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Tag: IKEDDY ISIGUZO

  • To Rotimi Amaechi, who is still not sure who he is – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    To Rotimi Amaechi, who is still not sure who he is – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    CHIBUIKE Rotimi Amaechi is lost in minor crowds if there is no major controversy around him. The most recent is his prevarication over whether he is Igbo or Ikwerre. Are both identities not mutually exclusive? Some have noticed Amaechi in more Igbo outfits these days. Everything counts.

    Amaechi is from Umuordu, Ubima, Ikwerre Local Government Area, Rivers State. There is no doubt about that much. A State of Rivers’ standing would not have had a “foreigner” as Speaker of its House of Assembly for eight years and Chairman of the Conference of Speakers. If being the Speaker was a mistake, Amaechi would not have been awarded the governorship of the State for eight years.

    He promoted himself to national prominence with his controversial roles as Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum. Cracks in the fold cascaded to the departure of some governors who won elections under Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC. Amaechi was a proud leader of the movement.

    APC’s victory in the 2015 elections and in 2019 further raised Amaechi’s status. On both occasions, he was the Director-General of President Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign. His national prominent has failed to improve his fortunes in the politics of Rivers. He could not gain victory for his proposed successor in 2015. The 2019 election was an utter disaster.

    Wrangling over APC leadership in Rivers resulted in multiple primaries going to the 2019 elections. The courts, including the Supreme Court, ruled that none of the primaries met conditions for the selection of the party’s candidates for the election.

    Amaechi quickly extricated himself from the loss that shut APC out of chances of winning at least some seats in the state and national legislatures.

    What has not proven easy is which of his identifies he would use. He appears to prefer wearing different hats to match occasions, situational identity. At his 2015 Senate screening, he identified himself as an Ikwerre prince. He dressed in that role, he told Senators.

    Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe was one of the earliest to officially question Amaechi’s Igboness. He had wondered why Amaechi left out South East in the rails projects of the Federal Government. Amaechi retorted that his name, Amaechi, was easier for Igbo speakers to make meaning of, than Abaribe. His claims about the South East being in the rails projects are yet to be seen.

    When in March 2018, he delivered the Convocation Lecture at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, his otherwise important lecture titled, ‘The Igbo In The Politics Of Nigeria’, his identity was a major distraction. It was a thought-provoking delivery laced with provocative darts at the Igbo.

    “It is high time they (Igbo) came into national politics. They are completely out of national politics, and it will not pay them. If Igbo are not found in national politics, it will be to the detriment of their children. I don’t know what they will do now for voting against the APC. For refusing to support the APC, they cannot come to the table to demand the presidency slot,” he said during the question and answer session.

    The reference to Igbo as “they” is noteworthy. He had a verbal confrontation with Nnia Nwodo, then president-general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, at the event. Nwodo, in his remarks, kept on telling Amaechi to inform his people, the Ikwerre, that the civil war was over; they should return to being Igbo. Amaechi remarkably began his lecture by asserting he was Igbo. He said it was his undeniable heritage.

    Six years earlier at a public event in Abiriba, when Amaechi was still in PDP and governor, he had protested being addressed as an illustrious Igbo son. “I am Ikwerre,” he corrected then 78-year-old Chief Joe Irukwu, a former President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo. Many in the gathering were taken aback.

    “For people like us in the APC, if the Igbo had come and voted Buhari, they would boldly tell Mr. President and the National Chairman of the party that presidency should go the South East since the South-South; South-West and North-West have produced President. What argument would the South-East come up with now to convince anybody that they deserve the slot for 2023 President?,” Amaechi asked in an interview he granted after the 2019 election.

    His claim to being Igbo is seasonal. “I am a bona fide Igbo man. My name is Amaechi, but President Jonathan who says his name is Azikiwe cannot speak the Igbo Language. He says his name is Ebele; let him speak Igbo and let us see,” he said at APC’s campaign in Aba in January 2015. The choice of who he is was not his to make. Our origins are hereditary. Our rejection of them makes no difference to the fact of who we are, by birth.

    What does it matter if Amaechi wants to be Igbo instead of Ikwerre or the other way round? It is important to politicians angling for the South-East to produce a President in 2023. While their campaign is for an Igbo President, or a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction, it is convenient for them to forget there are indigenous Igbo populations in Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Benue, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Kogi, and Rivers States. They are finding out that they are really fighting for a President from the South-East.

    The President’s ally, Amaechi, stands a better chance than those who feel he is crowding the field. The advantage remains Amaechi’s if he gets busy with building the rails in the South-East as he promised he would. There is little time left.

    Now that the President’s busy schedule accommodates naming rail stations, one is fascinated by the station in Enugu being named after President Muhammadu Buhari. Trains running in the South-East – and Amaechi’s South-South – should be a more pressing issue than whether Amaechi is Igbo or Ikwerre. Many would not care whichever he is if he gets the trains running. And would that not count as competence for Amaechi, in line with Mamman Daura’s prescription?

    Amaechi does not have to be Igbo or Ikwerre to run for President in 2023. There is no such constitutional requirement. Unless he has forgotten, Amaechi can just run as a Port Harcourt Boy (thanks, Duncan Mighty). Even Governor Nyesom Wike would not deny Amaechi being a Port Harcourt Boy.

    First published in 2022, is republished now that Amaechi is still in search of his identity.

     

    ISIGUZO is a major commentator on minor issues

  • Tinubu’s hunger is worse, power is his only food – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    Tinubu’s hunger is worse, power is his only food – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    PRESIDENT Bola Ahmed Tinubu is hungry. He is also angry that many Nigerians do not understand his sacrifices for us. What a people!

    Imagine daily sacrificing for a complaining people. They keep shouting all over the place, “We are hungry,” in different tongues, thinking he would hear them. It is not for nothing that the glasses of those glimmering, glistening limos are always wound up.

    Only TV stations that bring “good news” are permitted around him. For instance, NTA would cast news of how Tinubu’s arrival two years ago has renewed the Argungu fish festival with bigger catches and spread happiness throughout Kebbi and surrounding States. Nobody dares mention “renewed” insecurity except if they are reminding Governors that they are failing in their States as “Chief Security Officers”.

    The President’s most recent sacrifice was while in Rome for the Pope’s mass. None of us acknowledged Tinubu avoiding winging to Paris, just two hours away, to rest after the heavy schedule in Rome.

    We dismiss his sacrifices for a better tomorrow by accusing Tinubu of living his today in obscene opulence. Would that explain why he lives in 2027 when we are stuck in 2025 with its problems?

    Tinubu is hungry. His hunger is worse than ours. His own hunger is for power. Hunger for power is worse than not having food. For Tinubu, power firmly in his grip, is the food he wants. Nothing else.

    Before Tinubu is a menu with one item – power for him, by him, in his own terms. Thoughts of anyone taking away his food are giving him sleepless nights. Before this though, one of his aides had said the President barely slept. How much worse it could be by now.

    We do not live in the same hunger spectrum with Tinubu. We do not speak the same language. We are differently hungry.

    An agitated Tinubu wonders why anyone with an understanding of the workings of democracy should contest the 2027 election with him. Tinubu the democrat now supports one party state.

    His hunger for power spells desperation, trust deficit. He trusts only himself having swam seas of deception, a sphere where expertise expires swiftly.

    We see election in 2027. Tinubu wants to quench his hunger well before then. By his admission, his party’s current control of 22 States through “elections” is inadequate. He wants more.

    More Governors are falling over themselves to do his bid. If Tinubu is available, before June journeys far, three more Governors would have joined APC, not counting Delta and Rivers that have already fallen in line.

    A simple agenda is to see at least APC Governors in 28 States before 2025 eclipses. Once achieved, Tinubu would have scaled the hurdle of 24 States, the constitutional requirement of two-thirds of States of the Federation, and winning in Abuja is seemingly guaranteed by loquacity.

    Why is Tinubu in a hurry to reach the milestone? Like anyone really hungry, especially for Tinubu’s type of food, creation of more options, denying others opportunities, are critical weapons. The disappearing 2026 ploy is to spend that whole year dispiriting opponents with the weapons available to APC.

    “We do not take your patience for granted. I must restate that the only alternative to the reforms our administration initiated was a fiscal crisis that would have bred runaway inflation, external debt default, crippling fuel shortages, a plunging Naira, and an economy in a free-fall,” Tinubu’s second anniversary speech read.

    Nigerians are facing what Tinubu claims to have managed in the past two year. His world is different from that of millions of Nigerians who are facing the biting cruelty of those measures.

    Whatever happens, don’t panic. An old magazine advertisement, about 40 years ago, issued that advisory that was meant to market an alcoholic beverage. It was an admission of the legion of matters that could trigger panic. It is an acceptance, not only of the situation, but how to deal with it. The better reaction would produce better results.

    Two years of Tinubu’s renewed hope agenda was not expected to be an elixir for Nigeria’s challenges. Were our expectations too high, too ambitious, for a Chicago-trained financial management expert, who worked with international consultancies, and whose financial skills were credited with keeping a global oil giant in business?

    Abundant explanations confound things. Tinubu has crashed below the low standards he set for himself. In two years, he boasts of roads that lead to nowhere – yes, nowhere.

    His roads are not just dangerous from poor attention to safety details; road trips today are almost death sentences. The level of banditry, kidnapping, and terrorism that occurs on those roads, and our forests, debase them as achievements.

    Renewed hope agenda arrived drained of content. Without content, there was nothing to renew. Not surprisingly, the agenda has birthed two years of hopelessness that have also left many helpless.

    Are Nigerians disappointed in Tinubu. Yes. The disappointment is mutual too. Tinubu wants Nigerians to lower their expectations. He wants us to make more sacrifices for tomorrow. Tinubu, most importantly wants Nigerians to unquestioningly entrust him with their future after he worsened their present.

    He talks of a future that means his re-election.

    Tinubu chooses his sacrifices. We do not have the luxury of deciding how badly we live, now, today, not to talk of the tomorrow bench-marked on Tinubu being President again.

    “Nigeria can’t rely on borrowing; Nigeria must stop borrowing” – November 2023. “Nigeria needs more borrowing; Why FG is borrowing” – November 2024. These positions are from Chief Wale Edun, Minister of Finance. The headlines indicate the dynamism of Tinubu’s economic policies.

    “Security shall be the top priority of our administration because neither prosperity nor justice can prevail amidst insecurity and violence. To effectively tackle this menace, we shall reform both our security DOCTRINE and its ARCHITECTURE. We shall invest more in our security personnel, and this means more than an increase in number. We shall provide, better training, equipment, pay and firepower,” Tinubu promised during his inaugural, two years ago. Is this promise meant for 2027?

    The presidency is both food and air to Tinubu.

    “With full confidence in our ability, I declare that these things are within our proximate reach because my name is Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and I am the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he rounded off his inaugural speech.

    Nigeria is not about a President who thinks his name is a magic wand to whisk challenges away. Tinubu has failed to realise that in the past two years.

    Perhaps, it is time for another Paris vacation while Nigerians must work hard to retrieve by 2027 the shreds of the country that Tinubu fought for at all costs, grabbed, snatched, and ran with it in 2023.

    Finally…

    THE newer race to endorse Tinubu is fast, ferocious, and colour-blind. Distinguished Senator Orji Uzọ Kalu has ensured that. His appearance at the Senate in an all-red attire, except his shoes and wrist-watch, has commenced the race. Red appears more like retained parts of Orji’s PDP days.

    OUR future is not about our children taking examinations in darkness. We are not bothered by armed bandits firing shots in examination halls, with examinations in progress, to scare our children away from school. The future that matters is Tinubu being re-elected.

    KILLLINGS continue in different parts of Nigeria. The crimes would be dealt with in future when the proposed beneficiaries of tomorrow would have become a distant past.

     

    ISIGUZO is a major commentator on minor issues

  • Democracy: Tinubu playing god as his worshippers applaud – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    Democracy: Tinubu playing god as his worshippers applaud – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    BOLA Ahmed Tinubu is said to be a democrat. He flaunts his self-exile as the certificate for that sacrifice and the sacrifices of those who stayed home and faced General Sani Abacha’s bullets do not matter.

    Many died. Others were thrown into irrecoverable circumstances. There is no memory in their names.
    Tinubu does not know these things. Rather, he behaves as if he was at the centre of the democracy(?) we appear to have. Hundreds of thousands of very ordinary Nigerians routinely seized Nigeria, asking Abacha to leave. Return to civil rule, not necessarily democracy, was won with their lives

    Did Tinubu spend the discomfort of exile admiring Abacha? Were there hints that he picked from the five Abacha-created political parties that were falling over each other to adopt Abacha? We watched in amazement at Abacha’s version of democracy that we never expected in Nigeria.

    Abacha was military. Abacha hardly spoke to us unless to issue another order. Abacha kept the same type of distance that Tinubu maintains on issues that affect our people. Abacha too was democratic if not a democrat. An election was on the way in which he would have been the only candidate.

    Where Abacha was greedy with power, he still wanted us to beg him enough so that the will of Nigerians would be expressed through his election. We started begging him, just anything to please Abacha.
    The million marches started. Parts of Nigeria started begging him to save the country. Millions of prescient Nigerians did not know Abacha was a nationalist, a lover of Nigeria.

    Abacha was spartan. He saved billions of Dollars for Nigeria. Did he know that those after him would not be as prudent? Nigeria gets “returns” of the money Abacha saved abroad for Nigeria. He has gone for 27 years.
    Tinubu is different. He is not greedy, but strategic. Nigerians one thought had balls to tell him democracy was not a one-party state are on long queues trying to reach him with the same message – only Tinubu until 2031.
    He has not even completed two years of his first tenure and he has been nominated to run for a second term as the only candidate of his party, and other parties that have pledged their unalloyed loyalty to him.

    It is the type of loyalty one of my colleagues calls “blind loyalty”. Any suggestion of clarity on issues is deemed opposition. Blind loyalists do not wear glasses. They will not permit themselves to see anything, lest they say something wrong.

    There is a problem, though. Tinubu has claimed there was nothing wrong with one-party state. He wants more people to join his APC where newest joiners are ahead of those who have “suffered” for the party.
    He wants us to be patient because his arrival has put Nigeria on the path of steady growth and progress.
    What has changed? We are urged to suffer today for a better tomorrow? Whose tomorrow? Abacha was a man of few words. He acted.

    Tinubu has transited from President to a god whose worshippers place above the law as they in obeisance crave for his attention for one more minute as politicians of note. They anticipate his wishes and go beyond what he wants.

    We are the ones turning Tinubu to a different democrat. He visits a State to “commission” projects, the Governor joins the President’s party, hands his own party over to the President.

    The ill-fitting attires they wear sometimes flash on the screens as if it is a clown’s day. It cannot be. We are dealing with lives, many of who have done nothing wrong to put them on the front line of today’s crushing poverty.

    Hope is still expressed in tiny voices that stake their right to be seen and heard in the fleeting din to “off the mikes” unless for those who say that one-party state is a democracy.

    We hail Nigeria. It is still our own dear native land where the various tongues and tribes with their differences will stand in brotherhood.

    Nigeria has too many tongues for one language to utter them.

    Finally…
    FOR the second time in about three years, the picture of a baby strapped to the dead mother’s back has made a round of the social media. In each case, the baby was alive, unaware of the mother’s death. In the recent case, the baby was still sucking the mother. Both heinous acts were blamed on “foreign bandits”, who if we understand the Federal Government, cannot be attacked or removed from Nigeria because “they are not Nigerians”. The equipment we keep buying to fight insecurity cannot be deployed against “foreign bandits”.

    How do we find pleasure in explaining the patterned death of Nigerians with trite platitudes? The attitudes are more tormenting than the vacant stare of the babies which reminds the so-minded that care has taken a long vacation. Nothing stops the hollow rites of swearing to adhere to the demands of the Constitution. Section 14(2) (b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 declares that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government. Could what is going on be the appropriate interpretation of the Section?

    JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Olanrewaju Oloyede and his supporters believe that whatever went wrong with the 2025 UTME was about them and they are in the best position to find the answers. What happened to the 2025 may not be isolated. The “glitch” explanation does not say anything – the cause, whether it was targeted at some candidates, as some claim, if it can happen again, and what and who are responsible.

    Further investigations are required by bodies other than JAMB and those who work for it, including those who stopped the teary Professor Oloyede from resigning. The entire test should be redone for all candidates.

    EXCLUSION of the South East in major projects used to be muted but the Tinubu administration confirms it openly. The intentionality of the decisions also comes with a finality that cannot be lost on anyone. We have not done with the exclusion of the zone from a pre-census committee, the only zone so treated when Tinubu and Company also made no provision for the Anambra-Imo River Basin Development Authority. Senator Kenneth Eze, APC-Ebonyi, in a motion lamented the exclusion of the Anambra/Imo River Basin from the 2025 budgetary provision for irrigation. Senate Leader, Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, popularly called MOB, quickly said the motion would be withdrawn to enable the Senate leadership discuss the matter with the Minister of Water Resources. Nothing was wrong with the exclusion of South East from a N380 billion irrigation budget that was spread across the country. The motion must have rankled MOB. How dare Senate Eze? MOB is chiefly credited with the bill that changed the national anthem from the 1978 one to the 1960 anthem.

    IT took a closed-door session to calm nerves on Tuesday when Senate President Obong Godswill Akpabio tried to stop Senator Henry Seriake Dickson from making a contribution on Nigeria’s growing insecurity. “Mr. President, with due respect, you are not the President of Nigeria. This is the Senate, and we all have equal voices here. We are elected to represent our people, and you cannot continue to act in a way that stifles this legislative body,” Dickson said. Akpabio responded, “I have no intention of overriding anyone’s opinion. My duty is to maintain order and ensure decorum in this chamber.” What happened in the closed session was only for the Distinguished.

  • FCCPC can serve Nigerians better without MultiChoice – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    FCCPC can serve Nigerians better without MultiChoice – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    A CONCERNING issue to Nigerians – the arbitrary increase of prices of essential goods and services – does not interest the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, FCCPC, which is engaged in a ceaseless legal tussle with MultiChoice, which provides digital television signals, a non-essential service.

    FCCPC sees something to regulate in MultiChoice’s business. FCCPC cannot miss an opportunity to oversight MultiChoice though it ignores how other businesses in the sector operate. The intentionality is obvious.

    Once MultiChoice announces a proposed increase, FCCPC, mostly silent in other areas that affect our lives would wake up quickly to issue one threat or the other before returning to its disturbed slumber.

    Momentary wakefulness marks FCCPC’s regulatory activities steeped in photo opportunities and over ventilation of issues the courts have settled. Exactly what does FCCPC regulate?

    The partiality to MultiChoice is too evident that it would appear that FCCPC benefits from the irritations it has become. How does Nigeria benefit from a government agencies demonisation of an organisation that turns in billions into government coffers as taxes, employs thousands of Nigerians and provides services its willing clients patronise?

    On 8 May 2025 FCCPC went into over drive in its celebration of a minute point in its case with MultiChoice. What was there to make a dance of as FCCPC did?

    Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court Abuja in dismissing a suit MultiChoice Nigeria filed, challenging FCCPC’s intervention in its recent subscription price hike ruled that the suit was an abuse of court process as similar proceedings were going on in Lagos State.

    Justice Omotoso’s other pronouncements:

    .While FCCPC has investigative powers under its establishing Act, it lacks the authority to fix or suspend prices unless the President directs it through a gazetted instrument.

    .No such delegation was presented to the court.

    .Nigeria operates a free market system, and service providers like MultiChoice retain the right to set their prices, with consumers free to accept or reject them.

    .FCCPC’s actions, including directing MultiChoice to suspend its price increase, breached the company’s right to fair hearing and appeared selectively targeted.

    .FCCPC’s claim that MultiChoice held a dominant market position, calling the argument untenable.

    .Use of services like those provided by MultiChoice is discretionary and not essential, as Nigerians can do without it.

    .Warned that attempts to fix prices by regulatory bodies could scare off investors and harm the economy.

    .FCCPC may investigate market practices, it cannot impose price controls without proper legal backing.

    .While FCCPC is an agency of the Federal Government of Nigeria, it must act within its powers in line with relevant laws.

    .FCCPC has power to declare market dominance and discriminatory prices against an entity; it must make pronouncement after carrying out investigation against such company.

    .From the fact before the court, investigation had yet to begin before the FCCPC issued the suspension directive to the MultiChoice.

    .FCCPC acted beyond its power by the directive it issued against MultiChoice price increase.

    .Nigeria operates a free market economy, where only the President of Nigeria has the exclusive powers to regulate prices.

    FCCPC only has an advisory role on the issue of price fixing.

    .Powers of the President to regulate prices cannot be exercised by any other person or agency or body.

    .If the President decides to fix prices, it must cover an entire industry and not just a single player.

    .FCCPC has powers to make rules in respect of anti-competition, anti-consumer protection, among others, except the issue of fixing prices.

    In 2022, the Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal, had ruled that MultiChoice had the right to increase its price while Nigerians had a choice to opt for other pay TV platforms.

    .FCCPC appears to be targeting MultiChoice unfairly while ignoring the pricing of other pay TVs and online TVs like YouTube in Nigeria.

    Let FCCPC look up a bit and occupied itself with the activities of government agencies like the Joint Tax Board which has just announced an increase in vehicle number plates and driver’s licences.

    Here are some details:

    Standard private and commercial number plates formerly ₦18,750, now ₦30,000.

    Fancy number plates move from ₦200,000 to ₦400,000.

    Motorcycle number plates from ₦5,000 to ₦12,000.

    Articulated number plates will be ₦90,000, from ₦30,000.

    Out-of-series number plates from ₦50,000 to ₦150,000.

    These increases and other vehicle-rated taxes will be effected on 8 June 2025, after a public notice of less than 30 days.

    And they are coming barely six months after the same JTB jacked up prices of its in December 2024. By February 2024, licences cost between N6,000 and N10,000.

    The public had no alternative than to pay the new prices. The licences are essential government’s monopoly and their use is compulsory. Nobody is concerned whether their users can afford them.

    Why the increase in the prices of the licences and vehicle number plates? The Joint Tax Board, which issues the routine orders, said, “The new rates would provide enhanced security features, improving identification processes for both drivers and vehicles across the country”. JTB gave the same excuse in November 2024.

    FCCPC is dumb. A possibility is that FCCPC is not aware of the price increase, “adjustments”, as JTB called them. After all, FCCPC’s time is dedicated to regulating MultiChoice.

    While government agencies can increase prices when and how they like, FCCPC would not allow MultiChoice adjust prices for a service that is not essential, which has alternatives, within the bouquets that MultiChoice or its competitors provide.

    Digital television is not compulsory like the vehicle licences that will affect lives of millions of Nigerians, directly and indirectly. Transporters will pass the costs to consumers of their services. Foods, already very expensive, and other goods that depend on road transportation will witness a hike on their prices.

    Vehicle owners would be wise enough to save for the next “adjustment” in price of licences once JTB decides to given them “enhanced security features”. It may not be many months down the way.

    These tormenting increases in charges ranging from water rates, electricity tariffs, bills (even in government hospitals and schools) deserve FCCPC’s intervention.

    The National Identity Management Commission hiked date of birthday corrections fee to N28,574 from N16,340.

    All these charges affect more millions of Nigerians. They are essential services without alternatives.

    FCCPC should leave MultiChoice and its clients to make their decisions. And Justice Omotosho noted FCCPC’s fixation with MultiChoice.

    Will FCCPC listen to Justice Omotosho? Or spare some thoughts for hapless Nigerians who government monopolies are crushing?

    FCCPC still has a chance to be relevant in the lives of Nigeria by advising government and its agencies to care about the impact of price increases of compulsory services that only government provides on ordinary Nigerians.

    Finally…

    MORE profound investigation is required to know what happened with the 2025 UTME that witnessed mass low performance, swiftly blamed on “human error”. There may be need to cancel the entire exams or give all candidates who want to re-write the opportunity to do so. One candidate in Lagos reportedly committed suicide over the low marks JAMB awarded her – another avoidable death.

    ISIGUZO is a major commentator on minor issues

  • To Chairman Christian Chukwu, who led well – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    To Chairman Christian Chukwu, who led well – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    CHAIRMAN Christian Chukwu was an institution when the word had a delightful meaning. His towering presence in Nigerian football survived the enduring forgetfulness that attends sports. We should be grateful to have had him for this long.

    His passing on 12 April 2025 at 74, shocked many who had worried over his health in the past six years. He improved vastly after billionaire Femi Otedola’s $50,000 intervention paid for Chukwu’s surgery in a London hospital in April 2019. He was eternally grateful to Otedola who he described in very glowing terms for the assistance.

    The Chukwu we mourn today would have died almost 31 years ago in an air crash in which three crew members and two players died. He was the Technical Adviser of Iwuanyanwu Nationale which was on its way home from an African Champions League quarter-final tie against Esperance Sportive of Tunisia.

    The crash in Tamanrasset, in southern Algeria, on 18 September 1994, was blamed on poor weather. The pilot wanted to refuel in Tamanrasset and crashed off the runway. The chartered Oriental Airline flight BAC 1-11broke in three parts, on impact, was out of fuel. Chukwu was among those who came out of it with barely a scratch.

    My encounter with Chukwu on an October night in 1979 marked the beginning of a relationship that ran until his passing. Enugu Rangers and Sharks of Port Harcourt had played a match, at the National Stadium, to commemorate 20 years of television in Africa.

    For no reason in particular, I headed towards the National Institute for Sports within the stadium. Its hostel then was better kept than most great hotels in Lagos.

    He was standing there, perhaps, waiting for someone. The serendipity of the meeting, and the suddeness of standing feet away from a folk hero, I still remember. I was star-struck. I introduced myself as a reporter from The Punch and enquired about how he was faring. I still did not believe I was talking to someone I so admired from afar that I never envisaged encountering him.

    An interview would have been my privilege, I intoned, but I suggested he needed to rest after the game. Did I even know what to ask? The big bosses reported football then.

    Chukwu encouraged me to go ahead with the interview. I said it could wait. He told me that it would be a long wait.

    It was in explaining the “long wait” that he dropped the hint that the Green Eagles were travelling that night to Brazil to commence preparations for the 1980 Africa Cup of Nation and would not be back until late February.
    He had gifted me an exclusive story.

    I was not to see him again until 1984, at Ikeja airport. Rangers were heading to Lome for an African Cup Winners Cup contest against OC Agaza of Togo. I was reporting the game for The Guardian. My boss Sunny Ojeagbase gave me a note which I lost in the melee that ruled the airport then. The note was to introduce me to Chukwu. He shook his head at how ridiculous it was that Sunny was introducing us.

    I was shocked that he remembered me. Weeks after the Green Eagles left for Brazil, I headed to school until 1983.

    We shared Chukwu’s accommodation in Lome and spent most of the night discussing how challenging matches in the league would be with the breath of the country and poor infrastructure. His humility, humour, and friendliness were genuine.

    He further stunned me by giving me the Rangers team list as I left to the stadium. You should not get to the stadium to ask for the same list that was compiled in the room you spent the night, he told me.

    Chukwu was a gentleman on and off the pitch, drawing friends to himself by his generous spirits to colleagues and those who came his way. He was the centre of the humour mill when with friends. In public, he was almost shy.

    You could hardly get him to say anything unless he wanted to. I often asked him to confirm some of the stories that issued from the camps. One was his preference to pair with Godwin Odiye in central defence instead of Abubakar of Raccah Rovers of Kano, Emmanuel Okala’s choice.

    Okala reportedly chose Abubakar for a game. In the course of the argument, Chukwu told Okala, “As an Igbo man, I’ll not deceive you”. Okala retorted, “This is not an Igbo matter. This is football matter. Let Abubakar play”. Abubakar played. The Kano player still answers Let Abubakar Play.

    The other was on the second leg of the 1977 Cup Winners Cup semi-final which was played in Kaduna. IICC Shooting Stars, with their dazzling forward Segun Odegbami, had total dominance of the game though Rangers won on penalty shoot-out.

    Okala at half-time was mad with Chukwu and wondered why he could not mark Odegbami.
    “Odegbami is tough. If you wait for him on the right, he appears on the left. If you wait on the left he moves to the right. If you expect him at the centre, he simply disappears.”

    Chukwu asked me from where we heard the stories. That was his only answer. But he could be blunt when Rangers’ tactics, in his days, which mainly consisted of Okala’s long kicks, and the long thrown-ins, were criticised.

    A reporter once asked him why Rangers tended to play without the midfield. He retorted, “Did you see any goalpost in the midfield?”.

    His team mates respected and loved him. Francis Monidafe, based in US, made a trip in April 2021 to Enugu to see Chukwu as he recovered from surgery.

    Chukwu was more than a leader. Football was a totem of his leadership. Nigeria saw a great footballer. We saw a great leader around who we, in the East, wrapped our hopes coming out of the Civil War. We survived the war. It was important that we survived the peace.

    From leading the East Central State Academicals to winning the Manuwa Cup and walking into Rangers, Chukwu took such emphatic charge that he became Rangers, Eagles, working with some of the most talented footballers that have graced Africa.

    He carried a people’s hope. He did not disappoint us. Rangers was not just a football team. It was the new source of joy for a new beginning after the war. Chukwu led a different war and acquitted himself well.
    As the trophies and honours started rolling in, Rangers appeared invincible. Those days are well behind us, yet people remember Chairman who remained a rallying point for his team mates.

    It was while seeing Chukwu in Enugu that I met Dr. Johnny Egbuonu, who played for the Green Eagles while in secondary school, “school boy international”.

    Chukwu in his years in Green Eagles – 1974 to 1981 – won these honours: bronze medals at the Africa Cup of Nations, 1976, 1978; All-Africa Games, silver medal, 1978; and the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations.

    He was assistant to Sebastian Broderick when Nigeria won the inaugural FIFA U-16 World Cup in 1985. He was also Dutchman Clemens Westerhof’s assistant when the Super Eagles won the Nations Cup title in 1994. He managed a Lebanese team Safa FC in 1997 and the Kenyan national team in 1998.

    Chukwu led the Super Eagles to a third place finish at the 2004 Nations Cup. He lost the job in 2005. The Nigeria Football Federation has owed $128,000, from unpaid salaries since then. He said so in an interview last year.

    NFF quickly denied owing Chukwu even a dime, when 1980 Nations Cup team mate Adokiye Amiesimaka reminded NFF that it owed Chukwu hence its tears at his passing were sheer hypocrisy.

    On his 70th birthday in January 2021 Chukwu’s friend, team mate and Green Eagles vice captain, Segun Odegbami hosted a live television broadcast in which players, young and old across Africa, journalists, and officials, celebrated Chukwu. Among the politicians who participated were Peter Obi and Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe.

    Whatever fate Chukwu suffered after serving Nigeria is not different from the country’s dedication to ensuring that it distances itself from the line, in our former national anthem, “the labour of our heroes past shall never be in vain”. The more damning fallacy in that line is that even the labour of our “present heroes” is in vain too.
    Farewell thee well Chairman Christian Chukwu, my brother, my friend. You led us well. May the Almighty grant you rest.

  • Igwe Ogbunike tussle, all eyes on Justice Onunkwo – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    Igwe Ogbunike tussle, all eyes on Justice Onunkwo – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    OGBUNIKE, in Oyi Local Government Area of Anambra State, is known for its cave, its ranks of famed intellectuals and politicians, and perhaps, more importantly for His Royal Majesty, Igwe John Ositadimma Umenyiora, Ezedioramma I, its first and only traditional ruler to date.

    Igwe Umenyiora was recognised and issued Certificate of Recognition as the traditional ruler of Ogbunike on 26 December 1976. He was much-loved for the standards he set for traditional rulership of Ogbunike, and his legacy in education, development and organisation of Ogbunike in structures that that moved to a more law-abiding.

    His 44-year reign was peaceful, gained Ogbunike respect and he laid the community’s governance on the traditional authorities that included Ugwueze Society (for elders aged 80 years and above), Ogbunike Traditional Council (Ndi Ichie) and Ndi Nze na Ozo Ogbunike. He also initiated and co-ordinated the Association of Umu-Iguedo Traditional Rulers. All these were captured in the 1978 Igwe Ogbunike Constitution, including the procedures for succession.

    Igwe Umenyiora is credited with a role in the emergence of one of his subjects, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, Oyi of Oyi, as the Special Adviser to the late former President of Nigeria, Alhaji Shehu Shagari. Dr. Okadigbo was to become Nigeria’s Senate President.

    A very educated man, he studied at Yaba College of Technology on scholarship, was a great entrepreneur, and had enough resources to be the major contributor in most of the community’s development projects.
    Five years after his passing, a dispute over who succeeds Igwe Umenyiora has split Ogbunike into two main groups. Honourable Justice Raphael Okey Onunkwo would sit on the matter on Wednesday, 16 April 2025 at the State High Court, Otuocha, 26.4km from Ogbunike, and 34.6km from the State capital Awka.

    Among the issues that Justice Onunkwo, a former Criminal Law and Company Law lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, would decide are:

    . A motion to stop the election of a new Igwe Ogbunike on 21 April 2025

    . A declaration that Ogbunike community is not yet ready for selection of an Igwe elect until peace returns to Ndi Ichie/Ogbuefi Ogbunike and there is a united Ndi Ichie/Ogbuefi Ogbunike with a new Executive of Ndi Ichie Ogbunike elected by a united Ndi Ichie/Ogbuefi Ogbunike.

    . A declaration that the executives of Ndi Ichie/Ogbuefi Ogbunike led by the 2nd Defendant is not competent to sit in a joint meeting of the Central Executive of Ogbunike Town Union and Ndi Ichie/Ogbuefi Ogbunike for the purpose of receiving, appraising, screening and selection of Igwe Ogbunike elect.

    . A declaration of the Honourable Court that until there is a united Ndi Ichie/Ogbuefi Ogbunike without a faction, a joint meeting of the Central Executive of Ogbunike Town Union and Ndi Ichie/Ogbuefi Ogbunike cannot sit to receive, screen and/or elect an Igwe elect for Ogbunike community.

    . A declaration of the Honourable Court that until a Declaration of vacancy pursuant to the 3rd Schedule to Igwe Ogbunike Constitution 1978 is properly made and signed by proper and authorised representatives of each village is executed and pronounced, the process for the selection of Igwe elect has not commenced and will not commence.

    .An order of the Honourable Court voiding all processes now put in place for the selection of Igwe elect for Ogbunike community by the joint decisions of the 1st Defendant and his executives and the 2nd Defendant and his faction of Ndi Ichie/Ogbuefi Ogbunike unless and until the Resolutions of the General Assembly made in December, 2023 is fully implemented i.e the resolution of the dispute within Ndi Ichie/Ogbuefi Ogbunike and the unification of Ndi Ichie/Ogbuefi Ogbunike into one body and the amendment of the 1978 Igwe Ogbunike Constitution and Ogbunike Progress Union Constitution.

    The crisis had been heightened by the alleged refusal of Ogbuefi Nwafor Onyezia, who was elected Chairman of Ndi Ichie/Ogbuefi Ogbunike in 2016 for a three-year tenure that lapsed in 2019, to vacate office or allow elections to hold. There are currently two factions of Ndi Ichie/Ogbuefi Ogbunike.
    The only document for resolving the Igwe Ogbunike dispute is the 1978 document.

    According to the plaintiffs, the election of Igwe Ogbunike cannot hold without the issues resolved. Ichie/Ogbuefi Tobechukwu Obiakor on behalf of the respondents averred that he is the President-General of Ogbunike Progress Union, and that the plaintiffs having participated in the last Ofala of Igwe Umenyiora in 2022, knew that election to the office was due after six months.

    He asked the court to dismiss the Notice on Motion as it was made to disrupt the holding of the processes to elect the new Igwe. Ogbuefi Onyezia said that the plaintiffs had no interest in the election as they had not participate in the processes to contest the position. He concluded that the Anambra State Government had approved the election and its schedule.

    Former Solicitor-General of the Federation, Tochukwu Onwugbufor, SAN, an indigene of Ogbunike in a letter of 10 December 2024 to Governor Chukwuma Soludo asked for his intervention to prevent breakdown of law and order in Ogbunike. He noted that any election held without dealing with the underlining issues would violate the 1978 Igwe Ogbunike Constitution and could throw Ogbunike into turmoil. He pleaded with the Governor to persuade Ogbuefi Onyezia to reconcile with the other group before an election.

    Maduka Nwakwesi, Phd, a titled Ogbunike elder, on 24 January 2025, wrote to Ogbuefi Obiakor, President of Ogbunike Progress Union, asking for amendment of the 1978 Constitution to reflect the current standings of Ogbunike, re-organisation of the Council of Ogbuefi, reconciliations, inclusion of kindred units in an electorate of not more than 300 people. He suggested that these should be considered before an election.
    Justice Onunkwo, elevated to the bench in 2017, would resolve the more immediate issue of whether the election of Igwe Ogbunike would hold on Monday, 21 April 2025. All eyes are on the judge.

    Finally…
    NIGERIA is on a slide. Another indication is the pilgrimages to Muhammadu Buhari in Kaduna to consult him, seek his advice, and possible support as we head to 2027. The pilgrims might not have heard that Buhari was in Kaduna to put a distance between him and the insecurity in his beloved Katsina State.

    GOVERNOR Babagana Zulum of Borno State is shouting that Boko Haram is on a surge in the State.

    “Government calls on all, especially the sub-national governments, to join hands to ensure rapid eradication of the remaining pockets of criminal elements wherever they may be,” was the retort of the Minister of Information Mohammed Idris. Zulum is speaking from the front line, Minister of Information is in Abuja and the President, Commander-in-Chief, is in France.

    AT 16, Alabi Yusuf Quadri has been detained at Kirikiri Prisons since January 2025. The matter has just become public. Quadri popped to fame during the 2023 presidential campaign by stopping the entourage of the Labour Party candidate Peter Obi to express his support for Obi. “Areas Boys” reportedly accused him of fighting and making trouble, took him to the police where they made the same allegations. The charge against him, in a Magistrate Court, has changed to armed robbery. He is locked up with hardened criminals. What happened to detention centres for minors? How many minors are locked up like Quadri? Obi is working with Inibehe Effiong, a lawyer, on Quadri’s detention.

  • IKEDDY ISIGUZO: Killing of Uromi 16: What’s going on here?

    IKEDDY ISIGUZO: Killing of Uromi 16: What’s going on here?

    By Ikeddy ISIGUZO.

     

    EVERY life matters. Every life should count. It is along these lines that I see the death of the Uromi 16, hunters who were killed in Uromi, Edo State, on their way to Kano to celebrate Sallah. My condolences go to their families.
    May the sacrifices they have made be the turning point for lives, every life, to matter.
    The concerns most politicians have shown over this matter border on a new height of hypocrisy. They have politicised the matter, ethnicised it, brought religion into it and ultimately shown themselves for what they are – opportunists
    Have they not proved themselves unworthy leaders again through their dangerous rhetoric? People are pleading for a peaceful, lawful resolution of the matter. But politicians are jumping all over the place as if they have made a single decision in years to improve the lives of the people.
    Threat of reprisals are being made. It is good that many are suing for peace. I hope that we are reasonable in getting through this bump on our journey to building a better Nigeria.
    One of the major shocks, for me, is the intensity of the demands for justice for the Uromi 16 and the intentionality of those calls.
    What is going on here? I still have no explanation for the national issue the death of the Uromi 16 has become.
    Some questions:
    .Could it be because those killed were from Kano State?
    .Is the number 16 special?
    .Did the killing violate 16?
    .Maybe the time of the year when the incident happened is a factor?
    .If they were killed in a place other than Uromi, would the reactions have been different?
    Let us pause to take some daily stories from different parts of Nigeria. The concentration should be in the North, the centre of the outcry over those killed in Uromi.
    Some deaths, killings, in the recent past :
    GUNMEN in Nigeria killed at least 10 farmers on Wednesday in an attack on a village in Niger State, residents said. – Reuters, 22 August 2024
    “AROUND 150 suspected Boko Haram terrorists armed with rifles and RPGs (rocket-propelled guns) attacked Mafa,” said Abdulkarim Dungus, a Yobe State police spokesperson. Bulama Jalaluddeen, a local official, added: “It has been established that at least 81 people were killed in the attack”. – The Guardian of London, 23 September 2024.
    FIFTY-FIVE people died in a day of renewed violence in Plateau State where clashes between Muslim herders and Christian farming communities erupted, according to community leaders and a Red Cross report on Thursday. – VOA, 25 January 2024
    BY mid-February, health authorities in Plateau State reported 865 people killed, including 160 children. – UNICEF, Nigeria-Plateau-Crisis-Response-Report-March-2024. – Anadolu Turkish News Agency, 11 January 2025.
    AT least 22 Nigerian soldiers have been killed and several others wounded by suspected terrorists in a remote town in Borno State, the military said. – Xinhua, Chinese News Agency, 27 January 2025
    ABOUT 50 Christians were killed, dozens kidnapped and homes destroyed since late January in several attacks spanning Southern to Northern Nigeria, Christian persecution watchdog groups said. – Baptist Press, 14 February 2025
    EUROPEAN Parliament resolution of 8 February 2024 on the recent attacks on the Christmas Eve of 2023 in Bokkos, Barkin Ladi and Magu (local government) areas of Plateau State, reported deaths of over 335 people.
    SUSPECTED herders kill 19 in fresh Benue attack – The Punch, 18 February 2025
    KILLING spree: Anger over herders’ deadly attacks in Ondo, Benue, Nasarawa, 30 killed – The Punch, 12 March 2025
    IN 2016 alone, at least 800 people were killed in southern Kaduna, and 1,269 in Benue State, where herders invaded at least 14 of the 23 local government areas. – Relief Web International, 21 May 2021.
    19 Killed in Another Bloody Attack by Gunmen in Benue – Thisday 19 February 2025
    According to the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria recorded 614,937 deaths in attacks between May 2023 and April 2024. The report showed banditry-ravaged North West had the highest figure with 206,030 killings.
    By Friday night, 4 April, reports said at least 53 had been killed in Bokkos, Plateau State. Would there be vociferous reactions to the Plateau killings?
    On 21 August 24, bandits killed the District Head of Gatawa, Alhaji Isa Muhammad Bawa, 74, over unpaid ransom. The bandits held him from 27 July 2024. There were only tepid reactions, including President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s, the “savage attack” will not go without a “decisive response.”
    The killing of Bawa who was kidnapped on his way from an official event in Sokoto, did not generate any further response.
    In the same North West region, known bandit leaders are all over the communities, killing, maiming and burning whole villages, destroying farms. The Northern leaders are not in the battle mood that has trailed the Uromi killing.
    A Tiv farmers’ group in January 2025 demanded the release of 394 corpses of kinsmen allegedly killed in Nasarawa State over a period of six months from June 2024.
    The killings in the South East do not count for any action. The Governors address invasions and killings by herders with words. The herders have rings of immunity around them and act above the law.
    Why are politicians rallying round the Uromi 16 as if the killing is more important that others whose lives now appear irrelevant? Are the Uromi 16 more “North” than other Northerners?
    What is the reason for this unusual outpouring of emotions in Kano? Do Northerners need to be from Kano to be recognised as human beings? And the care and concerns are not available to other Northerners?
    Is it also the rule to support Northerners killing Northerners? When people of Southern Kaduna, Plateau, Benue, and Nasarawa complain about not being counted as part of One North, they are right.
    The silences about what bandits are doing in all parts of the North make the charade in Kano more nauseating.
    Also when the North is quiet about killings in other parts of the country, it emboldens the bandits and herders, they live above the law.
    We cannot successfully run a country where the laws are differently applied for different people. Governors in the North negotiate with bandits. Security agents argue with terrorists who threaten Nigerians in the North, and execute their threats, knowing there would be no consequences.
    The Uromi 16 is a great opportunity to look at ways of effectively using the law to end banditry and the lawlessness that herders are permitted to commit and go scot-free. Our laws should fight criminals without minding their religion or region. Our leaders should avoid the temptation of belittling the law for political or other gains.
    We cannot build a country “where no man is oppress” when our leaders’ quest for injustice has led Nigeria to where lives are not important, all the time. Or where certain lives are counted but do not count.

    Finally…
    PRESIDENT Tinubu is needed back in Nigeria. If he wants to be Nigeria’s Ambassador to France, he should nominate himself. The Senate would spprove it, swiftly.

    ISIGUZO is a major commentator on minor issues

  • A thrilled Tinubu watches Obasa live above the law – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    A thrilled Tinubu watches Obasa live above the law – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    WHAT does Mudashiru Obasa know about President Ahmed Bola Tinubu that makes him act with such affront to constituted authority? Why does Tinubu pander to Obasa? Is Obasa untouchable, above the law with the backing of the law?

    Only those who know can tell us. We can only believe them at our own peril. If I am to speculate, I would say nothing.

    In politics, they say things are so possible, that “impossible” means that though something has never happened it can still happen. Obasa, three-term Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, could be exploring the generosities of the uncharted courses of politics to his causes.

    He had long announced that his eyes were on being the next Governor of Lagos. It was apparently his reaction to signals that the First Son was being made to be interested in the governorship of Lagos State.

    Such behaviour when the President’s son has been openly mentioned should not be recorded as politeness. A quick retort is that Obasa opposing the President’s son without consequences meant Tinubu is democratic to the point of not siding his son in a race.

    Those who claim they know say that all these swing to Tinubu’s favour. After the fierce battle for the ticket, Seyi, the First Son would get it. Obasa would have had his say, and the President his way. If the Lagos contest distracts Tinubu’s second-term dream, Seyi could step down. What a great sacrifice!

    Obasa has been Speaker for almost 10 years. The contest for longest-serving Speaker would be between him and Hon. Sabit Adeyemi Ikuforiji who served from December 2005-June 2015. Obasa has been Speaker since 2015. His status is currently indeterminate with the legal tussle over the office.

    Tinubu is a great beneficiary of the Lagos House troubles. The distraction is one that serves Tinubu as his government wobbles without direction. Who is Obasa to sit at plenary with four legislators when 36 have impeached him? The President reportedly asked Obasa to resign as the Speaker. He has ignored Tinubu. Who would he not ignore?

    Police personnel attached to Hon. Mojisola Miranda, the Speaker, were withdrawn because of an on-going police personnel audit, according to State Commissioner of Police, Moshood Jimoh. Friday, when Obasa stormed the State House of Assembly as Speaker he had enough police personnel who I suspect had been audited but unavailable to Hon. Miranda. Was the President unaware?

    House spokesman Olukayode Ogundipe, lamented, “We are shocked to see what is happening today. We won’t take laws into our hands, just like I told the staff members.

    “We are not happy and we are already demystified. We’ve been law-abiding, we’ve not gone out of our ways, we’ve not done anything against the state or anybody but we also want to be respected, to be given our dignity, to be shown that we were elected. So, I’m appealing to the leadership of our party that we cannot continue this way”.

    Some of the good things about democracy are that the rights to be shocked, and unhappy, are unhindered and in this instance, they were enhanced. Hon. Ogundipe and his colleagues were dismayed at the lawlessness at the State Assembly.

    “I remain the Speaker of the Assembly. I’m not against removal, it’s constitutional, but you must comply with the provisions of the Constitution and rules of the House,” Obasa said.

    Tinubu has seen Gen Ibrahim Babangida’s controversial book help him ride through the previous week. He can squeeze more distractions from the strong ripples of the book as more people pick out more issues that hold the public interest.

    While we wrangle and tangle over major and minor beneficiaries of Babangida’s autobiography, lives of Nigerians are getting worse. Insecurity, hunger, diseases, a declivitous economy assault Nigerians daily. No remedy is in sight.

    Tinubu has signed the 2025 Appropriation of over N54.99 trillion. Should we discuss Obasa, IBB, the budget or our individual daily challenges?

    The 41.9% increase on the 2024 budget, and theming the 2025 money law, ‘The Restoration Budget: Securing Peace, Rebuilding Prosperity’ could be its salient points.

    Next we would be talking about the President’s next trip – predictably to France – and why the new presidential jet could do with some repairs or outright purchase of a new one. There would be trite debates on the importance of loans to the economy.

    The President would be glad that he would get a breather before our worries overwhelm him.

    Distractions are critical to the survival of the government. No effort would spared in harnessing distractions.

    Tinubu should conclude the Obasa script quickly. He needs to explore his other strategies. There are many months left in 2025.

    Obasa resorting to self-help when the matter is in court is not a behaviour that should be associated with the President. If it is not checked, others could imitate Obasa.

    The abusive use of the police heightens insecurity in the State. Other States are learning. Tension mounts everytime the Lagos Assembly meets.

    Obasa is nothing without Tinubu. Obasa has done enough to be called to order. Or has he not?

    The silence and inaction suggest that there is no “exit strategy” or the puppeteer finds the puppet’s performance enthralling. None of these reasons is a great idea on how to stabilise Nigeria to gain the peace it requires to improve her people.

    Finally…

    SENATOR Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan Friday alleged on Arise TV that her troubles in the Senate were from her refusal to engage in inappropriate relationship with Senate President Dr. Godswill Akpabio. Most people would not have known that the Akpabios and Uduaghans were family friends until Akpabio’s wife, Unoma, rose in stout defence of her husband. Aside of this matter is in court. Unoma threatens a suit too.

    IMMEDIATE past President Muhammadu Buhari has relocated from his native Funtua to Kaduna. Some of his followers celebrated the move. Many in Katsina State placed their hope in his presence keeping bandits at bay. They have been disappointed. His departure to safer Kaduna is an illustration of the intensity of the security situation in Katsina.

    KIDNAPPING for ransom is at the stage where most forests in Nigeria are unsafe. Geographical location makes no difference. The difference, and it is major, is that the crimes are under reported in some cases. Our forests are on fire from the type of crimes those who occupy them commit. Have these ungoverned territories been conceded to criminals?

    DEATHS on the roads keep increasing in number of incidents, frequency, and number of lives lost. In the more recent cases, tankers distributing fuels are involved. If a fraction of the deaths on the roads are by air mishaps, the uproar would unsettle tne country. Governments, please act fast.

    ELECTRICITY supply to Abuja has been more noticeably chaotic. We are told that some parts of the presidential villa are also affected. When would these insults stop? Are ordinary Nigerians “presidential villa”? Do we use public funds to fuel our generators? If government is unconcerned about our flight, no surprise though, it should confirm so.

    ISIGUZO is a major commentator on minor issues

  • It wasn’t me, IBB’s final maradonic dribble denudes him – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    It wasn’t me, IBB’s final maradonic dribble denudes him – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    LET us admit it, many of us were waiting for General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida’s book majorly for two issues – 12 June 1993 election and the 19 October 1986 parcel bomb that shredded the torso of journalist Dele Giwa, Editor-in-Chief of Newswatch magazine. He died from it, and Moshood Kasimawo Olawale, MKO Abiola, winner of the June 12 presidential election died in detention 12 years after Dele Giwa.

    In his book, Journey in Service, his much-awaited memoirs, which Babangida calls his autobiography, he did not let much out. He was faithful to his nickname, Maradona, executing dribbles that served no better purpose than to maintain the mystique about him being impervious though many know he is imperiled by his loyalty to friends.

    The Argentine footballer from whom he picked up the moniker, Maradona, dribbled with a purpose. IBB is different. He prides himself with being machiavellian. His intellectual group got him to explain his actions with his likeness for Niccolo Machiavelli, a 16th-century Italian diplomat, philosopher, and political theorist whose book The Prince was meant to be a realistic guide to new rulers.

    Shocking as The Prince was even centuries ago, it was more shocking to modern readers of the book for Babangida and his loyalists to be proud of the fact that their leader was machiavellian. The key principles of Machiavelli are:

    a. Consequentialist morality: Actions are judged by the supposed good consequences they bring to society, rather than by ideals. The end, the principle holds, justifies the means.

    b. Mask intentions: Leaders should hide their true intentions from followers as well as critics. Isn’t that dictatorship?

    c. Avoid inconsistency: Leaders should be consistent in their actions even when they are on the road to doom.

    d. Act against mercy: Leaders should act against mercy, faith, humanity, frankness, and religion to preserve the State which in any case is theirs.

    e. Shape your own fortune: Leaders should use charisma, cunning, and force to shape their own fortune, rather than relying on luck. In all these the leader thinks of himself first, always.

    f. Be feared: Leaders should be dreaded to wade through complex corporate dynamics and destroy those who do not fear them.

    g. Manage appearances: Leaders should manage how they appear to others (perception management) and also where they appear for these are among the surprises leaders use to keep their followers in awe of them.

    i. Prioritise outcomes: Leaders should prioritise outcomes over other considerations. Nothing, no costs, would be deemed more important than what the leader wants to achieve.

    j. Understand adversaries: Leaders should understand their adversaries to navigate complex corporate dynamics. A lot of time and other resources are used to identify enemies and checkmate their moves.

    These are the principles IBB was proud to have used in running Nigeria. He was so unpredictable that he no longer surprised.

    Babangida wants to keep himself in the limelight in his twilight years. And the crowds that practically shut down Abuja for his book launch were his loyalists who are proof that loyalty is meant to be forever.

    Some also earn bragging rights from being seen around Babangida. Others are very grateful for the course which IBB set them on 40 years ago. They were the main cheer leaders on Thursday.

    Also in that crowd were those who protested against Babangida’s policies from the Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP, to June 12 or encouraged others to do so. They all spoke glowingly about Babangida.

    IBB let the world know in his book that he was pained by Dele Giwa’s death because he was his friend, intelligent and more pained that people were trying to pin the death on the administration. He blamed Giwa’s lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi and Giwa’s colleagues, for hampering investigations into Giwa’s death because they were pointing in one direction, IBB’s administration.

    More interesting could be the June 12 election which IBB has just admitted that Abiola won. We knew that long ago. Prof Humphrey Nwosu, Chairman of the National Electoral Commission, told us so 32 years ago. Hundreds of thousands of Nigerians had copies of the result. IBB did not do what he should have done to make the results official, and Abiola, his friend, the President.

    IBB staked his innocence through claims that strip him of the acclaims about his bravery, courage, firm control of his administration and the layers of intelligence he built around himself. How could he have lost control of the administration within hours of leaving Abuja for a condolence visit in Katsina?

    He just denuded himself after 32 years of hiding behind his fingers.

    Most principal characters in the Babangida story are dead. He can tell his story as he pleases. After all, it is his story. He is a great leader, everybody at that event said, particularly those who opposed him.

    It was from Babangida that we learnt how powerful Nduka Irabor, Chief Press Secretary to Admiral Augustus Aikhomu, IBB’s Vice-President, was. Babangida said Nduka annulled June 12, reading from a “scrappy” piece of paper that had no presidential imprimatur. Nduka, who Maj-General Muhammadu Buhari jailed under Decree 4 of 1984, with Tunde Thompson, for writing a story Buhari’s administration considered embarrassing, out of jail had acquired enormous powers.

    Nduka must have annoyed IBB by the “scrappy” announcement. Babangida retaliated with a national broadcast in which he claimed that the election was compromised, candidates spent over a billion Naira, and there was conflict of interest among some people in government.

    Another way of saying it is that Nduka, a non-member of the Armed Forces Ruling Council, AFRC, a mere civilian, had the temerity to announce the annulment. The announcement so infuriated Babangida that he confirmed it with a national broadcast, since he was, President, Commander-in-Chief, and Chairman of AFRC, the highest-decision making body in Nigeria in 1993.

    One is also inclined to blame Nduka for developing Abuja, and other otherwise great strides of the administration which Babangida would deny.

    With all the rejoinders IBB has issued to what many had thought was “a great job” that he did, less some raised issues, a better title for the book should have been, “It wasn’t me”, all credits to Shaggy and Rik Rok for that 2000 monster release that centred on a man caught cheating his girlfriend repeating, “It wasn’t me” to every evidence.

    Finally…
    REVEREND Father Jude Muokwe in Anambra State allegedly slapped and flogged a 50-year-old widow, who works in a school the priest superintends. Her offence? She was leading a meeting of teachers to articulate their demand for a pay raise. I have heard defences of the priest. Just a question, is flogging a staff the punishment for holding a meeting? The widow showed her injuries in a viral video on social media. The Catholic Diocese of Awka said it was investigating the incident.

    SENATE President Dr. Obong Godswill Akpabio has run into another round of altercations with Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, who Akpabio walked out of the Senate during a row over re-allocated sitting arrangements. Akpabio and Akpoti-Uduaghan had a first clash in July 2024 when Akpabio said she spoke as if she was in a night club. Harsh social media reactions forced an apology out of Akpabio. Earlier in the same month, Akpabio had stopped Senator Ireti Kingibe from moving a motion on demolition of buildings in the Federal Capital Territory which is her constituency. Akpabio, in addition, advised Chief Nyesom Wike, FCT Minister to ignore Kingibe. He was later to say the incident was “a miscommunication”.

    PA Edwin Clark, elder statesman, a man of great convictions, whose services to Nigeria date back to Mid-Western State, passed on 17 February 2025. All those who hated his guts for fighting for economic, environmental, and social justice for the Niger Delta, now mourn him. Nothing in their mourning suggests that they are not still opposed to the creation of the South South Development Commission for the Niger Delta. Nigerians know how to play it from all sides.

  • Tinubu’s uncaring politics at its best, ignoring South South as example – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    Tinubu’s uncaring politics at its best, ignoring South South as example – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    NOISY headlines weeks ago propagated the love President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has for Ogoniland which sent a delegation to him. Whatever the Ogoni visit was about, it was an opportunity for Tinubu to recount how much he had done for Ogoniland.

    The enlightened encounter was a ruse. Tinubu was not interested in any cleansing of polluted Ogoni land. His interest is in easing tension in the area was for oil production to resume – nothing more.

    Last October, Tinubu showed his disdain for the South South by abrogating the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs which President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua created on 8 September 2008 and also set up the Presidential Amnesty Programme. Yar’Adua appointed a Minister and a Minister of State charged specifically with Youth Empowerment for the Ministry.

    Tinubu threw away the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, on the same day he announced the Ministry of Livestock Development, of course to be funded with the resources of the oil wells of the South South. He did not care. A few media protests followed. Tinubu ignored them.

    Once he got away with serving South South that affront, he moved on to other monumental decisions that nobody has tried to halt. A rash of bills for creation of regional development agencies which the All Progressives Congress had promised 10 years ago, and which Tinubu lifted for the manifesto of his presidential election, hit the National Assembly late in 2024. They were passed into law in unbecoming urgency. The reason must have been to make provisions for them in the 2025 budget.

    Muhammadu Buhari was just two years in office when he created the North East Development Commission, NEDC. His excuse was that the war in the North East required urgent repair of infrastructure and building new ones to address the impact of the conflict. The remaining six years of Buhari’s tenure, he did not create a Commission for the other regions.

    The North East Development Commission gives a good idea of the robust budget that the Commissions are meant to deploy to developing their zones. Unfortunately, if NEDC is the model, then the funds are not going into development. In the 2024 Appropriation Bill (details), NEDC coded as 0554004001 had a total budget of N131,254,101,172 out of N126,936,316,904 was personnel cost. Capital expenditure was N4,317,784,268.

    For 2025, the proposed budgets for the regional agencies are:

    Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, N776.53 billion

    North West Development Commission, NWDC, N585.93 billion

    South West Development Commission, SWDC, N498.40 billion

    South East Development Commission, SEDC, N341.27 billion

    North East Development Commission, NEDC, N291 billion

    The mischief is crystalising with NDDC being listed with the regional development agencies.

    In October when this disdain for South South was brewing, I had warned thus, “If Tinubu is not halted in his strides, he would count NDDC as the Commission for South South, ignoring the facts that NDDC has three States that are not from the South South zone, and that NDDC is a special intervention agency to deal with issues that are specific to the area.

    Tinubu cares enough for cattle, sheep, pigs, goats to create a Ministry for them. The least he can do for the human beings in the Niger Delta (South South) is to leave the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs.

    “Only in June, Senator Adamu Aliero, Kebbi Central, former Governor of Kebbi State, in an argument to shut down an anti-grazing bills had said that animals were citizens of Nigeria and therefore had the same citizenship rights as us. An aghast Senate President Dr. Godswill Akpabio over-ruled him several times.

    “Akpabio will soon be approving a supplementary budget for animals even if it is not for their rights, the money for funding animal affairs and their indulgers would be at the expense of the same Niger Delta that cannot qualify for a Ministry to manage its affairs.”

    Is that not where we are today? Is Akpabio not the one hitting the gavel as money is dispersed to other regions except South South and North Central.

    While Akpabio is the cheer leader of the silence on the marginalisation of the South South, here are the numbers and the weight of silence that has kept the South South out the opportunities of the South South Development Commission which the four regions are enjoying. No region comes close to the cash that the South South heaves into the national purse daily. Any slight drop in oil production affects the entire economy. When it comes to sharing resources, the region produces; everyone looks away as if it would have been abnormal for the South South to benefit from oil and gas productions that in addition devastate the environment of the oil-bearing areas. Akwa Ibom 10, Bayelsa 5, Cross River 8, Delta 10, Edo 9, and Rivers 13 have 55 members in the House of Representatives. Their output on the affliction on the South South is silence. In a House of 360 members, the House of Representatives members from the South South is 15.27 per cent of the House. South South’s six States amount to 18 Senators of the 109-member chamber.

    What can this miniscule minority do? A lot, if these representatives consider the issues important, they would not be silent as if they are infected with “closed mouths” or have been sworn to silence. What about the six Governors who are busy wearing uniforms at meetings? They may as well not have heard of the Commissions hence their silence.

    Our first intervention agency, Niger Delta Development Board in 1959, pre-dated our independence. The interests in protecting the oil-producing areas implicated the Eastern Region, Mid-Western Region, and were enrolled in the 1963 federal Constitution. On 9 July 1992, General Ibrahim Babangida signed the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission, OMPADEC, Decree, into law. It succeeded the Niger Delta Board of 1959. OMPADEC comprised Rivers, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Imo, Edo, Ondo and Abia States. Bayelsa State was created four years after. President Olusegun Obasanjo changed OMPADEC to the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC in 2000.

    So, Abia, Imo, and Ondo States, who are in NDDC because they produce oil, have also become part of South South, while they are beneficiaries of the Commissions in South East, and South South? If the oil in the South South was in another part of Nigeria, would the argument that having NDDC disqualifies the region from new regional development agencies that the Federal Government is establishing? What is the reason for the exclusion of the North Central?

    When will we start building a nation where no man is oppress?

    Finally…

    PA Ayo Adebanjo, a fearless, fierce fighter for freedoms, joined his ancestors on Friday, 14 February 2025 at 96. He was one of a few who held to the truth as he knew it. He was consistent in his strive for equal rights and justice for all through the efforts to return some of the powers that the federal government had hijacked to the States, and by extension the Local Governments. He managed his life well and very importantly; he had character that deterred him from flowing with the sirocco of Nigerian politics. He will be missed. May the almighty rest him.

    PS: Watch out as those who opposed Pa Adebanjo, betrayed him, lied against him, would line up to leverage his passing for momentary resurrection of their politics of “anywhere belly face na road”.

    ISIGUZO is a major commentator on minor issues