News

US Election: Lessons for Nigeria [OPINION]

Published

1 year ago

November 5, 2024

By Suyi Ayodele

We are a nation in perpetual contrast! We claim to want the best for our country. But at every election turn, we hand over the country to those who have the lowest mental aptitude to govern a complex country like Nigeria!

In the heat of the 2015 election between President Goodluck Jonathan and General Muhammadu Buhari, I asked one of the Buhari supporters, a PhD holder, why he would support Buhari who paraded a questionable West African School Certificate (WASC) qualification against Jonathan, with a PhD. His response determined our relationship since then. “Even if it is a goat, I will still vote for him against Jonathan!”, he told me. The result is what we are seeing today. When you vote for a goat, you don’t expect the agility of a lion from it!

The first five chapters of Chude Jideonwo’s book, with contribution from Ademola Williams, How to Win Elections in Africa (2017), contain interesting topics. The chapters which run from page one through page 32 have the sub-topics: Legacy doesn’t matter as much as it used to, Change matters. Period.; Anger matters, more than you know; Establishment matters and Candidates matter, first and foremost.

The authors, on the qualities of candidates, say: “All the messaging in the world, all the ideas in the world, all the great plans and purposes and visions in the world amount to nothing if they cannot find the candidate who embodies this, that expresses it and that symbolises it” (Page 26).

The excerpt above underscores the importance of the competence of any candidate who seeks to rule over a people. The greatest problem bedevilling Nigeria, I say without hesitation, is leadership, quality leadership.

We have been so unfortunate in the last 25 years to have had almost the dreg of humanity at the helm of our affairs as a nation. The situation has been more terrible for Nigeria in the last nine and half years under the administrations of President Muhammadu Buhari and Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Buhari was elected in 2015 under the guise of a pseudo-legacy of honesty, discipline and a strong stance against corruption. Nigerians learnt too late to realise that all the robes Buhari was decorated with were borrowed ones and misfits in fabrics, sizes and styles. Under his watch, corruption wore three-piece suits on the streets of Nigeria while the Mai Gaskiya kept on picking his teeth!

Buhari’s successor, President Tinubu, gained access to the Aso Rock Villa because his handlers were able to successfully sell the dummy of a man with inimitable legacies of sterling performances when he held sway as the governor of Lagos State.

All attempts to convince the people, especially the poor masses, that the masquerade they were asked to come and behold at the political arena in 2023 was nothing but a normal human being with guttural voice and terrestrial robes, fell on deaf ears. Today, we are all victims of the terrible choice we made last year. The tendency that we may remain victims of the lacklustre performance of Tinubu for the next six and half years is very high.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Ambition Without Plans

In the United States (US), today, November 5, citizens will be out to elect a new president who will take over power in January 2025. I have followed the US election with little or no interest. The problems at home here are more than enough to bother about what happens or does not happen in the US.

I agree that whoever becomes the president of the so-called God’s Own Country will have multiple effects on us here in Nigeria and the entire world. It is not lost on me, nor on many Nigerians, that Nigeria has rarely benefitted anything from the Western. In fact, the West often takes more than triple of whatever it offers us! Regardless of who emerges as the US president, their primary focus will always be “America First”!

This is where I think we should focus our attention. We should, in my own thinking, begin to ask if there will be a time when we will have a leader who will put Nigeria first before his personal ambition. That is the biggest lesson I have learnt from the US election and its electoral processes so far.

The US is not a Superpower because God created it to be so from day one. No! Leaders after leaders developed the country to be what it is today because the US has been fortunate to have leaders who think “America First”.

Nothing captures this more than the attitude of the incumbent President Joe Biden. Biden had sought to be US president for a second term. He was the choice of his party, the Democratic Party, until the love for the country came in and he had to bow to public opinion by yielding the stage to a more robust candidate, Kamala Harris, a woman and Biden’s Vice President.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: South-West, Run, Ganduje Is Coming

The US is an institutionalised country. Nobody aspires to be the president without subjecting himself or herself to public scrutiny. It is not a place where a president-to-be will call the bluff of the people and refuse to participate in public debates.

The presidential debate in the US goes beyond an avenue to lay before the people, the presidential candidates’ programmes and plans. The presidential debate is essentially the avenue provided for the mass of the people to test the mental capacity of whoever aspires to lead the country.

The US has developed to that level of political maturity where the beauty of a candidate’s manifesto does not sway voters. While manifestoes are valuable, citizens prioritise the candidates’ ability to read the manifestoes, understand and effectively implement the ideas and ideals outlined in these documents.

This is what Jideonwo and co point out when they posit that: “All the messaging in the world, all the ideas in the world, all the great plans and purposes and visions in the world amount to nothing if they cannot find the candidate who embodies this, that expresses it and that symbolises it” (op cit).

The above test is what President Biden failed during the June 27, 2024, presidential debate with his main challenger then, former President Donald Trump, who is also running as the Republican candidate in today’s election in the US.

At the debate hosted by CNN in Atlanta and watched by over 51 million viewers in the country, President Biden was rated poor in all ramifications and his performance was declared by Elliot Morris and Kaleigh Rogers of ABC News’ 538 as a “disaster.”

One major weak point that the public noticed in Biden’s performance at the debate was his “frequent loss of train thought while he gave meandering, confused answers.” The general opinion was that Biden failed to convince anyone that he had the capacity and capability for another four years.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: Wike, Fubara: Bitten By Tiger Cub [OPINION]

Little wonder all hands; party officials, fundraisers, undecided voters and volunteers, were up for him to step aside. The Democratic Party and the public correctly judged his mental ability. Biden had no choice but to step down for his vice president, Harris, to take over.

That is one of the beauties of the US democracy; the very one Nigeria claims to have copied. One single debate took Biden out of the race. But what do we have in Nigeria? How do we test the mental preparedness of our would-be presidents?

I have read a lot of comments by Nigerians about the US election and the Trump versus Biden debate. I have friends who were promoters of the spine-chilling cliche of “Buhari-can-have-NEPA-bill” – a reaction to the argument that beyond having no minimum certificate to contest the 2015 election, Buhari does not possess any inspiring mental aptitude for the office he sought- jumping and calling for Biden’s withdrawal from the race.

I did not also find it amusing that many Nigerians who did not see any wrong in President Tinubu asking his aides to answer questions thrown at him at the charade called Chatham House outing in 2023, pontificating on the Biden debate with Trump!

It is on record today that since 2015, there has been no presidential election debate in Nigeria. Yet, within that period, we have held three consecutive presidential elections in 2025, 2019 and 2023. The implication is that for the past nine and half years, Nigerians have never had the opportunity to assess the mental aptitude of their would-be presidents.

The argument has always been that debates have nothing to do with performance! This argument, sadly, is the position of many Nigerians who stayed glued to their TV sets, keeping vigils, to watch the US presidential debates between Trump and Biden, and between Trump and Harris!

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Nigeria’s Children Of Sweet Power

This lazy mental reasoning also played out in the recent Edo State governorship election where the two major political parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP and the All Progressives Congress (APC), refused to push forward their candidates for any debate.

Ours is a nation where all a Fulani man needs to be president is to line up all the Almajiris of the North behind his candidature and his Yoruba counterpart to enlist the support of all street-urchins of Lagos on the election day! The Igbo candidate, of course, can always bank upon the home support of the Nzobu nzobu orchestra of Ndigboland!

A nation that sacrifices merit for mediocrity can never rise above the mediocrity of its leaders. The physiological, physical, mental and character configuration of a leader matter. The health and mental fitness of a president will have negative or positive effects on his output. This is why we should not support any candidate who is not willing to put his mental and health issues to test at public debates before any election. If Biden had not participated in the June 27, 2024, presidential debate, the Democratic Party would have fielded a “disaster” as its flagbearer.

Nobody gives what he does not have. We have dwelt too much on lies and propaganda. We keep dressing dregs of humanity in our country in the celestial robes of Angels. We place ethnicity above competence and go after money at the expense of our collective future.

Those who should not hold the lowest councillorship positions are leaders of governments and legislative bodies in Nigeria today. We elect leaders based on sentiments and we expect them to be fair, just and equitable. Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. Check out all the leaders in the executive and legislative posts; what do you find?

A last quote from Jideonwo: “Elections begin with candidacies. And often, they rise and fall on candidates. If the essential candidacy is defective or inadequate, almost everything else is doomed to fail.” Do we need a further prognosis of our woes?

News

Xenophobic Attacks: Oshiomhole Tells FG To Retaliate Against South African Companies In Nigeria

Published

5 hours ago

May 5, 2026

Editor

Senator Adams Oshiomhole has called on the Federal Government to retaliate against South African businesses operating in Nigeria following the recent attacks on Nigerians in South Africa.

Speaking during plenary on Tuesday, Oshiomhole said the Federal Government should consider revoking the working license of South African owned companies such as MTN and DSTV.

He argued that Nigeria must respond firmly to what he described as persistent hostility against its citizens.

“I am not going to shed tears. If you hit me, I hit you. I think it is appropriate in diplomacy. It is an economic struggle,” Oshiomhole said.

He argued that while some South Africans accuse Nigerians of taking their jobs, Nigerians should return home and take over employment opportunities created by major South African companies operating in the country, including MTN and DSTV.

“When we hit back, the President of South Africa will not only talk but will also go on his knees to recognise that Nigeria cannot be intimidated.

“We will not condone any life being lost. If a crime has been committed under the South African law they have the right to bring any such person to justice, but to kill our people as if we are helpless, we will not allow that,” Oshiomhole added.

DAILY POST reports that several Nigerians in South Africa have reportedly been attacked, and their businesses destroyed, in ongoing xenophobic attacks in the country.

News

IGP Orders Officers Display Name Tag On Uniform, Gives Update On State Police

Published

6 hours ago

May 5, 2026

Editor

The Inspector General of Police, IGP, Tunji Disu, has ordered all police personnel to always have their name tags on their uniforms for easy identification.

Disu disclosed that only police personnel who are undercover are exempted from displaying their name tags.

Speaking on Tuesday, Disu said: “All police officers should have their name tags. All of us on the high table have our names apart from the undercover among us so if you look at all the Commissioners of Police we have our name tags, so it’s not our standard.

News

Court Orders SERAP To Pay DSS Operatives N100m For Defamation

Published

11 hours ago

May 5, 2026

Editor

The High Court of the Federal Capital Territory has ordered a non-governmental organization, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, to pay N100 million as damaged to two operatives of the Department of the State Services, DSS, for unjustly defaming them in some publications.

The court also ordered SERAP to tender public apologies to the defamed officers,
Sarah John and Gabriel Ogundele, in two national newspapers, two television stations and its website.

Besides, the organization was also ordered to pay the two operatives N1 million as cost of litigation and 10 percent post-judgment interest annually on the judgment sum until it’s fully liquidated.

Justice Yusuf Halilu of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory gave the order on Tuesday while delivering judgment in a N5.5 billion defamation suit instituted against SERAP by the DSS operatives.

The judge found SERAP liable for unjustly defaming the two DSS operatives with allegations that they unlawfully invaded its Abuja office, harassed and intimidated its staff, in September 2024.

In the offending publication on its website and Twitter handle, SERAP alleged that the two operatives unlawfully invaded and occupied its office with sinister motives.

The judge held that the publication was in bad taste especially from an organization established to promote transparency and accountability, as nothing in the publication was found to be truthful.

The DSS staff had listed SERAP as 1st defendant in the suit marked CV/4547/2024. SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, was listed as the 2nd defendant.

In the suit, the claimants – Sarah John and Gabriel Ogundele – accused the two defendants of making false claims that they invaded SERAP’s Abuja office on September 9, 2024..

Counsel to the DSS, Oluwagbemileke Samuel Kehinde, had while adopting his final address in the mater urged the judge to grant all the reliefs sought by his client in the interest of justice.

He admitted that although the names of the two claimants were not mentioned in the defamation materials, they had however established substantial circumstances that they are the ones referred to in the published defamation article by SERAP on its website.

The counsel submitted that all ingredients of defamation have been clearly established and the offending publication referred to the two officials of the secret police.

However, SERAP, through its counsel, Victoria Bassey from Tayo Oyetibo, SAN, law firm, asked the court to dismiss the suit on the ground that the two claimants did not establish that they were the ones referred to in the alleged defamation materials.

She said that SERAP used “DSS officials” in the alleged offending publication, adding that the two claimants must establish that they are the ones referred to before their case can succeed.

Similar arguments were canvassed by Oluwatosin Adefioye who stood for the second defendant, adding that there was no dispute in the September 9, 2024 operation of DSS in SERAP’s office.

He said that since SERAP in the publication did not name any particular person, the claimants must plead special circumstances that they were the ones referred to as the DSS officials.

Besides, he said that there is no organization by name Department of State Services in law, hence, DSS cannot claim being defamed adding that the only entity known to law is National Security Agency.

The claimants had in the suit stated that the alleged false claim by SERAP has negatively impacted on their reputation.

The DSS also stated, in the statement of claim, that, in line with the agency’s practice of engaging with officials of non-governmental organisations operating in the FCT to establish a relationship with their new leadership, it directed the two officials – John and Ogunleye – to visit SERAP’s office and invite them for a familiarization meeting.

The claimants added that in carrying out the directive, John and Ogunleye paid a friendly visit to SERAP’s office at 18 Bamako Street, Wuse Zone 1, Abuja on September 9 and met with one Ruth, who upon being informed about the purpose of the visit, claimed that none of SERAP’s management staff was in the country and advised that a formal letter of invitation be written by the DSS.

John and Ogundele, who claimed that their interactions with Ruth were recorded, said before they immediately exited SERAP’s office, Ruth promised to inform her organisation’s management about the visit and volunteered a phone number – 08160537202.

They said it was surprising that, shortly after their visit, SERAP posted on its X (Twitter) handle – @SERAPNigeria – that officers of the DSS are presently unlawfully occupying its office.

The claimant added, “On the same day, the defendants also published a statement on SERAP’s website, which was widely reported by several media outfits, falsely alleging that some officers from the DSS, described as “a tall, large, dark-skinned woman” and “a slim, dark skinned man,” invaded their Abuja office and interrogated the staff of the first defendant (SERAP).

John and Ogundele stated that “due to the false statements published by the defendants, the DSS has been ridiculed and criticised by international agencies such as the Amnesty International and prominent members of the Nigerian society, such as Femi Falana (SAN)”.

“Due to the false statements published by the defendants, members of the public and the international community formed the opinion that the Federal Government is using the DSS to harass the defendants.”

They added that the defendants’ statements caused harm to their reputation because the staff and management of the DSS have formed the opinion that the claimants did not follow orders and carried out an unsanctioned operation and are therefore, incompetent and unprofessional.

The claimants therefore prayed the court for the following reliefs: “An order directing the defendants to tender an apology to the claimants via the first defendant’s (SERAP’s) website, X (twitter) handle, two national daily newspapers (Punch and Vanguard) and two national news television stations (Arise Television and Channels Television) for falsely accusing the claimants of unlawfully invading the first defendant’s office and interrogating the first defendant’s staff.

“An order directing the defendants to pay the claimants the sum of N5 billion as damages for the libellous statements published about the claimants.

“Interest on the sum of N5b at the rate of 10 percent per annum from the date of judgment until the judgment sum is realised or liquidated.

“An order directing the defendants to pay the claimants the sum of N50 million as costs of this action.”