YOU USED ME AND DUMPED ME!

'You used me and dumped me!' With fire in her eyes, those words were directed at me a few years ago by a female professional colleague who worked closely with me at PMAN, PMRS and at COSON where I presently serve as chairman of the Board. Each of these organizations was set up as a non-profit making institution for the advancement of the interest of the commonwealth of persons in the music industry and the next generation of artistes. Over the years, I have directed my energy at rallying people whom I think believe in the cause and are willing to render selfless service towards the achievement of the objectives.

I have never at any time promised to make anyone a millionaire for joining in doing what ultimately is a thankless job.

I used her and dumped her? Where… How? I was shocked by the anger in the eyes of my 'sister' whom I thought has the education and exposure to understand what it means to give of yourself for the good of others. I regret that I had to go to court two times to establish that I did not use my sister and did not dump her.

Last week, in Saturday Breakfast, I wrote about our penchant for immediate gratification. As a people, we no longer seem to understand the meaning of service. We want money so badly and so quickly that we sneer at the idea of providing unpaid service and making sacrifice for the good of society. And we have come to believe that everybody is on the take and only fools render service without taking.

Can you imagine if Mother Teresa was a Nigerian? At death, people from her village would have immediately and angrily thrown her body into an unmarked grave, covered it up and walked away without looking back. After all, how much money did she have? Which mansions did she own? What was the name of her husband?

When Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu, better known as Mother Teresa, died in September 1997, the whole world stood still. Her death was "Breaking News" on every international news network. She was not a Head of State, nor a popular actor, singer, sportswoman or business icon. She was not rich, yet every detail of her funeral was beamed live to the world on every significant broadcast channel.

 

Mother Teresa was an Albanian-born Catholic missionary and nun who relocated to Calcutta. She devoted her entire life to helping those most in need. Mother Teresa instituted the Order of Missionaries of Charity in India in 1950. For over 45 years, she ministered to the poor, indigent, sick, orphaned and dying. The world celebrated Mother Teresa as Queen of the poor.

Every society needs a Mother Teresa in every field – people who believe in causes and are prepared to pay any price for the cause they believe in, people who are givers. Gani Fawehinmi was a Mother Teresa. Gani was a giver. He believed in the rule of law and social justice and went to jail several times for his belief.  

I verily believe that the biggest problem we have in our nation today is that we have too many takers and very few givers. Poverty and hopelessness bestride our fatherland because we give nothing and take everything.

Give a Nigerian the nation's pension fund to manage and he takes all the money and leaves the pensioners hungry on the streets. Give a Nigerian Army General money to buy arms to fight the terrorists traumatizing our people, the General will take all the money and bury it in a soak-away pit and send innocent soldiers without weapons to go and die in Sambisa Forest. Across the country, everyone is in a mad scramble to take. Very few are willing to give. Pastors are on the take, civil servants are on the take, judges are on the take and policemen are on the take.

Give a Nigerian governor money to run his state and he grabs all the land across the state and builds mansions for himself, his wife, children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and generations unimagined. Meanwhile, he leaves the roads without maintenance, hospitals without drugs, government workers without pay and the citizens without hope.

What my 'sister' said to me has been said by a few others and shows how naïve I might have been. I used to think that many share my belief in service, sacrifice and the concept of giving.  Yes, I like to use people to do good the same way I am available to be used to do good. I believe that the worst of mankind is a useless person – that person that cannot contribute anything to making life better for the rest of God's children.

All around the world, people die so that nations can live. It is happening now in Ukraine. It is giving that makes nations live. Nigeria will die if we are not willing to give to it.

As I wake up tomorrow, I shall not ask God for the key to the strong room of the Central Bank. My prayer will be that He keeps using me to do good.

See you next week. 

WHAT KIND OF GOD DO NIGERIANS WORSHIP?

Have you heard about 'payola'? Payola is the term used for money collected under the table by 'On Air Personalities' in broadcasting stations in order that certain recorded music is broadcast more times than normal. In many countries, payola is a crime. In Nigeria, it now appears to be a crime if you are a poor budding artiste and you come to a station to promote your music without bringing payola. The thing has taken root so badly that I hear that a lot of guys and girls now look for jobs in radio stations not because of the salary but the expected payola.

Have you tried to get into an office to see a big man in Nigeria lately? Stoneface at the gate will bark at you, 'Oga no dey!' Quietly pass a few naira notes in his direction and Stoneface will suddenly become Smilingface! Quickly, he would remember, 'E be like say Oga don come back. I think, Oga dey!'

Do you think there is any group of people anywhere in the world who talk about God more than Nigerians? Ask any Nigerian whether he might go to work the following day and he starts his long reply with 'by the grace of God'. Ask him about the club meeting you scheduled for Wednesday, and he would reply, 'God willing, I will be there' Check out our names: Onyekachukwu, Chukwudi, Chukwuemeka, Oluwadare, Oluwatosin, Enobong, Imaobong, Abdullah, Wosilatu, Osaze, Idahosa, etc. Even our once first lady could not help but exclaim, 'Chai, there is God o!' and people who do not understand the Nigerian mentality want to make fun of her. Na grammar we go chop? Tell me, how many of those people who made fun of our first lady have had the patience to stand behind a man who had no shoes and push him on to become the President of the biggest black nation on earth? Tell me that it is not God at work.    

Have you wondered why for a group of people who talk so much about God, there is little God in how we deal with each other and how we run our country? Every chance we get, we steal the nation dry. Have you given any thought to what will happen if ten million naira in cash was placed before an average Nigerian, and he was asked to choose between the ten million and heaven? I can bet you that even though the guy's name might be Godwin, he would not hesitate in grabbing the money. And he would justify his choice! Godwin will tell you that it was God that sent him the money … after all God wins in heaven and money wins on earth. Is the money not proof that there is God o?! At the back of Godwin's mind is the fact that he can have as much fun as he wants with his ten million naira and still have enough change to bribe the gateman in heaven, especially if the gateman is a Nigerian. By the way, have you heard of a rich pastor in Nigeria going to the home of a dying poor man to pray that his soul be accepted into heaven?

I was born into the Catholic Church, and I can see how people are fleeing the church. What does the average reverend father in the Catholic Church own? His white cassock, a few books and his weather-beaten old Volkswagen Beetle… and he thinks he can inspire people to attend church? Let the reverend father take a little time off his message of a heaven in the skies and attend a 'real' church on a Sunday. He will see an all-marble edifice with chilled air-conditioning. He will see a pastor with swagger, crisp jerry curled hair, gold cuff links, a Rolls Royce car parked at the entrance and a glittering Range Rover as escort car. Everywhere he looks, he will see the bevy of beautiful women with three quarters of their bosoms in full display and constantly reminding Pastor that the real heaven is popping out of their braziers, here and now and not in the skies.

Nigerians cannot wait for a heaven in the skies or wherever else. We want our heaven here and now so we can rollick and frolic in it. We want to go to church where on New Year's Day, our pastor, in the most glittering designer suit money can buy assures us that God has told him that this is the year that every member of the church will be handed the key to the Central Bank and we all shout 'Alleluia!' and dance like mad. It does not matter that Pastor said something similar last New Year's Day and the one before. This is the same guy who warns you that only God can protect your life but goes around with five hefty bodyguards. Who argues with a man who owns a glittering Rolls Royce car and has first class tickets to every enchanting city in the world?

In Nigeria, we have been well taught that a God who cannot make you rich is no God at all and the time you spend worshiping Him is wasted time. Same goes for a God who cannot help you rig elections. That is why our armed robbers go to church and pray before they set out to steal and kill.

Just think about it: the man who was supposed to protect our money at the Central Bank is now in detention and the man who was supposed to catch the thieves stealing our money is also in detention. Oh Nigeria!

I beg you, who in Nigeria really wants to wait for a God in heaven?

See you next week.

 

IS MALAMI TRULY GONE?

On December 6, 2017, a Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim Buba, stepped into his court room in Ikoyi, Lagos. His court room was full to the brim. Justice Buba was scheduled to deliver an important judgment in a matter that was important to the Nigerian creative industry.

Justice Buba did not deliver the judgment. A visibly angry Buba announced that the evening before, he had received a petition against him from a party in the case, obviously trying to intimidate him. He announced that 'come rain, come sunshine' he would deliver the judgment on December 14. 

Lo and behold, on December 14, Justice Ibrahim Buba still did not deliver the judgment. He said that the case file had been taken from him to Abuja and he had no choice but to adjourn the matter till further notice!

The key question Justice Buba was scheduled to answer in his judgment was this: Under Nigerian law, was the syndicate, Musical Copyright Society Nigeria (MCSN) truly an approved collecting society and authorized to collect money on behalf of innocent Nigerian musicians? Somebody did not want that question answered, hence the muscling of Justice Ibrahim Buba.

You may wonder why this is important. The group MCSN, and six of MCSN's officials were facing seven different criminal cases before different judges of the Federal High Court. Each of the cases was filed by the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), an agency of the Federal Government.

How did this bizarre tale take this crazy turn? Early in 2017, the Attorney-General of the Federation & Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, in a strange letter, directed the NCC to approve MCSN as a collecting society to collect copyright royalties for the Nigerian music industry. At the NCC, they were mystified by what Mr. Malami, a lawyer, was asking them to do. The NCC replied to Mr. Malami giving him several reasons why what he was asking the commission to do was dangerous and unlawful.

The NCC objections did not deter the AGF. In a strongly worded letter dated 22nd March 2017, Mr. Malami ordered the NCC, despite the strong protestations, not only to immediately license MCSN, but to withdraw every case filed by the commission against MCSN including the seven criminal cases at the Federal High Court before Justice Mojisola Olateregun Ishola, Justice Babatunde Kwewumi and Justice Abdulazeez Anka.

Any 'baby lawyer' will tell you that the AGF has the power to file a 'Nolle Prosequi' to stop any case. In this situation, the AGF did not file a 'Nolle'. He ordered the NCC to abruptly withdraw the cases, referring to the powers he said he had under Section 50 of the Copyright Act as it was, to give directives to the NCC. The only problem is that the law in Section 51 expressly vested the power to give directives to the NCC in "the minister charged with the responsibility for culture" and not the AGF.

To protect their jobs, the staff of the NCC had to bow to the weird demands of Mr. Malami even though they knew very well that what they were doing was unlawful. Of course, they began to defend what they know is wrong.

On learning about this strange development, I sought to see the AGF because I was sure that his directives would set the music industry on fire. I am very familiar with the Copyright Act; I served on the committee that drafted the Act as it was. I am familiar with the Copyright Commission; I was twice on the board of the commission. I know the Nigerian music industry from several directions having been an artiste, a producer, President of PMAN and Chairman of Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON).

I met with the AGF in his Abuja office on April 6, 2017. After our discussions during which I gave to him a copy of the law and other documents, Mr. Malami said that he did not quite understand the issues but had acted out of persistent pressure from his S.A. (Media), one Salihu Othman Isa. He also told me that he was alarmed at some point with the unending pressure of Isa and that he had asked Isa what his interest was in the matter. I believed Mr. Malami.

To cut a long story short, I asked the AGF what he was going to do about the matter since he had become better informed. He looked at me, eyeball to eyeball, and said, "give me seven days". Seven days passed and nothing happened. Another seven days went by and I called the AGF and there was no answer. I sent him a text and there was no reply. I followed up with an e-mail which received no acknowledgement. It became clear to me that I had been sold a dummy. Mr. Malami all the time knew what he was doing!

At COSON of which I am chairman, we addressed a press conference on the issue. Thereafter, I was repeatedly sent very vile text messages by a very senior aide of Mr. Malami calling me names in gutter language. This was followed by mails threatening me with legal action.

When it became obvious that despite his promise, the AGF would never address the problem, we took the issues to the Federal High Court for a resolution. Justice Ibrahim Buba who was assigned the case was, was faced with intimidation so that he would not deliver judgment in the matter as he deemed fit.

I thought I would never see a day in my fatherland when the rule of law would be so violently and brazenly assaulted. The courts were supposed to be the last refuge of the common man. I was startled by the precedent being set: a judge being arm-twisted so that he does not deliver judgment in a case as he deemed fit. For me, it was crazy!

I demonstrated for days and carried placards in front of the Federal High Court in Lagos and insisted that the case file be brought back to Justice Buba. The case file in Suit No FHC/L/CS/1259/2017 was brought back but by then so much water had passed under the bridge…

Thereafter, I was subjected to unbelievable torture for having the boldness and audacity to insist on the rule of law in my country. I was subjected to unending defamatory statements. The Police, EFCC, DSS, NCC and NFIU were unleashed on me and my colleagues at COSON. One evening, I was abducted by five men bent on driving me to Benin City in the middle of the night and possibly wasting me on the way. The Almighty saved me. COSON bank accounts, my personal bank accounts and my private business accounts were all frozen even though there were just modest sums in the accounts, no penny of which was obtained by any illegal activity. At some point, it was difficult for me to even buy food. The price I have had to pay has been huge but I swore to defend my industry and no great nation has been built by cowards.  

During one of my meetings with Mr. Malami, he informed me that he was motivated by "national interest" and not necessarily the law. I became really scared and said to him that respect for the rule of law is fundamental to the national interest and that no "national interest" can be determined by one man. He was adamant and at that point, I knew that Nigeria was in big trouble and that with the mindset of Malami, the Chief Law Officer of the nation and his oversized power in the Buhari government, our country was lost.

I have since watched Nigeria, the limousine, with Buhari relaxed in the back seat and Malami as the Chief Driver. I have watched the bizarre decisions and policies flowing from the position where one man's interest becomes the national interest. I have followed the Paris Club refund bruhaha and the many 'consultants' owed humongous amounts of money. Tell me that all that is not in the national interest.

Is Malami truly gone? I would not think so until we start untying the many knots tied around the neck of Nigeria. 

See you next week. 

KILLINGS & KILLINGS IN THE NAME OF THE LORD

Hatred has taken over the world. Whether it is in the Middle East, East Africa Nigeria or Ukraine, the slaughtering of innocent people is no longer shocking. It is an everyday thing. It has become normal. 'Unknown' gun men are running riot across Nigeria, killing and maiming at will. Just this week, several members of staff of the American embassy were reportedly murdered in cold blood in Anambra State. 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 once more. On television, we were visited by the gory images of the mayhem caused by the massive Israeli military machine that appears ever ready to rip to shreds Palestinian men, women and children. Some Israelis and hundreds of innocent Palestinians, old women and mere children were slaughtered like cattle in the never-ending war in which they are neither participants nor do they quite understand the reason. Massive buildings crashed down like a pack of cards.

Meanwhile, the people responsible for this massacre and their friends justify this horrific killing field. They explain it with a lot of grammar especially at the United Nations and on world-wide television. 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 people! Of course, they have ready support from their friends with the veto power.

It does not matter that the innocent women and children so brazenly murdered are some other person's 'people' and children of God too. We live in a world in which might is right and so the children of the slaughtered old women and the brothers of the murdered children, who probably will never have access to any significant military machine, will eventually turn themselves into suicide bombers and explode themselves on innocent civilians. And the cycle of blood continues...

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' mindset 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 killing 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.

Listen to Vladmir Putin's diatribe and his justification for the slaughtering of innocent men, women and children in Ukraine. He claims to be protecting ethnic Russians from a Nazi regime committing genocide against them.

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 a war be holy in which innocent children of God are killed?

Karl Max said that religion is the opium of the poor. I agree. Take a map of the world and check out the regions where there are fervent religious activities. These are where you will find nations in commotion, in poverty and in decline. Not too long ago, I spent some time in the United States. Sunday mornings, the streets of the major cities are practically abandoned. The churches are empty except for minority groups. Yet, these are the people from whom we inherited our religious beliefs. We have become far more religious than them with very little to show for it.

Please drive on the Lagos – Ibadan Expressway. There are interesting developments on both sides of the road. Apart from a few recent commercial ventures, nearly every significant structure on the road is owned by a religious group of either the Christian or Islamic faith. If the structure is not a worship centre built on acres of choice land, it is a university owned by the same religious groups.

A lot of the children whose parents contributed the tithe and offering with which the universities were built will find out that the universities are not priced for them. I have wondered what would eventually happen to those who study at the universities from Mondays to Fridays and worship at the churches on Sundays. Where are they going to find work? From where will they earn the money to maintain body and soul and pay tithes to the religious establishments so that they can continue to boom?  If you cannot see the looming problem, you are probably one of those who believe that Nigeria played the last World Cup in Qatar and actually won the cup!

Before anyone concludes that I am anti – religion, let me state clearly that I am a Christian and that I go to Church. I however do not believe that every Moslem, Hindu, Buddhist, Ifa Worshiper, or anyone who does not worship the way I do is condemned to hell fire. It is the same way that I do not believe that the people who come from my part of the country are always right and the others are forever wrong. Similarly, I do not believe that when the time comes, it will matter whether you face the east or the west when you worship your God or whether you come from the North or the South or whether you are straight, gay or lesbian.  We are all children of one God.

See you next week.

ONCE AGAIN, WILL VALDMIR PUTIN GO DOWN LIKE SADDAM HUSSEIN?

The nation of Iraq used to be one of the most admired nations in the Middle East. The beautiful nation had developed great infrastructure and there was high standard of education and social welfare for much of its citizens. With huge oil revenue, Iraq's leader, Saddam Hussein, lived large in palaces and mansions lined with precious stones and metals. Humility disappeared and power got into his head. The gun totting Saddam who was born after the death of his father, began to flex his muscles against anyone and everyone and waged war against the Kurds and Iran.

 

In August 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded the nation of Kuwait, Iraq's smaller southeastern neighbor. Saddam wanted to gain control of Kuwait's significant oil wealth to add to Iraq's. Led by the United States, several nations asked Saddam to withdraw his troops from Kuwait. He refused. America amassed troops in the region in what was nicknamed "Operation Desert Storm" and Saddam boasted that he would show the Americans a "mother of all wars". But when push came to shove, it took the Americans just a few weeks to drive Saddam's soldiers out of Kuwait. However, as the American soldiers approached Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, they stopped, leaving Saddam still in power.

 

Anyone would think that the loquacious Saddam Hussein would learn his lessons and humble himself. He did not. He continued to boast. In 2003, the Americans came back after the 9/11 attack of 2001. In Desert Storm 2. Saddam who used to reside in the most luxurious abodes on earth, was on December 13, 2003, found by U.S. soldiers hiding in a six-to-eight-foot hole in the ground, nine miles outside his hometown of Tikrit. He was. picked up, tried on television, and executed by hanging, like a common criminal. For several years, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and their nation paid a huge price for the oil induced madness of Saddam Hussein.

Has anyone forgotten Muammar Gaddafi, the incredibly glamourous and daring leader of Libya, who was captured in a gutter and killed on October 20, 2011? Gaddafi also tasted oil wealth and became oil drunk and believed he was invincible. At the end of the day, he died in a most humiliating way. Libya was one of the most developed nations in Africa, with significant oil revenue. It has remained unstable since.

There must be something about oil money that drives people crazy. Just look at Nigeria and how people who have fleeced the country of its oil money seem to have gone mad and practically destroyed the country. Everywhere you look, the pain and suffering of the Nigerian people brought about by the unending battle to control Nigeria's oil wealth, stares you in the face.

Please, how does one explain the horror that has gone on in Ukraine? For months, the world begged Russian President, Vladmir Putin, not to invade his smaller neighbour, Ukraine and not to kill innocent Ukrainians who have done nothing to him. Several times, U.S. President, Joe Biden at virtual meetings, pleaded with Putin. French President, Emmanuel Macron had to go to Moscow to beg Putin. German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, also went to Moscow to beg Putin. Hungarian Prime Minister, Victor Orban was also in Moscow and repeatedly, Vladmir Putin, who became an international movie star, showed off his expensively paneled office at the Kremlin on TV as world leaders begged him to show mercy on the poor citizens of Ukraine. He did not just show off his expensive offices, he showed off his heart of stone.

Everything Joe Biden said Putin would do, has come to pass. Putin's lies and subterfuge have played out for the whole world to see. The innocent men, women and children who have been bombed and slaughtered recklessly in Ukraine are just pawns in Putin's game as he seeks to expand his territory and fiefdom.

On February 24, 2022, ignoring all the pleadings from leaders around the world, Putin drunk on Russia's oil wealth, invaded Ukraine with his vast military might: an estimated army of close to 200,000 soldiers and well over 1,000 tanks in what he termed "Special Military Operation".

It is widely believed that with his overwhelming force, Vladmir Putin was sure that his "Special Military Operation" in Ukraine would be over in a matter of days. The multiple pronged attack indicated that Putin's objective was to quickly capture the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, depose Zelensky, Ukraine's democratically elected President and take over the country.

 

Drunk on oil, Putin did not bargain for the fierce resistance of the Ukrainian people who have fought the Russians like wounded lions. He also did not bargain for what looks like the iron clad unity of the West led by Biden who has made sure that Ukraine received sophisticated weapons and financial support to take on the Russians. 

 

Despite their unprecedented shelling and carpet bombing of Kyiv, the Russians failed to take the Ukrainian capital. Their forces reached the outskirts of Kyiv but at the end of March 2022, had to run away in all directions with enormous losses of men and tanks.

 

When the Russians were scattered from Kyiv, they shifted to a slimmer objective in eastern Ukraine, where they achieved some success with ruthless and indiscriminate artillery attack that flattened several Ukrainian towns and villages which they captured.

 

With the acquisition of new and more sophisticated weapons, the Ukrainians, at lightning speed, have captured much of the territory taken by the Russians in Eastern Ukraine and even more. It appears that the Russian military has lost its mettle. All is not well with the troops who appear to be on the run, abandoning their tanks and other equipment. Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner group, Russia's powerful private militia, fighting in Ukraine, is angry. He is openly complaining about the crisis in the Russian military and the thousands of Russian soldiers dying in Ukraine.

Fifteen months down the road, Putin's "Special Military Operation", which he expected to last one week, is nowhere near over and no one can say for certain how the war will end. It is however not arguable that things have not gone the way Putin expected and that he has become frustrated and terribly desperate. It is reported that Putin has resorted to directly giving instructions to his generals in the field as many thousands of Russian soldiers are slaughtered in the war. The desperation became obvious a few months ago when Putin announced the mobilization of 300,000 military reservists to join the war in Ukraine and threatened to deploy nuclear weapons in the war, a move that will destroy the world as we know it. 

The result? Thousands of Russian men of fighting age rushed out of Russia. They don't want to fight in a war they don't understand.

I thought Vladmir Putin was a strategic thinker, with a good understanding of history. Once again, oil money has got a world leader terribly drunk. The once admired Vladmir Putin can no longer go where he chooses as he has been declared a war criminal, subject to arrest anywhere he is picked up.

At the end of the day, just like Saddam Hussein, just like Muammar Gaddafi, just like Osama Bin Ladin, just like ISIS leader, Abu Bakir al-Baghdadi, Putin's dream will not become reality. Vladmir Putin will never be King of the world. He has cooked for the world and the food has got burnt in the oven. Unfortunately, the ordinary people of Russia will pay a huge price for the misadventure of their oil drunk leader.

As the "Special Military Operation" in Ukraine unravels, the question must be asked: Will Vladmir Putin go down like Saddam Hussein?

 

See you next week.

MUST EVERY NIGERIAN BE A THIEF?

If my cell phone rings ten times, you can be sure that seven times, the guy on the other end has a problem waiting for me to solve. I don't get fooled anymore if he spends quite some time asking about my wife and the children and work and the weather and the economy.

Patience… he will get to it. Eventually, he tells you that you are the only one who can save the situation. His landlord is on his case and he needs money urgently to settle the very troublesome landlord or to pack to a new place. The children are at home because of 'ordinary' eighty thousand naira to pay their school fees. His wife is in hospital and if you do not intervene, she might die there! There is not even 'one cup of garri' at home and he does not know what to do.

Believe me, the situation in the land is that serious. The guy on the other end does not have to be your brother, cousin, old friend or former classmate. You probably never heard of him but it does not matter. Somehow, he has got your number. What do you do? Tell him to go to hell and switch off? Let him know that you are struggling too? Of course, he will not believe you and will not give up. He will tell you "I am sending you my account number. Just do something". After all, like a friend of mine would say, "half bread is better than groundnut" or better put in the famous words of my guy, Segun Arinze, "at all… at all, na him bad!"  If after trying, his hook does not catch immediate fish, he would ask you, 'when do I hear from you?'. Guy, you have just acquired a new customer.         

I do not want to make light of the difficult situation people in the land are facing. Times are tough and there are many with genuine problems that we should address if we have the means. There are also many who have graduated with honours from the University of Begging. From Monday to Sunday, they are on the phone with a list of numbers telling their tales of woe.

If you have a job that once in a while puts your face in a newspaper or on television, you are in trouble. The assumption is that you have a big carton of money around you to dispense and each time you do not give, you are being tight fisted or like some young ladies will say, 'the man na Aradite, in fact, na Super Glue!". You want to blame my people? When they see the billions and zillions that public officers in our land steal and get away with, there is this huge assumption that everyone in Nigeria that has been associated with some kind of leadership has stolen some money and buried some in a soak-away pit.

I know some of my kinsmen who loath me because I have not erected a glittering mansion in Banana Island or Maitama. In their thinking, 'he should have a house worthy of the positions he has held'. I understand them. In our world, the achievement of a man is measured by the size of his house and the money he donates in public and not by his intellect, character or his contribution to the development of mankind.

Yes, I once served on a Federal Government Board. My allowance was the tidy sum of fifteen thousand naira. Please, how many times would I multiply fifteen thousand naira to build a mansion? In my other situations, I have been an advocate, mostly unpaid. I have led many risky demonstrations and carried different placards unpaid.

I once had to say that I spend eighty percent of my time working for free and twenty percent, working to earn a living. But in Nigeria, it does not matter. Everyone believes that once you hold a position of leadership, you have a duty to conjure something under the table and you are expected to distribute the loot to your friends and kinsmen. That is how they get their share of the national cake. In our land, the dominant position is that you are an imbecile if you hold public office and you do not steal.

My biggest problem over the years has repeatedly been with close 'friends' who verily believe that I must steal 'something' and distribute it to them. When their expectations are not met, they become frustrated, troublesome and complain loudly to everyone that you are not being a good friend. The truth you realize is that they were never really your friends. Their fake love was because of what they thought they would grab from you. Some believe that because they are your 'friends' you should leave the organization you lead open for them to freely rape. Because of the prevailing culture, it is difficult for many to believe that there are citizens of Nigeria who do not steal and would not allow you to steal.

I have told this tale before of how I was invited to the EFCC office in Lagos while Ribadu was Chairman, to respond to some crazy allegations made about my tenure as President of PMAN. The EFCC had just been set up. I met some very bright officers at the EFCC. My impression before then of law enforcement in Nigeria was garagara, crudity and brute force. I was really impressed by the professionalism and thoroughness with which the gentlemen at the EFCC went about their work.

The people who reported me to the EFCC were people I had once considered to be my friends. They thought I was 'chopping' alone and swore to deal with me. The officers at EFCC left no stone unturned in search of the truth. They went back ten years to obtain PMAN cash books, records of PMAN accounts in different banks, information filed by PMAN with the Registrar of Trade Unions under my tenure, etc.

In the final days of their investigation, the EFCC officials brought me and my accusers into one room with accountants, auditors, bank officials and former PMAN executives and for an entire day went line by line through practically every financial transaction during my tenure. Nothing escaped their attention. At the end of the day, no one could show how I stole one Naira from PMAN and the EFCC officers shook my hand and asked me to go. While my accusers and the reporters they brought with them, drove away in a fleet of choice SUVs, I left the EFCC with my son in my only car of the time, a Tokunbo Mercedes Benz 190 which had only three of the four cylinders working. I was tired but proud that not one word I spoke could be impeached.  Many times, I have gone through such an experience.

I feel sorry for our countrymen who try to make sense of the horror film called Nigeria. While Nigerians shout about corruption, they don't mind corruption as long as they are the beneficiaries. They don't care how much anyone steals as long as they can get part of the loot. Believe me, there are people working right now to show the incoming government officials how to steal money from government, so that they can benefit.

Please, let me ask again: must every Nigerian be a thief?

See you next week.

ARE YOU A GIVER OR A TAKER?

When I pray to the Almighty, I do not ask Him to give me anything just for myself. I ask Him to put me in a position where I can give of myself to create positive change for the people I come in contact with. I believe that success is putting a smile on the faces of as many as I can.

If I enter an office, hotel or restaurant, the people I endeavor to give most of my attention to usually are not the General Managers or Managing Directors or Ministers. I try to find time to spend with the security men, the junior staff, waiters, janitors, drivers, clerks, etc. They are the ones I believe need my smile and attention more. I try to find out how life is treating them and how they are managing. Boy, you cannot imagine what it does to them when you show them that you care.

I believe that there are two kinds of human beings; the givers and the takers. I also believe that the difference between successful nations or institutions and the never-do-wells, is in the percentage of givers and takers each of them harbors.

Giving is what builds nations and institutions and families. It is the giving by many of their intellect, time, love, hard work and sometimes, their lives that have created those countries that we admire and whose visas we are desperate to have stamped on our passports. It is giving that has built the institutions that have stood the test of time – Red Cross, Doctors without Borders, Greenpeace, etc.

I recently observed the spiraling New York subway system and marveled at the giving that went into building that incredible network of rail lines under the dizzying skyscrapers of Manhattan and the under-water tunnels that connect New York and New Jersey.

Oh! the marvelous road network in Germany, the Autobahn, is also the product of giving.

Across the world, you see nations with structures and systems that work so very efficiently. Why? It is because these nations have people who are happy to give of themselves.

There is nothing wrong in making money if it is done without milking the system and if the objective is to try to bring happiness to the greatest number. In 2007, the world was stunned when the Billionaire investor, Warren Buffet gave away almost $3.2 Billion of his money for charity work around the world. The sage of Omaha says that he plans to give away practically all of his massive wealth for the benefit of mankind.

In 1997, CNN founder, Ted Turner announced a one billion dollars donation to UN agencies to do charity work around the world.

The Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation and other such foundations continue to do great work across the world. The great men who set up these foundations could have willed their enormous wealth to their children and grandchildren so that they would never need to work in their lifetimes. No, they decided to give so that the world can be a better place.

Why is poverty and hopelessness bestriding Nigeria, our fatherland? It is because we have become a nation of takers. We give nothing and take everything. Give a Nigerian the nation's pension fund to manage and he takes all the money and leaves the pensioners hungry on the streets. Give a Nigerian Army General money to buy arms to fight the terrorists traumatizing our people, the General will bury the money in a soak away pit and send innocent soldiers without weapons to go and die in Sambisa Forest. Across the country, everyone is in a mad scramble to take. Very few are willing to give. Pastors are on the take, civil servants are on the take, INEC officials are on the take, custom men are on the take, immigration officers are on the take, judges are on the take and policemen are on the take. And we want to build a nation? How?

I know people who every day warn me that I work too hard. In my country, work is seen as drudgery instead of a source of pleasure and satisfaction. So, a lot of Nigerians go to work but do no work. They spend much of their time scheming about how to sap and sap their employers.   

Considering that we come with nothing and go with nothing, is it not curious that we spend so much time acquiring and taking and taking things much of which we do not need and will not go away with?

I am convinced that if you make your life one of giving, the good Lord will make sure that you do not lack. It is the same way that I am convinced that if you take that which does not belong to you, you will not escape from paying for it one way or another. 

Think about it, Nelson Mandela did not become great by being a taker. Martin Luther King did not become great by being a taker. Mother Theresa certainly did not become great by being a taker.

I was very pleased to learn that in the later days of his life, the immutable Prince Bola Ajibola whom I had great admiration for, sold practically everything he had and used the money to set up a university from which he was not expecting any profit. When asked why, he said that your wealth is of no use if it does not meaningfully impact on others. Gbam!

Please think about it: Are you a giver or a taker?

See you next week.

THE VANITY OF POWER AND A BIT OF NIGERIAN RECENT HISTORY

On Monday, July 6, 2020, Ibrahim Magu woke up, took his bath, knotted one of his many fancy ties and dressed up in his usual western suit and set out on the streets of Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria. If anyone had told him as he was leaving home that someone born of a woman would have the audacity to block his convoy and order him to change his direction, I am almost certain that Ibrahim Magu would have laughed in the person's face and probably told the person that he was drinking a very bad variant of 'ogogoro'.

When Magu woke up that Monday morning, he was one of the most powerful men in Nigeria. Everyone, big or small, trembled at the mention of his name. He could order the arrest of anyone, detain anyone and using the enormous instruments under his control, send anyone to jail. After all, he was the Head of EFCC, the Czar of President Buhari's anti-corruption fight, the fulcrum of Buhari's presidency.

Ibrahim Magu was powerful, so powerful. The Nigerian senate which has the constitutional powers to confirm or reject his appointment as Chairman of EFCC, twice refused to confirm him but it did not matter. Magu became bigger than the constitution and for five years, based on some twisted logic, bestrode the nation as "Acting Chairman" of the EFCC!

On July 6, 2020, in a commando style, Ibrahim Magu was waylaid on his way from the EFCC Formella Street office in Abuja, and forced to go to Aso Rock Villa, to face a previously unknown presidential panel set up to investigate Magu's tenure and an alleged massive 'magu-magu' in the EFCC. In a twist of fate, the hunter became the hunted.

Magu who was reported to live in luxury in a house rented in the incredible sum of N40m and furnished with N43m is said to have spent the night of his arrest sleeping on bare chairs at the Louis Edet Police Headquarters in Abuja.   

In the morning of July 6, Magu was a powerful man. In the evening, he was a powerless man. Those who gave Magu the power had taken it.

At the beginning of June 2020, Adams Oshiomhole was one of the most powerful political players in the land. The former governor of Edo State and former President of the Nigerian Labour Congress wielded power with no apologies to anyone. Upon his election as Chairman of the ruling APC, Oshiomhole was reported to have warned a minister of the Federal Republic that if President Buhari would tolerate the minister's indiscretion, he, Adams Oshiomhole would not take the nonsense.  For most people in the APC, the fear of Oshiomhole was the beginning of wisdom.

Uche Nwosu, son-in-law of former governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, will not forget Adams Oshiomhole in a hurry. Together, they danced and made merry at Dan Anyiam Stadium Owerri when Oshiomhole visited Imo State. Nwosu was the crown prince of the Okorocha dynasty, waiting to take over as Governor of Imo State. When push came to shove, Oshiomhole out flanked him, pulled the carpet under his feet and the rest, as they say, is now history.

Adams coordinated the plot that brought Buhari back as President at a time when Atiku Abubakar was seriously flexing his muscles. On every APC campaign stage across Nigeria, Oshiomhole, not the tallest of men, jumped higher than everyone else and spoke louder than everyone else.

In the normal order of things, Adams Oshiomhole, National Chairman of APC would never have considered Stephen Oshawo, Chairman of the APC Etsako Ward 10 in Edo State as a powerful man. But when it was time to cut Adams Oshiomhole to size, the real powers that be did not go to the Supreme Court, they went to Oshiomhole's ward and got his ward Chairman to suspend him.

In the normal order of things, if Adams Oshiomhole was looking behind for who would pull the carpet off his feet, he may have worried about the APC Deputy Chairmen or the Vice Chairman. I doubt that it would have occurred to him that it would be Victor Giadom, a little-known Assistant Secretary of his party that would be used to mess him up so badly.

In the normal order of things, Adams Oshiomhole, the sharp player on the political chess board would never have envisioned that the rules enshrined in the APC constitution would be so badly thrown to the dogs and that an APC National Executive Council Meeting would be held with two days-notice at the Aso Rock Villa at the instance of the said Assistant Secretary and the very powerful Adams Oshiomhole would be so emasculated in the public glare.

If we are sensitive about Nigerian history, we should understand that what has happened to the two men mentioned above can happen to any of us whether in the church, the mosque, the market group, a social club, a professional association or on the national stage. Let everyone be careful. Power is ephemeral and transient. It can disappear in a twinkle of an eye.

In my time, I have met a lot of small men intoxicated by power. They think that the power they wield belongs to them without realizing that the power belongs to the office they occupy, the uniform they wear or the chair they sit on. Many understand power to mean the ability to punish or subjugate others rather than the ability to uplift and put a smile on the faces of as many of God's children as possible. Will we ever understand the vanity of power? I don't know.

See you next week.

WHEN YOUR BIGGEST ASSET IS YOUR BIGGEST LIABILITY – THE JAGABAN ARMY TAKES ON THE OBIDIENTS!

Before his election as Lagos State Governor, I once met candidate Babajide Sanwo Olu at an event. He seemed a bit tentative, a little bit unsure even though he tried to provide an answer to every question. There is no doubt that he has grown on the job, more sure-footed and even likeable. You cannot accuse the governor of lack of intelligence or imagination.

But, let's be frank. There are many in Lagos state as intelligent, if not more intelligent than Sanwo Olu, who will never be Governor, Deputy Governor, Commissioner or even Permanent Secretary. Many will end their careers as middle level managers in some nameless organizations.

The difference is timing and that word, "Connection". At the right time, Babajide Sanwo-Olu became connected to the "Emperor" of Lagos, the one and only Jagaban Borgu, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and regardless of what the people of Lagos thought, it was decreed that Sanwo-Olu would be the next governor of Lagos. So said the "Emperor", so it came to be.

Many in Lagos had no problem with Akinwunmi Ambode, Sanwo-Olu's one term predecessor. To some of us, he was pro-active. We could see what he was trying to do with Lagos and thought that Lagos would be a good place if Ambode was allowed to do a second term. Despite his struggles, it was clear that Ambode could not survive the primaries of the APC having fallen out with the "Emperor". He was sent into political oblivion and was even set up for the EFCC to hound. Ambode did only one term not because the people of Lagos did not want him but because the Godfather who controls Lagos did not want him.

Before Ambode, Babatunde Fashola had a similar problem. Do you remember the loud groan by APC members, "Na project we go chop?" Fashola was said to have spent too much money on projects and very little on servicing the wheels of the APC spun by the Jagaban. He eventually became a "good boy", negotiated his way and served a second term.

Today, Nigerians go to the polls to elect their governors and state assembly members. All over the place, it is tense. In Lagos, it is like the 3^rd World- War has been unleashed. Everything is being deployed in the battle: thuggery, arson, violence, false ethnic propaganda, intimidation, Oro, blatant partisan political intervention of otherwise neutral Obas, etc.

This time last month, if anybody had suggested that Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Tinubu's boy, would be in a battle of his life to serve a second term as Governor of Lagos State, the person would have been accused of drinking too much "ogogoro". Apart from PDP's Jandor, who else did you see his posters around Lagos? All that changed on February 25, when Peter Obi, the guy with no poster, no structure, who does not give "shishi" and is purportedly supported by 'only four guys tweeting from one room', dusted the "Emperor" in his supposed homebase and stronghold!

That development sent shivers down the spine of many who have depended on the morsels from Alausa for their bread and butter. And so, the decision to wake up the Jagaban Army, assemble all hands-on-deck, clean and dirty, to launch a no-holds-bared counterattack against these "Obidient" people who are attempting to foist 'sacrilege' on Lagos!  

Sanwo Olu may not have had this kind of problem if he was not seen as the godson of the "Emperor".

Sanwo-Olu's greatest asset, the asset that made him Governor, has become his greatest liability … his albatross. I don't think there are many who will say that Sanwo Olu is a terrible governor. The battle in Lagos today is not really a battle against Babajide Sanwo-Olu. It has to do with the coming together on one side of many who are scared that an individual with insatiable appetite is deploying enormous resources obtained from Lagos State to acquire complete control of Nigeria, a nation of over two hundred million people. Another fear of the Sanwo-Olu camp is that scary word, PROBE. Will a new landlord at Alausa open the books and sniff at what exactly has been going on with the enormous resources of Lagos State. There is just too much at stake!

Make no mistake, the people against a Sanwo-Olu returning as governor are not just "Obidients" or Igbos. There are many Yorubas and people from across Nigeria who are just mad and tired of the politics of Lagos. They can't understand how for a long time, one individual has pocketed a whole Lagos. The politics of Lagos has been the politics of what one man says and what he wants. That is why there are suddenly, alignments and re-alignments, and many abandoning Jandor, despite his significant campaign, to join forces with Labour Party's previously little-known Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour (GRV), who with the Peter Obi connection, is believed to have the best chance of wrestling power from Sanwo-Olu. One thing is clear; my extremely talented sister, Funke Akindele is not likely to be Deputy Governor of Lagos.

How will the war end? Nobody knows. The fact is that the people in the Tinubu camp are rattled, very rattled. People like MC Oluomo is said to be issuing open threats against those not willing to vote for Sanwo-Olu. The strategy appears to be to scare as many of the anti-Tinubu group as possible and keep them away from voting. There are so many factors that will be at play today: INEC, BVAS, Hackers, Police, Area Boys, Obas, Dollars, etc. Victory for either side will not be easy.

Fascinating!

See you next week.

IF YOU THINK I WILL RUN AWAY FROM NIGERIA BECAUSE OF YOU, YOU DEY CRAZE!

IF YOU THINK I WILL RUN AWAY FROM NIGERIA BECAUSE OF YOU, YOU DEY CRAZE!

Once in secondary school, I got 12% in a mathematics exam. That tore my soul. Me, 12%? How did that happen?!

I usually do not blame anyone for whatever predicament I go through, believing that life is a challenge and only the strong survive.

I knew that the 12% result was my own making. Mathematics was never really a challenge to me, so I had taken it for granted. Any time the mathematics teacher was in class, I did cross word puzzles or read some comics. I paid no attention.

At exam time, my brain froze.  I panicked! I could not remember any formula. Something like BODMAS became strange and confusing. The reason was very simple. I did not practice at all. From being overconfident, I totally lost confidence.

The shame and humiliation that followed my 12% debacle affected me going through life. I resolved that 12% has no business with me and 12% success would not come my way again. Next term, I followed the mathematics teacher from class to class, took every note and practiced every formula. At the end of the term, I had an 'A' in the same mathematics. From then on, I considered 'B' a failure.  

Those who went to school with me and those who have worked with me thereafter will testify that I prepare, practice and practice for everything. I never want to go to a meeting without studying[to1]   the issues and fully understanding what I want to come out with at the end of the meeting. I do not embark on an event without checking every box over and over again and being sure that there is a Plan 'B', if Plan 'A' goes wrong. I am sure my lawyers are sick of me. I never let them take my case to court without being certain that the processes are very well done and that the facts and the law are on my side and every hearing notice is served. Nobody who works with me is allowed to send out a document with bad grammar or without the 'i's dotted, the 't's crossed and all the punctuation marks in place.

Have I always got an 'A'? Many of the times I have. There are however a few times that I have not. I recall going to a Lecturer at the University of Lagos to say that I wanted to retake his paper. I had scored a 'B' in the paper and was distressed. The lecturer was very angry with my 'audacity' and told me how stupid I was. He was emphatic that he does not give an 'A' to any student and that 'A' belonged to him. At the end of the day, I found out that my 'B' was the best result in the subject. What I have discovered is that if you strive for and 'A', the worst that is likely to come your way is a 'B'. 

In the university, as a student, I used to teach classes and I realized that my fellow students preferred my classes to those of the lecturers. They would ask me questions they would not dare ask the lecturers. I knew that the students would enjoy embarrassing me if it was obvious I did not know what I was talking about. So, before any class, I would go through the subject with a tooth comb and prepare for every possible question. What my colleagues did not know was that it was my way of preparing for exams.

I am that guy who would tell you bluntly that if you fail to plan, you have planned to fail. The problem is that there are too many lazy people, people who go through life without a plan and with little effort. They do not work for an 'A' and would readily accept "let my people go" which most times results in failure. Then, they will blame their failure on everyone else and everything else but themselves.

I have little material wealth but I have faith and happiness. I appreciate the grace that the Almighty has given me to work hard, focus on every challenge and achieve results that are pleasing. I love the gifts the good Lord has given me, and I try to use them the best I can for the good of as many of God's children as possible.

I have said before that I do not want to be Dangote or Otedola or Ronaldo or Donald Trump. My name is Tony Okoroji and I like it.

I know that the Almighty has given to each of his children our peculiar gifts. The problem is that rather than harness their gifts, some people are very busy with envy and covetousness and fixated on the gifts of others. Somebody should tell them that I do not want to be them and no matter how much they try, they cannot be me.

I have heard some people say that I am arrogant. I have also heard it said that they will drive people like us out of Nigeria.  No sir! Despite the challenges of Nigeria, I am in Nigeria to stay. Last time I checked; it was clear to me that both my late mother and father were Nigerians. At this time, Nigeria needs men, real men, men with staying power. I will not concede my rights as a Nigerian citizen to anyone. What some people consider arrogance is confidence. It is the kind of confidence that drove a guy like Peter Obi without structure and without 'shishi' to cause a never-before-seen political revolution in Nigeria, within a few months.

I am not so stupid that I do not understand that the wisdom and strength we deploy do not belong to us but to the Almighty. I am simply the guy who drives on a full tank of faith!

I know that hatred is a virus. It permeates your engine and destroys the effectiveness of your mechanism. I may defend myself, but I cannot hate anyone. That is why those who attack me with falsehood fail and keep failing.

What of those who think I will run away from Nigeria because of them? Dem dey craze!

 

See you next week.

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