The enchanter recited the incantation with utmost fury: “River Niger and River Benue, the confluence is in Kogi State. Except say River Niger and River Benue no come meet for Kogi; if River Niger and River Benue come meet for Kogi, dem no go fit arrest Bello… Dem dey use EFCC pursue am, dem no go succeed o. Dem go lay siege for im house for Abuja… Except say I no be born of Igala kingdom… EFCC dey front, you dey back; you dey back, dem dey front; you dey left, dem dey right; you dey right, dem dey left; you dey centre, dem come there, you jump dem pass!…a lion cannot give birth to a goat…”

The repertoire is a typical exchange in African rituals. The target was the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), an organization headed by Ola Olukoyede. Olukoyede is said to be a pastor in Enoch Adeboye’s RCCG. So, three men gather in a place that looks like a forest. Woven round the heads of two of them like bandana is a white cloth. They crouch on their knees. The third, kneeling in the middle, carries a brown pot from which oozes a thick smoke. Libation ingredients are ready. They are: a black cock, tortoise, a green bottle which ostensibly habours in its bosom sacrificial liquor. The liquor is then sprinkled on the ground as libation. Two egg-like objects complete the ingredients of sacrifice. Either as an effigy or in person, the presence of the recipient of the ritual is always needed. His spirit needs to connect with the spirits.

So, a portrait of the man who gave self the sobriquet of White Lion, Yahaya Bello, is procured for the libation process. He is dressed in all-white attire like the god, Obatala. Obatala is a Yoruba god of purity. Then the one who looks like the chief priest begins to render a monologue that is known in African ritual practice as incantation. It is similar to the allocutus lawyers enter into on behalf of their guilty client. The aim is for the de-escalation of the pursuit of Bello by the EFCC, his alleged theft of Kogi State’s N82 billion notwithstanding. Bello’s matter got escalated towards the end of the week when the EFCC chairman alleged that the ex-governor paid in advance, the sum of  $845,852.84 to the Abuja school of his children. Bello has made feeble attempt to denounce this from his hiding hole with the ill-logic that it was paid with his hard-earned sweats. Why the rush to pay school fees till 2034 if where the money was got today would remain permanent?

Yahaya Bello and his apologists have been spurting out bunkum. They allege that the EFCC is hounding him. Let us assume they are right. First, it is shameful for a self-styled Lion to hide inside a hole like a coyote, thereby eating stale food reserved for effeminate animals. Don’t they say that the leopard, and by extension, the lion, does not eat stale food? (Ekun kii je’ran ikasi). It is thus lawless of Yahaya Bello not to honour the anti-graft body’s lawful invitation. Bello’s 8-year reign was notorious for his naked stomping on opposition’s human rights, running a government fittingly described as an orgy of violence. Why are executioners always afraid when swords are flung in their faces? His is reminiscent of the story of an executioner in Old Oyo Kingdom whose specialty was in decapitating his victims with relish. Upon courting the ire of the Alaafin and was sentenced to death, the ex-executioner suddenly became jittery. When the man about to decapitate him began to do the traditional acrobatics pre-cutting off of his head, jittery, the ex-executioner’s voice shaky, he asked what part of his body would be cut off, “my head or feet?” Celebratory townsmen who had gathered to witness his comeuppance were angered and demanded rhetorically what part of his victims’ bodies he relished in cutting off during his reign of terror.

Anthropologists of the in the pre-colonial era of the 20^th century studying witchcraft were shocked. They had earlier submitted that occult practices would die with modernization and urbanization. However, in the last two decades, modernity seems to have lost the battle in Africa. The miserable and insecure nature of everyday life has made African politicians to go two steps backwards. Rather than the Gods of Christianity and Islam which they inherited from the colonizers, they have gone back to ancient practices preceding the incursion of Arab and European lords. Now, the patronage of priests, priestesses of divinities, herbalists, sorcerers and occults is key to resolution of political dilemmas. Politicians use charms, amulets, rings, belts, ritual, incantations for the attainment of political goals. Either it was a skit or reality, that viral video of enchanters seeking Yahaya Bello to be set free typifies the usual scene in power relations in Africa. In the bid to attain, sustain or vend off irritants in political power struggles, there is widespread evidence confirming that many Africans today strongly hold on to beliefs which they got from traditional cosmologies. These have now constituted the core of their everyday lives. The Kenyan Mau Mau revolt is said to have been fought with African magical powers.

Magical and ritual practices are pervasive in power relations in Nigeria. This evidently affirms that when complicated issues and challenges of life confront Nigerian politicians, they quickly run to their tradition and origin. This equally demonstrates the ease with which they momentarily throw away their Christian and Islamic cloaks to hold on to the utilitarian purpose that magic and sorcery serve them. Late University of Leiden scholar, Stephen Ellis, in a 2001 article, “Mystical Efforts: Some evidence from the Liberian war” (Journal of Religion in Africa, XXX1, 2) described how young fighters in the Liberian war, sporting amulets which assumably made them bullet-proof, filled the streets with corpses. Monrovians were shocked at how the soldiers “(disemboweled) the bodies of their victims and (eat) their flesh or internal organs, particularly the heart.” The art of eating human heart is borne of a residue of practices in Africa. The belief is that, a person’s essence is contained in the heart and the blood. So, once the hearts and blood of these warriors are eaten and drunk, “the one who had just eaten them acquires some of the power formerly possessed by his victim.”

Wherever Bello is at the moment, no one needed to be told that he is engrossed with one or a combination of three elements in the bid to confront the coercive power of the Nigerian state. In the tragedy that is Yahaya Bello, these three elements must be making gross harvests from his calamity. They are, on the one hand, the religious combine made up of Pastors, Alfas and African indigenous religious rituals and magic. The second is, lawyers scrambling to profit from what they perceive as the loot from Kogi. Some shameless ones gathered in court last week to protest against the EFCC. The third is bloggers/journalists who by now must have offered to defreeze adversarial comments against him in traditional and social media platforms.

As guest speaker at a 2-day education summit which held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State in 2013, Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, waded into the now popular syncretic practices among Nigerian leaders. His particular beef was with Nigerian leaders’ dependence on consultation of marabouts and prophets to acquire and sustain political power. “Give me the name of any head of state who has not been consulting marabouts and prophets and so on, sacrificing goats, animals in the dead of night to receive a third term in office and so on,” he said. The veiled reference was to Olusegun Obasanjo. Marabouts have become notorious in the incestuous relationship between politics and religion in northern Nigeria. They are traditionally Muslim religious leaders and teachers who functioned historically as chaplains serving in Islamic army of North Africa, the Sahara, and in the Maghreb.

Soyinka was right. After the Gideon Orkar volley of bullets on the Dodan Barracks seat of power had subsided, it occurred to General Ibrahim Babangida that kinetic power alone could not guarantee his safety in power. IBB was reported to have consulted marabouts from Senegal who promptly buried live cows in Aso Rock to guarantee his fortification. Same went for General Sani Abacha who reportedly imported seasoned marabouts to spiritually guard Aso Rock. Bowels of the four corners of Abuja reportedly opened up their wombs and swallowed countless cows in sacrifice. Marabouts from Cameroun were also said to have assured the then Vice President Atiku Abubakar that Olusegun Obasanjo would not have a second term, thus exacerbating the animosity between the president and his vice.

President Felix Houphouet-Boigny was an example. A devout Catholic, he was said to have privately resorted to African mediums. Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire also ran a government of elite conspiracy of witches where marabouts were consulted at every point for the enhancement of political power.

For very many other African heads of state, clerics and known spiritualists were their advisors. Kenneth Kaunda was top among them. As president of Zambia, he had an Indian, Dr Ranganathan, as consultant on power matters. So also did President Mathieu Kerekou of Benin. He had a Malian marabout called Mohamed Amadou Cisse, also known as ‘Djine’ or ‘the Devil’ as his spiritual advisor. Cisse once publicly espoused the Devil. He was hitherto advisor to some other African leaders like Mobutu and Omar Bongo of Gabon. Kerekou later appointed Cisse minister of state whose responsibility in the Beninese government was secret services. President Didier Ratsiraka of Madagascar too had a palace that boasted of an extravagant temple dedicated to Rosicrucian god. So also did Paul Biya of Cameroon and Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique, both of whom were followers of Transcendental Meditation.

Marabouts, herbalists, sorcerers and occult chiefs of the Yahaya Bellos of this world and other African leaders become repositories of highly confidential state information. These are got in the process of spiritual interventions for the captive leaders. Feckless and desperate in the bid to attain and cling on to power, they divulge details of innermost governmental secrets to them. A 1998-published journal article written by Stephen Ellis and Gerrie ter Haar with the title, “Religion and Politics in Sub-Saharan Africa” (The Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 175-201) discusses how leading marabouts have pre-knowledge of coups d’e tat and other secrets of power. Amadou Cisse, for instance, knew virtually all the secrets of power in Benin. So did another marabout, Amadou Oumarou ‘Bonkano’, who was appointed chief of national intelligence service. Having known details of President Seyni Kountche of Niger’s operations, Oumarou attempted a coup against Kountche, his patron and employer.

At a random and conservative estimate, ninety per cent of Nigerian politicians, aside the Christianity and Islam they profess in broad daylight, patronize priests, herbalists, sorcerers and occults. They probably have discovered that the immediacy of execution that these African deities possess cannot be found in the Western God. Again, I tend to submit that the rash of theft of public money among them is borne out of the presumed fortification they are promised by African deity priests and priestesses. They offer human beings as sacrifice in the process. Unknown to them, they kill the proverbial hunchback, Abuke Osin, the favourite servant of Obatala god, in the process of acquiring these powers. Unjustly shed blood fight back.

According to renowned living archive of Yoruba traditional institution, Yemi Elebuibon, in his The Adventures of Obatala: Ifa and Santeria God of creativity,(2016) the hunchback was one of the faithful servants of Obatala who he sent on errands. Having become rich due to his generosity to the Abuke Osin, Tortoise, Alabahun the fabled trickster, envied Ojugbe, his neighbour. Impressed by his generosity to the hunchback, Obatala chanted some incantations which deposited precious beads, gold and other ornaments inside the carapace-like chest of the hunchback. So when Ojugbe rubbed the hunchback’s chest, he became stupendously wealthy. Stingy and unable to compete with Ojugbe-kind generosity, Tortoise lured the Abuke Osin into his house and forcefully rubbed his chest which refused to emit money. He then killed this servant of Obatala and incurred the wrath of the god.

The moment the Nigerian state allows Yahaya Bello, for whatever reason, to escape the wrath of the law, its last lever of strength will snap off. Whoever kills the Abuke Osin should pay dearly for it.

Ambassador Aminu Bashir Wali, 83, has left footprints in business, politics and diplomacy. He served in many positions such as Permanent Representative of Nigeria in the United Nations, Nigeria’s Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, and between 2014 and 2015, Minister of Foreign Affairs. In this interview, he shares his experiences, including his close relationship with the late former Head of State, General Murtala Mohammed.

 

Can we start with a bit of your background in Kano?

I was born in Dawakin Tofa Local Government because my father was a judge in Dawakin Tofa in 1941. But he eventually came back to Kano and became the Chief Alkali of Kano, and later, Wali of Kano.

Wali means chief judge?

No; Alkali is the chief judge. Wali is more like the person in charge of all legal issues, all the judges in Kano Emirate. That’s my background.

I wanted to be a lawyer, but somehow, by virtue of whatever, I was unable to achieve that dream. I even got admission to read a legal course. I attended primary school and Kofar Kudu Elementary School.

In Kano or Dawaki?

 

In Kano. We left Dawaki when I was only one year old. I also attended Gidan Makama Elementary School for one year and went to Kano Middle School in 1952/1953. My father died in December 1952 and I will always remember that the following year, in January, I went to the middle school. It was a boarding school.

From middle school, we were technically the first set in Kano Provincial Secondary School, which is today called Rumfa College. I got into the college in 1955 and was there till I got my school certificate. From there, I moved to the School for Arabic Studies.

My first choice was to go and read Law, so I applied to the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) for a legal course that had 9-month duration. It was for intermediates. And when you finished you would go to the United Kingdom and study for the Bar.

I filled my forms and I sent to Kaduna, but when the results came out, I was never called for interview. Based on my West African School Certificate result, they just offered me a place at Kongo, ABU, Zaria, and I never knew. They communicated to Kano Provincial Secondary School and the school forwarded it to the School of Arabic Studies in Kano for me to be informed.

The School of Arabic Studies (SAS) was the nucleus of Bayero College, which ended up as Bayero University, Kano (BUK).

The secondary school forwarded the letter of admission to Kongo in Zaria and the School of Arabic Studies, but the principal was trying to build his own school, and in our class, a lot of our mates failed the school certificate examination and he was rather protective of the good materials. So I never knew that I got admission in Zaria.

You never knew until when?

After I went to Lagos. I went to the SAS and started my A-level in Arabic, Islamic History and English Literature. And of course, when I left, I was not happy with the prospect of being a teacher because the combination I had for Higher School Certificate (HSC) was that automatically, wherever you went you would eventually end up as a teacher. And in those days, Northern Nigeria was looking for teachers. Whatever you did, they always sent you to be a teacher. I eventually became comfortable being a teacher.

In the First Republic, there was one parliamentary secretary, Abdulkadir Koguna, who was the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Establishment in Lagos. He came touring northern states to recruit young people to join the Civil Service of the Federation.

He came to the SAS and gave us lecture and I was one of the people that volunteered to go to Lagos. So, I left the SAS after about six months and went to the Federal Training Centre (FTC), Lagos. I had no idea what was being taught there.

It was only when I got to the Federal Training Centre, Lagos that I found out that they were training us (to be) stenographers, Grade 2.

To become secretaries?

Yes. I remember one episode in my class in FTC when Shehu Shagari was the Minister of Establishment, where the school was domiciled.

When he came to visit, he stopped at my desk and asked: “Where are you from?” I said I was from Kano. He asked about the school I attended and I told him. He continued: “What grade do you have? Who brought you here?” I told him.  He said I was not supposed to be there. I found out that when we got there, some of our classmates from the South were from secondary, class 3.

And you already had Higher School Certificate?

I started HSC and finished my school certificate Grade 2 with a lot of distinctions and what have you.

Shagari said that since I had been there and had gone a little bit far, there was no point telling me to pull out. So, I went ahead and completed the course.

It was in FTC, Lagos that one fellow, who was given admission at Kongo to read Law met me and asked what I was doing there. He said I was supposed to be in my house in Kongo. He said so because we were given houses.

As students?

Yes. He said my house was at Kongo and I was nowhere to be seen. I told him that I did not have an idea.

Was he a student?

Yes.

Did you feel tempted to leave and pursue your dream of becoming a lawyer?

No. They had gone a bit far, so there was no way I could go and join them. So I decided to just finish the programme.

I finished and qualified as a stenographer, grade 2. My first boss was one white man, Mr Wally, an Englishman. He was the senior assistant secretary in the Federal Ministry of Works.

I was posted to the Ministry of Works. I was later posted to work with the secretary, Federal Tenders Board. I was the secretary.

One Mr Erunse called me and said, “From what I read about you, you are not supposed to be doing this job. Why don’t you go and pursue higher education?” I said, “Well, this is where I am.” He said, alright.

He referred me to a school in the UK, North Western Polytechnic, which is today the North London University. I applied and they replied me based on my submission. They replied that I had been given admission.

I went to the Northern Nigeria Scholarship Board, Kaduna and presented my letter of admission. I was to study at the Chatham Institute of Secretaries because not many universities or polytechnics were doing Business Administration. Chatham Institute of Secretaries was a professional body. People like the late Ibrahim Damcida graduated from that school.

Tell me about your experience as a young man from Kano going to Lagos to study and work in the early 1960s.

I was lucky because I had relatives in Lagos. When I arrived in Lagos, it was Abdulkadir Koguna that accommodated us because he recruited four of us from Kano. There was one Mahmud Salim, now late, and Umaru Salihi, who later left us and went into the military. There was also Bello Farouk. We stayed in Koguna’s house.

One Friday, I went to Inuwa Wada’s house; we are cousins, same with his wife. But Wada had travelled.

Was he a minister then?

He was a minister of works. I think he had some eye problems, so he went for treatment.

So, you were very comfortable because you had relatives in Lagos? 

Wada’s wife was my big sister, so, she said I should come although her husband was not around. So, I moved to his house.

Socially, how was it for you as a young man in Lagos? Did you experience any unpleasant aspect of life while integrating?

No. In those days, most young people in the North, particularly the young educated ones, were more inclined to politics. They were supporters of the Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU).

In Lagos?

No; in Kano and other parts of the North.  In the politics of those days, anybody from the North was in the Northern People’s Congress (NPC). I also got involved; I mean, I got a lot of friends who came from various parts of northern Nigeria, such as the late Shehu Kangiwa. That was where I first met him in Lagos.

From Sokoto?

Yes. Also, Alu Ambursa from Kebbi. A lot of people from Adamawa.

What of soldiers?

Yes.

Your name is always linked with Murtala Mohammed, how are you connected to him?

Well, Murtala Mohammed was also my cousin. My father was at one time the head of the family. I was close to Murtala, right from secondary school. He was at Barewa College, while I was at Rumfa.

Every time they came for long holidays we were always together. Our parents had died, so we tended to be together most of the time throughout the holidays. I and Murtala were very close while growing up. He was three years my senior. He finished in 1957 in Barewa, Zaria and I finished in 1960.

By the time I got to Lagos, he was already an officer; I think a full lieutenant. He later became a captain.

Were you still close while in Lagos?

Yes; it was kind of a family affair.

Through him, I got to know a lot of military officers. Funny enough, he was going for a course as a captain at the School of Signals, Yorkshire in the UK.

On my first trip to UK to join my school, we were on the same flight. He showed me the way around in London. I got a room in North London. He showed me around before he went to his own school.

How was London for you?

I would say I was fairly spoilt because I had Murtala with me, who was already a captain in the military. And I met my elder brother, Justice Abubakar Wali, may his soul rest in peace. I met him when he was about to finish his law studies in the UK. I was with him for about one and a half years before he left. So, I didn’t find it difficult at all.

I also enjoyed my stay there because I was one of the fairly wealthy students. I was able to get in with the BBC and get a programme every week (Sunday) to produce a programme called London Calling. I was paid £5 a week for each programme. So I had £20 extra. My allowance from the Northern Nigeria Government was £39 a month and I was able to get another £20.

What gave you the idea to go to the BBC and suddenly become a broadcaster?

While I was in secondary school, another elder brother of mine, Ambassador Umar Bashir Wali, was the first within our family to go to the UK. He studied Comparative Law in the London School of Oriental and African Studies.

While he was there, I was in secondary school and I always ran around three 3o’clock to get a radio and listen to him because he was a Hausa contributor in the BBC programme.

So, he was also broadcasting as a student?

Exactly.

Abubakar Wali also did the same thing?

Yes.

So, it ran in the family?

Exactly. When I got there, I also found a way of making extra money.

Inuwa Wada had a house in London. In fact, when the1966 coup happened, fortunately, he was in Switzerland for an eye operation. He was the Minister of Defence. He was lucky because if he had been in Nigeria, he would have been the first target.

When he finished his treatment in Switzerland, he crossed over to London. He had one small house. I moved into the house before he came. And when he came, I moved out of my bedroom and he stayed there.

My closest friend and classmate right from Form One to Form Six, Mohammed Ibrahim, came to meet me in London.

The broadcaster?

Yes.

He came to London to be a broadcaster?

Yes, BBC. We lived in the same house for all the years until I left him there.

My horizon was widened when I was in London. I came across a lot of people from all parts of Nigeria. I became very close to a lot of them.

In my college, funny enough, most of the Nigerians in the North Western Polytechnic were from Adamawa. That’s where I met Bamanga Tukur and Hassan Adamu.

 Wakilin Adamawa?

That’s right; and his younger brother, Gambo of blessed memory, as well as Mahmud Waziri. Most of my mates in North Western Polytechnic were from Adamawa.

I remember that Bamanga Tukur had about three months before he left. He was the one that took me to his bank, close to the college to be my guarantor. He introduced me to the bank to open my account. We have been very close, up to today.

It was a very challenging time. We were very young and wanted to do all the things that young people would want to do. But when one thought that one was coming back home, one would have to try and do what one was supposed to do because one would not come back home empty-handed.

So, you came home with a degree or diploma?

It was CIS.

A certification?

Yes; associate with the Chatham Institute of Secretaries.

Did you go back to Lagos to continue your work?

No. I came back in 1968 and landed in Kano. The first port of call was Inuwa Wada’s house. Some of them were crying, and when I asked what happened, they said the police came and took him away. I asked why and my cousin, the eldest wife, told me that it was Gambo Jimeta. Ironically, we were together with him in Lagos before I went to the UK. Now, it was Gambo that came to the house and carried him.

Was he in Kano as a senior police officer?

Yes; he was a DSP.  The very day I arrived was the day they carried Wada away.

That singular action was the opening for me not to go into the civil service but the private sector.

I went to the police headquarters in Kano and saw Wada sitting in the outer office. I greeted him and I went to see Gambo. I and Gambo fought, because I couldn’t understand why he could do that kind of nonsense. He was shouting and I was shouting. He said he would lock me and I told him to go ahead.

Murtala was already in Dodan Barracks and there was an allegation that Inuwa Wada, his cousin, was funding him to stage a coup.

Was that the basis of his arrest?

Yes. They went into the house, searched everywhere, and carried all the papers and some trinkets for the women. That’s why I fought with Gambo.

Murtala then marched into Dodan Barracks. But Gen Gowon asked who was messing up with Murtala and ordered them to bring him. He told him about the allegation and said they were locking his cousin up in Kano. Immediately, Yakubu Gowon called Audu Bako, the then governor of Kano, and said they should let Inuwa Wada go home.

When that happened, I thought that after about a week I would go to Kaduna and report that I was back and the Interim Common Services would send me back with my paper to Kano State.

Because they funded your studies in London?

Yes. I told Wada that I was going. They carried him along with Ado Kurawa, the Sarkin Fadan Kano now. He was the manager of SAYEN NAGARI, Wada’s company – transportation and few other things.

So, as part of the attempt to probe Wada, they arrested his manager?

Yes; they took him away.  Wada came home, but they kept Kurawa.

When I told Wada that I was going to Kaduna and they would post me to wherever they wanted, he said I should not do that to him, because the children were not yet fully grown. He pleaded that I should stay and look after his business.

As manager?

Yes; up to when Kurawa would come out. I said okay because I could not turn him down. That was the beginning of the end of civil service for me.

So, you left the civil service?

I never got into the civil service.

You never did? And they didn’t complain that you disappeared after training you? 

No. I didn’t disappear. I went to Kaduna and said I had finished and this is what I was doing, and they didn’t have any problem with that.

Let’s talk about your years in business. I think you became a very wealthy businessman. How long did it take you to do that?    

As I said, I started with Inuwa Wada’s outfit, a transportation company. We were also selling quite a few things in some parts of Kano.

Later, Wada got a Chinese partner to set up a match manufacturing company. When they came, he decided that since Ado Kurawa was out, I was probably better placed to work with the Chinese. I said okay and became the general manager of the Nigeria Match and Chemical Industries. You know the old Daily Mail building, close to Plaza Cinema in Kano?

The Daily Mail newspaper?

Yes. It was owned by the Northern People’s Congress. Daily Comet was being printed in Kano. It was a NEPU/NCNC thing. The NPC did not have any voice anywhere, so they set up the Daily Mail. It was a big building next to Plaza Cinema.

So, I joined the Nigeria Match and Chemical Industries as general manager with the Chinese managing director.

It was me that went and negotiated with the Kano State Government to lease the premises of Daily Mail because after the coup, the thing just reverted to Kano State. We were producing matches.

I was all over the place—Kaduna to print the labels and Lagos to clear our imported raw materials and what have you. So I was there with Inuwa Wada.

After about three years, I realised my limitations, so I went to Wada and told him that I wanted to move to Lagos because when I was in SAYEN NAGARI we had an office in Apapa, where trucks were loaded to Kano and I was shuttling between Kano and Lagos. There was an office in Lagos also for the match factory, so I told him that I wanted to go and stay there. He asked why and I said I was going to continue serving the Match and Chemical Industry and the SAYEN NAGARI Company and I didn’t want any remuneration.

I wanted to go and start doing something and my job at the same time. I would try to look for an opportunity where I could also be doing something that was mine.

Finally, we agreed and I went to Lagos. I was staying in his house in Apapa. And of course, Murtala was already settled.

Where was he then? Was he a minister?

No.

Was this in the early 1970s?

Yes. I went there and eventually got involved with one businessman, Alhaji Amadu Yaro, who was from Kano.

I was in my office in Apapa when he called me and said there were some investors from the United States and he wanted me to meet them and discuss business because he was not that educated. But he did a lot of businesses, including Bureau de Change.

When I was in Lagos, I picked one contract here and there and made £100, £150 and £200. I was staying in Murtala’s house.

Eventually, I and that person ( Amadu Yaro) were able to start doing serious business with a lot of Indians and Lebanese because he knew a lot of them.

But these Americans that came in triggered my being with him. They were fraudsters. They came in a private aircraft, but I think they duped him, took his money and left. That was the beginning of my business as an individual.

I got married when I was in SAYEN NAGARI. So, I was living with my family in Lagos.

I knew a lot of military officers who were my contemporaries, even though Murtala was three years ahead of me. Most of the senior officers were my contemporaries.

I first met Babangida when he was a lieutenant in Kano when I came on holidays from the UK in 1965.

In those days, not much opportunity existed outside the government, so, I got involved in dealing with certain materials for the military.

I remember that one General from Shendam; I have forgotten his name, gave me an order to bring what they put in the ear for artillery.

Eardrums?

Yes.

To protect them from sound?

Exactly. He gave me the contract to supply a very small thing. Each pair was N8 or N10.

I went to the UK where they were doing it. The quotation they gave me was N9 per thing. I went and found out that it wasn’t more than N1 per thing. The officer was the late Martin Adamu.

The GOC?

The one that bought everything – Quartermaster-general.

I went to him and said that I didn’t want this thing. I said I was given N9 but it was not more than N1, so, I didn’t want anybody to come after me and say that I was a thief. I said they should review it, but he said they could not review it, explaining that it was the standard. I said they should keep it if that was the standard because I had always been conscious  of what was legitimate and illegitimate.

As we got along, I and Amadu started doing some construction here and there. And we started growing.

Eventually, we got one Dutch company to have partnership them. I was able to get the contract for 1004 in Victoria Island in Lagos. That was long after Murtala had died.

The late Air Vice Marshal Mukhtar Muhammad was the Federal Commissioner for Housing. I went to him and he told me what they intend to do in Victoria Island, 1004 units.

I told him that one Dutch company would do the job at N120 million. I called the Dutch people and we sat down and looked at it and they said they would do it at N80 million. I went back to Mukhtar and he thanked me, saying I saved him an embarrassment. He said I could go on and have a good start in that area. So, the first major project I was involved in was 1004 in Lagos.

Are you aware that people think you became rich because of your link with Murtala?

Well, I don’t know. Murtala was very careful in what he did. He never looked for money; it was not his business.

When he was head of state, I told him that people were pushing and asking for favours. He asked for what and I said they were talking about oil blocs. People were talking to me about it.

Because they knew you were close to him?

Yes. He asked if I knew where they came from and I said no. He said I should go and see Gaddafi.

Gaddafi?

Yes. He said he would send me to Gaddafi if that was what I wanted and if I was able to succeed in getting any oil, that was my business because nobody would say he was taking Nigeria’s wealth. That’s what transpired between me and Murtala.

Did he send you to Gaddafi?

Unfortunately, no. He died before that.

Is it true that Murtala, at some point, returned some money to the government and cleaned himself up?

Of all the relatives we have, I was the closest person to Murtala. We were closer than my own siblings.

A lot of times, just before he became the head of state, he would come to the house and say there was no money to pay for children’s school fees, and it was either we paid or they would kick them out of school.

And he was not ashamed, neither would he hesitate to tell me or any of our friends what he did not have or what he could not afford to do. And sometimes he would sit down and say that as human, he would like to do what his colleagues were doing, but he could not because he didn’t want anybody to tell him to return anything. He treasured his pride. I am telling you that Murtala didn’t have anything.

Even as head of state?

Not at all.

Where were you when he was killed?

I was in Lagos. The last time I saw him was on a Thursday night. Normally, every day we went for Asr prayer, then Maghrib and Ishah.

When we left his house on Second Avenue he would get into my car and we would drive. Whoever was coming behind us would follow me to Dodan Barracks, where we would go and sit in ADC’S House.

He didn’t go into the main house?

He didn’t go into the house. He would go to the ADC’s house and a lot of friends close friends. We would play cards and discuss issues etc.

That Thursday, in the afternoon, there was one Igbo friend of mine. We were together in the UK. He was successful in the oil business. He came to my house crying and saying? “Aminu look at what Sunday Awoniyi is doing to me; Asiodu is being kicked out of the Ministry of Petroleum.”

Awoniyi replaced Asiodu as a permanent secretary?

Yes. He came holding documents and was crying. He pleaded that I should help him because we were students in the UK. I said no problem and asked to see the documents. He gave me the documents that Thursday and I went to Murtala’s house.

We went to the ADC’s house at Dodan Barracks around 9 o’clock. He knew him as my friend. I told him what they were doing to him and we went and fought them.

He said we should meet him the following day after prayers at the mosque so that we would sort it out. He never went.

Was he going to office in the morning?

The last time I saw him was about 10pm that Thursday, with the understanding that I would go after mosque and meet him.

People say he was casual with his security. What do you think about this?

As I said, I was probably the closest person to Murtala. Every afternoon, if I were in town, I would go to the house. After Asr prayers, he would enter my vehicle, which was a two-door car. He would come out, go around and look at some projects, just me and him, even as head of state.

You were a fairly successful businessman in Lagos. Was that the motivation for you to go into politics?

My going into politics was not accidental. I was in school politics. I was a minister of games and drama. We had a parliamentary system in the faculty where every student was a member of parliament. Then they elected their ministers, so I was elected. I was minister of games and drama because I was very active sports-wise.

Also, I and (Prof Dandatti) Abdulkadir used to go and listen to NEPU lectures in town, where Aminu Kano and co would be talking. And of course, you know that Aminu Kano was an uncle of mine. He and my father were first cousins.

Usman Dantata (may his soul rest in peace) and Isyaku Ibrahim, came to my house in Kano and said they were coming out of a national movement meeting, where they gave my name as a member of the finance committee. I asked who told them to do that, but they kept pushing.

Because they knew you had some money?

They left me but they would always come in and out. They kept pushing. And of course, eventually, a lot of my friends like Shehu kangiwa of blessed memory stepped in and said I should better come.

So, you made an attempt to become the governor of Kano State in 1983?

Oh yes.

How was the experience?

It was a very tough thing because politics then was what it is supposed to be. If you were a member of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), for example, no matter what anybody would give you, you would never vote for them, and vice versa because you believed solidly in your party, its principles and what it promised.

For me, I came in by accident. I had a group that asked me to go for the chairmanship of the party in the state. I and Muhammadu Maude contested, and at the end of the day, they said I lost.

So, I packed my things and went back to Lagos to build my business. One day, I was sitting in my house and Isyaku Rabiu appeared, saying although there was no provision for the position of a deputy chairman, those in Kano created one and I had to come because if I didn’t, everything would not be normal.

Members of my team were all professionals and independent people, such as Bashir Tofa, Bashir Dalhatu, Usman Alhaji, Isyaku Mohammed. They were educated and could take care of themselves.

I led a team to go and look for a candidate for the governorship of Kano State.

The first port of call was the then managing director of the UBA, Suleiman Baffa because we were together in the Kano Middle School. I was the person that said he was the best person to run for the governorship of Kano State. We flew all the way to Lagos to present our case.

So, at that time people would approach those they thought were the best for political positions?

Yes. We decided to pick the best person.

Do you regret the experience of trying to be a governor?

I have no regrets. I think I just felt sorry for Kano for not returning either me or Rimi at that time.

You were offered ambassadorship to China, then the United Nations; how did you get into diplomatic positions?

It was equally accidental. I had never dreamt of going into diplomacy.

During the military dispensation, I held quite a few positions. I remember that I was the chairman of the Nigerian Engineering and Construction Company (NECO), which the Federal Government of Nigeria owned 60 per cent and Yugoslavia, 40 per cent. I was in Brazil doing my own thing when (Gen Shehu) Yar’adua called me and said they needed to replace the chairman who died and he had already submitted my name.

Was that part of your military network?

Exactly. I and Shehu met in Sokoto in January 1960, my last year in senior secondary school when we went for inter-provincial sports and became friends.

So, I came back and became the chairman of NECO. But I quit because I didn’t want injustice; I didn’t want thieves. I worked hard for whatever I have; I never involved the government.

How were you appointed a permanent representative in the United Nations?

After the election of Obasanjo for a second term, he had opposition within the party – the Peoples Democratic Party – and I was his advisor.

I was the special adviser to the president on National Assembly matters from 1999 to 2003.

I told him that his weakest point was the North West. I also told him what to do to get everybody. And he knew how much I put into his second term.

He also knew my closeness to people in the diplomatic area and my trip in and out of New York and a lot of other ambassadors I knew.

Two or three days after he was sworn in for a second term, he told me that he knew I had done a lot and he really appreciated it. So he asked what I wanted. I told him that if he wanted me to serve, I would like to do that outside because I had stepped on many people’s toes.

He asked where I wanted and I said anywhere. He asked if I wanted the United States but I told him that I didn’t like the face of Bush; therefore I would not want to go to Washington.

He suggested the United Nations and I said I was okay with that.  He said he thought I would like to go to some of the countries where I would rest, but I told him that I didn’t want to go to any embassy to rest. I wanted something that would really help me to be active.

Did the UN come before China? Were you an ambassador in China?

No; UN first.

China was from (President Umaru) Yar’adua. In the UN I put in four years. After Yar’adua was sworn in, by July, I packed my things because my mandate was from Obasanjo.

The best thing I could do was to move out to allow the incoming president, Yar’adua send whoever he wanted without waiting until one was recalled. So I left.

After about 30 days back in Nigeria, my phone rang and President Yar’adua wanted to see me. When I went, he said he wanted a favour from me. He knew my relationship with his brother.

He wanted me to go to China, but I told him that in the diplomatic parlance, the position of a permanent representative of one’s country to the UN was the height of diplomacy. The next thing you would probably accept was to be a foreign minister. However, I told him that I would do whatever he wanted me to do. That was how I went to China.

How was the experience?

It was marvelous.

Did you play any role in the Buhari government? 

No. Although we were friends, the only time I saw Buhari as a president was on Remembrance Day for Murtala on February 13, 2016 at Hilton.

Tell us about the private Aminu Wali. What is your family life like? 

I have one wife and four children. My wife is from Kebbi; we met when we were students in the UK.

Have you retired? What do you do? 

I have retired because my son is taking over.

Politics and business, or everything handed over? 

I am withdrawing.

It looks like you have given up Kano politics to Kwankwaso and his people after all the tussle; is that correct? 

Well, Kwankwaso is somebody I cannot continue to tussle with. After all, basically in the PDP, I brought him in. God knows that I made him as governor because if I had said no, he couldn’t have gotten that position.

What did you see in him?

I didn’t see anything in him. The first person that brought Kwankwaso to me was Senator Hamisu Musa, who said he was a very nice boy. So I said I had no problem. But Rimi wanted me to run for the governorship position. He went all the way to my elder brothers in the city to force me to come and run for the position. But I said it was time for young people.

About two months ago, I went to see Iyorchia Ayu and he recalled how all of us founded the PDP. He added that we made a very big mistake because none of us went for an elective office but rather brought rookies who didn’t even believe in what we believed.

I told him that if he had become the governor of Benue State, we wouldn’t have ruffians in government. If we had people who appreciated the values we believed in, all this nonsense won’t be happening.

But some of you became ministers and all that; what did you do?

That’s true, but the survival of democracy, to me, is the function of the National Assembly because they can put a brake on the president. They can refuse so many things or they can pass laws, such that if he likes it or not, they can override him, according to the constitution and it becomes law.

So, if most of us had gone into the legislature, either at the federal level or government houses in the states, we wouldn’t have been in this mess today.

As a veteran politician, how do you feel now seeing what is going on in the country?

What is going on today, from my perception, is not the politics I know. The perception of the common man in the street is that all politicians are thieves. So it is not good now for one to be called a politician. Before now, it was an honour to be a politician, to represent your people. They have destroyed that respect that politics brings to people.

You are 83 years old and you are still healthy; what do you do?

Oh, not really healthy, I am just trying to survive.

How do you spend your time? 

I spend my time here. That house is my office, where I go to sit down and people come and we greet each other. I spend maybe an hour there and come back.

But you are mostly in Abuja, no more in Kano?

I go to Kano, but it is a very difficult place to be now, particularly being a former politician. I mean there may be about 500,000 people who have my number. That’s why it is always switched off. The situation in Kano today is impossible because of the level of poverty.

[DailyTrust]

The list of Nigerians who have attempted to set and break Guinness World Records for one achievement or another continues to expand, seemingly without any relent or end in sight. The running joke on social media now is that the Guinness World Records Book will soon be worn out by the time Nigerians are done with it.

And dry humour aside, it would very much begin to appear that way. After all, it was Hilda Bassey Effiong who opened the lid with her now famous cook-a-thon, and since that unforgettable time, the GWR fever has cut across the length and breadth of this country, with countless individuals riding the waves of this zeitgeist, and all of the Nigerian internet space coming together to sustain discourse around this new phenomenon. I watched a video of a young person on Facebook moving from one restaurant to another in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the highest number of restaurants visited by an individual, hoping to achieve over 120 visits within Abuja in 24 hours. Another young man has kickstarted a 150-hour ironing marathon, fully aware of the epileptic power supply in Nigeria. Such is the Nigerian spirit, the spirit of “if you can do it, I can do it too.”

But one man in particular has now managed to stand out in the midst of the record-breaking fever that has gripped the country. His story is the stuff of legends, everything in it showing the makings of an inspirational feature film. This man is none other than Tunde Onakoya, the chess maverick who took the world by storm in his attempt to break the world record for the longest chess marathon at the famous Times Square in New York. And yet, Onakoyaʼs fame (at least on the internet and select media channels) stems from the inspiring non-profit organization he is a co-founder of, Chess In Slums Africa.

As the name implies, the initiative revolves around Tundeʼs resolve to uplift and better the lives of street kids in impoverished sections of Lagos. The thoughtful initiative not only captured the hearts of people on social media, but grew considerably, drawing immense global support (financial donations trickled in, endorsements and partnerships beckoned) until Tunde Onakoya and his chess-playing mentees became literal internet sensations. According to a report published by HumAngle, “As of June 2021, Chess in Slums Africa had trained over 200 children and got lifelong scholarships for 20 of them.” Truly, it is possible to do great things from a small place, as Tunde once said.

Not only has the Chess In Slums initiative changed the lives of many youths and spoken to something positive, hopeful and beautiful about Nigeria. And this is majorly why many Nigerians in the USA came out to support Tunde as he attempted to break the current record of 56 hours, 9 minutes, and 37 seconds set by Norwegians Hallvard Haug Flatebo and Sjur Ferkingstad. Their support was not in vain at all, as Tunde would persevere and go on to break the record in grand style, playing alongside fellow chess master Shawn Martinez and others without losing a single game.

What makes Tunde Onakoya’s record attempt more unique is that he did not attempt to break the record just to gain recognition; he set out to achieve the feat to raise money for children of the poor and downtrodden who cannot afford basic needs. Even when he faced health problems during the game and was advised to quit, he refused to give up and said, “I will play on for the dreams of millions of children.”

Tunde himself confirmed the health problem he had during the campaign in his appreciation message to his fans and well-wishers on social media:

 

“Catching up on social media now and I’ve constantly fought back tears,” he tweeted.

“Love you guys very much. I’ll do a proper post when I get the right words to express all of the emotions I feel right now.

“Let me delve into this jollof rice for now. It’s my first meal in almost four days. I had food poisoning during the marathon so I couldn’t eat anything at all, just water.”

What’s interesting about Tunde’s chess heroics is that his father, like every other typical African parent who wants their children to pursue careers like law, medicine, aviation, engineering, and other top professions, never supported his choice of playing chess to carve a niche for himself. I can imagine how livid he would have been upon seeing young Tunde playing chess. Probably, he might have warned him to desist from playing it and focus instead on more important pursuits. Almost every African child has a story to tell about how their parents never wanted them to pursue careers outside the classroom, whether in football or other fields. I myself am a victim of African parents’ career expectations. However, like Tunde, I was not stubborn enough to defy my parents and pursue the envisioned beautiful career in football.

Tunde’s father, Pa Onakoya, is as joyful as a lark, seeing his son fly the country’s flag in faraway America. The icing on the cake is the house gifted to Tunde Onakoya’s parents by a Good Samaritan. He announced this good news via a post on his social media handle some hours ago: “Someone gifted my parents a new house today. It’s the single greatest thing anyone will ever do for me in this lifetime. Thank you. My mother worked as a cleaner in the same school I attended so I could get an education while my dad worked as a danfo driver/bus conductor so we could feed and survive. My greatest joy in life is to be able to give them both the life they truly deserve,” he said.

Tunde Onakoya’s story carries a great lesson for African parents. As guardians, we should avoid being rigid in steering our children towards specific career paths. Our aspirations may differ from what destiny has in store for them. While I empathize with Tunde’s father’s frustration at his son’s choice of chess over a conventional career like law or medicine, I understand that it stemmed from love, not malice. Contrary to certain online opinions, what the old man wanted for Tunde was the best in life. That’s why he even had to sell his house to pay for Tunde’s WAEC exams, according to reports. Personally, I would be perturbed if my son, whom I envision as the next Gani Faweinmi or a renowned consultant, suddenly expressed a desire to pursue chess. With Nigeria’s rich sports heritage in football, boxing, and more, chess might seem unconventional. However, the crux of Tunde’s journey lies in conviction. He held steadfast to his passion, and the rest is now history.

Ultimately, the love and support he received from Nigerians are another exemplification of the Nigerian spirit. Truly, we love ourselves. It does not matter whether you are Hausa, Igbo, or Yoruba, Christian or Muslim; just fly your country’s flag in a positive light, and Nigerians from all walks of life will assemble to support you, even to the ends of the earth.

Tunde’s insistence on carrying on in the face of his health challenges is yet another example of the Nigerian spirit. When faced with seemingly impossible challenges, we always find a way to surmount the odds with our never-say-die Nigerian spirit. Truly, Naija no dey carry last.

Congratulations, Tunde Onakoya. Thank you for making all of Nigeria proud. Keep on soaring to greater heights.

Zayd Ibn Isah can be reached via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Former Arsenal midfielder, Paul Merson, has said the team will beat Tottenham Hotspur in their North London Derby on Sunday.

The Gunners have a chance to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League if they defeat their rivals.

Merson, speaking with Sky Sports, claimed that Mikel Arteta has better players than Spurs.

He said: “I expect Arsenal to win this game because Tottenham will play gung-ho football, almost saying you have a shot and then we have a shot.

“That won’t work against Arsenal – they’ve got better players than Tottenham. They’re a better team, more of a unit and they’ll win the football match.

“I can’t see anything but an Arsenal win knowing how Tottenham like to play.

“They just open the game up and say, ‘we’ll see who can score more goals’. That will be so hard to do against Arsenal, who are a far superior football team.”

[DailyPost]

• Alleges fierce ongoing battle to destroy state

Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara vowed yesterday that he would not rule the state on bended knees regardless of what he called the ongoing fierce fight to destroy the soul of the state.

Fubara, who is currently locked in a political battle with his immediate past predecessor, Mr. Nyesom Wike, pleaded for the support of all well meaning people of the state in order to save it.

He spoke at the Ubima country home of a former governor of the state, Sir Celestine Omehia, in Ikwerre Local Government Area.

The governor, accompanied by some elders of the state, was on a condolence visit to Omehia on the recent death of his mother, Mrs Ezinne Cecilia Omehia.

Fubara, according to his Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Nelson Chukwudi, said the visit was to demonstrate love and show support to Sir Omehia who, as a son, had satisfactorily performed the duty of giving his mother a befitting burial.

 

He stressed the need for every true lover of the state to stand up to be counted in the fight to safeguard the soul of Rivers State.

“Anybody who claims to love this state should not be party to anything, directly or indirectly, that will bring us backwards,” the governor was quoted as saying.

He added: “We will continue to support every course that will advance the interest of our dear Rivers State.

“And I am happy to say, and I’ve said it over and again, it doesn’t matter the number of people that are standing with me, I will stand on that side of truth.

 “I will not, I repeat, I will not govern our dear state on my knees (bending).

“If that was the purpose, I will not do that. I will stand to govern our dear state and stand continually on the side of right.

“But politics of bitterness will not take us anywhere. So, I want to thank you that, at this stage, we have a few of you who understand that Rivers State belongs to every one of us. We must, therefore, fight together to sustain the soul of this state.”

Fubara also spoke on the Friday tanker inferno which he said razed over 120 vehicles and claimed five lives.

He described the incident as a “great tragedy and very unfortunate”.

He said: “It is a very sad day in our dear State. Something happened in Eleme, along the route of Indorama Petrochemical and Fertiliser Company Limited.

“A tanker had an issue with a tipper, and there was an unfortunate situation that caused the state a very devastating loss.

“I went there this morning to see for myself what really happened, and I can tell you, I’ve not been happy since then. With all the dramas in our state, it is not even proper for us to add that to it.

“But it wasn’t our fault. It was just what impatience caused. The tanker driver, knowing the state of that road, was not patient, and it resulted in that colossal loss. Over 120 vehicles were completely burnt and five lives were lost. It was very unfortunate.”

He commiserated with those who lost loved ones and others whose vehicles were burnt beyond repairs, adding that the state government mourned and grieved with them.

In his speech, Sir Celestine Omehia expressed appreciation, on behalf of his family, to Governor Fubara, his delegation and other friends, among whom were those he described as matured elders, for the show of love.

He said: “I have taken a decision to be SIMplified. Wherever you (Fubara) go is where I will go. If you say tomorrow you are no more interested in this position, I will also stop fighting for anything in Rivers State.

“But God who gave you the opportunity will also give you all the wisdom, strength, power and everything that it takes to govern the people of Rivers State and beyond.”

He assured the Governor that almost the entire people of the State, including chiefs, elders, opinion leaders, women, youths, civil society groups and professionals across all spectrums of the state, were praying and working assiduously for the success of his administration.

Omehia said it was that support and prayers of the people that he needed to succeed, because, according to him, one with God, is with majority, and would always excel and succeed.

He urged the governor to continue in his strides to deliver good governance, peaceful and prosperous state to the present and future generations.

Two members of the state cabinet said to be loyalists of Wike had resigned last week following their redeployment by the governor.

They are Professor Zaccheaus Adangor (who until now was the Commissioner of Justice and Attorney-General) and Isaac Kamalu who was in charge of Finance.

Adangor had been moved to Special Duties and Kamalu to Employment.

Kamalu, in his resignation letter, cited absence of peace in Rivers State despite the peace pact by President Bola Tinubu last December.

 He said it was impossible for him to give his best in an atmosphere of rancour.

He also disputed claim by the governor that the revenue of the state had moved up from N12 billion to N27 billion.

His words: “Your Excellency would recall that I served under the Administration of His Excellency, Chief Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, CON, GSSRS, POS (now Honorable Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja) originally as Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning (2015-2019) and subsequently as Commissioner for Finance-with oversight responsibility for the Rivers State Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning (2019 – 2023).

“The mandates of the respective ministries were to the best of our abilities (as ministries) duly carried out and at all times material relevant reforms were embarked upon for improved performance and effective and sustainable service delivery.

“Among several others, we successfully carried out the following: Initiating and (supporting existing) policy frameworks for enhanced internal revenue generation.

“This with (necessary adjustments made on some of the programmes) led to the increase in the internal revenue receipts. This steady rise has been on for some years now, culminating in what the state is presently generating though not the figures erroneously claimed in the Media.

“You will respectfully recall that when the climate of discord became unbearable I and other like-minded members of the Executive Council that were appointed by you resigned.

“You thereafter engaged His Excellency, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and as father of the nation to intervene in the matter.

“In deference to the directive of Mr. President, I and the others were recalled and we all accepted and joined the cabinet again. I expected, sir, that with the opportunity provided by Mr. President, every effort will be made to sustain peace.

“Regrettably, Your Excellency, the peace in government and governance that we all citizens and residents of the state desire has remained out of reach despite our consistent efforts and demand for same. This has affected our ability to protect and defend the gains that we made these past years.

“In the course of official engagements, I have reiterated the need for this peace and the fact we all are willing and determined to work for this. It is very difficult to deliver good governance where there is acrimony and discord.

“It is not the point of service that is important but the climate. Our present circumstance makes service delivery extremely challenging. I still hold the belief that it is never too late for peace.”

On his part, Adangor said: “I wish to state for the record that I am no longer willing to continue to serve in the administration of His Excellency, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, GSSRS, Governor of Rivers State, in any capacity whatsoever.

“It is important to mention that the Governor of Rivers State had in the past couple of weeks willfully interfered with the performance of my duties as the Hon. Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Rivers State by directing me not to defend, oppose, or appear in suits instituted against the Hon. Attorney-General and the Government of Rivers State by persons admittedly hired and sponsored by the Government of Rivers State.

“That having served the Government and good people of Rivers State dutifully as member of the Rivers State Executive Council for the past five (5) years, it has become imperative for me to quit the administration in order to preserve my reputation.”

[TheNation]

Nigeria’s anti-corruption agencies, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission ICPC were established some two decades ago by the government of President Olusegun Obasanjo. The motivation was to set up strategic platforms to deal decisively with the evils of corruption which were generally accepted by all to be at the apex of the nation’s collective malaise.

Nigerians were also aware that their country had been labelled as fantastically corrupt by the international community. This seems to explain the decision of each successive President to make strong statements to end corruption either during his electioneering campaigns or even after having been elected. At a point, the poetic declaration was: ‘if Nigeria does not kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria.’ Put differently, corruption is the most notorious bane of Nigeria’s development.

One would therefore have expected to see substantive efforts at dealing decisively with such a subject. But this has not been so,as the few and feeble efforts are usually shunned by many Nigerians. To start with, the ruling class does not appear assured that it is in its interest to end every type of corrupt practice. Indeed, from inception, so much was done to water-down the modalities of the anti-corruption bodies for effective performance. When it became obvious that Nuhu Ribadu, the pioneer chief executive of the EFCC was getting too solid on board, he was immediately redeployed supposedly by his original employers, the Police, to undergo a one-year course at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies NIPSS in Kuru, Jos. It was as if the Police had a mandate to monitor Ribadu and to terminate his secondment to the EFCC whenever he became too tough for the powers that be.

In the case of the ICPC, the National Assembly had a running battle with its pioneer chief executive, Justice Mustapha Akanbi, now late. The sin of Akanbi was his attempt to investigate allegations of corruption brought to the ICPC against the leadership of the National Assembly. The latter summarily proceeded to amend the ICPC Act and to confer immunity on its leaders before calling for a public debate on the matter. In other words, top political office holders in Nigeria have never been comfortable with any anti-corruption framework to investigate their leaders. How can the EFCC and the ICPC succeed in their gigantic assignments if members of the ruling class known to be the greatest catalysts of corruption are to be exempted from the scope of operations of the anti-corruption bodies? The situation is yet to change!

It is against this backdrop that one considers as unfortunate, the discordant narratives on the current ‘war’ between former Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State and the EFCC which has in the last one week occupied huge media space. The said negative narratives have painfully reiterated the fact that Nigerians are not really ready to fight corruption. Indeed, Yahaya Bello’s case shows clearly that many Nigerians cherish the pursuit of shadows rather than substance by focussing on incidentals. It is more irritating that learned analysts are leading the resort to mundane and irrelevant issues. So, not much is said about the stupendous amounts suspected to have been embezzled. Instead, when, where and how Bello was invited or not invited for questioning are the issues in contention.

The questions irritatingly in focus include: Was Bello invited by the EFCC? If not, why was he not invited? If he was invited, who delivered the invitation? Was the invitation written? If yes, was it typed and was it on the official letterhead of the EFCC? In what form was the invitation- letter, card, WhatsApp, Instagram or oral? If the truth must be told these questions can only continue to unduly pamper citizens who had for 8 years been protected by the law from any arrest and or prosecution. When exactly would Yahaya Bello and other privileged politicians like him return to our normal society or are they entitled to immunity for life? Having been given a mandate to govern a state for two terms, Bello did not have to commit any offence before taking steps to render stewardship. It is worse that there were grave allegations against him in the public domain.

It is thus unfair to be hypercritical of any entity that seeks to take a look at some of the numerous unwholesome things that happened in Kogi State during Yahaya Bello’s tenure. Even if budgetary provisions were legally approved by the Kogi State House of Assembly for political violence during the period, there is need to know how much was appropriated and who dispensed the funds that kept the state in servitude and apprehension. Many lost the courage to raise their voices against certain unlawful acts. For advising against wastages concerning payment of workers’ salaries and uncompleted projects, Deputy Governor Simon Achuba was impeached although the panel set up to investigate the deputy governor did not find him wanting. But these were not even the issues that aroused the EFCC’s interest.

The anti-graft agency is raising many more fundamental issues of likely embezzlement of state resources that no one should sweep under the carpet. The EFCC for instance is bothered about several purchases of properties located mostly in Abuja. According to the Commission, Yahaya Bello needs to explain his ownership of Four Houses in the nation’s capital namely: i) No.2 Justice Chukwudifu Oputa Street, Asokoro, Abuja, acquired between 2018 and 2020 at a cost of N920 million, ii)Plot no. 1160, within Cadastral Zone C03, Gwarimpa II District, Abuja acquired in February, 2021 with the sum of N100million, iii)Block D, Manzini Street, Wuse Zone 4, Abuja acquired in 2022 at a cost of N170million and iv) No. 35 Danube Street, Maitama District, Abuja acquired in 2023, valued  at ¦ 950 million. Critics should interrogate these and not cosmetic matters blown out of proportion.

It is obvious that the issues of improper invitation or no invitation at all raised by Yahaya Bello’s supporters are essentially diversionary. How could a man who was reportedly not informed about any case against him at the EFCC have gone to court to restrain the same EFCC from arresting him? Ayo Fayose, former Ekiti State Governor who was perceptive enough to appreciate the likelihood of his arrest to answer several allegations of impropriety against him while in office made a mark yet to be beaten by going on his own to knock at the door of the EFCC at the end of his tenure. The white lion of Kogi should have done same in the last two weeks instead of beating about the bush with unconvincing narratives. If he had done so, he would have seamlessly entered through his preferred front door of the EFCC while leaving his traducers in a state of distress.

What we have said so far should not derogate from the calls on all authorities to always follow the rule of law and the principles of natural justice while dealing with suspects. At the same time, nothing should be done to further increase powerful men at the expense of strong and viable societal institutions that all other progressive climes greatly rely upon for survival. It is therefore time to review Section 308 of our Constitution which grants “absolute” immunity to certain public office holders who have over the years used it to abuse their offices especially in matters of corruption. We can adopt the moderated template in Malaysia, Italy, Australia etc. to redress the Nigerian dilemma for us all to enjoy some measure of equality before the law.

It is therefore necessary to admonish our courts to halt unpatriotic orders which restrain certain bodies from performing their constitutionally assigned tasks. Similarly, the EFCC needs to be encouraged to be more proactive bearing in mind the subsisting position of the law that where as a privileged public officer who enjoys immunity cannot be arrested or prosecuted during his tenure, he can be investigated. Ola Olukoyede,the visibly vibrant new chair of the EFCC should therefore create a framework that enables its officials to conclude investigations on corrupt practices and arrange those who have cases to answer in court as soon as they leave office without wasting resources to feed such persons in custody. But our anti-graft agencies ought to always be assured of public support.

Christopher Musa, chief of defence staff, has called on Nigerians, irrespective of tribe or religion to unite and fight Nigeria’s common enemies.

Speaking at the second edition of the Unity Schools Old Students Association (USOSA) sports carnival, in Abuja, Musa said the common enemies of Nigeria are terrorism, banditry, and other social vices.

“Nigeria is challenged; so we need a united Nigeria to confront all the challenges we are facing. Nigerians must unite and confront the evil that is coming against us. So many people do not like the blessings we are having as a country,” NAN quoted him as saying.

“We must shame them by working together as a team and together we will continue to move forward.”

Musa said sport is a factor that unites people and stressed the need for Nigerians to foster peace and promote national unity.

“At this sports carnival today, we are all one; we all love Nigeria. Nigeria gave us so much while in unity schools and that is what we are trying to bring out,” he said.

“This is a good opportunity and we all know how sports unite us and teach discipline to understand oneself and to make sacrifices to know that there will be failures in life.

“What does one do when he or she fails? He or she rises and moves forward and that is what we are trying to preach.”

Musa also called on Nigerians to continue to promote the country’s diversity for national development.

In his remarks, Michael Magaji, president-general of USOSA, called on Nigerians to continue to promote teamwork and excellence within the nation’s diversity as a way of adding value to the national common heritage.

“We see Nigerians in unity from all parts of the country coming here and using sports to promote teamwork and excellence which help to manage and understand the country’s diversity,” he said.

“Unity schools were set up more than 50 years ago primarily to promote quality education, but more importantly to promote nation building.

“We must continue to work together to integrate the ideals of this project for our common goal.”

[TheCable]

There are strong indications that workers will wait for a longer time to receive a new national minimum wage as negotiations have stalled amid excruciating economic hardship and mass suffering in the country.
In fact, the delay is allegedly caused by the Federal Government.

This came as Abia, Taraba and Zamfara states are allegedly still in breach of the 2019 National Minimum Wage Act which fixed minimum wage at N30,000 from the previous N18,000.

The implication of the stalled negotiations is that workers’ hopes for a pay rise ahead of the 2024 May Day scheduled for Wednesday have been dashed.

The new minimum wage ought to have taken effect on April 1, 2024, the old regime having expired on March 31.

Meeting

Sunday Vanguard’s checks revealed that the last meeting of the Tripartite Committee on the New National Minimum Wage, TCNMW, tasked with fixing the new wage, was held in the first week of April where stakeholders received the reports of the public hearings across the six geographical zones held on Thursday, March 7, 2024.

It was, however, gathered that the subcommittees have been meeting on other issues as directed by the TCNMW.

According to findings, at the first week of April meeting, members of the committee, that is, the government, labour and private sector employers, were directed to submit their written proposals to the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission, NSIWC, which serves as the secretariat to the TCNMW.

Sources informed that while Organised Labour, comprising Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and its Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, counterpart, has sent in its demand of N615,000 minimum wages, the Organised Private Sector, OPS, has equally sent in its proposal.

However, it could not be confirmed if the government has sent in its proposal.

Reports

Sunday Vanguard gathered that after the TCNMW received the reports of the public hearings, the NSIWC fixed April 16 and 17 as meeting dates for a review of the reports and probably commence negotiations, but, unfortunately, the dates turned out to be public holidays for Sallah celebrations.

Since then, Sunday Vanguard learnt that it (NSIWC) has not fixed a new date for a meeting where the actual negotiations would start.

Blaming the government for the delay, one of the labour leaders, who is a member of the TCNMW, said until the government through the NSIWC summons a meeting, nothing could be done.

He said: “The last meeting was in the first week of April when we met to receive the reports of the zonal public hearings.
“It was essentially to collate reports from the zones. We as Organised Labour, that is, the NLC and TUC, have sent in a joint proposal or demand if you like.

“We are aware that the OPS has equally sent in its proposal. We are all waiting for the reconvening of TCNMW meeting to know what the government is putting on the table for us to begin negotiations.

“But that is not to say we have been doing nothing or we have been idle. The various subcommittees, in line with the mandate of the main committee, have been working. We have a lot to discuss and negotiate about.

“The hike in electricity tariff is now an important factor. We had sent in our demand before the increase in electricity tariff.

“To worsen matters, the increase was done without stakeholders’ inputs contrary to the enabling Act. In other words, we were not consulted as required by law.

“All these issues will determine when and how long the negotiations will last. One thing is clear, no matter how long the negotiations take, the new minimum wage will definitely take effect by April 2024. Meaning the law will be backdated to April 2024. The implication is that a new minimum wage can’t be announced on May Day.”

Speaking also, the Director-General of the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, NECA, Adewale Smart-Oyerinde said a new minimum wage cannot be announced on May 1.

“We have not actually started real negotiations. The last meeting we had was when we received reports of the public hearings”, he told Sunday Vanguard.

“We were asked to send our proposals to the secretariat of the committee. We have done that as an Organised Private Sector, OPS. We believe others have sent in theirs. We are waiting for the reconvening of the committee for the negotiations to start. We are ready for the negotiations.”

Data

It was gathered, however, that parties are busy collating data across states, sectors and socioeconomic trends ahead of the commencement of negotiations.

A member of the OPS, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he foresees very robust and interesting negotiations because of the socioeconomic realities on the ground.

He said “As the socioeconomic realities affect workers, so also they affect employers. Nobody is immune to the hardships and socioeconomic realities including the recent hike in electricity tariff. So, the negotiations will be very interesting and robust.”

On his part, the immediate past President of NLC, Ayuba Wabba, who spoke on the delay in concluding the minimum wage negotiations and non-implementation of the minimum wage by some state governments and private sector employers, said “The Minimum Wage Act of 2019 made clear provision on when negotiations should start and be concluded, which is six months to the expiration of a prevailing national minimum wage.

“Also there was a clear provision for enforcement in a court of law including payment of interest rate to the workers that have been denied payment of minimum wage.

“Before I left office in 2023, we had contacted Mr Femi Kuti, SAN, to prosecute Taraba, Zamfara and Abia states that refused to start implementing the N30,000 national minimum wage to any of their employees.
“I am sure they have not implemented as we speak.”

According to him, the process for taking these states to court was stalled because the affected state councils failed to provide the requirements especially pay slips of not less than 10 workers to prove non-implementation.
He added “Then-governors of the three states deliberately refused to implement and we were ready to engage them and test the law.

“We need to test the law to enforce implementation. In fact, we had to sack our state council chairman in one of the states when we discovered that he was conniving with the state government to stall implementation.”

Labour mulls upward review of proposal

Meanwhile, Sunday Vanguard understands that Organised Labour may present a new minimum wage demand following the recent hike in electricity tariff by the Federal Government.

According to sources, the 300 per cent jerk up in electricity tariff has made nonsense of its earlier N615,000 benchmark wage demand.

The Labour centres, NLC and TUC, had, last month, presented a joint minimum wage demand to the TCNMW through the NSIWC.
The joint presentation is contrary to what they (NLC and TUC leaders in the zones) proposed during March 7, 2024, zonal public hearings organised by the TCNMW across four of the six geo-political zones of the country.

One of the sources said: “The recent hike in electricity tariff has made nonsense of the demand we presented to the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission which is the secretariat of the minimum wage committee.

“Both centres had met in March to harmonise our different demands as seen during the public hearings and made a joint demand.

“But with the 300 per cent increase in electricity tariff, our demand is no longer realistic. Therefore, we plan to adjust our demand to accommodate the new tariff hike.

“As you are aware, our demand was based on the socioeconomic indices on the ground at the time we made the demand. But things have changed as typified by the 300 per cent hike in electricity tariff by the government.

“So, we have to adjust our demand by 300 per cent in line with the electricity tariff hike.”

N850,000 wage

Recall that while the TUC demanded almost a uniform figure of N447,000 across the zones, the NLC demanded different figures for each zone with the highest being N850,000.

In the South-West, whereas leaders of the NLC proposed N794,000, those of the TUC proposed N497,000.

In the South-East, the NLC said it preferred the new minimum wage to be N540, 000 and the TUC suggested N447,000.

However, NLC leaders in the South-South proposed N850,000, with their North-West counterparts angling for N485,000 minimum wage.

Vanguard News Nigeria

Charges that the judiciary is complicit in the executive rascality that has seized this country since the Fourth Republic began in 1999 never cease to rear its ugly head. The charges are not from aggrieved politicians alone but also from the top echelon of the Bar. Retired judges have also been known to express dissatisfaction at the performance of some of their colleagues still on the Bench. Truly, that the judiciary plays second fiddle or is subservient and servile to the Executive branch of government is not in doubt; the rulings and comportment of many of them embarrass even a lay man like me. I wonder why such judges have chosen the path of destruction, not only of themselves but also of their profession. Whimsical desecration of the hallowed chambers of justice by men and women constitutionally empowered to act mini-God, able to take the life they are not able to give, cannot be taken lightly. These are men and women who, on their own volition, without compulsion, swore on oath to dispense justice without fear of favour, with neither malice nor affection to anyone, regardless whose ox is gored. To turn afterwards, treat these with levity, and even laugh their oath to scorn!

Is it fear? Is it the love of money? Is it a lack of understanding? Montesquieu’s theory of separation of powers apart, the judiciary is the branch that should hold the two other arms of government – the Executive and Legislature – to ransom. Because it wields the power of life and death over all of us. Because it has the final say – at least here on earth. In heaven it may be Jehovah (Who has the final say/Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah/Has the final say!). But here on earth, the judiciary has the final say. It is the only branch of government empowered to overrule the two other arms. In doing that, brilliant judges who are so minded have been known to make laws while interpreting the law. They have the powers to strip anyone – including even the most powerful office holders – of privileges and entitlements; they are known (in other climes at least) to strip governors and presidents of their office; even sending them to jail. Why, then, are they effeminate here? Who or what emasculated them?

I moaned for the judiciary, often touted as the last hope of the common man and mourned for the common man himself when I read the intervention of Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, SAN, and former chairman of the Human Rights Commission. Shall we call it a dirge or requiem for the judiciary? It is titled “Yahaya Bello and a complicit judiciary”. I will return with parting shots.

“Josiah Majebi is the fifth Chief Judge of Kogi State (in north-central Nigeria) in four years and the fourth to exist almost entirely in the pocket of the state governor. He has been in office as substantive Chief Judge since the beginning of February 2023, having acted in that role since 26 June 2022 when his predecessor, Richard Olorunfemi, retired. Henry Olusiyi served in that office for just under seven months from the end of June 2020 until January 2021. Sunday Otuh, who succeeded him, spent eight months in office before retiring in September 2021.

The last Chief Judge of Kogi State who attempted to hold that office with dignity and independence, Nasir Ajanah, paid with his life, unmourned and exiled from the state. He was the second Chief Judge of the state to be politically lynched by the government of Kogi State in one decade.

At the beginning of April 2008, the Kogi State House of Assembly, defying an order of the state High Court, adopted a resolution asking the state governor to remove long-serving Chief Judge of the state, Umaru Eri. On that basis, then acting governor, Clarence Olafemi, promptly announced the sack of the Chief Judge on 2 April, 2008 and designated another judge, Sam Ota, to act in his place.

In his defence, Umaru Eri claimed that his crime was that he had declined the request of the politicians to act as go-between in bribing the election petition tribunal on behalf of the then state governor whose election was in dispute. On 16 May, 2008, AlabaAjileye, a judge of the High Court of Kogi State, reversed the sack and reinstated Umaru Eri.

Eleven years later, on 18 June 2019, AlabaAjileye presided again in deciding a case that seemed uncannily to reprise issues in his earlier decision. As with the 2008 decision, the claimant in 2019 was another Chief Judge of Kogi State, Nasir Ajanah, with his Chief Registrar, Yahya Adamu. The defendants included the Kogi State House of Assembly, its Speaker, and the state governor, Yahaya Bello.

At the directive of Gov. Yahaya Bello, the Secretary to the Government of Kogi State wrote on 14 November, 2018 to Chief Judge Nasir Ajanah, asking him to provide “the payroll of judicial staff for the ongoing pay parade of civil servants in the state”. At the time, the governor was a defendant in the court of the Chief Judge; so the Chief Registrar responded to the letter and explained that the judiciary was a self-accounting and co-equal branch of government supervised by the state Judicial Service Commission.

An affronted Gov. Bello wrote under his own name to Walter Onnoghen, then Chief Justice of Nigeria and chairman of the National Judicial Council (NJC), asking the NJC to find the Chief Judge guilty of misconduct requiring that he “step aside and (an) Acting Chief Judge (be) allowed to take his place”.

While his petition was still waiting for the attention of the NJC, Yahaya Bello resorted to political self-help. He referred the perceived effrontery of Nasir Ajannah to the State House of Assembly, which promptly constituted an investigation committee. The Chief Judge sued. While his suit was pending, on 2 April, 2019, the State House of Assembly adopted a resolution asking Yahaya Bello to remove the Chief Judge and also requiring disciplinary action against the Chief Registrar. On 18 June, 2019, AlabaAjileye sitting at the High Court of Kogi State in Kotonkarfe, determined that the Kogi State House of Assembly and the governor acted unlawfully in seeking to remove the Chief Judge.

The reaction of the governor was bestial. He first went after AlabaAjileye, a man of courage and learning whose judicial record was unblemished. With a doctorate degree in law, AlabaAjileye is an expert in the rarefied subject of digital evidence. Following this judgment, however, Yahaya Bello’s government made it known that they could no longer guarantee his safety. Yet, when he was put forward for elevation to the Court of Appeal, the same Kogi State government actively blocked it. A man who would easily have adorned the Supreme Court with distinction, AlabaAjileye retired from the High Court in February 2023 and has since then forged a career as a scholar and academic.

Turning to the state Chief Judge meanwhile, Yahaya Bello made life unbearable for Nasir Ajannah. He began by banishing the man from official state functions. When Chief Judge Ajannah attended the swearing-in of the new Grand Khadi of Kogi State on 21 May, 2020, the Chief Security Officer to Yahaya Bello informed him that the governor gave a directive that he should not be allowed to attend the function.

In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Bello made Nasir Ajannah persona non grata in the state. As a result, he was forced into internal displacement in Abuja, where his personal arrangements were worse than transitory. While in hiding in Abuja, Nasir Ajannah contracted COVID and died in isolation in Gwagwalada in the Federal Capital Territory on 28 June, 2020. His death went unacknowledged and even the institutions of the judiciary were reluctant to mourn his passing.

The men who followed Nasir Ajannah in the office of Chief Judge of Kogi State learned to stoke the vanities of Yahaya Bello and avoid his anger. Ahead of his departure from office at the end of eight years as governor of Kogi State in January 2024, Josiah Majebi as Chief Judge and chairman of the Kogi State Judicial Service Commission prepared a list of candidates for nomination as judges of the High Court of Kogi State. At the top of the list was a wife to Yahaya Bello, the basis of whose claim to the nomination was the dutiful fulfillment of the duties of connubium in Yahaya Bello’s bedroom. For the Chief Judge, it was also proof that he had truly abjured any pretensions to a mind of his own.

Alarmed at what they saw as perversion of the system of judicial appointments, a group of seven Senior Advocates of Nigeria from the State wrote to Josiah Majebi to dissuade him from this course of action. In January 2024, they sued, challenging his judicial nominations. Pending the outcome, the NJC suspended the process of appointment to the Kogi State judiciary. On 18 April, 2024, James Omotoso, a judge of the Federal High Court in Abuja, many of whose judgments usually have something of a smell problem about them, implausibly ruled that these senior lawyers had no legitimate interest in the process of appointment of judges in their state and that, in any case, the discretion of the NJC in appointment of judges was effectively not open to review!

It was the day after Yahaya Bello’s chosen successor and blood relative, Usman Ododo, chose to turn his predecessor into a fugitive from legal process and two days after Mr. Ododo opened his case in the petition questioning the lawfulness of his election as governor of Kogi State. As a bungling Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) waited to arrest Yahaya Bello in Abuja, one I. A. Jamil, a judge of the High Court of Kogi State, issued an order claiming to restrain the Commission from doing its job.

According to the order of the judge, the case, which was filed over two months earlier on 8 February, was hurriedly assigned while the siege was on-going in Abuja, was argued, heard and decided and the judge quickly signed the order and handed it to Gov. Ododo to take with him to Abuja from where he spirited his cousin away from legal process in a blaze of gunfire! The court was almost assuredly disingenuous about the date of filing. In all likelihood, the case was filed the same day on 17 April, 2024 and then back-dated!

The EFCC now claims it has declared Yahaya Bello a fugitive but the real question will be how a compromised and complicit judiciary will treat the nomination of his unqualified wife as a judge and the petition against the declaration of his violent cousin as governor of Kogi State. The judges who currently control Nigeria’s criminal politics now must show how much they owe Yahaya Bello!”

Knowledgeable men and women have said that the core problem of the judiciary is the process of recruitment to the Bench. Where merit is sacrificed on the altar of godfatherism, competence takes the back seat while incompetence and mediocrity strut the stage like a colossus. Wherever corruption is rife, justice takes fight!

I was filled with regrets after watching a documentary by the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) titled ‘Fuel Subsidy: Lifting a Nation’s Burden’. I started ruminating over what might have been. In the opening, Dame Winifred Akpani, founder and CEO of NorthWest Petroleum and Gas Company, reminds us of how fuel subsidy came into being. It was in the mid-1970s when oil boom made us believe we were so rich we could buy the entire world. It probably made sense at the time that as Nigeria was raking in billions of dollars from oil export, some of the benefits should be passed to Nigerians via cheap/fixed prices of petroleum products.

Akpani recalls how the military government added petroleum products to the price control list in 1977, officially introducing fuel subsidy in Nigeria. I am looking back today and thinking: if we knew the inter-generational quagmire we were getting ourselves into, we probably would have done things differently. If we sit down to calculate the billions of dollars we have sunk into fuel subsidy since 1977 and how this could have developed the critical infrastructure necessary for Nigeria’s development, we cannot but wonder what might have been. But rather than get stuck with lamenting about the past and what might have been, we should be learning from our mistakes as we head into the future.

Let me state this clearly: I am not against subsidies. The US, the global flag bearer of market economy, heavily subsidises its domestic agriculture, and some aspects of energy, housing, and car manufacturing — all geared towards increasing investment in those sectors. The UK, which is also a market economy, subsidises areas identified as key to economic growth, notably the automotive sector, aerospace and clean energy. Public transport fares are capped and government pays part of the difference, which runs into billions of pounds yearly. But government shares the subsidy burden with commuters through yearly adjustments in the fares charged by the transport companies.

The problem with Nigeria is that we subsidise the wrong points in the production and consumption chain. This is because we probably asked the wrong questions or came up with the wrong answers while designing the policies. The questions should be: why are we subsiding? Can we afford it? How are we going to fund it? How long will the subsidy be in place? What happens when the funds are not flowing like rivers again? Should we be responsible for 100 percent of the subsidy or should we stick to a percentage and pass the rest to Nigerians so that regular adjustments can be made? We went for a blanket, no-questions-asked subsidy policy and Nigerians became infinitely entitled.

This was a major negative outcome of the oil boom. Rather than see the boom as a boon and deftly utilise it to develop other critical sectors and build a robust economic base for Nigeria, we thought the petrodollars would continue to flow without let or hinderance till the end of the world. We plunged into a spending spree, flooding the country with an unsustainable expenditure profile. Isn’t it remarkable that the era we still celebrate as the best in Nigeria’s economic development — the 1950s and 1960s — was when there were neither fuel nor electricity subsidies? Public funds were concentrated on education and building infrastructure by the federal and regional governments.

Today, we lament that some Asian countries that were at par with us in the 1960s have overtaken us and become world beaters. I have never disguised my belief that oil booms have done more harm than good to us. Not just to the economy, but also to politics, security and public morality. Nigeria was not a perfect country before the oil boom — after all, there were several cases of corruption and abuse of office before and after Independence — but the impunity that came with oil wealth is beyond compare. We moved from an era of “10 percent” corruption to the age of phantom contracts. Insane impunity! We have moved from robbing revenues to looting loans. Insane!

Let me be fair. By introducing energy and meal subsidies in the 1970s, the military governments obviously meant well, even if their economics was questionable. With high crude oil prices, petroleum products also became more expensive. Our leaders were probably asking themselves: why should Nigerians pay more for petrol? Shouldn’t cheap products be a fringe benefit of being oil producers? We also needed to encourage more Nigerians to have university education by introducing a number of incentives. You can fault their choices but you cannot fault their desire to make life more comfortable for Nigerians. Rather than cry over spilt milk, we should be thinking about the lessons.

Lesson No 1: never introduce a privilege that you cannot sustain. Withdrawing what has come to be seen as an entitlement is akin to courting war. Gen Olusegun Obasanjo discovered as much when he tried to reduce or remove subsidies when oil prices began to fall. While the boom was a feast for us, it was a funeral for industrialised countries. They began taking measures to reduce fuel consumption: manufacturing fuel-efficient cars and introducing the “pool car” system in offices to encourage sharing, among others. The US — the world’s biggest consumer of petroleum products at the time (and till today) — also started oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. You see, they did not go to sleep.

The biggest implication of these initiatives was that oil demand started dropping and prices began to fall. Obasanjo, on becoming head of state in 1976 following the assassination of Gen Murtala Muhammed, had started preaching the gospel of agriculture, launching Operation Feed the Nation to encourage Nigerians to be individually and collectively self-sufficient in food production. In 1978, he increased fees payable in the universities — although tuition remained free — and reduced the meal subsidy, raising the cost from N1.50 to N2 per ticket. Hostel accommodation fee tripled from N30 per session to N90. (Ironically, it was still N90 in 1989 when I enrolled at the University of Lagos).

Like I said, never introduce a privilege that you cannot sustain. Be ready for war if you want to withdraw it. University students, under the auspices of the National Union of Nigerian Students (NUNS), rejected the reduction of these subsidies and embarked on a nationwide protest, unforgettably tagged “Ali Must Go” (or, comically, “Ali Mungo”). The students demanded the resignation of Col Ahmadu Ali, then minister of education, because of the astronomical fee increases. At the end of the protests, which the military and police tried to suppress, there were at least eight dead bodies. That did not change anything as Obasanjo insisted the increases were necessary.

Lesson No 2: adjustment is no child’s play. As most Nigerian leaders have discovered in the last 50 years, it is easier to maintain the status quo than to disrupt it. Most African countries do not subsidise energy consumption. As soon as oil and gas prices change in the international market, citizens expect adjustments in energy prices: petrol, diesel, electricity and all. There is nothing to debate. Ghanaians and Togolese are not poorer than Nigerians yet they pay the market prices for energy. The difference is that Nigerians have successfully given petrol a political status. We buy yams, beans and tomatoes at market prices but treat petrol as a political entitlement. Yes, since 1977.

Adjusting prices and fees has become a perennial problem for both the government and the citizens. The government is always reluctant, or even scared, to make changes because they know the street can catch fire. The default response of the citizens, who are perpetually under economic pressure, is to resist any attempt to adjust prices and fees. The fact is that we are not used to it. It is not in our culture. Nigerians who migrated abroad are seeing the realities of price adjustments, although they console themselves with the fact that “we can see what the government is doing with the money”. Very well. People-led accountability is a democratic culture we also have to imbibe as Nigerians.

Lesson No 3: delayed adjustment comes with even more pains. When President Muhammadu Buhari came to office in 2015, two things were begging for attention: the exchange rate — which had become glaringly unsustainable with falling oil income — and petrol subsidy (please note that government stopped subsiding other fuels ages ago). The exchange rate was N197/$ while petrol was N87/litre. Buhari was reluctant to move the needle for one reason: the inflationary impact on millions of poor Nigerians. While that was considered socio-politically expedient, the economy was the worse for it. Some of the adjustments came rather late in the day and then stalled at some point.

By the time President Bola Tinubu assumed office in May 2023, he was faced with three tough options. One, retain the suicidal status quo and risk a return to the 1984-scale crisis when we started queuing up to buy rice and milk because of FX crunch and falling revenue. Two, adjust gradually, although there is a risk of getting mixed results. Three, go full blast, with the attendant short-term pains and long-term gains. Tinubu gave us the impression that he went full blast, but all I can see around me is chaos. It is glaring that there was no plan and his government is just making things up per time. The PR machine is doing very well — I give them credit for that — but I think we are stuck.

Nevertheless, the basis of my argument today — after watching that beautiful documentary produced by Ademola Adedoyin and Zik Zulu Okafor — is that the introduction of fuel subsidy in 1977 has hurt us more than we think. We created a culture of privilege that will be extremely hard to discard. Also, our failures to adjust to new realities in several areas of public expenditure since the oil boom era will continue to hurt us if we don’t change course. If we were adjusting where and when necessary all along, we would not need to be facing sudden killer shocks all the time. We have gone too deep into the abyss. We need a miraculous reorientation to be able to change our ways.

AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…

EFCC VS BELLO

The American International School Abuja (AISA) has refunded the fees paid for the children of Mr Yahaya Bello, according to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Bello, the former governor of Kogi state who is engaged in a running media drama with the commission, allegedly paid $760,910 in advance as fees for five of his children from the coffers of Kogi state. However, by a previous court ruling in the case of Chief James Ibori, the ex-governor of Delta state, the money will now have to be returned to Kogi state. And the current governor of Kogi state is Mr Usman Ododo, who was handpicked and installed by Bello. Are you thinking what I am thinking? Rebound.

MEDIA MENTOR

When I was studying mass communication at the University of Lagos, the common joke at the department was that those who wanted to specialise in journalism would die poor and those who wanted to make money should go into PR and advertising (PRAD). Mr Azu Ishiekwene, who has seen it all as a reporter, writer, editor and publisher, has a better story to tell the current and future generations in his book, ‘Writing for Media and Monetising It’, published by Premium Times Books and due for release anytime soon. It is the basics of journalism and media entrepreneurship. I have received an advance copy and I am currently unlearning and relearning journalism. Reinvention.

GOOD NIGHT, MALLAM

Mallam Abdul Ndubuisi Okwechime, the journalist who came into limelight in 1986 for daring the devil to interview Lawrence Anini, then Nigeria’s most wanted armed robber, abruptly drew his last breath on April 19, 2024. He was my friend despite being my senior in age. We met in 1998 when he spearheaded the media campaign of the late Alhaji MD Yusufu, who was a presidential aspirant. I was recently on the phone with Mallam Abdul, who had suddenly fallen ill. He encouraged me to always call rather than send texts because he was finding it difficult recognising alphabets. I was devastated. I didn’t know the worst was still coming. May God comfort his loved ones. Painful.

NO COMMENT

Trust Nigeria to always provide premium content. On Wednesday, 118 inmates escaped from the Medium Security Custodial Centre in Suleja, Niger state. According to the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS), a rainfall ravaged parts of the prison and brought down the walls. The NCoS used the opportunity to cry out that the prison walls are generally weak because they were built — now you won’t want to believe this — during the colonial era. Nigeria gained independence from colonial rule 63 years ago and, in fact, we are still making use of a facility that was probably built 70 years ago without improving the structure. Is it because powerful people are not in that jail? Wonderful.