Opinion
Of sadists, agonists and auctioneers

By Tunde Olusunle
That allusions, references and reminiscences are always, ever made to the music of the maverick Nigerian Afrobeat musician, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, speaks to the immutability, even immortality of his work. Fela was in eternal battles with successive Nigerian governments, tirelessly speaking truth to them, even at the risk of his life. Trevor Schoonmaker in a 2004 critique of Fela’s work, notes that he “created Afrobeat, an infectious mix of American funk and jazz, with traditional Yoruba and highlife music and used it to rail against corrupt Nigerian governments.” Fela’s notable, radical compositions include: “Authority Stealing,” “Army Arrangement,” “Coffin for Head of State,” “Beast of No Nation” and “ITT.”
Were Fela still with us today, the news from the National Executive Committee, (NEC) meeting of the ruling All Progressives Congress, (APC), held Wednesday April 20, 2022, would most probably have elicited a replay of his 1977 hit, “Sorrow, Tears and Blood,” (STB). Yes, if Nigerians were ever in doubt that the political party which has administered their country since May 29, 2015 was through and through an agglomeration of marauders and buccaneers, committed to their continuing pauperisation and political annihilation, the events of Wednesday April 20, 2022, should be instructive. That NEC meeting hosted by Adamu Abdullahi, chairman of the party, rolled out exorbitantly prohibitive, brazenly anti-people fees for expression of interest and nomination forms, for prospective seekers of political offices in the 2023 general elections.
Abdullahi by the way, was recently installed in this position under circumstances characterised by glaring coercive consensus. All his co-contestants for the position, where compelled in APC’s characteristic neck-on-the-chopping-block democracy, to attest to a pre-written letter, withdrawing their candidature. This has become typical of the operations manual of the APC. The NEC meeting was attended by the party’s big wigs, including Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s president, and Yemi Osinbajo, his deputy who is aspiring alongside a dozen other contestants, to succeed Buhari, among other leaders of the party.
Aspirants to the office of the President are to pay the sum of N100 million for their nomination forms, while Nigerians aspiring for the gubernatorial ticket of the party, will be requested to pay half of the sum required of presidential aspirants, N50 million in their own case. Party members questing for the senatorial tickets of the APC, will remit N20 million to the coffers of the party, while those desirous of seats in the lower parliament, are expected to pay the sum of N10 million. Those who desire to fly the party’s flag in the state assembly elections, will be requested to pay N2 million.
Friday March 18, 2022, the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party, (PDP), had rolled out the subscription fees for all levels of aspirants to various elective offices. And the window for the sale of the forms was kept open for over a month, closing Friday April 22. Whereas prospective presidential candidates were required to pay N40 million for their expression of interest and nomination forms, aspiring governors were levied N21 million. Prospective senators and house of representatives members, were requested to subscribe with N3.5 million and N2.5 million, respectively. Aspirants into the various state constituencies at the state level, were taxed N600,000 only.
Interestingly, the four-month old national leadership of the PDP, has for the first time in a long while, made public the aggregate sums realised from the sale of forms in the current politicking cycle. Some preceding leaderships of the party were notorious for opacity and lack of accountability in their record-keeping and operations. The PDP has indeed been the butt of taunts and derision by the APC for the non-completion of its purpose-conceived national headquarters for, for which an appeal fund was launched in the past and sumptuous sums realised, without a revisit of the project. The Iyorchia Ayu-led NEC of the party in a rare and uncommon display of transparency, however, recently announced that monies in excess of a whopping N9 billion, have thus far been realized from the sale of forms.
The Social Democratic Party, (SDP), which is positioning itself as a possible fallback for potential elective office aspirants, has equally set the fees for its expression of interest and nomination forms, en route to the 2023 polls. Presidential nomination documents are obtainable at N35 million; governorship aspirants are to pay N16 million, while senatorial contenders will pay N3 million. Contestants for the lower national parliament will pick up their forms for N1.7 million, while prospective aspirants for state assembly seats, are to pay N500,000 only.
Back in December 2014, a few months before the general elections of 2015, the APC set its presidential nomination forms at N27 million. Buhari, Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria’s enigmatic former vice president; Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, a two-term governor of Kano State; Rochas Okorocha, also a two-term governor in Imo State and Sam Nda-Isaiah (may his soul rest in peace), a newspaper publisher, were contenders for that ticket. The cost of the forms were perceived too expensive for Buhari at the time. He had built a public profile over time, of a modest, austere and frugal personality, who could possibly, not muster the resources for such an “expensive” ticket. His media managers threw a spin around the subject then, proffering that Buhari actually obtained a bank loan to pay for the forms! How very ingenious!!
In September 2018, a phoney “National Consolidation Ambassadors Network,” (NCAN), led by one Sanusi Musa, procured the presidential expression of interest and nomination forms for N45 million, ahead of Buhari’s second term election the following year. The group advanced that it raised the sum from contributions polled from supporters and admirers of the President. The gesture they said, was “in appreciation of Buhari’s achievements since he assumed office.” Buhari was subsequently adopted as sole aspirant and candidate, by consensus, by his party.
Buhari postured like a “born again” democrat when Nigerians finally gave him a chance as their overlord in 2015, after three earlier failed attempts. He was tearful when he addressed his supporters after his third electoral fiasco in 2011, swearing he would never seek the presidency anymore. His eventual ascent to the position, fuelled hope, promise and optimism in the polity. The pseudo- *talakawa* facade of his public portraiture, engendered palpable expectations. This was accentuated by the tepid testimonial of his predecessor, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Nigeria’s long expected messiah and liberator had come, at last, it seemed.
And exactly what has been the performance evaluation report of the Buhari-led APC administration seven years down the line? What has informed its subsisting puffiness, which in turn has fuelled the 300% hike in the cost of application forms into various political offices, between 2014 and the present? How well has the nation’s incumbent leadership fulfilled its electoral promises and pledges, within its constitutionally allowed two terms of four years, thus far? How well have the lives and wellbeing of the average Nigerian been positively impacted by this government?
A peek into the balance sheet of the APC, reveals bottomless deficits and lacunas, which stand in total contrast to its highfalutin pre-election promises of 2015. The security situation across the country has become a hydra-headed ogre. From the pre-2015 *Boko Haram* insurgency in the nation’s north east, every geopolitical zone in the country is contending with some security challenge or the other. Banditry and kidnapping have virtually overrun the north west, spilling into parts of the north central. In the course of a recent official visit to Sokoto State, Buhari himself confessed he didn’t know the profundity of the security challenges of the zone.
The vagrants in emboldened ruthlessness, recently attacked a commuter train in motion, within the geographical space of Kaduna State, killing many innocent travellers, and abducting several others, in expectation of ransoms by families and government. Herdsmen have serially plodded carefree, through farmlands in the north central, fuelling bloody confrontations with farmers. The international community was alarmed at a live coverage by the US-based Cable Network News, (CNN), early 2019, of the mass internment of over 70 victims of herdsmen’s belligerence, in Benue State, to underscore the herdsmen’s menace.
Road travel has become a mortally dangerous venture across the country, no thanks to the blossoming kidnapping industry in the land. In bold-faced derision of the phenomenally lax, maybe nonexistent security apparatus in the country, bandits brazenly mount sentry on our so-called highways and expressway, pleasurably harvesting hapless victims from their vehicles. Some are literally executed to the crimson delight of the perverts, women get raped, others get dragged through the thickets of labyrinthine forests. Hitherto unheard ritualistic practices, bordering on the dissection of innocent victims and harvesting of vital human organs, have become the vogue in a depressing milieu, which has accentuated a get-rich-quick desire among sections of the people.
Terror also reigns in parts of the country’s south east, where hapless dignitaries have been targeted and killed, mafia-style, on the streets of Igboland. Outlawed outfits like the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, (IPOB), the Eastern Security Network, (ESN), and a host of faceless groups and gunmen, have made it pastime to spring surprise attacks on law-abiding citizens in communities. Homes of notable Igbo leaders have been serially set ablaze in inexplicable mindedness. Security personnel and outposts are also targets of these ruinous sub-humans. Cannibalism has been reported in the enclaves of some murderous gangs, stormed by intelligence and security personnel. Significantly, all of these are happening under the nostrils of a president who was once-upon-a-time an army general.
We have in place a government which swore in 2015, to arrest the floundering electricity situation within six months. It has been the shameless job of the same regime in recent weeks, however, to announce the serial collapse of the nation’s electricity grid. The nation today in the main, runs on alternate power sources, mostly oiled by diesel fuel. The price of this product, used to power diesel generators, recently skyrocketed by 150% from the previous rate of N340 per litre, to well over N700 for the same quantity.
The Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, (NBS), a few days back, announced an 83% increment in the price of cooking gas. A petrol scarcity, triggered by the importation of adulterated quantities of the fuel, has only begun to abate, after several weeks of winding queues on the streets of the nation’s cities and night vigils by our people in fuel stations. The naira has continued its free cascade all through the Buhari years, exchanging for nearly N600 to one US dollar, in recent days. Inflationary trends are sky high, flattening the erstwhile haughtiness of presumptuous wads and bales of naira notes, in the unsmiling marketplace.
APC’s ongoing auctioneering of its expression of interest and nomination forms, its imposition of treacherous and intolerable rates on the subscription forms for intending aspirants, is a pertinent reminder of the traditional Yoruba song: *Bamu, bamu la yo/Bamu ba la yo/Awa o mo pe ebi n’pa enikankan/Bamu bamu la yo.* This translates as: “We’ve feted ourselves and had our fill. We are unaware that anyone is famished.” We have emplaced leaders who have not only ravaged our commonwealth, they have literally erected barricades to the desires and ambitions of the mass of the people. Let him stand up to be recognised, that public officer including the president, whose publicly stated remuneration can fund the recently enunciated tariffs of the APC expression of interest and nomination forms. It has been suggested that the president’s salary for four years is N57 million. How many private aspirants to the nation’s top job, can aggregate twice this sum, in the current economy?
Unconsciously, the APC has only formally issued an evaluation on itself, about the magnitude of the degeneration of the socioconomy, under its watch. Simply put, the party certifies that a minimum inflation of 300% has been experienced by the economy in the last seven years, if its presidential nomination forms, have quadrupled from N27 million in 2015, to N100 million in 2022. Yes, the party has just told Nigerians, that ascension to elective office in Nigeria, is the exclusive preserve of the nouveau riche. Nigerians have also been taught a new trick, to cultivate a grabbist appetite, a desire for voluptuous consumptiveness, whenever they find themselves in public office. It behoves on Nigerians to choose to continue the *follow follow* behind the special purpose vehicle, (SPV), in which its present overlords rose to power, which has inflicted unfathomable, multidimensional pain, discomfort and agony on them. The onus is on them, to embrace an alternative vessel which will assuage their angst, anger and agonies, post-2023.
Olusunle, PhD, poet, journalist, author and scholar, is a Member of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, (NGE).
Opinion
The Labour strike and FG’S Inertia – The way forward

By Prof. Mike A. A. Ozekhom, SAN, CON , OFR, FCIArb, LL.M, Ph.D, LL.D, D.Litt, D.SC, DA, DHL
Labour has literally grounded Nigeria – from airports, hospitals, tertiary institutions, to electricity which has plunged the biggest black nation on earth into total darkness. I am in full, complete and total support of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress’ (TUC)’s current national strike for upward review of the FG’s proposed minimum wage of N60,000 per month. NLC and TUC had also demanded that the government reverses the increase in electricity tariff to N65/KWH. When talks broke down with none of the parties shifting grounds, Labour commenced a strike action on the midnight of Sunday 2nd June, 2024. FG’s proposed meagre salary is certainly not a living wage in today’s Nigeria. At the current parallel market exchange rate of N1,470 to one dollar, the wage being conceded by the Federal Government to labour is a mere $40.82 per month (N60,000), while the NLC and TUC are asking for a whooping N615,500 per month.
By way of comparative analysis with some other countries globally, the monthly minimum wage in the United States is US$1,160 ( N1,705,200); UK £1,376 (N2,528,950); Canada 2,464 CAD (N2,710,400); France £1,539.42 (N2,847,927); Ghana GHC 2,904 (N292,548.96) Rwanda RWF 56,668 (N64,602); South Africa R4,067.2 – R4,412.8 (N322,406.944 – N349,802.656); Botswana P1,168 (N122,056); Germany £1,985.6 (N3,673,360) Australia AUD3531.2 (N 3,490,414.64); Kenya is KES15,201 (N172,683.36). In UAE, there is no general minimum wage as it differs from profession to profession. However, for skilled Labourers AED 5,000 (N2,019,435); people with University degrees AED12,000 (N4,846,644); qualified technicians AED 7,000 (N2,827,209); South Korea is 2,010,580 Won (N2,161,574.558). China differs from city to city. However, Shanghai is RMB 2,690 per month (N551,181) and Heilongjiang RMB 1,450 (N 297,105). Singapore does not prescribe a general minimum wage for all its workers. However, the minimum Singaporean wage is averaged at 6,792SGD/Month = N7,464,408).
Even though Rwanda and Botswana’s minimum wage per month which is RWF 56,668 (N64,602) and P1,168 (N122,056), respectively, appears meagre, the two countries have since put in place social services that cushion the masses’ suffering and put them on a developmental path. Imdeed, they are two of the fastest growing economies not only in Africa, but also in the world. We do not have such in Nigeria. Nigeria is perhaps the only country in the world that brazenly defies Isaac Newton’s Law of Motion to the effect that “what goes up must come down”. In Nigeria, once prices of good go up, they never come down.
Are these countries and us not living on the same Planet earth? We are, of course.
With the present spirally inflation, N60,000 cannot even buy one bag of rice which today sells for between N80,000 and N120,000 depending on the grade and quality.
What is the way forward from this FG-Labour face-off and stalemate? Part of the solution lies in steering a middle course between labour’s N615,500 per month demand and the FG’s proposal of N60,000 per month. This is more so having regard to the impossibility of the private sector, especially small scale businesses and private professions, having the capacity and economic wherewithal to pay such exorbitant wage. Another solution lies in public office holders making deliberate sacrifices in the midst of public angst and disenchantment by cutting down their ostentatiously vulgar lifestyle of ugly display of opulence and their sheer exhibitionism of wealth in mindless convoys of vehicles in the midst of grinding poverty and wretchedness of the masses. The Nigerian people are not happy at all. Anyone who advises the government to the contrary is nothing but a fawner, bootlicker, ego masseur, toady flatterer and clapper.
Opinion
Rivers political crisis: Fubara raves as Wike likely retreats (5)

By Ehichioya Ezomon
Has the political heat in Rivers State simmered in the past week to suggest perhaps – just perhaps – that conventional wisdom has taken hold of the dramatis personae in the crisis to pull back from the precipice they’ve pushed the state in the last eight months?
There’s nothing on the ground to suggest otherwise, even as Governor Siminalayi Fubara and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Chief Nyesom Wike, played their brand of politics at separate locations, trying to undo each other in showcasing achievements in their official jurisdictions, to mark one-year in the saddles in Rivers and Abuja, respectively.
Amid “all the distractions from those that want to draw Rivers State backward,” Fubara invited prominent persons from within and outside Rivers – including Abia State Governor Alex Otti of the rival Labour Party (LP), and former Rivers Governor Peter Odili – to launch projects he “executed in record time, and with full payments to the contractors” – an obvious dig at Wike for allegedly failing to pay contractors for their services.
As is the routine in Rivers governance, especially since the Wike’s helm, Fubara, using his “State of the State” address to render account of his one-year stewardship, revealed the “huge debts to contractors” that Wike left behind for his government.
At the Dr. Obi Wali International Conference Centre in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, May 29, Fubara said his administration “inherited 34 uncompleted projects, valued at over N225.279bn in 13 local government areas of the state,” adding that the contractors, who executed the 34 projects, have come to him for payments.
Fubara stated that though he inherited a state, “whose economy was on a declining trajectory despite its growth potential,” his government has changed the narrative for the better by “increasing astronomically internally-generated revenue from N12 billion to between N17 billion in off-peak periods and N28 billion during the peak months.”
“Our liberalized business-friendly economic policies and programmes are boosting confidence and attracting local and international investors and investments into the State, judging by the expression of interest offers we receive every month.” Fubara said.
“We have kept our taxes low, frozen the imposing of taxes on small businesses across the State, and increased the ease of doing business by eliminating bureaucratic bottlenecks. No request for the signing of a certificate of occupancy (CoO) remains in my office beyond two days, except if I am otherwise engaged beyond two days or out of town.
“We have established a N4 billion matching fund with the Bank of Industry (BOI), to support existing and new micro, small, and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs) to grow their businesses to drive economic growth and create jobs and wealth for citizens. Over 3,000 citizens and residents have applied to access this loan to fund their businesses at a single-digit interest rate, and a repayment period of up to five years.”
Commissioning the completed projects – mostly inherited from the Wike administration (2015-2023) – the invited guests heaped praises on Fubara, not only for achieving commendable strides within a short time, but also for “liberating Rivers State” from Wike’s stranglehold – the same Wike that some of the invitees had praised to the heavens barely a year ago.
For instance, Dr Odili, an erstwhile ally of Wike, noted that Fubara “has taken full control of governance in the State,” stressing that the governor is “focusing on the people” in line with his chosen mantra: ‘People First’. It’s on Saturday, May 25, at the inauguration of the dualised Omoku-Egbema road in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni local government area (ONELGA) of the state.
An elated Odili even predicted a seamless second-term election for Fubara in 2027, and urged him to remain focused on the people, giving succour to the less-privileged and hope to those who do not have anyone to help them go through life’s challenges.
“I can tell our people that the next election is very far, but what the Governor has done so far, is enough to secure the support of Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area going forward,” Odili said. “Thank you, Your Excellency, because the greatest assets of the State remain the people, not oil and gas.
“The people of Rivers are behind you, rallying support for you because they trust you, believing in what you say and convinced that you mean whatever you say,” Odili said, adding, “I want to agree with you that the sky would become the takeoff point of your administration.”
Relatedly in Abuja, it’s Wike’s days in the sky. Though he didn’t have the luxury of throwing brickbats at Fubara – and there’s no surrogates to do same for him – Wike had the rare privilege of enlisting President Bola Tinubu to launch some of the projects that were “abandoned for decades,” and received applause from Tinubu for returning and restoring Abuja’s Master Plan, and transforming the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
On Tuesday, May 28, at the commissioning of the Southern Parkway, which Wike proclaimed as “Bola Ahmed Tinubu Way” – a crucial infrastructure project that’s dormant for 13 years before Wike’s intervention – the President described the minister’s vision as “inspiring many and yielding remarkable results in the FCT.”
Tinubu said: “Barr Nyesom Wike, ‘Mr. Project,’ thank you for giving us this home and for your sincere commitment to shared values. Your revolutionary vision is inspiring many and yielding remarkable results in the FCT.”
Highlighting the significance of the road, the President said, “The Southern Parkway not only connects vital areas within the FCT, but also symbolises our collective aspirations for connectivity, ease of livelihood, and progress. This road will enhance mobility, ease traffic congestion, and spur economic development for residents and visitors alike.
“Infrastructure is an enabler of jobs, economic growth, and prosperity. We are committed to building a world-class capital city, and the completion of this road is a testament to that commitment. Making our citizens the central focus of our development is crucial for Nigeria’s success,” Tinubu stated.
Earlier, Wike noted: “This landmark project is the first amongst nine visionary projects scheduled for commissioning by Mr. President in the coming days. It represents a significant milestone in our collective efforts to enhance the infrastructure and livability of our great capital and her inhabitants.
“As we mark the first year of your transformative leadership, Mr. President, this event underscores our shared commitment to progress, innovation, and the enduring prosperity of Nigeria.”
Yet, the make-for-the-cameras pomp and ceremony, razzmatazz, accolades, hand-pumping and backslapping by politicians in Port Harcourt and Abuja are but a temporary relief or diversion to mask the “real politic” in Rivers, where Governor Fubara’s fighting the battle of his life to cage Chief Wike, and save his governorship and political career heading into the 2027 General Election.
The fourth installment of this article on Monday, May 27, 2024, examined two strategies that Fubara could adopt to handle Wike and his sacked loyal members of the Rivers Assembly, and local council chairmen, whose tenure ends in June 2024, but have vowed to remain in office until “elected officials” were installed in the Rivers local councils. Below’s a recap:
First, Fubara could evict the lawmakers from the Rivers State House of Assembly Residential Quarters in Port Harcourt – where they and their families domicile, and use as a legislative chamber – to deny them the venue and avenue to make laws and/or plot his impeachment.
Second, Fubara could copy his counterparts, and withhold the lawmakers’ emoluments, and allocations to the legislature – as he’s allegedly done to the April 2024 allocations to the councils – to checkmate the legislators, whose seats have lately been redeclared “vacant” by a Rivers High Court.
Let’s now proceed to interrogate the remaining measures, beginning with the Third, as follows: When push comes to shove, Fubara could muscle the pro-Wike lawmakers by physical attacks on them, their homes and businesses, the aim being to overraw, and hound them, to sabotage their plans to make his government ungovernable, and pave the way for his impeachment – the aim of the lawmakers from onset of the Rivers crisis.
Recall Fubara’s declaration about the lawmakers early in 2024: “I think it has gotten to a time when I need to make a statement on this thing, so that they (lawmakers) understand that they are not existing. Their existence and whatever they have been doing is because I allowed them to do so. If I don’t recognise them, they are nowhere. That is the truth.
“I can say here, with all amount of boldness, I have never called any police man anywhere to go and harass anybody. I have never gone anywhere to ask anybody to do anything against anybody.
“Even when I have all the instruments of State powers, I have shown restraint, I have acted as a big brother in the course of this crisis. I have not acted like a young man that may want the house to be destroyed but, I have behaved like a mature young man that I am.
“This is because I know that no meaningful development will be achieved in an atmosphere of crisis. And because our intention for Rivers State is to build on the foundation that had been laid by our past leaders, it will be wrong for me to take the path of promoting crisis.”
Interpreted, the pro-Wike lawmakers – already in the lurch over series of court rulings sacking and re-sacking them, and voiding all legislative actions they took in the course of the Rivers crisis – shouldn’t underrate Fubara’s powers and resolve – if pushed against the wall – to roar like the lion, attack like the hyena and bite like the crocodile!
Barring any “political earthquake” this week in the Rivers crisis, the remaining measures Fubara could deploy to arrest Wike’s alleged hegemonic hold on Rivers State will be interrogated in the next installment of this running header!
- Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria
Sent from my iPad. Ehichioya
Ezomon.
Opinion
Nemesis as a short distance runner

By Tunde Olusunle
When he flung Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, (SLS) out of the window of the Emir’s palace in Kano four years ago, Abdullahi Ganduje would have least imagined what is playing out today. Ganduje was the “Lord of the Manor” in Kano State, the all-powerful chief executive. Recall video clips of Ganduje allegedly stuffing wads and packs of crisp, mint-fresh dollar bills into the bottomless pocket of his babanriga ahead of the 2019 general elections. They were reportedly gifted to him by some contractor ally of the erstwhile Kano governor who was repaying a good turn. Graphic and unassailable as that short motion picture was, former President Muhammadu Buhari who rode into office on the camelback of now suspect integrity in 2015, volunteered a baffling defence for Ganduje. He swore Ganduje was most probably participating in a Kannywood movie, the way the film industry up North is described. Buhari who has never been known to operate a tablet, nay a notepad, suggested that advanced technology could actually simulate what we all saw in that short clip!
Ganduje was the prototype alagbara ma m’ero as we say in Yoruba. This interpretes as the “maximally muscular, minimally reasonable.” He fought a few other prominent Kano leaders during his heydays in Government House. Recall he carried his unabated squabbles with one of his predecessors, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso to the State House, Aso Villa, during the early weeks of the Bola Tinubu government. Told on one occasion that Kwankwaso was in a particular section of Aso Rock same time as he was in the complex, a vexed Ganduje said Kwankwaso should consider himself fortunate. He said he, Ganduje would have slapped Kwankwaso if he sighted him in the Villa! That would have caused a scene in Nigeria’s seat of power. I’m now just imagining how Tinubu would be trying to restrain Ganduje, in the forecourt of the office of the President, while Vice President Kashim Shettima will be pulling at Kwankwaso’s agbada in a bid to manage the situation.
Ganduje reportedly considered Sanusi too independent-minded and outspoken for a natural ruler. Sanusi was governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN), before being appointed Emir in 2014. He had always had a radical streak about him which culminated in his suspension as CBN head in 2014 for blowing the whistle on the theft of $20 Billion in accruals from crude oil sales. As Emir he considered aspects of the religious and cultural practices of his emirate repugnant. He opposed the “ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam” in some parts of northern Nigeria, which discouraged girl-child education, family planning, even inoculation against potential healthcare afflictions. He had reservations about the style of Ganduje as governor and didn’t put a veil over his dislike for the return of Ganduje to Government House in 2019.
He believed Ganduje shouldn’t have made it back if the poll was fairly and transparently conducted. March 9, 2020, Ganduje upended Sanusi. He was accused of negatively impacting the sanctity, culture, tradition, religion and prestige of the Kano emirate, and disrespecting the governor’s office. He was also alleged to have disposed of property belonging to the state and the misappropriated of the proceeds. It was a case of digging several manholes for a prey in a bid to ensure he falls into one of the several traps. He was summarily banished to Nasarawa State for effect. Sanusi sought reprieve in the courts which ruled it was an overkill to fling him to a remote community faraway from his family and more accustomed home in Lagos. Within a few days, Nasir El Rufai, Sanusi’s longstanding friend who was governor of Kaduna State, personally enforced the evacuation of Sanusi from Awe local government area in Nasarawa State.
For whatever his contributions were to the emergence of Tinubu as president after the 2023 polls, Ganduje believed he would be compensated with a ministerial slot in the former’s regime. Like Nyesom Wike, David Umahi, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, Atiku Bagudu, Simon Lalong, former governors of Rivers, Ebonyi, Jigawa, Kebbi and Plateau states, Ganduje dusted his curriculum vitae to pitch for a slot on Tinubu’s federal executive council. His five colleagues in the “2015 – 2019- 2023 class of governors” made the cut, not Ganduje. Tinubu spontaneously made him chairman of the All Progressives Congress, (APC], the vehicle which delivered him as president. Abdullahi Adamu his predecessor and former governor of Nasarawa State was, as has become standard practice in Nigeria’s notorious political rule book, schemed out and compelled to resign from office.
If Ganduje ever thought his chairmanship of the APC was going to be a walk in the park, he was thoroughly mistaken. Indeed, he’s grossed sufficient experience in his present office to know that there are sharp differences between wholesale insulation in Government House, and the inevitable overexposure of party leadership. Last April, a faction of the APC in Ganduje’s primary “Ganduje ward” in Dawakin Tofa local government area of his home state, Kano, suspended him from the party. Haladu Gwanjo, legal adviser of Ganduje’s ward led some party leaders to pronounce the suspension. They advocated the return of the national chairmanship of the APC to the north central zone, where Ganduje’s predecessor, Adamu, hails from. The young Turks canvassed due process in party administration, consistent with the “renewed hope” mantra of the APC. Ganduje made a hurried recourse to the law courts for momentary reprieve.
Thursday May 23, 2024, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was reinstated as Emir of Kano by Ganduje’s successor in Kano State, Abba Yusuf. His cousin and successor, Aminu Ado-Bayero, was unceremoniously removed from office. The splinter emirates created by Ganduje in his bid to whittle down Sanusi’s authority as prime monarch in Kano, were similarly dissolved. The edifice which Ganduje built four years ago was apparently built of straw and spittle. Governor Abba Yusuf is a product of the Kwankwasiya political tendency in Kano politics, a creation of Rabiu Kwankwaso. Those who know a little about Nigerian politics will recall that Kwankwaso’s emergence in our politics, predates the fourth republic. He was an ardent student of the talakawa political orientation, pioneered by the venerable Kano-born leader, Aminu Kano. Kwankwaso was Deputy Speaker in the House of Representatives of the Ibrahim Babangida political experimentation of 1992 to 1993.
Whereas the Kwankwasiya movement had long been entrenched, it was not until the run-up to the 2023 elections that Kwankwaso adopted a new platform, the Nigeria National People’s Party, (NNPP), on which he is espousing the populist philosophy of the Kwankwasiya brigade. Abba Yusuf rode to office on the back of this invention. It was the same way Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu the famous Biafran war lord, established the All Progressives Grand Alliance, (APGA) in Anambra State. The party has remained a force in the politics of the state and indeed the south east. It has produced three Anambra governors in succession, notably Peter Obi, Willie Obiano and the incumbent Chukwuma Soludo.
Abba Yusuf has made no pretences about his disdain for Ganduje and everything he represents. Much as some of Yusuf’s early actions in office were generally perceived as wasteful, he nonetheless brought down as many edifices in Kano as bore the imprimatur of Ganduje. The “Kano golden jubilee roundabout” built to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the creation of Kano State and structures built inside the filin sukuwa, (Kano race course), were hewn on Yusuf’s orders. The hajj camp which was reportedly bastardised by Ganduje who allegedly parcelled parts of it to his friends and associates was equally felled. There were suggestions that the value of the demolitions carried out by Yusuf could be in excess of N200Billion. Such is the anti-Ganduje sentiment in contemporary Kano State.
The way and manner the legacies of Abdullahi Ganduje are unravelling in Kano State should serve as a lesson to the shortsighted, incapable of seeing beyond the bridges of their nose. History is replete with the deconstruction of many leaders after their rulership and indeed keeps repeating itself in our sociopolitical experience. Those who are not circumspect, however, are too distracted by the allure and bliss of their immediate office, to think. They continue to drift, blunder and flounder, unmindful that time is their ultimate nemesis. Ganduje is just one year out of office, yet many of the decisions he made while in power for eight years are being unmade and thrown at his face like rotten tomatoes.
Until I joined him on the table he was seated at a wedding reception we both attended in Lagos a few weeks back, Rotimi Amaechi, governor of the oil-affluent Rivers State for eight years and Transportation Minister for another eight years was a lonely man. It turned out we flew back to Abuja on the same flight same evening after the event and sat not too far from each other. He opened the overhead locker atop his seat to bring out his luggage himself. Is anyone following the Yahaya Bello saga? He mindlessly trampled upon the hapless heads of his constituents in Kogi State for eight unbroken years? He left office last January and life has not been the same again. He has been declared wanted by at least one anti-graft agency. He will be arraigned in the rectangular, wood-panelled cubicle of the courtroom in a fortnight. A lesson for all.
Tunde Olusunle, PhD, is a Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA)
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