Category: Opinion

Aisha Buhari Is A Citizen Without Borders, By Ali Baba, GCFR

Posted on by The Elites

img_6517Aisha’s Buhari… does not belong to the kitchen. Like every other successful career woman in Nigeria, she belongs to the areas where she and her likes can help to build a great nation. From my last check, she is not in Purdah and has been an advocate for the betterment of women. She is vocal about the things she is concerned about.

And if you know the kind of man she married, if he did not support her or better put, give her that room, not the other room, to operate, she would not have had the success she had had in her career like she has today. True she is the wife of Mr president. True, he has the right to say where his wife belongs. But don’t be fooled by the hype and brouhaha that had been generated. That is not a woman that is conscripted to a kitchen. That is a very free woman. I had to go read her past interviews to see if she had changed. She hasn’t. She is still vocal, and will always say it as it is. Even those who called her a criminal, wanted in the United States of America, all of a sudden see her as Queen Amina.

My take is, Buhari wanted to say, the wife has a right to say what she wants to say but as far as his administration was concerned, her role was limited to those places mentioned (kitchen, living room and the other room). Notice that they don’t share the same bedroom. The main bedroom is different from the other room. When was the last time she made his meals? If you have been to the Presidential villa, they don’t share the same “rooms” SEF! But that said, as a wife, those are the areas of restrictions. But as an advocate… she is at large.

Aisha is a Citizen without borders. But if that bothers you, konteeenuuuuu! ™@alibabagcfr

The Unaired Part of Aisha Buhari’s Interview, By Jaafar Jaafar

Posted on by The Elites

img_2347At the heat of the intense pressure mounted on the BBC to stop airing the remaining part of the controversial Aisha Buhari interview a few days ago, I had the privilege of listening to the interview before it was fully aired.
My good friend, the Head of the Abuja bureau of the BBC, Naziru Mika’il Abubakar, invited me to his office for comment on the interview, and directed that it be played to me before recording my comment.
Listening to the president’s wife passionately expressing herself on how her husband runs Nigeria left me cringing. Reading between the lines, I realized Mrs. Buhari was sending SOS to Nigerians to save her bewitched, servile husband from the clutches of the Aso Rock witches, popularly known as “Aso cabal”.
The Buhari I knew before election was not the obtuse person we have today as president. The Buhari I promoted during campaign had no nepotic, despotic or robotic tendencies. The Buhari I voted for was not this pliable. Forgive me if my knowledge of him was superficial.
Aisha Buhari might have pitched the nation a curve ball, but her interview is actually a deafening echo of what we’ve saying for ages about her husband. When I first raised alarm on the dangers of the influence of numero uno of the cabal, Mamman Daura, on the Buhari administration barely three weeks after Buhari took oath of office, I received all manner of insults and invective. Today a lot of my predictions have come to reality.
But if actually the Mamman Daura cabal is the one running this country, then it appears to be a very unintelligent lot whose mastery does not go beyond the art of nepotism and crafts of plagiarism.
This cabal has kept both the nation and the president under spell, leaving the economy to slide into recession, our currency to crash beyond salvation and impunity to reign supreme. This cabal suffocated a mega political party Nigerians from all regions laboured and united to build.
It always saddens me to realize that our president has been turned into a puppet, managed by some half-witted puppeteers, who are majorly dextrose at swinging his legs to Europe, America and Asia, stretching his hand to perpetuate nepotism or opening his mouth to goof.
From ministers to the heads of agencies, there is either portfolio misplacement or elevation of incompetence by this cabal right from the outset of the present administration. This very same cabal gave plum appointments to the progeny of the famous Kaduna mafia, some of whom even served the immediate-past administration or openly campaigned for the PDP.
A leading member of the cabal, who is the present Chief of Staff to the president, Abba Kyari, was appointed by former President Goodluck Jonathan as member of the Ribadu-led Petroleum Revenue Task Force in 2012. A year earlier, Kyari had turned down Buhari’s offer to serve as the secretary of one of CPC presidential campaign committees — perhaps because Buhari had little chance of winning.
Take the case of Sokoto ministerial nominee for instance. Any loyal party man will not be happy to see the daughter of a Kaduna mafia Alhaji Abubakar Alhaji, Aisha Abubakar appointed minister from Sokoto State. Aisha openly campaigned for the PDP governorship candidate in Sokoto State and her brother, Aminu Abubakar Alhaji, who unsuccessfully vied for Tambuwal/Kebbe Federal Constituency ticket on the platform of PDP.
Again, no one who wishes the APC well will be happy to see Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, the daughter of another Kaduna mafia, Yahaya Hamza, appointed minister from Kaduna State. Zainab headed NEITI under Jonathan and contributed to the PDP during election.
Any card carrying member of the APC will be saddened to see Mohammed Bello, the son of Mamman Daura’s friend, Musa Bello, appointed minister from Adamawa State. Mohammed Bello headed the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria under Jonathan but was given the plum FCT ministry by the Aso cabal. I believe if he had gone against PDP, he would have been removed immediately after Jonathan lost election.
But look at how the cabal dumped loyal party members in Enugu like Osita Okechukwu to appoint Geoffrey Enyeama, who had hitherto never met Buhari nor worked for the APC, as minister of Foreign Affairs.
Or, will any APC politician be happy with Senator Ita Enang, a top Jonathan campaigner, as Senior Special Assistant to the president on National Assembly (Senate) or Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, also a top Jonathan campaigner, as chairman of the almighty Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, while loyal party men like Senator Magnus Abe were kicked to backstage? Senator Abe was even shot by the police during election in Rivers.
Aisha Buhari might have been wondering where were loyal Buhari campaigners like Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, Faruq Adamu Aliyu, Dele Alake, Barrister Ismail Ahmed, Architect Waziri Bulama, Yusuf Tuga, Yakubu Lame, Dr. Hassan Lawan, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, Umaru Dembo, Ubale Hashim, Umar Dangiwa, among others?
The president’s wife and party supporters will also be incensed to see appointees of the past government still heading a number of agencies and departments. The cabal should know that party men are piqued that the 12 agencies of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources are still headed by the appointees of the past government as well as a minister, Engr Sulaiman Adamu, appointed not for his political contributions to the success of Buhari but close family ties.
Now take a cursory look at the reappointment of Umaru Ibrahim as managing director of NDIC. Ibrahim was appointed in December 2010 by Jonathan but was reappointed by Buhari to serve another five years as if there were no competent persons within the party fold. One still wonders why the Director-General of PenCom, Mrs Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, is retained despite the fact that her appointment was initially done in violation of law. Does Buhari think his party is happy that Malam Sani Sidi, a protege of former Vice President Namadi Sambo, is still the head of National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA?
Whoever wishes the president and APC well must feel strongly about this. As someone who stood by her husband during election, Aisha Buhari has rights to complain when some forces took over her husband or when things go wrong in the party. I still believe she loves her husband more than those that are insulting or mocking her. She is still the highest authority on the president’s mental and socio-physical state.
One basic fact a lot of fanatical supporters of Buhari forget is that he rode on a saddle of political party to power. The fortunes of the party are diminishing and those who laboured to build the party and ensured the emergence of Buhari as candidate are relegated, while political ambulance chasers take the centre stage. APC’s growth is inorganic, and so needs some therapies to strengthen it’s fragility.
There is concern about the political future of Buhari and APC. As it stands today, barring any miracle, Buhari could either be the first incumbent Nigerian president to lose a party ticket at the primaries or the second president to lose re-election in Nigeria’s political history.

In Defence of Aisha Buhari, Dr. Doyin Odebowale

Posted on by The Elites

img_6894I have read so much on Aisha Buhari since yesterday. Nigerians are a special breed. Suddenly, this woman is not wanted in America! Buhari did not marry a child again. Her gold, diamond and platinum bracelets are not topics for discussion. We are moving out of recession indeed!

Many of the hypocrites on Facebook beat their wives. Many are so useless that they establish pepper soup joints for some useless dogs called women while their children cannot feed at home. Many don’t care about how their children school fees are paid. 

Aisha is the CEO of a thriving company. One of Buhari’s daughters is a lawyer. His girls are graduates. I have read posts from some of my friends who, surprisingly, failed to see the statement credited to Buhari as a joke. I have followed some of them on Facebook. I know most of them will not tolerate any dissenting view from their wives.

Aisha is not in purdah. She is not confined to the kitchen, literally. I doubt if she still cooks. I would have expected the new supporters of Aisha to ask Buhari about the location of the kitchen. Is it Aso Villa where there exists a culinary complex? Look at Aisha and tell us if she belongs to the category of oppressed women. The fact that she granted the controversial interview bears eloquent testimony to Buhari’s character. She just returned from the US. That trip generated another kind of controversy. That seems not important now.

Many of these hypocrites are not proud of their wives. Many of them pretend to love women but will work against them. Politicians abuse women sexually. They are play things. They only allow them when their unscrupulous godfathers impose them and direct political slaves to vote. Academics talk of “conference materials”. These are people’s wives, daughters, sisters, cousins, who belong to everybody while pretending to be in some dubious relationships. Lucky is she whose husband can proudly assert that she has a place in his bedroom. She is not sharing this space with any woman to our knowledge. Buhari’s religion allows him to marry four women.

If the president attempted to douse tension generated by the wife’s interview, and we fail to appreciate his joke, then our sense of humour appears morbid. Nigerians did not elect Aisha. She has no official role in the constitution. She cannot decide on who gets appointed into the government. If she complains that she does not know those in government, it means Buhari cannot be accused of nepotism. If she is pained that she is not involved in governance, that is a big plus for him. She was not on the ballot during the last election. She should not pick ministers and heads of agencies for us.

Is this not part of the change we crave? Hypocrisy is not a virtue

Law and Disorder, By Tatalo Alamu

Posted on by The Elites

Something new always comes out of Nigeria. For a country that has turned ethical brinksmanship and flirtation with suicide into higher art, the current mass arrest and detention of judges from the uppermost echelons of the judiciary must be all in a day’s work. But the international world is aghast. There is no comparative experience in the history of the civilized world.

How can things turn to this sorry and sad pass in a country that has produced some of the most prodigiously endowed lawyers of the past century, a country that often farms out its judicial excellence to other countries? Where else in the world are judges, including Supreme Court justices, subjected to this kind of public humiliation and opprobrium? Is this the country of Sapara-Williams and that long line of legal avatars stretching back to the mid-nineteenth century?

Often, the international community sees farther than the local community. It sees what we don’t see and knows what we don’t know. It knows when a country is on the brink of anomie and when it has crossed the threshold of legal and judicial sanity and radical anarchy beckons. Like a wise elder, it knows how and where the tree would fall and the earth shaking nature of the impact when youths are engaged in tree-felling.

But let us get legal niceties out of the way. The nocturnal visitation to the sacred domains of their Lordships may be regrettable but so far there has been no legal authority to challenge the powers of the DSS to arrest anybody threatening or undermining national security in all its ramifications. The interpretation of these ramifications, be it political sabotage, economic adversity, spiritual aggression, armed intimidation and even judicial terrorism in aid of the electoral subversion of the will of the nation as expressed by the electorate, is the sole responsibility of the security agencies.

To be sure, it could not have been the intendment of the framers of the constitution that the law would one day go after its most sacred protectors in such a shabby manner. Nobody could have imagined a situation in which state functionaries would hurl top judges and lawyers into detention on the suspicion of engaging in manifest and manifold acts of illegality bordering on state subversion.

If the international community is alarmed by the state assault on the judiciary, many Nigerians are also traumatized by the astonishing revelations and the scale of judicial sleaze. Many citizens are horrified by the outlandish nature of judicial thievery and the in your face nature of the acquisitions. No constitution could have foreseen this judicial obscenity from the leading lights of the bench. By aiding the law to abet social disorder, our lordships have thrown up an intriguing dimension of social justice as part of the National Question. This is institutional suicide by any other name.

But since it is merely an accessory after the notorious fact, the judiciary will not go down alone. In every human society, the ruling law is the law of the ruling class. The law is expected to uphold and valorize social order as seen and as conceptualized by the ruling class for the benefit of the entire society. But when and where the law and its enforcing agents act in a way that undermines and subverts social order, it is an invitation to social anomie which often compels a drastic retribution from forces acting—or thinking they are acting—on behalf of the old status quo.

Like gluttonous rodents set upon a sugarcane plantation, the Nigerian judiciary is too far gone to save or redeem itself through internal reform. In the past thirty years or so, every attempt to reform the judiciary either through external intervention or internal purge has been spurned or treated with abrasive contempt or met with outright stonewalling.

The confrontation with Buhari’s Law and Order administration is inevitable. For law to thrive there must be order. For order to be sustained there must be law. It may well turn out that by stepping in with force and drama, the Buhari government may yet save the Nigerian judiciary from itself or from more ruinous consequences.

The law loses its badge of authority and force of legitimacy when nobody believes in it, when the public holds every judicial pronouncement in contempt and when its leading lights are subject of public ridicule and open disdain. It will take radical surgery within the context of revolutionary stirring in the society to redeem both legal system and public order.

But in a situation where essentially conservative social forces are locked in contention, it may be naïve and simplistic to expect a radical emancipation of the nation from the clutches of a medieval social order as the immediate outcome. Despite his heroic probity and open abhorrence for injustice, there is no evidence that General Buhari fancies a structured and programmatic approach to the crisis of the Nigerian state and its judiciary.

Indeed it may well be that what is playing out is a convergence of private animosity and public misgiving. General Buhari himself has been a serial victim of judicial delinquency and is known to have the memory of an elephant. If his private anger and indignation are allowed to shape public developments, if his personal sentiments and preferences are allowed to determine the fate of the judiciary, the outcome may not be as altruistic and patriotic as one might be led to expect.

Having learnt to lower one’s sights about the ideological and political direction of the Buhari administration, having learnt not to raise the bar of hope higher than the limits and limitations of its principal actors, perhaps the most scientific way to look at the judicial palaver is to see it as the dialectical interplay of hostile and antagonistic forces which may result in the mutual ruination of contending forces. The judiciary cannot hope to win this, but neither will anybody trying to rework the nation away from the modernist template of a true nation-state.

As usual with a country at the mercy of bitterly centrifugal forces, Nigerians have been split down the line over this one as well. Class, ethnic and regional solidarities have rent the elite asunder while the masses are braying for blood. Where you expect solidarity along the lines of superior national interest, you have what can only be described as competing tribalismsor the ethnicizationof equity with justice viewed from the prism of primordial interest.

For example, those who watched quietly when top judges were receiving humongous gratification for perverting the course of justice and for delivering judgement in conflict with common sense are now charging the government with highhandedness and a descent into tyranny; those who kept quiet when Jonathan stoutly and stubbornly refused to reinstate Justice Ayo Salami based on the recommendation of the NJC have now found their voice, screaming from the rooftop that General Buhari has turned the nation into a Banana Republic.Some banana indeed.

What can one say about a country in which the political elite find it difficult to unite behind a common cause or coalesce behind a pan-Nigerian conception of justice based on equity and fair play for all? What does the future portend for such a country with an irredeemably fractured ruling class?

The Nigerian judiciary has had it coming for a long time. Something was bound to give eventually. Like an old nemesis, it has taken the return of General Buhari to earn it divine retribution. But by a tragic irony, the unravelling of the law may also trigger the second comeuppance of the man from Daura himself, if the counter-accusations coming from the judicial council are to be believed. History is a cruel task master indeed.

At the end of Buhari’s first tenure, the Nigerian political class was so bitterly divided and so badly polarized by what appeared to be the lopsided nature of justice meted out to the political offenders of the Second Republic and what was widely considered to be the religious, regional and primordial prejudices of the Buhari administration that a section of the political elite were openly mooting the idea of secession. Two civil war heroes from the west gave interviews where they canvassed a con-federal arrangement for the federation.

After Buhari’s ouster, his successor and former Chief of Army Staff, Ibrahim Babangida, was forced to shop for willing and compliant judges to reverse most of the draconian convictions of the military tribunals in order to placate some sections of the political class. It was from that moment on that majoritysectors of the judiciary became willing tools of the executive as long as the price is right.

Thirty years after his dethronement, Buhari has come back to confront the Aegean stable with the same contradictions and his own personal failings obviously in place. The nation is back to unfinished business. If General Buhari continues to leave his political flanks exposed just as he did the first time around, if an important segment of the political class feels badly bruised and alienated by the looming confrontation, if he is unable to summon the Nigerian masses to his ensign, the outcome may not be different.

General Buhari should count himself lucky. It is very rare and unusual for history to set the same exam for the same historical personage thirty years apart and in seemingly dissimilar circumstances. If he flunks it this time around, it is all but certain that neither the general nor the country will have a third chance doing the same thing and repeating the same error all over again. Nigeria is suffering from failure fatigue. That is the surest symptom of social disorder.

 

The Spiritual Side Of Aso Villa, Reuben Abati

Posted on by The Elites

People tend to be alarmed when the Nigerian Presidency takes certain decisions. They don’t tbhhink the decision makes sense. Sometimes, they wonder if something has not gone wrong with the thinking process at that highest level of the country. I have heard people insist that there is some form of witchcraft at work in the country’s seat of government. I am ordinarily not a superstitious person, but working in the Villa, I eventually became convinced that there must be something supernatural about power and closeness to it. I’ll start with a personal testimony. I was given an apartment to live in inside the Villa. It was furnished and equipped. But when my son, Michael arrived, one of my brothers came with a pastor who was supposed to stay in the apartment. But the man refused claiming that the Villa was full of evil spirits and that there would soon be a fire accident in the apartment. He complained about too much human sacrifice around the Villa and advised that my family must never sleep overnight inside the Villa.
I thought the man was talking nonsense and he wanted the luxury of a hotel accommodation. But he turned out to be right. The day I hosted family friends in that apartment and they slept overnight, there was indeed a fire accident. The guests escaped and they were so thankful. Not long after, the President’s physician living two compounds away had a fire accident in his home. He and his children could have died. He escaped with bruises. Around the Villa while I was there, someone always died or their relations died. I can confirm that every principal officer suffered one tragedy or the other; it was as if you needed to sacrifice something to remain on duty inside that environment. Even some of the women became merchants of dildo because they had suffered a special kind of death in their homes (I am sorry to reveal this) and many of the men complained about something that had died below their waists too. The ones who did not have such misfortune had one ailment or the other that they had to nurse. From cancer to brain and prostate surgery and whatever, the Villa was a hospital full of agonizing patients.
I recall the example of one particular man, an asset to the Jonathan Presidency who practically ran away from the Villa. He said he needed to save his life. He was quite certain that if he continued to hang around, he would die. I can’t talk about colleagues who lost daughters and sons, brothers and uncles, mothers and fathers, and the many obituaries that we issued. Even the President was multiply bereaved. His wife, Mama Peace was in and out of hospital at a point, undergoing many surgeries. You may have forgotten but after her husband lost the election and he conceded victory, all her ailments vanished, all scheduled surgeries were found to be no longer necessary and since then she has been hale and hearty. By the same token, all those our colleagues who used to come to work to complain about a certain death beneath their waists and who relied on videos and other instruments to entertain wives (take it easy boys, I don’t mean nay harm, I am writing!), have all experienced a re-awakening.
Every one who went under the blade has received miraculous healing, and we are happy to be out of that place. But others were not so lucky. They died. There were days when convoys ran into ditches and lives were lost. In Norway, our helicopter almost crashed into a mountain. That was the first time I saw the President panicking. The weather was all so hazy and he just kept saying it would not be nice for the President of a country to die in a helicopter crash due to pilot miscalculations. The President went into a prayer mode. We survived. In Kenya once, we had a bird strike. The plane had to be recalled and we were already airborne with the plane acting like it would crash. During the 2015 election campaigns, our aircraft refused to start on more than one occasion. The aircraft just went dead. On some other occasions, we were stoned and directly targeted for evil. I really don’t envy the people who work in Aso Villa, the seat of Nigeria’s Presidency. For about six months, I couldn’t even breathe properly. For another two months, I was on crutches. But I considered myself far luckier than the others who were either nursing a terminal disease or who could not get it up.
When Presidents make mistakes, they are probably victims of a force higher than what we can imagine. Every student of Aso Villa politics would readily admit that when people get in there, they actually become something else. They act like they are under a spell. When you issue a well-crafted statement, the public accepts it wrongly. When the President makes a speech and he truly means well, the speech is interpreted wrongly by the public. When a policy is introduced, somehow, something just goes wrong. In our days, a lot of people used to complain that the APC people were fighting us spiritually and that there was a witchcraft dimension to the governance process in Nigeria. But the APC folks now in power are dealing with the same demons. Since Buhari government assumed office, it has been one mistake after another. Those mistakes don’t look normal, the same way they didn’t look normal under President Jonathan. I am therefore convinced that there is an evil spell enveloping this country. We need to rescue Nigeria from the forces of darkness. Aso Villa should be converted into a spiritual museum, and abandoned.
Should I become President of Nigeria tomorrow, I will build a new Presidential Villa: a Villa that will be dedicated to the all-conquering Almighty, and where powers and principalities cannot hold sway. But it is not about buildings and space, not so?. It is about the people who go to the highest levels in Nigeria. I really don’t quite believe in superstitions, but I am tempted to suggest that this is indeed a country in need of prayers, We should pray before people pack their things into Aso Villa. We should ask God to guide us before we appoint Ministers. We should, to put it in technocratic language, advise that the people should be very vigilant. We have all failed so far, that crucial test of vigilance. We should have a Presidential Villa where a President can afford to be human and free. In the White House, in the United States, Presidents live like normal human beings. In Aso Villa, that is impossible. They’d have to surround themselves with cooks from their villages, bodyguards from their mother’s clans and friends they can trust. It should be possible to be President of Nigeria without having to look behind one’s shoulders. But we are not yet there. So, how do we run a Presidency where the man in the saddle can only drink water served by his kinsman? No. How can we possibly run a Presidency where every President proclaims faith in Nigeria but they are better off in the company of relatives and kinsmen. No. We need as Presidents men and women who are wiling to be Nigerians. No Nigerian President should be in spiritual bondage because he belongs to all of us and to nobody.
Now let me go back to the spiritual dimension. A colleague once told me that I was the most naïve person around the place. I thought I was a bright, smart, professional doing my bit and enjoying the President’s confidence. I spelled it out. But what I got in response was that I was coming to the villa using Lux soap, but that most people around the place always bathed in the morning with blood. Goat blood. Ram blood. Whatever animal blood. I argued. He said there were persons in the Villa walking upside down, head to the ground. I screamed. Everybody looked normal to me. But I soon began to suspect that I was in a strange environment indeed. Every position change was an opportunity for warfare. Civil servants are very nice people; they obey orders, but they are not very nice when they fight over personal interests.
The President is most affected by the atmosphere around him. He can make wrong decisions based on the cloud of evil around him. Even when he means well and he has taken time to address all possible outcomes, he could get on the wrong side of the public. A colleague called me one day and told me a story about how a decision had been taken in the spiritual realm about the Nigerian government. He talked about the spirit of error, and how every step taken by the administration would appear to the public like an error. He didn’t resign on that basis but his words proved prophetic. I see the same story being re-enacted. Aso Villa is in urgent need of redemption. I never slept in the apartment they gave me in that Villa for an hour.
Reuben Abati

The Vestiges Of Kaduna Mafia Must Not Kill Aisha Buhari, By Bamidele Ademola-Olateju

Posted on by The Elites

Yesterday, Hajo Sani made preparations to leave Nigeria by British Airways to underscore her undue supervisory role over Aisha and be the chaperon again! She wasn’t with Aisha when she gave the BBC interview, she’s scrambling to go to London before Aisha proceeds to Brussels and say more stuff. They are angry as hell and are smarting from the exposé. Unfortunately for them, they cannot prevent BBC from airing the remaining part of the interview tomorrow and we are waiting with bated breath to hear it and to read it.
Buhari is a thorough Northern conservative who loves his wife. His winning the election changed all that as power mongers encircled him and stifled his wife. Aisha must have had it up to her neck and totally exasperated before she spilled it all out in London. My sources told me the influence of Hajo dates back to when Buhari married Aisha. Hajo was like the supervisory guide her. After she grew and carved her own niche and the husband won the presidency, the cabal engineered Hajo as her SA to cage her. There is no love lost between them. Hajo at about 10 years older is very overbearing. They hate each other like satan and Angel Michael – bare knuckle hatred. Hajo was a minister under Abacha. Like people with her kind of mold, she hugs power like bodysuit. The BBC interview was not a mistake. She has been totally encircled an alienated from her husband with Hajo usurping her role. She had to spill her frustrations and prod her husband to leave a legacy.
How does this concern you and I? The same poweful forces who emasculated Yar’Ardua are back in business. Kingibe is back! Imagine! Hajo sanni, Gen monguno NSA, Abba kyari and the big Cahuna – Mamman Daura. One of my sources this morning told me; “there is nothing human about Mamman Daura. He is evil. He does not talk. Nigeria cannot progress if he is alive and near Buhari.” I was shaken!
Who is Mamman Daura? Why is he very powerful? Mamman Daura is one of the vestigial remains of the Kaduna Mafia. A dying breed whose grip on power receded after the death of Abacha. The origins of the Kaduna mafia revolves around the demise of the first republic. The loss of many Northern leaders in the 1966 coup prodded a group of Northern civil servants to rally around and oppose the new government of General Aguiyi Ironsi. The group, a diverse mixture of aristocrats and civil servants were predominantly Muslim and based in Kaduna. Many of its members were educated at the famous Barewa College in Zaria, and had demonstrated a certain level of managerial competence in comparison to some of their older contemporaries. They were known for their intelligence, commitment to the traditional values and socio-political interests of Northern Nigeria. Members were involved in varied aspects of the Nigerian nation, they were bank directors, ministers, military colonels and owners of business; their main differentiating symbol was the prominence of economic interest as a driving factor in their activities. The group thrived on an elaborate network of power alliances among northern aristocrats and government sympathizers who favored the groups pro-northern and Islamic bent. Famous members and allies includes Adamu Ciroma, Mamman Daura, Ibrahim Tahir, Mahmud Tukur, Gen.Shehu Musa Yar’Adua and Muhammadu Buhari. Unfortunately, as time revealed, they all departed from the ideals championed by Sir Ahmadu Bello. They looked after themselves and cared less about the people they had planned to protect. It was all about power. By the 1980’s Buhari took a nationalistic view with a mission to restore values and put Nigeria straight. He did not hesitate to jail anyone from anywhere. His reputation as a patriot and lover of Nigeria as an indivisible entity emanated from there. He burnished his credentials by decisively destroying the Maitatsine sect and putting Islamic extremism out of the North until Babagida happened to us.
Can Buhari be trusted to take the necessary step to retrieve Nigeria from the grip of his uncle – Mamman Daura? I am not sure. He once withdrew Mamman Daura’s aides, revoked his security and instructed them not to allow him into Aso Rock. Somehow, Mamman Daura found his way back and became more virulent. A grip on Buhari by Daura is a grip on Nigeria. Can Buhari be trusted to do the needful? I don’t think so.
We must help him. He is helpless and totally caged! He cannot transcend the old order. His wife is way ahead of him on this and she wants her husband’s name in gold. The BBC interview is a cry for help. For Aisha to take that step in a conservative Islamic family is an unusual step. To do it in London is very telling. It is a very bold, courageous and calculated step. I respect her courage. This morning, my sources fear for her life in the hands of this cabal. We must let them know that Aisha must not be silenced. She must not be killed. Those around Buhari are great power mongers with careless disregard for Nigeria. Just power for its own sake. Power that has not translated into anything for the teeming Northern youths and Nigerians in general.
My friends, let us galvanise the social media against Mamman Daura and his thieving factotum – Abba Kyari. Let us draw international attention to them and pressure them out of Aso Rock. We did it with “We Are Ready” campaign for the 2015 elections. We must do it again. Please share this update. #AishaBuhariMustNotBeSilenced

Peter Obi Exports His Brand, By Tatalo Alamu

Posted on by The Elites

It is good to have a good brand. It has been famously noted that while Nigeria imports what it has in abundance, it exports what it doesn’t have. Ever heard of Peter obi’s paradigm of state parsimony or the notorious fiscal frugality of the former governor of Anambra state?  Ever since Obi’s testimony about his niggardly disposition and exemplary financial prudence went viral, snooper has been quietly and furtively on duty.

Listening in to the debate among cyber rodents, one can say that the reaction has been mixed. While many applauded Obi’s stellar probity, others denounced him for pandering and for opportunism.  A few are unwilling to forgive him for the rank perfidy of abandoning the APGA submarine for a helping of pottage that never quite materialized under Jonathan.

Snooper must now weigh in on the debate without any further ado. Snooper snoops everywhere and at any time. As an international vagrant afflicted by the wandering disease of Sokugo, snooper often sleeps in Lagos only to wake up in far flung outreaches of the globe. Often this wanderlust yields encounters that are as surreal as they are outlandish.

Towards the very tail end of the month of August, snooper was prowling around the plush ambience of the Hilton Hotel at JFK Airport in New York, ogling at the bevy of oriental airline hostesses when a quiet altercation at the reception attracted his attention. Lo, it was the inevitable Peter Obi himself coolly and courteously arguing his way out of a tricky situation. Calling him governor did not deter the impertinent American girls who probably thought it was a nickname any way.

Apparently, Peter’s earlier booking had gone missing in the system and the girls were bent on slamming him with on the spot booking tariff. But the former governor was having none of this, insisting that they must look for the old booking. For a man of Peter’s famous fiscal discipline, the difference made a lot.

As the argument went back and forth, Snooper quietly excused himself to continue his vigil. When yours sincerely met up with the former governor at breakfast the next morning and asked how it went, Peter, dressed in a tracksuit, replied with a miserly grin that the girls eventually came to their senses.Needless to add that the breakfast was complimentary.Anyone for Peter?

Thank God, Buhari Is Listening, By Dele Momodu

Posted on by The Elites

Fellow Nigerians, let me openly express my secret fears all this while about this our beloved Change Government which so many people supported and used all their might to midwife. Most of them did not belong to the All Peoples Congress (APC) but they were armed with a common faith in the incorruptibility of one man, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), and his ability to arrest Nigeria’s supersonic slide into eternal perdition. The election was thus fiercely contested and keenly monitored. After 16 incredible years in power, with little to show for it, most Nigerians were palpably bored with the petulant, profligate and pernicious rulers in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and badly wanted a change.

But this change was not going to come on a platter of gold. Nigerians, and indeed the world, were scared stiff of the dangerous possibility of the ruling government refusing to hand over power even in the face of glaring defeat. We must salute the intervention of a few people and their various peace initiatives. Many probably forgot that two of Africa’s all-time greatest diplomats, Dr Kofi Annan (former Secretary-General of the United Nations) and Chief Emeka Anyaoku (former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth) with Senator Ben Obi (former Vice Presidential Candidate to former Vice President of Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar) joined forces to activate the original peace initiative that gave birth to the Abuja Accord signed by both President Goodluck Jonathan and President Muhammadu Buhari.

We must never forget the influential roles played by foreign powers led by the Americans, the British and others. President Barack Obama took more than cursory interest. He dispatched the Secretary of State, John Kerry, to Nigeria to meet and plead with the highly volatile dramatis personae to embrace peace. The peace accord designed and brokered by the troika of Kofi Annan, Emeka Anyaoku and Ben Obi and signed by Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari helped in no small measure to ensure that an incumbent African President voluntarily accepted defeat and after having conceded and called the winner, Western-style!

I have gone through this preamble to remind us of our contemporary history which some people apparently forgot as soon as power changed hands. A country that sat precariously on tenterhooks needed to be careful and magnanimous in victory. Even if there were terrible elements to be tackled, corrected and punished, the new government should have taken its time to study, plan and ultimately launch its offensive. Nigerians should have been allowed to enjoy their rare moment of giddy adulation. The last time we experienced such was after the Presidential election of June 12, 1993, won by the generalissimo, Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, but was recklessly annulled by the military government for reasons never disclosed and for which full apologies are yet to be offered.

Unfortunately, the new ruling party mismanaged its hour of glory. The APC came to power seemingly only prepared for war against everyone including itself. They forgot to learn useful lessons from the uncommon example of the Madiba, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, who immediately embraced his enemies after spending 27 years mostly in solitary confinement. Mandela must have discovered the wisdom that no nation can ever thrive in a perpetual state of chaos and mayhem. The hawks of Nigeria are used to feeding on corpses and would never forgive any sin of commission or omission.

The hawks were more interested in resurrecting and sustaining Brand Buhari of old – a military dictator and not that of the born-again Democrat we sold to the people during the political campaigns. They studiously ignored the fact that Buhari no longer had dictatorial powers of life and death and would now have to bow to Constitutional authorities in the National Assembly and the Judiciary. The acolytes gave him no time to even think of how to make the economy a priority or upgrade the Obasanjo methodology of fighting corruption. They were convinced all the masses wanted to hear was the sing-song of CRUCIFY HIM. They were definitely averse to the traditional Yoruba philosophy that explained the fickleness of the human thought process: Enu ti won fi pe Adegun naa ni won a fi pe Adeogun (the same mouth that hailed the crown would later abuse the crown).

Those who suggested caution were labelled as supporting corruption or worse still as corrupt elements fighting back! They were called wailing wailers and such nonsense. But we knew from the knowledge of Nigerian history that whatever war would be fought must be carefully considered, orchestrated and balanced with stabilising the country financially and economically. Starting the war precipitately was bound to destabilise our financial equilibrium. “Before you promise to donate dresses to someone else won’t it be nice to see what you’re adorning yourself”, according to a Yoruba adage. We sought to kill corruption and told the citizens to endure while the politicians continued to swim in opulence.

In the midst of all the confusion, somewhere in the country’s South-South region, the Niger-Delta Avengers began an unprecedented assault on Nigeria’s oil installations, decimating whatever was left of Nigeria’s oil wealth in the wake of a global oil crisis. An already ailing economy came crashing down to its knees. Observers of the scenario have described the fresh crisis in the Niger Delta region as a revenge mission targeted at what was largely perceived as a ruthless offensive by the Buhari administration against the PDP and key figures who served under the Jonathan administration which largely benefitted Niger-Delta politicians. I had warned nothing should be done to humiliate Jonathan who spent five out of the 16 years of PDP in power. The surrounding circumstances remain unclear, but one thing is clear; the cookies have finally crumbled.

The leader who listens to genuine advice will certainly succeed. It was obvious that the initial Buhari approach would not fly. We must retrace our steps and it is not too late to check how and where we got lost in the wilderness. I will summarise my previous suggestions.

Let us reconcile with every Nigerian regardless of ethnic, political and religious backgrounds. Let us do a comprehensive audit of what has been stolen from Nigeria and do a forensic search of the loot. The exercise should not be discriminatory or excessively punitive since it is retroactive. Those who have engaged in primitive accumulation of wealth without explanation or substantiation of sources should be asked for heavy returns, compensation and contributions to the State coffers. Those who are recalcitrant or unapologetic should be jailed!

A meeting of senior politicians should be arranged speedily. The agenda should be to get every public office holder to agree to a budget reduction of at least 50 percent on cost of governance. Those who want more can return to whatever business they were doing before offering to serve Nigeria. The Presidency is still outlandishly ostentatious. Same with the National Assembly and State Governments. Nigeria will never prosper under the current arrangement. If we do not commit to a major surgical obliteration of unnecessary government expenses, Nigeria will suffocate and collapse under the weight of greedy profligacy and probably bleed to death.

I’m happy to note there are signs that President Buhari is listening and responding to our humble admonitions. He should please continue. The token gesture of selling a few aircrafts pencilled down for sale by the previous administration is a good beginning. More should go very soon. There is no reason why we cannot charter Arik for long haul flights and keep the airline growing. It is never a sign of weakness to change bad decisions and wasteful flamboyance. Buhari’s greatest qualification for this job was his frugality and simplicity. Those dressing him up in borrowed robes are setting him up for monumental failure. Most of them and their associates did the same jobs for those who failed in the past. We lack the resources and the infrastructure of Great Britain yet we are more ceremonial than Her Majesty and Her Government. It is time to let the world see that we are serious for once by stopping our practice of capitalism without capital. If we are broke we should not be ashamed to admit it and adjust accordingly.

President Buhari should discard the toga of nepotism and chauvinism by reflecting Federal Character in all appointments. Nigeria has suffered too much under the yoke of ethnic cleansing. No leader can be in power forever. It is always more rewarding to do what is right and just knowing God will protect the leader. Promoting mediocrity in the name of tribal and parochial preference is already outdated. There is so much to achieve in an atmosphere of peace and cooperation and there is no better time than now when we are all groaning under the weight of recession. Our President has been awarded the greatest privilege of leading Nigeria again after being forced out of power over 30 years. He cannot afford to fail.

May God bless Nigeria through him.

Broda, Me Joo Yi; Sunny Mo Fe Joi…Tribute To King Sunny Ade At 70, By Tunji Adegboyega

Posted on by The Elites

imageIn our kind of country where only bad news hit the headlines, it is sometimes difficult for columnists, particularly those who maintain weekly columns, to find something to write on because you would just seem to be repeating yourself. Ordinarily, one would have been forced to write on the allegation of the stunning foreign currency that Patience Jonathan, wife of the immediate past President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, PhD! claimed is hers. And, pronto, her husband’s Ijaw youths have come to her defence, saying the money represented gifts to the former first lady.

If I did not find this interesting enough, the other option is to say something on the proposed sale of some national assets by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration. As a Yoruba man, I find this difficult to comment on, even if it is the government’s last resort, given the dire economic situation the country is in, no thanks to corruption, particularly in the Jonathan years. We have a name for such a thing in the south western part of the country which I would not want to mention so that people would not say it is the government I am referring to. Those who know me well know that if I wanted to call the present government that name, I would have said so without fear or favour. But I can understand its predicament.

I was just flipping through this paper on Friday in search of what to write on that would be somewhat different from what I have been writing in the last few months when I saw the advert by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his wife, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, congratulating King Sunny Ade on the occasion of his 70th birthday. There are musicians and there are musicians: Sunny Ade is unarguably one of the greatest music legends of our time.

Sunny Adé was born Sunday Adeniyi to a Nigerian royal family in Ondo, Ondo State, on September 22, 1946, to a father who was a church organist; his mother was a trader. He left grammar school in Ondo under the pretext of going to the University of Lagos but instead began a musical career with Moses Olaiya’s Federal Rhythm Dandies, a highlife band. He formed The Green Spots in 1967; changed its name several times, first to African Beats and then to Golden Mercury.

When the matter was music, particularly the Juju genre in the 1970s and 1980s and even the 1990s in Nigeria, you either mentioned Sunny Ade or Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey. There were a few fringe Juju musicians then, no doubt; but none of them was able to maintain the long grip that the duo had on Juju music fans at home and beyond. Obey had albums like Ketekete, Ki iseru akata, ‘Operation feed the nation’; to name a few to his credit. Then Sunny Ade: Oro to nlo; Sunny ti de; Synchro System; Ja fun mi; Nibi Lekeleke Gbe Nfosho; Mo beru agba; Ma jaiye oni; 365 is my number; Kira kita kira kita; Mo ti mo; Sunny lo ni ariya; Ma a jo; Won lomode o mela; Orisun Iye, Merciful God; Eri Okan. Others are ‘My Mother’; Alase la’iye; Suku Suku Bam Bam; ‘Appreciation’, among Sunny Ade’s numerous albums.

Even Sunny Ade’s rivals would readily agree that these were albums to reckon with. They could not have been nothing but the product of hard work. It was this hard work and the innovations that he brought into Juju music that extended his fame beyond our shores, to America and Europe, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s. His Synchro System was so fascinating and irresistible that it earned him his first Grammy Award nomination in the folk/ethnic music category. Sunny Ade is the first African to be nominated twice for the prestigious Grammy Award, the second in 1988, when he released Odu, a collection of traditional Yoruba songs.

It is not for nothing that Wikipedia describes the Juju maestro as “…a pioneer of modern world music adding that “he has been classed as one of the most influential musicians of all time” The New York Times describes him as “one of the world’s great band leaders”. To Record, Sunny Ade is “a breath of fresh air, a positive vibration we will feel for some time to come” while Trouser Press sees him as “one of the most captivating and important musical artists anywhere in the world”.

Sunny Ade is all these and more.

I was at the Federal School of Arts and Science, Ondo, for my Higher School Certificate programme for two years, and that afforded me the opportunity of interacting at close range with Ondo people, Sunny Ade’s kith and kin. There is no doubt that he is well loved by his people. To him therefore, Jesus Christ’ allusion of “a prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home,” does not apply. During my two-year stay in the town, I had cause to attend a few social parties. The youths, particularly the ladies then could not hide their admiration for their own as they politely told you at the parties when you asked them to dance with you: “broda, me joo yi, Sunny mo fe joi” (brother, I am not interested in this music; I prefer Sunny Ade). I am sorry if I adulterated the Ondo dialect; it’s been quite some time, but I guess the message is clear, which is the most important thing.

The dance floor would be half empty when people were dancing to the ‘gbam-gbam dim-dim’ (disco) music. But the wise disc jockeys (DJ) knew what the problem was and immediately they switched over to King Sunny Ade’s music, the dance floor would be full again, with the ladies this time being the ones to tell you: ‘Excuse me dance’. And they could be on the dance floor for hours, retiring to their seats only when Sunny Ade’s music was replaced with something else that they could not comprehend. But, as I said earlier, even the uninitiated DJ knew that should only be an interlude; it should not last long if he wanted the party to be the talk of the town for some time.

You cannot blame them. The man, Sunny Ade, is simply great; fantastic. I have been following him since the mid-seventies and he remains my best musician of all times. As a matter of fact, for me, Sunny Ade and Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey remain the Juju musicians to beat. While Sunny Ade was noted more for his mastery of the guitar (little wonder some call him the master guitarist; he calls himself anjonu oni jita (the guitar wizard) and rightly so. Sunny Ade’s dexterity on the guitar is unmatchable. The white man may have invented the guitar; it was as if he invented it for Sunny Ade who did and is still doing wonders that even the white man cannot do with it. Obey’s strength is more in the philosophical message of his music. My friends, John Adeolu Akanbi and Gabriel Dare Ekundina and I were so fanatical about these great men of all times back then that we followed their albums as they were released. We did not joke with them as we bought their collections and could tell you serially which album followed which.

But life was fun then. Even as secondary school students, I know the pleasant moments we had. As a matter of fact, when I see the kind of hardship many students, including those in the universities and other higher institutions are going through today, I feel sorry for them. Yes, things were hard then; but compared with what today’s youths are going through, we were in paradise. That paradise is now lost, apologies to John Milton, and no thanks to purposeless rulers who have continually pauperised Nigerians that God has blessed with a country flowing with milk and honey.

But it is important to stress that whatever pleasure we had then did not distract us from our studies. We were guided by the maxim that ‘all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’. I mean as hardworking students, we were also entitled to a little social life, a guided one that is. Perhaps that was also a function of some of the messages we picked from the reigning Juju musicians then, I mean Sunny Ade and Obey. You can’t compare these with the ‘junk’ that many of today’s youths gobble as music. Apart from the fact that most of today’s musicians carry no discernible message; whenever they attempt to, they pollute the air That is why they come and disappear like some passing dreams.

Sunny had collaborated with major artistes such as Manu Dibango (Wakafrika), Stevie Wonder (played harmonica in Aura), as well as younger Nigerian artists like Wasiu Alabi Pasuma and Bola Abimbola and even the songstress, Onyeka Onwenu. Needless to say that Sunny Adé is also a household name in the country, running multiple companies in several industries. He established a non-profit organisation called the King Sunny Adé Foundation, and is also working with the Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria.

Sunny Adé, now known as ‘The Chairman’ in his home country, was appointed a visiting professor of music at Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife ; he was also inducted into the Afropop Hall of Fame, at the Brooklyn African Festival in the United States. He dedicated the award to the late Michael Jackson.

Please join me in wishing this great man who has been an inspiration to many other upcoming musicians in the country a happy birthday on behalf of millions of his other fans. His coming to the world on September 22, 1946 was not a mistake.

Egin, igba odun kan, odun kan i.

Falling Behind and Stumbling Forward, By Tatalo Alamu

Posted on by The Elites

The summit of human knowledge is self-discovery through constant self-examination. While some societies are quite adept at meeting the great expectations of their people, others are notorious for breaking the heart of their citizens. Dear readers, what you are about to read was written in 2004. It was in response to the promise by the Americans at the beginning of the century to put human beings on Mars by the year 2030.

Sixteen years later, there is nothing to suggest that the Americans are daunted or fazed by their single-minded scientific resolve to perform the greatest human miracle of all time. Having conquered the world as we know it, there is nothing left for the Americans to prove, except the possibility of humanity conquering extraterrestrial space. Very soon some Americans will land on Mars. Please permit me to quote from the earlier script.

“In some strange ways, we have come to the end of history, and the nation-state paradigm is about to exhaust its possibilities. America has become the ultimate nation. Nothing underscores the nature of America’s total dominance and the reality of its mega-powerdom than the fact that at the last count two former rulers of sovereign nations are its unwilling guests, making nonsense of the very notion of the nation-state and its hallowed apparatuses.

There may be more in the kitty before the end of the decade. Noriega and Saddam Hussein may be former American thugs but they would have learnt to rue the day they cocked a snook at their former masters. The Americans are bored, having dealt with all the challenges to their authority and global supremacy. Like a monstrous super heavy weight boxer who has beaten all challengers black and blue, Uncle Sam now relishes a fight with outer nature itself and its robotized machines.

It is a moot point to argue that the money to be spent on this venture could have lifted all human societies from the abyss of poverty and deepening immiseration. But that is against the logic of history and human nature. Let the dead bury the dead. It is better to stumble forward than to wobble backward. If America courts disaster, it does so on behalf of all humanity, whether as involuntary spectators or as active participants”.

When this was written in 2004, there was no Barack Obama as a presidential candidate of the Democratic Party, not to talk of President Barack Obama. Obama was a junior senator learning the rope with hope and audacity. But since then America has broken a centuries old taboo by electing twice its first president of African American extraction. If the Americans were to elect Hilary Clinton as their first female president in the November election, they would have broken another centuries old taboo.

Why then would the Americans not be in Mars? In one concentrated burst of history, America has broken through seemingly impregnable fortresses of racial prejudice and gender bias, even if at the merely symbolic level. As this column loves to quote, there are decades when nothing happens and there are periods when decades happen. No country can survive without constant self-rejuvenation and ceaseless self-invention. America, for all its manifest faults, its crass materialism and the constant possibility of backsliding, is a classic example of relentless striving towards a more perfect nation.

For those interested in a tale of two nations, the history of Nigeria during this period cannot be more startling in the intriguing paradoxes it throws up. Nigeria has been famously described as a country where the best never happens, but where the worst portents also never occur. Nigeria is a nation of legendary luck. Like a punch-drunk heavy weight boxer, Nigeria may wobble and stumble in the ring, but each time it hits the canvas, its power of recovery has been a tad short of the miraculous.

When what follows was being written in 2004, Nigeria had just managed to survive a badly rigged federal election which returned General Obasanjo to office. The loser was none other than the current President. So egregiously rigged was the election that the usually perceptive Chief Sunday Awoniyi observed with gnomic wisdom that the atmosphere had been so badly fouled, so comprehensively besmirched, that something good must come out of the pervasive electoral rot.

This was followed in 2007 by an even more sensationally rigged election in which the declared winner openly acknowledged his own suspect legitimacy by setting up an electoral reform panel. But what Chief Adeniran Ogunsanya famously described as the National Riggers’ Theatre was yet to act out its full script. The 2011 election was met with such savage reprisal and wanton destruction in the north that for a moment, the continued survival of the nation was called to question.

Yet in 2015, Nigeria managed to achieve a momentous regime change through the ballot box which has never happened in the history of the nation. In the interval, Nigeria has survived a full scale religious insurgency which has put the corporate existence and survival of the country to its stiffest test since the civil war. In fact large swathes of the north east of the country were overrun and occupied by the vicious sect.

But as we are discovering to our peril, elections, however historic, do not resolve some fundamental questioning of the nation. In fact they often exacerbate it. In the glorious aftermath of the 2015 elections, Nigeria has reverted to its default line of endemic crises and conflicts. With the two major parties fracturing before our very eyes in a cesspit of intrigues and treachery, with the judiciary under siege, with the legislature under the spell of delinquency, with the economy in critical straits and with ethnic and regional rancor embroiling the polity, Nigeria has never been more divided and polarized in its entire history.

The national demons are here with us once again. This is the most critical conjuncture in the history of the country. Suddenly, we seem to have arrived at the epoch of zero-party politics or no party formation. It is a sign of revolutionary anomie. Will our legendary luck hold once more?