Opinion

Balablu-Blu Blu-bulaba and other incarnations

Published

2 years ago

December 16, 2022

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By Tunde Olusunle⁹1

For his famous zeal, stamina, energy and verve, Nigeria’s former President, Olusegun Obasanjo had to learn when to draw the brakes. There were those times his spirit was willing, but his body weak. He had to succumb to the body clockwork to catch some rest. If he still desired to drag his body, he was tactfully restrained by his aides. I know a bit about Obasanjo. I served as his campaign media officer, a job I was enlisted into, even before his formal declaration to contest for the nation’s top job. He threw his hat in the ring at his famous Otta Farm, his primordial resort in Ogun State, November 1, 1998.

I had been previously introduced to him by my respected senior professional colleague and mentor, Onyema Ugochukwu. I served under Ugochukwu, beginning from the glorious days of the Yemi Ogunbiyi restoration and revolution of the Daily Times. I’ve attempted to capture my perceptions and impressions about the works and persons of Ogunbiyi and Ugochukwu, in separate, self-authored,
full length academic essays. Both have been published in reputable journals, in 2017 and 2022 respectively. I also accompanied Obasanjo to the State House, Aso Villa, Abuja and served his administration for eight years.

Obasanjo thinks, talks, eats, drinks, walks, sleeps Nigeria. Even as a presidential aspirant before he won the ticket of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, (PDP) to run for the presidency, Obasanjo’s uncommon affection for Nigeria and desire for its growth and development, was intensely unassailable. There were regular pre-campaign preparations, and campaign post-mortems. Obasanjo’s style is peculiar, but reflects his disposition towards his country and his determination to contribute selflessly to its progress. He could begin a discussion with members of his core team in his bedroom, be reminded he was running behind schedule for appointments, jump into the bath dragging his co-discussants along, and continuing the argument. The world is eagerly waiting for the memoirs of Ugochukwu and Ad’Obe Obe, both former colleagues in the now rested London-based West Africa magazine in the 1980s, who were reunited by the Obasanjo project.

During his years as president, the pathologically stubborn, somewhat nonconformist Obasanjo, found himself managed in many ways. From his chief personal physician, Olusegun Ajuwon; to the state chief of protocol, Oluwole Coker; to his aide-de-camps, Solomon Giwa-Amu and Christopher Jemitola, and chief security officer, Kayode Oduneye, Obasanjo had professional minders. Of this list, only Amu, unfortunately, is no more with us. They found ways to “ground” him from time to time, albeit for him to get power-naps. If he was proving a handful, Abdullahi Mohammed, Obasanjo’s chief of staff and former military colleague stepped forward to chaperone him away from his desk or meeting, as the case may be. Obasanjo pocketed his recalcitrant streak when the need arose, for his good and Nigeria’s benefit.

I could feel the agony of Kashim Shettima, running mate of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), Bola Tinubu, at the rally held in Minna, the other. I saw the discomfort in the faces of Abdullahi Ganduje and Adamu Abdullahi, Kano State governor, and national chairman of the APC, as Tinubu took the microphone at the Minna event. As has become famous with Tinubu, he floundered in grand style while reciting what was easily the simplest preamble to a muslim prayer! Public revulsion was spontaneously manifested by loud murmurs and grumbling as Tinubu called Allah (father) in his prefatory chants! This in Islam, is an act of polytheism, a condemnable and actionable act.

Within seventeen minutes, Tinubu was spirited away from the rally. Bayo Onanuga his campaign media adviser, would subsequently issue a statement to the effect that his principal was overwhelmed by the mammoth numbers at the rally and had to rush off for other engagements. It emerged later, however, that a three-pronged development necessitated Tinubu’s ferrying to safety. First, the call-and-response interaction with the crowd, showed they plan to vote the APC governorship candidate, Mohammed Umar Bago, and PDP’s Atiku Abubakar, at the presidential polls. Secondly, purported security reports indicated there was a plan to attack Tinubu at the end of the rally, for the heresy he committed against Allah in his earlier remarks. The third reason was connected to the urgent imperative to manage a pressing health situation related to him.

The Minna fiasco was not Tinubu’s first public stutter, even before the blast of the starter’s shot for the commencement of the presidential campaign. If we were circumspect, Tinubu’s foibles began to manifest years ago. And we should have known he was disaster waiting to unravel. At a colloquium commemorating his 69th birthday last year, he proferred that the federal government should recruit 50 million youths to enhance national security. He assured they will be fed on “cassava, agbado (maize) and yam.” Tinubu’s media adviser, my longstanding friend and brother since several decades back in our university days, Tunde Rahman, had the unpleasant task of issuing a rejoinder. Rahman was called to work shortly after again, when he had to clean up Tinubu’s gaffe while advising a group which visited him, to renew their expired permanent voter’s cards, (PVCs)! At a November 26, 2022 meeting with his supporters in Lagos, Tinubu admonished them to get their APVs in place of PVCs!!

It has indeed become “one day, one goof” for him on the campaign trail. The audience was bemused last October, when Tinubu at the Seventh Edition of the Kaduna Economic and Investment Summit, (KADInvest), serenaded Nasir El-Rufai, governor of Kaduna State, a miracle worker. He described him as an administrator who can change “a rotten situation to a bad one!” He wrongfully referred to the director-general of his campaign organisation and Plateau State governor, Simon Lalong, as Simon Dalong. His response to a question about climate change, elicited a most inconceivable, off-tangent response from him. His answer that it “is a question of how do you prevent a church rat eating a poisoned holy communion!” Weeks ago in Imo State, Tinubu struggled with the word “hullabaloo,” representing it as Bala Blu, Blu, Bulaba! Skits and memes of that outing have been variously represented in the social media. Such has been the manifestly worrying carriage and presentation of the APC presidential candidate.

One doesn’t want to play back Tinubu’s outing at the APC presidential primaries in June. Cameras trailed on him beginning from when he was disembarking from the VIP cubicle, showed him missing his steps and almost tripping down the stairs as he alighted from that reserved section of Eagle Square. The lenses were also beamed on him as he struggled with trembling fingers to flip over the sheets of the prepared speech he read at the event. You wonder if anyone has to go through such regular public torture and humiliation, if it is truly all about altruism and service to fatherland. You truly wonder if this obsessive nightmare will ever end.

Tinubu urgently needs help, he has to be restrained in spite of himself. Videos of the president of South Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit peeing on himself in public, made the global rounds recently. That is bad advertisement for leaders who want to die “executive deaths” in office. What has become very clear is that Tinubu’s chaperones are confirmed wayo people. They are intent on selling to us, “by force, by fire” as pentecostals will say, a holistically defective product. It is worse than a junk tokunbo contraption, which people up north describe as gura-gura.

But they keep advertising this ware in a glazed, air-conditioned showroom to the rest of us, as a new one, or chassis in “mechanic village” lingo. The product keeps malfunctioning and breaking down, while the marketers keep patching it up and panel-beating it. And they keep thrusting it in the faces of buyers whom they consciously want to fleece, as a tear rubber, a straight-from-the-dealer’s brand new product! The reckoning is that we probably have no choice since the ruling party is intent on reincarnation and self-succession. And this exactly is where they get it wrong. Has anyone pondered about why, since the flag-off of the Tinubu campaign in Jos, many weeks ago, outgoing president Muhammadu Buhari has not attended or appeared at any political event with Tinubu? Obasanjo held up Umaru Yar’Adua’s hands at rally after rally, advertising him to Nigerians. Is Buhari’s noticeable non-identification with Tinubu’s campaign strictly for official engagements across the world? Is it because he knows something we don’t know?

In an effort to placate the greater majority of us who are implacably displeased with his below par performance in his near eight years in office, Buhari seems intent on redeeming himself, somewhat. He has advised Nigerians to vote whoever they want, from whichever political party. He is promising that people’s votes must count and government must be seen to be respecting the people. Buhari finally clocked 80 years recently. He was senior to the Ibrahim Babangida/Aliyu Gusau generation in the military academy, but junior to them biologically. He desires to be on the acquittal side of history. The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), has promised to deliver a BVAS-inspired, manipulation-proof election. If this is followed to the letter, Tinubu and his orchestra will be in their own townhall of balablu, blublu, bulaba, come February 25, 2023. The rest of us will be readying for the resetting and reclamation of Nigeria, come May 29, 2023, courtesy of our informed choices.

Tunde Olusunle, PhD, is Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, to Atiku Abubakar, GCON, presidential candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, (PDP).

Opinion

BENUE 2027:The Apa/Agatu Quest for Equity

Published

5 days ago

January 14, 2025

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By Tunde Olusunle

It may be well over two years to the next cycle of general elections in Nigeria. For the people of Apa/Agatu federal constituency in *Benue South, however, the measure of their participation and integration into the governance scheme will be defined in the run-up to the general polls that year. Nine local government areas make up the predominantly Idoma country of Benue State also labelled Zone C in the senatorial tripod of the geo-polity. The zone is also home to the Igede ethnic stock and the Etulo. Local government areas in “Benue Zone C” include: Apa, Agatu, Oju, Obi, Ado, Ogbadibo, Okpokwu, Otukpo and Ohimini. The other zones, Benue North East and Benue North West, are wholly dominated by the Tiv nationality, striding across 14 local government areas. They are christened Zone A and Zone B in the local political scheme of the state. Federal constituencies in Benue South are: Apa/Agatu, Oju/Obi; Ado/Ogbadibo/Opokwu and Otukpo/Ohimini.

The subjugation of groups and ethnicities considered demographically smaller, by the larger groups which has dominated Nigeria’s politics over time, has not been any different for the Idoma of Benue State. Until the circumstantial emergence of a Yahaya Bello from the Ebira ethnicity in Kogi State in 2015, the Igala had the relay baton of governorship of Kogi State, in rounds and succession. The Ebiras and the Okun-Yoruba zones in the state could only aspire to be serial deputies or Secretaries to the State Government. This political template was virtually cast in stone. The Ilorin people of Kwara State have similarly wholly warehoused the gubernatorial office, sparingly conceding the position to other sociocultural groups in the state. The only exception was the concession of the seat to a candidate from Kwara South, in the person of Abdulfatah Ahmed, by his predecessor, Bukola Saraki in 2011. Even at that, there were murmurs and dissent from those who believed Ahmed came from a community too close to the Ilorin emirate to be of genuine Igbomina stock, which prides itself as the pure Yoruba species in Kwara State.
Twenty-six years into the Fourth Republic, the maximum proximity of the Idoma to Government House, Makurdi, has been by the customary allocation of the Deputy Governor’s slot to its people. Ogirri Ajene from Oju/Obi, the charismatic blue-blood of blessed memory, was deputy to George Akume, incumbent Secretary to the Government of the Federation, (SGF), from 1999 to 2007. Akume it was reported, genuinely desired to be succeeded by Ajene who exhibited competence and loyalty and could build on their legacies. The Tiv nation we understand, shot down the proposal. Gabriel Suswam succeeded Akume and had the urbane multipreneur, Stephen Lawani from Ogbadibo as deputy. Samuel Ortom, a Minister in the Goodluck Jonathan presidency who took over from Suswam opted for Benson Abounu, an engineer from Otukpo as running mate, while Hyacinth Alia, the Catholic priest who succeeded Ortom, also chose as deputy, Samuel Ode, who was also a Minister in the Jonathan government, from Otukpo. Arising from this precedence, Apa/Agatu has not for once, been considered for a place in Government House, Makurdi.
In similar fashion, the position of Senator representing Benue South, has repeatedly precluded Apa/Agatu federal constituency. David Alechenu Bonaventure Mark a former army General from Otukpo, took the first shot at the office in 1999. He was to remain in the position for five consecutive times, a distinctive record by Nigerian standards. Mark would subsequently become President of the Senate and the third most senior political office holder in the nation’s governance scheme for a string of two terms between 2007 and 2015. He was replaced by Patrick Abba Moro, who hails from Okpokwu and was a former teacher, in 2019. Abba Moro who previously served as Minister of Interior in the Jonathan government from 2011 to 2015, won a second term at the 2023 general elections and remains substantive Senator for “Benue Zone C.” He is indeed incumbent Minority Leader of the Senate, and thus a principal officer in the leadership scheme of the “red chambers.”
While Moro is barely two years into his second term, there are suggestions that he is interested in a third term which should run from 2027 to 2031! This is the core issue which has dominated contemporary political discourse in Benue South, especially from the Apa/Agatu bloc. For Apa/Agatu, it is bad enough that they are repeatedly bypassed in the nomination of deputy governors in the scheme of state politics. It is worse that they are equally subjugated by their own kinsmen within the context of politics in *Idoma and Igede land.* This is particularly worrying when both local government areas constituting the Apa/Agatu federal constituency, Apa and Agatu, are not in anyway deficient in human resources to represent Benue South. Names like John Elaigwu Odogbo, the incumbent *Och’Idoma* and respected clergy; Isa Innocent Ekoja, renowned Professor and Librarian; Sonny Togo Echono, FNIA, OON, Executive Secretary, Tertiary Education Trust Fund, (TETFUND), and John Mgbede, Emeritus State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), Benue State, readily come to mind.
Major General R.I. Adoba, (rtd), a former Chief Training and Operations in the Nigerian Army; Professor Emmanuel Adanu, former Director of the Kaduna-based National Water Resources Institute, (NWRI) and the US-based specialist in internal medicine, Dr Raymond Audu, are eminent Apa/Agatu constituents. There are also Ada Egahi, long-serving technocrat who retired from the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, (NPHDA), and Super Eagles forward, Moses Simon, (why not, hasn’t the retired soccer star, George Opong Weah just completed his term as President of Liberia)? The Member Representing Apa/Agatu in the House of Representatives, Godday Samuel Odagboyi, an office previously held by Solomon Agidani, as well as Adamu Ochepo Entonu, is, like his predecessors, a prominent figure from the resourceful Apa/Agatu federal constituency.
The Olofu brothers, Tony Adejoh, a retired Assistant Inspector General of Police, (AIG), and David, PhD, a renowned management and financial strategist, who is also an Emeritus Member of the Benue State Executive Council during the Ortom dispensation, are from the same federal constituency. So is Abu Umoru, a serial entrepreneur who represents Apa State Constituency in the Benue State House of Assembly. The continuing intra-zonal alienation of Apa-Agatu from the politics of Benue Zone C, remains a sore thumb which must be clinically diagnosed and intentionally treated in the run-up to 2027.
If previous top level political office holders from Idomaland in general and Apa/Agatu in particular, had diligently applied themselves to tangible, multisectoral development of the zone and constituency, the present clamour for inclusiveness would probably been less vociferous. *River Agatu* which flows from Kogi State, and runs through Agatu before emptying into *River Benue,* is a potential game changer in the socioeconomy of Apa/Agatu, Benue South and Benue State in general. Properly harnessed, it can revolutionise agriculture and aquaculture in the state, beyond subsistence levels which are the primary vocations of the indigenous people. Rice, yam, guinea corn, millet and similar grains, thrive in the fertile soils of the area. These can support “first level” processing of produce and guarantee value addition beneficial to the primary producers, before being shipped to other markets. River Agatu can indeed be dammed to provide hydro-electricity to power the entire gamut of Idomaland.
The infrastructure deficit in Benue South with specific reference to Apa/Agatu is equally very concerning. A notable pattern in Nigerian politics is its self-centeredness, the penchant for political players to prioritise their personal wellbeing and the development of their immediate space. This has accentuated the ever recurring desire of people to ascend the political pedestals of their predecessors if that is the principal window by which they can also privilege their own primary constituents. Motorable roads are non-existent, seamless travel between communities therefore encumbered. Expectedly this has been a major impediment to subsistent trade and social engagements between constituents and their kinsmen. Primary health facilities are almost non-existent, compelling people to flock to Otukpo, headquarters of Benue South, for the minutest of medical advice and treatment.
Apa/Agatu pitiably bleeds from the relentless and condemnable activities of vagrants and bandits who have reduced the constituency into a killing field. Reports suggest that in the past 15 years, no less than 2500 lives were lost to the vicious attacks of marauders and trespassers in the area under reference. This unnerving situation has compelled engagements between concerned Apa/Agatu leaders, and the leadership of the Nigeria Police Force, (NPF). The prayer is for the swift establishment of a mobile police outpost in the troubled sub-zone to contain bloodletting. The proposal, anchored by AIG Tony Olofu, NPOM, (rtd), and Echono, has received the blessings of the police high command. At the last update, a commander for the outfit had been named, while the deployment of personnel had begun in earnest.
It is very clear that in the march towards 2027, Apa/Agatu will refuse, very vehemently, to be sidelined and trampled upon in the political scheme of their senatorial zone. Abba Moro may desire a third term in the Senate, but the people of Apa/Agatu are quick to remind him that his curriculum vitae as a politician is sufficiently sumptuous for him to yield the seat in the “red chambers” and sit back like an elder statesman. They remind you that for a man who began his working life modestly as a lecturer in the Federal Polytechnic, Ugbokolo in 1991, Abba Moro has done extremely well for himself in Nigerian politics. For reminders, Abba Moro was elected Chairman of Okpokwu local government in the state as far back as 1998. Ever since, he has remained a permanent fixture in Nigeria’s national politics.
The people of Apa/Agatu will put up a determined fight for the Benue South senatorial seat in 2027, and no one should begrudge them. They are the proverbial ram which was pushed to the wall, which must of necessity push back with angered horns to liberate itself. They are already engaging with their kith across “Benue Zone C” to ensure that intra-zonal equity, fairness and justice, prevails in communal politics.

Tunde Olusunle, PhD, Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA), teaches Creative Writing at the University of Abuja

Opinion

The Prince Adebayo prescriptions for ease of doing Business: 15 Take-Aways

Published

5 days ago

January 14, 2025

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By Dr. Ag Zaki

On Thursday, 9 January 2025, Prince Adewole Adebayo presented a keynote address at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos. The occasion was the annual conference of a group of professionals, business executives and experts codenamed J9C for January 9 Collective. The theme of the Conference was “Business and Policy Strategy: Examining the Role of Reform in enhancing the ease of doing business in Nigeria.” Prince Adebayo is a versatile cerebral man of many parts, a lawyer, a multimedia practitioner, a real estate investor, a large-scale miner, a philanthropist, a community developer, and the 2023 Presidential Candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). The organisers of the J9C conference introduced him as an intercontinental lawyer because he currently practices law in over sixteen countries.

The full speech of Prince Adebayo at the occasion is available online and can be accessed by clicking at this url: https://youtu.be/SsHkcJbVNRg?si=ebvoOVqGh0zVOsnt or by scanning the QR code above. However, we are presenting the salient take-aways from this most incisive keynote address below for the convenience of interested persons and for the public good.

THE TAKE-AWAYS
Preamble
1. Not every change of policy or programme is a reform. A reform is a fundamental change in the activities, programmes, and policies structured to cause improvement. Genuine government reforms are people oriented and so citizens can interject, comment or contribute.
2. Reform may be internally motivated, externally forced or imposed, or technological driven.
3. The government of Nigeria must first reform itself to be able to implement development-oriented reforms to improve the country’s economic performance.

In general terms
4. Fiscal and monetary reforms are critical and are urgently required in Nigeria. While government can freely control its fiscal reforms, it must be bound by market forces for realistic and realisable monetary reforms.
5. Economic reforms must positively affect developmental policies, programmes and projects to engender economic growth, increase in efficiency, and lead to stability. Economic and political reforms must be implemented pari-passu for untainted policies and programmes.
6. Urgent structural reforms are required in areas of legal reforms, laws on banking controls and regulations, lending and borrowing as well as land matters.

In specific terms
7. Reforms which are aimed at targeting ease of doing business must be aligned with the Malam Aminu Kano maxim that “all civil servants should abstain from contracts or business”.
8. Nigeria must break the current odious and unwholesome conspiracies between policy makers, civil servants, and contractors, which can lead to irreversible endemic corruption, long foreseen by the revered Malam Aminu Kano, and which can permanently damage the economy.
9. Structural reforms must ensure that land laws open up maximum benefits and potentials of the land, encourage labour productivity and efficient and transparent entrepreneurship rules including registration, capital and lending matters.
10. Tax reforms should be broad-based, not about sharing of revenue but promoting productivity and competitiveness in all aspects of endeavours and infrastructure reforms should make transportation of people and goods safe and cost effective.
11. Monitoring economic crimes must be thorough and should go beyond arresting of “Yahoo boys” and those spraying Naira notes, but those devaluing the Naira and abusing economic rules and regulations.

Warnings
12. Adebayo left some stern terse warnings for the business sector and for the government of Nigeria.
13. Business executives and professionals should not ask or encourage government for specific reforms but for general broad-based reforms as firm-specific reforms can enhance operations of specific firms or business in the short term but will ultimately kill the industry.
14. Government should not meddle into business or be guided by partisan businessmen; government should meet business only at the junction of regulatory framework.
15. Government should be selfless and honest in carrying out reforms, incorporate measurable performance indices and ensure that reforms are implemented in a way not to inflict pains or punishment on the people.

# DrZaki25, 903 Tafawa Balewa Way, Abuja

Opinion

Governor Monday Okpebholo: A Blessing to Edo State

Published

6 days ago

January 13, 2025

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Monday Okpebholo

By Eigbefo Felix

His Excellency, Senator Monday Okpebholo, the Executive Governor of Edo State, has demonstrated that he is a blessing to the state through his policies, appointments, initiation of road construction across the three senatorial districts, and his deep love for the people of Edo State.

Governor Monday Okpebholo has begun fulfilling the five-point agenda he promised the good people of the state since his inauguration.

In the area of security, he has shown total commitment. He assured the people of Edo State that he would ensure their safety, and true to his word, the state remains peaceful, which has brought joy to its residents. He has provided the necessary support to security personnel.

The governor increased the subvention for Ambrose Alli University (AAU) from ₦40 million to ₦500 million. He also promised to address the issues facing AAU medical students. Additionally, he has started renovating primary and secondary schools across the state, underscoring his understanding of the importance of education.

The agricultural sector has taken a positive turn as Governor Okpebholo has allocated ₦70 billion to the sector. Recognizing agriculture’s importance to both the state and the nation, he is positioning Edo State to become the food basket of the nation with his investments in the sector.

During the electioneering period, Senator Okpebholo promised to create 5,000 jobs within his first 100 days in office. He has already begun the process, and soon, the people of Edo State will benefit from these employment opportunities. Unlike in the past, he will not rely on MOUs before making appointments. Furthermore, he has started appointing Edo State indigenes, rather than outsiders, to various positions.

Governor Okpebholo has commenced road projects across the state, from Edo South to Edo Central and Edo North. He believes that when roads are motorable, the prices of goods in the market will automatically reduce.

He has also begun investing in the health sector, understanding its critical importance to the people of Edo State.

Governor Monday Okpebholo’s initiatives and actions affirm his dedication to transforming Edo State for the better.