Things You Never Knew About Mike Adenuga, Nigeria’s Second Richest Man

If you mention Adenuga, and the next thing that comes to mind is Globacom (Global Communications). But is this well-fed African all about Glo? Worth a head-spinning $4.3 billion, Otunba (Dr.) Michael Adeniyi Agbolade Ishola Adenuga (Jnr) is the 2nd richest man in Nigeria, according to Forbes. That makes him the richest Yoruba on earth (I once wrote a piece on Deinde Fernandez but he has refused to disclose his assets).

This reclusive billionaire has one rule that no one can change: he will only get across to you when there is the need for it, but you cannot get across to him. And when he wants to get across to you, he does everything possible to track you down. Nobody in his office gets letters or invitation cards without earlier notice irrespective of where they originated from. You just can’t reach him, and if you work for a courier company, it is nearly-impossible for you to deliver a package to his office. You feel the swagger? That was just an intro, let’s roll!

-Although his roots are in Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun State, he was born in Ibadan, Oyo State on 29thApril, 1953. The Bull will turn 60 in about two months when his 682-paged biography Mike Adenuga: African Business Guru (written by award-winning Mike Awoyinfa & Dimgba Igwe) will be launched. Mike Adenuga was so big at birth that he was called John Bull in the hospital.

-His parents: Chief Michael Agbolade Adenuga Snr. was a school teacher while his mum Chief (Mrs.) Juliana Oyindamola Adenuga (nee Onashile of Okesopin, Ijebu Igbo) was a businesswoman. She got married at the age of 17, learnt sewing and succeeded greatly as a dressmaker. Well-educated, she was made the Iya Alaje of Ijebu-Igbo and the Yeye Oba of Ijebuland.

-He studied at the Ibadan Grammar School (IGS) before jetting out to the US to read Business Administration with a focus on Marketing. While at Ibadan, he was very impressed with the Cocoa House (then the tallest building in Africa) built by the Awolowo government. He dreamt of having such an edifice of his own one day, and today, we all know Mike Adenuga Towers. Located on Adeola Odeku Street, the 13-storey edifice which took him 13 years to erect dazzles with gold-on-granite finishing. You just can’t miss it! The first time I saw his building, I was mesmerized. It has a landing pad for a helicopter and was opened in 2004 by Atiku Abubakar. Now, don’t ask me if I want to build one too…lol! He also has a mansion in Ibadan and he named it ‘The Gold Digger’s Place’.

-The billionaire is a descendant of Pariola, a very wealthy and influential female trader born in the mid-19th century. Apart from being the ancestor of the Adenugas, Pariola would also produce the Adetonas, the family of the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona.

-Upon his birth, his father was so overjoyed at having another son that he named him after himself. His elder brother, Demola explained that he was not given the name because as at the time of his birth, the fad was to bear purely Nigerian names. Otunba was the last child so his father took the opportunity to name him after himself. He would later die in 1993 in a car accident and his son did a superlative re-burial for him in 2005 with one of the most expensive coffins on earth.

-While at IGS, he and his brother (Demola) were nicknamed ‘Ad Belly’ for their huge stature and protruding bellies. Both used to cross the Ogunpa River (which they called River Jordan) whenever they felt like sneaking out of school. They took the huge frame after their parents. Demola was more of his dad while Mike took everything, including his business skills, from his mum. As a child, and under the supervision of his mum, he hawked goat feed, and picked up the street wisdom that came with it.

-Although Mike was more fashionable and even introduced his elder brother to the latest wears and perfumes, he still had to seek his help when it came to academic matters.

-His mother had always been quite cautious about the adventurous and somewhat rascally nature of Mike. She really did not want him to go abroad to study & wanted him to join his brother who was studying biochemistry at the University of Ibadan. She reported him to a commissioner of police in Oyo State then but he encouraged Madam Juliana to let him go, perhaps, that was God’s plan for him. Worefa, his mind was made up. He was leaving Nigeria. And he left. When he also wanted to dabble into the very risky oil and gas sector and do what no other Nigerian had done before (drill oil), she made her fears known again thinking it was a senseless gamble. He calmed her down, and he would later announce to her excitedly: ‘Mama, we found oil!’ Today, his Conoil PLC is the largest indigenous oil production company in Nigeria operating six producing oil blocks in addition to owning ¼ of the Nigeria/Sao Tome Joint Development Zone Block 4, which has been proven to have almost one billion barrels of crude oil and about one trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Some people, like Dele Momodu, his mentee, believe Adenuga is actually the richest man in Africa. I must chip in here that in November 2011, 500 pensioners of Conoil engaged Adenuga in a tussle over unpaid pensions. #AneyeToto!

-There is something about Adenuga that caught my attention: he would never disobey his mother. The late matriarch had enormous influence over her son, and the only time he went against her directive was the oil business issue. Friends say that whenever there was any disagreement, just mention his mother’s name, and he would mellow down. Such was the degree of tremendous respect he has for his mother. #Iyaniwura.

-While studying in the 1970s, he had to survive and raise his school fees by working as a security man and a taxi driver, an extremely dangerous job for a blackman in the crime-ridden boroughs of New York -Staten Island, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens. His curiosity in Nigeria where a little Mike tugged the steering wheel with drivers amused them, and they taught him how to drive. This, he made use of as a means of survival. If you are thinking he drove those shiny yellow New York cabs, you are wrong. He drove an unregistered jalopy and had to ply areas where the police would not harass him. It was as a taxi driver that he met a man named Dele Giwa, who was also surviving as a cab driver. Giwa would later be blown out of existence in 1986 by Nigeria’s first parcel bomb. As a student in America, Adenuga suffered and laboured for months as he was not getting a kobo from home. He knew the consequences, faced the challenges and triumphed. He might not have finished schooling without his extra efforts. Did I tell you that he also worked as a waiter and a mortuary attendant in the US? Yes, he did. And by the time he came back to Nigeria then, he was with a bushy beard. #HustlingThins #IgboroORerin!

-As a student in North Western Oklahoma State University, the school slogan was ‘Ride With Pride’, and he would later transform it to become ‘Glo With Pride’, when he launched Globacom.

-After graduating, he headed straight for Naija, and without wasting any time, started utilizing all he learnt. He did not seek any paid employment but took the risky road of entrepreneurship. He took over the management of the family’s small sawmill in Ogun State and was also selling removable car stereos at the same time as he had noticed the problem caused by the rampant theft of car stereos. Civil servants awash with the Udoji Commission salary raise were buying cars but thieves would do away with the car stereos. With Adenuga’s stereos, people could then park their cars, detach the stereos and go to bed. Simple. And he made cool cash. If you want to make money too, look around you, find a pressing problem and create a much-needed solution.

-By the age of 22, he had delved into the business of commodities, general merchandise, construction, importation (of mainly sawmill equipment, tomato paste, wines, beer and textile materials (especially lace) made in Austria). Why is my mischievous mind thinking that good fabrics and chilled beer are integral components of an Ijebu owambe parry? Anyways, just saying…lol!

-Believe it or not, there was a time when Adenuga was so reclusive that it was nearly impossible for you to see even his picture in the newspapers. He even hired consultants to blank him out of the media and the general public. His daughter, Bella, corroborates this: “My dad has always been a kind of quiet person. It was Globacom that shot him into the limelight.”

-In one of his very rare interviews, he narrates how he met an Austrian businessman to Newswatch: “I went on a trip to New York and when I was coming back, I missed my flight, being on British Airways, so I had to fly Swiss Air and I sat next to the owner of one of the biggest lace manufacturing factories in Austria. So, we were talking and he got me interested in importing laces, and all sorts of things.” Okay, you know why Iyaniwura had to point that out to you? Learn to identify and utilize opportunities! Adenuga later reveals: “The secret of my success is hard work, God’s blessings and luck.”

-By 26, Michael ‘Aneye Toto’ Ishola was already a millionaire. Now, chill. At this point, some critics will take him up saying that he became fabulously wealthy by benefiting from the close and cosy links he had with Nigerian military dictators. Well, that’s not a rumour. Babangida’s oil minister, Professor Jubril Aminu came up with a policy to grant licenses to individuals and encourage private sector participation in oil exploration and exploitation. Otunba was one of the first beneficiaries of the Petroleum Act (MKO Abiola of Summit Oil was another). Upon getting his oil bloc prospecting license (OPL 113), Adenuga went straight to work in the South Western Niger Delta Region and in less than a year on 24th December, 1991, he struck oil in the shallow (offshore) waters of Ondo State in his first oil well (named Bella-1) becoming the first indigenous oil firm to do so. Other Nigerians could not take the risk, and had sold off their licences to expatriates. An incorrigible risk taker, he had hired an oil rig for $5 million BUT he recruited only Nigerian oil specialists to do the job (he has always been a patriotic man). Since then, he has never looked back. The first seed money that he used to start business was given to him by his late mum. It was a modest sum but he used it judiciously. #Iyaniwura.

-At a point, he acted as a private middleman who got term-based oil contracts from the Nigerian government in the name of Tradoil & Crownway Enterprises while the UK-based Arcadia would handle the fuel cargoes. He also built military barracks (and the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna with Lt. General Ipoola Alani Akinrinade’s younger brother, Femi. Akinrinade, a former Chief of Army Staff, was the General Officer Commanding, I Infantry Division, 1975-1979 at the time), supplied the armed forces and the police with weapons while also working as a distributor for Coca Cola, Nigerian Breweries, Cadbury, Guinness and Continental Breweries. He was also a dealer for Peugeot Automobile of France. For him, it was to ‘go into anything that gives me profit.’

-With time, his fortune grew so amazingly that he was buoyant enough to sink over $100 million into his own oil prospecting and drilling company, the Consolidated Oil Company. This company, founded in 1990, is the very first indigenous Nigerian company to discover, drill and produce oil. And you know na, we are not talking of palm oil here….lol! Thus, his fortunes are based on a tripod: telecommunications, oil & gas and banking. He is also into real estate, food manufacturing & processing (b*tter, cocoa cake and vegetable oil), domestic & international market activities and aviation (not many know he is the owner of Southern Airlines).

-Under the General Sani Abacha regime, his Communication Investment Limited (CIL) was given a conditional licence and frequencies to operate. The licence has earlier been given to the Chagouris of Lebanon. Obasanjo would later cancel all the approvals given to him by previous governments. But a relentless fighter that he is, he told his men: “Let’s go into this thing. Let us forget going to court and all that. Let’s go under the new system and fight for the licence. We must fight with everything we have to get the licence.” When he made a second deposit of $20 million for Globacom licence, many scoffed at him and he was told to stop chasing shadows. His brother, Demola says of those dark days: “Mike lost $20 million, but he never lost hope. He never gave up hope. He kept hope alive; that is one thing about my brother: he is an eternal optimist. Something kept propelling him not to give up on the matter. He pursued it and he eventually got the licence.”

-For those who believe he is a proxy for IBB, sorry to burst your bubble. They’ve been friends since the 1980s and have remained so till date. Here is what the top-of-the-hill-residing, gap-toothed General has to say about the widespread rumour: “We meet, we talk, like the good friends that we are. But I also have one policy that governs my relationship with friends that are very close to me. Whether it was M.K.O Abiola, whether it is Mike Adenuga, and probably five or so others, I don’t get involved in their businesses. You can go and ask them.” The General went ahead to describe Mike Adenuga as a very loyal and reliable friend, and one who never forgets favours, unlike many who abandoned him when he left power in August 1993. He states: “When I left office, a few of my friends honestly stood by me and I remain eternally grateful to them. Mike is one of them. Another man who doesn’t want his name mentioned any time I speak on this issue is one of them. What I like about them is this: they appreciate whatever little effort you did for them and so, they don’t abandon you. Some people will tell you, ‘ah, when I was in the office, a lot of people used to come to me, now I left office, you don’t find anybody.’ This is the Nigerian factor for you. But these characters remain close and I honestly remain grateful.”

-When his mother died, he gave her a most befitting burial in Ijebu Igbo, Ogun State on 13th September, 2005. A carnival-like ceremony, it was stormed by former President Obasanjo who buzzed in in a helicopter (that man and effizy sha…lol!) and when he entered the church, no one else was allowed to come in except Titi Atiku Abubakar (wife of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and WOTCLEF Founder). Other guests: Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola. Governors of Lagos, Ogun, Taraba, Bauchi, Niger, Kaduna and Imo also gave a new definition to the Yoruba parlance of olowonshoreolowo (the wealthy always mingle with one another). Even IBB showed up at the wake-keeping. But the Awujale of Ijebuland, who is the Paramount Ruler of Ijebus was not able to attend because it is against the tradition for the Kabiyesi to lay his eyes on a corpse. His staff of office was placed on her hearse. Encased in a casket made of gold, Mama Adenuga was laid to rest in a marble grave.

-He faced a lot of troubles in the hands of fellow Ogun dude and former Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. In his efforts aimed at procuring a telecommunications licence, he was thoroughly humiliated by Baba Iyabo (some felt he was being persecuted because of his ally, Atiku Abubakar who was then slugging it out with OBJ). The following scenario occurred in Aso Rock Presidential Villa when Obasanjo still held sway: “Okay, I would show you that I am playing God and kuku (ultimately) destroy you once and for all” said Obasanjo; a threat to which the frightened and weather-beaten Adenuga replied with his knees crawling on the floors in Aso Rock and his palms stretched full length in the charged, steamy atmosphere: “Sir, I am your son. Please don’t be angry with me.” Obasanjo: “I shouldn’t be angry? Why shouldn’t I be angry? See you now. You would come and prostrate and when you leave here, tomorrow, you would go and be publishing your adverts, abusing me. No be so (Is that not true)?” Adenuga lost $20 million (N3.2 billion) when he was denied the license not even after he had donated a multi-million naira library to Obasanjo’s Bells University of Technology in Ota. But he didn’t give up. He applied again. He would send people to beg OBJ and on occasions, he would prostrate to the Ebora of Owu as a Yorubaman but the former president would stare into his eyes and thunder: ‘I would not give you my licence!’ He would then mutter some curses. But Adenuga was undettered. He was always full of hope and optimism (that is important, I tell you). At another point, IBB tried to intervene on the issue of Adenuga’s licence with Obasanjo. The Commander-in-Chief was enraged, and accused IBB of using Adenuga as a screen to protect his vested interests. IBB denied the allegations and told Obasanjo that the so-called security report on the issue was a figment of the imagination of his EFCC boys. Obasanjo practically ordered IBB out of Aso Rock, and shouted at him as he left ‘‘Get out, just go!’ ‘. Still in his yet to be released biography, he talks of how Obasanjo demanded a sum of £ 1 million donation (N250 million) from him for his Presidential Library Project. Adenuga had no choice but to drop a quarter of a billion naira as the Chief Launcher. In the book, the scenario was described thus: “Adenuga had gone to Abeokuta with Dr. Yemi Ogunbuyi for the occasion and the duo had decided to go to greet Baba first. But they were intercepted by a man in a white Kaftan robe who turned out to be Obasanjo’s cousin. The cousin politely said Baba wanted to know how much Adenuga was going to donate. Incidentally, Adenuga had raised this question with Ogunbiyi on their way coming. ‘How much do you think I should donate to this thing?’
‘I don’t really know may be N100 million,’ Ogunbiyi suggested.
‘That’s exactly how much I have in mind,’ declared Adenuga.
“Now the question from Obasanjo’s emissary was curious and unusual, he thought, but nevertheless, he had no choice but to inform the man that he planned to donate N100 million, thinking the man would be very impressed. Wrong. Obasanjo’s cousin brought out a piece of paper and handed it to Adenuga. ‘Sorry sir, but Baba says you can’t donate less than that amount,’ the man had written.
“Inside the piece of paper was the sum of N250 million scribbled in Obasanjo’s handwriting with a red pen. ‘No problem,’ Adenuga told the emissary, wondering if others were subjected to the same experience, but also knowing he dared not ask anybody, lest he be betrayed. He later showed Ogunbiyi the piece of paper. ‘I’ll give anything he wants,’ he told Ogunbiyi. ‘I’m afraid of that man o. N250 million is about the price of an oil well,’ Adenuga added.”

-Never far from the corridors of power, he was arrested in July 2006 by operatives of the Economic & Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Mobile policemen and security agents numbering about 70 were mobilized to arrest the titanic mogul. In a commando style reminiscent of the US Navy Seals, they stormed his Lagos residence, pulled down his gate with hammers, generators, welding equipment and other heavy machinery, and flew him to Abuja. He was questioned for some hours before he was released, then he visited the Aso Villa. What actually transpired that day, only Chineke knows but he was so traumatized and when reports were coming that he may be rearrested and prosecuted, he left for London and did not come back until a new government was in place. He has had his brushes with the law, and at a time, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) sealed up his oil companies for allegedly evading taxes of about N89 billion. Some believe he, alongside other tycoons are stifling Nigeria’s development while some people sharply disagree highlighting his contributions to the economy. What do you think?

-At this juncture, it is worthy of mention that Otunba Adenuga is one of the most heavily-guarded billionaires in Nigeria. Some reports indicate that he is actually the most heavily-guarded. You will never miss his retinue of fierce-looking bodyguards. He has been described as extremely paranoid about his personal security but you will know one reason for this later on. A man who guards his privacy jealously, his Victoria Island office is underground and he was very rarely seen in public until recently. His biographers say of him: “Yes, Mike Adenuga is more of a spirit. A spirit who is hardly seen in public, who hardly grants media interviews, who jealously and zealously guards his privacy, who shuns publicity of any type and who even in the past, paid PR and media consultants full-time to ensure that stories about him and his pictures didn’t appear in the media at all… For Mike Adenuga, elusiveness is the word. He is the “Invisible Man” of fiction turned real. A man who’s always playing hard to get. Now you see him, now you don’t. The fact is you don’t even see him at all…”

Still on his elusiveness, Soyinka narrates his experience, calling him a magician: “I can’t remember when last I saw him or spoke to him. Adenuga has a vanishing habit. He would just disappear.” At a time, there was supposed to be a meeting with the Bull in London but WS never saw him and he left in anger. Soyinka continues: “All I know is that I see Globacom advertisement everywhere. I also know that Adenuga supports sports, especially football. I wish he could do more for the arts. I have sat him down once. I told him: ‘Listen, you have the money and the enthusiasm, but we have the ideas. Let’s sit down and work together and let us do more for the arts. He would agree, but I said, he would then disappear. He has this vanishing habit. My wish for Globacom is that they would do more for the arts. I feel envious about the amount Globacom is committing to sports. I wish I could get his attention sufficiently to do even half for the arts. If Adenuga is reading this, he should stop running away. He should come and sit down with me so that we can do something for the arts.” Otunba later apologized (sweet-mouth..lol) and they made up.

-Stanley Ebochukwu, Editor-in-Chief of BusinessDay (I like that paper die! ) says: Adenuga is somebody one would call an enigma. You can’t see him, if you want to see him. If you call him, he can’t take your calls. But if he wants to see you, he would see you. And if he wants you to see him, you would see him. Most businessmen tend to behave that way, because of the fear of people.

-But if you think that is all about his disappearing acts, listen to what his fellow billionaire and Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote has to say about him: “I haven’t seen Mike for a very long time. I don’t have his number. I don’t know where to reach him. Even if you put a gun on my head and you ask me to lead you to Mike, I will never be able to. He is just nowhere to be found. Mike is a mystery to me.” The most surprising thing about this is that both of them have their residences on the same lane in Victoria Island. Amazing!

-The Evil Genius and Nigeria’s only military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida had this to say about the suave and debonair Ijebu billionaire: ‘One thing stands out uniquely about it (Globacom). It is the brain of a Nigerian. He is really trying to make it the leading telecommunication outfit, not only in Nigeria, but also in Africa. Adenuga is a very serious businessman. And he is not a flamboyant who goes to sleep, folds his arms, saying business is doing well. No, he works very hard. I think he is worthy of emulation.’ #Gbam! Una don hear am with your ears. Nobel Laureate and also fellow Ogunite (abi how I go call am na…lol!), Wole Akinwande Soyinka also gave his full support: ‘He is a young entrepreneur I have come to admire. I like his drive. He sought me out when he was to begin his Globacom business. I thereafter made enquiries about him. I was actually told by somebody whose judgment I respect that Mike Adenuga is somebody with enormous drive and ideas. And he said I should give him as much help as I could. I checked him out and I discovered that he likes challenges. He has the drive to deliver.’
His elder brother, Otunba Demola Adenuga says of him:
“Mike is the star of the family. Not just our family but the whole of Nigeria. I see him as my benefactor. I should not be ashamed to say that. He has helped me in all facets of life.”

-In another piece written by Mike Awoyinfa and Dimgba Igwe (I say the finest authorities on him), they narrate the words of one of Adenuga’s closest associates, Dr. Rafiu Ladipo: “He takes risks and he is ready to stick it to the end. He never gives up. Is there anything he touches that doesn’t turn into gold? He is such a determined person. He is always charging like a bull. When he wakes up in the morning, he thinks about his business and nothing but his business. He is not a socialite. You can never catch him attending parties. He works Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday…He goes on and on like that facing his business.” Reminds me of another billionaire in Nigeria who works for 18 hours a day. Yes, you guessed right.

-Well, just like a raging bull after a doomed matador, he didn’t stop his entrepreneurial triumph in the oil industry. In February 1990, he made a bold entry into the banking industry. He floated Equatorial Trust Bank (ETB). And later on, he launched his biggest and most ambitious project ever, Globacom which drastically crashed the rates of phone calls (I still find it very hard to forgive MTN for calling at N60 per minute!).

-His calm mien belies an underlying aggressiveness and relentless determination of a tycoon. He can also be very ruthless with lazy and incompetent workers (if na you too nko?). According to Mohammed Jameel, Glo’s Chief Operating Officer (COO): ‘Two, three days after joining Globacom, he called me to his office. The first day I met him, he was very quiet. And I didn’t want to say anything. I just watched him. Of course, a lot of my colleagues were there. I was very impressed with him. He was planning to launch the brand Globacom. I saw in him a lot of passion. I saw in him a lot of commitment. I saw in him a lot of vision. He wanted the brand to succeed. And the kind of figures he was talking about in terms of subscribers and putting in infrastructure did really surprise me. Jameel continues: ‘He is a very successful entrepreneur who can turn any venture into good. He is a very, very aggressive manager. He is a very target-oriented manager. He is a manager who has a huge vision. He always thinks big. If you are hearing him for the first time, you would think this man is just joking. But he is not joking. Whatever he says, he is determined to achieve it. He is very passionate about whatever you do with the business you do for the brand. Even things like branding the street, he gets into the details to get things right. And he doesn’t take instant or spontaneous decisions. He has to think it across. He doesn’t take decisions on his own. He respects the views of others. (something a lot of people have to learn, especially those with coins and small small change who at the slightest opportunity, insult others who disagree with them. I added that ajasa myself!). He calls all of us and gives us the opportunity to air our own views, share our thoughts, share our ideas. He also makes his own input and we end up coming up with a collective decision. He lends his ears and mind to whatever is being talked about; irrespective of whether it is the COO or the person employed in the customer service.” #Gbam! Una don hear am again. Shey e ring abi make I redial am? #Lmao!

-He actually saved the National Oil & Chemical Marketing Company (NOLCHEM) from the jaws of death. He bought it and transformed it into what many of us now know as Conoil Nigeria place, one of the most profitable entities in Nigeria. NOLCHEM was the first indigenous petroleum products marketing company, and the current Oyo State Governor, Senator Abiola Adeyemi Ajimobi was a Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, he joined in 1979.

-He is divorced from Fola, his first wife and the court awarded him the custody of the children and even the pregnancy Fola was carrying at that time. She was immensely pained by the court’s judgment. Today, he is married to the delectable Joyce Titilola Adenuga (nee Adewale) (see pictures on our website). Okay, there is an interesting story here. She had come for a job at Devcom Merchant Bank owned by Otunba when he was enchanted by her natural beauty and endowments. According to Adenuga’s early friend, associate and fellow IBB boy, Orji Uzor Kalu, he and Otunba had a slang for heavily-endowed women: ‘Burkina Faso’, with Burkina standing for the heavy ‘fronts’ and the ‘Faso’ for the superloaded ‘rears’. #StopRollingYaEyes,AreYouALearner? LOL! Adenuga did not prefer women with Burkina but remained ‘Fasoless’ (chai! Burkina Faso don suffer…lol! #AFCON). Baba prefers the complete package. Otunba was titillated by Miss Titi, and today, the rest is history.

-The Apesin (He Whom They Gather To Worship) of Ijebuland is father of eight children (see pictures on our website):

1. Ms. Adetutu Oyindamola Emilia (first child & daughter, sociology-graduate, Yoruba-movie addict, former executive board member (Conoil), concierge shopping expert, & Atlanta, Georgia-based fashion retailer. One of her most memorable days was when she met Christian Louboutin, the French luxury shoe and bag designer who autographed her emerald shoes in New York. She was so overjoyed she found it hard to wear them. She loves cooking and a quiet life). Her website http://www.imaginativeusa.com/home.html Her blog: http://imaginativeshopping.blogspot.com/

2. Prince Michael ‘Bobo ‘Babajide (his first son and executive director, Conoil). Hear him: “I have a lot of respect for my Dad, but I’ve always been very ambitious, I’ve always had my own dreams and aspirations in different ventures. For instance, when I was in the university, I took classes in Filmmaking because I have plans to go into film production in future. But for now, that is not in line with the family business. However, that’s something I want to do later in life as a person. So, in addition to what the old man has been able to put on ground, I also have these goals I want to achieve and I believe that one must give them a try.” On how he manages to combine his dad’s and his own private business, he says: “It’s very possible; it can be done. Don’t forget I’m still a director in Conoil; I just want to take some time out to launch the business. When you bring a business and people accept it, all you do is to create more awareness and ensure that it gets to the consumers through adverts and promotional campaigns. Once that is done, you have little work to do. Meanwhile, we can still tie everything into the family business, but this time around, I want to get the business running first.”

3. Tunde ‘Paddy’Abolade. A car freak, he is the Group Executive Director, Globacom. He sure cherishes the limelight. While cruising out of Awolowo Boat Club in his black Porsche Carrera, he once gave out a sum of N5,000 to a physically-challenged beggar.

4. Abimbola Beenu,

5. Belinda ‘Bella’ Olubunmi Ajoke (got married to Jameel Adetokunboh Disu in a fairytale wedding in April 2010. The first time they met, she introduced herself as ‘Bunmi Marquis’, and did not reveal her identity as Otunba’s gal), she is also the Group Executive Director, and one of his buildings, Bella Place on Ligali Ayorinde Street, Victoria Island Extension was named after her. He did name a lot of things after her. Once obese (runs in the family), she said she was able to shed the excess fat because of the tenacity she learnt from her dad who used to call her Benbe (chubby). She says he doesn’t joke with his exercises, and hits the gym by 1.am everyday, he used to play squash a lot but stopped after an accident. She entered university at the age of 14.

6. Eniola ‘EnnyBoy’,

7. Folashade ‘ShadyGirl’,

8. Adeniyi ‘NiyiBoy’.
But there is one thing he does not do to his children: over-indulge them. He taught them to be hardworking and trained them to use their brains and not rely on anyone. His daughter, Bella, very much attests to this. And with all his towering wealth, his friends describe him as a shy and humble personality, and would bow down to most people while greeting.

-With Orji Uzor Kalu, former Abia State Governor, they handled government contracts, did general merchandise and were into arms deals & oil trading. Now you understand Kalu’s outbursts against Obasanjo. Connect the dots.

-Adenuga abhors politics but he is willing to support any government of the day. He likes minding his business but over time, he has been hounded by some politicians who feel he could use his enormous wealth to their disadvantage. A classic example has been given above.

-Orji Uzor Kalu (also a Taurus) says of him: “We have been friends from a long time. I became Aliko’s friend right in the early ‘80s when I was a student at the University of Maiduguri. With Mike, our friendship started when he was living close to me on 6A Adeleke Adedoyin Street in Victoria Island, Lagos. This is where all of us came to become friends. Dangote and Mike were not close, but I was close to both of them. I was a kind of bridge between two of them.” Kalu was later rusticated from UNIMAID and had to sell palm oil on the streets of Maiduguri but that is another story for another day. For now, Iyaniwura is focusing on The Bull.

-In December 1982, armed robbers attacked him in his residence and he sustained some bullet wounds. In a confused and tense atmosphere, an argument broke out among the robbers, with Adenuga still groaning on the floor and moaning in the pool of his own blood. A defiant robber said: “Let’s finish the job. We have to finish this job. We must kill him. We must kill him.” Then he pulled the trigger. What happened after is divulged in his biography. That experience left a lasting impact on him.

-He has many nicknames and descriptions. He is called the Bull. The Guru. Another is ‘Agbowokariowona’ which roughly translates to mean ‘the one who piles up money only to distribute without any stress’. Erinfolawolu: The elephant which strides into the town with all majesty and candour. -Agbelesona bi Oyinbo: He who resides at home while spinning wonders like the whites. -Apesinola of Ijebuland. He is also known as Aneye Toto (Fine Boy), a nickname that was known only to his closes friends and relatives until KSA released the song in his honour. That reminds me, Foli Peperempe also waxed a nice one for him.
Source: http://www.iyaniwura.com
Facebook.com/iyaniwura

InformationNigeria

2015: PDP’s fear of defeat is real – Tom Ikimi

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

…Reveals how Abacha chased IMF, World Bank out of Abuja
Chief Tom Ikimi is a former Foreign Affairs Minister and one of the leaders of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the forefront of the formation of the All Progressive Congress (APC). In this interview, he speaks on the controversy the issue of registration of the new party has generated. He also speaks on the government  of President Goodluck Jonathan. Ikimi notes the criticisms against the late General Sani Abacha under whom he served as minister, saying the former military leader did his best in the upliftment of the economy of the nation contrary to what Nigerians are experiencing today.  Excerpts:

There seems to be some confusion as regards the registration of the APC by the INEC.Would you say it is part of the PDP – led government’s plan to frustrate the take- off of your new party?

The emergence of the APC on 6 February, 2013 when the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and a major section of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) decided to merge to form a mega party in Nigeria, to provide a viable alternative political platform in the country seems to have created a major stir in the Nigerian political firmament.

The successful merger of such large opposition parties would instantly transform the country into a two- major party state as is the case in other major successful democracies in the world. This prospect, which serves notice of the end of tenure to the PDP, has shaken the very foundation of the PDP which, over the past several years, has operated across the country with reckless impunity. The option of a strong alternative party has been overwhelmingly welcomed by the generality of our people.

Intellectual Property
We are reliably informed  of the roles of some highly placed persons in the establishment currently financing willing political jobbers and agents provocateurs whose assignment  is to cause mischief, precipitate chaos, mess up the democratic space in a manner reminiscent of the Association for Better Nigeria, ABN, which, in 1993, succeeded to irredeemably truncate the IBB transition program. Since 6 February, 2013, when we addressed a world press conference announcing the decision of our parties to merge and adopted the name All Progressive Congress (APC), the name and acronym not only became our intellectual property but has since received very wide publicity in the print and electronic media.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has acknowledged this through her spokesperson several times in the press, received our correspondences on the matter long before some sponsored busy bodies approached them on 28 February, some twenty two days after we announced our name, to seek the registration of the so- called African Peoples Congress. I watched the shameful television display, on Thursday,14 March, of a hired crowd, clearly recruited from nearby markets, streets and bushes, assembled in a first floor flat in a building in Apo Village – Abuja,  hurriedly provided by their handlers, purporting to be the promoters of this charade.

Nigeria, in my view, has moved away from this kind of disgraceful gimmicks well known to be associated with some of the expired barons of PDP now surviving on emergency heavy doses of Abuja oxygen. The revelations of the past couple of days provide irrefutable evidence that the series of fake APC is a PDP official project. I certainly hope that Professor Jega’s INEC would steer clear from this obvious mine field. I understand that Professor Jega was away in far away China when these developments were taking place and hope that he has received accurate briefing upon his return.

The process of merger is quite different from the procedure of registration of new parties. Merging parties, being already registered political parties, do not need to obtain and fill any forms! We are, therefore, diligently proceeding with the merger process. I understand that the young lawyer, one Nwokorie Samuel Chinedu, who reportedly made the application to INEC now bitterly regrets his role in the plot.

The so- called African Peoples Congress has not scaled the first basic hurdle for registration as a political party and has no place in the prevailing political atmosphere when more serious groups are being  deregistered. The show of shame they put up that Thursday brandishing questionable INEC documents is serious enough for our  security agencies to descend on them and save our country from further corruption of the democratic process.

But why would be the PDP be afraid of a party that is yet to take off?

Since 1999 when the departing military government  installed General Obasanjo and the PDP, OBJ, who was the beneficiary, proceeded to decimate the opposition with the sole purpose of establishing the PDP as the ruling party in a one- party state over which he was to preside as life president. I happened to have been a founding member of the APP and one of the main reasons I left that party was because I could not understand how and why, after the bitterly fought general elections in 1999, our national chairman, the late Mahmoud Waziri, would abandon his party with nine state governors to take office as political adviser in the government of a party that defeated him.  OBJ, who successfully lured him in order to weaken the APP, went further to organize the registration of over sixty other parties to be in the opposition most of them not worth more than their registration certificates. A good number of them were, for a small fee, always willing to play one role or the other for the PDP against the opposition.

Perpetuation in Power
The role they played was always crucial in ensuring the perpetuation in power of the PDP. For the past several years, desperate efforts have been made by concerned members of the opposition to unify the opposition parties in order, not only to provide an alternative viable platform for Nigerians but also to make the PDP more accountable. Those efforts failed for various reasons including personality interests, PDP’s successful manipulations, the activities of moles and bad timing.

It is now, however, clear to the PDP and the establishment that our current effort is well calculated, being systematically well pursued in national interest and backed by the overwhelming people support, pointing towards the inevitable change of baton which many of them have difficulty in contemplating. That is their fear. The PDP has held the country hostage and plundered it since 1999. They have ruled with impunity, established massive corruption as a way of life and so the fear of stepping down is real. One of their recent national chairmen openly boasted that the PDP was to rule Nigeria for one whole century. Those at the helm of affairs today believe that nonsense and so are operating recklessly. The day for them to account for their stewardship is knocking at the door!

What should Nigerians expect from the APC if, at the end of the day, you succeed in dethroning the PDP?

In 2006, I was among twenty three leaders who broke away from the PDP on the same day to link up with some others from the AD to found the AC and eventually ACN. Some of my colleagues, who left with me then, included the late Abubakar Rimi, Chief Audu Ogbeh,  Ghali Naaba, Alhaji Lawal Kaita etc. I proceeded to Edo State in 2006 to link up with a number of others to establish the ACN there. I dare say we have been successful in uprooting the PDP in Edo State, which ran that state aground. Edo State happens to be the home of some of their most boastful leaders now roaming other parts of Nigeria dispensing havoc and instability. We have established in Edo State  an ACN government that has been highly successful. The first ACN government in the country was that of  Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State whose brilliant performance has been a benchmark in the country. His colleagues in the ACN refer to him as their class prefect.

Change of Baton
In summary, the present governors of the opposition are progressive governors who are leading progressive governments with clearly distinctive achievements. A change of baton in the centre and the enthronement of a  liberal democracy with crystal clear vision would ensure the positive refocusing of our nation state.

The APC will be a totally new party. The first draft of the constitution and manifesto have just been presented for our discussion and vetting. Among other things, the constitution will establish an acceptable level of party supremacy, will ensure the creation of a broad- based political party whose membership will cut across all strata of our society permitting equality of membership of all Nigerians willing to join and who will enjoy the full measure of internal party democracy. A transparent method of congresses and conventions will open up the democratic space for all to aspire to any level of their God’s given personal ability.

The enthronement of discipline in our society must commence from our party and so proper safeguards for discipline is being enshrined in our new constitution with a guarantee for adequate access to justice by all members without prejudice. Confidence in politicians and the political system needs to be urgently restored. A detailed and robust manifesto will soon be published which will guide all our governments from local government to the Federal Government. We will not entertain ridiculous jokes of personal point agendas by any head of government at any level.

CHIEF Tom Ikimi

Solemn Pact
They must all faithfully execute the party manifesto which constitutes the solemn pact that we make with our people who vote us into power. Consequently, the party will subject its various executives from the local government to the Presidency to regular periodic open conferences to discuss their performance and compliance with our manifesto. In this regard, our core commitments to education, eradication of corruption, uninterrupted power supply, full and gainful employment, eradication of poverty, affordable local fuel price, sound healthcare delivery, abundant food supply, sustained industrial growth, efficient mass transit system, and an elaborate housing program,etc, will be watched closely by the party. This process does not exist in the PDP that has “captured” Nigeria for the past fourteen years!

Monumental Corruption
Unfortunately, what we have witnessed in these past fourteen years is the enthronement of monumental corruption at the very highest level of government. Today, people of dubious and questionable character are celebrated with national awards while the few who are “mistakenly” convicted are granted state pardon. That is the pitiable level to which Nigeria has descended.

Critics of the APC insist that there is nothing new in the convergence of those behind the party, saying that it is a conclave of desperate people hustling for power. How right are they?

Nothing can be farther from the truth. I already drew your attention to the sterling qualities of the governors of the states controlled by the opposition parties; I have also given an insight into the painstaking processes that have gone into the production of the party constitution and manifesto. What we offer Nigerians is a blueprint that is borne out of a clear vision with the will to drive the process by the enthronement of a focused  and well grounded government as against the clueless and visionless apology now offered by the PDP.

Frankly, the situation in our country must not be allowed to get worse than it is today. National infrastructures have suffered the calamity of a colossal decay which include the disastrous condition of the roads, a demise of the railway system, virtually non- existent power supply; the health care system has so deteriorated that plane loads of helpless Nigerians depart every day to far away India and other similar destinations to seek basic healthcare.

The issue of insecurity has viciously gripped the country and thrown 155 million citizens into perpetual fear, while unbridled corruption has brought the nation to its knees. The once pleasant environment enjoyed just before and after independence has vanished!  Millions of Nigerian youths are jobless while the education system where available is receding into Stone Age levels forcing those who could afford it to send their children to Ghana and other neighboring countries or elsewhere to seek higher quality education.

Anxiety for Change
The anxiety for change across the country is palpable to such an extent that everywhere one turns today there is an overwhelming yearning for a rescue mission. There has never been a political party merger in any form in our country’s history. This is the first of its kind and, apart from the four parties earlier advertised, several other parties as well as groups, civil society organizations and individuals have freely approached us to join the merger. We are definitely on an urgent rescue mission. So far, I have heard not a whisper from any individual in the merger arrangement suggesting any personal interest for one position or the other. I am convinced that it will not be business as usual

Boko Haram is a faceless group. Would you say the call to negotiate with the group is misplaced? As a former Foreign Affairs Minister, do you think government should negotiate with the group? There have also been calls for the granting of amnesty?

The activities of Boko Haram have turned out to be one of the most serious security problems in the country today and responsible for the loss of hundreds of innocent lives in parts of the country including the Federal Capital, Abuja and environs.  One of my saddest days was the Christmas day bombing of a Catholic Church near Abuja. Apart from making some states in the North particularlyKano, Borno and Yobe to become virtually no- go areas, the Boko Haram insurgency has portrayed our country to the world to be an unsafe destination for tourists and business people. Anyone therefore so fortunate to be the ultimate leader in the country must see it as a priority to find a lasting solution to this security situation.

I have heard of the existence of some rather reckless individuals lurking in the corridors of power peddling careless comments to the effect that Boko Haram is a northern problem which should be left to the northerners to solve. But this problem has not only advanced to the Federal Capital but is also creeping southwards with vigor. Even if not,is the North not part of Nigeria ? It was indeed a welcome development that the president decided to pay a visit to Yobe and Borno after the progressive governors visited Borno. His visit was the first he has made since 2009 when the problem began. Yes, I am aware of several examples of such insurgency problem that occurred in other parts of the world from which those who advise Mr President can draw useful lessons.

The Sultan on Boko Haram
I recall the RUF, Revolution United Front, that unleashed terror in Sierra Leone during my time as Foreign Minister. Its leader FodaySankor took refuge with his faceless terrorists in the deep jungle of Sierra Leone. We approached the resolution of the menace by a method of the carrot and stick. Eventually we persuaded Foday Sankor to come out from the forest and we brought him to Abuja. Negotiations became more effective. I believe the Foreign Ministry has good records.

The Sultan of Sokoto’s call for amnesty for Boko Haram should not be disregarded or taken lightly. The Sultan’s high standing in the country, particularly in northern Nigeria and in Islam, supports this view. He must be in custody of information that could be helpful in the direction of his suggestion. Security agencies have in their possession several individuals they have arrested over time as the sect members. Ample opportunity has been so presented to obtain useful briefing on the menace. OBJ visited Borno State sometime back and had discussions with persons reported to be leaders of the sect.

The press has published photographs of various individuals named as Boko Haram leaders. The immediate past governor of Borno State is well known to have had some long and sustained interactions with the sect during his tenure. I am therefore a bit concerned with the president’s unfortunate statement during his recent visit in Borno State to the effect that he was not prepared to engage “ghosts”. As it was possible to send high level contacts to the creeks in the Niger Delta to engage the militants there, I believe similar engagement with Boko Haram is possible and necessary.

How to engage sect
No option must be discounted in the search for peace and security. As I make this response, the shocking news has arrived of the gruesome suicide bomb attack in a Kano motor park claiming dozens of innocent lives and setting ablaze several luxurious buses preparing to ferry passengers down South. Newspapers carried reports that northerners in Awka, Onitsha and environs are now escaping in fear of reprisal attacks. It should be recalled that the convoy of the revered monarch, the Emir of Kano, was recently attacked and suffered unfortunate fatalities.

The people’s confidence in the government to handle this obviously escalating crisis is now badly shaken. The kolanut, cattle and other usually flourishing trade between the South West, South East and the North has in recent times suffered a terrible set back. These developments make it imperative for the government to urgently engage Boko Haram one way or the other.

What do you make of the statement by the former head of state, General Ibrahim Babangida, to the effect that Obasanjo’s 1999 presidency saved Nigeria from break – up, given the fact that he was the architect of the annulment of the 1993 presidential election which snowballed into a national crisis?

It is not unusual for leaders to sit down from time to time and in their quiet moments, reflect and look at matters with hindsight. Sometimes they may beat their chest with a satisfying smile of satisfaction for their past actions, but it is not unusual for them to habor some regrets. It is a well known fact that General Ibrahim Babangida was one of the authors of Obasanjo’s 1999 candidacy and ascendancy to the Presidency. Only IBB can testify today whether or not his decision was the right one.

It is also a fact that the poor handling of the events leading to the June 12, 1993 presidential election as well as its aftermath are issues that should engage IBB’s reflection for a long time to come. There are many things I dare say he should have done differently. The reaction of South West Nigeria to those events in the aftermath of June 12, particularly their various political wings, including the very powerful NADECO, needed an appropriate response.

Following divine intervention, IBB,, aided by a handful of others, seized the moment and chose a former military colleague from the South West. Nigeria would not have broken up as the South West leaders know the history of “Biafra”, but Nigeria would have been in continuous political stress. Although General Obasanjo was not a South West choice, having lost his ward in the election, being a Yoruba man, the general temperature in that region was substantially brought down with his ascendancy to the Presidency. That high temperature, for similar reasons, has now shifted to another region!

But are you not scared that the country may still be heading towards a break up with what is happening today?

IBB and most of the core individuals who plotted and executed the coronation of OBJ lost control of the man almost as soon as he ascended the Presidency in1999. The PDP became more or less OBJ’s private property and he was responsible for initiating the aberration that the president was the leader of the party. The independence of the political party has, therefore, since been compromised. OBJ, having failed to secure a third term Presidency, and being the anointed head of the ruling party, he proceeded to interfere with the internal party democratic process for selecting his successor which led to the emergence of the late President Umaru Yar ‘Adua and eventually President Goodluck Jonathan.

Tom Ikimi

Needless to say, the outcome of all that is the unbearable heat pervading the nation today. All that might have taken a back burner if the government now in power was performing well. But that is clearly not the case.  Consequently, we are now in a situation in which the agitation for change has become nationwide. The PDP has displayed a total lack of consistency in its affairs and seem to have no qualms in moving the goal post left, right and centre all the time when serious decisions are to be taken. The revelation by the governor of Niger State which he holds tenaciously to,that an agreement exists  between the PDP governors and President Jonathan to end his Presidency in 2015 is a case in point. That seems to reinforce the northern claim to the next Presidency in the PDP.

How would you compare the leadership under the late head of state, General SaniAbacha, and those that followed?

I am not an apostle of military governments but General Gowon, perhaps the longest serving military ruler, is very well regarded in the country today. One can safely say that the regime of military rulers pervaded Africa in the 70s 80s and early 90s. Nigeria had its fair share. Military rule is no longer elegant or fashionable and that may be one good reason Nigeria is still enjoying civil government no matter its condition.

The entry of General Sani Abacha immediately after June 12 and the shaky regime of Chief Shonekan was bound to face unprecedented difficulties.  While I am not discussing the Abacha regime in this response, I must state that the man was a courageous leader who addressed the nation’s problems astutely. Unfortunately the man is not around now like some others to speak for himself. There are many who have paraded themselves as democrats and held juicy positions over the past 14 years of PDP rule but were very much inside the engine room of Abacha administration.

The highest amount received per barrel for crude oil during Abacha’s regime was $8 but our currency retained a strong value throughout the period. A lot of projects were executed around the country. The highly successful PTF – Petroleum Trust Fund – established by the retention of a few kobos per barrel of crude oil produced, executed many notable projects nationwide. During his tenure, I know that not a kobo was borrowed from the IMF or World Bank. Those institutions shut down their local offices in Abuja.

Lucky President
However, in 1999, General Obasanjo, a former military ruler, assumed the Presidency and preferred that his name be disguised as he was to be referred to as Chief Obasanjo.  He was a lucky president. The price per barrel of crude oil soared from the paltry $8 per barrel only one year before his arrival to an unprecedented over $100 per barrel. That was the real windfall which was and is still continually being frittered away. The PDP has since established a system of annual budgeting that grants nearly 80% of such colossal sums, now in trillions, of our annual budget to recurrent expenditures with virtually nothing left for capital development.

We have a staff of the “Bretton Woods” institution firmly in charge and supervising what is perhaps the worst scenario of economy Nigeria has ever witnessed; the same woman who lured Nigeria to pay up billions of dollars on questionable and unverified debts for which selected agents made huge commissions – is now leading us back to incur even bigger debts without any visible development projects to show for it. Many people have wondered whose interest she will most serve; Nigeria’s or the World Bank’s. It is now commonplace for trillions of naira to be stolen. Recalling that more than two trillions evaporated in the name of fuel subsidy, hundreds of billions stolen by a level 12 or 14 civil servant, etc; the scandal is mind boggling

You said the economy fared much better under Abacha as there was no borrowing or indebtedness throughout his tenure. Is there really a basis for this assertion?

Yes, I am aware that General Abacha turned down offers from the IMF who usually send young officers to developing countries who end up preparing all kinds of negative reports on the host countries thereby providing avenues for them to design loan structures that would hold developing countries hostage into long tenures of debt. As they themselves are to manage the loans, they get themselves entrenched in host countries finance and other ministries, they end up with massive bureaucracies foisted in the receiving nations at great unrealistic extra costs. Weak leaders are attracted to these foreign currency loans which provides them opportunities for corrupt personal enrichment.   A substantial part of the so- called loans they offer is utilized to maintain the donor’s  personnel’s lavish lifestyle.

Offices Closed
Their offices and residence in choice areas of Abuja were closed down during Abacha’s tenure and the properties put up for rent. General Abacha did not have need for such assistance. Apart from his preference to plan our nation’s needs within our own available resources, he preferred to open up links with China and other similar nations. I am aware, Nigeria’s railway system, peaceful nuclear energy development including power supply, river- borne transportation, massive housing, etc would have been destined to attain world standards in the line of his positive vision.

The National Hospital in Abuja today was a Women Hospital project by the First Lady – Mariam Abacha. That, in my view, was a positive contribution to healthcare. Today, I understand that billions of Naira will be invested in a luxury office complex to be the headquarters for African First Ladies. I just wonder what would happen when the First Lady of Cameroon assumes leadership of that group. Or is Nigeria going to chair that group in perpetuity?

Apo Legislative Quarters was conceived and built  by General Abacha to serve as the permanent Abuja residence for legislators during their tenure. Similarly there  were institutional buildings to serve as residence for key ministries and some parastatals. Instead of positively increasing the national housing stock as most world governments are now doing, the OBJ government strangely ceded these Abacha properties to cronies at rock bottom, give away prices.

Today, huge sums are spent to cater for fresh legislators each time they come to take office in Abuja and civil servants receive big sums to face the rising cost of accommodation in Abuja. Why then should recurrent expenditures not hit the roof? The Foreign Affairs Minister today, for instance, has no befitting residence anymore at which he could host diplomatic receptions as I and others did. The minister during the tenure of OBJ bought the residence for pea nuts!

Oshiomhole’s government and death of god fatherism in Edo politics?
It is my fervent hope that the choice of people to hold power in our country at all levels would be based on the will of the people. As national chairman of the NRC in 1990 to 1992, our contest with the SDP was  based largely on the outcome of free and fair elections. Hence we ran neck to neck all the time. My quest for a mega party today is to create another party that will contest with the PDP to ensure true competition and balance in the polity.

Checks and balance would then be assured. Between the NRC and SDP in those days, of the thirty states in the country then, we in the NRC won 16 governorships while the SDP won 14. But the SDP secured more seats in the National Assembly elections. Both parties usuallyaccepted the outcome of the elections without quarrel and I do not recall any court case. I can very well appreciate the former head of state, Gen Ibrahim Babangida, recalling those good old days.

The colossal investment, mind- boggling cash utilized in elections these days is a phenomenon introduced by the PDP and they have  succeeded in corrupting the electoral commission as well down the line. The general elections of 2007 have been recorded as the worst ever in our country’s history and indeed in the African continent. Prof Jega is trying to make a difference, but he still has a number of hardened bad eggs in his system.

Steps must be taken to rid the place of those characters ahead of the next general elections. Today, elections are no longer decided at the polling stations. Final decisions have shifted to the law courts which development has unleashed new and scary problems on the country with regards to our nation’s judiciary. Lawyers have become as well so fabulously wealthy by this phenomenon.

Return of Sanity
Comrade Adams Oshiomhole’s launch of the One Man One Vote concept was very timely. It brought back confidence to the ballot box and it was a relief to hear President Goodluck Jonathan mount the PDP campaign rostrum in Benin- City and also proclaim One Man One Vote. A celebrated PDP leader in Edo State made absolute nonsense of the ballot box. Those who wanted office rather than campaign to the people for votes made nocturnal pilgrimages to the residence of the leader who became known as ‘godfather’. Governors, legislators, LGA chairmen and councilors held office at his behest and so their hands were usually tied when the time came to deliver to the people the much talked about dividends of democracy.

There must however be credible leadership in political parties to give direction to elected personnel during their tenure, in their operations without prejudice to them retaining a reasonable level of free hand.In Edo State, we have come to terms with party leadership clearly defined indicating the difference between leader and godfather. The people of Edo State have comprehensively rejected PDP since 2007 and, from November 2009 when the ACN government was inaugurated, the participatory democracy that you speak of has actually bred real and visible development in the state.

This is largely because, unlike under the PDP when recurrent expenditure gulped almost 90% of the total receipts leaving virtually nothing for development, the economy has been effectively restructured to ensure that not less than 50% of total receipts is committed to capital development in a manner that is accountable and transparent. The end result is that Edo State has fully realized value for money spent. This type of vision, focus, fiscal discipline and commitment is what we offer Nigerians when in 2015 they reject PDP and embrace the fresh air of change that APC represents.

The leadership of the ACN in Edo State was accused of imposing chairmanship candidates in the forthcoming LGA elections. What is your view on this?

The development of the ACN in Edo State, from November 2006 to date, to become the more powerful and preferred party in the state  is a subject of great interest. I recall the grave difficulties that we encountered in 2007 during the short tenure of Professor Osunbor to find aspirants in many locations willing to accept selection to contest as ACN candidates. They felt then that the PDP was unassailable. There were no complaints of candidate imposition. Today, it appears that the real contest is within the party to secure its ticket as it is clear that the opponent PDP has been totally routed in the state.

The party has rightly chosen a process of consensus for upholding the choice of its candidates in order to give a fair chance to old members as well as the overwhelming numbers of new members that have flooded into the party in recent times. This process has been very successful in the majority of local governments, but, as expected, there are some leaders as well as the aspirants they support who are rather desperate to secure the leadership of some LGAs for one reason or the other. The internal party machinery for conflict resolution has been engaged in these matters and is working satisfactorily.

There is this fear that the battle for Oshiomhole’s succession may disintegrate the Edo ACN, What is your take on this?

It is rather too early to discern the color of the governorship battle in Edo State in 2016. The change of the party from ACN to APC after the successful merger creating an even stronger national and state party, the outcome of 2015 general elections etc will play some fundamental roles in the direction of events in Edo 2016. We will be constructing the APC in Edo State from the scratch in the coming months. It is to prepare for such challenges that we insist that the party leadership must assume supremacy. The party we are building will be one of character and discipline with assurances of transparency in all processes. In the circumstance, peace and tranquility will prevail and the party will remain intact.

You were the returning officer during the PDP presidential primary in 2003, which ushered in Obasanjo’s second term. How would you reconcile your role then and where you are today as a chieftain of the ACN?

Chief AuduOgbeh, my fellow alumnus of the Ahmadu Bello University in the late sixties and very early seventies, friend and colleague, who was the PDP national chairman at the time,  was, with the assistance of a number of young PDP governor- friends of mine, able to persuade me to undertake the task. Those young governors, who have a lot of respect for me, worked in one way or the other with me during my tenure as the NRC national chairman 1990 – 1992 and knew my capacity to undertake difficult roles! My role was to introduce innovations to the presidential primary process and conduct the primary in a manner that would give it credibility inside and outside our country.

The contest was sensitive for various reasons and the whole world was watching. It has been generally acknowledged that I did a good job and I take ultimate responsibility for that very highly successful exercise. Most people inside and outside Nigeria hold fond memories of the vote counting … ‘Obasanjo! Obasanjo! Obasanjo and Obasanjo’ with the occasional Rimi or Ekwueme. Many others have since attempted to imitate the process I created but have produced very poor versions.

However, I was not able to come to terms with the unfolding events during the OBJ second term tenure which came to a head by the plot to secure for himself a third term and life presidency. Chief AuduOgbeh was forced out in a very crude and uncivilizedmanner which he himself has explained on several occasions. Vice President AtikuAbubakar suffered unmitigated hostility from his boss and was also forced then to bow out from the PDP inspite of his well known role in founding the party and facilitating General Obasanjo into the Presidency.

In my case all these were made even more unacceptable by the roles and actions by one of the leaders of the party who hails from my taste and who will go down in Nigeria’s political history, particularly this stretch of PDP rule, as the brain behind several bizarre processes that have stunted democratic growth in country.

Break Away
He had the ears then of OBJ, worked unsuccessfully to secure the third term for him and was able to initiate and implement the reckless project of the de-registration of party members which finally destroyed the internal party democracy!  We who disagreed with all these things all broke away from the PDP on grounds of principle to found the Action Congress, AC, in collaboration with a major group from the AD.

The PDP has since deteriorated to virtually unacceptable levels while we have built up the AC now ACN to the enviable heights that it has assumed today. I have no regrets whatsoever to be a chieftain of the ACN as we logically now move on to unify the opposition under the banner of APC destined to carry out the urgently needed rescue mission for Nigeria.

*INTERVIEW CONDUCTED BEFORE INEC DENIED THE RIVAL APC REGISTRATION LAST WEEK.

Vanguard

Buying God: An Open Letter to John Cardinal Onaiyekan and Pastor Tunde Bakare By Pius Adesanmi

Your Eminence, Cardinal Onaiyekan and Esteemed Pastor Bakare:
Greetings. Pardon this public approach to matters I could have taken up with both of you on the phone. The issues at hand do not belong in the province of the Wordsworthian emotion, to be recollected in tranquility on the phone, away from the ears of the Nigerian people. Also, I would have loved to be able to preface this open letter to two eminent spiritual and civic fathers of our nation with the usual Nigerian inquiry about your wellbeing and your “condition of health”. However, I realize that it would be hypocritical of me to ask such questions from genuine patriots and real national leaders like your eminent selves, given that you operate in a nation-space where the extra in extraordinary has acquired such grave and dark ramifications that birds no longer sing like birds and rats refuse to brux like rats. For where the body has the rare privilege of being in “a good condition of health” in today’s Nigeria, how could the spirit possibly be? Is the Nigerian spirit not under siege? Is the Nigerian’s spirit not under siege? In essence, I cannot ask if you are “doing ok” because you cannot possibly be doing ok given the grave condition of our country.
Brothers, the surprise, for me, as I pen this letter to both of you this Friday April 5, 2013, is that the Nigerian is still standing, given the severity of the psychological warfare declared on him/her in recent times by what has got to be the world’s most perfidious political élite. If Nigeria’s long succession of atrocious postcolonial rulers has all waged a psychological war on the Nigerian, the incumbent in Aso Rock seems determined to be the one to find a “Final Solution” to something that must puzzle our political élite beyond measure: how has the Nigerian’s spirit survived the assault and the psychological violence we have foisted on it for so long?
Consequently, the galling and open declaration of admiration for a convicted felon and the subsequent pardoning of the said criminal in what a Nigerian patriot, Kingsley Ewetuya, famously described as the worst use of the prerogative of pardon by a ruler since Pilate pardoned Barabbas; the appointment of a man convicted –but subsequently pardoned in the usual Nigerian way – of forging a University of Toronto certificate and conning his way to the 4th most important office in Nigeria into the Governing Council of the University of Nigeria by a President tone deaf to irony, is all part of a purposed and deliberate effort to find a “Final Solution” to the Nigerian spirit by President Goodluck Jonathan. To the extent that no nation’s spirit can survive in a moral and ethical Kalahari, the President’s colossal ethical demission, his in-your-face throwing of national morality to the dogs, his constant hoisting of criminals and felons – albeit laureates of wuruwuru pardons - as role models in a country which boasts an almost 70% youth demographic in search of role models, must be read as a “clueful” (pardon my coinage in opposition to clueless) attempt to destroy the moral and ethical fabric of the Nigerian nation. Contrary to popular belief, this man is not clueless, he is diabolically clueful.
But the psychological warfare of President Goodluck Jonathan and his co-travellers in Nigeria’s irredeemably corrupt corridors of power on the spirit of the Nigerian people is not why I am writing you today. It is no secret that in the face of adversity, the Nigerian’s first refuge are spiritualities which find concrete expression in the Christian, Islamic, and animistic faiths. Because the majority of our people profess either the Christian or the Islamic faith today, it goes without saying that these two faiths owe it to Nigeria to be her armour against the rampage of the undertakers in the political élite, determined as they are to preside over the funeral rites of national ethics and morality. Because I profess the Catholic faith and I am writing to two of the most illustrious leaders of Nigerian Christendom, I will not be discussing the role of Islam in our current national conundrum. My brief here is Christianity, Nigerian Christianity.
Let me state that it is not all bad news with regard to the role of Nigerian Christendom in the battle to save our national values and protect decency, morality, and ethics from the siege of our prurient political class. Where the Presidency, which ought to be the institution which invests national values and morality with meaning, has come to be defined solely and singularly by irresponsibility, where you look for a single credible role model for our youth in the political class and find the proverbial “no, not one”, Nigerian Christendom has ensured that we continue to have credible, formidable, and towering national role models and symbols of righteousness like your esteemed selves, Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie, Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah, and the Most Reverend Peter Akinola (whose prayers against corruption the President would not dignify with any “amen”). There are more where these came from, dignified men and women of God toiling in the vineyard all over the country, away from the obscene materialistic incentives of the moneychangers in the political class.
Sadly, the category of Christian clergy sustaining the tradition of role modelship in our country is of such feeble minority as to be unable to define the broader face and complexion of Nigerian Christendom today. What we see today is a Nigerian Christendom cosily in bed with the most determined enemies of national ethics and morality. Where does one start? Does one start with the fact that the proceeds of corruption no longer travel directly to the vaults of Swiss Banks but make a conscience-salving detour into the tithe baskets of Nigerian Christendom? Does one start with the increasingly disturbing image of a corrupt and peripatetic power which spends more time hopping from one Christian pulpit to another than she spends behind the presidential desk in Aso Rock? And what does it say that this particular power has found a near permanent home on the Church pulpit? If Christendom was alive to its responsibilities and truth was being told to power in generous dosage, does it not stand to reason that power would not be so enamoured of hopping from one Christian pulpit to another, transforming the said pulpit into an extension of the immoral soapbox of the PDP?
I am of course aware that the labour of the two of you in our public sphere devolves largely from your determination to use your towering profiles and immense moral capital to confront these problems. After all, Your Eminence Onaiyekan has been a constant voice for sanity, your latest act in that regard being the temporary withdrawal of you and your brother Bishops from the Christian Association of Nigeria, transformed by its current leadership into a permanent bedmate of a corrupt political incumbency. And from the protestant flank, Pastor Bakare has been a consistent thorn in the flesh of a worrisome prosperity Pentecostalism bent on turning the temple into a den of thieves and moneychangers and transforming the Church into a hangar for ostentatious private jets acquired in a cynical mockery of the overwhelming poverty of the faithful.
My fear, however, is that the goalpost is constantly being shifted by those in the Christian clergy who are bent on sustaining the contemporary image of Nigerian Christendom as the handmaiden of political corruption. It would seem that there has been a steady transition from buying private jets to making God available to be bought by politicians. This explains why we are witnessing a transition from an epidemic of private jets to a pandemic of church buildings donated by corrupt politicians. President Jonathan, as you know, has been buying God in his hometown of Otuoke by nepotistically giving body language to Church building renovators or donors. However, the latest egregious example of a politician’s attempt to buy God is our friend, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, who recently donated a Church building to the Anglican Communion in his own hometown.
I am not worried about the corrupt pedigree of the givers in these scenarios of Church building donations. I am worried about the takers. I am worried about the takers because, as Cardinal Onaiyekan knows too well from being a long-term associate of my father, I am a product of an earlier version of Nigerian Christianity that would have either rejected these contaminated gifts outright or at least asked very serious questions before accepting same. I do not recognize this strange new Christianity that seems wholly incapable of saying, “get thee behind me Satan”, whenever Nigerian politicians invite her to the top of an exceeding high mountain, show her the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, saying, “all these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” Senator Ekweremadu would have had to explain the source of his funds were he making that donation to the Body of Christ when I was growing up in Nigeria. The spectacle of Senator Ekweremadu and the President enjoying a no-questions-asked pulpit moment during the so-called dedication of the new Church building is a sobering statement on the current condition of Nigerian Christendom.
There is a serious national crisis when Nigerian Christendom can no longer be relied upon by the faithful as a refuge from the war declared on public morality, ethics, decency, and national values by corrupt and irredeemable members of the ruling élite. Beyond your respective and laudable personal efforts to sustain the Nigerian spirit through your towering moral stock and ethical capital, I believe that the time has come for the two of you to urgently reach out to each other, identify kindred spirits in the Clergy, form a broad-based interdenominational platform that would enable Nigerian Christendom commence an urgently-needed soul searching. I believe that we are at an historical juncture where the Body of Christ in Nigeria must come to an understanding of the fact that she cannot serve the Nigerian people (spiritually) and Nigerian politicians at the same time. Both are incompatible tasks, akin to serving God and Mammon.
Beyond the well-known positions and activism of role model clergy members such as your esteemed selves, the Nigerian Church can no longer shy away from taking a decisive and unambiguous position in our collective struggle for the rebirth of public morality, ethical capital and decency. The dangerous impression that the Nigerian Church is creating about being a servicer of the assault on national morality by a corrupt political élite requires an urgent interdenominational remedial intervention. I can think of no better initiators of this necessary process than the two of you.
Yours sincerely,
Pius Adesanmi
Saharareporters

Can APC Cure Nigeria's Headache? (1) By Chido Onumah

Chido Onumah

As the merger of the country’s major opposition parties crystallized a few months ago into a mega party known as All Progressives Congress (APC), I received an email from my friend, Richard Mammah, who wanted to get my opinion on the new party. “Is the new mega party in Nigeria a marginal improvement over where we are coming from?,” Mammah asked pointedly. My immediate response was emphatic: “It is (if it succeeds). It is important that genuine democrats and progressives find a way to key in as soon as possible.”

Since then, there have been debates (among progressives) about the desirability of “joining” the new party. Expectedly, the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) responded to news of the merger with disdain. “No merger will succeed against us in 2015” was the party’s official position through its former national secretary, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, who spoke to journalists in Abuja. Oyinlola dismissed the merger as “gang ups”.
“We don’t think we are threatened by what we would call gang ups”, said the former governor of Osun State who was sent packing by the court in 2010 before he could complete his second term. “In those days when the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) and Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) closed ranks, it was called an accord. When the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) and Great Nigeria People’s Party (GNPP) did the same, they called it gang up.
“Honestly speaking, ganging up is an indication of some weaknesses. Why can’t a party stand on its own and contest elections if it is sure that it would be acceptable to the people? You don’t need to gang up. If you are ganging up then you don’t have the strength. The only true national party today that cuts across every nook and cranny of the Nigerian federation is the PDP. Gang up has never succeeded; it will not succeed.”

Oyinlola’s diatribe was upped by Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State who described the opposition parties as “inventions of the last two years”. “They are the invention of pain, agony and anger”, Lamido said, adding, “They thought PDP is like them. We have political party history from 1998 when they were not in existence. Those who were talking in ANPP, ACN and CPC were formally PDP members that were flushed out in the field by the party (PDP).”
Bamanga Tukur, the national chairman of the PDP, in his now infamous reaction to the merger described his party as the “Messi of Nigerian politics”. “If you go for a contest, you have the striker. You know Lionel Messi (Barcelona and Argentine football star)? PDP is Messi in that contest. They (opposition) are no threat at all. It is better, it inspires PDP to action. In that contest, tell them Chairman said PDP is the Messi.” Football lovers in the country must feel insulted and incensed by this laughable comparison.
Of course, the PDP is grandstanding and its disdain for the APC is borne out of fear more than anything else. I can understand the position of the Oyinlolas, Lamidos and Tukurs. It is one that demands no response. For them, there is no meaningful job other than being in the corridors of power. And that has to be done by any means necessary. I felt differently, however, when I read a response on the merger from a much younger former colleague, Ohimai Amaize, who “joined” the PDP by way of political appointment about three years ago.
In his piece, “The APC, is it a merger or ‘maga’?” Amaize asked, “What is the core ideology of this new contrivance? What is its blueprint for Nigeria’s regeneration? An existing manifesto or some consultants are still working on it? When will it be ready? Perhaps, a few months to the next general elections! And this is part of the problem. Contrivances don’t work”.
According to Amaize, “The assumption by some of our youth that Nigeria will be transformed simply because some ‘big guns’ within the political class have assembled under the toga of a new opposition party remains nothing but an illusion. The notion that a group of recycled politicians uniting against the ruling PDP in the name of ‘opposition’ will present an already-made change,  is at best, a hasty journey to a land of frustration. It is not that simple. There is nothing like already-made change. Nirvana does not exist. We must humble ourselves, bury our pride and work under existing political platforms no matter how educated and enlightened we think we are”.
Amaize admonished Nigerian youth to be wary of the APC. “When this new opposition party was being formed, what was its agenda for the youth?” Amaize wondered. “Is there any or will it hurriedly cook up one within the next few days? Which of the pro-APC youth activists on Twitter can confidently tell us the youth agenda of their new party? How many of my fellow Twitter busybodies were consulted to share their ideas for this merger before it was hatched? None! Because as far as they are concerned, you are not important in the scheme of things and do not exist”.
These are legitimate questions from a very “concerned” young Nigerian knowing Amaize’s antecedent before he joined the “transformation” wagon. However, the analysis shows a shallow and opportunistic reading of history. It presupposes Amaize is “happy” with the way things are in the country and if ever there is any talk of change, it can only take place “under existing political platforms”. And by this I am sure he means the PDP.
Of all the arguments in support of the emergence of APC, or what the response of genuine democrats should be to the new party, two stand out. In his piece “APC and the continuing crisis of Left politics in Nigeria”, Adagbo Onoja concluded that, “As long as there is no Left party or a broad based democratic coalition in Nigeria, comrades would have no options than spread to whichever platform they find space to continue the struggle in whatever ways possible”.
In his article, “Reflections on party combinations”, The Guardian, March 7 & 14, 2013, Edwin Madunagu noted: “The announcement of a merger of the leading opposition parties in Nigeria is a development which no serious political formation or tendency in the country can ignore or dismiss with cynicism of the type: ‘they always do this whenever a major election approaches’”.
“Yes, ‘they’ always announce coalitions, alliances, mergers, working agreements, etc, and the more uncharitable commentators may also remind us that they almost invariably fail to achieve their minimum post-announcement objective, that is, to actually deliver a living (and not a still-born or mortally sick) child”, Madunagu wrote. “When we have granted the cynics and pessimists their due, we may still insist that we are confronted with a development, which rules out the option of ‘Siddon look’.”
These two arguments speak for themselves and capture, to a great extent, what the response of radical and progressive elements, particularly youth and students, should be with regard to the APC as we head toward 2015.
To be continued.
Saharareporters

Hard View: Sacrificing Peace Or Justice

Hannatu Musawa

Justice or peace? Basically that’s what it boils down to. Since the beginning of the offensive by Boko Haram, there has been widespread debate about how to bring the bloody onslaught to an end. With so many divergent voices lending themselves to the debate of whether the particular strategy developed along the lines of amnesty is appropriate, given the surrounding circumstance; it’s anyone’s guess as to which side of the pendulum president Jonathan will ultimately land on the matter.
There is no doubt, the section of Boko Haram and other extremists that ignite this debate are a mob of ignorant, depraved, erroneous, wicked and misguided zealots  who have committed the most vile,  heinous, evil and immoral crimes against innocent people; women and children whom have done absolutely nothing to them. And for that, under any structure or belief system, there has to be retribution. In any country of the world, criminal prosecution of those accused of committing crimes is a fundamental aspect of a victim’s right to justice. However, sometimes the concept of remedial justice for victims often has to be balanced against the need to deal effectively and progressively with the atrocities and not provoke or maintain further violence. In such a circumstance, a restorative justice approach incorporating amnesty, focusing on the normative rather than the punitive objectives of criminal law, may be the more appropriate model. And that is how the issue of amnesty for Boko Haram comes into the fray, since the current situation we are in could be said to lend itself to such a circumstance.
From time immemorial, amnesty has been employed as a means of promoting settlement and advancing reconciliation in societies that have emerged from repression. But even though, it is a tool that was historically often utilized in conflict resolution, it was never entirely viewed as the best option; only a necessary one. When atrocities are committed with such impunity, as is the case with Boko Haram, and are merely dealt with by forgiveness and restorative justice, for the concept of human rights to have real legitimacy, they must connect up with retributive conceptions of justice. And a carte-blanche amnesty for Boko Haram, despite the atrocious mass murders and butchering they have subjected innocent Nigerians to, does not meet up with that standard.
Putting the issue of human rights aside for now, whether amnesty is the wisest course for the government to pursue with Boko Haram essentially remains a matter of debate and perception. Instead of examining the pros and cons of amnesty for Boko Haram on a large scale; instead of making arguments about setting bad precedents, previous amnesty agreements with criminal, renegade Niger Delta militants and not negotiating with ghosts, I opt to examine what the adoption or rejection of amnesty really means; what it would represent. Perhaps, if we remove all our emotional and sentimental blinkers, and break down the implications of any amnesty deal to their very basic indices, we might have a different way of assessing what the adoption or rejection of amnesty for Boko Haram really represents.
Fundamentally, in its simplest form, the adoption of amnesty for Boko Haram entails a choice between peace and justice. Peace and justice; two resolutions that inspire and give way to each other, would normally go together and complement each other. Ideally, any strategy adopted in this matter should incorporate both concepts. But when we are dealing with the kind of amnesty we are discussing at this immediate time within the backdrop of the atrocities that have been committed, the amnesty may only offer the best prospect for peace, not justice. Within this our particular impasse, unless Boko Haram surrender and offer them-selves up for trial and prosecution today, the two concepts certainly cannot be applied in a manner where they co-exist together. There is just no getting away from it, Peace verses Justice must be brought to a direct point when we talk about amnesty for Boko Haram. And if there is a dichotomy between the two, as suggested in this case, and a single choice has to be made, what ought we to prefer?
I have my own personal views on the issue and find that, for me, it is a battle of conscience for the past against the present. The past, because for the victims and for the crimes that have already been committed, justice should be served. The present, because the innocent people existing within the eye of the storm deserve some reprieve, deserve peace. But a third facet of this reasoning, the most important one, is the future. Given a singular choice between the concept of peace and justice, which option has the ability to actually change the status quo and provide the most stable and secure future for Nigerians?
History shows that in countries which have come out of oppressive regimes and trials where crimes against humanity were committed, the peace deals that sacrifice justice often fail to give way to the expected peace in the long run. Whereas justice initiates a fundamental change in society that adjusts the situations that allowed for the conflict, peace deals arguably only restore societies back to a state of non-war; principally one that allowed for the crisis in the first place. One would be hard pressed to find a case where a system that selects justice ever leads to a return to that conflict. Therefore based on this argument, peace should never be favored over justice, only to allow it to inspire justice.
On the other hand, while international and national criminal trials promote justice, the quest for justice can be a long winding road and can exacerbate divisions and may even hinder the achievement of peace. Usually, those who face the potential for prosecution may be reluctant to lay down arms, giving way for the violence to continue. Instead, amnesties for perpetrators are often thought to promote peace and reconciliation, though it is sought at the expense of retributive justice. Amnesties can also provide the calm environment necessary for reflection and dialogue to end the conflict.
It is essential for the government upon pondering their decision on whether to give amnesty to Boko Haram to gauge the views of the population most affected by the violence rather than instigating plans based on the views of politicians and dogmatists. The communities, the families, the businesses, the various ethnicities residing in the red zones, those that have been targeted, hounded and slaughtered should have the first-refusal to make an input into the decision government makes about amnesty. It is their views that should count first and foremost. Unless the government and security agencies have concrete plans to ensure the security of every family living in the target communities, it is their cries, their anguish and not those of the naysayers not directly affected by the violence or those politicizing and tribalizing the issue, which the government should take into account, in addition to providing full reparation to all the victims and their relatives.
Any initiative that the government eventually applies in regards to amnesty for terrorists should ideally balance the demand for justice against the need for peace and reconciliation. And while the lack of amnesty for Boko Haram can provide accountability and amnesty can provide stability, the attainment of both at this very point in time is almost impossible. A choice has to be made on the resolution the government will adopt. And the choice needs to be made pretty soon… People are dying.
So as we continue to unravel this morbid, dark drama that Boko Haram has visited upon us, we can be certain that the choice is not about which group of criminals deserve amnesty and which don’t, it’s not about a perverse allegiance to ethnicity or religion, it’s not even about an incompetent government lead by a president that does not seem to have a clue; it’s about what we are willing to sacrifice; Justice for the cause of Peace or Peace for the cause of Justice?
Over to you President Johnny, Sir! So what will it be…; Peace or Justice?
  Saharareporters