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Borno Burns, Bayelsa Boils, Buhari Dey Kampe

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By Tunde Odesola
The muffled weeping is unmistakable. It cuts into the thickness of the night. It sounds so far, yet so near, like wind whistling through a palm plantation. The weeping is so ghostly; so sinister it makes the hair stand on end, sets the teeth on edge, makes the head become heavy and transfixes the feet. This eerie weeping belongs only to the egbere, a vicious gnome in Yoruba folklore, who inhabits the forests and moves about at night with a mat. Anyone who dispossesses the egbere of its mat comes into stupendous wealth.
But the egbere will fight you to the death to protect its mat. In the quest for earthly possessions, many mortals have been dispossessed of their lives during combats with the egbere. When you dispossess the egbere of its treasured mat, make sure you kill it because if you don’t, be sure to have it as an irritable company, forever following you all about in tears, weeping, gnashing and urging you to return its priceless mat.
The egbere is not alone. In Ireland, it has a kindred called leprechaun – another gnome – whose pot of riches is highly sought after by Irish in search of instant wealth. Gnomes are, indeed, universal phenomena, symbolizing the existential duality of evil and good.
The Nigerian political leadership is an egbere capable of doing good but never does. Toss the coin of Nigeria’s egbere political leadership up a million times, it’s gonna land on its evil side. Generally, Nigeria’s egbere political class is so awfully dirty, annoyingly sluggish, utterly irresponsible, horribly selfish and insanely corrupt. Clutching its mysterious mat, our egbere political leadership weeps and wanders about aimlessly, seeking applause where its (in)actions deserve attacks.
Last week, Nigeria’s egbere political leadership was sighted in Ondo town. In this particular instance, it was enveloped in characteristic darkness. It took the halo of a Primary 1 pupil, Dele Rasheed, to shed light on our egbere leadership’s irresponsibility. Little Dele it was, who exhibited the passion and diligence lacking in governance,  taking her school homework to the ATM of a bank beside her residence, to do. To do her homework, the six-year-old Dele needed adequate electricity which our egbere governments have shamefully failed to provide despite the billions of dollars spent by the Olusegun Obasanjo, Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari administrations on phantom electricity provision.
The ingenious story of Dele’s plight shattered my heart into smithereens. I later braced up and I waited for the usual ridiculous response of the Buhari government to criticisms as Nigerians online condemned its failure to provide Dele with electricity, forcing the Ondo jewel to risk her life at night at the ATM. I waited to read those stupid government excuses and the blind support by some members of the public profiting from the misgovernance in the land. But there was none. The egbere and Buhari’s media aides were busy afield confronting a raging battle.
They were in Borno bailing the shameful flood of protests that drenched the President when he visited the North-West state as frustrated citizens, tired of burying thousands of family members and relatives killed by Boko Haram, massively booed the Major-General for living in perpetual denial of the fact that Nigeria now has a superior President in Lieutenant General Insecurity. I shook my head when I read the statement by Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, alleging that the opposition was behind the booing of Buhari in Borno; it’s obvious that media propaganda promoting a bad product has a short shelf life. Oga Shehu’s claim that a perpetually mourning ‘people came out to welcome’ the President was an unforgivable cold-blooded lie in the eyes of God and of Man. Several days after the show of shame in Borno, no government media organization has broadcast the hailing of Buhari in Borno.
Last week, the egbere political tendency moved from Borno to Abuja, where the Minister of Health, Dr Ogbonnanya Onu, announced Federal Government’s intention to gift N36m to anyone who finds a cure to the ravaging coronavirus. Onu’s statement sums up how worthless the Buhari administration views the citizenry. It also shows why academics who invest in intellectual property are held in disdain by an egbere leadership that promotes political thugs and motor park touts whose annual earnings are far more than professors’ life earnings. This kind of beggarly promise is what you get when a president’s son rides motorbikes worth more than N100m and his daughter flies presidential jets to buy zobo. Need Onu, a PhD holder in chemical engineering, be reminded that the winner of Big Brother Naija Season 4 got N30m cash and other prizes worth N30m, including a brand-new SUV, a trip to Dubai, home makeover, a year supply of Pepsi and Indomie; a smartphone, two tickets to watch European football final, among others?
Onu knows that there are scant public health facilities in the country that can conduct procedural tests for common tropical sicknesses such as typhoid, tuberculosis and Lassa fever let alone conduct extensive research on the novel coronavirus. He knows the country’s health system is a huge calamity, the reason why the President and the members of his cabinet jet out to treat ear, nose and throat infections, among others. Onu only made the N36m promise to taunt ‘sufferhead’ lecturers, professors, researchers, etc, who don’t get a mite of what the Federal Government doles out to the Super Eagles during a weekend game. He knows the N36m promised can NEVER be won by any Nigerian researcher using any public research facility in the country. In Onu’s promise lies the answer to why students are abandoning classrooms for chatrooms to engage prospective ‘magas’ in Yahoo-Yahoo.
Well, the egbere leadership later left the Ministry of Health and headed to the Supreme Court – all in Abuja, where it spread his mat and slept like Jonah. When he woke up refreshed, it headed southward to Bayelsa, where it is currently directing the blockbuster movie, “The highest bidder (Season 1).”
Though the egbere is reputed for weeping, it’s tears are not for free. The egbere doesn’t care if the labour of our heroes past go in vain inasmuch as there is money to share among stakeholders. One would think that the egbere would shed tears in remembrance of the late Head of State, General Murtala Mohammed, who was killed in a military coup on February 13, 1976. To the egbere, the dead should be left to remember the dead just as the living should be allowed to enjoy the spoils of office.
I see the egbere ambling towards the tent of the Amotekun with its mat, yawning and scratching its head in the hope that it would get enough space to nestle and regain the energy lost in its peregrinations. The six-joint owners of the Amotekun must expunge the clause in the Amotekun Act that states that Amotekun officers cannot be sued. This is an invitation to impunity. Are the six state governors planning to immortalize Amotekun officers who take innocent souls, rape or abet terrorism? The egbere is knocking on the door of the Amotekun, it must not gain entry.

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OPINION: APC And Lesson From Last Child Of Tortoise

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By Suyi Ayodele

If I were President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, I would choose to answer the name of the sixth child of the Tortoise. According to the folklore, after the first five children had been dismissed as failures for the names they adopted, the sixth cradle, when asked which name, he would answer, says: “E maa pe mi ni Afi-oro-oloro-se-arikogbon – call me He-who-learns-from-another-person’s-experience. While he may not have forgotten anything Buhari did or did not do, it is also clear that Tinubu has not learnt anything from what Buhari did or did not do. Are we really sure that he is also not printing money like his soulmate, Buhari? Indeed, a Development Economist/Investment Banker, Nnaemeka Obiareri, was on Channels TV a few days ago alleging that in seven months, Tinubu printed N7.8 trillion and is still borrowing. Here is what he said: “Buhari came, under eight years he printed N23 trillion and wasted it. Under president Tinubu in seven months, we printed N7.8 trillion and we are not talking about that. What did they do with the naira and we keep borrowing and Nigeria keeps worsening?” We have not read or heard the government denying that claim. It should.

The thumb is called atampako in my roots where a premium is placed on family ties. They warn that no matter how one struggles to cut the thumb into two, it is perpetually difficult to say that the head has no relationship with the neck (Bo ti wu ki a la atampako si meji to, a o le so pe ori o ba orun tan). The neck is the pillar which supports the head. Any attempt to separate the two spells doom. That is exactly what the Minister for Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun attempted to do last week. Edun was before the Senate Committee on Finance to answer questions on why the nation’s economy has collapsed, irredeemably, under the government he serves. The senators, one is tempted to believe, were worried, like the poor masses, about the economic calamities that have been the portion of the masses in the last nine months’ administration of President Tinubu. Like someone under a spell, the Coordinating Minister of the Economy told his audience that the present administration should not be blamed. Rather than ask the ‘strategist’, Tinubu, why he has not been able to fix a single aspect of our ailing economy, Edun said that the inquisitive senators, and other Nigerians, should go back to the lethargic General Muhammadu Buhari’s era which brought Nigeria’s economy to its knees. Edun told his audience that for good eight years, the Buhari administration was just printing money! He added that most unfortunately, the money printed was not matched by any productivity. Then he submitted thus: “For eight years, the weak were left to their own devices. It is the privileged few that took everything.”

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In essence, what the man appointed to midwife our economy said at the senate session is that Buhari and his gang merely printed money for eight years and nothing was put in place to put the money so printed into any productive venture. As I read over the submission of the minister, again, my mind went back to my secondary school days. I pictured Messrs Alebiosu and Fabamise as they taught us elementary Economics, especially the causes of inflation. Again, I remember that Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, about two years ago, said that the government of General Buhari was printing money to be shared as allocations to the remaining two tiers of government. I wish I were a Cardinal in the Catholic Church. I would have just canonised Obaseki and my good secondary school teachers! Nigerians are in for the biggest economic mess. The ones we have asked to manage our affairs have no idea of what the problems are. This administration, like the immediate one it took over from, has nothing to offer than blame game. We have entered a typical one chance! The Babalawo we ask to consult the oracle for us cannot read a simple divination corpus. Where do we go from here?

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Back to our atampako allegory. I find Mr. Edun’s appearance before the Senate Committee on Finance as most unfortunate. It is not just unfortunate, but equally very insulting on our collective sensibility. By all standards, Edun is the most senior member of Tinubu’s cabinet. As the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Edun is expected to be the brain box of the administration; the very go-to-man, whose fountain of wisdom all other cabinet members are expected to tap from. But look at what the man dished out before the committee! For eight years, the Buhari administration blamed its predecessor, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, and the 16 years of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governments for our economic woes. The likes of Edun and his principal, President Tinubu, queued behind Buhari in the blame game. Because Nigerians were greatly dissatisfied with the performance of the PDP-led administration, they elected to follow the Mai Gaskiya to the battlefield. In that war of political, security and economic attrition against the Jonathan administration, Tinubu was the Aare Ona Kakanfo, with the likes of Edun and other Tinubu’s boys acting as General Officers Commanding. For those eight ruinous years of the locusts that the Buhari administration was, not a whimper of condemnation was heard from the Tinubu camp. Rather, while seeking for votes, Tinubu promised to continue from where Buhari stopped. Pray, if Buhari’s achievements were not fanciful, why would anyone use them as the parameters to be considered to be elected? So, is it the same Buhari that Edun is asking us to carry canes and whips and flog for ruining our economy? What does Edun think Nigerian people are? Fools?

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What happened in the eight years of Buhari that is not happening now? Was it not under General Buhari that Nigerians first heard of “budget padding”? Has that changed? Why are the northern senators (those ones again?) complaining that the 2024 budget was increased by N3.7 trillion ? What about insecurity, abduction, bloodletting, killings and other vices that were the hallmarks of the Buhari regime? Have they stopped? Should we also blame Buhari for the recent abductions in Kaduna and Sokoto States? Is it not the same All Progressives Congress (APC) that ruined our economy and printed money for eight years that is also in power today? How does Edun intend to cut the atampako into two and declare that the head is not a sibling of the neck? Where was Edun when Tinubu asked for the cows when Pa Reuben Fashoranti’s daughter, Mrs. Olakunri, was murdered by killer-herdsmen in 2019? Which party rode to power using the propaganda of students’ abduction in Chibok, Borno State in 2014? How many students were kidnapped under the Jonathan administration? How many have been abducted in the APC-led administrations between 2015 and today?

What lesson has the Tinubu administration learnt from the failings of his immediate predecessor? Truth be told. The APC sowed the seed of students’ abduction, when, instead of joining forces with the ‘clueless’ administration of Jonathan to find a lasting solution to the Chibok abduction of the 276 school girls in their dormitories, it chose to use the unfortunate incident as a weapon to get rid of the administration. By doing so, the APC, as an opposition party then, planted the evil seed. That which was planted must grow and bear fruits. We are in the harvest season; our baskets are filled to their brim. Check it out. Between 2012 and today, 1, 630 students have been either abducted or killed. Of the figure, the PDP government accounted for 375. The remaining 1,255 students were abducted under the APC administration. And, we are still counting. Last week, over 300 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), were abducted in Borno. The list is endless.

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Within two days last week, over 300 students and teachers were abducted in Kaduna and Sokoto States. That should ring a bell. If we add over 300 IDPs abducted to the figure, we will know that we are in real trouble. Nothing has changed. Maybe Tinubu should also blame Buhari for that! It is rather sad that nobody in this government appears to be bringing past experiences to the table. The Vice President, Dr. Kashim Shettima, was the governor of Borno State when the Chibok abduction happened. What did he learn from that unfortunate incident? How, will an experienced hand like Shettima be in government and thunder would strike us on the same spot not just twice, but, multiple times? Funny, again! How on earth do you transport 287 pupils out of their schools in the name of abduction? How many vehicles were used for the operation? How many hours did it last? The teachers that escaped; what did they do? They just went back home to drink their fura de nunu? How about the villagers; nobody saw anything? No one among the students was stubborn enough to resist being taken away? Or those who came for them gave them our old goody-goody candy to lick? Where on earth are 287 pupils being housed; who is feeding them, and attending to their medical needs? My father advised me that I should never join anyone to plan evil. May the good Lord bless his soul (Amen). Shettima, the other time, lamented that saboteurs were after this government. I shook my head. What do people say about karma being a beast? God have mercy! This administration should thank its stars that it has a docile party, the PDP, as the opposition. We all know what the APC did while in opposition.

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Enough of excuses and blame games! President Tinubu and his boys should know that as much as Nigerians regard the PDP government as a failure, life was more abundant under the party. Again, the PDP ruled for 16 years and left power nine years ago. If the current administration wants to continue where Buhari stopped the blame game, let it be known therefore, that Nigerians know how much they bought a bag of rice under the ‘clueless’ administration of Jonathan. They know how much a litre of petrol was then. The masses know that on the roads and highways, they could travel and sleep in the conveying vehicles without any fear of kidnappers or killer-herdsmen as we have today. Equally, Nigerians know the exchange rate under that administration and what is obtainable now. It is totally pea-brained for anyone to think that the present ineptitude could be blamed on the past administration. Tinubu was not elected to tell stories about how Buhari printed money for eight years. His job is to fix the ruined economy left for him by his protegee and friend, like the ‘master strategist’ they told us he is. This is the time for him to tap the brains of the ‘technocrats’ they promised he would assemble. If indeed the Buhari government was so foolish as to print money endlessly, there is a solution to that. Interrogate the man at the helm of affairs then, and get him punished wherever any infraction is established. Tinubu should borrow Professor Tony Afejuku’s appellation: ‘No Paddy for Jungle’, instead of the current futile Aunty Sally exercise. Majority of Nigerians know that Buhari was a monumental disaster in government. We need no further profiling. This excuse is becoming irritatingly dippy! Buhari blamed Jonathan for eight years without a single probe of the man. Tinubu cannot afford to do the same. If Buhari printed money, and we cannot point to a single thing he used the money for, as Edun stated, the man should not be allowed to continue picking his teeth in his Daura farm. Yes, he warned that nobody should call him for questioning while leaving on May 29, 2023. That is an empty threat. Except Tinubu benefited from the rots in the Buhari administration, I don’t see any reason why the ‘Mai Gaskiya’ cannot be made to account for his obvious misdeeds while in government. If Tinubu cannot probe the allegation of money printing, barmy as it is, then the government should keep quiet and get to work. Only an indolent workman blames his equipment!

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OPINION: Impeachment Notice On Edo Deputy Gov: A Case Of Abuse Of Office And Privilege

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Edo State House of Assembly on Wednesday ,6 March ,2024 moved a motion and issued a notice of impeachment on the deputy governor of Edo State, Hon.Philip Shuaibu.This course of action by the members of Edo State House of Assembly is quite simply an abuse of office and privilege.The members of the State House of Assembly were elected to defend the Constitution of Nigeria, protect the laws of the State and to also represent the interest of their Constituency.The motion for the impeachment of the Deputy Governor of Edo State does not fall into any of the categories stated above.

Abuse of office and the privileges that are associated with elected and appointed political office holders is a common feature that has frustrated the entrenchment of democratic norms in Nigeria.It is has become an acceptable dereliction for political office holders to abandon their Constitutional mandate and instead pursue an agenda of personal aggrandizement .In democratic and civilized nations, political office holders subordinate their personal interest to Constitutional demands.

The members of Edo State House of Assembly have brought disrepute on themselves for making the house available to support this odious agenda. Surely this set of events will not advance the cause of democracy in the jurisdiction. Indeed democracy in Edo state is under a vicious siege and Governor Obaseki is providing the guillotine for its mindless beheading. The only protocols now accepted, are those which serve the ever enlarging ego of a governor on the rampage.

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Majority of the members of the Edo State House of Assembly are people of conscience and are not part of this political menace. However, the good nature of these members has been subverted by the overwhelming imperative of bread and butter politics and the need to survive.

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Only the following factors can truly restore the confidence and good nature of the members of House of Assembly.
1.Internal democracy in the political parties that will guarantee a free and fair party primaries.The selection of party candidates by the governor or a godfather at the expense of the popular choice of political party members will continue to erode the confidence of the members to do what is right.
2.Free and fair election conducted by INEC to ensure that the electorate elect the representatives of their choice.
3.A Constitutional amendment that will guarantee the independence of the State House of Assembly.
4.A patriotic and democratically elected governor that will respect the integrity of the members and support the independence of the State House of Assembly.

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The Constitutional provisions and procedure for the impeachment of a Deputy Governor are clearly stated .The nature of offense that the Deputy Governor should commit to warrant impeachment is equally stated in the Constitution.Aspiration to contest for the position of governor of Edo State and challenge against the conduct of primaries by a political party do not constitute a ground for impeachment.It is known that the Deputy Governor of Edo State is an aspirant for the governorship of Edo State on the platform of PDP.The people of Edo State are equally aware of the parallel result declared by the Deputy Governor of Edo State claiming to be the winner of a parallel primaries conducted by a faction of PDP.It is equally a fact that the Deputy Governor is already in court seeking the interpretation of the court and decision on the factional primaries that was conducted by the PDP.In a true democratic country,the action of Edo State House of Assembly will be interpreted as obstruction of justice.Obstruction of justice is a criminal offense.

The impeachment Notice is an abuse of office, disrespect for democracy and premeptive action by the Edo State House of Assembly to deprive Philip Shuaibu his right to fair hearing and justice.This act should not be encouraged and should be condemned by all persons that are interested in the survival of democracy and prosperity in Edo State.

The House of Assembly should make laws and pass resolutions for the welfare of the citizens and in defense of the Constitution and laws of the State.The House of Assembly should not be willing tools in the hands of the governor to advance his personal interest.

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The abuse of office by Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State is known to the people of Edo State.The arrogant pursuit of his personal interest at the expense of the collective interest of the people of Edo State requires the urgent mobilization of a Grand Alliance of the people of Edo State to stop him from destroying the future of our dear State.

Edo State House of Assembly should pass a motion to direct the governor for the swearing ceremony of the Judges of Edo State High Court that have been appointed by the NJC for almost one year.A governor that is scheming to undermine the independence of the Judiciary and the House of Assembly cannot be a friend of the people of Edo State.Instead of pursuing personal political agenda of the governor, the House of Assembly should pursue a constitutional agenda that is in the interest of the people of Edo State.

A people or an assembly that thrives in the worship of money and immoral act for the advancement of personal interest will end up in failure.

Edo 2024 will be a contest between those that are in politics to serve and those that are in politics for business.Those who are in politics to serve think of the welfare of the people and fear the laws of the State .Those who are in politics for business for profit making will continue to fight to undermine the laws of the State, undermine the independence of the House of Assembly and the Judiciary.I represent the philosophy of Politics for service and Godwin Obaseki and his surrogates are clearly in politics for business and profit making.

Dr. Isaiah Osifo,
University Teacher and APGA Governorship Candidate, Edo ,2024.
Email: isaiahosifo@gmail.com

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OPINION: Adesina And Nigeria’s Fatal Abduction

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By Lasisi Olagunju

“What is the State?” Louis Blanc, politician and historian in 19th century France, asks himself.

He answers:

“The State, under democratic rule, is the power of all the people, served by their elect; it is the reign of liberty.

“The State, under monarchical rule, is the power of one man, the tyranny of a single individual.

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“The State, under oligarchical rule, is the power of a small number of men, the tyranny of a few.

“The State, under aristocratic rule, is the power of a class, the tyranny of many.

“The State, under anarchical rule, is the power of the first comer who happens to be the most intelligent and the strongest; it is the tyranny of chaos.”

The lines above I took from Pierre-Joseph Proudhon’s ‘The State: Its Nature, Object, and Destiny’ (1849). Nigeria is a fine combination of four of the five Louis Blanc’s definitions of the state. In case you pretend not knowing what the four are, this should be a guide: Last week, Finance Minister, Olawale Edun, frontally accused the defunct Muhammadu Buhari regime of criminal printing of about N23 trillion naira. Northern senators on Saturday alleged a criminal infusion of N3 trillion into the 2024 budget of Nigeria by powerful ghosts in Abuja. On Friday, in one northern state, a judge sentenced two kidnappers to death by hanging but quickly undermined himself with an advice to the felons to seek pardon from the executive “since no life was lost in the process of kidnapping.” On Thursday, bandits abducted 287 students in Kaduna. On Saturday, bandits invaded a Zamfara school and stole 15 students. Before the school abductions, senior brothers of the bandits, Boko Haram, had kidnapped over 400 displaced persons in Borno. In Benue and Plateau, a murderous campaign against helpless people is on without ceasing. From the desert to the coast, agonizing cries of existential woes rend the land. What we have is chaos pro-max.

Yet, we remain here. To whom or to where shall we turn? “We must make Nigeria a viable place for people to stay, and not a place to run away from.” I heard that counsel from African Development Bank Group’s president, Akinwumi Adesina, last week Wednesday in his lecture after receiving the Obafemi Awolowo Prize for Leadership in Lagos. I heard him and asked myself who would make Nigeria “a viable place for people to stay.” Those who print money and steal what they print? Those who serenade banditry with negotiation? Where are the leaders? Adesina in that same lecture looked deep into the past and declared that “Nigeria missed its best opportunity to be great under a ‘President’ Awolowo.” I heard that truth and whispered to myself that Nigeria is an expert at missing ways. Yoruba musician, Ayinla Omowura, sings about the one destined to eat hideous vulture, forbidden bird of carrion. Omowura sings that “the head that will eat vulture will not listen. If we give him chicken to eat, he will reject it.”

That is the nature of destiny – determinist philosophers say it is inevitable; people of religion agree but add that it is also inscrutable. Should it be Nigeria’s destiny to be a jungle forever? It looks like there is nothing we can do about it. Arab folklore character, Nasrudin, walks with utmost innocence along an alleyway. He is deep in thought and careful about not putting his feet where he may have them injured. But a man falls from a nearby roof and lands on Nasrudin’s neck. The fallen man is unhurt; innocent Nasrudin has a broken neck. He is asked what lessons he learnt from that experience. Nasrudin tells his disciples to note the place of fate in his fate. He asks them to note that the other man “fell — but my neck is broken!” At independence, Nigeria had all the chances to be great, but it soon had the ill-luck of falling into the mouths of big cats of the jungle. They’ve finished with the flesh, they are cracking the bones.

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Adesina’s lecture focused on what he called five critical areas that would save Nigeria and transform the people’s lives. He said the government should make rural economy work and provide food security. He said our rural areas “have become zones of economic misery.” He is right and correct. He said the city falters today because the village has been abandoned to faltering. The result is “the spread of anarchy, banditry, and terrorism” – what he called the “troika of social disruption” entrenching themselves to our collective sorrow. Adesina said our leaders should give health security for all, provide education for all, give affordable housing for all. He told us quoting data by UN-Habitat, that “in Nigeria, 49 percent of the population live in slums …That is a staggering 102 million people!” He exclaimed and told our leaders that what Nigerians needed “is decent housing and not upgrading of slums…There is nothing like a 5-star slum. A slum is a slum… ”

Then, Adesina reached the fifth of his points: Our leaders should be accountable: “If people pay taxes, governments must deliver services,” he said and quickly added that “taxation in the absence of a social contract between governments and citizens is simply fiscal extortion.” He stressed that Nigeria must enthrone fiscal decentralisation for a true federalism.: “To get out of the economic quagmire, there is a compelling need for the restructuring of Nigeria…Instead of a Federal Government of Nigeria, we could think of the United States of Nigeria.”

Those are great ideas. But in this country, the bush is the way – because the blind is the guide. Leadership will always make a difference. In a 2002 academic piece, psychologists Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzio and Annie Mckee speak on the imperative of societies enthroning leaders with positive emotions. They say the society achieves equilibrium when it is governed by leaders with a sense of accountability; leaders who know how to transform “the art of leadership to the science of results.” One writer said “the executive mind is impotent without power, power is dangerous without vision, and neither is lasting or significant in any human broad sense without the force of integrity.”

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No enduring structure can stand on a faulty foundation. American singer and songwriter, David Allan Coe, asked us not to look at the beauty of a building. He said “it is the construction of the foundation that will stand the test of time.” British architect, Stephen Gardiner, was more philosophical about the place of foundation in people’s affairs. He wrote that “good buildings come from good people, and all problems are solved by good design.” We cannot solve Nigeria’s problem by ignoring the fissures in its foundation.

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We tell the knock-kneed that what he carries on his head threatens a fall, he asks us to stop looking at the top. “Look at the base!” He points at his impairment, the awkward gait of his lower limbs. Think about how every road taken has led to nowhere. Think about our propensity to leave the vaults of our destiny open and complain about theft later. The Monday, October 10, 1960 edition of TIME magazine contained a report with the title: ‘Nigeria: The Free Giant.’ It was supposed to be a celebration of Nigeria’s independence which happened ten days earlier. But the author of the piece nursed a fear about the future of the brand new country. He wrote that “backward African nations inevitably must suffer the chaos of a Congo when the blacks take over.” Congo got its independence from Belgium on June 30, 1960. It fell apart on July 5, 1960 – less than a week after independence. The TIME magazine described that Congo as “a panorama of disaster.” How do we describe our Nigeria since independence?

A dark prophecy of inevitable chaos was published for Nigeria ten days after independence. To “inevitably suffer the chaos of the Congo” was a strong statement. The dictionary meaning of ‘chaos’ is “complete disorder”. If you like you can replace the word with “mayhem” or “bedlam” or “a mess.” There are a million other words that share meanings of madness with the chaotic. ‘Inevitable’ means “certain to happen.” Its other synonyms are ‘unavoidable’; ‘inescapable’; ‘fated’. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet we hear the protagonist, Hamlet, King of Denmark, seeing “providence in the fall of a sparrow.” In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare says the love birds are “star-cross’d” – stuck with their tragic end, their fate. It was the destiny of the Congo to explode within a week of its freedom from foreign rule. It has been Nigeria’s destiny to hop from disaster to catastrophe. But why?

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If destiny will manifest itself in a disaster, it presages itself. It is not rain that falls without warning the blind and tapping the deaf. Thirty-eight years ago, Chief Awolowo himself spoke on the evils which dominated the hearts of Nigerians “at all levels and in all sectors of our political, business and governmental activities.” In his famous letter to the political bureau set up by the military in 1986, Chief Awolowo spoke about “the abominable filth that abounds in our society.” He said as long as Nigerians remained “what they are, nothing clean, principled, ethical, and idealistic can work with them.” He warned that unless we allowed our hearts to be impelled “to make drastic changes for the better,” Nigeria stood the chance of succumbing to what he described as “permanent social instability and chaos.”

The chaos is here. We feel it in the price of food and drugs and in the cost of life itself. It is overwhelming. Today’s government reacts by grumbling about the malfeasance of its predecessor. Yet, the past was a disaster that came dancing without a mask. After Muhammadu Buhari was declared reelected in 2019, the late Dr. Obadiah Mailafia said in his March 4, 2019 Nigerian Tribune column titled ‘A guide for the Perplexed’ that Nigeria faced “what amounts to a peace of the graveyard.” He said he saw “fear and alarm in the eyes of certified patriots.” He noted that “only Almajirai in tattered rags from the president’s home region are celebrating with daggers and bayonets spoiling for a fight that nobody is really interested in.” He called on “genuine statesmen to (come and) salvage our democracy from the jaws of catastrophe.” History should have guided the public intellectual. Mailafia should have read Chief Awolowo. Nigeria is not structured to have “genuine statesmen” as its managers. Vulture does not eat clean meat; its meal is carrion.

FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Tinubu, Matter Don Pass Be Careful

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Adesina declared that “Chief Awolowo was bigger than Nigeria. He said Awo “was the pacesetter and forerunner for development in Africa.” He spoke about Awolowo’s “intellectual capacity, vision, pragmatic social welfarism (which) helped him accomplish what was seemingly unimaginable at the time.” Adesina listed Awolowo’s firsts: “He built the first skyscraper in Africa — the Cocoa House. He built the first television station in Africa, WNTV. He built the Liberty Stadium, the first of its kind in Africa. He implemented a blueprint for development that focused on building human capacity through massive programs to educate the people, develop skills, lift people out of poverty, provide massive rural infrastructure, and develop institutions that turned farmers into wealthy entrepreneurs…Chief Awolowo implemented the sustainable development goals decades before the phrase was coined. He was an inspiration for Africa, far beyond the shores of Nigeria. His philosophy…helped shape programs and policies in other countries.”

Where I sat was some seats away from where Adesina stood and spoke from. Where he stood was a few seats away from where the government of Nigeria sat, expressionless. I heard Adesina; I turned and asked a colleague who sat beside me if he thought Nigeria could benefit from the wisdom of the bow-tied. I told my friend that Adesina’s first four points rested on the fifth. Nothing positive will happen unless Nigeria’s crooked structure is worked on by surgeons. But, where are the physicians? Even if the surgeon is found and present, Nigeria is as difficult and dangerous as danger could be. The country is that mental patient who hates his doctor because he hates being cured of his ailment. Nigeria kills its prophets.

Adesina’s five pills are capable of healing Nigeria. But Nigeria won’t listen to him. It did not listen to Awolowo. It doesn’t listen to the wise. It is a conundrum – an abductee of its crooked structure. In the 1999 Yoruba political film, Saworoide, we hear the old man Adebayo Faleti (Bàbá Òpálábá) chanting the praise name of his Jogbo Kingdom: “Jogbo bí orógbó, Jogbo bí orò (Jogbo, bitter as bitter kola; dangerous as oro cult). With two eyes, you can cope at the riverside; with two eyes, you will survive Kaduna; but you need twelve eyes to survive in Jogbo. With two mouths, you get by in Ibadan; with two mouths you get by in Lagos; but you need 18 mouths to survive in Jogbo…” Nigeria is that Jogbo – a sick, deformed, bitter country in need of a surgeon.

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