Ebere Wabara

Early in March, the “people of Ukwa Ngwa”, according to this medium’s report, unanimously adopted Governor Okezie Ikpeazu as their consensus candidate for the 2019 governorship election in Abia State. Just one germane question: who are the constituents of this fabled “Ukwa-Ngwa people” phraseology?

Read also: 2019: Ukwa Ngwa adopts Ikpeazu for second term

The so-called “great declaration” is a phantom resolution that will end up a combustive fiasco, considering the despicable and famished antecedents of the duplicitous promoters of the Ukwa-Ngwa contraption. A dubious arrangement that resurrects shortly before polls and vanishes once the thievish objective is achieved via electoral victory. A demonstrative union of strange bed-fellows bound by greed and selfishness whose existence will terminate next year, by God’s grace.

Since the creation of Abia State in 1991, the greatest socio-political tragedy is the formation of an association called “Ukwa-Ngwa”, which also has a famished elders’ council whose members are largely mercenaries. This is a union between the oil-bearing Ukwa (Ndoki) and Ngwa communities in the state. Initially, most people did not take the existence of this fraudulent body seriously because it merely hallmarked dubiosity.

The roguish nomenclature has now become a determining and decisive factor in the political engineering of people from this extraction of the state. In line with this absurdity, if you were not from this part of the state you were not expected to have contested the 2015 governorship competition no matter how eminently qualified and better than the person surrogated currently.

To compound matters amid circumscription of individual electoral fortunes, if you do not belong to the PDP that has not done anything for the South East since its establishment, your eventual victory becomes a pyrrhic one.

How did the controversial governor of the state, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, emerge? The immediate-past governor, Mr. Theodore Orji, and some so-called elders of the state and the leadership of the PDP in Abia exclusively agreed that Dr. Ikpeazu must be the governor at all costs. In furtherance of this obsession, childish selection of delegates and sham primaries were organized. The result did not surprise anyone, as it was quite predictable! This same antithesis to profound democratic ideals was, of course, perpetrated and perpetuated at the governorship election that threw up the currency of a political godson and the inevitable and indisputable continuation of the last administration.

As Dr. Ikpeazu was being unstoppably foisted on Abians, most people thought that would be the end of a reign of arbitrariness. Alas, it was not! The same domineering forces went ahead to ensure that Chief Enyinnaya Abaribe continued as one of the three senators dismally representing the state for the third consecutive time against all odds. This grand deceit and disregard for other people from the district went on unabated despite representations from the endangered members of this constituency. What is the issue here? Both Dr. Ikpeazu and Senator Abaribe are from the same community known as Obingwa.

Having unilaterally procured the disputed candidacy of Dr. Ikpeazu, shouldn’t the senatorial ticket handed on a platter to Senator Abaribe have gone to Mr. Chris Nkwonta from Ukwa in fairness to the people from his area and in demonstration of equity, balance and justice?

There is this cacaphony over the population of Ngwa as they claim that just one of their three constituents is more populous than Ukwa East and West LGs put together! They also go ahead to flaunt their purported numerical strength by derisively declaring that they can do without the Ukwa territory. I ask myself, when did the Ngwa people become so many in number that they could boast of almost 300, 000 eligible voters in the last general election? Were the goats that inhabit the large expanses of land in the Ngwa triad registered ahead of electoral utility? Are the villages and towns that I have known for more than 30 years with sparse human habitation in-between the same ones reeling out massive figures of humanity? It will be apposite to have the National Population Commission intervene with the past and latest census figures of the areas that make up Ngwa as finality to this flourishing self-deception and pulling of wool over the eyes of other Abians.

If the unofficial population figure of the three Ngwa LGs comprising Obingwa, Osisioma Ngwa, Isiala Ngwa North and Isiala Ngwa South are as exaggerated as they are, then we should not be disclaiming the figures from the northern part of the country because both have the same massive land mass with minimal humanity. I say this with a sense of responsibility and from a standpoint of knowledge.

For a long time now, there is this misconception called “Aba-Ngwa”, which loosely suggests that Aba belongs to Ngwa. Of course, this is sheer historical fallacy. Aba is a cosmopolitan mega-city with a hotch-potch of multifarious and almost innumerable ethnic nationalities that subsume the tangential Ngwa statistical profile. In informal environments, it will be classified as a “no-man’s land”. It has the same evolutionary record with Lagos, which until the current administration had mostly non-Lagosians controlling its political affairs.

If there are 10 houses in Aba today, non-Ngwa residents own at least eight. The same thing applies to land on the fast-developing outskirts: almost every parcel has been sold! What then is land lordship or city ownership?

Hectares should not be mistaken for headcount symbols. Most of the acres are bushes not occupied yet. Those who want to disenfranchise non-Ngwa in the governorship of the state forget that most of the landed properties and undeveloped plots belong to these “non-natives”.

All through my years in Aba as a child, the pun was that Ngwa people were reputed for beheading non-Ngwa at the slightest provocation. My peers and I grew up with this impression internalised. I equally found out that the average Ngwa person is usually short and irrepressible. A few people uncharitably believe that Ngwa people are timid, spineless and until recently slavishl

You must give it to them: most Ngwa people that I know are exceptionally brilliant, very accommodative, friendly and hospitable—all of which made me to marry one of their delectable daughters with high IQ. Her pulchritude is seductive! If ndiNgwa were the ones at the receiving end today, Ukwa people would have been pressurized to behave responsibly.

From 1991 todate, no Ukwa person has headed the legislature or the judiciary or other vital arms and organs of government or held critical positions in the state’s bureaucracy let alone being governor! The Ukwa-Ngwa illogic should stop henceforth. I beg of all of us! We cannot be perpetually marginalized, subjugated, dehumanized, demonized, calumniated and our bruises salted now and again in our bondage with one of our own as the only renegade and sabotageous leader, regrettably and irredeemably.

Governor-in-waiting, Dr. Alex Otti, will intervene in our plight shortly, by God’s grace. Otherwise, we’re doomed!

Desperation for political power and the personalization of same, here in Nigeria are at the heart of the series of clearly avoidable ethno-religious crises bedeviling the nation state till this day. Also to blame are the highly attractive apparatchiks of office. These are characterized by obscenely high pay package and the winner-takes-it-all mechanisms that place political appointees as demigods to be worshipped by the pauperized populace, rather than serve them. And when might is right, evil thrives, beginning of course, with the general elections.

From records, violence affected more than 120 of the nearly 600 presidential and parliamentary elections held around the world between 1985 and 2005. That is according to UC Berkeley researcher, Leonardo R. Arriola, who led a Social Science Matrix prospecting seminar focused on “Electoral Violence in Developing Countries”.

Amongst the African countries listed by Sara Birch and Muchlinski, in the Journal of Terrorism and Political Violence Nigeria leads the pack when it comes to escalating wave of electoral violence. Others are Uganda, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Senegal, Ghana and Tanzania.

The bitter truth of the state of the nation today is that we are more divided than ever before, as the opinions of the citizenry are bifurcated along, political, ethnic and religious lines. All of a sudden, not a few members of the ruling party, including the morally bankrupt defectors and overtly corrupt others have donned on the toga of saints, as if they arrived Nigeria in 2014 from another planet!

Read also: As 2019 general election approaches

Dan Onwukwe

The much anticipated governorship election in Ekiti state, the political hot potato of the South west, has come and gone. Winners and losers have emerged. According to the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), the candidate of the All Progressives Congress(APC), Dr.John Kayode Fayemi is the Governor-elect. He polled 197,459 votes to beat the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prof. Olusola Eleka who scored 178,121 votes. The votes of other fringe candidates, about 33 of them made no impact on the outcome of the result.

Read also: Ekiti: Fayose, PDP spit fire

As expected, the winner, Dr. Fayemi, who lost in his re-election bid four years ago to the outgoing governor, Ayodele Fayose, has been celebrating the victory with his party supporters, while Prof. Eleka, who is also the present Deputy governor, has been whining and alleging all manner of irregularities in the July 14 poll. He has rejected the results declared by INEC. The PDP on its part, while also rejecting the outcome of the election, described it as “daylight robbery”.

Are you surprised by the attitude of the loser? What do you make of governor Fayose’s announcement of ‘his own result’ on the State-owned radio and television station, contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act? I suspected it would get to this bizarre level. A good place to begin an answer is with some perspective. You see, the worst moment for a candidate in an election is the day after. It’s the time the loser begins to come to terms with the reality of the outcome. It’s a time that a sinking feeling sets in. It’s a feeling of anger, frustration and disillusionment.

At this time, reason takes a sudden flight. It’s indeed a time of sober reflection, a time when the loser begins to mull over the money he probably borrowed. Note that after losing election, some politicians are drowned in debts. It could be a nightmare for some. For others, seeing your political ambition extinguished could hurt as horrible as acid poured on a skin. I can feel the pain of Fayose, even though his name was not on the ballot. But, I guess, the election and its outcome have pretty much more to do with his person than the name of the Prof. Fayose, it is not unkind to say, must be ruminating what will be his fate after he hands the reins of power to his immediate predecessor, and now, successor. Think about that! Who says our politics is not a fun to follow. Again, I say, Fayose must be having his heart caught up with his head. He must be feeling like a man in a straight back chair, all alone. It hu rts.

But, must losing an election be the end of life? For many Nigerian politicians, yes, it is. That’s why, for many of them, election is a matter of life and death. That’s why, Sen. Francis Arthur Nzeribe used to say, ‘in election, first, try and win, let the loser go to the Tribunal’. In all honesty, Nzeribe’s argument is ancient. It makes election and power the ‘survival of the fittest’. It shouldn’t be the ideal thing in any decent, democratic society.

Whether the Ekiti election was largely free, fair, credible and transparent, and the result declared by INEC, the choice of the majority of Ekiti electorate, I will say emphatically yes. But, whether money played a part, field reports by reporters and election observers, the answer is, the two main political parties were guilty. Let’s not forget

that money is the lifeblood of politics, but it should not be allowed to determine the outcome of an election. Don’t expect Nigerian politicians to hail the outcome of the election when they lose. When they win, the umpire (INEC) becomes the ‘beautiful bride’ and when they lose, INEC becomes the ‘whipping boy’, and labelled the ‘enemy of our democracy’.

In all of this, one is not saying that INEC was inch perfect in the Ekiti election. That’s not my point. There’s still problems with the card reader machine and electronic transmission of results from the polling booths to the collation centre.

Mistakes in any of these could affect the integrity of the election. It’s assuring that INEC has said it has noted the various comments of election observers on the allegations of monetary inducement during the poll and a promise to improve on its success in future elections. Osun governorship election is fast approaching in November. INEC should use the coming elections to dispel the paranoia that it’s not truly independent and can be compromised.

What the PDP has done, rejecting the result of election doesn’t bode well for our democracy. Describing the outcome of the poll as “daylight robbery” is a knife at the soul of our democracy. The Election Tribunal is there for an aggrieved party to challenge the result with incontrovertible evidence. Unleashing verbal swipes at the winner and his party, gives the loser and his party, the PDP as sore losers.

Defeat is one of those times to test the sterner of a politician. Prof. Eleka and the PDP have failed that test. To stick to the high road and hope for a better performance next time around, is one essential quality many of our politicians have got it wrong. They fail to pick up the pieces and move on, believing that candour in defeat can bring victory in future contest. That’s where Fayemi won my heart, four years ago, when he was comprehensively by Fayose, against the ‘run of play’. But, he delivered perhaps the best concession

Amidst a most stunning ambiance, the 23rd edition of Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) World Cup, tagged Russia 2018, came to a scintillating close on Sunday, July 15 at the 81,000 capacity Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow. In the past one month, football fans across the world have watched with great excitement as 32 nations locked horns for the coveted 18 carats gold FIFA World Cup trophy.

The closing ceremony of the Russia 2018 World Cup was as exhilarating as the entire competition itself. Famous Nollywood star, Will Smith, US-born singer Nicky Jam, Russian opera, singer Aida Garifullina, legendary Brazilian soccer idol, Ronaldinho and German 2014 World Cup winning captain, Philip Lahm, were part of the galaxy of stars that added colour, splendor and elegance to the closing ceremony of what many have termed a most breathtaking World Cup.

FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, Russian President, Vladimir Putin, his French and Croatian counterparts Emmanuel Macron and Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovi (what a dazzling and charming woman!) were among world leaders that witnessed the last match of Russia 2018.

The final match of the championship between France and Croatia was as impressive, action packed and spectacular as almost all the 64 matches witnessed at Russia2018. In the match that recorded six fascinating goals, the French national team came top by trashing a resilient and toughened Croatian side 4-2. With this victory, and having won her first World Cup title in 1998, France has now recorded a second triumph at the elite global soccer fiesta. Interestingly, the victory has equally put French coach, Didier Dechamps, in the league of Brazilian Mario Zagallo and German Franz Beckenbauer as those who have won the World Cup as both a player and a manager.

Since Uruguay hosted the first edition of the World Cup in 1930, during the era of revered FIFA President, Jules Rimet, the competition has continued to grow in leap and bound. From a 13 team event, with which it started in 1930, it grew to become a 32 team affair during the1998 edition in France. Today, the World Cup commands a global TV audience in excess of one billion.

READ ALSO: France win World Cup

READ ALSO: Ekiti Poll: Allegation of vote buying detrimental to Nigeria’s democracy – Accord Party chieftain

Apart from the allegations of money-sharing on both sides, there have also been all kinds of self-interested analyses, ranging from the ones which said that Fayemi’s victory over the PDP candidate signals the taking over of Ekiti by the Fulani and herdsmen, (as if Lagos and other APC Southwest states are under the control of herdsmen), to the ones from APC supporters who regard the victory as a reflection of the Nigerians ’endorsement and appreciation of Buhari’s administration.

However, the attempt by both sides to take the development in Ekiti and foist on it the toga of a rejection or endorsement of Buhari is an inappropriate political extrapolation. This is because President Buhari and APC at the national level were not candidates in that election. Instead, it was a poll that can only be regarded as a statement on the people’s rejection or endorsement of the Governor Fayose regime, as the PDP candidate in the poll was his deputy. What the poll result suggests is that the people had become disenchanted with Fayose, probably on account of the problem of huge salary arrears in the state, and they voted for a change.

The people had earlier been against Fayemi during his first term in office, and voted him out in favour of Fayose. What this means, assuming that the election truly reflects the wishes of the electorate, is that the people can always vote out a party that they do not like its performance in power. In this regard, the poll result has useful lessons for both the victors and the losers. The APC, while rejoicing over the Ekiti victory, must know that a similar fate could befall it in the 2019 general elections if it does not sit up and do much more to bring the dividends of democracy to Nigerians.

At the same time, the PDP must not be complacent in assuming that those who are disenchanted with the current administration at the centre will simply vote PDP, which appears to have nothing recommending it to the electorate other than the seeming slowness of APC in bringing about the change it promised the people. This is exactly what forced the then President Goodluck Jonathan out of office. As it is always said the more things change, the more they seem the same.

Beyond the attempts to go over the Ekiti poll with a tooth comb, however, are the allegations of ballot snatching, vote buying, brigandage and other shenanigans in the election. It is unfortunate that these dirty tactics are still part of our voting process. With Fayemi set to take over the reins of power in the state, here is hoping for a new era of responsible and progressive politicking and electioneering, rather than that of abuse and oratorical thuggery.

Since the poll result is being contested by the PDP and its candidate, however, the best bet is for them to go to court if they have incontrovertible evidence of rigging that they believe substantially affected the outcome of the poll. The courts are there as the final arbiter of election disputes in Nigeria. It would, however, have been better to reform our politicking and elections to the extent that the outcomes of polls are widely seen and accepted to be free and fair by all parties.

The incessant allegations of rigging raise serious questions about the credibility of our polls and their outcome. This should not be allowed to be a permanent feature of our electoral process.

Adeosun’s NYSC certificate saga

Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, has been in the eye of the storm since the allegation of her non-participation in the NYSC scheme broke out. The accusations of her traducers are two-fold. First, is that she did not participate in the mandatory National Youth Service Corps scheme. Second, is that her exemption certificate was forged.

Since the allegation became public, there have been calls from her traducers to resign. A close look at her school and working history, has however, revealed that she graduated from a United Kingdom University at the age of 22, and worked there till she came to the country when she was over 30, and was no longer eligible to participate in the NYSC.

What she was ordinarily expected to do was not to enroll in the NYSC scheme, but to obtain a certificate of exemption from the NYSC authorities. Investigators have so far shown that she applied for exemption from the scheme, but the certificate of exemption that she has is said to be questionable on account of the date on it, and its lettering.

A lawyer and a political party have reportedly instituted suits at the Federal High Court in Abuja, asking that she should be sacked for failure to have a genuine exemption certificate issued by the NYSC.

The uproar over the alleged forged certificate is not unexpected. It is the way of Nigerians to seize any and every opportunity to pull down any government official whenever it suits their political inclinations to do so. It has nothing at all to do with her performance in office but, the minister does need to explain the source of her controversial certificate.

It is no offence for anyone who studied abroad and returned to the country after the age of 30 not to take part in the NYSC. But, such a one must procure an exemption certificate. How did this certificate come about? Is it an Oluwole document? Who exactly procured it for Adeosun? Was it an unscrupulous aide, an unconscionable NYSC official or a not so honest relative? Let the truth know. Only the minister and the NYSC authorities can clear the air on this matter.

Before Nigerians can be free from shylock landlords over house rent hikes, the three tiers of government should build houses for low income earners and the less privileged to end accommodation problems.

The Ministers for Works, Housing and Power is not doing enough on housing problems because many Nigerians are finding it hard to buy houses. Shelter is very important for every human being. Government should enact laws to stop landlords and landladies from collecting two years rent with agency fees and commissions.

– Gordon Chika Nnorom, Umukabia, Abia State, 08062887535

“In praise of football” would have been the most appropriate heading of this reflection. However, the realization of the global symbolism of today’s meeting in Helsinki, Finland of two great world leaders of Russia and the United States of America, compelled a deeper introspection of the thematic area. There are obviously four dominant issues that would play out in any conversation between the World powers from the East and West and these issues revolve around such phenomenal nations of China, Britain in addition to the duo of Russia and the United States of America.

Whereas the United States under the current political formation headed by the Republican Donald Trump, is at war with China on issues of trades, the British and Russian political divides are torn apart by the diplomatic warfare that escalated with the recent poisoning of the double agent and his daughter somewhere inside of the united kingdom.

A logical fallout from that initial hullabaloo over the suspected Russian poisoning gambit inside of U.K is that someone has actually died from the poisoning.

In fact, the media in the USA has linked the spies from Russia with both the poisoning incident in Britain and the attempted hacking into the campaign data of the democrats in the USA during the last election. It would be recalled that Hilary Clinton and her campaign team have been up in arms against the current President of USA over suspected infiltration of the Russians through cybercrime during the campaigns that heralded the election.

Many top appointees of Donald Trump have fallen by the way side as a result of an independent probe of this Russian nexus in the election that took place that brought in the current political family that run the White House. This interesting nexus constituted the kernel of the news report done by the New York Times recently (exactly on July 15th 2018).

Ironically, the diplomatic verbal warfare between Britain and Russia escalated only few days to the commencement of the just ended world cup which was hosted by Russia. Understandably, football may have mediated a softer approach at using diplomacy to resolve hot political discord. In the wake of the poisoning incident in Britain, the British government successfully lobbied the European Union and the United States on the need to take steps to sanction Russia for committing what is now regarded by Theresa May of Britain as an act of aggression by Russia against the United Kingdom.

The resolution of three episodes of corruption between 1999 and 2005 in the federal legislature and the executive arm of government under the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo had initially indicated the seeming gravitas of that administration. But, to be sure, it was not Obasanjo’s persona or the magnitude of his philosophical swagger that gave fillip to the seriousness attached to the anti-corruption actions, which fatally extinguished the luminous epochs of some politicians and public office holders at the time.

The soberness, in fact, derived from the interplay of the unfortunate tomfoolery in government and the collective appreciation as well as interrogation by Nigerians of the universal concepts of good and bad or right and wrong that defined public perception of governmental interactions in the ecology of the nation’s prevalent cloak-and-dagger politics. The whiff of that political correctness had conferred on the administration a false garb of propriety in official conducts and public finance management.

But, significantly, the general attitude against felonies at that time has continued to benefit from the narrative of a nation that has the inherent capacity to reinvent and reorient itself. In fact, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was yet to be established when two public office holders caved in under the weight of evidential facts of felonies to resign from office. The pioneer Speaker of the House of Representatives, Salisu Buhari, did not have to wait to be removed from office in 1999 before tendering his resignation on account of forgery and perjury.

His perjured claim that he graduated from Toronto University in Canada did not only damage his persona but also erode the moral high ground on which his speakership rested. For resigning via a penitence and emotion-laden speech, Buhari benefited from both government and public empathies. Ordinarily, he should have been charged to court with perjury and sentenced in accordance, but the Obasanjo administration allowed him to go and sin no more.

Conversely, in the Senate, members had to forcefully remove the senate president, the late Evan(s) Enwerem, after a committee of the Senate had indicted him for perjury. His official records reportedly bore, at different times, Evan Enwerem and Evans Enwerem. One of the names was purportedly impeached for wrongdoing in the United States of America while the other name was not, but the contention was that he bore the names at different times. Enwerem’s oppositions in the senate wanted to know whether their senate president was Evan or Evans. In both instances, Obasanjo was the ultimate loser. He had successfully installed Buhari and Enwerem as speaker and senate president respectively in his calculated bid to control and subjugate the legislature to the supremacy of the presidency. He had waged a proxy war and ensured that an independent-minded Senator Chuba Okadigbo who replaced Enwerem was also removed from office through the instrumentality of the Senator Idris Kuta-led Investigative Committee report on the N55-million streetlight contract scam in which Okadigbo was indicted for giving anticipatory approvals.

In 2005, Adolphus Wabara resigned as senate president due to his complicity in the N50-million- bribe-for-budget scandal that rocked the National Assembly. Obasanjo had to address Nigerians on the issue via a nationwide broadcast. Although the political undertone of the entire saga had connection with Obasanjo’s ill-fated third term agenda, it is worth recalling that Wabara toed the path of honour by resigning from his position of senate president. Obasanjo also dropped the Minister of Education, Professor Fabian Osuji, who gave the bribe money, from his cabinet.

Wabara, along with the others, was charged to court in continuation of the alleged political plot to keep him out of the calculations and permutations for the 2007 presidency. There was a purported report at Obasanjo’s disposal that indicated Wabara was becoming very popular in the Southeast and could be in a pole position as southeast’s presidential candidate whereas Obasanjo was planning a tenure extension beyond 2007 and did not want any strong and credible opposition from any zone.

It is also instructive to point out that Obasanjo’s perceived insincerity in his anti-corruption fight was writ large. For instance, he caused his Attorney General and Minister of Justice to enter a nolle prosequi in the multi-million corruption suit against the then Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Defence, Mr. Joseph Makanjuola, who was said to be his cousin. These entire sagas, which were in conflict with what ought to be, confirmed the seeming anti-corruption actions by Obasanjo as a flash in the pan.

Since then, the fight against corruption has been more of paying lip service to it until the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari. The fight, under him, assumed a little more seriousness, except that it has been largely characterised as selective. The opposition politicians have arguably become targets of the fight, thus discounting the integrity capital of the crusade. Incidentally, the administration is faced with the scandal of forged National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) exemption certificate by the Finance Minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun. This came on the heels of the alleged forgery by the Special Assistant to the President on Prosecution, Mr. Okoi Obono Obla, of his West African School Certificate (WASC), an allegation over which the presidency has vacillated. The House of Representatives is, however, investigating it.

READ ALSO: Adeosun’s exemption certificate: NYSC has spoken on behalf of FG – Mohammed

Nigerians are waiting to see how the administration handles the Adeosun felony. The alleged forging of her exemption certificate, when she was not qualified for exemption in the first place, was deceitful and criminal. Whereas, she graduated at 22, she should have presented herself to the NYSC authorities for mobilisation even if she was over 30 years. Adeosun sidestepped the law and enjoyed the provisional benefits of that action for nine years or thereabout. Today, she is being haunted and hunted by the very law that she willfully violated.

But, having been educated and worked for so many years in London, a society that cherishes and upholds integrity and accountability, it is assumed that Adeosun must have imbibed these time-tested public service virtues that have continued to see public officials who run afoul of them resign honourably. In the circumstance of her pitiable conundrum, she will do well to resign. That is how to be honourable and as a Yoruba, to be an omoluabi (a well-bred). It should not matter that others whose hands had been caught previously in the cookie jar of crimes are despicably sitting tight in their positions.

Ojeifo writes via ojwonderngr@yahoo.com

Idiots relate the opposite way humans ought to relate, and Albert Einstein once wondered if the crave for Artificial intelligence would not make humans turn to generation of idiots. After pondering on how a particular race conducted themselves – not the black race as he was not in their sphere then – feared the day such race will take over the world. That was over l00 years ago and that particular race was in disarray and was not relating effectively within and without its sphere. It was like a spiral harassment society; that is, from a spin-like movement and in a “tao” form – endless pathway – you harass anyone out of the sphere your capacity allows you to control and those who cannot find a way turn a “fly” into the ears of any bull around; so the bull turns an uncontrolled harasser as the fly keep on humming in its ear; so also the libido problem of men that has turned some of them bulls in their restless mood and calls for sympathy, not total condemnation. A bull is an idiot and it is pushed by what is inside its ear to cause damages just like a harasser is pushed by what is in-between the legs that needed to be tamed in sympathy not condemnation as it is caused by either the environment or factors beyond his knowledge. Like I read from MJO Mustapha’s “fall of the family” that laboratory rats remain resolutely heterosexual until disturbed by bright lights, loud noises and extreme overcrowding. Such factors play in human beings but are avoided by their feelings; so, they cannot be idiots; they should find a way to avoid it.

Among humans, interactions, relationships, dialogues and government come to reduce such interferences that could lead to humans turning to idiots. Human relations are better evaluated in a heterosexual set-up so as to control latent or dormant excessive behaviour waiting for opportune time to express itself like Sigmund Freud mentioned in his study of self, ego and superego or suppressed traits that explode as conflagration in the future.

Sexual Harassment is both from male and female victims perspectives making them idiots or even the society they live in as society of idiots. Basically, when someone is acting as a loco parent – not as someone said, observing a fiduciary duty – there should not be sexual negotiation whether hetero, homo or lesbian, till that in loco parentis status is terminated or vacated. All the sexualities, if untamed, get to bullish harassment.

Lesbianism could even be worse in bullish attitude than heterosexual, and I witnessed that in Barbados on the 27th of October 2006 when two ladies hijacked a bus, not expected of them to enter by their status, just to rape a fine looking plump girl and the bus conductor, a man, connived with them.

Again, when I was a school boy in Cote d’Ivoire, the matrilineal bent of the people made the then President to care much about females and he built exclusive palatial school for them in Yamoussoukro for better upbringing of women leaders and I remember a Nigerian family by name Sbeiro whose girls went to that school free of charge, just by merit of passing the entrance examination. After some years of operation some of the girls couldn’t stand the seclusion; and sexual harassment by girls against girls or boys became the order of the day to a point surgery was to be carried out in two of the girls who suffered banana lock-in in their private part as they couldn’t find a quick partner to have it with. On that, the president quickly built another palatial school for boys close to them to encourage relationship of both sexes. Seclusion is even more dangerous for a person with weak family background than early mixup interaction. Some Nigerian schools still have such seclusion and it makes for easy prey of the girls or the boys, as they are quickly taken by insurgents without either female cry or male resistance.

Other anomalies [election observers] noted include “vote buying tagged ‘see and buy’ in local parlance, where voters surreptitiously showed which party they voted for to party agents who would then settle them.”

Afara Lane

The Ekiti gubernatorial poll has been lost and won. The winners and losers are giving their versions of the electoral narrative the way they deem fit. It is good to listen to both versions of the electoral tale. While the winners, the All Progressives Congress (APC), are in celebratory mood and pontificating on Osun guber poll and the 2019 general election, the losers, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), are crying blue murder over what they described as day light electoral robbery.

The PDP candidate, Prof. Kolapo Olusola, has vowed to challenge the outcome at the tribunal. Without any prejudice to all the participants in the Ekiti poll, the brazen vote buying that characterised the election is a big minus for our democracy and the electoral process. Therefore, the July 14 poll cannot be a template for the 2019 election.

According to a coalition of local and foreign election observers, “the exercise fell below global standard.” They also “faulted the deployment of 30,000 security agents,” and stressed that “the conduct of some of the security operatives largely marred the electoral process.” Other anomalies they noted include “vote buying tagged ‘see and buy’ in local parlance, where voters surreptitiously showed which party they voted for to party agents who would then settle them.”

READ ALSO: Ekiti election falls below global standards – Observers

There were also ballot box snatching, sporadic shootings, sending away of some party agents and intimidation of voters. The observers’ conclusion on Ekiti poll is very significant and merited quoting in full: “The July 14 poll cannot be recommended as a template for the forthcoming 2019 general election as it falls short of global standards and spells doom for the nation if the lapses noted are not addressed and a reorientation, across board, is put in place.”

The July 14 gubernatorial election conducted in Ekiti state which produced Dr Kayode Fayemi as the Governor-elect has affirmed the precarious state of affairs in Nigeria. The behavioural manifestations of political actors connected to the election indicated why the policies of both Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressive Congress have not lifted the masses out of the dungeon they have been deliberately plunged into. While the Muhammadu Buhari government may dispute the data which indicated that more than half of the Nigerian populace live below poverty, the commodification of voting and the dynamics introduced— prepaid and post-paid strategies underscore the fact that politicians need the people to be poor in order to continue to feast on their vulnerability. But wait a minute, was the APC fulfilling its campaign promise of paying N5,000 naira to the poor during the polls? This is the significance of the insignificant.

Ekiti became a market space for bargaining, with location determining the amount that your vote is worth. The price per vote ranged from 3,000 to as much as 20,000 thousand naira. The significance of this is that the two troublesome parties who bought votes are the same who ensured that people remained pauperised so that their vulnerability will be significant for their victory at election time. By so doing poverty becomes an entrapment for the soul of the weak.

Who are those scampering for N3000, N5,000 and above? Women, unemployed youths, and civil servants are vulnerable people whose needs need to be targeted by a sensitive, responsive and responsible government to prevent future insecurities. These Ekiti ‘Essau’ who sold their future for today may lack the blessing of good living owing to the trade-off. But they remain significant pointers to the failure of governance that neglects a ticking time bomb.

READ ALSO: Ekiti Guber Election: Naira rain in Ekiti

Money played a significant role and people displayed the culture of poverty because they were not sure of tomorrow. They went for a bird in hand that is better than thousands in the bush. They are desperate to suffer for the next four years because those who spent to mount the ‘pulpit’ will recoup their investment first before considering those who already benefited before the government is sworn in. Why would Fayemi pray that these people be free from the shackles of poverty if he rode on that vulnerability to remount the rostrum of His Excellency? It is significant that in the state of knowledge people lack wisdom.

The recent tragic and unfortunate incident involving a team of twelve young football players and their coach in Thailand, a major agricultural nation in the South East Asia, when they reportedly got trapped inside a Thai cave while in excursion, caught the attention of the entire world even as the authorities in Thailand were continually kept on their toes as how best to salvage the extremely dangerous situation.

READ ALSO: Thailand cave boys, coach rescued

The youngsters and their coach, according to media report, accidentally slipped into the flooded cave where they eventually ended up at a particular point of about two miles (about 6 kilometers) inside the cave. For more than two weeks, the lads and their coach were almost cut off from the outside world.

The Thai authorities, on receiving the report of the missing boys and their coach, immediately swung into action and launched a rescue mission comprising of expert divers, medical personnel as well as security operatives aimed at locating the missing teenage boys and their coach. International collaborative efforts were quickly mobilized and deployed to assist the Thai authorities in their rescue operation.

As soon as the experts were able to establish contact with the missing football team inside the cave, divers immediately swung into action and oxygen, food and water were promptly delivered to the beleaguered boys using special rope to reach them in the cave. Having established that the missing boys were still alive inside the cave after some days of terrible ordeal, the next stage then was how to carry out a successful rescue operation which was obviously a herculean task as time was of great essence in view of the impending over-flooding of the cave thereby putting the lives of the boys and their coach in greater danger.

I exclusively gathered that the grandmasters of data will superlatively replicate this profound and gestural public service during the next Mundial—Qatar 2022.

Ebere Wabara

But for the robust sponsorship intervention of Globacom, most Nigerians would have been unable to view the just-concluded 2018 World Cup sporting fiesta. I exclusively gathered that the grandmasters of data will superlatively replicate this profound and gestural public service during the next Mundial—Qatar 2022.

READ ALSO: Globacom’s GO Russia promo winners off to Russia

It is not for marketing philosophy that Globacom brands itself as the quintessential next-generation network, having cataclysmically conquered the telecommunications currencies of our time and dominated available operational architecture. This unprecedentedness explains the latest and unparalleled chemistry between it and another global giant, Vodafone, consummated on Friday, November 6, 2015, in Lagos.

On Friday, October 8, 2004, as a backpage columnist in this medium, I wrote an analytical article entitled “Glo Mobile as pacesetter”. I never knew that my prefatory comment on this national symbol of potentialities would years later become an institutional mantra so much that the economic ambassador would make entrepreneurial borderlessness and boundlessness an exclusive novelty. It did not start today because the Chairman of the organization, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jr., GCON, is inimitably passionate about quintessence in all spheres of human existentialism.

An extract from the above referential: “Globacom had, right from inception, been offering tremendous value-added services to the Nigerian telecom consumer. With its long list of innovations including Pay by the Second, TalkNow, MagicPlus, glo mms, glo mobile internet, and glo direct, Glo Mobile has opened new vistas in the telecom domain.”

Still on the most critical element of telephony in Nigeria: who would have ever believed, before the glorious advent of Globacom, that per second billing was feasible from the outset? Especially after MTN Nigeria had trenchantly made it look impossible—in fact, unthinkable, economically unrealistic and unsustainable! Our compatriots will forever remember Dr. Adenuga Jnr. amid overflowing gratitude for his inestimable, bullish and catalytic reversal in the South African company’s telephonic rip-off. Dr. Adenuga’s optimal concern was not return on investment, but the empowerment of our people foremostly. That, for me, is the summit essence of life: touching lives.

The exclusive agreement between Globacom and Vodafone will catalyze the seamless experiences of subscribers on the network. Already, Globacom is reputed for service. Going by the profound partnership with Vodafone, the transformative ethos in terms of quality of offerings/service will be such that would be confirmatory of the non-existence of its kind on these shores.

Globacom is indeed the fallout of its proprietor’s overall domestication of quintessence and unflinching subscription to a profundity of success paradigms in everything no matter the challenges and odds. His sterling belief in possibilities and illimitable opportunities forecloses the mirage of impossibilities. Mr. Chairman does not believe that anything is impossible as long as he is involved! Really, with his confounding and inexplicable cerebral sophistication, aristocratic opulence and the superfluity of human and material resources at his disposal, nothing should be a drawback, a problem or even an odd to this man of philanthropic satiety.

Going by the exclusive Partner Market deal comprising upgrade of facilities and massive deployment of utilities in Nigeria and The Republic of Benin, the resultant synergy by the two international brands will culminate in an exponential uplift of the experiences of consumer and business customers through the profuse instrumentalities of a combination of their unsurpassed mobile, voice and data products and a pedigree of unrivalled global reputation.

In explication of the mega pact, Vodafone Partner Markets Chief Executive, Stefano Gastaut, enthused: “We are delighted to welcome Globacom to the Vodafone Partner Markets community which now spans 57 countries across six continents. This strategic partnership with Globacom for Nigeria and The Republic of Benin will help deliver enhanced benefits for Globacom’s consumer and multinational corporate customers, including countries where we have an ultra-fast 4G network. Vodafone will gain from Globacom’s expertise and deep understanding of African markets.”

According to Globacom’s delectable Group Executive Director, Mrs. Bella Disu, “This partnership is unique and far-reaching, giving corporate and individual subscribers on the Globacom network in Nigeria and The Republic of Benin an edge, particularly in voice and data services. The partnership is in line with Globacom’s tradition of partnering with global leaders to avail consumers of the best telecommunications services.”

There is no doubt that Globacom is resolute and committed to building the biggest and best telecommunications network on the continent. Its robust antecedents and present investments in ideas and infrastructure leave no doubt about its corporate thrust and potentialities.

From the phenomenal and historic introduction of per second billing that revolutionized the way we talk, Globacom crashed the prices of sim card (N1 per copy) and customized handsets so much that the poor could really afford a line and a cheap handset, at least—after all, the basic thing is to communicate. Of course, other networks were compelled to follow the pioneering footsteps of Globacom.

I still remember the Glo 1 Fibre Optic Submarine Cable which supesonically transformed the velocity of calls here and other parts of the world. It is memorable recollecting that this writer was a member of the diligent PR/marketing communications staff who launched this supranational highway facility during my privileged and nostalgic stints with this racy network as a Public Relations Manager not too long ago—a crossover from the banking sector, to which I later returned as a media crises manager. Eternal thanks to the one they call “The Bull” (Dr. Adenuga Jnr.), who made the double-sector employment opportunities for me possible at his own instance, for reasons I am still curious about!

It is on record—and I should know— that the emergence of Globacom led to the empowerment of many Nigerians because of the copious entrepreneurial platforms that the company innovated, long before other networks copied it and came out with their own mediocre, copycat variants. Millionaires were made in the process especially through marketing strategies that changed lives.

I personally supervised some of these customer-reward initiatives in parts of the country in representational capacities. Contrary to some doubts about the authenticity of the loyalty promotions, they were real and all the testamentary evidences are available. On many occasions, I gave out brand new exotic vehicles to lucky subscribers.

Space constraint will not allow me to expatiate on other synergies like the celebrated yearly Glo-CAF Awards exclusively sponsored by Globacom, Glo Manchester United (my club) Partnership, Roll-out in Ghana and The Republic of Benin (already mentioned), Reality Shows/Naija SINGS and X-Factor, Professor John Bull, Ojodu Oba, Lisabi, Ofala and Laffta Festivals and Most Innovative Product and Value-Added Services. By the time you finish reading this panoramic review, other novelties may have been introduced!

I have the conviction that with Voda- fone and other global prospects, Globacom’s generational mission of building the biggest and best telecoms network in Africa is absolute certitude, by God’s grace. And so shall it be.

The recent inauguration of the ancient and historic Milliken Hill road, Ngwo, Enugu, newly reconstructed and modernized with street lights and other safety measures by Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s administration, did not only stir jubilation in the state, it also rekindled the people’s confidence in good governance and participatory democracy.

READ ALSO: Ugwuanyi inaugurates reconstructed historic Enugu Milliken Hill Road

Constructed between 1909 and 1928 by the colonial government, the all-important hilly, undulating road, which was hitherto neglected for many decades, has today become a centre of attraction and a new bride for motorists driving into the Coal City state through the Onitsha-Enugu Expressway.

Interestingly, the good news is that the federal road, which was closed a few weeks ago for total rehabilitation by Gov. Ugwuanyi’s administration has been reopened to traffic as an alternative route for travelers plying the intractable Ugwu Onyeama section of the Ontisha-Enugu federal road into Enugu City.

Bounded by a deep valley and beautiful pine trees that showcase the beautiful green nature of the Coal City, the long neglected snaking Milliken Hill road also abounds with other natural endowments and a rich heritage that upholds its fame as a key tourist attraction, which needs to be cherished and protected for generations yet unborn.

As a monumental edifice built close to a century ago, the winding hilly road has over the years kept faith with history in terms of what it symbolizes to an average Igbo man.

According to history, British tourists on their way to the Middle Belt from Awka in 1908 sighted the hill at Ngwo, Enugu. In appreciation of its natural, beautiful outlook and anticipation of the inherent mineral potentials drew the attention of the colonial government in Lagos. Consequently, a team of mining engineers was reportedly sent down to Enugu in 1909 to prospect for silver in the hill. They struck coal instead. It was also reported that the discovery of coal attracted the Europeans to settle on top of the hill at Ngwo now known as “Hilltop”, and subsequent construction of the Milliken Hill road which was named after the head engineer, who designed the historic road.

Propelled by this noble vision and the need to protect and preserve the enduring legacy bequeathed to the Igbos in particular and entire country in general, by the colonial masters, and in keeping with his administration’s urban renewal agenda, Gov. Ugwuanyi, in spite of the nation’s economic crunch, embarked on the reconstruction of the 12-kiliometer 9th Mile Ekochin-Ngwo- Milliken Hill-New Market federal road. The project’s peak of attraction is the Milliken Hill section, which was completely reconstructed after being fortified with concrete retaining walls, jersey-kerbs and street lights for its lifespan enhancement and safety of road users.

And this is where the opposition ought to capitalize on and front a consensus candidate with broad-based outlook and appeal to Nigerians of different ethnic extractions.

Chris Nonyelum

We are at a very critical stage in the historical evolution of the Nigerian state. Since the events that led to the civil war, the prospects of total disintegration of the country are, more than ever before, increasingly daring us on the face. The present Buhari administration is simply nibbling at the surface without concentrating on the substance, the core issues at the centre of the mutual mistrust, suspicion and cries of marginalization and agitation for the restructuring of the polity. Why are most Nigerians opting for the restructuring of the Nigerian state?

READ ALSO: 2019: Atiku formally declares for presidency

The reason is very simple. Nigeria, ab initio, was contrived by the British colonial masters simply for dubious economic exploitation and not meant to survive as a united, indivisible political entity. The circumstances of Nigeria’s birth were rooted in injustice, engendering a ceaseless and vicious circle of karmic nemesis haunting the country for decades. The struggles to attain a true nationhood have been too long because equity, fairness and justice was sacrificed on the altar of unbridled greed and quest for undue economic exploitation by the British colonial masters.

The seed of ethnic discord, rivalry and struggle for supremacy was sown in a manner that would engender political instability and restiveness. This invariably would enable the British colonial masters to maintain and sustain their dubious economic exploitation long after the country’s independence. Of course, the ploy has served the British interests perfectly well. The Nigerian state has, in the past six decades of independence, miraculously weathered dangerous storms and waded through murky political waters and instability. Those who were institutionally and strategically positioned as beneficiaries of the spoils of a skewed political system insist on maintaining and sustaining the status quo of injustice and marginalization of the rest of the country. Thus, it has become extremely difficult for them to appreciate the need for restructuring the polity. Aware that the foundational structures of the country are gradually caving in to imminent collapse, these anti-progressive forces refuse to appreciate the political expediency and necessity of restructuring the system and repositioning the country for progressive development in the years ahead. These are the forces that have held President Buhari captive, bitterly narrowing his mindset, while helping to sustain the hegemonic encumbrances against ushering a new era of true federalism in Nigeria.

It is, however, sheer lack of foresight and outright shallowness of thinking for any Nigerian leader, at this period of our history, to fail, as Buhari is doing currently to read the hand writing on the wall and gauge correctly the momentum and pendulum of the current political realities in Nigeria.

Restructuring Nigeria is virtually inevitable. It is a necessity for which the time has been long overdue. It is no longer possible to treat the issue with disdain and contempt as if it is the sole prerogative of the President to decide. The wind of change is already blowing across the country and relevant authorities are putting machineries in motion to reshape anew our beloved country, not minding the President’s stand. Given the discontent and increasing demand for restructuring by a great majority of Nigerians, it is naivety at its highest level for President Buhari to slam the proponents as enemies of the Nigerian state. In his understanding of good leadership goals, he is clearly placing his personal inter- ests high and above the interests, hopes and aspirations of most Nigerian citizens. This is a clear indication of leadership failure. While patriotic and well-meaning Nigerians insist on restructuring the country to pave way for meaningful development and mu- tual economic growth among the federating units, Buhari seems more concerned with the reservation of grazing areas across the country for the marauding herdsmen from his ethnic extraction.

Buhari’s apparent conspiracy of inaction and dereliction of duty in handling the herdsmen onslaught is currently engendering feelings of distrust, suspicion and a sense of alienation, frustration and despair among the citizenry.

The most critical issue in the 2019 Presidential campaign would be the restructuring of Nigeria. Now the road to restructuring the polity would be a windy terrain because the ruling party is opposed to it. In this alone, the APC has already failed woefully. And this is where the opposition ought to capitalize on and front a consensus candidate with broad-based outlook and appeal to Nigerians of different ethnic extractions. The anti-progressive forces seeking to scuttle the agenda will not rest on their oars in their bid to maintain the status quo ante.

Atiku Abubakar’s pedigree seems to fit the picture of a versatile politician with great political clout and influence across the five geopolitical zones. He seems to have built over the years, a wide range of solid bridges of understanding and comradeship among politicians of varying degrees of persuasions and ideological inclinations. He is favourably disposed to restructuring the pol- ity and broad minded enough to appreciate the need for making personal sacrifices when circumstances dictate so. He is familiar with the political terrain, consistent and focused in his quest to assume the mantle of leader- ship of Nigeria.

Beyond all these, he has a proven track record of levelheadedness and commitment to actualizing lofty national goals. By his actions and utterances, he is a truly detribalized Nigerian, not given to primordial cleavages to his ancestral heritage like most Nigerian politicians. Of course, the greatest hindrance to attaining true nationhood since Nigeria’s independence has been our politicians’ penchant for advancing ethno-religious agenda with its divisive tendencies rather than pursuing common national goals for the collective well-being of Nigerians. Atiku’s pedigree in the political re-engineering process and long years of weathering stormy political waters without a lingering sense of rancour and bitterness gives one the impression that he is worthy of the people’s trust.

In terms of geopolitical grouping, sensible and moderate religious affiliation and populist appeal across all strata of the Nigerian society, Atiku seems the most strategically positioned to wrench power from the incumbent President. However, the grand alliance already midwifed by the opposition must be wary of unnecessary infighting and unbridled ambitions if they must actualize the herculean task of changing the baton of leadership of the country in 2019.

Nonyelum, writes from Onitsha, Anambra State

I have chosen to initiate this “birthday dialogue” with his recent critics, especially young people who question his moral legacy by accusing him of inconsistency, with seeming deviation from his principles, due to some recent opinions he has expressed on some national issues.

“Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.”

– Walt Whitman

Wole Soyinka needs no introduction to any enlightened person who has lived on our planet in the past fifty years or thereabouts. He wears one the most recognizable faces on terra firma, a visage that grips your memory irretrievably like those of a Goethe, a Gandhi, a Tolstoy, an Einstein, etc. He is also one of the world’s most controversial and admired personalities, thanks to his decades-long involvement in the fight for justice and his dedication to advancing of the cause of humanity.

READ ALSO: Gambari, others to speak on conflict reporting at 10th Wole Soyinka centre lecture

Playwright, poet, novelist, essayist, indefatigable social, moral, political and culture activist, winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, and the first black person and African to achieve that – and this is for those who may still need that unnecessary introduction – he turned 84 on July 13, 2018.

In anticipation of his attaining this new ripe age, I had thought of the best way to celebrate the event. And rather than merely felicitate with him, as he eminently deserves, I have chosen to initiate this “birthday dialogue” with his recent critics, especially young people who question his moral legacy by accusing him of inconsistency, with seeming deviation from his principles, due to some recent opinions he has expressed on some national issues.

I had had the singular privilege of meeting him at the recent J. P. Clark International Conference held at the University of Lagos from July 11-14, 2018, where he delivered the keynote speech entitled “Othello’s Lament: The Migrant Rues the Waves”, after my performance of a poem entitled “The Muse of Our Predicament” in honour of the celebrant, Prof. J. P. Clark, his friend, contemporary, fellow playwright and one of our country’s most valuable writers, and a man whose kindness I have experienced and have heard others attest to.

It was not my first time of meeting Prof. Soyinka. I had met him earlier as the rapporteur of the “Dialogue on Civilisations, Religions and Cultures in West Africa” sponsored by UNESCO and held at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, from December 15-17, 2003, where he delivered a speech entitled “Harmonising through Faith”, which became part of the proceedings from the three-day event that I would later compile and edit for publication by UNESCO.

Every time a country passes through an election experience, there’s something to learn. Each election experience taken in isolation may seem trivial. But it’s the cumulative effect that can wear a country down. The Ekiti gubernatorial election has come and gone. Of course, we know the winner and the losers. One thing is clear: organising a free, fair and transparent election is more important than the outcome.

Just over a week after the result of the governorship was announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Nigeria has been crawling unsteadily over one aspect of the election process that raises red flags for next year’s general elections. It was the brazen vote-buying that the two of the dominant parties- the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – were the main culprits. It was not as if the Ekiti election was the first time vote-buying would be reported in our election, but before now, it was an almost unfathomable proposition that the day would ever come when inducement of voters by parties and politicians would become a passé, a shameless norm. It’s no longer an open question. It’s a fact.

READ ALSO: Ekiti Guber Election: Naira rain in Ekiti

No matter how much we paper over what happened in Ekiti, no matter whether vote-buying did impact on the outcome of the governorship contest, vote-buying, no matter how it’s defined, a voter selling his vote to the highest bidder in an election, is a horrifying chapter in any democracy. It has disastrous consequences for governance in our country. It’s illegal, and approximates to rigging and ballot stuffing. But perhaps, the most unsettling consequence is how this ugly phenomenon could affect the integrity of next year’s general election if nothing urgent and drastic is done now to check it.

Political parties and politicians tucking their tails to save their behind is no longer an option. It’s no longer time to play the ostrich. History beckons on all concerned, the government, the citizens and civil society groups to save our democracy from desperate politicians. And, for the voters, awareness on the implication of what they are doing, perhaps unwittingly, to their collective destinies, is of immediate concern. It’s so because, when a citizen sells his or her vote to the highest bidder candidate in an election, he/she loses the moral right to expect good governance. It’s simply as bad as that.

That leaves so much work to do by relevant agencies concerned, INEC inclusive. This is in spite of the fact that the Electoral Act forbids vote-buying.

The Electoral Act, 2010 Article 130 states, “A person who (a) corruptly by himself or by any other person at any time after the date of an election has been announced, directly or indirectly, gives or provides or pays money to, or for any person for the purpose of corruptly influencing that person or any other person to vote or refrain from voting at such election, or on account of such person or any person having voted or refrained from voting at such election; (b) being a voter, corruptly accepts or takes money or any other inducement during any of the period stated in paragraph (a) of this section, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of N100,000 or 12 months imprisonment or both”. Unfortunately, we are not aware that anybody has been prosecuted

and convicted for committing this offence. A law is as good as a disposable napkin if it is observed in breach. Despite this provision vote-buying has crept into our electoral process as a regular, “acceptable” phenomenon. It was on open display during the governorship polls in Anambra, Edo and Ondo, last year. And nothing was done about it. No suspects were arrested. In some cases, security personnel and party agents were reportedly doing the vote-buying and “trading “. In the past,snatching of ballot boxes, and “settlement” of Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) and other forms of electoral malpractice that were the norms. Who says our politics is not a fun to follow? Let’s go back in time to recall on Chief Donald Duke’s exposé on how elections used to be rigged before. In an interview in The Guardian, Sunday, July 18,2010, Duke, former Governor of Cross River state, painted a seamless picture with anecdotes, of how RECs initiate the rigging of elections by genuflecting before state governors, listing things they needed to “settle down” in order to conduct free and fair elections. It’s a quid pro quo thing, Duke said. Eight years had passed since then, and now, the vote-buying may be the latest innovation to take control of the “market place”, a buzzword to buy off the conscience of the voters.

It, indeed, troubles the mind that instead of improving our electoral process, political parties are devising ways to undermine our democracy. In Ekiti, neither APC nor PDP denied it was not involved in vote-buying. What was in dispute was which candidate or party out spent the other in the inducement of voters. The immedi- ate danger is that governors up for re-election next year or sponsoring a successor, may have prepared an astonishing war chest to bribe the electorate on Election Day. Make no mistakes about it, that’s one of the reasons they are not paying workers’ salaries and retirees’ pensions.

But, it’s high time we looked ourselves in the mirror and come to the grim truth our voters card is the power we have to decide the fate of every politician contesting for any elective posi- tion. But, much more than that, your vote can make or mar your future. Which is why the vote- buying in Ekiti governorship poll should serve as a rude awakening, a lesson from failure to respond quickly to the red flags blinking ahead of 2019 polls. In this regard, history beckons to President Buhari and the National Assembly to initiate electoral bills and the lawmakers to fast track the passage of the Electoral Act. We are running out of time, just under seven months before the 2019 general elections.

It seemed inconceivable that President Emmanuel Macron of France will visit the citadel of Afro Beat iconoclasm and activism, the New Afrika Shrine. After all, the Shrine is a tin-pan, a boisterous, corybantic spot, frequented by bohemians and oddballs. What then was the president of one of the most influential countries of the world seeking at the Shrine? Evidently, there is more to the Shrine that readily meets the eyes. Beneath the façade of clamorous licentiousness and hedonism that the Shrine connotes, it represents something more profound.

READ ALSO: Macron’s visit to Afrika Shrine has vindicated Fela – Femi Kuti

It is the bastion of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s legacy. President Macron revealed that he visited the Shrine because, in an earlier visit, its verve and energy struck a memorable chord in his then youthful mind. And that the Shrine is a “symbol and hub of African culture”. It is “an iconic place for a lot of African people and African culture”. Just as the Shrine embodies more than is readily obvious, Fela represented more than was plainly evident. He was more than just a dissolute, marijuana-smoking, eccentric consort of twenty eight wives. He was a trailblazing musician: a versatile, multitalented maestro, yet unsurpassed in Africa. With the exceeding excellence of his music and the stunning splendor of his stage work, he took music and entertainment in Nigeria to new heights. He was also a brilliant, well-read social crusader. He had the learning and versatility of a professor, oratorical flourishes of a preacher, and the deep insight of a philosopher.

Macron’s visit to the New Afrika Shrine was poignant and instructive. The visit was an emotional highpoint for many Fela fans. They were thrilled by the recognition and reverence Macron’s visit bestowed on the phenomenon, Fela: his life, works and legacy. The visit also taught us that truly great men are neither stuck-up nor puffed-up. And, as such, the snobbery of the Nigerian political elite and the distance they deliberately maintain between themselves and the masses are the stuff for petty minds and panjandrums. Nigerians were pleasantly surprised by the humility and accessibility of the French president. In shirt sleeves, he mingled with the people; talking to ordinary Nigerians and shaking hands with them.

It would have been unimaginable for the president of Nigeria to freely socialize with ordinary Nigerians as the French president did. Unlike the Nigerian president, he was not shielded from the people by a phalanx of security men. The Nigerian political elites are so conceited, and scornful of the people they supposedly serve. Therefore, they insist on copious buffers, between them and the masses, maintained by hard-eyed, stoned-faced and vicious-looking security men brandishing automatic rifles, and ready to punch and kick to pulp any one that breached security protocol. Nigerian presidents, governors, and legislators behave as though they represent an occupying power, and are therefore not only afraid of the citizens of the occupied country but also need to intimidate and repress them. Fela’s global acclaim was inescapable because he possessed that very rare quality among Nigerians, courage. To Winston Churchill, “courage is the most important of all human qualities because

it is the human quality that guarantees all others”. Fela’s courage, for the most part, defined his life. It endeared him to many in Nigeria, Africa and beyond but also brought him the cudgel of different Nigerian governments. His persecution by different Nigerian governments culminated to the burning of his house and the killing of his mother by soldiers, and a judicial burlesque that sentenced him to four years imprisonment. Still, he did not flinch; he remained resolute in his stance against social injustice and the excesses of power. Many years after his death, his message remains uncannily, some say prophetically relevant to the Nigerian reality.

The father of modern Zionism, Theodore Herzl, once wrote that, “history is nothing but noise, noise of arms and noise of advancing ideas”. Fela’s noise was that of advancing ideas. He advanced the ideals of freedom, social justice and good governance with the power of music. His musical genre, Afro Beat, was a fusion of traditional Nigerian percussions, well-defined lead guitar of Highlife music and pronounced baseline of Rhythm and Blues, interlaced with delicately beautiful arrangement of horns (saxophone, trumpet and trombone) and exquisite piano play of Afro-American Jazz.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Nigerian popular music was under the powerful influence of Western, especially, American music. Then, Nigerian musicians copied the music and vocals of James Brown, Otis Redding, the Rolling Stones, etc. Unlike the velvety singing of Highlife, and feigned American accent vocals of Nigerian Pop musicians, the vocalism of Afro Beat was loud and coarse. In its further deviation from orthodoxy, the lyrics of Afro Beat did not praise and ingratiate the rich and mouth romantic platitudes. It was fashioned as a tool for mass enlightenment, crusading against social injustices and denouncing abuse of power. With his poignant and defiant lyrics, Fela brayed against social injustice, official corruption, mass poverty, police brutality, gutlessness of Nigerians, etc. His music captured the hearts and minds of the Nigerian masses because it expressed their moods, sentiments, hopes and aspirations.

Lamentably, in spite of the exorbitant price Fela paid for his crusading fervor, the same evils he fought with his music continue to define the Nigerian society. Does that mean that he labored in vain? No, because it is from such “acts of courage and convictions that human history is shaped”. For example, Theodore Herzl’s campaign for a Jewish homeland in Palestine was dismissed by many as the prattling of a starry-eyed idealist. But then, it sowed the seed of modern Zionism, a seed that sprouted, and many years later, bloomed to the creation of Israel in Palestine. And driven by his revulsion for slavery, Jim Brown set out, on his own, to overthrow the institution of slavery in the American South. He was captured and lynched by a White mob. But the ripple effects of his failed assault on slavery later ramified, and through its many branches advanced racial equality and justice.

More than twenty years after Fela’s death, his music continues to resonate because of the matchless splendor of its melody, and the incontrovertible pertinence of its message. Its message remains a source of inspiration to the Nigerian masses in the continued struggle for social justice, public accountability and elevated standards of political morality.

Ezukanma writes from Lagos via maciln18@ yahoo.com

President Muhammadu Buhari, who went into the 2015 presidential election on the crest of a countrywide approbation as a man of integrity, could not have come better recommended by Nigerians for the task of clearing the nation’s Augean stables. On the force of his antecedents and credentials, he was expected to hit the ground running in a comprehensive battle against corruption since that credibility motivated the national support for his candidature and forged, in the main, the crux of the social contract that has approximately exemplified his presidency of Nigeria.

Sadly, no sooner had the administration commenced than its anti-graft machinery began to falter. Politics and other mundane considerations contoured the mandate. In the corollary, there has been a yearning gap between expectations and realities. The battle has been largely mismanaged and the initial gravitas has ebbed. The superintending administrative infrastructure of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has been largely indicted as selective in the execution of the war. The Commission has been fumbling in its investigative and prosecutorial strategies, leading to serial losses or stalling of high-profile corruption cases filed under this administration.

Certainly, there is a sense in which Buhari could be insulated from blame over the mismanagement of the anti-graft war by his agents. That good judgment will be in the context of his prompt disposition to whip them into line or re-jig their administrative infrastructure. But he has been reluctant to replace Ibrahim Magu despite his non-confirmation on two occasions by the Senate as substantive chair of the EFCC. The president must have his reasons for sticking with Magu. Whatever the reasons are; they must be far from pecuniary.

Suddenly, everybody is a social critic in Nigeria. Flipping through the pages of our national dailies, magazines and sundry publications, on radio and on tv, one is confronted with invidious, hateful and disparaging remarks against the government, a person in a position of authority or an institution. It was the famous former American President John F. Kennedy who declared that “a little constructive criticism here and there is good for any government”. By that declaration, the venerable ex-president was wittingly acknowledging the importance of constructive criticism in any social space. However, criticism in Nigeria has assumed a pitiable dimension. These days, instead of analysing the society and its numerous structures critically but objectively, practitioners of the art spawn mindless hatred which does more harm to the country and diminishes the sacred art of criticism.

READ ALSO: Only truth can bring societal peace in Nigeria –Irukwu

Criticisms by their nature are meant to point out to the government areas where adjustment is needed in the daily interpenetration of policies and their implementations. Criticisms are also meant to provoke healthy debates, to revive and educate a docile populace, to bestir power relations and to keep the leaders on their toes, alive to their responsibilities. In addition, they are meant to identify the deteriorating aspects of the society and prescribe a panacea as well. Any committed leader will pray to have selfless and constructive critics around him since no individual can lay claim to absolute knowledge. To this extent, critics play very important roles in nation building because through their timeless and informed commentaries, government policies and social consciousness are positively affected.

Today in Nigeria, the situation is different. People hide behind the façade of criticism to unleash hatred, enemy action, and fatalistic outbursts on the government and its officials. Certainly, the language of criticism is not friendly, especially when one is alive to various economic and social whirlwind enunciated by politicians and those in authority which daily plunge our country into the pit of purgatory. However, criticism must strictly be separated from hate, emotional blackmail and outburst of destructive tirade. No doubt, the APC-led federal government and many state governments in Nigeria, in fact many politicians and government officials have supplied critics enough panoply to draw the sword and pull the trigger on a daily basis, but the line must be drawn between objective criticism on one hand, hatred, loathsomeness and abhorrence on the other hand.

As the 2019 elections draw nearer, it is important that deliberate efforts are made to promote peace and reduce violence. Without peace, there can be no progress or development.

Wale Sokunbi

Reports say a lone suicide bomber detonated a bomb in a mosque in Borno State on Monday, leaving seven people dead, many others injured and the mosque in ruins. Is this any more big news in Nigeria? I doubt it. The nation has somewhat become so bound to violence in recent months that the killing of seven people by terrorists is no longer ear-shattering news.

READ ALSO: Suicide bomber kills 7 in Borno town

What indeed, some may ask, is the big news in the killing of seven people, when hundreds of other people are routinely killed by herdsmen at a go in Plateau and Benue States, while scores of others are killed in avoidable road accidents and armed robberies?

It is sad that the rate of killings in the country has reached such an alarming proportion even at a time that the country is not officially at war. The incessant bloodletting by herdsmen, kidnappers, robbers etc has made death almost a bedfellow of Nigerians. Killing is no longer a big deal. That is why boyfriends now murder their girlfriends in money rituals, as happened with the daughter of a former Deputy Governor in one of the South West states about a fortnight ago. It is the reason that wives and girlfriend skill their husbands and boyfriends in fits of anger over allegations of infidelity. It is the reason that cultists in schools and rivals at motor parks think nothing of snuffing life out of their rivals for the most trivial of reasons. It is also the reason scores of people are killed in robbery incidents, as happened in Offa, Kwara State, recently.

There is no more regard or even the littlest modicum of respect for life. No one appears safe, as students of the Sacred Heart Minor Seminary, Jalingo, discovered recently, as herdsmen stormed their school and fired shots at their instructors, for refusing to allow cows to graze on the school field. The scant regard for life in the country is not only a threat to peaceful killing, it is also affecting the thinking of many young Nigerians, as can be gleaned from a recent interview with a young female cultist who owned up to killing at least four persons in exchange for N10,000 cash she was paid for each killing. As the girl put it, she had no qualms about killing anyone as she saw it as just a job she was doing.

It is this rate at which killings are perpetrated with impunity with no one hardly being made to pay for the heinous crime that has made murder almost a pastime in the country. One thing that is clear is that the government at all levels and the security agencies need to start treating the crime of murder with all the seriousness it deserves. The current situation in which killers are allowed to get away with all kinds of murders, be it political or otherwise, with even the security agencies defending the killings, is very bad for Nigeria.

The message has to be sent out strongly that murder is a criminal act that is punishable with the death penalty in the nation’s laws. It is only a strict enforcement of the law against murder in the country that can check the quick resort to killings that the nation is witnessing.

Beyond the general killings in the country are the ones that the relevant security authorities and President Muhammadu Buhari himself, have described as political killings. Herdsmen and some politicians, it has been suggested, are in league to destabilise the governments in some states such as Plateau and Benue, and even the Federal Government.

But, what are the relevant government organs doing about this? Very, very little. What is glaring among our politicians is a lack of seriousness, and shenanigans that ridicule their understanding of the purposes for which they are in office.

Instead of any serious attention to the violence stalking the land, Nigeria is at the mercy of some dancing, “weeping” and “demonstrating” senior political office holders who actually seem to believe they were elected for the comic value they can add to our politics, and not to find solutions to the serious problems plaguing the country. The time has come for our political office holders at all levels to get serious and apply themselves to the tasks for which they were elected.

The country, it must be said, is in a drift. There is so little to cheer. Although the government has rolled out a list of its achievements as it spends its fourth year in office, and some of the achievements, such as the implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) are laudable, there are still so many other areas in which the desired change is still being awaited.

One is in the area of ending the Boko Haram insurgency and the sundry insecurity in the country. Nigerians should be able to live in peace and security in the country. The kind of armed robbery that occurred in Offa, Kwara State, in which so many people were killed should not be heard of in a country where security is taken seriously. Yet such things happen and no one is actually seen being seriously punished for them, thereby fueling the growing killings with impunity in the country.

As the 2019 elections draw nearer, it is important that deliberate efforts are made to promote peace and reduce violence. Without peace, there can be no progress or development. The sooner Nigerians embrace this fact and eschew violence the better for national progress and individual peace and wellbeing.

There are so many other areas, too, in which the government’s intervention can help to reduce the tendency to criminality. Among these is in the area of job creation. Getting the youths creatively engaged in formal jobs and even informal ones will go a long way in reducing their involvement in criminal activities. It is necessary to empower the youths to give them a sense of well being and self worth, and a better appreciation of the value of life and peaceful living.