Jamboree of presidential aspirants, shortage of turnaround ideas Ayo Olukotun

“Nigerians should deliberately search for leaders with foresight, intelligence and experience that can turn the country’s fortunes around” – Pastor William Kumuyi, General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Christian Ministry (The PUNCH, Thursday, January 27, 2022) Have you noticed that the list of aspirants for Nigeria’s coveted number one political office, come 2023, lengthens by the day? On Wednesday, two new aspirants—Senator Bukola Saraki, former Senate Leader, and Senator Rochas Okorocha, former Governor of Imo State—announced their intention to join an already elongated roll. Bear in mind that previously we had Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress; David Umahi, Governor of Ebonyi State; Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, former Governor of Abia State; Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello; Prof. Kingsley Moghalu; Dr. Philip Idaewor of the United Kingdom branch of the APC, not counting a host of others who have either declared by subterfuge or are encouraging rife speculations that they are very much in the race. This latter group is also a long and unfolding one including current Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo; former President, Goodluck Jonathan; former Vice-President, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku; Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal; Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, among others. Conceivably, the list might billow up to 25 or more. Were the country in a routine season, there may have been no need to comment on what is fast becoming a jamboree of aspirants; however, as Pastor William Kumuyi quoted in the opening paragraph correctly recognised, Nigeria is trapped in a period that requires leaders who will “turn the nation’s fortunes around.” Of course, chorus boys and automatic endorsers of the current administration perpetually project an image of normalcy or superlative achievement by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.). But those who feel the hurt and who live in the desperate travails of the hour know where the shoe pinches. A couple of days back, a junior colleague decided to make the journey from Ibadan to Lagos by train. “Why would you subject yourself to that ordeal?” I inquired gently. He answered with the frightening narrative of how portions of the road linking the two cities had been converted into a traveller’s nightmare by acts of violence, including shooting at passenger buses in recent times. Notwithstanding that security officials claim that the attack is a one-off, those smart enough know that this predicament begins usually with a limited number of kidnappings and daring attacks on travellers. In other words, Yorubaland, which was once thought immune or relatively immune to the kind of banditry that virtually annulled the possibility of peaceful commuting by road between Abuja and Kaduna has drifted southwards, increasing the devastating national peril. That is not all. The ongoing brouhaha about fuel subsidy has opened a Pandora’s Box when the eternally opaque Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation told us that Nigerians consume fuel to the tune of 65.7 million litres daily and that it will require a sum of N3 trillion to underwrite the cost of the postponement of fuel subsidy removal by 18 months. Unsurprisingly, an irate Dr Kayode Fayemi, Governor of Ekiti State and Chairman Nigeria Governors’ Forum fired back that “there is a lot of fraud in consumption and distribution figures,” suggesting that no one is sure anymore about the competing and contradictory figures churned out by NNPC. Please note that this was precisely one of the cardinal sins of the Jonathan administration but after eight years of so-called reformism, we have come full circle regarding the abracadabra of subsidy, resulting in a gargantuan foreign debt and the spectre of national bankruptcy. This apart, the Minister for Finance, Zainab Ahmed, confirmed recently that the deepening suffering of Nigerians as a result of high inflation is one of the reasons why the removal of fuel subsidy earlier slated for June has been put on hold. Doubtless, in an intensely political season, the electorate will be thrown all kinds of unusual favours for well-known reasons. Recall the famous words of the Swiss philosopher J. J. Rousseau, made centuries ago, that “the people of England regards itself as free, but it is grossly mistaken; it is free only during the election of members of parliament. As soon as they are elected, slavery overtakes it…” Needless to say over time, the British people have deepened their democracy to the point where it can outlast the unusual generosity of the politicians during elections, leaving countries like Nigeria in the lurch of polling-determined policies and promises that will fade out when elections are over. That is to say, the country has only pushed back the frontier of misfortune for a country that produces oil but which is unable to maintain its refineries or keep its currency stable enough to avoid wide fluctuations of its exchange rate. Moreover, successive governments have seized upon the incompetence of earlier ones to make failed promises the object of their campaigns in a never-ending cycle of violated social contracts. To the politicians playing this game, it is perfectly okay. The problem, however, is that the chickens of earlier unkept promises have come home to roost with a vengeance, with the result that the country is kept in the stranglehold of a dark tunnel. Browse the promises made to Nigerians in successive elections since 1999 and you will marvel at the magnitude of the differences between oratory and performance. Buhari, like Jonathan, promised to end the reign of darkness in the power sector and decisively bring electricity generation up. What do we have today? The country generates megawatts of electricity, fluctuating between a figure lower than the administration inherited or just a little above it. So what happened to the sweet promise made during campaigns of amplified and sufficient power generation? Do you want to look at the education sector where no Nigerian university is in the first 500 universities on global league tables contrasted with South Africa which has 9 public universities in the first 50 and the University of Cape Town in number 20 position? The reason for underlining the dismay of Nigerians as another election rapidly approaches is that the current harvest of presidential aspirants has been disturbingly short on policy matters much less turnaround ideas. If these gentlemen do not know what is required is not business as usual in a nation threatened by existential crunch but transformational and visionary leadership. The political parties as well as the soaring number of aspirants are silent on roadmaps for redemption and reinvention. There is no mention of the woes of a distorted federal structure nor of the prospect of a national conference to renew the federal bargain. In other climes, policymaking is serious business with political parties hosting policy conferences, both to feel the pulse of the people and to design a compass out of the woods. What obtains here is policymaking by turnkey. Do you recall turnkey projects imported hook, line and sinker from abroad, leaving you only to turn the key? The correlate is turnkey policymaking featuring policies written by intellectual contractors with no input from our leaders. Enough of this jamboree of the soaring number of aspirants with little or no ideas for redesigning a failing state. Let the race to salvage Nigeria truly begin now. PUNCH.

BETWEEN DEMOCRACY AND ETHNOCRACY by SANUSI L. SANUSI

Two experiences in my life, or rather, one experience gleaned from two incidents a year apart , made a profound impact on my mind and altered drastically my perception of Nigerian politics. Both incidents occurred about two decades ago in my early years at Ahmadu Bello University and my first real contact with national politics. The first was in the 1977/78 session during the “Ali must go” riots. The Obasanjo government had announced its intention to partially withdraw subsidies from higher education, which would increase the cost to students of feeding and accommodation. Feeding cost in the dining halls would increase from 50k per day (for three square meals) to N1.50k per day. I do not recall the figures for hostel accommodation. Southern universities led the call for resignation of Colonel Ali, the Education Minister. Northern universities were still looking up to A.B.U for leadership as all others were young and some had just metamorphosed from A.B.U Satellite Campuses to separate universities. Thus the Universities of Maiduguri, Sokoto, Jos and B.U.K were waiting for us to take the lead. The dilemma for the students’ leadership was this: northern universities had a predominantly northern student body practically all of whom were on state government scholarships and would not be in any way affected by the policy. Southern universities, on the other hand were predominantly populated by students from the South who were paying their own bills and this increase would stretch parents' resources and force some of them out of the universities. The National Union of Nigerian Students (NUNS) led then by Segun Okeowo had the task of carrying ABU Students’ Union on a national protest over an issue that was of little direct consequence to the majority of its members. I was then the youngest member of the Students’ Representative Assembly (SRA) or students’ parliament. The debate went on and on into the morning hours with the parliament divided. Okeowo and his PRO, Nick Fadugba, had come to Zaria to lobby. I strongly endorsed the boycott of the lectures and forcefully spoke on the need for ABU to rise above ethnic sentiments and fight the cause of Nigerian Students. Fresh from the nation’s premier Unity School (King’s College) I was convinced that one Nigerian was not different from the other and that ethnic considerations were backward and reactionary. We won the debate, northern students joined the boycott, a number of A.B.U. students were shot, wounded and killed, and the rest is now history. But we were up to that point proud of ourselves and what we had done, even though it was condemned by Northern elders. The second and final component of the experience happened one year later, during the JAMB crisis. The genesis was the publication on the front page of the New Nigerian Newspaper of a histogram showing the distribution of the students admitted into Nigerian Universities for the first time by JAMB. There were 19 States in the Federation then, 9 of them in the South. Eight of the Southern States took the top eight positions in the ranking followed by Kwara and then Cross River, the final southern state. The States of the north other than Kwara took the last nine positions. Bendel State alone had more students admitted than the ten northern states combined. Northern students were alarmed. The understanding was that part of JAMB’s mandate was to help bridge the educational gap in the country and promote national integration. It was clear that the skewed admission would only widen the gap. Moreover, northern students were not taken into southern universities who refused to recognise the IJMB, while southern students filled northern universities. We tried to have a national protest. Delegates sent from A B U to the universities in the South were evaded and the only courteous response came from the University of Calabar. The problem divided the students’ body and southern universities made it clear it was a northern problem. The boycotts took on a regional character as northern universities ended up closed. To add insult to injury, the Students’ Unions at UNILAG and UNIFE actually issued statements supporting the military junta and condemning the protests. The exercise was to be seen as the enthronement of merit over mediocrity and the government was urged to make sure that half-baked school-leavers should not fill our universities. For many of us who just one year earlier had championed a southern cause, the experience was traumatic. It confirmed the warnings of all those who considered us naïve in our struggle for national unity. But worse, this experience has not remained on isolated item but an example of incidents and attitudes with which our political history is replete. It seems that the failure of the Nigeria opposition can in the main be traced to this inordinate fear, contempt and resentment for the ‘north’, feelings that are borne primarily out of ignorance and misunderstanding. An issue that concerns the north is seen as purely parochial while one that affects the south is a national question. The Nigerian opposition, by failing to rise beyond their desire for an ethnocracy has denied the people of this country of an opportunity to forge a truly democratic opposition. When in 1992 the electoral process seemed certain to produce two northern presidential candidates, the opposition press raised alarm at what it called northern designs to present the country with a faits accomplis. Politicians snowballed the process and played straight into the hands of Babangida. The illegal cancellation of the primaries and the banning of the politicians in violation of existing electoral law were not condemned by most of those now calling themselves democrats. It was only the annulment of June 12, 1993 which involved a southern politician that was viewed as a travesty of democracy. Let me state for the avoidance of doubt that I condemn the annulment of the June 12 election. But I also condemn the annulment of the primaries in 1992. And I also condemn the coups d’etat which overthrew Shagari’s democratically elected government. The difference between the democrats and the ethnocrats does not lie in whether or not June 12 should have been anulled, but in whether June 12 was an issue at par with all travesties of democracy, or a special case because of the ethnic pedigrees of the victim. M.K.O. Abiola was elected by all Nigerians. He won the election in Kano and Jigawa, defeating Tofa, the so–called son of the soil. The dissolution of that election was a violation of the rights of all Nigerians who voted to freely choose their leader. The action was that of an individual who wanted to remain in power at all cost. Why did Abiola accuse the “ north” of stopping him? Why does the opposition attack the same “north” that voted for Abiola? Why has Abiola, a man seen by all Nigerians as one of them, suddenly been transformed into a “southerner” on the landscape of political action? How much justice do we do ourselves if we expect the north to lead the fight for June 12 in the face of what it sees as a betrayal? The result of defining June 12 in tribal terms was the transformation of previous allies of Abiola into allies of the military or at best, passive by-standers. Key supporters joined the Military Junta. Many of these could claim, in good conscience, that hey did not betray MKO or democracy. They had simply abandoned a cause which had been hijacked and derailed. Abiola before and up to June 12 was the leader of a broad-based nationalistic front about to take over from a military dictatorship. After June 12, the cause had been hijacked by “ethnocrats” who had always seen Abiola not in terms of what he may have had to offer the nation but in terms of where he was from and what he, in their view, represented: A chance to get rid of northern leaders. In this, Abiola’s greatest enemies are those who claim to be his friends, people who contributed nothing to his campaign and had always mistrusted him because of his detribalised outlook. Sadly, the lesson has not been learnt. Tunji Braithwaite recently joined the race for the nation’s presidency and lost the election on the first day by defining his agenda in anti-northern terms. It was a sad day for us, northerners who welcomed his declaration for politics and hoped to rally behind him or M D Yusuf or any other serious candidate with the capacity to make self-succession for the military a difficult, if not impossible task. A few days after Braithwaite’s press conference, Arthur Nwankwo, a prolific writer, dismissed M D Yusuf’s candidacy on the pages of This Day Newspaper. Nwankwo was not the first to do this but his primary reason seems to be that M. D. Yusuf is from the North, and that a northern candidate is unacceptable to Nigerians. The likes of Braithwaite and Nwankwo will again play directly into the hands of Abacha. The opposition will always fail unless it transcends the fight for ethnic ascendancy and fights for enthronement of the people’s rights and defence of their liberties. The greatest shortcoming of the political philosophy of the opposition lies in the redefinition of democracy to mean the emergence of a southern president. In this, the philosophy is no different from that of the northern bigots who believe only northerners should rule the country. For northerners who want democracy, the fight is a two–pronged one: Against so-called elders who out of selfish interests subvert the will of the people and falsely claim to speak for us, and against those who would make all northerners carry a cross that is not their own and answer for the deeds which they condemn and leaders whom they reject. Ethnocracy as an ideology pitches the northerner against the southerner Democracy pitches us all against dictatorship and violation of human rights.

JUST IN: Court issues warrant of arrest for ex-Minister Diezani by Abiolapaul

JUST IN: Court issues warrant of arrest for ex-Minister Diezani Posted by Abiolapaul on January 24, 2022 at 5:25pm 10038676469?profile=RESIZE_584x

A Federal High Court in Abuja has issued an arrest warrant against former Minister of Petroleum Resources Diezani Alison-Madueke. The Presiding Judge Bolaji Olajuwon made the order on Monday following an oral application made by Farouk Abdullah, counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). EFCC said its investigations revealed that the ex-Minister who is facing several money-laundering allegations, has remained in her hideout in the UK and refused to return to the country to enter her plea to charges against her. Abdullah told the court that all efforts by the agency to get the ex-Minister extradited proved abortive. He stressed that the warrant would enable the EFCC to persuade the International Police (INTERPOL) to arrest Diezani and also help the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice to facilitate her extradition. “We urge my lord to issue an arrest warrant against Alison-Madueke, who is believed to be in the UK to enable all law enforcement agencies and the INTERPOL to arrest her anywhere she is sighted and be brought before this court to answer to the allegation made against her,” EFCC’s lawyer added. EFCC anchored the application on section 83(1b) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, ACJA, 2015. After he had listened to the application, Justice Olajuwon granted it as prayed, even as he adjourned the case sine die (indefinitely) to await the arrest and extradition of the Defendant. EFCC had told the court that investigations revealed that the former Petroleum Minister was not only deeply involved in money laundering but equally played key roles in other financial crimes. It decried that since the ex-Minister fled the country immediately after she exited the office, it has been difficult to get her back to respond to different criminal allegations against her. In one of the documents it filed before the court, EFCC said Diezani was among other things, wanted over the alleged role she played in the award of Strategic Alliance Agreement (SAA) to; Septa Energy Limited, Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Limited and Atlantic Energy Brass Development Limited by NNPC. As well as to answer questions on her role in the chartering of private jets by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and Ministry of Petroleum Resources and her role in the award of contracts by NNPC to Marine and Logistics Services Limited. Besides, the agency said it was investigating the nature of business relationships the former Minister had with some persons. It listed some of Diezani’s alleged allies under investigation as Mr Donald Amamgbo, Mr. lgho Sanomi, Mr Afam Nwokedi, Chief lkpea Leemon, Miss Olatimbo Bukola Ayinde, Mr Benedict Peters, Christopher Aire, Harcourt Adukeh, Julian Osula, Dauda Lawal, Nnamdi Okonkwo, Mr Leno Laithan, Sahara Energy Group and Midwestern Oil Limited. JUST IN: Court issues warrant of arrest for ex-Minister Diezani A Federal High Court in Abuja has issued an arrest warrant against former Minister of Petroleum Resources Diezani Alison-Madueke. The Presiding Judge Bolaji Olajuwon made the order on Monday following an oral application made by Farouk Abdullah, counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). EFCC said its investigations revealed that the ex-Minister who is facing several money-laundering allegations, has remained in her hideout in the UK and refused to return to the country to enter her plea to charges against her. Abdullah told the court that all efforts by the agency to get the ex-Minister extradited proved abortive. He stressed that the warrant would enable the EFCC to persuade the International Police (INTERPOL) to arrest Diezani and also help the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice to facilitate her extradition. “We urge my lord to issue an arrest warrant against Alison-Madueke, who is believed to be in the UK to enable all law enforcement agencies and the INTERPOL to arrest her anywhere she is sighted and be brought before this court to answer to the allegation made against her,” EFCC’s lawyer added. EFCC anchored the application on section 83(1b) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, ACJA, 2015. After he had listened to the application, Justice Olajuwon granted it as prayed, even as he adjourned the case sine die (indefinitely) to await the arrest and extradition of the Defendant. EFCC had told the court that investigations revealed that the former Petroleum Minister was not only deeply involved in money laundering but equally played key roles in other financial crimes. It decried that since the ex-Minister fled the country immediately after she exited the office, it has been difficult to get her back to respond to different criminal allegations against her. In one of the documents it filed before the court, EFCC said Diezani was among other things, wanted over the alleged role she played in the award of Strategic Alliance Agreement (SAA) to; Septa Energy Limited, Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Limited and Atlantic Energy Brass Development Limited by NNPC. As well as to answer questions on her role in the chartering of private jets by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and Ministry of Petroleum Resources and her role in the award of contracts by NNPC to Marine and Logistics Services Limited. Besides, the agency said it was investigating the nature of business relationships the former Minister had with some persons. It listed some of Diezani’s alleged allies under investigation as Mr Donald Amamgbo, Mr. lgho Sanomi, Mr Afam Nwokedi, Chief lkpea Leemon, Miss Olatimbo Bukola Ayinde, Mr Benedict Peters, Christopher Aire, Harcourt Adukeh, Julian Osula, Dauda Lawal, Nnamdi Okonkwo, Mr Leno Laithan, Sahara Energy Group and Midwestern Oil Limited.

DisCos must go, EKEDC as case study By Dele Sobowale

“An organization has no pants [trousers] to kick and no soul to damn. And by God, it should have both” — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr, 1841-1935, Vanguard Book of Quotations, VBQ, P. 179. US Supreme Court Justice Holmes made that statement when judging another case before him involving a giant company which swindled and terrorised its customers in full confidence that none could strike back – until one was a final year law student who sued the company. Nigeria is full of business organisations which victimise their staff, neighbours, suppliers, contractors and, especially, customers. They get away with such because people are too scared to speak out. READ ALSO: CBN escrow of DISCOs’ bank accounts saved sector from collapse — Experts When the former President, Goodluck Jonathan, administration privatised the power sector most of us were extremely happy – believing that the private sector would do better than “NEPA”. The Distribution Companies, aka, DisCos, have proved us wrong. When General Babangida asked why the Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP, which worked wonders in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, failed in Nigeria, my reply to him in 1990 was simple. “The Nigerian Factor! Economic principles are based on the assumption that the people are reasonable. The vast majority of Nigerians, including business executives, are unreasonable.” Today, it is safe to state that Jonathan handed our power sector to individuals just as bad as public servants working for NEPA. DisCos have once again proved that principles which work elsewhere fail here because we are Nigerians. Dairy of a serial victim of DisCos “The customer is king”; an axiom of marketing companies worldwide. The reader must understand that I write from documented and objective experience – not emotions. I am naturally quantitative as an economist. Like late Papa Awolowo, I keep meticulous records – cheque books for ten years and “NEPA” bills for about fifteen years are around somewhere. Not from me statements like “they are useless”, I will present facts to indict them. Furthermore, directly or indirectly, I am responsible for paying five (5) DisCos – three South and two North. So, I have more than a narrow view of their operations. For Nigerian DisCos, the customer is a cow tied down by the Federal Government to be milked without restraint. They now illegally extort money from badly-serviced customers without any pang of conscience. From my observations, the FG will need to step in before fuel subsidy removal in order to prevent large scale violence against the staff of DisCos. Nigerians have had enough. No other business is allowed to charge customers arbitrarily and get away with it as DisCos have been doing. This has got to end. Why Lagos DisCos? Two reasons account for selecting Lagos Distribution Companies. First, a major culprit is DisCos in Lagos State – so called Centre of Excellence. Several blue chip companies and multi-national organisations are resident here. We should receive the best possible service of any place in Nigeria. Second, on the average, Lagosians are more enlightened than other Nigerians. Yet we have allowed ourselves to continuously lose billions of Naira every month to estimated billing. Crazy bills, sent out by DisCos, endured by us, constitute a violation of the basis of honest commercial transactions. Every financial transaction in a civilised country expects the seller to prove beyond doubt the quantity of measurable goods sold and at what price per unit. The customer is expected also to pay fully for the goods bought. The Nigerian Government, before and after the creation of DisCos, has created one group of suppliers who can charge customers for any volume of power, presumed consumed, as they want without proof. The DisCos have not been slow to take advantage. Another definition of legalised robbery will be difficult to imagine. Yet, this is the power that has been bestowed on Nigerian DisCos. There is a method in the madness “There is a pleasure in being mad which none but madmen know.” – Saul Bellow, VBQ, p. 147. There is a great deal of profit in sending “crazy bills, which the senders and the FG know too well. It will be difficult to believe that the FG which gave birth to DisCos, and established a toothless agency to mediate between the millions of cheated customers and the DisCos, was not aware that they were setting up catch-weight contests in which each individual customer faces a giant company – with all his rights to fairness removed. The FG knows it; the DisCos also know it. So, they exploit the situation to the fullest. To begin with, there is no such thing as a “crazy bill”. We dignify fraudulent bills by calling them “crazy” – as if a computer or a staff of the DisCo goes haywire and sends bills in error. The truth is more shocking. In every billing unit, a few clear-eyed and absolutely sane individuals sit and determine how much each of us will be charged. Almost all the time, it has nothing to do with how much we actually consumed. Here is how the swindle works. At the end of the month, each DisCo receives a bill from the Generating Units for the megawatts of power supplied to it. The DisCo allocates the total amount to each of its operating units. Each unit deducts from the total all payments received from prepaid meters. The balance is then distributed among those without prepaid meters. The consumption figure recorded on every customer’s bill has no basis in reality; it is just assigned in order to distribute the charges arbitrarily to consumers and to pursue fictitious claims. Below are some of the methods adopted by DisCos to deliberately cheat customers. A. Exceeding the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, approved maximum charges. Even the guidelines, the maximum consumption approved for consumers in each unit by NERC are disregarded if it pleases the officials of the DisCos. Thus, in December, a three bedroom bungalow, with four residents – three working and one baby – received a bill for consuming 1144KWH. That was 184KWH more than the maximum 960KWH approved for the area. The bill was N36,969.65. Even the 960KWH represents the maximum; not the mandatory charge. The biggest building in the same area is a four-storey residential tower with 42 rooms and over 240 residents. That unit should attract the maximum 960KWH charge. No honest business person can argue that the bungalow and the biggest building should be charged for 960KWH – let alone billing one for 1144KWH of power consumed. B. Charges made without stating units consumed. Furthermore, August bill for the bungalow was N11,423.85 – without stating the consumption. This is akin to a customer going to a filling station; and being asked to pay N11,000 without telling the customer how many litres amounted to N11,000. The stunt – charges without disclosing units consumed — was again repeated in September – when a bill for N14,639.45 was presented. C. Unsubstantiated claims for arrears. In March last year, a customer who has paid his bills fully, suddenly received a demand for payment of arrears for N22,624.60. Letters sent to the Customer Service Manager and copied to the Managing Director have not been acknowledged; not to talk of taking action. The protest letter accused the DisCos of fraudulent billing. It is doubtful if any CEO of any other company will allow his company to be branded that way and fail to take action. Only a DisCo MD can ignore such a charge. We have in Nigeria today an important sector which is not serving us at all. It is better to admit that privatisation has failed in this sector. Vanguard News

Atiku not qualified to contest 2023 election on account of age —Afegbua By Levinus Nwabughiogu & Dirisu Yakubu

PDP stakeholders chide Atiku for abandoning PDP in time of crisis ….Asks former VP to support southern candidate Former Commissioner of Information in Edo State and a member of opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Mr. Kassim Afegbua, has said former Vice President Atiku was not qualified to contest the 2023 presidential election on account of old age. He said PDP could not keep giving its ticket to Atiku, saying it would be immoral to do so, and urged the former Vice President to jettison his ambition and throw his weight behind the clamour for a Southern candidate. Afegbua, in a statement yesterday in Abuja, said it was time to give a younger person from the South an opportunity to lead the country on the platform of PDP. The statement read: “Having concluded the convention of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, with a new leadership that looks promising, the party will have to rise above board to produce a presidential candidate from the Southern part of the country to complete the narrative. “With the abysmal performance of President Muhammadu Buhari on account of age, incompetence and lack of capacity and political will to take deliberate and sustained action to bail out the country from all manner of challenges, it will be immoral for Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to continue to express interest in seeking election in the 2023 presidential election having attained the retirement age. “He cannot assume the role of a perpetual candidate or professional aspirant year in, year out, as though the party was established for him alone. It defeats all sense of logic for such an old man to attempt another round of political contest at a time the general feeling and mood in the country supports a younger Nigerian from the Southern part of the country. “For me, furthermore, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar should drop his quest for presidency and support a southern Nigerian candidate in the spirit of fairness, equity and justice, that will assuage the feelings of stakeholders from the Southern part of Nigeria. It will be against the run of play and natural justice for any aspirant of Northern extraction to show interest in the 2023 presidential election within the Peoples’ Democratic Party. “It will offend national sentiments, emotions and logic for anyone from the North to show such interest given our diversities and hetereogenous political configurations. “Given PDP’s doctrine of political power balancing and fairness, it will be against its own unwritten rule to cede the ticket to any Northern aspirant least of all Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. “After the 2019 presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar abandoned all of us in Nigeria and sought refuge in far away Dubai, thus exposing us to the intimidation, harassment and threats from the desperate APC’s power oligarchs. “It was a case of a General abandoning his troops in the battle field. Rather than draw strength from his presence, his absence exposed us to all manner of challenges. “He was in Dubai and left us to our fate. When it mattered most for us to reach out to our candidate for motivation and necessary encouragement, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar vanished into thin air. Knowing full well that political activities were to take off, he suddenly resurfaced and becomes a frontliner in his quest to fly the party’s flag once again. “That, to me, amounts to gross political selfishness and greed, which must not be allowed to flourish in our contemporary engagements. Even those who are promoters-in-chief of Alhaji Atiku’s aspiration, know in their heart of hearts that it is a project that is dead on arrival.’’ “The Southern geopolitical zones of Nigeria have eminently qualified Nigerians and parade great minds, who are competent and ready to take a shot at the number one job. ‘’Those who are advancing very nebulous theory of seeing the northern population as a stimulant to win the sympathy of the North against the South are either ignorant of the real demographics or at best, just playing the ostrich. No one in the North should take away what belongs to the South. “That will be hurting the conscience and feelings of the average southerner. If the argument is to suffice for example, for an Atiku presidency, he will be concluding his first term of four years at age 81. And were he to become a candidate in 2023 again, and per adventure he loses the election, are we, as PDP, going to reserve the position for him or any other Northerner in 2027? “These are very curious scenarios, which cannot be overlooked. For 2023, an Atiku candidacy will be like promoting an expired product in the face of very compelling reason to look towards the South in our quest to wrestle power from the fractured APC. “Earlier last year, I was conscripted into the Technical Committee for Atiku presidency. Having attended three meetings of the group, I found my spirit and conscience permanently in conflict with the ethos of justice, fairness and equity, which the south deserves. VANGUARD NEWS

National Convention: APC Govs DG warns against electing emperor as Nat Chairman by Romanus Ugwu

...Questions credibility of current aspirants The Director General of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), Salihu Moh. Lukman, has warned the ruling party against electing an emperor as the National Chairman of the party in the forthcoming National Convention. In a statement he issued in Abuja on Thursday, Lukman chided the Governor Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) for insulting party members and Nigerians with the laxity it has been approaching the proposed National Convention scheduled for February next month. Questioning the credibility of the aspirants for the position of the National Chairman, he advocated looking beyond the current aspirants. “Unfortunately, reckless party leadership is diminishing all these excellent political credentials. APC leaders must wake up to the responsibility of resolving the leadership challenges facing the party. Part of what is required at this point is to commence leadership engagement towards consensus building on a number of these issues and assess all the so-called aspirants. “Where necessary, APC leaders may wish to stretch the search for a National Chairman beyond current aspirants. APC need a National Chairman who is humble, with very good relations and respect among both party leaders and members. Steps must be taken to ensure that APC National Chairman and other members of the NWC do not reduce themselves into extorting parting leaders, especially aspiring candidates. “APC leaders must take every step to avoid vesting the responsibility of the National Chairman of the party on another ‘emperor’ who will end up conducting affairs of the party with absolute disrespect and contempt for decisions taken. APC need a National Chairman who can provide every level playing field for the internal party electoral contest for 2023. “Any new National Chairman of APC who can lead the party to electoral victory in 2023 must not be a surrogate to any aspirant for 2023 Presidential contest. Similarly, such a person must be ready to control other members of the NWC from demonstrating bias in favour of any candidate for 2023 Presidential contest within the party. “Being a humble National Chairman, such a person must be ready to subordinate himself/herself to party leaders at local levels. A situation whereby as National Chairman, the person become overbearing to leaders at state level must not be acceptable. There should not be any debate or contest about who should exercise leadership at state level. “The model should be what exists between President Buhari and leaders of the party in Katsina State. However, the National Chairman and party leaders at state level should be encouraged to develop structured processes of consultations to ensure that the political interest of the National Chairman is protected in the state. “Similarly, the National Chairman must also accept to protect the political interest of other leaders from the state, especially any serving Governor of his home state,” he said. “Beyond the National Chairman, APC leaders must also take every necessary step to elect very competent Deputy National Chairmen (North and South). It is important that the two Deputy National Chairmen to be elected are people with integrity. “In addition to Deputy National Chairmen, positions of National Secretary, National Legal Adviser, National Organising Secretary and National Publicity Secretary must be head hunted,” he noted in the statement. Enumerating other criteria for the national leadership positions, the PGF DG wrote: “Any potential candidate must have good relations will party leaders at national level, especially President Buhari. “The candidate must also have good relations with all party leaders in his/her state, including the Governor, where there is an APC government. It should be a strong advantage when the aspiring person has played any role during the merger negotiation that produced APC and has been consistent in the party since 2013. “This means such a parson would have the needed institutional memory to recognise and respect sacrifices made by party leaders and members to make the merger that produce the APC successful. It should be a strong disadvantage when any aspiring candidate has records of defection from the party or any of the legacy parties that merged to form the APC. “Finally, public service experience will not only be an advantage but a measure of determining the democratic credentials of the candidate. Any candidate with public service experience at whatever level without incontestable records of achievements, such a person can not inspire any party member and by extension Nigerians into believing that his/her leadership can bring any good electoral fortune for the party,” he wrote in the statement. Writing earlier, Lukman warned that the Buni-led Committee ‘ll get Oshiomhole’s treatment, he noted: “it will be necessary to remind all members of the CECPC and by extension all leaders of APC that part of the reasons that made it very necessary to dissolve the Comrade Adams Oshiomhole-led NWC was the disrespect for leaders and members of the party. “The CECPC leadership have returned the party back to mode of open disrespect for any recommendation given. It is even worse now given that the CECPC is ready to sacrifice the future of the party. Clearly, what is steering us in the face is that all the bad leadership records under Comrade Oshiomhole led NWC is about to be met and outstripped by the present CECPC,” the statement read.

Benin artifacts and the choice facing Robin Hood By Azu Ishiekwene

WHEN you find two people from the Benin kingdom talking these days, chances are that they are talking artefacts. That kingdom never ceases to amaze me with the mythical, almost perplexing rootedness of its people to the past, side by side with a modern, avantgarde spirit. Not that bread-and-butter issues have disappeared in Bini talk. Or that safety and security are no longer a concern. It’s just that the news of the possible return of artefacts stolen from the Benin kingdom over 120 years ago has somehow displaced current misery, however, temporary. Yet, the conversation is also a statement of reckoning, an indication of how far the world has moved from Robin Hood, the decorated thief in English legend. Part of the legacy of slavery and colonialism was that the spoils belonged to the victor. Humans were chattel, and artefacts, side menu. In the world of the marauders of the time, humans, animals and artefacts were part of the spoils of war. Aborigines in North America and Australia; blacks in Africa and minorities in different parts of the world were victims of this travesty for centuries. The world has come a long way since, yet the vestiges of that horrific era linger on. Not only in our memories but also in the private collections and museums of private and institutional thieves who keep making money and excuses at the same time, for delaying restitution. The art of stealing The value of art stolen from Africa alone is worth billions of dollars by current estimates. But it is worth even more in spiritual currency. A BBC report three years ago quoting the New York Times, said, US art collector, Harry A Franklin, bought the Bangwa Queen, a wooden carving from Cameroon, for $29,000 in 1966. After his death, the artefact was sold for $3.4million. At Sotheby’s, the famous British-founded American auction house, the Clyman’s Fang Head, a Gabonese masterpiece, was offered for sale at between $2.5 and $4million last year. On a visit to Africa in 2018, French President, Emmanuel Macron, said while there were historical explanations for the theft of African artefacts, there are no valid justifications that are durable and unconditional. “African heritage,” he said, “can’t just be in European private collections and museums.” But that’s precisely where they have been for centuries. Three years after Macron’s lip service, the plundered artefacts are still languishing in private collections and museums. Macron is not the only problem. From ongoing discussions in Nigeria, the misery of pirated artefacts would be compounded not only by empty promises, but also by needless squabbles about provenance – their original home. Journey to Germany Nigeria is expecting Benin bronzes looted since 1897. Two senior German ministers told a Nigerian delegation on a recent visit to that country led by Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, that the German government planned “a substantial” repatriation of the plundered artefacts. The Nigerian government is demanding, and rightly so, that the return should be “whole” and “unconditional”. According to reports, the trove of looted items includes carved elephant tusks, ivory leopard statues, wooden heads and at least 900 brass plaques dating from the 16th and 17th centuries. Reports also say that over 3,000 Benin bronzes stolen in the 19th century are marooned in Europe and the US. German museums are hosting nearly half of this figure. The debate in Nigeria, especially among Benin folks, from whose homeland the artefacts were stolen, is not whether the loot should be returned, but to whose custody it should be returned. The house is divided against itself. Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki wants the artifacts back in the custody of the state government and has, in a subversive masterstroke, recruited the Oba’s son to press his case. Obaseki, the private sector’s gift to public service, is brimming with ideas of how to make the artefacts speak in foreign currency, by bringing in hundreds of tourists. The suspicion is that his motive is to hijack the collection and privatise it as retirement benefit. Ewuare II, the Oba of Benin, on the other hand, wants the artefacts returned to the palace, from where they were stolen; while Mohammed has said the priority of the Nigerian government is to have the artefacts on Nigerian soil. Since the artefacts don’t speak or understand German, I’ve tried to establish in whose course history might deploy itself. The closest historical antecedent in support of the palace is the case of the Faberge Eggs, looted from the palace of Russia’s imperial family by Bolsheviks during the Russian revolution. Who owns the art? Around 2004 when Roman Abramovich was lusting after Chelsea Football Club in the UK, his counterpart, Victor Vekselberg, made a stake of $90million on the Faberge Eggs. The storied egg is an intricately woven treasure chest made of precious metals and gems including the Coronation Egg, containing the prototype of the coach which Empress Alexandra rode into Moscow in 1897. Though Vekselberg did not say what he wanted to do with the collection, which is the second largest after those in the Kremlin, he said it was a redemption which captured the religious and spiritual essence of the Russian people. Since the revolution swept away the Russian imperial family, we cannot say what might have been the family’s disposition towards the retrieval of the Faberge Eggs. The point is: its recovery was an investment by a Russian oil sheikh. What he has done with it is nobody’s business. When countries have been involved in negotiations for the return of plundered artefacts, however, the records suggest that they’re returned directly to the country of origin, first of all. Eight years ago, when The Boston Globe reported that eight artefacts, including a wooden ancestral figure stolen from Oron, Southern Nigeria, were being returned from the Boston Museum, the objects – including the wooden figure – were apparently returned to the Nigerian museums. I’m not sure the “Ahta Oro”, the paramount traditional ruler of Oron, made a case for provenance. Similar repatriations by the US, Australia and the UK to India were received by the country, not by private individuals or the domains from where they were plundered. The Netherlands did the same with the stolen antiquities of Indonesia, returning artefacts dating back to 5000 B.C. It would appear though that once pirated collections have been returned in certain jurisdictions, a valid case can be made for repatriation to the crime scene. ‘Arti-cedents’ In the US, for example, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act is a federal law passed in 1990 that provides a process for museums and federal agencies to return certain Native American cultural items, such as human remains, funeral objects, sacred objects or objects of cultural patrimony to lineal descendants. Australia has no laws directly governing repatriation, but a government programme exists that returns Aborigine artefacts. Sweden returned the totem pole stolen by a Swede from Canada to the community of origin; while Italy returned the magnificent sixth-century krater to its place of origin in Rome after a period of loan to the national museum. From the time of Erediauwa, the father of the current Oba, the Benin palace has invested in and campaigned vigorously for the return of pirated artifacts. The governor should not give the impression that he wants to reap where he has not sown or that he is desperate to have the collection as another set of trophies on his front desk. It would appear that the disagreement between the palace and Obaseki’s Osadebey House over the artefacts is a continuation of war by other means. In last year’s governorship election between incumbent Obaseki and his challenger, Ize Iyamu, the palace barely disguised its preference for the latter. For Obaseki to win the election and on top of that also strive to become the curator of priceless objects stolen from the palace, possibly with the assistance of his forebears, is understandably too much for the Oba to bear. Unfortunately, the governor’s winner-takes-all politics is re-echoing concerns that he could still be possessed of the subversive spirit that aided and abetted the plundering campaign of the Benin kingdom. The parties must close ranks. They need to work with Abuja first, to develop a cultural preservation programme, and then to recover the artifacts as quickly as possible to their ancestral home. There’s nothing more a reluctant Robin Hood would love than a house divided against itself. Strife and irreconcilable differences among members of the elite would suggest that the stolen artefacts might indeed be safer in exile. Let’s bring the artefacts home, where they belong. Vanguard News Nigeria