By Victor Ofure Osehobo

As the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari winds down, it should be obvious now that various factors contributed to the failure of many of his laudable initiatives for a greater Nigeria. Some of these factors are delayed implementation, inadequate budgeting, a lack of public support or even competing interests which led to failure or stagnation of many initiatives. There was in some cases, failure to consider cultural, economic, or political implications of some initiatives and failure of messaging, communications, or marketing to the public-at-large.

This affected most of the huge projects and programmes of Federal Government of Nigeria as they were not being properly handled and delivered to the beneficiaries. An example was the procurement and distribution of COVID-19 pandemic palliatives by the federal government and the private sector under the umbrella body known as CA-COVID-19 during the pandemic. The incidents whereby warehouses where the COVID-19 relief or palliative materials were stored, were overrun and looted by angry Nigerians in dire need of these items was just one of the many tips of the iceberg of the challenges that existed in service delivery of the Buhari administration.

A great majority of the targeted beneficiaries of many of his other laudable schemes did not have direct access to them. Many were subjected to long and harrowing bureaucratic red tapes; as they lost huge sums to extortion by officials in their bids to access the schemes.

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Perhaps the President was advised against appointing Presidential Liaison Officers for several reasons. One is that they will only have limited influence. While presidential liaison officers have regular access to the President’s office, they often have limited authority to make decisions on their own. In an addition they can only act as intermediaries between the President and other government officials but cannot take independent action.

Secondly, having them was seen as capable of creating conflicting priorities between the President’s agenda and the interests of the constituents they represent and so may be pressured to compromise on crucial issues that may affect their constituents negatively.

Since Presidential liaison officers are usually expected to deliver results in a short time frame, it has also been argued as capable of putting undue pressure on them, making it difficult for them to achieve set goals.

There is also the issue of limited resources at their disposal. In some cases, presidential liaison officers may not have enough resources at their disposal to effectively carry out their duties. This can make it challenging for them to achieve their objectives.

PLOs are perceived as political appointees, which can undermine their credibility with some government officials. They may also be subject to political pressures to act in the interest of the ruling party or the President.

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Nevertheless, Presidential liaison officers are necessary as they serve as critical intermediaries between the Presidency and other government agencies. They are responsible for communicating the President’s priorities and policies to various stakeholders, and for providing feedback and recommendations to the President on issues affecting their respective agencies or organizations.

They also work to establish and maintain relationships with key stakeholders to ensure that the President’s objectives are met. In essence, Presidential liaison officers help to ensure that the President’s vision and priorities are effectively communicated and implemented throughout the government and beyond.

A Presidential Liaison Officer on Job Creation for example will be required to work collaboratively with multiple individuals and organizations to run initiatives that promote job growth and economic stability. This includes planning and hosting job-related events and meetings; working with the private sector to encourage hiring initiatives and developing relationships with potential employers and job seekers; leveraging public and private resources to complement and support job-training efforts; and providing guidance and assistance to job seekers.

The officer will also be able to assess the progress of job-creation efforts and provide guidance and resources on relevant topics. Additionally, the officer will need to report to the President or designated representatives on job-creation initiatives, results, and outcomes.This is the way to go.

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It is in this light that I see the Renewed Hope manifesto of our President-elect, the former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Its vision is to restore hope to Nigeria by providing solutions to the country’s political, social and economic problems. Renewed Hope will prioritize good governance, transparency, and accountability, by investing in human capital development, infrastructure development, and job creation.

Tinubu envisions a Nigeria that is corruption-free, where every individual has access to basic necessities such as healthcare, education, and a stable source of income. The Renewed Hope mantra hereafter aims to create a Nigerian government that listens to the needs of the people and works towards achieving a common goal.

In addition, Tinubu advocacy is for social justice, unity, and national integration, with a view to promoting policies that encourage diversity and inclusivity in Nigeria. He plans to emphasize the importance of investing in the youth, as he believes they are the future of the country. Overall, Tinubu’s vision for Renewed Hope is centered around creating a Nigeria that is prosperous and provides equal opportunities for its citizens.

This is why it will wise for the incoming President to consider the idea of appointing home-based grassroots politicians as Presidential Liaison Officers (PLOs) or Presidential Liaison Assistants (PLAs) to each of the 36 States and the FCT, when he assumes office. They will serve as the monitoring and evaluation watchdogs of federal government-owned projects and programmes and prepare periodic progress reports for the consideration of Mr President and the Federal Executive Council. This will serve to bridge the huge gap existing between what the President is told and what he is not told by the Ministers and the federal bureaucrats and technocrats.

Undoubtedly, their appointments will go a long way to eliminate the situation whereby the Presidency finds itself deploying excess time and resources to explaining what it is doing for the people. This was a major challenge for the present administration. It cannot be allowed to continue.

OSEHOBO is the Assistant State Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, Edo

By Suyi Ayodele

Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu is the Chairman of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Council of Elders. The octogenarian has been in the news in the last four days for the wrong reasons. His outburst at the one-year anniversary of Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State against the Yoruba of the South-West is the reason everyone is baying for his blood. And those calling for his blood are justified. While speaking at the occasion, Chief Iwuanyanwu uttered the following words: “Yorubas (sic) are just political rascals, and we are going to handle them”. The Ohanaeze chieftain was referring to the harassment of Igbo in Lagos during the February 25 and March 18 elections. He was pained. Now, a few Nigerians were and are pained by the unfortunate incidents in Lagos. The elderly man said before his “Yoruba rascals” statement earlier: “So, I want those who are from Lagos to go home and tell those in Lagos that we have resolved that never again can we allow anybody to take the life of any innocent Igbo person. All of us are going to fight the person. We are going to fight the person. Never again! He warned those asking the Igbo to leave Lagos that: “We are in Nigeria, and we have invested in Nigeria, and our investments are so much. We are not going to take it when people tell us to go; we are not going anywhere. And I want to tell those who are in Lagos to realise that there is no war between us and Yorubas”. To a greater extent, he was right. There was no war between the Yoruba of South-West and the Igbo of the South-East. What happened in Lagos during the election was a war of survival between two sets of selfish people; the Yoruba clan who came out to protect their pot of soup, Lagos State, and the overzealous Igbo residents in Lagos, who erroneously reduced a national movement to an ethnic ambition.

 

Jesus Christ is the first in human history to have laid down his life for his friends. That was over 2000 years ago. The next person to have replicated same feat, at least in contemporary Nigerian history, was the late Col. Adekunle Fajuyi, who on July 29, 1966, laid down his life in protection of his guest, the General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi. When the retaliatory soldiers of northern extraction came calling for Irons’s head in Ibadan, Fajuyi, who was then the Military Governor of the defunct Western Region refused to release his guests to the killer squad. He volunteered to die alongside Aguiyi-Ironsi and he was so killed. That was the relationship between the Yoruba and the Ndigbo. It did not start with Fajuyi and Aguiyi-Ironsi. When the late nationalist, Herbert Macaulay, formed the then National Council for Nigeria and Cameroons (NCNC) in 1944, his most trusted ally was Dr Nnamdi Azikwe, whom he made the first Secretary. At the exit of Macaulay, Azikwe inherited the party as the second president. Assisted by prominent Yoruba sons and daughters, Azikwe’s NCNC won elections in some cities of South-West. Thus, Iwuanyanwu was right when he said that; “there is no war between us (Igbo) and Yorubas (sic)”. What then is the problem? The answer is found in the conduct of Iwuanyanwu in Awka, Anambra State, who last Saturday called the Yoruba “political rascals”. That is a most unfortunate statement coming from an elder statesman of Iwuanyanwu’s clout. This is why those who refer to the Igbo in Lagos as ethnic jingoists appear to be justified. I watched Iwuayanwu’s video a couple of times. What came to my mind, especially when those who sent the video to me (and I had several of them), said “Suyi, can you now see?”, is the saying of my people on similar occasions.

 

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Whenever the conduct of a member of a community brings opprobrium to the entire clan, my people draw wisdom from the allegory of Eran Ìbíye. Eran Ìbíye, when translated, simply means Ìbíye’s goat. Eran, in Yoruba morphology can translate to meat in the general form and goat in the more specific codification. In the Ekiti variety of the Standard Yoruba, eran, most often than not, when used contextually in an abusive mode, means goat. The allegory of Eran Ìbíye is a story of a recalcitrant goat which brings insults to its equally grumpy owner, Ìbíye. Ìbíye, the folktale discloses, is a one-eyed woman. Her right eye was bad. She also has a pet goat, which has a half blind left eye. While Ìbíye, in her pettish manner picks quarrels with every neighbour, her goat, on its part, breaks into everyone’s home eating up all edibles available. When the victims of Eran Ìbíye’s voyage into their homes want to lament their losses, they call the goat “eran buruku, eran olojukan” (bad goat of the one-eyed). The ambiguity in the expression is due to the flexible semiotics of the words, which makes it very difficult to know who is being referred to as “eran olojukan. The immediate transliteration of the noun phrase, “eran olojukan” is “the goat of a one-eyed owner. Whereas the literal meaning is “the one-eyed goat”. Of course, whenever such words are uttered, Ìbíye goes into another round of fight and the entire clan will be on edge trying to explain that no reference is being made to Ìbíye’s deformity but that of her goat. To resolve the riddle, the people resort to the saying: “Amúni búni eran Ìbíye. Ìbíye fó lójú òtún, eran ré fó lójú òsì. Eran ún ja’lé, Ìbíye ún se ìjògbòn” (Ìbíye’s goat makes neighbours to insult the owner. Ìbíye is blind in her right eye and her goat is blind on the left eye. While the goat breaks home bounds, Ìbíye is a perpetual troublemaker).

 

The 2023 general election is one that will go down in history as the most divisive election ever held in Nigeria. Two major factors ruled the election. One is the issue of religion, and the second is the place of ethnicity. From Kano to Kafanchan, Abeokuta to Aramoko Ekiti; Akwa Ettiti to Ekeremor, Nigerians identified the political gladiators who presented themselves for the various elective positions by the languages they speak and the colour of their religious creeds. No attention, I say with every sense of conviction, was paid to the competence of the candidates. These two factors were more pronounced, while the electioneering lasted, among the three leading political parties: the All Progressive Congress (APC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP). And for the first time too, the division was more noticeable among the people of Southern Nigeria, and if one takes it further, between the Yoruba people of the South-West and the Igbo of the South-East. The bad blood the election generated among the supporters of the APC candidate, now president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and those of the phenomenal LP candidate, Peter Obi, is one that will live with us for long.

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The acrimony between these two groups was such that even though, the perennial presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, came second at the end of the exercise, his presence was shadowed by the LP and the APC tug of war. While Nigerians easily dismissed Atiku as an extension of the Buhari Fulani hegemony, the nation was left gasping for breath by the tsunamic exploits of the LP and its enthusiastic youthful supporters, who tagged themselves, ‘Obidients’. What actually kindled ‘animosity’ between the Yoruba and the Igbo was the result of the February 25 presidential election which saw the LP trouncing the APC in Lagos which had always been known as an APC stronghold. With the looming repeat of the February 25 feat during the governorship election of March 18, the two ethnic groups went to practical war. That was expected because of the boast by some LP supporters who vowed to end Tinubu’s APC’s stranglehold on Lagos State. In reaction, the Tinubu political family deployed every conventional and unconventional tactic to win the election. Some two days to March 18, it was clear even to the blind that only the boldest of Igbo residents in Lagos would dare venture out to vote.

 

The election has since come and gone. By whatever means, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu won his second term in office. But there are lessons to be learnt in the election. For me, I stand by the view that the outright intimidation of the Igbo residents in Lagos and anywhere else during the election remains condemnable. No rational mind should justify the barbaric underhand dealings perpetrated to achieve victory for the APC. To a greater extent, I want to believe that without going overboard, the APC would still have won the Lagos gubernatorial election. It is also of note that whatever success the LP recorded in Lagos in the February 25 presidential election was not made possible by only the Igbo residents in Lagos. No! I am sure that if forensic fingerprint analyses of the ballot papers are carried out, a sizeable number of Yoruba, Hausa and other ethnic nationalities voted for the LP during that election. It cannot also be ruled out that not a few Igbo people also voted for Tinubu and his APC at that election. The unnecessary tension came about because a few overzealous Igbo Lagos residents tried to appropriate the February 25 success as Igbo magic. That was where they got it wrong and what brought about the unfortunate reaction from the Yoruba APC political family. Every race has its fair share of the good, the bad and the ugly. Extremists exist in every ethnic group. The results of the elections from the South-East and how other political parties fared in that region compared to the LP also speaks volumes.

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What Chief Iwuanyanwu did by his last Saturday’s castigation of the Yoruba political class was to justify the position of those who believe that the Ndigbo is an aggressively domineering sect. Whenever an elder speaks in the manner the Owerri chief spoke, it tells us the type of moonlight tales such elders tell their young folks. After the elections, Nigerians should be thinking of the healing process. A friend told me last week that around Coker in Lagos, supermarkets run by the Igbo were shut to customers because of fear of attacks. Both the old and the young owe it a duty to reassure our folks from the South-East that they are safe anywhere in the country. Any statement that tends to reopen the healing wounds should not be heard, not even when the very old we all look up to for quality leadership are involved. There are political rascals in all ethnic groups in Nigeria. The Arewa people, who are trying to wear a clean robe of political decency are merely on a voyage of self-deceit. Voter’s intimidation was witnessed in virtually every state of the federation. That wouldn’t have been if the Independent national Electoral Commission (INEC) had done the needful.

 

The Igbo apex socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, I daresay, is not also helping matters. Its defense of Iwuanyanwu’s unfortunate statement is not the best way to pacify those who are genuinely injured by the Ohanaeze chieftain. Calling those who condemned Iwuanyanwu as “mischief makers” is very preposterous of the Ohanaeze at this period. Chief Iwuanyanwu, as we all can recall, ran a national newspaper for many decades. He knows what communication is. He made a very huge mistake and Ohanaeze should just accept that and allow us to move forward. Again, it will also be wrong for anyone to conclude that because Iwuanyanwu uttered those words, every Igbo man sees the Yoruba race in that mould.

It is equally gratifying to note that Chief Iwuanyanwu has backtracked on the statement. In a statement he endorsed on March 27, Iwuanyanwu said his statement at the Awka event was completely misrepresented. “I want to make it abundantly clear that at no time did I make the statement credited to me by blackmail circulating on the social media that Yorubas are political rascals as this was fraudulently manipulated. …I am no doubt an honorary citizen of Yoruba land. I have many personal friends and staff of my various companies including directors who are Yorubas…I therefore do not have any reason whatsoever to insult the Yoruba tribe whom I regard with great respect”. Being an elder, one will take this rebuttal as the chief’s veiled apology and that, I think, should be taken in view of everyone’s desire for a united Nigeria. Maybe, “the rascals, hooligans, spivs, charlatans, miscreants, and dregs of Lagos society” the Ohanaeze referred to in its statement are the Eran Ibiye who should change their ways. This becomes imperative in the face of the validity of the saying that only one man is baldheaded in Ado (not Ado Ekiti) and the entire people are referred to as “the baldheaded people of Ado”.

Suyi Ayodele is a senior journalist, South-South/South-East Editor, Nigerian Tribune and a columnist in the same newspaper.

Tunde Odesola

“Yokolu, yokolu, ko ha tan bi? Tinubu gbe won sanle, won ti yoke!” is a Yoruba song of victory depicting the merciless manner Oduduwa incarnate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, smashed the spine of the enemy against Aso Rock.

Hehehehe! If you lift your eyes unto the East, and ask from where does your help come, please, discontinue reading this article because your help will never come! I don’t care whatever name you call me, I care the Almighty god of Lagos has taught the children of discord a lesson. I’m glad they won’t stop crying in eight years.

They are forever stubborn and stiff-necked like a fake KDK fan – these people who eat stones without drinking water, who wolf down yestern bread from the eastern parts without drinking tea, and yet demand freshly cooked gbegiri and amala in Lagos. If they are not stubborn, they should have heeded the advice of the lipless, wetin-you-carry Oba in Lagos, who saw tomorrow, and graciously advised them to jump into the lagoon.

I think drowning in the lagoon then is less painful than the prospect of being pushed down from Asso Rock now, one after the other, breaking necks, splitting spines and cracking limbs. Long may the Lagos monarch, Kabiyesi Real One, live for his foresight and fatherly advice.

The Atlantic Ocean never rests. The enemies of Tinubu will never rest. They wailed when Bola only had marine powers, controlling the Atlantic, the lagoon and Odo Iya Alaro. Now that he’s set to control the air, land and sea, let’s see where they will run to.

Mungun, if you think the owner of the bronze mortar only controls the sea and air, where in your reckoning is his land army led by the bloody illiterate called MC Oluomo, whose eyes are set on the stool of Oshodi? Did you say that MC Oluomo is horrendous? That an agbero can never become king in Yoruba land? You’re a goat! A blind, deaf and dumb goat for that matter. Is a former recharge card seller, Tunde, (I’ll change my name soon), not calling the shots in Asso Rock today? Listen, and hear me clearly, please; anything the All Progressives Congress touches turns to rust. Go and ask the dying giant, Nigeria.

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Hahahahaha! I laugh a sad laugh. Erin iyangi. I’m utterly sad and scandalised that MC Oluomo, a dropout agbero, is APC leader whom senators, House of Representatives members, House of Assembly members, local government chairmen etc bow before in Oshodi-Isolo area. Ha!!! Uncle Bola, aye ma n baje lo re e!

Why would the youth want to go to school or stay away from crime when they see the life Oluomo is living? Why won’t MC Oluomo’s sidekick, the moron called Koko Zaria (imagine the name), threaten to beat up some female artistes and even call former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Chief Ayo Opadokun, Chief Bode George, Dele Farotimi, Falz, Mr Macaroni etc unprintable names?

Political patronage shouldn’t be measured by the number of skulls acquired during conquests. Patronage should be on account of hard work, obedience to law and order, creativity, innovation, enterprise, nobility etc.

Hahahahaha. I laugh a sad laugh. The king that will fetter the elephant has yet to be enthroned. Who can stop Tinubu when his mind is made up? Tell me, who will stop Alameda from enthroning a serially accused murder suspect from becoming king in Yoruba land?

Did you not see how MC Oluomo, a hooligan, was swaying anticlockwise, like a lizard on hindlegs, on the streets, distributing garri to rowdy crowds in disguised vote buying when he could simply have told the impoverished crowds to queue up and benefit from his atrocity?

Musiliu Akinsanya doesn’t understand law and order. He understands brawl and Luger. Choose: Pig and filth or MC Oluomo and bloodiness – Omoluabi Yoruba will pick pig and filth. And it’s not about being picky, it’s about not descending into anarchy.

Osun descended into disorder when it enthroned a wife beater, hemp smoker, Yahoo-Yahoo, and Canadian convict as king, Lagos will surpass that record by installing as the king of Oshodi, a reputable man of immeasurable violence, MC Oluomo, who warned the Igbo not to come out and vote during the last general elections.

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Instead of the police investigating Oluomo for his inciting remark, the police became his lawyer, saying ‘let’s take it that he (Oluomo) was joking.’ Hahahaha! Oluomo n fi iku sere. The lifetime award for the ‘Most Useless Force’ in the world belongs to the Nigerian Police Force.

Let’s even imagine some ‘eru iku’ – merchants of death – in the National Union of Road Transport Workers rape a lady or kill someone, and the case was brought to Oba MC, (imagine the crazy name), in whose favour would the lout-turned-king rule? President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Yoruba do not deserve a real-life Itu Baba Ita of the late Gbenga Adebayo comic series.

It’s bad enough that some members of a murderous transport union rode on the back of your support to trample on the law and become terror that stalks round the clock. Making MC Oluomo king as a compensation for his violence would be a sin against humanity.

Oluomo boasted in one of his insulting videos that since he knew you in the 1990s, he had been highly favoured by you. Tinubu, omo Abibatu Mogaji, imagine, MC Oluomo and his gang have unfettered access to you – you, a first-class brain, whereas millions of graduates and hard-working Nigerians can’t live on $1 per day each. Please, do not aid the illiterate Oluomo in carrying his meal offering past the mosque. Please, let your umbilical cord with Oluomo remain on the owner-dog level. Please, don’t put the blue blood of Yoruba royalty at the risk of rabies from the attack dog.

Jagaban, now that you will be President, it’s time you made away with those unconventional soldiers led by Oluomo because you will now be the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Where would you keep these frankenstein monsters? You can keep them in your palace in Bourdillon, it’s big enough but they will go haywire if you put them in a Yoruba palace. ‘Omo ile ni won, bi e gbe won si ori beedi, won a ja bo’ – they’re ne’er-do-well, put them on the bed, they will still fall and sleep on the floor.

I’m a Christian, but the import of Muslims giving honour and adoration to the late Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), and also reciting for the dead and the living, the Kurisiyu prayer found in Suratul Baqara, just hit me. May the soul of Chief Obafemi Awolowo continue to find repose in the Lord. May the Lord keep the family he left behind. Will Awolowo install an MC Oluomo as king? Yes, there was a place for the Adelakuns and the Adedibus, but it was never in the palace.

If you intend development for Nigeria, Asiwaju, you shouldn’t put square pegs in round holes. Oluomo is not even a thread in any hole. He’s an abomination to royalty and decency. Yoruba obaship shouldn’t be suya and ‘paraga’ given to assuage bloody fools.

Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey, may the Lord bless him with many more years in good health. He once warned about the need to appoint good people into leadership positions, singing, “Ka to fi eyan j’oye laarin ilu, o ni lati je eni rere…” I’m sure you know the evergreen song, sir. Is MC Oluomo a good man? Can you allow him to marry your daughter, Oyinda?

FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Tinubu, Atiku And Political Obituary (1)

Baba Seyi, choosing an oba should be a painstaking exercise – just like Nigerians took painstaking measures to elect their next president – but the Independent National Electoral Commission tossed a coin, which went up in the air and never came down, and while the people were still grumbling, INEC announced you as the winner.

Well, now that you’re president, Bobo Chicago, please, endeavour to write your name in gold through laudable policies, erasing the controversial memories of you in public mind. A good name, you will agree with me, is the passport needed for Aljanah fridaus, not stored up wealth. I wish you good speed, Your Excellency.

Tunde Odesola is a senior journalist, columnist with The PUNCH newspaper and a guest writer in INFO DAILY.

Email: [email protected]
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