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Opinion: COVID-19 Responses And The Intelligence Quotient Of Nigeria’s Political Leadership

Published

6 years ago

April 22, 2020

By Tony Abolo

COVID19 and its handling by those in authority has brought to the fore an element of analysis of the quality of leadership so desired and needed to make Nigeria function and function better. We have through our sixty years angled from those with oratorical prowess, to demagogues, to money bags, to better educated, to highly educated, to former military persons, and now to moral integrity. None has proven satisfactory. We must clearly begin to look for INTELLIGENCE – an ingredient so sorely missing in those who rush out of the pack and claim to want to lead. It is lack of the evidence of intelligence that when the ordinary Nigerian throws up his or her arms and asks rhetorically, “who do us this?”. This is the fuller meaning of the expression. And when some people accuse the Governments ,at all levels of knee-jerk approaches, it captures in essence the kind of and level of intelligence of those who say they are leaders.

When I read in the Newspapers that the Federal Government or State governments in the face of the lockdowns want to expand the palliatives of “2 cups of Rice and Indomie“ and finances to more persons, beyond the 1 million plus at present, anyone with a measured intelligence would merely laugh. In the heat of the moment, it seems that, that is all that occurs in the minds of those who call themselves “elected leaders”. It finally has dawned on them that there is a wide gulf created “deliberately” between themselves and those they govern. The privileges they have been accumulating and enjoying in the last sixty years are unwarranted, and unmerited. How could we in a country of 200 million persons, have a bunch of senators and members of the House of Representatives have to themselves a budget of N120b annually. The Presidency enjoys more humongous inexplicable billions to feed, travel, maintain a public house, called Aso Villa, have 2 to 3 billion naira appropriated to State House clinic, a sum which till today, no body exactly knows if it is ever released or if released, who are the beneficiaries as Buhari, Kyari(when alive) and Aisha Buhari seek alternative venues for medicare. The governors have a monthly “back pocket” allowance styled, “security vote” of N 500 million – another open sesame for a shameful privilege of access to wealth. Till date, no one knows the “security vote” of the President or the Vice President. There must be, but always, shrouded in secrecy. This is aside Ministers estacodes, allowances and other perquisites in unknown millions.

The riots around the lockdowns in Gwagwalada, Oshogbo, Asaba, Lagos Suburbs, Kwali, Warri and Bomadi, have suddenly woken the sleepy privileged class to realize that what has been going on and condoned are not privileges but “robbing the people” in subtle terms. It is because the people have never rioted nor shown any anger on the streets, hence this nonsense of dipping hands inside the Nation’s Treasury in the name of “budget approved” allowances and expenses. In a sudden change of heart, Senator Omo Agege goes dispensing N85m to his constituents at a time, he may never have planned for it.

In the same vein, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajia Sadiya Umar Farouq. Hurried through some Northern states with “ghana must go” bags of billions of naira, in tow, to scatter to those, we hear, she claims are the “poorest of the poor” and the vulnerable in Nigeria, the Northerners – an obvious lie, and an unfounded fabrication. It is bad enough that the North out of its negligence and defense of an arcane culture, allows many such untrained and unskilled millions to roam everywhere in the North. And now she could claim that it is the fault of the South hence “they are the poorest of the poor” in Nigeria. Are we now to be rewarding “irresponsible parenting” and encourage promiscuity of ill-equipped persons to procreate. Of course, we will keep selling more oil from the South to support the North’s “poorest of the poor”!!. Little wonder in an exercise that smacks of nepotism, from an infographic published in the national dailies, Katsina State has been observed to have the poorest of the poor such that out of the 1,126,211 mandatory cash transfers, Katsina with their exalted “son of the soil” who has not lifted a finger in a personal way, to help his State indigenes out of poverty, the state got the highest allocation of cash transfers.

And come to think of it, it is unconscionable to be distributing public money as if it were loaves of bread and strangely without documentation, no signatures of receipt, and we are to take the Minister’s word for it that, for example, N1.6billion has been distributed to 84,000 “poor and vulnerable” in one day in Kano. Is this a due process country or a village setting? Is Nigeria a fiefdom to be run from a “village square” and without proper accountability? Little wonder, last week, Kwali vulnerable indigenes, in the Abuja area, rioted having only received N2000 each, instead of the N20,000 palliative amounts they heard announced for each person. They rightly rioted to demand for their balance N18,000:00. So much for rule of the thumb approach to governance issues, and the ethnic supremacy doctrine which makes a Minister to act as to say, “our people are in charge and we set the rules”.

This knee-jerk response approach of both the Federal and State governments to their epiphany of realizing that there is entrenched poverty in Nigeria, due to years of misrule, injustice, over allocation of privileges to only a tiny few, plain “greed” in the name of privileged collection of “budgeted perquisites” has made it abundantly plain that – what all governments are doing, is neither wise, clever or sustainable. Government cannot and does not have the capacity to be feeding its populace in a lock down – and as is now being done, in a not-all inclusive manner. Governance as a responsibility has to be thought through. These palliative releases cannot and will not address the inequity in the system. Increasing the so called Social Register to 3.6million households is nonsensical. In any case, we hope that it is not another, towards the poorest of the poor in the North? In a country of 200 million and where nearly 100 million are poor and vulnerable, according to NBS statistics. it is merely irresponsible of any government to be talking of 3.6 million households to remedy. What we need now is a NATIONAL SOCIAL WELFARE REGISTER. We should cut down all the wastages and undue and unnecessary privileges in the system. We need to have a political class that acts with concern, compassion and humility. Now is the right time during and post COVID-19, to enact – A National SOCIAL WELFARE SCHEME – a programme that would count, capture and take care of the millions of the poorest of the poor and the unemployed Nigerians instead of this skewed Social Investment programme of the APC. This programme should have a legislative backing in line with the thinking of Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, unlike the SIP which seem an ethnicised, regional and a supremacist skewed project. We should act, like what the Chinese would say, in a manner that would be like the tide – which lifts ALL THE BOATS. It is this, that would save the over privileged political class. Otherwise, as in the book title of James Baldwin, it will be FIRE THE NEXT TIME!!!!.

A tough call though, at a time the world is predicted to have a worst recession since 1930s and when the world economy is predicted by the IMF to contract by 3% and Nigeria’s economy, predicted to contract by -3.4% with an inflation rise to as high as 13.4%. But then our governments never ever think in a future wise sense in Nigeria, ever. So, we will get our comeuppance as it comes, for we never ever know how to plan for tomorrow as we always like to use the cultural and religious platform of “Oh well, God will provide”. In any case, no one can stop the steaming anger and riots that could erupt post – COVID-19, with the way we are handling the Nigerian aspect of the pandemic.

I end this article with a quote from Onikepo Braithwaite in her article titled Nigeria Post Covid -19 of 19-4-2020 published in This Day- as it shares my thoughts:
The pertinent question to ask at this juncture is, do we love our country and want it to survive or not? It is patently clear that if the answer is in the affirmative, this is as good a time to do away with many of our worthless structures, systems and frivolous expenditure as the cost of governance is way too high and unsustainable……Are we going to continue to have States which are not viable or allow them to harness their own resources to generate IGR? What kind of restructuring are we going to undertake, in order to rebuild our country and make it better? There are so many unanswered questions and matters which require urgent attention.

Tony Abolo is a vetrave journalist, Doyen of broadcast journalism, journalism instructor, public speaker, and writer.

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Otuaro: IPF Urges Reps To Take Caution Over Arrest Threat

Published

50 minutes ago

December 9, 2025

Editor

The Ijaw Publishers’ Forum (IPF) has called for caution over the threats of issuing a warrant of arrest on Dr. Dennis Otuaro, Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), by the House of Representatives.

Addressing journalists in Warri during a press conference, IPF President, Comrade Austin Ozobo, said the allegations on which the House invited Otuaro and he allegedly refused to appear, were an audit report of 2021, a period, the body said Otuaro was yet to be in the office.

Ozobo, flanked by other executives of the body stressed that “any attempt to use a 2021 report to malign a 2024 appointee is misleading and raises concerns about the true intent behind the current aggression.”

“It is necessary to state clearly that the news and allegations being referenced by the Committee relate to an Amnesty Audit Report of 2021, a period long before Chief Dr. Otuaro assumed office.

“Chief Otuaro was appointed in 2024, and therefore should not be associated with issues arising from an audit that predates his tenure by several years. “

The IPF, while alleging that “this action, coming after claims of six invitations, carries the markings of yet another sponsored political attack targeted at an Ijaw son who has distinguished himself in national service,” vowed not to “remain silent while the image of the Ijaw nation is attacked under the pretext of oversight.”

The IPF, therefore, urged House to “step down its current aggressive posture and conduct oversight with fairness and without bias.”

The Ijaw media practitioners urged the Green Chamber to “avoid actions that could destabilise the fragile peace in the Niger Delta, particularly when the PAP is recording success under Otuaro’s leadership.”

IPF further urged to “prioritise urgent national issues such as insecurity, the soaring cost of living, and failing institutions.”

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OPINION: Nigerian Soldiers In Benin Republic

Published

12 hours ago

December 9, 2025

Editor

By Suyi Ayodele

I have been asking if whatever President Bola Tinubu did in Cotonou on Sunday is worth celebrating. My mind keeps racing to the now extinct town of Àpá and how its legend, the one who could have saved the town, abandoned it to help other villages and towns survive to the detriment of his own place of birth.

The legend is short. Ògún, the god of iron, whom many praise as “Ògún Onírè” (Ògún the one from Ìrè Èkìti), history says, was never a native of Ìrè Èkìtì. His hometown is known as Àpá. But the town is no more because its neighbours waged war against it till no single soul remained.

According to the story, a renowned Babaláwo, Ológbòjígòlò, who would have saved the town, also failed because he did not follow the instruction given to him by Ifa. When Ológbòjígòlò set out on his divination voyage, he asked three junior diviners, Èhìnìwàmowò (I look the future from the past), Mowòréré (I look intently) and Mowòjojo (I look deeply), to ask Ifa what the journey held for him.

Ifa, the three diviners told Ológbòjígòlò, said that the old Babaláwo would prosper on the journey if he avoided eating overripe kolanut and marrying two women no matter how prosperous he became. No sacrifice was required, just obedience.

The first place of call was Àpá. Ológbòjígòlò found the town in ruins. He wondered where Ògún was when neighbours waged war against his town. Those left said that Ògún elected to save other communities at the expense of his own. Ológbòjígòlò elected to help, and he did according to the Babaláwo he was. When another war broke out between Àpá and one of its neighbours, Àpá people prevailed. And that pattern continued till the town became lively, full of people, again.

But as years went by, Ológbòjígòlò became rich and powerful. His taste changed. He started eating overripe kolanut. He married another woman to join the one that followed him to Àpá. The second wife, a kolanut seller, became his favourite. Trust women. Within months of becoming Ológbòjígòlò’s wife, the new wife had obtained all the necessary information about how Apa found its mojo at war fronts.

Pronto, the woman escaped Apa and told her people the secret behind Àpá’s successes at battles. At the next war, Apa was defeated, the town burned down, and Ológbòjígòlò was captured. He had to escape, using magic.

By the time Ògún heard the bad news, there was nothing he could do. The story says that was why Ògún could not return to his homeland and settled in Ìrè, where he had earlier committed murder over an empty keg of palm wine! Every strongman, who leaves his homestead in distress to defend another, ends up not having a home to return to! That, the narrator, says, is the didacticism in the story.

The people of Benin Reublic woke up on the morning of Sunday, December 7, 2025, to martial music on their radio and television stations. Some daredevil soldiers, led by Colonel Pascal Tigri, were on air, announcing that they had taken over the government of the tiny West African country. Then Bola Tinubu’s Nigeria moved in and crushed them.

Like Ògún, President Tinubu left the insecurity bedevilling Nigeria to go and play god in Benin Republic on Sunday. And his men are asking us to praise him! So, our President has the capacity to deploy troops to troubled spots the way he did last Sunday? He has the willpower to order the Nigerian Armed Forces to go and quell a rebellion in a neighbouring country, yet he lacks the same mojo when it comes to confronting Boko Haram, terrorists and bandits in our backyards?

Nigeria is heavily pregnant. Its Expected Delivery Date (EDD) is close. The nation waits in bated breath. We keep vigils, we pray non-stop. Nigerians hardly sleep with their two eyes closed. Many of us don’t sleep at all. The expectation is palpable. Will the pregnancy deliver good or evil? Nobody knows; nobody is sure.

Then the news came. Our midwife has loaned out the nation’s delivery channel to another pregnant woman! Mo gbé, someone ululated! Who does that? Another echoed. What do you call this type of behaviour? Someone else asked in disbelief.

The answer came rushing at us from the fortified Aso Rock Villa where our President and Commander-in-Chief, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, resides. “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has commended the gallantry of Nigeria’s military on Sunday for responding swiftly to the request by the Government of the Republic of Benin to save its 35-year-old democracy from coup plotters who struck at dawn today.” That was the opening paragraph of the ‘Press House Statement’ endorsed by Bayo Onanuga, President Tinubu’s spokesman.

The Benin Republic shares a border with Nigeria. That should be one of the borders our new Minister of Defence, General Christopher Gwabin Musa (Rtd), said we should fence to ward off terrorists and bandits. Whatever happens in Cotonou, the capital city of the Republic of Benin, has its multiplying effects on Abuja, our Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The news of the military takeover in the Republic of Benin rattled President Tinubu. That feeling is natural. The Republic of Benin under the leadership of Patrice Guillaume Athanase Talon, and Nigeria under Tinubu share one common denominator. It is called rudderless leadership! Many argue that the situation in the Republic of Benin appears even better than what we have here in Nigeria. What do we make of that? Is there a difference between leprosy and scabies (sé ìyàtò wà nínú ètè àti èyi bí)?

A successful military putsch in the Republic of Benin is a bad omen for Nigeria. President Tinubu must naturally panic at such scary news. When one’s mate dies suddenly, one is cautioned to interpret the signal correctly. The semblance of democracy in the Benin Republic is 35 years old. Its Nigerian counterpart is 26 years old. If Talon is successfully shoved aside via the barrel of the gun, Abuja would no longer sleep peacefully. The situation became more precarious given that not quite a month ago, Nigeria claimed that it foiled a coup in its embryo.

So, President Tinubu did what endangered species in such circumstances should do. Without any recourse to the national Assembly (he shouldn’t worry about those lots in Abuja anyway), the President answered his appellation as the Commander-in-Chief. He scrambled some Nigerian Air Force (NAF) fighter jets and ordered them to Cotonou. He did not stop there. The President mobilised some men in our Infantry and marched them to the Benin Republic.

The order was clear. The mission was defined. And the instruction was unambiguous. ‘Flush out the rebels and restore democracy’, Tinubu presumably roared. Within hours, the assignment was completed. The order was carried out with military precision and mathematical accuracy. Within hours, the ragtag soldiers holding the Benin Republic by the jugular were routed!

Our NAF fighter jets were something else in the Beninois airspace. The noise of the jets sent shivers through the weak spines of the rebels. They fled in all directions. The Nigerian foot soldiers also entered Cotonou seamlessly. They were sights to behold. They fanned out in quick order, taking over the entire television and radio houses! Who is an epileptic person in the face of the one who dies completely (tani ńjé akúwárápá níwájú eni tó kú yányán)?

Back home, Tinubu beat his chest. His hangers-on hailed him. ‘Mr. President, you have done fantastically well’, they praised the president. Onanuga rushed to his computer room and typed on, his wine-soaked fingers dancing yoyo on the keyboard. He wrote:

“President Tinubu commends Nigeria’s Armed Forces for protecting democracy in the Benin Republic… Today, the Nigerian armed forces stood gallantly as a defender and protector of constitutional order in the Republic of Benin on the invitation of the government…They have helped stabilise a neighbouring country and have made us proud of their commitment to sustaining our democratic values and ideals since 1999…”

Onanuga did not forget to tell us that the requests for intervention from the Government of Benin came through “a verbal note!” He added that “President Tinubu first ordered Nigerian Air Force fighter jets to enter the country and take over the airspace to help dislodge the coup plotters from the National TV and a military camp where they had regrouped.”

Our Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Olufemi Oluyede, he further disclosed, “said all the requests have been fulfilled, with Nigerian ground forces now in Benin”, with the caveat: “Ours is to comply with the order of the Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces, President Tinubu.” The import here is strong. All Tinubu needs to do is to give the order and our soldiers will simply obey!

Minutes after Onanuga’s statement, Tinubu’s clappers-club members went to town. We should celebrate the President’s swiftness and dexterity, they said. Only a strategist like President Tinubu could have saved a nation in distress the way he did in the Republic of Benin. To them, and they want us to believe, Tinubu has done what Napoleon could not do! The Hallelujah boys are all over the place, their noise deafening!

We have said it times without number in the past. What is lacking in the fight against insecurity in Nigeria is not manpower. What we lack is the political willpower of those in authority to do that which is noble, right and of good conscience. Because Tinubu’s Presidency is threatened, because he could suffer the same fate as his fellow lethargic President in the Republic of Benin , he suddenly realised that he could order our troops with specific and definite order and get results within hours!

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Onanuga said “the Nigerian armed forces stood gallantly as a defender and protector of constitutional order in the Republic of Benin…They have helped stabilise a neighbouring country….” We may yet ask him when is he going to pen such lofty words about the dexterity of our armed forces’ dexterity in curtailing and containing terrorism in Nigeria? If our soldiers (Army and Air Force) are so good, why has Boko Haram endured since 2009? How come the jets that would not work in Nigeria suddenly became superlative in the Republic of Benin? Why have we not used the same jets on the bandits holding Nigeria and Nigerians bound to violence?

On a personal note, nothing in me would support military rule, anywhere in Africa! And it stops at that. Methinks that beyond the emotional condemnation of the soldiers trying to leave their barracks for the government houses in Africa, we also need to ask what our civilian leaders are doing wrongly to warrant the military venturing into government.

This is the fundamental issue that we should address. President Tinubu, by his Sunday action, has demonstrated beyond doubt that with the right attitude to governance, Nigeria can suppress the activities of terrorists, bandits and Boko Haram within hours! The question is: will politics ever allow him to act so decisively here in Nigeria?

This is why Nigerians should become more affirmative in asking the President to answer his name as the Commander-in-Chief of our Armed Forces. President Tinubu should stop playing Ògún while our Apa remains in ruins. Good enough, he has ‘saved’ democracy in the Republic of Benin. We appreciate the fact that, like Onanuga penned, “Nigeria stands firmly with the government and people of the Republic of Benin.” Now is the time for President Tinubu to stand firmly with the people of Nigeria, the ones who elected him their leader. This is what he was elected to do.

I hate, and very deeply too, the allusion to the diplomatic big-daddy-posture of Nigeria in the Benin Republic affairs. I personally feel sad that while Nigerians are killed in their hundreds daily by terrorists and bandits, with little or no help from our armed forces and with the President being notoriously flatfooted, the same President mobilised material and human resources to far way Cotonou to fight renegade soldiers who took control of government over there.

I keep asking what benefit democracy serves in Nigeria when our people are slaughtered daily and the few soldiers we have are on a mission to the Republic of Benin just because our President entered panic mode! What happens, God forbid, if for instance, the military strikes in Ghana tomorrow, and in Cameroon day after? How many men do we have to deploy? How many fighter jets?

The beauty of the whole Sunday exercise is that President Tinubu has justified our claim that his greatest undoing is his predilection to place politics above the people’s welfare. The only time he felt genuinely threatened, he did the needful by sending Nigerian troops to flush out the coupists in Benin Republic. We should all feel nauseated!

At the risk of fitting into the figure of those Jesus Christ upbraided in Luke 4:23, I say on behalf of the hapless and helpless Nigerians who die daily in the hands of terrorists, “…physician (President Tinubu), heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum (Benin Republic), do also here in thy country (Nigeria).”

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7.6m Tramadol Pills, 76,273kg Colorado, Skunk Seized In Delta, Imo, Adamawa

Published

20 hours ago

December 9, 2025

Editor

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have recovered over 7.6 million pills of tramadol and 76,273.4 kilogrammes of different strains of cannabis, Colorado, Loud and Skunk with members of drug trafficking organisations linked to the seizures arrested.

Out of the total opioids seized during the raids, not less than 3,874,000 pills of 225mg and 100mg tramadol, and others as well as of codeine syrup were recovered from a warehouse at Oko market, Asaba, Delta State, on Saturday, December 6, 2025.

About 1.2 million tablets of tramadol 225mg were seized from a suspect, Kelechi Nwakocha, 35, on Wednesday, December 3, when NDLEA operatives on patrol at Orogwe, along Onitsha/Owerri road, Imo State, intercepted his vehicle conveying the consignment, which was loaded at Aba, Abia State, heading to Onitsha, Anambra State.

In Adamawa State, NDLEA officers, on Monday, December 1, 2025, intercepted a Toyota Hiace bus marked MGU 554 XB along Maraba/Mubi coming from Jos, Plateau State, with 1,577,112 capsules of tramadol and exol-5 tablets, all concealed inside jumbo bags mixed with new rubber sandals and slippers.

Two suspects, Kabiru Buba, 25, and Hamza Abubakar, 32, were arrested in connection with the seizure. Another suspect, Mudansir Rabiu, 27, was nabbed along Zaria/Kano road, Kano State, with 197,000 pills of exol-5.

Operatives of a special unit of NDLEA stormed forests in Omuo-Ekiti, Ekiti State, where they destroyed 14,654 kilogrammes of skunk and arrested two suspects: Yusuf Iliyasu, 50, and Okumu Chinedu, 26.

In another operation, the operatives on Tuesday, December 2, stormed the forests in Asin-Ekiti, Ikole Local Council, Ekiti State, where they destroyed 54,300kg of skunk in two large warehouses that were razed while 28.3kg of the same psychoactive substance was recovered for the purpose of prosecution.

Following actionable intelligence, NDLEA operatives on Tuesday, December 2, raided Igoba forest in Akure North Local Council, Ondo State, where 2,483 compressed blocks of skunk and 247 bags of same substance, all weighing 5,442 kilogrammes, were recovered and five suspects arrested. Those nabbed include Jacob Omodowo, 66; Joy Oluatobi Peace, 24; Babatunde Olamide, 40; Echi Fidelis Joseph, 57; and Ankrah Akano, 56.

While 500kg of same substance was recovered from a Mercedes Benz van marked MGU 614 XB by NDLEA officers on patrol along Mokwa/Jebba road in Niger State on December 4, with the driver, Amos Yakubu, 46, arrested, operatives in Abuja on Wednesday, December 3, intercepted a consignment of Colorado, a synthetic cannabis, weighing 22kg at Abaji expressway.

A follow-up operation at the Jabi park in Abuja led to the arrest of a female receiver, Blessing Ali, 33. Also in the FCT, Aliyu Usman, 39, was arrested by operatives on Friday, December 5, with 24kg skunk and 573,500 pills of exol-5 along Kwali/Gwagwalada expressway

In Lagos, NDLEA operatives recovered 217 pouches of Canadian Loud weighing 113kg from Ezenwa Udoka at Ladipo Market, Mushin, while Izuchukwu Usulor was nabbed with 351kg skunk at Onipanu area of the state on December 5, and Susan Okoro arrested with 104.1kg of same psychoactive substance at Trade Fair Complex, Ojo, on Tuesday, December 2.

A total of 447.5kg of skunk was recovered from two Honda Accord cars marked: ABC-678 KK and GGE-772 FB at Agho forest, Akoko Edo Local Council, Edo State.

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