intentions. We don’t care enough about the feelings of others. People are just intentionally offensive, be they leaders or followers - and that is why the world is such a troubled place today from Ukraine to Crimea, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Israel, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, North Korea and the United States. Even when some people try to be contrite and they offer apologies, they sound more like Prince Andrew of the United Kingdom making empty noise about obvious wrongs, or like Jeremy Corbyn’s hollowness on anti-Semitism. 

In this matter, we have focused more on the Pope, perhaps understandably. But let the point be made: that the woman who grabbed him is an archetype for followers who do not know their boundaries. Ordinary people tend to cling to leaders, particularly religious leaders. In the Bible, Luke 8: 40-49, the people crowded and pressed against the Lord Jesus Christ and a woman touched Him prompting Him to ask: “Who touched me?” Someone touched me, I know that power has gone out from me”. These days, the people overdo it, because they believe that their salvation lies with that touch, that encounter with the man of power or the symbol of divine authority   Many Christians worship Man rather than God. But it is perfectly normal for the Pope to act like a human being and good for all of us to see that he is just like “us”. 

One of the major indications of the dysfunctional nature of the Nigerian social and political ecosystem is what can be best summarized in pidgin English as the “Na my brother dey there” syndrome. It is the politics of proximity by another name, the thinking by an average Nigerian that he or she is much safer, better off psychologically and in a better position to gain access to opportunities, and even exercise power and influence, only when in the company of a kinsman, or surrounded by kinsmen or when someone of the same ethnic group or who speaks the same language or dialect is in charge of a public office, or any department at all at any level in society. While persons of the same ethnic group or identity may quarrel or disagree among themselves, their relationship in the public arena, especially when other persons of other ethnic extraction are involved is governed by this code of identification and association. The idea of “brotherhood or sisterhood” may even be stretched beyond ethnicity to cover sect or religion, membership of the same association, including alumni associations, geography and filial relations. Relationships in Nigeria are mostly determined by the same fault-lines of the country’s national question. These fault-lines have destroyed the walls of trust among the people. They make normal conversations difficult. Everything, if you pay attention enough, is always reduced to your ethnicity or religion, gender,  geography and hence, we have in 2019, a country of divided people who through symbols, gestures and actions are locked in a primordial capsule. 

This is most evident in the political arena or the public service with regard to appointments, promotions and the leadership recruitment process. When a man from a particular part of the country is in office, let us assume as President of Nigeria, persons who share the same identity with him, or are close to him, simply slide into the “na my brother dey there” mode. They celebrate the emergence of a kinsman as if it is their personal achievement. They raise the level of their expectations. They see the person in office and power as their own person, just because his name sounds familiar, or he speaks the same language or attended the same school or church. There may be no direct personal relationship, but the fact of identity alone is more than enough. In 20 years of return to democratic rule, we have seen this on display at all levels and it is worse when the privileged person in power tolerates or even actively encourages this tendency to the detriment of others who are subtly treated as outsiders and advised to wait until it is their “own turn”. It is the politics of “divide and rule” by other means. The leadership crisis involved is traceable to the failure of Nigerian leaders to discourage this return to the age of inter-tribal wars in African politics. 

The fight against military rule in Nigeria was principled and ideological, the military had overstayed their welcome, the rising wave of democratization in Africa and elsewhere, and the end of the Cold War had made autocratic regimes unfashionable.  But at the root of that fight in Nigeria was also the people’s resistance against the Northernization of Nigeria through the military control of the levers of power. The annulment of the June 12, 1993 election won by Chief MKO Abiola of the Social Democratic Party was the needed turning point and catalyst. Everything was thrown into the mix, in a battle fought along ideological and cultural lines, across the nation with stakeholders united by the need to stop the military from further violating Nigeria. Sadly, the June 12 struggle would be defined along the lines of identity politics, whereas it was a pan-Nigerian struggle. The military left. It was felt that the best way to resolve the matter was to zone the Presidency to Abiola’s constituency, and even to his home-town. In 1999, former Nigerian Head of State, Olusegun Obasanjo emerged as Nigeria’s civilian President. 

Obasanjo is one good example of an African leader who refused to play the politics of identity or ethnicity, or turn it into an instrument of power. He saw himself as a statesman, not on the Nigerian stage, but on the world stage and he conducted himself with great confidence and as a man who from the very first day had his eyes on the legacy of history. Instructively, he received more votes from other parts of Nigeria than from his own ethnic base. He was Nigeria’s President across all boundaries, a strong unifying factor whose understanding of the dynamics of Nigeria’s politics stood in good stead. Obasanjo’s staunchest promoters and supporters were non-Yorubas. His main critics were his own kinsmen. His Yoruba brothers who flocked to Abuja, because “their brother” was there were free to feed their own fantasies but those who tried to abuse the privilege were brutally cut down to size. Obasanjo promoted merit and talent. He hired one of the best teams ever put together by a Nigerian Head of Government. If there was any cabal during the Obasanjo era, it was the cabal of one man: Obasanjo himself. When his Vice President, Atiku Abubakar tried to carve out a space of his own without Obasanjo’s approval or knowledge, Obasanjo asserted his authority and engaged his own deputy in a battle of attrition.   

The Yar’Adua Presidency, as its official spokesperson, Olusegun Adeniyi, has pointed out was coloured by the politics of power and death;  but still, no one could accuse President Yar’Adua of actively promoting the politics of ethnicity and identity. He was the architect of the amnesty programme for Niger Delta militants; he did the groundwork for ensuring lasting peace in that troubled part of the country. It was however, under Yar’Adua that the word “cabal” crept fully into Nigeria’s political lexicon and that was due to the circumstances of his ill-health and eventual death. “Cabal” in Nigerian Presidential politics does not require much explanation, it is not “a kitchen cabinet”, it is understood as a group of persons who try to hijack power, acting either as alter ego or as power brokers who exercise power and authority on behalf of the President as proxies, or at best persons who simply take advantage of a perceived weakness or vacuum at the highest level. The cabal of the Yar’Adua days almost tore the country apart. They knew that the President was incapacitated, but they did not want the then Vice President to either act on his behalf or assume power and office. They soon gained the support of others outside the Villa who insisted that President Yar’Adua was using the slot of the North and as “their brother”, even if he died in office, a Vice President from the South would not be allowed to assume office. It became a case of “my brother” against “your brother”, with the former saying “to hell with the Constitution”.  But the Constitution prevailed and the then Vice President became President. He would later win the Presidential election of 2011. But apparently, those who thought he used part of “their brother’s tenure” never forgave him. 

President Jonathan (2010 -2015) did not use the Presidential office to play identity or ethnic politics. He built more schools in Northern Nigeria than in any other part of the country. He set up Federal universities in the North. In due course, his own kinsmen who thought their brother as President should use the office to their advantage began to grumble about him. It was natural for the Ijaws and other groups in the Niger Delta to believe that it was now “their turn” with “their brother” in office. Since 1956, Nigerian minorities have been asking for the attention of other Nigerians, and for equity and justice. The emergence of President Jonathan was meant to bring them into the mainstream. But Dr. Jonathan tried to please the same people who did not want him in power. He bent backwards for them. He talked about not abusing power, liberalism, and being God-fearing and respecting democratic principles. There were persons who warned him not to be too nice to people who wanted to subvert due process and prevent him from coming to power. Many of his “brothers” from the South South relocated to Abuja. The lobby of Transcorp Hilton Hotel and other major hotels in Abuja were taken over by walking-stick-wielding and fedora-hat-wearing power brokers from the Niger Delta. “Na our brother dey there!” They walked with majestic swagger.  Today, the hotel lobbies have been taken over by different costumes, different language and a completely different kind of swag.     

The danger with this kind of politics is that Nigerians all live in silos. The only place they feel safe is in the ethnic silo, and the hope that they will in the process find someone who will lift them up, on solely that account. Due process is sacrificed. Our institutions are sabotaged. I may have focused so far on Presidential power and politics and the effect on the ethnic imagination and identity politics, but it is the same with other institutions. When a particular Nigerian is given the reins of power in a particular office, his or her first instinct is to fill the establishment with people from the family, the village, the clan, the state, the church or her mosque. Education is not a barrier to this primitive conduct. Otherwise highly educated persons, with international exposure at the highest levels have proven to be ethnic gladiators in the corridors of power.  They often conduct themselves as if they are not aware that Nigeria is multi-ethnic. I will not name anybody. 

What happens is that the victims, those at the receiving end of this problem, end up with pain in their hearts. They feel hurt. They nurse grudges. They feel short-changed. There is a large population of Nigerians out there who believe that they could have done much better, if they did not belong to the margnialized sections of Nigeria, or if they had not been sabotaged by the politics of identity. For the purpose of this narrative, let me cite the example of Matthew Seiyefa. He was in the newspapers yesterday. Seiyefa is a former Director General of the State Security Services. He was appointed to that position on August 7, 2018 by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. President Muhammadu Buhari was then on medical vacation in the United Kingdom. Osinbajo was Acting President. Seiyefa assumed office under rather dramatic circumstances. In August 2018, the DSS, led by Lawal Daura, sent its officers to take over the premises of the National Assembly. DSS operatives sealed off the place and chased away lawmakers. Osinbajo, in response to the outrage that this act of impunity generated, asserted the authority of his office and fired Lawal Daura and appointed Matthew Seiyefa as Acting Director-General of the DSS. Everyone hailed Osinbajo for protecting the legislature, the integrity of the constitutional order, and for saving the face of the government. There are many who insist this was the beginning of Osinbajo’s travails – a subject for another day: He sacked “a brother” of the President and appointed a Southerner, “his own brother” as DG. 

Meanwhile, according to Seiyefa, the day he was named DG of the DSS, there was dancing in the streets of Bayelsa. It was the first time a man from Bayelsa, “their own brother” would be appointed DG, DSS. In his own words, he reports: “…When August 7 last year happened, I was told of the jubilation in Bayelsa state. That they heard that one of their own is the head of a federal agency, people went to beer parlours; they bought drinks and they were happy and that moment of stakeholding in the Nigerian nation is very important.” But the people’s joy was short-lived. A month later, immediately President Buhari returned to the country, he removed Seiyefa and appointed Yusuf Bichi as DG DSS. The interpretation was that he replaced “their brother” with “his own brother.” 

Seiyefa, more than a year later was speaking at the launch of the Bayelsa State Tertiary Education Loan Scheme in his capacity as Pro-Chancellor of the Niger Delta University. He further disclosed that he had a hard time earning promotions while in the civil service, because identity politics matters more in Nigeria and you have to know either a traditional ruler or a religious leader to put in a word for you. He sounded like a man in deep pains. It is most unusual for a former Head of the Secret Police to take on the Nigerian State but Seiyefa spoke his mind and he should not be sanctioned for that – he has a right to speak and spark under the Nigerian Constitution! He said he was saved by education, and the fact that he had good education. Hear him again: “...because you are from here, (that is from the Niger Delta) you are already disadvantaged. But if you are poorly educated, then that is double jeopardy and you will be doubly endangered.” 

Seiyefa is right when he says good education helps, but not always, my brother. Has Seiyefa not seen well-educated persons in Nigeria serving as messengers to mediocre agents who flourish because their “brothers” are in charge? Has he not seen geniuses from other parts of the country kept out of school in the name of Federal Character? Does he not know that Nigeria is not fair, just or truthful to all concerned?  When will Nigeria ever rise above the politics of association? When will an educated man in Nigeria become as important as the cattle herder from Niger regardless of ethnic identity?  This is part of the burden we bear as Nigeria enters a new year under the clouds of fear, uncertainty and the politics of difference.   

ON December 20, the United States government issued a statement, speaking through the US Department of State and US Secretary of State, Michael R. Pompeo, designating Nigeria “a country of particular concern” with regard to religious freedom and the freedom of thought and conscience. The statement opens with the patronizing declaration that “the protection of religious freedom is a top Trump Administration foreign policy priority.” It adds that: “The United States continues to work diligently to promote religious freedom and combat abuses. These recent designations continue that important work.” We are further told: “…The Department renewed the placement of Comoros, Russia, and Uzbekistan on a Special Watch List (SWL) for governments that have engaged in or tolerated “severe violations of religious freedom” and added Cuba, Nicaragua, Nigeria, and Sudan to this list. Sudan was moved to the SWL due to significant steps taken by the civilian-led transitional government to address the previous “systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom…”  

The statement goes further: “…These designations underscore the United States’ commitment to protect those who seek to exercise their freedom of religion or belief…Our actions have been and will continue to be, consistent with our position on religious freedom. No country, entity, or individual should be able to persecute people of faith without accountability. We have acted, and we will continue to do so.” 

The enabling reference for the American government’s position is the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. Our interest is the inclusion of Nigeria in the Special Watch List and the response that this has generated over the weekend, and whether this has been useful or not.  There has been a variety of responses. 

One: the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed says Nigerians enjoy unfettered freedom of  thought, conscience and religion, and in his view, the United States Government is wrong because Nigeria does not deserve to be on any watch list for religious persecution or the violation of the right to the freedom of thought. He adds that failed politicians and disgruntled elements are the ones latching on to the tag and narrative of religious persecution in Nigeria as a “trump card”. Let’s unpack the Minister’s claims.  Yes, constitutionally, the Nigerian Constitution, 1999 as amended, upholds in Section 38 that every citizen shall enjoy the freedom of thought, conscience and religion. The only caveat that is inserted here is Section 38 (4) which says no public official is allowed to be a member of a secret society or take part in its activity. But the problem with this provision is that it is ambiguous as to what constitutes a secret society or its membership. In addition, Section 10 of the Nigerian Constitution is of interest. It says: “the Government of the Federation or of a State shall not adopt any religion as state religion.” So, in responding to the US State Department, on the question of religious freedom in Nigeria, the Minister of Information may have had at the back of his mind, Nigeria’s constitutional provisions which can be tendered as textbook evidence. But the question that has been asked is: does Nigeria respect these constitutional provisions or the rule of law generally? Is there religious freedom in Nigeria or the freedom of thought and conscience? 

Alhaji Lai Mohammed avoids this question in attempting to respond to it. The truth is that religion remains a complex issue in Nigeria, and when the state supports, tolerates, condones or promotes one religion against a particular religion, it sows the seeds for organized intolerance, religious conflict, violence and discord. The US Department of State specifically cited Boko Haram as “an entity of particular concern” because its ideology is rooted in the politics of religion and hate. The Nigerian Government in its own National Security Strategy (2019), a 60-page document, only recently disclosed that the Boko Haram is linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and that it poses a fresh risk with its plans to deploy Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive (CBRNE) weapons. Boko Haram is opposed to Western education and seeks to hoist an Islamic Sharia flag in every part of Nigeria. To the best of everyone’s knowledge, the Nigerian government has not been able to stop the Boko Haram menace. 

Another problem that we tend to have is that depending on who is in power, Nigerian governments have been known to violate Section 10 of the Constitution by adopting either Christianity or Islam as “de facto State religion.” Nobody may ever say so publicly or admit any bias, but it is often the case that there is mistrust in parts of the country on the basis of nothing else but religion. This is currently the position of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), for example, in response to a situation whereby most prominent positions in the country, at the Federal level are occupied by Muslims from a particular part of the country. The conflict between herders and pastoralists in the country that has resulted in the killing of thousands and the destruction of properties, may in reality be a conflict over land and economic power, but it has also been interpreted from a religious dimension with particular accent on the failure of the government to sanction the guilty. However, religious conflict may not always be inter-religious. It could be intra—religious and sectarian. For example, the continued detention of the leader of the Shiitte Islamic sect in Nigeria, Ibrahim el-Zakzaky and his wife, has also been seen as the victimization of a rival sectarian group by a Sunni-dominated Nigerian ruling elite. The Nigerian Government says the problem of the Shiitte movement in Nigeria is of a criminal nature but the predominant narrative is that this is a case of religious persecution. 

Beyond these recent and topical examples, over the years, Nigeria has had to deal with issues of religious persecution dating back to the Maitasine riots between 1980 and 1992, and the repeated religious riots in Bauchi, Plateau and Southern Kaduna, characterized by Muslim-Christian conflict, the destruction of lives and properties, worsened by the politics of ethnicity. Christians claim to be the worse victims. Muslims also insist that they have suffered losses over the years and that Nigerian Christians cannot claim to be innocent. The key issue is: how well do our leaders deal with the problem? Is the ruling elite neutral? Nigeria is a country of very religious people. People pray as if their entire life depends on it. They worship clerics and pastors. The best business in Nigeria is the business of religion. But does religion unite us or divide us? Has it helped us? 

The Minister of Information’s additional riposte that “failed politicians and disgruntled elements” from Nigeria are the ones instigating an iniquitous narrative against Nigeria sounds rather easy and familiar. Is he suggesting that the US Government is acting as an agent for some Nigerian politicians? And disgruntled elements?  Earlier in the year a group called Nigerian Christian Elders’ Forum petitioned the UK Parliament urging its members to compel the UK to take action against the Nigerian Government for tolerating religious persecution. That protest which was signed by General Theophilus Danjuma (rtd)  - (when is he going to carry out his threat to talk by the way?) - and General Zamani Lekwot (rtd) was supported by the Middle Belt Forum and other concerned Nigerians. Incidentally, a year earlier in 2018, the UK House of Lords had discussed the issue of violence and religious persecution in Nigeria. 

It is also instructive that just as the US Department of State placed Nigeria on a Special Watch List on December 20, the Christian Broadcasting Network and a UK-based Group – the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART) issued a report accusing Nigeria of tolerating religious persecution. Are these the disgruntled persons and groups the Minister has in mind? Rather than dismiss feedbacks on religious freedom in Nigeria as untrue, the Nigerian Government should pay attention. Could there be something that we are overlooking?      

Two: in addition to the reaction by the Minister of Information, the Presidency also reacted through the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu who equally dismissed the US position, noting that it carries “no immediate implication” for Nigeria. On the contrary, it does. It is a subtle threat to Nigeria and a cautionary note of warning. Other Western countries may be tempted to toe the US line and place Nigeria on similar watch lists thus branding the country negatively within the international community. The US position on Nigeria has also further strengthened the hands of the Christian community in Nigeria, which through the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has already welcomed the US position as a correct characterization of a planned Islamization of Nigeria.  CAN insists that the US Government has more facts than the Nigerian Government. Human Rights Groups in Nigeria are echoing the same narrative. The Muslim community represented by the JNI has accused the United States of bias and discrimination against Muslims. Meanwhile, Garba Shehu says Nigeria would meet with the United States to discuss ‘areas of concern” early next year. 

Three: while the suggestion by Garba Shehu that the Nigerian Government will discuss its position with the United States may seem like a subtle back-track, his colleague, Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity had something entirely different to say. Adesina has been reported has having told the United States Government to stop interfering in Nigeria’s activities because nobody has appointed the US as “the policeman of the world”.  He added, we are told, that the US has its own issues and should face those issues.  Femi Adesina said precisely the same thing when, less than a month ago, the US, UK and EU expressed concern about Nigeria’s respect for human rights and the rule of law and the continued detention of activist, Omoyele Sowore. Adesina claimed that Nigeria is protected by its own sovereignty. He forgets however, each time he says this, that Nigeria is a member of the international community, bound by rules of international conduct and rules and conventions to which Nigeria is signatory. No country may cherry-pick as to which standards are most convenient for it, particularly with regard to the rule of law, due process and human rights. 

No one may have appointed the United States “the policeman of the world”, but the US as a global superior power (note that I have not said super-power but superior power – there is a difference) operates a rewards and sanctions foreign policy process that is beyond the counter-poise of other nations including China, Russia and Japan. Is Nigeria in a position to tell the US, EU and the UK to shut up? Femi Adesina would probably have been better off pointing out the hypocrisy at the heart of the Trump administration’s foreign policy process. Can that administration legitimately accuse Nigeria of condoning religious persecution when under Trump, Muslims from six Muslim-majority countries were blacklisted from entering the United States were it not for the intervention of the courts? Or is the  Trump administration waxing lyrical about religious freedom  in order to appeal to the Republican, pro-Trump, conservative, Christian base for election purposes? 

By now, it should be obvious that the Nigerian Government responded through three different persons in three different directions to a single statement by the US Department of State, all within 24 hours. This has become standard practice on recent issues, be it the rule of law, or the DSS and Sowore, the Punch Editorial on President Buhari or allegations of religious persecution in Nigeria and we wonder why key government spokespersons blow hot and cold at the same time in an un-coordinated manner. There should be greater harmony in the Presidency’s public communication process. With three different reactions on the US position on religious freedom in Nigeria, what exactly is the US expected to react to? And is there still a Ministry of Foreign Affairs? If there is, does it have any say in this matter?  

Allegations by the American Government that there is indeed evidence of religious persecution in Nigeria are too serious to be treated so perfunctorily. Religion is a very sensitive issue not only in Nigeria but all over the world. It has been exploited for political purposes with grave consequences. In Nigeria, political leaders exploit religion as a tool of manipulation. The combination of this with ethnicity and sectarianism has created some of the most terrible moments in Nigerian history. This is the enlightened context in which we should consider the word of caution from the United States. 

The first time I was in Awka, Anambra state, I had gone there to attend the Association of Nigerian Authors  (ANA)  Conference – that was many years ago. I had been to Anambra again since then, but as part of a Presidential delegation from Abuja led personally by President Goodluck Jonathan. Those visits as part of an official entourage took me to Ogidi, the home town of the literary legend, Chinua Achebe. This was on the occasion of his burial. Chinua Achebe’s death was a major loss for the whole of humanity because he was one of the finest spirits that ever lived, and he continues to live on through the immortality of his words, works, and thoughts. Achebe put Ogidi, Nigeria and Africa, on the global map. As we arrived, I kept wondering in my head whether indeed I was walking on the same soil that was once tilled by a famous fictional character called Okonkwo. Achebe was given a Christian burial and as the funeral service progressed, images from Things Fall Apart flashed through my mind: such is the power of literature -  a world of endless possibilities where fiction and reality often merge and collide in endless alterations and shaping.  I was back in Anambra, again as President Jonathan’s staff during the burial of Dim Odimegwu Ojukwu, the Biafran leader and revolutionary whose engagement with Nigeria and the sacrifice that he made for his people, the Igbos of Eastern Nigeria, will forever remain an un-eraseable chapter in the mapping of ethnic and identity politics in Africa. Ojukwu was extra-ordinary: one of those unusual occurrences in nature, a meteor, a piece of volcanic eruption, an avatar, a phenomenon whose very existence defines the meaning and nature of everything else around it, past, present and future. 

At other times, President Goodluck Jonathan was in Anambra – either to flag off a project, particularly the Second Niger Bridge, or to commission projects by the then Peter Obi-led Anambra state administration, or to campaign as was the case in 2015, for a second term in office. I was there with him. But the child-part of me always wanted to revisit Awka. Not even Onitsha, which I passed through in my younger days, on my way to and fro school in Calabar. For those who would remember, we had a successful ANA conference in Awka in those days. The local chapter of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) not only received us well, they made very good arrangements. We were accommodated at Ikenga Hotel. In those days, ANA was a well managed association. It provided an opportunity for writers and thinkers, scholars and their students, to come together every year at a designated location to celebrate the Muse, exchange ideas, re-discover Nigeria, and honour literary achievement and originality. The old mixed with the young; the ANA annual conference was the best place to meet any major figure in Nigerian literature across the genres. There was even an annual publication; the ANA Review which promoted fine ideas and good writing. To appear in that annual publication was in itself an achievement. I served the Association for many years as a judge of annual entries for the ANA prizes. I have benefitted a lot reading the harvest of fertile seasons in Nigerian literature from ANA to the Nigerian NLG Prizes in Literature. 

Which is why it is sad and unfortunate that ANA Conferences have now lost meaning, sense and direction. I understand that this year’s ANA Conference ended up as a political war between writers loyal to the Peoples Democratic Party and loyalists of the All Progressives Congress (APC). The hijack of the community of thinkers and writers resulting in the abbreviation, manipulation and desecration of the role of writers in social thought and action is in every regard an exemplification, a very bad one, of the destruction of everything good, useful and noble in our country. So, they have taken partisan politics into ANA as a main issue?  Writers are people of ideas and action, leaders guiding the community with their thoughts. When they descend to the lowest depths, they take away every useful thing from their own moral compass. This year’s Conference, the 38^th, of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) did not take place in Awka. It held in Enugu in October/November, with an interesting theme: “Literature, Nationalism and the Poetics of Integration”. But the feedback has been poor. I will comment no further, except to note that in its prime, the Association of Nigerian Authors used to be a strong civil society platform in Nigeria.  It is therefore not a flight of fancy that as I entered Anambra state, this past weekend, I remembered ANA and Awka. Chinua Achebe, a founding father of ANA, is from Anambra State. Anambra state is also the home of some of the brightest, most educated and most accomplished persons from Eastern Nigeria, and indeed the entire Igbo nation.

The road to Awka did not just invoke memories, the very encounter with the road itself was the main experience. We landed in Asaba airport, 45 minutes after take off from Murtala Muhammad Airport in Lagos. It would have been easier to go to Awka through Enugu or Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu, but you’d recall that in May 2019, that airport had to be shut down, we were told, for “security reasons” – which had something to do with the fact that the runway was bad, there was a market too close to the airport and the mast of the state’s radio station had been wrongly located. This same airport has been under repairs and renovation since 2010 and it is supposed to be the international airport of the East but somehow, the authorities never got it right. After spending so much money on the same airport, it took nearly ten years to realize that the money spent between February and December 2010 yielded nothing. We have now been told that the rehabilitation of the airport will be completed in April 2020, Again, this tells the story of Nigeria from another dimension – the crisis of transportation and the absolute chaos of governance, manifest in the agony that average citizens suffer daily. It was quite an ordeal getting to Awka from Asaba.

In a short while after our setting out from the Asaba Airport in Delta State, we got to the Niger Bridge, the bridge over the Onitsha River that separates Anambra and Delta state, and Eastern Nigeria from the West. Travelling by air in Nigeria is an ordeal, going by road is painful, water transportation is virtually non-existent, rail travel which is a norm in other parts of the world is just now being introduced as an achievement. For a country of over 200 million people, not being able to move around without pain, is a tragedy! We spent hours just trying to cross the Niger Bridge. Every inch of it on both sides was truck-and-vehicle-filled. Across the bridge, to our left, in the distance, was the proposed Second Niger Bridge. It looked like an abandoned project. The old Niger Bridge had become too narrow. It was built over 30 years ago. It can no longer handle the volume of traffic and the weight that is placed on it daily. The plan to build a Second Niger Bridge made sense. But based on what I saw last Friday, it is safe to conclude that the Second Niger Bridge is an abandoned project contrary to what government tells us on the pages of newspapers. Again, another sad Nigerian story. I reflected on the madness and I was bewildered. 

Sitting beside me was Nduka Otiono, poet, essayist, polemicist, researcher, university teacher, an old and active denizen of miliki joints around town, ex-journalist, now Professor of Literature in a Canadian University.  We linked up at the Asaba airport on our way to Awka together. Otiono abandoned journalism in Nigeria.  After paying his dues in about five newspapers, working with some of the brightest journalists of the time, he relocated to the United States and later Canada, and within a period of 13 years, he moved from being a line editor and a big boy in miliki joints around Lagos to a Professor in one of the most prestigious universities in the world. Unlike many of our old colleagues, Otiono visits home regularly and when he does, he links up with the old crowd, and the amazing thing is that he sounds and behaves like he never left town. He knows all the local jokes and gossip; and he is completely without affectation. He is just the same Ikeja-axis boy of old but he has a good brain and a talent with words. As I agonized over the crisis on Nigeria’s Niger Brdige, it was Otiono, a man who had changed base and lived in better places telling me to relax and stop behaving like “a spoilt member of Nigeria’s privileged class.” We bought bottled water and I complained about drinking an unknown brand. Otiono turned the thing into laughter, reminding me of how I used to be happy with sachet water: “Drink the thing my friend, no be you dey drink pure water with us in those days? No worry, your body will remember in case you may have forgotten.”  

Talking about water, we both wondered why Nigeria has not been able to turn its water resources into a major asset.  Asaba and Onitsha are separated by a very short stretch of water. People live in Asaba, Delta State and work in Onitsha, Anambra State and vice versa. The people on both sides are linked by culture, geography and nature. But to commute from one side to the other is difficult. There has been so much talk about the Second Niger Bridge, whereas a water transport or rail link between Asaba and Onitsha could make all the difference. Otiono took a look at the water to our left and right, as our driver tried to avoid the threat of other vehicles, driving in Nigeria is like fencing, and offered an insight into how transportation is managed in Ottawa where he lives with his family. 

If the road had been good and smooth, we should have made it to Awka in less than one hour but we spent almost three hours. What I observed from Asaba to Awka was that while the roads within the states appeared good and motorable, even if the state governors still need to do more, and certainly need to be more innovative, the Trunk A roads which belong to the Federal Government are in a terrible state. Crossing over to Onitsha on a portion of road belonging to the Federal Government was painful.  Doing the same between Onitsha and Awka across Federal Government portions of the road was also stressful. Yet, the Federal Government continues to insist that state governments should not touch roads that have been classified as Federal Government Roads: If they do so, they will not be reimbursed by the Federal Government. Given the kind of delay and frustration that I experienced moving between Asaba and Awka last Friday, I conclude that there is a need for a new conversation about the ownership of roads across Nigeria. The present system is not working. It cannot work. In a Federal system, the Federal Government has no reason claiming ownership of roads outside the Federal Capital Territory. The states should be responsible for every piece of road within their territories. Moving from a good road to a bad road and having to figure out which of the portions belongs to either State or Federal Government is harmful to the mental health of Nigerians. 

…We finally made it to Awka, tired, hungry and disoriented. It was a different Awka. The village of those days has become a thriving cosmopolitan centre. Even the approach to the town was quite welcoming.  Excited, I asked for Ikenga Hotel. Everyone looked at me suspiciously. I sounded to them like the old woman who during the Yar’Adua years asked to know what Yakubu Gowon was doing about a particular problem. She was frozen in time. She didn’t know Gowon had since exited the corridors of power.  I was like that old woman as I listened to the story of how Ikenga Hotel, which used to be a symbol of cultural and identity affirmation across Eastern Nigeria, was sold off by greedy politicians. The only Ikenga Hotel that survived this rampage is in Nsukka. 

I was checked into one of the hotels of the new era, where Otiono and I soon had a reunion with Uzor Maxim Uzoatu (Boroja!), Chijioke Amu-Nnadi, and others - all in town for the public presentation of James Eze’s book of poetry titled “dispossessed”. Eze is Chief Press Secretary of Anambra State and one of our own in the literary community. I was in Awka to review his book. I also attended Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s event at the Golden Tulip Hotel, Agulu Lake, organized by the Purple Hibiscus Trust. Chimamanda is not just a gifted writer, she is a gift to humanity. Her event in Agulu was attended by young, aspiring writers from different parts of Africa and there she was, providing leadership and guidance, grooming the younger generation, giving back and building bridges. This is a writer beyond the ages, a beacon of hope, an authentic revelation.     

I ate correct Oha soup and I had fun at Santel World, an emergent cultural melting pot in Awka, in the company of key players in the Anambra State Government who stood by Eze and successfully showcased the Willie Obiano administration’s support for literature and the arts. The return journey to Lagos on Sunday was marred by the delay by Air Peace at the Asaba airport.