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The Atiku Abubakar you may not know

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By Tunde Olusunle

For those who may not know, Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria’s former Vice President and presidential flagbearer of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, (PDP), is an extremely organised character. He is a system’s person who is meticulous, painstaking and regulations-compliant. Ask those who know him closely, or have worked with him in the past. Ask Chris Mammah, (his former media adviser); Abdullahi Nyako, (his principal private secretary); Azu Ndukwe, (his longserving personal physician), or Olusola Akanmode, (his erstwhile chief of staff).

You may also ask Olusegun Ajuwon, (his former family physician) or Jide Adeniji, (his close associate). Both gentlemen had known Atiku many years preceding his emergence at the highest hierarchies of our contemporary democratic dispensation, back in the days in Yola. How about Andy Okolie, (subsisting head of Atiku’s secretariat) or Tokunbo Adeola, (one of his former aides), who continues to be in close contact with Atiku? I should also know a thing or two about his work regimen too, after being associated with him for two and half decades now. Atiku typically has his plans and itineraries, which define his local and international engagements, all pre-planned and worked out. Except of course for emergencies and save-our-soul situations, which may precipitate adjustments.

My first encounter with Atiku was back late 1998. Mammah who previously had a relationship with Atiku, had joined us in the publicity directorate of the “Obasanjo Presidential Campaign Organisation.” He had risen to be deputy editor in The Punch in the early 1990s, and branched out to float a news magazine, The Week. He received support and encouragement from Atiku, who was more or less the quiet proprietor of the publication. Onyema Ugochukwu, our revered senior professional colleague, was the director of publicity. I was also on the team as the “mobile component” of the department, ever present with Obasanjo as he travelled around the country cultivating delegates and supporters, ahead of the presidential primary, scheduled for early 1999. I took notes, filed news stories and wrote articles. Ugochukwu was the professional leader of the directorate and administrator as well.

It was, at that time, a fait accompli that Atiku would be the first governor of Adamawa State, in the fourth republic. Aside this, however, Atiku was be the new leader of the Peoples’ Democratic Movement, (PDM), a pan-Nigerian political organisation, established by Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, deputy to Obasanjo during his days as military head of state. Yar’Adua, elder brother to Umaru Yar’Adua, had rapidly metamorphosed into formidable politician and political force post-retirement from the military, whose pan-Nigerian political whirlstorm, threatened the military administrations of Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha, respectively. He died in controversial circumstances in incaceration, under Abacha’s watch.

Atiku, hitherto the deputy to Yar’Adua, was formally consecrated leader of the movement. Besides being governor-in-waiting for Adamawa State therefore, he was a force to be reckoned with in the emerging national political calculus. Mammah thought
Ugochukwu should meet Atiku formally and got him an appointment. I tagged along with them to the Victoria Island, Lagos home of the latter. We were well received by Atiku, famous for his public relations savvy, even as he ushered Ugochukwu into a private section for their short meeting. Ugochukwu would later share with me in the car and we drove back, that Atiku came forth to him as a “risk taker,” a daring person.
Following the January 1999 gubernatorial elections, Atiku was to become the rallying point of most of his governor colleagues. They deferred to him for guidance and mentorship.

We will yet discuss Atiku’s emergence as running mate to Obasanjo, and subsequently, the Vice President. Early in the life of the administration, however, Atiku swiftly demonstrated his capacity as a pragmatic problem-solver. Recognising his limitations in terms of the number of aides he could engage to work with him, he reached out to friendly governors to relieve him of the burden. His argument: “These people worked for us, they have been with us. We cannot throw them away, we will still need them.” Indeed, at the point his Principal, Obasanjo was in a bind about how to accommodate the pool of technocrats who assisted with the presidential project, Atiku it was who made a brilliant suggestion to the President, to the latter’s eternal relief.

Obasanjo had requested the National Assembly, to approve his appointment of 12 Special Advisers, which worked out at two per geopolitical zone. Having spontaneously filled the slots, however, Obasanjo still had several scholars and tested professionals, in the lurch. How were notable personalities like Ahmadu Ali, (a former Minister of Education under the military, then referred to as “federal commissioner”); Haroun Adamu, (political scientist and university scholar) and Stanley Macebuh, (distinguished journalist and scholar), to be incorporated into the emerging scheme? How about an Onyema Ugochukwu who was roundly criticised by his Igbo kinsmen for working for Obasanjo, when an Alex Ekwueme was also running? There were others like Ad’Obe Obe, (respected journalist and resource person); Babalola Borishade, (a professor of chemical engineering) among others.

Since Obasanjo didn’t require the parliament’s approval of aides like Special Assistants, (SAs) and Personal Assistants, (PAs), Atiku ingeniously reckoned that a new deck of adviser-level appointees could be created to take in deserving technocrats. Obasanjo bought the idea of having an aggregation of quality “Senior Special Assistants,” (SSAs). He had sound sleep once that was sorted out. It is a measure of the quality and capacity of many appointees within this pool and bracket, that they were serially detailed to higher responsibilities. Ahmadu Ali went on to become the National Chairman of the PDP; Borishade was upgraded Minister, while Ugochukwu was entrusted with the responsibility of pioneering the actualisation of Obasanjo’s pet project, the Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC).

Atiku shocked many when he took up the gauntlet to appear in person in an exclusive,ctop-notch Lagos nightclub, to meet regular Nigerians and answer inquiries about the administration which was just settling down, way back in 1999. This was several years before Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s publicised, pre-election visit in 2019, to the Afrika Shrine, a prominent events centre and address of Femi Anikulapo-Kuti, scion of the afrobeat exponent, Fela, in Lagos. The Niteshift Coliseum, hitherto the Numero Uno hub of entertainment and networking in Lagos, invited Obasanjo to its signature event, The Grand House Reception, (GHR). Before the date the event was to hold, however, Obasanjo had proceeded on a pre-scheduled foreign engagement. Atiku desired to make the point that his boss was not averse to attending the programme, but for his trip abroad. He volunteered to stand in for his principal. Did Ugochukwu perceive this side of Atiku when he suggested he was a “risk taker?”

Here was a Fulani man, a muslim, Nigeria’s second-in-command, obliging to participate in an event in a discotheque, supposedly! Mammah, Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo and I, erstwhile regulars at Niteshift, accompanied Atiku. Proprietor of the place, the self-styled Guv’nor, Ken Calebs-Olumhense, led the welcome party. Reuben Abati, yes, our same Abati of The Guardian, Thisday and Arise Television variously, my good friend, was the compere. Trust the crust and cream of the media and entertainment to be in attendance at such high tension gbedus, as such high octane events at the Coliseum were described. The Ray Ekpus, Yemi Ogunbiyis, Taiwo Obileyes, the younger Nduka Obaigbenas, Ohi Alegbes, Ide Eguabors, Ehi Brimahs, Seye Kehindes, Mayor Akinpelus and so on, were at the event.

Atiku sat through the questions posed to him at the Celebrity Interview, by the very excited and enthusiastic audience and answered them confidently, diligently, not losing his composure for a minute. He sat through the drill for well over an hour, to the unnerving distress of his protocol and security aides. In-house nightclub services proceeded side-by-side with the interactive session, lagers and liquors, wines and spirits making the rounds, before an unperturbed Atiku. He received a standing ovation after the official segment of the event, but the audience requested him to dance to one song before he exited!

You couldn’t but envy Atiku’s taste for quality, and his deliberate exertions in talent-hunting as an administrator. As a media professional myself who served in the Official Secretariat of the President, I was eternally envious at the content and quality of my professional colleagues in the Vice President’s wing of the State House. Onukaba, (holder of a doctorate), who just returned from his tour of duty as chief executive of the Daily Times, was SSA. Garba Shehu, (yes the same one who speaks for President Muhammadu Buhari) and Adeolu Akande, (now a professor and Chairman of the Board of the Nigerian Communications Commission, (NCC), were Special Assistants. Remarkably, both Shehu and Akande despite their privileged positions, have not lost touch with their friends and primary constituency. Shehu locates you in a function and comes over to exchange pleasantries and handshakes. Akande picks your call at the first dial, ever humble and unassuming, a true Yoruba omoluabi.

Chike Okolocha, (now a university professor) was speechwriter, while Andy Okolie, (who holds a doctorate), managed the VP’s paperwork. If you’ve noticed the ethno-religious imbalance in the incumbent government, you cannot but applaud the striking cosmopolitanism of Atiku’s official configuration. It complemented the prototype in the President’s section of the presidential villa. Both men tallied in their preference and recognition for the content of the vessel, not its colour. This is the enervating perspiration Atiku brings to governance and administration. Unfortunately, Atiku was serially misconstrued and misrepresented on this score, as being over-ambitious in setting up a personnel infrastructure which depth and diversity, which could almost run the media office of the United Nations, (UN)! The spin was: Why did he require such a formidable team, if he wasn’t thinking of upstaging his boss in anyway? Whisperers exacerbated tensions between both big men and here we are.

Atiku shocked me at midnight on Saturday March 30, 2005. It was a landmark birthday for me, and my friends had come from far and near to celebrate with me. Tivlumun Nyitse, (incumbent chief of staff to the Benue State governor); Segun Ilori, (an attorney and legal adviser to an energy firm), and Tunji Bamishigbin, (also an attorney and reputable film director), among others, were in town. We ended up in a pub in Abuja’s city centre, we had drinks and refreshments. In the music-filled din of the arena, I got a telephone call, well past midnight. I picked it up and the caller said I should hold on a second to speak with Turaki. “Turaki” was Atiku’s titular brand for decades, until his upgrade to Waziri just a few years back. I was astonished. “Tunde, congratulations on your milestone…” I was trying to explain that my location was noisy, and I wanted to step out, but he continued. “Never mind, Tunde, have fun. I’m happy for you. I wish you many happy returns of today. You will receive my congratulatory letter later this morning and something to ensure that the celebration continues!” That was the Number Two man in Nigeria straining his voice on phone just to wish me well.

Sunday March 5, 2017, Nigeria lost one of its finest journalists and plawrights, Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo. He died escaping from robbers by fleeing into the bush, only to be killed by a car which lost control, while escaping from the robbers, close to Akure in Ondo State. Upon hearing about the sad and unfortunate development, Atiku’s immediate concern was the education of Onukaba’s children. He knew my very close relationship with our departed friend and his family, and told me of his intention to set up an endowment fund, specifically for the education his kids: “You and your team are not to entertain shopping lists, Tunde. This is strictly about the education of Ojo’s children,” he admonished.

He would later inform me that he had in the past, helped out with the education of the children of friends and indeed people he barely knew, who passed on, midlife. Chike Chigbue, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, (SAN), a vibrant attorney and personal solicitor for Atiku, and Godwin Agbroko, a respected journalist who Atiku barely ever knew, featured on the list. Onukaba’s children were all pretty young, the eldest being 14 when he died. The youngest was just about a year old. Bimbo Daramola, a former federal parliamentarian and I collaborated to arrange a formal launch for the Endowment Fund. A “Board of Trustees” for the Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo Endowment Fund, was duly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission, (CAC) and I was appointed Chairman of the body.

Instructively, apart from his financial contribution to the Fund, which remains the biggest individual intervention, Atiku promised to grant full scholarships to any of Onukaba’s children who desired to study at the American University of Nigeria, (AUN), Yola, owned by him. Asuku Onukaba, who was 16 in 2019, applied for admission into the institution and met all the entry requirements. Atiku was away in Dubai and I reached him through his “mobile secretariat,” ably manned by Nyako and Okolie. On August 19, 2019, Atiku conveyed his approval of full scholarship for the young Onukaba, to study his desired Software Engineering programme. That date remains a landmark in the Onukaba family.

The typically thorough Atiku advised the President, (equivalent of Vice Chancellor) of the AUN at the time, Dawn Dekle, to liaise with me on the subject. Relevant university officials, notably Usman Isa of the admissions office were equally detailed to be in touch. Happily too, on ground at the AUN to provide fatherly cover for Asuku, was our friend and colleague, Dan Okereke, Director of Communications in the institution, who knew his late father well. We all kept communicating until Asuku safely arrived Yola, Tuesday August 27, 2019, with his stepmother, Maimunat Onukaba and were picked up by university officials. Asuku’s scholarship package as approved by Atiku was so comprehensive that it entitled him to a brand new laptop! The one he took along from home which he won during an inter-school competition, therefore, had to be returned.

Asuku resumes into 400 level later this month, gradually inching towards the completion of his degree programme. The Board of Trustees of the Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo Endowment Fund, didn’t go lounging in Atiku’s corridors or waiting forever for his return from his foreign trip, to make progress on the issue. All of these were resolved by the grace of technology. We were also dealing with an e-savvy personality, who even in old age, humbled himself to return to the classroom, to study for a masters degree in international relations from the Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom.

I won’t forget the genial, jovial side of Atiku. We were in his house one of those days and he invited us over to dinner table. Atiku’s charisma regularly keeps people around him. It was a buffet, and we all had to stand in a file while people took their rations, went round and returned to their seats. Atiku came in my direction en route to accessing his seat. Tried as I could, the access was still constrained. Looking at my face, he threw one at me: “Tunde, see how your big belle has taken up the whole space. You don’t want me to pass, abi?” The room erupted in raucous laughter!
And that is the Atiku Abubakar you just may not know.

Tunde Olusunle, PhD, poet, journalist, author and scholar, is a Member of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, (NGE).

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Opinion

The Labour strike and FG’S Inertia – The way forward

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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.

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Rivers political crisis: Fubara raves as Wike likely retreats (5)

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Wike, Fubara

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.

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Opinion

Nemesis as a short distance runner

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Mammoth crowd with Emir Sanusi in Kano Today after Juma'at prayer

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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