Category: Opinion

By Peter Inaolaji

The Nigerian sovereign nation is in her 8th process as a federal republic with the present administration of President Mohammadu Buhari its incumbent head of State and Commander-In-Chief Of The Armed Forces. However, for the country to move forward in its economic evolution and nation building, some of its elder statesmen and respected political gladiators must stop fuelling embers of hate and jettison politics of acrimony at all cost, otherwise the country might be sitting on a time bomb waiting to explode any moment.

The need to issue this warning is precipitated on the appalling back lash that greeted the President’s Democracy Day broadcast no sooner the speech was delivered and this is what informed my curiosity to take my time to listen and look at the speech with a critical reasoning devoid of partisan politicking.

Without being immodest, I am not into partisan politics and I must say that, though, the administration of President Mohammadu Buhari is far from being the best or near perfection, it is still one of the best eras to happen to civil rule in this part of the divide, far more than his predecessors and I’ll support this with facts and figures as well as what I see as reasons behind the frantic efforts to Pull Him Down-PHD Syndrome, by any means necessary.

First and foremost, it is a known fact that CORRUPTION remains the biggest war to combat in the world as graft gangsters are wont to fight back on a large scale, it’s even more dangerous than the drug war, so it is not surprising that, those who’re supposed to support this administration in waging the war against the hydra headed plague are the ones intimidating the C-in-C.

I’ve read international newspapers and as a keen observer of world politics, I doubt if there’s anywhere where political godfathers, past leaders and respected elderstatesmen have been directly involved in heated altercation or any form of Pull Him Down campaign against same government they were once in charge, it is the highest form of mutiny against national productivity, no nation succeeds without the moral, spiritual and emotional supports of its founding fathers and old compatriots, the Nigerian nation is in a sorry state of affairs at the moment.

What this has shown in essence is that, there are no true elderstatesmen in this country, everyone lives by selfish desire to milk it dry, it is sure a dramatic presentation of one of Shakespeare’s quotes in one of his books, ”as flies to the wanton boys, so are we to the gods, they kill us for their sports”. All they’re after is their selfish desire obviously otherwise, there’s no reason for public outcry and challenge against the government in power and if there must be it shouldn’t be this embarrassing.

And as if the President knew what these fourth columnists are capable of doing, the man had, in one of his end paragraphs offered olive trees for perceived enemies when he said and I quote, ” My dear country men and women, as we all celebrate our democratic experience, let us resolve to avoid hatred and intolerance; we can only achieve our objectives in an atmosphere of harmony and peaceful co-existence”. What else can a passionate elderstatesman who’s burning with a desire to rid the nation of corrupt practices and good for nothing elements need to do to calm frayed nerves.

A lot of negativities have characterized his May 29th nationwide broadcast by bad losers, economy pilfers and detractors even though most of them are off-points and cheap assertions aimed at playing dirty politics in their desperate attempts to curry favour and seeking political relevance for the forthcoming 2019 elections.

As a public analyst of note, I have taken time to peruse the democracy speech and had found nothing to fault but a message of genuine love and passion to serve from a passionate compatriot.

By and large, the body of the speech is laden with truths and spirit of continuity, for instance, the President, in one of his paragraphs never claimed the glory of FAA Cat 1 status as asserted by detractors, the man gave credence to his predecessor when he said, ”As a result of strict regulatory and compliance policies, Nigeria retained her Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Category 1 status, after a routine international audit. Recently, a new Maintenance Repair and Overhaul facility with capacity for aircraft C-checks and other comprehensive levels of maintenance was established in Lagos. This would save the country an estimated $90m annually”. In this particular instance, the word, ‘retained’ is nothing but giving credence to status quo as regards the past government.

In another of their miscalculated attempts to discredit the President and score cheap political point, these good for nothing political desperadoes missed it again when they try to politicise the construction of the second Niger Bridge which is strictly a continuity of what a reasonably conservative government should embark on for the sake of the masses.

We don’t need a soothsayer to  know that, the level of decay left behind by the past governments of 16 years cannot be overcome in a hurry, slow and steady, like they say win the race, Nigerians, most especially the youths will need to open their thinking faculty to be able to differentiate political jobbers from objective political fathers.

In my submission, there’s no way a wounded lion won’t fight back at all cost because these economic looters can’t still overcome the reality that befell them from the creation of the Treasury Single Account-TSA, a unique monetary policy that has denied most of them access to some of the looted funds stashed away in various banks and as if that’s not enough, the Whistle-Blowing Policy which has also helped the country to recover over N500 Billion remains a nightmare to beat.

Need we say more, the Niger Delta Region has enjoyed relative peace through social inclusiveness and cooperation of the Elders and the good people of the region. This Government has been committed to implementing the comprehensive peace, security and development plan for the region and the whole nation. The environmental clean-up of the region which commenced with the launch in Bodo, Ogoni in June 2016 is progressing satisfactorily. Furthermore, farming assets are being revived and investors in cocoa and palm oil plantations are showing serious interest.

And in what seems like the last straw that broke the camel’s back, ” Our foreign reserve has improved significantly to 47.5 billion USD as of May, 2018 as against 29.6 billion USD in 2015. The inflationary rate has consistently declined every month since January, 2017.

Recently, Government conducted Focus Labs in three key sectors of the Economy namely, Agriculture & Transport, Manufacturing and Processing as well as Power and Gas. These have yielded significant prospects for investments and Job creation to the tune of US$ 22.5 billion with a potential for creating more than 500,000 jobs by 2020. These investment generation initiatives are expected to increase capital inflows in the form of foreign direct investment. There is a high prospect that the cumulative investments from this first phase of the Labs will hit US$39.2 billion by 2025.

Under agriculture, Nigeria continues to pursue a strategic food security programme built around self-sufficiency and minimization of import dependency. As a result, rice importation from other countries has been cut down by 90% which has a direct impact on foreign reserves.

The Social Investment Programmes (SIP) has been created as a means to graduating our citizens from poverty through capacity building, investment and direct support. The major strategic objective is to restore livelihood, economic opportunities and sustenance for the poor across the country. The SIP programmes and projects include:

Home Grown School Feeding Programme – About 8.2 million pupils are currently being fed from 24 States of the Federation with over 75,000 Catering Staff engaged under the programme.

The Conditional Cash Transfer has so far recorded over 297,000 caregivers and being trained by 2,495 Community Facilitators in 21 states. Less privileged Nigerians are now being paid N5,000 monthly stipend in 9 pilot States of Bauchi, Borno, Cross River, Ekiti, Kwara, Kogi, Niger, Osun and Oyo. Eventually the scheme will cover all the 36 states of the federation including the FCT.

These are what might have form a yardstick of hatred for this administration of Mohammadu Buhari and instead of joining hands to run a government of unity, and transparency, they all seat in the four walls of their cozy living rooms to throw stones, an abomination for those who live in glass houses.

Peter Inaolaji, a political analysis, observer and social commentator writes from Jos

Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Festus Keyamo would be opening another chapter both in his life and in the history of Nigerian politics going by his recent adventure.

The brilliant legal luminary who was recently enlisted amongst Nigeria’s privileged senior advocates SANs is the newest political strategist in town with his radical approach to political campaigning already sending jitters down the spines of opinion moulders, experienced big weights and political juggernauts alike.

The budding politician known for his daring attitude has begun to shake the political terrain, once again, just as he shook the legal topography with his revolutionary style during his hey days as a rank and file lawyer.

The gangling social media crusader of note has no doubt changed the seemingly declining image perceptions of President Mohammodu Buhari, in just weeks of his being appointed Director, Strategic Communications for the 2019 re-election bid.

Like a gallant soldier that he is, Keyamo who is always passionate about everything he does has applied his mojo and no sooner he took center stage than his goodwill and reputation begin to yield positive results for the President’s reelection project.

Though, the crusade is obviously far from being a child’s play, the firebrand legal practitioner who has been described as a round peg in a round hole has vowed to give it all it takes to make sure the President’s reelection project is a success, “everything is at stake here, I’ve never failed and that’s why we must give it our all, me and my dedicated team of thoroughbred professionals drawn from relevant fields of human endeavours are up and equal to the task, the President must come back in 2019”, he declares.

Soundly equipped with an overwhelming oratory prowess, legal backings and loads of goodwill garnered from years of legal practice, it is therefore needless saying that, his formal declaration to go full blast on image laundering and unique approach for the 2019 political strategy for the President Buhari’s reelection has started giving oppositions sleepless nights even though there are no clear contenders in-view at the moment.

The man is leaving no stone unturned in making sure his principal, President Buhari’s image is protected and cleaned up in readiness for his second time bid by all means as he’s prepared to respond to even the perceived darkest areas his enemies think they can wield any stick.

In one of his monitored interviews where he was asked about the health, fitness and age of the President, Keyamo have this to say, “what are you talking about, the man has just been declared fit by his team of doctors recently, can’t you see how he’s looking of late, looking younger and fresh, at how old was the almighty Americans voted Donald Trump as president, tell me is he the oldest President, age is just a number and as for health and life, all belongs to God, haven’t we seen a younger President who died early before, was Abacha sick before he died”, he challenged his host.

Stating further, this is a man who Committee of African Presidents have been dimmed fit to lead them as the anti corruption Chairman based on his impressive track records in the anti corruption crusade and as if that’s not enough, the US President has also endorsed him as one of the greatest African Presidents, is this by mouth or by performance, please tell me, what else do one need to support his ambition in order to complete his good plans of ridding Nigeria of bad eggs.

The vocal lawyer stated further that, the spreading and drumming of hatred messages in town are just Babbel of voices of looters, bad losers and those the man have prevented from drawing freely and recklessly from the nation’s purse, he nailed it finally.

It was around mid-day on June 29, 2012. I was neck-deep in work when the call I dreaded most came through. The pleasantry was unusual, very curt. The voice at the other end advised me to be strong and take it like a man. Even without saying it, I knew instantly I had lost my dad who had been on admission at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ill-Ife. When I visited him one week before his demise, I had a morbid fear he might not make it but I shrugged the thought off and cast my burden on God, hoping that by some strokes of luck, he could pull through.

He never did. I was completely rattled. The macho man in me melted like a bowl of ice cream under a scorching sun. I wept uncontrollably in the private rest room in my office. Our office assistant, Tosin (who later acquired a university degree and became our receptionist), coincidentally came to my office while I was sobbing. Alarmed, having never seen me in that condition, she asked, “Oga, ki lo se yin” (Boss, what’s the matter?).  The seemingly harmless question triggered even a bigger meltdown. As I attempted to answer her, I burst into a ball of tears and sobbed like a baby. Scared, she dashed out and within what seemed like seconds, my office was bursting at the seams with my colleagues. I hated to be seen in that circumstance but I couldn’t help it. I was an emotional wreck. They consoled me and insisted I must leave the office immediately.

They arranged for a driver to take me home, insisting I could not drive in that situation. As the driver pulled up in my house about 30 minutes later, my phone rang and it was my Chairman, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jr on the line. I picked the call with a stoic resolve never to give any inclination of the tragedy that just befell me. “Ah. Bode, pele, pele (sorry, sorry, referrencing my loss). What happened? Was he sick? How old was he?, he asked several questions in quick succession. As I answered him, what was racing through my mind was how did he hear about it so swiftly? I remembered him saying sometime in the past that, “the walls have ears. You cannot be in my position and be oblivious of developments around you”. Quite instructive! He assured me he would stand by me all the way and asked me to let him know when the burial arrangement had been firmed up.

Until we did the burial a month later, Dr. Adenuga, who I fondly called Baba, kept a close tab on the arrangements we were making. He shocked me when he said repeatedly even at official meetings that he would attend the event. Though he eventually did not, he supported me morally and financially. After the event, he asked me to give him the list of all those who supported me financially so that he could say thank you to them. I did not bother him with that but his gesture spoke volume about the genuine heart of a man many had come to love, loathe or dread.

That was not the first time Dr. Adenuga would go beyond the call of duty to show unfeigned care for either my humble self or numerous other people working for him. In another personal instance, he had asked the trio of Yinka Akande, Celestine Amucha and my humble self to represent him at the commissioning of House of Ovation, Accra in October 2006 as a reciprocal and appreciative gesture to the Ovation Publisher, Bashorun Dele Momodu for his steadfast loyalty over the years.

Unfortunately, we could not get a flight to Accra as all the flights were fully booked. We decided to go by road. Somehow, Chairman, who Dele Momodu incidentally calls the Spirit of Africa, got wind of our plan. He could not believe that young executives in this era could voluntarily opt to go through such an arduous journey in order to fulfill their boss’ mandate. Right from when we got to Mile 2 to board a public transport till we got to Accra, Dr Adenuga was checking up on us at regular intervals. As if he had a crystal ball through which he was gazing at us (I knew it couldn’t have been any tracking device because back then, Mr. Chairman at best enjoyed using his legendary Nokia Communicator for only calls and text messages until in later years when he added internet browsing), he was calling either by the time we were just reaching or leaving a border point. “You should be at Seme now”, “How is the journey going, are you at Ilaconji now?”, “Are you in Aflao now?”, he kept checking up on us till we got to Accra safely when he finally heaved a sigh of relief and said, “Thank God”.

How many bosses would send their staff on assignments and keep checking up on them to find out about their safety and welfare? One of his closest aides then, Prince Tunde Akinyera said Chairman was not at ease until he knew we had reached Accra. He knew the route very well, having traversed it severally when he was building his business empire, crisscrossing from Nigeria to Cote d’Ivoire, the headquarters of African Development Bank. Corroborating that, Chairman would share stories of his experience in those days at each of the borders. The most poignant was when he missed the closing time at the Lome-Ghana border on his way back to Lagos by a few minutes. The gendarmes snubbed all his earnest entreaties  and he had to pass the night in his car right at the border crossing.

What made his gesture more significant was that Dr Adenuga himself was going through his personal travails about this time. He was on self exile after ceaseless harrassments by  Nuhu Ribadu’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission who we later heard, had the mandate to nail him at all cost.

Time after time, Chairman showed that he was not a General who would send his men to the war front and go to sleep. I ran several errands locally and internationally for him. More than fifty percent of the time, he would call to find out about one’s welfare and the trip. “Awe o”, he would utter in his rich baritone voice even at 5.30am. “Did you make it to the airport in good time? Safe flight and good luck”, he would say as his signature way of giving one moral support.

Dr. Adenuga treated me more like his son than an employee. When I wanted to leave Globacom last year to run a family business, Chairman was displeased. Somehow, he felt I would stay with the business longer. However, having spent 14 years supporting in my own little way our much appreciated Chairman’s vision, I pleaded to be excused. Chairman took it harder than I envisaged. Since I made my intention known in April last year until I left in July of the same year, all channels of communication came to a near screeching halt. Knowing that I was not doing anything deliberately to hurt Baba or his business, I stuck to my plan. A few days before my departure from the system, he gave a directive that I should lead a delegation on an international assignment. I carried out the assignment diligently but left as scheduled afterwards.

Almost one year later, Dr Adenuga reached out to me and said the unthinkable. One of Africa’s richest men apologized for the way the system took my decision to leave. He painted my modest contributions glowingly and asked me to return if I wished. I deeply expressed my gratitude to him for his support over the years.

He is the quintessential leader with an unimaginable capacity to ride above the storm of the past and reset his relationships with people when he felt the need to do so. Severally, he has recalled or reabsorbed former members of staff who left in the most dramatic circumstances. Some came back voluntarily while he himself reached out to others. For him, it is not about the sentiment but the value the individual has to offer. Yet, there were exceptional instances when he reabsorbed people mainly because he pitied their prevailing circumstances. He epitomizes the deep Yoruba axiom that, “ti a o ba gbagbe oro ana, a o ni ri eni ba sere”, meaning that one needs to banish past disputes into distant memories in order to continually have people to play (or work) with.

A couple of years back, Dr. Adenuga shared with me the rationale behind some of his actions. He said at the end of the day when everyone would have retired to their respective homes, he would play back the events of the day in his mind and ask himself hard questions, “Am I fair to him/her? Was he/she fair to me?” He said this was a routine he regularly observed in order to set matters right.

Whoever knows Dr. Adenuga would readily concur that he is a genius who has a memory as sharp as a tack. He only needs to meet you once and if he sees you years later, he would recall every detail about you. When he uploads you with various assignments, you would only have yourself to blame to think he has forgotten any of them. Don’t be shocked if you get a call from his office asking you for an update. That alone is triple-filtered trouble. Chairman wants you to be ahead of him. He will spare no rod if he is always the one “chasing after you” for results. In one of his informal mentoring classes, Dr. Adenuga told me that, “Never rely exclusively on human memory. No matter how sharp, it fails sometimes. As often as possible, once I’m giving someone an assignment, I’m writing it down and posting it somewhere as a stark reminder until the job is done”.

In his heart, Adenuga has selected some people as his circle of brothers, friends and family. He has taken it upon himself to sort such people out in life. At intervals, he reaches out and takes care of them in a “life-liberating manner” as a popular writer who later joined politics once described his unconventional generous disposition. In that circle are family members, friends, former Presidents within and outside Nigeria, celebrities, traditional rulers, some members of staff and a mixed grill of other people decided exclusively based on his own parametres. This often includes indigent people or people totally unknown to him but who are in dire straits. From the blues (as he did severally), Chairman once called me to find out how a media personality who had been supportive in the past was doing. When I enquired and reverted to him that the person was going through a rough patch, he got his office to send the person a ‘hefty’ cheque in the hope that it would help the person to “fill some holes”. He sets his  standards high and abides by the standards no matter whose ox is gored. He hardly attends functions. His priorities have always been his business and in later years, he has opted to strike more delicate balance between business and family.

You will never see Dr. Adenuga confronting government even when he has enough reasons to fight. His philosophy is that Nigerian governments are too powerful. As such, any businessman who has too much at stake can only fight a sitting government at his peril. Intrinsically, he has internalized that profound saying amplified by King Sunny Ade’s song, “Ojo ni wa a o b’enikan s’ota, eni eji ri leji n pa (we are raindrops, we bear no grudge against anyone, rain falls on everyone). He is friendly with any government of the day. Much more importantly, he minds his own business. He also has an almost unimpeachable understanding of the political and business terrains of Africa. He has friends in high places across the continent.

In business, Chairman adopted the famous Michelle Obama philosophy of when they go low, we go high to his investment in oil and gas. About three years ago, the price of oil headed for a free fall in the international market. Discouraged, many big players stopped investing. Several oil rigs which hitheto were hard to come by became readily available. He wasted no time to strike when the iron was red hot, pumping millions of dollars into the business to develop oil fields allotted his company. The gold digger made the right choice. From the $20s per barrel in 2016, the price of oil is now inching nearer the $80 mark in 2018. Talk about vision, wisdom and pressing the hot button at the right moment.

For over two and half decades, Dr. Adenuga has been digging gold in oil and gas, telecoms, banking, construction and in the process has become the real McCoy, the real deal. In numerous instances, he has made unimaginable successes while on few occasions, things didn’t go quite as well as planned. A man of immense resources and extensive knowledge, he is also ready to admit that he does not know it all. As an imperfect creation, he knows he is not without blemish. He draws substantially from the lessons of his triumphs and shortcomings to shape his actions. As he marks his 65th birthday, one can only wish Dr. Adenuga many happy returns.

Olabode Opeseitan is the Founding Partner of SA&B Mega Resources.

I had travelled to Sokoto state, Seat of the Caliphate, on an official assignment around October, 2016. On arriving Sokoto, I put a call through to Malam Imam Imam, being that I had earlier informed him of my scheduled visit. He told me to remain where I was as he had dispatched one of his office assistants to convey me to his office located within the Sokoto State Government House.

With hugs, handshake and pleasantries over, he offered me a seat right in front of his desk and discussion began. He said, “Profwills, I read through all you wrote about your late mother when she passed on. I often prayed for you guys. It was a huge loss I must confess. Those who would one day break the news of my own mother’s death to me will have much work to do. I truly love my mother and I wouldn’t want to even think about her death for a second. She means everything to me. Once more, accept my condolences”. Realising that I was becoming somewhat emotional and unsually quiet, he quickly switched to another issue.

Quite naturally, we shared perspectives on media practice in Nigeria as a whole and northern Nigeria in particular, looking at the challenges, threats, trends and opportunities that abound in the region’s media firmament. Having begun his enviable media practice in the north where he had his tertiary education, Imam was in his own right a strong and reliable media voice in the region. He was eminently qualified to do a complete diagnosis of what ails media practice in the region.

We also analysed the media exploits of a few young and very professionally-minded northern pen-pushers who are doing very well. Names like Yushau Shuaibu, Danladi Ndayebo, Jaafar Jaafar, Abdulaziz Abdulaziz, Mohammed Isa, Habeeb Pindiga, among others, featured prominently. Then I said, “haba Oga, we’ve left out a big name ai”, looking lost, he asked, “who is the big name?, I said, “Imam Imam”, he screamed and uttered “nooooooòo. I’m no where close to the guys we highlighted above fa. I learn from them daily.”

Challenges facing media practice in the north such as poor remuneration, lack of genuine investors, absence of government support and low patronage and absence of an enabling environment for 21st century media practice were a few germane issues we reflected on. He also identified mental laziness as one factor responsible for why some journalists from the north limit their practice to the region. He decried the poor reading and research culture in the north, especially among young journalists, and challenged them to be serious and innovative in their engagements. For the older practitioners, he enjoined them to groom younger practitioners that would take over from them in the nearest future.

Realising that he never wanted to talk about his rare meteoric rise professionally, he constantly made effort to dwell longer than necessary on issues brought forward for deliberation. I talked about his days and rise to becoming the Politics Editor at THISDAY newspaper. I reminded him of the professionalism he brought to bear in his capacity as spokesman to Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal. That perhaps was the most trying period for him all through his public service experience. He did his best to burnish his principal’s image at a time the former President Jonathan led government did everything, including withdrawing Tambuwal’s security aides, just to punish him.

Imam had all the reasons to be combative, brash, harsh and disrespectful in his response to coordinated media onslaught against his boss, rather he was mature, measured and very professional in his submissions. I told him of how much I loved to read his articles and media statements. The simple-and-easy-to-read approach he adopted in his writing was his selling point. I told him he wrote like Mr. Simon Kolawole, publisher of the Cable online newspaper and former Editor of THISDAY. Any average reader has no problem reading and comprehending Mr. Kolawole’s thoughts.

Intermittent calls from my team members to join them at the Giginya Hotel, venue of our meeting saw me signalling to go. “ProfWills, please sit down. I’ve asked someone to check you into one of our guest houses here fa. The guy should be on his way here now”. I was speechless! How do I deliver this message to my fellow team mates? Won’t they feel betrayed by my action? In the final analysis, Imam had his way. The hospitablity was something else. Imam made my stay in Sokoto a memorable one.

I maintained a very cordial relationship with Imam. He never failed to acknowledge text or Whatsapp messages. He was a big brother who always cared about me and was interested in all my engagements.

The news of Imam’s death was quite devastating. It left me numbed and confused. I thought about his kids, family, literary skills, pristine PR talent, beautiful dreams and an assured future ahead of him! All gone as he breath his last in the early hours of yesterday.

May the Lord console and comfort his aged mother. May Allah grant him eternal rest. May we, his friends, not abandon his young family. Rest in peace, Mr. Humility.

Mr Abdullahi writes from Abuja. 

Source: Daily Nigerian