Tunde Fowler

When, in October, President Muhammadu Buhari presented to the National Assembly the Appropriation Bill for 2020, he submitted along with the budget proposal as it is known, a Fiscal Strategy or Finance Bill, 2019. The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning has since then spoken about the importance of the Finance Bill, to the growth of the Nigerian economy. The stated objective is to promote fiscal equity, address problems with the prevailing taxation order, and reform existing taxation laws in line with global best practices. The Bill contains changes to the Companies and Income Tax Act, Value Added Tax Act (which has been quite controversial), Personal Income Tax Act, Capital Gains Tax Act (CGTA), Customs and Excise Tariff (Consolidation) Act, Stamp Duties Act and Petroleum Profits Tax Act (PPTA). Overall, the Bill seeks to expand the government’s revenue base, strengthen the extant regulatory framework (??) and also provide incentives for small and medium scale enterprises as engines of economic growth and development.  The Minister is pleased that the Bill has already passed the second reading stage in the National Assembly. No one should be surprised about that. The present National Assembly will pass anything presented to it by the Executive with unprecedented enthusiasm.  

It should be noted, however, that despite all efforts that have been made to reform taxation in Nigeria and turn taxation into a strong vehicle for effective governance, Nigeria’s tax receipts have remained relatively low. The country’s tax-to GDP ratio is one of the lowest in the world. It is far below the average in sub-Saharan Africa. The Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) targets a tax-to-GDP ratio of 15% by 2020.  Current efforts by the Nigerian government to focus on tax reform is in part a response to arguments by both home-based and foreign analysts that Nigeria needs to diversify its revenue base, and expand government revenue if it hopes to meet its targets of double-digit economic growth, wealth creation and sustainable development through foreign direct investment and local entrepreneurship, and of course a tax-to-GDP ratio of 15% by 2020, which is certainly, ambitious because the real problem is productivity and earnings. 

There are specific challenges that stand in the way of these targets: (a) Nigeria’s over-dependence on extractives, particular crude oil, which accounts for 80% of the country’s forex receipts, and a casual attitude to revenue collection and taxation – for 20 years, for example,  nobody deemed it necessary to protect Nigeria’s interest under Section 16 of the Production Sharing Contracts Agreements Act with international oil companies – resulting in a calculated loss of between $28 - $62 billion dollars for the country; (b) the weakness of tax laws, institutions and policies in the country, the effect of which is a low quality tax system; (c) the negative attitude of the Nigerian tax payer towards taxation. The average Nigerian tax payer does not trust the tax authorities and (d) there are also issues of transparency, accountability – (that is lack of accountability for collected revenues) and good governance which accounts for the poor administration of the country’s tax system. 

It must be admitted nonetheless that there is some merit to the cumulative efforts that have been made over the years, to transform the tax regime in the country, or to be more specific, to encourage non-oil revenues, and mobilise non-compliant taxpayers to see the need for tax payment as a civic responsibility. After independence, an Income Tax Management Act (ITMA) was enacted in 1961. There was also the Companies Income Tax Act No 22 of 1961 (CITA) which placed corporate taxation under the control of the Federal Board of Inland Revenue (FBIR). In 1979, CITA, 1961 was replaced with the CITA Decree No. 28 of 1979. The FBIR was responsible for the operationalization of the Act. In 1991, the Federal Government set up a study group on Nigeria’s tax system, whose recommendation led to the Finance Decree of 1993 and the establishment of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), State Boards of Internal Revenue and Local Government Revenue Committees.  There were other efforts at tax reform in 1992 (led by Dr. Sylvester Ugoh), in 2002 (led by Professor Dotun Phillips), in 2004 (led by Seyi Bickersteth) and in 2012 (led by Mckinsey and Co). The turning point at the Federal level was in 2004. 

At the state level, Lagos State took the lead in this regard as far back as 1999 and by 2007, the state was already directly reminding Lagos residents of how tax payer’s money was working for them thus linking taxation to good governance and accountability.  Many Nigerians are not motivated to pay tax though, because they do not trust the political elite or tax administrators and they hardly ever see why they should pay tax when everyone else is enjoying oil money. Tax evasion is therefore common and this is even facilitated by tax officials who take a cut of the reviewed rates and help to doctor the papers. In truth, tax payers do not also see why they should pay any tax when paid taxes are likely to be mismanaged to fund the wasteful official and private lives of elected or appointed officials. Given new realities however, that is: the volatility of oil prices, the pro-climate change, anti-hydrocarbon lobby, increase in the production of Shale oil, increased inventories in non-OPEC countries, high budget deficit, mounting debt, a weak national currency, shifts in geo-politics beyond local control, slow domestic economic growth, Nigeria has every need to adopt new, workable and sustainable strategies. Institutionalizing a strong tax governance regime is only one of many options, but beyond all the problems already identified, the biggest challenge is the needless politicization of tax administration in Nigeria.  

This is precisely what the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning and the President should worry about if Nigeria must achieve its stated objectives and targets with regard to revenue mobilisation and an efficient tax system. How can we insulate Nigeria’s tax system from politics and the greed of politicians? How do we ensure that an engine of growth and development does not become a play-field for political conflicts? I raise this point because this is what has been happening in the FIRS, and even at the state levels in recent times. Politicians want to get hold of the tax office. It is the favorite posting for anybody that a Godfather wants to help. Every jobless man wants his first job to be in the tax office or Customs or any department of government that is considered “juicy”. The juiciness or non-juiciness of an appointment must be a uniquely African and Nigerian invention. The way it works out is that whoever is appointed to a position that is considered “juicy” or influential is considered a target for attack and blackmail. Everybody wants the position. And the detractors would go to any length to pull the person occupying the attractive office down. We have seen traces of that in every administration and also in this administration.  Public service is an arena where you cannot trust anybody. You have to constantly look behind your shoulders. There are civil servants who tell you: “Yes sir, Yes sir” every other minute but they are busy compiling evidence against you to be used the day the Devil seizes control of their souls. There are politicians who believe that the office you occupy belongs to them because their kinsman is the President. 

Nigeria wants to diversify its revenue base and strengthen its revenue collection system. How do we do this without the threat of primitive politics? With regard to revenue collection, two departments of government at the Federal level are of primary importance: the Federal Inland Revenue Service and the Department of Customs and Excise. If President Buhari’s advisers would tell him the truth, he should know that both departments are in the eye of the storm. Some people and stakeholders want the leaders of both departments of government changed. In fact, with immediate effect if possible. I have nothing against Col. Hameed Ali. He can be there indeed for as long as the President needs his services in line with the Enabling Act but he needs to tone down his military-style tactics. The Customs under his watch has been more military than para-military. Locking down people’s shops, harassing car dealers and seizing cellophane bags of rice, turning the Customs into a military unit create the wrong impression, but no one can doubt the fact, however, that Hammed Ali loves his job and that he means well for Nigeria. With a little change of style and tactics, he is probably the Customs Manager that Nigeria needs. Those who are insisting that he should not be re-appointed should check his records of performance and state in clear terms their objections to his methods. 

Like Hameed Ali, Babatunde Fowler who heads the Federal Inland Revenue Service, the operational department for internal revenue is similarly embattled. There have been complaints and petitions against him purportedly signed by faceless and nameless staff who accuse him of all kinds of infractions including the engagement of consultants and using FIRS money to attend parties every weekend. Fowler denied all the allegations. His cowardly detractors have not provided any concrete evidence. When the blackmail failed, one Mr. Okwara, an Abuja-based lawyer went to court in Kano to ask Babatunde Fowler to vacate his office, on the grounds that his tenure expired in August 2019, having been appointed on August 20, 2015. The plaintiff alleged that Fowler’s continued stay in office is illegal unless he is re-appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari. Counsel for Fowler raised issues of locus standi and jurisdiction. The Court eventually threw out the case noting that whereas Fowler was appointed in acting capacity in August 2015, the effective date of his appointment was December 15, 2015, the very day the Senate conveyed its approval of his appointment. 

In August 2019, Fowler further received a query from the office of the Chief of Staff on the failure of the FIRS to meet revenue projections. He was required to explain “significant variances between the budgeted collections and actual collections for the period 2015 to 2018.”  Mischief-makers seized upon this to allege that they had been been vindicated.  Fowler responded to the query, and the Presidency issued a statement to say that t the FIRS boss was not being probed by the Presidency. Given the fact that the FIRS and Customs and other revenue collection agencies of government are given set targets, and the history of abuse of the processing of revenues, it should not come as a surprise if the Presidency demands explanations. 

But what is clear is that whenever a person’s tenure in government is about to end, especially if the person is imagined, thought, or considered, to be occupying a “juicy” position, and such a person is eligible for re-appointment, other persons who are interested in that position would embark on a campaign of blackmail and calumny. Their goal is to influence the appointing authority to get their quarry out of office in as vicious a manner as possible.  With regard to Nigeria’s fiscal strategy going forward, the Nigerian government must separate politics from policy if it hopes to make any difference. To avoid taking any rash decision, beyond policy, the administration must ask critical questions and conduct a proper audit of the revenue collection agencies, and their leadership.  Is Hameed Ali, a soldier in Customs, terrorizing everybody as alleged? Even if he brings in high revenue? The people who accuse Fowler in FIRS, do they mean well for Nigeria or they are just resisting change? What is their motive? Do they just want Fowler out because they think he is close to persons who may be interested in the Presidential politics of 2023?

I understand Hameed Ali has nothing to fear. But Fowler? Appointed in August 2015 in an acting capacity, and subsequently as Chairman of the FIRS in December 2015, Babatunde Fowler’s first tenure appointment expires on December 15, 2019. He can only remain in that position if he is re-appointed by the President. Fowler, a former banker, was the pioneer Chair of the Lagos State Inland Revenue Service (LIRS). When he assumed office at the Federal level in 2015, FIRS revenue stood at N3.2 trillion. The figure at the end of 2018 was N5.3 trillion, this increase came at a time the economy suffered recession and oil prices crashed. Fowler’s FIRS recorded non-oil tax revenue of N2.85 trillion in 2018 alone, representing more than half of the total revenue for the year. He encouraged innovation and automation.  In 2016, he was elected President/Chairman of the African tax body, the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF). In October 2018, he was re-elected for another term of two years in that position.  His term expires in October 2020 as head of the African Tax Forum. In 2017, the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres further appointed Babatunde Fowler as a member of the International Experts Committee on Tax Matters. 

As I write, Fowler is in Kampala Uganda, as Nigeria’s ambassador, providing leadership as Africa’s Tax Chief. The African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) is by the way, 10 years old today. The 4^th Conference of African Tax Administrators, international organizations, civil society groups, academics and policy makers is also being held today in Kampala, Uganda, the same city where the inaugural meeting of the Forum was held in 2009. The Forum’s theme for this year is “Innovation: Digitalization and Harnessing Technology ICT to improve tax systems”. Nigeria’s Babatunde Fowler is leading that entire process. Back home, he is being derided by some faceless characters. Those who should be proud of him are trying to pull him down. We must not reduce tax administration in Nigeria to petty politics. In the long run, tax management must be linked to per capita income and productivity within the economy, merit and achievement, not personalities.  

Our educated concern is to draw President Buhari and the public’s attention to these issues and the need to be fully apprised of the growing politicization of revenue collection agencies beyond whatever obvious limitations that may exist. Mr. President is hereby invited to consider the foregoing submissions and act with utmost discretion pursuant to Sections 5(1), 130, 147, 171 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.  

“God has been so kind, the only way I can show my gratitude to Him is to use my resources to support those who are underprivileged. This I intend to do for the rest of my life. In a world full of conflicts, diseases, calamities and inequality, we all need to show the milk of human kindness, to reach out and comfort the sick and give a helping hand to the weak.”  With those touching words about the collective humanity that we all share and the purpose of life, Femi Otedola, Nigerian multi-billionaire and entrepreneur issued a cheque of N5 billion in support of Save the Children, a 100-year old UK-based charity. Otedola’s donation is for the rehabilitation of displaced and underprivileged children who are victims of the insurgency in the North Eastern part of Nigeria. The cheque was presented by Tolani Otedola, the billionaire’s eldest daughter, at a gala event in Abuja, Sunday, organised by another daughter, Florence Otedola, who is popularly known as DJ Cuppy.

The latter is an Ambassador for Save the Children and a member of the organisation’s Africa Advisory Board. Femi Otedola’s friend, Aliko Dangote, also a billionaire and a philanthropist of note, added his own donation of N100 million bringing the total donation to N5.1 billion. I do not know how rich Otedola is, but any man that would give away N5 billion (about US $14 million) to support children or anyone in distress certainly has the milk of human kindness flowing through his veins. Otedola deserves special recognition and a word of gratitude for his generosity. By this singular act, and similar gestures in the past, he seems to be changing the narrative about the art of giving and the need for a sense of community and philanthropy in Nigeria. It is not enough to give, but to give consistently and generously, without any expectation of reward or gain.

Of all his efforts as an entrepreneur, Otedola would probably be most remembered for his acts of philanthropy in the long run, that is his social entrepreneurship, the readiness with which he offers a helping hand. In the last year or so, he has been on record for picking up the medical bills of Christian Chukwu, former Captain and coach of the Super Eagles or the Green Eagles as the team was earlier known. Chukwu (now 68) was a commanding presence on the football field. He led his local team, the Enugu Rangers to many victories, and as a member of the Green Eagles, he was a play maker and motivator of the team’s last line of defence. Both his fans and teammates called him “Chairman.” That was not for nothing. And yet the same man could not pay hospital bills. Femi Otedola stepped in and helped out. He did the same for Peter Fregene (now 72), Nigeria’s former international goalkeeper (1968- 1971). And for Majek Fashek, the gifted Reggae musician who at the height of his glory was dubbed “the rainmaker”, in attestation of the force and mythical quality of one of his famous tracks: “Send Down The Rain.” Many fans of his would insist even today, that whenever Majek Fashek performed that song, rain actually fell! But the magic has since left the stage, the myth has been compromised. The same Majek Fashek could also not pay hospital bills.  Femi Otedola bailed him out. He also did the same for two famous Nigerian actors: Sadiq Daba and Victor Olaotan. There are probably many others whose cases are not reported in the media. 

Nigeria is a very strange place where the future is as uncertain as the present. The gap between the rich and the poor is wider than the entire Sahara Desert. The average Nigerian lives on less than a dollar per day. Social infrastructure is in a state of decay. There is no social security scheme. The public health system collapsed long ago. Private hospitals detain the sick who are unable to pay for treatment. One woman gave birth in a hospital; she and her baby were detained. The country once tried to introduce a National Health Insurance Scheme. It has never worked, because it is used as an instrument of political and ethnic patronage. Ours is a country where even the rich are not sure of tomorrow. Talented people, distinguished professionals in various fields of endeavor end up becoming beggars, or destitute, not necessarily because they did not plan for their future or for unforeseeable accidents of life, but they suffer because Nigeria often leaves its citizens stranded. The state routinely disappoints the people. It is unfair. It can be cruel. People are treated as if they do not matter. 

This is why every act of kindness is significant. It is not the amount that matters, but the very thought itself, that gesture that reminds us occasionally that in this pressure cooker of a society in which we live, you can still find a rich man who gives out a dollar or two, a concerned citizen who helps an accident victim, a cab driver who finds a document or some money forgotten by a passenger and returns it, or a security agent who does his work with the fear of God. Such persons are quite rare in these parts, and it is why we need a constant reminder that beyond the state or government, Nigeria is a country where we must continue to search for the meaning of Being-ness, and the reasons for being human. An Otedola helping the sick and the weak reminds us of the big difference that we all can make, not in dollars but each man in his own station according to his strength through simple and possible gestures of kindness. 

As for Otedola, I do not imagine that he goes about with an ambulance-load of cash looking for other people’s medical bills to pay. Far from it. He supports other causes as well, particularly poor students whose school fees he pays, educational institutions to which he has donated buildings and religious bodies and groups that he has assisted. By involving his children in his most recent donation, he also signposts a strong narrative about parenting and sustainability. His N5 billion donation is routed through the Cuppy Foundation. The cheque was delivered by his eldest daughter. What else does a man need to say to his daughters or the suitors who want to marry a billionaire’s daughters? He tells them clearly that life goes beyond music, fashion, dancing, boo-ing, bae-ing, vacationing and Gelato-ing. 

It is not surprising that his donation of N5 billion drew enthusiastic applause. The Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo said it is “the single largest donation to philanthropy in the country.” He may well be right. But perhaps the most notable reaction has been that of Reno Omokri, who describes himself these days as “a table-shaker.” And did Reno Omokri try to shake the table? In this particular matter, he didn’t actually shake the table; he broke the legs. Said he: “Femi Otedola has just put the billionaires of the North East to shame. Where are the Indimis, the Mai Deribe family and other oil billionaires from the North East? Google their names and some of the first pictures you will see are of their children in private jets marrying President’s children and displaying obscene wealth while surrounded by extreme poverty. It took a Good Samaritan stranger to do what the natives of the North East failed to do! Shame on them and God bless the talakawa that they have refused to look after.” This harsh and pain-inflicting comment has stretched the narrative a bit further - with the daughters of the two families that Omokri calls out directly defending family integrity on social media. The emerging controversy about how the rich Nigerian one per cent engages the rest of society and gives back or not is useful. But while Omokri may be accused of trying to politicize or ethnicize the Otedola gesture, we need to place his comment in proper context. 

One, he probably generalizes when he refers to “Oil billionaires from the North East” in a manner that may be unfair to some other persons from that part of the country. The North East, one of Nigeria’s six geo-political zones consists of the following states: Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, and Yobe. I don’t know whether Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is an “oil billionaire” or not, but I know he is from Adamawa state. One of the reasons for his popularity among his people is his generosity and common touch. General TY Danjuma is from Taraba state. He easily belongs to Omokri’s “Oil billionaire” category, but it is a fact that through his TY Danjuma Foundation, the General has done a lot for his own people in Taraba State and across the North East and Nigeria. There is also a Muhammadu Indimi Foundation which prioritises the North East. We can praise Otedola without hurting the feelings of others. Two, while stating this, I am mindful of the bigger point in Omokri’s comment which is the felt, seen, and often commented upon abdication of responsibility by the Nigerian Northern elite. 

The Nigerian elite is generally callous, selfish and irresponsible but the most alienated, the worst set can be found in the Northern part of Nigeria, an indolent elite that has occupied the higher rungs of privilege and power before and after independence and yet has not been able to translate its access to power into advantages for its people. Northern Nigeria has the largest number of out-of-school children. It has the largest number of girl-child brides, and other children under difficult circumstances.  It has the largest number of persons living below the poverty line. It has the smallest number of educated Nigerians, and the highest number of Nigeria’s “lazy youths.” Reno Omokri throws up the questions: why don’t we have the Northern rich, as many of them as possible, helping their own people? Why must it be a Yoruba man from Epe donating N5 billion to assist displaced children in the North East? Our response to Reno Omokri is that philanthropy needs not wear an ethnic or partisan garb. It is about the collective humanity we share. Isn’t Reno Omokri himself running a #Free LeahSharibu campaign?  Leah Sharibu is neither a member of his church nor is she of the Itsekiri stock. Bill and Melinda Gates, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Oprah Winfrey, George Soros, Mark Zuckerberg have supported worthy causes around the world.          

What we may legitimately say is that the example of Femi Otedola and others like him necessarily generates a conversation about the purpose of wealth and the place of the privileged in a dispossessed society. Aliko Dangote who made his own donation to the Save the Children charity is probably the leading philanthropist in Nigeria today, in terms of spread and scope, through the Dangote Foundation, which is run by his daughter, Halima Dangote. Dangote appeared on stage recently in New York, with Mo Ibrahim and Bill Gates and he said he is inspired by their examples. Mo Ibrahim, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are among the most generous givers in modern history. It is an ethic that should be encouraged. Closer home in Nigeria, there are other examples: Tony Elumelu, of the Union Bank of Africa (UBA) is the founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation which promotes Africapitalism and provides opportunities for young entrepreneurs in more than 40 African countries. What TOE, as he is otherwise called, has done with that Foundation is impressive and reliable. Jim Ovia is the founder of Zenith Bank. He has invested heavily in education, not for profit, but to provide opportunities for young persons. He is the founder of James Hope College, a world-class, private school in Agbor, Delta State where he tries to provide a strong, educational foundation for the youth of tomorrow. Recently, he launched a branch of the school in Lagos with an offer of full scholarship to 40% of students. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, of Access Bank and Coronation Capital, has a scheme called Africa Initiative for Governance (AIG). Every year, AIG sends five students from Nigeria and Ghana to the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, to take post-graduate degrees in Public Policy. He believes that when they return and they are injected into the public sector, over time a crop of well-trained experts would have been created to act as agents for public sector transformation in Africa. The scholarships are fully funded. There are other philanthropists of course who intervene in their own way – like Professor Pat Utomi who supports widows, Florence Ita-Giwa who provides for the poor in Bakassi, Sir Emeka Offor, Mr. Oba Otudeko, Folorunsho Alakija, Otunba Subomi Balogun…  We can have more people in this country willing to give back and help. Reno Omokri may have been direct in his finger-pointing but there is certainly a large community of rich Nigerians out there who do not know what it means to be public-spirited. They are happy to go about in private jets: it costs about US $4 million per annum to maintain a private jet in Nigeria (Otedola’s N5 billion donation is the cost of maintaining a private jet for about 4 years) and yet most of the nouveaux riche are much happier going about in those jets with girls with long legs, fake skin, fake eye lashes, Brazilian butt-lifts, fake accent, and small brains, rather than help the poor. Their type can be found across Nigeria. 

But it is not enough to make donations or set up a Foundation. There must be transparency and accountability in the management of funds and processes. Sustainability is important. Too many Foundations rise and fall. We hope Femi Otedola and his daughters will find every reason to sustain their new-found passion.  

Last week, The Supreme Court of Nigeria announced its verdict in the matter between Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and President Muhammadu Buhari, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC and the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC). After the February 23 Presidential election and the declaration by INEC, of incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari as winner of that election, the PDP and its Presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar went straight to the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to challenge the result. INEC not only declared Buhari winner of that election. The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal further upheld the declaration in September 2019, delivering a marathon judgment that kept the entire nation glued to television for close to nine hours. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and his party, the PDP, felt that they had been denied justice. So, they took their case all the way to the Supreme Court. But if Atiku and his supporters had hoped that they will secure victory at the Supreme Court, they were grossly disappointed.  In just a sentence, the Supreme Court dismissed their appeal on October 30. The Chairman of the panel, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Tanko Ibrahim Mohammed simply said: “We have examined all the briefs of argument and the exhibits for over two weeks and we have all agreed that there is no merit in this appeal.” Their Lordships promised to provide their reasons later. The entire appeal didn’t last for too long. It was a brisk, hasty procedure. 

And this is where the problem lies. In the absence of a reasoned, written down and properly articulated judgment, it is difficult to take on their Lordships on the merit of their own submissions. When their reasons are finally available, it would be time to do a proper, extensive, judicial review. But what can be legitimately said at this point, is that the Supreme Court has created in this case, a problem of perception. Does the ordinary Nigerian think that justice has been done? For, it is a trite principle that justice must not only be done, it must be seen to have been done. Does the ordinary, reasonable man believe that given the approach adopted by the Supreme Court, there is fairness in the handling of the matter at the apex court? Professor Ben Nwabueze, SAN, in a widely circulated response has argued that the Supreme Court’s treatment of the Atiku case raises issues of fairness and fair hearing. He insists that the Supreme Court’s dismissal of the appeal is “inconsistent with Section 36 of the Constitution (and) it is, by the self-executing declaration in Section 1(3), null and void.” Section 1 (3) of the 1999 Constitution talks about the supremacy of the Constitution as basic law.  Section 36 is on the inviolability of fair hearing as a pillar of the justice administration process. Nwabueze’s contention is that the apex court erred in the eyes of the law by holding an examination of the appeal before it, “in secret”, as declared and admitted, without regard to Section 36 (3) of the Nigerian Constitution. 

He asks further: “… to whom does the word “We” in the CJN’s statement refer? Can the “We” be a reference to the Supreme Court? Can the Supreme Court function, as regards the hearing of the appeal, before the seven-man panel to hear the appeal was appointed, and the names of the members announced to the public? When exactly was the appointment of members made?” Nwabueze is a prodigious and productive analyst of the Nigerian legal system and perhaps one of the most percipient and most durable. His sympathy for the Atiku camp notwithstanding, he has raised fine points of jurisprudence which I hope the Supreme Court will address when it eventually provides the reasons for both its approach and decision in the Atiku Presidential Election Petition 2019.  When their Lordships provide those reasons, how they frame their ratio decidendi or obiter dicta, in relation to the naked facts of the case or to use the CJN’s words, briefs and exhibits, and the issues for determination, will be of great interest. When they say the Atiku case lacks merit, for example, do they mean that it is incurably bad and if so, on what grounds?  

And why did they have to sit “in secret”, more than two weeks earlier only to come out in the open to deliver judgment? Without any effort to listen at length to counsel on both sides, not to re-open arguments of course, a case before the Supreme Court not being the inception of a new action, but to defend their claims, the Justices rested their decision on the fact that they had examined the briefs and exhibits. The conduct of their one-day process was also so brisk, if not anti-climactic and peremptory, as if the matter before them had already been pre-determined. The Supreme Court, being a policy court and a court of last resort has a duty to worry about its brand and image. The treatment of the Atiku case, that is the 2019 Presidential Election Petition wrongly or rightly has fuelled all the suspicions that the ordinary Nigerian has expressed about the independence of the judiciary.  It is hence not surprising that many Nigerians have expressed the view that they were not disappointed because they did not expect a different outcome, even without having any knowledge of briefs of argument or exhibits, but supremely confident all the same about their knowledge of the history of power and Presidential election petitions in Nigeria.  

Why was the Supreme Court in such unusual haste? In the past, there was usually so much anxiety, drama and argumentation each time a Presidential election petition made it to the Supreme Court. The most dramatic incident in recent memory being the 1979 Presidential election which turned virtually every Nigerian into a mathematician, struggling to determine the meaning and exact calculation of two-thirds of 19 states.  In 2019, the moving spirits of the Nigerian Supreme Court treated the Presidential election matter as if it was an irritating piece of distraction. I have tried to attempt two explanations. The first is that their Lordships felt that given the pressure of time, they were duty bound to determine the matter within the time frame provided by law. Section 285 of the 1999 Constitution and Section 134 of the Electoral Act provide strict time limits for the hearing of election petitions and this has been severally upheld by the Supreme Court (re: Ikpeazu v. Otti & ors., Felix Amadi and Anor. vs. INEC & Ors.; and ANPP vs Goni). In the Atiku case, the Supreme Court was definitely not out of time in the light of Section 285 (7) of the 1999 Constitution and the fact that Atiku and PDP appealed the decision of the Election Tribunal by September 23. Questions have therefore been legitimately raised about approach and procedure. 

My second explanation is that the law is a social modulator, and may be that is what we have here. The judex are human beings and members of society.  Sometimes, the judex gauge the mood of society and try to provide the necessary balance, especially in the face of potential threat.  When the apex court goes that route though, it is travelling on the path of politics and social science rather than law. It is not impossible that the Supreme Court of Nigeria in the Atiku case took a firm decision to protect the country from any outbreak of violence or hostilities. Buba Galadima, a Buhari ally turned adversary, has said that Buhari’s declaration as winner did not result in any jubilation on the streets. He did not raise the flip question: would the declaration of Atiku as winner or anything close to that have resulted in the jubilation he seeks? Maybe not either. Galadima is obviously biased. But the plain truth is that the Nigerian voter is so alienated, cynical and so disconnected, he or she is right now largely indifferent and that is part of the problem with Nigerian democracy. The Nigerian electorate must rediscover their voice. Still, the judex must not descend into the arena of politics. The law must be applied in its purest form. The ruling of the Supreme Court when it eventually becomes available should address all the jurisprudential issues that have been raised on all sides for our collective education. 

Nonetheless, whatever concerns anyone may have in this matter, the case is now closed. The Supreme Court is the apex court. There is no further appeal beyond it, especially in election matters, which are by the way sui generis. The principal petitioner, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has already issued a statement dismissing the ruling of the Court. Both his statement and the eventual reasons of the Court would form useful historical documents. For now, we have Atiku’s statement before us. I think it drips with too much bitterness, innuendoes and cynicism. Atiku writes that: “Today, the nail has been put on the coffin and the gains we collectively made since 1999 are evaporating, and a requiem is at hand… In a democracy, you need a strong judiciary, a free press, and an impartial electoral umpire. Nigeria has none of those three elements as at today…” But even more telling is the opening paragraph of his statement and here it is: “It is said that the Supreme Court is not final because it is infallible, but that it is infallible because it is final.”  

This statement is a direct paraphrase of Justice Robert H. Jackson’s declaration in Brown v. Allen, 344 US 443 (1953).  Jackson (1892 – 1954) was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court and a former United States Attorney-General. He said: “We are not final because we are infallible but we are infallible only because we are final.” Chukwudifu Oputa, JSC (as he then was), famously known as the Socrates of the Nigerian Supreme Court of his time, improved on this when he tried to address the question of whether there had been a conflict between the Supreme Court decisions in two cases: Skenconsult v. Ukey and Ezomo v. Oyakhire as follows: “My simple answer”, he said, “is that it is not part of the jurisdiction or duties of this Court to go on looking for imaginary conflicts. We are final not because we are infallible rather we are infallible because we are final. Justices of this Court are human beings, capable of erring. It will certainly be short-sighted arrogance not to accept this obvious truth.  It is also true that this Court can do inestimable good through its wise decisions.  Similarly, the Court can do incalculable damage through its mistakes.” (per Oputa, JSC, Adegoke Motors Ltd. v. Dr Babatunde Adesanya & Anor). Where the catch lies is that even when the Supreme Court arrives at a decision per incuriam, it is the only Court that has the power to overrule itself. But will Atiku’s counsel ask the Supreme Court to overrule itself? I don’t see that happening, especially as the party, the PDP has handed over the case to God, and with Atiku himself declaring that the matter “has come to a conclusion.”  

Nonetheless, Atiku’s lawyers have called for a reform of Nigeria’s electoral jurisprudence. They have a point in that regard. There are too many knotty, controversial and unresolved issues to be dealt with, including access to vital materials by election petitioners, time limits for election petitions, administrative bottle-necks, and the use of technology. Atiku is obviously not convinced that he lost the 2019 Presidential election. This is the overall indication of his statement. He has also pointedly refused to congratulate the APC candidate and incumbent President, Muhammadu Buhari. Every student of Nigerian politics should be interested in what this means, and the implications for Nigeria’s future politics. Whatever that is, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has two options before him: to start preparing for the 2023 Presidential election if his party’s zoning formula favours him or to retire to the position of a statesman and help defend Nigeria’s democracy. However, beyond elections, the biggest challenge facing Nigeria is that of sustainable development and economic growth. It is the task that all stakeholders must now address, going forward, in order to correct the many anomalies that hold the country down and behind. It is commendable that all parties involved in the Presidential Election Petition case, before and after, have resisted the temptation to resort to self-help. 

Since Nigeria’s return to civilian rule in 1999, Deputy Governors have always tended to have issues with their bosses, that is the Governors, and the Governors in turn have often had problems with their Godfathers. Whatever shape the conflict takes, it has been more of a blight on our democratic process and the health of the polity.  Mini-dictators converting a democratic dispensation into an opportunity for self-aggrandizement and childish power games end up hurting us all. 

As Governor of Anambra state in 2003, Chris Ngige, now Minister of Labour and Productivity, had problems with a certain Godfather known as Chris Uba. In those days, Uba had the ears and eyes of the Nigerian Presidency. Ngige’s offence was his refusal to do the bidding of the Godfather and the Godfather of the mini-Godfather in his state. In July 2003, a letter of resignation from office was circulated on Ngige’s behalf.  He was also abducted by a faction of the Nigeria Police (the then Inspector General of police would later disown that “faction”). Ngige  insisted that he had not resigned. Subsequently, he was shown half-naked purportedly swearing to an oath of allegiance at what was then known as the notorious Okija shrine. He was named. He was shamed. The spectacle of a sitting Governor in shamanic garb looked really ugly.  Ngige’s detractors finally got him out of office in 2006. They made him. They unmade him. 

In Oyo State in 2006, Rashidi Ladoja, now the Osi of Olubadan, meaning a potential Olubadan of Ibadanland was pushed out of office because he refused to share the state’s security vote with Chief Lamidi Adedibu, the famous originator and promoter of alimentary politics in the politics of Ibadan and the South-West. Alimentary politics is known locally as “amala politics.” It was re-defined in Ekiti State by Governor Ayo Fayose as “stomach infrastructure.” Real meaning: “you-chop -I-chop” politics.  

Fayose himself fell foul of the powers that be when in his first term as Governor of Ekiti State, he made the fatal mistake of saying openly that he would not support a Third Term agenda for the Obasanjo administration. The witches and wizards of Aso Rock went after him. Fayose, who is ordinarily very boisterous, had to escape from the Ekiti State Government House in the trunk of a car. He was chased out of office in an overnight raid by a specially assigned police squad. He took the famous NADECO route and gave Nigeria a wide berth for a while. Again in 2006, Joshua Dariye, serving a second term as Governor of Plateau State, was impeached by eight members of the state’s 24-member House of Assembly.  He protested about the fact that 8 out of 24 members did not amount to a quorum. Nobody listened. His supporters protested. Two of them were gunned down by the police. Dariye was impeached. His offence was his refusal to respect the powers that be. The Supreme Court later returned him and Ladoja of Oyo state to office, but I doubt very much if they have both recovered fully from taking on those secret manipulators of the Nigerian political process. 

But while state Governors often get into trouble with their Godfathers, what we have seen is that the Governors themselves are just as power drunk as their own Godfathers. The target of their fascism is usually the persons they choose or who are appointed to serve as their Deputies. Since 1999, no Governor has made any conscious effort to hand over to his Deputy. In Plateau, and Oyo states, Deputies became Governors by sheer default: Michael Botmang in Plateau (2006 -2007), and Adebayo Alao-Akala in Oyo State (January – December 2006) not because their bosses wanted them as successors. In an exception to the rule in Kano state where Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso was succeeded by his two-time Deputy (1999 -2003; 2011-2015), the Deputy as Governor has shown great contempt and animosity towards his former boss, clearly indicating that there was never any love lost between them while they worked together.  The kind of passion that Abdullahi Ganduje has devoted to rubbishing and undoing his former boss is astonishing. 

But the battle between Governors and their Deputies is not just at the state level; at the level of the Presidency, the story is not much different. During President Olusegun Obasanjo’s second term, Nigeria was saddled with a divided Presidency. I covered the politics of that crisis in a series of columns tilted “The Bolekaja Presidency”. Going further, the story is often told of how under President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, his then Vice President -  Goodluck Jonathan was completely sidelined by a cabal that hijacked Presidential power and authority.  The only job President Yar’Adua’s people wanted Dr. Jonathan to do was to just read newspapers. They made sure his office got a good supply of newspapers and a short supply of state news. They showed their hands when they made it clear that they didn’t want him to succeed his boss who fell ill and had become incapacitated. President Yar’Adua died in office. It was a great ordeal to get Dr. Jonathan to succeed him. Concerned Nigerians had to stand up physically and emotionally, for the letter and spirit of the Constitution to be respected. Even when Jonathan became President, the cabal did not leave him alone. They made every day difficult for him.     

I have gone on this long, retrospective, voyage to draw attention to a few points: One, that Nigerian politics, even with the exit from military rule in 1999 is still based on a principle of clientelism and godfatherism. Some people just assume that Nigeria belongs to them and they must dictate what happens within its borders.  Two, people get into offices not because they are the best persons for the job but because they are the right clients. How many got elected because they swore to an oath in Okija or elsewhere? How many paid fees to get a nomination form? How many of these guys have become big men and women today because they had to trade off? When such persons try to stand up and assert themselves, they are shot down. Three, Nigerian politicians have little regard for the Constitution. 

It is also important to note that in real terms, Deputies in Nigerian politics are at best spare tyres. The Constitution gives them no real roles.  This is why it is possible for Governors and Presidents to treat their Deputies shabbily. In Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu trashed two Deputy Governors between 1999 and 2007. When Mrs Kofo Bucknor Akerele tried to stand up to him; she was shut down. Otunba Femi Pedro, her replacement also thought he could act like a man. He was shown the exit door. He would return later to beg and genuflect. His own assistant, someone he brought to the party is now the Governor of Lagos State, obviously in an attempt to complete his humiliation. I don’t see the current Governor of Lagos State fighting the powers that be. He only needs to look at Bucknor-Akerele, Femi Pedro and Akinwunmi Ambode, the immediate past Governor in the mirror. 

What am I trying to say? I am saying that Nigerian politics is dirty, crazy and incomprehensible. In the last 20 years, it has been overtaken by Godfathers, cabalists and fascists. They do what they like. If you stand in their way, they crush you. In effect, fear rules the land. In an environment dominated by power-mongers who parade themselves as good men and women, you can no longer trust anybody. Nigerian politics has never been so terrible.. In politics as in society, the picture of a mentally ill community looms large. 

But of all the things that I have heard and seen in the last 20 years, permit me to say that the most shocking, the most objectionable, the most fearful happened in Kogi state the other day with the purported removal from office of the Deputy Governor, Simon Achuba. Simon Achuba’s offence is that he is no longer in good terms with his Governor, Yahaya Bello. When a State Governor no longer likes his Deputy, he tells him to jump, if the guy refuses to jump, he pushes him. If the guy refuses to be pushed, the Governor gets the House of Assembly, obviously the largest collection of nitwits since 2019, to help push the Deputy Governor through the vehicle of impeachment. We have seen one or the other strategy adopted in Lagos State with Kofo Bucknor-Akerele and Femi Pedro by Bola Tinubu in Lagos, Rochas Okorochas against his deputies- Jude Agbaso and Eze Madumere in Imo, and Ibikunle Amosun against Segun Adesegun in Ogun State. In the case of Achuba in Kogi state they just threw the Constitution completely out of the window. The 1999 Constitution of Nigeria spells out the procedure for the removal of a Governor or Deputy Governor from office. In Kogi State, the State House of Assembly just decided to do whatever suited it. State Houses of Assembly are appendages of Government House. The Governors in the process become so powerful that once they don’t like anybody’s face they can get rid of him politically or buy him or her. Nigerian politicians can be bought and converted like commodities. Nigerian politics is a market. 

In Kogi state, Deputy Governor Simon Achuba chose to differ with his Governor. He got accused of all kinds of things which a House of Assembly in recess interpreted as “gross misconduct’ and then decided to put him up for impeachment and removal. A cash and carry House of Assembly set to work. The state Chief Judge was asked to set up a panel to impeach the Deputy Governor. A seven-man panel was indeed set up led by Mr. John Baiyeshea, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). The panel returned a verdict of not guilty on all the charges. What the Constitution says in Section 188, is that once the panel thus returns a verdict of not guilty on all counts, there shall be no further proceedings or process. The word “shall” in law is mandatory. It is a command. Still, in their wisdom, the House of Assembly in Kogi State, which is not even sitting, proceeded to sack the Deputy Governor. If anyone is looking for a classical rubber stamp Assembly and the most conscienceless legislature in Nigeria’s democracy since 1999, Kogi State House of Assembly fits the bill.  It has been more than a week since then and Kogi state is just hoping that this comedy of absurdity will disappear. It is a shame on all the people of Kogi state who have chosen to keep silent, and the most worrisome is that the  Federal Government and indeed the National Assembly and the Attorney General of the Federation who is the chief law officer of the Federation by virtue of Section150 of the Constitution have all chosen to be quiet in the face of this brazen abuse of the letter and spirit of the Constitution thus setting a dangerous precedent for the continuous abuse of the Constitution, the very fabric that holds the nation together. 

It is a rape of the Constitution, a slap on the rule of law. Members of the Kogi State House of Assembly should cover their heads in shame for projecting themselves as law breakers and persons who do not have the interest of the nation at heart.  But the biggest scandal is that of the Chief Judge of Kogi State, Nasir Ajanah. The biggest problem with the Nigerian Bar and Bench is the cancerous proliferation of a body of lawyers and judges who believes that justice is a mere slogan, who thinks equity is sheer nonsense and who behaves as if conscience is for the religious and not the legally minded. This is precisely what happened in Kogi State the other day. The panel set up by the Chief Judge in accordance with the 1999 Constitution reported back to the House of Assembly a verdict of not guilty on all counts. There is no way the Chief Judge could have claimed ignorance of this finding. Having been aware of this, the Chief Judge should not have gone ahead to commit an act of illegality by standing the Constitution on its head. It is not enough for him to claim that he is not a Father Christmas to act, suo moto, on a matter that had not been properly placed before him. 

Simon Achuba should go to court. Whether the eventual determination would be academic or not, let him fight for his rights and put the matter on record. His seat is not vacant in the eyes of the law. Edward Onoja has merely usurped the seat of the Deputy Governor of Kogi State, illegally and without conscience.  Political vendetta cannot replace the tenets of the law. The fact that other Governors also behave badly does not justify the reign of idiocy in Kogi state. 

When the Kogi Governor, Yahaya Bello was elected in 2015, he was advertised as a poster boy for the No-Too- Young-To-Run Campaign. He was seen as the young man who would make a difference. He was the youngest Governor in Nigeria. But he has dropped the ball in the same manner in which one Elisha Abbo, youngest Senator in the 9^th National Assembly (Adamawa North, PDP), has also dropped the ball. What’s the latest on Elisha Abbo? Young Nigerians want to be part of the governance process, but unfortunately, the ones who show up in the arena  are the strange, unprepared types who gamble with the opportunities that they have been given. Our belief that young Nigerians in politics will turn out to be change agents is defeated daily. Yahaya Bello, playing dirty games with the removal of his Deputy, does not deserve a second term in office. The people of Kogi state would be stupid to vote for him on November 16.  The absurdity in Kogi state should not be allowed to stand.     

Also read : Gowon at 85 and Fani-Kayode - Reuben Abati

Also read : Buhari’s Fake Social Media Wedding - Reuben Abati 

General Yakubu Gowon, Nigeria’s military Head of State from 1966 -1975, turned 85 on Saturday, October 19, 2019. In a congratulatory message, President Muhammadu Buhari described him as a living legend and a symbol of national unity. The statement from the Presidency gushed with phrases such as “visionary leadership style, wisdom, disciplined outlook…elder statesman, simplicity and humility, good governance... sacrifices, wide respect....”. There were other tributes: The Senate President, Ahmed Lawan praised Gowon for defending and preserving the unity and territorial integrity of Nigeria. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, described Gowon as a “statesman and national icon who contributed enormously to Nigeria’s unity and development.”  Nigeria, he adds “owes Gowon a debt of gratitude”. Governors of the 36 states of Nigeria also concurred that “General Gowon is a rare gift to the state, Nigeria, and the world”. On Friday, October 18, The Institute for Governance and Leadership Studies in Africa organized a birthday dinner in Gowon’s honour where everyone got a chance to say something about his place and legacy in Nigerian history.  I attended General Gowon’s 80^th birthday church service in 2014 – I still have the gift item- a towel, distributed by his wife’s family as evidence- and I recall that the tributes were effusive then. They are even more so now, indeed, more saccharine. 

But the only man who seems to differ is Femi Fani-Kayode. Femi Fani-Kayode’s father, the historic and inimitable man who was popularly known as Fani-Power was one of the key figures in pre-independence and post-independence Nigerian politics, and significantly a miraculous survivor of the July 1966 imbroglio. In many ways, Femi Fani-Kayode, known also as FFK, has followed in his father’s footsteps.  He doesn’t take hostages. He is bold and assertive. On the question of Gowon’s anniversary at 85, he is the only one who has said publicly, that he does not think Gowon is a hero. He provides an explanation: he says Gowon as Head of State presided over a war situation where over 3 million Igbos were massacred, and that such war crime does not qualify Gowon to be celebrated as a war hero or an icon of national unity. Indeed, during the civil war, one million Igbo children suffered, many died, others ended up in Gabon and Equitorial Guinea, others died of kwashiorkor, many Igbos perished. The world at a point began to sympathize with Biafra because the war began to look like genocide.  Fani-Kayode’s point as I understand it, is that while we celebrate General Yakubu Gowon, we should not forget what he sees as the humanitarian disasters that occurred in this country under his watch. Ironically, Gowon saved his own father’s life! 

I note therefore, that in the past, Fani-Kayode had cause to praise General Gowon. So, I do not want to think that he despises him. But on the occasion of Gowon’s 85^th birthday, Fani-Kayode brings up an issue that may continue to impinge on the Gowon legacy. The lazy, intellectual definition of the problem would be to say that Fani-Kayode is raising the issue of the civil war and Gowon’s role because he wants to suck up to Igbos, and defend his access to privileges in the other room, his wife being Igbo, thus romantically embedded as he is in Igbo matters. I consider such thinking absolutely lazy and mischievous. I argue that with or without Femi Fani-Kayode’s intervention, Gowon’s management of Nigeria’s civil war would always be part of the conversation around and about his place in Nigerian history.

Whatever we know about this subject is available in bits and pieces in the extant bibliography on the Nigerian civil war, and that is quite a large, cross-border, multi-disciplinary and inter-generational bibliography. It is unfortunate that General Gowon himself, has chosen to remain silent. He has not written an autobiography. He has left his place in history at the mercy of the definition of others, the most authoritative book on his tenure in office being Isawa Elaigwu’s Gowon: The Biography of a Soldier Statesman (1986). Other books include Yakubu Gowon: Faith in United Nigeria by John Digby Clarke (1987); General Yakubu Gowon: The Supreme Commander by Olufemi Ogunsanwo (2009) and thousands of commentaries in academic journals and periodicals. Gowon owes us an autobiography. The import of Femi Fani-Kayode’s intervention is how he draws our attention to the fact that long after Gowon would have become an ancestor, his handling of the civil war would still form the epicentre of his legacy. So, why don’t we start the debate right now in the General’s presence, at a time when he can speak up for himself and enjoy the right of reply? Those who do not know Nigerian history can dust up their books and let’s have a conversation. Is Gowon a hero or a villain? Did he preside over a genocide? And is that what defines his place in Nigerian history?  

Let no one be in any doubt about it: the civil war, 1966-1970, will always be a big question at the heart of Nigerian politics and inter-ethnic relations. In many ways, there is indeed clear evidence that the war against Igbos has not ended. Nigeria nurses a huge, deep-seated prejudice against the Igbo man. It is the reason why there is so much dithering over whether an Igbo President should one day emerge or not. It explains why a Yoruba landlord is reluctant to lease his property to an Igbo man in Lagos, even if he ends up doing so in spite of himself, for economic reasons. Psychologically, he thinks the Igbo man will spread like cancer and over-populate the property with his kinsmen or probably take the property from him.  It is also why the Hausa-Fulani believes that the Hausa-Fulani-Igbo rivalry will never end and that an Igbo Presidency would amount to an admission of defeat more than three decades after the war. The divisive tendencies in the country at this time take us back in history to the spirit of that same season of anomie. Nigeria’s civil war is all about the being-ness of Nigeria, whether indeed a mistake was made in 1914 by the colonialists or not. This is the Nigerian problem. We cannot run away from it. Yakubu Gowon was not the cause of the war, however. He helped to manage it as the man in the saddle at the time it erupted. Nigerians complain about Hausa-Fulani hegemony and the threat it poses. Gowon is even of Angas ethnic extraction from Plateau State.  It is facile to argue that he was an agent of the Hausa-Fulani hegemonists. But those who cling to that should remember that after the January 1966 coup led by Nzeogwu and others, the Ironsi “interregnum”, and the July 1966 counter-coup, it was circumstances rather than design that threw up an Angas man as Nigeria’s Head of State.  

When the civil war broke out, it was Gowon’s duty and responsibility to keep Nigeria together. We have a country today because he refused to shirk his responsibility. His training and office required him to defend Nigeria’s sovereignty and integrity. We owe the survival of Nigeria to Gowon’s determination. If he had dropped the ball, Nigeria would have long broken up. Those who refer to him as the “father of modern Nigeria” are in order to say so. Every believer in the idea of Nigeria must give credit to Gowon for the heavy burden of 1966-1970, and how his team of young men kept this country together in the face of the first major test it faced after independence. I use the word, team advisedly, because Gowon was not alone. Nigeria survived because he had around him and there were in circulation at the time, men and women who believed in the Gowonian ideology that keeping Nigeria One was a task that must be done. But there is another side to this viewpoint. The Igbos showed great valour in the battle-field.  They demonstrated skills in engineering and warfare which if sustained and assimilated could have made Nigeria an industrial nation today. But Nigeria has failed to focus on the strength and qualities of the people. We focus instead on blame-games, and thus, Igbos may never forgive Gowon over the Aburi accord, the loss of their properties in Port Harcourt and the North, the failed 20-pounds policy and the killing of their people.  

In this regard, in case the comment by Femi Fani-Kayode represents a mind-set, shared by a group or by others, I submit that it should be subjected to further interrogation to understand it properly. Fani-Kayode says, for record purposes, inter alia: “When the real history of the country is written, the role of Gowon and the other Nigerian commanders during the civil war will be put in proper perspective…The slaughter of 3 million Biafran civilians in that war is the greatest act of black on black genocide in human history. I cannot celebrate the birth of a man who presided over such carnage and neither can I describe him as a hero. Nigeria cannot make much progress or truly prosper until she apologises to the Igbos and Biafrans for the great evil that we visited on them during the civil war.”

It is right and proper to protest about genocide. Any form of humanitarian abuse is unacceptable be it in Northern Syria or Afghanistan or Biafra, Darfur or Srebenica. But General Yakubu Gowon does not deserve characterization as a war criminal. He is in every true sense a statesman of the first rank, for keeping Nigeria together in line with his professional mandate and for the steps he took subsequently to build a united nation. As soon as the war ended, he declared that there was “no victor, no vanquished.” Latter-day successors in a democratic dispensation probably need to learn something here. For them, every national issue is either “do-or-die”, and winner-takes-it-all with no in-betweens. Gowon introduced the concepts - the 3 Rs: Reconciliation, Reconstruction and Rehabilitation. Decades later, Nigeria has not succeeded with Reconciliation. Nigeria remains a divided country as seen in the various cases of violence in the country and the prevalent politics of division and distrust. It is the reason Igbos will not accept any apology. They are convinced that Nigeria is a country of insincere people. So much progress was made with Reconstruction. Gowon rebuilt Nigeria. The oil boom made that possible even if his critics also claim that the Gowon administration laid the foundation for the culture of waste, profligacy and corruption that turned Nigeria adrift. The Gowon administration simply went on a spending spree as oil money poured in, they say.  Gowon even reportedly boasted that Nigeria’s problem was not money but how to spend it. 

At the time he became Head of State in 1966, Gowon was just 32. He was the first and the only Nigerian Head of State to date to marry in office. He exchanged vows with a certain Ms. Victoria Zakari at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Marina, Lagos in 1969, meaning he ruled Nigeria initially as a young bachelor!  It was nothing unusual at the time– many of his colleagues and others in other professions who were the leading lights of colonial and post-colonial Nigeria were all young men. Today’s youths in Nigeria have been unable to start at the top as early as their fathers and grandfathers did. Many blame Gowon for this: Rather than diversify the economy, he squandered Nigeria’s riches. He was allegedly too obsessed with how to spend money, he failed to prepare Nigeria properly for the future. 

But there was Rehabilitation. Under Gowon, a lot was done to move beyond the civil war. Igbos were given an opportunity to re-integrate into Nigeria. he was instrumental to the formation of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). He built new universities. He established the National Youth Service Corps to promote national unity. However, his critics allege that although he did so much after the civil war, much of it was anti-Igbo, he also saw too much money and he began to over-enjoy his stay in office. He had planned to leave office in 1976, but he changed his mind, and that led to his being pushed out of office by his own boys in a bloodless coup in 1975.  Gowon made the mistake of getting too comfortable in power. That is his hubris. He was even accused of involvement in the February 13, 1976 coup that led to the death of his successor, General Murtala Muhammed. He had to remain in exile in the United Kingdom until President Shehu Shagari granted him state pardon in 1981.  He returned to Nigeria in 1983.  

Nonetheless, in his years out of office, General Yakubu Gowon has remained a stabilizing force in Nigerian politics and society. He is the main spirit and influence behind the “Nigeria Prays” movement, a spiritual, inter-denominational movement that believes that a country can be made wholesome through spirituality. Gowon is the prototypical father-figure in the public space. He supports every government. He attends every state event that he can. He stays away from every kind of public combat or disagreement. He has tried to make up with those who disagree with his civil war policies including Professor Wole Soyinka who was detained under his watch. Gowon, the strong military dictator, has mellowed into a gentle old man who prays for Nigeria. He is also the first former military Head of State to develop himself educationally after office. He obtained a Ph.D in Political Science from the University of Warwick (1983). At 85, he can look back on Nigeria’s progress through the years, and reflect on the role he played, but whatever he thinks of the rot that has overtaken the country he keeps that information very closely to himself, perhaps out of guilt or hope or regret. The best tribute that Nigerians can pay in his honour is to rediscover the ideals of the three Rs and ensure that Nigeria never experiences another civil war. Gowon will be remembered as the Nigerian leader who fought a civil war and became an “apologetic” advocate for peace and reconciliation. But he must tell his story: what exactly happened in Aburi? 

If anyone is looking for a valid illustration and the most scandalous evidence of fake news, fake speech, and hate speech, such a researcher needs not look farther than the comedy of errors and the misanthropic drama that overtook Aso Villa, the seat of Nigeria’s Presidency, during the weekend that just passed. 

We all woke up, Thursday morning to be told that our President, 76-year old President Muhammadu Buhari was going to take one of his female ministers, 44-year old Sadia Umar Farouk, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs as wife, on Friday, October 11. Nigerians by nature, love gossip, mischief and entertainment, but this was something different, far more dramatic than theatre itself. Understandably, the story trended on social media and caught public imagination. It became hot news. It was a perfect the Lion and the Jewel material. Is Buhari, 76, trying to celebrate his victory at the polls and at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal with some renewed activity in the same “other room” that he himself reminded us of?  Would he behave like Bala Mohammed, Governor of Bauchi state and take a new bride to celebrate electoral success? If he were to do that, he would not be the first old man to grab a jewel at old age. Olokun Eshin in Wole Soyinka’s award-winning play, Death and the King’s Horseman had to drop something in the “other room” at old age. But the wife of the President that we know, is Aisha Buhari. Has she fallen out of favour? Is Baba Buhari trying to replace her, more so as she suddenly disappeared from the other room and the Villa after the elections, and stories went around that she was somewhere abroad on vacation instead of staying with her husband, to provide some special attention that old men require? Islam encourages but limits variety. Is the President seeking variety?

Soon enough, the story gained traction. On social media, invitation cards were distributed and persons were invited to Aso Rock to attend the Fatiha, that is the Muslim wedding after mosque on Friday. Samples of the invitation card were distributed electronically with the Buhari family of Daura and the Farouk family of Zamfara inviting friends and associates to the marriage of their son, Muhammed and their daughter, Sadia. Congratulatory messages were posted online too, and there were images showing that some foreign dignitaries were already in Nigeria to attend the wedding of the year. Conspiracy theories also surfaced to address such questions as: where is Aisha Buhari, the wife of the President? Why would she abandon her husband for months and nobody would know where she is?  Some commentators concluded that the cabal had finally managed to get rid of her, by getting for the President, a less confrontational woman who would stay out of politics and leave the cabal in Aso Villa alone. Friends of Aisha Buhari expressed concern about her plight.

They asked: Has the Aso Villa Cabal now become so powerful that they would also choose a wife for the President? The tales lingered. One compatriot called me to ask if I had heard anything about the President’s alleged marital crisis. I told him I knew nothing, and that I thought Nigeria had far more important issues at hand than the President’s bedroom choices. The guy told me off, noting that Nigerian journalists are the laziest in the world!  “The President of Nigeria is about to sack his wife and marry another one, and you are talking about Nigeria’s budget? Is that the kind of journalism you people are practising?,” he quipped.  Photos of the would-be bride were circulated widely with such comments as: “she actually looks like Aisha Buhari”, “she will make Baba happy,” “she is a pretty one, Baba chose well”.   For hours, President Buhari was presented on social media as a Romeo or better still, an Adonis who managed to catch the fancy of a pretty 44-year old young, delectable woman. Some spoil-sports raised questions however, about the appropriateness of an incumbent President having an alleged amorous relationship with a woman he has just appointed a Minister and to whose Ministry he has assigned responsibilities and assignments taken away from his Vice President. There was no limit to the stories.

But the bubble eventually burst. It took the intervention of the woman who had been married away to debunk the story. She published a number of tweets to confirm that she was not about to marry President Buhari. She was not even in the country! We later learnt that there was no wedding in the offing, the invitation cards were fake, and there was indeed absolutely no competition in the President’s “other room”. Many heaved a sigh of relief. Others felt that their fun had been spoilt. Millions just kept quiet wondering about the manner in which a lie caught up with an entire nation, seized the multitudes and became the truth for more than 24 hours. The dust finally settled when Aisha Buhari suddenly returned home to claim her bona fide rights.  There was even a video making the rounds, again on social media, showing that she was not allowed access to her room in the Villa. It turned out that this was an old video, criminally de-contextualized to promote a lie. But it was a true video nonetheless as confirmed further by one Fatima Daura, another commentator on the Aso Rock saga, who has also been quoted as saying her father is not arranging a new wife for the President.  So, is it the President’s body language that is fuelling this? Or is there mutual distrust in the President’s bedroom? 

Four quick takes. One: Students of fake news, hate speech, and fake speech would find in the Aisha Buhari marital fake drama of 2019 a locus classicus. It is furthermore, an indication of the kind of damage that persons who have access to social media can wreak. The way it is, any one with a miserable smart phone, one of those cheap little things with internet connection, or a blog site, an Instagram or twitter page can just sit in an unknown corner of the universe and cook up a story about innocent persons, put their photographs together and allege anything from romance to rape, dalliance and an actual wedding. Last weekend, Nigerians gave President Buhari a wife, married her off, collected bride price on her family’s behalf and gave the First Lady of Nigeria, such a massive heartache that smoked her out. Human beings are very wicked. I am now tempted to see the reason in the argument that there should be some regulation of social media content, despite my commitment to free speech. A situation whereby any anonymous character can just hide in one corner, create a terrible tale and disrupt the public order is dangerous for our democracy. It is an abuse of free speech. What happened last weekend is enough to be treated as treasonable felony. 

What if the First Lady, Aisha Buhari, had collapsed and slumped upon hearing that her husband planned to take another wife? What if Sadiya Umar Farouk’s family had acted on the information and accused the President openly of kidnapping their daughter? His position as President certainly does not give him the right to grab another man’s daughter without due process, especially as he took an oath of office to respect the rule of law! What if Aisha’s children had confronted the President to defend their mother only to realize that they were responding to fake news and hate speech? Whoever tried to cause a revolution in the President’s household should be identified, investigated and sanctioned. Who released that fake video? For what reason? Who published the fake wedding news and arranged to make it go viral? Fake news is unacceptable. It runs contrary to all known principles of journalism: truth, accuracy, objectivity and fairness. If the security agencies know what they are doing, they will take a deeper look at this matter. 

Two: This is also about the private lives of public persons. It is a trite point that when you take on a public role, you give up a part of your privacy. The President of a country in particular is public property: voters have every right to ask after his well-being, pry into his personal life, raise questions about how he conducts himself, because whatever he does can easily affect the fortunes of the country. Only God knows for example, how many foreign investors heard the story about a cooked up conflict in the President’s household, and simply decided in the last 72 hours to hold on until there is concrete information about the situation. But how far should the public go? Is there a little zone of privacy available to the President and his family?  I guess stretching this democracy thing all the way to the President’s bedroom and his choice of women may be a case of too much democracy. It is also a kind of auto-suggestion that should be ignored by the President. We need some order in the President’s household to enable him focus properly on his job.   

Three: Mrs Aisha Buhari has since disclosed that she went abroad for medical treatment and also decided to take a little vacation based on her “doctor’s instruction,” and that explains her absence from Nigeria. I note that she has not disclosed the nature of this ailment. Couldn’t she have consulted Nigerian doctors? Don’t we have enough doctors in Nigeria to attend to whatever ails her? 

Four: I think the Presidency mismanaged the messaging process. They allowed the rumour to spread for far too long before intervening.  Is it possible for the President of Nigeria to take a second wife and plan an El-Fatiha wedding without the entire Villa knowing?  Couldn’t they have shut down the rumour much earlier?  Their silence caused the frenzy. 

A colleague of mine, a young lady wondered why Mrs Aisha Buhari, also seeing that this was a case of fake news and hate speech had to rush back from the United Kingdom as if her life was at stake. She asked whether Mrs Buhari doesn’t trust her husband. My response to her is that Mrs Buhari has shown great courage, determination and promptitude by defending her territorial control over the President’s “other room”. Let no one blame her for as they say, “possessing her possession.” It is Minister Sadiya who owes us an explanation for that wedding that didn’t happen

Meanwhile, as Nigerians enacted various scenes in the melodrama of the President’s private life, I spent part of the weekend attending birthday parties. Hajia Bola Shagaya, former banker turned oil industry magnate and leading entrepreneur was 60. She had a party in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory on Thursday and another party for the Lagos crowd on Saturday. I attended the Lagos party which was held at the Eko Hotel Convention Centre. This was a party that showed class, influence and relevance. It was one of those don’t-miss-it parties. 

Anybody who is somebody was there: an indication of the scope and extent of the influence, impact, and reach of the celebrant, who in more than two decades has become one of the leading lights of the Nigerian political, social, and business establishment. Not many know about her involvement in politics, but in Kwara State, she is one of the major political influencers even if she chooses not to advertise the scope of her influence publicly on the national stage. Many politicians in that state owe their ascendancy to her support and influence. The Bola Shagaya that I know is a very humble and kind woman, affable and approachable, and very prayerful. As Presidential spokesperson, she was a strong behind-the-scene pillar of support for me. She would always call to guide me or draw my attention to certain developments within the crazy space of Nigerian politics. She also supported my family. When my son Richard was born she came visiting, not minding our humble abode. She is a mentee and role model to generations of young women who look up to her. She is an absolutely wonderful woman, a good citizen and an asset to the Nigerian community. She deserves to be celebrated. Congratulations, Hajia. Long may you live! 

I left the Shagaya party at a little after midnight, but by noon on Sunday, I was at yet another 60^th birthday party: that of my friend and brother, DIG Taiwo Lakanu. Taiwo turned 60 last week Friday and was pulled out of the Police Force. On Sunday, his wife and children threw a special birthday party for him. Lakanu, the Aare Akogun of Lagos is one of those rare persons anyone would wish to know. He is that kind of friend that everyone must have. He is loyal, frank, straightforward and very dependable. I must have written tons of articles criticizing the Nigeria Police and policemen in the last 30-something years but Taiwo Lakanu is exceptional. He is a good ambassador of the Nigeria Police and one of the finest officers I have ever met.  It is not surprising that he has distinguished himself in every posting that he has had: from being Head of SARS and DPO in Lagos, SA to IGP Tafa Balogun, to Ekiti to Imo to the Headquarters in Abuja. There is even a street named after him in Imo State! I had nursed the hope that he would one day become Nigeria’s Inspector General of Police because he has all it takes: the knowledge, the operations experience, the intellect, the personality, the social network and the right attitude. But now, he is 60 and in line with the rules, they have sent him home. Akogun of the Universe, salute!... Great tour of duty…I believe Nigeria can still make use of his talent. As he starts a new life as a retired DIG, a lawyer and an expert, we wish him well.      

No one is in any doubt that terrorism poses one of the gravest threats to humanity in today’s world. Here in Nigeria, within a decade and a little, unconscionable acts of violence by persons pursuing heinous ideological, religious, and political objectives has resulted in wanton destruction of lives and property, making Nigeria one of the most difficult places to be in the world, especially in the North Eastern part of the country where a notorious group known as Boko Haram holds sway as a local terror group and as a wing of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of the West African Province (ISWAP). The Nigerian government has since adopted a military option to stop the Boko Haram in its tracks and to prevent it from seizing Nigerian territory. Boko Haram has indeed proven to be a threat to the  sovereignty of Nigeria and the integrity of the state itself. The Nigerian Government argues that it has been able to “defeat” the group “technically” or “degrade” it but all of that is no more than mere rhetoric. The reality is different and that includes the Boko Haram attacking an Emir’s palace in broad daylight reprisal attack. It includes brazen assault on Nigerian military camps, with Nigerian soldiers, ill-equipped, poorly motivated, war-weary troops, taking to their heels or putting up feeble resistance. Since the crisis began, more than 2, 000 lives have been lost and it has been more than 2,000 days since 276 girls were abducted from a secondary school in Chibok, Borno state. 

Terrorism being an asymmetrical war, not even the smartest Generals know when or how any war against terror will end. What we know is that Nigeria has a terrible task on its hands, it is like fighting the Devil, in an unknown space, where there are no rules, and the enemy wears a mask. The worst part is the creeping mutation of the security crisis in the country: the crisis keeps spreading like cancer as if the terrorists have engaged independent contractors of their own: bandits in Zamfara, kidnappers in Kaduna, pipeline vandals in the South South, killer-herdsmen from the Middle Belt to Osun and Eastern Nigeria, ritualists, rapists, yahoo yahoo boys in the South West and everywhere else… in one word, we live in a country where the population of rogues appears to be rising and the unusual has become the norm. No serious government will fold its arms and allow a country such as we have to collapse. To that extent, I am in total agreement with our compatriots who argue that the government must adopt multiple approaches in dealing with the country’s security challenge.  It may be true after all that intractable problems require desperate solutions, but what is now of interest, in my view, is the latest recourse to a spiritual solution to terrorism and the seriousness with which some highly placed persons are promoting that metaphysical option. 

It all started with Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai who around September 30, 2019 said at a seminar in Abuja, that clerics within the Nigerian military and religious leaders across the country would need to help the military win the war against terror with the aid of spiritual warfare. The Seminar organized by the Nigeria Army Resource Centre was reportedly titled: “Countering Insurgency and Violent Extremism in Nigeria through spiritual warfare.” Buratai said: “It is easier to defeat Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists than their ideology because while we degrade the terrorists and their havens, the ideology grows the group. Therefore, communities, families, and groups should join in the fight and narratives to reject and prevent the ideologies of the terrorists and extremist groups. Religious bodies and organizations in particular who interface regularly with the grassroots should be at the forefront of the spiritual battle and fashion out ways of stepping up their roles. The fight against terrorism, Boko Haram and ISWAP as well as other security threats, cannot be left to the troops in the battle field alone.” 

This statement drew all kinds of interpretations with the general public wondering why the military would be asking for spiritual warfare. Does it mean that the Nigerian military with all the weapons at their disposal now want to fight terrorists with anointing oil and holy water and amulets and charms? Is Buratai suggesting that we should withdraw military Generals from the frontlines and send the likes of Pastor Enoch Adeboye, Pastor David Oyedepo, Pastor Tunde Bakare, Apostle Johnson Suleiman, Pastor Chris Okotie, Guru Maharaji and all the big Islamic clerics that we can deploy from Agege to Kano to Mali and Senegal? One lawyer has since said Buratai was misinterpreted in what I consider a needless revision. It will be recalled that the same Chief of Army Staff was reported as having said at the commissioning of a remodeled All Saints Military Church at the Maxwell Khobe Cantonment, Rukuba Barracks, near Jos in June, that the military also have spiritual needs!  I suspect very strongly that if Buratai were not a soldier, he would probably be a cleric, given the consistency with which he apparently draws attention to the spiritual side of warfare. In a superstitious country such as Nigeria, I do not imagine that there will be too many who will disagree with his views, and it should not be surprising that his focus on spirituality resonates with the people. Nigerians in the 21^st Century are basically still living in the Medieval era. Their worldview is dominated by a daily conception of saints and enemies who are trying to do harm, evil spirits lurking in the air, and animism as the sole explanation for natural phenomena. When the head of the country’s military tells them that a particular war is beyond the capacity of his men and that spiritual warfare will be required, what comes to their mind is the kind of warfare that their ancestors fought, or the type that Christian and Islamic evangelicals introduced, resulting in a syncretic religious order in colonial and post-colonial Africa. 

Buratai, Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff is obviously frustrated, tired and exasperated. He used the words: spiritual and ideology. Boko Haram is a spiritual and ideological force. Its soldiers seek to create an Islamic State and impose a Sharia orthodoxy on Nigeria. Boko Haram is not just a religious war; it is a spiritual violation of Nigeria. Boko Haram adherents do not believe in Western civilization. They regard it as sin. That is an ideological war. To mobilise recruits and sustain the battle, Boko Haram leaders indoctrinate young people. They attack their minds. They get them to buy into an ideology of hate and violence. Every revolution starts in the mind of men. Buratai is certainly right when he says the war against terror cannot be won by the military alone, or that it should be a collaborative effort.  Is there a role for religious groups in the matter? The Nigerian military is more or less giving up, so, I think, yes. The religious mind in Nigeria is stronger than the political mind, even if there is a gap between private and public attitudes. Nigerians troop to churches, mosques and shrines, some do so every day, claiming to know the mind of God, but when it comes to public attitudes, they act differently. 

Buratai in calling for a religious solution may have heard a little about the concept of the psychology of terrorism. Terrorists are first and foremost human beings and there is a science to their behavior as is the case with every other human being. Is there a way in which religion can moderate that behavior? Can our priests and alfas use the pulpit to change the behavior of persons and communities? Can ritualists and shamanists call on the elements to turn Sambisa forest into a place of value rather than a forest of evil? Can the clerics use holy water, fasting, days of prayer to turn the eyes of the Evil One away from Nigeria and bring peace and happiness? In seeking such meta-solutions, the religious-minded is apparently proclaiming the failure of the state, but with state officials themselves saying the war against terror requires a metaphysical approach, this may well be a subject for further interrogation. A failed state yes, but may be not yet. 

What is required is a translation of the proposal into a strategy, with proper co-ordination and management. What kind of spiritual warfare is the Nigerian military asking for? How can we deploy all the spiritual resources, agents and organizations in the country to achieve results and defeat Boko Haram? In the absence of proper strategy and co-ordination, we could have all kinds of persons doing their own thing in their own corner. Already, perhaps in response to the call by the Chief of Army Staff, a spiritual warfare against Boko Haram has begun in Borno State, where the Governor, Babagana Zulum, a Professor of Engineering, has chosen to recruit 1, 000 traditional hunters to face the Boko Haram terrorists. These hunters we are told, have supernatural powers. They can resist gun shots. They can appear and disappear at will.  They can kill thousands in a minute. The hunters have been reportedly provided with dane guns, and swords, and they have sworn to an oath to defeat Boko Haram. In addition, Governor Zulum has engaged 30 prayer warriors for daily supplication around the Ka’aba to pray for peace in Borno state. He has thus recruited a group to report Boko Haram directly to God, in Mecca, the holy land. 

The Nigerian military cannot afford to have every state Governor running with their own script of spiritual warfare. To save Nigeria from Boko Haram, we must all work and pray together. This is why I recommend strategy and synergy. The Chief of Army Staff should appoint a Boko Haram Counter-Spiritual Warfare Co-Ordinator or Adviser.  The person should be a very senior statesman, preferably an old, retired soldier, who once upon a time in his life understood the value and application of the “Juju option” to military warfare/international diplomacy and who at the same time is very knowledgeable in Christian theology, and has a good relationship with Muslims and Nigerians across ethnic, religious and geographical boundaries. He must have enough influence and gravitas to be able to reach out to the spiritual leaders of Nigeria, across various persuasions.  He must be an elderly man whose only interest is the survival of Nigeria as a sovereign entity. He will not be paid for the assignment. He should have a military background. His team should be treated like a battalion of the Nigerian Army to be known as the Spiritual Counter-Insurgency Rapid Response Division. 

No member of this proposed team will receive any form of compensation. But whatever they may need for their purpose should be provided directly by the Presidency. The team should be organized as follows: all Muslim clerics should work together as one division. They should all storm Sambisa forest and hold prayers there non-stop for 40 days and 40 nights to exorcise the spirit of evil from the forest. Leaders of white garment churches should lead another division. They should be deployed to every part of the country to cleanse Nigeria with prayers, anointed oil, lit candles, and holy water. They should fast and pray and call on the Lord of Hosts, the I am that I am, Jehovah Jireh. Sat Guru Maharaji, the Living Master, should lead all children of Light in prayer. Nigeria needs the touch of all all Masters, Living and Ethereal, to envelope Nigeria with Light and banish darkness. Leaders of the Pentecostal Churches led by GO Enoch Adeboye can organize a 100-day Marathon prayer and fasting session to take this country’s case to God, to plead for Divine Favor and forgiveness. 

Animists should not be left out. Every ethnic nationality should be asked to visit every shrine or grove in every community in Nigeria and place curses on anybody who commits any evil on the soil that is known as Nigeria. In calling for national spiritual warfare, Buratai may have heard of what happened in the city of Benin not too long ago. When criminals began to seize control of that city, the Oba of Benin called out his priests and in broad daylight, all the priests wearing blazing and frightening red colour cursed the criminals and warned them to stop or face the wrath of the gods of Benin. There has been peace and security in Benin since then. The same criminals who do not respect Nigerian Police and Army or the Nigerian Constitution have been very careful with the gods and ancestors! There must be something that the Benin palace knows that the Nigerian military probably needs. How about asking the Oba of Benin to co-ordinate an anti-Boko Haram operation? 

There is also the recent case of Oke Owa community in Ondo state. Some Fulani cattle herders took their cows to a sacred hill in that community in defiance of the community’s traditions and rules. The cows, 36 of them were struck dead mysteriously by lightning and thunder. The traditional ruler of the Oke Owa community usually spends a night alone in the sacred grove where that incident occurred. He should be taken by the Federal Government to Sambisa forest. Let him spend a night there and summon whatever spirits are protecting his village on a sabbatical in the North West and North East of Nigeria. The Governor of Borno State has mobilized some hunters who we are told have bullet-proof bodies. The Are Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Ganiyu Adams should also be recruited to lead the Yoruba Agbekoya to support the Nigerian military in the war against terror. The Egbesu of the Niger Delta should also come to the rescue of the Nigerian military. 

I commend the Chief of Army Staff for his humility. It is not easy for a General to admit that what he and his men are facing at the war-front is rather daunting and that they need spiritual help. It is not easy to accept DEFEAT. Where are all those pastors who claim that they can make the lame walk and the blind see? Nigeria needs HELP right now! If we defeat the Boko Haram through spiritual warfare, Nigeria would have made a very original contribution to the science of modern warfare.    

Today marks the 59^thanniversary of Nigeria’s independence from British colonial rule. On Saturday, October 1, 1960, Nigerians gathered at the Race Course (now Tafawa Balewa Square) in Lagos as Princess Alexandra, the representative of Her Majesty the Queen of England handed over the instruments and symbols of independence to Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa. It was 12.01 am as the Nigerian flag of green white green was hoisted. It was a high moment for Nigeria. It was a major turning point since the amalgamation of 1914. It marked Nigeria’s exit from colonial, imperial rule. It was the birth of a new, independent nation. In his famed golden voice and clear, crisp diction, Balewa told the audience: 

“When this day in October 1960 was chosen for our Independence, it seemed that we were destined to move with quiet dignity to our place on the world stage. Recent events have changed the scene beyond recognition, so that we found ourselves today being tested to the utmost. We are called upon immediately to show that our claims to responsible government are well-founded, and having been accepted as an independent state, we must at once play an active part in maintaining the peace of the world and in preserving civilization. I promise you, we shall not fail for want of determination. And we come to this task better-equipped than many.” 

Hope, determination, readiness to partner with the rest of the world and confidence about the future were key elements in Balewa’s speech. The people were joyous, there was dancing in the streets. But 59 years later, do we still feel the same way? Would Nigerians dance on the streets on the occasion of the anniversary of their independence, one year to the diamond jubilee? Can any Nigerian leader today connect with the people as Balewa did on October 1, 1960? Nigerians had great expectations in 1960, and that was why three years later, when an attempt was made to sign an Anglo-Nigerian Defence Agreement, the people rebelled. They wanted Nigeria to be truly free, and not be tied in any way whatsoever to the apron-strings of the British Empire. That same year, Nigeria became a Republic.

It is often said that Nigeria got its independence on a platter of gold, a reference to the fact that we did not have to organize guerilla warfare against the British as was the case in East and Central Africa, or against apartheid as in South Africa but while that may be true, Nigerian history is full of reports of resistance to British colonial domination from the 19th century exploits of the likes of Ovonramwen Nogbaisi to King Jaja of Opobo, to King Kosoko of Lagos, all through the early 20th century with the protests over water tax in Lagos led by Oba Eshugbayi Eleko (1908), the nationalist press in Lagos, Aba women’s riots (1929), Abeokuta Women’s Revolt (1946), the Enugu coal miners’ strike (1949), the cultural protests by the likes of Hubert Ogunde, the nationalism of Herbert Macaulay and others including Labour Union leader Michael Imoudu, all leading to the various conferences, 1953 -1957. Independence in Nigeria was a product of struggle, no doubt. October 1, 1960 was therefore as much a tribute to the efforts of the then living contemporaries as it was to the valour of heroes past. 

When Tafawa Balewa said “we found ourselves today being tested to the utmost”, he probably was referring to the tensions that surfaced even as Nigerian political leaders negotiated the country’s independence. The British had amalgamated not just the Northern and Southern Protectorates and the Lagos colony to form a country called Nigeria, they had brought together more than 400 ethnic nationalities each with its own distinct culture and language or peculiarities or inter-ethnic affinities. And yet out of all these nations, three groups became dominant: the Hausa-Fulani (yet another curious amalgam of ethnicity and language) led by Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Yoruba led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, and Igbos led by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. In the negotiations, all the groups were united by the idea of independence, but they could not reach a consensus on when and how. By 1957, the minorities were beginning to feel left out. The effect of their protest was the setting up of the Willinks Commission (1957/1958) to address the minority question in Nigeria. Even as Nigeria celebrated independence on October 1, 1960, the foundation on which it sat already had so many cracks: religious, ethnic, geographical and ideological. The British have been accused of laying a weak foundation for the new Nigeria, with their divide and rule colonial administration policy, and the many booby traps they placed on the path of the newly independent nation, but let the point be made, the new leaders who inherited Nigeria from the British and on whose laps fell the mantle of leadership did not really see themselves as Nigerians. They were leaders of their own ethnic groups, doing business, on their people’s behalf, with an enterprise called Nigeria. 

I do not intend to write a short summary of Nigerian history. It is rather unfortunate that history was removed from the Nigerian school curriculum for many years only to be returned later as an optional subject. What kind of country plays with its own history, and deliberately grooms a generation of citizens without memory? 

Six years after independence, the tensions came to a head, and the country broke out into a civil war. It turned out that Balewa under-estimated the challenge of “being tested to the utmost” which he alluded to on October 1, 1960. Nigeria has not yet recovered from the blow-out that followed, from 1966 – 1970. There are persons who believe and we need not blame them that the Nigerian civil war has not yet ended, instead it has gotten worse over the years, and assumed new forms. But despite the war and the subsequent domination of Nigerian politics and space by the military, Nigeria once upon a time, looked different. The discovery of oil and the oil boom of the 70s turned Nigeria into a centre of growth and development. When the war ended, the Yakubu Gowon administration embarked on a programme of rehabilitation, reconciliation and reconstruction. The effect was far-reaching. Chinua Achebe has written that “There Was A Country.” Indeed, there was a country.

Nigeria was so prosperous at a time that the Naira was as strong if not stronger than the pounds sterling. Nigerians went to London as if they were going from Ikeja to Ibadan. Every weekend, they trooped to London to shop or have a party and returned to Lagos on Monday morning. They didn’t have to travel on any foreign airline. There was a national carrier known as Nigeria Airways. It had a big fleet and boasted of international standards and some of the best pilots and crew in the world. There was even a London office of the Nigeria Airways. Each time Nigerians showed up in London, the shops either shut down or the Nigerian got assigned a special attendant. We were the big spenders in every cosmopolitan centre of the world. Africans looked up to us. And we lived it up. In 1960, Nigeria’s population was about 35 million. Prosperity made Nigerians more fertile. Men acquired more wives and procreated recklessly. Our population figure shot up. Even if we could never conduct an accurate population census, it was obvious however that we were more populous than every other African country.

This wasn’t quite a problem because everything seemed to be going well. The military who had taken over from the civilians embarked on ambitious projects. There was construction everywhere. There was work to be done. I grew up to see a Nigeria that had a thriving manufacturing and construction sector. Every morning, staff buses ferried people to work in the Ikeja and Apapa industrial areas and to and fro the textile industries in Kaduna and other parts of the North. Nigeria moved from an agricultural phase to an industrial and manufacturing phase. There were car assembling plants in the country. Consumer goods flourished. There were super market stores all over the place: Leventis, Kingsway Stores, UAC.  Nigeria was a mini-London of sorts and even much better.

We built state of the art hospitals and universities. Ailing persons used to be sent on referral from other parts of the world to the University College Hospital (UCH) in Ibadan because the teaching hospital had on its staff some of the best specialists in the world. The University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) had the most beautiful campus in Africa. It was a major tourist centre. The zoo at the University of Ibadan was one of the very best in the continent. There was a research laboratory in that same university that was regarded as a leading centre of knowledge. Scholars and students came to Nigeria to study, teach and learn. As an undergraduate, many of my teachers were expatriate scholars: from the United Kingdom, the United States and parts of Asia.  Secondary schools also recruited teachers from India, Pakistan and Ghana, who earned their living in Nigeria and enjoyed excellent working conditions. 

I saw a Nigeria that placed much premium on education. Secondary schools, even in the rural areas had libraries and good teachers. Education was practically free. The Naira had value then. You could get a university degree with less than N5, 000. I am not talking about Nigeria of the 60s. No, as recently as 1980, the standard of living in Nigeria was high and the cost was cheap. A flight ticket from Lagos to Calabar was as cheap as N50. Students were given rebates on flight tickets and so many other services. All you needed to show was your identity card. It was a great privilege to be a student in Nigeria. Things were so good, standards were so high, foreigners sent their children to school in Nigeria, in the same manner in which Nigerians now send their children to school abroad. University students were pampered. The Nigerian government gave us bursaries and scholarships. This country was so good teachers supported students with every talent and resource at their disposal. At a point, public hospitals dispensed prescription drugs free of charge. 

Unemployment was not Nigeria’s problem during the season that I describe. Talent hunters used to storm university campuses to look for bright students. The same with National Youth Service Camps. Many students got jobs even before they enrolled for NYSC. National service was something we all looked forward to. It was a place to get a wife or a job. Nigeria was generally a happy country. Suicide was very rare. Nobody wanted to die. Nigerians travelled abroad but there was no massive brain drain. Travelling abroad was a matter of choice not because Nigeria was hellish. National security was not a problem. People could move about at night, go to the cinema and have fun. There was armed robbery, yes, but kidnapping was uncommon and for a while before the civil war, and a short while after, Nigerians worked hard to live together as one nation. 

But everything has since changed. The current generation of Nigerians does not know the Nigeria that I have tried to describe. Nigeria used to be the Dubai of Africa. They don’t know that other Nigeria. In 1963, Nigerians rejected a defence agreement with Britain. In 2019, Nigeria is begging for defence agreements with any country that is willing to offer it. Nigeria once looked down on private schools, accusing owners of mission schools and private schools of compromising standards. Today, those who attended government schools at all levels will not send their own children to the same schools. All their children are either in private schools or somewhere overseas. We were proud of the Nigerian national anthem. Our own children can’t sing that anthem because they don’t know it. Our hospitals have collapsed. No serious member of the Nigerian middle class will patronize Nigerian hospitals except the ailment is mild, but there are many persons in that class who won’t even treat headache or malaria in a Nigerian hospital. 

Nigerians once looked up to their leaders, now they look down on them as thieves and opportunists. The discovery, exploration and exploitation of crude oil once brought us so much prosperity, today, the mismanagement of that resource places Nigeria on a road to Venezuela. In the Nigeria that I knew, every civil servant could afford to buy newspapers every morning. Nurses bought a Lada vehicle or a Volkswagen Jetta shortly after leaving Nursing school. Food was in excess supply in the country. Today, Nigeria is the poverty capital of the world. Our population is so large we don’t even know how many we are. I talked about a well-kept zoo at the University of Ibadan. All the animals in that zoo have either been stolen or turned into pepper soup or bush meat for sale. On October 1, 1960, Balewa boasted that “we are better equipped than many.” We certainly can’t say that today.  

We once blamed the military for Nigeria’s descent into the lower depths. We organized protests against the military and chased them out of power. But we have not fared better either after 20 years of civilian rule. Our civilian rulers have been very busy giving excuses. They blame others. Those who have tried to make a difference are demonized and blackmailed. My generation looked forward to Independence Day. We wore white and held the Nigerian flag and trooped to the stadium for a march past. Nigerians no longer celebrate Independence Day. In fact, they are afraid any form of celebration will only put more money in the pockets of corrupt state officials. They don’t think there is anything to celebrate. This is why every October 1 must be a day of sober reflection. What happened to us? When will Nigeria rise again and become a giant with the feet of steel?

President Muhammadu Buhari recently set up an Economic Advisory Council, to replace the country’s Economic Management Team. He also moved some departments and agencies of government to the new Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development. I don’t see why this should become a source of agitation and frustration for some Nigerians. The Economic Advisory Council is chaired by Professor Doyin Salami, a seasoned intellectual.  The members are persons of great technocratic ability with a track record of achievement as economists and policy wonks. The Council will meet every month and meet with the President every quarter. The Nigerian economy can certainly benefit from new ideas and perspectives. It is also refreshing to see the President put together a team that is not made up of party members, dead woods, or sycophants. Each member of the Economic Advisory Council inspires confidence. There is a consensus that the President got it right with the list. What the Advisory Council needs is the President’s support and an enabling environment for it to be able to make a difference. How do we achieve double-digit economic growth? What are the fiscal and monetary policies that can position the Nigerian economy differently, for better performance? What do we need to do to reduce unemployment? What kind of injection does the real sector need? The Council can also help generate robust discussions within government on key issues that affect all of us. It is also a good development that the President is personally taking charge of the economy. The Council will report to him directly. I don’t have a problem with that. 

I also like the idea of a new Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development. Such a sharply-focused Ministry should serve as a strategic hub for the management of the many disasters that keep occurring across the country. The missing link in existing efforts is the lack of co-ordination and synergy among various agencies and between the states and the Federal government. This ministry could help send a signal that the Nigerian government now intends to place a higher premium on human lives.  It is about time the country took disaster management and humanitarian care more seriously. 

I expected many Nigerians to focus on the value of these two initiatives. Instead, what I hear is a disturbing conversation about how both amount to an “enemy action” to whittle down the influence and authority of the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo. Previously, the Vice President was the chairman of the Economic Management Team and the National Economic Council. The first is an ad hoc administrative structure focusing on the economy; the latter is a statutory, constitutional body. I do not share most of the views that have been expressed, or the obvious attempt to politicize what in reality is within the authority of the President.  Afenifere says for example, that the “office of the Vice President has been rendered useless, impotent and irrelevant.” How? Just because the President sets up an Economic Advisory Council and created a new Ministry to ensure greater service delivery in a critical area of national concern? The Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) says Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is being “maltreated” and “that the unconstitutional stripping of Prof. Yemi Osinbajo’s official attributes amounts to …continuous humiliation of Christians in high positions of current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.” There you go. Nigerians are always quick to play the ethnic and religious card. Some other commentators claim that they see the hands of an anti-Osinbajo cabal in the matter. At least one Pastor has prophesied that the cabal will fail.  Others have argued that certain forces are determined to stop Vice President Osinbajo just in case he is nursing a 2023 Presidential ambition. Persons have been named who have been penciled down as the VP’s likely replacement. The various conspiracy theories seem suspicious.   

Of course, I know that there is never a shortage of mischief-makers in the corridors of power. The relationship between Presidents and Vice Presidents and between Governors and their Deputies has also always been quite tricky in Nigerian politics. Should the President become incapacitated or he is removed from office, the Vice President replaces him. He is thus just a step away from the office.  Deputy Governors stand in the same regard to the Governors in the states. With the kind of politics that we play, Governors and their supporters always keep an eye on the Deputy Governor. If he shows any sign of disloyalty or ambition, all the hawks within the system will go after him and ensure that he is removed, marginalised or humiliated. Presidential politics is worse. The Presidency is clearly the highest office in the land, it is the home of even more vicious intrigues. And indeed we have had cases in the past of conflicts within the Presidency, between the President and the Vice President. Many will recall how the relationship between President Olusegun Obasanjo and then Vice President Atiku Abubakar deteriorated rapidly after the 2003 Presidential election. The Presidential Villa practically became a war zone. All kinds of opportunists cashed in on this and there was never a shortage of salacious tales emanating from the Villa, from faceless persons casually referred to as “sources within the Presidency.” 

Those “sources” are at work again. But we all need to learn from the past. A divided Presidency short-changes the people. Many will also recall the travails of President Goodluck Jonathan as Vice President to President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. There was a deliberate attempt to frustrate him by those who did not want him as a successor to the late President whose tenure was defined majorly by the politics of illness and death. When President Yar’Adua left the country for medical treatment, there were persons within and outside the Presidency who insisted that VP Jonathan would not be allowed to act as President.  It took the intervention of men and women of reason and the National Assembly for the letter and spirit of the Constitution to take effect. When VP Jonathan became President, he chose Arc. Namadi Sambo, then Governor of Kaduna State, as his Vice President.  Arc Sambo and President Jonathan had a good, rancor-free working relationship, but that does not rule out the fact that certain mischief-makers tried to come between them. 

My view is that Professor Yemi Osinbajo would rank as one of the most influential and visible Vice Presidents that Nigeria has had since the return to civilian rule in 1999. With the possible exception of Atiku Abubakar between 1999 and 2003, he has been able to engage the public and connect with the people in a manner no other Vice President before him, did. This probably explains why there has been so much concern about his place in the Presidency, and his relationship with his principal. It also explains why he may attract envy and criticism. I like the fact that he has been very calm and dignified in the face of it all.  He has refrained from making any statement that may convey the impression that he also believes the narrative that some persons, wielding long knives, are out for him. He has not shown any desperation in the face of speculations that he may be removed, nor has he responded to any suggestion that he is under pressure to resign. His media team has not over-reacted. I commend him for his tact, and for staying above the fray. 

However, one person who is convinced that the Vice President’s office is truly under siege told me the other day that Professor Osinbajo should go to court. Why would he allow the President to take away his powers over the management of the economy, including bodies of which he is statutorily the Chairman? I laughed. I told the person that the Vice President will do no such thing.  He has no special powers of his own except powers delegated to him by the President, and even that is entirely at the discretion of the President.  It is not impossible that many of the persons who are protesting that the Vice President is being marginalized are also under the illusion that there is a power sharing arrangement between the President and the Vice President of Nigeria. No. There is no such thing. Even the VP’s Chairmanship of the National Economic Council, under Section 18 of the Third Schedule is at the pleasure of the President; in any case, the Economic Council, like the Economic Advisory Council, and many such bodies is merely an advisory body. There is only one President of the Federation. He is granted so many powers under the 1999 Constitution, the Nigerian President is almost a constitutional monarch. He is the country’s chief economic manager.  He is the “head of State, the Chief Executive of the Federation and Commander-in-Chief of the Federation” (Section 130(2). Whereas in defining the powers of the Federal Government, the Constitution vests legislative (Section 4) and judicial powers (section 6) in institutions and not individuals, Executive Powers (section 5) are vested in the person of the President. It is as follows:     

“5(1): Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the executive powers of the Federation – 

(a)          shall be vested in the President and may, subject as aforesaid and to the provisions of any law made by the National Assembly, be exercised by him either directly or through the Vice-President and Ministers of the Government of the Federation or officers in the public service of the Federation” 

In other words, the Vice President exercises executive powers only as delegated by the President. The manner and extent to which he does so is at the entire discretion of the President as provided in Section 148 (1): “The President, may in his discretion, assign to the Vice President or any Minister of the Government of the Federation responsibility for any business of the Government of the Federation, including the administration of any department of government.” The operative phrase here is “may in his discretion”.  And for the benefit of those wondering whether the President acted rightly by setting up an Economic Advisory Council, Section 151 of the Constitution refers - to wit: “The President may appoint any person as a Special Adviser to assist him in the performance of his functions.”  

This, to the best of my knowledge, is the position of the Constitution on how the Vice President stands in relation to Presidential powers. In the eyes of the Constitution, the buck stops at the President’s desk. His government fails or succeeds strictly on the basis of the choices that he makes. He is not first among equals. He is the boss. The Vice President is at best his number one aide and adviser. The circumstances, however, under which the Vice President can replace him or act on his behalf are properly spelt out in the same Constitution. It is not for nothing that the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in a ruling on the 2019 Presidential election recently declared that the Vice President is an ‘appendage.”    

When I canvass this view, I am told that I don’t understand the politics that is currently going on in the Villa. My suspicion is that the people who are playing politics are the people latching on to the announcement of an Economic Advisory Council or the revelation that the Vice President must take directives from the President (which is not a problem by the way), to project their own fears onto the national screen- namely their ethnic interests, religious sentiments and personal interests. They do so in rather hyperbolic terms. Just as there are persons threatening to march on the Villa “to defend our VP”, there are those who are seizing the moment to launch personal attacks on the Vice President. 

Those who claim to be defending him may be expressing their admiration of him – it is clear he has a followership and a constituency behind him - but they should be careful not to damage his politics and his relationship with his principal. There is definitely also a lesson here for the President and the Presidency. Perception is everything. Given Nigeria’s politics of suspicion, even the most innocent of gestures could create wicked problems; hence, government must always think ahead and communicate with greater clarity. Flip side: it is definitely clear that Professor Yemi Osinbajo’s followers want him to be given more responsibilities, not a demotion. They don’t want him to be used and dumped, no matter what. Off the books, beyond legalese: address this perception problem. Above all, something must be done about those so-called “reliable sources” in the Presidency. I never liked them. They only make things difficult for everyone.