THE DAY I FELL IN LOVE WITH PETER OBI

It was a bright weekday afternoon, some years ago. I was at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport in Abuja on my way to Lagos after an exhausting trip to the nation's capital. As I do, now and again, before walking into the Departure Hall, I sought to buy some "kilishi" from the omnipresent dry meat hawkers in front of the airport terminal, to take to my folks in Lagos.

While haggling with one of the kilishi sellers, I felt someone tap me on the back. I was wondering who it could be. I turned and discovered to my surprise that it was the Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi. There were no airs about him. No aide was accompanying him. He was not wearing any big agbada and was carrying his small suitcase himself.

In his falsetto voice, he asked, "Tony. where are you off to?" I told him I was going to Lagos. He said to me that he was flying to Enugu on his way to Awka. The Governor waited for me to finish my haggling with the kilishi seller. We then walked together towards the Departure Hall and bantered along the way. I offered to help him with his luggage. He smiled and declined, telling me that he was still young enough to carry such a small piece of luggage.

As we entered the Departure Hall, the Governor went to the back of the line and waited for his turn to process his boarding pass. He appeared unfazed by the commotion which his presence was causing as many people identified him and pointed excitedly at him.

As we both went to board our different airplanes, I fell in love with this gentleman who clearly understands that we are all passengers in the journey of life and that on our appointed day, each of us will be at the departure hall to fly off to our maker and at that point, it would not matter whether you are an "Excellency" or a janitor.

If you think that my experience with Peter Obi was a scene for a particular day, please bury the thought. Several people have talked to me about their individual encounters with Mr. Obi which are not significantly different from mine. I have also met Obi's wife, Margarete, a daughter of Akwa Ibom State. She carries herself with the same quiet dignity that her husband does.  

My reaction to Peter Obi is based on the fact that we seem to share the same ideals. With Peter Obi, you do not find the unnecessary bigmanism that clouds the average Nigerian in a position of power. He is as simple as simple can be. That disposition makes the undiscerning to underestimate him. Peter Obi is a quiet warrior. He will fight tooth and nail, using the levers of the rule of law to establish justice. He has survived coups upon coups upon coups.      

In 2003, Peter Obi contested the Anambra State governorship election as the APGA candidate. His opponent, Chris Ngige of the PDP, was declared winner by INEC. It took almost three years of battle in the courts for Ngige's purported victory to be over-turned by the Court of Appeal on March 15, 2006 and Obi to move into Government House, Awka.

After seven months of Obi taking office on March 17, 2006, he was impeached by the State House of Assembly on November 2, 2006. That was how his deputy, Virginia Etiaba, became the first ever female governor in Nigeria's history. Obi once gain went to court and was re-instated as Anambra State Governor on February 9, 2007 by the Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu and Etiaba handed power back to him.

Governor Peter Obi was once again forced out of office on May 29, 2007 as a result of the governorship elections said to have been won by Andy Uba. Once again, Obi headed for the courts contending that his four-year term won in the 2003 elections only started to run when he took office in March 2006. The Supreme Court agreed with him and Governor Obi was returned to office for the third time on the wings of the rule of law, putting paid to Andy Uba's ambition to be Governor of Anambra State. Of course, Governor Obi went on to easily win a second four-year term.  Obi's legal victories have become important precedents in the rules governing elections in Nigeria.

During the 2019 election campaign, as Vice Presidential candidate to Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi was revealed to Nigerians at a national level. He was different. His sassy grasp of issues and his confident use of data, figures and statistics to break down complex problems caught the eyes of many. In an environment, where most politicians simply hope, wish and pray, Obi plans with facts and numbers and not conjecture. He is clearly a digital leader in a digital age.

I have no doubt that Peter Gregory Obi will do very well as a candidate in the general elections. He connects well across the board: age, intellect, tribe, religion, etc. He has inspired an army of young Nigerians. His body language does not put anyone off. His big problem is with the PDP primaries. Anybody who has closely followed the party primaries in recent years knows that it is not about competence. It is a game of envelopes. Which candidate has the fattest envelopes with crisp dollar bills for delegates? Unfortunately, if you do not make it in the party primaries, you cannot become a candidate for the presidency.

I am not so sure that Peter Obi can match Atiku Abubakar or Nyesom Wike in a dollar war! Will that be the end of the dream of many Nigerians?

There are three Nigerians any of who will become President and I will go to bed, close my eyes and sleep well. Peter Obi is one of them.

Will the dollar warriors give him a chance?

See you next week

EVERYBODY WANTS TO SET UP A COSON!

On the 20^th of May, we will celebrate the 12^th anniversary of the official take-off of the operations of COSON which has become Nigeria's must successful and most admired copyright Collective Management Organization (CMO).

On the same 20^th of May, we will mark the 5^th anniversary of the commissioning of COSON House in Ikeja which continues to sparkle and which my communications team does not talk about without prefixing with the adjective, "magnificent".

Yes, we will continue to remind everyone that there is not one Naira of government money in the acquisition and construction of the "magnificent COSON House", no donor dollar or pound came from anywhere and that we acquired, built and equipped COSON House with no bank loan and no debt of any type. The sparkling national green colour of COSON House tends to suggest to some people that it is federal government property. No! COSON has never received any type of money from the government.

Fired up by our exhilarating slogan, "let the music pay!", COSON has in its less than 12 years of operation, distributed hundreds of millions of Naira as royalties to its members and affiliates. In April 2020, even with the major bank accounts of COSON frozen and the issues in court, COSON in a responsive and responsible manner reacted to the suffering of thousands of its members across the country under the pressure of the COVID 19 lockdown. The society became the first Nigerian institution to provide anti Coronavirus palliatives to its members at a time of great need. At first, =N=50 million was approved by the COSON Board for this purpose. An additional =N=22.5 million was later approved. The distribution was done in a very structured, professional and transparent manner which was widely celebrated by members of COSON. You know what? Bad belle people started writing petitions saying that it was a scam and nobody received the money. The fact is that nobody was paid in cash. There are bank records showing the payment of the Covid 19 relief to thousands of COSON members. The reality is that scammers believe that everybody is a scammer!

Suddenly, everybody wants to set up a CMO, to copy COSON! In the typical Nigerian fashion, all the people who want to make quick money think that they can replicate COSON. They want to turn the very complex system of collective management of copyright into their new "pure water" business in which everyone has his own cheap cellophane bag littering the streets.

Not too long ago, I was President of PMAN. With a driven team, clear vision and never-say-die passion, I worked 25 hours every day, eight days a week, to make PMAN a glorious national brand. Everyone across the world, from the President of the Federal Republic, governors, ambassadors and stars of all colours wanted to associate with and rub shoulders with PMAN. PMAN became a much-admired name and the toast of the nation and the continent. I sought for and obtained sprawling land in a glorious location in Abuja to build a magnificent PMAN Plaza. Indeed, the foundation of the PMAN Plaza was started. And the dam broke!

Every musician in Nigeria who could afford a rickety 'tokunbo' SUV began to see himself as President of PMAN. To be PMAN President became the burning ambition of a lot. It became too noisy and I walked away.

Do you know that at some point, there were four people simultaneously calling themselves PMAN President?! With all due respect, none of them understood the vision or the mission of PMAN. PMAN is a registered trade union but none of the 'Presidents' understood the Trade Union Act or even the PMAN constitution. We all can see where it has led PMAN. Sadly, the PMAN Plaza was never built. I have been told that the land was sold and the money was wacked!

In my service to the creative industry in our nation, I have always been driven by those almost forgotten words, "together we stand, divided we fall". The strength of PMAN came from the bringing together of diverse people across Nigeria to share in one vision. I toured nearly every nook and cranny of our country to make that possible. It required an incredible amount of work and heaps and heaps of personal sacrifice. The language was one of unity and not that of division and hatred. Today, when you go to any of the platforms opened in the name of PMAN and read the gutter language, the language of hate and odium that is everywhere, you must shudder. The ignorance on most of the issues is incredibly shocking.

Either as President of PMAN or Chairman of COSON, I have never gone into a meeting or discussions with any group without first getting a good grasp of the relevant laws, the rules, the issues, the statistics or the trends. I believe that every great leader must remain a student through his tenure with the appetite and humility to learn as much as possible. I wish to repeat that there is nothing worse than an ignorant leader.

I have repeatedly told people that you can never become rich by doing the kind of work that I do. What drives you must be the genuine love of people and not the love of self. You can never build a great trade union or an outstanding CMO if you are driven by self-interest or the interest of you and your handful of friends. When you lead a CMO or a trade union, you work for others and not for self.

I see all the people positioning themselves to launch new CMOs in Nigeria and ask myself whether they truly understand what it takes to make a CMO work. Do they know how many years of study, work and patience it has taken COSON to be where it is? Do they have the requisite technical knowledge? Do they know how many court cases that litter the road COSON has had to travel? Do they think that there is anyone out there with bags of money waiting to give to them just upon their asking? Do they think that there would be no new arguments, quarrels or disagreements within whatever contraptions they have in mind?

I look around and I see all the people who not long ago thought they would become super rich by becoming PMAN President and I ask, "how has it panned out guys?"

I know those who are desperate to grab COSON and do to it what they did to PMAN. Give them six months and they will sell COSON House. We will not let them.

Let me say again that setting up a CMO is not pure water business. If you want to be rich?... Please, don't go set up a CMO!

See you next week.

JUSTICE EKWO BURSTS THEIR BUBBLE!

There was significant tremor or you might say, an earthquake, among the Nigerian political class this week following the unexpected decision by a Federal High Court Judge, Hon Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo that Dave Umahi and Kelechi Igwe had ceased to be Governor and Deputy Governor of Ebonyi State respectively upon their defection from PDP to the APC which the court declared unlawful and unconstitutional.   

The immediate reaction of Governor Umahi was completely bombastic. His tirade against the judgement and the trial judge showed that the judgment had hit "bulls-eye" and that Umahi, despite any attempt to appear calm, was caught off guard and may be terribly scared. In his mind, "who is this Ekwo man who has the temerity to take away my ordained governorship?" His reported unprecedented and incredibly quick assembly of a battery of 18 Senior Advocates to head to the Court of Appeal shows without question that there is big fire on the mountain and a brigade of firefighters, at whatever cost, must be hired to put out this raging fire.     

I give kudos to NBA President, Olumide Akpata who acted like a man and instantly and masterfully called Engr. Umahi to order and reminded him that Nigeria is not a banana republic. We may elect governors but, in this land, we do not make anyone an emperor and no one should be above the law.  It is good to know that without wasting time, Umahi listened to wise counsel and publicly apologized for his caustic outburst against Ekwo. I wonder about the wisdom in his going to the Ebonyi State High Court to get an ex-parte order to try to thwart Ekwo's judgment

I had begun to think that nobody had the courage to call the rascals in our politics to order until Justice Inyang Ekwo spoke. I am a great believer in the rule of law. I consider the rule of law to be the foundation of the progress of any society. Don't give me roads, don't give me a railway, don't give me dams. Please don't give me a 3^rd Niger Bridge. Give me the rule of law and there will be many roads, railways, dams, 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th Niger Bridges, hospitals and schools and peace and order in the land. With the rule of law, there will be no abuse of power and none of the waste and humongous stealing and banditry going on around us.  

Justice Ekwo has truly burst a bubble as that which was being murmured around is now being discussed openly and vigorously as it ought to be in a democracy. Is it ok for our politicians to be acting like prostitutes without beliefs, principles and control, sleeping with one man in the morning and another at night and causing instability all over the place? All kinds of pocket lawyers and constitutionalists have become engaged in the argument.

The facts are not in dispute. In March 2019, Incumbent PDP Governor, Dave Umahi, nominated by the PDP, contested the gubernatorial election in Ebonyi to execute the programs and manifesto of the PDP. One of his opponents in the election was Sonni Ogbuoji who was nominated by the APC to contest the election and execute the programs and manifesto of the APC.

After the campaign, the people of Ebonyi overwhelmingly voted for the PDP giving Umahi, its candidate, 393,043 votes or about 82% of the total votes cast. APC's Ogbuoji got 81,703 votes or about 17% of the total votes cast. That should have been the end of the matter.

Alas in November 2020, Ebonyi people woke up one morning to hear that the man they gave their mandate to execute the programs and manifesto of the PDP had dumped them and defected to the APC purportedly with their mandate. There should not be any debate about the constitutional rights of Engr Umahi to belong to any political party of his choice. The question is whether it is proper for Umahi, having been elected on the platform of the PDP, to take the mandate given to him, to do an about turn and move to APC to implement the programs and policies of an opposition party roundly rejected by the people. Umahi was not the candidate of the APC. It was Sonni Ogbuoji!

When the people of Ebonyi went to vote, on the ballot paper, they saw the symbols of different parties and not the photograph of any candidate. There are no independent candidates in Nigeria. 

 

In the news, it is reported that Justice Ekwo sacked Umahi as Governor of Ebonyi State. I beg to disagree. The way I see it, Umahi sacked Umahi! On the day he decided to defect, he resigned his position. The sacred mandate given to him by Ebonyi citizens is not his car, his cell phone, his laptop, or watch to take wherever he goes. It is not his personal property to be taken wherever he chooses. Umahi was elected as governor, not an emperor. Upon his decided resignation as governor, he also lost his immunity and was rightly sued for purporting to be that which he no longer was.

I know that there are other opinions on this matter. I respect those opinions. As this case is likely to end up in the Supreme Court, I would hope that there is no attempt to run out the clock and that the courts would expedite action on this very important matter which might help determine whether the Nigerian democratic experiment survives or not. But for now, anyone else planning to be an Umahi must be asking himself questions.

 

To me, the law has to make sense. Some of the people who are shouting "no!... no!" today will if the shoe is on another foot, be speaking differently.

As Nigerians look in consternation and disbelief and the nation staggers from one deep crisis to another, there is now no doubt that most of our politicians in the executive and legislative arms have failed us badly. There must be other men and women of courage in the judiciary who like Inyang Ekwo, can call the bluff of the political class and save this nation for our children. There must be other men and women in the professions like Olumide Akpata who are prepared to stand up to be counted and say, "enough is enough"

Until I see these others, Inyang Edem Ekwo and Olumide Akpata are my Nigerians of the year.

See you next week.

WHAT’S UP ON WHATSAPP TODAY?

Hey guys! It is the social media age. Practically everyone with a smart phone is now a writer and everyone is a publisher. Before now, there was one very important guy between the writer and the publisher. He was king of the newsroom. He was called 'Editor'. His job was to make sure that whatever the public read was as much as possible factual and that there was balance in the story that his newspaper told. Every great newspaper was built on its credibility. It was the job of the editor to ask the critical questions: What? Who? Where? How? Why? I used to consider editors the most powerful men and women in any nation. 

 

That day is gone and all that appears to be history. Very few people these days get their news from any newspaper. Very few watch TV except for Telemundo, Zee World, African Magic and Premier League. People do not even talk anymore. They 'chat'.  Everyone is on WhatsApp, the "wicked" app owned by Mark Zuckerberg who also owns Facebook.

 

Twenty-four hours a day, news, photos, videos, gospel, lies, sex and mischief continue to stream in on WhatsApp. If you are not careful, you get hooked, swallow it all and suffer the constipation.

 

On WhatsApp now, there is a platform for your village, your town, your old school mates, your church group, your colleagues at work, your drinking partners, the pepper-soup joint you belong to, etc. Every day, you must check all the platforms. It is never ending. People are begging you on WhatsApp… people are toasting you on WhatsApp.

 

WhatsApp, the free messaging and video calling app is a leveler. It is the app you turn to every morning before anything else. It is said to be used by over two billion people in more than 180 countries. The users include students, and their teachers, nurses and doctors, plumbers, vulcanizers, market women, taxi drivers, lawyers, pastors, choir girls and prostitutes, politicians and voters et al. WhatsApp is so simple that anybody can use it. It is reliable, cheap and private, so you can easily keep in touch with anybody. WhatsApp works across mobile and desktop even on slow connections, with no subscription fees.

 

The incredible thing about WhatsApp is that it knows no boundaries. You can be reached on your very same number anywhere on earth at practically no cost. Your personal messages and calls to anyone on WhatsApp are said to be end-to-end encrypted. In other words, no one outside of your chats, not even WhatsApp, can read or listen to your jive. So, you can gossip as much as you want and tell as many lies as you want and curse anybody as much as you like and be as raunchy and naked as you ever dreamed of on WhatsApp and the world will continue to rock on! What of the famous WhatsApp video calls? Hmmmm! You can see everything and practically do everything and its no one's business.

How else do you know whether "super cop", Abba Kyari is today in police cell, with the NDLEA or has joined his guy, Hushpuppy in a beautiful FBI cell in America if you are not on WhatsApp? Tell me how you will know whether Bobrisky in old age, has changed his mind and has decided to go back to being a man.

 

If you are not on WhatsApp, how do you know who the Jagaban Borgu, the Asiwaju of Lagos and the man whose ambition is to rule Nigeria, is visiting today? How do you confirm if he is truly peeing in his pants?  

 

Can you believe that for several months, I was begging my guy, Aubameyang to bang in some goals for my dear Arsenal and he was running around the football field like a chicken with long neck and Arsenal was gradually heading for relegation. Now, Auba walks away from Arsenal without saying "Bye-Bye" and is slamming the goals for Barcelona and expects me to be happy. You think I am talking nonsense? It's all on WhatsApp!   

 

Go to any social gathering these days and everybody is typing on his little machine, 'snapping' photos, posting or 'chatting'. Everyone is spreading information for good or for evil with all the biases that human beings have.  There are no rules and anyone can be as nasty as he wants to be, as raw as he chooses to be and as hateful as he decides to be.

 

Last week, the world woke up to the horror that Russian President, Vladmir Putin had ordered the full military invasion of his neighbouring nation of Ukraine. The bombing, the killing, the dyeing, the horrendous destruction is all there on WhatsApp.

 

WhatsApp with its two billion users has become so terrifyingly powerful. It has become clear that Mark Zuckerberg has in his hands data that can be deployed to elect leaders anywhere and to remove them if it becomes necessary. WhatsApp is no longer just an app, it is an army. Do not forget that Donald Trump, who no serious person gave a chance, conquered America with a smart phone with the help of his friend, Vladmir Putin. To regulate a behemoth like WhatsApp or not and if yes, how, are questions that the world must struggle with.

 

As we adjust to a new world, a world in which there soon will be no newspapers as we have known them, no checks and balances as we have known them, no rules or regulations as we have known them, how do we survive?

 

By the way, have you checked your WhatsApp today?

 

See you next week.

BADLY NEEDED! PROOF OF GOOD HEALTH FOR ALL NIGERIAN PRESIDENTIAL CONTESTANTS

During the week, many Nigerians were shocked by the bombshell and traumatizing allegation by the nation's official drug agency that the much-celebrated police super cop, DSP Abba Kyari, is in reality not the crime burster he was hailed to be but a common criminal and an illicit drug pusher riding rough shod over Nigerian laws and milking the cocaine trade for cash. The development has made me and many other Nigerians numb and raises many-many questions about how things have fallen apart with the security and crime fighting system in our country. 

While Nigerians were still trying to deal with the Abba Kyari calamity, a satanic video went virile on social media in which the Jagaban Borgu, the Asiwaju of Lagos, the bullion van political fixer and the nation's most publicized presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was said to have publicly urinated on his trousers during a visit to the palace of the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona. I do not know if the story attached to the widely circulating video is true or made up by mischief makers or those who will go to any length to make sure that our dear Asiwaju does not become the Emperor of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

If the story is true, no one should laugh at the former governor of Lagos or ridicule him. Anyone can be sick and anyone can die. Besides, Bola Tinubu is at the age when millions of men have prostate, bladder or urinary challenges. That is nothing to be ashamed of.   

The true health status of the Jagaban however can no longer be his personal secret if he truly wants to be an elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. What applies to Tinubu applies to every other presidential candidate, young or old. Nigerians have a right to know.

With the bevy of problems confronting our nation today, Nigerians deserve a president who is not just mentally alert but physically fit. He almost has to be superman to deal with our many problems. It will be sacrilege, after our repeated experience, for our country to be led by any man or woman who constantly needs to travel to see a doctor every other month. The cost to our nation has been huge.

How many people remember how Nigerians were taken for a ride before the April 21, 2007 presidential elections? There was serious speculation across the country that the PDP candidate, Umaru Musa Yar' Adua, was in poor health and not fit for the presidency. The propaganda machine of then President Olusegun Obasanjo, the main sponsor of the Yar' Adua for president project, went on over-drive. We were assured that nothing was wrong with the soft-spoken former governor of Katsina State who went on to be elected and sworn in on May 29, 2007 to succeed Obasanjo.

Not long after, things fell apart. President Yar' Adua was twice flown to Germany for emergency medical treatment. That did not do the trick as thing got worse.  On November, 23, 2009, Yar' Adua had to be flown to a hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where he spent many months fighting Pericarditis.

This left Nigeria in a huge constitutional crisis, as the President did not transmit power to his Vice President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan before departing the country as required under section 145 of the 1999 Constitution. Goodluck Jonathan refused to perform the functions of the President insisting that he had not been given such powers. In effect, for several months, Nigeria had no leader and the country drifted dangerously while political jobbers and a Yar' Adua cabal enjoyed the confusion.

It took the famous "Doctrine of Necessity" by the National Assembly led by David Mark to formally make Goodluck Jonathan Acting President on January 9 201O. A very sick Yar' Adua was quickly smuggled back into the country at dead of night on February 24, 2010 by those who were unhappy with Jonathan holding the power of the presidency. Our terminally ill President was never seen in public again. Sadly, he died at Aso Rock two and half months later on 5^th May 2010 at the age of 58 and Jonathan became President.

We have had a similar situation with our current leader, President Muhammad Buhari, also from Katsina State, who was sworn in as President on May 29, 2015. He took his first medical vacation only eight months after coming to office. He spent six days in London between February 5 and 10 in 2016. He embarked on his next medical trip on June 6, 2016. He was away in England for close to two weeks as he sought treatment for an ear infection. On and on, the President has travelled for medical treatment that most people have lost count.

 

A conservative estimate shows that nearly one year of the President Buhari's seven-year tenure so far has been spent in London on medical trips. Several times, it has been speculated that our President has passed on. No one who truly loves Nigeria can say that this is ok. With the array of issues that daily seek the President's attention, it is not rocket science to see how the hopelessness that has afflicted Nigerians has been exacerbated by this situation.

 

INEC has set down a number of conditions for interested candidates which include age, educational qualification, tax clearance, etc. Nothing is said about the health status of our potential leader. Considering the price Nigerians have paid in recent years, that ought to change. We have a right to know what the medical condition is of anyone who seeks to lead us. Please, this is not an age issue. After all President Yar' Adua died in office at a considerably young age of 58.

The law may need to be amended to statutorily address this concern. Until then, the candidates themselves should convince us that they are mentally and physically fit for the job. The health status of every candidate is on the ballot.  

See you next week.

ALL OVER AMERICA!

Things are bad in Nigeria; very-very bad. But let's face it: our problem with darkness did not start with the Buhari regime. For many years, we have shouted 'NEPA!' in celebration of the odd one hour of light after many hours of darkness. Nigerians have had to wrestle with the pandemic of corruption for as long as I can remember. The difference is that in the past, we had hope that things would get better. These days, we have no hope. We trust nobody and believe in nobody.

Buahri may be the last Nigerian leader to gain the people's trust. Those who trusted in him are dazed. I don't think that any serious Nigerian would say that Nigeria has become better, more efficient or less corrupt as a result of Buhari's much promoted intolerance for inefficiency or his War Against Corruption. With instability, blood, death and tears everywhere?

Without doubt, we have had too many incompetent people in too many positions in our country for too long. We even fought a fratricidal war which left thousands of our children with horrific kwashiorkor and hundreds of thousands of our brothers dead. We have had military coups on top of military coups and military rule of all colorations. Now, civilians have taking over the coup plotting.

While the Chinese were working on 4G and 5G, Nigerians invented 419 and we have lived through it. Despite all of these, Nigerians always had a kind of swagger. We looked at anyone from anywhere boldly in the eyes and dared whoever that person is to take us on. If you pushed a Nigerian, he pushed you back. We had little doubt that we were a special breed made to face whatever challenges life threw at us. We went into the football field to battle everyone tackle for tackle. Our Eagles were not just Green, they were Super!

Have you noticed that these days your folks in Europe and America know more about what is happening in your village than you in Lagos or Abuja? It is from Europe or America that you get the midnight phone call informing you that a certain old relation of yours in the village has gone to rest with his ancestors.  With the cell phone revolution and the almighty WhatsApp, it now appears a lot easier and cheaper for folks in my village to call New York or Houston than to call me in Lagos. If the truth must be told, there is a reason why it makes more sense to first call the people 'overseas' than the strugglers in Lagos. That reason is spelt DOLLAR. Tell me, how many dollars or euros can you send home from Lagos? So, the calls go to where the money is. Who wants your dirty Naira that cannot buy anything? Just reminds me of the Toyota Camry brand Nigerians call "Big for Nothing"!

Just watch those who come out of the bank after a WESTERN UNION transaction. They are usually taller than they were when they walked in. The American dollar is exhilarating. It intoxicates like a combination of whiskey, brandy, rum and ogogoro. With some of those crisp green notes in your back pocket, you can almost invite the devil to a fight.  Maybe that is why after the recent horror of Afghanistan, Americans are itching to go and fight the devil elsewhere in Ukraine.

Recently, circumstances made me visit my Nigerian friends living in several cities in the United States. Everywhere, I found entire Nigerian families – children, father, mother, uncle, auntie, grandfather and grandmother. They have all run away from Nigeria.  In some places, it looks like the whole clan has migrated and if they can get visas for their dogs and goats and cats, they would ship them out too. 

Almost every Nigerian I met has lost that Nigerian swagger. It does not matter whether they have the green card or the American passport, they don't talk with the usual Nigerian bravado anymore. They talk like citizens of a failed state. They whisper. They are scared. Most of them left their villages in search of the golden fleece. Their intent was to go back home at the end of the day to where they are not mere statistics but proper citizens. Now, it is beginning to dawn on them that they are never going anywhere and may never be more than mere statistics for the rest of their lives.

Some of them from my part of the country who have built exquisite mansions at home have abandoned their mansions to cobwebs, rats, cockroaches and lizards. They know that some eagle-eyed kidnapper is permanently scanning their homes to see when the lights would be turned on. If for any reason they must return home, they must first make a sizeable budget for a small army of security men and keep several millions in a holding account as ransom for the day the kidnapper strikes. You know that the greatest success of all used to be to go home to celebrate your success. Not anymore.

All over WhatsApp, notifications of "unknown gunmen" raiding police stations and killing policemen on duty at roadblocks, with gory photos that tear at your soul, have become part of your daily consumption. Tell me, if the Police station in your hometown is not safe, where then is safe?

In every city I have travelled to in the US, almost every Nigerian I met wanted to talk to me. In fact, I was treated like someone from the war front. The words they use to describe Nigeria are shocking: 'nightmare', 'wasted', 'disgraceful', 'tragic', 'hopeless', etc. They seem to be taken aback that I plan to go back to Nigeria after a few weeks. Truly, some look at me as if something has gone wrong with me and I have signed a contract with suicide. "You mean you escaped that horror and you want to go back?!", I am asked over and over again.

The frightening thing is that most of my best friends of the 1980s and 1990s now live in America. Among them are some really brilliant folks that the Nigerian nation would need to remake itself. Unfortunately, nothing is happening at home that suggests to them that home wants them or that the land of their new struggle has not become their home.

There was the period just before the 'Ghana must go' episode when our brothers from the Republic of Ghana used to walk with their heads bowed because their leaders had turned their great nation into a place where no decent person could have a decent life. Many of them ran to Nigeria to do menial jobs. To all intents and purposes, the average Ghanaian man lost his manhood. That appears to be history.

Nigerians are today walking around with their heads bowed. Our leaders have turned our great nation into a place without hope. What is this that is happening to the Giant of Africa and its people known for our hitherto unstoppable self-belief? I have always been a great believer in the destiny of our nation. I am however bewildered by what I see. Has our iniquity caught up with us?

See you next week!

ONE MAN ONE VOTE – IS THAT THE SOLUTION TO ALL OUR PROBLEMS?

The entire democracy project hangs on an intriguing concept: all men are born equal. In other words, the great Aliko Dangote with his zillions of Naira, many trucks and thousands of employees has the same voting power as his cook. In a democracy, the opinion of a Bill Gates whose intellect created the incredible Microsoft software that drives almost all of human activities has the same weight as his janitor. Mark Zuckerberg, the mastermind of Facebook who today also owns the mega platforms, Instagram and WhatsApp has no voting power stronger that any of his thousands of employees across the globe.  A Barack Obama with his political sagacity and deep experience in world affairs casts one vote and that vote is in no way superior to that of a homeless man begging for coins in front of Washington DC's Union Station.

I was talking with a big player in the present Nigerian government. I had asked him why the government does not appear to listen to what the Nigerian intelligentsia says, especially as elections are coming close. He looked at me, sighed and said mockingly, "the government does not need the votes of the intelligentsia to get to power. Their vote is too expensive! Go to the motor park and the marketplace with some bags of rice and salt and some Naira notes and all the votes you are looking for are there with very little grammar" You see why the bullion van concept has taken hold?

Donald Trump, the defeated, twice impeached and loquacious former president of the United States who could not keep his hands off his twitter handle and who tells blatant lies about practically everything, was elected by Americans in a one man, one vote process, even if it is the electoral college variety. Should that not make you think? With his incredible megaphone, the Donald who today practically owns America's Republican Party, set out to destroy nearly all the institutions that has made America special for decades.

Across the Atlantic, Donald Trump's former friend, Boris Johnson who wears his hair in a scattered fashion like Mr. Trump is doing everything to scatter the rules and decency for which British Prime Ministers have been known for ages. Boris Johnson is also a product of the democratic process.

The world must watch out! What has happened to the Americans and probably the British should be a warning to humanity as to how dangerous, romantic terms such as 'self-determination', 'independence' and 'sovereignty' have become in the hands of demagogues with the skills to manipulate innocent people around the world looking for someone to blame for their frustrations, difficulties and shortcomings. In a system of one man one vote, all that is required is to introduce hate, religion, race or ethnicity and voila, it is really not that difficult to aggregate the votes of the uninformed and frustrated and unleash mayhem everywhere. One man one vote does not mean one good man one vote. It is does not mean one intelligent man one vote. Just ask yourself how a person as appalling as Donald Trump insulted everyone and manipulated his way to the most powerful office in the world. Come to think of it, was Adolf Hitler not a product of the democratic process?

Back home, we are faced with the same challenges. I have little doubt that if a one man one vote referendum is held in Nigeria's South-East today, it will not be difficult to get enough people to vote for an independent Republic of Biafra. The concept is romantic. I am a proud and unapologetic Igbo man. I am however not sure that my people have given sufficient thought to the cataclysmic consequences of Independence. For instance, where do you fit the millions of Igbo men trading in every nook and cranny of Nigeria? What do you do when your market of 180 million people suddenly shrinks to 40 million? What happens to the investments, properties and deep ties that the Igbos have developed across Nigeria? Where is the guarantee that the suspicions and persecution that we complain about in Nigeria will not be replicated in Biafra or even made worse with some Igbo groups lording it over others? There is no question that we love the concept of Biafra, a romantic land full of milk and honey that we will enjoy to the exclusion of others.

The problem with romance is that when you are in love, you see only the good things about the one you love. Almost always, you are blinded to the fault of your lover. Think of it: all the thousands of people in divorce courts were once in love. Why do you think there is so much divorce?

What applies to the Igbos applies to our brothers and sisters in the Niger Delta who want to blow up the country because they want 'self-determination', 'independence' and 'sovereignty'. The Yorubas who keep dreaming of an Oduduwa Republic may be in the same boat. Investigate and you will find that always there are puppeteers pulling the strings and hoping to deploy the values of one man one vote to achieve their pecuniary objectives.

I hope you do not come to the conclusion that I object to the concept of one man one vote. No! I am a democrat, but this human system has its flaws and we must be conscious of those flaws. Democracy can be hijacked and is being hijacked with dire consequences. The world must watch out! Recently, with the quantum progress that China is making, people are beginning to pay serious attention to the Chinese political model so derided not long ago. As a student of human progress, I have a duty to ask the question: is one man, one vote the solution to the many problems we have?

See you next week. 

HOW MANY BULLION VANS DOES YEMI OSINBAJO HAVE?

At a time when many will swear that the Nigerian nation is burning, those who believe that they own Nigeria are busy flexing their muscles. They have recruited all those who can write tolerable grammar to write for them or who can speak without any comma or full stop, to tell one and all how they are the greatest men in the history of mankind and why God has ordained them to rule Nigeria in 2023. Please note that they want to rule Nigeria, not lead Nigerians.

If you are a publicist or a professional noise maker and nobody has engaged you yet, then you have a big problem. You might need to go to your village and ask the oldest man in the clan the reason for your misfortune. Check Facebook, WhatsApp and the other popular digital platforms and you will find that anybody who can write is writing. On radio and television, anybody who can talk is talking. Oh! you will read and hear so much bad English and bad reasoning and a lot of nonsense. The noise makers are already very hard at work and yet, the battle is just beginning!

During the week in Dreamland, I met a Jagaban campaign man whose name I do not remember. He swore by the name of his long dead grandmother that it is either the Jagaban or no one else in 2023. The Jagaban campaign man is certain that the Jagaban is the only one who has the money to match anyone else naira for naira, dollar for dollar, bullion van for bullion van on the way to Aso Rock. I tried to argue with him and he looked at me and asked, "who bankrolled Buhari's election?" He then put it to me that Buhari could not have been President without the Jagban! I asked him what business the Jagaban does from which all this big-big money is coming, and he told me that I was asking a stupid question. "Don't you know that the Buhari government is waging a very transparent war against corruption in Nigeria. Have you heard that the EFCC arrested or asked the great Jagaban any question? Is that not enough for you to know that the man is clean?"

I was confused. Since money is the determinant, I asked the Jagaban man why should we not surrender the presidency to Aliko Dangote? After all, Aliko is reputed to be the richest man in Africa. He is in a position to match anyone naira for naira, dollar for dollar, bullion van for bullion van on the way to Aso Rock?  It occurred to me that it is possible that Aliko does not like the architecture of the Aso Rock mansion, So I asked, "if not Aliko, what of Abdulsamad Rabiu, chairman of BUA Group who is now reputed to be the next richest man in Nigeria?"

The Jagaban man reminded me that the presidency is supposed to be zoned to the South. "Not the South-East?", I asked. He quickly answered, "You don't get it. We are not talking about buying and selling. Who in Igbo land has any serious bullion van?". "Ok", I then asked, "in that case, what is wrong with Mike Adenuga said to be Nigeria's No 3 richest man. Is he not a from the South?" The Jagaban advocate stared at me in disbelief and said, "You do not understand the kind of money we are talking about. It is not the kind of money you get by selling recharge cards or sugar or fuel or cement. Counting machines can count that kind of money and only a foolish man sweats to make that kind of money and spends it on the way to Aso Rock. We are talking about real money. The money you need to get to Aso Rock cannot be counted.  It is inexhaustible. Apart from the Jagaban, the only person in Nigeria who can try with that kind of money is Atiku. You would think that after the many billions he shelled out four years ago, Atiku would be broke. No! Atiku is ready to do it all over again. But, be reminded that this battle has been fought before. In 2015 during the APC primaries at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos, Atiku tried to flex his muscles with dollars. When the Jagaban arrived, the music changed. It became clear that dollar pass dollar. That was how Buhari won the nomination and Osinbajo joined him as VP"

I then quizzed the Jagaban apostle, "talking about Osinbajo, I hear that he wants to throw his hat in the race". The Jagaban man laughed and looked at me almost in pity and asked, "How many bullion vans does Yemi Osinbajo have?"

The Jagaban man told me that I do not understand Nigerian politics and that I should go and face my showbusiness. According to him, Nigerian politics is different from the kind of politics you read in textbooks. According to him, Nigeria has about 200 million very-very hungry people who have been pauperized. They have no patience for promises of what you will do for them in four years. They want food now and not grammar! And whoever brings food now is their God.

Hmmm… I consider politics to be show business expressed differently. If an orchestra must deliver a performance worthy of sustained applause, all the instruments must be finely tuned and all the instrumentalists in harmony. The carriage and body language of the performer is critical. I have never met Yemi Osinbajo but I like his carriage, body language and the intellect he exudes. He seems to be a thinking man. It is the same way I like Peter Obi, Pius Anyim and a few others. I verily believe that we need to change this bullion van mindset if we are going to lift millions of our countrymen from the despair and hunger they are consumed in.

I will not be surprised, despite what the Jagaban man says, if the Osinbajo orchestra hits the right notes because I know some of the key figures in the group. One of the V.P.'s top advisers is an incredibly brilliant Nigerian called Ade Ipaye. Ipaye was Attorney-General in Lagos State. Ipaye taught me the Law of Contract at the University of Lagos, became my course supervisor and we developed a warm relationship. While he was AG in Lagos, there was nothing in the carriage of this unassuming and incredibly efficient gentleman that would suggest to you that he was one of the most powerful people in Lagos. Ipaye once walked into an event I hosted in Lagos. There was no big agbada, no aide following him, no airs, nothing! He is a thinking man.

Anyone who has followed the career of Laolu Akande, who has been managing Osinbajo's communication would know that he understands the value of timing, rhythm and drama in communication. It may be politics but it is also showbusiness.

But let us not get ahead of ourselves. Is Osinbajo in the game? With or without any bullion van, Osinbajo would face daunting challenges. Does he have the heart?

(TO BE CONTINUED)

See you next week.

ON THE WAY TO ASO ROCK

The battle has begun. Tinubu has gone to Aso Rock to announce to Buhari the secret everybody in Nigeria has known for so long. Bola Ahmed Tinubu is ready to roll out his many bullion vans, his ubiquitous foot soldiers and his fast talking and fast writing PR men. In a never-before-seen display of shock and awe, Tinubu plans to grab Aso Rock villa with both hands. There will soon be posters, banners and buntings everywhere proclaiming Tinubu as Nigeria's potential savior. Television adverts and intricately crafted documentaries will also fill the air.

If the Asiwaju team thinks that their principal is the only one dreaming dreams of becoming the Number 1 citizen of Africa's biggest nation, then they may not be as sharp as they ought to be. With the problems that Nigeria has, you would think that nobody would want Buhari's job. No! The guy who resides at Aso Rock determines who gets what and who keeps what. In the next couple of weeks, we will hear many tales of those who are itching to deploy their own bullion vans and foot soldiers in the theatre of war and match Tinubu, bazooka for bazooka. Many more people will visit Buhari. Many will leave believing that they have the blessing of the old man. I laugh…

The spiders, crocodiles and vampires on the way to Aso Rock are mind boggling. Beyond the bullion vans, there are intrigues, deceptions and betrayals that no screen writer can contemplate. To enter Aso Rock, even by means of a coup, takes everything.

I knew MKO Abiola very well. Despite our different ethnic origins, he treated me like a cherished younger brother and spoke to me on many intimate issues. Indeed, I had a multiple entry visa to his Ikeja home. Most people remember the late MKO for his prodigious wealth, I remember him for his prodigious intellect. The man was as sharp as 'Crocodile Narcet'. Before the computer notebook was made public for worldwide use, Abiola had a motherboard and processor in his head. Abiola remembered everything and forgot nothing. He could outthink anybody at dizzying speed. Yet when it came to Aso Rock, Abiola with his massive intellect, unsurpassed contacts and many-many bullion vans thought he had got the keys to the villa. Na lie! As he tried to open the gate, he found that the keys had been changed. Abiola died fighting for the keys he thought he got fair and square.  

Atiku Abubakar lived in the very next building to the Aso Rock mansion. As Vice President, he knew all the pathways and back doors to the villa. Atiku Abubakar has deployed money, lots of it; has travelled far and wide on different vehicles; compromised with people he otherwise would not speak with. At times he lost his way, retraced his steps and began the journey again. When Atiku Abubakar began his walk towards Aso Rock, the villa was very close but the more he has walked, the father away the villa has become.

Ask Peter Odili how many truckloads of money he off loaded and how many miles he travelled on his way to Aso Rock. Odili did not even see the gate of the villa. He was given an admonition and turned back at Eagle Square.

Anyone who tells you that he knows who will be the next president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a big liar. Not even Buhari knows. Believe me, there will be many twists and turns in the tale. There is no question that Tinubu has enormous resources of men and money. He has built a significant war chest. He obviously has done well for himself in Lagos. His success might turn out to be his albatross. There are many who are scared of Tinubu and are hell bent on opposing him. They point to how Tinubu easily became the "Emperor" of Lagos. They don't want him to be the emperor of Nigeria.

Who would have forgotten the tale of the last governorship election of Godwin Obaseki in Edo State. It is reported that many in Edo State told Tinubu to return home as Edo is not Lagos with the hashtag, #edonobelagos, trending. Will a new hashtag, #naijanobelagos begin to trend? Is the recently reported ambition of Tinubu's "boy", Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo to succeed Buhari real? Or is it a diversionary measure, a dummy?

If in 2008 someone told you that one Goodluck Jonathan would become President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, would you not have told the person that he is drinking too much 'ogogoro'? Goodluck Who? Twice, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan walked through the Aso Rock gate and occupied the place, something Abiola could not do, Atiku has still not been able to do and Odili could not do. I repeat that anyone who tells you that he knows who will be the next president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a big liar. There will be many quarrels and disagreements within the parties. There will still be many decampments. No conclusions yet, while are writing their scripts, God is writing His.

The horror movie, bigger than anything ever created by Hollywood, Bollywood or Nollywood, will be on show at theatres all over Nigeria this year and early 2023. It will be intriguing, that is if we do not get a Jerry Rawlings who jumps in and says, "enough is enough with this madness in Nigeria!".

See you next week.

“EVERYBODY PLC”

During the week, I read that a prominent Nigerian Senator has asked the Buhari government to kill all the bandits and members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), whom the distinguished senator believes have rendered Nigeria ungovernable.

Upon reading the senator's 'well thought-out' solution to what has become an absolute nightmare, I did not know whether to laugh or to cry.  His simplistic belief that Nigeria can shoot or kill its way out of its current quagmire is a good example of focusing on the symptoms and not the disease.

There are fundamental questions that need to be asked: How did Nigeria get here? How did Africa's largest nation suddenly descend into a society where the lives of its citizens appear not to be more valuable than the lives of house rats? How did blatant violence become the language of our debates?

Nigeria did not become bad because of Buhari but our nation has certainly become much worse under him.

There was great hope that Buhari's well promoted reputation for zero tolerance of corruption and indiscipline would envelope the country and sanitize it and give Nigeria the moral biceps to make great progress and achieve development for her people. Buhari's reputation was earned as a military man with a top-down command structure. To say that the President has let a lot of people down is to put it mildly. I have several friends who were die-hard Buhari supporters who today shake their heads in amazement at what Nigeria has become.

The fact is that Buhari would not have become President without the APC. While the APC assumed the posture of a political party, it was in reality a patch work of many different individual economic contraptions and expectations who brought together the huge resources of men and money to make Buhari president with the intent to ride on his presidency. After Buhari became President, the contraptions and expectations remained. The President as a non-military officer has not exhibited the political skill or ability to mould the different contraptions into one group with an overriding principle and philosophy pursuing progressive national objectives. There is also the ethical question of whether he can bite the fingers that fed him even when it is clear that the fingers fed him with stolen food. The foot soldiers have remained loyal to their original leaders who have to provide the funding to maintain them, most times by exploiting the system. The consequence is that there are so many PLCs within the APC. The matter was not made easier by the significant health challenges the president faced at the beginning of his tenure.

When Buhari became President, there was palpable fear across the country that any abuse of the system would be visited with stringent consequences. To the surprise of many, Nigeria has witnessed wall-to-wall abuse of the system with little consequence. While the economic pain in the land has become almost unbearable for much of the population, those close to the APC appear to leave in a different world.  The result is that Nigeria has lost the ethical or moral fibre that propels a nation.

Sadly, today, many-many Nigerians are working for themselves. They look around and conclude that sacrificing for the nation or their employers is nonsensical and that there is no price to pay for going in the opposite direction. Your average policeman is not interested in security of lives and property. He has no moral revulsion or distaste in collecting money from any criminal. To all intents and purposes, he is running his own PLC. Your average custom officer or civil servant is running his own PLC. Don't be surprised that your P.A. is running her own PLC with your resources and facilities and that your driver is doing Uber on the side with your car.

There is also the reality that the take home pay of the average Nigerian worker cannot take him home. He therefore sets up his own PLC to make ends meet.

The bandits who operate from forests across the nation clearly feel no moral revulsion or distaste for what they do. They do not feel worse than those they regard as bandits operating from state houses, national and state assemblies or from ministries and government departments all around the country who are not serving the nation but running their many PLCs. Some of them even feel like that they are more than day Robin Hoods. At the moment, if any of the bandits in the forest is killed, more bandits will readily emerge. Sadly, the present ethical and moral centre of the Nigerian nation promotes banditry. It is the same way no one can kill off all the IPOB fanatics. Everyday, more fanatics join the movement because the conditions that created the movement continue to simmer.

The vacuum in Nigerian leadership has permeated down and spread across the nation. The young men who are sent to fight Boko Haram wonder why they should sacrifice their lives for those they believe are living their lives to the fullest in a nation where in churches, mosques, courts, hospitals, universities, etc, etc, the Everybody Plc is booming. Sad.  

See you next week.