Cloned Nigerian Anchor

Category: Opinion

  • INEC in America’s November election (1)

    INEC in America’s November election (1)

    “America has many contradictions in spite of its claim to exceptionalism.“

    THERE will be a significant election this year in a significant country which prides itself as the greatest democracy on earth. That country, a super power, claims that the election will be consequential, and will have ramifications for its citizens, and the whole world. For about two centuries this country has held this poll on the first Saturday in November in the election year. For this year, that date falls on November 5. The election was initially slated to be a fierce battle between two old men, one in his late 70s, and the other in his early 80s. It was supposed to be a rematch, sort of, because the duo had battled each other four years ago with the older prevailing. You already know because that country is the United States of America where the then incumbent president, Donald Trump, was defeated in 2020, and his successor, Joe Biden, was defeated from seeking a second term by a disastrous presidential debate outing on June 27. Biden came under intense pressure from his party people, and had to ‘pass the torch’ in July to his vice president Kamala Harris who is younger and more energetic.

    America has many contradictions in spite of its claim to exceptionalism. There’s is no record that it has been governed by any other means except through the ballot box, at least not in the last 200 years. It lays claim to democracy but it fails to meet the key ingredient of rule by the majority of its citizens voting in an election. Certainly, not for the election of its president. The classical definition of democracy is government of the people by the people for the people. In many climes, it is also governance by representatives who had been elected by a majority of voters during any election. Not so in the United States. In 2016, Hillary Clinton, candidate of the Democratic Party lost the presidential election in spite of winning three million more popular votes of the electorate. His rival, Donald Trump, of the Republican Party with an inferior popular votes tally was returned as the winner. The unique but apparently an undemocratic (to many outsiders) Electoral College gave victory to Trump. The candidates and the parties in that contest knew the rule and so could not complain.

    “The constitution in its 12th Amendment recognised ‘electors’. And the ‘electors’ for each of the 50 states have been determined, and the number of ‘electors’ for each state may be reflective but not necessarily proportional to the population of the state. Any candidate who secures a minimum of 270 Electoral College votes wins the presidency irrespective of the outcome of the popular votes.“

    The name, Electoral College, which determines who is elected as the US president is not in that country’s constitution. History has it that the founding fathers of the country inserted this mode of electing a president as a compromise between election of the president by a vote in Congress (parliament), which used to be the practice, and the election of the president by a popular vote of qualified citizens. Until the 1960s not many people were qualified to vote in elections. There was no universal suffrage. The constitution in its 12th Amendment recognised ‘electors’. And the ‘electors’ for each of the 50 states have been determined, and the number of ‘electors’ for each state may be reflective but not necessarily proportional to the population of the state. Any candidate who secures a minimum of 270 Electoral College votes wins the presidency irrespective of the outcome of the popular votes.

    The Electoral College has been a vexatious subject in American politics for centuries. And that explains why surveys showed that in the past 200 years more than 700 proposals had been introduced in Congress to either reform or eliminate the Electoral College. Probably, to underline its undemocratic nature, it has been recorded that there have been more proposals for constitutional amendments on changing the ‘electors’ method for determining the winner of the American presidency than on any other subject.

    Apart from politicians, America’s body of lawyers, the American Bar Association, has had cause to criticise the Electoral College as “archaic” and “ambiguous”, and its polling showed that 69% of lawyers favoured abolishing it in 1987. In addition, public opinion polls showed that Americans favoured abolishing it by majorities of 58% in 1967; 81% in 1968; and 75% in 1981. The conventional wisdom is that any candidate who wins a majority or plurality of the popular votes nationwide has a good chance of winning in the Electoral College, but there are no guarantees as implicated in the presidential election results of 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000 and 2016.

    It has been suggested that the Electoral College was contrived by the founders of the US to stem the possible agitations for separation from the Union by less populated states who may feel cheated and excluded in producing the president of the country. In effect, the Electoral College was informed by the need for the accommodation of all segments of the society. However, some scholars argued that the ‘electors’ scheme was indeed the handiwork of a segment of the elite among the founding fathers who did not want to totally relinquish the election of the president to the masses.

    On November 5, two candidates  Harris (Democrat), and Trump (Republican ) will lock horns for who occupies the American presidency which is generally regarded as the most powerful office in the world. Third party candidates are usually inconsequential since none has won the office ever. Harris appears to have an edge in the race at this time but election watchers reckon that in reality, the two candidates are running neck-and-neck. The proposition for the moment is that any of Harris or Trump can win the election. And this uncertainty is down to the complexities of the Electoral College. In 2016, polls and pundits put Hillary Clinton ahead by several miles. It was expected to be a coronation of the former American first lady (she was the wife of former President Bill Clinton), senator and secretary of state. Alas, it was not. Trump, who reportedly had given up that fateful election night in 2016 in the wake of exit polls that overwhelmingly pointed to Hillary’s win, won through the Electoral College.

    That scenario may not play out the same way this November. Nobody has yet said that November 5 will be a coronation for either of the candidates. This is so because the division in American politics is deep. It has been so since the advent of Trump (descending from the golden escalator) in presidential politics in 2015. The division became deeper when Trump was declared as the loser of the 2020 election. He has refused to concede defeat. He has failed to accept that he lost. He still insists even less than one month to the next election that the election in 2020 was procured by fraud for Biden. It does not matter that he was the incumbent at the time.

    “…Next week we’ll discuss how Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC’s) notorious inconclusive elections could play out in the November election in the US. The possibility of another round of violently contested election outcome is visible in the horizon with local election bodies planning to delay certification of results so as to provide ample time for the loser to sow doubts on the validity of the polls.”

    A lot has happened in the years between the 2020 presidential election and this year’s. There was a violent attack on January 6, 2021, ostensibly to stop the certification of the election results by the House of Representatives and the Senate. Those who stormed the Capitol Hill, the location of the parliament, chanted that they would hang the then vice president, Mike Pence. They even prepared a noose in the vicinity of Congress for Pence. And were heard chanting ‘hang Mike Pence’. By the way, Pence was on the losing ticket but he was constitutionally mandated to preside over the certification of the results of the election as the president of the senate. He rejected pressure from a section of his party to overthrow the election result. Trump, who was twice impeached by the House of Representatives and twice not convicted by the senate, reportedly watched the hours of the attack on the Capitol from the White House, and allegedly failed to lift a finger even when the life of his vice president was in danger. When he was told about the danger faced by Pence and the urgent need for him to act, he allegedly retorted, “so what?”

    In the intervening years also, former president Trump had been indicted in multiple jurisdictions, tried in two cases and convicted in at least two courts of law. He was convicted for sexual assault, and for business fraud. Trump and his supporters still rail that his indictments and convictions were politically motivated, and brazen attempts to interfere with the November presidential election. But in the eyes of the law, and at least until the convictions are upturned by superior courts, Trump remains a felon. In some other democracies a convict or felon would not be allowed to be on the ballot. But apparently not in the United States. So, he could be a felon and president of the most powerful country in the world at the same time. That could just be part of the exceptionalism of America.

    Next week we’ll discuss how Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC’s) notorious inconclusive elections could play out in the November election in the US. The possibility of another round of violently contested election outcome is visible in the horizon with local election bodies planning to delay certification of results so as to provide ample time for the loser to sow doubts on the validity of the polls. We will also examine a ‘democratic’ setting where a single senator could hold the whole nation to ransom, a court system where judgments are informed not by the letters and spirit of the law but by the ideological leanings of the judges, and who appointed them, and a 21st century supposed beacon of democracy governed by a constitution written in the 18th century, some of which words were laid out in unclear words and fractured sentences.

  • Shettima launches Nasarawa State Human Capital Development Plan

    Shettima launches Nasarawa State Human Capital Development Plan

    It is D-day in Nasarawa State today as the Vice President, His Excellency Senator Kashim Shettima launches the Nasarawa State Human Capital Development Strategy Document in Lafia, the state capital.

    A release from the focal Nasarawa State Human Capital Development Agency (HCDA) indicates the overarching focus of the strategy as “accelerating growth and development.”

    The occasion shall also feature the launch of the Nasarawa state Gender Transformative Human Capital Development policy framework.

    Human Capital Development was adopted as a development strategy by the National Economic Council in 2018. The aim was to address poverty and ensure sustainable economic growth.

    ” Nigeria’s Human Capital Development program (HCD 1.0) set clear targets and commitments for investment priorities, accelerating investments in human capital, and expanding stakeholder support to drive outcomes in Health, Education, and Labour Force participation in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030.”

    With a population of about 215million, expected to double to 400million by 2050, the human capital, apart from a huge reserve of oil and gas, which is a finite resource, is Nigeria’s most sustainable development resource.

    A huge population alone is however, not enough. Age and educational attainment are two critical attributes required to make the population amenable to development needs.

    READ ALSO: Human Capital Development and Economic Growth in Nigeria

    Consequently, the World Bank Human Capital Project defines human capital “as a combination of the knowledge, skills, and health people accumulate throughout their lives that enables them to realise their potential as productive members of society.”

    It is therefore the position of the NEC that, “For Nigeria to unlock its ‘demographic dividend’ and tap into the economic potential of its working age citizens, the country will need to first enhance its investment in its people – particularly women and children.”

    It argues that, “Over the past decade, many of the key metrics relating to Human Capital
    Development (HCD) in Nigeria have been going in the wrong direction.

    Nigeria’s performance across all major global HCD indices, including the United Nations Human Capital Index, the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) Expected
    Human Capital Index, and the World Bank Human Capital Index, is below the global average, as well as below the average for developing economies in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA),” the NEC, Nigeria’s apex economic policy body posited.

    According to a statement by Habiba Balarabe Suleiman, the Director General, Nasarawa State HCDA, successful implementation of the state HCD Strategic Plan 2024-2030 “is pivotal to the socioeconomic growth and sustainable development of Nasarawa state.”

    The launch of the HCD Strategy Document and Nasarawa state Gender Transformative Human Capital Development policy framework by the Vice President opens a new vista in the development aspiration of the state and a benchmark for peer review by other sub-nationals.

  • Tinubu’s youth jamboree and Remi’s rented attire: a tragedy of misplaced priorities

    Tinubu’s youth jamboree and Remi’s rented attire: a tragedy of misplaced priorities

    By

    UGO ONUOHA

    “Our rulers are adjudicated rapists and raiders of the public treasury. But there’s no need to be so brazen and in-our-face as this so-called national youth confab appears to suggest.

    ONE of the strengths demonstrated one week ago, on October 1, by Nigeria’s president, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, while he addressed the country on its 64th Independence anniversary, according to his media aide, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, was that he stood on his feet for the duration of the speech. I did not watch the broadcast because I was convinced that my early morning could be put to better use including my dawn workout. If what he had to say turned out to be that important, I could find the time to read the text at my convenience.

    As it turned out, and as usual, there was no compelling reason to read the text in light of the snippets from the broadcast that were uninspiring, distressing and depressing. Commentaries on the broadcast by independents and partisans showed that it was a rousing speech for regime choristers, and to unbelievers it was yet another underwhelming performance from Abuja.

    For those to whom Tinubu has become a god and a saviour as represented by Onanuga, the mere fact that the president made the speech while standing on his feet was an achievement of significant import. It was an unprecedented feat for which Nigerians should fawn over him. Onanuga, presidential assistant on information, was right in demanding applause from famished folks for the president for standing on his feet to deliver an address that lasted for barely 30 minutes.

    Corralling citizens to applaud the president demonstrated that Tinubu’s, and his predecessors’ neglect of funding of education has been deliberate. The more ignorant we are the easier it is for our rulers and their enablers such as Onanuga and others to gaslight us. In spite of myself I went back to watch the video of the broadcast. Even for a person who is half blind and hard of hearing, and this is no disrespect for visually impaired and hearing-challenged compatriots, the breaks in the recordings of the video, and the editing should be obvious. You do not have to be a media professional or broadcast guru to see through the cut and join of the tape.

    In simple terms what it means is that the recording was not done in a stretch or in one sitting (sorry standing). The different frames also indicated the principal was availed with breaks during the recording to sit down at intervals to catch his breath or to walk around so as to refocus before he returned to the presidential set.

    For unbelievers and naysayers who ordinarily should be treated as patriots, they saw a president who has been turned into a liar by his aides and speech writers. Or by his own making and choice. They saw a deterioration in a regime that has transited from deploying propaganda as a governance artform to one that sets up the president to be lying out-rightly to Nigerians.

    It was so bad, so shameful, and so embarrassing that Nigerians were fact-checking their president real time during a ‘live’ broadcast for what should be a solemn independence anniversary. The many lies in the broadcast including the handling of the Ways and Means federal government debt of N30 trillion, incurred between the former president who was Nigeria’s affliction, Maj.- Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, and this regime, are in the public domain. The greater tragedy is that the debt which was secretly and illegally procured, and which use has not been accounted for, will be paid for by Nigerians up to the fourth generation, in a manner of speaking. The rapacious operatives of the regime of Buhari must be having fun at the expense of the rest of us, wherever they may be. The Tinubu honchos are not doing badly in the unabating assault on the commonwealth. Even the cases of those who were caught with their hands deep inside the national till have gone cold, and as we say here, ‘entered voicemail’.

    We have not set out to agonise over the issues from the broadcast that have been sufficiently litigated in the courts of public opinion. The courts of law are actually out of the reach of the majority of Nigerians by reason of cost for a people who have been deliberately pauperised by their rulers. In any case why go to the courts where the acolytes and stooges of the rulers rule supreme. They are not bothered about your going to court, indeed they encourage you to do so knowing that their kinsmen and kinswomen are in-charge.

    “If this regime is not determined to steal in the guise of a 30-day youth conference which will cost billions of Naira, it should borrow an idea from Kenya. The template is clear, simple, transparent and less costly.”

    One of our primary concerns in this intervention is Tinubu’s proposal for a national jamboree for youths. Not surprising, the only significant detail about the plan was that the jamboree would last for all of 30 days. At the end of the 30 days, according to the president, Nigerian youths would become more united, more articulate in their contributions to enriching government policy formulations, more vigorous in participating in nation building, a sharper voice in shaping their futures, among others.

    In addition, the president announced that the ‘National Youth Conference’ will ‘address the diverse challenges and opportunities confronting our young people, who constitute more than 60 percent of our population’. The conference and the conversations therefrom would unite young people to collaboratively develop solutions to issues such as education, employment, innovation, security, and social justice.

    Our rulers are adjudicated rapists and raiders of the public treasury. But there’s no need to be so brazen and in-our-face as this so-called national youth confab appears to suggest. The majority of Nigerians have been impoverished and castrated by successive regimes, and more so by Tinubu’s. They cannot do anything again in terms of challenging their oppressors. In fact they have since been afflicted by the Stockholm Syndrome where they have fallen in love with, and are in awe of their oppressors. So there’s no wisdom in setting up elaborate schemes to continue the assets stripping of the country. The organisers of the confab could as well, and as usual, dip their hands into the jar of cookies and help themselves and their masters. That would be less painful. In my Igbo nation what the rulers are planning through this bogus conference will be akin to putting the hands of the unsuspecting youngsters inside the jar to enable them steal the cookies. Is it so bad that being immoral and ammoral no longer have limits.

    Nigerian youths speak everyday in spite of strident efforts by this regime to constrict the physical and digital spaces for conversations and dialogues. Their positions are often reasoned, succinct and well known. Of course, youthful exuberance manifests here and there once in a while. If allowed to have their way our government will shut down the digital space because for them our youths are irritants. The affliction from Daura once did it for months with Twitter (now X). How much did he succeed? Even before Buhari was able to banish Twitter, many youths had created and migrated to their own virtual personal networks (VPN), leaving the evil regime with the short end of the stick and, a hollow victory. Ask Lai Mohammed, Buhari’s flippant (dis)information minister

    If indeed Tinubu is desirous of hearing the voices of young Nigerians why does he stifle peaceful protests? Why does he unleash violence on peaceful protesters by using his security goons including the armed forces, the police, the secret police, the civil defence corps, touts and sundry paid street urchins to disrupt such marches? Since the president was a master protester in his days in opposition, it is inconceivable that he does not realise that protest is dialogue by other means.

    If this regime is not determined to steal in the guise of a 30-day youth conference which will cost billions of Naira, it should borrow an idea from Kenya. The template is clear, simple, transparent and less costly. Some months ago the youths of Kenya spoke about their frustrations with their leaders through protests. The administration of President William Ruto lost the plot and then resorted to violence. The security agents shot and killed some of the protesters. The situation degenerated and the protests escalated. The regime buckled and pulled back.

    READ ALSO: #ENDBADGOVERNANCE PROTESTS

    When dialogue was agreed between the parties, the president of Kenya engaged the youths on the twitter space. The opportunity for the Kenyan government to pick its ‘own youths’ to participate in the dialogue or conversation was removed. The mechanism to intimidate and exclude vocal youths was denied. The twitter space provided a level playing field. Why won’t Nigeria copy the Kenyan template if genuinely it has not been hearing the voices of the youths on various digital platforms, and indeed on the streets of Nigeria. The same president who Onanuga boasted the other day of standing on his feet to address Nigerians to mark our independence about a week ago must have the stamina and articulation to engage youths for at least two hours on the twitter space. To do this he actually does not need to be on his feet for the duration of the conversation with the youths.

    During the rebroadcast of the Independence activities at the national and sub national levels, I was all eyes to see the new national Aso-Ebi or Akwete that was being marketed by Mrs. Oluremi Tinubu, wife of the Nigerian president. I, however, did not see the attire on display. Or could it be that I was not sufficiently observant? Could it also be that the contractor, if one had been procured, did not have enough time, and mobilization to deliver the new national uniform? Since our textile industry has virtually collapsed, it’s expected that the materials for the new national uniform will be imported and paid for in hard currency, the same foreign exchange that is said to be in short supply.

    Well, paying for the Aso-Ebi or Akwete in dollars will probably not make the Naira exchange rate any worse than it is today. The pleasure of Mrs. Tinubu should also be a priority. Imagine the pride that will be instilled in us, and the courtesies that will be extended to us when we land in foreign airports, decked out in our new national attire. What a shame that none of the previous wives of former presidents ever thought of this game -changing and brilliant idea. We understand that the bug for this caught the president’s wife in a sister African country – Zimbabwe.

    The fortunate contractor/merchant who will supply the new national uniform has better hurry up because Christmas, New Year, Easter, Eid Mubarak, Isese, Iri Ji, among others are celebrations fitting for the donning of the new national attire. Naysayers should not spoil our fun by telling us that a youth conference and a national attire are not our priorities at the moment. Pray, when will ordinary folks have their own cruise?

  • Why well Meaning Nigerians Must Support This LGA Election.

    Why well Meaning Nigerians Must Support This LGA Election.

    By: Amaopusenibo Bobo Sofiri Brown

    Rivers State is one of over 10 States that had Local Government Caretaker Committees (CTC) in place by July 2024. Many of the States have conducted their LGA elections without undue interference by Abuja High Courts or Police directives.


    Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) whose members were picked and inaugurated by His Excellency, Chief Nyesom Ezenwo Wike in his last days as the recognized Governor of Rivers State, announced in July that the elections would hold on October 5, 2024.
    RSIEC has since confirmed that every necessary step in the process has been put in place to achieve a free and fair election. Most of the functioning Political parties in Rivers State have come out in support of the LGA elections.

    This development is a salutary departure from our past experience with LGA elections or any other for that matter. And in a most dramatic and strategic initiative, a coalition of Civil Society groups addressed a Press Conference in Abuja to declare support for the LGA elections. They gave coherent and troubling reasons that suggest very strongly their patriotic effort to expose the monkey hands in Abuja that seem to conjure stormy weather for Rivers State since November 1, 2023,
    The things happening should show to all Nigerians that Rivers people are largely united in their common desire to make a firm break with the old political environment that was in place up to October 30 2023.
    It was an environment of “might is right”, oppression and monopoly of our State revenue by a few who surround one Strong Man. It has made our state poorer and kept Rivers people enslaved.


    For instance, by 1883, at least four City States had sprung up in the Eastern Niger Delta known as Oil Rivers Province then. They were proud centres of indigenous enterprise as international trading hubs in a place some Europeans framed as a dreaded “heart of darkness”.
    But by 2023 not one of the old City States in Rivers State had any indigenous engineered local economy to feed our people and give them capacity to grow competitive business enterprises, dignity and a decent future.
    Rivers people who by the 1880s were celebrated in Europe for generating public wealth, who invested in education and enterprise-building through international commercial undertakings in their local economies and widely acclaimed fame for human dignity, have been reduced to beggars who now sleep under flyovers!
    Is that the life we want for ourselves and our children?


    Let nobody be faint-hearted about this LGA election. Let’s go forth with the fear of God and commitment to build good governance, not “turn by turn” looting.
    God said to Moses that He would harden Pharaoh’s heart to fulfill His own purpose.
    Pharaoh’s stone heart, made the world to know that there is God.
    Rivers people and Nigerians are going through the same experience today.
    We will not fear Pharaoh’s well-fed amorphous Army. They threaten and seek to drown us in the Red Sea. The LGA elections is their latest battle field.
    Pharaoh and his Army live in luxury with gold plated chariots for Judges and Security officials who do Pharaoh’s bidding.
    They are allegedly paid in handsome currencies, from the looted wealth of Rivers State that for years have kept our State poorer.
    But God’s words ring true. His judgment will come upon Pharaoh and his Army of oppression and exploitation.
    Then they will know that Jehovah’s might is the ultimate (Exodus 14 v 4 & 14).
    See how confused Pharaoh and his Army have become over Rivers State, which they want to control at all cost? They keep failing with every step they take.


    More Stakeholder groups across Nigeria are joining hands to stand with Rivers people and our Governor, His Excellency Amaopusenibo Sir Sim Fubara!
    Isn’t God wonderful?
    I hear people worry about Pharaoh’s next move.
    We will not fear!
    For the God of Jacob is our refuge and strength. Let us be still and watch what He will do to Pharaoh (Psalm 46 v 10-11).
    He has set us free from bondage and will continue to do wonders before the eyes of all Nigerians, as He leads us along. Yes, His name is Jehovah (Joshua 24 v 17-18).

    Amaopusenibo Bobo Sofiri Brown

    Manager Public Affairs- East, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC),

    Pioneer Head of PR, later Manager PR & Communication, NAFCON,

    (a MW Kellogg of Houston JV project)

  • President Tinubu’s Much Touted Independence Speech: A monumental Let Down

    President Tinubu’s Much Touted Independence Speech: A monumental Let Down

    President Tinubu must be living in an alternate universe and in a denial bubble if he thinks “Nigerians worldwide can look back to see how well we have succeeded in realizing the lofty dreams of our founding fathers”. That single line so early in his 64th independence presidential speech set the tone for the speech and it tanked it from the get-go. It is so off-putting, so disconnected from reality, I totally lost interest in reading the rest of the speech. The heroes of our independence could not have envisaged that 64 years after, the nation they fought for would be unable to feed its citizens, still be so consumed by the virus of ethnic animus in geometruc proportion than what they faced, be overrun by bandits and kidnappers with tens of millions of its children panhandling for survival instead of being educated in schools. Our country had the largest population out of school children in the entire world. That was not the country they fought for.

     

    If the President thinks that Nigerians can see any light at the end of the tunnel, he must be totally disconnected from the daily Hobbesian reality in which his citizens live. Our people are locked up in the prison of their home unable to get to work due to unavoidability of fuel to power their cars or pay for public transport. State governments are telling their workers to stay home and not come to work because the cost of transport is greater than their wages.

     

    Children are going to bed on absent stomach with formula 001 which Obey sang about decades ago looking now like a faraway unobtainable Nirvana.

     

    I am a supporter of the Tinubu presidency who strongly believes that our economy was desperately in need of a major reform shock treatment to prevent our match to the apocalypse. Hence, I have defended his reform agenda as necessary even though it is imposing unbelievable pain on the citizenry. I am also not blaming him for the despondency in the country and our collective failure. Only a jaundiced and blind fool would blame a 16-month presidency for the dysfunction of 64 years. In fact I commend President Tinubu for taking the hard road instead of continuing in our delusion of riches that was sinking our country deeper and deeper into the abyss. His reform policy was the painful surgery our country needed to remove its festering malignancy.

     

    However, the president is failing to show the needed empathy to put a soothing balm on the pain of the people. He is failing once again to understand that government is part policy, part public relation and public perception. He is failing woefully in the public relation, public perception part and if not urgently addressed it might further sour people on his presidency and tank it.

     

    People are not so more interested in his enumeration of his many policies nor new proposals like the proposed youth confabs. Nigerians have lost faith in confabs with our very long history of meaningless national confab jamborees with their resolutions left on the shelf to gather dust. The Nigerian youths want jobs, schools that are conducive to learning not the dilapidated pig pens they are forced to learn with no teachers nor resources to prepare them for the highly competitive knowledge driven global digital economy. They are not interested in hobnobbing with well fed, rosy-cheeks, government officials and politics bigwigs.

     

    Nigerians are so consumed with the insurmountable challenge of meeting the most basic requirements of minimal existence which have been priced beyond the reach of the middle class if they even exist not to talk about the masses. They are sick and tired of looking their children in the face at night and tucking them in bed on an empty stomach: Husbands are tired and ashamed to live off of the bounty of their wives’ adulterous exploits to put food on the table. They are looking for an empathetic presidency to acknowledge their pain, to accept and own the responsibility that their reform policy is a major source of their pain. They want President Tinubu to reassure them that their pain has a terminal date and that even though it looks like the darkest night, that the sun shall shine again on the other side. They are not interested in being told to deny their daily reality by being told that Boko Haram and bandits have been eliminated when they are afraid to leave their homes, or to go to their farm without the fear of kidnappers and bandits. Not even great Michelangelo can paint over the Hobbesian reality in which the Nigerian citizens are living. The president will do himself a great favor by acknowledging it even as he is convinced and confident that his policies are the right one to save the country. I also believe that his policies will work if we are patient.

     

    His most urgent task is to calm the restive passengers on the wobbling ship he is captaining on a violent sea or risk a stampede that will capside and doom a voyage to the promised land. He should learn great lessons of Moses in the wildness leading his Israelites people to the promised land. I am his great supporter but he needs to do a better job of feeling the pulse of his citizens and communicating with them.

     

    Presidential speeches, especially in moments of crisis like we are going through, are historical documents that are carefully and methodically crafted, with each word, infection, tonality and even commas carefully chosen, debated and analyzed to meet the exigency of the moment. Once again the people around the president did him great disservice by inserting some of the totally disconnected from reality lines, so early in his speech instead of the president spending a big portion of his speech empathizing with the pain, anguish, suffering, and the disillusionment with the country, with its democracy, with his reform policies and his regime. Where are the promised cost of governance cutting proposals, the bloated bureaucracy shrinking and ministerial reshuffle proposal?

     

    Great and consequential presidents are known for and defined by the great speeches they delivered to rise to the magnitude of the ocassion. In fact many presidencies have been saved by great presidential speeches in moment of national crisis, like the Gettysburg address. This to my mind was a Gettysburg moment for President Tinubu to rise to the magnitude of the occasion and he failed to deliver. He needs to replace his media team and his speech writers.

    As Nigeria Turns 63: No Quick Road To Nirvana

  • Nigeria @ 64: we’re all Internally Displaced Persons

     

    By: Ugo Onuoha

     

    “For any Nigerian who is not where he or she should be, that person qualifies to be classified as a displaced person.”

    FROM conception as we ruminated on how to mark the ‘low key’ (apologies to Nigeria’s president, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s regime) celebrations of the country’s 64th Independence anniversary today, the idea was to express anger, frustration and then rail at the fate of millions of fellow citizens who have been condemned to live perpetually in Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps scattered especially across the northern parts of Nigeria. But on deeper reflection and contemplation, I held back and expanded the scope. I did so because it dawned on me, in a jarring manner, that many, probably majority of our citizens qualify to wear the label of IDPs. We can console ourselves by arguing that we have not yet been uprooted from our ancestral homes or comfort zones, and herded into confinements or camps in strange lands.

     

    I will be the first to admit and acknowledge that the consolation of not yet being confined in, or to, a camp in the middle of nowhere, and possibly surrounded by suspicious and hostile communities, is a big deal for which many of us should give thanks with grateful hearts. Let’s quickly illustrate with a real picture of what a typical IDP camp translates into. There are, as we write, many Nigerian toddlers, pre-teens, teenagers, and tweenagers (children in their 20s) who have known no other homes except the IDP camps. They were born there. They were nurtured there. They were raised in IDP camps. The ones who are fortunate attended primary and secondary schools inside the camps or just outside the perimeters of the camps. Those who were not that fortunate were born inside the camps, some of them prematurely. They took ill inside the camps with little or no health facilities. So, they died inside the camps. And they were buried in unmarked graves inside the camps. That’s how fate has conspired with soulless Nigerian rulers to deal a bad hand to some of our citizens.

     

     

    It has to be acknowledged that Nigeria has had issues of displaced persons in the course of its journey towards nationhood – though the efforts to attain the status of a nation has remained elusive. However, the problem of displaced persons in the past had been temporary and fleeting. In the past people had been displaced due to intra and/or inter – communities’ crises and bloody clashes. In some other situations it had been poorly demarcated boundaries between states that ignites conflicts among border communities. There had been other reasons for displacement of people from their homes and communities. We dare say that many of these displacements had been temporary. Victims were often quickly returned home and resettled. Nothing in the past experiences approximate the scale of what has been happening in our country these past twenty -five years since the return to rule by civilians in 1999.

     

    “The combined activities of our insensitive and wicked rulers on the one hand, and those of terrorists of all descriptions on the other hand, have ensured that in one sense or the other all of us have become IDPs “

     

    The advent of the terrorist Islamist group, Boko Haram, in Borno state in the north east part of the country was at the root of the low level insurrection and insurgency wracking Nigeria. Those who know say that Boko Haram roughly translates to ‘western education is evil’. The adherents of this ideology claim that their bloody opposition to western education was, and still is, rooted in Islam. They argued that the way to the future passes through Islamic and Arabic education. Any other thing is haram. Global jihadist groups which were operating in other regions of the world latched unto the Boko Haram to infiltrate into Nigeria, and to expand the reign of terror. Among the terrorist groups were Ansaru, ISIS-WAP (West Africa Province), and the Fulani Militia. All these sectarian groups were ranked in the top 10 of the most dreaded terrorist organisations in the world when they operated in Nigeria.

     

     

    With time, and in the face of official helplessness or connivance, terrorising Nigeria and Nigerians became a franchise. In the guise of protecting the south east Igbo homeland from the ravages of terrorists and the perceived evils of the central government, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) founded a militia, the Eastern Security Network (ESN). IPOB is a self – styled self determination group which said it is committed to the excision of the former Eastern region from Nigeria. IPOB was banned by governors in the south east states and then listed as a terrorist organisation by the central government in Abuja. But a court of law in Nigeria has since ruled that IPOB was not a terrorist body. And there’s no evidence yet that the federal government of Nigeria has successfully challenged and upturned the court’s judgment. In any case, no other government in any other part of the world recognised Abuja’s branding of IPOB as a terrorist organisation.

    “However, the franchise started by Boko Haram, Ansaru, ISIS-WAP and the Fulani Militia blossomed. These terror groups birthed abductions and kidnappings for ransom as well as murders for rituals. Those in government, terrorists, kidnappers, ritualists, abductors and sundry freelancers in crime competed amongst themselves on which of them will get the credit or plaudits for making Nigeria the biggest crime scene in the history of the world.”

     

    However, the franchise started by Boko Haram, Ansaru, ISIS-WAP and the Fulani Militia blossomed. These terror groups birthed abductions and kidnappings for ransom as well as murders for rituals. Those in government, terrorists, kidnappers, ritualists, abductors and sundry freelancers in crime competed amongst themselves on which of them will get the credit or plaudits for making Nigeria the biggest crime scene in the history of the world. For the avoidance of doubt, they are still at it – plundering Nigeria and leaving citizens desperate, despondent and hopeless.

     

     

    There are no reliable figures and statistics but it is routinely estimated that tens or even hundreds of thousands of Nigerians have been kidnapped in the last two decades. Some of the kidnap victims were freed after friends and families paid ransom to the kidnappers. Others had been killed even after ransoms had been paid. Right now the kidnap-for-ransom business is a full-fledged industry. Some sub national governments have since started negotiating with kidnappers and bandits to lay down their arms and give peace a chance in exchange for rehabilitation and settlement. A few years ago, a governor of Katsina state was seen savouring a photo-op with bandits. The clincher- the bandits in the photograph were seen with their automatic rifles hanging on their shoulders. About the same time Alhaji Nasir el-Rufai, a former governor of Kaduna state was alleged to have paid off terrorists to stop terrorising his state. Currently, the governor of Zamfara state and his predecessor who is one of the defence ministers in the Tinubu federal cabinet are at daggers-drawn about who between them is the primary funder of terrorists in that beleaguered state. They are washing their dirty (sorry bandit) linens in the media and also in the court of law.

     

    An IDP Camp in Central Nigeria

     

    The combined activities of our insensitive and wicked rulers on the one hand, and those of terrorists of all descriptions on the other hand, have ensured that in one sense or the other all of us have become IDPs. Just as with the issue of kidnapping, there are no reliable data on those formally listed as Internally Displaced Persons in our country. But there’s an estimation. Internally Displaced Persons camps in Benue, Borno, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Nasarawa, Plateau, Sokoto, Zamfara, among others, host well over three million people. Apart from the formal IDP camps, there are hundreds of informal camps scattered across majority of the states in the north of the country, and Abuja. Our country is ranked among the top 10 in the world for IDPs. And we are not fighting any conventional war.

    READ ALSO: Invincible Bello, his juju man and a pitiful EFCC

     

    Nigeria is already a difficult place to live in, given serial bungling of successive administrations at all levels. The situation becomes worse for those who have been uprooted from their places of abode. That is the experience of a typical IDP. Farmers are separated from their farms. The same for herders. Business people face the same dilemma. Along with the separation comes loss of income and probably savings. Some people may never recover from the initial sudden dislocation. They go to their graves defeated and broken. There have been cases of sexual exploitation of women and girls in the camps, and indeed outright rape by those who are supposed to provide help and succour. The way our governments behave, it is difficult not to have the impression that IDP camps have come to stay, and they are expected to remain part of our national life. There are no plans whether short, medium or long, in the public domain for permanently securing the country in a sustainable and enduring manner so as to return the IDPs to their homesteads.

     

     

    Instead, the experience has been that many Nigerians are technically becoming IDPs. How? For any Nigerian who is not where he or she should be, that person qualifies to be classified as a displaced person. The twenty million or so Nigerian children who should be in school but they are not are displaced kids. The many workers whose employers have shut down their businesses because of unfriendly environment have become displaced persons. Small business owners who can no longer cope with the spiraling costs of public utilities including electricity, and who have had to relocate from urban centres to rural communities are now technically speaking IDPs. The same applies to those who have had to move because they can no longer afford house rents in places they have lived in for decades. Every Nigerian youth who has been compelled by suffocating economic and political environment at home to flee Nigeria by foot through the Sahara Desert is a displaced person. Every family which has been split because members are running to different parts of the world for better opportunities falls into the category of displaced persons.

     

     

    A country that held so much promise about half a century ago has fallen into gloom. Citizens of Nigeria now increasingly feel trapped. Nobody is happy and many are not hopeful except the few in the upper reaches of our governments at all levels. This is part of the story of Nigeria as it turns 64 today.

    Ugo Onuoha
    A veteran journalist.
    He was the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief, Champion Newspapers Ltd.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • EFCC failure to detain Yahaya Bello shameful, smacks of compromise

    EFCC failure to detain Yahaya Bello shameful, smacks of compromise

    Save Nigeria Coalition, an anti-corruption group, has described the failure of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to detain Yahaya Bello after he turned himself in as a  shameful act that smacks of compromise.

     

    The group also berates the manner in which the EFCC has  so far handled the prosecution of the former Kogi State governor.

     

    The group alleged that the EFCC’s actions are a “shameful outing” and a “media trial” that suggests a predetermined outcome.

     

    Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Dr. Felicia Eneh Daniel, its Country Director, said the EFCC’s failure to detain Bello after he voluntarily presented himself for questioning raises questions about the agency’s intentions.

     

    The Save Nigeria Coalition also slammed the EFCC for allegedly writing “barefaced lies” and making “irreconcilable blunders” in its attempt to prosecute Bello.

     

    Furthermore, the group questions the EFCC’s selective prosecution, citing cases against Senator Danjuma Goje, former governors Abdullahi Ganduje and Samuel Ortom as well as Senator Godswill Akpabio that have not been pursued.

     

    Daniel said: “There is nowhere in the civilized world where a law enforcement agency will allow a wanted man who voluntarily presented himself to its operational headquarters and spent Four gruelling hours with operatives of the agency to go without immediately detaining the person and asking critical questions that will enable swift and thorough prosecution of such suspects.

     

    “The actions of the EFCC last week when Yahaya Bello, whom the agency had previously declared wanted and invited even the Interpol to assist in bringing to justice, voluntarily presented himself for questioning and prosecution, in line with the extant laws, suggests that what the agency wants is beyond legal prosecution of Yahaya Bello and that there is a hidden agenda that the EFCC and its handlers are yet to lead Nigerians into.

     

    “It is appalling that the anti graft agency will now resort to writing barefaced lies and making up irreconcilable blunders in its desperate attempt to nail Yahaya Bello on the media and destroy a man who has not been convicted by a court of competent jurisdiction despite having legal representation, as allowed by the law, in all the hearings.

     

    “It is also intriguing that the EFCC will attempt to play on the sensibilities of Nigerians that the agency has no sacred cows and will spare no one in it’s efforts to rid the country and its institutions of financial improprieties.”

     

    Daniel demands answers to several critical questions, including why the N5 billion case against Senator Danjuma Goje was withdrawn, why the EFCC hasn’t prosecuted former governor Samuel Ortom despite corruption allegations, and why the EFCC hasn’t investigated and prosecuted Ganduje.

     

    “Why did the anti graft agency accede to the withdrawal of the N5billion case against former governor of Gombe state, Senator Danjuma Goje?

     

    We were all in this country when FG suddenly withdrew its case against Senator Danjuma Goje from the court.

     

    “Why has the EFCC not prosecuted former governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state despite the monumental corruption allegations against him and the willingness of the present Benue state government to assist the anti-graft agency to unearth the endemic corruption that took place in the state during the Ortom government?

     

    “Why has the EFCC refused to investigate and prosecute Former Governor of Kano state and now national Chairman of the ruling party , Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, despite his indictment by the anti graft agency in Kano state and monumental corruption cases filed against him by the Kano state government?

     

    What happened to the viral Gandollar video? Or has the agency started keeping sacred cows?

     

    “Why has the EFCC not prosecuted the current senate president, Senator Godswill Akpabio despite the allegations of billions of naira and his refusal to appear before the agency when he was invited for questioning? Do we now have two laws in Nigeria; one for the Akpabios and the other for the Yahaya Bellos?

     

    “We can go on and on as a group that has dedicated years of its existence into tracking corruption cases under the radar of the EFCC.”

     

    The Save Nigeria Coalition, therefore, called on President Bola Tinubu to intervene and ensure the EFCC follows due process, warning that selective prosecution will undermine the country’s democratic credentials.

     

    They urged Nigerians to stand up for the rule of law and demand accountability from the EFCC.

     

    Daniel added: “We call on Mr. President to intervene and call the EFCC to order as this unacceptable act of singling out a perceived political enemy for persecution, if allowed, will become a big dent to his tall democratic credentials.

     

    “While we do not hold briefs for anybody, our group takes seriously, cases of corruption and believes in imbibing international best practices in making leaders accountable for their actions. The current kill-him-at-all-cost strategy by the EFCC in this current case involving Yahaya Bello is crude and unknown to our laws.

     

    “Lastly, the fact that some illiterate cashivists like the so called Human and Environmental Agenda (HEDA Resource Center), and other fake groups are being hurriedly assembled to buy into this agenda of blackmailing and browbeating Yahaya Bello to submission, further confirms the fears of many Nigerians that this so-called corruption prosecution of Yahaya Adoza Bello is a grand conspiracy by powerful political enemies to silence the former governor and ease him out of circulation. “

     

  • Tinubu & Tribune: A Union Made in Journalistic Heaven

    Tinubu & Tribune: A Union Made in Journalistic Heaven

    Tinubu and Tribune share not just alphabetical but homophonic similarity. Tinubu and Tribune spell and sound almost alike. It therefore should not come as a surprise that the two have become a union made in journalistic heaven or hell. Take your pick.

    Tinubu has become a gift that keeps on giving to the Tribune brand. It has become the lifeline for the newspaper’s highly gifted crew pf opinion writers. Tinubu has now become a subject of their obsession, a well they can latch on to dip their ink again, and again for their venom-filled pens like a parasitic leech on its host. They return again and again to Tinubu to churn out one negative opinion epistle after another.

    In yesterday’s essay by the premier opinion writer in the Tribune, he latched on to four simple words in an arguably President Tinubu’s most articulate exploration of the state of the nation, and the rationale for his painful economic reform policy. In that speech to visiting former presiding officers of the National legislature to the Aso Rock Villa, the president took his guests on a journey into our past failure as a nation, including the mismanagement of the massive oil windfall of the 1970s, and our failure to invest in both our physical and human infrastructure. He spoke about our dilapidated schools, our crumbling infrastructure and the unsustainability of our artificially juiced up forex and oil subsidy. He acknowledged the pain caused by his economic reform policy and urged for patience, understanding and sacrifice for the sake of a better future.

    Always looking for cheap materials to meet their writing deadline however, our brother latched on to four of the most insignificant words uttered by the president “no free beer parlour” to write a whole dissertation worthy of performance by the Baba Sala comedy group.

    READ ALSO: http://‘Where-ever law ends, tyranny begins,…’

     

    Not surprisingly, on Tuesday, flat out, Seyi Tinubu’s donation to the Borno Flood disaster is the main course. In one of my posts on that ill-advised public donation, I narrated how tone-deaf and incongruous that visit by Seyi Tinubu and his friends and the huge donation was when many states are still scrambling with how to pay the minimum wage. But to spend pages upon pages of vitriol on that subject matter reeks of journalistic overkill and over-dramatization which sadly has become the stock in trade for the Tribune.

    Yes, it is absolutely the responsibility and obligation of every responsible journalist to speak truth to power, to hold their feet to fire, and hold them accountable for the awesome power and privilege that come with their leadership position. But the best journalists in the trade are careful not to cross the hallowed line that divides responsible journalism from personal animosity. The Tribune opinion writers in many people’s opinion have not just crossed that line, they have defacated on it.

     

    Gov Zulum (l), Seyi Tinubu (m)

    I will say bon appetite to our Tribune brothers. A brotherly word of caution to them however, from the popular Yoruba adage “Epa npa ara re, olonpa aja”. The tick is killing itself while foolishly thinking he was killing its host, the dog. A parasite that gluttonly consumes its host blood, risks killing itself in the process. The most successful parasite in any ecosystem is one that understands the Kenny Roger’s song about the gamblers “ You’ve got to know when to hold ’em
    Know when to fold ’em
    Know when to walk away And know when to run You never count your money When you’re sittin’ at the table”.

    One hopes that our brothers in the Tribune will not over play their Tinubu-bashing card. That they will know when to hold ’em
    Know when to fold ’em
    and Know when to walk away

    READ ALSO:http://We beg bread, they belch beer

  • Invincible Bello, his juju man and a pitiful EFCC

    “Bello, a fugitive, according to the EFCC, visited the offices of the anti-graft agency in the company of Governor Ododo in broad daylight. They loitered around in the open. They exchanged pleasantries with the operatives and the staff of the EFCC. It was even alleged that they sent a message to the chairman of the EFCC announcing their presence and the desire of the former governor to be interrogated.”
     LAST week was draining for many citizens. This opening statement sounds stupid. The question that should naturally strike anyone who has lived fairly consistently in this country for 25 years since the inception, or rather, return of rule by civilians in 1999, is how many weeks these past two decades and a half have we been spared the debilitating and wearisome drama of the absurd? How many times? And the absurdities are carefully crafted and orchestrated by a section of the ruling elite to keep Nigerians chewing their thumbnails in disgust and disbelief. But the joke has always been on us, though we do not get it. It would appear that our mumu (local lingo for collective foolishness) is factory made, or as we say in this clime follow come.
    If the truth be told, it has not always been like this. Citizens’ activisms against repressive governments from the colonial era to successive military dictatorships have been the fact of our national life. Protests by university students in the 1960s helped to abort an obnoxious Anglo – Nigerian Defence Pact early in the life of an independent Nigeria. There was also the bloody May riots of 1989 or so that moderated the Ibrahim Babangida plot for a wholesale adoption of the International Monetary Fund (IMF’s) Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) prescriptions for economic recovery. We have lost the verve as a people and the younger elements whose futures are more in jeopardy do not seem interested in looking for where the ball was dropped.
    Many decades ago, flamboyant journalist the now late Dele Giwa wrote two articles which were published about the same period. In one, he titled it: ‘Adewusi’s men can’t shoot straight’. Sunday Adewusi, also late, was the inspector – general of the Nigerian Police Force. Almost 40 years after the provocative headline, police operatives under Adewusi’s successors still can not shoot straight unless they are targeting innocent and unarmed protesters.
    Two recent examples will illustrate the state of the police – the murderous put down of the August 1-10 #EndBadGovernance nationwide protests, and the show that was put up at the Kogi state government lodge in Abuja last week. In the August protests police killed scores of Nigerians in cold blood while those who survived are currently in captivity facing charges ranging on terrorism, treason, treasonable felony, subversion and attempt to overthrow the federal government. The charges may sound phony, and they certainly do, but they are in sync with the ways of repressive regimes worldwide. However, last week the police/security details of Kogi state governor Musa Ododo and his predecessor Yahaya Adoza Bello, the White Lion, and the police of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), both federal police, shot at themselves in a firefight, shattering the peace of the Asokoro-Abuja night for a considerable length of time.
    When the dust settled in the morning of the day after, a Thursday, there were no deaths; no reports of injuries; and, there were no arrests. It would not matter that there could have been some residents of that neighborhood with heart and/or other pre-existing health conditions whose situations could have been exacerbated by that night of madness by government security agents. In a sane place, the expectation is that there may at times be collateral damage in the course of an official task by security agencies. But that was not the case in this Abuja ‘shootout’. The EFCC police and those of Ododo/Bello were merely entertaining themselves at the expense of Nigeria.
    READ ALSO:
    The sorom chia (Igbo for comic display) by the EFCC and their ‘prey’ Bello, will be a box office hit any day, and a classic in later years. Creative Nollywood must have taken note. What’s the genesis? Bello was governor of Kogi state for eight years until last January. Corruption allegations swirled around him even as a governor. He had absolute immunity, so nothing could be done to him. We have conveniently forgotten that there’s an existing court decision that a sitting governor can be investigated but not prosecuted while in office, thanks to the efforts and doggedness of the late Gain Fawehinmi, a renowned and unblemished anti-corruption crusader. Well, Bello installed his relative Ododo as governor. Then the EFCC slapped a charge of N80blllion misappropriation/money laundering on Bello. The former melted away but tied up the case in court through proxies. He did not for once appear in court. At one point he even insisted that only the courts in his Kogi state and the judges he appointed while he was governor had jurisdiction over his matter. He fought his cases up to the Supreme Court. And he lost all of them.
    Yet he would not answer to the summons of the EFCC for interview nor present himself in court for arraignment and to prove his innocence. In what has now been exposed as a contrived frustration, the anti-graft agency declared Bello wanted and caused his name to be published in the Red List of the International Police Organisation (Interpol) as a global fugitive. Interpol may have taken the notice seriously. But not Nigerians. And now with the events of last week not even the EFCC took their wanted notice on Bello seriously. Nigerians and the EFCC knew that Bello was in this country and enjoying immunity by other means. In April, the EFCC had besieged the Abuja residence of Bello but failed to apprehend him, just as it failed again last week. But this time what transpired was different. It could have been treated as comical but for its national implications.

     

    Yahaya Bello at the premises of the EFCC that declared him wanted. Yet he was not detained.

    So what was different this time? Bello, a fugitive, according to the EFCC visited the offices of the anti-graft agency in the company of Governor Ododo in broad daylight. They loitered around in the open. They exchanged pleasantries with the operatives and the staff of the EFCC. It was even alleged that they sent a message to the chairman of the EFCC announcing their presence and the desire of the former governor to be interrogated. The chief of staff to the helmsman was alleged to have told the VIP visitors that the chairman was busy and so had no time for them. The guests were allegedly told that the EFCC would revert to them to arrange for a meeting at a convenient date and time. After about four hours of loitering around what otherwise should be a security zone, Gov. Ododo, former Governor Bello and their team triumphantly left the EFCC complex.
    A report even claimed that the EFCC staff and operatives who encountered Bello were very noisy in hailing him. Bello the fugitive, Bello the villain, Bello the accused plunderer is about to become Bello the law, Bello the warrior, Bello the saint, Bello the saviour, and Bello the persecuted. There’s no doubt that the depth that the country has fallen may yet be difficult to fathom, but some tales about some things that happen here still beggars belief. A fugitive over whom you had asked for global help in arresting walks into your den noisily exchanging pleasantries with your operatives, requests for a meeting, and you let him walk away freely could only fit tales under the moonlight. The greater tragedy is that the man who heads that agency was still sitting pretty in office as at last weekend when we wrote this. And he has also not been fired by his appointer, Nigeria’s president, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu. But truly, that the EFCC chairman, Ola Olukoyede, was not summarily suspended preparatory to his being fired on the heels of this global embarrassment should not come as a surprise. It is a case of akwu rere ere nime ikwo puru epu or rottenness on top of rottenness equals rottenness.
    By the way, the accounts we related above about Bello’s visit to the EFCC offices came from the media team of the ‘fugitive’. So the natural question will be why not balance their claims with the position of the EFCC? Sadly, there’s nothing to balance or counter. The EFCC did not refute the story that Bello was in their premises on Wednesday, September 18. It did not deny that Bello’s company made contact with the office of the EFCC chairman while they were around. EFCC did not disclaim that Bello met some of their staff whether at the agency’s parking lot or anywhere else in the complex. The agency did not deny anything that was propagated by the media team of ‘fugitive’ Bello. All that the EFCC said in their shameless and pitiable counter press statement can be summarised in six words – Bello is not in our custody. Read it again. Do not try to digest it because it will cause you indigestion.
    Hours later that same day but this time under the cover of darkness, the same EFCC allegedly made contact with Bello’s people, established the location of the ‘fugitive’, and then dispatched a team of police ‘sharpshooters’ to apprehend him. Of course, the EFCC failed again. All they succeeded in doing that fateful Wednesday night was to humiliate and embarrass themselves, disturb the peace of the upscale Abuja neighbourhood, frighten residents and passersby, and then retreat with their tails behind their backs.
    Memes have gone viral in the social media world about the magical powers of Bello, the (in)famous White Lion, and the invincibility of his juju man or men. A marabou that could pull off a feat that could rival the biblical story of Daniel inside the den of a lion deserves more than a passing attention. Indeed, some Nigerians have suggested that instead of wasting taxpayers money on domestic and offshore trainings of the EFCC operatives with little or no results to show, it could be more beneficial if the EFCC befriended Bello, forgave him of his alleged transgressions and encouraged him to introduce the agency to his juju man or men. Fortified with such magical powers, the EFCC will easily fish out corrupt persons, bring them to court and cast a spell on judges to quickly return guilty verdicts, and pronounce long term jail sentences. This will also work well for plea bargains. The harvests will be bountiful with corrupt people being made to disgorge all that they stole from the commonwealth. Nigeria happens to everybody. It’s a matter of time.
    Ugo Onuoha
    A veteran journalist.
    He was the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief, Champion Newspapers Ltd.
  • APC has boasted that it will capture Rivers and Delta States in 2027

    APC has boasted that it will capture Rivers and Delta States in 2027

    With its attention totally  focused on winning elections, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has boasted that it will win Rivers and Delta states in the 2027 elections after clinching Edo State on September 21, 2024.
    Tony Okocha, leader of the APC’s Caretaker Committee in Rivers State, made the disclosure while addressing newsmen in Port Harcourt on Monday.
    The party chieftain also warned prospective candidates in the October 5, 2024, local council election in Rivers state not to waste their resources.
    He said a court order bars the Independent National Electoral Commission, the Army, and the Police from participating in the election, rendering any outcome null and void.
    He said, “Can you see billboards, jingles, etc? The election cannot hold, and if they are ahead, the outcome will not stand.”
    Okocha, backed by the National Working Committee (NWC), the presidency, and FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, cited several court cases affirming his group’s legitimacy in the state. He commended Wike for strengthening the party.
    Okocha added that court judgments supported the legitimacy of 27 lawmakers, emphasizing that they did not meet the legal requirements to defect to another party.
    The APC took over from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after its presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari defeated incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015.
    Buhari’s eight years in office has been characterized as most corrupt, inept, nepotistic, and witnessed unbridled  rise in insecurity and economic woes.
    One and half years of President Tinubu, another APC government has also been characterized by massive cost of living crises, hunger and economic downturn.