TheNewsGuru

Author: Peter Tuketu

  • Aso Rock is catching cold, Senators are crying – By Mideno Bayagbon

    Aso Rock is catching cold, Senators are crying – By Mideno Bayagbon

    By Mideno Bayagbon

    (mideno@thenewsguru.ng)

    I have been laughing and laughing since some members of the National Assembly came out, to disturb our anxiety filled lives, singing: “All we are saying, Buhari must go!”  First the shock. Then the laughter. Seeing them in their rich designer and expensive flowing native wears, donned over their lush, glowing bodies and them forming Aluta continua,  I couldn’t help but fall down laughing, uncontrollably. I couldn’t believe that these people who are the most insulated from Nigerian reality, the best paid legislators in the world, have been stung by some failings of the Buhari government and suddenly they are all behaving like an earlier-life Adams Oshiomhole.

    They say President Muhammadu Buhari  must go, and in fact threaten to impeach him in five weeks, if the cocoon of security which made the nation’s capital, Abuja, their most cherished and preferred haven, is not restored. Well known is the fact that Abuja was seemingly protected from the chronic insecurity which the rest of the country has been battling with since the incompetent government of President Buhari assumed the saddle of leadership of the country. Abuja is the city to which every Senator, House of Representative member, those who have been Governors, Ministers, Commissioners, local government chairmen and so on, make their preferred abode once they taste the beauty of Abuja and the swirling corruption that funds it.

    Abuja is the city of dreams. The only city which NIgeria can boast off in the comity of nation. It is the only city which matches the rest of the world in beauty and serenity. In deed, four years ago, I wrote an article: Abuja is not Nigeria. In it I showcased the shock and wonder of a Septuagenerian who was visiting Abuja for the first time. He kept asking: is this Nigeria? The roads in the city are wide, well paved, beautifully marked, spotless. No gullies  or potholes. The city of estates is populated by magnificent edifices, big, bold, beautiful, well crafted, no luxury sparing mansions. Abuja is the life. In terms of security, quality of life and all the trappings of the good life, Abuja for all the men and women of power,  is the real deal.

    Moreso, Abuja, in the last seven years too, has become the city of refuge for the Northern rich. As the deliberate incompetence of the Buhari government collaborates with some hidden radical Islamic hands to foment terrorism, first across the North East and North Central and eventually the North West, ALL the Who is Who in the north quickly, but quietly, relocated their valued relatives: wives, children, parents to the comfort and safety of Abuja, the security Eldorado of NIgeria. That is, apart from those who believe that even Abuja is not good enough, so sent their loved ones to the United Arab Emirates, especially  Dubai, Lebanon, Qatar, Istanbul, etc. Others flooded Europe, especially the United Kingdom with their children and wives. Like their colleagues in the South, no Nigerian university is good enough for their offsprings.

    Abuja before now was also the political capital of most Northern States. Most Northern Governors administer their states from Abuja. They only pay their respective state government houses a visit, once or twice a month. And that, when Abuja has shared the nation’s monthly largese, FAC. As for the governors from the South, all have, not just their liaison offices, but also palatial Governor’s lodges in Asokoro, Abuja. There is no true Nigerian governor, past and present, who does not have his personal mansions, reeking of every possible luxury in Asokoro, Asokoro extension, Maitama, Ministers Hill or even the fast rising Katampe area.

    Most legislators too, past and present, have keyed into the Abuja dream. The lucky ones during the Obasanjo era bought their allocated legislative quarters for peanuts. Since then, a major objective of every legislator is to own their own piece of Abuja state of the art mansions. Their own haven from the constituents they claim to represent. Next to buying mansions abroad, and sending their children to get the golden fleece in the best universities in Europe and the Americas, this is a realisable dream target. Constituency votes and “over sight” functions see to it.

    Then, “suddenly”,  the impossible is happening in Abuja. The cloak shielding Abuja, it appears, has been removed. It now lays naked; ungoverned, the playfield of sundry terrorists and bandits. Fear has descended on the once peaceful city, spreading its tentacles into the deepest crevices of power. The dread of bombs and rapid fire automatic weapons, in the wrong hands, has visited the city. Asokoro can no longer be distinguished from Abuja-Kano expressway; or from any of the troubled cities and towns in the nation. With impunity, Islamic terrorists, bandits, kidnappers and sundry other criminals  roam the city and maim and destroy and kill unchallenged just like they have been doing, contemptuously, all over the nation. To imagine the impunity, the audacity  of it all!

    The unthinkable has descended on the city of wanton pleasure, the seat of corruption. The powerful and the dregs of the earth now inhabit one universe of fear. Even Aso Rock, the most protected den in Nigeria, is catching cold, seemingly helpless to the threat of the terrorists. They have boasted that they will kidnap the President and have backed up their threat with attacks on the brigade of guards, Kuje Prison jailbreak; attack on soldiers with impunity in the city and so forth. In their delusion, the terrorists think they are on the road to replicating Afghanistan in Abuja. They are buoyed by the tepid response of the military, and the fear factor which they have unleashed. But las, las, like we say in this clime, monkey go go market and dem go buy am.

    The South Western people, the Yorubas, have a saying: Oro buruku pelerin: which translates to something like: covering your fears, in the face of catastrophic news, with laughter; or forced laughter in the face of danger. Or something to that effect. The impeachment threat brought to mind one Mexican Telemundo series Nigerian women used to love so much: The Rich Also Cry! The protesting Senators looked so comical. I could only summarise their theatrical display as self-inflicted entitlement mentality.

    Just because insecurity has finally had a foothold on their doorsteps they have rushed into a panic mood and now pretend to care and do what they have not been doing for the past seven years: keep Buhari and his government accountable and on their toes.

    What level of selfishness will make our law makers  ignore the 7,222 innocent Nigerians whose blood has been carelessly shed in the first seven months of this year and with over 3822 kidnapped? Where were they?

    Where were they when Boko Haram, ISWAP and sundry other terrorists groups held the nation by the jugular? Where were they when kidnappers and other criminals made interconnecting Nigerian roads, an oil block of ransom and death? Where were they when victims of Abuja-Kaduna train kidnap victims were tortured into paying N100 million each? Apart from evacuating their immediate families from the hotspots what have they done as every inch of the country is turned into a  conundrum of death; a death trap?

    Where were they when imported Fulanis from all over West Africa were being shipped into the country and ferried into the South and North Central, empowered with “Okadas”, “Keke Napeps”, camouflaged and distributed as sleeper cells across the nation? Where were they when Fulani herdsmen destroyed farming businesses across the country maiming, raping and killing farmers at will? Is it because the threat is now at their doorsteps? Na today yansh dey for back that they now want to impeach the president? Is it now they know that the president and some critical inner cabinet members have an open agenda?

    Nevertheless, as we laugh through our tears, it is indeed gladdening that the Senators and the men of power in Aso Rock feel a pinch of what other Nigerians have been suffering in the last seven years.

  • I have lost billions of Naira to charlatans – By Mideno Bayagbon

    I have lost billions of Naira to charlatans – By Mideno Bayagbon

    Let me,  straight away,  confess: I have been very slack in optimising my potentials and have let billions of Naira fly past me while I idly, like most Nigerians, complain about the Buhari government-induced bad economy. In my laid back state, I have left others to rake in billions of Naira, Dollars and Pounds Sterling. While I and others go low, those others have gone higher; while we complain that there has been an economic casting down of Nigerians, they have experienced a jumbo lifting up. And I am full of envy and regret!

    It is very painful. Don’t get it mixed up. I am not talking about those the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, has made overnight Dollar and Pounds Sterling millionaires and billionaires. Yes, it pains me that I have been too blinded by the monumental incompetence of President Muhammadu Buhari and his government to see the ray of light, the many opportunities to be a consultant of high net worth to desperate political juggernauts. Just imagine a competent political consultant in these dire times. There are yawning opportunities only the politically smart are picking up like Asiwaju Tinubu’s agbado and cassava.

    Let me just name a few opportunities through which others made hay while the sun of quick thinking shone on them. Take the case of the Jagaban, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu-ordained Bishops. Some smart consultants thought up the idea. Sold it in glossy, alluring and very convincing proposals. He or she got very itchy, listening ears. Pronto, a solution was supposedly found to the high decibel noise of Christians and some Moslems and all haters of the decision of the presidential flag bearer of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to impose a Muslim-Muslim ticket on the hyper-sensitive religious climate in Nigeria. It was a desperately needed proposal. And I failed to see the light!

    I should have been the one to suggest to Tinubu and Shettima that for every problem, there is a solution peculiarly Nigerian. This is more so since, like I have predicted over and over again, in the last one year, I knew Tinubu’s mind was firmly made on running with a fellow Muslim, fully prepared to damn the consequences. He knows Nigerians, especially the fickle-minded Christians in the North and South of the country. They will make noise. But they can always be made to see reason. Reason being that it is truly the turn of Emi Lokan 1 of Nigeria! to occupy Aso Rock and nothing, and he means NOTHING, must be allowed to stand in his way.

    This, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who is currently engrossed in a rofo rofo  fight with Asiwaju Tinubu, has confirmed. He has told us that Tinubu’s desire to pair a fellow Moslem for the highest office in the land dates back to 2007. So as we say in Waffi, nobi today yansh dey for back!

    That is why I am surprised that for an ambition that is over 15 years in the making, they started making elementary mistakes in trying to manage the hoopla around the joint Muslim ticket. First goof: the consultants sold a story that Christians in Borno are fully behind the choice of Shettima as he has been very good to them. When this was rebuffed, a photograph surfaced of some notable Bishops in a group photograph with Shettima. This was seriously pushed as a group of reputable Bishops and pastors endorsing the choice of Shettima as Tinubu’s running mate. This lie too was disproved. It was an old photograph, years old, when Shettima was a governor and some clerics paid him a courtesy visit. Next goof: they claimed Tinubu and Adeboye have had a tete-a-tete over the joint Muslim ticket. The Redeemed Church quickly distanced the revered cleric from any such meeting. Another goof was tried: Pastor Tunde Bakare, whose ambition to be the flag bearer of the APC met with a zero vote, we were informed has endorsed the Muslim-Muslim ticket! The man of God came just short of raining ecclesiastical curses on the purveyors of such sacrilege.

    All these should have warned Alhaji Tinubu to be wary of the consultants dishing out his disinformation and propaganda material.

    But the worst was yet to come as we soon came face to face with the failed Gobbelian attempt to hoodwink the public with a  very poor quality lie: the trouping of okada riders, mechanics, daredevil agberos, and their ilks in the tunics of bishops, evangelists and reverend fathers!

    But let’s for a moment, forget that the consultants made a bad show of the bishops proposal. Forget that they went for the dregs of the earth, the least convincing of people, including the “Bishop” who went to the venue with his Muslim praying mat. One of several things could have caused this costly kaleidoscope of goofs and errors. For example, the consultants forgot that in this digital age, fakery must be perfected before being sold to the netizens infested social and traditional media. Or could it be they did not know how to charge appropriate execution fees as consultants? Or is it that insiders doctored that the execution funds and underpaid for the execution?  Or is it that they simply decided to cut corners and use a paltry part of their fees for the real work? I believe if they have asked for the right kind of funding, which I would have, with over 100,000 pastors and bishops heading their own church empires, known and credible Bishops, General Overseers and even Apostles could have been persuaded to wear believable tunics and hoods to grace the unveiling of the vice presidential candidate of the APC.

    But I must take the blame for this. It is entirely my fault. For if I had been proactive and dreamt up the proposal, such infantile errors would never have surfaced. It would have been so perfected that the seed of discord among the Christian community would have worked in my client’s favour. By now, in my expanded proposal, the Christians would have been distracted into a we-versus-they conundrum. And while they self immolate, the Tinubu-Shettima ticket would have been coasting home to, at least a half hearted, acceptance by some Christians. Also by now, at least a N100 million profit would have been resting in my private account. But I failed to be proactive, so charlatans stepped in and cleaned out.

    The Tinubu/Shettima ordained fiasco pales into insignificance when my failure in other areas is highlighted. For instance, I should have known that the defeated Governor of Osun State, Oyetola, would need an expanded battalion of lawyers to try and steal victory out of the humiliating defeat. I should have remembered that until the Supreme Court casts its vote, the election is not over. I missed out on this opportunity too. Now some smarter consultant has gathered over 50 senior lawyers to man the defence for the defeated Governor, whose failure has brought so much unnecessary de-marketing to the aspiration of his uncle, the candidate of the APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

    Nevertheless, the above are just the tip of the iceberg of my business failure. For how do I explain my stupidity in not being the one who is currently consulting for President Muhammadu Buhari? Some smart Nigerian has beaten me to it and I am fully angry with myself. How do I explain it to my wife and children that humongous opportunities are springing up under the bad economic atmosphere in Nigeria and I am not part of the harvesters? Imagine how much I would be paid if I was the one who told the president to lie to Nigerians that before he leaves office in 10 months’ time, the avalanche of security challenges bedevilling Nigeria would be fixed and that medical tourism, the chief proponent of which is President Buhari himself would be a thing of the past as world class hospitals would have sprung up all over the country before May 29, 2023. Imagine if I was the one who sold him the idea that Nigerians are gullible that they would believe him if he told them any lies no matter how preposterous they are.

    As one familiar with Peter Bannerman’s quip: let the people be fooled, all the time and knowing that Nigerians are usually afflicted with a very short memory, I would have told him, “tell them you will not only fix the economy before you leave, you will leave Nigeria more united and more prosperous than you met it”.  I would have told him to promise to end power problem in the country, once and for all and increase power generation to 100,000 megawatts instead of the between zero and 3400MW currently. I would have made him swear, tongue-in-cheeks, that as a fearsome General, he will wipe out ISWAP, Boko Haram, the government created bandits, kidnappers and sundry terrorists holding Nigeria and Nigerians hostage in the remaining 10 months. In the same vein, I would have made it more believable when President Buhari informed the nation that though some imaginary Nigerians are begging him to go for a third term, he will retire back to Daura, as a great patriot and lover of the people of Nigeria. No one would have doubted it or laughed him to scorn like Nigerians did when the president tried to sell this laughable dummy.

    With my avowed consultancy competence, I am here lamenting when l should be composing proposals and selling to desperate politicians and their backers.  Nigerians are known for believing incredible lies especially when told on a soft cushion of ethnicity, religion or Naira or Dollars as the case may be. Like Their Excellencies, Godswill Akpabio and Governor Nyesom Wike, would say, what money cannot do, more money can definitely do.

    Incompetent consultants are prowling the land and laughing their way into billion dollar scams. And I am all full of envy.

  • Tinubu Christian slap, Buhari’s laughable promise – By Mideno Bayagbon

    Tinubu Christian slap, Buhari’s laughable promise – By Mideno Bayagbon

    By Mideno Bayagbon

    (mideno@thenewsguru.ng)

    TINUBU’S VICE

    The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu finally announced, what those of us who have studied his politics have always known, on Sunday. He unveiled his vice presidential candidate, Senator Kashim Shettima, former governor of Borno state to a thunderous disquiet in the country.

    I wonder why some people, especially Christians, are surprised at the announcement. Readers of this column have over the months been prepared for this eventuality. I have always stated that the Asiwaju has his mind firmly made up on having a Muslim vice presidential candidate no matter what the general body of Christians think. He sees that as the only road to clinching the presidency. The reasoning is not whether he understands the implication of his action. It is a well calculated risk which his handlers have carefully analysed. The road to victory, as they see it, is Tinubu doing the unthinkable: nominating a Muslim vice presidential candidate. They have developed counter measures to confront the fall outs.

    Let us examine some of the reasons. The Moslem north, it is argued, will never vote for a Southern candidate who decides to have a Christian deputy from any part of the north. It doesn’t matter if the Southern candidate is a moslem himself. This is because not many Moslems in the north think that practitioners of their fate in the South, meaning South West, are true adherents. Of course it is, therefore, unthinkable to expect the Islamic faithfuls, under the guidance of the political elements who control the thinking, to even contemplate voting for a Christian northerner to be their representative at Aso Rock.

    Over the years, since the unfortunate assassination of the Sarduana of Sokoto, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, by military adventurists, the unity of the north has gradually fallen apart. A new power bloc has emerged. The ascendant victorious wing is the radical Fulani Moslems, with a population said to be around 22 million. The Kanuris in the Northeast, the hotbed of current Islamic terrorism, have been fighting for a foothold in the current political over lordship table of the Fulanis. The closest they have got is Atiku Abubakar as VP to President Obasanjo. Boss Mustapha who replaced Babachir Lawal as Secretary to Government of the Federation occupies the highest position by Christian northerners, at least under the Buhari government.

    I do not claim to be an expert on northern politics. But the little insights I have are these. Think about this: when last did you hear of Kaduna Mafia or the ruling class in the North still being referred to as Hausa-Fulani? Especially under the Buhari government, the Fulani have been the dominant power bloc. The Hausas are mostly Christians and animists.

    Christians, said to constitute about 40 percent of the population in the North are at the lowest rung of the power ladder.
    It appears a major resolve to decimate the Christians and subjugate them. Unlike their great leader who saw the north, as one whether Moslem, Christians, Animists, etc., the victorious group using the religious toga have appropriated every benefit to the North to only the inner circle and their acolytes.

    The era when the North paraded such powerful Christians as Generals Yakubu Gowon, Theophilus Danjuma, and others as part of the power equation, ended more than 20 years ago. Even the once powerful Langtang mafia, which had people like Domkat Bali, Joshua Dongoyaro, Jeremaih Useni and so on were crushed long ago and sidelined in the power circle. In the military, in governance, and other spheres, the new power bloc now fully dominating the national political space, are fully in charge. If you think it is a coincidence that our northern borders are left open to the influx of migrants from Niger, Mali and even to as far as Libya, then you do not know what is coming. If you think the thousands of Moslem youths, most of them non Nigerians, who the South is being flooded with daily is another coincidence, then you will not understand why a Tinubu presidency is their desired option.

    Tinubu wants power. It comes at a cost. His backers assure him the heaven will not fall with a Muslim-Muslim ticket. Tinubu has done what President Muhammadu Buahri was not brave enough to attempt. Which shows just how strong the northern ruling class have become. Watch the media. It is Christians who will be put in the forefront of promoting this ticket. Two Delta state Christians: Festus Keyamo and Ovie Omo-Agege have already set the ball rolling.

    BUHARI TO SOLVE INSECURITY PROBLEM BEFORE HE LEAVES

    Please do not laugh. President Buhari finally made it back home to Daura for the Sallah holidays and used the opportunity to do two things: to walk home from the mosque as a show of popularity and security; and to, secondly, send a message to troubled Nigerians, who daily see their nation being taken over by Islamic terrorists, bandits and a coteries of other criminals, that he will solve all these problems before he leaves office in ten months.

    Let me just state that I believe him. And you should too. For the president to take seven years and two months to make up his mind to crush the many hydra-headed security insurgencies trampling the country afoot, means that he knows what to do to effect the solution. He was just waiting for the right time, the best time when the problem is at its crescendo. Gbam, like the Superhero which he is, and which unfortunately, Nigerians have failed to accord him the respect, President Buhari will leave office with all our security problems solved. Just like that.

    This is what I suspect the General in him wants to do. He will start with the recent incidents: the mass shooting of Christians who went to church in Owo, Ondo State; the attack on the presidential advance convoy in Katsina; the slaughtering of tens of military men in Shiroro area; the devastating prison break which set free all captured terrorists and some criminal elements from Kuje Prison, Abuja; the daily kidnap of Priests and people from communities and our unsafe highways.

    Since it is not his style to punish his appointees or hold them accountable for their actions and inactions, he neither sacks or punishes them. He will invite them to Aso Rock, for photo ops as a solution to the security challenges. So the DSS Director, Correctional Services chief, the ministers for Internal Affairs and Defence or even the NSA or the military chieftains who should be tasting pepper for their indolence and laxity will have their plum jobs further secured by the President.

    Mind you, if you have a family member still in the clutches of the terrorists who bombed the Abuja-Kaduna train, look for the demanded N100 million and go and bail your relative. Leave the President’s new resolve out of it. No, the kidnapped Chibok girls and the many other students kidnapped over the last seven years are not part of the deal. Justice for the girl, Deborah, who was accused of blasphemy and was murdered and incinerated by Islamic fundamentalists; the moslem man slaughtered by foreign Okada riders in Lagos supposedly for blasphemy, and other such affront on our humanity and nationhood must remain hidden in our subconscious and should not be used to trouble our Superhero President.

    The President, at the appropriate time, will wave the magic wand, like the cheery solution he provided for the economy that has saved the Naira, fought corruption to a standstill, and made every Nigerian prosperous and thriving. All myriads of problems we have troubled him with, all security problems will disappear at the President’s say so, next year. You better believe him and don’t make serious alternative security arrangements for yourself and family.

    WHO WILL DANGOTE, MTN, AND EVEN TheNewsGuru.com EMPLOY AS MD BETWEEN ATIKU, TINUBU, OBI, KWANKWASO?

    Just want to ask you a question. Please ponder over it for the next one week. Imagine there is a vacancy for a Managing Director in Dangote Industries, which includes the Sea Port; or Shell or Mobil or MTN, or even TheNewsGuru.com, have a vacancy for one, and you are the owner of these companies, who will you employ between Tinubu, Atiku, Kwankwaso or Obi as your MD? Your answer should help us decide whether the ordinary Nigerian is Nigeria’s major problem or not.

  • Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Crab Mentality and Other Stories – By Mideno Bayagbon

    Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Crab Mentality and Other Stories – By Mideno Bayagbon

    By Mideno Bayagbon

    (mideno@thenewsguru.ng)

    Alhaji Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso is a big man. A two-term former Kano State Governor, (1999 to 2003, and 2011 to 2015); a former Minister of Defence; a former Senator of the Federal Republic, (2015 to 2019); a former Board member, NDDC; an Engineer. He is a good description of who a typical Nigerian big man is. A former civil servant turned politician, he has sure done very well for himself.

    Add to that, he is a popular figure, a miniature Buhari in some segments of the Northwestern Nigeria. He has a movement, a red cap movement of mainly Islamic followers. It is called Kwankwasiya.  Kwankwaso defines Kwankwasiyya (his leadership philosophy and convictions): as “…Amana. That Hausa word which means trust is paramount to us because you can’t be a Kwankwasiyya while stealing public trust; you can’t be a Kwankwasiyya and you are destroying your state and country. You have to be honest. You have to be hard working and you must ensure that whatever you are doing is not just beneficial to you and your family, but more importantly to the society at large. That is the meaning of Kwankwasiyya.”

    He has been in the news, in lovers’ adoring, and haters’ agitated tones, in the past few weeks. In the social and traditional media, he is now a frequent mention. And target. Suddenly, he is enjoying a massive name mention, gaining more recognition, more adulation; and also acerbic insults. It is easy to bask in this type of media frenzy to even a delusional level. This is more so that it is free, mostly positive publicity. He is now strutting the media with the confidence of a Pastor Tunde Bakare. Pastor Bakare, it was, who informed Nigerians sometime ago, and at the APC  presidential primaries last month, that God has ordained him to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari, to be Nigeria’s next president. Kwankwaso has not, however, gone to that audacious level. At least, not yet!

    So why the sudden interest in him? Well, the answer is Peter Obi. But don’t forget he is the self-coronated Presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP. This is a party he formed to actualise his hope of becoming President of Nigeria after the 2023 elections. What has, however, made him cling to the limelight in the last one month has been the hope the followers of Mr Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate, who call themselves ObIdients, vested on a Obi-Kwankwaso alliance. At first, it was considered mere rumours. Then it turned out that, indeed, Obi and Kwankwaso were working on merging their ambitions and presenting a joint ticket for the presidency, in 2023.

    This spurred a lot of permutations, a case of rising hope for their followers and observers. Perhaps, the reasoning goes, this combination could galvanise a large swat of Nigerians to confront the dominance of the no good, two frontline parties: the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and the All Progressives Congress, APC, whose misrule of the country, in the last 23 years, has brought it down on its knees with an economy almost keeling over the edge. The reasoning and permutations are easy to understand. Yes, there is an Obi phenomenal near-revolutionary-movement sweeping across the country. But it is still just emerging from its embryo. It is still mostly a Southern Nigerian movement, a youth and elite thing. Yes, it is spreading fast. Abuja is in; Some part of the middlebelt too. Even the conservative North is gradually, but very slowly, opening its eyes to, and tasting, the ObIdient message. But without a more concrete, more scalable attempt to take it to the grassroots, 2023, it is feared, could still be a dream deferred.

    Therein the hope hinged on the LP/NNPP romance. It is generally known that Kwankwaso has a huge grassroots following in Kano and some parts of the North through his Kwankwasiyya movement. So a combination of the efforts of Obi in the South, Abuja and North Central and Kwankwaso’s effort in North West and maybe even spreading to North East could garner a formidable force to confront the two monster parties which are presenting two geriatrics : Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. The thought is, perhaps the long longed-for Third Force, dreamed of by some Nigerians, to rescue the nation from the shackles of the same sided, two dragons parties, has come to be!

    But the bubble burst so early. Hope dimmed and dashed. Ego. Delusion of grandeur. Emi Lokan mentality have visited the alliance and the momentous hope is gone. Obi-Kwankwaso or Kwankwaso-Obi ticket is a still birth. This is more so as Senator Kwankwaso has been very effusive and candid about how such an alliance will see the light of day: Obi must bury his pride and subsume his ambition of becoming President in 2023 and become his vice presidential candidate. He advises him that the hopes which Obi is currently engendering among the population can only be actualised through his becoming Kwakwanso’s vice presidential candidate. Kwankwaso’s arguments are seemingly, on  the face value, sound. He has more experience, politically, than Peter Obi. He is even older than him by a presidential term. If he is foolish, he says, and succumbs to becoming a vice presidential candidate to an Obi or any other candidate for that matter, that will mark the end of his newly formed party, NNPP. That he vows will never happen.

    So like the crab, even though only an alliance can possibly give his party a semblance of national spread, or an appreciable showing in the elections, Kwankwaso is content being a big fish in NNPP’s small pond than be vice president to a Peter Obi. He is not desperate to be president or vice. He is ready to tear down any alliance that doesn’t present him as the flag bearer.

    His traducers have read this to mean that he is feeling entitled to the office of president; that he is displaying what they describe as “born to rule” mentality. They ask what he possesses that the current American President, Joe Biden, did not, when he agreed to be vice president to the neophyte, one-term Senator Barack Obama who eventually became president? They caution that it is national and not personal interest, like his Kwankwasiyya philosophy says, which should guide ambitions and not the other way round. The nation needs rescue and they believe Obi has the right message and background to be the one to effect it.

    So many of these arguments assumed that it should have been a walk in the park for both parties to agree on an alliance. Yet, any astute politician knows It is unfortunately not so easy. They know it is foolhardy to assume that with his pedigree, and known character traits, Kwankwaso will jump up and accept to be vice president to Obi. They know it will take more than social media campaigns and even abuses. It will involve a lot of strenuous roundtable discussions, trade-offs and agreements. Though Obi himself is yet to speak on this, the options open to him are either to accept the Kwankwaso offer, reject it and explain why it should be the other way round. Or he should cast his net further abroad. There are many significant political fishes that can be wooed.

    We know his supporters are not in the mood of him accepting to be a vice presidential candidate to anyone among the old guards, Kwankwaso inclusive. We know, on both sides, OBIdient and Kwankwasiyya, egos are high, riding on a high voltage delusion of grandeur. But the simple truth remains none of them can smell victory going it alone. So if you ask me, the mood of the nation, among the youths and elites, is wrapped round the OBIdient  and not the Kwankwasiyya philosophy. Nevertheless, Obi and Kwankwaso can perhaps still find a way to reach an amicable working relationship. Like Kwankwaso nominating his ally as VP candidate to Obi. They can then work an arrangement which will see the two parties fusing into one before the elections.

    STOP PRESS

    Rumours have it, as we were about going to press, that a 46 year-old senator from the North has been penciled to replace Kwankwaso in an arrangement that is still in the works.

  • Fact Checking Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Certificates and all

    Fact Checking Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Certificates and all

    In the early days of the current democratic dispensation, a scandal broke out in the National Assembly. The Speaker of the House of Representative, 32 years old Salisu Buhari, was accused of presenting fake Toronto University certificates to INEC. After attempts to stonewall and brag his way through failed, he was forced to eat the humble pie, resign and go into political oblivion.

    In the heat of that, some traducers of the then Governor of Lagos state, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, went to town with scurrilous stories of his past, alleging that he never went to Government College, Ibadan; that his name could not be found when a search was done at the University of Chicago, USA, which he also claimed to have attended in the forms filed with INEC. But unlike Salisu Buhari, Tinubu who had earlier contested and was elected as Senator, which means he also filed his qualifications with INEC then, mobilised elements in the media, and among his then evolving political family, to kill the scandal.

    His claim that an aide filed the documents for him and may have wrongly input University of Chicago instead of Chicago State University, was sold to the public and damage control measures were fully deployed to kill the scandal. What they couldn’t kill, however, are two issues: the secondary School he attended and his real name. As at that time, his age, his health and the humongous wealth he now controlled were not in contention.

    What sparked the latest uproar around the APC presidential candidate is the unbelievable claims in his INEC form which indicate that he never attended any primary or secondary Schools. Yet in the past, in earlier forms, he stated he attended St Paul Children’s Home School, Ibadan (1958-64); Government College Ibadan 1965 -1968; Richard DaleyCollege, Chicago, from 1969 to 1971; then to Chicago state university and University of Chicago.

    Dr FEMI ARIBISALA, TheNewsGuru.com, TNG, egghead and hard-hitting columnist who delights in speaking truth to power, reminds me, and Nigerians in a recent tweet, of an article I published for him in the Vanguard Newspapers where I was editor. Said he: “I wrote in 2014 that Tinubu’s affidavit that he attended Government College Ibadan, GCI, from 1965 and 1968 is false. I was in GCI from 1962-68, and Tinubu was not there. Tinubu now tells INEC he did not go to primary or secondary school. This means he committed perjury.”

    While Chicago State University confirmed that Tinubu graduated with a degree in Business Administration with specialty in accounting, on June 22, 1979, the University of Chicago did not list him as one of their alumni. Indeed, a personal check I did of the name of Tinubu, in the published list of alumni of the university returned a blank.

    It is perhaps to avoid the kind of questions, and uproar which greeted his claims about being a student at Government College, Ibadan, as neither he or nor his associates have been able to prove that indeed he was an alumnus of the College by naming his classmates, teachers, etc., that he cleverly omitted to name any school. In an affidavit he submitted with his forms, Tinubu averred that:

    “I went on self-exile from October 1994 to October, 1998. When I returned I discovered that all my property, including all the documents relating to my qualifications and my certificates in respect of paragraph three above, were looted by unknown persons.
    “My house was the target of a series of searches by various security agents from the time the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was forced to adjourn following the military takeover of government on 17th November, 1993.
    “I was the Chairman of the Senate committee on appropriation, banking and finance. I was also a plaintiff in one of the two suits against the interim national government of 1993.
    “I went on exile when it became clear to me that my life was in danger”

    This is where Nigerians miss erudite, radical lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, (1938-2009). When the secondary and university scandal blew open, he pursued the case up to the Supreme Court which dismissed the matter barefaced on technical grounds, rather than on the merit of the case. Were he to be alive, a lot of the shenanigans going on now among politicians would have been tested in court. The fear of Gani Fawehinmi was the beginning of political wisdom then.

    There is no doubt that were he to be alive, the current contentions around the person of Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu would by now be before a court of competent jurisdiction. The recent forms which the Asiwaju Tinubu filled and submitted to INEC after he emerged the flag bearer of the All Progressives Congress, in which he clearly left out the primary and secondary schools he attended, would have been tested in the courts as Fawehinmi would have by now hurled him before the justices for perjury.

    This is more so as the Electoral Act, 2022 in Section 29(5) and (6) of the Electoral Act, 2022, ousted the jurisdiction of State and Federal Capital Territory Abuja High Courts with the jurisdiction to hear a pre-election suit predicated on false declaration and submission of a false document to the Independent National Electoral Commission. The new Electoral Act, says a dispute over the submission of false information in an affidavit and any documents to the Independent National Electoral Commission by a candidate is an intra-party dispute. It goes on to state that only a member of the political party who took part in the primaries has locus to challenge the nomination of the candidate suspected to have submitted false information and/or document to the Independent National Electoral Commission.

    For example, Section 29 stipulate as follows: “(5) Any aspirant who participated in the primaries of his political party who has reasonable grounds to believe that any information given by his political party’s candidate in the affidavit or any document submitted by that candidate in relation to his constitutional requirements to contest the election is false, may file a suit at the Federal High Court against that candidate seeking a declaration that the information contained in the affidavit is false.

    (6) “Where the Court determines that any of the information contained in the affidavit is false only as it relates to constitutional requirements of eligibility, the Court shall issue an order disqualifying the candidate and the sponsoring political party and then declare the candidate with the second highest number of valid votes and who satisfies the constitutional requirement as the winner of the election.”

    Tinubu’s opponents have been having a field day in the social media as none of the traditional newspapers has bothered to look into the many inconsistencies which the APC candidate has been fielding the nation.

    But it bears repeating that, in the eyes of the law, Tinubu is eminently qualified having gotten a university degree. According to his campaign legal stand, all the noise about his primary and secondary schools’ omission amount to nothing.

    As a conclusion, however, let us examine the issues swirling around the APC flag bearer and try and fact check them.

    FACT CHECKING BOLA AHMED TINUBU AND HIS CERTIFICATES
    Surname : Disputed: some claim it is Yekini Amoda Ogunlere from Iragbiji who had the good fortune of having Iyaloja, Abibatu Mogaji adopt him as a son. She was said not to have had biological children of her own. A version of the story indicates that he adopted the name, Bola Tinubu, to enable him travel to America following the death of the original Bola Tinubu, a female. He added Ahmed later to now fully entrench the name. Nevertheless, his birth name was not Bola Tinubu. This story appears credible. That notwithstanding it is not a crime to change or add to ones name.
    State of origin : originally Osun state. But for the peculiar Nigerian politics, this should be of no consequence. He adopted Lagos state as his state of origin when he wanted to run for Senate.
    Age : Disputed: he is 70 years old officially. Bola Tinubu’s age is one of the albatrosses he has had to bear. To go to America, every information had to tally. Hence, the 70 years he now claims may have belonged to the original Bola Tinubu. Both enemies and acquaintances agree that his real age is over 70years
    Primary School: Undisclosed now. Before, it was St Paul Children’s Home School, Ibadan. No longer in existence.
    Secondary School: Unknown. He earlier filled Government College, Ibadan. If he indeed went to Government College, Ibadan, it must have been with his original name which he had to drop to assume the cognomen, Bola Tinubu. A simple affidavit, were he not to be in the eye of the storm could have rectified this anomaly. But there is a huge chance that he never went to GCI as no one in the class year, 1968, that he claimed has come out to confirm that he, indeed, was their classmate. To compound it, he too has not been able to name any of his supposed classmates.
    *Universities: Did Bola Ahmed Tinubu go to school? The answer is yes. There was no way he could have gotten employment with Arthur Anderson-Cooper and later with Mobil Oil, without the prerequisite qualifications. We confirmed that he was indeed a student at Chicago State University. But University of Chicago, like President Obasanjo would say, has K-Leg. Personal checks turned blank replies meaning the school has no record of him attending the University.

    *Certificates: Missing. This is a convenient lie. Assuming but not conceding that he indeed lost the certificates, could he not have gotten them reissued by the schools or attestation to that effect? Why has he not done so to avoid all the hoopla around his academic qualifications beats the imagination.
    State of Health : Not known. But he has had some disturbing times in the public recently.
    Nevertheless, should he emerge winner in the 2023 Presidential Election, it means he will be the second certificate-less president, after Muhammadu Buhari. He will also be another president who will be needing medical attention abroad, regularly.

  • Rabiu Kwankwaso, Peter Obi joint ticket: Committee submits report

     

    The joint panel set up by the Labour Party and the New Nigeria People’s Party to work out an alliance between Rabiu  Musa Kwankwaso and Mr Peter Obi has submitted its report for consideration.

    Kwankwaso, a former Kano State governor and presidential candidate of the NNPP, is said to have strong followership in the North with his Kwankwasiyya movement, while Obi, a former Anambra State governor and LP presidential candidate, is having an increasing support base among youths in the southern part of the country, Middlebelt and Abuja; and in the social media.

    While it is no longer possible for political parties to merge, in line with Section 81 (2) of the Electoral Act, both presidential candidates are working on a joint ticket with the hope of defeating the ruling All Progressives Congress, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party and others in the February 25, 2023 presidential election.

    The Section 81 (2) reads, “Political parties intending to merge shall each give to the commission nine months’ notice of their intention to do so before a general election.” Already, the 2023 general elections will commence on February 25, which is less than nine months away.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) recalls that Kwankwaso, in an interview about a week ago, confirmed that a committee was set up to work on the alliance and that conversation was ongoing. He said, “We are in talks with Peter Obi and a committee is working to look into how to form a merger between us.

    “The merger is important because as you can see, both the ruling All Progressives Congress and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party did not pick their running mates from the South-East.”

    As the deadline for the substitution of candidates and running mates for the presidential and National Assembly candidates draws near, there is mounting anxiety among the supporters of the two candidates over the progress made in the alliance talks.

    The running mate to Obi and director-general of his campaign organisation, Dr Doyin Okupe, confirmed that the panel had concluded its sitting and ongoing talks on the way forward.

    Okupe said, “A committee was set up before now and the committee has completed its work. There have been informal meetings and third-party stakeholders interventions and we have had structured official meetings too.

    “In all, we came to two agreements; one is that we are going to work together as political parties in order to achieve this change that we all desire. What we did not agree upon is who would be the president and who would be the vice-president. We didn’t agree on that. But we left it open.”

    Asked if the parties would agree on the issue before the deadline for political parties to submit the names of their final running mates, Okupe said, “We are aware of the deadline, and we are working on it. When we adjourned our last meeting, we adjourned sine die.

    :So, if there is a change, we will reconvene. But we are moving on. There is no problem. We have agreed to work together to create a platform for a national coalition, so that objective is still in place.”

    Also, the National Chairman, NNPP, Prof Rufai Alkali, hinted that the party was engaging with the people and getting support and solidarity from many places.

    When asked who would become the candidate and running mate between Kwankwaso and Obi, Alkali said, “Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso is a seasoned politician and he knows the country very well. Certain decisions have to be taken at the appropriate time in a way and manner that would bring more strength and credibility to this journey.”

    Asked if a decision had been reached on it, he said, “When we do, you will be among the first to know. No decision yet.”

  • Are You OBIfied? The Tomfoolery of OBIdience without the ground works – By Mideno Bayagbon

    Are You OBIfied? The Tomfoolery of OBIdience without the ground works – By Mideno Bayagbon

    Let me come out upfront and confess: I was wrong that the closest the Igbo nation will come to the Presidency in 2023 is either through Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi or through the current Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike. As it turned out, they both carried the  Presidential ambition of the Igbo race in their respective parties but both fell short, coming second to the eventual flag bearers in the two major political parties – APC and PDP.

    Atiku Abubakar used all his arsenals but still came nearly short of the goal. The north and all his henchmen had to come to his rescue before he could surmount the mountain that was the already coasting-home-to-victory Nyesom Wike.  Rotimi Amaechi  too was favoured to clinch it. Indeed, up until the dying days, it was not Ahmed Bola Tinubu who was his main opponent but the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo.

    But a day in politics is too long a time to let down the guard. Amaechi came second. But the major loser is President Muhammadu Buhari who must now be known as someone whose words cannot be relied on, a weakling who masquerades as a political juggernaut. When the full story of the All Progressives Congress, APC, primaries is finally told, years from now, even some of his most ardent supporters will be shocked. But let us leave Buhari alone and salute the true political juggernaut, the one who was given little chance but was able to marshal his all to wrest victory from the seemingly impregnable forces against him. Tinubu is a man’s man. Forget the humongous amount he poured into the primaries. Forget his health challenges. He proved himself a true warrior.

    Perhaps, the greatest surprise so far, about the road to the 2023 Presidential and other elections, is Peter Obi. The former governor, former vice  presidential candidate, has turned the race for the coming presidential election into a huge hurricane sweeping, as at now, across the southern states of Nigeria, part of the middle belt and Abuja. He currently owns the momentum. He holds the public in a grip of wonder, of promise, of hope, of possibilities. He somehow has been able to position himself as the poster boy to all that can be good about Nigeria. And a cult of believers is fast coalescing around him. That is, among the tech-savvy youths and the voiceless elites. A true political gale is sweeping across the land, even if without a concrete, predictable base at its core. Nigerians are gradually identifying with him. His support base is growing in phenomenal “OBIdience”:. He is the most discussed candidate today.

    From an inability to find a foothold in his former party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, where the men with deep pockets bought loyalty and votes, where the highest bidders won,  he has somehow risen like a sphinx. He is dishing out a message that is gripping the public imagination and sprouting hope in a nation held hostage by buccaneers masquerading as politicians and leaders. He is currently a wonder among the youths, the ENDSARS gang, the enlightened, progressive market men and women, musicians, artistes of various hues. He is spurning a self propelling, exciting gale  similar to the Barack Obama feat in America.

    He is a good story teller, clearly showcasing his many achievements in Anambra where he was governor. The followers lap up every tale from his mouth. And he does know how to work the media, especially how to galvanise the large army of youths who are digital natives. He has strategically so positioned himself, that his messages are taking on wings of their own, going from mouth to mouth with more and more disciples coming on board, daily. For most, Obi is a breathe of fresh air in Nigeria’s putrid political scene.

    Were the elections to be held today, there is a huge chance, Obi and not Atiku Abubakar or Bola Ahmed Tinubu, will carry the day among the youths and elites, in the South of Nigeria, and up to parts of the Middle belt and Abuja. But were the elections to be held on a national scale, today, Obi will be beaten silly by the duo of Atiku and Tinubu. And the reasons are not far fetched: the Obi movement is still in its infancy. It is still a cultic one man band. And we all know, the south is not all that is Nigeria. There is a huge chasm between the digital army and the large swat of rural, largely illiterate Nigerians who, across the country but more mostly in the north, are still unreached by the Obi momentum.

    But is this merely all sound and fury? Is this potential revolutionary movement in the politics of Nigeria real? Is the huge hope people are building around the person of Peter Obi manifestly sustainable, scalable, and  achievable?  There is no doubt, the APC and PDP flag bearers are keeping a keen eye on what some have described as the Peter Obi Phenomenon. Among some of their aficionados, however, it is still being treated with skepticism, as  fluke, a candle in the wind.

    Among the disputers of the authenticity of the movement and its possibilities of emerging as the long sought for third force, strong enough to sweep the two failed parties aside, Obi’s many alleged fault lines are listed. Among these are: OBI, the micro-manager: They point out that despite his sweet talking followers into a current movement, Peter Obi, they claim, is a micro manager. He is someone who likes to do everything himself. Someone who does not trust others to do it as well as himself. They claim he mostly  sidelined his commissioners and appointees when he was governor of Anambra State. They claim that is why even his chief of staff, Chuks Ilogbunam and others, at some stage of his government, resigned out of frustration.

    OBI, the one man locomotive: They claim the Labour Party candidate can hardly point at people he has helped raise, politically and even economically, since he ventured into politics. They ask: how many people did he build? Where are his old supporters? Unlike Atiku and Tinubu, who can easily do so and point at relationships that cut across the north and south of Nigeria, Obi, they say, is  a one man gang.

    OBI, the all knowing: They claim that what Obi is not saying is that he is someone who thinks he is all knowing, a sole  repository of knowledge, who thinks his solution to any given problem, is the only solution. They say he brooks no opposing views.

    OBI, the saint: if there is one thing Peter Obi knows how to do, it is painting himself in irresistibly glorious  colours. Is he truly so spick and span, they ask? They paint some unprintable picture about his past and about his father that is neither here nor there.

    OBI, the messiah complex: the cult of self. Here his traducers say he didn’t build or strengthen institutions sustainably, while he was at the helms at Anambra state. Yet, it is strong institutions and not strong men that we need, they note.

    OBI, stinginess as a virtue. But is he a generous being? Is he given to philanthropy?  Bianca Ojukwu believes so and declares Obi is a quiet, non publicity seeking giver. She said so in her rebuke of the Rev Father Mbaka’s lambasting of Obi’s “notorious” stinginess.

    Here is my take: the OBIdient movement is real. It is gaining momentum. IT has great potentials. It is a real threat to the old guard politics Nigerians are used to. But It is still far from the Eldorado of being the third force. For example, for it to gain the right political traction, a lot is still needed on the plate. Yes, his messages resonate with a lot of Nigerians but winning an election is more than that. He needs structures, people, credible politicians and faithfuls across the length and breath of the country, who identify with the new way of doing politics that his campaign offers. He needs organisers. He needs to go beyond social media and the traditional media. He needs feet on the ground, pounding the pavement, knocking on doors, selling the OBIdience message.

    There is need to develop different strategies for different segments of the country. He needs to urgently gain in-roads into the northern parts of the country. He needs to build bridges and trust. He needs people to help him penetrate the northern grassroots.

    Finally, even though he embodies the new message, it is time to start making it go beyond just a message to get Peter Obi elected, into a movement to change the way politics and governance are practiced in the country.

  • What would President Buhari be remembered for after 2023? – By Mideno Bayagbon

    What would President Buhari be remembered for after 2023? – By Mideno Bayagbon

    By Mideno Bayagbon

    (mideno@thenewsguru.ng)

    In just under one year from now, the President Muhammadu Buhari’s government will come to an end and a new regime, by God’s merciful-grace, will be enthroned. May 29, 2023, will mark the end of the dream Nigerians had in 2015 when they booted out President Goodluck Jonathan and brought in President Muhammadu Buhari, who came into power with so much of the nation’s revival hopes invested in him.

    Buhari promised to wipe their tears in the areas of the then struggling economy; massive security challenges represented by Boko Haram terrorism in the North East; the epileptic power supply which had stagnated at 4000MW; what the All Progressives Congress, APC, characterised as massive corruption bedevilling the Jonathan government; arresting the downward educational spiral and restoring better economic value to the Naira and fixing the dilapidating infrastructural networks; and so on.

    Now in the twilight of his regime, Nigerians no doubt are making up their minds what scores to award the man who was touted as the answer to all Nigeria’s problems. Would they be sad or will they be elated when, finally, Buhari heads back to Daura or Kaduna as an ex president? What would be the reaction of the average Nigerian on the streets? At the end of the eight year tenure, how would they assess him based on their lived reality against the lofty promises sold to them? What indeed would Nigerians remember President Buhari for? What would history record for him as a two term president?

    WORST PRESIDENT NIGERIA EVER HAD? Nigerians were sold a Buhari, who the APC lionised as sincere, incorruptible, disciplined, and capable leader. Nigerians were told that he is the solution to the many hydra-headed problems inflicted on the nation, that he would easily bring solutions to them all. In place of the draconian military dictator, who peeped on human rights and rule of law during his disreputable rule from 1983 to 1985, a sexed up, new faced democratic Buhari was unveiled and Nigerians were beguiled into shouting hosanna. Running under the CHANGE mantra, Buhari in one of his favourite sayings often cajoled Nigerians with IF WE DON’T KILL CORRUPTION, THIS CORRUPTION WILL KILL US. Nigerians believed him. He became president.

    Nigerians, to their regret, now easily recall that Buhari led APC government promised to make Nigeria one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The president specifically promised that under his government, the nation’s Gross Domestic Product, will increase by at least 10-12% yearly. (GDP measures the size and health of a country’s economy over a period of time). What they got instead are a drum full of excuses, two recessions, a very badly managed economy, and the nation becoming the poverty capital of the entire world. On top of that, we have gone borrowing. We now use up to 93 percent of our earnings to service debts annually as the economy sinks deeper and deeper into the abyss.

    True, some of these borrowings have been used to fund some major infrastructural low hanging fruits. This perhaps is one of the few areas some credit can be given to this government. The Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja; those of Lagos, and Port Harcourt; the train link between Abuja and Kaduna, and the one between Warri and Itakpe. Some of these had less than five percent work left to completion. They were majorly built by the Jonathan government but were completed by the Buhari government and are now in use. However, the construction of the Lagos – Ibadan rail line was started and completed by this government, but the one to nowhere, linking to Maradi is ongoing.

    But not so the power situation which the president was effusive about improving when he wanted the votes of Nigerians. Said he at the time: “Continuous tinkering with the structures of power supply and distribution and close to $20 billion expended since 1999 have only brought darkness, frustration, misery and resignation among Nigerians. We will not allow this to go on. Careful studies are underway during this transition to identify the quickest, safest and most cost-effective way to bring light and relief to Nigerians.” As a testament, the facts speak volumes to how cheap talk was not put into action. Just four days back, the national grid suffered again a total collapse, its fifth this year! And this is even when the capacity has dwindled from the 4000MW which this government inherited to 3522.80MW seven years after.

    The Naira which his regime inherited at between N169 -N200 to the dollar, today has nose-dived to about N610 to the dollar. Instead of the five million new jobs yearly he promised, the unemployment rate has jumped from 10.4, the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics laments, to 33.3 percent in 2020. Meaning every one in three adult Nigerian is without a meaningful source of livelihood. Among the youths, especially university graduates, it is as high as 70 percent. In all, about 70 million Nigerians are jobless.

    That the nation is not importing food to feed the about 200 million citizens today is a miracle. Prices of available foodstuff have shot through the roof and inflation rate which was at 9.5 percent when Buhari took over, was last year disturbingly giddily still rising at 22.7 percent. While Godwin Emefiele deceives himself at the Central Bank of Nigeria that, the government has pumped in billions upon billions of Naira into agriculture by parading what it termed a rice pyramid, hunger rules the land. Rice which was considered expensive at N8000 per 50KG bag under Jonathan’s government is somewhere around N30,000 today.

    Yet hunger in the land is Buhari-government inflicted. Most farms across the country today are abandoned, first because a group over which the President is a life patron, I am talking about the Fulani herdsmen, also known as Miyetti Allah or MACABAN, raped, maimed and killed farmers at will with protected impunity. This has been exacerbated by some of the herdsmen graduating to become terrorists or what this government deodorises as bandits. Not only are our farms now abandoned nationwide, our roads, villages, towns and cities have become the abandoned playing fields of the bandits and terrorists who unleash death at will; levy tax and collect billions of Naira in ransom money monthly.

    Examples are just too many to recount here. Which ones do we mention and which ones do we forget? Is it the almost 100 Nigerians kidnapped when their Abuja – Kaduna bound trained was bombed? Or is it the Prelate of the Methodist Church who had to cough out N100 million to regain freedom from his abductors? Across Nigeria, daily, no fewer than 50 persons are kidnapped or killed, with those who eventually make it back parting with millions of Naira while the Buhari government who accused Jonathan of gross incompetence over the Chibok girls sits pretty, issuing impotent nonsensical press releases.

    Perhaps the greatest legacy the Buhari administration will be remembered for, will be its absolute failure in handling the security challenges of the country. True, when he came in, the North East was the centre of insurgency in Nigeria. Entire swats of Borno, Yobe and indeed the entire North East were under the control of the Boko Haram and ISWAP. But turning a blind eye to the calamitous activities of Fulani herdsmen in the North West, the Middle Belt states especially Benue and Plateau states, and indeed all over the country opened the door for the spread of the nefarious activities of terrorists. They latched on the seeming romance between government and the herdsmen to infiltrate the entire country engaging in cattle rustling, kidnapping for ransom and making the entire country a hot bed of terrorism. No where and no one is safe any longer except perhaps the President, Governors and those whose security entourage is a moving military battalion.

    The president’s notorious nepotism and incompetence have led to sundry groups across the south springing up to try and counter the activities of the rampaging bandits and terrorists. IPOB and ESN have taken over the South East with devastating self immolation. Amotekun in the South West though still nearly comatose after its leader, Sunday Igboho, was smoked out, and was arrested in his bid to escaped the scotch earth moves by the military to fish him out. But indicted fanatics in his government, like Communication and Digital Economy minister, Isa Pantami, who doubles as Aso Rock Imam, are ensconced in the president’s blind eye.

    Even corruption which this government promised to checkmate has not met with the fatal blow promised. Instead, perhaps no government in the nation’s history has witnessed the massive looting and corruption which people around the president, have visited on the nation’s treasury. Transparency International, TI Corruption Index shows how abysmal this government effort at fighting corruption has been. From a ranking of the 136 most corrupt country in the world in 2015, Nigeria in 2021 was the number 154 most corrupt country out of 180 countries in the world surveyed. What a plunge and what a shame for a government that came on the wings of pretended transparency!

    The most generous of Nigerians will hardly give this government a 35 percent pass mark. History will be very harsh on Buhari’s tenure as President of Nigeria.

  • The night Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu outfoxed Aso Rock mafia – By Mideno Bayagbon

    The night Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu outfoxed Aso Rock mafia – By Mideno Bayagbon

    By Mideno Bayagbon

    (mideno@thenewsguru.ng)

    It was Monday afternoon. And I was still in no mood to write my column which I had intended titling: The Peter Obi Momentous Phenomenon and 2023 Presidential Election. But I was too despondent, filled with untold anger at the abyss into which we have descended as a nation. I could not bring myself to make sense, in a write up, of the innocent bloodshed, deliberately and callously spilled. The nation is awash in a swelling ocean of blood, gushing all over it.  Yet from our president to all the notable politicians, it is party time!

    This was a day after some terrorist fiends invaded a packed church in Owo, Ondo State,terrorist fiends invaded a packed church in Owo, Ondo State, and slaughtered about 50 innocent Nigerians whose only crime was that they went to church on a Sunday morning to worship their God. The gut rending videos and photographs from the scene were enough to completely put me in a state of inconsolable melancholy. My sadness was further compounded by yet more gory news from across the country, either of kidnap of Christian clerics, or invasion of villages or slaughtering of innocent villagers, carried out on a large scale with unperturbed impunity. But most telling of the avalanche of frighteningly morbid news  was the alleged invasion of Nigeria’s largest estate, Gwarimpa, a stone throw, as it were from Aso Rock villa,  by terrorists, who police say are armed robbers, who robbed and kidnapped a yet-to-be-identified number of residents.

    My eyes were still bloodshot and my heart weighed down, inconsolably, as if  an invisible huge mountain was sitting on it, when yet another news broke in Nigeria’s “house of commotion”. As it has become our lot under the General Muhammadu Buhari government, anything and everything can and usually would go wrong, at almost per minute rate, daily. And when the President deigns to make a comment, it is usually an infuriatingly, half-hearted, tepid order to the security forces to fish out the perpetrators. Either Garba Shehu or Femi Adesina hurriedly append their signatures on behalf of an uncaring despot too steeped in incompetence to take any meaningful, drastic action against the felons. For him, all of Nigerians can go to blazes so long he and his brood are ensconced from the blood letting. For President Buhari, the greatest leadership disaster Nigeria has  unfortunately been saddled with, life goes on, terrorism, kidnapping, unknown gunmen, etc., notwithstanding.

    I don’t know if it was planned to divert attention from the horrendous killings in Owo, or the many gory news that flooded the nation that Monday morning, or it is just the typical unfeeling, the “I don’t care” attitude of our leaders. But it hit the airwaves and as Fela would capture it: everywhere scatter-scatter. Anger quickly shifted from the wanton killings to zonal and ethnic sentiments. As usual when these emotive issues are involved, Nigerians, of every hue, jump into the fray and reasoning takes flight.

    The geriatric leader of the All Progressives Congress,  Senator Abdullahi Adamu, in a meeting with members of the National Working Committee of the party , that Monday mid-afternoon, after a meeting at Aso Rock, came to a meeting of the National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress with a smoking decree, the fire of which emanated from General Buhari himself. Senator Ahmed Lawan, the APC party chairman thundered, has been decreed the consensus candidate of the All Progressives Congress. And a cacophony of voices took over, spilling unto the streets. Shock and surprise rent the air. Phone calls and hurried meetings criss-crossed themselves among the camps of the aspirants. Disavowals. And realignments. Rebellion by the northern governors. Long sleepless nights. Aso Rock became the temple of the god on whose lap laid the final say!

    Why people were surprised shocks me. Any serious observer knew, by just following the moves and counter moves of the last few weeks that the dark horse which the mafia around the president have been trying to foist on the party was the big elephant in the room. They failed with trying to drag former president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan into the race. They failed with Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, the snake in the green grass, Godwin Emefiele. Their last trick was Senate President, Ahmed Lawan. So the Monday move, by which the party chairman was made to attempt to foist Ahmed Lawan as the consensus candidate, was their last desperate gasp. Without statutory delegates to enforce their will and with the Northern Governors seemingly sticking to their power shift to the South, as at press time, things were not looking good at all for Lawan.

    Like I have stated many times in the past few weeks, there was the concern in some quarters of the party that none of the Southern aspirants can beat Atiku Abubakar at the polls. The belief was that only a Northerner, and in this case, someone from the same zone as the PDP flag bearer, the North East, can have any hope of harvesting the humongous northern vote.

    To the last minute, last night,  and into this morning, at the Eagles Square, Abuja, tension was ripping through the 2322 delegates and other officials of the ruling party. The lateness to the start of the convention, of course was as a result of last minute negotiations and trade-offs which ended with the Asiwaju, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, turning out to be the superior tactician or so it seemed. He deployed a major masterstroke. From Godswill Akpabio, to Dimeji Bankole, to Kayode Fayemi, to Ibikunle Amosun, to Governor Badaru of Jigawa State, to Senator Ajayi Borofice,  all stepped down in an effort to force Tinubu to emerge the near consensus candidate of the South and eventually the APC.

    The major loser of the night, it might turn out, is President Muhammadu Buhari himself. The man, he and those around him, never wanted to be the flag bearer of the APC in the 2023 presidential election is the one whose hands appear ready to carry the flag, if the attempt by some to make him the candidate succeeds. However, it is too early now at 7 am this morning to make the call as the counting of votes is yet to commence. It is nevertheless safe to say that he is the leading candidate, and except some behind the scene intrigues throws up a joker, he is the most likely to be the candidate of the APC.

    In which case, two old men, two moslems, are the best the two parties could come up with for the presidential election. No doubt, two strong men; men whose bottomless war chests and strategic alliances bought victory for them at their various primaries. Should Bola Tinubu triumph when the votes are counted this morning, it will thus set up an interesting contest to look forward to. But it will be a three-horse race next year. Those who have not taken proper notice of the phenomenon swirling around Peter Obi should sit up and take note. His, nevertheless, is a dream for the future: and if well sustained, a possible 2027 reality.

    Unless of course the youths and indeed majority of Nigerians decide that enough is enough of gerontocratic leadership and move beyond advocacy in the social media, and merely getting their PVCs to owning the process. Obi and the dead of supporters emerging from the lethargy of bad governance must devise a means of  combining the Donald Trump and Barak Obama strategies and go knock on every door, and shake every hand across the country. Peter Obi himself will have to do more than working the youths and people in the South of Nigeria. He needs urgently to move up north to begin to develop a strategy  to get more of the leaders to support his bid. Unlike the South, leaders still play a huge role in deciding for the people who they should vote for. How Obi manages to sell himself and the dreams he has for the country to them will determine if the third force which he represents can steal an upset and trump both Atiku Abubakar and whoever emerges the flag bearer of the APC.

  • For Nyesom Wike, the hands of friendly friends held the knife – By Mideno Bayagbon

    For Nyesom Wike, the hands of friendly friends held the knife – By Mideno Bayagbon

    By Mideno Bayagbon
    (mideno@thenewsguru.ng)

    More than six months ago, I decided to poke nose into the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, affairs. I started scouting around to have a feel of what the thinking was concerning which zone of the country the party was likely to gift its presidential candidacy. Among those I interacted with, which happens to be some of those who behind the scene tele guide most of the things that happen in the party, it was clear the party had its eyes fully fixed on retaining the presidency in the northern part of the country. And one aspirant stood out even then. Among those who gave the game away were three former governors.

    In my quest, I chanced on a meeting, somewhere in the hilly side of Asokoro, the play ground of the political super rich. Looking at the room full of what can be described as political juggernauts and a sprinkling of job men, and gleaning the reason for their meeting so late in the day, it became clear that a particular aspirant was doing all the leg works, behind the scenes, and was gathering momentum behind veiled doors. By the time the ebullient and very politically sagacious former group chairman of DAAR Communications, Alegho Raymond Dokpesi, started doing the rounds, I knew without any iota of doubt that the game had taken on the hue of a frenetic no-going back stance. I knew then for certain, that for the South, the presidency was lost even before the game started.

    I had time to notice each and every one of the politicians, who from that meeting have shown their hands. These were a bunch of former governors, ministers and must go to political chieftains. There appeared to be more of them from the South than the north. And surprise, surprise, a whole load of them were South Easterners whose peoples agitation is that it is the turn of the Igbos to produce a Nigerian president , of Igbo origin. For those who have followed An Eye On Politics in the last one year, I have been emphatic in saying that the closest the South East will get to producing a Nigerian president of Igbo origin, will be then Transportation Minister, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi or Rivers Governor, Nyesom Wike. I took deluge of flaks from deluded people who thought I was yarning rubbish.

    Indeed, Anyim Pius Anyim was emphatic that though he was not running as an Igbo aspirant, nonetheless, “what the Igbos are agitating for is a President of Nigeria from geographical South Eastern Nigeria”; ruling out the possibility of smart alec Wike or Amaechi running for President under the Igbo agitation cover. As a friend, I told him the blunt truth, as I saw it. He thought I was wrong. Now, however, except, perhaps, Ex Governor Peter Obi manages to cobble together a coalition strong enough to beat the two dragons in the political race for 2023 presidency, the brightest hope, for now remains the Igbo man from Ikwerre. The one his admirers call Lion of Ubima: Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi. More on Obi later.

    Like we say in Waffi, nobi today yansh day for back. For those like me who have kept a close watch on the political happenings, the schemings, the horse tradings and betrayals, shout as loud as the ordinary people of the South East can, 2023 was not likely to throw up one of them as President of Nigeria. Except like I have also always said, it is an Amaechi or a Nyesom Wike, who identify as both Igbos and South Southerners. Even the fluke aspirant, Godwin Emefiele, who thought he could capitalise on the largesse he has unconscionably been dishing out from his exalted Central Bank of Nigeria position, as Governor, to a select few power brokers around the president, is also one of the peripheral Igbos.

    You may ask, what of Anyim Pius Anyim, the former senate president and former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, who threw in his hat early enough in the race? What about Peter Obi, the prototype Obama incarnate whose huge support base is growing rapidly on social media, among the youths? In the south. Anyim’s fate is already known. He lost miserably at the just concluded PDP primaries. His fellow Igbos did not even trust him enough, or believe in their agitation enough, to coalesce their votes behind their son. They sold it to the highest bidders; for their personal interests. They all conveniently forgot the agitation for a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction. Like most Southerners, except maybe the Yorubas, there is no shared vision or interest. It is everybody to himself. When convenient, personal interest can be masqueraded as zonal or ethnic interests.

    Despite his perceived uncouth manner and rascality, a tenacious Nyesom Wike, almost saved the day for the South. And for the Igbos. But he fell to the superior, adept and treacherous politics of the masters of the game. Until he is man enough to tell us what transpired between him and the Sokoto governor, Aminu Tambuwal, Nyesom Wike and his supporters cry of betrayal ring hollow. For six years, they were tag team partners. The expectation was that a day would dawn when they would combine to vie for the presidency of the country. But something we have not been told happened, between them. Tambuwal resolved on the death kiss of a lover, a stab to the heart, to teach his garrulous, uncouth and temperamental friend a political lesson of his life. Truth be told, it was not only Tambuwal whose hands held the knife struck deep into Wike’s ambitious heart. Many of his fiendly friends, what some describe as frenemies, directly held the knife and gave it the deathly penetration. Many Southern governors, including Igbos, were part of the betrayal.

    For Wike, it was a tale of the unexpected. The secrecy that sustained its deftness is a story for a Nollywood movie. Because, for most of the day, last Saturday, at the PDP convention, it was openly whispered that the day had turned in the direction of Wike. Most pundits were even beginning to paint a Wike presidential candidacy. Until the bombshell. A successful last minute coups turned the table. And it was a masterclass. Atiku Abubakar who had been plotting this day from way back, carried the crown which hours earlier had almost slipped from his enlarged hands. A season of Wike’s gargantuan ego tripping had come crashing.

    Only God and perhaps Wike himself know how much of Rivers state’s money was frittered away. Some claim it could be in the region of over N30 billion. They quantify the nationwide “consultation”, the array of chartered jets deployed, the humongous cash for votes game that went on all night, Friday night, the large fleet of Wike coated expensive, luxurious state of the art vehicles that flooded Abuja all branded with his ambition. Nevertheless, the truth is, the Rivers state governor is a man’s man. A talk-na-do, not just an empty boaster. He was a one man riot squad and all the tricks in the book were need to stop him.

    I feel for him. While I believe a Wike candidacy would have fallen flat at the polls because of his character flaws, he nonetheless gave it his all. he deserves some level of commendation. My suspicion is that Wike will not sleep with both eyes until the end of the convention of the APC. i can even second guess what his main prayers, were he be a praying man, will be? “God, you that made me to fail, please also fail Rotimi Amaechi. Make it a one-one goalless draw. I can’t stand him contesting for the position of president while I have failed so miserably” As most Nigerians now know, Amaechi winning the All Progressives Congress ticket will perhaps give this his former bosom friend a more deadly heart attacked than his being politically out smarted, by the deathly blow by Atiku and his fierce-some gang.

    As we all look to the APC Convention coming up early next week, the sky is still starkly dark. The candidacy water is still too troubled to throw up any educated guess. No one is sure who the eventual candidate will turn out to be. President Muhammadu Buhari is playing it close to his chest either because he wants to spring an earth shaking surprise, or he too is as confused as the rest of the APC as to who to give the ticket. Nevertheless, the fear of cataclysmic implosion looms large. Will the APC survive this its convention? Will Tinubu get the Wike treatment or will he devise his own Wikenised strategy to beat all those who are standing in his way, vowing that he cannot be the candidate? Will Buhari push the party towards an Amaechi candidacy or will the mafia around him, having failed with their audacious Godwin Emefiele gambit try to foist an Ahmed Lawan candidacy on the party? Will APC be as lucky as the PDP in managing the expected fall out from its convention?

    I suspect where the pendulum will swing but let me keep my mouth shut for now.