Tag: Ehichioya Ezomon

Oborevwori: Big burden off Okowa’s shoulder – By Ehichioya Ezomon

The October 21, 2022, judgment of the Supreme Court, affirming Sheriff Oborevwori as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Delta State, surely calls for celebration and thanksgiving by the party faithful.

PDP’s vice presidential candidate and Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa backs Oborevweri – the Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly – to succeed him.

But his godfather, former Governor James Onanefe Ibori, kicks against it, and supports Olorogun David Edevbie – the Plaintiff/Appellant in the case against Oborevweri.

That’s why Okowa led in the worship of the Almighty for lifting a legal jeopardy that would’ve had a serious impact on his and Oborevwori’s tickets in the 2023 elections.

News about the court verdict had hardly been relayed when Dr Okowa joined Oborevwori at a thanksgiving at the Government House Chapel, Asaba, the state capital city.

Okowa, who’s reportedly made regular thanksgiving to God a centrepiece of his administration, noted that “Oborevweri has passed through a test of faith,” and urged him to “steadfastly hold on to God for giving you the (court) victory,” adding that, “God will do more for you.”

Okowa praising God for Oborevweri was also praying for himself, as their 2023 aprons are tied together. Had the court truncated Oborevweri’s bid, the rug could’ve been pulled from under Okowa in his quest to be vice president.

Actually, the jury’s out already: That the PDP would lose Delta – one of the party’s strongholds since 1999 – to the rival All Progressives Congress, at the state and national levels in the February-March 2023 General Election.

Facing intra-party pressures at the local and national levels, it’s easy for pundits to deduce that Okowa and Oborevwori’s ambitions were in flames, and that the APC’s a shoo-in for president and governor, respectively, in Delta.

The Supreme Court ruling may’ve altered that calculation, hence the PDP wasted no time in taunting the APC for its “fleeting but misplaced expectations” for power in Delta.

Delta PDP’s spokesman, Ifeanyi Osuoza, said: “With the judgement delivered by the Supreme Court and the matter fully settled, the PDP is now much stronger and will be more united and formidable going into the 2023 elections.

“The litigation, which centred around the legal affirmation of our authentic governorship candidate, had initially given fleeting but misplaced expectations to the fractured opposition APC.

“But their hopes have been comprehensively and completely dashed with the decisive judgement of the Supreme Court, which has now settled the matter once and for all.

“As we celebrate this very important landmark judgement, we hereby appeal strongly and sincerely to all our members, especially Olorogun David Edevbie, to wholeheartedly embrace the Supreme Court decision.

“Now that the legal fireworks are over and done with, we call on all our loyal, committed, and unwavering party members, to come together as one big united family. They should sheath their swords and let bygones be bygones.

“Our ultimate goal now is to win the 2023 general elections in all positions and with everyone joining hands and all pulling in one definite, unwavering direction towards victory.”

The PDP can celebrate, thanks to Edevbie, who took Oborevwori to court, alleging forgery in the documents submitted by Oborevwori to the PDP for clearance to participate in the May 2022 governorship primaries.

But in his haste to nail Oborevwori, Edevbie, who came second at the primaries, failed to comply with the court processes and procedure for interrogating actions that border on criminality, which forgery falls into.

Edevbie didn’t wait for the PDP to send Oborevwori’s documents to the Independence National Electoral Commission before questioning their authenticity in court.

Rather than come by way of a Writ of Summons – to allow for oral and documentary evidence – Edevbie filed for only affidavit evidence, which’s fatal to his allegations that must be proved beyond reasonable doubt.

These were the main pillars – not whether the documents were really forged with discrepancies – upon which the Supreme Court rested its verdict on the Edevbie case.

In a unanimous decision by a five-man panel, led by Justice Amina Augie, the apex court dismissed Edevbie’s appeal as “lacking in merit,” as the allegations raised against Oborevweri were rooted in criminality.

The court noted that Edevbie ought to commence his action through a Writ of Summons, to allow the trial court to adjudge the matter via oral and documentary evidence.

The court held that Edevbie’s “sundry allegations of fraud, false representation and forgery of documents” couldn’t be resolved via affidavit evidence or Originating Summons.

The court also held that Edevbie’s case was premature, as the PDP hadn’t submitted Oborevwori’s name to the INEC before he filed the suit, adding that, “Only upon the submission of particulars of a candidate to INEC by a political party will a cause of action crystallise.”

In the lead judgement, Justice Tijjani Abubakar said the Supreme Court saw no reason to set aside the Court of Appeal ruling that upheld Oborevwori’s nomination, declaring that, “In conclusion, I found no merit in this appeal and it is accordingly dismissed.”

In closing, the Edevbie case fulfils these sayings: * “Those who are too clever sometimes overreach themselves.” * “If you’re not careful in pursuing your enemy, you’ll pay for it.” * When the Lord wants to fight for you, He makes your enemy to make irreversible mistakes.”

Edevbie, a very brilliant personality, was in such a hurry to nail Oborevwori that he didn’t realise that his entire writ was defective and lacked foundation from the get go.

You can’t place something on nothing and expect it to stand. As the Appeal and Supreme Courts observed, Edevbie couldn’t rely on affidavit evidence on the weighty criminal allegations he levelled against Oborevwori.

In his haste, Edevbie also breached the law of natural justice, by taking Oborevwori to court not on the outcome of the primaries that Oborevweri had won, but on the basis of an opposition research material on him.

Perhaps aware of the deck stacked against him due to Okowa’s backing for Oborevwori, Edevbie had intended the “oppo” material as “Plan B” to disqualify Oborevweri.

But as Oborevweri observed on October 21, at the thanksgiving to celebrate the Supreme Court judgment, “… when you have God, you are sure of victory… and we return all the Glory to God.”

One hurdle crossed, Okowa and Oborevweri should work to reconcile aggrieved Delta PDP members. Oborevwori says he’s “no enemy nor the ability to hate anyone,” even as he believes that, “my brothers from the other side (Edevbie’s camp) will join us in no distant time…”

Let’s hope that that belief – and PDP’s “strong and sincere appeal to members… to wholeheartedly embrace the Supreme Court decision” – will yield dividend, as the 2023 polls barrel down to less than four months away!

*Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

October 31, 2022
Kanu: Appeal Court’s order and Malami’s pontification – By Ehichioya Ezomon

Against the grain of widespread pleadings and expectation of concerned Nigerians, the Federal Government’s filed seven grounds of appeal to quash the October 13, 2022, Appeal Court’s judgment ordering the release of Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

Surely, the filing at the apex court is in keeping with the avowal of Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), that the government would consider all available options on the judgment, and pursue the determination of pre-rendition issues.

The three Justices of the Appeal Court had “discharged and acquired” Kanu of the entire treasonable felony and terrorism charges preferred against him since 2015.

Though an Abuja Federal High Court had dismissed eight of the amended 15-count charge, the remaining seven counts before the Court of Appeal in Abuja were on the alleged abduction of Kanu from Kenya in June 2021.

The Appeal Court’s ruling says: “By engaging in utter unlawful and illegal acts and in breach of its own laws in the instant matter, the Federal Government did not come to equity in clean hands and must be called to order.

“With appalling disregard to local and international laws, the Federal Government has lost the right to put the appellant on trial for any offence. (Emphasis mine).

“Treaties and Protocols are meant to be obeyed. No government in the world is permitted to abduct anybody without following due process of extradition.

“Nigeria is not an exception or excused. Nigeria must obey her own law and that of international, so as to avoid anarchy.”

On the basis of the above, the Appeal Court ordered the immediate release of Kanu from his long incarceration at the facility of the Department of State Services in Abuja.

It’s doubtful if Malami had a certified true copy – unless he’s availed in advance of the ruling – before pouring cold water on the verdict, arguing the court didn’t acquit Kanu.

Vowing government’s continued charges against Kanu, Malami, via an official spokesman, Umar Jibril Gwandu, said: “For the avoidance of doubt and by the verdict of the Court, Kanu was only discharged and not acquitted.

“Consequently, the appropriate legal options before the authorities will be exploited and communicated accordingly to the public.

“The decision handed down by the court of appeal was on a single issue that borders on rendition. Let it be made clear to the general public that other issues that predate rendition on the basis of which Kanu jumped bail remain valid issues for judicial determination.

“The Federal Government will consider all available options open to us on the judgment on rendition while pursuing determination of pre-rendition issues.”

Some of the issues government pushes at the Supreme Court are:

*The Appeal Court erred by holding that, based on the rendition, the trial court has no jurisdiction to try Kanu * There’s no evidence led at the trial and appellate courts on the rendition

*The court misdirected itself by relying heavily on foreign decided cases on terrorism and human rights as against those of the criminal procedure in Nigeria

*The court erred by discharging Kanu on counts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 15 on terrorism charges retained by the trial court for want of jurisdiction

*The court was silent and closed its eyes to the issues that predate Kanu’s rendition.

Correspondingly, the Federal Government prays the Supreme Court to:

*Set aside the Appeal Court judgment, and restore the charges at the trial court

*Stay execution of the ruling until the final determination of its appeal

*Refuse Kanu bail, as he’s a “flight risk person.”

The government’s hasty appeal against the Appeal Court judgment represents a classical case of “the more you look, the less you see” – indicating an apparent resolve to keep Kanu out of circulation throughout the duration of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Kanu’s five counts peaked at 15 after he jumped bail in 2017 and was arrested in June 2021 in Kenya, and flown back to Nigeria at the behest of the government.

The trial Federal High Court in Abuja subsequently struck out eight of the charges, leaving seven counts, which Kanu appealed to the Appeal Court that trashed the charges.

Ipso facto, there’re no longer charges against Kanu, and government could only maintain a cause of action by appealing the Appeal Court judgment or initiating fresh and unknown charges against Kanu, and that would leave the realm of prosecution to persecution of the detainee.

But amid criticisms against government’s plan to sustain Kanu’s trial, Malami reportedly floated a “political solution” to the impasse: the South-East governors should go and beg Buhari to unconditionally release Kanu, as if the governors had instigated Kanu’s alleged offences.

If not as a tool of official blackmail, why should it be the governors’ burden to surety Kanu who, with members of the IPOB, had routinely blamed the governors for alleged connivance to scuttle the agitation for Biafra?

Recall that following Malami’s prior remarks, former Anambra Sate Governor Chukwuemeka Ezeife expressed readiness to “kneel or prostrate” for Buhari to free Kanu.

“If President Buhari wants me to kneel down, I’ll kneel down. If he wants me to prostrate, I’ll prostrate just for Nnamdi Kanu to be released,” Dr Ezeife had pledged in an interview on Arise News morning show on October 17.

He said the release of Kanu “will address protests, agitation and the sitting-at-home in the South-East,” adding that Igbo elders would welcome negotiation “to ensure Kanu’s release and peace in the South-East.”

In any case, South-East leaders, including the governors, had met Buhari – in Abuja or in the South-East during his visits – and written series of letters on the Kanu matter, with the president repeatedly telling them that his hands were tied by the legal web entangling the detainee.

In other words, were the courts to set Kanu free, Buhari and the Federal Government would’ve no justification to incarcerate him to face further charges or trial.

Alas, the opportunity of good faith came on October 13 via the Appeal Court ruling, which discharged Kanu from the remaining seven of 15 charges against him since 2015! But the authorities have shunned that window!

The Appeal Court dress-down of the government – for violating both its own and international laws, to breach Kanu’s fundamental human rights – would sober any administration to avoid further pontification.

So, rather than continue Kanu’s detention and trial, President Buhari should seize the lucky chance the Appeal Court ruling offers to redeem his administration’s image.

To act otherwise strengthens the allegation that Kanu’s ordeal is part of an “unfinished business” to marginalise the South-East for its aborted “Republic of Biafra” in 1967, and the resultant Nigerian Civil War from 1967 to 1970. Government must dispel this alleged ill-motive against the people of the South-East!

*Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

October 24, 2022
Claims of Obasanjo, Jonathan’s endorsement of Obi, Atiku – By Ehichioya Ezomon

Have former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan respectively endorsed the presidential candidates of the Labour Party and Peoples Democratic Party for the February-March 2023 general election?

The reported endorsements are trending on social media, with videos of two separate events – but with similar political undertones – showing Dr Obasanjo and Dr Jonathan in attendance at different venues.

The gist is that while Obsanjo’s endorsed former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi of the LP, Jonathan’s backed former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the PDP.

This is the interpretation supporters of the two candidates have given to the outcomes of the events in which Obasanjo and Jonathan acted as chaperons.

Let’s weigh the video, entitled, “OBJ Stole The Show, Lol,” – at an occasion and venue not identified – in which Obasanjo allegedly endorsed Obi. The copy on the video says: “As the Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Mr Peter Obi, walked in, everywhere erupted in excitement.

“The former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo (GCFR), stopped his speech half-way and walked up to the incoming President, held him by hand and took him to a seat, and then concluded: ‘My job is done.’

“As OBJ dropped the mic, applause enveloped the hall.”

The video shows Obasanjo stopping his speech – maybe as he’d decided to leave – and walked to where Obi sat, took his hand and walked him to a front seat.

Amid laughter, Obasanjo then walked up the aisle of the packed hall – and in his characteristic manner – cleared his throat and proclaimed, “My job is done.”

In the ensuing applause, Obasanjo turned, handed over the microphone to the MC, and began to clap, as he walked briskly, shook hands, and exited the hall.

But a caption of the video posted by another eye-witness says: “See the moment former president Olusegun Obasanjo gave up his seat for Labour Party Presidential candidate, Peter Obi.”

There’re four scenarios to interrogate. One, the video doesn’t show when Obi “walked in,” and “everywhere erupted in excitement,” as the first eye-witness reported.

Two, nowhere in the video that Obasanjo – at least by words – endorsed Obi. Apparently, Obi’s supporters read the “endorsement” from Obasanjo’s body language: for walking Obi to a seat, and declaring, “My job is done.”

If, indeed, Obasanjo had endorsed Obi, he’d show it – if not in words, but in action – by either shaking Obi’s hand or embracing him when he walked him to another seat.

Three, the video shows Obasanjo ignoring Obi’s extended hand as he’s going out of the hall, even as he shook hands with other attendees. Did Obasanjo see Obi’s extended hand? Sure, he did, as Obi’s close to his exit path!

Four, Obasanjo couldn’t be said to have “given up his seat” for Obi, as that implies that Obasanjo deferred to, and gave up his seat for Obi, and took another seat.

The video shows Obasanjo paused his speech, walkied towards Obi, took him by the hand and led him to a vacant seat he (Obasanjo) must’ve sat on before his remarks.

Next is Jonathan’s reported endorsement of Atiku. Unlike the first video, the venue and circumstance is known. It’s a visit by chieftains of the PDP to Jonathan in his home at Otuoke in Bayelsa State on October 13.

Dissimilar to Obasanjo’s reported approval of the Obi-Datti ticket, Jonathan’s “okaying” of Atiku and PDP’s vice presidential candidate, Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s ticket was audio-visual, with no room for doubt.

A brief on the video captioned, “2023 Presidential Elections,” says: “The moment former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan GCFR prayed on kola nut and addressed Governor Ifeanyi Okowa CON as incoming Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“The gods are wise! Alhaji Atiku Abubakar GCON is coming! As one we can get it done!”

In the video, Jonathan’s heard praying. He turned left, pulled up Okowa and called him “our incoming Vice President.” Then he turned right, patted Bauchi Governor Bala Mohammed’s back, and called him, “my son.”

Jonathan’s words: “We pray that this kola nut being presented to all of us will give us more energy, more acceptability, and more success in all our endeavours, especially for those who want to represent us from next year. This is for our incoming vice president, who has spent his two terms as governor and needs to move up.”

Not surprising, supporters of the Obi and Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed ticket and the Atiku-Okowa ticket are celebrating the “endorsement” of their candidates.

But does Obasanjo leading Obi to the seat he’d vacated, and declaring that, “My job is done,” an affirmation of the candidate? Definitely not, unless it’s a pre-arranged ploy!

Obasanjo can rebut the claim, just as he did to an alleged validation of presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, after Tinubu’s aides breached a “media lid” on the outcome of a visit by the former Lagos governor to Obasanjo mid August 2022.

An endorsement shouldn’t be ambiguous. It must be free from inference or interpretation, such as the “seal of approval” Jonathan’s given to the Atiku-Okowa ticket.

Though he didn’t say he’d rubber-stamped the joint ticket, Jonathan left no one guessing, as he “pulled Okowa up” by the hand, and declared him as “our incoming Vice President,” and of course, Atiku as incoming President.

For now, supporters of the Obi-Datti ticket in the “ObIdients Movement” should temper their enthusiasm, as the supposed Obasanjo backing is tenuous and suspect.

As for followers of the Atiku-Okowa campaign, they’ve cause to rejoice for landing Jonathan’s patronage, even as they, too, should pray that the exigencies of the 2023 elections won’t prompt a Jonathan change-of-heart.

Already, the National Coalition of Niger Delta Ex-Agitators (NCNDE-A), led by the Mayor of Urhoboland, Eshanakpe Israel, a.k.a. Akpodoro, has asked Jonathan to withdraw his “inadvertent and unwitting endorsement of Okowa,” the body vows “will never be Vice President in Nigeria.”

So, it’s not yet “Uhuru” for supporters of the Atiku-Okowa ticket, as a day – not even a week or a month – is a long time in politics for the unexpected to happen!

*Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

October 18, 2022
2023: Of Tinubu and his disappearing acts – By Ehichioya Ezomon

Undoubtedly, many Nigerians are angry, and unhappy over the return – alive, and looking refreshed – of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to Nigeria after a 12-day sojourn abroad.

Many had prayed, fasted and gone to the mountain, and hired clerics of both Christian and Muslim faiths and diviners of traditional worship, to intercede in and on their behalf, against Tinubu’s return to the country alive.

They’d concocted and spread falsehoods about his deteriorating health, such that he’s reportedly flown out of the country in an air ambulance on September 24.

That since arriving in London, his health had worsened, as he’s down with stroke, cerebral palsy, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, and became vegetative and couldn’t speak, move or recognise those around him.

Quoting phantom reports by Reuters and The Guardian (UK), they claimed Tinubu’s doctors had vouched he wouldn’t be fit for the gruelling five-month campaigns that lead to the February-March 2023 general election.

With the doctors reportedly vowing to pin him down in London till after the polls, an alleged “incubated” Tinubu was prepared – or be forced – to announce his withdrawal from the February 25 presidential election.

Those who’d wished Tinubu dead actually “reported” his death allegedly covered up by the Muhammadu Buhari administration, the All Progressives Congress, and the Tinubu-Shettima campaign, to deceive Nigerians.

In consideration of these scenarios, pundits kickstarted a debate on how to replace Tinubu as the APC candidate, and who to replace him among the contestants in the June 6-8, 2022, primaries that picked him as standard bearer.

Different names were weighed among the defeated APC presidential aspirants, chiefly that of former Rivers State Governor and Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, who came second to Tinubu at the primaries.

But to clear the fog of doubts about the “real inheritor” of the APC presidential ticket absent Tinubu, the frenetic pundits consulted the amended Electoral Act 2022.

Section 34(1) of the Act states that only a running mate can replace a presidential candidate in the event of withdrawal or death. Thus, in Tinubu’s case, his running mate, former Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima!

Alarmed by the wish for his death and replacement as the APC standard bearer, Tinubu went to work, and posted videos of his workouts, and pictures of his meeting with aides and friends, and grandchildren at his London home.

But sceptical Nigerians dismissed the videos and pictures – released consecutively in a space of 36 hours – as old and photoshopped to confuse the public, APC’s members, and supporters of the Tinubu-Shettima ticket.

All Nigerians wanted was a live telecast, for Tinubu to address the nation, and answer questions about his health status, and why he’s overseas when campaigns for the presidential election had commenced on September 28!

Tinubu’s lately been disappearing like a magician. It’s become a case of today, he’s in Nigeria, and tomorrow, he’s rumoured to be or sited in the United Kingdom, France or Saudi Arabia, for medical treatment, consulting on 2023 polls or performing the Lesser Hajj, respectively.

Infrequently, timelines for these trips were released by Tinubu’s aides or his campaign, but most often, they’re secretive, and open to conjecture by the public.

The expression – disappearing act – is a noun defined by dictionary.com as “A sudden disappearance as if by magic and presumably alludes to a magician’s performance.”

Similarly, thefreedictionary.com defines the phrase as “A quick or sudden departure without warning, especially so as to avoid something,” or “to go away or be impossible to find when people need or want you.”

That’s exactly what Tinubu’s become: Incommunicado, speculatively in his London home, or wherever, with his aides in the dark as to the whereabouts of the ‘Jagaban’.

Asked on October 5 about Tinubu’s location, the mouthpiece of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo, shocked Nigerians: He didn’t know.

“Our candidate is not in the country currently, and I don’t have any information on where he is,” Keyamo told his interviewer on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

Keyamo, Minister of State for Labour and Employment, didn’t also know when Tinubu would return to the country, even as he’s sure “he will be back in a couple of days.”

Keyamo, a Lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), debunked speculations that Tinubu’s bedridden in a London hospital, inducing shifts of inauguration of the APC campaign council, and launch of the party campaigns.

“He (Tinubu) is also not on a medical trip; I don’t have such information,” Keyamo admitted once again, adding, “It is not true that we have not started campaigns because the candidate is sick and is not around.”

Keyamo also said that the videos posted of Tinubu’s workouts weren’t to prove a point, as they’re done “in real-time and posted on his (Tinubu) Twitter handle.

“It is not to prove that he is alive; we are not trying to prove anything to anybody,” he said, adding, “Our candidate is not struggling to prove himself to anybody. People, who are close to him, know that he is an avid cyclist; he does that all the time, and it is his regular routine.”

Though his ignorance of Tinubu’s location isn’t expected of a campaign’s spokesperson, yet Keyamo, a rights activist, resembles a truth-teller in the midst of the secrets that surrounded the APC candidate’s whereabouts.

Tinubu “disappearing acts” invoked memories of the extent and nature of the ailment(s) that regularly kept President Umaru Yar’Adua out the country, even when canvassing for election in 2007, until he died in 2010.

There’s also the extent and disease(s) that manifested in President Buhari before he’s elected in 2015, and which continued to plague him until the early part of 2022.

So, Tinubu’s frequent eloping from the country on health ground has dominated political discourse, as the 2023 general election goes into the homestretch – barely four months to the presidential contest in February.

Tinubu’s medical condition predates the APC primaries, in which the former Lagos State governor dusted a field of heavyweights for the ticket. He’d previously travelled for a knee surgery in London.

Hence, his unknown ailment has prompted theories about the North propping him up in the calculation that he won’t last the distance of the 2023 polls or the presidency.

In that regard, the slot would revert to Northern Nigeria – which produces President Buhari, whose eight-year tenure runs out in May 2023 – rather than to Southern Nigeria on a rotational basis every eight years.

Well, Tinubu is back, and has proclaimed he’s set for the arduous campaigns that culminate in the February and March 2023 national and state elections, accordingly. But is he out of the woods? That’s yet to be seen!

Meanwhile, both sides of the political divide – those for and against Tinubu’s presidency – are expectant: That their prayers to keep him alive and in or out of the crucial 2023 elections, and the presidency therefrom will be answered!

*Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

October 11, 2022
Lagos 2023: Auction of traffic offenders’ vehicles turn political – By Ehichioya Ezomon

With 2023 in mind, an exchange of blames between the Peoples Democratic Party and All Progressives Congress in Lagos State has drowned the outpouring of sympathies for an emotionally-traumatised widow and her son.

On September 15, 2022, Ms Dorothy Dike and Osinachi Ndukwe had their impounded vehicle auctioned under the guide of a task force of the Lagos State government.

It’s a heart-rending scene, as the middle-aged widow, 49, a herbs hawker, and her son, 31, a driver, wept and rolled on the ground, pleading for compassion, but to no avail.

The scene was the disposal of 134 “seized, abandoned and forfeited” vehicles by an auctions outfit and the state government task force on traffic offences.

A vivid account of the incident, which went viral on social media, was first captured by two reporters – Olasunkanmi Akoni and Bose Adelaja – for Vanguard newspapers online.

The report says that Ms Dike and Mr Ndukwe “wept openly as they begged for price reduction while their only vehicle, bought at the rate of N1.8 million on hire purchase, was being auctioned for N450,000.”

They had jumped for joy when their commercial mini bus (Korope), with number plate, ANAMBRA NEN 347 YX, was displayed for auction with an opening bid of N50,000, “but the joy was short-lived” at about 12.35pm.

Why? Because a few minutes later, “the bid kept jerking up and hit N430,000,” and that’s when “they wept profusely, rolled on the ground and begged for price reduction.”

“The bid was about to close when suddenly the mother and son shouted N450,000 loudly, ‘help us, help us, please; don’t increase the price again.’

“‘We cannot afford this but we are hopeful that the vehicle will be ours so that we can work again and raise money to feed ourselves,’” the report says.

“The Imo State-born widow was heartbroken, to the extent that all she could mutter was: ‘Help me, help me. I am happy to repurchase the bus but the problem is that we cannot afford N450,000.’

“‘When we heard that the bus will be auctioned today, we borrowed N59,000 to attend the event. Unfortunately, the price… was closed at N450,000,’” the report adds.

The Dikes’ plight is mired in politics after the Lagos PDP governorship candidate, Dr Olajide Adediran, and his running mate, Ms Funke Akindele, visited them, and the owner of another auctioned vehicle – Lateef Kolapo.

Straying from their “expression of sympathy” for the visit, Adediran – alias “Jandor” and Akindele, a Nollywood actress nicknamed “Jenifa” – went political, and made remarks regarding the 2023 general election in Lagos.

Even as he frowned at violation of traffic, and disregard for the state’s laws, Adediran declared that “a penalty should not take away people’s means of livelihood.”

For a clincher, Adediran gave the assurance that if voted into office in 2023, he’d review the laws, to eliminate “such harsh punishment… for violation of traffic rules.”

That set off a firestorm, with a riposte from the APC, via the Lagos chapter’s Publicity Secretary, Seye Oladejo, branding Adediran as “desperate and promoting lawlessness and playing politics with human lives.”

Noting that “good governance only thrives where law and order prevails,” Oladejo said the PDP candidates “have graduated from playing politics with human lives to blatantly encouraging the breakdown of law and order in our dear state.”

“The visit to citizens, who paid the price for violating state traffic laws, compensating, inducing and encouraging them is an act that is totally unacceptable in any decent society,” Oladejo said, adding, that, “the move amounts to turning compassion and charity on its head.”

On Adediran’s assertion that the death of Ndukwe’s child resulted from the taking away of the family’s means of livelihood, Oladejo stressed that people had lost their lives to accidents “as a result of driving against traffic.”

“We are not surprised by the promotion of lawlessness by the opposition party, as it remains consistent with their desperation as we count down to the next elections.

“The PDP may wish to note that Lagos residents are not fooled by their constantly playing to the gallery because they have nothing to offer.

“Our government has the political will and duty to uphold the state’s laws at all times without succumbing to needless blackmail in the name of irresponsible politicking,” Oladejo added.

But in a retort, the spokesman for the JANDOR4Governor Campaign Organisation, Gbenga Ogunleye, said the APC was “demonising the act of succour being given to the victims of their anti-people policies.”

Still on their action, Akindele, posting on her Instagram page on September 18, said that their visit to the drivers “was not aimed at encouraging people to break the law,” restating, though, that “taking one’s means of livelihood in the name of penalty for traffic offences is inhumane.”

In a way, Messrs Ndukwe and Kolapo seem similarly fated. Ndukwe’s three-year-old daughter fell ill, and died – owing to lack of funds to cater to her health – while he’s serving a three-month jail term for driving against traffic.

Kolapo claimed that he’s ill – and in hospital – when his mechanic drove his vehicle, and in the process committed a traffic offence, and the vehicle was impounded.

Still, it isn’t clear why Adediran and Akindele chose to visit only two of the 134 motorists that had their vehicles auctioned. Hence one or two questions hang from Ogunleye’s statement on the visit to the drivers.

Were the PDP candidates genuinely concerned about the victims’ plight? Did they have ulterior motives that played out in Adediran’s remarks on the 2023 polls? Are Ndukwe and Kolapo PDP members or mere political pawns?

By way of enlightenment, impounded vehicles won’t get forfeited and auctioned “if their owners don’t abandon them,” according to Chief Superintendent of Police, Shola Jejeloye, the task force chairman on traffic offences.

Jejeloye explains: “Let me tell you this; traffic offences are not criminal, therefore, be bold enough to come to the office rather than hibernating at the yard. You are expected to come and clear yourselves at the Mobile Court.

“There are some vehicle owners that have not shown up since their vehicles were impounded. You need to have the confidence to face the Magistrate and give him reasons for committing the offence.

“I have seen a lot of judgements on my table, whereby somebody drove against traffic and his offence was struck out because he was able to convince the Magistrate beyond a reasonable doubt. So, you don’t need to accept defeat before the battle starts.”

But owing to the uproar over auctioning of the vehicles – and alleged sharp practices thereof – the Lagos State government should give a human face to its traffic laws.

If traffic offences aren’t criminal, as per CSP Jejeloye, why subject offenders to double jeopardy of jailing and forfeiting their impounded vehicles? A fine should suffice!

The government should avoid the charge of enacting “draconian laws” to ensnare even unsuspecting and law-abiding residents, in order to profit mostly the private pockets of its officials, auctioneers and their agents.

*Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

September 26, 2022
Ayu’s ouster calls and Atiku’s bitter truth to Wike – By Ehichioya Ezomon

The proverbial chicken may’ve come home to roost for Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, as the Peoples Democratic Party has named a Presidential Campaign Council, without a major role assigned to him.

And as the clearest indication yet, former Vice President and presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, has stated that the National Chairman Iyorcha Ayu could only be removed in compliance with the party’s constitution.

Going by the timeframe for the 2023 general election, with the presidential on February 25, that entails convening a National Convention to amend the PDP constitution.

A key demand by Wike and his allies is the resignation of Dr Ayu, a northerner from Benue State in North Central (Middle Belt), for a southerner to assume the post.

To Wike, the northern occupation of the top positions in the PDP: Presidential Candidate, National Chairman and Chairman of Board of Trustees, violates the principles of equity, fairness and balance, and the laws guiding the PDP.

Wike says Ayu stepping aside accords with a reported agreement prior to the May 2022 primaries, stipulating that Ayu would vacate his position should the North produce PDP’s presidential candidate. And Ayu’s refused to resign.

Perhaps, realising his secured position – even as demand for his ouster hasn’t simmered – Ayu’s jetted out of the country for a two-week holiday for a “deserved rest.”

And why not! Against the run of play for a Southern presidency in the 2023, Ayu delivered the PDP ticket to Atiku, and the presidential slot to Northern Nigeria.

Ayu’s weathered a relentless onslaught by Wike and his backers, to resign his position, mostly on account of his alleged bias against the South during the primaries.

Having been part of a “plot” to ultimately undercut Wike for his continued “anti-party activities,’ Ayu may’ve been guaranteed that nothing would jeopardise his position. So, he could go on a frolic abroad. But what a perfect timing!

Ayu’s return to Nigeria will coincide with lifting of the ban on campaigns by Independent National Electoral Commission on September 28 – an inauspicious period for conducting a national convention, to amendment the PDP constitution, to restructure the party, as Wike demands.

Well, but for his frosty relationship with Atiku and the PDP leadership, the position of Director-General of the party’s campaign council would’ve been Wike’s for the asking.

Wike’s forfeited the position – and even that of Chairman of the campaign council – to Sokoto State Governor and Chairman of PDP’s Governors’ Forum, Aminu Tambuwal and Akwa Ibom State Governor Udom Emmanuel, respectively, and named a mere Member of the council.

What’s more! The PDP also appointed Wike’s ally and Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde as Vice Chairman (South) of the campaign council. What message does that relay? Is the carpet being removed from under Wike’s feet?

For months, though, Wike – and his PDP co-governor backers – has threatened the prospects of Atiku and the PDP at the February-March 2023 elections.

Since the primaries in which he came second to Atiku – and after Atiku picked Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as running mate – Wike’s predicted failure for Atiku and the PDP unless the party restructures, for Ayu to resign.

But Ayu hasn’t only refused to step aside for a Southern member of the PDP, but also looks to consolidate his position with a stunning confidence vote on September 7.

At a meeting of the PDP National Executive Committee, all 397 members passed a vote of confidence in the Ayu-led National Working Committee, “for effectively managing the affairs of the party” since its election in October 2021.

That vote was a precursor of what would come next should Wike and his allies decline to yield ground in the “Ayu-must-go” campaign that resonated at a stakeholder meeting in Ibadan, Oyo State, on September 14.

Host Governor Makinde iterated calls for PDP’s restructuring, and the resignation of Ayu, deploying anecdotes of PDP’s stated resolve to “rescue Nigeria,” and Atiku as “a unifier” who “wants to restructure Nigeria.”

Makinde, a voice for the South-West zone, said: “Eight years of the All Progressives Congress have left us sharply divided. The issue is, we must practice what we preach. If we want to unify Nigeria, we must unify the PDP first.

“If we want to restructure Nigeria, we must have the willingness to bring inclusivity to the PDP. Do we have the capacity? The answer is a resounding yes.

“The message from the South-West PDP is that the South-West is asking that the National Working Committee of the PDP should be restructured. We are asking the national chairman to step down so that the South will be fully included. That is the message.”

As a rejoinder, Atiku noted that, “as the oldest political party in Nigeria since the return of democracy, and even before then, the PDP has laid-down rules and regulations.”

“I have been a member of the party since when it was formed, and I am still a member of the party up to the point of what it has grown to become,” Atiku said.

“There is nothing any individual can do to change the outlook of the National Working Committee of the PDP… where there are laid-down rules and regulations.

“What Governor Makinde is asking for is possible only when we have amended our party’s constitution. As things stand today, no single individual has the power to tamper with the NWC of the party.

“Doing so will be illegal and it will be against our rules in the party. Nigerians will not trust us to govern by the tenets of rule of law if we take such arbitrary action against our own party,” Atiku added.

Atiku’s well-choreographed postulation was to puncture the agitation for PDP’s restructuring, and Ayu’s sack at the start of campaigns for the crucial 2023 elections that the party must win to redeem its losses in 2015 and 2019.

It’s sweet music to especially Atiku’s traveling delegation that included his Vice Presidential candidate, Dr Okowa; Tambuwal; former Cross River Governor Liyel Imoke; and PDP’s Deputy National Chairman (North), Umar Damagum.

But to Makinde, who spoke the minds of Wike and his allies, and the South-West PDP that’s longed for the post of national chairman, Atiku’s message was bitter. But that’s politics where hard choices are made for survival!

*Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

September 20, 2022
PDP crisis: The ‘god’ rejects lesser sacrifice – By Ehichioya Ezomon

Thursday, September 8, 2022. Several events occurred in the Peoples Democratic Party that may sustain or resolve its crisis since the May 28-29 primaries to choose the party’s standard bearer for the 2023 general election.

One, the embattled National Chairman of the PDP, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, presided at the meeting of the National Executive Committee at its headquarters in Abuja.

Two, the NEC passed a vote of confidence in the Ayu-led National Working Committee, “for effectively managing the affairs of the party” since its election in October 2021.

Three, at a prior meeting, the Chairman, Board of Trustees, Dr Walid Jibrin, resigned, offering himself as a “sacrificial lamb” to appease Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, “so the PDP will be united to win the 2023 elections.”

(Earlier reports of resignation of the Chairman of PDP’s Governors’ Forum and Sokoko State Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, was debunked by the forum’s Director-General, CID Maduabum, on September 9.)

Four, Wike swiftly rejected Jibrin’s resignation, as no “god,” worth its name, will accept a lesser sacrifice as propitiation, just to satisfy the desire of “mere mortals.”

Not even the immediate elevation of former Senate President Adolphus Wabara (a southerner from Abia State in the South-East) from the position of secretary to the chairman of the BoT, could soften Wike’s stance.

Wike demands Ayu’s ouster as pre-condition for accepting the double political tragedy he’d suffered in his run for the presidency: Loss of the PDP ticket to Atiku, and the running mate to Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa.

Aftermath of placing second to Atiku at the primaries, Wike repeatedly complained about being schemed out by party chieftains, reportedly spearheaded by Ayu.

Wike’s miffed that, had Tambuwal not stepped down for Atiku at the eleventh hour, he would’ve carried the day, as Atiku polled 371 votes to his 237 votes.

Surprisingly, Ayu later hailed Tambuwal as “the hero of the convention,” ostensibly for swinging the PDP ticket in favour of both Atiku and the Northern region of Nigeria.

The press captured Ayu’s “thank-you-visit” to Tambuwal, in company of former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido, and former Imo State Governor Emeka Ihedioha, thus:

“Ayu, who embraced the Sokoto governor warmly and later shook hands with him, first referred to him as ‘my chairman,’ but Tambuwal jocularly retorted, smiling: ‘I’m a small chairman, sir.’

“Ayu then shook hands with him (Tambuwal) again and said, ‘You are the hero of the convention,’ a remark to which Tambuwal replied: “Thank you, sir.”

Atiku also timeously visited Tambuwal on a similar courtesy, thereby feeding into Wike’s narrative of a gang-up against his emergence as the PDP flagbearer.

Recall, though, that based on the region that’d favour his aspiration for president or vice president, Wike’s ready to change his support for rotation of the presidency to the South to retaining power in the North for the 2023 polls.

But after losing the ticket to Atiku, Wike doubled down on a Southern presidency, even as he claimed “Emi lo kan” (as per Bola Ahmed Tinubu) for the position of running mate – on account of his second placing at the primaries.

Then came a June 26 bombshell. Atiku named Dr Okowa as vice presidential candidate, leaving Wike vowing to excise a pound of flesh from the PDP unless it ceded its top positions, including the chairmanship, to the South.

Wike relies on a gentleman’s agreement reportedly entered into by the leadership of the PDP prior to the primaries: That the national chairman would resign his position if the North produced the presidential candidate of the party.

As Atiku, a northerner from Adamawa State in the North-East, has secured the PDP ticket, why won’t Ayu, a fellow northerner from Benue State in North Central (Middle Belt), resign or be induced to quit for a southerner?

This is Wike’s urging, but PDP’s dilemma: How to “force” Ayu out of office barely 10 months into a four-year tenure beginning on October 31, 2021, and as the countdown starts for the crucial 2023 polls about five months away.

The question: Who’ll win the ego-filled battle of supremacy between Atiku, backed by the PDP leadership, and Wike, supported mostly by the governors from the South-South, South-East, South-West and North Central?

Wike hasn’t shown any inclination to back down, or shift ground, even as the chair of the PDP BoT has been taken up by a southerner, which should fit into Wike’s demands.

Were Ayu to resign from the national chair, would Wike be satisfied, and not shift the goalpost, to squeeze the PDP for more, even if unmerited political concessions?

Added to PDP’s worries is Wike’s romance – in Nigeria and overseas – with the presidential candidates and proxies of the All Progressives Congress and the Labour Party.

Wike glories in such high-profile meetings, especially when he extends invitations to opposing politicians to flag-off or commission projects executed by his administration.

The PDP is in a peculiar dire strait, as most of its leaders, and the rank and file think, erroneously, that Wike alone has the “magic wand” to winning the 2023 elections.

And Wike continues his daily commentaries: That without his asking the people of Rivers to cast their ballots for them, Atiku and the PDP will lose the elections.

It’s a novel psychological warfare by a “PDP man to the core,” such that even diehard members are less optimistic about victories in the February and March 2023 polls.

Last Line: A suit is reportedly instituted at a Federal High Court in Abuja, seeking to dissolve the Ayu-led NWC of the PDP, for alleged improper constitution via a National Convention of October 30 and 31, 2021, where Ayu and 20 Members were elected into the NWC.

Specifically, the lawsuit seeks to declare “the outcome and all matters, resolutions, decisions and steps, including the election/adoption of the 2nd to 20th Defendants as National Chairman and Members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the 1st Defendant (PDP) as null and void and of no effect whatsoever by reason of it being improperly constituted.”

The dreaded writ, linked to former PDP Chairman Uche Secondus, can unwittingly settle the current rift in the PDP if judgment is given for a fresh National Convention, and yet upend the party’s calculations for the 2023 elections.

*Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

September 12, 2022
2023: Okowa evolves as ‘trouble-shooter’ – By Ehichioya Ezomon

Five months plus to the 2023 general election, Delta State Governor and Vice Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, is firing on all cylinders, thus belying his irreproachable mien.

As he promotes the qualities that recommend former Vice President Atiku Abubakar for the presidency, and what he’ll do if elected on February 28, 2023, Okowa deploys the military tactic of offence and defence.

He takes on the candidates and running mates of other major parties, and gives Atiku the needed alibi to tackle his “disagreement” with Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, arising from Atiku’s pick of Okowa as running mate.

If we may ask: Isn’t that partly what Atiku “hired” Okowa to do while listing the qualities of a vice president at his unveiling of the governor on June 26, 2022?

Atiku had said: “You (Nigerians) know him (Okowa) to be a fighter; you know him to care about winning (elections); you know him to care about good governance; and you know him to care about our people.”

And that’s the groundwork Okowa is laying early on in the processes leading to the presidential poll that’s a must-win for the PDP to regain power nationally since 2015.

As the only incumbent governor in the run for president, the Medical Doctor-turned politician occupies a unique position among the vice presidential candidates, and so has a lot to prove, to justify the confidence Atiku reposes in him, and silence his doubters that he’s a capable pick in politicking, winning elections and governing therefrom.

On that score, Okowa’s first outing was a viral interview with BBC pidgin, dismissing candidate Peter Obi of the Labour Party as insufficiently experienced for president.

Okowa obliquely asked the former Anambra governor (2006-2014) to take tutorials from Atiku, the vice president under President Olusegun Obasanjo (1999 to 2007).

“For them (Obasanjo and Atiku) to have handled the economy at that time and made it something better, offering hope, creating jobs, and filtering the society was not easy because it’s a bigger thing,” Okowa says.

“So someone is supposed to learn through that. If you look at Obi’s experience, you’ll know it’s small… It is not enough for this one (2023 presidency); it will be hard. His experience is not deep enough.

“That is why I am appealing to our youths to be wise and vote well; they should not be blinded by the concept of a false change because that is how they raved on (former President Goodluck) Jonathan in 2015,” Okowa adds.

Okowa’s also taken on candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, who, responding to Atiku’s criticism of his picking a fellow Muslim, former Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima as running mate, rated Shettima as more qualified than Okowa.

But Okowa, scoring himself above Shettima in whatever parameters, respectfully advised the former Lagos State governor to leave the trivial, and address Nigeria’s myriad problems, the collapsing APC, and the many unsavoury issues surrounding Tinubu’s candidacy.

Okowa laughed off Shettima’s pledge on August 22, at the Nigerian Bar Association Annual General Conference in Lagos, that if elected vice president, he’d take care of security, while Tinubu would handle the economy.

Questioning Shettima’s knowledge of the duties of the Commander-in-Chief, Okowa lectured him: that security is the responsibility of Tinubu if elected as the president.

Okowa noted Shettima’s failure to stem the Boko Haram insurgency under his government (2011 to 2019), leading to abduction of 276 Chibok schoolgirls in April 2014.

Okowa’s returned to Obi’s presidential run lately, accusing him of dragging the church into politics, by visiting worship centres, where he’s received as a rockstar.

Engaging newsmen in Kano on August 31, as part of the delegation that received former Kano State Governor Ibrahim Shekarau into the PDP on August 29, Okowa deplored Obi’s novel fraternising with the church.

“Now, you begin to look at what is going on; the Peter Obi factor is as if he is trying to go through the church and make it look as if he is driving the Christians into politics,” Okowa says. “I do not believe that the church should actively go into politics because that is not their calling.

“But people are just hanging to anything they can reach out to even to the detriment of their fate (faith). I don’t believe that’s the right path to go,” Okowa adds.

But Obi, via his campaign media office – Obi-Datti – on September 1, described Okowa’s charge as baseless, and an attempt to label him (Obi) as belonging to the country’s “primaeval politics, religion, tribe, and geography.”

Stressing that any attempts to pigeonhole him into any sector of the national life “will fail,” Obi reminded Okowa that he’d visited churches “even before he became (began) the present run for the presidency,” citing one of such visits as during “Dr Okowa’s child’s wedding at the National Ecumenical Conference Centre, Abuja, this year.”

Yet, Okowa doesn’t just trouble-shoot, promote and defend Atiku, but he also showcases his own experiences, and what he’ll bring to the Office of the Vice President.

Okowa’s run the gamut of political offices as Secretary, and Chairman of Local Government Area; political party Senatorial Coordinator; Commissioner in three ministries; Secretary to the State Government; Senator of the Federal Republic; Governor for eight years (2015-2023); and Vice Presidential candidate going into the 2023 polls.

Besides the National Economic Council (NEC) that’s placed under the Vice President, Okowa’s cut out work for himself in the nation’s problematic health sector.

Having practiced in the public and private health sectors, Okowa deployed the experiences to craft a Bill at the National Assembly that culminated in the establishment of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

The NHIS that’s beneficial to Nigerians, especially free medical care for the young and elderly, has improper implementation of underfunding and corruption, but it’s running smoothly in Delta State, courtesy of Okowa, who’s promised to fix the scheme at the federal level.

Okowa equally flaunts his managerial skill in the field of Education, particularly overseeing four Universities, without incessant strikes by the institutions’ unions.

Whereas the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has extended its six-months’ “warning strike” to a full-blown indefinite protestation, the non-academic staff unions only lately called-off their three-month-old strike.

Hence Okowa’s invited the Federal Government to take a cue from how he’s coping with funding the varsities, and the welfare of their Academic and Non-academic staff.

Okowa’s also drawn attention to his concession of the Asaba International Airport, and wants the government to emulate him, and free the national airports of its control.

With these and more offerings Okowa’s is bringing to the table, what other Vice Presidential candidate could Atiku ask for in the journey to The Villa that looks a heartbeat away from February 28, 2023!

*Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

September 4, 2022
Why Obi blazes trail of 2023 polls – By Ehichioya Ezomon

Barely six months to the February presidential election, contenders for the position have virtually yielded the field to candidate Peter Obi and his platform, the Labour Party.

The candidates of other major parties: All Progressives Congress, Peoples Democratic Party and the New Nigeria Peoples Party appear to have no stake in the polls.

What Nigerians read, watch or hear in the media is, Peter Obi’s here, Peter Obi’s there, and Peter Obi’s everywhere, as if the former Anambra State governor is ubiquitous.

But he’s not! Unlike the rest candidates posturing for president, Obi’s seeming “ubiquity” is located in the seriousness he attaches to the processes of the election.

Well, Obi’s an “opportunist” defined by vocabulary.com as, “One who sees a chance to gain some advantage from a situation, often at the expense of ethics or morals.”

To urbandictionary.com, an opportunist is, “One willing to befriend any person regardless of race, creed, gender, sexuality or socioeconomic status if the relationship benefits them directly or indirectly by improving their public image.”

What an apt description of Obi, who simply seizes on the current national discontent, disaffection, disappointment, disillusionment, dissatisfaction, dissonance, and disunity to fire up Nigerians, to join him in the race for 2023!

Remember where Obi comes from. When he decamped from the PDP to LP in May 2022, he’s confronted with the issue of “lack of political structure” to kickstart his run.

Other posers were: What did Obi achieve as governor (2006-2014)? What experience has he got to govern a complex country as Nigeria? As part of the old order, what new things are Obi bringing to the table?

The answers rest on these bywords: “A toothless animal is the first to arrive to eat of the fallen fruits.” “The morning shows the day.” “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” “As you make your bed, so you must lie on it.”

Obi has risen early, to plan to succeed in the crucial 2023 elections, so that he’d have cause to lie comfortably on his well-laid bed after the polls. It’s that simple!

Because Obi actually lacked the structure – physical and representative – to reach millions of eligible voters, he’d to first embark on an aggressive mobilisation, deploying modern tools of communication to maximum effect.

It’s to capture the youths, to buy into, and spread his “New Nigeria” message that stresses youth engagement, empowerment and development for a 21st century society.

Has Obi succeeded in this strategy? Absolutely! Like a wild fire, the youths have turned his (small) acorn into millions for a revolutionary change of the status quo.

Adopting the appellation of “ObIdients” for all supporters, the drivers of his campaign have segmented their operations into two: swarm the media space, and take over the political arena of the country.

Hence Obi leads on social media platforms, and political events and quasi-rallies, even as the Independent National Electoral Commission has yet to sanction electioneering.

As he tweets regularly to his followers, or comments on issues of concern to the public, Obi engages in several events, some taking him to more than one state, in a day.

He’s either attending seminars, workshops or meetings organised by political groups or professional bodies; paying homage or solidarity visits to persons or groups; or joining in worship at church services or crusades.

Obi presents himself as a different breed of politician, who’s prepared to engage Nigerians by highlighting the issues plaguing the country, and how he’ll solve them.

He isn’t afraid to speak to Nigeria’s economy, education and security, even as fact checkers query the alleged exaggerated or inaccurate examples, comparisons and figures he reels out to support his presentations.

And confronted on such “inaccuracies,” Obi has a ready response: “Go and verify,” knowing the very low reading culture in Nigeria, where even truth is a scarce commodity.

An unflattering saying is that, to hide something from a Nigerian, you put it in writing, in form of a book, as they won’t open, nor peruse it. So, with no appetite for reading, most Nigerians judge the content of a book by its cover.

The likes of Obi make un-informed, incorrect, imprecise, outlandish or even unfounded pronouncements because the audience, mainly of their supporters, won’t question their assertions. Rather, the captive listeners applaud and ovate every anecdote, innuendo, nuance and gesture.

The upside is that Obi controls his messaging by talking, engaging, and proffering solutions to problems. Whether the messaging makes sense is a different story. But his listeners’ enthusiastic receptions answer that poser!

Obi enjoys a rockstar status wherever he goes. His entry into a gathering causes excitement and commotion, as the attendees mob, hug and take selfies with him. And when he’s formally announced, a standing ovation takes over.

The other candidates only come out irregularly, or speak through surrogates – not to address the real issues at play, but to fight the fires they or their campaigns have lit.

They hibernate – in Nigeria and overseas – waiting for the electoral umpire to blow the whistle before they show up publicly to tell Nigerians what they have for them in 2023.

Because there’s a dearth of engagement by the other candidates, the media “rely” on Obi as their main source of “relevant” news on 2023, even from a single assignment.

For example, within minutes of the leadership summit by the Labour Party and Coalition for Peter Obi on August 11 in Abuja, the media published four news items on Obi.

The headlines: * How Labour Party will transform Nigeria’s economy from consumption to production – Peter Obi * 2023: We have structure, ready to save Nigeria, Obi boasts * What I’ll do after winning 2023 presidential election – Obi * Leadership deficit Nigeria’s greatest undoing – Peter Obi.

On the same day, the candidates of the APC and PDP earned such headlines as: * Catholics blast Lalong over reference to Pope, demand apology * Tinubu/Shettima: Lalong explains his reference to Pope * 2023 polls: Imams, Pastors pray for Tinubu, Sanwa-Olu’s success. * PDP crisis: Atiku sends Adamawa gov to Wike, meeting deadlocked * Atiku should beg Wike to win 2023 election – Onwordi * PDP crisis: Please, apply brakes, before it’s too late, Dele Momodu warns Wike.

That’s why Obi blazes the trail, leaving the other major candidates to play catch-up. But will his approach take him to the finish line in February 2023? Obi thinks so!

Still, Ecclesiastes 9:11 admonishes: “… the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.” (King James Version).

*Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria

August 30, 2022
Time for Atiku to call Wike’s bluff – By Ehichioya Ezomon

It’s become a source of embarrassment for an individual to hold the Peoples Democratic Party to ransom – a political platform that boasts of tens of millions of registered members, and millions more of supporters nationwide.

Alarmed PDP members wonder when will the party and its presidential candidate, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, grow the balls and call the bluff of Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike since the May 2022 primaries.

Wike came second to Atiku at the primaries, and hasn’t given Atiku and the PDP any breathing space to focus on the 2023 general election that’s barely six months away.

What’s Wike’s grouse? That the PDP leaders, and the local party chieftains in Rivers State, schemed him out of the PDP flag and the vice presidential slot, accordingly.

Dictating the terms and processes of a truce that ought to be mutual, Wike has turned down every peace overture in a scenario of either his way or the highway.

Even prior to the August 19 Port Harcourt reconciliation meeting of the Atiku-Wike camps, Wike continued to shift the goalpost, and ready to bring down the PDP roof if his stringent conditions weren’t met.

Losing the primaries, and running mate’s position he’d no means of appropriating, Wike demands, to the bargain, the restructuring of the PDP in favour of the South.

And that entails the resignation of the party’s National Chairman, Dr Iyorcha Ayu, who’d denied resigning, and won’t do so, as he’s “elected for a tenure of four years.”

Has the Port Harcourt preparatory talks agreed to swap the position of the PDP national chair, to placate Wike? That will be clearer in the next round of the conclave!

The sticky restructuring demand comes via a reported agreement for PDP’s main organs to devolve to the South should the party candidate emerged from the North.

In the March and May 2022 PDP national convention and primaries, former Senate President Ayu, who hails from the North Central (Middle Belt), emerged as national chairman, while Atiku from the North East, secured the party flag.

So, “agreement being agreement,” to quote Wike, his camp is craving, among other positions, for the immediate ceding of the national chairmanship to the South.

No PDP leader, including Atiku, has denied the agreement to change the PDP front guards if the North produced the presidential candidate for the 2023 polls.

Why won’t the PDP honour the agreement, verbal or written? Was it to hoodwink the Southern leaders that clamoured for the presidency to rotate to the South?

How will the North alone hold the topmost posts in the PDP: the Presidential Candidate, National Chairman and Chairman of Board of Trustees in Sen. Walid Jubrin?

Wike’s demonized as engaging in “anti-party activities,” for insisting the right thing be done, which the agreement for a swap of the PDP top positions is foundational to.

The PDP prides itself as hoisting the rule of law as fundamental to democratic practice. So, the party should demonstrate good faith by honouring that agreement.

Still, there’s a limit to which Wike can drag his grievances that the discerning public see as a sense of entitlement, geared towards massaging of his likely bruised ego.

Based on his claim to hold the winning formula for the PDP in the 2023 polls, Wike wants to be rewarded for failure to clinch the PDP ticket and the post of running mate.

If Wike’s that powerful, as he regularly boasts, why couldn’t he, with his famed financial muscle, swing the presidential, and national votes for the PDP in 2019?

That said, Wike deserves commendation for holding together a shattered PDP that emerged from the ashes of the 2019 polls it’d predicted to secure in a landslide.

Yet, he’s overplaying his hand by assuming that without him, Atiku and PDP won’t record victory in 2023. That’s fallacy! They can romp through on Election Day!

In my native Esanland, a person being appealed to is a “king.” The rank and file, and the leaders of the PDP regard Wike as a “king,” and have kowtowed to him to forgive their primaries’ “indiscretion,” but he’s refused.

Whatever framework the reconciliation committee will arrive at for an eventual Atiku-Wike parley, Wike has shaken, and may’ve lost the trust and confidence that members of the PDP had reposed in him. He’ll no longer be seen and regarded as “a party man to the core.”

Who’d drag the candidate and their political party in the mud the way Wike’s done, and still retain the trust of the platform to be faithful, and to deliver at the polls?

Atiku and the PDP should be watchful, and brace for a potential scheming by Wike in the course of the must-win February 2022 presidential election for the party.

In any case, Atiku has picked a formidable running mate in Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, who, though not a showman as Wike, is a smooth political operator.

Dr Okowa has the clout to fill the gap Wike might create, and mop up the required votes for the PDP in the entire South, where the party needs to win big, to counter the votes of other political parties in the North.

Particularly, Atiku’s iterated his choice of Okowa because, “You (Nigerians) know him to be a fighter; you know him to care about winning; you know him to care about good governance; and you know him to care about our people.”

Unveiling Okowa on June 26, Atiku, referencing the choice of a vice president in the United States of America, noted that, “a running mate is used to balance the ticket, complement the candidate and, after victory, assist the President with governance.”

“Sometimes, a candidate is chosen who generates a buzz and adds huge excitement to the campaign. But today in Nigeria, we face huge challenges, which leave us little room for drama.

“We have to win the elections and get to work immediately. My running mate has to be ready to start working with me, from day one, in addressing our country’s challenges. Nigerians will not accept anything less,” Atiku said.

In other words, Atiku chose Okowa because he’s “simpatico” – a competent standby, who’s ready to step in as president at a moment’s notice, and won’t rock the boat if they’re elected in the February 2022 poll.

Though Wike possesses some of the qualities that Atiku listed, he declined to pick him as deputy, to avoid two captains trying to pilot same boat in different directions.

Here’s another Esan saying: “The blow has landed on the nose when the boxing hasn’t started.” A clear evidence of Atiku’s foresight is Wike’s brinkmanship since the primaries, undermining the PDP, and rubbishing Atiku’s standing as the standard bearer. Wike can do worse!

So, it’s time to move on without Wike! Otherwise, the tail will wag the dog, and cause avoidable distraction that may negatively impact the bigger picture of the 2023 polls.

*Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria

August 22, 2022