How IBB created states, by Omoruyi

"Augustus Aikhomu, Mike Okhai Akhigbe, Anthony Anenih, all work on same mindset from the same set agenda. Bendel state produced two military vice presidents, what is to show for it? The problems of Edo people are Edos, a sad reality of internalized racism. Sad as it may be, it is a clear representation of black man defiency with productive leadership.
You look at the unequitable distribution of political representation today in Edo State, they are the work of Aikhomu and his gangs. A nonsensical distribution where minority has more political representation than the majority. 45% have 11 seats while 55% have 7." 
 
Former Director-General of the defunct Centre for Democratic Studies (CDS), Prof. Omo Omoruyi says he stood by what he said in an earlier interview with Daily Sun concerning the creation of Edo and Delta States from old Bendel State, and how he worked with former Military President, Gen. Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida(rtd) to achieve certain goals in government.

Prof. Omoruyi who was reacting to a rejoinder by Prof. Sam Oyovbaire to the said interview, pointed out that his role and that of Oyovbaire in the IBB administration were very different, adding that whereas Oyovbaire was an official of the Government as an Adviser to the then Chief of General Staff, Admiral Aikhomu, he was a friend of IBB with the objectives of helping him to advance the goal of democracy and make history.

Prof. Oyovbaire had in his rejoinder disagreed with some aspects of Prof. Omoruyi’s position on the creation of Delta State, proposed Eduwa State which was to embrace the Edo people and Itsekiris, among others.
But Prof. Omoruyi while stating that it is for Gen. Babangida to dispute any of the issues, went at length to lecture on how a military government functions, adding “it simply shows that is the way the military functions, and if you don’t like it, you don’t know it, and then you begin to use some official titles to bamboozle some people outside there.”

Specifically, on the meeting of Traditional Rulers and notable personalities of old Bendel summoned by Aikhomu over the creation of Edo and Delta as raised by Oyovbaire, Omoruyi accused the former CGS of being “discourteous to the Oba of Benin and the Olu of Warri” at the time, pointing out that Admiral Aikhomu never liked the two revered traditional rulers. TONY OSAUZO brings the excerpts

You have read the reaction of Prof. Oyovbaire to an earlier interview you granted Daily Sun. Haven read his rejoinder, what comments do you wish to make because he tended to disagree with some of the issues you addressed regarding creation of Delta State, the voting pattern in 2011, re-run governorship election in the state, among other issues?

Let me put it this way, Sam is somebody I like very much and I wish him all the best.
Our functions during the IBB administration were very different. I wasn’t an official. I was a friend and I am still a friend of IBB with two objectives in mind. One, to help him advance the goal of democracy, then two, for him to make history. On these two grounds whatever he set out to do, I usually weighed them very seriously. It had nothing to do with whether I was in the University of Benin, or the Centre for Democratic Studies Director-General, and so on and so forth.

So, I wasn’t an Adviser. I was a friend, and if you go back to Allison Ayida, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), he said there were competing sources of influence on the military Head of State. Official one was there, his military colleagues were there, even native doctors, they were there, and so on and so forth, and sometimes you don’t know which one is more important, because it depends on what the military Head of State weighs – sometimes his classmates are more important than all these official things you talk about.

Sam was an official. He was an Adviser to an Adviser. Aikhomu was an Adviser. He was Adviser to Aikhomu. That does not mean that he didn’t have a role. Whatever happened in the final analysis, IBB would fly some documents to me in Benin. I have listed some of them in my book, all the various areas where I helped him, where we worked together and I said I was privy or party to. That still remains my position. It’s for IBB to dispute any of these things. It’s for him, it’s not for me. Creation of States, release of Shagari, release of Ekwueme – the two old people, are nice to me.

I drove all the way to Oko to meet Ekwueme. I flew all the way to Sokoto to meet Shagari and we talked. I brought back the message to the man. So, these are not things that I would have to go and be writing about, that, oh, this is what I did or did not do.

So on the creation of States, he created states on two occasions. First, he created Katsina from Kaduna and then Akwa-Ibom from Cross River. My role in these two ventures that’s for him to talk about, not for me.
On the second venture of states creation – Edo, Delta and others, again, he came to me and said look, I want to do this thing. He never said the military wanted to do this thing. That’s not an issue. Aikhomu called a meeting of traditional rulers and some people in Bendel State, but Aikhomu was an interested party. He wanted a different kind of formulation from old Bendel. We know that.

So, Babangida advised that I show no interest in all those things because eventually we would have to sit down and look at these things dispassionately, which I did. I never attended any of those meetings. I could have, if I wanted to. What he did with all these traditional rulers is part of history. I don’t have to go into that.
I know, and Admiral Aikhomu knows very well that he was discourteous to these two traditional rulers – Omo N” Oba and Olu of Warri. Why he was, that’s his own business.

I am aware too, that our Omo N’ Oba had to write a letter at one time. Again that’s not for me to debate, and I am sure Babangida never replied. So, by bringing all these here now, really it’s not important. The Oba of Benin is a revered traditional ruler, Olu of Warri is revered too– he never liked these two people. The reason, I don’t know. That’s for him to talk about.

Why do you say so?
Well, he was his Adviser, I wasn’t. I never entered Admiral Aikhomu’s house. Not once. He never invited me. Occasionally we used to meet either at the corridor of the Villa, and we would just joke and I go my way he goes his way. I never entered Sam’s office. I can’t remember when he came to my office. So, we all had our different roles and mine was as IBB’s friend. Performing these two functions for him were well spelt out in my memoir. They are two-goals of democracy. He wanted to make history. So, I was always conscious of these two goals for him and I tried, I tried, I tried, I tried.

On the Eduwa incident, it was my Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Grace Alele Williams. She came to me. She said Deputy – you know I was her Deputy. She said Deputy, I said Madam, any problem? She said ah they are killing our people. I said, ah, Madam, who would kill your people.

Again, this had nothing to do with …..maybe she knew…..because there were many other things which she had achieved through me in that setting, like the Law School, Medical School and so on. She did a marvelous job in that University through me. Sometimes, she would just take her pen, write a letter to Babangida and I would take it there, and it was approved. It had nothing to do with Ministry of Education, nothing to do with National Universities Commission (NUC) and so on. She genuinely wanted that University to move forward and I knew that very well. I helped her to achieve her goal.

So, I said Madam, what are the problems now? She said eh, your Oga would not want to see my Olu. I said ah, it’s impossible because Aikhomu would not allow him to see the Olu. I said okay, leave it to me. I said what are the issues? I said okay, I have to feel the Olu out and I went to the big man. He said ah, but you know there is an understanding that these Traditional Rulers, if they wanted to come and see me from Bendel they should go through the Chief of General Staff (CGS).

I said, if the Emir of Kano was coming, would he go through the governor? And so on and so forth. He said I should not drag into Bendel politics now but I insisted that he has to see him.
So, Olu and his chiefs were hosted by me, when I say by me, I mean my office, the CDS.
So, we arranged and the Olu came. The Olu and his chiefs were guests of Centre for Democratic Studies. There was no connection in that and we know that. But we had to find a way of organizing this meeting. Then of course, we had to sit down too. I got my staff. The Olu’s staff and I sought for the issues because you cannot go to the man without a brief. We must be clear what this whole thing was about.

So, we discussed at length and finally agreed on this Edo/Warri something – whatever name, but this was the whole ideal. When should we table the matter? I said your majesty, give me time.
So, one day the big man phoned and said we should meet at the presidential lodge Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport Abuja at mid-night and that was it. The Olu was not too happy, thinking it was not going to hold. The man drove in at the appropriate time, at the time given and the rest is history. Was I doing it as an official? No. I wasn’t Olus’s staff. I didn’t have a role in all that but I believe that we needed an opportunity for the Olu to see the big man not through Admiral Aikhomu where Oyovbaire and Co would not allow that to hold but you know, it did hold. So, do I have to say more than that? On what to do about the Igbos?

We were also conflicted. It was a big problem. I said Mr. President, I have a friend. He said who is that friend. I said Dr Pius Okigbo, the same Okigbo. I said whatever advice he gives weigh it very seriously. He said okay. So, I hosted Okigbo at Hilton. So, what you call Abia, Imo and so on, is from Okigbo’s pen. That time we were not talking about this Okigbo report.I told him, this is what the big man wanted, please. Don’t write your self into this advice. Give him advice on parity between the Igbos and Yorubas, at least with a little advice, it can be resolved because the Igbos believe that they had always been equal with the Yorubas, and they‘ve been trying to solve this parity problem and we’ve been worrying about that.
I said try, it may not be full parity, but at least try and let the time weigh in such a way that the Yorubas are not just up there and the Igbos are nowhere. I said try. So, we worked on that. This has nothing to do with advice you gave through Aikhomu and all these people. No. That is not the way the structure of military governments works.
Pius Okigbo flew into Abuja on CDS expense. But that is not CDS function. So, whatever we did there had nothing to do with the official memo. I can give you many cases like that. That even in some cases when he was going to deliver the speech on the creation, he was still changing the thing right from the time of recording. So, what are you talking about memo? That was not the way the government worked. So, that was the nature of the military administration.

It had nothing to do with A is important, or not important. It doesn’t denigrate the power or influence of anybody. It simply shows that is the way the military administration functions and if then you begin to use some official titles to bamboozle some people outside there. You are not being fair. Babangida wasn’t elected.
OtedoNews

Re- ASUU Strike: I Doubt President Jonathan’s Doctoral Degree — Fejiro Oliver

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Everyone has a right to a university degree, even if it’s in Hamburger Technology. –Clive James

The foundation of every state is the education of its youth. –Diogenes Laertius

Fejiro Oliver
NewsRescue- For those uncouth MBBS graduates who will be reading this, thus feeling that I heeded to their request to write on the ASUU strike, having written on the Medical strike; this has long been in the pipeline.
As my wife’s youngest brother graduated from one of these private Nigerian universities with smiles on his face, I looked next to me and there sat a young friend of his, who had come to congratulate him, while harboring a gloomy face. I pitied him to his soul, considering what he was going through and what must be going through his mind. Here was a young man who had hoped to graduate before the age of 20 now seeing his dreams crashed of no fault of his–due to the ASUU strike.
That a government duly (s) elected by her people will spend millions of naira on a party convention when her future wavers is definitely an act that only Lucifer could have engineered. What manner of leadership leaves her future in gloom and doom while nurturing the past; a past symbolized by Bamanga Tukur. We are not unaware that Nigeria has one of the most insincere, lying and corrupt leaders, but no one could ever imagine that this presidency will ever be part of such vile endeavor, considering his academic background.
How Nigerians love titles and its holders, a tragic flaw that President Goodluck Jonathan and his band of polithieves worked on during the 2011 general election, drumming into all ears that listen, on how Jonathan will perform to the peak due to his doctoral degree appellation. They brought down the various roofs singing his antecedent as a lecturer who knows the plights of the Nigerian lecturers and students hence will make strike in our ivory institution a thing of the past. They sang it, they wrote it, they shouted it and composed a song with it all in a bid to deceive the masses, and we gullibly believed him. The scales have now fallen off our eyes and we must ask all the necessary questions.
Did Jonathan truly lecture? Did he truly bag a PHD degree and if yes, did he write his thesis by himself just the way many of us did? I sincerely doubt his doctoral certificate and it is time we call for his result to crosscheck this. For the universities to be on strike for three months without any tangible solution to their demands, is tantamount to a nation forfeiting her future. For heaven’s sake, what have the Nigerian universities done to the presidency that he cannot forgive them and address their requests. I smell a rat here. Oh yes; I suspect that President Goodluck Jonathan must have applied to be a lecturer in some of these universities during his struggling days and he was not accepted. Secondly, the Jesus Christ of Okrika, Dame Patience Jonathan might have applied for admission in these universities early in life, but didn’t get their cutoff mark until very late into her early 30s. Thirdly, the university of Port Harcourt may have denied him the first class which he earnestly desired; and now is the payback time to avenge the many ‘atrocities’ done against him and his Lady Macbeth.
We reject ‘there is no money to give to the universities’; we do not agree to Ngozi Okonjo Iweala’s strange economic grammar of being financially incapacitated to meet ASUU demands. We just refuse to believe. These lecturers are not speaking what they don’t know, and should in case you forget who they are; they are the erudite men we call professors and dons, who taught you and I to our present level of education. They are the engine that drives the future of our nation, a term you love to use when canvassing for votes. These lecturers are not ‘daft’ like many Nigerians that Okonjo Iweala’s language can deceive. No, they know more than you and your minister of finance combined together, thus when they talk, they speak with facts. These are the very group your minister had an agreement with and now want to renege. It doesn’t work that way.
Let those of us who do not even understand the mathematics of your coordinating minister of economy pretend that we have been ‘deceived’ by her, yet we know that there is a fund reservoir from our excess crude oil. We are telling you to dip your hand in it to give to ASUU. Don’t worry about our economy; we are ready to smoke garri and sleep, believing that the undergraduates will revamp back our economy that you and your generation have raped to coma.
Three months of academic strike is enough to turn a student into a miscreant, especially with the rate of poverty that you have inflicted on their psyche. Their being at home is enough to fulfill the maxim of “an idle mind is the devils workshop” and let no one blame them when they begin to display devilish acts in their various abodes. That is what Jonathan has turned them into. How disappointing that a name that was meant to bring Goodluck to the economic sector has finally turned round to usher in bad luck. How evil it is that a man who once taught in the ivory tower and now had the opportunity to better their lots forever has turned round to stab the very institution he once belong at the back. Truly, your best friend can be your worst enemy.
Like a tale told by a fool, the presidency wants us to believe that they have the interest of Nigerians at heart when each family has a child sitting at home thanks to the over-extended strike. Mr. President, the lecturers are not the losers but the students’, after all they are paid their salaries at the end of the month while the students rot away. That ASUU is on strike while the Minister of education is comfortable instead of resigning or being sacked highlights the weakness of Jonathan. How can ASUU be on industrial action and the minister of education (state) goes about to cause mayhem and havoc in Rivers State, when he should be proffering solution? This just isn’t right!
The sum ASUU is demanding is not truly enough to meet the need of the various universities, yet they have been magnanimous to demand for such chicken sum of money, when the senators and partners in looting, the legislators are allocating millions of jumbo pay to themselves. Were I ASUU, I would be demanding for trillion or isn’t what is good for the geese also good for the gander? You know just how much yourself and other politheivians are staving away for the next elections, s the youths future with no fear of death.
Mr. President, as you battle for your political survival following the two factions in your party, you can bet on , that should you refuse to give in to our almighty ASUU, you will have nailed your political coffin and lowered it to the grave yourself. I need not tell you that ASUU is a fraternity, with loyal members in the society who constitute a great number of voters; should they turn their back on you in this wilderness experience of yours, the political orphanage home will not be enough to accommodate you.
I sincerely pity you in your shoes and I do not envy you, but I pity our children more who are at home due to your lack of presidential guts to tell your ministers what to do, rather they decide for you. Truly, this is not the hallmark of a great leader and I regret to say that you are not one.
And to you ASUU, if the billions you demand for is given to you, who will be held accountable for the failure, should it be mismanaged? Who will be responsible for the monitoring and evaluation of the progress of works that the money is meant for? Hope the money will stop thesis’ from lying in your bookshelves and results not being released in time? It is not enough to blame the government and demand for your right without proper things put in place. Nigerians believe in your cause, we believe in your struggle and agitation, but most of all; we believe in the future of our children that you represent. Please do not disappoint us as President Jonathan signs the agreement.
But seriously, I doubt President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s doctoral degree, and I demand to be proved wrong.

NewsRescue

LWKMD||||||||

1)BBC_____________________________Hello,is that Nigeria?

Nigeria_____________________________Yes,who you be and wetin you want?

2)BBC______________________________We are BBC and wishes to interview the national chairman of the PDP

Nigeria___________________________Which one,na two chairmen dey and all of them na legitimate,one is an octogenerian while the other na septuagenarian!

3)BBC_____________________________But how can there be two chairmen of a ruling party,is that constitutional?

Nigeria_____________________________i beg no waste my time,wetin you sabi for constitution?has ya country ever see one?...no be counterfeit document you get for ya country..make u no insult me fah!..in our own democracy,we get 2 chairmen,governors forum and also 2 national chairmen PDP..shikenan!

4)BBC______________________________ok..can I talk with whoever is in possession of the certificate of registration of the party?at least one can presume that,that faction is the legitimate one..

Nigeria_______________________________sebi,you call ya sef BBC,how come you no sabi say,the certificate is missing..why are you so unprofessional like NTA,whey go give news of wetin happen two weeks,today.You no dey read Internet ne?..The certificate don miss,therefore the two faction now dey on the same footing!

5)BBC_________________________________in the interim,can you tell us the reason for the factionalzation of the rulling party?

Nigeria__________________________________hen..you no say for nigeria,the thing wey dey cause problem among ogas for top,na sharing formula.If one Oga wan chop alone with him people,the others go dey vex,and them go thereafter cause katakata..Since independence,na all the ogas dey chop.them no gree to even give we,talakawas small thing to chop.If we sick,na die be that,but them Oga go carry themselves go for Chicago..Our children don become agbero,because no education.But all the children of Oga,them dey Harvard...Even sef,the teacher for nigeria university,whey dey look for ordinary N100 billion,to improve allowance and infrastructure,them Oga for PDP never answer them..can you imagine..ordinary N100 billion why dem dey give their oyinbo girlfriend,naim dem no fit pay ASUU.

6)BBC______________________________________But if that is the case,can't nigerians dump PDP and vote for the new APC?

Nigeria____________________________________Oga BBC,wallahi,APC na younger brother for PDP...all the ogas whey dey angry for PDP,them full APC...Also all the big APC Oga,them no like internal democracy at all..them dey behave like soja.even worse than soja.Them dey rig also.,,no single councillor for opposition win for Lagos..them dey behave like PDP too much.APGA too,na cousin for PDP..Them like PDP so tay,them dey even campaign for PDP to win head of state.

7)BBC_____________________________________But can't you people change your government through democratic means or popular revolt?

Nigeria___________________________________Haba Oga BBC,why you dey talk like this..popular revolt ?When,all of us for nigeria like life too much.All of us wan behave like our ogas for top.The nigerian student wan drive rolls royce,market woman want build big big houses,beggars wan buy big house,civil servant wan enjoy...nobody wan suffer let alone die...Kai,nigerian people love life too much..for nigeria,if someone born picken,na party..if someone die,na party,if someone get accident,na party,if someone buy car,na party..so people whey like enjoyment pass for this world,can they protest over bad policies?Nbano Oga BBC!...

How it all started

It all started soon after he helped secure a whopping unprecedented two million votes for his South-South brother to win the 2011 Presidential election...

He accompanied her to Okrika just to demonstrate that he was loyal. Just to make her feel important as Her Imperial Majesty should feel.

So suddenly, as he was speaking, outlining his revolutionary educational strategy, especially for Her Majesty's Okrika homeland, she got into a fiery rage, sprang up like she was catapulted from the spirit realm, dragged the microphone from his hand with the force of a mighty storm, and buried him in the avalanche of tirade with her characteristic magisterial swagger.

The teeming audience, mainly of Okrika origin, who had thronged the open ground to see the triumphant return of their Czarist Queen, watched on, some hilarious, some hysterical, some jamming their hands together at the awesome power of their Goddess. Others were subdued, bowing in disgust at the humiliation of the holder of their sacred mandate. Mumbling at the denigration of their Governor, a man, the husband of a beautiful wife too.

Stunned and disgraced in equal measure, head lowered, mouth agape, he walked stealthily towards the Modern Primary School that was close by, his feet unable to kill an ant, sat on the corridor and mimed to himself " oh, this school, see how much humiliation I have endured for constructing you here so that the children of fishermen here and the children of janitors and cleaners and fish sellers and market woman and traders can have world-class educational facilities like their elite contemporaries in the cities in order to arm them too with the wherewithal of the competitive 21sth century knowledge-based economy". Soliloquy! A governor's tears nearly dropped, he had to hold the eyes liquid for his closet.

In the weeks and months that followed, no official condemnation surfaced, no informal " south-south" elders' words of sympathy soothed the frayed nerves and the chagrined soul of the man. Not even a word from the deities of Aso Rock! Yet the Governor was still, for what would a "son" do having been so treated by a "mother"? He endured. And endured. And endured. But more blows were lined up.

Instead of calm, a rash of oil and territorial wars were unilaterally declared against him and Rivers people. By this time, events were progressively deteriorating. So permit me to now name the " Him". He's a certain Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi. Her Majesty, the Magisterial Amazonic Goddess is Her Excellency, Dame Patience Faka Jonathan.

So I said the oil wars, territorial wars, were the next phase of tribulations for Rivers people.

In late 2012, 17 BILLION naira, accruals from disputed Soku oils well in Kalabari kingdom of Rivers State, hitherto put away in an escrow account, pending the amicable resolution of the boundary dispute between two sister states of Rivers and Bayelsa, was strangely credited to the coffers of Bayelsa State Government by the RMAFC, an organ of the Federal Government which perhaps couldn't fathom why any State in Nigeria should be dragging oil well money with the President's home State of Bayelsa.

Rivers territory has been excised! Never mind that from colonial times up to the 10th Edition of the Administrative Map of Nigeria, the boundaries between Kalabari communities of Rivers State and the neighbouring Nembe Communities of Bayelsa State had been delineated with the boundary clearly marked as the Santa barbara River. It was the 11th Edition of the Administrative Map of Nigeria prepared in 1999 and published in 2000 that strangely shifted the boundaries between Rivers and Bayelsa from the initial boundary between Kalabari and Nembe, west of the Santa Barbara, to San Bartholomew River, contrary to all preceding administrative maps of Nigeria.

Expectedly, Governor Peter Odili, the then Governor of Rivers State, had rightly petitioned then Chairman of NBC, Atiku Abubakar, over the wrongful boundary shift and allocation of Rivers oil wells to Bayelsa. It's interesting to note that in a letter dated 3rd July, 2002, addressed to Odili, the Governor of Rivers, the Director-General of NBC had stated thus:
" I have discussed this issue with the Surveyor-General of the federation and wish to state as follows...that the NBC has taken note of the state's observation of the INADVERTENT MISREPRESENTATION of the Bayelsa/Rivers interstate boundary..." He further promised that..." I am to assure your Excellency that your observations have been noted and necessary corrections shall be reflected on the 12th Edition of the map currently under production".... "I am to assure you that the boundary line as reflected in the said edition of the map SHALL HAVE NO BEARINGS ON THE CURRENT EFFORTS"

So doesn't it fly in the face of reason that 17 billion naira wisely housed in an escrow account pending proper resolution of the dispute was hastily transferred to the coffers of Bayelsa State in circumstances that suggest the reasonable probability that the RMAFC were under the obligation of an "order from above"?

That was not all in the free for all territorial onslaught against Rivers. Akwa Ibom state got their fair share of Rivers productive oil wells too. The Revenue of the state was becoming lean! Did Rivers win any battle of this territorial and oil well onslaught? Only some barren wells from Cross Rivers. Amaechi and his Rivers people have been pummeled! But why?

The Governor was still reeling from the pains inflicted by the heavy territorial and oil well jabs when a new dimension to the plan to cripple and make him a pariah began.

Orubebe, Jonathan's Minister of Niger Delta affairs stepped in to take the barton and lead the charge.

Amaechi had, sometimes in 2012, after visiting an accident scene on the East West Road near Ahoada, made a seemingly harmless comment expressing disappointment with the slow pace of work on the road and calling on the Federal Government to permit Governors of Niger Delta States to take over construction of the road in order to end the serial carnage the deplorable nature of the road was causing. It took Orubebe seven months to de-construct Amaechi's comment and convinced himself that it was directed against President Jonathan. Then Orubebe started his infamous outburst against the Governor. He was given enough war chest to attract gargantuan media hullabaloo. If you are at a loss as to when the " Amaechi has no respect for president" campaign started, ask Orubebe.

That took us into the NGF saga. Jonathan didn't tell Amaechi not to re-contest the Chairmanship. But he deployed unprecedented presidential power to stop him. All Federal institutions were put on alert to stop Amaechi. They battled like a bunch of excited children to please big brother. Everybody could fly in their private jets, not Amaechi. Jonathan, from being the president of Nigeria had also become the god of the sky. Bombardier! Bombardier!! Bombardier!!! By default, that company had become the most popular aircraft manufacturing company in Nigeria. Even my grand-mother in the village knew about them!

Amaechi couldn't fly at will again, his wings clipped to the root. Governors were promised heaven and earth to stop him. He contested. The prospects of victory were dim. Defeat appeared obvious. Fears palpable. Only faith was constant.

Akpabio was called to duty, hastily made the head of a quickly devised PDP-GF. The mission was unambiguous. It contained only two word: stop Amaechi!

Amaechi said, if I have to fail, let me fail at the poll. Against mountainous odds, he drove in the vehicle of his iron-clad will to dare, to challenge, to face risk. A battled-scared political veteran. What did you expect?

After the counting of ballots, the scoreboard read 16-19. Jang, a reluctant old contestant, secured 16. Amaechi got 19. Amaechi had won against obvious odds! Just as jubilation was erupting everywhere, the arithmetic abracadabra began. Bloodied, Akpabio, representing Jonathan, was not ready to take the punch.

So did we record the debut of "janglize," "janglization", "janjaweed", in our political lexicon. Arithmetic equation had been canibalized by mathematics abracadabra. The six before one had been turned upside down. 16 had become 19 and 19 had become 16. In every case, sixteen was greater than nineteen.

Presidency denied involvement as it did from the beginning. But few days after, Jang was addressed as chairman of NGF by the President himself. Not because Jang won, but because Amaechi must be reduced to nothing. Few days after, Akpabio and co gathered in the walls of Aso Rock to sing a dirge for NGF. The lyric of the dirge said:

"All hail the President
The cord of NGF is broken forever
Its grave decorated with your
Signature victory
No more will its ghost rise up to
Trouble thee
All hail the president!"

So I tell you once again, if you are at a loss as to how faction become implanted in our national consciousness, go back to the NGF debacle. Ask Akpabio, the President's hitman!

You remember Amaechi's 49th birthday gift from the presidency? Suspension from the PDP. Bamanga Tukur and his people gleefully announced to Nigerians that Amaechi had been suspended from the party for refusing to reinstate the Obio Akpor council government sacked by the Rivers legislative arm!

The First Lady also resumed her belligerence. She would come into Rivers State with riotous retinue of endless convoy and lock down the whole place. One black day on one of her mischievous visits, security forces barricaded a road where the Governor was passing. The first Lady was apparently preparing to go out. She was probably still in her bathroom, but the entire road has been locked down. The Governor's usually small convoy was turned back from passing a certain road. Mbu's men plus all the Federal security apparatuses turned back the convoy of a Governor! The Empress was in town. Didn't the Governor know?

Enter Nyesom Wike, Hon Minister of State for Education. With help from Abuja, they took away the PDP structure in the state and dashed it to Nyesom. Before you could. Say Jack, Felix Obuah, new Rivers PDP chairman anointed from above, was giving series of ultimatum to the Governor! Explain in two hours! Say this in twenty hours! Deny that in
twenty four hours or face discipline! If one forgot that we were not in a banana republic,one would have been forgiven.

Then enter GDI otherwise called gang of demented irritants. It had, and still has Nyesom's signature. They threatened, they occupied, they cursed, they spilled venom, they troubled the waters, they yelled with words of interposition, they captured the airwaves preaching belly revolutions against the Governor. Nyesom promised that he would make Rivers State ungovernable. And that Amaechi would sleep no more.

Mbu, Rivers police chief, was openly engaging the "chief security" of the State. " You are a dictator, you are this, you are that" he said over the megaphone. "Repentant" militants were unleashed on the streets of Port Harcourt, not only to protest I know not what, but to intimidate the Governor. Police escorted them in that endeavour.

Enter Evans. The template for the new arithmetic formula has already been developed in Abuja from the NGF saga. His renegades of frivolous five legislators, with active help from indian hemp- smoking, Arrow mate- chanting thugs commandeered the Rivers State House of Assembly ." Honourable members in the gallery" elected Evans as the new "speaker". Five persons have sacked 27 people. 5 had become greater than 27. The end point of the farce was to pronounce the impeachment of the Governor. Once that was done, Mbu would have mobilised his men into Government House to march Amaechi out. Amaechi would go to court and cry a lamentation of rule of law. The rest would become history.

Evans told us that he was doing all that for a certain jesus, who having ascended to heaven, decided to come town to the African tribe of Okrika. Amaechi's seat in the Brick House was the only sacrifice worthy of acceptance to our jesus on earth.

In the midst of the impasse, the invertebrate trio of Okupe, Abati and Gulag were busy throwing scud missiles at the Governor at every turn, directed from the high planes of Aso Rock's war house.

Now primed for a fight, Amaechi exported the crises to London, the capital of our formal colonial masters, and berated President Jonathan and the First Lady for scheming to sack him. Will you blame him? Presidential minders had expressed bitterness about the Senate's resolution approving the decision of the House of Reps to take over the legislative functions of Rivers Assembly. Not because they love Rivers people more, but because the takeover foreclosed their nocturnal voodoo scheme to sack the Governor.

Sam Sam Jaja, Amaechi's man, now factional National Deputy Chairman of the New PDP, was thrown out by the old factional PDP to undo Amaechi.

This has been a long one from me. Now I have a question. In view of the foregoing, did anybody expect Amaechi to take a huge political offering on his head, dance and wriggle his waist to Aso Rock in perspiration, and lay the offering at the feet of the deity in the temple of Aso Rock?

For those of us who are eager to call Amaechi a traitor of " the south-south cause", whatever that means,before you spread out your judgement sheet, consider, please consider.

Amaechimanic hatred started soon after 2011, giving the Governor and his many supporters no chance, no alternative.

Friday Kennedy Barileilo
is Lingua Scribe of Ogoni
Generation Next Project
(OGNP)

'SUNTAI SHOULD BE ALLOWED TAKE A DIGNIFIED EXIT FROM POWER' - by: Mary Wilson

Mary Wilson, a public affairs commentator and medical doctor in the United States, in this piece, argues that Taraba State Governor Danbaba Suntai deserves his rest outside of power

No greater disservice could have been done to Governor Danbaba Suntai than the poorly choreographed, C-rated movie of his return to work than what we saw at the weekend. First, let me commend the wife for a job well done. She must have been through emotional hell and back on account of the man’s air accident and of course the touch-and-go health crisis for a while. From Jalingo to Abuja to Germany and then the USA, Mrs Suntai ought to be commended.

Any woman, who has been through the hell of caring for a terminally or critically ill spouse, will be able to identify with this woman. The emotional toll is beyond description. The fear, the uncertainty, the trauma of watching one’s husband slip in and out of coma is not what anyone should trivialise. I am sure Mrs Turai Yar’adua knows what I am talking about.

It throws a woman into grief, fear of the unknown, pain of loss. Stages of grief are not what any sane or normal human being wants to deal with. I went through it five years ago when my husband was in stage 4 of congenital heart failure. I got stuck in stage 2, stage of denial. Even when I knew that we were counting down, when ejection fraction was less than 20 per cent, I still refused to accept it was over. I tried to play God. I was not willing to accept the inevitable. And guess what, I practise medicine in the best part of the world. It was just human!

So, in a way, I empathise with Mrs Suntai. However, that is where it ends. I was not and still not the spouse of a high profile public official, so when my spouse finally slipped away while I was not looking, I calmly walked away without playing Hercules. In my case, I walked into the Emergency room with a heart rate of more than 180/min. I ended up in ICU a few days later. I was inconsolable. I was afraid of being alone. I was distraught beyond words.

So, when I saw pictures of Suntai as he de-planed in Abuja, I knew someone was being mischievous, insane and indecent. The pictures of him as he alighted from the plane did more damage to him than whatever they meant to achieve. For four years, I was a trauma person. I cared for those boys from the fields of Iraq and Afghanistan, and those demons were awakened as I saw Suntai. His gaze into space, his look of a deer in a headlight, showed a man who was struggling with post-traumatic brain injury (PTBI) The fact that he needed two to three people to coordinate his gait was a damning evidence against him, evidence that he was not ready to be a state chief executive.

So, what is Post TBI? They are symptoms patients experience for weeks, months, years at times; post traumatic brain injury is secondary to brain injury. Simple. Some of these symptoms may have manifested, others will present over the years. Post-TBI causes a variety of symptoms beginning with cognitive deficiency as we saw in Suntai in Abuja. His handler was obviously whispering to him, as he de-planed, trying to re- orient him as to where he was.

The man was definitely not cognizant of his location. He stared into space, he looked surprised, and he had the look of a deer in a headlight. He was wondering where he was. He exhibited cognitive deficit. Indeed, if compelled to do more, he would not have been able to do so. Indeed, his wave was something that must have been practised severally while in rehab in preparation for the charade that they put up in Abuja. These people could not go lower than that even if they tried.

PTBI will present with sudden irritability, mood swings, sudden outburst of speech, sometimes inappropriate, memory loss, disjointed speech. Hopefully, this man, who is obviously not part of this caper, will not be subjected to public humiliation while his handlers are trying to prove a sick macabre point. He will be thoroughly embarrassed in public and will make him slide into deeper depression which is one of the signs of PTBI.

Mood swing, fatigue, seizure, incontinence of bladder and bowel is not uncommon in PTBI. Seizure, both grand and petit may present. Perceptual motor disorder, somatosensory disorder is not uncommon in PTBI patients. No matter how we may want to slice it, this man has no capacity to occupy the office of governor any longer. His pictures on arrival in Nigeria totally nailed him. Unfortunately, there is no established cure for PTBI.

There are treatments to alleviate some of the effects of PTBI. Because they are not able to articulate their own needs or symptoms, medicine has a tough time managing them sometimes. PTBI patients suffer confusion, they are tongue tied as Suntai is presenting. Because, the public does not have access to his medical profile, we can only safe guess that he is in the sub acute stage of his TBI. His neurologic presentation, gait, albeit unsteady and ocular motor presentation amongst other things, are the parameters used for putting him in the sub acute stage of PTBI.

Because of his extended hospital stay, it is obvious he suffered severe closed diffuse axonal injury. Symptomatology associated with such injuries was what we saw on his return drama to Nigeria. Needed rest, isolation from his welcoming crowd, close gait and speech monitoring indicated ataxia, (movement disorder) speech disorder (fluent and non fluent) which his handlers were trying to hide, Aphasia which he no doubt suffers will certainly prevent him from addressing his State House of Assembly and was why he did not address the press nor take questions from them at the airport. I feel like screaming stop this mess at his handlers.

The way it is, this man is being manipulated. He is like a puppet on a string manipulated by evil puppeteers. The right thing to do is to leave him alone to conclude or rather continue with his medical therapy. He has made history as a governor and until the end of the world, his name will be in our history books as being the governor of Taraba State at one time. There is no need forcing this unwilling, unconscious horse to the stream. Being alert with poor neuro score is not enough criterions to manage a state as the chief executive.

Hopefully, that will register with Prof. Jerry Gana. Suntai has no capacity or capability to rule a state anymore. It is painful, it is difficult, but it is the truth. His handlers and the evil people in the PDP can deny it all they like, but that is the truth.
It has nothing to do with politics. It does not matter who rules the state. What matters is probity. We have obviously not learnt anything from the Yar’adua debacle.

It is only in Nigeria where people are free to be off shore governors and presidents. The crude nature with which we lust for power is beyond human comprehension.

Power belongs to God alone, and it is given to people to hold in sacred trust. Nothing more.
But because access to power translates to grand scale theft of public funds in Nigeria, it becomes a do-or-die affair.

Suntai should be allowed to take a dignified exit from power for his sake, that of his family and most of all Taraba State.

This piece first appeared in The Nation newspaper on Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Palladium on Muhammadu Buhari

Idowu Akinlotan

Buhari and Ribadu

It is settled even in the most polemical circles that Gen Ibrahim Babangida, had he won the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) nominations, could never produce the kind of fanatical and almost hypnotic following Gen Muhammadu Buhari is eliciting in most parts of the North. The reason, it seems, is not that Babangida is less a humanist than Buhari, or even less astute a politician and tactician. What sets the two apart, and puts Buhari ahead of Babangida at the moment, is the cumulative and sanitising effect of time, or what some historians and biographers describe as iconoclastic posterity. It is indeed a strange phenomenon that someone so aloof as Buhari, so cold and detached, so inflexible and unfriendly can work a crowd so passionately. Stranger still is the fact that he whips the crowd into frenzy, not by delicately wrought words and uplifting phrases, nor by calculated soapbox theatrics and choreographed dances, as perfected by both the PDP and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), but by the simple fact of his unfathomably aloof personality.

There is nothing in Buhari’s history or in his politics to warn us of the explosively adulatory reception he is receiving all over the North. In 2003 when he first tried to win the presidency, his almost condescending approach to seeking votes barely got him notice in serious political gatherings. Party apparatchiks viewed him with curious amazement, as if he were an object of comedy from serious literature, and both regular and rented crowds that thronged his rallies instinctively knew he was unsellable. The lanky and laconic military officer-turned politician was too politically and socially awkward to be admired or given a serious hearing. In 2007, when he again fought for the presidency, he had begun to make an impression, but the voters were still too impassive and too judgemental to help him. They didn’t like the ways and impositions of the anti-modernist, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, but Buhari was also too apolitical to make amends for his dictatorial past, particularly his medieval, if not inquisitorial, sense of justice.

This is Buhari’s third and last stand. At 69, he is unlikely to offer himself for the highest office a fourth time. Even if he wins he is unlikely to go for a second term. But nature and its curious alchemy have conspired to sell the retired army general to the electorate beyond his own political gifts and accomplishments. His rally in Kaduna pulled an incredibly large crowd, never before seen in the city. On the day of his rally, it was perilous for anyone to identify with any other candidate, particularly the PDP’s. The venue of the rally itself was jam-packed, and so too were adjoining streets on which thronged fierce, fanatical Buhari supporters looking for a fight. The rage of the general’s supporters in Minna, Gombe, Yola, Jalingo and Maiduguri was palpable, with Gombe signposting the looming disaster and dilemma facing  the ruling party. The PDP has often been regarded as a rigging machine, a reputation they rehearsed in 2003 and secured for all time in 2007. They are suspected to be minded to rig the elections again in 2011, if not at the ballot, then in the courts where they appear to be neutralising the Appeal Court and disingenuously setting up the Supreme Court, with the active help of court insiders, to predetermine the outcomes of governorship petitions.

But given the fanaticism of Buhari’s supporters, their intolerance of and impatience with the PDP, particularly its presidential ticket, and the intensity of the frustrations and alienations they have had to endure for more than a decade, it is hard to see how balloting can be successfully subverted in the region. The ruling party, which is fomenting trouble in the Southwest, with plans to incarcerate progressive leaders, has obviously failed to gauge the mood of much of the North and the whole of Southwest. But thanks to Buhari, the ruling party is meeting more than its match. Whether it likes it or not the PDP is fighting a war in the North, a war declared by Buhari’s supporters, a war unwittingly encouraged by Buhari’s statements that he would not contest any rigging in court nor dissuade his supporters from lynching election riggers. If the PDP, therefore, decides to fight war on two fronts, the voters seem eager to furnish the party its desire.

Buhari has become the North’s hero, not because they think he can win or because other parts of the country see him as competent to rule, but because they have simply fallen in love with him. After running for the presidency twice, he has demonstrated that losing twice was not enough to lure him into the sort of depressing compromises rife in Nigeria. As presidential candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party in 2007, he insisted on going to court against his party’s wishes, and denounced the Government of National Unity which his party embraced to its peril. He has proved to be reliable, dependable, honest, self-assured and has shown he has the character to rule Nigeria with a steady, confident pair of hands. He is probably one of the few leaders in the world whose charisma has little to do with his speeches or erudition, or even his antecedents. If the turnout in the April polls is heavy in the North, it will be because of Buhari. 

Given the massive and tumultuous crowds that welcome Buhari at every stop in the North, it is unlikely any governor in the region, no matter which party he belongs, and no matter what promises he has given his party’s standard-bearer, will openly and defiantly work against Buhari. I suspect, for the sake of peace, they will be relieved to see their people vote for Buhari. I suspect too that the PDP and its standard-bearer, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, know that they will have to look for fishes in other waters. However, in all the talk about Buhari’s acceptability and the growing fanatical support for him, there has been little or no reference to his programmes, his suitability for high office, or even his political competence. They talk about his character, and he has it in abundance. They talk about his honesty, and he is unimpeachable. They talk about his courage and fearlessness, and they are right. And then they talk about his experience and discipline, and they are also right. Had these been the only qualifications required to rule this fractious, wasteful and undisciplined country, Buhari would have received my enthusiastic endorsement.

If we are going to get it right, however, it is important we really get it right. In addition to the many qualities a Nigerian leader must have, it is inconceivable that these qualities, like an adverb, are not modified or qualified by other qualities. Of course it is alright to be disciplined, but it must be blended with a delicate mixture of humanism that enriches rather than vitiates. To be otherwise is for the lofty potentials and artistic endowments of the people to be stifled and regimented, the effect of which is to create an immeasurably dull society, probably even philistine, and clearly unprepared for the future. After all, discipline is a means to an end, not an end in itself, as Buhari sometimes unfortunately gives the impression. It is true we need someone with courage and character, such as he showed in trying to probe defence contracts when he was Head of State and in his military campaign against Chad shortly before he became ruler, but these qualities must be enabled by politics and sound judgement. Buhari is neither a politician, as his inability to forge an alliance against the PDP indicated, though he would have been the greatest beneficiary; nor is his judgement always sound, as his execution of drug couriers under iniquitously retroactive laws showed. 

Modern Nigeria is an amalgam of boisterous and sometimes disruptively competitive ethnic and religious groups in need of carefully measured but firm handling. However, if the country is not restructured, the contradictions it is groaning under today will explode in the long run. We need an iconoclast with a sublime understanding of how to situate these futuristic but urgent requirements within a wider framework of a flexible society anchored on disciplined but responsive values. Can Buhari be that man? I am not certain. Though he is not gregarious, and needn’t be to be a successful leader, he is a perfectly usual man, an honest, predictable and dependable person, but without the depth or scope of vision for a 21st Century society. 

By far the most important reason he cannot get my endorsement is that he appears to me, through his words and deeds, to be uncomfortable with democracy. He and his supporters have projected his honesty and character almost to the exclusion of his views on democracy. What are those views? It is safe to say they are neither deep nor uplifting; they are indeed as ordinary as the views projected by the ordinary Nigerian. I think for us, the next leader must not only have a deeper and concrete appreciation of the centrality of democratic fundamentals in social, economic and political development; as candidate for office and potential custodian of democracy, he must be quite comfortable with the concept, and his enunciation of it must not depend on whether it is convenient for him or not. When a candidate admonishes the lynching of election riggers, he demonstrates poverty of ideas, a disturbing streak of authoritarianism and a fatally inchoate understanding of the direction the society should be heading. The fact is that at 69, Buhari has remained admirably an honest and capable leader, but he has not outgrown his unease with democracy, nor has he developed a consistent idea of what kind of society he has the ambition to lead and what freedoms to allow it even if it hurts his private and public interests.

The emphasis, for most of those presenting themselves for high office, has always been to adumbrate a body of programmes for the improvement of the material conditions of the people, something a leader of modest gifts can do. No thoughts, deep or superficial, are spared the constitution or the framework of our togetherness. The American constitution would have been an uninspiring document had its framers been obsessed with the material conditions of its people. Of course the Nigerian constitution, like a speech worked and reworked by many experts, has no soul. And so we have a responsibility to rise to the higher levels of existence and to stand and fight for something much nobler, something extraordinary, something more filling than food and clothing. I am angry that none of those aspiring for office has spoken to this special need. Buhari has not, and indeed  cannot, for his limits are too worrisome to be ignored. Of course he towers far and above Obasanjo or the late Umaru Yar’Adua, and any day, anytime would trounce Jonathan in the province of governance. Buhari in the State House, I must add, would be far better than the three. But there is a limit to what he can give because there is a limit to what he has got.

i endorse buhari

Sonala Olumhense

 

I HEREBY announce my support of Muhammadu Buhari for President of Nigeria.  He is credible, and capable of changing Nigeria for the better. Is Buhari an angel?  No.  Indeed, I have criticized him in the past.  I have expressed my disappointment that people of his generation and background act as if they are all that Nigeria has got. That argument is still valid.  At the April elections, however, he will be the best that Nigeria has got.  Everyone knows that next month’s election will be the most critical in Nigeria’s history.  It will show whether we have learned anything from our own history or not, and therefore whether we are determined to move forward or not. Of the lessons we have learned, the elections will show, most of all, whether we have learned what I call the David Hill lesson.  As editor of the London Weekend, Mr. Hill wrote a column in which he considered the question as to why people would do the same thing over and over again but expect different results.  He wondered why a man who struck his own thumb with a hammer twice would expect not to experience the same excruciating pain the second time. That is the same question Nigerians must answer in less than one month from now. My answer is: Yes, if you clobber your thumb with that hammer, you are going to feel the same screaming and searing pain all over again.  Actually, the pain will feel worse the second time because—unless you are of considerably languid intelligence— your brain would have informed you ahead of time about just how much of a fool you are and how bad the agony is going to be. Demographically, two kinds of people will offer their support to Goodluck Jonathan in April.  The first comprises of beneficiaries of the incompetent, corrupt and unpatriotic system that has grounded Nigeria since 1999, and which Jonathan unapologetically represents.  Of this category, no persuasion is possible.   Such supporters are the golddiggers who dig for themselves and see in the atrocious manipulation that gave us Umaru Yar’Adua and Jonathan the perpetuation of that system.  For them, there is no bigger picture, and no Nigeria. But by themselves, they will not be able to put Jonathan back in Aso Rock where, while Yar’Adua lasted, he was so disrespected he was known as the “social prefect.”  They will need the full cooperation of the second category: the fools. This second category comprises of masochists who will vote against the best interest of their own children and their country by giving their ballot to Jonathan of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).  By doing so, they will be authorizing Jonathan to pick up that hammer the second time as they stick out their thumbs, telling him, “Hurt me, sir! Hurt me again!  Hurt me, I am a fool!” And Jonathan will.  Jonathan will hurt the people of Nigeria because in the past 12 years, and through agents Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and himself, the party has proved that the mission of the PDP is the PDP. The PDP provides privately for the PDP, and prescribes punishment for others.  And it is because Jonathan will implement that agenda without question that he is carrying what his wife Patience Jonathan advertises at campaign stops as “umblerah” (umbrella).  Obasanjo spent eight years carrying it, and he left Nigeria in the dark ages; Obasanjo is following Jonathan around to make certain Jonathan will not deviate.  Anyone giving his vote to Jonathan gives him the permission to serve the PDP, to protect its army of crooks and looters, and to spend the federal treasury until it is empty. A Nigerian may vote Jonathan for a plethora of “reasons,” but in the end, each of them will be found to be selfish or narrow.  In the end, none of them will be truly an intelligent argument.  The man has no record of character, patriotism or commitment.  He is long on promises but extremely short on performance.  As soccer coach Chris Udemezue used to say, [a player] cannot do in a match what he was unable to do in practice.  Jonathan is not going to give Nigeria in May what he has not given since Yar’Adua died. Buhari can stretch out one of his long hands and arrest the drift.  At this time in our history, his candidature is the wisest, the most promising, and the most logical.  He has honour, discipline and strength of character: attributes every great leader must have but which are not a currency of the PDP. Furthermore, Buhari knows what is wrong with this country, and knows what to do about it, an insight he demonstrated when—as Head of State between 1983 and 1985—he led a memorable assault on indiscipline and excess in public life. Nigeria needs in office a leader whose word will command respect; a leader who will not speak out of both sides of his mouth; a leader who will deploy power in the national interest and not in the massaging of his own bloated ego and the greed of his friends. Nigeria needs a leader who is capable of holding himself and those around him to high standards of accountability and performance, not one who simply preaches about them in public. Nigeria needs a man who has demonstrated he can stand up to Nigeria’s army of the rich and influential, not one whose friends, colleagues and mistresses are exempt from the law. Nigeria needs a man who will be consistent from day to day, not one for whom right and wrong depends on the company or the time of day.  Nigeria needs a man who can tell opportunity from opportunism; a man who can resist the greed, insensitivity and ethical nothingness that now defines the country. There are many people asking to be president of Nigeria next May, but only Buhari truly meets these basic considerations.  Only he answers the question: “Who is Nigeria’s best hope for halting and reversing the deterioration and decay?” Only he can change the questions and seek new answers.  He can bring in new men and women of character, and throw open a genuine new beginning anchored on public service.   He can slam the doors on indolence and compromise, and unlock the cellars where the PDP hopes the bodies will never be discovered. I wholeheartedly endorse his candidature for President of Nigeria because he has the capacity to bring a sense of responsibility and mission to governance.  If he does, implementing budgets and policies will become standard, and good men and women will have a place in our nation head of the mob of monsters. All of this is possible because Buhari has character.  In Pastor Tunde Bakare, he has also chosen another man of integrity.  Through action, not loud rhetoric, they can correct the principal weaknesses that have made Nigeria an underachieving and under-developing country. I have never met Buhari or spoken to him.  But I have observed him closely for the better part of three decades, and I know that what he offers is superior to the weaknesses those who fear his ascendancy are eager to cite. Buhari is different.  As I preached to complete strangers at Bar Beach in Lagos last week, he is the missing link, and he is an opportunity.  I endorse him enthusiastically. sonala.olumhense@gmail.com