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Tag: IKEDDY ISIGUZO

  • Illegal sports commission joins football’s 20 years of illegalities – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    Illegal sports commission joins football’s 20 years of illegalities – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    HAVE you heard the latest claims that a flawed National Sports Commission is better than a Ministry of Sports? There are no limits to ends we travel to justify illegalities, absurdities, and a tending national culture of excellence in doing things badly.

    The national propensity to do things illegally is readily available to those who dare match their fancy with action.

    Welcome to the National Sports Commission, NSC, which has been set up without a law. A lawless organisation has been granted access to federal funds approved for the Federal Ministry of Sports. Everyone in the National Assembly knows about this illegality, but would not say anything.

    Who set up the Commission without a law? President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has just done that. The army of clappers has filled the air with shouts of joy for the new impetus for sports though the ruse is obvious.

    How are appointments to NSC made? What qualifies the appointees? Under what law would they be held responsible for acting on behalf of Nigerians?

    When the NSC Chairman was appointed, I congratulated him. I even called him on phone. I apologise for my mistake. The law should have been in place before his appointment.

    The Ministry running a few more months, for the NSC law to be sorted out, would not have done eternal damage to our sports. Nobody knows what the current contraption is meant to achieve.

    Debates about such a Commission were on when days ago the President firmed up the contraption with the appointment of the Director-General of NSC. Both appointments are illegal because there is no NSC. Could the confusion be the administration’s way of prioritising the unimportance of sports?

    Kenya is exploring the 160-page African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA, agreement to “expand its sports industry”. A top government official announced that, “By reducing trade barriers, we can encourage cross-border collaboration, creating more platforms for Kenyan athletes, sports organisations, and even fans to engage with their counterparts across Africa.”

    Can illegal organisations like NSC be part of AfCFTA? Unlikely.

    The President cannot pronounce NSC into existence. A law is needed. Federal funds cannot be expended by people unknown to the law. There should be a limit to our lawlessness. Or should there be?

    An organisation called the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, has been illegally running Nigeria’s football for 20 years. Some people got ambitious changed the name from Nigeria Football Association solely for them to determine what to do with Nigeria’s football and its resources. They manage federal funds that are appropriated for Nigeria Football Association, which according to them does not exist. They claim they are a private organisation.

    Imagine a private organisation that spends  billions of public funds without responsibility or accountability to anyone. NFF takes public funds, gets funding from CAF, FIFA and sponsors. Any suggestions that NFF should be accountable to Nigerians, whose money it spends, are met with wooly assertions that FIFA finds accountability offensive.

    Our football federation must be different from FIFA and CAF that swept their corruption officials away. Are the other African countries that are cleaning up their federations not members of FIFA and CAF?

    At a joint public hearing of the Senate and House of Representatives Sports Committees in 2010, conversations veered to corruption in football. I accused both Committees of being responsible for the corruption. My point was that the Committees supported the corruption by approving money for a legal body NFA, and handing it to an illegal body, NFF, to spend, knowing fully well that they would not ask an illegal body to account.

    Everyone appeared stunned. You would think a mistake had been unearthed. NFF still spends approvals made for NFA.

    There is no end to the illegalities. The new NSC is merely joining the ride. There may be other illegal Commissions in other sectors of our polity but they are not enough excuse to promote illegalities with pomp.

    Justice Donatus U. Okorowo of the Abuja High Court declared the NFF illegal in 2010 while delivering the judgment in suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/179/2010. He clearly stated, ”As set out in the early part of this judgment, the Nigeria Football Association was established under Section 1 of the Nigeria Football Association Act as a body corporate with perpetual succession and common seal with power to sue and be sued.

    ”By these provisions, it is the only body recognised by Nigerian Law to manage football. The Law did not make reference to it as Nigeria Football Federation. The name under which it is charged to manage football under the Law is Nigeria Football Association. It has no power to address itself as Nigeria Football Federation. And the document titled Nigeria Football Federation Statute, which purports to confer the name Nigeria Football Federation to Nigeria Football Association is not a codified Law under the Laws of Federation of Nigeria. It is therefore illegal for the Nigeria Football Association to answer another name other than the name by which it is created as a legal entity.”

    The Okorowo judgment still stands. NFF is standing stronger, more illegal with the years. If NFF can be above the law why not NSC to which NFF should be a parastatal?

    As the heat rose over Justice Okorowo’s judgement, the Federal Ministry of Sports, which connives with NFF to sustain the illegalities, sought clarification from the Federal Ministry of Justice.

    In a letter dated 2 June 2011, addresed to the Director-General, National Sports Commission, the Federal Ministry of Justice elaborately affirmed that NFF was unknown to the laws of Nigeria.

    “The Nigeria Football Association Act 1990 (aka Decree 101) has neither been repealed nor amended, it remains the valid legal instrument for the administration of football in Nigeria.

    “In the light of the above recognition of the private status of the NFF, the ordinary implication is that the body is not entitled to the receipt of statutory allocations from the Federal Government.

    “As a ‘private association’, the NFF is entitled to raise funds as averred in paragraph 3(vi) of the affidavit for its operations in line with relevant FIFA regulations. However, except the government decides to give grants-in-aid to the federation in the national interest, there will be no legal basis for the NFF to draw funds from the government for its activities.

    “The present situation suggests that the structure for the administration of football in Nigeria at the moment is legally unwieldy as the NFA, which is statutorily recognised is non-functional, while the NFF, which is not a creation of our laws, is from all indications running football in the country and receiving public funds albeit unconstitutionally,” the Ministry concluded.

    Nothing changed. NFF is still running football illegally and government officials and agencies relate extensively with an illegal body.

    Based on the clarification of the Ministry of Justice, NFF’s illegal access to public funds was blocked for four months. There was bedlam. NFF got the money. There has been no inclination to obey the judgement since then.

    As we cling to any shreds of hope, the President can effect legitimacy of the two organisations. There are no complications in making them legal: the National Sports Commission should be enacted by law and not pretence, then NFF has to be structured to be legal enough to spend public funds.

    Finally…

    THE Presiding Bishop of God’s Command Ministry Inc., Rt. Revd. Dr Felicia Ileleji (JP+), has said that the challenges Nigeria faces are caused by Nigeria’s hosting of the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC 77) 47 years ago when foreign gods brought to Nigeria were not taken back to their bases. Her proposed solution of prayers, more prayers falls into a crowded field. She may not be accommodated.

    ISIGUZO is a major commentator on minor issues

  • To a VeryDarkMan who lights up a dark country, respect – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    To a VeryDarkMan who lights up a dark country, respect – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    “You can also commit injustice by doing nothing” – Marcus Aurelius.

    PITCH darkness descends on Nigeria regularly enough that disconcerting as it is,  darkness may be a distinguishing Nigerian feature that is not about to go away. Fewer places reflect the darkness, the neglect of the Nigerian society, than the fullsomeness of the energies for dispensation of injustice.

    The entry of a young man, 30, more popularly  known  as VeryDarkMan, is pointing the light to some of the more embarrassingly darkened sides of our justice system. We should be grateful to him for his disruptions.

    Without him, the minors who the President, in a rare case of momentary wakefulness, released, would have had their trials  continued under a serious charge of trying to overawe the President’s administration. Minors, as they were, sick, hungry, all the traces of their stresses in full view, were put away for 60 days to allow investigations. Their deemed sponsor is out of reach of the law or above it.

    The minors harvested from Kano, Adamawa, other States in the North, and Abuja, for waving Russian flag during their agitation against bad governance, and the increasing hardship in the country, were expected to bail themselves with N10 million each, and have senior civil servants guarantee they would not run away. They need N710 million to get out of detention.

    The release and acquittal of the 71 teenagers, mostly beggars picked from the streets, to the Kano State government, is said to be a significant victory for human rights. We joke too much, too often. They had been held since August 2024.

    Nobody did anything to release them. They had been forgotten. VeryDarkMan’s momentary detention was the opportunity that beamed the light on the dark recesses of Nigeria’s justice administration.

    How many others who cannot afford the price of justice are still held illegally? Some minors, some adults?

    The police, the Ministry of Justice, the judge, and all the routes that the children passed to jail, ignored the fact the arrested were children.

    VeryDarkMan shouted enough that the next time they were in court, pictures and videos of their fainting went viral. They were hungry. They were sick. They were probably knocking on the doors of death.

    Marcus Aurelius whose regnal name was Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, was a stioc philosophy, a Roman Emperor from 161 to 180, a member of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. He was among the last of the rulers later known as the Five Good Emperors and the last emperor of the Pax Romana, during which there was relative peace, calm, and stability for the Roman Empire from 27 BC to 180 AD.

    He expects us to act in the face of a crime or brutal act. If we do not act, Marcus would rate our inaction a form of injustice.

    Archbishop Desmond Tutu put it more succinctly. “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor”.

    We in different ways failed the minors charged to court in Abuja. They had no business being in jail and undergoing those dehumanising treatments that would stick with them for life. The courts were guilty.

    Nigeria failed them particularly those who surround the President. They do too much worsening the public’s perception of the President. Not surprisingly, these same fellows are defending the arraignment of minors.

    VeryDarkMan embarrassed them by asking for justice for the children. It was not long before people were questioning VeryDarkMan’s qualifications to dabble into human rights. He told them he had secondary school certificate. It was a disclosure that cut short whatever mischief they intended.

    With all their education, their understanding of law and order, our Ministry of Justice easily mixing justice with injustice as they kept those children away for months. Who were they working for? Who do they account to? Is it enough to ask the children to go? With will be done to deter such official misbehaviour?

    VeryDarkMan is the light that fights the pitch darkness that has seized the minds of the low and mighty in a mindless show of power, greed of immense dimensions, and the directionlessness that leads a nation that is speeding from one darkness to a worse one.

    Who has forgotten the centres of concentric circles of conspiracies that cost Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen, Chief Justice of Nigeria his plum job in 2017. None of the processes were followed. He was passed through the Code of Conduct Bureau, and sacked. The courts are now annulling the judgements.

    No whimper was heard from the Senate which was in full session throughout the processes that terminated his appointment. The Senate confirms the appointment of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, who heads one of the three arms of our democratic government. Our neutrality, as Achibishop Tutu would say, convicts us.

    There are more judges and higher ranking persons that the targeted injustices of the past and the times are affecting. Justice is far from everyone contrary to thinking that some are safe.

    When the unjust act, they are blinded by motives. Justice Onnoghen in a minority, dissenting judgement, annulled the election of Umaru Yar’Adua as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2007. Onnoghen’s judgement voted in support of Muhammadu Buhari. It was the same Buhari that illegally sacked Onnoghen 10 years later.

    Nigeria is bound by an uncaring leadership that cannot even care for itself. It is now impossible to stop the national grid from collapsing as if its constant collapse will increase our GDP. The administration unrelentingly feeds the public excuses for the unmitigated failure to supply electricity which is not even cheap.

    Are we not expecting too much thinking that an administration that has made a policy of blaming everyone for everything will care for us? The issue is not that it will not – it simply cannot.

    Perhaps VeryDarkMan would next beam his light on other abuses of our rights, while Marcus Aurelius still reminds us not to do nothing about injustices whether against us or other people.

    Finally…

    CHIEF Baltasar Ebang Engonga, the Equatoguinean whose private tapes almost got more attention than the US elections has proven that human beings can make something of anything. Engonga, the head of his country’s National Financial Investigation Agency, ANIF, is also head of the group that produced the thrilling 400 tapes that would have shaken the box office, stands by his story that participants in the tapes were not forced. I have heard several conclusions about the matter that introduced Equatorial Guinea. Not since the 2000 Olympics when Equatoguinean Eric Moussambani Malonga swam the 100 m freestyle on 19 September in a time of 1min 52.72 secs has the country attained monumental global attention. Moussambani had trouble concluding the race, but he set the record for the slowest time for the event. His time was more than twice regular times for the event. I doubt if we will ever know what Engonga did or understand it enough to pass a judgement.

    YESTERDAY, Honourable Alexander Ikwechegh, the House of Representatives member for Aba North/Aba South returned to his constituency to share free petrol and kerosine. He no longer needs to apologise for slapping an Abuja uber driver Mr. Stephen Abuwatseya thrice. After waking Nigerians up to another shade of the oppression we face, Abuwatseya has apologised to Ikwechegh and absolved him of any wrong-doing. The cab man even said he should be blamed for provoking the lawmaker. I apologise for VeryDarkMan who the case wings to fly. VeryDarkMan has already apologised to Ikwechegh. Congratulations, Honourable, there is no better time to commence the 2027 campaign than now.

    WHAT did Americans do that is shocking Nigerians? Did we not vote for Muhammadu Buhari? Then followed it up with Bola Ahmed Tinubu? If you sequence a Donald Trump-Joe Biden-Trump administration, the dissonance would not be much different from what Nigerians are suffering. The only difference, though, is that America has standing institutions (they ceased to be strong a while ago) that Trump cannot trample on, completely.

    THOSE against Senator Remi Tinubu, the President’s wife, and Nuhu Ribadu, National Security Adviser leading national prayers as the elixir for national security and the tough times, in a week that Peter Obi suggested that productive hours should not be invested in prayers, have more work to do. Since we delight in citing foreign examples to support things we want to foist on others, how are these important national policies managed elsewhere?

    ISIGUZO is a major commentator on minor issues

  • Nation of the living dead: Slapped, oppressed, does Ikwechegh represent it? – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    Nation of the living dead: Slapped, oppressed, does Ikwechegh represent it? – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    MINUTES after we rendered the last stanza of the national anthem with impressive passion, the lyrics put us to immediate judgement as the tales of woes that were painted had deep strokes that held their hues. Silence descended on the hall, making the voices on the devastations of oil and gas exploration – maybe, exploitation is better – in the Niger Delta, more eerie.

    We had just sung: “O God of all creation, Grant this our one request, Help us to build a nation Where no man is oppressed, And so with peace and plenty Nigeria may be blessed”.

    Each of those lines put us on trial as speaker after speaker discussed the report that John Tucker Mugabi Sentamu, 75, a retired Anglican bishop, and life peer, who was Archbishop of York and Primate of England from 2005 to 2020, delivered its summary in a quivering voice that appeared propelled by anger at what human beings can reduce other human beings to profit from oil and gas.

    The words tumbled off his tongue in a rapidity that set his Swahili accent in a perpetual battle for superiority with the English language much like the same perpetual disdain the oil companies and Nigerian governments have for any ameliorations of the living conditions of the peoples of the oil-producing areas.

    At the international conference on environment, the report of the Bayelsa Oil and Environmental Commission presented in Abuja on Wednesday, showed the dark sides of oil and gas production glittering from a documentary in which darkness was so pitched that no lighting could brighten it a bit.

    Waters, farm lands, residences, animals, people are mere soots dressed in layers of the darkness of mis-managed oil spillages. More oil wells, more explorations, more millions of barrels per day mean more meaningless life for inhabitants of the areas, the least of whose woes is that they could be kicked out of their lands once substantial crude is found under their feet.

    The report, _An  Environmental Genocide, The human and environmental cost of Big Oil in Bayelsa, Nigeria_, is scientific, used verifiable data, and drew from hundreds of interviews, visits to sites of pollutions, and engagements with affected communities, many of which had lost every hope of their cries being heard. All stakeholders were represented.

    Communities had for over six decades been devastated, cultures lost, and future generations are guaranteed diseased existence from their polluted environments. The curse of oil has cost them the present. Those who make it to the future would arrive their destination loaded with toxins that could lower the quality of their lives to the point that they could be a different specie of the human race.

    While other children would inherit healthy genes from their forebears, children born in Bayelsa would be of indeterminate genes because of illnesses that their parents have, foods and water that are polluted beyond considerable safe levels and the worsening settings of where they would be born.

    Some diseases found in the Niger Delta are new, local to the areas, unknown or where they are known, the improvised peoples of the areas cannot afford the medications and treatments they need. 

    Central to these pollutions is oil spillage that the oil companies blame on sabotage, their way of blaming youths of the region for the spills. The report’s findings do not support this position.

    “Analyses suggest that Nigeria’s pipelines are 565 times more likely to spring a leak per 1,000 kilometres than those in the EU,” says the report. About 21,000 kilometres of these pipelines ring the Niger Delta, taking products from over 5,000 oil wells to export terminals and refineries.

    Efforts to harness the travials of Bayelsa and the surrounding States into a scientific report that could be used in solving the problems that oil exploration has imposed on the peoples and environment of the Niger Delta, especially Bayelsa, were activated in 2019 by Governor Seriake Dickson who instituted the Sentamu Commisdion and received its interim report in 2020 before he left office. “I know that by 2021/2022 they submitted their final report which was presented in London in the House of Lords. I was delighted that they came to make a presentation of the final copy to the State, which has formally adopted it at the State Executive Council,” Dickson, now a Senator, and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology, said at the event which he also chaired.

    The completion of the report is a milestone, a lot of work still has to be done, Dickson said. “I call on all the Governors of oil-producing States, and the people of the Niger Delta generally, to rally round and use this report as a basis for our quest for a safer environment. All of us must rise up for Bayelsa and the Niger Delta and fight against environmental terrorism, which the Commission has clearly found to be a genocide,” Dickson said. 

    The report is unrelenting in its case against the oil companies and the slackness of the regulatory agencies. “A study conducted on pipelines in six States in the Niger Delta found that more than 70% of the pipelines were over 20 years old and over 40% were more than 30 years old with much of the infrastructure suffering from mechanical failures due to poor construction and maintenance,” according to the report. 

    More frightening pictures emerge as we peep through the darkness of oil production, the Nigerian version.

    King Bubaraye Dakolo, Chairman, Bayelsa Traditional Rulers Council, was illustrative with his sketching of the destructions that oil exploration cause. “You can call me the living dead,” he said, using data from the report on the levels of toxins found in tests conducted on the inhabitants of the areas. They were horrifying data.

    “Overwhelming tide of oil contamination and associated activities such as dredging, mangrove and swamp forest clearance, and artisanal refining has turned the Niger Delta – home to some of the planet’s largest mangrove and freshwater swamps, forests, and Africa’s largest wetlands – into one of the most polluted places on Earth. Bayelsa is one of the States most affected within the Niger Delta,”the report lamented.

    “Since 2006, oil produced in Bayelsa generated over US $150 billion for the Federal Government and billions for the international oil companies that operate its wells,” said the report.

    There is no evidence yet that a cent is kept anywhere for the $12 billion that the report said would be required to clear the pollution. 

    Governments are occupied with squeezing more oil and gas out of the areas than fix the damage to people and places. Nobody is being held responsible for the future of the people.

    “Oil producers are already beginning to divest themselves of their onshore assets to evade potential liability for historic pollution. There is an urgent need for action now,” the report warns.

    Dreary as the devastations of oil are, the most commanding news item was Honourable Alex Ikwechegh, of the House of Representatives, slapping his way to prominence by brutalising a taxi driver whose major or general offence was failure to realise that he was before Ikwechegh, who was so majestic that he wondered if people knew who he was, and that he was magical with his abilities to cause people to disappear. 

    Ikwechegh too is a subscriber to a “nation where no man is oppressed”. 

    Then Nyesom Wike talks down on residents of the Federal Capital Territory, calls them names, and nobody calls Wike to order. He takes his imperious bearings to Rivers State, sustaining different manners of lawlessness there. He too swore to the Constitution and attends events where the national anthem reminds him of our aspirations to “a nation where no man is oppressed”. 

    Fuel increases, continued brutality by security agencies, and the dedicated manhunt for Bobrisky all slap us, oppress us, and enlist us among the living dead.

    As our governments, National Assembly, and all those who can do something about the Niger Delta, which they live off, turn blind eyes to the plight of the region, we should understand more, why they do nothing about the rest of us.

    Can’t we just agree that we are building a nation where oppression is a national value? 

    Finally…

    THOSE street beggars, some of them minors, accused of terrorism, and planning to change President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government illegally, should be released and compensated. There must be limits to ridiculousness. 

     

    ISIGUZO is a major commentator on minor issues

  • Tinubu’s cabinet confusion: Deliberate disdain for Niger Delta, South East – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    Tinubu’s cabinet confusion: Deliberate disdain for Niger Delta, South East – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    PRESIDENT Bola Ahmed Tinubu cherishes opportunities to maximise his minimalistion of some parts of Nigeria. In tweaking his cabinet, he extended his disdain for the South East to the oil producing Niger Delta.

    He knows what he did. Scrapping the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs could not have been to reduce “cost of governance” when in the same breath he set up a Ministry of Liverstock Development, and employed seven new Ministers in place of five he sacked.

    The President is not averse to displeasing the oil-producing areas whose environment is devastated while oiling the wheels of Nigeria’s economy. Is the President concerned only about certain parts of Nigeria or so obsessed with showing off his acclaimed political deftness that he ignores economic sagacity? What about political economy?

    Liverstock Development should not be more than a directorate in the Ministry of Agriculture. If Liverstock Development is a pivot for Tinubu’s second term ambitions, must it be at the expense of the Niger Delta whose resources would fund the existence of the new Ministry?

    If both Ministries exist, would they dent Tinubu’s fame for wastes?

    Tinubu is intentional in running Nigeria as North East, North West, and South West. He ignores North Central but he is not interested in provoking the people as is the case with the South East and South South.

    His selective sidelining of both regional groupings is the newest confirmation of his disdain for those areas. It is not as if there were doubts about the President’s disinterest in both regions.

    History is on the side of the Niger Delta whose importance – fears of neglect of its fragile environments – had been recognised in official documents before Nigeria’s independence through the proclamation of the Niger Delta Development Board in 1959. The interests in protecting the oil-producing areas implicated the Eastern Region, Mid-Western Region, and were enrolled in the 1963 federal Constitution.

    Tinubu ignored this, cast aside his oath of office which asks him to be fair in dealing with all parts of Nigeria, discarded bridges he claimed to have built across Nigeria, to hatch his plan that he expects to rein in voices that call the President’s attention to injustices that include environmental degradation and theft of official rights of the regions to life, fuller participation of their people in the governance of Nigeria, and the continued militarisation of the regions.

    The summary of the duties of the 1959 Niger Delta Development Board was to assess  the impact of oil and gas production in the Niger Delta, and install measures for mitigating them, to keep accurate records of oil production so that communities that are affected by the disruptions of oil can be compensated through special financial allocations, development programmes, and employment opportunities.

    With the low level of oil production, the Civil War, the splitting of Eastern Region into three States, and the abolition of the 1963 Constitution with the coup, the life of the Niger Delta Development Board was not renewed in 1969, as the Constitution had stated. The national crisis had stalled the work of the Board from 1966.

    On 9 July 1992, General Ibrahim Babangida signed the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission, OMPADEC, Decree, into law. It was the next effort to address the Niger Delta since 1959. OMPADEC comprised Rivers, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Imo, Edo, Ondo and Abia States. Bayelsa State was created four years after.

    OMPADEC was a more appropriate name as more communities outside the immediate Niger Delta had started producing oil. General Babangida’s OMPADEC drew from Section 159 of the 1963 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, “(1) There shall be a board for the Niger Delta which shall be styled the Niger Delta Development Board. (2) The members of the Board shall be – (a) a person appointed by the President, who shall be chairman (b) a person appointed by the Governor of Eastern Nigeria; (c) a person appointed by the Governor of Mid-Western Nigeria; and such other persons may be appointed in such manner as may be prescribed by Parliament to represent the inhabitants of the Niger Delta”.

    Babangida intended OMPADEC to be an intervention agency, development agency for oil producing areas. President Olusegun Obasanjo changed OMPADEC to the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.

    President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua set up the Presidential Amnesty Programme and created the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs on 8 September 2008 and tasked it with infrastructural and human resources development of the area for which he appointed a Minister and a Minister of State charged specifically with Youth Empowerment.

    Yar’Adua’s understanding was that the region required more attention. Government had to provide the financial and political muscles to do that. These Yar’Adua moves quietened the restiveness and criminalities in the region.

    Tinubu, 16 years on, wants to enact confusion in place of these arrangements that help in managing the volatile region, though successive governments through poor funding, corruption, and neglect have seen to non-development of the region.

    Anyone who has read Tinubu’s manifesto would be affronted by his futile efforts to garb the All Progressives Congress, APC, in a new attire. Apart from the unanswered questions of how he would implement the manifesto – politicians don’t find those details interesting – Tinubu the great party leader lifted, APC’s manifesto in places and lessened the 2015 promises.

    An example, “l will establish NEW industrial growth centres by creating six NEW Regional Economic Development Agencies, REDAs. These agencies will create sub-regional industrial hubs to exploit each zone’s competitive advantage and optimise their potential”.

    In 2015, APC had promised to:

    .Balance the economy across regions by the creation of 6 new Regional Economic Development Agencies (REDAs) to act as champions of sub-regional competitiveness;

    .Put in place a N300bn regional growth fund (average of N50bn in each geo-political region) to be managed by the REDAs.

    Tinubu gingerly left out the N50 billion funding of the REDAs of 2015 and avoided any mention of funding. He should be held to his words.

    His promise of “6 NEW Regional Economic Development Agencies (REDAs)” means that he has to establish the REDAs for North Central, and South South. Buhari established the North East Economic Commission which has been operating since 2017. North West, South West, and South East have theirs at different stages of take off.

    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 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 animals affairs and their indulgers would be at the expense of the same Niger Delta that cannot qualify for a Ministry to manage its affairs.

    Finally…

    THOSE awaiting the advertised fight between FCT Minister Nyesom Wike and beggars on the streets of Abuja should grab a copy of Aminata Sow Fall’s 1979 novel, Beggars Strike, rendered in French as La Grève des bàttu. In summary, beggars deserted the streets of Dakar to deny political office-seekers – who they blame for their plight – a chance to give alms which could make the Almighty look more favourably at their supplications.

    DOES Minister of Works, Engineer David Umahi believe his own tale that the Badagry-Sokoto Expressway was conceived 47 years ago and nobody did anything about it? He is wrong about nobody doing anything about it. President Aliyu Usman Shehu Shagari awarded the contract to the French company Fougerolle. It included an Apapa’s ports ring road, to empty the trailers that now clog Lagos, at Okokomaiko from where they were to join the expressway which as designed then had spurs to Shaki in Oyo State, and other places. Another person that did something about the road was Maj-Gen Muhammadu Buhari, who in 1984 after over-throwing Shagari, cancelled the contract and jailed a top Fougerolle official. Umahi should not deny people credit for their contributions to building Nigeria.

    ISIGUZO is a major commentator on minor issues

  • One thing is certain, President Tinubu’s next vacation – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    One thing is certain, President Tinubu’s next vacation – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    AMONG the indelible dynamics of Nigerian living that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has foisted is the culture of uncertainty that pervades the land. The only thing certain today is uncertainty.

    We did not get here suddenly. Tinubu did a great job of under-studying his predecessor Muhammadu Buhari. Tinubu’s commitment to being worse than Buhari drives his vision of unleashing a version of cruelty on Nigerians that makes the remarkably aloof Buhari an angel.

    Buhari admitted he was a slow reader, blaming that for Nigeria’s slower attention to important international agreements like the African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA. The world’s largest free trade area aims at making the 55 countries of the African Union, and its eight Regional Economic Communities, RECs, a single market, to enable the free flow of goods and services across the continent and boost  Africa’s position in the global commerce.

    Nigeria lost a lot by being the last country to sign AfCFTA. Tinubu, unlike Buhari, claims intellectual prowess. The economy is said to be his forte and he has degrees to prove it.

    What have we seen? The economy is on a spin that drains everything, hits security in the worst places, hurts food production, and set off increase in prices of everything. Often, there is scarcity of goods and services, making their prices and quality side issues.

    Tinubu and company gloat about these achievements that they call reforms. Lives are at stake, but they have a preference for statistics that say they are doing well. The statistics are elegiac, grim, gloomy.

    Our President could not wait for 15 months to get himself another presidential jet, ordered a second for the Vice President, among other wastes and drains on the fragile economy. He is not affronted by

    World Bank statistics that mention 15 years as the time frame for his reforms to bear fruits.

    Who would be around then? And in what stage of shattered shape? What type of Nigeria would there be by then?

    None of these would be Tinubu’s headache. He said being President of Nigeria was his life-long ambition. With his mission accomplished, what is left is for him to continue assuming the toga of a leader, saviour of Nigeria, possibly founder of modern Nigeria, if his policies do not complete the demolitions that Buhari’s divisiveness and rugged obliteration of democratic inclinations, excluding elections which he twisted to worst than the most obtuse selections.

    People are not safe. The future has long been compromised. Millions of children are out of school. More millions are mal-nourished. They are all candidates for a blighted future that statistics alone cannot illustrate.

    Tinubu sees what he wants to see. He hears only the ululations of brigades of sycophants who have tied their existence to how much comfort they create for Tinubu. If Tinubu is happy, they leverage the situation for their uncommon good.

    Since they live above the dreary circumstances of Nigerians and have made generous provisions for themselves, nothing else matters except the most recent struggles to prove all over again that Tinubu has loads of money and does not need Nigeria’s money. Such utterances do not match the relentless agenda of prioritising presidential comfort at a time of unprecedented suffering.

    Have we seen Tinubu make any sacrifice? Anyone who contests this assertion should name a seeming sacrifice that Tinubu has made.

    Tinubu has shown a poor capacity for lifting a finger to improve the condition of Nigerians. Under him, insecurity has festered, job losses are normal and the uncaring attitudes that display his comfortable life tend to raise more questions about the purpose of the administration.

    From one bumbling to the other, his policies are as fleeting as the uncertainties they generate. Labour strikes over fuel prices. While negotiations continue, there are more price increases. Fuel has no price that can be used for planning.

    Like every product, the price is whatever you pay when you purchase it. The President, the great economist, set up a 30-person economic team in March, boasting then that the results of the team’s work would soon by evident. Prices have maintained a steady climb in the past seven months of the economic team’s existence.

    A growing hustle is the high-level offering of explanations for Tinubu’s tardiness from those who are still proud of Tinubu, are expecting favours from him, are overwhelmed by the underwhelming performance of Tinubu or as has more often become the case want to be seen and heard as national leaders.

    Of all the incoherences that buffet the South East, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Benjamin Kalu, who relishes fawning Tinubu, is ferociously pushing a bill for the establishment of Bola Ahmed Tinubu Federal University of Nigerian Languages in Aba, Abia State. He is on the quest at a time the Federal Government cannot fund its universities. Why Tinubu University? The only answer you are likely to get is, “Why not?”.

    Kalu has scored high in a brewing battle for Tinubu’s attention.

    “The President is aware Nigerians are hungry, he knows Nigerians are suffering; he is a street person, he knows the street very well, he visits the FCT, he is not a President that is locked up in a room, whether kidnapping or not, he moves around in his car at night, he is very courageous,” former Abia State Governor, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu said on Channel TV’s Politics Today. What does Senator Kalu want from Tinubu?

    How has the President being on the streets of Abuja every night improved security, halted rising prices or made petrol available? Orji’s meddlesomeness is top grade.

    He is locked in a leadership contest with Benjamin over control of All Progressives Congress, APC, in Abia State. Orji easily assumed leadership of the party in the State, pressing his credentials as a former Governor in the same era, 1999-2007, with Tinubu, a ranking Senator, who was Chief Whip when Benjamin was a Committee Chairman in the House of Representatives.

    Orji was once the access to Tinubu. The tide has turned. Benjamin as the Deputy Speaker has more access to the President. Orji is watching his leadership being eroded by Benjamin who repeatedly reminds us that he is No. 6 in the national order of precedence. Orji is much lower in that ladder, without a distinguished ranking.

    Indications that Benjamin is the APC governorship candidate in 2027 do not sit well with Orji. They are both from Abia North.

    Their personal politics is at the centre of their frenzied defences of Tinubu that border on the ridiculous. Tinubu-pleasing will serve them well in the days ahead.

    Whether Tinubu goes to London or Paris would not have bothered anybody if the country was running well. There are (in)decisions that cannot be made in the President’s absence. Many of his aides and Ministers are obviously pounding above their weights. The President does not know some of them. Briefs are not clear. The administration’s policy thrusts are darker than the darkest nights of political intrigues.

    One thing is certain in the midst of the uncertainties – sooner than later Tinubu will be on a working vacation again. There is no point guessing if his choice destination will be London or Paris or both.

    Finally…

    HONOURABLE Minister of Works, His Excellency, Engineer, Dr. David Umahi has hired a couple of senior lawyers to stop a freedom of information enquiry that a journalist made on the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway. Does the Federal Government still have so much money that it prefers to pay legal fees instead of a simple answer to a simple question?

    THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has conquered shame. If not, after refusing to arrest Yahaya Bello, former Governor of Kogi State, it would not be making arrests. Bello, on the International watchlist, came on his own volution to EFCC, he was allowed to go until EFCC was ready.

    DOES anyone know what Nigeria earns from gold mining and other solid minerals? Are these earnings in the federation account?

    ISIGUZO is a major commentator on minor issues

  • We’re not greedy, just rich – Remi Tinubu tells hurting Nigerians – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    We’re not greedy, just rich – Remi Tinubu tells hurting Nigerians – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    ONLY a day after the price of petrol, a major liquid that moves Nigerian life was increased again – for the third time in a month – Mrs. Remi Tinubu, President Tinubu’s wife, had no soothing words for millions of Nigerians who were groaning under the harsh policies that the President announced while being inaugurated on 29 May 2023.

    The most crushing of the policies was the removal of subsidy on petrol which has adversely affected prices across all sides of life. Inflation is racing at a rate the National Bureau of Statistics cannot capture. The  people feel it. The pangs of stiff economic conditions are matched by the words and deeds of Mrs. Tinubu. When she speaks, her words are as annoying as the millions that the First Lady’s Office wastes on foreign trips at at time the economy runs partially on borrowed funds.

    Mrs. Tinubu was First Lady in Lagos State in the eight years her husband was Governor and a Senator for 12 years, during which nobody remembers her contributions, except an altercation with Dino Melaye on the floor of the Senate where unprintable words were thrown around. She requested for more security following Melaye’s threats to beat her up outside the Senate Chambers.

    Her penchant for saying annoying things could earn her an award for excellence in that sphere. Proud of her voice, desirous of being heard, and pointedly distant from issues, she delights in minimalising the sufferings of Nigeria with prescriptions that erect her clear indifference to the agonies the President’s policies have created in 18 months.

    She told us to plant our own food as food prices soared, claiming her vegetables come from her garden. Lucky her.

    Pump price of petrol has increased from N198 on 28 May 2023 to N1,030 by 9 October 2024. The President rationalises subsidy removal by saying it would free up resources that would be deployed to improve the economy.

    Mrs. Tinubu while speaking at the Palace of Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, on Thursday, said the Tinubu administration was too young, and could not be blamed for the nation’s doldrums.

    “We are just two years (actually 17bmonths) into our administration, we are not the cause of the current situation, we are trying to fix it and secure the future,” she told the gathering.

    “We know that subsidy has been removed but with God on our side in the next two years Nigeria will be greater than this. With your prayers in the next two years, we will build a nation for the future.”

    Even if the First Lady knows nothing about governance, she knows that most of those working with her husband cannot do much to change the situation. She knows too that the President’s indiscernible commitment to improving the economy is obvious in his policies, long absences and expenditures that rich countries do not make.

    The purchase of two new presidential jets, a new accommodation for the Vice President at N21 billion, the Lagos Calabar Coastal Highway, and the First Lady’s trips are drains on resources.

    Recourse to “the grace of God” and prayers are not standard policies, particularly when those resorting to the divine leverages have ungodly tendencies. Mrs. Tinubu’s supported thuggery during last year’s presidential election. One would have thought her exposure would redeem her from narrow views of that nature.

    Her insults continue thus, “With your prayers in the next two years, we will build a nation for the future”. How are we to understand  this forlorn hope?

    Our prayers will determine what happens. If we do not pray well, or hard enough, Tinubu’s continuous failure would be our fault.

    No matter how we pray, not minding our current plight, the results of our pleas to the Almighty would take two years to materialise, that is by 2026. In case Mrs. Tinubu has forgotten, by then we would be in the morass of the campaigns for Tinubu, who has done so well. His magic, strategic vision, sagacity, economic management skills and experience garnered from his days in international organisations would rescue Nigeria from certain doom. We would be reminded that only Tinubu could have steered Nigeria from a certain doom to an uncertain doom.

    More strikingly, Mrs. Tinubu has assured us that by 2026, “we will build a nation for the future”. Those expecting answers today or in two years, should perish the thought. Tinubu, according to his wife, is building for the future, not for you.

    When you complain about today, you would be left behind. Only those who understand “build a nation for the future” would realise that the presidential jets and ceaseless comforts the President provides for himself are parts of the nation’s future.

    We criticise the President in vain when we discuss today, the immediate. The President is in-charge  of the future. He has immersed himself in the future hence he has conceded the present to prayers and market forces.

    A quick reminder, the President graduated with honours in Economics from Chicago State University, was on the Dean’s List for most of his stay in Chicago. He recalls these achievements with glee. He was a most sought after student by international organisations that tapped into the breadth and depth of his mastery of Economics, Accounting, and Business Management.

    The nearest we came to a glimpse of the fecudity of the President’s fondness for the future is what we were told during the campaigns. It was revealed that he made his money through investments in stocks, and futures. We have Chicago State University to thank for helping deliver a President of outstanding managerial skill sets to Nigeria

    A minor challenge is that an undiversified economy for people of diverse tendencies like Nigerians can only be appreciated only in future, certainly beyond 2026.

    None understands the future more than the First Lady who has stood with President all these years. She may not speak with that Chicagoan drawl that is exclusive to the President, but knows him enough to speak with a confidence that without assurance hints at a co-presidency that has Mrs. Tinubu as a central partner.

    “We give glory to God for our status, myself and my husband, we are not greedy but we thank God for what God has done for us,” said the First Lady, who was in Ife to inaugurate a hostel and a 2.7 kilometer road donated to Ọbafẹmi Awolọwọ University, OAU, Ile Ife, by the Ooni of Ife. Both projects are named after Mrs. Tinubu.

    And we can ask her more question. Is your status the Presidency? Who dared accuse you of greed?

    The Tinubus are the most selfless politicians to have held public office since 1914. It must have hit the First Lady hard for her and her husband to be accused of greed, and without proof.

    “It is not common for rich people to get to this seat but I am grateful to God. We can not disappoint Nigeria and with the help of God, we are getting to the promised land in no distant time,” Mrs Tinubu promised,  on behalf of the President.

    Until her important speech in Ile-Ife, I considered things I have heard about Tinubu being rich as exaggerated speculations. I would not get into debates on whether he is rich or wealthy or a man of means.

    The First Lady could also have been hurt by the lack of public recognition of how rich she and the husband were. Jokes apart, have Nigerians studied the implications of the uncommonness of a rich Tinubu being President? The point should not be pushed further until the President obligises us his assets declaration form.

    Perhaps provoked by the insenstivity of Nigerians taking the “grateful to God”, rich presidential family for granted, the First Lady, a 1983 alumna of the then University of Ife donated N1 billion to the university’s development, doubtlessly, another investment in the nation’s future.

    These donations are remarkable and draw attention to the wife of the President and sources of her income.

    Mrs. Tinubu is not new to big donations. On Tuesday, 12 September 2023, the 500 families devastated by communal clashes in Plateau State got N500 million from her. She gave N500 million on Wednesday 18 September 2024 to the flood victims in Maiduguri.

    In three weeks, she has shelled out N1.5 billion. An applause is appropriate and more applause when Zacch Adelabu Adedeji, Chairman of the Federal Internal Revenue Service, FIRS, tells us how much Mrs. Tinubu pays as tax.

    We should not wait for the information from Adedeji before commending impoverished Nigerians, who were wherever they were on Wednesday to learn that transport fares had neared the skies with the increase in the price of petrol. How they made it home sprout stories that can fill books.

    They are not rich. They are not greedy. Are they being punished for their poverty that is rooted in poor policies and governments’ wastes?

    Mrs. Tinubu has answered the questions with the cocksure footedness of the President’s wife – Tinubu is only after the future, a future that would be clearer from 2026! Side-stepping the present to hasten the future is the major execution strategy.

    We have  Mrs. Tinubu to thank for revealing what could have been a secret for much longer.

    Isiguzo is a major commentator on minor issues

  • Nigerian Army: What does Ruth Ogunleye’s ‘potential mental health concerns’ mean? – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    Nigerian Army: What does Ruth Ogunleye’s ‘potential mental health concerns’ mean? – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    SOMEWHERE in Nigeria, a young lady is spending her days shading more tears, no thanks to the Nigerian Army which she has declared her “mentally ill” with such gusto that it would appear it was a badge of honour. She is Ruth Ogunleye, the female soldier who was discharged from the military for accusing a senior officer, Colonel I.B Abdulkareem, of sexual harassment.

    The allegation was weighty. She claimed in a TikTok video that she went public as a last resort since her complaints were ignored. The Army ordered an investigation.

    Major-General Onyema Nwachukwu, Defence Headquarters Director of Information, said, “The investigation concluded that Colonel IB Abdulkareem did not commit the offence of sexual harassment as alleged by Ex-Private Ruth Ogunleye. The findings were definitive and based on objective evaluation of the available information.

    “The Army maintains that Col. Abdulkareem is a disciplined, regimented, and firm officer who has upheld the values of the Nigerian Army throughout his service.”

    Ogunleye, Nwachukwu said, was recommended for discharge on medical grounds since 2022, but was kept in service to give her the best medical treatment possible and stabilise her before discharging her into the wider society.

    “I beg the Nigerian Army to post the outcome of the investigation on its social media platforms so that the whole world will know what truly transpired and what led to my discharge. I will be very grateful if my request is considered,” Ogunleye said, in differing with the conclusions of the Army.

    She also wants the Minister of Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, who prevailed on her to write the discharge letter, which Mrs. Kennedy-Ohanenye submitted on her behalf to the Nigerian Army.

    Ogunleye queried how her voluntary discharge was converted to a medical discharge.

    “I’m calling out the Minister of Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy. You’re not just a mother, you’re a woman everybody respects so much. Please come out and say things as they are. Ma, you requested me to leave the job, and I submitted my handwritten voluntary resignation letter to you, which you gave to the Army, and requested that they release me to your office. The psychiatric doctors were there when you intervened.

    “Come out and tell the truth, Ma. Thereafter, the Chief of Army Staff called me on July 1, where he told me he converted my voluntary discharge to a medical discharge because you wanted me to benefit from pension and other entitlements. How was I boarded out, and where is this mental illness coming from?”

    “The medical evaluation confirmed that Ruth Ogunleye was suffering from a condition that made her medically vulnerable. In light of this, the army, while fully capable of proceeding with disciplinary action for her acts of indiscipline and misconduct, opted to exercise compassion and leniency. Based on the medical report from the National Hospital and the advice of the Nigerian Army Medical Corps, the decision was made to shelve any disciplinary procedures that could have been brought against her, Nwachukwu told the media in Abuja on Tuesday.

    “Instead, the Army prioritised her health, understanding that she was in no position to continue with military service. She was subsequently boarded and discharged from service in June,” he said.

    The Army’s benevolence to Ogunleye, Nwachukwu said, included a 50 per cent disability claim which means that Ogunleye will receive a 50 per cent monthly pension for life though she did not serve up the 10 years required to qualify for pension.

    If for a moment we agree that the Army discharged Ogunleye on medical grounds, was it not an invasion of her privacy for her medical records to be made public? How does the Army make a statement of that weight against her and think that the 50 per cent pension (of how much) and not putting her through disciplinary procedures justified the allegation?

    What types of “potential mental health concerns” does she have? Experts say there are more than 200 types of mental health issues. Does she suffer from all of them?

    In Nigeria, “potential mental health concerns” is summed up as madness. Does the Army realise what it has done to the young woman?

    Congratulations, to the officers whose names were cleared. Their careers and names have been saved as they were served justice.

    Is slapping mental illness on Ogunleye her own justice? Can anything remove this stigma which she would bear for live, which would also be on her official records? Will the Army accede to her request that the report of the investigation be made public? Or is the report a secret document in the realms of a battle plan?

    Finally…

    THE result of the governorship election in Edo State was predictable and so were the allegations of rigging. Neither the age controversies on Monday Okpebholo, nor his educational (un)qualification would count. I think the Supreme Court has precedents on these issues after the strategy of snatching and running with the votes was admitted last year, in a judgement that was not meant to be understood. People of Edo State now “have their mineral resources and insecurity” while Adams Oshiomhole can present himself anywhere as the best strategist in selling a non-product.

    BOBRISKY should not commit suicide as he says he feels. His (I hope I got that) recorded prison experience, the money he said he paid officials of the Economic & Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to lessen his prison term, the fee he paid for pardon, and spending his prison days in a private apartment, are matters that are in their morning. Very Dark Man has given the recording wings by sharing it. The outcome of the investigations by EFCC, Nigerian Custodial Service, NCoS, may not lead to more than we know. We should enjoy the distractions.

    THERE are two possibilities with the upped noise about the dropping of Ministers – it could be good business to scare Ministers for them to “drop” something in order not to be dropped, or someone has invented a modest way to keep us busy until 1 October as I the date holds a magic wand to solve Nigeria’s problems or at least reduce them to challenges.

    WHICHEVER way the rising costs of food, petrol, electricity, housing, education, and the exchange rates are addressed, it cannot accommodate the rising lifestyles of those in power and the lowering resources of the millions out of the span of the largesse. Is there a solution?

    FIRST Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu donated N500 million to the Borno State Government’s relief fund for victims of the flooding in Maiduguri. First son, Seyi, and his brother Yinka, added another N500 million. I never knew they had such money. Our history needs to be updated to reflect this fact that for the first, the First Family of the Federal Republic donated N1 billion to a humanitarian cause, publicly. I wanted to state the equivalent in Dollar, but the remarkable instability of the Dollar against the Naira made that unnecessary.

    OUR Ministries of Agriculture, the 774 Departments with responsibility in the local government councils, and our research institutes, should come to the aid of ordinary Nigerians quickly. Foods are expensive, but the bigger challenge is that no matter how they are stored, they go bad fast. Nigerians are groaning under the pains of these losses as farmers, as consumers. There must be people who know what can be done.

    Isiguzo is a major commentator on minor issues

  • Defence Minister, EFCC Chairman deserve national awards of excellence – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    Defence Minister, EFCC Chairman deserve national awards of excellence – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    MINISTER of Defence Bello Matawalle and Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Olanipekun Olukoyede are appointees of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration whose exceptional performances qualify for national awards of excellence for notably extraordinary service. National Day, 1 October, should be a perfect day to let others know what they have done.

    Bello has battled bandits in the North-West in line with the strategic agenda of the Tinubu administration. Bandits are fleeing. Those who insist on fighting are dying to the superior firing power of the military. It seems that the decision has finally been taken to end banditry. Bravo Matawalle.

    Next is Ola, as those who claim to know him call him. The EFCC Chairman did something extraordinary on Wednesday. Even him cannot explain it, but it happened.

    After months of running after yahoo yahoo boys, possibly as his own understanding of the elevated fight against corruption, when corruption confronted him, he slunk away. He too deserves plaudits for working with the mandate of the administration.

    Once President farms out a portion of his administration to you, the understanding is that you should know what the President wants, deliver results, and he will back you to the hilt, no matter what the results are, not minding how public sees them.

    Tinubu sets the tune by lamenting the impatience of the public. It is doubtful whether the President reads the numerous statements in his name asking us, members of the public, to imbibe patience.

    Patience, like the administration’s use of rice, has become the elixir for any challenge the ‘strategists at work’ face.

    The virtues of patience could be why Matawalle has nothing meaningful to counter allegations his successor in Zamfara State, Governor Dauda Lawal makes that Matawalle as Governor quartered bandits in Government House, Gusau. Perhaps, the scent of bandits is still in the precincts where Lawal now lives. A Sokoto State cleric Sheikh Murtala Asada earlier posted video of Matawalle’s supposed support for bandits.

    Why is Lawal a known Matawalle opponent coming up with these allegations now? Their rancour over the 2023 governorship election in Zamfara was fought with all political and judicial weapons speared. Is it not time for Lawal to govern and  Matawalle to minister?

    Matawalle’s silence cannot be golden not with all the gold stolen in Zamfara and banditry providing cover. Matawalle must have something to say for himself lest he would be blamed for the indecisive pace of the confrontations with bandits.

    Governor Lawal was loud, very loud in the allegations. He does not seem to be a frivolous person. A PhD holder in Business Administration, he rose to an Executive Director in a first generation bank. He must have learnt something from courses he attended at London School of Economics, Harvard Business School, Oxford University Business School, Massachusetts, USA; Wharton Business School, Pennsylvania; Oxford University Business School; International Faculty of Finance, London; Fitch Training, London & New York, and Lagos Business School, as listed in his biodata.

    Callers who want Matawalle to resign, however,  forget they were not consulted when he was appointed. The uproar may get the attention of the President who is managing whatever occasioned his announced absence from the United Nations General Assembly.

    Olukoyede’s appointment as the Executive Chairman of the EFCC, was riddled with accusations that he was not qualified. He retorted with these qualifications, a lawyer, the Chief of Staff to the Executive Chairman, 2016-2018, and Secretary to EFCC, 2018-2023. “Olukoyede has 22 years of regulatory compliance consulting, fraud management, and business intelligence experience,” the Presidency said when it appointed him. Someone forgot to add he was the best man for the job.

    Excellence in excuses should be added to his credentials while he keeps fronting his anger at the enormity of corruption and wondering how Nigeria manages to survive.

    His infamous encounters with Yahaya Bello, immediate past Governor of Kogi State, paints a picture of Olukoyede as one who what he says is different from what he means.

    On 23 April 2024, in an interaction with select editors, he impressed them with these words that have remained empty, “If I do not personally oversee the completion of the investigation regarding Yahaya Bello, I will tender my resignation as the chairman of the EFCC.

    “I have arraigned two past Governors who have been granted bail now – Willie Obiano and Abdulfatah Ahmed. We would have gone after Bello since January but we waited for the court order.

    “If I can do Obiano, Abdulfatah Ahmed and Chief Olu Agunloye, my kinsman, why not Yahaya Bello?

    “A sitting Governor, because he knows he is going, moved money directly from government to bureau de change, used it to pay the child’s school fee in advance, $720,000 in advance, in anticipation that he was going to leave the Government House.

    “In a poor State like Kogi, and you want me to close my eyes to that under the guise of ‘I’m being used. Being used by who at this stage of my life?”.

    Suppose Kogi was not poor, would he have acted differently.

    Olukoyede, a pastor, left us without a date for “the completion of the investigation regarding Yahaya Bello” or the date of his possible resignation. That is how intentional he is about doing nothing about Bello.

    “The public is hereby notified that YAHAYA ADOZA BELLO (former Governor of Kogi State), whose photograph appears above is wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in connection with alleged case of Money Laundering to the tune of N80,246,470,089.88 (Eighty Billion, Two Hundred and Forty Six Million, Four Hundred and Seventy Thousand and Eighty Nine Naira, Eighty Eight Kobo).

    “Bello, 48-year old Ebiraman, is a native of Okenne Local Government of Kogi State. His last known address is: 9, Benghazi Street, Wuse Zone 4, Abuja,” an EFCC’s public notice of Thursday, 18 April 2024, that had a huge play in the media, stated.

    Note that a day earlier, EFCC operatives waited for seven hours outside Bello’s Abuja residence without making any attempt to raid the premises as they would have if ordinary Nigerians were involved.

    The seven hours were spent inconvenicing residents of the neighbourhood and harassing passers-by until Bello’s guardian angel Governor Usman Ododo arrived with his immunity which he extended to Bello.

    Olukoyede was bragging about what he would do with Bello five days after the inexplicable shameless performance of EFCC. He has in the past months made Bello appear the victim instead of a suspect.

    On Wednesday, 18 September 2024, exactly five months after Yahaya Bello was declared wanted, placed on watchlist of security agencies, as EFCC announced, Bello drove into EFFC headquarters in Jabi, Abuja. EFCC said his convoy was long and his retinue large.

    Bello waltzed in EFCC premises. He could as well have been the lord inspecting his manor. Everyone was obeisant or kept out of view.

    He was not questioned. He was not arrested. He was asked to go.

    Nobody strolls into EFCC headquarters. There are gates to pass. There are operators watching what goes on at those gates. Nobody inside the premises can leave of his own accord.

    Bello claims he was there for three hours. It would not have taken three minutes to take him in as he had “surrendered to EFCC”.

    One organisation tried to capture the duplicity that was involved.

    Campaign for Democracy, CD, President, Comrade Ifeanyi Odili, CD said : “It is unimaginable that the former Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, who, the same EFCC had declared wanted, who was placed on watchlist, who the Commission enlisted security agencies in Nigeria and Interpol to help fish out, walked into the EFCC premises on Wednesday, waited for about three hours and no arrest or interrogation happened.

    “Instead, they told him to go, that they would get back to him only to issue a laughable statement that he was still a wanted man. How can someone who brought himself to you still be at large?”

    Why did EFCC not arrest Bello?  Some accounts said he was not arrested because Governor Usman Ododo, Bello’s successor, was with him. Where was Olukoyede? It is very immaterial to the matter.

    “Earlier today, we reported the voluntary visit of former Governor of Kogi State, HE Alhaji Yahaya Bello, to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission office to honour the Commission’s invitation,” Ohiare Michael, Director of Yahaya Bello Media Office, stated in a media release.

    “The EFCC did not, however, interrogate him, as officials told him he could leave. We don’t know what this means yet. As we write, HE Alhaji Yahaya Bello has left the EFCC office”. Bello’s team is celebratory.

    Reports of gunshots on Wednesday night in Asokoro, Abuja, were blamed on EFFC’s siege to the Kogi State Governor’s Lodge. Imagine that commotion in an area with diplomatic residences?

    “Tonight’s attack was needless as the former Governor made himself available to the EFCC in their office for interrogation. The EFCC had no questions to ask Alh. Yahaya Bello in the morning, but suddenly, they are out to arrest him,” Michael stated.

    Suggestions that Matawalle and Olukoyede should resign are not in line with service protocols. Nobody resigns.

    If you are as ashamed as these situations make ordinary Nigerians, please join in proposing national honour of excellence for the duo.

    Cast your political constraints aside and apllaud these honourable Nigerians who have distinguished themselves, and excelled in unimgained ways, which is why ordinary people cannot understand their extraordinary accomplishments. They have done enough to keep their jobs – for as long as they want.

    Finally…

    WHAT use is a Peace Pact that is signed after months of election campaigns that decidedly spread anger, bitterness, and hatred across the land? Edo State is the latest example. In future, the pact should be signed before the campaigns start.

    ISIGUZO is a major commentator on minor issues

  • Like you and I, super bandit Bello Turji, wants justice – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    Like you and I, super bandit Bello Turji, wants justice – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    BELLO Turji is not an an ordinary bandit. He sets his rules, enforces them, while wondering why he is grossly misunderstood. If you ask him, he would tell you he is in search of justice.

    Why is it difficult for people to agree that he desereves justice? If justice does not come, can’t he do something about it? Would he wait indefinitely for justice even when nobody has promised him justice or fulfilled terms of earlier agreements?

    The banditry kingpin, of Zamfara, as one newspaper called him, has reaches that flank Sokoto, Kebbi, Katsina, and Niger States. There is no banditry incident in the North-West that does not have his approval, reports suggest.

    He is not apologetic, or remorseful over hundreds of innocent people that his followers have killed. He claims to be protecting Fulanis and their cattle. It is a battle in which he accuses Hausas of killing Fulani’s without consequences.

    Turji could go this far because Nigeria indulged him. Governors were holding meetings with him. He made promises that he never kept leading negotiators to lose confidence in him.

    But imagine negotiating with bandits and letting them back to their hideouts!

    Governor Aminu Masari was angry with a reporter who mentioned Turji’s name in an interview. “Dialogue? With who? Who is he to talk of dialogue or ceasefire? He is a liar. He can’t tell us peace accord and dialogue. To sit and discuss peace accord with who? In what capacity is he speaking and even calling for dialogue,” Masari said about Turji’s open letter asking for dialogue as Nigeria’s military pounded his positions in December 2021.

    Masari was used to negotiations with other groups but miffed by any suggestion that he should dialogue with Turji. “Go and tell those he (Mr Turji) killed their families to do dialogue with him and see. And he is even setting conditions,” Masari reacted to the Hause Service of Deutsche Welle, the German international radio station.
    In a March 22 interview with Sunday Trust, Turji sold himself as the victim of an uncaring society that paved advantages for Hausas to kill Fulanis and rustle their cattle.
    He complained about the vigilante group, Yan Sakai, which he said killed his family, took their cattle, which turned him into a bandit, for revenge.

    “What they were doing to us became unbearable. Why was it unbearable? He (the emir) knew, over a thousand cattle were taken away from us and taken to Yan Biki through Magarya, and then to Zurmi. They were held by the emir of Zurmi for two weeks. That day, six of our little siblings were killed.
    “Our parents went through all the courts but they couldn’t get back their cows. And they also caught my uncle and slaughtered him. Where then does a common person seek redress?,” Turji asked.

    Why is he still engaged in killlings, almost a decade after the incident? Turji gave a long explanation of the tribulations of Fulanis.

    “They are killing our people, and neither the government nor the security agents did anything; no highly placed person denounced what was being done. That is why we organised boys to go and kill those people, too; so that they will do something about it.

    “Soldiers killed our fellow herdsmen. They killed our people in their houses; innocent people. We informed the army captain at Sabon Birni. At that time, there was peace, and we used to inform them about the situation in the villages. The soldiers, just because of cornstalks, went about killing people. That’s why we organised and took revenge.

    “If the government tells them to stop killing our people, we too will stop the killings. If you buy even a measure of maize, they confiscate it; or if you buy a loaf of bread they will say you’re buying it for Turji. Is it only Turji who eats out of all the people here? This is heartless.

    “Yes, for example, some of our people get intercepted while travelling by vigilantes or corrupt policemen. They place a heavy levy on them that they must pay. For that, I must also impose a tax on other people.

    “The Yan Sakai snitch on us to the security agents who extort us. They arrest innocent people and lock them up and if you ask they say it is because of cornstalks. You will be fined N500,000 and you must pay for fear of going to jail.

    “I will swear with the Qur’an that the Emir of Shinkafi knows about this. All the district heads in Shinkafi know this; the district head of Fakai too knows this. My father was involved in a court case for seven years over cornstalks. Just cornstalks! And he went through all the courts, including the one in Abuja.

    “I swear to Allah that in our household we had over 100 cows, but we were left with just 20. You can confirm all that I have told you from the traditional rulers. I can bring the defendant (in my father’s court case); the case dragged on for years, since I was small and lasted till my adulthood. There is also nowhere that our parents did not go to get justice over the confiscation of our lands,” Turji told Sunday Trust.

    Turji sounds pathetic because people keep wondering for how long he would kill, kidnap, collect ransoms, impose taxes, to revenge his people’s losses.
    Aged, about 30, for how long would he continue the killings? How many more people would he kill before he stops? The deadline for his latest demand passed last Wednesday.

    Turji imposed a levy of N50 million on the people of Moriki, a community in Zurmi, Zamfara State. He confirmed the demand and the threat to kill more people if payment was not made by Wednesday.

    “Yes, we imposed a N50 million levy on Moriki, but they have killed our brothers and 11 herds of cattle. So calculate it, it’s 1,707… So call anyone in Moriki to prove me wrong,” Turji posted on a social media handle. His claims included that a herd of camels was also killed.

    Turji said Hausas were responsible for the killing of innocent Fulani people and their livestock. He vowed to continue waging war against the Hausas until the killing of Fulanis stopped.

    His latest threat is to ensure Hausas did not farm in the next farming season because of how they threat Fulanis.
    Are security agencies unable to bring Turji to justice? The Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, said Turji’s days were numbered. Turji would soon be captured, General Musa said.

    Many are hoping that happens. It is believed that a Turji arrest would weaken the activities of bandits on the North West flank and possibly open the zone up for legal solid mineral mining that could boost the revenues of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    There are intentional narratives to divert attention from illegal mining as a main factor that keeps North-West forests in everlasting conflicts.
    Turji would not talk about that.

    Finally…
    WHATEVER Governor Abdullahi Sule is doing in Nasarawa that draws droves of Chinese mining firms to the State, and makes them to sign Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with the solid mineral-bearing communities, taking the needs of the indigenes into consideration, looks good. If these agreements work, the devastations that mineral explorations cause would be vastly ameliorated. One of the most recent signings came with a “signature bonus” of $1 million. Half of the amount, about N800 million would go to the indigenous communities for projects of their choice, outside corporate society responsibility projects the company would execute. The State Government keeps the other half. Only Nasarawa seems to have discovered this revenue source.

  • How Kano council elections will compromise LG autonomy – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    How Kano council elections will compromise LG autonomy – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    NOBODY is talking about the damage that the Kano State Independent Electoral Commission, KANSIEC, is about to unleash on Nigeria’s local governments, and the large politics of Nigeria with the nomination fees of N10m for chairmanship candidates and N5m for councillorship positions.

    Some would say that how Kano runs its local government elections is a issue for the State. Even if it is a local election, whatever happens in Kano would have a fundamental impact on our local government system.

    The election billed for 30 November 2024 would be the first since constitutional amendments awarded enormous autonomy to local governments. The ruling party in Kano is doing all it can to keep Kano firmly in its control such that the 2027 elections will be more predictable.

    Here is a glimpse of the picture.

    If three major parties – New Nigerians Peoples Party, NNPP, All Progressives Congress, APC,  Peoples Democratic Party, PDP – field candidates in all the 44 local government areas as chairmanship candidates, KANSIEC would make N1.32 billions. Kano State’s local government councils have 484 Councillors.

    Again, if we stick with only the same three major parties, having councillorship candidates for 484 positions, Kano’s ekection body would earn N7.26 billion from selling the local government election forms. If we add the funds raised from the chairmanship candidates it would be a total of N8.58 billion from selling pieces of paper.

    In June 2024 monthly allocation from FAAC, 14 States got less than N8 billion each, just to pit in perspectivevwhat KANSIEC could collect from selling forms.

    In supporting the high imposed on aspirants by KANEIC, NNPP’s State Chairman Hashimu Dungurawa said the elections were only for people of high quality and sense of reasoning who could afford the fees.

    “These fees would enhance effective management of Local Governments in the State and allowed for only credible persons to vie for the seats unlike what obtained with every Dick and Harry contested.” He hints at exclusion.

    Executive Chairman of KANSIEC, Prof Sani Lawan Malumfashi, said the decision on the N10m, N5m nomination forms was final. His reasons are simply dictatorial.

    “There is no going back on the amount earlier. We are not going to change or reduce it, there is no going back. It’s already in our guidelines and already a law to us.

    It is not about encouraging money politics, everything is not the way it is now. We are also going to spend huge amounts, the materials and everything we are going to use must cost money so we are going to bear the cost too,” he said.

    Prof Malumfashi chose further rambling to justify the heist the Commission is staging in Kano State, and on its peoples. Does it cross his mind for once that the 2024 local government elections in Kano are basically meant to exclude the many who cannot afford the fees?

    There are more dangers. Who will invest N10m or N5m in buying forms in elections that chances of successes are limited by the facts that the umpire would almost dance beyond the tunes the appointing authorities beat?

    “We said very clearly that the inflation rate in this country has affected virtually everything because nothing in the market is free now. Kano State is one state equal to three with 44 LGAs, 484 wards, 11,022 polling units, over six million voters and we are recruiting over 30,000 ad hoc staff,” he gave as more justifications for the fees that are unknown to elections in Nigeria.

    Is it possible that KANSIEC is a revenue generating body? Does the State Government not have a budget for the Commission?

    The Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, does not charge fees for forms which it hands out to political parties for their candidates? From where did KANEIC borrow this law? What is the intention of the hefty fees if not to squeeze the small parties out of the contest? Local government elections are meant to reflect the pluralities of mass societies that are easily masked by pretences to oneness, false unity, and tendencies to truncate the will of others, no matter how minor they seem.

    What KANSIEC is doing on behalf of the State Government is very deep. It want to make nonsense of local government autonomy by excluding other parties from participation in the election. If it cannot achieve that fully, it would minimise their numbers to ensure that NNPP gains a clear majority that achieves two things in a swoop – return local government allocations to the State purses, and plant a firm feet on the race to the 2027 elections. The tenure of those to be elected in November will cover the 2027 elections. Kano’s 44 got N10.9 billion from FAAC in June 2024,  a huge amount that should tempt most State Governments.

    The 2027 tussle serves the winner more than a paltry N10.9 billions monthly.

    Malumfashi, a professor of Sociology of Bayero University, Kano, penned this piece on 21 August 2022 in The Nigerian Tracker: “The educated are the ones to defend, advance and promote education. Because they pursue education they know its values the most. It is therefore unthinkable to expect uneducated to come to the aid of education, no don’t even expect that. Between literacy and illiteracy are two historic enemies, so are between literates and the illiterates. While the former are living the later are dead. So mind not the dead!

    “The illiterates can’t and will not for they have the eyes but can’t see, the brain but can’t reason, the heart but can’t beat and the body but can’t feel. They assume that the head God gave you is mainly for fetching water, carrying loads and drawing woods oblivious of the fact that deep inside the head there exists brain.

    “Brain itself feeds on knowledge and knowledge is oftenly applied to recreate and transform man and his environment.” He was encouraging Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, to not give up on its strike.

    It behooves Nigerians who see the dangers the primed local government elections in Kano pose to local government autonomy, to seek judicial intervention to restore inclusiveness in the race.

    Let us use the “knowledge” that Malumfashi has provided to “recreate and transform man and his environment” in Kano and other States where Governors will imitate Kano’s pace.

    Finally…

    NIGERIANS are buying kerosine at N2,400 per litre. The biggest users of kerosine are those termed ordinary Nigerians who are most hit by the economic pressures. Why is there no subsidy on kerosine? We seem to forget that as kerosine becomes more expensive, the alternative would be our fragile forests. High price of kerosine would result in more deforestation as we go for more firewood. The consequence are more expensive.

    THE week has a pending tension as the police interrogate Joe Ajaero, President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, on weighty allegations of treason, felony, terrorism financing, cybercrime, and subversion. Police had warned last week, when it served Ajaero a one-day notice to appear before investigators that Ajaero risked arrest if he didn’t come. Ajaero’s lawyer Femi Falana stated in a letter that his client would be available on Wednesday due to prior appointments. He also said Ajaero needed details of the allegations to prepare his defence.

    Isiguzo is a major commentator on minor issues