DOES BUHARI REALLY KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON?

DOES BUHARI REALLY KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON?

 

Was Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El Rufai, just boasting or was he telling the truth? It is reported all over the place that El Rufai claims to be the one who told our dear President, Muhammed Buhari, that the bandits, who now terrorize the people of Nigeria at will, are threatening to kidnap our President, the Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces and a once proud General of the people's army!

Are you not scared as I am that it took the Governor who is in Kaduna to give the President who is in Abuja this "intelligence" report already well-known by every Nigerian who owns the ubiquitous smart phone?  The damned information is everywhere on WhatsApp!

Am I stupid to ask if the President does not have a smart phone? Is it that none of his coterie of aides gave him this information that is both so personal and incredibly scary? Is the President so isolated or he in a kind of bubble that he is in the dark as to what is going on around him? Maybe he does not like bad news and nobody around him has the courage to give him what must be the "baddest" of news.  

My good friend, the Hon. Minister of Information, may express the view that the bandits are just making noise, doing "shakara" or engaged in cheap propaganda. Not long ago, I would have joined the Minister and with absolute confidence beat my chest that whoever had the temerity to even suggest that the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the largest black nation on earth; the man who commands the biggest army in Africa, can be kidnapped, must have drunk a huge amount of "ogogoro".

Please pardon me to confess that I am not so sure anymore and I get the impression that there are millions of my country men who are scared like me. To my mind, the Kaduna State governor appears to have made the matter worse.   

No one in Nigeria has so repeatedly sought to be President than Mohammed Buhari. At the end of the day, millions of Nigerians, in trust, gave him what he had continually asked for. I know many of my friends who would have taken a bullet for Buhari because they had absolute confidence in him. For instance, my good friend, the great Nigerian journalist, Azuka Jebose Molokwu who now lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, was a 100% Buharist. Azuka, who takes no prisoners, was on every platform campaigning for Buhari. My friend, Patrick Harry Doyle, the well know broadcaster and actor, was a Buhari man, through and through. I know that none of them is an APC man or got "shishi" to throw everything for Buhari.

At some point, a creative Nigerian had to divide the populace into "Hailers" and "Wailers". The "Hailers" were the Buhari enthusiasts and those opposed to him were called "Wailers". Does Mr. President know that a great percentage of the Hailers, in the millions, like my two friends, Azuka and Patrick, have become Wailers? Why? It appears that Buhari spent much of his energy campaigning to be President. By the time he got the Presidency, the energy was gone.

I believe Nigerians voted for Buhari because they wanted someone who does not take nonsense. They voted for the former army general reputed to have zero tolerance for corruption. Nigerians installed a President they believed would take on Boko Haram and deal insurgency a deadly blow. There was the feeling that the constantly smiling incumbent President, Goodluck Jonathan was too soft to confront Nigeria's problems. Sadly, Buhari's reputation has unraveled before our eyes. No amount of packaging or public relations can cover up what is obvious.

I watched the last APC convention on TV with dismay. Our anti-corruption President, the leader of the APC, was there with his wife, sometimes smiling, as the orgy of corruption played out on national television. Each of the "aspirants", many of them government officials, had bought a party form for the obscene amount of one hundred million naira. Even our Central Bank Governor, a man who should be rarely seen, was said to have bought the form and lined up a large number of vehicles for the presidential campaign! At Eagles Square, delegates were being corrupted with huge amounts of dollars to the knowledge of practically every Nigerian. All the speakers were praising the President in a terrible case of public masturbation.

The chickens have come home to roost. In this month of July 2022, the consequence of the reckless dollarization and the reckless national debt have exploded before our eyes. The Naira has taken a dangerous plunge towards a bottomless pit.  The 5-month-old ASUU strike does not appear to have any resolution leading to mass demonstrations across the country. How do you tell the lecturers that there is no money after they have seen the APC carnival of dollars?

In this month of July, 2922, a former Accountant-General of the Federation was ordered to be remanded in prison custody for allegedly stealing the dizzying amount of more than N109 billion naira and two of Nigeria's major airlines, Aero-Contractors and Dana Air, packed up business and lost their wings. Very soon, only few Nigerians will be able to fly as airline tickets hit the roof and the aviation industry groans over the skyrocketing price of aviation fuel. Travel by road is of course not an option as bandits are everywhere waiting for you.

Suddenly, I am not sure whether Aso Rock or the Central Bank is safe. Everything appears to be unravelling and Nigeria appears to be on free fall. With the diving of the Naira, inflation is galloping like crazy. A decent loaf of bread is now at least 1000 naira! You are left asking: Who is in charge?

As a regular Nigerian, you are left terribly confused. You are scared like hell. You don't have a convoy. You don't have any police security, no Army, no DSS, no Secret Service, not even a catapult! Yet, you must go out every day, completely exposed, in search of daily bread.  If the President's convoy is not safe, Kuje Prison is not safe, the bandits can kill men of the Presidential Guard at will and threaten to abduct the President, who then is safe in Nigeria?

I don't get scared easily but right now, I am scared!  Does Buhari know what is going on? If not for Tobi Amusan, I don't know how I would have survived this week.

See you next week.

THE 30 BISHOPS OF CONTROVERSY!

 Much of the discussions and cartoons on many Nigerian social media platforms in the last couple of days have been about some purported bishops and clergymen said to have stormed the unveiling in Abuja of Kashim Shettima, the running mate to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Presidential candidate of the ruling APC in the 2023 Nigerian general elections.

You would think that with the many problems Nigerians are desperately wrestling     with, the main discussions today would be about the exploding national debt on the neck of Nigeria; the 5-month-old ASUU strike keeping hundreds of thousands of our young and vulnerable citizens out of school and in the devil's workshop; the unprecedented collapse of the national security system turning every Nigerian into an imminent candidate for kidnapping, banditry, untimely and violent death.

In a week that a former Accountant General of the Federation was ordered to be remanded in prison custody for the alleged stealing of the uncountable amount of more than N109 billion naira, you would think that Nigerians will be talking about the corruption that has run amok; under a government that pledged that if elected, would deal with corruption; the galloping inflation that has wrecked the livelihood of many Nigerian families, the rapidly dwindling value of the national currency, the dizzying unemployment that has rendered many Nigerian citizens hopeless and maybe, the total collapse of morality and values in the country.  

In a week that two of Nigeria's major airlines, Aero-Contractors and Dana Air, packed up business and lost their wings and the price of diesel is destroying businesses left and right, the discussions have been about who recruited the "unknown" bishops, where they came from, what churches and dioceses they represent, how they were dressed, how they all arrived at the same time and dispersed in the same direction and more and more and more. Why?

What happened at the Musa Yar' Adua Centre in Abuja during the week was in every sense, a political comedy of errors. It was a self-inflicted injury. In football parlance, it was an own goal. The APC team was playing with two right footed central defenders and to compensate, they had to pay too much attention to the left side of defence, leaving a gaping hole on the right side and the result was a devastating goal!

I very well remember 1993 when the SDP fielded a presidential ticket of Moshood Abiola and Babagana Kingibe, both Moslems and won the support of most Nigerians. This writer supported that ticket 100% and campaigned for the ticket. There are those who today refer to that event to justify the Tinubu/Shettima ticket. They make a very big mistake. Bola Tinubu is not Moshood Abiola and 2023 is not 1993. Moshood Abiola was a towering figure who had built strong bridges across the length and breath of Nigeria and enjoyed the love of Nigerians. By 2023, 30 years would have passed since that historic event. In 1993, there were no unknown herdsmen, no RUGA, no Boko Haram and no government where almost all the dramatis personae belong to one religion. In 1993, there was reasonable trust that a Nigerian government would be fair to all Nigerians irrespective of tribe or religion. That trust is gone!  

The uproar that has visited the announcement of Kashim Shettima as the Asiwaju's running mate ought to be a warning of that lack of trust. The die-hard supporters of the Jagaban Borgu are promoting the narrative that the uproar is fueled by ethnic and religious bigots and that the APC presidential candidate has no need to correct course. I am neither an ethnic nor religious bigot. My late best friend was a Moslem from Kano State. His name was Mustapha Amego. I have friends from nearly every tribe in Nigeria. Even though I am a Christian, several times I have been to mosques and joined my Moslem brothers to worship.

I have heard it said that the Moslem/Moslem ticket of Tinubu and Shettima would easily win the 2023 elections because of the APC structures. Those who take such a position miss the point. The objective for people like me, is not winning elections but governing for national progress so Nigeria will get out of the present rot. How will the ticket successfully govern a nation with such major fault lines and deep suspicions?  

The event at the Musa Yar' Adua Centre in Abuja during the week is very revealing. It clearly shows that despite all the braggadocio, there is recognition that something is not quite right with the Tinubu ticket as it is composed. The Musa Yar' Adua Centre in Abuja is not a big venue. The event during the week was not a Bishops Conference. To invite 30 bishops to a political event, create space for them at such a small venue and celebrate their presence, shows that the criticism is biting and that there is a significant attempt in the Asiwaju camp to neutralize the critics.

The problem is that the show backfired badly. And has become a big joke across the nation. Both the writer of the script and the producer of the show got it all wrong. One credible bishop would have done what the terribly dressed and badly choreographed motley of jesters could not do. May be the script writer thought we needed a bishop for each of the years between 1993 and 2023! In politics, perception is everything. Has any lesson been learnt?     

 

See you next week.

THE NATION BURNS, THE PRESIDENT GOES TO SENEGAL & PETER OBI SCORES A GOAL!

 

This was a week that has truly tested the faith of Nigerians in their nation. Out of the blues, the news spread like wildfire that the advance convoy of the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, an army general, had been attacked by bandits in his home state of Katsina. There are confusing stories of a Police Commissioner losing his life in the attack.

As a regular Nigerian, you are left in terrible shock. You are scared stiff. You don't have a convoy. You don't have any police security, no Army, no DSS, no Secret Service and you must go out, completely exposed, in search of daily bread.  If the President's convoy is not safe, what then is safe in Nigeria?

On the same day, while you are still chewing the bitter kola, from the pit of hell, another crazy news story spreads. The nation's best known prison facility, the Kuje Correctional Center in Abuja, the nation's capital, where many of Nigeria's most high-profile prisoners are kept, had been bombed and the gates flung open for hundreds of die-hard criminals to flee and disappear into thin air to further traumatize an incredibly traumatized nation.

Kuje is on the way to Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport in Abuja. So, our dear President, on his way to the airport, gets a photo opportunity of inspecting what is left of the prison. Thereafter, he drives to the airport in another convoy, boards a presidential jet and flies off to Senegal! While the nation is practically burning?!

I watched my good friend, Femi Adesina on television. He had been given the unpalatable job of explaining this oddity. I felt sorry for him. What was so important about the trip to Senegal that the Vice President or any of the coterie of ministers could not be drafted to handle? In these days of very sophisticated digital communication, could our President not have addressed the Senegal Conference from Abuja? Pardon me, but I felt like our president did not grasp the magnitude of what had just happened. In fact, if he was already in Senegal and heard such news, should he not have left the conference and headed home immediately?

Suddenly, I am not sure whether Aso Rock or the Central Bank is safe. Everything appears to be unravelling. Somebody said to me that our President was scared and was running away from the problem. I don't know what to believe anymore.

Politics aside, President Buhari owes Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Mr. Peter Obi immense gratitude for what appears to be calm in the midst of a crazy storm. It is not the heavy rain that is keeping our country relatively cool. Things could easily have got out of hand. In the desert of hopelessness and despair that have enveloped our nation, Peter Obi is providing that oasis of hope. He has kept a lot of young Nigerians busy counting the months and days when our nation will be free of the locusts.

Like it or not, the young people of Nigeria are presently living on hope. Hope is their breakfast, lunch and dinner. The are busy on their smartphones sending out messages and composing "Obidient" graphics, poetry, skits and songs… waiting for what next Peter Obi will say to them … waiting for the day of their true independence from both the machine gun bandits and the bullion van bandits.     

The Peter Obi project clearly has the hand of God in it. If Peter Obi had become the PDP presidential candidate, he would never have got the traction he is getting now. God set him free from the PDP. If Peter Obi had got Rabiu Kwankwaso as his Vice-Presidential candidate, it may have been seen as politics as usual.  God set him free from Kwankwaso. Just yesterday, Peter Obi scored a big goal. His unveiling of a dainty, young and obviously well-schooled Yusuf Danti Baba-Ahmed as his running mate, is resonating across the board. The photogenic duo is different. They remind one of the unassailable Bill Clinton/Al Gore ticket in the U.S. This is at the time that Atiku Abubkar is having a huge Wike headache with his choice of Ifeanyi Okowa as his Vice and the Jagaban appears not to have decided whether he will have a Muslim/Muslim ticket or a Muslim/Christian ticket.

Those in the professional political industry who said that Peter Obi had no structure and will not get anywhere must be wondering what is going on.

Peter Obi is today the super-duper-star of Nigerian politics. He is the conversation everywhere. The attack dogs are having a hell of a time shooting down this moving target. Those trying to divide young Nigerians on the basis of tribe, region and religion, are failing. Seven months to the presidential election, everybody is talking about Peter Obi. The videos of his speeches are trending on Facebook, WhatsApp Instagram and everywhere else and the young people of Nigeria are gulping every word he says. The just extended massive registration for PVCs is essentially driven by young 'OBIdient' Nigerians who have suddenly come to the conclusion that to end the misery, desperation, joblessness and hopelessness that has engulfed the nation, they must change the politics. I predict again that the turn out for voting in 2023 will be unprecedented. The structureless campaign is now on auto drive.

As our Muslim brothers get ready to celebrate the Salah, it should be clear to everyone that the Almighty has not given up on our nation. Hope is in the air. Barka de Salah everyone!

See you next week.

 

 

ATTACK DOGS HAVE BEEN UNLEASHED ON THE PETER OBI REVOLUTION. WILL IT WORK?

When the former Anambra State Governor, Mr. Peter Obi suddenly dumped the Peoples' Democratic Party for the hitherto unheralded Labour Party and became LP's presidential candidate, I wrote in this column that it may have been Nigeria's greatest political masterstroke of a century.

There were however many in the professional political industry who did not agree with me. They were emphatic that Peter Obi cannot get anywhere. According to them, without the backing of the present corruption infected structures provided by the PDP or the APC, you cannot be the president of Nigeria.

That was weeks ago. I am not sure that they are that confident anymore! During the week, Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, a PDP man, observed that Peter Obi has today become the super-duper-star of Nigerian politics. He is the conversation in the Nigerian political environment. More than nine months to the presidential election, everybody is talking about Peter Obi. The videos of his speeches are trending on Facebook, WhatsApp Instagram and everywhere else and the young people of Nigeria are gulping every word he says. The just extended massive registration for PVCs is essentially driven by young 'OBIdient' Nigerians who have suddenly come to the conclusion that to end the misery, desperation, joblessness and hopelessness that has engulfed the nation, they must change the politics. Watch out: the turn out for voting in 2023 will be unprecedented.

Our traditional politicians who may have been sleeping with the confidence that their structures will deliver victory for them, may have woken up. They kind of sense that something unusual is going on in the political arena which must be confronted and that they ignore the Peter Obi revolution at their peril. Clearly, the word has gone out: "We either shoot down this Peter Obi guy or he will ruin our political investments" The stakes are very high.

So, the attack dogs have been unleashed to shoot down the Peter Obi Revolution. If you are familiar with Nigeria's traditional media landscape, then you know which dog belongs to whom and who let the dogs out! This writer knows the traditional Nigerian media landscape and the dramatis personae.

The propaganda war is on and the attack lines are clear:

Number One- Peter Obi must be promoted as an ethnic candidate with an ethnic agenda and stopped from being established as a national phenomenon.

Number Two: The credibility of Peter Obi must be constantly challenged and he must be publicized as a habitual liar with a movement based on lies.

Number Three: The story of Obi's achievements as Governor of Anambra State must be re-told to establish that he was a failure in government.

Number Four: The frugality for which Mr. Obi is known and which is one of his major selling points must be reinterpreted as incurable stinginess.

Number Five: Continue to repeat that Peter Obi has no structure and that the election cannot be one on social media, with the aim of destroying the confidence of his supporters.

Do not be surprised if you read tomorrow that Peter Obi never went to school, is terribly corrupt, morally depraved and sleeps with children or animals.

That is the nature of political propaganda. The big question is whether it will work this time. The attack dogs face major challenges and here are some of them:

Number One: With the advent of social media, the media landscape has dramatically changed. No one can monopolize information anymore. Everybody with a smartphone is now a publisher and everyone can be instantly challenged especially with the army of supporters of the Peter Obi movement being social media savvy.  

Number Two: Peter Obi is extremely likable. He rarely attacks people. While the attack dogs are attacking him, he is attacking Nigeria's problems and winning new converts. He is a moving target. A great example of his political sagacity is his masterful handling of Father Ejike Mbaka's insults.

Number Three: While the attack dogs have to be "mobilized", the Peter Obi movement is on auto-pilot with the thousands of "OBIdient" Nigerian youth who are NOT asking for any "shi-shi" propelling the movement.

Peter Obi has been revealed to Nigerians at a national level as being different. His sassy grasp of issues and his confident use of data, figures and statistics to break down complex problems has caught the eyes of many. In an environment, where most politicians simply hope, wish and pray, Obi appears to have plans with facts and numbers and not conjecture. He is clearly a digital leader in a digital age.

I repeat that even with the attack dogs, 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 and his body language does not put anyone off.

The obedient supporters of this exciting new movement must stuff their ears to the attack dogs who will continue to tell them that Peter Obi cannot make it because he has no structure. Let it be repeated that while it is possible in the bullion van system to buy two thousand delegates, no one has enough dollars to buy the close to 50 million Nigerian voters that may be voting in 2023.

The young people of Nigeria, the same age group that drove the

PETER OBI! PETER OBI!! OMG! EVERYBODY IS TALKING ABOUT PETER OBI!!!

 

Reverend Father Ejike Mbaka of the Adoration Ministry in Enugu is a super star, trading tackles with everybody and fearing nobody. In the Catholic Church, nobody is quite sure how to manage him because his followership is significant and passionate. Among his followers that he refers to as "Adorers", Mbaka can do no wrong.

A few days ago, Father Mbaka got his fingers terribly burnt. The otherwise free-speaking reverend father with massive following, spoke himself into trouble. Mbaka had proclaimed that Peter Obi will not smell the Nigerian presidency because he is a "stingy man". Wow! The eruption from his followers and beyond was volcanic! Even Bianca Ojukwu, the ex-beauty queen widow of the late Ezigbo, Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu, had to get into the fray as the Catholic church distanced itself from the opinion of Father Mbaka.  

In less than 48 hours, the otherwise incredibly stubborn Mbaka had to eat his words, engage in reverse gear and openly beg and unreservedly apologise to Peter Obi and his followers "for forgiveness". He is smart enough to know that if he did not, things will fall apart and that his verbal misfire might lead to the end of his beloved Adoration Ministry. The super star had tried to take on a super-duper star!   

Governor David Umahi, before now, was of the opinion that he was in complete control of the people of Ebonyi people. He was so sure that whatever he told them, they would do. His self-belief was such that not too long ago, he dumped the PDP under which he was elected and defected to the APC in a failed attempt to be President of the Federal Republic. During the week, he made a very big mistake. Umahi told the people of Ebonyi State not to waste their votes in the next election by voting for Peter Obi. Many in Ebonyi State reacted very angrily to Umahi. Some threw verbal missiles at him.

There are many in the Nigerian political space who are still sleeping. Lying on their beds, they see the Nigerian political architecture to be the same it has always been. Their calculus is based on what happened in 2015 and 2019. The professional Nigerian political contractor believes that the building in 2023 is going to be built on the architecture he knows. When he talks about structure, he is talking about how many governors are available to him, how many local government chairmen will be working for him and how many bullion vans are packed, stuffed with naira notes to "mobilize the electorate".

He should wake up and look through the window. While he was sleeping, Nigeria may have changed. As Ejike Mbaka and Dave Umahi may have learned during the week, the falcon is no longer listening to the falconer. The governors and local government chairmen may not have the same powers they used to have. Peter Obi never said one word in reply to Mbaka or Umahi. In fact, he was not in the country. He was in Egypt studying their electric power system. The people instantly spoke for Peter Obi. They did not need to be "mobilized" by anybody. They did not wait for a bullion van to visit them.

The very powerful statement, "WE NO DEY GIVE SHI-SHI!" is trending. As it takes hold, the power with which the professional Nigerian political contractor has held the Nigerian people hostage under the two leprous legs of our recent bullion van democracy, would have vanished. "WE NO DEY GIVE SHI-SHI!" is the battle cry of a revolution.   

The average Nigerian young person who has not been given one dime by anybody will today beat his chest and proudly tell you that he is "OBIDIENT". I dare say that this kind of movement has never been seen in Nigeria.

The guys who earn their living by being the errand boys and journey men of our traditional politicians are confused. They desperately want to put out the Peter Obi fire. The trouble is that the more they try, the more they pour petrol on the fire! If you are on Facebook or WhatsApp, you may be forgiven to think that Peter Obi has paid Mark Zuckerberg a huge sum of money to acquire these social media platforms. Almost everything on the platforms is about Peter Obi. If a post is not from someone who is professing his love for Peter Obi, it is from someone attacking Peter Obi. The difference is that the people supporting Peter Obi are numerous and the people attacking him are few. These attackers have to post many-many times to try to get any kind of traction and you cannot but feel that they are hired, tired and frustrated.

While the traditional politicians are hiring consultants and paying big money to get their messages out, many young people are creating free motifs, composing new songs, doing video skits and free concerts to "TAKE NIGERIA BACK". During the week, I watched the very creative skit from popular comedian, ACAPELA who argued that the young people are the structure Peter Obi needs and that the structure is being built. I have read a post where someone warned that if you don't want a divorce, don't tell your wife not to vote for Peter Obi! During the week, I read a very interesting post from the popular Nigerian poet and journalist, Uzor Maxim Uzoato in which he added a new word to our political lexicon, "OBI-SESSION". The truth is that everybody is talking about Peter Obi. His brand is on fire and not the product of any political consultant. The "stingy man" appears to be where the young people of Nigeria have anchored. They are tired of the people who throw money around, money they believe have been stolen from the people. That is why "WE NO DEY GIVE SHI-SHI!" has become the battle cry of the Peter Obi revolution.       

The Peter Obi revolution may be the biggest political revolution in the history of Nigeria. If you understand that there are far more poor, hungry, jobless and frustrated people in Nigeria than the rich and comfortable and you still say that Peter Obi has no structure, you may need to think again. Obi's structure is the poor, hungry, jobless and frustrated people in Nigeria. Obi has made the Labour Party the party of the poor fighting the rich.

The young people of Nigeria, the same age group that tested power with the

WHAT MUST NOT HAPPEN AS THE PETER OBI MOVEMENT BATTLES NIGERIA’S BULLION VAN DEMOCRACY

I have never met Yemi Osinbajo but I like him a lot. I like his poise, his choice of words and his personality. At the APC Convention, Yemi Osinbajo gave one of the greatest speeches I have ever heard from a Nigerian leader. The speech had vision, great intellect and it was articulate. But PYO was speaking to a wrong audience at a wrong occasion.

At the convention, the only speech that mattered was how many American dollars a candidate had for each delegate.

I have written here before that our dollar infested bullion van democracy is not about brilliance, competence or merit. It is a game of envelopes. Which candidate has the fattest envelopes with crisp dollar bills for delegates? I hope that Professor Osinbajo and his ilk have learnt the lesson which some of us have learnt and which has left a lot of the young people of Nigeria with so much disdain for the two leprous legs of Nigeria's recent democratic enterprise.

I have written here before that it has become very clear that the structures of the PDP and APC will never lead to the emancipation of the Nigerian people. Those structures were built for mercantilism and are terribly infested with the corruption virus. They will only lead to more hunger, more kidnapping, more insecurity, more joblessness, more stealing on a bigger scale and more hopelessness for the Nigerian people.

In Abuja, I met with some of the people behind the PYO movement before it went public and official. They were driven by passionate idealism and worked so hard. I discussed with them the contradiction of PYO being part of the bullion van democracy at play in Nigeria and his participation in the failed Buhari presidency. Before our eyes, the chickens have come home to roost.

I hope that PYO would, going forward to be a true Nigerian leader. He can no longer be a senator or a minister but he can become a national counsellor which he is qualified to be as a senior advocate. He can be a national preacher which he is qualified to be as a pastor and he can be a national teacher which he is qualified to be as a professor.

The same young idealism that drove the PYO movement is to a larger scale driving the biggest political movement in Nigeria today, the Peter Obi Revolution. I hope that my good friend, Doyin Okupe, who is a key driver of the Peter Obi Movement would put a call to Ojodu Babafemi who worked so hard to make Prof Osinbajo President. There might be a few lessons to be learnt.

It appears that the young people of Nigeria, the same age group that drove the

Friday, May 13, 2022

HOW IS IT HOLY TO MURDER A CHILD OF GOD IN COLD BLOOD?

There is no form of depravity that is not steaming around us these days. When you think you have seen it all, you are roused from sleep by some news that makes you believe that the world has gone completely insane.

The news that a young Nigerian lady in college in Sokoto State was set on fire by her colleagues and burnt to death in 2022, is not just shocking but gives depravity an entirely new colour. I thought that the news of the gruesome murder of Deborah Samuel was fake news and I waited for a denial to come forth. There has been none. I have read somewhere that some religious leaders are even demanding more of such extra-judicial killings to 'defend' their religion.

 I have written before that hatred has taken over the world. Whether it is in the Middle East, East Africa or Nigeria, the slaughtering of innocent people and denial of their right to life is no longer shocking. It is now an everyday thing. It has become normal. 'Unknown' gun men are running riot across Nigeria, killing and maiming at will. Nothing is sacred anymore and no one is off limits.

In the last two weeks, the perennial carnage between the Palestinians and the Israelis exploded again. On television, we are visited by the gory images of the mayhem caused by the massive Israeli military machine that appears ever ready to rip to shreds the Palestinian men, women and children. Some Israelis and hundreds of innocent Palestinians, old women and mere children are slaughtered like cattle in a never-ending war in which they are neither participants nor do they quite understand the reason. In Ukraine, there is a live horror movie going on.

Meanwhile, the people responsible for this massacre and their friends justify this horrific killing field. They try to explain it with meaningless grammar. They believe that it is right once it is done in the name of religion or the 'defence' of their people. Those who have the big guns also own the big loudspeakers and the sophisticated PR specialists. So, they activate their propaganda machinery to dominate the narrative. Nothing is true or false anymore. It is all a matter of how you coin it and spread it. So, they justify the carnage by announcing that they are defending their religion or their people!

It does not matter that the innocent women and children so brazenly murdered are some other person's 'people' and also children of God. We now live in a world in which madness is right.  

Every crazy group in the world unleashing death on everyone around them can justify the killing. It is usually based on an 'us against them' mind set of some spiritual, tribal or political leader hungry for control who drums up the immense bitterness fuelled by some ancient bigotry or hatred that eventually turn the young, frustrated and restless into destructive machines.

Talk to any members of the vicious Boko Haram group or ISWAP that have unleashed fear and death across Nigeria or the other ethnic separatists that are emerging everywhere in Nigeria and they all have religious or tribal justification for their senseless killing of innocent men and women. Members of the Al Shabab gang who have gunned down many innocent people in East Africa are sure that they are doing God's work. Whether it is Al Qaeda, ISIS, Boko Haram or even the IRA that kept Northern Ireland in commotion for a long time, they all beat their chests and assert justification for the innocent lives they have taken. Check out their justification and it is based on some skewed religious beliefs or some real or perceived injustice done to their 'people' today or in times gone by.

Nothing frightens me these days more than the seemingly unstoppable spread of fundamentalist religion. Contrary to popular notion, this terrifying development is not limited to the Islamic faith. All over the world, there are self-styled prophets in religious garments indoctrinating masses of people who they will unleash on the world and who would become cannon fodder in their war to rid the world of those who do not agree with them.

All of these 'men of God' preach love but the love they preach is not love for all children of God but love only for the people who think like them, pray like them or love like them. If you think differently, you are vermin which must be exterminated to create their pure world. They have convinced themselves that they are holy warriors fighting God's battle and that they have the right to kill in the name of God.     

But who are these people supposedly fighting in the name of God and killing the children of God? Who told them that God needs their help? Who informed them that they are more effective than God, the maker and giver of life, who if he chooses can wipe out whole nations in a twinkle of an eye?

How can it be holy to murder an innocent child of God in cold blood?

See you next week. 

Friday, May 6, 2022

MANY RIVERS TO CROSS

Our politicians are on the match again. The same positioning, alignments and re – alignments that took place seven years ago and gave some of us false hope that things were about to change, is taking place again. Our countrymen are dishing out cheques for one hundred million naira as if they are buying akara. I just did a small calculation. It will take a Nigerian citizen earning the government approved national minimum wage of N30,000 every month, 278 years to earn one hundred million naira! If the average head of a Nigerian family stays in employment at that wage for 50 unbroken years, it would take more than 5 generations of the family to earn this amount being spent just to buy election forms. Is this not insanity?!  

Our big political parties are suddenly in a state of flux. Everyone is scheming. What I see is everyone positioning to acquire power. What I do not see is what they want to do for Nigerians with the power they acquire. You cannot help but feel that everyone is trying to position his bucket under the national money tap so that the commonwealth will be guzzling into their buckets. When you spend one hundred million naira to buy election form and many-many more hundreds of millions for primaries and campaigns, how in hell, do you recover the money? The entire thing is so transactional, it gives me headache.

I am desperate to see someone with clarity of purpose and a well thought out long-term plan to make this country competitive with the rest of the world. Have you noticed that after our struggle to stop being a British colony, we have now with open hands accepted to become a Chinese colony? The Chinese are now funding and building our railway, airports, roadways and everything else! With the huge interest they have in Nigeria, do you think they will fold their hands and let just anyone become the President of Nigeria? How are we sure they are not also funding our politics?

Nigerians can't wait for the present government to go away. They are praying and wishing that the calamity of the last seven years will not happen again. Have I seen anything to suggest that it would not happen again? No! Have I seen anything to say that our rabid embrace of ancient, village, ethnic religious values have waned? No! Is there anything to show that the poverty of the mind that pushes us to crudely acquire more wealth than we will ever need, is gone? Certainly, no! Have we learnt that injustice and evil done to one of us is injustice and evil done to all of us? Not at all. Have we realized that we will all die someday and that we can never build a great nation for our children if we remain cowards perpetually gripped by fear without the conviction to fight evil and frontally support that which is right? I am not sure.

During the week, I received many messages congratulating me on the recent victories of COSON and myself in our courts. Very few have any idea the hell I have had to go through till those victories came our way. Many of those I thought were dear friends abandoned me because they think that I am suicidal to challenge evil. I have had to protest on the streets of Nigeria for a court of law to hear my case and deliver sound and unimpeachable judgment. I know that it is not yet Uhuru because evil never sleeps and there are still many rivers to cross but I drive on a full tank of faith and restate that I will not stand at attention and salute a cow because of its size.

 "I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody" so declared the former army general on the day he was inaugurated as the democratically elected president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. To me, those words are the most memorable words ever spoken by Muhammadu Buhari. Those words were his contract with the Nigerian people. They were expected to set up the moral compass for a presidency many hoped would attack the lack of moral compass in the way Nigeria has been run.

A major part of the crisis that the Nigerian nation has faced since Buhari assumed power is that there are many in the country who believe that despite Buhari's words, he does not belong to them. That has been underlined by those who by their actions and body language tell you that Buhari does not belong to you but to them and them alone. These people believe that they are 'the inheritors' of the Buhari mandate and the inheritors behave like they are conquerors of the Nigerian nation and that they are entitled to the booty for their conquest. They are not bound by the rule of law or empathy or consideration for anyone else.

In Abuja, I have repeatedly encountered this behavior. These are the people who have destroyed the Buhari brand. A lot of the institutions that ought to be the pillars of our nation have been rendered unrecognizable by them. Buhari who was expected to be a very strong president may end up being the weakest we have ever had as so much that will take many years to fix has been done in his name.

While the President fights those he may consider his enemies, his biggest enemies are those he had considered his loyalists. They have chased away his true loyalists – those who are not politicians and are not looking forward to any appointments or contracts. These people cannot understand what happened to the man they believed in and trusted. Several of them are close friends of mine. They have fled from the man and lost faith in the Nigerian project under him.

If we truly want a great nation, we must look at what is happening in the nation of Ukraine. Just see how young people are giving up their lives to bequeath for generations a nation with respect and dignity. When will Nigerians internalize the fact that no great nation in human history has been built by cowards? Many rivers to cross. 

See you next week.

Friday, April 22, 2022

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

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