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Tag: Abraham Ogbodo

  • Coalition presidential ticket: Open letter to Atiku Abubakar

    Coalition presidential ticket: Open letter to Atiku Abubakar

    By Abraham Ogbodo

    Dear Waziri,

    Last week, I ended on a hopeful note. That, it is possible to dispatch Caesar for Rome to remain a real Republic. I added that the conspirators would only need to bring on board, a Brutus to strengthen the conspiracy beyond collapse.

    I promised also to do you a personal letter to explain better. I am therefore writing today to inform you that you are the Brutus that must come on board to give oxygen to the conspiracy to take out the Emperor on the ides of 2027.

    You may not strictly fit into the Shakespearean characterisation of Noble Brutus. But I do not also think that this desperate team is looking for nobles or good players for the competition ahead.

    The one to take out does not play nice. He believes in rough tackles and does not worry too much about how a goal or victory comes. Whichever way it comes, sits very well with him. What matters is scoring to win. And so, to prevail, the challenging team must assemble a threshold of rough tacklers. This is not to dent your democratic credentials.

    You have been a fine democratic who believes in the will of the majority. Since 1993, the majority has been saying no to your quest to become a democratically elected President of Nigeria. It is the voice of the people which some philosophers say translate to the voice of God. It is a way of saying God has held back His endorsement of your quest.

    I wouldn’t know, in any case, why God is refusing to be convinced about you. He, alone, knows the end from the beginning. At least, you know how it went with Muhammadu Buhari. In the end, his return as a democratically elected president diminished more than it enhanced him. If it didn’t happen, Buhari would have blamed God unto death for denying him a well deserved privilege.

    This is why the Bible teaches us to always accept the divine verdict and give God thanks in all situations. The Quran is even more explicit in saying that power belongs to Allah who gives it to whomever He pleases. It all calls for a stoic forbearance in the current circumstances.

    But sincerely, I cannot understand why God would say no to Waziri and say yes to the Asiwaju. It is the way of God. He works in mysterious ways. Asiwaju asked only once and he was given in 2023. But, you, who had been asking since 1993, was not given in 2023. Mohammadu Buhari asked three times and was given on the fourth request. A certain Abraham Lincoln who lived in America about 200 years ago, had failed in every electoral bidding until 1860 when he was voted as the first Republican President of the United States of America.

    These stories of spectacular come-back have a way of rekindling hope in players. I must add however that it is not every player that enjoys the grace of Buhari who weighed so much without content. Or like a Goodluck Jonathan, who did not ask for anything, as such, but got everything in full measure. Some say it was the primary reason that Jonathan did not know what to do with what he had in his hands until everything slipped away. That is a matter for another day.

    Maybe, I should just go straight to the point sir. I am particularly interested in the role you intend to assign for yourself in the evolving ADC coalition. Beginning from 2007 when you renewed your quest for the presidency with added vigour, you have maintained a tempo.

    You have not kept people guessing as to where you are headed. You want to be President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria at all costs. Being Vice President for eight years, between 1999 and 2007, with almost coordinate powers with the President in the first four years, has not assuaged that thirst for power in you.

    Every step you have taken after your time in Aso Rock Villa has been towards answering the name, President, without the limiting prefix – vice. You are among the founding fathers of the PDP. But this inordinate quest for the big title has caused you to be leaving and returning to the PDP like the accursed child called _abiku_ in Yoruba and _ogbanje_ in Ibo.

    So far, you have left and returned to the PDP for about four times. You have just left again for the ADC. This is not good for your image. It shows you are not governed by principles or ideology but a vaulting ambition to be president of Nigeria.

    Late Dr. Alex Ekwueme had also wanted to be president. In fact, by some rating, he was the best presidential candidate that the PDP never had. He was a democrat and a committed party man. He did not go about forum-shopping for a ticket and soft landing anytime he failed the PDP presidential primaries. He died as a PDP leader.

    He did not tear his PDP membership card in a feat of anger as Obasanjo did in Otta, Ogun State. Ekwueme had also been Vice President between 1979 and 1983, and long before you became a factor on the political landscape. I am saying you can learn to become Ekwueme even at 79.

    Ambition is the currency of partisan politics. It is legitimate to be ambitious. But when ambition is driven by greed, haste and impatience, it takes uncommon grace to avoid mistakes. Sir, as a committed democrat, if you had exercised little discretion and managed the expansive ego of your boss, Baba OBJ, this your endless quest for the big title, would have been done and dusted long before now.

    More importantly, the nation’s political history would have followed a completely different trajectory. A couple of things would have turned out differently. Most likely, the national harvest would have been spared the locust years of between 2015 and 2023. You also did not have the temparement to take out a snake and spare your troubled house in 2015. Instead, you created a conspiracy with strange fellows and enemies to burn down the house you had built with your sweat just to kill the snake.

    Sir, ‘’this is my own’’ and ‘’this is our own’’ are not the same thing. You had struggled unsuccessfully to proclaim your monumentality elsewhere. You never sounded too loud once outside the PDP House. For instance, in the APC where you had also sojourned, you got so minimized that even M.C Oluomo had commanded better electoral value than the Waziri.

    It was only in the PDP that knees bowed at the mention of your name. It explained why you could return from sabbatical anytime in Dubai to pick the party’s presidential ticket just like that and against the time-honoured principle of power rotation of the party. And I dare to add that, it was this unusual readiness of the PDP establishment to reward a prodigal son all the time that propelled loyalist Nyesom Wike to strike at the soul of the party.

    Today, the PDP is on life-support and we all know what happened that got the party into an ICU (Intensive Care Unit). It was your desire to micromanage a national party into a personal vessel in furtherance of your ambition to become the president of Nigeria. Now, the acronym PDP represents and sounds more like PAST DEMOCRATIC PARTY than it does of its original self – PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC PARTY. People are saying that you are 90 percent responsible for that ugly transition. It detracts so much from your decades of democratic evangelism.

    On the surface, you appear attractive. You had never been associated with gunboat tactics. At cross-roads, you had invoked the rule of law to create a leeway. You did exactly that as Vice President to contain an overbearing boss. When enemies wanted to re-appropriate you into a foreigner in the Cameroons; just so that you be stopped from vying for the President of Nigeria, you fought back using the instrumentality of law.

    But people are also saying that, underneath, you have a way of instigating a cold war that is hotter than a shooting war. That was the case in 2019 and 2023. In 2019, you relatively enjoyed the sympathies but in 2023, you had entered as a bulldozer to tear apart the turn-by-turn arrangement in the PDP for the presidency to oscillate between the North and South. It was the turn of the South after Buhari’s eight years and you knew it. You had the martial advantages but not the sympathies and you felt people would be frightened to say amen to your wishes at the polls.

    Put differently, you were selfish, Waziri. Leadership is actually more about being selfless, charitable and fair-minded. It is less about being ambitious and opportunistic. It is also about being courageous. You know more than I do that power is hardly given. It is taken; almost in the sense of ‘’grab it and run with it.” This idea of your reclining to the Middle East after a failed outing and only to storm again at the next bidding has not worked for you and your former party, the PDP.

    This is among the charges brought against you by Nyesom Wike in 2023. It was like you would scatter and scamper and then return at an appointed time to scatter again what had been re-gathered by other faithful workers. Waziri, sir, you would agree with me, that the Jagaban, with whom you share so much in epic political battles, has fared a lot better on these scores.

    In 2027, you will be 81 years old. You are clearly in your twilight and should be taking stock and not high stakes. Motivational speakers would say it is never too late to dream. Agreed! But when octogenarians dream big dreams too often, they could easily end up in permanent sleep. In fact, stop listening to motivational speakers including roaming marabouts from the Sahel at this stage of your most eventful life. They talk too much and anyhow too. You do not have to be president of Nigeria to garner additional points. You are accomplished in every department of life, and in fact, far more accomplished than many former presidents of Nigeria.

    Why am I telling you all these things? It is because you are catching and courting the headlines again for the wrong reasons. You want to fly the ADC presidential flag in 2027 at 81 years old. This does not sound inspiring. I had thought you people were dead serious with the ADC coalition to make 2027 impossible for PBAT. What is this thing that you are planning to do? If no one has told you, I am telling you now that you are set for yet another misadventure. The sentiments lie with Peter Obi. Short and simple!

    Let me quickly add that nothing is beyond BAT. It is possible that this whole thing that you people call ADC coalition is only an act in the larger political script of the Jagaban. That is, it is being staged to create an impression of serious contest in 2027. This is rather a wild reasoning. Take it or leave it, wild conspiracies will be woven as we move closer to 2027.

    It is part of the game. It is now left for you, sir, to act appropriately to stop all arising hypothesis and conspiracies from consolidating into workable theories. The best way to do so is to support a winning or at least a formidable formula for the ADC coalition. For now, that formula is Peter Obi. And nothing more!

    Make no mistakes sir. Cumulatively, you have run a good race. God does not make errors. He understands that you have not earned adequate dividends for your investment. The Almighty is therefore offering you a redemptive window to be counted among the defenders of the common good. Don’t reject the offer.

    Use everything about you to rally the coalition behind Peter Obi in 2027. That way, you would be justified by deeds and faith and not necessarily by direct benefits. It is a most beautiful anchor point for all your democratic struggles.

    Thanks and God bless you sir.

    Your admirer, Abraham.

  • A coalition and its many tendencies – By Abraham Ogbodo

    A coalition and its many tendencies – By Abraham Ogbodo

    It is too early to worry about the coalition to fight Tinubu in 2027. Even if the lion is ensnarled, you do not approach it with bare hands. You give all the benefits of doubt and go very prepared for any eventuality. When the coalition was announced some weeks ago, there was some breathe of relief across the land. This was, however, not in the air-tight assurance that the days of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President could now be counted. It was more in the feeling that a ferocious tiger was being released into the jungle to place limits on the recklessness of the lion. With the coalition, as hyped, the event billed for 2027 could rise to its billing of a true presidential election instead of a mere coronation anniversary of a reigning king.

    The picture presented on July 2, 2025 was that of combat readiness. The coalition announcer, Raph Nwosu, sounded very urgent. He said Nigeria is right now in a place called ICU and that seasoned healers are being assembled under an interventionist platform called African Democratic Alliance (ADC) to intervene. ICU is a special ward in a general hospital. It means Intensive Care Unit. As the name implies, persons admitted in it are intensively cared for or else they die. To put it bluntly, ICU is a sweet name or an euphemism to describe the death chamber of a health facility. Persons admitted there are actually waiting to die. Short and simple! In other words, Mr. Raph Nwosu was telling Nigerians on that special day that Nigeria has been admitted to die in Aso Rock Villa, Abuja and that, healers from the nooks and crannies of the country are needed to save it from dying.

    This is also saying that the ADC is on a self-appointed mission to save Nigeria. It is just that the venture is resonating because people are truly seeking any form of adventure to lessen the boredom of the moment. Before now, the ADC had appeared the most unlikely entity for the task it has assigned itself. It was among the many other empty political vessels that create the impression of a multi-party democracy in Nigeria. They are usually heard during elections, after which, they would slip into hibernation and wait for the next electoral season to make so much noise again. Their owners only manage to maintain them in anticipation of some kind of fortune either through a merger or an acquisition deal.

    What has happened with the African Democratic Congress is not different from this. In a way therefore, some of these marginal and non-legacy political parties should be assisted to survive. They come handy in times of national emergency when efforts need to be concerted to take down a formidable public enemy.

    Ralph Nwosu can easily pass for a faithful and consistent political entrepreneur. In real enterprise, he would rank among the Dangotes. His resilience and faithfulness had kept the ADC alive and attractive for acquisition by disparate portfolio political investors with heavy eyes on the 2027 high stakes bidding. The deal came at a time that passing the head of a full-grown camel through the eye of a needle was easier than getting INEC to register a new political party for contest in 2027. In fact, the investors that finally berthed in the ADC had tried to float their own party but INEC neither agreed nor disagreed. It only placed studs that made the acquisition of ADC a much easier option. It became a situation of when what was desirable was not available. The team simply reclined and made what was available, desirable. It didn’t make good sense marking endless time with a most hesitant umpire that entertains no qualms in breaching its own rules and creating new ones in the middle of the game to reach specific ends.

    The attendance at the acquisition ceremony was robust. For the records, the investors are politicians from across platforms of which the PDP is the most notable. Faces at the ceremony include Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, David Mark, Peter Obi, Bukola Saraki, Rabiu Kwakwanso, Rotimi Amaechi, Nasir El-Rufai, Rauf Aregbesola, among others. These are very tall names. Abubakar is a former Vice President who has been working tirelessly, including switching political parties like caftans, since 1993, to become president. He has not retired. David Mark and Bukola Saraki headed the National Assembly at different times as Presidents of the Senate. Introducing Peter Obi is superfluous. He does not need it. Kwakwanso, Amaechi, El-Rufai and Ogbeni Aregbesola were state governors at different times and have remained recurring in all major political calculations since 1999.

    These loud names in their combined decibels are enough to affect good hearing and create anxiety in the Lion’s den. And they have truly. Hence what to do to dissipate the gathering storm called ADC has remained a major issue, outside mis-governance, in Aso Rock Villa since the Coalition was announced about a month ago.

    The speeches at the takeover ceremony were even more reassuring. First, the original owners of the ADC, represented by its chairman, Ralph Nwosu, spoke to underline the significance of the day. That is, while the name would remain, ADC would however change content and character to reflect the new ownership structure. The man is very passionate about discharging the country from the ICU. He came close to placing a curse on anyone within the old ADC structure who works to impede the stated mission. Such a person ‘’does not love Nigeria’’ he said.

    Nwosu allegedly turned down an offer of a ministerial appointment by the Tinubu administration thrice just to remain focused on the mission. He willingly yielded complete control to the ADC’s new chairman, Senator David Mark, who entered proclaiming a determination to accomplish the mission at all costs. Peter Obi pleaded for focus because the harvest appears larger than the workforce. He asked all key gladiators, including himself, to subsume their ambition to become president under the singular mission to discharge Nigeria from the ICU.

    Everything had looked good. It was like after God was done with creation. The Almighty was reported in the Book of Genesis to have taken a panoramic view of the outlay and affirmed His own perfection. What He created was good. This was, however, before the devil started his own creation to cast spanner in God’s good work. And things have never looked good again since then. This is also where we are with the mission to take out Nigeria from the ICU. The coalition is getting anaemic too early in the day and it is looking as if, it, itself, would be admitted as a second patient to join Nigeria at the ICU.

    The PDP that is cast to drive the mission is ironically the one causing the coalition to lose blood and vital fluids. The party is asking for the same thing that the coalition is seeking. It is itching to touch off a mock mission. This is not normal. Everything is pointing to the fact that the lion is not sleeping. He is afield hunting prey.

    Two weeks ago, I sounded a warning on this page. The Jagaban is like a drunken king cobra. Outside intoxication, the king cobra portends enough danger. And in a drunken state, its lethal capabilities are better add safer imagined than experienced. It will take more than conventional tactics to contain a drunken king cobra. At the risk of sounding trite, I am saying it here again, that Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not a Goodluck Jonathan. He is a man of immense capabilities and capacity. He had taken down fortresses without added advantages. Now, with all the ace cards up his sleeves, dispatching him is possible but same cannot rely entirely on commonplace logic, morality and imagination. Real action and affirmation must be added to redistribute the advantages that President Tinubu exclusively wields in the unfolding power game.

    In the months ahead, BAT shall glide in all directions to poach workers of iniquity for his purpose. To make the mission impossible for the coalition. Only yesterday, it was reported that Nafiu Bala who contested the Gombe State governorship election in 2023 under the ADC, and until the acquisition deal, the party’s national deputy chairman, has walked back on the deal and declared himself national chairman of ADC to supplant Senator David Mark. There shall be more of this kind of stories as the countdown to 2027 narrows. It will only require a hefty budget to recruit high, middle and low levels manpower to roam and sow seeds of discord across the political terrain.

    Still, the PDP is getting more intriguing by the day. It does not want to live and it does not want to die too. It is like the dying Urhobo strongman who has his life wrapped up in a charm ( uhuvwu oyovwi ) at the rooftop. Until, the roof crashes to base to bring the charm in contact with earth, his spirit will not depart.

    The sudden resurgence in the PDP is not ordinary. It has something to with PBAT. It is designed to cause a pull in all directions. Right now, it is not only Nyesom Wike that is precipitating a centrifugal force to dismember the PDP. Other people have joined him. Even Ali Modu Sheriff has regained confidence, after his failed crusades to kill the PDP for the APC, to mount the podium to pontificate on values. Ayo Fayose is talking too. Bukola Saraki, Prof. Jerry Gana, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State and host of others are reasserting their PDPness as if that fact had been in doubt. These are not lightweight men. They are mighty men of valour in politics. They are known for transactions that cut the nose to spite the face. Other political parties are undergoing the same degree of implosions in a coordinated preemptive strikes by the king cobra.

    Needless to say that the Jagaban has all his instincts intact. And the coalition should be worried. Very worried, that is. Even if the sentiments lie outside him as he wanes in overall rating, the advantages are comprehensively within the control of BAT. Above all, to win against a champion, he must not only be beaten but seen to have been beaten. This was exactly what Mohammed Ali told Ken Norton after their keenly contested heavy weight bout on September 28, 1976 in New York City. Norton who felt he fought better and therefore more deserving of a win instead of Ali was told that champions are not defeated by luck.

    Apparently, the coalition has got real work to do. Victory against the Jagaban cannot be gratuitous. To sway the jury and all the other invisible factors in the decision making, the challenger must be seen to have defeated the champion hands down. In fact, the coalition should aim for a knockout. I will not say more than this. A word, they say, is enough for the wise.

  • Buhari: The making of a tragic hero – By Abraham Ogbodo

    Buhari: The making of a tragic hero – By Abraham Ogbodo

    By Abraham Ogbodo

    Finally, former President Muhammadu Buhari died on July 13, 2025. He wasn’t quite the coward alluded to by William Shakespeare in Julius Caeser. But he had died many times before his real death last Sunday.

    In the build-up to the 2015 presidential election, the state of his health was about the only campaign issue in the opposing camp. Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, then a pretentious promoter of President Goodluck Jonathan, had expressed deep worries.

    He said his own mother who was of the same age as Buhari, was suffering various forms of age-induced incapacitation and that Buhari, as President, would not be different. He advised voters to be properly guided and avoid the impending burden that was Buhari. Ayo Fayose had also warned, in a like tone, and applying a similar analogy.

    But Buhari happened in spite of all the warnings. The point about his ill health was not in anyway, minimized. It was manifest and remained a major talking point in political discourse for the eight years that Buhari reoccupied the presidency.

    He was dying almost every day. His obituary was announced at will by social media content creators. A video of his burial attended by known people was actually created and circulated widely. To make the conspiracy, water-tight, a certain Jibril from Sudan, an alleged Buhari look-alike, was invented to keep the Presidency occupied by a Buhari after the burial of the real Buhari.

    The narrative was so forcefully that even the mainstream media got tempted. I remember as Editor of The Guardian, of being pointedly asked on set by one of the anchors of Channels Television early morning show, if I believed Buhari was dead or alive? No true Moslem dies hidden. Even now, conspiracy theories are still being spun to detract from the reality of his death. Something still maintained he died in 2017 and his dying again in 2025 was to bring his recurring death to a realistic closure.

    All said, his clinical death wasn’t as much the issue as his leadership death. Nigerians did not have a president in him. In the build-up, he was fraudulently hyped for high performance. Rising up to his projected prowess, became a fundamental challenge all through. The capacity to act was neither manifest nor latent in him. He only felt he could abuse further his privileges.

    Buhari started his military career at age 23 years. At 40 years in 1983, and in just 17 years of service, he had cheated all the odds to become a full general and Head of State and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He was forced out at 42. He returned some time in the 90s, first, under late former Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha as chairman of the cash-soaked Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) and later in 2015, as a democratically elected President. He stayed till 2023 and died in 2025, two years after leaving office as President.

    The trajectory shows a privileged life that was lived at the expense of the public treasury. But the hollowness in that life was even more pronounced. The controversy around Buhari, even at death, is occasioned by the difficulty that bookmakers are experiencing in balancing his long public service life with the quantum of good that entered the public space through him. The math has persistently failed to add up. As he was in the beginning, so he remained unto death. The few, including Prof Pat Utomi, who genuinely believed in him, were taken for a ride.

    My article on Buhari  on June 18, 2017 in The Guardian reads as if it is written tomorrow. It is titled: Buhari: The Making Of A Tragic Hero.  It is reproduced hereunder, with minor touches, to prove that Buhari had been an unchanging factor in leadership deficiency.

    “The Aristotelian perspective defines the tragic hero as being complete in all the indices of greatness, but lacking in an essential character trait that makes all the difference. This is called the tragic flaw in literary theory and criticism. But for this tiny character failure, which occasions the tragedy, the tragic hero will have arrived safely at destination in the great journey called life.

    This was when tragedy was defined as the exclusive experience of kings and princes. That definition changed with the advent of the 20th Century American playwright and essayist, Arthur Miller, who made everyman (not only noble men) a tragic hero. He said since “tragedy is the consequence of a man’s total compulsion to evaluate himself justly,” the common man could also experience tragedy as much as the king or prince. He eloquently proved this point in The Death Of A Salesman, and in his other works, to hack down the foundations of Aristotle’s Poetics.

    In both definitions, something is central, which is the quest of man to attain perfection in spite of his limitations. The very nature of man places a limitation on him and what creates the tragic circumstances is the refusal of man to appreciate his own limitation. Perhaps, it would mark the end of time and beginning of God’s kingdom, the day man overcomes this innate limitation and obliterates the basis for tragic narratives.

    This is very true of Muhammadu Buhari, who has been yearning to build a great Nigeria since 1983 without appreciation of his limitation. The other thing about the tragic hero is that his flaw is hidden from him but revealed to his audience. Nobody however, is able to deliver help because the tragedy, which the hero must live through, has been divinely programmed. Even so, I am tempted to keep God out of this so that fatalism or determinism is not made to replace existentialism and absolve man of culpability in the actions and inactions that occasion the tragedy.

    Man is still the architect of his fate. Put differently, God has no hands in the flaws that today separate Buhari from accomplishment, much as he tries to drive the variables to a specific purpose. His, is even unusual. Whereas in classic tragedy, the hero is often pinned down to just a flaw, Buhari is almost boundless in flaws. As a character, Buhari does not yield to easy description. His motivations are complex. One does not easily understand when he is working for Nigeria and when he is working against Nigeria or working for himself or a smaller group within the national scheme.

    Prior to his grand re-entering in 2015, he had been declared by a quasi-national consensus to be pure in character. Supported by a highly efficient propaganda machinery, this position became unassailable. Not even the legendary Professor Wole Soyinka, with all he knows about reality and perception, could deconstruct the façade to bring out a deeper truth. He, too, was part of the cheering audience.

    In pleading his return, Prof. Soyinka had dropped a memorable line. He said the intervening years, precisely between 1985 and 2015, had done something about Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, and that the memories of his (Buhari) first life 30 years ago, would not apply in his reincarnation. Coming from the Nobel Laureate, the proposition was good to take to the bank.

    Many Nigerians did, except Buhari himself, who, like a snake, only changed skin without changing character. He transited from khaki to babariga but retained the essentials. The wine in him is getting better with age. This can be counted as his first flaw along the tragic path. That is, his blunt refusal to take Professor Soyinka seriously. He does not have a listening ear. And because he never listens, he hears nothing new and learns nothing new. He is fixated on methods and concepts and somehow genuinely thinks that Nigeria cannot be larger than the Sokoto Caliphate.

    Flowing from this is the burning desire in Buhari to express power instead of authority in leadership. Power is crude and inflicts pains. It is unsustainable outside coercion. Authority is refined, inspiring and sustainable. Besides, power is fired by hate, intolerance, vengeance, selfishness and pride. It is about the only instrument in totalitarian regimes and because it suffers constant resistance, it aligns almost always with propaganda to communicate leadership to the people. On the other hand, authority is consensual, collaborative, builds and operates on love and requires no extra effort or help to communicate effective leadership to the people. Leaders who express authority instead of power protect the common heritage against hijackers.

    Under Buhari, there has been a preponderance of power, which is why there is so much vocal effort by Lai Mohammed and others to communicate Buhari’s leadership to the Nigerian people. People see anger and vengeance instead of leadership. Whereas it is legitimate for leaders to be angry about the objective social conditions and seek to make things better, it is dangerous when leadership anger is tailored at vengeance and settling of personal scores.

    Nelson Mandela, for instance, left the Robben Island prison on February 11, 1990 very angry, and hungry for political power in the evolving configuration in Pretoria, to make a bold statement. But he never planned to seize leadership for the very narrow purpose of settling scores with his Boer jailers. He left vengeful anger behind in his prison cell and sought to move South Africa beyond the discriminations of apartheid to a Rainbow Nation where the freedoms of all groups would be guaranteed. As it turned, his factor alone saved post-apartheid South Africa from a civil war. He didn’t need more than this to earn his place as a world hero, not tragic hero.

    Enough to say that leadership is more spiritual than it is intellectual. What manifested regarding the Madiba was a spirituality that took the entire humanity as a constituency even as the man fought back the intellect that pushed for vengeance against the background of the daunting memories of his incarceration by the Apartheid regime.

    You can call this the leadership spirit, which flows in good measures in all leaders that withstand the untainted judgment of history. And I feel free to say that what defines a man is a spirit that connects effortlessly with God’s purpose and not a huge intellect which could also be called ego that is forever seeking to rationalise and justify hatred and every bad conduct.

    Buhari neither has a huge intellect nor an elevated spirit. He is focused on an ideology that is propelled by a very narrow purpose. This is the foundation of his tragedy. As said, the tragic hero is helpless. He is simply himself and cannot possibly overreach himself in trying to achieve a higher purpose. His intentions are pure but that is in direct proportion to the purity of his spirit. His best efforts are challenged by what he may term inexplicable cosmic interventions, but which his audience understands as his flaws. Everyone, except the hero, sees the glaring flaws.

    So it is today with Buhari. He is a great man doing everything to make a great point about leadership but nothing is adding up. Yet he is not able to fix what is wrong because it is not part of the privileges of tragic heroes to understand their flaws while still on stage. But who knows, Buhari may change in the real sense of the word and refract his fate. Otherwise, the rest of us can only pray for him to survive to sit among the audience and witness a postmortem at the end of the ongoing tragic performance.”

    The prayer was answered. Buhari did witness the postmortem for well over 24 months. He had heard, loud and clear, the verdict of the grand jury. Nothing will be added or subtracted to overstate or understate the epitaph. This is it: “Here lies General Mohammadu Buhari who used every great opportunity to add nothing.”

  • Coalition beware: Tinubu is not Jonathan – By Abraham Ogbodo

    Coalition beware: Tinubu is not Jonathan – By Abraham Ogbodo

    The one that is already in and seated is called APC. The one that is outside and itching to be admitted to unseat the one that is seated is called ADC. The difference is in the displacement and replacement of letters P and D.

    On the surface, this distinction lacks the firmness to affect a clear choice. This means that either of the entities can go or stay, and nothing significant will be lost in content. It is the same as saying that if, per adventure, ADC replaces APC in 2017, it will look like replacing six with half a dozen.

    Or like the national team, the Super Eagles, breaking into two sides of 11 players each, to compete for the same trophy. Either way, Nigerians are going to suffer. That is the devil’s alternative.

    This perception is gradually strengthening into a national consensus. The good thing is that it is not the only consensus regarding 2027 that is building up in the country. There is another that is equally high-pitch.

    It is somehow close to what people said in 2014 when Dr. Goodluck Ebelle Jonathan was President. Then, these same perennial issues of nation-building were carefully and deliberately orchestrated to practically turn Goodluck to Badluck Jonathan. The last name was actually compressed to Jonah to lay a better context as to why, even as the captain, Jonathan, needed to be cast overboard to save the sinking Nigerian ship.

    His traducers said there was so much between him and Prophet Jonah, who, against the clear directive of God, had followed a sea route that did not lead to Nineveh or salvation. Jonathan, too, was alleged to have followed a path that did not lead to national development. He was therefore good for nothing and needed to be thrown into the raging sea like Prophet Jonah to calm the national turbulence.

    No room was left for long debates. The campaign messaging was clinically effective. It was done to affirm and not to interrogate the charges against Jonathan. He was denied fair hearing,  so to say. The mantra was just anything and any person, but Goodluck Jonathan, was good to come as President. Reasons took flight as emotions surged.

    And so, when a Muhammadu Buhari was resuscitated from sustained electoral injuries and repackaged as the most resourceful Nigerian that had ever lived, the focus was not on the pretentious challenger. Rather, the intensive gaze was on President Jonathan, who  was recreated into a negative benchmark against whom Buhari shone like a million stars.

    Hard facts on Buhari’s deficits that adequately sign-posted what was to come upon Nigeria and Nigerians were ignored because Goodluck had become badluck and people were desperate to try their luck with someone else.

    Amid that flow of extreme emotionality and illogicality, evidence of Buhari’s unfitness conveniently dissolved into the stream of providence that gratuitously propelled him into power.

    His ill health and narrow-mindedness, which manifested in an unacceptable level of ethno-religious bigotry, did not count against him or counted for Jonathan. Even his lack of resourcefulness that made him the poorest among his class of retired army general and former military heads of state of Nigeria was recorded for him as an advantage.

    The story was that Buhari was poor because he was not corrupt. He was poor because he did not steal money to become rich like others. It was not because he couldn’t combine the necessary factors to create value. With him, poverty got a new definition. It was elevated to a virtue.

    Meanwhile, the entire process followed as schemed and orchestrated. On May 29, 2015, while Goodluck Jonathan was leaving Aso Rock Villa Abuja crestfallen for his village, Otueke, in Bayelsa State, having lost the 2015 presidential election, Mohammadu Buhari, the winner, was leaving Daura in absolute triumphalism to become a democratically elected president of Nigeria, 30 years after he was overthrown as a military head of state.

    In all of this, one man was solidly in the background, directing and coordinating. He advanced all the alternate viewpoints to design a new reality through which Buhari became revalidated as a messiah, nationalist, high performer and rescuer of the Nigerian state ship. His name was Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

    That name has not changed. It has only gained more strength with a change of the title. He is now President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT). He remains the Jagaban Borgu also. Tinubu relishes his Jagaban title. The name is heavier in sound than it is in substance. It makes BAT feel like a conqueror. For instance, BAT was not President, but just _Jagabgan_ , when he crowned the serial electoral failures of Muhammadu Buhari with the presidency.

    Jagaban is an onomatopoeia that sums up the Tinubu’s essence. The man is at his best when the paths are jagged and the rules are perfect freedom. He is stronger when nothing appears straightforward. He has the capacity to ride rough waives. The name was given to him by the late Emir of Borgu, Alhaji Haliru Dantoro III. It means leader of warriors.

    Today is July 11, 2025. The next presidential election is less than two years away. The elements have recreated themselves, albeit in a reverse order. The hunter is now the hunted. The one being hunted in the current hunt does not want the guidelines applied previously to apply in 2027.

    I am out today to say that why the plots in 2015 and 2027 may have the same material trappings, the central characters are different. Very different, that is. Tinubu is not Jonathan. They are different individuals defined by different value systems. While the strength of one lies in defying rules and conventions to reach results, the other gladly yields to circumscription and even sees failure in some instances as a triumph.

    For instance, under an unfair bombardment by enemies in 2015, Jonathan refused to reach for a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) to liquidate his attackers and re-establish a life-line for himself. This he could have done without causing heavens to fall. But he didn’t. Instead, he maintained this lame line that his ambition to remain the President of Nigeria was not worth the blood of the least Nigerian. He didn’t want to break eggs to prepare omelette. But nobody does without breaking eggs.

    The man from Otueke did not talk like a typical Nigerian President. He had talked like an underdog in a contest where he was the champion. Jonathan sounded like any other good man in the street who believes in live and let live. He loved telling true life stories to explain why he detested vaulting ambition. He went to school without sandals.

    While growing up, nothing in his circumstances betrayed great promises. He was the son of a fisherman. During the civil war, he had thought every truck was a military truck loaded with armed soldiers, looking for people to shoot. When he saw one approaching on one occasion, he quickly escaped into the surrounding mangrove vegetation with  his elder sister to avoid being killed. If being President was going to take blood in addition to cash to erase his essence, he was ready to let go.

    In truth, Jonathan might have calculated to teach and retire before the twist that saw him soaring. He had started as a Deputy Governor in Bayelsa State and later moved to become Governor. He was Vice President and then the very ultimate, President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for a whole six years.

    This is the same position that Buhari fought tooth and nail, including going into forced alliances to achieve. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who will be 80 years in November next year, has been fighting to become president since 1993 when he was only 47 years old. He is still in the trenches fighting.

    Evidently, Goodluck Jonathan meant to stop at the mountain top, but providence took him to the moon. He was wise enough to understand that maiming and killing to shoot higher would amount to over-reaching himself and challenging God in God’s own game. He backed down, and that singular act has made him a refreshing reference point in good conduct in national politics.

    So much on Goodluck Jonathan. Tinubu, the Jagagban, operates differently. He yields to an existentialist interpretation that assigns no role to any outsider in the determination of the great issues of life. To him, victory is always won and not awarded. Success or failure is a consequence of effort. He believes the gods do not help as such in the many battles of life.

    The gods may come in to align with victors or vanquished after the battle has been won and lost. He relies on his ingenuity to create all the advantages. And every move is war where all is fine and fair. He preaches that in situations where victory is not certain in the perennial struggles against opposing forces, the rules of engagement should be breached to reverse the tide. That is, when it is not willingly or easily yielded, one is permitted, under the Jagagban school of power, to “grab it and run away with it.”

    Unlike Jonathan, Tinubu does not have any true or original story to tell. He creates his own stories to fit all purposes. If the narration, for instance, fits Ibadan Grammar School, fine. If it fits Government College, Surulere, Lagos, all fine and good too.

    He is most deliberate in approach. He takes action and moves on, leaving others to bother about the reactions or consequences. He is focused on the end, not the means. Once motivated, he lacks the temperament to wait for a turnaround. Instead, he turns things around himself. He does not fear a superior force. When he declared _Emilokon_ , he was not taken too seriously. As it turned out, it truly became his turn to be president of Nigeria. He talks as if he controls tomorrow.

    On the whole, while Jonathan followed a path, Tinubu created one. That is the difference. Jonathan had power thrust upon him. Tinubu had been working and is still working for power.

    He is not like Jonathan who looked everywhere for power to save himself while power was in his hands. Tinubu projected so much power even when he didn’t have enough of it. Now that he has power and so much of it and also understands how to convert power to brute force to serve his purpose, he is close in description to a drunken king cobra. This is why I fear for the coalition.

    In 2015, the coalition against Jonathan operated on propaganda and won. This time, the coalition against Tinubu is different. It is running largely on facts. But facts may be secondary or even prove inconsequential in the current calculation. The reality today is harsh.

    It is as harsh as taking a battle to a lion in his den. I advise therefore that in addition to facts of the campaign against Tinubu, the coalition should stretch a little more to invent ways to kill a lion in his den. This is also saying that the coalition should be prepared to match Tinubu in all departments of the game. Power for power.

    Cash for cash. And propaganda for propaganda. When a stolen property is re-stoleno or a thief steals from another thief, the town crier is left out of the equation. He is not contacted to announce the stolen property. It is also good to add that the currency of war business is blood.

    If blood is required in the proposed venture, the coalition would be justified by the new ethics to spill some. You act like a monkey to catch a monkey.

  • The grave yard peace in Rivers State – By Abraham Ogbodo

    The grave yard peace in Rivers State – By Abraham Ogbodo

    By Abraham Ogbodo

    Peace is the complete absence of strife. It happens when all sides have accepted the given conditions as negotiated by mediators. In territorial dispute for instance, peace arises from a consensus by the contending sides that the given cartographic and cultural space is enough to accommodate but not to assimilate either of the contending parties.

    In business disputes, the parties will agree on gains and losses. This had been the general understanding until bookmakers came with dimensions that complicate the issue. They have differentiated between real or enduring peace and grave-yard peace.

    I know for sure that when people die, they are usually told to rest in peace. Even known merchants of violence are also told to rest in peace when they die. When the notorious killer and armed robber, Lawrence Anini, was executed on March 29, 1987, he was told to rest in peace. I guess, back then, some people would have told Adolf Hitler, the man who troubled the entire world for six solid years; between 1939 and 1945, to rest in peace too.

    It is the same way that some current trouble makers in Nigeria would be told to rest in peace at their symbolic or absolute expiration. There is, therefore, peace in the graveyard. It is peace that is occasioned by cessation of life. In wishing it, there is no discrimination. It is wished equally, most times, for peacemakers and troublemakers alike who have died. Surprisingly, there is also graveyard peace among the living. It happens when peace is decreed instead of being developed. One of such brand of peace has just been decreed in Rivers State.

    The place has not been too peaceful since March 18 when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu alleged a breakdown of law and order and on the basis of which he had declared a state of emergency upon it. For effect, the President had sacked the democratically elected Governor, Similaye Fubar,  and members of the State House of Assembly and appointed a sole administrator, Ibok-Ette Ibas, to hold the forte. The administrator is a retiree. He retired from the Navy as Vice Admiral and Chief of Naval Staff. He is from Cross River State.

    This is why some people said, when the whole thing happened, that President Tinubu had replaced democratic government with military government in Rivers State. They added that he was using Rivers State to test-run a diarchy to push the nation in a direction that is neither envisaged in the constitutions nor captured in established democratic conventions. Senator Seriake Dickson, who represents Bayelsa West in the Senate, said so.

    Hopefully, there will be peace in Rivers State after peace was decreed upon it last week. It would not be the first thing to happen by decree in the state. The emergency rule, which decoupled the state from democracy was by decree, too. Whichever way it is reasoned, the 1999 Constitution remains a federal constitution. If nothing, the document, as we have it today, governs a place called the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It does not govern the Kingdom of Nigeria.

    In legal reasoning, this is a conclusive piece of evidence. Federalism means governmental powers and functions in Nigeria are not consolidated entirely in the centre.  They flow through the 36 states and their local councils, which equate the federating units. No part of that constitution says that one democratically elected operator at one level or tier of government can, by mere words of mouth, nullify the democratic mandate of an operator at another level of government.

    The governmental power structure under federalism is not hierarchical. It is not a monarchy in a pre-revolution France where, whoever Louis that was in power, was the law. No level of government in a federal structure plays a subordinate role to the other. It is the same thing among the arms of government, namely the legislature, executive, and judiciary. Functions, powers, and scopes of the different tiers as well as the arms of government are well defined in the constitution. It is from the constitution that all powers flow.

    Federalism, therefore, is not free farming or fishing where a man or woman covers as much field as his strength and greed can permit. In true federalism, every field is covered by the different legislative lists, which create the distinctions in functions as well as the specific areas where functions overlap.

    I do not intend to push for the study of Constitutional Law as a national requirement for all citizens. But from the way things are going, it would be most profitable for every Nigerian who can read and write to have a copy of the 1999 Constitution as an indispensable companion.

    BAT has been too indeterminate. He wakes up as a democrat and goes to bed as an autocrat. That is very dangerous. He is beginning to define the constitution as if the only copy of the document that exists in the country is safely in his custody. This is changing the character of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and making it look like the Republic of Malawi under President Kamazu Banda.

    The story was that the only copy of that country’s constitution was locked up in Kamazu Banda’s office cabinet for safe keeping. If a citizen came around fuming and making loud claims on what the Malawian constitution said and didn’t say, President Banda had a very simple way of settling the matter.

    He would reach for the only copy of the constitution in his custody and go through with exaggerated concentration and mannerisms that fit the moment. Done, he would tell the claimer that none of his outlandish claims was captured in the constitution of Malawi. He would gently put back the constitution from where he had taken it, and the matter was closed.

    The Federal of Nigeria is not Kamazu Banda’s Republic. Here, governmental power is not planned to flow from one source like River Niger. The President or even the central government is not a headmaster with a cane in hand to beat others into line. He does his own thing and others do their own too.

    But since we have slept too long to allow all powers to move to a base in Abuja, I am of the view that whatever that is on the table regarding the Rivers State matter should be considered good to work with. Peace is peace. Whether it is graveyard, backyard, courtyard, or vineyard peace that has been offered by Tinubu and Wike, it should be taken.

    Even in situations where half bread does not appear better than none, the bread can still be eaten to manage hunger in the short run. The alternative is to starve and die or fight to finish. In combat sports, the capabilities and capacities of the combatants are usually measured and balanced before a competition is staged.

    Fighting till the end in a duel where the combatants do not stand on equal martial footing is foolishness. And I know Fubara is not foolish. When he came out of the peace meeting with a strange anointing and started singing the praises of his tormentor-in-chief, Nyesome Wike, I knew what happened. Wise men retire when danger outweighs prospects. For now, the man has retreated, to, perhaps, fight another day.

    But come to think of it. Similaye does not quite rhyme with Samson, the Nazarite. And so, those who wanted him to tear to pieces the Lion of Bourdillon and the Tiger of Obi Akpor with his bare hands were not being fair to him. They were not wishing him well. They wanted him to commit suicide so that they could tell him to rest in peace in the grave.

    Suicide is an extreme expression of despondency. I don’t think it ever got to that point with Fubara. Besides, the fight is not his. Therefore, the shame of capitulation is not his as well. He is just a young and inexperienced fighter who thought he could be supported by benevolent social forces to pull down strongholds. Instead, he was betrayed and left stranded. There was an institutional conspiracy involving the judiciary, the legislature, the presidency, and security agencies to humiliate him in celebration of evil.

    Seriously, what was Sim supposed to do in the circumstances he found himself? Tear through these lethal barricades on a horse back, singing a war song and raising a clenched fist in defiance, like a knight in a shining armour? Heroism is not foolishness, and there is higher honour in the choice to stay alive and fight again than deliberate self liquidation. The embattled Governor has just been guided back to the reality that he requires a new kind of anointing to kill lions and tigers with his bare hands.

    Details of the peace deal have not been officially advertised. Those close to the process say it is a set of instructions to Fubara on what to do to stay safe. The summary is that Fubara should be cool with just being a ceremonial governor for the remaining time of his four-year tenure and thereafter go home and have a deserved rest.

    He cannot aspire to renew his mandate. It has been agreed that the young man cannot be trusted with executive powers any longer. He is to be stripped of all powers, maybe, including the power to hire and fire his commissioners and the power to show interest in the affairs of the local government areas in the state. In effect, he is only permitted to answer the name, ‘Governor’ and not ‘Executive Governor’ of Rivers State whenever he returns to Government House Port Harcourt. He has got nothing to execute henceforth.

    Fine deal. It is for us to be reminded that this is happening in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. The subversion of the constitution for programmed outcomes has become a fundamental duty of the Presidency and the legislature. The judiciary is threatening to come fully on board with them, and it shall be a complete and formidable team.

    We are in the Fourth Republic because the First, Second, and Third had failed. Fubara couldn’t have overreached himself. He did the most he could to point at a direction. That his path was criss-crossed by confusing paths that led nowhere had little to do with him. I repeat, the fight is not his. It is not even a fight for Rivers State alone. It is a fight to save democracy in Nigeria and to that extent, a national fight.

    There are loud victory songs in some quarters in the Garden City. This is another way of telling whether the peace offered is real peace or graveyard peace. The celebration is lopsided. The battle has been won and lost. In the ensuing staccato, however, the underlying big lesson appears lost. This is the fact that if Dr. Peter Odili, who has a pedigree, had taken good time to prepare a better leadership recruitment process in Rivers State before leaving Government House, Port Harcourt, in 2007, this affliction would not have arisen.

    Competence is an objective parameter. Loyalty is not. Where loyalty comes before competence in the choice of who to lead, destination ceases to be a fixed point. It becomes a changing target that changes with the mood of a visionless leader. This is the state of leadership in Nigeria where the blind are better placed on the leadership succession ladder because they are more loyal than they are competent.

  • Letter to Gen. Musa on Okuama 5 forever in detention – By Abraham Ogbodo

    Letter to Gen. Musa on Okuama 5 forever in detention – By Abraham Ogbodo

    BY ABRAHAM OGBODO

    Dear CDS,

    I am writing to bring your attention back to Okuama. Perhaps it is not a very nice thing to do because Okuama invokes memories that are not too pleasant in the military. But my options are very slim, sir. If you were any ordinary person that I could walk up to or call on the phone to raise matters, I would have gladly done either instead of doing this tedious letter-writing like the Great Apostle Paul. Sometimes, seeing the President is easier with some of us than seeing, not just a serving General, but the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS).

    For instance, I know that the President lives in Aso Rock Villa, Abuja, or on Bourdilon Street Ikoyi, Lagos. I can just call my Oga, Bayo Onanuga, to say I want to see the Jagaban, and that may be it. The President may only ask one or two questions to be reassured. “Is he that stupid boy that is always writing nonsense about me and the APC?” “Yes Your Excellency”. ”Shebi he used to edit The Guardian Newspaper before?” “Yes Your Excellency.” “Were ni o! Tell him to come, joor.”

    I am not too vast in martial protocols. With you, it may not go that smoothly. Instead of talking or explaining for thorough understanding, the boys around you may bark orders at me and call me a bloody civilian. They might just be shouting as if I am a small boy or their junior in the military. I am retired, and I have long crossed 60 years of age. Such a rude encounter could be detrimental to my physical and mental health.

    As they say, prevention is better than cure. And so, sir, kindly permit this medium of communication. Maybe, after now, we shall become good friends and can be talking one on one. I even hear your beautiful wife is my sister from Urhobo. That is another level that has ‘’serious cultural implications’’ as my good friend, Dr. Reuben Abati would say.

    That in-law matter would be appropriately introduced at the appropriate time. For now, I want to remain focused on the main purpose of this open letter. It is to tell you that six indigenes of Okuama that were arrested by your men between August 17 and 20, 2024, are still in your custody. Soon, it will be a full year since their arrest.

    Their names are Prof. Arthur Ekpekpo, Chief Belvis Adogbo, Denis Amalaka, Miss Mabel Owhemu, James  Oghoroko and Denis Okugbaye. The roll call has, however, experienced some modifications over the months. James Achovwuko Oghoroko is no longer living. He is a dead detainee, so to say. He died in your custody last December.  And he died in spite of his middle name. In Urhobo,  *Achovwuko* is a distress call. It is an invitation to the world to act with dispatch; to offer a most needed help. Pa Oghoroko would have repeatedly sung with his own name as he was dying.

    He reportedly passed on December 4, 2024. Nobody helped. The only meaningful help in the circumstance would have been releasing him to his family. That did not happen. And the man died. Another, Pa Denis Okugbaye, who was in the line to die due to ill health, was quickly released to Senator Ede Dafinone, who represents Delta Central in the Senate.

    As you know, sir, journalists have so much in common with soldiers. Just as soldiers don’t fight their own wars, but the wars created for them by politicians, journalists too don’t create their own stories but report the stories created by newsmakers.

    These newsmakers may include government and its institutions such as the military. In the matter of the death of Pa Oghoroko, the press reported that he died as a result of torture by your men. This is not good at all for your image and that of the military. Even prisoners of war (POW) are not tortured to death by their captors.

    This is contained in the Geneva Convention of 1949. Maybe I should re-establish the context of the Okuama story, which is gradually building into a saga. It started with the incident of March 13, 2024. That was the fateful day that 17 soldiers, including four officers, were gruesomely murdered by yet-to-be identified killers.

    It was a most despicable act of cruelty. The entire nation was pained by the untimely death of the service men. The military, in their preliminary investigation, pinned the killings down to Okuama; a fishing community on the bank of the Forcados River in Delta State. Sir, it will not serve any purpose bothering you with details of your own story.

    The reprisal attack by the army induced an aftermath that all stakeholders are still struggling to manage. The community was completely razed with no building standing except the Anglican Church building. Everyone living in Okuama became homeless overnight. There was a humanitarian crisis that had to be dealt with irrespective of the facts of the original crime of murdering 17 servicemen in cold blood.

    The Delta State Government had created a camp to receive and care for the displaced persons. That effort revolved around me as the chairman of the management committee of the IDP Camp.

    My dear CDS, I can tell you for free that the people I managed in that camp for eight months, between April and December last year, were victims; comprising mainly women and children. I did not see any killer or criminal among them for a day.

    This is to say the people of Okuama are themselves victims of an unprovoked act of aggression as much as the Army, which lost 17 men in a non-kinetic operation. The criminals, however, must not go unpunished. They must be fished out and made to face the law. The task before everybody is to apply all constitutional means to look for the people who killed our 17 soldiers.

    Sir, I want us to stay on a single narrative at this point. Let’s not talk here and there like market women. I am saying this because when the whole thing happened, you had come out almost immediately to name one Endurance Amagbein as being responsible for the killings.

    That lead was never followed up effectively. Instead, the searchlight was exclusively focused on Okuama, culminating in the arrest of the six individuals earlier mentioned. Even the king of Ewu Kingdom, of which Okuama is part, His Royal Majesty, Clement Ikolo, was arrested, detained, questioned, and released after more than 20 days. It was a humiliation. But it is well. Anything can happen under an emergency where basic rights and privileges of individuals could be suspended for the sake of the larger good.

    I advise that we move forward to create a fresh beginning on some assumptions. First is the assumption that the Army has strong evidence connecting the persons in its custody for more than 10 months, with the crime. The next point is not an assumption. It is a fact. It is the fact that Nigeria operates a criminal justice system that assigns institutional roles as to how crime is determined and offenders punished.

    The military institution has no direct role in that arrangement except as assigned to it by the court or police, both of which play adjudicatory and prosecutorial roles, respectively, in the pursuit of criminal justice. The military, which has higher kinetic capability than the police can be invited to stabilise combustible civil situations for the police to move in.

    That is where it ends. No soldier is permitted in the Nigerian legal system, and legal systems elsewhere in the world, to incident criminal matters in court and thereafter stand before a magistrate or judge to prosecute the case. The most that happens is for the soldier to enter court, as the case may be, as a witness to either the prosecution or the defendant.

    Sir, I have listened to you speak in press interviews and other forums. You come across as a very fine and intelligent officer. As CDS, you have no brighter professional feather to aim at. Nobody is going to promote you to the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, except by processes known to the constitution. In other words, after this time, you would be shown the exit door.

    You would have successfully anchored as a professional soldier and, therefore, good to go home in retirement and join your people in your community. This is why I keep saying that only criminals and not communities should be taken out in the event of a conflagration. For instance, if your community in Zango Kataf council area in Southern Kaduna is to be taken out the same way you people have taken out Okuama, where will you go after retiring as CDS?

    I have digressed, sir. On the Okuama detainees, I am truly confused. What point is the military trying to make by holding them in detention against all known statutory provisions and rules of engagements?  Are you saying, sir, that after about 10 months, enough evidence has not been gathered to charge these detainees for the crime of killing those 17 soldiers?

    I hear that the body of the one that has died is still being detained in a military morgue? What for, please?  I don’t understand. Has the whole thing become some entertaining sports for the viewing pleasure of some people? Also know sir, that if there is any law that permits this, in view of the enormity of the crime, the army is not the institution prepared by law to keep people that are awaiting their day in court.

    You know you are my in-law. I will feel so guilty if I do not tell you the truth. And the truth is that the military is on an unnecessary power show against the citizens of Nigeria. The army is only bringing a bad name to itself with the continued detention of these people. I am not even calling on your beautiful wife to play a Queen Esther here.

    I am just asking the military to recognise that we are in a democracy and follow due process in the Okuama matter. You definitely have the powers to foreclose this matter one way or the other. To play Pontius Pilate and allow what is clearly an injustice to fester unchecked, neither ennobles nor discharges you of ultimate responsibility.

    The military should not cultivate that image of impunity under you. I reject it on your behalf in Jesus Name! Sir, I love you too much not to tell the truth. The world is now a global village. In this twilight of your career, when you are also in the limelight, every of your acts or omissions will either count for or against you in the unknown court of natural and social justice.

    General Olusegun Obasanjo didn’t believe this until he had reason to warm up for the job of the Secretary-general of the United Nations sometime in the early 1990s. He didn’t go far with his quest because late Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti and others had gone ahead to present OBJ’s dossier on human rights abuse to the world. I want you to be properly guided. It doesn’t take too long to complete 360 degrees and return to the starting point.

    Perhaps you do not even have any blame after all my dear CDS and in-law. I cannot understand, for instance, why the court has not been urgent and definite in the interpretation of Chapter Four of the 1999 Constitution in the Okuama matter.

    Enforcement of fundamental human rights is a matter of urgency and necessity and does not require an elegant display of all the fine points of law to determine. Also, the Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), is doing as if he does not live in this country or operate his office from this country.

    But I hasten to add that neither of these omissions will detract from the weight of your own responsibility or duty in the matter under review. This is the point about individual responsibility underscored by Prophet Ezekiel in the bible. You shall be judged according to your deeds and misdeeds and not the acts or omissions of others. The Okuama saga has become a misdeed.  Do well to stem it, sir. Thanks and God bless you.

    A Concerned Bloody Civilian.

  • Senator Dickson and the Rivers NASS caucus – By Abraham Ogbodo

    Senator Dickson and the Rivers NASS caucus – By Abraham Ogbodo

    By Abraham Ogbodo

    There are a few idiomatic expressions around the Catholic Church and the Pope. And that is because the Catholic institutions have endured long enough to constitute part of global folklores. For instance, when cause and reaction are disproportional, there is a description for it that touches on Catholicism and the Pontiff.

    This is when the man or woman involved is advised not to be more Catholic than the Pope. Listeners will understand at once that the fellow is seeking to be more concerned than he or she that is actually concerned in the matter under review.

    The Pope is also called His Holiness (H.H). This is more so in Catholic protocols. Acting holier than the Pope is when you get involved more than it is necessary. That is, when you crave for more than a supporting role in a plot where you are not the main character.

    In Queen’s English, now King’s English, It will be said that you are crying more than the bereaved. In the street, you will be advised to stop swallowing panadol (a brand of paracetamol) on another man’s headache. You are also the type that lawyers call busy body, interloper par excellence, even if you have a pure intention to be your brother’s keeper.

    All of these descriptions had applied to one man for merely talking where the main men concerned were conspiratorially silent. He is Henry Seriake Dickson, the immediate past Governor of Bayelsa State who now represents Bayelsa West in the Senate.

    He pointed out, when nobody told him to do so, the missing part in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s  57-paragraph Presidential Speech on Democracy Day; June 12. That could pass for count one on the charge sheet. Count two was that Dickson burst the existing lines of political delineations and representations to do the business of Rivers State in the Ninth National Assembly.

    Nobody hired him in the Senate to do so. He is in the Senate to do the business of Bayelsa West and at most, Bayelsa State and he should be so guided. Count three was that he said what was not meant to be said on that special day of celebrating democracy in Nigeria. Finally, if counts two and three are taken together, it produces a summary count of a busy body saying the wrong thing at the wrong moment and to the wrong people.

    Let’s go straight to the point. Dickson was saying that on a Democracy Day, PBAT spoke as if Rivers State was not part of the ongoing democracy. He was particularly pained that the executive arm chose that same day of all days, to present an expenditure template of the Rivers State Government for legislative approval.

    BAT who is the President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has also been the Governor of Rivers State, albeit by proxy, since March 18 this year. That was the day that Tinubu forgot that he is a democratically elected president and became Emperor Tinubu.

    He pulled down democracy in Rivers State and thereafter, named the power-stripped state a vassal of Aso Rock Villa, Abuja to be governed by an appointed agent. The Governor, Similaye Fubura and members of the State House of Assembly were given a job stood-off for six months in the first instance. Vice Admiral Ibok-Ette Ekwe Ibas (rtd) from Cross River State has been managing the outpost on behalf of the Presidency since then.

    The thinking, which Dickson keyed into, was that PBAT would use the occasion of the June 12 memorial to also remember that he is a democrat after all and needed to do something nice and remarkable to underscore that claim.

    Just any statement to reappraise the situation in Rivers State would have suffice. That wasn’t too much to hope for on a Democracy Day. But nothing happened. Hopes were hopelessly dashed. Outside Bayelsa State, the rest of the South-South geo-political zone is an APC colony.

    None of the many foot soldiers of the party in the zone had the presence of mind to whisper in the ears of the President that it was a democracy day and a line or two to address the embarrassment in Rivers State would not hurt. As it were, their loyalty to the Tinubu and APC brand of politics was too rigid to compel a counter narrative.

    Dickson only entered, when none in the entire region, including persons that are more concerned, had the balls to call the roaring Goliath to order. They were all part of the cheering crowd of President Tinubu as he spread in victory like peacock.

    He explained why intimidation is part of good politics. He actually said it pleases him to see the opposition “in disarray.” That statement can be rephrased to read: ‘’it pleases President Tinubu to cause disarray in the opposition” and nothing would be missing. As at today, the main business of opposition parties is to work tirelessly to resolve unending divisions in their ranks.

    The problem is made even more complex by the attitude of some elements in the opposition who appear more interested in the political wellbeing of President Tinubu than persons in the ruling APC.

    That was how Dickson got to be home alone with the Devil. I guess also that he didn’t have lofty ideas about the outcomes of his bold outing. He only needed to say something contrary so that it would not look like there was a unanimous legislative approval of Tinubu’s Democracy Day outing.

    There is room for this kind of subtle rebellion in civil and human rights movements. It is called righteous indignation. It means the right to be angry, to be deviant, even in the face existential threats. That was what Dickson did on that day. While it may not translate to real relief or a change of the contentious conditions, it nevertheless offers a catharsis that improves the mental health of the oppressed.

    This is what Dickson tries to do each time he assumes the floor to speak in the Red Chamber. He insists that the right of the majority to have its way should not in anyway, vitiate the right of the minority to have its say. He wants the eagle and the kite to perch anyhow.

    But he struggles so hard to make this simple point any time he comes on air. The ground on which he stands to speak is no longer holy and his voice does not get to the only god of politics in Nigeria. Tinubu does not hear anybody who stands on the PDP platform to speak.

    The PDP is very close to extinction as the APC remains unrelenting in its onslaught. The party has been pushed below an underdog in the game and it is going underneath to clear the ring for a maximum champion. Totalitarianism is usually by evolution. While the PDP gasps for oxygen, the APC has strengthened into a cult where non-members are sacrificed at will for the well-being of the confraternity.

    As always, the road to damnation is straightforward and attractive. The ugly side takes all the time to manifest at destination. It is this same attraction that has caused the Rivers State caucus in the National Assembly to curse Senator Dickson. Speaking on behalf of the caucus, House of Reps Member, Kingsley Ogundu Chinda told Senator Dickson in very clear tone to stay off the affairs of Rivers State. He sounded as if Dickson, an Ijaw from sister Bayelsa State, is as distant as a Senator from Borno or Sokoto State. Chinda represents Obio Akpor Federal Constituency in Rivers State.

    He is from the same constituency and local government council with former governor of the state now FCT Minister, Nysome Wike. There is more between them. He was the legal adviser (whatever that means) of Obio Akpor local government council when Wike was the Chairman. He was the Rivers State Commissioner of Environment between 2007 and 2010 and has been in the House since 2011. More or less, he has not substantially lived outside government once. Losing that privilege is a frightening prospect. That is the crux of the matter. It offers the context for a proper interpretation of Chinda’s lines in the matter of the emergency rule in Rivers State.

    Hon Chinda explained that every step so far taken in Rivers State by the Presidency is in order. He described the declaration of a state of emergency as a ‘’lawful and constitutional response’’ to a deteriorating political and security situation in the state. He said Dickson portrayal of Rivers State as being under military administration is not only false but intellectually dishonest. He added that the Supreme Court decision of February 28, 2025 was clear in saying Rivers State was without a constitutional government.

    No options existed and Chinda spoke as if he was, on behalf of the people of Rivers State, thanking Tinubu for benevolently stepping in with the emergency declaration to prevent the state from a sure descent into anarchy. His verdict on Dickson: “He is not from Rivers. If he wants to stir trouble, let him do so in Bayelsa. We will not allow external actors to destabilise our state.” Senator Allwell Onyesoh representing Bayelsa East added that: “Rivers people deserve stability and governance, not provocation from those who are not even directly affected by the crisis.”

    We are getting somewhere. At least, there is agreement among the caucus that controls the narratives that crisis does exist in Rivers State. What is not too clear is the true character of the crisis. The evidence however points more to a moral crisis than it points to a political crisis. It might even be deeper; such as the complete loss of functional spirituality and all sense of propriety that is leading to a wholesale adoption of evil as a mainstay.

    Like Muriel, the goat character in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, members of the Rivers Caucus are too fascinated with ribbons and colours to apply their faculties. Comrade Napoleon is always right. The arising benefits from maintaining that position induce an intoxication that is edging them in the wrong direction. Whoever preaches caution is roundly derided. They laugh to scorn the wisdom of elders. They did so to Senator Henry Seriake Dickson. They told him to take his meddlesomeness elsewhere.  They gladly point at the grave of their ancestors with their left hands.

    The times are good for the caucus. They only need to be reminded that it is only in the grave that darkness lasts forever. On earth, darkness does not last forever. Daylight usually follows darkness. It is not going to be different in Rivers State where there is a very dark overcast currently. Soon and very soon too, it will be daylight in Rivers State and the dark clevages will be exposed.

    For now,  it is a compelling performance where the actors are having a swell time playing their nefarious roles. There is a ritual that usually attends the end of a stage performance. It is called Curtain Call, when performers re-assume their real life character to break the artistic barrier between the stage and the audience.

    We await the Curtain Call in the Rivers high drama. Meanwhile, for seeking to be more Catholic or holier than the Pope and for taking paracetamol on account of some else’s headache, Distinguished Senator Henry Seriake Dickson deserves a gbosaa! He should be encouraged to continue to stand tall among Lilliputians.

  • Tinubu: No champion changes a winning formula – By Abraham Ogbodo

    Tinubu: No champion changes a winning formula – By Abraham Ogbodo

    By Abraham Ogbodo

    There is something in theology called anthropomorphism.  It happens when God assumes the attributes of a human. I can supply an instance right away. Turn to Chapter 3 of the Book of Genesis and read from verses 8 to 10. It says God came down from heaven to the Garden of Eden and was pacing about the beautiful garden in the cool of the evening searching for Adam who was nowhere to be found.

    Having tasted the forbidden fruit, Adam, the only man that came by the direct creation of God, realised he was naked and ran to hide himself somewhere in the Garden, causing God to look for him up and down. This is, as told, by inspired men of God who wrote the Bible thousands of years ago.

    In folklores, the rules are a lot more relaxed. The gods (not necessarily God) swing at will from their divinity into humanity to help situate the narrative.

    That said, the beauty of the English language is in its completeness. It creates a notation for every conceivable idea. When God becomes a man, there is a name for it which I have just mentioned. What, when man bursts the boundaries to play God? There is also a name. I searched and the nearest to the scenario is a word called theomorphism.

    It explains when man seeks to replace his humanity with divinity. Even so, what sets the human limit is the fact that the final say lies outside man. He cannot choose to be God or even god. If it were not so, we would not have freed June 12 every year to mark the memorial of a botched hope in our chequered journey towards nationhood. Man only proposes for God to dispose.

    Our Supreme Court which purports finality in judicial reviews, remains an institution of humans who are limited by their humanity. Its finality does not translate to infallibility. In other words, whatever the Supreme Court does, like awarding electoral victories against common sense, is not final. Only the truth is final in natural jurisprudence.

    The finality of the apex court is only in the context of the operating legal system which does not permit any appeal to stand beyond it. Nothing else captures this better than the immortal words of Justice Chukwudifu Akunne Oputa: “We are final not because we are infallible; rather, we are infallible because we are final.

    In fictional literature, authors are careful in creating their characters. They don’t like to recreate man into God because nobody dreams and sees God. It is a task that constrains the usually boundless poetic licence. Even if men in their fertile imagination, choose to transcend human capabilities, they should end up just being demigods who cannot author and finish our faith like the Almighty does. Aiming to be God does not have a vivid description in literature, ethics or religion. And that is because nobody actually does.

    While as Governor of Lagos State and up until he became President in 2023, Bola Ahmed Tinubu had acted largely within bounds. He only played god and not the one with capital G. Tinubu powers were enormous but he wasn’t all-powerful as such. He was helpless on a few occasions. These included when he could not truncate the second term bid of Governor Obaseki of Edo State and surrender the State to the APC challenger, Pastor Ize-Iyamu. He was also defeated in Osun State where the PDP challenger, Ademola Adeleke braved the odds to unseat the APC incumbent Governor, Gboyega Oyetola in the 2021 Osun governorship election.

    In fact, in Osun, Tinubu was told to go home, that Oshogbo was not Ikeja. Above all, the 2023 presidential elections showed clearly that BAT perched on a lower rung in the perking order of the transcendental forces. The name Tinubu does not in any way sound close to Olodumare. Tinubu yielded to a higher force in the battle for supremacy in Lagos State.

    Notwithstanding, BAT successes were very sweet. He was the only one in the 1999 – 2007 class of governors that had the capacity to change his deputy almost at the same frequency that he changed his underwear. He had three in eight years with the prospect of further changes if the journey had extended beyond eight years. Before him, I had thought that the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural and political group, Afenifere, was well made, sacrosanct and irreducible.

    The same Afenifere, that weathered the storm in the difficult years following June 12 1993 with Pa Adekunle Ajasin and Pa Abraham Adesanya, as its able  leaders, dropped sharply in value and ranking. It became as ordinary as a chess board where pawns are traded for a bigger prize. The time-honoured Yoruba group that also provided the umbrella for the immortal Pa Obafemi Awolowo suddenly turned anachronistic and less suitable to contain the challenges of the moment. A renewed version to be known as Afenifere Renewal Group was engineered to meet the challenges as dictated by BAT.

    This is also why, we must give it to BAT whether we like it or not. Like a vulture, he has the patience to wait for life to end before moving in to explore and exploit. The renewed version of Afenifere came only after the archaic version had been used to ensure his emergence as Governor of Lagos State in 1999.

    Nobody who wishes to be king forever supports the kingmaker to thrive alongside. Such, today, has become the sad story of Afinere. It has fallen from that olympian height of a kingmaker to become the king’s foot mat. Without knowing it, the organisation had created its own replacement in Tinubu but, at the same time, refused to yield to the authority of the new champion.

    Tinubu’s move, therefore, was only to say that two persons do not exercise coordinate authority on a ship. And since the Monster does not need to recognise Frankenstein, its creator, before it operates, Tinubu has been in spite of Afenifere. It has been a single narrative of an uncontainable villain against colonies of victims. Afenifere itself, is as much a victim as any other in the line-up of Tinubu’s increasing colony of victims.

    I had noted on this page that Tinubu understands what works for him and he goes for it. Acting like nothing lies above him works for him. He makes and unmakes men and woman. He is a destiny creator and destroyer. It makes him feel very cool and on top too. The surprising thing is that after he had been made, somehow by circumstances of his opaque history, nobody has been able to unmake him. It speaks to his ruthless strategy to remain tenable.

    Everybody is helpless and at his mercy. Like the privileged Roman Centurion, he says to one person, come and the person rushes down and to another, go and the person runs away. He even does more than that. He can say to one person die and the person will die and to another, live and he will live. He said die to Akinwumi Ambode and he ‘’died.’’ He was about to say the same thing to Jide Sanolu before he was prevailed upon by some Good Samaritans to hold back.

    Tinubu has what the Urhobo call aridon. Whatever he says, is established. He has the power to meet his purpose. He said he would be President and he became President on May 29, 2023. He said fuel subsidy was gone and fuel subsidy that couldn’t be discharged from the macroeconomic metrics of Nigeria for more than six decades took flight immediately and has not returned as I speak.

    The naira that successive governments had spent time and resources to support to stand steady on one spot was ordered by Tinubu to find a comfortable level that could make it stand alone without support. It happened exactly that way. In two years, BAT has created conditions that could only happen where there is no government. Nigerians have endured these conditions and are likely to renew his mandate in 2027 to continue to operate the country without a government.

    Nothing can bring him to account. Just as we do not question God, nobody questions Tinubu. He does what is best in his estimation. If I may ask; who else, outside God, enjoys this level of single mindedness in a world of interdependency and inter-relationships?  It is a single mindedness that abuses the concept of a social contract.

    I have read what others have written about the transfiguration of Tinubu from man to god with an underlying aspiration to move the g from lower to upper case. Everyone is calling for caution. I don’t understand. Are my friends, including Dr. Lasisi Olagunju, Dr. Reuben Abati, Mrs Funke Egbemode and Suyi Ayodele saying Tinubu should get right-handed at old age?

    His is a winning formula. No champion changes a winning formula midstream. Tinubu kills his own ‘’children’’ to consolidate. At the level he has taken himself, blood is the currency of all his transactions. Every kill strikes the right note in others that are avoiding to be killed or waiting to be killed. Since he has the sugar to sprinkle around, ants will always troop out to enable him make a point about his weired generosity on one hand, and his invincibility and aspired immortality, on the other.

    For instance, the way BAT concluded with Babatunde Fashola in 2015, did not stop Ambode from stepping forth with enthusiasm to endorse the ways of the grandmaster. Sanwo-Olu emerged as the new Poster Boy when Ambode was sinking. The travails of Ambode did not constitute any lesson to his eager successor. The lure to superintend over Lagos and its wealth, even as a surrogate, is too compelling to resist.

    Tinubu acts like the typical village witch. He is unaffected by the horrendous sacrifice of his promising children. He is more interested in the power that comes with the sacrifice. He loves to push ahead anyhow with a Mudashiru Obasa, MC Oluomo and others in that bracket, who are all too ready to obey his commandments without asking questions. His original stock of goal getters has been heavily depleted.

    The roll call of those he has sacrificed for more power include Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Babatunde Raji Fashola, Akin Ambode, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, Rauf Aregbesola, Femi Pedro and even Lai Mohammed. It is not as if Sanwo Olu has been granted full amnesty. It is just that Tinubu already has too much blood stains in his hand. And so, Jide Sanwo Olu is only being tolerated to mitigate the heavy charge of political murder.

    In real life, no human willingly gives up on acting God for as long as the plot subsists. Tinubu has reasons to continue. Nigerians are getting to believe his divinity. The saving grace though is that the God of Hosts does not share His glory with any other. Also, He, alone, knows how to stop men from sharing in His glory.

    For now, nothing stands in the way of Tibubu except himself. He has conquered fear because some sorcerers must have told him that none born of woman can stop him from getting re-elected in 2027. Suyi Ayodele’s article in the Nigerian Tribune of June 10, The Powerful Man And His Faeces, says a lot. It takes iron to sharpen iron. What may eventually remind Tinubu of his humanity, mortality and eternal limitation, may not be too far from himself.

  • Amaechi’s endless voyage of reinvention – By Abraham Ogbodo

    Amaechi’s endless voyage of reinvention – By Abraham Ogbodo

    By Abraham Ogbodo

    Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi has a way of saying the right things to court public attention. He talks as if he is one of us and not one of them. He was President Muhammadu Buhari’s minister of transport for eight years. Before then, he had been Governor of Rivers State for eight years too. Altogether, he had been very lucky. He had never been short-changed in the serial partisan transactions in the ongoing Fourth Republic. He knew how to create the right alignments and realignments to secure his due. Even as a rookie, he had started very high. He was the undisputed speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly for eight years; from May 29 1999 to May 29, 2007. It was from the speakership that he ascended the governorship of the state in circumstances that introduced something hitherto unknown in Nigeria’s electoral jurisprudence.

    For his good, the Supreme Court went overboard to invent a judicial interpretation that pushed the Realist School of jurisprudence to fearful heights. Amaechi was simply awarded the governorship without sweat or statutory processes. He became the first and perhaps the last person to win an election in Nigeria without participating in the actual election. The apex court’s ruling on Amaechi became a fresh basis for testing the validity of Oliver Wendell Holmes’ definition of law in his book, The Path Of The Law. The foremost American jurist who lived between 1841 and 1935 said law is more experiential than it is logical and that what ultimately pass for law in all jurisdictions are ‘’the prophesies of what the courts will do and nothing more pretentious…’’

    Going by the fine points of law, it had all looked like a judicial blue murder when Amaechi was declared Governor outside the polls. Therefore, some public outcry was expected to have attended the Supreme Court’s decision. That did not happen. If anything, their Lordships were applauded for standing up to the intimidation and rascality of the executive arm of government under former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Here is the background. The PDP primary election to choose the party’s candidate for the River State’s governorship election in 2007 was won fair by Rotimi Amaechi.

    But Retired General Olusegun Obasanjo who loved to fall back on his dictatorial past for inspiration said no. OBJ was most reluctant as a democrat. For eight years, he struggled between two opposing tendencies; his past and his present, causing this embarrassing split in his leadership dispositions. He manifested as a dictator and a democrat even in similar circumstances, and the issue, most times, was the preponderance of the former.

    On the Amaechi’s matter he came out in his undiluted past. His verdict: The outgoing governor of Rivers State, Dr. Peter Odili, could have any other successor, but Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi.  The pace and character of the emerging democracy was yielding to a pattern soley set by Obasanjo.  The candidature of Amaechi became instantly jinxed. It was ‘Death On Arrival’ as they say in Morbid Pathology. President Obasanjo did more to climb down from the privileged height of Aso Rock Villa to express the Amaechi’s case in street language for the understanding of the ordinary people of Nigerian. He said that the election of Amaechi as the PDP flag bearer in the2007 governorship election in Rivers State had a ‘K-leg’. In street parlance, the matter had become intractable.

    Even when the courts advised otherwise, their Lordships were ignored. Obasanjo had spoken across board for everybody. The beauty of the legal system is that judges do not step out of the courtrooms to fight in the streets in defence of their positions. They possess the temperament to patiently wait for you to return to the courtroom. And this was what happened in the Amaechi’s case. Against all entreaties by the PDP’s central command, including even Dr. Peter Odili, Amaechi followed up to the Supreme Court with the arbitrary nullification of his candidature by the party. Apparently, he had good legal advisers and spies who were able to transmit to him the thinking in the judiciary regarding his predicament. He got it right. His victory in the court was not so much a product of sound jurisprudence as it was a decision by the judiciary to reassert the principles of Separation of Power and the Rule of Law in a constitutional democracy.

    This was why the public outcry was voluntarily subdued when, on October 25, 2007, and following the express order of the Supreme Court, Amaechi upstaged his cousin, Celestine Omehia, to become the governor of Rivers State. In the general election of 2007, the court said it was the parties and not the candidates that were voted for.  And since Amaechi got confirmed through the same judicial review as the authentic flag bearer of the PDP, it didn’t matter if his name was on the ballot on not. In the eyes of the court, Celestine Omehia was only a transitory agent who collected the trophy on behalf of his principal in the transaction. The court said he was a courier without a substantive stake in the transaction. The Supreme had done what it needed to do in the circumstance. It was clearly an application of the Mischief Rule of interpretation to cure the PDP malady. Walking back years later on the same material facts, was immaterial. The purpose had been duly served.

    Meanwhile Amaechi was buoyed up beyond measures by this judicial victory. Literally, he had moved against powers, principalities and strongholds and triumphed. It was unprecedented. None, other than God, could have ensured this massive and comprehensive victory. Accordingly, he dedicated his victory to God and for the eight years that he reigned, he was all over the state making a big show of his faith in God. In one Easter celebration, he staged the spectacle of a cross-bearer, as if he too, was on his way to Calvary to die for the sins of others.

    In fact, Amaechi became too sanctimonious for his real character. He made it look as if he didn’t have a history before October 25, 2007. Suddenly, he became self-made. Even Dr. Peter Odili who owns Pamo Hospital in Port Harcourt where Amaechi had worked as a public relations officer before 1999 breakthrough, didn’t represent a value in Amaechi’s new-found social high ground. It was all about himself as he began the processes, including the creation of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, to even up with political enemies and recreate the jungle to become the undisputed king.

    Painfully, the spectacular cross carrying and other exhibitionist attitudes of faith did not translate to wisdom in Amaechi. He overstated his victory to mean personal effort. He acted too much like the conqueror of the Great British Empire. In all, he doesn’t understand spiritual laws. Instead of the needless spectacle of carrying giant Crucifix about in Port Harcourt on Easter Sundays to impress, Amaechi should have given more attention to reading the two Books of Kings in the Bible  to learn a thing or two from the story of David and Saul on how to manage benefactors in the many battles of life. Even God loves to be praised and acknowledged. And it is about the only thing He requires from us. King David used this effectively to regain his standing with God in spite of his moral failings.You don’t bite the fingers that fed you in the name of settling scores. I should not forget to add that I am talking of benefactors and mentors who are in a state of grace. When mentors become unbearable tormentors, mentees are discharged of all obligations by the operation of equity.

    Former President Goodluck Jonathan handled it excellently with his former boss, late D.S.P Alameyesiegha. Also as Vice to Alhaji Umaru Musa Yara’Adua, Jonathan did not enjoy the best of times. He only endured his time as Vice President. But he never went on a vengeance upon assumption of a substantive role. Again, it was the imperial Obasanjo who ensured Jonathan became a running mate to Yara’Adua. But when Obasanjo turned wild, midstream, and was bent on killing a boy that called him father, Jonathan was stable in managing the fall-outs. He never deployed the might of the presidency to contain or even eclipse Obasanjo. He allowed Baba Obasanjo to spread and pontificate to his fill. I can say without fear of being contradicted that it is one of the things that count for Jonathan. He enjoys relative grace in spite of all the humiliations he suffered as President.

    Only a fool challenges his chi to a wrestling contest after a good meal. Jonathan might not have interpreted power correctly as an opportunity to deliver large scale public good in the service of humanity. Nevertheless, he did not forget to be humble. On the other hand, Amaechi had his hard nut cracked for him by a benevolent spirit, but forgot to be humble. He allowed his success to get into his head. First, with virtually bare hands, he went to battle against super powers in 2007 and won. Seven years later in 2014, when it didn’t seem likely, he picked arms again to offset the status quo. He pulled away from the PDP to strengthen a conspiracy to take down Jonathan. Again, he was successful.

    Along the line, Amaechi gained tremendous points as a regime destroyer. Now, he feels strengthened by this streak of successes to act Hercules in Nigeria’s political high drama. He has started dreaming big about 2027. He is in the thick of yet another conspiracy, called political coalition, to truncate the mandate renewal scheme of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He has been highlighting the mistake of allowing Tinubu to become President as if he is just knowing Tinubu, who was a major partner in the 2014 conspiracy to destroy the PDP’s government under Jonathan. Indeed, Amaechi has been cherry picking. He is avoiding a comprehensive post-mortem that should include President Muhammadu Buhari.

    I am saying that before he starts sounding like St Saviour, Rotimi Amaechi should explain, or at least rationalise, and in convincing language too, his role in the Buhari national tragedy. For 24 years, he lived off public resources, first as Speaker of a State House of Assembly, then as a State Governor, and finally as a Federal Minister. He was 60 years old last week. It means he has lived almost half of his time on earth on government resources. He has been off the freebies for two years now; since May 29, 2007. It is therefore also good for the rest of us to understand the motivation of Amaechi. That is, to know, which, between the urge to reconnect with the freebies and a genuine desire to make a difference in governance  is more pressing in his latest quest? I will only add that if in 24 years, Amaechi could not deliver a difference but only rancour and divisions within the spaces he occupied, the likelihood of a new outcome does not exist if he is given eternity to operate. He is like that fellow in the popular rock’ n roll song, who, for 24 years lived next door to Alice but could not say what he needed to say to Alice. It is in Amaechi’s  interest to understand that most things have expiry date. He has expired as a force in Rivers politics. He lacks the character to retain privileges.

    Currently, the reigning champion in Rivers State is one man called Nyesome Wike. For reasons that I cannot explain, he too, has been following the path that Amaechi followed as if that path has become a standard path in Rivers politics. By His grace, I will be here to write his story also when the time comes.

  • 2027: Between the streets and the State House Asaba – By Abraham Ogbodo

    2027: Between the streets and the State House Asaba – By Abraham Ogbodo

    By Abraham Ogbodo

    Delta State politics follows a pattern. It is a turn-by-turn arrangement to ensure that the governorship of the State follows equity. And equity here requires the number one political office in the state to sequentially swing to and remain in each of the three senatorial districts for eight years in first instance. It started with the Central Senatorial District in 1999, and then shifted South, after eight years, in 2007. The rounds were completed when the governorship moved to the North Senatorial District in 2015, causing it to return to the starting point, the Central, in 2023.

    This seemingly equitable arrangement was put in place by Chief James Onanefe Ibori who was governor between 1999 and 2007. He is from Central which is exclusively populated by the Urhobo. He might have reasoned that without this measure of affirmation, the contest for the high office among the many ethnic nationalities in the state would be cut-throat. After him, came Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, an Itsekiri, from the South Senatorial District who also enjoyed a full measure of eight years, from 2007 to 2015. Dr. Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa who represented the North had it full too, from 2015 to 2023.

    In conception and implementation, the idea was beautiful. It is still beautiful. But it remains an arrangement by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which others have found useful too. When Ibori desired it in 1999, not too many people were convinced about the sincerity of purpose of the originator. The acceptance was not wholesale. It was largely seen as some a gimmick by the Urhobo-born contender to appear nice to other ethnic stakeholders in the short run but with a hidden desire to consolidate in the long run and exclude other groups from accessing the State House Asaba.

    Even when the governorship went South in 2007 after Ibori, there were still doubts. The geography and demography of the South and Central Senatorial zones appear too intertwined to inspire confidence. The composition of the South Senatorial zone that limits the occupants to Itsekiri, Ijaw and Isoko (The Three Is) is only for political convenience.

    In reality, the Urhobo who exclusively occupy the Central are still in the South and could share in the zone’s gains and pains. Everything, therefore, had depended on Ibori, who was the subjective factor in the equation, to play fair and make the governorship to move to the South senatorial district and outside the reach of another Urhobo man. In the build-up, the Urhobo Progress Union (UPU) under the leadership of late King Benjamin Okumagba wanted the governorship to remain with the Urhobo after Ibori.

    On the surface, the move to retain the number one seat, after eight unbroken years, was selfish. In context however, it was a legitimate quest by the Urhobo. And here is the context. The choice of Asaba, which was not part of the original Delta Province, as headquarters, when Delta State was created in 1991 was considered most insensitive by the Urhobo who are the majority ethnic nationality in the state.

    While it was jubilation in Anioma, the lamentation in the actual Delta enclave was deep. In a larger section of the newly created state, there was a strong feeling of betrayal of a legitimate hope by the Nigerian State. Outside pretences and attempts to be correct by current political actors, the real issues in Delta politics, even now, are woven around the naming of the headquarters when the state was created.

    The Urhobo, and by extension, groups in the old Delta Province, saw and perhaps still see this as an injustice that can only be assuaged by the continued retention of the governorship by them. Under this situation, good politics in Delta State has meant a delicate balancing of interests and feelings to create a consensus on Asaba as State capital. This was why Ibori’s call for bridge building at the very beginning in 1999, was taken with a pinch of salt.

    Elements in the North thought he was only buying time to consolidate. His succession politics did not help matters also. Having an Uduaghan immediately after an Ibori looked more like power transmission than it looked like power transition. James Ibori and Emmanuel Uduaghan grew up under the same roof in Oghara, Delta State. Dr. Okowa had hoped to follow Ibori but he was told to tarry for Uduaghan to come first.

    Thus, the real test of the Delta-For-All campaign of Chief Ibori was in 2015 when it became the turn of the North to have the governorship in addition to the headquarters. A kind of double Northern portion that might have proved difficult to swallow by the Central and South, even 24 years after the creation of Delta State. All the same, it was agreed in principle to move the governorship to the North. The only indeterminate factor became the person to have it among the Northern hopefuls.

    The then incumbent Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan was holding too much to his chest. In the circumstance, Okowa who stood strong in the Anioma line-up, had appeared completely exposed and vulnerable. A not-so-enthusiastic Uduaghan was playing a number of variables against Okowa as a fixed factor of an Anioma united front. First, it was Mr Anthony Chuks Obuh, Permanent Secretary in the Government House and confidant of Uduaghan. Obuh had hoped for a smooth transition from the civil service to the ultimate political seat in the state.

    When he failed, there was a radical back-pedalling to the Central Senatorial zone by Governor Uduaghan to throw up Mr. David Edevbie as a preferred candidate. Truth be told, it was one unique instance that the PDP in the State showed good character. Ibori refused to be persuaded by arguments to abort the power rotation principle of the party even with the option of a David Edevbie.

    From his prison cell in United Kingdom, he gave order for Okowa to be returned in the PDP primary to choose the candidate for the 2015 governorship election in Delta State. Other forces, including the respectable Prof. Sam Oyovbaire and the Field Marshall of the creeks, Government Oweizide Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, joined to work victory for Okowa in the PDP primary. He won in the general elections.

    Like an elephant, Okowa did not forget the near-political death experience he had with David Edevbie in 2015. He only pretended to have forgiven. He was magnanimous in victory. Edevbie was his Chief of Staff for four years. When the pendulum however returned to Delta Central in 2023, it became payback time for Senator Ifeanyi Okowa. David Edevbie was among the options on the succession chart. He opposed, till the end, the candidature of Edevbie against mainstream thinking in Urhobo land and in spite of the declared preference for Edevbie by the Grand Master, Chief James Ibori. Okowa had his way.

    While taking out his pound of flesh, Okowa inadvertently infused an unintended dimension into the power game in the state. The governorship which had hitherto remained on a pseudo aristocratic pedestal was taken down and placed on the street for good effect. The favoured Sheriff Oborevwori, former Speaker of State House of Assembly entered with a baggage. He was tagged an ill-cultivated  street boy. He was therefore under tremendous pressure to prove that he had brought so much from the street to bear on governance at that level.

    What appeared as a disadvantage has been converted in the last two years to a unique selling point. His ability to walk through the political landmines and create his own safe paths without occasioning any explosion or implosion has been attributed to his street wisdom. The resistance that attended his emergence is not showing in unnecessary street quarrels with perceived enemies. He has chosen working over walking in the streets. The former is engagement while the latter is idleness that breeds quarrels. I may not be able to speak across board. But in my part of the State which is the Ughelli/Warri area, Sheriff has been working in the street. I am talking as a reporter and not as a street gossip.

    Something else has attended the politics of the state. The understanding to move the governorship among the three senatorial zones does not mean suspension of Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution as amended. This section guarantees freedom of association, including freedom to operate a political party to capture power.

    The power rotation thing is a gentleman’s agreement in the first place. It is not enforceable and a breach does not avail the injured party remedies at the wider common law or Nigeria’s electoral jurisprudence. Which is why in each electoral season, the contest is never restricted to only the zone to produce the governor. It has been open bidding in which the underlying dynamics only help to streamline choices in a direction. It is not going to be different in 2027. It remains the turn of the central quite alright, but candidates from the other two zones will effectively bid for the office too.

    There could be upsets and heavens will not fall. In other words, the headwinds are real and there is absolute need for caution. It is just that the incumbent, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, true to his name, already has some things in his hands. Oborevwori means “a bird in hand…” “What is yours.” “Asset.”  And there are three key assets, if properly harnessed, could create the tailwinds for the incumbent in 2027.

    First is that most of his opponents shall come from within Delta Central. Here is the advantage. Changing him midstream for another Urhobo man is too much of a gamble to be allowed by other groups. The new man may insist on the full measure of eight years, thereby holding back the governorship from moving to the next zone in 2031. That is like dashing the Central extra four years. The next zone in turn will be too itchy to play that Father Christmas. Two, the wholesale defection of the PDP, aptly captured as migration, has taken out the real area of conflict. Governor Oborevwori only needs to play the intra-party game to become inevitable in the APC’s choice of candidate for the state governorship election in 2027.

    But the real joker against possible upsets is in how much more that Sheriff is able to discharge his street profits in the remaining part of his tenure. He has been identified with the streets and leaving the streets for the luxury of power lounges may spell doom for his second coming. He will lose all the accumulated political capital and street credibility and become insolvent and an electoral liability.

    He cannot allow this to happen. While the mandate renewal politics is important, the Governor must remain intentional. He is the sole proponent of the Street Credibility theory in Nigerian politics. It is an emerging adventure that must not turn to a misadventure. He must display the courage of his conviction and continue to choose working in the street over walking in the street. Going forward, the Governor should create the right team for more scintillating street spectacles in the months ahead. It is the only way to guarantee 2027.