₦airaland Forum

In 2016 the then Edo State Governor, Comrade Governor Adams Oshiomhole’s tenure was coming to an end and the issue of succession naturally propped up.

The front runner was Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu who has been an old political war horse since the third Republic. By his admission, he was instrumental to the first coming of Oshiomhole as Governor in 2008 after the defeat of Professor Oserimhen Osunbor at the Elections Petitions Tribunal. In 2012 he was the Director-General of the re-election campaign of Oshiomhole and was credited with aiding the likeable former Nigerian Labour Congress Boss win in all the eighteen local governments of the state.

Some pundits opined that Ize-Iyamu demanded that the then Deputy Governor, Pius Odubu be dropped so that he could run with Oshiomhole and so would pave the way for an easier succession for him.

The Comrade Governor having retired all the godfathers had a different idea. Having tasted the sweet elixir of power, he still wanted to be relevant in the scheme of things and so handpicked Godwin Obaseki who was the Chairman of the Economic Management Team and a political neophyte as his successor. This angered Ize-Iyamu who then defected back to the PDP where he won the primaries and flew its gubernatorial flag.

During the campaigns the question then was Obaseki who as he hardly uttered a word. The garrulous Oshiomhole was the spokesman and did a yeoman’s job of it.



No sooner than Obaseki was sworn in did he begin to assert himself to the chagrin of his erstwhile godfather. Obaseki made it known via his body language that Edo wasn’t Lagos where Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu metamorphosed as the Governor Emeritus of the nation’s economic nerve centre.

The struggle for power and the control of the state APC made the two men fall out and all efforts at reconciliation hit the rocks.

The re-election this year only increased the political temperature on the state as the centre could no longer hold. Obaseki opted for indirect primaries while Oshiomhole rooted for the direct. At the end of the day the APC chose the direct making Oshiomhole have the last laugh.

While the nation celebrated democracy day on June 12, it was gloomy and a day for tears in the camp of Obaseki as he and two other aspirants were disqualified by the APC screening committee. The reason given was that the party said it couldn’t vouch for his certificates.

We recall that the APC lost Bayelsa state due to a certificate forgery scandal of its deputy governorship candidate. Political pundits opined that they didn’t want a similar fate to befall Edo state.

One wonders why Obaseki refused to appeal his disqualification. Is that a surreptitous admission of guilt? Was he skeptical of getting a fair judgement even if he had appealed? A clear conscience fears no accusation; why is the Governor reluctant to explore all available means to upturn his sudden disqualification? Was the party aware of his certificate discrepancy in 2016 and choose to keep quiet? There are so many urgent questions begging for answers.

Comrade Adams Oshiomhole known for his loquaciousness has surprisingly been quiet throughout this period. His advisers really did a good job in making him not violate the principle of ‘Nemo Judex In Causa Sua.’ (You cannot be a judge in your own cause). Is it possible that Oshio baba as he is fondly called was aware of the possible certificate discrepancy and chose to remain quiet until now through the ‘Hand of Esau and Voice of Jacob?’

An independent panel of enquiry should thoroughly investigate Obaseki’s certificates and if found guilty should be made to face the music the day he steps down as the Governor to serve as a deterrent to certificate forgers. There should be zero tolerance for such a crime.

There are rumours making the rounds that the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) wants to offer Obaseki their gubernatorial ticket. This will be interesting as it may not go down well with the aspirants there who have spent millions of naira in the procurement of the gubernatorial form. Some pundits posit that he is sufficiently popular to get the party back to the Dennis Osadebay Avenue and the other contenders should postpone or completely forget about their ambition in the best interest of the party.

With the disqualification of Obaseki, the coast is now clear for Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu who has nursed the ambition of becoming the governor since 2007 when as the then Secretary to the Edo State Government, he formed the Grace Group which he wanted to use as the vehicle for the actualization of his ambition. This may be his brightest hour as he is allegedly being backed by Oshiomhole. June 22nd , a day after his birthday and that of his wife when the APC will hold its primaries may prove to be his best day in the month. Twenty-four hours is a very long time in politics and anything can still happen. Even though I will be amazed if Ize-Iyamu doesn’t win, it is too early for him to rejoice.

If Obaseki feels he is popular, it is not too late to defect to the PDP or any other party for that matter. We recall that Dr. Olusegun Rahman Mimiko won the Ondo state gubernatorial election in 2008 under the banner of the hitherto unknown Labour Party. If the Edolites like him and feel that he has been schemed out by his adversaries, they will back him massively to be the Landlord for the next four years.

Some of Obaseki’s aides have already started to jump ship. His former Chief of Staff, Francis Taiwo Akerele who was with him while he was the Chairman of the Economic Management Team resigned last month which was a huge shock to political watchers given their closeness. His commissioner for information, Paul Ohonbamu recently resigned. More are set to desert him as politics is a game of interest where there are neither permanent friends nor enemies.

If Obaseki’s handlers are smart, they can portray him as a victim of Oshio baba’s high handedness and appeal to the anti-godfatherism sentiments to get a second term. Anything short of this will make him an ally of the disgraced Akinwunmi Ambode.

Will Obaseki triumph against all odds?

Time is indeed the greatest revealer of things.

On March 3, 2016, the highly prestigious London based Economist Magazine had a conference which was named ‘Pride and Prejudice.’ It was held simultaneously in Hong Kong, London and New York and the raison d’etre behind it was to make a case for LGBT inclusion in business.

The CEO of the club fondly known as the gunners, Ivan Gazidis expressed his optimism that five years from then, the London based club would have openly gay players. In his words: “Sport’s such an interesting space. It’s a tremendously competitive environment, and if you close yourself off to any section of society, you’re not being competitive,” he added.

“We as a club have a responsibility to make a public statement about what our values are.”

What are the implications for Nigerians and Africans at large? It is a well known fact that football is one of the greatest unifiers in Nigeria. Tribalism is temporarily forgotten when footballers are on the field of play. Arsenal as a club has a fanatical followership in Nigeria and some people are known to have fought and sustained injuries on the club’s behalf despite the fact that they may never have been to the Muritala Mohammed International Airport.

It is a well known fact that the LGBT agenda has Africa as a prime target. We won’t forget the threats made by Obama and Cameron in threatening to withdraw foreign aid if Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Uganda amongst many other supposed Sovereign African States didn’t accept the legitimacy of same-sex marriage and the respect for gay rights. Football has a massive viewership and the powerful gay lobby has figured out that a gradual acceptance of their sinister agenda may be possible if it is constantly thrown in the faces of Africans. Imagine if a star comes out as openly gay, with the passage of time, there will be effective use of star power to get a gargantuan buy-in of the normalcy of being gay. Cultural imperialism will be unleashed on hapless Africans with the most ruthless efficiency.

How about minors who watch football and may begin to get the wrong ideas most especially since they are in their impressionable years? What is the effect on the minds of these teenagers and pre-teenagers if their heroes openly reveal their minority sexual orientation?

The media is a powerful agent of change and can be used to shape effective conversations around the sale of a new agenda. The twin combination of football and the media will prove lethal for the aggressive advancement of the LGBT agenda in Africa.

Imagine if conservative fans get sanctioned for openly expressing anti-gay views? It is no news that the LGBT agenda constitutes a great threat to free speech as the likes of Damian Goddard, Felix Ngole etc got severely punished for expressing their anti-gay views on social media. Imagine if players get the short end of the stick for expressing their opposition to the LGBT agenda! Wouldn’t their fans get the wrong ideas and adopt a culture of silence so as not to rock the boat!

With the exception of South Africa, no other African State has legalised gay unions. The well funded liberals are miffed that despite their boot load of cash, the parliamentarians refused to bow to their immense pressure to redefine marriage as that would have been highly repugnant to natural justice and good conscience. That aside, the laws made should be reflective of the norms, culture and mores of the majority of the people which the push for same sex marriage equality greatly falls short of.

The next agenda is to use football to set the chain in motion for the normalisation of gay relationships by portraying the members of the LGBT as martyrs as human rights has been craftily used to advance the gay rights agenda.

African leaders at all levels should be on the alert and continue to preach the ills of homosexuality to their circles of influence to counter this new reality of the use of football to indoctrinate callow minded Africans.

The defeat of the same sex marriage bill in most African parliament still makes the war far from over as the media especially the new media with its ease of establishment is now the new tool for a rapid diffusion of this sinister ideology.

African resistance to the agenda that is capable of annihilating the globe must never cease!

Tony Ademiluyi

One of the books I read with relish when I was in the secondary school was the Bottled Leopard written by Chukwuemeka Ike. One of the themes was culture shock when the protagonist, Nwachukwu who called himself Chuk, was sent by his father who was based in the United States to go back to Africa to learn more about his culture as he was of mixed race and saw himself more as an American.
He had an encounter with a stern prefect fondly referred to as ‘Hammer’ because of his no-nonsense attitude. The latter invited him to his cubicle and attempted to have carnal knowledge of him. He reported it to the school authorities who then stripped him off his prefect ship.
I could perfectly relate to this since I attended Kings College in Lagos where some gays whom we called gays or gays for short were accepted as one family by the majority of the straight students. Nobody was discriminated from playing football or cricket which were the two most popular sports on account of their sexual orientation. You only had to be a bit careful when telling them to accompany you to go to the Queens College Inter House Sports as was the usual practice among KC boys as your genuine intentions could be misconstrued.
Fast forward to last year when I worked with a national newspaper as a journalist on the online beat. I stumbled on the story of the death of Akinnifesi Olumide Olubunmi in an obscure blog. I checked the websites of our competitors and saw it wasn’t there and so I rushed to the news editor to seek his permission to quickly upload it. He gave me a cruel look which I interpreted to mean ‘Are you nuts? How dare you!’
I was angry because no one had any right to take another person’s life irrespective of his or her sexual orientation. President Muhammadu Buhari got me angrier when he consoled the victims of the Orlando club shootout and neglected to give a single mention to his fellow departed citizen who was butchered to death in nearby Ondo State.
The activism streak in me was revived and I volunteered with a prominent LGBT organisation in Lagos and vowed to use my writing and advocacy skills to stop the violence against the sexual minorities.
However with the passage of time, I began to get uncomfortable as it was clear that my then ‘allies’ were not satisfied with my altruistic motives to put a stop to the violence that they suffered. There was subtle pressure on me to buy into the ‘equality’ agenda which I objected to on religious grounds. As a practicing Roman-Catholic, I am totally against gay marriage and make no apologies for it. Why couldn’t my religious views be respected while we worked in harmony to prevent another needless death? I was also criticized for trying to sell the idea of a conversion therapy as my interactions with some ex gays revealed that the nature argument was completely fallacious. I was bashed and called a homophobe for drawing attention to the fact that my fellow Christians were facing bitter persecutions for merely expressing their anti-gay views openly especially on social media. Some lost their jobs, became destitute and kicked out of school all because they spoke the truth. It was crystal clear that the ever expanding LGBT acronym was a subtle plot to coerce the rest of the world to buy into their ideology with brutal sanctions for dissidents whether or religious or grounds of common sense.
I was surprised when renowned columnist and former spokesman of Goodluck Jonathan, Dr. Reuben Abati was invited as the keynote speaker at a symposium organised between The Initiative for Equal Rights (TIERS) and Y Naija which was held last year. His former principal signed the same-sex marriage bill into law in 2014 so his invitation was rather surprising.
As expected he faced a lot of criticism especially from Bisi Alimi, the nation’s first openly gay man who was a founding member of TIERS before he went on exile to the UK.
When the dust settled, Abati made it clear that his views were liberal and he respected the fundamental human rights of all irrespective of sexual orientation. He went on to make known the plight that these people suffered from extremists who always made them a target of their ruthlessness. He opined that there was no structure on ground to protect these people from harm and took a surreptitious swipe at the same-sex marriage prohibition law which his erstwhile boss signed into law and made an appeal for an evolution in the thinking of Nigerians so that the interests of these minorities could be better accommodated.
Abati’s summation didn’t hit me by surprise. I wasn’t disappointed because he let us down by being Jonathan’s lap dog and refusing to throw in the towel when his image teetered to the nadir, it was because the LGBT globally has as its core agenda the portrayal of an initial victim image while buying time to emerge into full-fledged bullies.
Abati failed to mention that the Senate under David Mark’s leadership gave room for some of the sexual minorities to air their views in its hallowed chambers on the same sex marriage issue. He omitted to tell the world the hypocrisy of the west when it came to the granting of asylum of some of the members of the community.
Favour, I won’t mention his surname here spent a year in Wales and was still deported back to the country for not convincing them that he was ‘gay’ enough. Many African LGBT members are being deported on a daily basis. Not a single condemnation on this hypocritical act! He failed to mention the silent indoctrination of minors through cartoons in their ‘catch them young mission.’
There was palpable silence on the fact that this agenda is fast constituting a great threat to free speech which is also an inalienable right of man. This threat is not just something faraway in countries where the asinine act is legal, its presence is real here. The former coach of the Super Falcons, Eucharia Uche revealed that she was combating lesbianism in the camp which was a clog in the wheel of the team’s progress and all hell was let loose with homophobic slurs cast at the poor woman. I remember when I went for a Toastmasters speech delivery on the family and I started by saying that the family is made up of a man, a woman and their children. A Caucasian stopped me and reprimanded me for being insensitive to the reality of the existence of the ‘LGBT family.’ Some Nigerian members of the audience then nodded their heads in total agreement and all I could think of was the colonial mentality hit song which remains a favourite of mine from the stables of Abami Eda. Nothing was said of the threat to the Sovereignty of supposed independent nations with the threats spewed out by Obama and Cameron.
I have maintained for over a decade that Nigeria and Africa’s biggest malady is imperialism and not the façade of corruption that has a gargantuan western liberal imprimatur. Until we unite with the common good in mind and get this continent ridden of neo-colonialism, the independence struggle of our heroes past would be reduced to something worse than a cruel joke.
Africa was battered with the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, then the scramble and partitioning of the continent in faraway Berlin followed, colonialism took roots and now we are bugged down with imperialism.
For how long?

TONY ADEMILUYI

In 1947, Osaygefo Kwame Nkrumah arrived the then Gold Coast now known as Ghana after a twelve year sojourn in the United States and United Kingdom. He almost did not return as he had suspicions about the conservative leanings of the leaders of the United Gold Coast Convention. He changed his mind shortly after realizing that some huge political opportunities awaited him if he accepted the post of the Secretary-General of the party.
In barely a decade, he led the nation to independence using the slogans of self-government now and seek ye first the political kingdom and every other thing shall be added unto you.
However, his maiden speech on March 6, 1957 turned out to be an anti-climax. He said that political independence is nothing without economic liberty. That statement has proven to be the bane of the development of the African continent. It was tragic that Nkrumah for all his Pan-Africanist movement efforts failed to draw up a roadmap for economic liberty.
The Bretton Woods Institution – the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development as well as the International Monetary Fund have been largely responsible for the underdevelopment of the continent. They coerced many African leaders to remove subsidy from two critical areas of the economy – education and healthcare which led to a mass exodus of the brightest brains to the west. Working in cahoots with the Ford Foundation, British Department for International Development, United States Agency for International Development, John & Catherine Mac Arthur Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Open Society, the United Nations and its various organs, they have spent hundreds of millions of dollars aggressively backing a depopulation agenda, abortion, stem cell research, gay rights, organ harvesting and all sorts of sinister liberal causes that has set Africa backwards by over two centuries.
Let us cast our minds back to 1989 when the then Ibrahim Babangida led government liberalized the nation’s banking sector. To have a banking license at the time cost 6 million naira. By 1990 it was twelve million and this saw the emergence of financial super power houses like Zenith, Diamond, GTB who have weathered the storm to become institutions valued at over a billion dollars while providing employment opportunities for thousands of people both within and outside the country. In 1989, a hit song was released by King Sunny Ade and Onyeka Onwenu titled ‘Wait for me, baby dance with me.’ A reliable source in my media network revealed to me that the United States Agency for International Development spent a whooping sum of three hundred thousand dollars to promote the song. Naturally I asked why and the answer was crystal clear that the song had a depopulation message which is a major agenda of USAID. Imagine if that amount of money was used to set up financial institutions or to back the real sector, the ripple effect would have been gargantuan!
History repeats itself because man learns the stories but never the lessons. During the slave trade era, the narrow minded African Chiefs gladly colluded with the Caucasian overlords to sell their brothers and sisters into slavery for mere mirrors and gin. That tragedy still happens today albeit in a more subtle form.
Corruption is touted by the west as the greatest plague of African States. They ignore the fact that they provide their banking facilities to aid the African kleptocrats. There is an ominous silence on their refusal to fully repatriate the loots stashed in their banks. Nothing is said of the crisis they cause in Africa and then they show up with placebos as ‘interventionists’.
Their agenda is to infiltrate the media, education and healthcare sector – three critical sectors of any economy with their African minions to carry out their sinister agenda. I will start with each piecemeal.
Before I proceed, let me digress a bit and do a quick historical analysis. Why is it that all the international development agencies were massively backing the democratization efforts of many African States in the heady days of military rule? Was it because they loved Africa or were interested in her development? The easiest way to globetrot during that period was to pose as a democracy activist. A leopard never changes its spots. It was in their interest to back democracy as it was going to be easier to push their liberal agendas with the aid of legislations. It is no news that the abortion industry for instance is a multi-billion dollar one. Under a democracy, it would be easier to get harvested organs from third world nations for mega profits in their countries. The surrogacy market in India is one such of an example of how they used India’s democratic institution to advance their agenda.
There is the heavy influence of the United Nations Population Fund and Bill & Melinda Gates foundation on the nation’s healthcare sector. Let us not forget that the UNFPA is notorious for its abortion atrocities in China when they cashed in on the nation’s one child policy to liquidate the destinies of millions of the helpless unborn. Who is the current Head of the UNFPA? It is our own Professor Babatunde Osotimehin, the nation’s former health minister. These two bodies have piled great pressure on the National Assembly to legalise abortion so as to have easy access to the foetus of the liquidated babies.
They convinced asinine African leaders to yank off subsidy from education which led to the decline of advancement opportunities for the youths. These youths out of frustration turned to cyber-crime popularly known as yahoo-yahoo for survival. Trust the wily Caucasians; they then proceeded to stereotype the generality of African youths as online scammers. Enter their minion, Red Media, the organisers of the Future Awards whose agenda is to rebrand the Nigerian youths and promote the positive efforts of those doing wonders and exploits. Who described them as the Nobel Prize for young Africans? It is no other than the World Bank. The same institution responsible for mass economic murder of Africans. When the controversy of the same sex marriage bill broke out in 2011, I was not surprised that Chude Jideonwo, a co-founder of Red Media took to CNN to defend it. It is common knowledge that CNN is the world’s largest backer of liberal causes. Why didn’t he take to Fox or Al Jazeera? Professor Kole Shettima also opposed the bill. One is not amazed since he works for the John & Catherine Mac Arthur Foundation. Who is the biggest literary export of Africa at the moment? It is none other than Chimamanda Adichie with her destructive feminist works made compulsory in the curriculum of most Nigerian Universities. Are you surprised that divorce is on the increase in the African Continent?
What about the media? The model for anti-corruption is Omoyele Sowore’s Sahara Reporters. Ford Foundation with the blood of the innocents on their hands is a major backer of it. What is the impact of all his activism to the lives of the common man that he claims to be fighting for? How has his activities led to an improvement in their lives? Beyond chanting on the streets, how has he used his international contacts to implement projects that will have a real impact in the lives of the masses?
Africa is a mere pawn in western hands and it follows the same vicious cycle – they create crisis and then prop up African lap dogs to ‘intervene’. No wonder the billions of dollars of foreign aid has done nothing to improve the lot of Africans! It is worse than pouring water into a basket.
Until Africans realise that corruption is a mere distraction and artificial creation of the liberal west to keep us divided so as we can’t unite to tackle the major problem which is imperialism or neo-colonialism, this continent would never develop.
I recall when I attended a conference in the UK and I introduced myself as a freelance writer. One of the participants, a Jamaican poet told me that my introduction was wrong. I was taken aback and asked him what he meant. He then handed me the autobiography of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and said ‘this is my little gift to you to take back home to Africa.’ I told him that I had read the book while in secondary school. He looked at me, smiled and whispered softly ‘then continue from where he stopped.’ I looked back at him in confusion but he said nothing, his ominous silence speaking volumes.
TONY ADEMILUYI

One trick that the Caucasian liberals have used to perpetually under develop Nigeria and the African continent is to create crisis and then prop up African stooges and puppets years later to offer placebos under the guise of interventions.
Under the ill-fated administration of General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, the structural adjustment programme which was a World Bank/International Monetary Fund creation removed subsidy from two critical sectors of the economy: healthcare and education.
This led to the mass exodus of medical practitioners and academics who found sanity and refuge in western educational institutions thereby permanently turning their back on the land of their birth and nurturing.
The destruction of the manufacturing or real sector was another carefully hatched, sinister agenda of the Bretton Woods Institutions that left the Nigerian youths with miniscule opportunities for legitimate economic advancement.
Barrister Frederick Chijindu Ajudua and Alumile Adedeji popularly known as Ade Bendel were the pioneers of advanced free fraud. The lure of easy money, exotic cars and voluptuous nubile maidens made them instant folk heroes among the highly disenchanted and bitter youths.
The advent of the internet greatly opened up the fraud space and led to the birth of cyber or online crime otherwise known as yahoo yahoo. The activities of these criminals led to the stereotyping of Nigerians as fraudsters which led to humiliating experiences at the airports and nauseating bad international press portrayal.
In 2005, three young Nigerians under the age of 21: Chude Jideonwo, Debola Williams and Emilia Asim-Ita came together to form The Future Awards. The idea was to celebrate the achievements of young Nigerians between the ages of 18 – 31 in divergent fields of endeavour to counter the criminal image that the foreign media was given the most populous black nation on the planet earth.
The rise and rise of Red Media Africa from which The Future Awards later metamorphosed into is a tragi-comedy of how the descendants of the African Chiefs who sold their kith and kin into slavery advance the destructive interests of their fair-skinned overlords while pretending to advance the common good.
Consider these facts carefully and use the reader-response theory to make an accurate and informed judgement.
In 2004, former President Olusegun Obasanjo who was denied the United Nations Secretary-Generalship in 1986 ostensibly because his polygamous nature didn’t make him the right fit made a statement that there were no gays in Nigeria. To immediately counter this assertion, the now defunct New Dawn run by the feminist Funmi Iyanda provided the sturdy platform for Bisi Alimi to come out as the nation’s first openly gay man to imitate a fast rising trend of gay people coming out in the west.
Take note that Chude Jideonwo was a scheduler and a member of staff of the parent organisation that ran the show.
In 2011, when the Nigerian Senate was considering the same-sex marriage bill, the same Chude wrote an article which he captioned ‘Why the anti-gay bill sickens me’ and strategically placed it on the Cable News Network – the largest gay rights backing media organisation in the world. He then went further to grant an interview with Kadaria Ahmed of Straight Talk that his belief in gay rights was deeply rooted and to quote him verbatim ‘I have gay friends; being gay is not a disease.’ Let us not forget that Kadaria Ahmed once worked with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), a gay sympathetic media hub. The both of them were once colleagues in the now rested Next which was founded by Dele Olojede, the first and only Nigerian Pulitzer Prize winner. Who funded his Masters Degree in Postgraduate Journalism at Columbia? It was the gay rights backing Ford Foundation.
As a reward for Jideonwo’s steadfastness to the gay rights struggle, the same World Bank that has been largely responsible for the large-scale misery of third world nations described the annual farcical show as ‘The Nobel Prize for Young Nigerians.’ What a humungous joke!
It is a well-known fact that the soul of the Nobel peace prize has been hijacked by the liberals and used as a gambit to reward their faithful disciples. Gay rights backers like Madiba Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan who are western liberal created ‘African role models’ have been beneficiaries of the prize. Robert Gabriel Mugabe is loathed not necessarily because of the fact that he is a sit-tight dictator but because of his strident opposition to this latest insanity to shred the dignity of man. Obasanjo’s statement which the global gay community found offensive will never make him win the Nobel peace prize despite his statesmanlike roles in his divergent conflict resolutions especially at the level of the African Union.

Former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s criminalization of same-sex marriage in 2014 led to a public outcry by the emboldened gay community who then falsely accused him of attempting to use it as a bargaining chip to secure a second term in office. They failed to realise that the presidential assent was thoroughly reflective of the mores and values of the majority of the populace as well as the fact that the gay community were still given the opportunity to air their insidious opinion on the floor of the Senate under the highly commendable leadership of Senator David Bonaventure Alechenu Mark.
In a bid to hoodwink the unsuspecting public that the conversation was shifting, NOI polls revealed in 2015 that more straight people were now opposed to the noble law put in place by Jonathan. NOI is the acronym for Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala who was once a head honcho in the evil World Bank. Why should anybody in his or her right senses trust the skewed polls? ‘Nemo Judex In Causa Sua’ ‘You cannot be a judge in your own cause.’
Having lost in the legislature, the liberals then directed their Nigerian puppets to use the media to get a massive buy in from the ever gullible public.
Enough is Enough founded by Chude Jideonwo but run by Yemi Adamolekun, an LSE and Oxford trained graduate hurriedly put together a seminar on new media and governance with the personal assistant on new media, Bashir Ahmad as the guest speaker. Idris Okuneye popularly known as Bobrisky was subtly planted. It is highly commendable that Ahmad staged a bold and unapologetic walkout as the agenda was to plant in the minds of hapless Nigerians that being gay is now the new normal as the sexual orientation status of Bobrisky has been deliberately shrouded in secrecy so as to elevate him to the level of a mystic. In yet another event organised by the largest gay rights organisation in the country, The Initiative for Equal Rights and Y Naija, the badly discredited, his master’s voice, Dr. Reuben Abati was made the keynote speaker and he didn’t fail to disappoint his ‘new paymasters’ by surreptitiously ‘apologising’ for the sins of his erstwhile principal.
In a decent society, the criminalization of the same sex marriage bill would have led to the immediate proscribing of gay backing organisations like EIE, TIERS, Y Naija etc. What do you expect when a supposed super black power is being ruled by a gang of dunciards apologies to the ever witty Alexander Pope?
Nigerian youths should realise that they are being used as mere pawns by conscienceless Red Media Africa who are laughing like insatiable sharks all the way to the anti-people banks to aggressively promote a culture of death that is capable of totally obliterating them as it is akin to a ticking time bomb.
TONY ADEMILUYI

In 1947, Osaygefo Kwame Nkrumah arrived the then Gold Coast now known as Ghana after a twelve year sojourn in the United States and United Kingdom. He almost did not return as he had suspicions about the conservative leanings of the leaders of the United Gold Coast Convention. He changed his mind shortly after realizing that some huge political opportunities awaited him if he accepted the post of the Secretary-General of the party.
In barely a decade, he led the nation to independence using the slogans of self-government now and seek ye first the political kingdom and every other thing shall be added unto you.
However, his maiden speech on March 6, 1957 turned out to be an anti-climax. He said that political independence is nothing without economic liberty. That statement has proven to be the bane of the development of the African continent. It was tragic that Nkrumah for all his Pan-Africanist movement efforts failed to draw up a roadmap for economic liberty.
The Bretton Woods Institution – the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development as well as the International Monetary Fund have been largely responsible for the underdevelopment of the continent. They coerced many African leaders to remove subsidy from two critical areas of the economy – education and healthcare which led to a mass exodus of the brightest brains to the west. Working in cahoots with the Ford Foundation, British Department for International Development, United States Agency for International Development, John & Catherine Mac Arthur Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Open Society, the United Nations and its various organs, they have spent hundreds of millions of dollars aggressively backing a depopulation agenda, abortion, stem cell research, gay rights, organ harvesting and all sorts of sinister liberal causes that has set Africa backwards by over two centuries.
Let us cast our minds back to 1989 when the then Ibrahim Babangida led government liberalized the nation’s banking sector. To have a banking license at the time cost 6 million naira. By 1990 it was twelve million and this saw the emergence of financial super power houses like Zenith, Diamond, GTB who have weathered the storm to become institutions valued at over a billion dollars while providing employment opportunities for thousands of people both within and outside the country. In 1989, a hit song was released by King Sunny Ade and Onyeka Onwenu titled ‘Wait for me, baby dance with me.’ A reliable source in my media network revealed to me that the United States Agency for International Development spent a whooping sum of three hundred thousand dollars to promote the song. Naturally I asked why and the answer was crystal clear that the song had a depopulation message which is a major agenda of USAID. Imagine if that amount of money was used to set up financial institutions or to back the real sector, the ripple effect would have been gargantuan!
History repeats itself because man learns the stories but never the lessons. During the slave trade era, the narrow minded African Chiefs gladly colluded with the Caucasian overlords to sell their brothers and sisters into slavery for mere mirrors and gin. That tragedy still happens today albeit in a more subtle form.
Corruption is touted by the west as the greatest plague of African States. They ignore the fact that they provide their banking facilities to aid the African kleptocrats. There is an ominous silence on their refusal to fully repatriate the loots stashed in their banks. Nothing is said of the crisis they cause in Africa and then they show up with placebos as ‘interventionists’.
Their agenda is to infiltrate the media, education and healthcare sector – three critical sectors of any economy with their African minions to carry out their sinister agenda. I will start with each piecemeal.
Before I proceed, let me digress a bit and do a quick historical analysis. Why is it that all the international development agencies were massively backing the democratization efforts of many African States in the heady days of military rule? Was it because they loved Africa or were interested in her development? The easiest way to globetrot during that period was to pose as a democracy activist. A leopard never changes its spots. It was in their interest to back democracy as it was going to be easier to push their liberal agendas with the aid of legislations. It is no news that the abortion industry for instance is a multi-billion dollar one. Under a democracy, it would be easier to get harvested organs from third world nations for mega profits in their countries. The surrogacy market in India is one such of an example of how they used India’s democratic institution to advance their agenda.
There is the heavy influence of the United Nations Population Fund and Bill & Melinda Gates foundation on the nation’s healthcare sector. Let us not forget that the UNFPA is notorious for its abortion atrocities in China when they cashed in on the nation’s one child policy to liquidate the destinies of millions of the helpless unborn. Who is the current Head of the UNFPA? It is our own Professor Babatunde Osotimehin, the nation’s former health minister. These two bodies have piled great pressure on the National Assembly to legalise abortion so as to have easy access to the foetus of the liquidated babies.
They convinced asinine African leaders to yank off subsidy from education which led to the decline of advancement opportunities for the youths. These youths out of frustration turned to cyber-crime popularly known as yahoo-yahoo for survival. Trust the wily Caucasians; they then proceeded to stereotype the generality of African youths as online scammers. Enter their minion, Red Media, the organisers of the Future Awards whose agenda is to rebrand the Nigerian youths and promote the positive efforts of those doing wonders and exploits. Who described them as the Nobel Prize for young Africans? It is no other than the World Bank. The same institution responsible for mass economic murder of Africans. When the controversy of the same sex marriage bill broke out in 2011, I was not surprised that Chude Jideonwo, a co-founder of Red Media took to CNN to defend it. It is common knowledge that CNN is the world’s largest backer of liberal causes. Why didn’t he take to Fox or Al Jazeera? Professor Kole Shettima also opposed the bill. One is not amazed since he works for the John & Catherine Mac Arthur Foundation. Who is the biggest literary export of Africa at the moment? It is none other than Chimamanda Adichie with her destructive feminist works made compulsory in the curriculum of most Nigerian Universities. Are you surprised that divorce is on the increase in the African Continent?
What about the media? The model for anti-corruption is Omoyele Sowore’s Sahara Reporters. Ford Foundation with the blood of the innocents on their hands is a major backer of it. What is the impact of all his activism to the lives of the common man that he claims to be fighting for? How has his activities led to an improvement in their lives? Beyond chanting on the streets, how has he used his international contacts to implement projects that will have a real impact in the lives of the masses?
Africa is a mere pawn in western hands and it follows the same vicious cycle – they create crisis and then prop up African lap dogs to ‘intervene’. No wonder the billions of dollars of foreign aid has done nothing to improve the lot of Africans! It is worse than pouring water into a basket.
Until Africans realise that corruption is a mere distraction and artificial creation of the liberal west to keep us divided so as we can’t unite to tackle the major problem which is imperialism or neo-colonialism, this continent would never develop.
I recall when I attended a conference in the UK and I introduced myself as a freelance writer. One of the participants, a Jamaican poet told me that my introduction was wrong. I was taken aback and asked him what he meant. He then handed me the autobiography of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and said ‘this is my little gift to you to take back home to Africa.’ I told him that I had read the book while in secondary school. He looked at me, smiled and whispered softly ‘then continue from where he stopped.’ I looked back at him in confusion but he said nothing, his ominous silence speaking volumes.
TONY ADEMILUYI

In 1999, democracy returned to Nigeria after a sixteen year military interregnum. At the time I was a senior secondary school student of the prestigious Kings College Lagos.
Michael Orimobi, Kodilinye Acholonu and I felt it was necessary to spread the ideals of democracy to the rest of the students. Our collective vision led to the formation of the Democrats Club. Acholonu was the pioneer President, Orimobi, the Secretary and my humble self, the public relations officer.
In order to equip myself fully for the challenge of recruiting members from other more established clubs, I decided to read the autobiography of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe: My odyssey. I was so fascinated by his life that I started the day after doing my morning devotional by chanting Zik of Africa. I was obsessed to the point of hysteria by his philosophical, political and economic ideology.
This got me into trouble with my now late paternal grandmother who wanted me to adopt Chief Obafemi Awolowo as my role model. I didn’t blame her as my paternal grandfather served in his government as the Western Region Minister of Agriculture so the emotional bias for Awo was naturally expected.
She always regaled me with the tales of how his free education policy greatly helped the Yoruba race advance educationally. However I have always been a questioning individual right from when I can remember.
I asked her a question: ‘Grandma, why didn’t grandpa send daddy and my uncles to the free schools?’ She would always give me the ‘common go and play outside look.’
As time went out, I got to find out that none of Awolowo’s offspring went to those schools. Oluwole, his second son was sent to England at the age of thirteen. None of his cabinet members sent their children to those schools and I always wondered why since they espoused the progressive ideology which I believed was supposed to create a more equal society. My callow mind was troubled with the myriad of questions that seemed not to get any answers.
Many die-hard supporters of Awo used to scream ‘Thank God Zik never became the Premier of the Western Region otherwise we would never have benefitted from Papa’s free education scheme.’
Even in my naivety at the time, I knew there was no free lunch anywhere in the world. The age-long cliché rings true ‘There is no free lunch in Freetown.’
Why did Awo nurse his law ambition for a decade and finally raised the funds for it in 1944 at 35, leaving his then young family behind to go the UK and then instituted a free education scheme? Was it out of love? I have trained my instincts to be wary of any free gifts.
Zik also had an interest in education as well. In fact, he wanted to set up a university in Nigeria as far back as in 1934 when his academic sojourn in Uncle Sam came to an end. He embarked on an aggressive fund raising campaign but what he raised was so miniscule that he was forced to return it back to the donors. He was an instructor in political science in Lincoln University and even had more degrees than Awo so why didn’t he want his people to have access to free education when he was the Premier of the Eastern region?
There is the old saying of spare the rod and spoil the child and a warning to parents not to spoon feed their children. Free education is one of the worst legacies that Awo bequeathed to the Yoruba race. It has made many Yorubas mentally lazy and develop an entitlement mentality. What is free is not valued. It is just a normal human trait that you only place value or premium on what you pay for. A scholarship is not free because you have to have high academic grades to get it coupled with the fact that you have to maintain those grades consistently so that you don’t lose it. Asides that, someone living or dead is picking the tab and so it is highly treasured.
When I finished my NYSC, myself and Odunayo Adebayo, an erstwhile coursemate were concerned about the poor standard of education in the Lagos State Public Schools and so we decided to go to two adopted schools to teach these kids some life skills. We noticed majority of them had no internally driven motivation to learn. Many of their parents were not involved since the government even went as far as paying for their WAEC fees. They felt that there was no need to get involved in their children’s education.
None of the then ACN leaders as the party was then called had their kids in these schools. They were paying through their nose to send their kids to highly priced private schools. The widening gap between these two categories of students gave us serious cause for concern.
With the benefit of hindsight, Zik’s policy of subsided rather than free education has been of immense benefit to the Igbos. It has made them highly entrepreneurial and adventurous. There is no where that an Igbo person can’t go to and not only survive but flourish. In fact there is a joke that if you go to any country in the world and you don’t find an Igbo then there is something really wrong somewhere.
Look at how they quickly recovered economically after the civil war and the giant strides they have made in all endeavours of life. It is no surprise that two Igbos – Tony Nwulu and Rita Orji are in the Federal House of Representatives from Lagos – an APC conclave. Their grit and tenacity was sharpened by Zik’s visionary policy.
The agberos or area boys in Lagos is fallout of the freebie by a supposed sage. The entitlement mindset is a fallout of the lack of zeal to continue in a free scheme. Today, the so called progressives turn a blind eye to the menace that these urchins unleash on hardworking bus drivers.
When you consider the shocking statement credited to Awolowo that ‘starvation was a legitimate weapon of warfare’, one is inclined to suspect that the free education scheme was a well thought scheme to create a perpetually dependent class among his people.
It is no wonder that things have metamorphosed from ‘All Progressive Congress’ to ‘All Promises Cancelled.’ It is no wonder that when Dr. Kayode Fayemi was the Governor of Ekiti State, he preferred to give the aged a mere five thousand naira – money not sufficient for his domestic pet rather than promote pro-people policies that would massively empower the youths to take better care of their parents. Can any aged person especially those battling with a myriad of ailments like on five thousand naira a month? I am not surprised that the Federal Government mulled the idea of giving some unemployed youths five thousand naira instead of creating the enabling environment for them to be financially free.
The wickedness unleashed on hapless Nigerians by the current APC government had its roots in the sinister seed planted by Awolowo in 1955.
Wise Nigerians must see through the veneer and reject charity in favour of empowerment.
TONY ADEMILUYI

The English writer, George Orwell wrote about the emergence of a Big Brother State in his well-received novel, ‘1984’. He died in 1950 but his evergreen work was a foreshadowing of the emergence of a global Big Brother State without borders with the rise of the LGBT movement.
With the aid of their straight allies in power – Barack Obama, David Cameron and some other world leaders, they got their sinister desire in achieving ‘equality’ through the legalization of gay marriage in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Sweden, Norway, France, Ireland, Iceland, Mexico, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Portugal.
In the aforementioned countries, it is illegal to speak openly against gay marriage as it always comes with brutal sanctions. Felix Ngole, a Cameroonian student of social work at the University of Sheffield was expelled for expressing his anti-gay beliefs on Facebook. Damian Goddard a Canadian broadcaster was fired for expressing his anti-gay beliefs on twitter. Aaron Klein and his wife Melissa were forced to pay damages of more than $135,000 simply because they refused to bake a cake for a ‘lesbian’ couple. Their flourishing business, Sweet Cakes was forced to close down as the damage payment badly affected them. The insidious agenda of the LGBT movement is to coerce everyone to accept their harmful and repugnant agenda.
Not satisfied with inflicting mental and emotional torture on their citizens, they turned their eyes to Africa. The beautiful bride was Madiba Nelson Mandela whom they convinced to buy into their agenda which he wholeheartedly did by using his influence to ensure that gay marriage was legalized in the rainbow country in 2006. As a reward, he was given the Nobel Peace Prize and has his statue opposite Westminster. ‘Archbishop’ Desmond Tutu also followed suit with his infamous statement ‘I would rather go to hell than worship a homophobic god.’ He smiled with glee as his divorced daughter married her long term female partner. Kofi Annan is another ardent supporter of the agenda.
The yet unsatisfied liberals then turned their eyes to Nigeria which was attractive as the most populous black nation on earth. Despite the foibles of the Nigerian Senate, I commend them under the leadership of David Mark in blocking the depopulation agenda. Goodluck Jonathan also earned my respect in standing up to the bullies as Obama and Cameron were ranting like spoilt high school lads by threatening to stop foreign aid to supposed Sovereign nations that failed to tow their destructive line.
Having failed in the legislature, they hurriedly turned to the media and they found a worthy ally in Red Media Africa, the organisers of the popular Future Awards. One of the co-founders, Chude Jideonwo has boldly expressed his support for gay rights. First he wrote an article captioned ‘Why the anti-gay bill sickens me’ which he placed strategically in CNN in 2011. In an interview with the popular talk show hostess, Kadaria Ahmed he said that ‘My belief in gay rights is deeply rooted.’ ‘I have gay friends. Being gay is not a disease.’
Right thinking Nigerians failed to buy into the demonic ideology and so the local agents reminiscent of the African chiefs in the slave trade era swiftly turned to Bobrisky, a ‘celebrity’ who was described as the Snapchat King to get the Nigerian populace to buy into their phony acceptance agenda. Enough is Enough, a liberal advocacy platform founded by Jideonwo organised a conference on the New Media and Governance where they also invited Bashir Ahmad, the personal assistant on new media and Subomi Plumptre of the highly regarded Alder Consulting to share the stage with Idris Okuneye a.k.a Bobrisky so as to tell the ‘good news’ to their insatiable paymasters that Nigerians were now open to ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusiveness’.
I commend Ahmad and Plumptre for walking out of the event. They have shown rare courage that Nigeria is not a dumping ground for all manner of hocus pocus.
What is the driving force behind the gay agenda in Africa you may ask? It is simple: Africa represents a new market for their economic expansion quest.
It is a well-known fact that two gay men cannot biologically reproduce. What happens is that one of them takes his sperm to an impoverished nation like India, inserts it in the womb of a lady and then takes the baby back home while paying her a mere piddling. The massive poverty in Africa partly caused by the anti-people policies of these gay backing nations and their international donor agency allies will make Africa a fertile ground for poverty stricken girls to rent out their wombs to give these depraved men the babies they so desperately seek. Chude Jideonwo sees nothing wrong in being a willing tool for the emotional, psychological and mental destruction of his fellow African sisters all because of his rabid craze for ephemeral money, power, fame and influence. How wicked has the heart of man sunk!
Many gay men suffer from anal fissures and this has opened up a new market for anal reconstructive surgeries which makes the surgeons smile to the banks. The LGBT agenda also fuels a high demand for lubricants. What about the fact that many of these people suffer from severe mental health challenges which will invariably open up a new vista of opportunities for psychiatrists to make a killing. Never mind the cheap propaganda peddled by the American Psychiatrist Association when the removed it from the list of mental disorders in 1973. My close association with some of them makes my heart weep at the heart wrenching torture they go through on a daily basis simply because they have been brainwashed to buy the scam of its being natural.
While in England, an ex-gay came out and disclosed that with the aid of conversion therapy, he overcame it and was now in a happy marital relationship. He was booed and almost stoned by the mob that was livid with anger that their market was being severely threatened. This explains why it has become a crime to attempt to convert a gay to straight. All the Transport for London buses have the slogan ‘Some are born gay, just get over it’ to reinforce the nature argument.
Until we Africans reject imperialism and the small minded African minions that shamefully carry on from where the African Chiefs in the days of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade stopped, the continent would never develop.
Since there is a law that expressly banned same-sex marriages, a sane country should have proscribed all gay backing organisations like Red Media etc as they are clearly against national interest but alas what do you expect with the kind of Simpletons we have in power?
TONY ADEMILUYI

OVERVIEW

We are a media hub intending to launch in March this year. Our focus is on issues revolving around mental health, gender equality, minority rights and grassroots public institutions.

We are currently in need of freelance writers who can cover the aforementioned beats by sending a story or two of about 1000 words. We will pay 5,000 for every approved story and our preference is for writers resident in Lagos.

Our requirements are creativity and good story telling ability with a tinge of wit and humour. If interested, you should send two previously published stories to anthonyademiluyi@yahoo.com and text 08185801508.

In 1997, the Nigerian media space was enlarged with the entry of the Diet newspaper. It paraded some of the finest wordsmiths in the clime and it seemed rather promising. Alas barely a year later, the ‘ogbanje’ syndrome crept in and it found its way into abyss where the requiem was done for many other newspapers and magazines which had entered with a similar loud bang.
The paper though short lived gave national prominence to its publisher, James Onanefe Ibori. Some sources speculated that he got about five hundred million naira from the late maximum dictator, Sani Abacha to use the rag sheet for the purpose of image laundering. Others opined that he made a fortune as a security consultant for the dark goggled, introverted sadist and had a hand in the death of the late politician and businessman, Chief Alfred Rewane.
The controversies around him made him have a massive populist appeal and against all odds upset the apple cart by defeating Late Senator Felix Ibru in the PDP primaries of 1999. The late Ibru was backed by the influential Guardian newspapers – arguably the most powerful at the time, a boot load of inexhaustible cash from his late elder brother, Michael Ibru and an extensive network. The upstart, Ibori who had earlier lost his bid to go into the Federal House of Representatives in 1991 was not intimidated by all these and proved to be the man of the moment indeed.
He proved to be a good student of Niccolo Machiavelli when he mounted the saddle as the second civilian helmsman of the state fondly referred to as the Big Heart. He ensured massive development came to his native Oghara and sold himself as a champion of the south-south cause by spearheading the fight for resource control and a better deal in the derivation formula that was a mere thirteen percent.
He had a brush with former President Olusegun Obasanjo as a result of his resource control and pro federalism stance. The erstwhile two time ruler was eager to maintain the unitary status of the nation and was not in a hurry to concede to this then Young Turk. Ibori smartly read the political barometer and made Tony Anenih Jnr, the eldest son of Obasanjo’s Man Friday, Chief Tony Anenih the head of the Delta State Contract Verification Panel so as not to jeopardise his chances of losing the 2003 re-elections.
While his colleagues were running to the Senate and angling for ministerial appointments to remain politically relevant, he emerged from behind the scenes as one of the power brokers in the administration of the late Umaru Musa Yar’adua. He was allegedly the brain behind Chief Michael Kaase Aondoaka’s appointment as Attorney-General who was said to do a yeoman’s job of keeping him a free man. His former finance commissioner, David Edevbie found his way to the villa as Principal Secretary – a newly created office. He never forgot the age-long adage that charity begins at home and ensured his cousin, Emmanuel Uduaghan who served as his health commissioner and secretary to the state government succeeded him. He was indeed the ‘voice’ of the south-south.
His die-hard supporters opine that his troubles started because he was in the bad books of Goodluck Jonathan whom he allegedly snubbed when the latter was vice president. A salient fact remains that he pleaded guilty to the charges before the London Southwack crown court which casts a huge slur on the integrity of our judiciary. The invasion of the homes of some Judges by the Department for State Security is a pointer to the can of worms in the bench at all levels.
The culture of celebrating corrupt politicians has its roots even before the lowering of the Union Jack. In 1955, the late Adegoke Adelabu a.k.a Penkelemesi was forced to resign as the Minister for Social Services and was summoned to answer to corruption charges by the Nicholson Commission of Enquiry. Shortly before the trial, the charismatic politician opened the doors of his Cadillac and ensured that the masses passed through it. He then asked them whether any of them had ever gotten close to the car of his arch-rival, Obafemi Awolowo whom he unsuccessfully tried to unseat as the Western region’s Premier. The ‘hypnotised’ supporters screamed outside the courtroom that it was better that Adelabu embezzled their funds as a fellow Ibadan man rather than for it to find its way to Ikenne. In 1957, the great Zik of Africa hurriedly called for a general election after being found guilty by the Foster-Sutton tribunal of a conflict of interest in handling the affairs of the then African Continental Bank. Throwing the nationalism card, the gullible masses swallowed his argument of being persecuted hook, line and sinker and returned him back to office with a landslide. Bode George had a party organised for him by his horde of hangers on. It was no surprise that Ibori’s supporters flew to London to celebrate the release of their hero who had demystified being behind bars by still calling the shots from there as an infamous guest of her Majesty. Senator Peter Nwaboshi openly praised the sagacity of his master and revealed that he was responsible for Saraki, Dogara and many positions of some present public office holders. Dogara was quick to deny this and Saraki has kept mum. The Nigerian political terrain is indeed an interesting and comical one.

We wait with bated interest as to when he would come back home and some lawyers are already divided as to whether he should be re-tried when he eventually arrives. There is some subtle talk for him to be granted a presidential pardon as his fans insist his travails were politically motivated and their master can do now wrong. With the current war against corruption, their request could be worse than a starry-eyed lad asking for the moon.
One thing is clear that the failed state that the ‘Giant of Africa’ has tragically descended into makes the hapless populace seek solace in corrupt politicians who are a bit ‘generous’ and remember to throw some crumbs at them. The rejoicing in Oghara, Asaba, Patani and other parts of the oil rich state is a clear tragedy of how an emotionally and psychologically battered people can hold up criminals as role models and scramble to sniff their farts. There was pin drop silence from the same oppressed people when it was revealed by the Delta state government that Ibori was paid a whopping 250 million in jail as part of his entitlements as governor.
The latest pet project still whispered in hush tones is the possibility of him succeeding Buhari. Anything can happen as the emergence of Trump is one such proof. Would Ibori toe the path of Mandela and Obasanjo who emerged from prison to the presidency?
Nothing should shock you in the theatre of the absurd!
Happy New Year in advance even though this year would start on a fresh note for millions on the 14th.
Tony Ademiluyi

The APC came into power last year chanting the change mantra which saw them make history by defeating an incumbent. More than a year later, some critics have renamed the APC to ‘All Promises Cancelled.’ The current recession didn’t help matters as Buhari and his egg heads are bashed on a daily basis for their seeming cluelessness in proffering pragmatic solutions to the nagging challenges that the country has been plunged into. The constant reference by Buhari to the shortcomings of the erstwhile Jonathan administration only worsened his increasing unpopularity with former President Olusegun Obasanjo taking him to the cleaners by telling him to take full responsibility since he is now in charge.
The elections in Edo and Ondo States had high stakes because they were the litmus test for the foreshadowing of 2019. The postponement of the elections in Edo to a week day didn’t go down well with the opposition as they saw it as a subtle way of disenfranchising many Edolites especially the non-residents in the state.
There were many forces that battled for the soul of Ondo State as the stakes were extremely high.
The incumbent, Dr. Olusegun Rahman Mimiko fought the battle to remain politically relevant by wanting his former Attorney-General, Eyitayo Jegede SAN to succeed him. Iroko as he is fondly known as had fought many battles and triumphed in the past. He was anxious to metamorphose into a godfather as being an opposition leader would have guaranteed him nothing in the centre. Even if he had plans to go into the Senate ,that would still be three years from now and the present zoning system would not have been in his favour if he had plans to become a principal officer there.
The emergence of Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim as the factional flagbearer of the party greatly threw him off balance. The conflicting court judgements sowed the seeds of discord which halted the campaign steam of Jegede. Iroko was so distraught that he ran to Aso Rock, tail between his legs for succour.
Ibrahim boasted to the High Heavens that he would retire Iroko and openly discredited his government and ‘sold’ himself to the electorate as a ‘viable alternative.’ The loquacious Ibrahim popularly called Araba chided him for owing a backlog of salaries and flaunted his ‘business credentials’ as the elixir that the state needed. By the time, the Supreme Court made the final pronouncement on the factional candidacy in the state, Jegede began to plead for more time so as to recover lost grounds. The appeal was not hearkened to and Ibrahim dumbfounded pundits by confessing that he merely played the spoiler role and urged his supporters to massively vote for Akeredolu. This act was a big shocker as he had contested the gubernatorial elections there thirteen years ago. His loss made him metamorphose into a ‘business tycoon.’ Why reappear on the scene after over a decade later to be reduced to a mere mole? Even if he stooped so low, did it make any sense to openly beat his chest about it? The pristine game of politics as it’s played in Nigeria always throws up hilarious surprises.
The governor-elect, Rotimi Akeredolu a.ka. Aketi was contesting for the second time having earlier lost to Iroko in 2012. Four years ago, he was a protégé to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu a.k.a Jagaban. The wizardry of the Lion of Bourdillon was insufficient to make him coast to victory. As there are no permanent friends in politics, Jagaban decided to back Olusegun Abraham to Aketi’s chagrin. This was a disguised blessing as it afforded him the opportunity to be politically liberated. Against all odds, he defeated Abraham in the primaries. Tinubu was so livid that he called for the head of John Odigie-Oyegun as he watched helplessly as his political hold in the west was been decimated. Simon Lalung had to make an excuse at Jagaban’s noticeable absence at the last rally that he was bogged down by an ailment only for Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi to refute it. His lack of contribution to Aketi’s victory confirms what renowned socio-political commentator; Femi Aribisala said that it is better to be Tinubu’s enemy than friend. His enemies are the Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ministers while his friends have been exiled to Siberia. Aketi has certainly added to that list.
A great miscalculation of Iroko was fielding Jegede who also hailed from his senatorial district. In a country where zoning is taking seriously, it was an act of political suicide as the electorate ensured that he paid dearly for it. He must have arrogantly thought that his ‘charisma’ would carry the day. He ignored the clamour for power shift that had been in the front burner. Aketi cashed in on this as he is from Owo. The last time an Owo son was governor was during the time of Late Chief Michael Adekunle Ajasin. Iroko’s hubris was his failure to read or pride to adequately respond to the signs of the changing times.
In Robert Greene’s ’48 laws of power’, a war hero was publicly acclaimed by his people as their liberator. They cheered him on only for his head to end up openly displayed on the stake. This seems to have been Jagaban’s fate as he is the biggest loser in last Saturday’s contest. Last year, the media both local and foreign praised his genius and dexterity in unseating Jonathan. Today, he has become something akin to a pariah. His case is similar to that of the Carthagian General, Hannibal Barca who fought the Romans to the very gates of Rome in the Second Punic War. On getting there, he lacked the resources to pull down the gates and roamed the countryside for fifteen years. By the time he got back to Carthage, the Romans had long regrouped and sacked his beloved city. It was one thing to have forged the coalition to take over power, it is another as events have shown to have benefitted from the ‘change’ that he facilitated.
Former PDP Strongman, Chief Tony Anenih had a book launch recently where he announced his long overdue political retirement. With the continued loss of Jagaban’s ‘territory’, perhaps it is time to take a bow as godfatherism has no place in the current scheme of things.
The dawn of a new era of retiring godfathers has begun to sweep through the entire polity with the ferociousness of a Jihad. Another interpretation to change may have been used against Jagaban as the hawks are bent on moving away from the dark days of mafia like godfatherism. Perhaps it’s time for Jagaban to truly change.
Tony Ademiluyi

Femi Fani-Kayode, the scion of Chief Remi Fani-Kayode QC, SAN had been around as a politician since 1989 when the September Club he helped midwife metamorphosed into the Nigerian National Council which later became part of the National Republican Convention. He cut his teeth as the Chief Press Secretary to the then NRC National Chairman, Chief Tom Ikimi before becoming an aide to the then presidential aspirant, Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi. He was active in the June 12 struggle which saw him go on a five year self-imposed exile in the United Kingdom where he penned numerous epistles opposing the military rule.
He gained national prominence as Special Assistant on Public Affairs to the then President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003. His caustic tongue made him hurl regular abuses at real and perceived enemies of his erstwhile boss. He was a disaster as a public relations official and operated more like a Rottweiler frequently baring his fangs. He clashed with Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, Late Professor Chinua Achebe amongst many prominent citizens by openly insulting them for daring to criticise his boss no matter how constructive such criticism may have been.
It was hilarious when he begged every Nigerian he had offended to pardon him as he was only doing his job when the Senate screened him as a ministerial nominee in 2006. His penchant for going back to his vomit was ironically even understood by Obasanjo when he said that as long as the Cambridge educated lawyer was given food, he could even support a goat for President.
Unconfirmed sources said that he even openly fought former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar when the latter had a clash with Obasanjo. The source revealed that he walked out Atiku in a Federal Executive Council Meeting to demonstrate his eternal loyalty to the Obasanjo cause. He was so confident that he would be part of the then incoming Umaru Musa Yar’adua’s cabinet.
Fate had something different for him as he has been battling a myriad of court cases for alleged corrupt practices in the last eight years. After an acquittal, he was so elated that he changed his surname to Olukayode to show his appreciation to God. His troubles were however far from over.
In an article titled ‘Head bloodied but now bowed and the ascent of President-Elect, Donald Trump’, he revealed that he was transferred to Kuje prisons where he was kept in a cell with terrorist suspects. He went on to reveal that they were not killers or terrorists but were falsely accused of all the charges brought against them. One wonders how he was able to decipher their innocence! Was it on the basis of what they told him? How could a highly educated man like him just believe their stories at face value? His conclusions were rather strange. He then went on to proudly say that he was guarded by these suspects and praised their intellectual prowess to the high heavens. Was this effusive show really necessary? It is true that the suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty but given the sensitive nature of what they were charged for, was it prudent for him to have passed them off as heroes? The anguish that Nigerians especially in the northern part of the country face from boko haram insurgents is heart wrenching. The number of internally displaced persons is well over a million with millions left in a state of utter hopelessness in their own country. It is the height of mischief to use the people to score some cheap points against Buhari’s administration by subtly trying to portray it as autocratic. There are some things that you don’t joke with. It is obvious he didn’t learn a thing from his kiss and tell tale about his ‘affair with Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu.’
He mentioned his three hour meeting with Nnamdi Kanu and described him as a brilliant man likening him to Nnamdi Azikiwe and Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu rolled into one. Note that ten of the boko haram suspects saw him off to the ‘august meeting’ in case the Biafran freedom fighter tried to spring up a surprise. Perhaps he wasn’t entirely trusting of him.
This comparison of Kanu with Zik and the Ikemba Nnewi is a classic case of sarcasm. Zik and Ojukwu at some point abandoned their belief in the Biafran cause. Zik defected at some point during the civil war to the Nigerian side and began to preach the one Nigeria message. Ojukwu who had earlier pledged to fight to the last drop of his blood hurriedly commandeered an aircraft meant for the starving children and ferried only himself and his immediate family to a seaside mansion in Cote D’ Ivoire where he spent twelve swanky years in blissful exile even convincing a damsel, Stella Onyeador to join him there as a wife. He collected his pension from the Nigerian army without a thought to the voiceless Biafran soldiers who left promising careers in the Nigerian army to join his ragtag army and even wanted to become the nation’s president in 2003 which was a pointer to his belief in a united Nigeria. What was the nexus between what the Biafra that Kanu believes in with what Zik and Ojukwu in their later lives believed in? With more than 95% of Igbo investments outside the South-East, is Biafra even in their best interest? FFK may have surreptitiously shown his contempt for the Igbos as he has once done in the past.
He should face his trial and not arouse any needless melodrama as that wouldn’t certainly help his case. The victim psychological warfare he has been waging for some time now would also not help advance his cause as Nigerians are much more discerning.
We have enough troubles largely brought about by maladministration and visionless leadership which he cannot exonerate himself from. It is futile to insult our collective intelligence by insinuating that his criticism of Buhari’s government is what is responsible for his ‘persecution.’
His antecedents as a turn coat would have made him jump ship a long time ago. He criticised Obasanjo and then served his government; did the same for Jonathan before being made the spokesman of his ill-fated campaign last year. He also left the PDP for the APC only to defect back to his vomit. Perhaps the hawks in the APC are now wiser and have blocked any opportunity to join the ‘family.’ We have not gotten what Buhari said in the wake of Ribadu’s defection that new comers would have to join a very long queue.
Let’s not even forget that the controversial Justice Rita Ofili Ajumogobia who has been barred from any further judicial promotion gave him a controversial acquittal. He may be in for a long hurl if the case is re-opened.
Maybe it’s FFK’s nun dimities. He should face his quietly carry his cross and let the courts decide.
Tony Ademiluyi

A friend of mine placed a distress call to me to help him clear an embarrassing debt. I explained that I was going through hard times and that I was incapacitated to render the help he so desperately wanted. I wished him luck in his search for a ‘messiah’. The challenges of day-to-day life made me forget entirely about him.
Some months later he called me and I shuddered as I didn’t know what to tell him so as not to sound like a broken record. After five calls, I reluctantly picked up the phone and rehearsed what I was going to say to him. Surprisingly, he sounded very excited and asked me if I had heard of mmm. I replied in the negative and he screamed asking where on earth I had been. It was his new found saviour and he was even saving up to purchase his first car. He urged me to join so as to possibly even fire my employer.
Curiosity got the better of me and I decided to research extensively on this money spitting scheme. My findings revealed my worst fears but more alarming was the fact that the founder, Sergey Mavrodi was an ex-convict whose activities made many commit suicide in his native Russia in the 1990’s.
I called my friend to disclose what I saw and rather than scare him, he simply laughed it off. He shocked me by telling me that he was aware of the fact that it would eventually crash but that there was no harm in enjoying the party while it lasted. Moreover it could be around for as long as a decade if Nigerians united to keep it alive. Didn’t normal businesses fail after a short time? What was the big deal in enjoying this God sent manna? I wished him luck and we parted on a not too good note.

In the weeks that followed I have been inundated with calls, text messages and discussions on why I should hurriedly join the fray. Some have dismissed me for being too analytical and that I may end up in penury if I didn’t take some blind risks. One thing rings true: There is the knowledge that the Ponzi scheme would crash but the agonies of life in the ‘Giant of Africa’ has created a large pool of irrational people who prefer immediate, short term unsustainable fixes to their challenges.
The House of Representatives ‘rose up to the challenge’ last week by ordering the arrest of the promoters of the scheme by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. The speed at which they resolved ‘in national interest’ to put an end to the scheme was a case study of the ludicrousness of a farce.
There was a lot of backlash from the beneficiaries of the scheme who were livid with anger at the ploy by the honourables to meddle into things that didn’t concern them. What was their business in what freely did with their hard earned money? Afterall, there is a caveat on the website that clearly states that they should only participate with spare money and not with one’s life savings. If they chose without being coerced to part with their funds to strangers, why should the legislators in the green chamber lose sleep over it? CBN and SEC had issued warnings on a number of occasions which didn’t cut the ice; why couldn’t these anti-people lawmakers mind their business? To use the Pidgin lingo ‘ Who dem epp?’
Governments exist to protect the interests of all especially the vulnerable. The legislators raised legitimate concerns in a scheme that has previously crashed in Russia, South Africa, and almost collapsed in Zimbabwe and was banned in China. This is not the first time that a Ponzi scheme would berth in the country. There was Nospecto and the wonder banks and many of them have been around even before independence which is fondly to as the era of the good old days. They have a right to raise their opposition to something that could lead to financial ruin and possibly suicides when it eventually goes bust.
The problem with the House of Reps ‘concern’ is that beneath the hullabaloo of blowing hot lies a nauseating hypocrisy that has created a wide disconnect between them and the populace.
The house has not come up with progressive ideas that can whittle down the sinister effects of the technical recession – the ever changing terms never cease to amaze me. What bills have been sponsored to create the enabling environment for massive job creation? Erisco Foods threatened to leave the country and relocate to China which would lead to the loss of over 1500 jobs; not a whimper from our dear honourables to avert the looming calamity. The debates in the lower chamber are never about the people’s interest but to selfishly feather their nests. What do you make out of the plan by the same house to purchase cars for each member at the price of 3.6 billion naira in a recession? A break down would reveal a whopping 10 million to each member. This is besides their mind boggling allowances, constituency votes, votes as committee members and other humongous perks of office. Even if an honourable planned to secretly participate in the scheme, 10 million naira is far above the maximum with which to play with. Why wouldn’t the battered common man who must have borrowed and begged for a paltry 20,000 naira or less be livid at this brazen attempt to reduce the alerts they get on their phones? The disdain the supposed representatives have for those they are supposed to represent leaves their motives no matter how altruistic highly suspect.
Issuing threats won’t scare the people; it would even embolden to persist with this new found love from faraway Russia that has suddenly showed up like a deux ex machina to fill the void left by the irresponsible government. If hitherto rational people have decided to throw away reason and succumb to the lure of ‘stomach infrastructure’, threats would be counterproductive.
The needful should be done in respecting the social contract that should exist between the representatives and the governed. If human beings are not reduced to beasts, it would create the environment for such a Ponzi scheme to exist in the first place. The idea would have fizzled out long ago for lack of patronage.
It is disheartening that hope is being placed on a highly shaky scheme that can cause more agony than gain but worse that the loudest critics of it are merely playing to the gallery in their attack of it.
Tony Ademiluyi

After the unexpected win of George Walker Bush Jr in 2000 backed by the Supreme Court which decided it in his favour, Film maker Michael Moore became one of his most virulent critics. He wrote a best seller, ‘Stupid White Men’ and followed up with a box office hit, ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ which unmasked the September 11 terrorist attacks. He predicted Donald Trump’s electoral victory some months ago in his blog. He started with these words ‘Friends: I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I gave it to you straight last summer when I told you that Donald Trump would be the Republican nominee for president. And now I have even more awful, depressing news for you: Donald J. Trump is going to win in November. This wretched, ignorant, dangerous part-time clown and full time sociopath is going to be our next president. President Trump. Go ahead and say the words, ‘cause you’ll be saying them for the next four years: “PRESIDENT TRUMP.”
I wasn’t dismissive of his prediction and remembered a similar one made by a pundit on the impossibility of Obama winning the race in 2008 and even went on to write a best seller on reasons why the Kenyan-American wouldn’t end up in the White House. Would the ‘clairvoyant’ Moore be proved wrong? It is a well-known fact that politics throws up an opportunity for all sorts of ‘seers’, ‘prophets’ etc to emerge. Our own ‘Prophet’ Temitope Balogun Joshua of the Synagogue of All Nations predicted the emergence of the first female President of the United States, a subtle allusion to Hillary Clinton. I wasn’t personally swayed by any of the ‘Prophets’ but was anxious as to the outcome of November 8.
Alas Moore was proved right as Donald Trump went on to make history as the first two time divorcee, first alumnus of the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania, oldest man, first never to have previously held political office save for George Washington to be elected President as the 45th person to hold the world’s most powerful office.
The media and the polls really missed this as they all gave ‘victory’ to Hillary Clinton. She led the national polls and most of the battleground states with the establishment whittling down the effects of the email scandal.
Trump on the other hand was underrated from day one with some pundits pointing to his ‘interest’ in the race as far back as in 1988 and opined that he would lose steam and drop out. The New York billionaire didn’t even help matters as he blasted Mexican immigrants for being rapists and lamented that their next door neighbours were exporting their worst citizens. He vowed that he would build a great wall and the funding for it would come from Mexico’s purse. He expressed concern at the over eleven million illegal immigrants in the country and pledged to massively deport them. Muslims were not spared as he linked the acts of terrorism on the home soil to them and ranted that he would place an embargo on their influx. He didn’t spare Nigerians and infamously declared that ‘If I win, you leave.’ He also called President Muhammadu Buhari an insensible man. The video of his groping women didn’t help matters either. In a gender sensitive nation, it portrayed him as a misogynist with many heavyweights in the GOP establishment most notably the Bush political family distancing themselves from him and vowing to cast their vote for Hillary Clinton. Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka also declared his intention to shred his green card if the enfant terrible was elected. Trump even declared that the election had already been rigged and swore not to accept the eventual outcome if it wasn’t in his favour. It didn’t also help that Trump refused to release his tax returns and a Bloomberg report showed that he was worth far less than his much touted $10 billion with the former Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg calling him a con man. He also showed no apologies to minority groups whom he recklessly pilloried.
Despite the daunting challenges, how did the curator of the Apprentice manage to pull this off?


Firstly, the wily businessman turned emergency politician capitalised on the success of Brexit in the United Kingdom to whip up sentiments among the Whites. Brexit was simply an attempt by the angry white Brits to reclaim their country. They were bewildered that they were losing their homeland to foreigners who had imported strange cultures. The medical services and I.T is controlled by the Indians. Their national sport – Football had more foreign owners, Foreigners especially from the Middle East owned prized real estate, Asylum seekers and their offspring were benefitting from free education and healthcare. Their citizens were forced to compete fiercely for jobs and there was the need to ‘take back their country from these aliens’. Trump simply used massively spread this anti-immigrant sentiment to Uncle Sam. He screamed that Nigerians should be yanked off since they were taking the jobs of Americans. The CEO’s of Microsoft, Google and Pepsi are all Indians with foreigners holding commanding heights in the economy. He told his fellow white supremacists that their position was greatly endangered as power was swiftly slipping from their grip. He played to the emotions of the angry working class whites and asked them ‘For how long would they have to endure eight years of a black man? The possibility of eight years of an LGBTIQ person, and then maybe an animal if animal rights are elevated to that of human? They needed to take back their country.
Secondly, Trump did his homework and was surreptitiously building a powerbase that he clearly appealed to. Shortly before the Michigan primary, he threatened the Ford Motor Company that if they closed down their operations and moved it to Mexico, he would slam a 35% tariff on any car shipped from Mexico. He threatened Apple with large fines if they didn’t bring their Iphone factory from China to America. This message reverberated from Green bay to Pittsburgh and resonated greatly with the forgotten and embittered whites who felt abandoned by the policies of the Democrats. Trump deftly sold himself as their evangelist.
Thirdly, Hillary Clinton could simply not be trusted. Discerning voters saw through the clear media bias especially by CNN. The email scandal and wikileaks revelations portrayed her as a money grabbing and power hungry opportunist who just wanted power for its mere sake. The paid speeches by Goldman Sachs and the bungling of Benghazi only worsened her perception as an establishment politician whom the Trump brand wanted to get rid of.
Fourthly, this election had the largest turnout since 1980 and it is clear that Trump’s message resonated with the real owners of the supposed ‘land for all ‘ – the whites as Trump proved that their trust was all he needed. Clinton got more votes among the Blacks and Latinos but wasn’t enough to cause any change.
Fifthly, Trump turned the joke on Clinton by making her seem helpless as she sought refuge in the arms of Beyonce and Jay-Z while he stuck to his strategy of organising raucous mass rallies and spewing out venom and connecting with the real stakeholders.
We await with bated breath of what he has in store for Africa with regards to his foreign policy but one thing is clear – the world is moving towards isolationism as anti-immigration sentiments is rapidly spreading. Germany is now regretting their open door policy with regards to the Syrian refugees as their borders are being tightened and a plea for other European nations to share the refugees. The bombings in France has made them have a critical rethink of their generosity. America under Trump is definitely going to be less immigration friendly. It may even extend to rescinding the policy of automatic citizenship on being born on American soil. The UK and Republic of Ireland rescinded it so it won’t be amazing if Uncle Sam follows suit.
While we congratulate Trump for making a mockery of the establishment, it is high time African nations looked inwards and develop survival strategies to survive this impending ‘Everyman for himself and God for all.’
Tony Ademiluyi

When I did my National Youth Service Corps in a foreign multinational in the bustling city of Warri a few years ago, I had an interesting conversation with one of the egg heads in the Information Technology Department. I recall his telling me that up till 1999 one could get a job there as a member of staff on a permanent basis. The only downside was if you joined with your secondary school certificate, you could never rise to become a manager or get to work abroad. Fast forward to when I served, some Ph.d holders were seriously lobbying to get a foot in the door as contract members of staff with the hope of a permanent conversion. For some it could take a grueling ten years, for others it remained a pie in the sky. A contract member of staff in the department I served was always full of bitterness and regrets that he turned down a job offer in the 1980’s because he thought a university degree would make him rise to the zenith. Unfortunately, by the time he had the degree, it had become so worthless that he got the contract job there ten years after his Nysc. ‘If only I knew’ he always muttered and cursed whenever the month ended and no alert came in as some of them were at the mercy of contract holders who refused to remit their salaries to them. He had to augment his irregular income through part time bus driving as he was notorious for frequently taking time off work to attend to the needs of his stomach.
When Africa’s richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote announced his graduate bus drivers’ scheme some years ago, there was mixed reactions. Some pilloried him for making a mockery of the many years of toil that graduates were subjected to and blasted him for rubbing their poverty in their faces. Others opined that there was no big deal. He had the right to do as his pleased with his money and moreover some graduates – not economic refugees but natives did odd jobs to survive abroad. There was therefore no justification for his critics bringing down the roof since there was even a scheme in place to transfer ownership of the vehicles to them after a period of time.
When I had a Facebook conversation with a former Student Union activist in a first generation university, he revealed that he initially bought into the ‘Andrew don’t check out’ propaganda with the late Enebeli Elebuwa as the poster boy. However, when the late Admiral Mike Akhigbe was the military governor of Lagos State, he instituted a Graduate Drivers Scheme in the late 1980’s. The unemployment situation was not this bad but it was clear that there was a subtle contempt for the intelligentsia as the wave of intellectual exile had already begun. Some analysts perceived the scheme as a surreptitious message signal of the impotence of the once revered educated elite. The scheme didn’t last a year and the activist then put his thinking cap on as he predicted that human capital development was never going to be in the front burner in the so called ‘Giant of Africa’ for the next century. When an opportunity presented itself to ‘port’ (a slang popularised by Hafeez Oyetoro of Saka fame) to Canada, he didn’t think twice.
Last week Friday, the National President of the Bus Conductors Association of Nigeria, Comrade Israel Ade Adeshola (note the subtle abuse of the word comrade) disclosed that through the Lagos State Ministry of Transportation, one thousand graduate conductors would be employed with a monthly salary of 50,000 naira to give the ‘profession’ a new facelift.
The times are indeed strange. We recall with fanfare the August visit of Mark Zuckerberg to Nigeria which pointed out the immense benefits in young Nigerians plugging into the global digital economy. Without sounding offensive to the conductors who are forced by cruel circumstances beyond their control to do the job, they ought not to exist in this technologically driven economy. Their existence is a sad reminder of the failure of the government to leapfrog the pivoting of the economy into a digital one. With cashless payment solutions, a passenger could pay for his or her fare with the aid of a card. Conductors won’t have to risk their lives to merely eke out a threadbare living as they would live a more dignified existence as transport card sellers or agents for instance.
It is bad enough that public policy is now being influenced by a so called Comrade who is ignorant of the workings of how technology should create boundless opportunities for all.
Human capital development is the reality as countries like Singapore, Malaysia, China and the rest of the Asian Tigers rose from grass to grace by simply investing heavily in the intellectual capital of their citizens. It is sad that we have analogue thinkers who are hell bent on keeping our youths under the threshold of mediocrity and slavery. Is this backward thinking scheme a sustainable wealth creation strategy? The level of organised waste of resources especially human is mind boggling.
So far there has been no official statement by any Lagos State government official which implies a tacit endorsement of it. Rather than create a policy to make youths solvers of recurring challenges through the use of technology, the government has decided to be a collaborator in suppressing the already impoverished youths in their prime. How tragic! I can place a bet that the so called Comrade won’t groom any of his sons – pardon the gender bias for I have never seen a female conductor to tow this line. The victims are definitely those whose fathers were not visionary enough to be ‘comrades.’
The mega city agenda of Lagos will have the presence of conductors as a sore thumb. It is an antithesis of what a mega city ought to be and will end up as one more unrealistic slogan like the Vision 2020 which is fast becoming worse than a nightmare.
It is a well-known fact that the street terrorists popularly known as agberos have now been organised into a union under the umbrella of the National Union of Road Transport Workers. They even wear two sets of uniforms. One won’t be surprised if the Head of the gang in Lagos, Alhaji Musiliu Akinsanya a.k.a Mc Oluomo makes a suggestion to the government that a scheme to attract graduates into the group should be implemented to ease the mind boggling unemployment situation.
So much for a ‘Centre of Excellence!’
Tony Ademiluyi

In 2003, the wily former President Olusegun Obasanjo was tired of being reminded by the hawks in the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that he had no political base. He caught the awkward look of the Emperor who wore no clothes since he owed his 1999 electoral victory to the Kaduna mafia.
He struck a deal with the South –West Governors that they should all back his second term bid and in return he would reciprocate their support by ensuring they all returned victorious at the polls. He played the tribal card and urged them to look beyond party lines to give him his full support since they were all Yorubas.
The gimmick worked as five states with the exception of Lagos fell for the antics of the retired generals who made a mess of the thinking faculties of veteran politicians and erstwhile pro-democracy activists. The Balogun of Owu had a field day laughing at the grand folly of the vanquished.
The victory in Ondo State was not solely aided by Obasanjo’s craftiness. The political astuteness of Dr. Rahman Olusegun Mimiko popularly known as Iroko came to bear on the Sunshine State. The late Dr. Olusegun Agagu indicated his interest to run against the late Chief Adebayo Adefarasin who had earlier defeated him in the 1999 elections. It was going to be an uphill task to dislodge Agagu as Adefarasin was a staunch Awoist with the name of Awolowo used as a trump card by the then Alliance for Democracy to sweep the entire south west. The fact that Agagu was aviation minister under Obasanjo who was still a very much hated man as he didn’t throw his weight behind the candidacy of the presumed winner of the June 12 Presidential elections, Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola greatly dampened his popularity.
Mimiko came in very handy and was the unseen fulcrum on which the Agagu campaign was launched. In the end, Adefarasin was forced to vacate lock, stock and barrel in one of the most shocking defeats in the hitherto progressive state. Let us not forget that in 1983, Micheal Adekunle Ajasin was defeated by his former deputy, Michael Akin Omoboriowo. The defeat led to a mass protest by the people and the Inspector-General of Police at the time, Sunday Adewusi was forced to hurriedly ferry Omoboriowo out of the state to Lagos to halt the violence that engulfed there. The acceptance of the victory of a conservative government two decades later was a testimony of the wizardry of Mimiko.
Agagu in compensation not only made him the Secretary to the State Government but also nominated him to Obasanjo’s cabinet to replace Mrs. Mobolaji Osomo who was sacked for alleged corrupt practices. In 2007, Iroko showed that the treacherous game of politics was fuelled strictly by interests and turned against his former boss by contesting against him. He lost and took his case to the Elections Petitions Tribunal. To the amazement of all, Iroko emerged victorious in 2009. What baffled many pundits was the fact that he contested on the platform of the Labour party which showed his invincibility.
He went on to rule the state like a fiefdom with a coterie of praise singers and boot lickers eternally fawning over his every whim.
There were subtle overtures made for him to join the former Action Congress of Nigeria but he chose to maintain his ‘independence’ by being the lone wolf in the wilderness by sticking to his membership of the Labour party. In the end, he made a volte-face by joining the Peoples Democratic Party in the run up to the 2015 general elections.
His invincibility suffered the first blow when he failed to deliver the stat to the PDP. The second blow came with the clinching of the PDP ticket for the 2016 elections by Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim fondly known as Araba. Iroko’s anointed candidate was Eyitayo Jegede SAN who won the election under the Senator Ahmed Makarfi led faction. Ibrahim won under the Senator Ali Modu Sheriff faction which is widely believed to be the weaker of the two. We recall that the PDP gubernatorial aspirant for Edo State in the last elections held there, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu won that of the Makarfi faction.
Ibrahim sold himself to the Nigerian public as turn around business expert after he lost the 2003 gubernatorial elections in Ondo State to the superior machinery of Iroko’s wits. He was quoted to have said that he was so downcast that he thought of packing his bags and heading for Uncle Sam to lobby for a teaching position before Cecilia Ibru of the defunct Oceanic bank pleaded with him to remain in the country and supported his business ideas with a trunk load of funds. His critics dismissed him as an undertaker because of the way and manner he ran his businesses in the aviation, energy and publishing sectors. His obtaining of the PDP ticket can best be described as a case study of a political hostile takeover.
Ibrahim is a man that seems to win his battles. We recall how he won the control of Nicon Insurance and News watch after a protracted court battle.
Mimiko must have been so dazed that he recently ran to have an emergency meeting with Buhari in a similar way a school boy runs to a tutor to avoid the scars of being bullied. He is still shocked at his impending annihilation by this mere political upstart.
The brash Ibrahim boasted that Mimiko was a gargantuan liability as he owed five months salaries of the state civil servants and could not account for billions of naira that came from the federation account and that he represented a breath of fresh air. One wonders if this is some sort of caustic irony as Ibrahim is also notorious for owing his workers in virtually all his companies. Perhaps he made the statement banking on the collective amnesia of the electorate which is a sore point of our ‘nascent’ democracy.
Mimiko described the current reality as a huge joke. The last time I checked, Ibrahim’s resume never showed any record of being a stand-up comedian. The same ruthless approach he has used in business has been surreptitiously transferred to the cloak and dagger game of politics.
With the elections a few weeks ago, is Iroko’s time finally up?
Tony Ademiluyi

The defeat of King Harold by the Norman William the Conqueror in the Battle of the Hastings in 1067 saw the ascent of French culture in England. French became the language of the court with the English language being reduced to the vernacular not to be spoken in public by the Nobles.
Cultural nationalism slowly began a decade later with the subtle push for the English culture to regain its pride of place. The nationalists saw education as an effective tool for the rapid diffusion of ideas. Around 1096, Oxford University became the first institution of higher learning to be established in the country which later became the world’s largest empire. From 1167, it gained immense popularity as King Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris that was the then popular destination. It was a surreptitious victory for the nationalists as the King was more French than English as he had more lands in France. His later estranged wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine was permanently domiciled in France where minstrels composed poems in her honour.
Less than a century after its establishment, it became the pre-eminent citadel of learning in the entire Europe and had the admiration of Kings, Popes and the thought leaders throughout the continent.
After the defeat of former President Goodluck Jonathan last year, some pundits wondered how he would spend the rest of his time! He didn’t have the gift of the garb and so we weren’t expecting another Bill Clinton or Tony Blair.
His speech to students of the University of Oxford on the 24th of October this year not surprisingly generated a lot of interest from within and outside the country. As the former leader of the most populous black nation in the globe, he was bound to be on the spotlight.
Some of the key points made are worth examining carefully. He acknowledged the critical role that entrepreneurship plays in the continent when he said ‘This discussion is topical for our global search for development and security. The issue of youth entrepreneurship in Africa is very critical, as Africa is the only continent in which we will witness a population boom in our lifetime’. It is a well-known fact that other continents of the world most notably North America and Europe are experiencing an ageing population. Africa has the potential to give a combination of China and India a fierce run for their population size which explains the more than passing interest in the investment opportunities in the world’s second largest continent. The massive youth unemployment is a combination of bad leadership and the inability to prepare the youths to key into the changing times. The sinister role of corruption in Africa and by extension Nigeria’s underdevelopment has already been well rehashed but how prepared are these youths in Nigeria for the challenges of living in the fast-paced 21st century which is largely characterised by disruptive innovations?
He mentioned that he gave education top priority both as the Governor of Bayelsa State and President of the country when he said ‘After much soul searching, my conviction in regards to these questions is this: wealth is a creation of the human mind properly prepared by education.
It is my firm belief that any Nation that does not spend its wealth and resources to developing the capacity of its youth will eventually be forced to devote its resources to fight insecurity amongst those same youths.
As a leader, you can decide through your policies to educate the youths, or face the consequences of failing to do so. The problem all African leaders have is how to manage the youth bulge. Do we consider this a ticking time bomb or an opportunity?’
He went on to reel out the achievements of his administration when he massively built schools in virtually all parts of the country most especially in the northern part which has the infamy of being the most backward despite the fact that they have produced the most political leaders. We don’t dispute his adding to the number of already existing educational institutions but we are at a loss on how it has solved the major problem of poverty that is the tragic fate of many Nigerian youths. Getting a postgraduate is insufficient to ward off the hunger pangs in this day and age. Many youths go abroad to obtain very expensive degrees which have still left a sizeable number of them economically handicapped upon their return home. The avalanche of institutions of higher learning both public and private has done little to ameliorate the plight of the unemployed. Of what use is it to create a system that proliferates the establishment of higher learning institutions and not prepare the minds of these graduates to do things differently so that they don’t become liabilities. A major flaw of the Nigerian educational system is the sense of entitlement that it makes its graduates possess. This worked in Jonathan’s generation when the oil boom and the fewer number of graduates got car loans and had job picking options. The educational system tragically has failed to evolve to tune the minds of the graduates to not see a job as a meal ticket but to see their stay in school as an opportunity for self-development to unleash their hidden potential that may be answers to recurring challenges. By 2020 according to the Fast Company magazine, half of the entire workforce of Americans will work on a freelance basis and the independent worker bug is spreading like wildfire throughout the wall. Nigeria is not isolated from the globe. The relationship between modern day employers and employees is one of partners with mutual interest and is well explained in Reid Hoffman’s ‘The Alliance.’ Is it realistic to still be preaching that getting a higher education is enough to succeed as his speech seemed to suggest? Will the cheaper reality of independent contracting make it the employer’s best interest to create more jobs with monthly pay checks? How did his school project which focused on building more schools and exporting some to study in foreign climes create a new independent mindset in the graduates to be solution providers? Did it reduce the heart wrenching queues at job interviews? There was no mention of a government backed philosophy that fuelled an ideology of self-reliance in such a way that the psyche of an average graduate is worked on to get their hands legitimately dirty. We remember the Winneba Ideological Institute which Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah built shortly after independence to entrench a national philosophy of hard work in all Ghanaians. Everyone from student, civil servant and politician were required to attend and it ended up as an enduring legacy because the culture of hard work was taken by his countrymen to all the ends of the earth when harsh economic situations forced many of them into exile. I recall the preference of Ghanaian workers while growing up. Jonathan failed to work on the minds of the youths. The increases in educational institutions have done nothing to abate the ticking time bomb and that is a colossal failure as a policy maker.
He mentioned the You win programme as his solution to providing entrepreneurship opportunities for the ill equipped youths. How many jobs did the ‘lottery’ create? What was the vision of the extravaganza? What was the incubation process? Why did it collapse even under his Presidency? Did his administration create the enabling environment for entrepreneurs to thrive? He tried to link the success of the Co-Creation Hub to the creation of the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology. If Bosun Tijani and Femi Longe had waited for the ministry’s backing, it would have been worse than Waiting for Godot. What about the mind boggling corruption allegations that dogged his administration? Did that create opportunities for the youths?
It is hilarious that Jonathan has now morphed into a tragi-comedian for some bored folks in the land of our erstwhile colonial masters who need some warmth to brace up squarely for the impending winter.
History can never be re-written even with the best public relations stuff. Stalin, Hitler with the best propagandist machinery failed woefully in that attempt.
The late afrobeat maestro, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti had a major titled where he said ‘Dem don release you but you never release yourself.’ The same colonial mentality that the Bard-Prophet sang decades back played itself out when Jonathan had to seek validation of a wise use of his mandate from a foreign audience.
The loud mouthed Donald Trump may have been right when he said Africa needs a second round of colonalisation.
Tony Ademiluyi

President Muhammadu Buhari rode on the crest of an anti-corruption crusader to cause the greatest electoral upset in Nigeria’s history last year. The mind boggling corruption allegations of the badly discredited Goodluck Jonathan administration made the retired General sell himself as a viable alternative.
Many pundits were worried that most of the people behind his campaign were not stellar examples of corrupt free politicians. It was clearly the case of strange bedfellows making a hurried alliance for the purpose of grabbing power for its mere sake. The fact that he refused to participate in the presidential debate raised a sturdy red flag but alas the unsophisticated electorate overlooked that important democratic aspect and gave him their votes.
Disillusionment set in rather early in the day as it took forever for Sai Baba to constitute his cabinet. It was an anti-climax when the list finally came out as it was nothing much to cheer about. It was crystal clear that the Daura born ‘Abraham Lincoln’ reincarnation had no agenda so one was forced to ask ‘Why run persistently over a twelve year period if there was no vision in the first place?’ What was he really trying to achieve?
Up till now we are yet to see a blueprint to get the country out of its worst recession in three decades and the only thing his apologists chant to the high heavens is his dogged fight against the hydra-headed monster of corruption. He cut the picture of the ancient Spartans who neglected everything to only focus on military prowess. While their Athenian neighbours made giant strides in all areas of human endeavour, they were stuck with fighting endless wars and didn’t have the intelligence to effectively manage the spoils they gathered which only impoverished them till their eventual decline.
Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, one of the Judges whose home was raided by operatives of the Department of State Security accused the Ministers of Transport and Science & Technology, Rotimi Amaechi and Ogbonnaya Onu of attempting to bribe him to pervert the course of justice in the Ekiti, Rivers and Ebonyi elections. He claimed that Amaechi and Onu approached him on behalf of the APC and appealed to him to give favourable judgement to the ruling party. In his letter titled ‘Invasion of My House In The Night. Planting of huge sums of money In different currencies, Purported Recovery of the Money, Carting Away of My Documents and other Valuable Items and my subsequent abduction by Masked Operatives of the DSS between Friday, October 7th and Saturday October 8th 2016.” The Judge of the apex court alleged that Amaechi begged him to facilitate the removal of the garrulous Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose. He went further to say that after the affirmation of the victory of Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, the transport minister called him up on the phone and told him that ‘Oga is not happy.’
As expected Amaechi through David Iyofor his media aide vehemently denied the allegations with Onu still maintaining a conspicuous silence on it at the moment.
These are extremely weighty allegations especially with the ‘Oga is not happy’ statement which is an allusion to Buhari and a subtle mockery of his anti-corruption crusade.
When Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia’s former Deputy Prime Minister was accused of sodomy, the then Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohammed wasted no time in ensuring that the former was tried and convicted. Mohammed made no attempt to obstruct the course of justice. The allegations against ‘super minister’ Amaechi and Onu are extremely weighty and they deserve a thorough investigation to get to the bottom of the matter. Denials are insufficient as the cardinal focus of this administration – the battle against corruption has been thrown to the fore. The mentioning of Buhari’s name is also something he has a vicarious liability to answer to us for.
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair didn’t spare his education secretary, David Blunkett who was accused of having an affair with a married woman. Blunkett was an inspiration to many as he was the first visually impaired man to hold such a prestigious office but Blair allowed the law take its course and he was dismissed from the cabinet.
Amaechi is highly influential given the role he played in the last elections as the Director-General of Buhari’s campaign organisation. He literarily committed political harakiri in pitching his tent with Buhari against Jonathan who was once from Rivers State until 1996. He didn’t mind the accusations of betrayal leveled against him and was said to have broken the bank to ensure that his candidate emerged victorious at the polls. Buhari seemed to have reciprocated his ‘kind’ gesture by refusing to substitute his name when there was a delay tactics to prevent him from getting screened by the Senate. Not only did he give him the ‘juicy’ transport ministry portfolio, he ensured that two of his protégés, Dakuku Peterside and Ibim Semenitari got appointed as the Director-General of the National Maritime Safety & Administration Agency (NIMASA) and as the Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). Will Buhari do the right thing by ensuring he gets thoroughly investigated and if possible prosecuted? Onu is also a die-hard Buhari loyalist and has been with him through thick and skin for well over a decade. In the cloak and dagger game of bread and butter politics as it’s played in the ‘Giant of Africa’, this is a rare trait in a politician. Would political expediency override the the need for a thorough investigation?
We remember that Kenneth Lay of the now moribund Enron was a personal friend of George .W. Bush for many years. The friendship didn’t save Kenny boy as Dubya fondly called him from getting behind bars.
Many Nigerians condemned the invasion of the Judges residences with the Nigerian Bar Association loudly criticizing the tactics of the DSS. However, the same NBA recently called for the Judges whose homes were raided to step down with immediate effect.
The tide is turning towards a complete cleaning of the Augean Stables and the process is incomplete without the probing of the connection of the two politicians aforementioned.
Buhari must start the cleansing from his cabinet and not perpetuate the culture of harbouring sacred cows. His inauguration speech where he made it clear that he belonged to everybody and nobody should be practicalised now.
This is no time for body language; this is the time for PMB to subject his two ministers to an unbiased investigation so that his anti-corruption fight doesn’t end up as a mere hogwash.
Tony Ademiluyi

The origin of headcounts or census in Nigeria can be traced to 1866 in the then colony of Lagos. After the 1914 amalgamation, the first nationwide one was held in 1921. It was largely perceived as a routine colonial affair with the people not giving much of a hoot as to the eventual outcome.
The importance of the census didn’t become known until 1951 when the British conducted one for the purposes of distributing parliamentary seats as independence was around the corner. The North had 55.4% of the population while the South had 44.6%. The 1953 Kano riots can be surreptitiously traced to the North’s use of its arguable population advantage to thwart the independence agenda of the Southern nationalists. The population bargaining chip was so real that the Great Zik of Africa found himself in a rather awkward position of agreeing to postpone the initial 1957 date which was revealed in an interview granted by the late Biafran warlord, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu.
Censuses have subsequently been enmeshed in a lot of controversy. The first one conducted after independence in 1963 was roundly rejected by the then Premier of the Eastern Region, Dr. Michael Okpara. He described them as worse than useless and was so incensed that he went to court. Tragically, the court dismissed his suit on grounds of a lack of jurisdiction and the figures were official at the time. A decade after, The Gowon led administration conducted another one and the outcome was hotly disputed by the Chairman of the Census Board who was the first indigenous Chief Justice of the Federation, Sir Adetokunbo Ademola who alongside, Obafemi Awolowo urged Gowon to cancel it. The other ones that have been held in 1983, 1991 and 2006 have never been generally accepted by the stakeholders. We recall that the resignation of Festus Odimegwu as Chairman of the National Population Commission was over his comments that no credible census had ever been held in the country.
The Senate on October 18, 2016 called on the Federal Government to set aside the year 2018 for the conduct of a fresh census. Senators from Ike Ekweramadu to Emmanuel Bwacha, John Eno and Suleiman Hunkuyi made a request for funds to be kept for that purpose in line with a United Nations recommendation that the conduct of a census should be done every ten years.
While it is useful for national planning to conduct censuses, it has become something of both a national drain and political witch hunting in the ‘Giant of Africa.’ Former Kano State Governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso publicly called for Odimegwu’s head because the latter’s statement was a subtle allusion to the fact that the lopsided balance of power in the country had its roots in defective censuses. Censuses are mere tools to grab more power for its mere sake without any recourse to using the figures to do anything productive for the nation’s growth and development.
If censuses had been effective, we won’t be in this current embarrassing situation where we have a dearth of accurate data. Statisticians, Demographers and Economists have to resort to guess work when carrying out their duties.
What is the essence of pumping in billions of naira into an exercise which results have no bearing on the lives of the hoi polloi as the figures are merely used to share the spoils of office? Beyond the rhetoric of Vision 2000, 2010 and 2020, is there any sturdy plan to get the nation out of the woods which would give lots of reasons to have a credible census?
The overtly attractive centre makes it necessary for figures to be tampered with so as to bring home the bacon. In a faulty federal structure like ours, it is a do or die affair to inflate the figures so as to provide justification for more allocations from Abuja.
The 2018 date is also suspect as its barely a year to the next general elections with a lot of high stakes in the current winner takes all set up. The polity is overheated and tension soaked with loud secession calls. A census from antecedents may greatly stoke up the flames and precipitate a protracted crisis. The imbroglio in the Niger Delta and the strident calls for the reality of Biafra may see more bloodshed if the planned census is another politically motivated hogwash. The resentment of the Nigerian State is already so deep-rooted with no need for the continued forced marriage. The census may just be another time-bomb as deep meanings would be read into it.
If the census holds, it would be an acid test of how well the Buhari led government can run an administration of national unity. There is already subtle anger brewing all over the land in the Northernisation agenda and the lack of government presence in the agony of the masses. The collective amnesia of Nigerians would not forget Aisha Buhari’s BBC interview in a hurry. The Second term agenda may fly on the back of this census. It may be a carefully engineered plan since Sai Baba has obviously lost control of the ship of state.
It is high time policy makers took a clean break from the awry past and use this data collation to make better plans for generations yet unborn. What is on ground to deal with the speculated population explosion? How equipped are the youths to deal with the challenges of living in a VUCA world which has been flattened with their competitors not necessarily the man next door but in faraway India or China? The oil doom is here to stay and there is the sinister talk of disposing of our national assets. What will this government do with the figures to make the majority of the youth driven population plug into the digital economy? How can these figures prepare the youths to export ideas using the power of technology? The issues of development should drive the next census rather than mere politics that will set us a century aback.
India leveraged on the back of her large population to establish Bangalore that is now the world’s largest IT outsourced centre. China’s population has seen them spread their tentacles all over the globe such that when they migrate, they do so to exploit economic opportunities rather than constitute a nuisance or burden on their host countries. Nigeria is still plagued with the tragedy of youths doing all they can to escape repression by being vagabonds in foreign climes because of their emotionally bruised and battered mindsets. How will the next census use the figures to set the stage for genuine youth focused development to give genuine meaning to the change mantra which brought this administration to power last year?
The change begins with me will make a whole lot of sense if a nexus can be seen in the census exercise and its usage to draw up a sturdy blueprint that can see an avalanche of pro people policies.
Anything short of this will be nothing more than another merry go round designed to perpetuate the ‘Born to Rule’ theory.

Tony Ademiluyi

In the northern part of Nigeria where polygamy is rife, women are supposed to be seen and not heard. Many of them are confined to the Purdah system which almost completely cuts them off from the outside world and restricts their contact to just their immediate families.
It was a surprise that Aisha Buhari played a prominent role in the campaign that brought President Muhammadu Buhari to power last year. She cut the 21st century picture of a Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti in the way and manner she mobilised the womenfolk to cast their vote for her better half.
The rather conservative nature of Buhari made him do something different from his predecessors in not allowing the office of the First Lady to continue. Since the dark days of IBB, the office had been used as a conduit for all manner of white elephant projects that had no direct impact on the lives of the people. His campaign was anchored on the change mantra and this was the first casualty of his administration.
Unlike Patience Jonathan, Aisha took the backseat and not much has been heard about her. Besides her much criticised beauty book launch and her spat with Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose, she has been more like a cipher in the current government.
It was a surprise when she granted an interview with the BBC Hausa Service lambasting her husband’s style of governance and openly wailing that a cabal had hijacked his government. She opined that he didn’t even know majority of his appointees and that many people who didn’t share the vision of the APC were wielding a lot of power and influence and that if this trend continued, she won’t repeat what she did in 2015 with her women’s votes canvassing.
When I first heard about the interview, I thought it was some social media joke or the case of a voice impostor. One recalls that former Northern First Ladies like Late Maryam Babangida, Maryam Abacha, Turai Yar’adua never publicly upbraided their husbands. This was a departure from that established trend. In fact this would be the first time in the country that a First Lady would openly criticise the administration of her spouse.
Buhari’s reaction that she belonged to the kitchen, his living room and other room could be taken from divergent contexts. Metaphorically, he could have meant that her position in his government was not constitutionally backed and so her interview had no weight. There was no need to take her seriously. Literarily, it was a gargantuan gaffe as he threw the jab in the presence of Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor who is also a woman. They didn’t meet in the kitchen and the statement portrayed him as a misogynist. Don’t forget that his administration has been accused of not being too women friendly with the ratio of appointments that have been made so far. An article in the Washington Post has been making him look worse than Donald Trump. In a world where a high premium is being placed on women’s rights with the rise of feminism, the excellence of women in hitherto male dominated fields and the current battle for complete equality of the sexes especially the current campaign for equal pay, Buhari’s ill-thought quip has made him shoot himself in the foot.
He must have been furious that his wife could ‘run her mouth’ as is said in Nigerian parlance in the media but he should have exercised more self-restraint and not make himself a laughing stock in the international community.
There must have been a lacuna in their communication which made her vent her frustration in the media. Personally, that wasn’t the best thing to do. Having being married to him for 27 years, there would have been a better way to draw his attention to the crisis plaguing the country. Some critics are contending that she may have resorted to the outburst since she has been sidelined but whatever her motives whether altruistic or self-serving, the way and manner she went about it was not the best. Every couple goes through their peculiar challenges and public opprobrium has never been the best way to tackle knotty issues. We recall that when Bill Clinton was on the slab in 1998 and was made mincemeat of by Kenneth Starr in the highly sensational trial which led to his impeachment by the House of Representatives for perjury before being mercifully saved by the Senate, Hillary stood like the Rock of Gibraltar behind him. There was a lot of pressure on her to institute divorce proceedings against him especially when the accusers kept swelling in number. Many feminists were urging her to do the needful by becoming the pioneer First Lady to divorce a sitting President but she kept her cool until the storm was over. Hillary never granted an interview to condemn Bill despite the fact that the different media houses would have been willing to break the bank to get such an exclusive from her. I don’t think she would have been a Presidential Candidate if she had succumbed to the cries of the feminists who may have left her in the lurch now. Which brand wants to be touch Monica Lewinsky with a ten foot pole? Men should be mindful of history.
It’s no news that Nigeria is currently going through crisis but we should be preoccupied with providing solutions rather than needlessly overheating the polity. Eleanor Roosevelt was a huge source of inspiration to Franklin Delano Roosevelt as she urged him not to quit politics when he was bogged down by polio at 39 which made him wear braces for the rest of his life. She played a behind the scenes role in ensuring that the New Deal programme he championed was a resounding success. They would obviously have had their rows but there was a never a public show of it and it’s extremely counter-productive to do so. It would only provide ephemeral pleasure for the adversaries and then you would be left to stew in your own juice.
While Buhari was battling a three year incarceration under the then IBB regime, his first wife, Safinatu allegedly collected huge sums of money from the self-styled Maradona. This led to their divorce in 1988 as the General couldn’t stomach the apparent betrayal. Will Aisha suffer the same fate as the General may equate this with a betrayal? The unfolding drama would be interesting to follow.
Tony Ademiluyi

A rumour had it that Ambassador Joseph Patrick Kennedy, John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s father hurriedly sold his shares when he saw some stock in the possession of a shoeshine boy. In the 1920’s, the ownership of shares was an exclusive preserve of the wealthy and powerful in the United States so for it to have diffused to a commoner whose daily troubles was on how to bring home the bacon was a dangerous sign indeed. The financier’s intuition was his messiah as America was plunged into a devastating financial crisis when the stock market crashed in 1929. It was so bad that former multimillionaires were literarily jumping to their deaths from roof tops. It was around this same period that Nnamdi Azikiwe later known as the Great Zik of Africa felt he couldn’t take the pain of destitution anymore and laid on his tracks for a train to run over him before he was mercifully saved by a Good Samaritan.
When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt took over in 1933, he wasted no time in rolling out effective measures to deal with the malaise. He called it the ‘New Deal’ and he regularly engaged his countrymen on radio in what known as the fireside chats. He took the pains to explain every government policy and how it affected every American. The crowning of it all was the signing of the Social Security Act into law in 1935 barely two years into his Presidency. His reassuring words kept the hope alive and prepared them for world leadership following the outbreak of the Second World War.
After months in denial, Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun admitted that the country was in a technical recession. Another synonym for a recession perhaps as a quick dictionary search didn’t reveal the meaning behind the new coinage. The International Monetary Fund also revealed a contraction in our economic growth by as much 1.8%. This disclosures meant little to the hoipolloi as their lives have never been better in the pre-recession era. As far as they were concerned, this was just another swiftly invented nomenclature to keep them in anguish ad infinitum.
The steep fall in the price of crude oil in the international market and the non-diversification of the economy will mean that we will be in for a great deal of trouble.
The aloofness of Buhari is grave cause of concern as we are still in the dark as to how he intends to adequately respond to this new challenge. His speeches don’t show any clear cut direction on how he would steer the nation out of the brink. Over a year after being sworn in, we are still left guessing as to the thrust of his economic policies. The woes in the stock market has as its remote cause the unwillingness of Buhari to chart a sturdy way forward for the ailing economy and guesswork is now the order of the day.
The chickens have finally come home to roost and the curse of oil is now more real than ever as the price has been on a free for all fall over the last few months. Many states cannot meet their obligations and the bailouts by the Federal Government is unsustainable. The subtle debate as to whether to dispose of our national assets or not to shore up our revenue base with the conspicuous silence from Buhari is rather tragic.
As the world tilts towards a knowledge driven economy where creativity and innovation is king, there is no communication by Buhari as to how Nigeria intends to plug into the new reality. What is the agenda by the government to set the agenda for the country to create unprecedented wealth in this space to make up for the shortfall of oil which has exposed the vulnerability of our mono economy? Zuckerberg was no Simpleton for making CC Hub his first port of call as wealth is now shifting from natural to human resources. If not for the Aso Rock Villa Demo Day, the sixth world’s richest man may not have bothered to return to the country for a second visit. Nigerians are still at a loss on how public policy would be shaped to enable us feel the positive effects of globalisation. India is the world’s largest centre for the outsourcing of IT because of a visionary government policy in the 1980’s that positioned her as a most sought after destination for that purpose. Israel cashed in on the skyrocketing costs of healthcare in the United States to sell itself as a viable alternative.
Buhari planned to take a loan from the Bretton Woods institutions to meet the shortfall in this year’s budget and stabilise the economy. Was a loan the best economic directional move given the antecedents of the World Bank as being largely responsible for the economic woes of third world nations? The proposed loan borrowing wasn’t even subjected to any form of debate. We were largely kept in the dark until the negotiations went awry. Does Nigeria need another debt trap that could mortgage the future of generations yet unborn? We haven’t still fully recovered from the effects of the loans that the IBB led government took in the 1980’s under the guise of the Structural Adjustment Programme.
The country is also mired in a food crisis despite the abundance of agricultural potential. There is palpable silence on any well thought agricultural policy that can get the nation out of this embarrassment. For a President who has been in farming for decades, it is unacceptable that he cannot elucidate a pragmatic way forward in this much neglected sector. There is no plan to make agriculture attractive so that youths can save themselves the agony of unemployment and destitution by making a decent living there. An attraction that pulls migrants from developing to developed economies is the fact that food is cheap and in plentiful supply. There is a subsidy plan where the government purchases food items from the farms at rock bottom prices which insulates the farmers from the vagaries of the fluctuations of prices in the international market. With the vast expanse of land lying fallow all over the country, no policy has been crafted to give agriculture a pride of place.
It is in a time of crisis that destiny throws up certain leaders. One attribute is their ability to connect with the masses and fan the embers of hope for a greater tomorrow. In all spheres of life, communication is a key tool for effective leadership.
Being taciturn is no excuse for the large communication lacuna that we currently have. As President, he is supposed to be something akin to being the father of the nation and as such should keep all Nigerians in the know as his agenda and plans. It is a well-known fact that powerful words act as a soothing balm especially in a heart wrenching time like this where people need to stay sane to survive the times.
We don’t expect Buhari to suddenly metamorphose into another Winston Churchill whose oratory kept the flame of the Brits alive when Hitler’s bombs threatened to raze down the Empire or an Abraham Lincoln whose Gettysburg Address saved the Union. It won’t be bad if he can take the pains to communicate more often with his countrymen rather than give the scary impression that he is more at home with the foreign media.
Tony Ademiluyi

After the elections of 2003 in Anambra State, the then All Progressive Grand Alliance Candidate, Peter Obi decided to his case to court as he felt he had sufficient grounds to upturn the electoral victory of Chris Ngige of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party. Against all odds, he stuck to his guns and after a tortuous three year legal wrangling; he made history as the first governor to have his victory aided by the courts.
This opened the floodgates of court backed victories – Rotimi Amaechi in 2007, Adams Oshiomhole in 2008, Rahman Mimiko in 2009 and many others in the National Assembly as well as State Houses of Assembly.
A new power bloc – The Judges suddenly emerged as a force to be reckoned with. The hitherto underfunded third arm of government suddenly became the beautiful bride courted assiduously by politicians and public office holders who either saw them as a pivot to get into power or a protective shield to prevent them from getting behind bars for corrupt practices.
James Onanefe Ibori wasn’t found guilty by any of the courts until he met his waterloo in the United Kingdom. Dr. Peter Odili has a perpetual injunction restraining any of his adversaries from making him answer for his eight years stewardship of Rivers State. Let’s not forget his wife, Mary is a Justice of the Supreme Court. It is only in this clime that an injunction – something that is supposed to be temporary has taken the toga of permanence.
Plea bargaining became another ludicrous tool which saw politicians get off huge corruption allegations with the slap of the wrist. Former Edo State Governor, Lucky Nosakhare Igbinedion was convicted by Justice Abdul Kafarati in 2008 on a one-count charge and ordered him to refund 500 million naira, forfeit three houses and sentence him to three months imprisonment or pay 3.6 million naira as an option of fine. In 2011, the EFCC filed a fresh 66 count corruption and money laundering charge against him where he was alleged to have misappropriated 25 billion naira. The presiding Judge, Justice Adamu Hosbon surprisingly struck out the entire charge which made the eldest child of the Esama of Benin a free man. Igbinedion’s case isn’t the only preposterous one. From Orji Uzor Kalu to Joshua Dariye, Chimaroke Nnamani, Late Dipreye Alameiseyeigha, Saminu Turaki, Gbenga Daniel, Jolly Nyame, Michael Botmang, Rasheed Ladoja, Adamu Abdullahi, Attahiru Bafarrawa etc, the actions of the judiciary has been worse than the theatre of the absurd. No single conviction despite the mind boggling allegations of graft and abuse of office.
Justice Samuel Wilson Egbo-Egbo gained notoriety when he issued an order restraining the then Anambra State Governor, Chris Ngige from performing his official duties. He was also extremely reckless with the issuing of ex parte orders which led to his unceremonious retirement from the bench.
Allegations of Judges becoming emergency multimillionaires began to make the rounds. Justice Mohammed Yunusa who was later dismissed by the National Judicial Council was infamous for granting injunctions aimed at preventing law enforcement agencies from carrying out their investigative duties. A well-known case was his dispensing an interlocutory injunction preventing the EFCC from arresting or investigating former aviation minister, Ms. Stella Oduah. He was named as a beneficiary of a bribe by prominent lawyer, Rickey Tarfa SAN whose trial is still ongoing.
The recent raid on the residences of nine Judges has raised many questions urgently begging for answers. In the home of Justice Sylvanus Ngwunta was discovered over thirty-five million naira, over three hundred thousand dollars, over twenty-five thousand pounds and two hundred and eighty Euros. He was alleged to have obtained a bribe from Governor Ezenwo Wike of Rivers State to secure a victory for him. Another JSC, Justice Inyang Okoro is said to be constructing seven houses at the same time in his native Calabar through the aid of former Akwaibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio and his successor, Udom Emmanuel. Okoro had in his possession over four million naira, over thirty-eight thousand dollars and 1000 Euros at the time of his arrest. Justice Abdullahi Liman was alleged to have received $2 million from the Senator Ahmed Makarfi led faction of the PDP to give a judgement that overthrew Senator Ali Modu Sheriff. Wike was alleged to have prevented his arrest. In the residence of Justice Adeniyi Ademola was alleged to have been found over three hundred million naira in different local and foreign currencies.
The revelations are heart wrenching and casts a big slur on the image of the institution that is supposed to be the last hope of the common man. The chummy relationship between the highly discredited political class and this supposed conservative institution is a great setback for the genuine practice of democracy. In the days of yore, Judges were seen and not heard to protect them from undue influence. The administrators in the temple of justice couldn’t belong to clubs and were rarely seen in social functions in order to insulate them from the lures of filthy lucre.

Becoming a Judge was highly sacrificial and the financial deprivations they bore was something they cherished. The first indigenous Chief Justice of Nigeria, Sir Adetokunbo Ademola, Justice Adeniyi Ademola’s grandfather gave up a thriving practice and budding political career as a member of the Nigerian Youth Movement to become a magistrate for a decade and then a Puisine Judge. He would have made more money at the bar. Justice Chukwudifu Oputa took a massive financial loss when he accepted the judicial appointment offered him by Dr. Michael Okpara. Legal Luminary, Afe Babalola turned down a judicial offer because he wanted to remain a wealthy man.
No sane lawyer accepts a judicial appointment and should expect to amass a fortune. A Catholic priest for instance shouldn’t have cause to regret not having biological children. It is tragic that the nation has sunk so low.
We recall the case of Justice Ayo Isa Salami who refused a promotion to become a Justice of the Supreme Court because he was far more powerful as the President of the Court of Appeal. It didn’t make any sense to be a titular Judge in the apex court. He clearly didn’t want to be promoted upstairs and preferred to be shown the way out.
While making a case for the welfare of our Judges as is a norm in advanced climes so that the temptations to receive bribes is reduced, the best welfare may not be sufficient to clean the Augean Stables.
In an organised state, this revelation would have been an earth shaking scandal but in a failed state like ours, it will be business as usual in the next twenty-four hours or less. The democratic journey sadly hasn’t even begun.
Tony Ademiluyi

When Donald Trump announced his candidacy last year, many political pundits dismissed it with the wave of the hand as this was not the first time he had been linked to the ambition of sitting in the White House. Since 1988, he has deftly used his public relations stunts to put his name forward and then a loud silence follows afterwards as he never took up the gauntlet.
This time around, he was in for good with analysts opining that he was just there to make up the numbers as he stood no chance in hell against the establishment politicians. His being the front runner was still not convincing enough as it was only a matter of time for the steam to cool off.
His gaffes which were increasing by the day gave some hope to the pundits that he won’t go far. How wrong were they as he eventually clinched the ticket and greatly upset the apple cart!
There was palpable anger from within the ranks of the GOP as this loud and brash New Yorker had beaten them at their own game. Fear suddenly began creeping in as his harsh anti-immigration stance and the threat of the building of a wall was a clear target against Mexico as they constituted the majority of the over eleven million illegal immigrants. Nigerians, the largest foreign minority in Uncle Sam were also not spared as he railed against their presence there and wondered why they didn’t return back home rather than taking up jobs there. African Americans, Muslims , Hispanics – everyone wasn’t spared his caustic tongue. He even made fun of terminally ill people by urging them to hang on till November 8 so that they could cast their vote for him. He was waging a war against everyone and was portraying the image of a crude isolationist.

His attack against women in a country that places a high premium on women’s rights and with his rival as a woman as well was a Locus Classicus of the theatre of the absurd. He took this to a ridiculous extreme by releasing a video released by the Washington Post where he used vulgar language about groping and kissing women with impunity. This is a far cry from what is expected of a presidential candidate as he showed utter contempt and disregard for women likening them to mere sexual objects to be used and dumped at will. He has blasted Bill Clinton repeatedly for his acts of sexual indiscretion while in office with Hillary as an accomplice. How does this make him any better?
Many fellow Republicans have disassociated themselves from him by refusing to endorse his candidacy. Congressman Jason Chaffetz told Fox that ‘I can no longer in good conscience endorse this person for President.’ Congress woman Barbara Comstock, Congressman Mike Coffman and former Governor of Utah, Jon Huntsman demanded his exit from the race. The most prominent was erstwhile President George Bush Sr who openly canvassed for Hillary Clinton. Trump seems to have a thick skin as the opposition from his party members seems to have unfazed him. He keeps trudging on like a soldier spewing more poison as the days roll by and making a caricature of a future occupant of the White House.
It was something akin to the nine wonders of the world when he made a public apology for the video that was released. In his words ‘I have said and done things I regret. Anyone who knows me knows these words don’t reflect who I am. I was wrong and I apologise. I have never said I am a perfect person, nor pretended to be someone I am not. I pledge to be a better man tomorrow.’
This is the first apology of his which is still a shocker. He has probably realized the strategic importance of women as a voting bloc and figured out that it won’t be in his best interest to alienate himself from them. Are the African-Americans, Hispanics, Muslims now less important? Don’t they also deserve an apology as well?
The three minutes video made in 2005 is going to make Trump have a herculean challenge in making inroads into the women power base which Hillary may use to her advantage as she has issued a statement condemning his lewd language. Taking to twitter, she said ‘This is horrific; we cannot allow this man to be President.’
Women emancipation has come a long way in the United States. From the struggle of Elizabeth Cady Stanton whose efforts sparked off the struggle for women equality with the historic Seneca Falls Convention held in 1848 to the current battle for complete equality of the sexes in all ramifications, deriding them in such a coarse manner is a gargantuan blunder that could give Hillary an easy leeway. In a country where a mere innuendo could lead to a sexual harassment lawsuit, the real estate mogul took things way too far. It will take a miracle to get the voters to forgive him for this. The unfolding drama would really be interesting of a possible bounce back especially among the white women voters.
The fact that he has been twice divorced has also exacerbated his popularity with the women folk. The only divorcee President was Ronald Reagan. The searchlight is now going to be beamed on whether there was any form of emotional abuse on his former wives and his suitability for the highest office in the globe if he maltreated his ex-spouses. The snoopers are going to have a field day to unearth how his marriages hit the rocks and portray him as a misogynist who cannot be trusted with power. Let’s not forget that it was this same Washington Post that brought down Richard Nixon in the infamous Watergate scandal which gave Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein their first claim to journalistic and investigative fame. Some impatient hawks may not be patient enough to wait till November 8 so they can get the credit for stopping the loquacious ‘entertainer’ from making history.
We wait with bated breath as to the outcome on November 8 to see if Hillary can swing a subtle battle of the sexes and cause a humiliation of the man who doesn’t appreciate the true meaning of the fairer sex.
Tony Ademiluyi

The United States economy was almost collapsing in 1895 as the strain of falling prices and rising unemployment was taking a great toll on it. About eighteen million were out of work and the reserves with no gold backing was running dangerously low. The then President Grover Cleveland tried to unsuccessfully sell government bonds. The panic was palpable and he did the unthinkable by turning to one of the nation’s greatest robber barons – J.P Morgan for an emergency bailout. Newspapers mercilessly pilloried Cleveland for openly dealing with the ruthless financier who had gobbled up many companies by cashing in on their desperation to demand choice seats on their boards. Morgan proposed the private sale of government bonds to him and in exchange would give the treasury the gold it so badly needed to the tune of $100 million to meet its obligations. Cleveland settled for $60 million worth of gold which soon filled its coffers and resulted in the much needed stability which soon saw the ailing economy roar with a resounding blast. Morgan’s motive – gain or patriotism is highly debatable but an incontrovertible fact is that he stepped up to save his country from economic ruin and history would forever remember him for that.
After months of denial, Finance Minister Mrs. Kemi Adeosun finally owned up to the fact that the country is in a recession. Never mind the word ‘technical’ she admitted and is at a loss on how long it would last. Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote swiftly stepped in, diagnosed the situation and offered a piece of economic advice to the Buhari led administration to sell our national assets so as to raise funds to ward off the adverse effects of the recession. The Kano born entrepreneur did not spare our most prized asset – The Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas which in his estimation could raise a whopping $15 billion to oil the machinery of state. A report by the National Extractive Industries & Transparency Initiative (NEITI) showed that within an eight year period, NLNG remitted the colossal sum of $12.9 billion to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) which the latter failed to remit to the federation account. In 2013 alone, it remitted a dividend of $1.289 billion. It has yielded well over $1 billion annually over the past twelve years. Why should Dangote advocate for the sale of this highly viable asset which is the best model of public-private sector partnership that this country has ever witnessed?
One wonders why the friend of any government in power since the sinister days of IBB who has profited immensely from unfair government patronage could not call for a sale of the presidential jets which drains the national purse! There was no call to drastically reduce the obscene allowances the parasitic political class tragically gets. The duplication of offices – four social media aides, two spokesmen, two official photographers with the mind boggling emoluments was also overlooked.
The antecedents of national assets sale has left a sour taste in the mouth if we go down memory lane. What happened to the sale of the assets from the power sector? Is the beleaguered sector now better run?
Saudi Arabia has a sturdy four year plan to completely wean its economy off oil in the next four years but it didn’t dispose of its national assets. The same goes for the United Arab Emirates. At a time when the price of crude oil in the global market is at an all-time low, how much can be possibly realised from the sale? Would it be enough to get the ‘Giant’ out of the woods?
It is sad that the best advice from the black man’s poster boy for ‘wealth creation’ is to take the easy way out of selling everything within sight. What has happened to creativity and looking inwards to solve a man-made challenge. One is not amazed since the process that threw up the richest black man was backed by nepotism and cronyism rather than innovation. You cannot give what you don’t have. Why didn’t Shell sell Bonga, Forcados, Bonny or EA terminal despite the myriad of challenges that they are facing? All indigenous NLNG Managing Directors have coincidentally all come from Shell. Who in his right senses sells his crown jewels?
In an exclusive interview granted to Thisday Newspapers, he made it clear that even if he was offered NLNG on credit, he wouldn’t purchase it. Was this meant to make us feel any better? Was this a case of guilty conscience at work since he has greatly benefitted from past sales by visionless governments? We won’t forget the rescinding of the last minute refinery sale by the Yar’adua government.
Life is fraught with challenges and it is beneath every crisis that lies opportunities. This is not the time for crude capitalists to trumpet mere panaceas. The way forward should permeate national discourse. After the sale of the assets then what next? Would the next move be for the next generation to sell themselves into slavery since the assets would have been long squandered going by antecedents?
The world is experiencing a paradigmatic shift towards a knowledge driven economy. Why can’t Dangote use his clout to influence public policy towards this direction which would greatly open up the space to Lilliputians who would never be as fortunate as he was to get their lucky breaks from the government? The likes of John .D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie gave back to society when they felt it was time to move on to more noble endeavours rather than being stuck in accumulating needless wealth. They had massive impact in millions of lives, many of whom they never saw. Zuckerberg was no Simpleton by visiting Nigeria as the population, resilience and creativity is ripe for an explosion in the creative industry. Why can’t ‘Chemical Ali’ think of doing his two cents to better prepare the upcoming generation that Soyinka described as a wasted one to rise up to the information age challenge rather than peddling an advice that may set the stage for destitution ad infinitum of generations yet unborn?
When America was battered by the Great Depression of 1929, Franklin Delano Roosevelt came on board four years later, promised the New Deal which not only put America on the speedy recovery path but set the foundation for its current greatness. Buhari should have the common sense to reject the ruinous advice that would do nothing but set the nation aback. His body language doesn’t communicate much but he should be firm in resisting any attempt by the economic buccaneers to buy our patrimony at rock bottom prices.
Tony Ademiluyi, Lagos

In 1990, Bola Ahmed Tinubu did the unthinkable by resigning his job as a treasurer in Mobil now Exxon Mobil in his bid to join the murky waters of Nigerian politics. In an interview he granted to the News Magazine, he wanted to go beyond backing the gubernatorial ambition of Chief Dapo Sarumi to playing an active part in the polity. He saw the Senate as a platform to contribute his quota towards national development. Some of his bosses tried to talk some sense into the then young man as he stood a good chance of being a future leader in the American multinational. If you consider at the time that exile to the west was gradually creeping in as a national norm, that decision was indeed not for the faint of heart.
In 2014, he took another gargantuan risk by facilitating a merger of different political parties to form the All Progressive Congress to wrestle power from Goodluck Jonathan. Many pundits were miffed at the decision of Tinubu to amalgamate many strange bed fellows who were not guided by any known political ideology. His acceptance of Buhari was also curious because this was a man who was the beneficiary of a coup and in a decent clime could have been punished for treason. Why would Tinubu who nearly lost his life to the military goons, had his residence firebombed by Abacha agents, lived in forced exile for four years shuttling between the UK and US be comfortable with fighting for a Buhari Presidency? Could he have forgotten the past so soon, was it mere political expediency or did he just want power from behind the scenes for its mere sake? Pundits were indeed curious to see how the rather macabre dance would play itself out.
History was made and the foreign media praised his dexterity to the high Heavens in making the victory of the opposition possible in a country where the power of incumbency played a decisive role in electoral contests. Rumours abound of his pact with Buhari to nominate his minions to plum cabinet positions and watchers kept an beady eye on whether he could emergence on the national scene as a reincarnation of the decimated Chief Tony Anenih who at the height of his influence was revered as the Mr. Fix It.
As expected in the use and dump game of the ruthless world of politics, none of his acolytes got a cabinet position. He was also out witted by Saraki and Dogara which ensured that none of his disciples were in charge of the National Assembly. With the passage of time, he has been reduced to an effete leader with his foes mocking his title of National Leader which has no official party recognition.
In his piece titled ‘Bola Ahmed Tinubu and those who want him dead’ by former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, he mentioned Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola as a man who would never betray him no matter what. The overriding philosophy in politics is that it is a game of interests with no permanent friends or adversaries. Ogbeni’s open celebration with Fayose may be a subtle way of reading the signs of the times and thinking of smart ways to realign especially when the current loyalty to a dying leader is no longer a politically smart move. What do you make out of the parting of ways by Fashola, Fayemi, Amosun, Akeredolu etc? Being an open protégé of Jagaban may threaten the buttered bread so it may be best to send him to the hangman. What do you make out of Dr. Segun Abraham’s losing of the Ondo State primaries to Akeredolu? Jagaban also surprisingly cried out against the ‘rebellion’ of the National Chairman of the APC, John Odigie-Oyegun. If his powers were still intact, shouldn’t the first Edo State Governor get quietly eased out? Alas the former NADECO Chieftain may have been reduced to a miniscule cry baby!
The final nail on the coffin is the recent revelation by Professor John Paden who wrote Buhari’s biography on the fact that Jagaban actually opposed Osinbajo’s vice-presidential nomination. This is surprising because one got the impression that the Lion of Bourdillon gave it up as it would have been difficult to fly a Muslim-Muslim ticket. This new revelation is indicative of the fact that he actually wanted a rehash of what happened in 1993 when Abiola and Kingibe ran on a Muslim-Muslim ticket. The biographer contended that Tinubu actually piled a lot of pressure on Buhari not to accept Osinbajo who served him as Attorney-General for eight years. Wonders shall never cease! We heartily await a response by Tinubu or his media team as this latest revelation will be a very interesting topic for the chroniclers of history.
Empires rise and fall; trends evolve. His decline was expected because of the unpopularity of godfatherism. Not like the concept is a bad one as there from time immemorial, there have always been leaders of thought and public opinion moulders which has punctured the holes of the ruse of ‘one man, one vote.’ However, the practice in Nigeria has been inimical to the interests of the Man on the Clapham Omnibus. It was no amazement that the concept of change would be used against one of the initial purveyors by swiftly relegating him to the background after his services post-election clearly had no relevance. In Robert Greene’s ’33 Strategies for War’, the book opened up with a soldier who led his people to victory and rather than crown him King, they led him to the guillotine where his head was impaled. That seems to be Tinubu’s current fate.
What are the options for Tinubu? Wage a war to bounce back to relevance? On what grounds would that be as the tide doesn’t favour ruling from behind the scenes. The betrayal and treachery would only multiply. Should he seek elective office once more? What mileage would he possibly get from that as if things stay this way, that wouldn’t bolster his status in 2019?
Maybe it’s time to try something new. After conquered the worlds of accounting and politics, perhaps it’s a sign to move on to something else. He may have not heeded Shakespeare’s call in quitting when the ovation was loudest but it’s never too late. What more does he want? Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?
Tony Ademiluyi, Lagos

On March 23rd 1775, fiery lawyer, orator and nationalist stood before the Virginia House of Burgess where he delivered an epoch making speech which ended with ‘Give me liberty or Give me death.’ That speech coupled with Thomas Jefferson’s writing of the American Declaration of Independence and Thomas Paine’s Common Sense stirred up nationalistic feelings which set in motion the chains for the rising up in arms of the continental army dealing a fatal blow to King George 111’s highly prized colony.
Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe who largely spearheaded the nationalist efforts was highly fascinated with Uncle Sam which saw him studying there instead of the popular Britain route. That decision nearly pushed him to the brink of economic annihilation as the colonial government refused to offer him a job as he possessed a suspicious degree. He saw the hitherto despised journalism profession as an economic independence ladder which he embraced whole-heartedly in championing the struggle for indigenous rule.
The independence struggle was largely a southern affair as no Northerner could lay the remotest claim to agitating for self-rule. In an interview granted by the late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, he revealed that Zik found himself in a rather awkward position as a nationalist agreeing to a delay of the independence date so as to give room for the north to catch up.
The first sign of a crack came when Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello refused to become the nation’s Prime Minister, preferring to stay behind in the north to direct things from behind the scenes. We then started on a rather shaky note of the Prime Minister not being the leader of any political party.
Other countries like Ghana and Zimbabwe renamed their countries after independence but we were reluctant to do away with the colonial vestige. There wouldn’t have been any harm in conducting a referendum to ascertain if the forced marriage of 1914 was really worth it. Part of the Southern Cameroons that was with Nigeria decided to part ways with us and join Cameroon and the Heavens didn’t fall. There were deep rooted tribal issues which needed to be resolved. Independence did little to build a national cohesion which the then young nation so badly needed. We still viewed one another with suspicion as strange bedfellows and tribal loyalty was the benchmark for pragmatism. A referendum may have averted the civil war. There was nothing wrong with choosing if we truly wanted to live together as one after being free from foreign rule. The irony was that a referendum was conducted by our erstwhile colonial masters to determine Scotland’s continued stay within the UK.
The locust years of the military came which set the country aback by decades. Visionless leadership both civilian and military ensured that the State was perpetually underdeveloped. The curse of oil was another reason for our failure to achieve our gargantuan potential. Some pundits opine that if the British had discovered oil earlier than the 1956 year, we may have witnessed what happened in South Africa where they would simply refuse to vacate. That opinion is subject to fierce debate but the culture of organised sloth and entitlement has badly damaged the collective national psyche.
The IBB years saw a massive exodus of the bright and brightest to the West and to all the corners of the earth which welcomed them with open arms and gave them the leeway to make unprecedented exploits. From Surgeons to Academics, Lawyers, Writers, Pharmacists, Engineers etc, Nigeria became a distant homeland that buried grand ideas and dreams. Another type of sojourners became those who travel for greener pasture illegally. Some are ready to cross the Sahara desert and Atlantic Ocean simply to have an ounce of a decent life. Some go as far as selling their patrimony to raise the funds for the ‘journey of death’ all because the opportunities for self-actualisation is simply lacking. It makes more sense to these people to be undesirables in faraway climes than to continue to grapple with getting the essentials for day to day living.
Democracy finally came in 1999 but did little to raise the hopes of the ‘Giant of Africa’s’ rising to take its rightful place. The mindless looting that has gone on in the last seventeen years is enough to make the Kleptomaniac Abacha simply wake up and gasp for breath. The ‘change’ that occurred last year is no better than what was witnessed in George Orwell’s Animal Farm. The Boxers can’t even be sold anymore.
It’s tragic that the nation still wobbles in diapers at 56 and each Independence Day rather than bring joy elicits more tears in the eyes of incurable optimists.
Speeches on this supposed memorable day are no more than footnotes.
Granted that we have wasted enormous opportunities to become among the globe’s greatest, it is still never too late to begin anew. The change begins with me campaign of the President should actually start from him. What policies is he putting in place to steer our over dependence on oil? How is he leading the nation to plug into the world knowledge driven economy? When Zuckerberg came, his first port of call was not to Aso Rock or Alausa but to CC Hub as he knows the future lies in creativity. The call for the production of pencils by the Science and Technology Minister, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu is worse than a farce. Beyond rhetoric and sloganeering, what is the roadmap to power the nation’s development on the back of a knowledge driven economy? We all recall how India leapt into a technological power house because of the policy crafted by Mahoman Singh as Finance Minister which plugged India into the freelance IT economy and led to the development of Bangalore. The Chinese miracle is built on the back of creativity and innovation. What is the policy thrust of the PMB administration to get the nation out of the woods through taking advantage of the natural resilience of Nigerians by creating the enabling environment for them to thrive? Body language won’t suffice; it must be backed by a strong will and sturdy action template.
The Holy Book says that we should rejoice at all times so even in this bleak time I wouldn’t hesitate to say a loud ‘Happy Independence Day’ even though a part of time still has a tinge of caustic sarcasm. I hope there is something better to write by this time next year and wonder if the sale of some national assets would also be extended to some mortals as the line may be thinly drawn.
Happy Independence!
Tony Ademiluyi

In 2007, the thorn in the flesh of Baba Iyabo and a modern day reincarnation of the legendary Michael Imoudu was about to do the unthinkable by putting his name up as one of the successors to sit in Dennis Osadebay Avenue.
His candidacy seemed odd as being a successful labour leader was a different kettle of fish from swimming in the shark infested waters that politics in the country had turned into. Did the diminutive friend of the hoi polloi have the balls to contend with the godfathers?
Having moved around different parties, he finally settled for the then Action Congress of Nigeria and faced Professor Osarimen Osunbor headlong in the 2007 polls. He lost or rather was massively rigged out and headed for the court with the precedent that Peter Obi set and emerged victorious the year after.
His first act as governor was a bit of an anti-climax as he conceded three slots in his cabinet to Chief Tony Anenih. He ran his campaign on the need to end godfatherism in the state known as the Heartbeat of the nation. This gesture of an open alignment with one he tagged as an enemy of the state was perceived by political pundits to be a stark contradiction of his earlier position. As expected, he and Anenih fell out and he began to whittle down the powers of the kingmakers by taking on Sir Gabriel Igbinedion and even demolishing Ogbemudia’s house as he opined that power belonged to the people and not a few self-serving individuals.
His alliance with Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu was rather curious as the latter played a key role in the highly discredited Lucky Igbinedion led administration. It seems the Khaki loving Comrade thought it wise to shed off his activism toga so as to ensure his survival in the cloak and dagger game of pristine politics. It was only a matter of time before he and Ize-Iyamu fell out as he was not pre-disposed to the pastor cum politician succeeding him.
His performance as governor was viewed with mixed feelings. While some hailed him as a performer – at least in their own estimation he surpassed Igbinedion. His adversaries were miffed that he could have done much more as he received more than ten times the funds that Igbinedion got.
His decision to increase the minimum wage to 25,000 naira in the state civil service last year was a deft masterstroke. Many states are grappling with the challenge of paying salaries as and at when due with Osun state being the poster boy for a state’s inability to meet its contractual obligations. The PDP criticized the move as mere politics but the comrade was smartly setting the tone for last Wednesday’s elections. With the benefit of hindsight, he bid his time appropriately.
A core issue in the Nigerian polity is that of workers welfare and with many states grappling to pay salaries, it was wise for the comrade to sell a political neophyte as an economic messiah. With the current level of disenchantment with the APC at the centre especially with its cluelessness on how to get the country out of its current recession, playing an economic card was a wise way for the people to overlook the flaws at the centre. For the Comrade to have increased salaries at a time when some of his fellow governors were tinkering with the idea of reducing theirs was politically savvy.
During the campaigns it was as if the comrade was gunning for a third term as there was frequent exchange of tirades between him and Ize-Iyamu. Obaseki cut the picture of an innocent lamb following the master sheepishly. The pastor never got tired of railing against the high handedness of the Comrade and his infamous ‘Go and die’ statement to the hapless widow was prominently pushed to the front burner. The campaign on both sides was low on issues and more focused on fierce mudslinging.
When the election was postponed on security grounds the PDP screamed blue murder of the fear of the APC losing and it was a subtle strategy to bid for more time. As expected, Oshiomhole denied having anything to do with it but one wonders why Buhari, Ambode and some other party stalwarts had a peaceful rally without any security hitches only for the security agencies to justify the date shift. Something sinister seemed to be brewing. Was this going to be a re-enactment of the shifting of the Election Day by the Jonathan administration?
The APC slogan was anchored on the need for continuity which the PDP never failed to lambast. The people were left with two choices: A technocrat who had a personal history of creating jobs, had the clout to attract investments to the state, was in charge of the state economic strategic team even though the state had a great debt profile and is currently one of the highly indebted states in the country or a politician who had cross carpeted, had a ten year lacuna in his resume from 1989 to 1999, was instrumental to Oshiomhole’s coming to power and was even the D-G of his campaign team in 2012 and only fell out when the Comrade wasn’t going to back his gubernatorial ambition, didn’t have any known business antecedent and was a systems man as a professional politician. Let us also not forget his EFCC invitation which was hanging on his neck like the Sword of Damocles.
The turnout was rather impressive for a week day election and there were accusations and counter accusations of foul play by the APC and PDP.
It is not surprising that Ize-Iyamu roundly rejected the results but the question on the lips of discerning voters is whether he would have been a better alternative? Lucky Igbinedion boasted openly that his family would produce the next governor in Ize-Iyamu’s house. The same Igbinedion never publicly identified with his former aide’s campaign. Were Edolites ready to entrust their fate in the hands of godfathers once more? Would Ize-Iyamu have boldly taken on the Igbinedion’s given that most of his political career was tied to the erstwhile governor having served him as a P.A as Oredo Local Government Chairman, Chief of Staff and Secretary to the State Government?
Despite Oshiomhole’s flaws, he never defaulted in his obligations to the workers. Given the wealth creation background of Obaseki, it is clear that the voters were more comfortable with him at the helm of affairs. The economy played a decisive role in the election and the Comrade proved adept in presenting a technocrat and making him trounce a grassroots politician.
It remains unclear whether Ize-Iyamu would go to court and how long the battle would last there. He never got tired of telling the people how he made the Comrade’s dreams come true so let’s see if he can do the same for himself.
By ensuring the election of a complete green horn as the state’s number one servant, Oshiomhole may have permanently buried the reign of the godfathers in the state.
Will this be his greatest legacy?
Over to you time!
Tony Ademiluyi

I had a conversation with an uncle of mine based in the United Kingdom where he reminisced on his extremely challenging days as an indigent student in the heady days of the 1970’s. He got his first menial job in a pub where he worked every Sundays. A fellow Nigerian student skipped work on Sundays because according to him it violated the Christian rule of working on the Sabbath. It was rather hilarious at the time we had the discussion but pondering deeply about it, it is a microcosm of the farcical culture of vacations that we have unconsciously imbibed.
The world rejoiced when Sadiq Khan became the first Muslim Mayor of London. On the flipside I wondered if a Christian can ever become the Mayor of Medina. Something similar points to that direction. To my utmost surprise, Saudi Arabia, the birth place of Islam recently dumped the Islamic Lunar Calendar which is fifteen days shorter than the 365 day lunar year. They have now shifted to the Western Gregorian Calendar on Sunday so as to bring them in line with their avalanche of energy customers. Like other oil exporting countries they are facing a severe cash crunch with salary cuts now a common trend in the hitherto oil rich country. Saudi workers now need to work more days and the emoluments of the ministers, advisers and civil servants have been drastically cut down to keep up with the times.
Desperate times call for desperate measures and it’s hilarious for the Jigawa and Oyo State government to declare Tuesday as a public holiday to observe an Islamic event. In this recession era where many state governments are seriously grappling with the challenge of paying salaries, does it make any sense to lengthen the number of days off work? Does religion directly put food on the table? It’s sad when sentiments override our collective sense of reasoning. What is the hoopla about setting aside the whole of Tuesday when the original source of Islam has had a critical rethink about the calendar and bowed to market forces? Can we be more Catholic than the Pope? Fridays is the Islamic day for prayers but work still goes on as usual on that day without the Heavens falling. I recall another emergency holiday that was given on the orders of the Sultan in September. Of what economic benefit is a forced day of rest to an ailing economy?
Shortly after Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah came to power in Ghana, he set up the Winneba Ideological Institute to entrench a culture of hardwork in all Ghanaians. Everyone from politicians to students, academics civil servants were required to attend it on certain days of the week. The legacy of that vision is the dedication to duty of an average Ghanaian which helped them a great deal when harsh, anti-people policies forced them on economic exile to all parts of the globe.
In our culture there is a separation from work especially in the civil service where it is regarded as no man’s work. The unnecessary holidays has done nothing more than to stoke the fires of such a laid back work attitude as a silent culture of entitlement has surreptitiously crept in. We now expect to get fully paid and even get raises for mere attendance rather than performance.
China was smart to realise that communism would not take them anywhere. They had to deftly introduce some measure of capitalism to greatly stimulate the then battered economy after the fiasco of the Cultural Revolution initiated by Chairman Mao Zedong. Who could have thought that Obama would accede to the bailout of the crisis ridden auto industry in the world poster boy for capitalism? It is high time we entrenched a sturdy national work culture if we are to survive and emerge stronger from this recession. Irrelevant holidays would only breed sloth and the era of workers receiving freebies is long over. Their remuneration must be justifiably measured by a positive impact on the bottom line.
In the west there is the ritual of going on holidays abroad after hard or smart work. These holidays are borne by the tourists and don’t constitute a drain on the national purse in terms of the loss of man hours. It is sad that in a depressed economy like ours we still create room for needless waste in the name of holidays.
Was there even any need for a public holiday to be declared on Monday October 3rd? Independence Day fell on a weekend when many people aren’t at work. What was the rationale behind wasting an entire day that could have been channeled productively? When employers fail to meet their contractual obligations to their employees, the joke of a government would purport to want to stop them from downsizing. Couldn’t Independence Celebrations as meaningless as it sadly is have gone on Saturday and then workers report on Monday eager to give meaning to the next one? Our culture of waste is unprecedented.
The sloganeering ‘Change begins with me’ should have as one of its ethos building a national culture for hardwork and a disdain for time wasting in the name of holidays. We should be eager to get this great nation of immense potentials back on her feet and an aversion for all forms of breaks should be exhibited. An ideological component built on a passion for work similar to what got Japan out of the woods after the battering of Hiroshima and Nagasaki should form the crux of the ‘Change begins with me.’

Enough of this organised national wastages!
Tony Ademiluyi