Corruption

During the run up to the 18 March elections, there were palpable concerns on whether there would be a domino effect of the party that won at the presidential and National Assembly, NASS levels on 25 February also triumphing at the subnational stage.
To the contrary, after the 18 March voting exercise for the recruitment of governors and members of the House of Representatives, it was quite welcoming and encouraging that each of the four (4) main political parties,All Progressives Congress,APC, Peoples Democratic Party,PDP and Labour Party,LP as well as New Nigerian Peoples Party,NNPP, left their imprints country wide without any of them dominating the political space.
Indeed, it is fortuitous that at the conclusion of the 25 February elections,the APC and PDP had won twelve (12) states apiece, just as LP won 11 states plus the FCT which comprises of the thirty five (35) of the thirty six (36) states in the country and the Federal Capital Territory,FCT.
The New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP also succeeded in wining one state-kano which is the most populous in the northern Nigeria, bringing the total number of territories to thirty seven (37) when the FCT is added.
As things are currently shaping up,it would appear as if there has not really been any crushing defeat suffered by any of the four
(4) main political parties during the sub nation electoral contest as each of the main political parties-LP and NNPP have control of at least a state.
Except the NNPP whose members are concentrated in Kano, the big parties have only suffered bruises as their supporters bases are evenly spread across the country.
But conversely Nigerians have been victims of 2023 elections as they have been crushed since not less than twenty one (21), and by some accounts thirty (30) people have been reported as having been killed in the course of the 18 March elections.
That is just as a few millions of the masses have also been crushed by hunger and starvation because they are not only buying foreign currencies with the naira, but as a negative fall out of the naira redesign policy, they are now compelled to use local naira currency to purchase the new naira notes from those privileged to have it at a premium of up to 30%.
If any thing,amongst the political parties,it is the LP that has suffered a reversal of fortune from the commanding heights that it had attained during the 25 February political assizes which inspired the framing of the title of my column last week in form of a question: “Election 2023 as Giant Killer, End Of Incumbency?”
In that piece,l had extolled Mr Obi and LP for the feat of stirring up the youths that were hitherto dormant politically, but whose 37 million strong voting power of the 93.4 million registered voters by INEC took our country by storm during the 25 February elections and forced a change.
But the 18th March subnational election that witnessed a tamed involvement of the Obi-Dients saw the rise of NNPP in north, particularly in Kano state where it has won the gubernatorial elections and in the east where LP is poised to expand from just producing legislators from most of the south east eastern states, south-south ,FCT and Kaduna state,it’s candidate for governorship position in Abia state, Mr Alex Otti has won the gubernatorial contest in Abia state.
So the LP has ended up producing at least a governor.
As it may be recalled, its major hope for producing the governor of lagos state was dashed by multiple factors including ethnic/identity politics and violence.
As an equally insurgent party,NNPP won the gubernatorial election in kano state. So, LP must also have been nursing the ambition of controlling at least a state in lgbo land which it eventually achieved via a sheer doggedness of Dr Alex Otti, a consummate banker.
But its hope to win in the governorship election in Enugu state was not called in its favor as it missed it by a hair’s breadth.
The reduced impact of LP/Obi-Dients in the 18 March election by not wining the gubernatorial elections in the states where it won overwhelmingly during the presidential and National Assembly contests may in part be attributable to the mixed messaging from Mr Obi who is the indisputable leader of the party and its prime motivator.
The assertion above is derived from the fact that during the run up to the elections at the sub national level, at first he stated that the Obidients are not in partnership with any of the main parties.
That decision was obviously informed by the deluge of leading political parties scrambling to benefit from the positive value intrinsic in the name of LP that was enjoying tremendous goodwill of voters and LP presidential flag bearer Mr Obi whose positive image was soaring into the sky at rockstar popularity level.
In his wisdom,Mr Obi had also
subsequently stated that not everyone flying the flag of LP should be voted for.
Rather he instructed as it were that Obi-Dients should vote only for competent candidates.
With such confusing utterances or directives,Mr Obi literally threw the contestants on the LP ticket, perhaps with the exception of Mr Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivor contesting for the governorship of Lagos state and Alex Otti in Abia under the bus.
Simply put,Mr Obi reversed himself as some parties started claiming alliance with the LP and the good fortune rubbed off on them and the party’s candidates not endorsed by him got sidelined by Obi-Dients who aligned with politicians of the old order that they had vowed they were on a mission to unseat.
It is needless reiterating that the confusion enabled vote buying to become an option as Obi-Dients became susceptible to being free agents ready to swing the votes in favor of the highest bidder for their votes during the 18 March election exercise which is rather unfortunate.
In the light of the above, it has been concluded by some analysts that it is Mr Obi who unwittingly flung the door open for vote buying by parties desperate to harness the votes of Obi-Dients who are currently enjoying the positive reputation of being disruptors of old order.
Apparently,the LP candidates that did not receive Mr Obi’s endorsement were just used to fill in the blank spaces in INEC’s records after it was made public by the electoral umpire and amplified in the media that LP was short of candidates vying for elective offices compared to APC,PDP, NNPP and even SDP.
In the bid to close the gap,the so called third force party must have lowered its standards by engaging in anything goes hence political dredges were featured in LP’s platform.
Even when every Tom,Dick and Harry were hastily accepted to fill up the slots in order for LP to fulfill all righteousness, as it were, it is not surprising that there were still numerous seats across Nigeria of which the LP did not field candidates.
In fact there was also a dearth of agents to represent LP according to lNEC.
The aforementioned situation arose simply because the LP only became significant and of national reckoning after Mr Obi got on board and became its presidential standard bearer barely nine (9) months ago.
But does disowning LP political office seeking candidates who helped Obi win big in the 25 February contest not smack of the Machiavellian principle of the end justifies the means in the sense that those denied validation by Obi and LP during the state governorship and house of assembly elections on 18 March may be considering themselves as having been used and dumped?
Before the advent of Mr Obi and Obi-Dients,no real politician subscribed to LP, particularly after the exit of Comrades Segun Mimiko and Adams Oshiomole who had become governors of Ondo and Edo states respectively leveraging the platform of LP.
Even those that failed to win in the primaries of the major parties like APC and PDP hardly pivoted to LP, since it had no prospect and lacked structure.
Rather,they moved to SDP and other fringe parties that had appeared to be more robust than LP.
But from the look of things,LP hitherto an underdog that became the most sought after bride following a fairy tale outing on 25 February does not appear to have replicated its superlative performance of clinching 11 states plus the FCT during the 25 February elections.
As such it may be on a retreat which is quite the opposite of NNPP which won overwhelmingly the votes of Kano people during the 25 February presidential and National Assembly elections and repeated the victory during the 18 March elections at the sub national level by producing the governor-elect of kano state proving that, indeed it is the dominant political party in the state.
Conversely,despite LP’s superlative performance barely three weeks ago,it is not likely to produce a state governor.
So, was the 25 February election victory by LP a flash in the pan ?
Whatever the case may be ,the feat of LP winning equal number of states clinched by the erstwhile political giants such as the current ruling and main opposition parties,APC and PDP respectively is manifestly one of the wonders of election 2023.
That is because it is rather unprecedented that the three leading parties respectively came first in twelve states apiece out of the 36 states in the country plus the FCT.
Never has the strongholds of major parties been so evenly shared in our country since 1979 when roughly half a dozen political parties-NPN,UPN,UPGA,GNPP, PRP, NPP representing the multiple ethnic groups, regions and religious leanings ruled the roost in Nigerian political space as the political landscape of our country is currently looking.
The present political landscape of Nigeria tend to be echoing or exhibiting same character as events in 1979. The assertion is premised on the springing forth of regional parties that have become entrenched in ethnic enclaves after the 25 February and 18 March elections.
The realities above came into greater relief after the Saturday 18 March elections.
While the lgbo party APGA that can be said to be a kind of reincarnation of UPGA is regaining its foothold in the east as it is poised to expand from Anambra to Abia,NNPP that can be be likened to PRP is also consolidating its hold in Kano and likely Yobe and Jigawa states where it is having strong presence. As l have been observing in past articles,the Yorubas have shifted from being the champions of regional or ethnic based parties as reflected by UPN led by the late sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who the late Dimkpa Odumegu Ojukwu tagged the best President Nigeria never had, into a nationally focused group. That was largely due to the transition of the narrow scope of the UPN which was essentially a Yoruba ethnic focused political vehicle into the ACN led by former Lagos state governor,Asiwaju Bola Tinubu now president-elect which eventually morphed into the current ruling party,APC.
Fortuitously, the initiative of getting ACN to join forces with other ethnic focused parties to form APC which is an initiative midwifed between 2013-2015 by Asiwaju Tinubu has paid off.
Basically, unlike Pa Awolowo, whose focus was regional hence he could not win the presidency, and the likes of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe who was nationalistic in his politics and became the first president and also Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa who was also a nationalist and thus became prime minister of Nigeria, Tinubu by becoming nationalistic via the collapse of ACN and other parties to form the mega party,ACN has followed a pattern similar to Azikiwe and Balewa to clinch the presidency of Nigeria in 2023.
But even with the Yoruba ethnic group,(erstwhile champions of political party with ethic focus)becoming more nationalistic, it has not stopped the growth of regional parties in the current political dispensation.
For instance in south eastern states where LP (a party with national outlook) received votes in excess of 80% during the 25 February presidential and National Assembly elections as it won in all the five (5) states,there appear to be a reversal of fortune after the 18 March election with PDP and APGA as opposed to LP appearing to be in the lead to produce the next governor of Abia and a couple of other states where gubernatorial elections results have been suspended due to disputes.
In Anambra state where there were palpable fears that Peter Obi who is the LP presidential candidate and a former governor of the state whose party prevailed during the 25 February elections was accused of plotting to impeach the incumbent governor Prof Chukwuma Soludo by ensuring that candidates of his LP win majority of the house of Assembly seats than Soludo’s APGA.
But that did not happen as available interim results from lReV also indicate that APGA may sweep most of the state’s house of assembly seats.
So,governor Soludo appears not to be under the threat of being impeached by LP as had been feared if Obidients were to dominate Anambra state house of assembly.
Somehow, APGA may once again be ruling the roost in the east as it had been doing since the party was founded at the dawn of the new political era in 1999 by Chief Odumegu Ojukwu,the late Biafran war leader before NPN and later PDP took over before lmo and Ebonyi states which have currently fallen under the control of the ruling APC by virtue of a controversial Supreme Court ruling in favor of Chief Hope Uzodimma as governor of lmo and by defection of the governor of Ebonyi state, Mr Dave Umahi.
The narrative in Edo state is not in any shape or form distinct from what has unfolded in Anambra state.
The 25 February Presidential and National Assembly victory of Obi-Dients in Edo state and particularly the successful clinching of the senatorial seat by Comrade Adams Oshiomole who is also an ex governor of the state and one time benefactor of the current governor , Mr Godwin Obaseki,had also sent shivers down the spines of the incumbent.
The trepidation was owed to the anticipated consequences of the APC producing the majority of members of the house of assembly which could have been leveraged to impeach him.
Again,going by the current results uploaded into lReV,the threat seem to have been neutralized by the resurgence of PDP during the 18 March subnational elections in Edo state.
The results so far released indicate that the ruling party in the state performed far much better than it did during 25 February presidential and NASS elections which was swept by Obi-Dients leaving the PDP that ruled in the state in the lurch. Currently more than sufficient PDP lawmakers appear to have been elected during the 18 March exercise.
The disruptive, but positive impact that the Obi-Dients made during the 25 February elections had encouraged me to wonder whether the power of incumbency had been dealt a deadly blow such that it had receded.
But that line of thought has turned out to be a hasty presumption about the power of incumbency and the assumption that Obi-Dients are giant killers.
The new reality is that the power of incumbency has become even more potent and lethal factor in the political of Nigerian as state apparatus and resources in terms of the use or abuse of security agencies and financial power to self perpetuate by second term governors or outgoing governors imposing surrogates have become more rife.
As such,survival of the fittest is currently the rule rather than the exception, just as might is right is the new mantra by Nigerian political actors relying more on self help than depending on rule of law.
In fact the rule of law as we used to know it has been either altered or completely thrown to the dogs.
And jungle tactics that had receded has bounced back more furiously with anarchy reigning supreme in Nigerian political arena. Of the 28 state governorship positions in contention, all the ones seeking re-elections succeeded except in Zamfara state where the incumbent governor Bello Mutawele could not win his re-election bid and in Adamawa where incumbent PDP governor Ahmadu Fintiri is locked in a deadlock with APC’s senator Aisha Dahiru also known as Binani.
Those trying to replace themselves with surrogates largely succeeded except in kano state where NNPP is replacing the incumbent APC governor Umaru Ganduje and in Sokoto state where APC candidate is succeeding the PDP governor, Aminu Tambuwal and in Benue state where Samuel Ortom of PDP did not succeed in replacing himself with a surrogate as well as in Abia state where incumbent governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu failed to get his surrogate to take over from him because the LP candidate, Dr Alex Otti triumphed in the polls.
Without pretense,all gloves were literally taken off their hands by political animals and bare knuckle fights ensued after INEC Chairman,Prof Mahmood Yakubu,unfazed by the complaints of party agents about the non reliance on data from BVAS in the collation of election results for the presidential and National Assembly race,advised those that disagreed with the election results of the 25 February elections that he called on 1st March in favor of the ruling APC to go to court. Since politicians have no confidence in the courts, more so because they are the ones that have been compromising the judicial system,they have been engaging in self help with catastrophic consequences on the polity as evidenced by the twenty one (21) and perhaps thirty (30) fatalities recorded as fall outs of the elections.
As l had predicted in my last piece: “INEC Chairman’s Failure To Keep Promises, A Treat Or Trick?” politicians that were bruised after the conduct of the 25 February elections fought back like wounded lions during the 18 March elections exercise.
It is generally agreed by a broad spectrum of Nigerians that the 25 February exercise was initially smoothly organized with BVAS accreditation. But it degenerated into a fiasco when the input of voters data into BVAS was not uploaded into IReV as promised by INEC.
Instead, results written on Form EC8A mutilated and correction fluid ridden,were relied upon by lNEC for calling the results. That was to the consternation of politicians who thereafter vowed to take their proverbial pound of flesh by unleashing terror on the electorate during the second balloting at the sub national level.
Unscrupulous political actors practically returned to their old ways of brigandage -ballot box snatching and stuffing, hijacking of forms for writing results and kidnapping of INEC officials and compelling them to write and announce results under duress simply because they did not want to be fooled by INEC twice.
And it is rather unfortunate that while Nigerians that got killed and maimed have been crushed,political parties and their candidates have only been bruised by the outcome of 25 February elections.
That is why they got brutal during the 28 March exercise leaving in their trail the tragic death of Nigerians who are no more alive,while the individual political patrons and parties that some of the dead were fighting for are alive and savoring their stolen mandates procured violently.
l am of the conviction that the chairman of the electoral body, INEC on hindsight must have realized by now that he could have handled better the situation that led to loss of faith in the sanctity of the BVAS by a critical mass of Nigerians reflected by the low turn out of voters during the 28 March round of balloting.
But as the saying goes,the hand of time can not be taken back as the outcome of 25 February elections is undeniably the trigger for the return of politics in Nigeria to the dark ages of the rule of the jungle.
How can such horrific political violence be happening in Nigeria in 2023 when we all thought that the era of bloody politics had been consigned to the dustbin of history after the 2011 orgy of political violence that consumed innocent youths ?
After ex president Goodluck Jonathan prevented a repeat of such experience in 2015 following his loss of the presidency to the opposition APC during which he famously stated that his political interest is not worth the blood of Nigerians,political office contestations in our clime had become less fractious due largely to introduction of technology.
Sadly,political violence is likely to be the legacy that INEC under the current leadership of Prof Yakubu as the chairman,but also the rank and file of the organization which has resurrected the ghost of violence and foisted it on our country.
How can one defend a situation where politicians are saying that if the maker of the law is the master breaker of the same law,who can counsel them not to take the laws into their hands as they have done during 18 March elections?
As we all know,the verdict above is dominating the news and as we all also very well know,current news is history in motion.
So,lNEC chairman and his board members/national commissioners are writing their history right now and it is a very unsavory and unpalatable one.
Over all what election 2023 has laid bare is that not enough critical thinking went into organizing the event which is supposed to be so epochal and consequential that it should not have been treated with such levity.
For instance,the election is setting our country back by about N355 billion naira that was appropriated for INEC to conduct the election.
That is just the direct cost of tax payers money allocated to lNEC.
When the down time of locking down the country on election days twice are factored in,the cost burden on an economy which is tottering on the brinks of collapse would be much more higher.
And we all know our country is groaning under the crushing weight of an Olympian size debt in excess of N77 trillion.
As such , an expenditure of over N355 just to conduct an election can be said to be profligacy on steroid.
Frankly,the folly of staking such a colossal sum on conducting elections is comparable to the ruinous policy of channeling a whopping N6 trillion naira into subsidizing petrol pump price in the 2022 budget of the federal government.
If the authorities had been more prudent, they would not have done a yeoman’s job of conducting the elections in a period of two (2) days with three weeks in between. They could have been more pragmatic and prudent by holding all the elections in only one day.
It is a position that some members of civil society organizations have also been pointing out.
Clearly, there is no reason the election exercise could not have been conducted in one day only so that the cost-both financially and human catastrophe-could have been halved or significantly less.
What is wrong with voters being given five (5) ballot papers to thump print in one fell
swoop instead of thump printing three (3) for national elections in one day and two (2) ballots on another day?
Why spread the elections between national and sub national levels at colossal financial cost and logistical nightmare instead of consolidating the balloting for the five (5) elective offices into one single event ?
If all the elections were held on the same day ,there could have truly been a political rebirth in Nigeria.
Apparently, the INEC board of commissioners were not engaging in critical thinking or being mindful of the precarious financial situation of our country hence they were not cost conscious.
Similarly, the presidency and NASS that should have interrogated the rationale for the recommendations by INEC board were perhaps acting in unison by concurring with each other instead of engaging in scrutiny of each other’s decisions which is part of the principle of checks and balances that constitute the bulwark of democracy.
Staggering the elections into two events enabled the political actors that had been shocked by the power of BVAS during the first round of balloting, to regroup for the second round with brutality in order to self perpetuate by unleashing mayhem on the electorate while destroying or seizing election materials.
Imagine if the surplus funds that was applied in the conduct of the staggered 2023 election were invested in boosting education through student loans that would raise the number of skilled workforce for improved national productivity levels and migration of the surplus into the diaspora to boost inflow of income from Nigerians in the diaspora in the manner that india and the Philippines currently benefit.
The saved funds could also provide housing for all that would generate employment for those in the construction industry and also boost national productivity as well as develop alternative sources of electricity power supply such as relying more on solar power and wind energy by taking advantage of the abundance of sunlight in our country through investments in solar panels production which is no longer as complex as rocket science.
These are productive as opposed to consumption activities which conducting elections is actually all about.
A significant harm inflicted on our country by election 2023 is that it has made our country suffer an avoidable jeopardy.
The unvarnished truth is that the opportunity costs of the policies and programs of government that could have helped our country develop into a socioeconomic and political powerhouse in Africa and indeed the world which is huge has been lost.
It is disheartening that our country that has the potential to progress from third (3rd) world to first world like it’s former peer Singapore did a couple of decades ago has remained in socioeconomic and political stagnation.
The expected leap frogging is yet to happen simply because of the loss of the humongous sums of scarce financial resources such as the one pumped into the conduct of the 2023 elections and also the incredulous sums appropriated as petrol subsidy in the past eight (8) years which by some estimate is in excess of fifteen (15) billion United States (US) dollars.
There is no doubt that a sizable chunk of the N355 billion allocated to INEC was applied in the acquisition of the BVAS and other technological devices that were touted as the magic pill that would cure all the electoral ills in our country.
Obviously,the promoters of BVAS information technology driven election process must have forgotten that for technology to work,human input is required. In a country where impunity is the norm rather than the exception,and those who breach the rules or the laws of the land often go unpunished so long as they have the right connections, the integrity of BVAS was bound to be compromised by those seeking political power by hook or crook.
That is why to the chagrin of the electorate, the ghosts of the electoral woes of the past are now on parade and setting back democracy in our country to pre 2015 levels.
Arising from the scenario above,the leveraging of technology for the conduct of elections which was supposed to be a panacea to the ills that have dogged our electioneering process is now a farce. That is because voter fraud that had progressed negatively from the days of ‘Wettie’ in the western region
which is an era wherein political opponents doused each other with petrol before proceeding to set victims on fire,is now officially back alive and kicking in our country’s political space.
In fact,the political thuggery and brigandage of the hue and dimensions witnessed during 18 March elections was supposed to have been dead and buried after the 2011 murder of innocent National Youth Corp Service,NYSC members who had served as temporary INEC staff during the election exercise.
For context, it is worth recalling that upon the return of multi democracy in 1999 up to 2011 there was an increase in violence during politics via the assassination of opponents in cold blood.
Political violence such as the murder of Engr Funsho Williams in lagos seventeen years ago and the killing of Chief Bola lge in his bedroom in lbadan 22 years ago as well as the shooting to death of Chief Aminasoari Kala Dikibo 19 years ago on his way from Portharcourt to Asaba, readily come to mind. Some twenty years ago , there was also the blood cuddling murder in Abuja of another political heavy weight,Chief Harry Marshall from Portharcourt, Rivers state.
How can we also forget the 2011 brutal killing of some NYSC members in the north (earlier mentioned) as a reprisal action against the unfavorable outcome of the election that perpetuated president Goodluck Jonathan in office after the sudden passage of Umaru Yar’adua of blessed memory.
Of course it is only high profile murders that have been listed here,while the murder of some unsung heroes of democracy abound all over our country,including in the northern region, such as Kano where the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner was reportedly burnt to death along with his family in 2015 when his house was allegedly set on fire by aggrieved political elements.
The dastardly acts enumerated above are sad reminders of our political evolution from the nascent stages of our democracy characterized by violence to a more liberal stage whereby the principle of majority carries the vote is being observed which is what Nigerians are craving but crooked officials operating manipulatable electoral system seems to be denying them the pleasure.
It was expected that by now free , fair and transparent election could be achieved leveraging technology as reflected by BVAS and IReV facilitated by the reformed Electoral Act 2022.
Against the backdrop of the highlighted mayhem that had in the past been invoked on society by politicians and their thugs, it was very relieving that political violence in the polity had ebbed as a result of the reforms in the process of conducting elections initiated by late President Yar’adua in 2007 and pursued to its logical conclusion by ex president Jonathan from 2010 to 2015 who succeeded Yar’adua.
In fact,it is such a positive irony that it is the electoral reform introduced by Jonathan that led to the triumph of the outgoing ruling APC and incumbent president Mohammadu Buhari in 2015 over then ruling PDP which then president,Goodluck Jonathan was leading.
Commendably, the reforms had conferred some measure of integrity via the introduction of technology into the electoral process via the deployment of Smart Card Readers,SCR and Temporary Voters Card,TVC by INEC.
In 2019, although Permanent Voters Card, PVC and Bimodal Voters Accreditation System,BVAS which are higher levels of technological innovations had been adopted by INEC under the leadership of Prof Yakubu,there was not much improvement in the electoral process as president Buhari was as at that time focused on his getting re-elected instead of pursuing reforms.
So,Mr President was not keen on assenting to what became Electoral Act 2022 which had actually been in the pipeline since 2017.
When he eventually signed off on the bill for it to become an act of parliament in 2022,Nigerians were full of expectations.
That is why the number of registered voters soared from 2019 figures of 84 million to over 93.4 million registered with 87 million collecting their PVC for 2023 elections.
But the bubble of the enthusiastic registrants who were very keen to vote was burst by the lNEC which disappointed them by not living up to expectations in the reckoning of a broad spectrum of Nigerians,especially the youths who obviously did not actively participate in the second exercise held on 18 February hence a very low turnout was recorded compared to 25 February outing.
The poor turnout of voters is perhaps owed to multiple factors such as deliberate voters suppression by state and non state actors, the fear of members of the electorate being killed and maimed by the same purveyors of violence or voter apathy stemming from the belief that it had been proven based on the experience from the 25 February voting exercise that contrary to the entreaties and exhortations by INEC that convinced youths to get into the political fray,votes do not really count in Nigeria.
So,in the light of the above , it is rather unfortunate that the much vaunted Electoral Act 2022 as the magic wand that would consign electoral malpractices to the dustbin of history has been the biggest disappointment and the main culprit for the reversal of the electoral fortunes that Nigeria had garnered since 2015.
In terms of violence,as stated earlier,according to European Union,EU observer mission’s report,twenty one (21) people lost their lives and other unofficial sources reckon that the death toll from 18 March elections is in the region of 30.
Only three weeks ago,the National Assembly elections held on 25 February did not witness as much blood letting.
Also in 2015 and 2019,such alarming number of deaths arising from the conduct of general elections did not occur.
Without doubt,what triggered the orgy of violence during 18 March elections is the loss of confidence in INEC.
Is it not remarkable that it is not the threat of terrorism in the northern region or unknown gunmen in the south eastern region which had been touted as the biggest threats to election 2023, that have eventually marred, if not ruined it ?
And it is a sad narrative for democracy in Nigeria as the government of the people,by the people and for the people suffers what can simply be referred to as a relapse as jungle justice in politics has once again taken center stage in the way and manner politics is practiced in our beloved country.
Is there a path to healing or exorcising the nation of the demons of electoral malfeasance which haunts a country once there is negligence and denigration of the ethos of democracy by not playing by the rules?
l would think so.
As an optimist,I imagine that there could be an efficacious solution if we retrace our steps to figure out how and why our country seems to have returned to its vomit with a view to further reforming our electoral system by tightening the loose ends.
For instance,it would help if it is expressly stated in the Electoral Act that results that do not emanate from the BVAS and IReV would not be admitted. There is also need for clarity on the status of the FCT regarding whether the two third (2/3) majority votes policy which is nebulous applies to it specially or it is covered by what obtains for states.
By the same token,recommending severe sanctions against elections offenders including INEC officials who up till date have remained unpunished for all the election related atrocities that they have allegedly been committing should be prioritized by incoming executive and legislative arms of government.
Those who breach election laws should be made to be accountable for the crime committed against democracy and our country.
lt is about time we stopped leaving punishments for election crimes to the United Kingdom, UK and the United States of America, USA that threaten election criminals with visa ban.
Although the offer is in good faith , visa as punishment for subverting the will of the people is a mere slap in the wrist and a wicked conspiracy by both the presidency and NASS against the masses of Nigeria who are ultimately the victims of electoral fraud.
With the benefit of hindsight,one is curios to know if the failure of the 9th NASS to pass the law establishing a special court for election offenders that could have put most of them in jail for criminal breach of the Electoral Act 2022 was deliberate or borne out of exigencies.
Also,the Central Bank of Nigeria,CBN has just devalued the naira further by moving the exchange rate of our local currency, the naira to the dollar from N462 to N551.
It means that to purchase the dollar,Nigerians would need more naira.
The CBN has also just adjusted upwards its Monetary Policy Rate ( MPR) which determines the interest rates that banks charge customers.
The MPR that has just been increased from seventeen and half [17.5%]to eighteen [18%] percent by our country’s apex financial institution and lender of last resort,indicates that banks would soon be notifying customers that the interest charges for loans disbursed to them has increased to about 25%.
Are the decisions of the CBN in isolation or pointer to an exit plan or conspiracy of the outgoing administration leaving long suffering Nigerians in deeper misery?
As we are all well aware,plans are afoot to end the obnoxious and funds guzzling petrol pump price subsidy on 1st of June which is one day after the exit of the outgoing government and an action that is overdue.
It is also a day after the inauguration of the incoming administration.
But up till now,there is no framework or plan on how the effect of the subsidy on the masses would be mitigated through policies and programs that would bring human face to the end of petrol subsidy regime which Nigerians actually desire.
My concern is that without a robust fallback position or buffer to ameliorate the anticipated pains that the change would initially foist on Nigerians,especially if the plan is slammed on the masses or forced down their throats like the ill fated naira redesign policy,there may be a revolution of the sort witnessed in the Magreb region of western and central north Africa whereby in 2010,a Tunisian, faced with acute hunger and other deprivations occasioned by corrupt government and economic stagnation gave up hope in life by setting himself ablaze thereby triggering a revolution across the Arab world,particularly in Africa that is infamously known as:Arab Spring.
Is the announcement by the CBN that bank interest and foreign exchange rates have been increased and plans by the federal government to end petrol subsidy regime by 1st June foreboding news of a further crush of the masses by hardship that is lying ahead of them?
For how long would our teeming and hapless compatriots who are already under heavy strain and too impoverished by government policies that are not critically thought through continue to be victims of maladministration?
It is an urgent question to which the president-elect Asiwaju Bola Tinubu must provide viable and actionable answers as he prepares to mount the saddle of leadership in Aso Rock Villa on 29 May,all things being equal.
Magnus onyibe,an entrepreneur, public policy analyst ,author,development strategist,alumnus of Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy,Tufts University, Massachusetts,USA and a former commissioner in Delta state government, sent this piece from lagos.
To continue with this conversation, please visit www.magnum.ng

This was going to be a very tough campaign. It would have needed the most brilliant PR strategist in the land cos this was a very ‘dirty’ candidate.

A lot was staked against him. His dubious educational qualifications, his colourful relationships with the law both internationally and local, his over bearing influence over Lagos, his deposition of Ambode and much more importantly the poor performance of the incumbent who he almost single handedly imposed.

So how do you sell such a tainted product to a hostile market. This was very near impossible, and no amount of Bullion vans can deliver this mandate if the strategy was not right.

Those of us who understand PR and strategy watched from afar. I has posited that he shdnt be sold as anti corrupt. That would have been too hard to swallow.

No visible source of income, the Bullion Van driving into his house and his quip,’ is it your money? All made the Anti corruption tag very difficult to hang.

So I devised that we sell him as dirty as he is. Since Nigeria was not the Vatican and we were not seeking to elect the Pope.

Let’s say that Nigeria is a jungle and that it’s only the Lion of Bourdillon that understands the jungle and can rule it.

This didn’t sell. So from afar and on hindsight, I can now see very clearly the three pronged strategy that was used and, I must say, risky but very brilliant.

So I see the arrowhead strategy. This involved building a team of battle tested hound dogs who will take no prisoners.

FFK, Keyamo, Onanuga, Omatsola, and Alake forming the crux of this. I hear that FFK’s directorate had as many as 200 brilliant young minds.

These ones used the media to tear down all opposition. With releases, interviews, and social media, they attacked and wounded people.

FFK was instructed to fight Dino to a standstill, and he did that credibly well.

Targets like Reno were identified and mauled. Even Chief Obasanjo wasn’t spared.

This team was vicious and used bulldog tactics to maim and maul.

This threw fear into the media world. Arise TV crew and Thisday were fair targets. Rueben Abati and Rufai were singled out for humiliation and derision.

They came at both of them shamelessly. Abati’s pic in detention was brandished, and Shaka Momodu was attacked.

Shaka fought back. Shaka at the tail end dropped a retaliatory bomb that had no answer.

Rufai fought back, but you could see that Abati was weary. He had been weakened as the bite had left him.

The second strategy used to sell Asiwaju was positioning. He understood the electoral map and didn’t waste his time.

Spent 70% of his time in the North. It was clear he had annoyed the Christian south and, as such, didn’t have the time or energy to go and be begging the big influential GOs that litter Lagos Ibadan Expressway.

He went straight to the NW and NE. That was where most of the work was done. He only appeared in the SE and Akwa Ibom like once.

They didn’t have the numbers, and this is not the time to eat afang.

The results of the elections justified this. He lost Lagos and most of the SS, but the North gave him the dubious presidency.

His PR startegist was careful to show him as a Muslim, even though he flunked the Islamic prayers, but a lot of underground work was done by his daughter, especially on the Emirs wives and children. The soft target.

I was privy to a phone call in Abuja where his daughter had called in to secure a meeting with the wives of an influential Emir. I also saw a list of 49 of such. This was where Asiwaju won the North. simple

The third and most effective startegy was what I will call the – mumu strategy.

This was a very risky bit, but then again, it had to be done.

This portrayed him as a sick and weak man who was peeing on himself and being forgetful and gaffe prone.

It started with the Emilokan cry. This was a brash and self-centered call to action. It threw up a contradiction cos when u shout Emilokan, it portrays strength and confidence

But then again, when u look at who is shouting emilokan, u see a frail and sick man who can not even walk without falling.

This achieved the purpose of keeping him on the front burner. In politics, u must keep people talking about you positively and negatively, all aimed at keeping u on everybody’s lips.

Emilokan was the war cry of the campaigns. Everybody talked about it both supporters and opposition.

Even foreign media and Govts, this was brilliant. Emilokan was on everybody’s mouth, and by extension, Tinubu was deepening his public prominence with the phrase

Then the gaffes. I think they were also deliberate and brilliant.

People were shouting Agbado and Corn for weeks. 50m in the Army and all the gaffes that he gave us regularly.

By this time, the conversation was no longer on Obi, whose campaign was also gaining ground.

Obi was campaigning on integrity, a new way of doing things, and simplicity. He was walking around in black and simple shoes, which resonated

Atiku was lost. A ghost, but Asiwaju’s gaffes and Emilokan got even the obedient talking about it.

Now the funny thing is dt, as the obedients were doing skits and laughing at emilokan, they were invariably making him more popular. Keeping him in the public space and making him the topic of discussion on all platforms

Who can forget the Pyrates gyrating with the song Emilokan on the streets or Dino singing … baba wey hand dey shake, dey shout Emilokan…

The fools were simply working for Asiwaju, not knowing. Kai.

Invariably, the obidients were working for Asiwaju without their knowledge.

Now, did he deserve this dubious victory, I will say his strategists deserved it cos they fought a good and very brilliant battle

As a strategist myself, I doff my heart but as a Nigerian, I will say God punish them cos they took advantage of our weekend system and exploited it very wickedly to deliver a dubious victory using very brilliant strategies that woukd for ever taunt us.

Kai. Wicked

Thanks

Duke of Shomolu

Now that it is all over (hopefully), let me have my say about the presidential elections, the obidient madness, and your “arisetv-like” behavior through all this.

1. I respect everyone’s right to their views, but the rate & level of animosity with which you constantly vilified Tinubu was quite astonishing to me. Is he really worse than GEJ or PMB, considering what we have experienced with them? If you acknowledge that he has a knack for picking good people (including Osinbajo in that list), does that not, in fact, make him better than the last 2 presidents we have had? Is the ability to put round pegs in round holes not a critical part of being a good leader? Tell me which governor or leader in the entire country has that knack better than Tinubu.
2. There is no Nigerian election that is smooth sailing or that does not come with manipulation, but is it difficult to believe that Obi did not get any significant votes in the states where he performed poorly? Analyze the list. Obi himself made the election a sectional and religious affair by visiting all the churches everywhere and christian dominated areas in the northern states. What is the christian population in those northern states he performed abysmally in? What effort did he actually make to court Muslim populations? Did his Muslim vice have a personality?
3. Apart from Lagos, what percentage of Ibos are in the rest of the South western states? They are mostly based in Lagos because that is the center of commerce, and that is what the Ibo man is all about. Did he think he would sweep the southeast and also sweep the southwest states when contesting against a Yoruba man?
4. Labor took Lagos for the following reasons..
   a. Lagos has a high population of Ibos & most if not all of them voted for “their son.”
   b. Lagos has a high population of elites & Obi resonated with them with his English & elitist talk
   c. A lot of Yorubas and other lagosians like you resent Tinubu for his hold on Lagos. Is it jealousy? You acknowledge that “his picks” for governor have been excellent choices. Lagos is the most complex & difficult state in the country to govern, yet Lagos is doing well. Many state governors copy what Lagos does. People from other states (especially the east) are eager to relocate to Lagos. You are constantly happy to tell us about your huge network & your ability to reach anybody etc etc, so you like having control & influence. Why all the resentment?
   d. Most christians resented the muslim-muslim ticket & were eager to show their disapproval.

It was simply a combination of these factors that made Tinubu lose Lagos by a slim margin. I do not doubt that he knew having a Muslim vice would cost him votes, but he had to take that strategic decision, or he would have totally lost out on northern votes. He was smart & strategic enough to know he needed those votes with Atiku in the fray.

5. Inasmuch as Obi could speak well & reel out data, he was either not strategic in his thinking or he was arrogant because he convinced himself he was the people’s choice north, south, east & west. The delusional sycophants around him encouraged that thinking & their savvyness with social media spurred them on. Politics is about strategy and numbers. If people can stop and use their brains (if they have any) and ask themselves intelligent questions, they will stop all this nonsense about Tinubu’s win not being legit. It is not possible to rig irresponsibly the way it was in the past. (except you are a Wike who is just a matter hatter, but even if you toss Rivers results in the bin, Tinubu will still come out tops).
6. Whether you choose to admit it or not, Obi can not magically get the required numbers based on self-aggrandizement about being the “messiah.” Winning a presidential election in Nigeria is not about touring media channels & social media campaigns. You need to pour as much energy into the grassroots, those uneducated people who don’t do Twitter or watch arise or channel tv. Millions of people DID vote for Tinubu. He has spent years building alliances across all regions. Atiku has done the same. He has a Yoruba wife, an Ibo wife, and maybe others from other regions for all I know. Late MKO Abiola won resoundingly because of the alliances he had built across all regions over the years & how helpful he had quietly been over many years to the masses in different parts of the country.
7. Obi has always been a sectional person. I might be wrong, but this is probably the 1st time he has criss-crossed Nigeria. If the reports are true (I am not saying they are), even when he visited the northern states, he focused on churches and Christian communities. Only a few northern states have a high number of christian populations. What efforts did he make to court Muslim populations? Many in the north looked at him as someone who was only interested in christian votes. I also read somewhere that he basically sidelined labor party chairmen in many of those states. He did not trust them because he had his own inner caucus he felt could deliver for him. Did his inner caucus have boots on the ground? Were they local people whom the masses could identify with? Like Obi, his vice came across as elitist. What percentage of nigerian voters are educated? When you go on campaigns or on Arise TV and Channels tv to talk about GDP and quote figures and percentages to show how educated & knowledgeable you are, how many of the masses who will vote are you actually connecting with? Well, I guess we know the answer now, don’t we.
8. Millions of people did NOT vote for Obi. That is a fact & a bitter pill he should be able to swallow if he has any understanding whatsoever about leadership. The mentality of “where I win, it’s legit, where I lose, it was rigged” is madness as far as I am concerned & people touting that nonsense should go get their heads examined. Was there rigging & manipulation? For sure, but all the parties did it. I have seen videos of underage voters in the east, so nobody should paint a picture of saintliness as far as elections go. If some are better at manipulation than others, so be it. You, Edgar, are an expert in manipulation, so let’s not even go there. I don’t believe the level of rigging or manipulation essentially affected the overall results. What Obi did was weaken PDP significantly because PDP always swept the southeast resoundingly in case people are pretending they have forgotten. APC has never done well in the southeast, so Obi’s coming out only dented them a bit. Why is it difficult to believe APC would win again?
9. As for Sanwo Olu, my belief is that he will do well. Tinubu’s win will help him, so I disagree with you about Tinubu speaking up for him. Don’t forget Nigerians like to be associated with success & power. Another thing that I believe will help him is IPOB’s stupidity of going to raise their flag in Alausa. I might be wrong, but I do not believe that the average Yoruba man who dislikes Tinubu & voted Obi for president will prefer IPOB to Tinubu. What that idiotic stunt conveyed is that a vote for LP is a vote for IPOB. I doubt that the Yoruba man will sit by and welcome IPOB to flex muscle on Yoruba land & perhaps unleash the mayhem they have been unleashing in the east. People say the Iboman is his own worst enemy…probably true if you ask me.
10. My advice to Obi? He should be a statesman, accept defeat & call off his rabid dogs. He should not let sycophants fool him. He lost because he did not do enough. He got carried away by his popularity amongst some very loud people who were also very social media savvy and then got arrogant. He thought he did not need to build alliances.
11. Now is the time for him to come off his high horse, sit back, analyze and restrategize, make a list of things they did well, make a list of areas where they failed and strategize on how to turn the failures into success for his next run. PMB lost the election 3 times, fought all the way till he lost at the supreme court & came back to fight again until he finally won. Is Obi so arrogant or delusional that he does not think he can lose an election? Does he not have what it takes to fall, pick yourself up, and come back fighting? If he doesn’t, then I suggest you need to invite him to a one-on-one with you so you can give him lessons based on your personal experience. One of the things he MUST ABSOLUTELY do is get his obidients to stop threatening fire and brimstone on everyone who is not obidient. Many people, including me, do not like bullies & I will not, in a million years, give my vote to a party of bullies. He is young, and hopefully, he is smart, he has time, God willing.
12. He should definitely be VERY proud of what he has achieved in a very short time. I am happy he entered the fray. He has put pressure on Tinubu and future Nigerian leaders. They know they cannot afford to fuck up. They know they have Obi waiting in the wings to take them out. The pressure is on. That is VERY good for our country.
13. My advice to you? Get over yourself and stop the vilification of Tinubu. Give the man a chance. I might be wrong but I do think he is not after money. I think he believes he has something to offer Nigeria on a larger scale and that he actually wants to leave a legacy. He knows he is old so he knows he does not have much time on his hands anyway. If he had all the ailments they say he has, he also knows stealing all the money in the world cannot buy him good health or extend his life. He is good at picking the right people to get the job done.
14. Personally, I don’t need a leader who knows everything. I am happy with one who understands his limitations and is able to pick the right people to help him deliver. He knows he is not blessed with the gift of the garb so he refused to let himself be bullied into a debate with other presidential aspirants. That is what I call understanding your limitations. He would have been a fool if he had exposed himself to a debate and he sure ain’t no fool. If someone were to organize a public writing competition & the stakes were high, only a foolish writer who does not understand his limitations would publicly take you on if you were part of that competition? If Tinubu is or was a wily crook, he will understand where the crooks are coming from even before they start their shenanigans. He is a cabal all by himself 😅 so I don’t see any cabal caging or manipulating him like they did with GEJ and PMB.
    And finally, he knows Obi and his ilk are waiting to take him out.

Let’s wait and see what he has to offer. The first 60 days of his presidency will definitely show us where he is headed.

Me, I do wish him well, for the sake of the common man. I pray he gets it.

What I forgot to also add is that a lot of your writings and musings on whatsapp and in dailies are designed to influence people and minds. You like having power and the ability to influence people. If you had Tinubu’s influence, you would be totally brazen about telling people to go stick themselves where the sun don’t shine if they don’t like what you do or say. You do that even now just because of your network so what’s your grouse?

Annonymous
2023

As the results of the 2023 general elections continue to trickle in across northern states, one thing that is becoming clear is the role that the introduction of the Biometric Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) has played in demystifying previous election results.

In the past, election results in some parts of the country, particularly in the northern region, have been marred by allegations of irregularities, voter intimidation, ballot box snatching, and other forms of electoral malpractice. These malpractices have often been facilitated by the lack of a robust voter verification system, which made it easier for unscrupulous elements to manipulate the electoral process.

However, the introduction of the BVAS has changed the game. The system, which was first introduced in the 2015 general elections by Professor Attahiru Jega, requires voters to undergo a biometric verification process before they can be accredited to vote. The system captures the fingerprints and facial features of voters, which are then matched with the biometric data stored in the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) database.

The benefits of the BVAS are already being felt in the ongoing elections. The system has significantly reduced the incidences of multiple voting, underage voting, and other forms of voter impersonation. It has also made it more difficult for unscrupulous elements to manipulate the electoral process by stuffing ballot boxes or snatching them altogether.

Moreover, the BVAS has increased the transparency and accountability of the electoral process. It has made it easier for INEC officials to detect and track irregularities, and for election observers and civil society organizations to monitor the process and hold the commission accountable.

However, the introduction of the BVAS has not been without its challenges. The system is not foolproof, and there have been reports of technical glitches and other problems in some polling units. INEC must continue to work to address these issues and ensure that the system is fully operational and effective in all parts of the country.

Overall, the BVAS is gradually demystifying previous election results across northern states, thus helping to restore the confidence of voters in the electoral process. It has shown that with the right technology and political will, it is possible to conduct free, fair, and credible elections in Nigeria. As we await the final results of the presidential elections, it is clear that the BVAS has played, and still playing a pivotal role in ensuring that the voices of Nigerian voters are heard and that their votes count.

Nigeria suffers not only from a famine of funds: it is starved of sound leadership. Those who aspire to lead it should follow Winston Churchill’s advice: “Study history.” Former US president Richard Nixon, in his book Leaders (1982), chose six individuals who had built their nations, saved them, or “moved the world in a singular way”. (Wri­ting a postscript in 1990, Nixon regretted not having been able to include Britain’s Margaret Thatcher and Singapore’s Lee and Kuan Yew)

Forty years later, Nixon’s acolyte Henry Kissinger has provided his own selection. In his book Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy (2022), he repeats Nixon’s choice of France’s Charles de Gaulle and Ger­m­any’s Konrad Adenauer, then adds Nixon, Mrs Thatcher, Lee Kuan Yew (“the Giant from Lilliput”), and Anwar Sadat who aspired to restore Egypt’s “eternal identity”. Kissinger defines leadership as “the capacity for analysis, strategy, courage and character”. He believes that leadership is “most essential” during periods of transition but recognises that, contrary to our expectations, “most leaders are not visionary but managerial”.

Konrad Adenauer after World War II revived a devastated and divided Germany. His aims — fulfilled by his successors — were to achieve the reunification of Germany, and in time a “unified Germany within a unifying Europe”.

In many ways, Adenauer’s strategy was paralleled by Gen de Gaulle. In the 1940s, de Gaulle spent his war years in exile in the UK, being treated as a third-rate ally by the British and the Americans. In 1958, he returned to Paris to lead his country into its Fifth Republic. His avowed mission was “to save the country, to change a discredited political system, and to restore the army to the path of obedience”. He succee­ded in achieving all three aims. De Gaulle withdrew from Indo-China, liberated Algeria, survived assassination attempts and retired unscathed to his country home.

Kissinger’s section on Nixon covers the ground both had tilled in their voluminous memoirs. Kissinger quotes the self-analysis by Nixon, in which he describes himself as a tough bold strong leader with a philosophical turn of mind: “At his best in a crisis. Cool. Unflappable.”

Reading Nixon’s generous self-appreciation, the reader is reminded of Jawaharlal Nehru’s essay on himself, published under the pseudonym ‘Chanakaya’. Nehru war­n­ed his ego against changing from a populist leader into some triumphant Caesar, who might turn dictator “with a little twist”. Kissinger’s assessment of Mrs Thatcher recounts how, despite her degree in chemistry, she was rejected by ICI UK for being “headstrong, obstinate, and dangerously self-opinionated”. Given the opportunity to lead, however, she modernised Great Britain and made it, if not great again, at least a relevant Britain.

Kissinger’s book sparkles with quotes such as Lee Kuan Yew’s observation that modern elections are “a contest in packaging and marketing”, or the observation that China and the US will perform a balancing act, oscillating between strategic rivalry and peaceful coexistence.

He regrets that there are few visionaries left, those who “treat prevailing institutions less from the perspective of the possible than from a vision of the imperative”. Instead, he says, we have social media platforms, in which “users are divided into followers and influencers, not leaders”.

The book has more than a passing releva­nce for Nigeria as we get ready to vote in a new President. At this time of self-ind­uced despondency, Kis­singer warns us that no society can survive if “it loses faith in itself or if it sys­tematically impu­gns its self-perception”. He quotes Ade­n­au­er’s successor Hel­mut Schmidt: “Evil unchecked gro­ws. Evil tolerated poisons the whole system”, and that “po­l­i­tics without a conscience tends towards criminality”. Politics must always be pragmatism, with “moral ends”. For the likes of Atiku, Tinubu, Obi, Kwankwaso and other presidential candidates, he includes a poem by Philip Larkin that ends: “All we hope to leave them [our children] now is money.”

Had President Buhari read Kissinger’s book earlier, he would have come across president Dwight Eisenhower’s reprimand to Kissinger: “Never tell anyone you could not do the job.” He might have then eschewed his petulant diatribes against his fellow party men like El-Rufai and Ganduje.

Kissinger makes a passing reference to Alexander the Great, whom many regard as a synonym for leadership. Using “discipline, speed and shrewd political sense”, Alexander, by the age of 32, had become master of over two million miles of empire.

If Alexander repeated his journey today from north to the south of Nigeria, he wouldn’t have suffered wounds, injured ribs, nor endured privations. He could have travelled (as I do) by an airline. It would have treated him, as he did Porus, like a king.

Uncouth is the word that pops into mind when witnessing the kind of politicking that seems to have become the norm in Nigeria, especially against the backdrop of a faltering economy, back-breaking inflation, insecurity, unemployment, and poverty raising its cobra-like head again.

Pursuit of power is an integral part of politics as politicians and their parties can only fulfil their pledges and start implementing their manifesto once in office. But this pursuit must conform to democratic norms of conduct. It can’t be divorced from the ground reality.

Weeks ago, I had in my column illustrated with great lucidity the sort of economic hardship being faced by the people and that even members of the socioeconomic groups that earlier seemed immune from the vagaries of the downturn are now feeling the pinch, and many desperately so.

When those with high six- and even low seven-figure monthly incomes are visibly suffering, it would be pointless to mention the miseries of the shirtless, those on low incomes or the unemployed, given that inflation is slightly above 20 per cent.

For the love of God, I can’t imagine how a family of four gets by even on 60,000 naira a month, double the minimum wage (you and I both know not too many make even that legal threshold), while having to pay rent, utility bills, school fees and, of course, putting food on the table. Must take some kind of magic, highly skilled jugglery to keep one’s head above water.

I have had friends telling me they have had to shift to lower rent homes and move their children to relatively cheaper schools. And even then, they can’t make ends meet. As a parent I can say the ‘downgrading’ of your children’s school must be the most heartbreaking thing to have to do.

Given the inflation, it is safe to say that the direct cash transfers being made under schemes such as NSIP to those at the bottom of the pyramid may help. But, hand on heart, tell me how many days the meagre cash transfers will enable a poverty-steeped recipient to put no more than just bread on the table?

Against this backdrop, Nigerian political leaders – among them those dubbed corrupt with their invective-laden diatribe against each other, mock the shirtless even as they enjoy their designer shoes/accessories, Birkin handbags with hefty $$$ tags, and their mansions or massive estates.

Even the most ‘frugal’ among them travel in SUVs that cost so much I can’t even dream of buying one. That is, despite having worked for nearly 20 years and pretty much having been fortunate enough to get some of the best jobs available in Nigeria. Yes, they mock the poor. There isn’t another way to describe what they do. Who really cares for the have-nots, beyond using them in campaign slogans?

Let’s admit it. The system is designed and perpetuated by the country’s political elites to serve their own narrow interests, while the teeming millions lurch from one hardship to another and celebrate as an achievement being able to survive from one day to another. Literally.

Not sure if they can see it from their cosy perches but the situation is fast becoming or possibly has become untenable. From outright narcissism to material greed to visions of grandeur, whatever makes our leaders tick, it is time they acknowledge that radical restructuring is the only way forward and the days of the elite profiting from a rentier economy are over.

There can be no escaping the need now for political leaders of different hues, in and out of government, to sit around a table and agree on a set of measures to revive the economy, a sustainable plan that spurs growth and job creation, boosts exports and cuts the eternally yawning current account deficit which is at the root of so many of our troubles.

The first and foremost aim of any economic policy has to be to target and eliminate poverty. Both sides of the political divide can blame each other for the mess but to an outsider both are culpable as they were short of imagination and ideas when there was space to make decisions of far-reaching import.

Pointless to talk about a defence expenditure cut as that is somehow seen as non-negotiable. But for how long. Many, many billions are given away in subsidies to the elite by the elite each year. These need to stop as they not only amount to plunder of national wealth but also distort the economy and make even the capitalist model, we so lovingly embrace unworkable.

The next census will show whether Pakistan’s population is 200 million or an even higher number. What we know already is that over 60 per cent of the country’s population is under 30. The proportion of the younger citizens is increasing every day in the country’s population.

This huge young segment presumably in good health has 30 to 35 good, solid years of a working life ahead of it. It is often called the youth bulge. Any country with such a large number of young people, decades away from retirement and pensions, would be seen as an asset. They are.

But in a flailing economy with rampant poverty and unemployment, this very asset can become a powder keg, a ticking bomb. Millions of jobless youths can get restive very quickly and unleash chaos. Can our leaders see this danger?

Just read the above on the police barracks and just want to drop my little idea of what I believe is wrong with them
No 1 thing is the mentality thing about most people concerning the government own facilities… No be we get am… So everyone cares less what happens to it, even to the detriment of their health and we’ll being.

I lived in shomolu and saw or entered into few houses that were “face me I face you” and they were kept cleaned and organized. The occupant trying their best to keep the environment clean, either they had a jointly paid general cleaner or divided the cleaning amongst themselves in turns or were made to keep it so because the owner instructed or the caretakers made them do the needful.

The police force have always taken every right and privilege given to them and abused them destroying the legacy of what was given or bought by them.
From their uniforms to their living quarters. The abuse of the guns and arms given to them even their police station are not exempted.
They are the only set that marry and breed children anyhow, Appearing dirty even in their black uniforms imagine.

Shouldn’t they get sanitary inspectors among them and get their barracks to function.
They live like pigs and chickens with no one being held responsible for the damage and constituting nuisance in government own property.
After All there is a believe when you retire or leave the force another occupies. No one is held accountable for the damage, you see they don’t pay for caution fees as we do, so you can’t afford to mess up an apartment on rent because you know the implications.

Let’s remove sense of entitlement from our minds and make much out of the little they get.

I know is not good enough
But there are Nigerians that are living alot better than this with little or nothing from this none existing government.

Check the vehicles given to them in six months it a reck.

Check them out where illicit drinks and drugs are sold and see them do the wrong without fear or remorse.
Like who dare to challenge.

Abeg they are the worst set of force that we have and will always waste money on.

I’m tired
This change will be hard.
They need a mind, spirit and soul change , transformation from their inner mind before anything given them can bring the desired change.
Hmmmm

You need to check out the heads or should I called them leaders of this agberos or even the ones that just run after the vehicles, the ones that have heads amongst them, some work for the police and they live well, build houses and send their children to good schools. Are they not one and the same.
Tasking all forms of transportation.
They actually have returns everyday to the police station and their heads no about it.
Nonsense!!!

What on earth could a pregnant woman say or do to a police man. To deserve death.
A defenseless being, heavy with child, our next generation.
Haba!!!! My God
Insanity everywhere.
No regards for law, and God the creator.

And we say “they need more…..even the more will get us more demons.

The same people who are to protect you kill
Best friends with agberos, keep them on their employment roll.
And the claim
“Police is your friend”
Did I honestly hear that again.
Shame

What do you give this kind of people to get a positive attitude and reaction?????
I think and Believe
They need Deliverance from the demons that are against them.
Man is a tripartite being as God and if this formation or it principle is broken then the man is dead

So re create, reconstruct, the Man
The soul, spirit and body.
A rebirth of the Inner Being or Deadness continues.

One thing for sure is that with the active participation of our youths in the 2022/23 general elections,politics in Nigeria will take a new dimension and never be the same again.

One of the first impact or change being foisted by Gen-Z is that politics has currently been pivoted from real life to virtual reality where our youths rule the roost.

However,the game of politics will change when political campaigns commence next month (September) after Independent National Electoral Commission,INEC,based on its election timetable,green lights campaigns.
By that time,action would shift from online to real life,where the so called old generation politicians,would reign supreme with mega campaign rallies coupled with the efforts of the foot soldiers-governors,legislators,ministers and a galaxy of other government appointees that would be embarking on door-to-door consultations with the electorate.

That is when there will be a test of the will of the bulging youth population in Nigeria that has unprecedentedly seized the political momentum by registering massively and obtaining their Permanent Voters Card,PVC with which they are planning to vote in 2023 in order to retire those that they refer to as old politicians who they accuse of preventing them from benefiting from their common patrimony in the period that they have been at the helm of affairs.

As a pragmatist,l have pointed out to our youths in the past that the so called old generation politicians that they intend to displace are like old foxes that can hardly be outsmarted. So they should focus on graduated take over with a possibility of achieving their goal in 2027

That is because it would take more than the first cut which is said to be the deepest, to dislodge the current political class from the political stage.
And l would like to assure our youths that some of the political grandees are willing to exit the stage.
At least Turaki Atiku Abubakar, presidential flag bearer of the PDP has alluded to that in his recent public comments.

And,l am also obliged to intimate the youths that the elders that are currently bestriding the political space would prefer a proper succession plan which l would like to admonish our youths to work towards negotiating with them,as opposed to planning to maliciously or malevolently kicking them out as they appear to be planning.

Also,since members of Gen-Z appear to be so fixated on joining the new fangled Obe-dient movement of which the name of God is being invoked in vain as mr Peter Obi’s emergence as Labor Party,LP 2023 Presidential candidate is being touted (in my view falsely) as a phenomenon endorsed by God; and a chapter in the Bible -Ephesians 6:5 where the word obedient is mentioned is being used to justify the call for Christian’s to vote for Obi: l would like to stick to the trending ‘God’ narrative by leveraging data from Christendom in an analogy to drive home the point about the handicap that the Obi-dients face in their vaulting quest to catapult Obi into Aso Rock Villa in 2023.

According to a study published by the Vatican and also corroborated by Pew report,the population of Catholics all over the world is in the neighborhood of 17-18% of the world population estimated to be 8 billion.
“The Catholic churches form a denomination within Christianity and,with around 1.3 billion believers worldwide, are the largest Christian grouping”.

For the sake of this analogy,the old generation politicians in Nigeria can be likened to members of the traditional religion like Catholics that have been around for over 2000 years and the oldest institution in the Western world.

Conversely,Pentecostals represent
about “8.3 percent of the world population. That means that one in twelve persons today is a pentecostal or charismatic Christian.”

The statistics above is drawn from the World Christian Encyclopedia,3rd edition (2020) which states that there are currently “644 million Pentecostals/Charismatics worldwide,including all the members of Pentecostalism’s 19,300 denominations and fellowships as well as all charismatic Christians whose primary affiliation is with other churches.”
And l would like for the purpose of this analogy to designate our youths or so called Obi-dients as the Pentecostals that have been around for 50 years compared to the institution of Catholicism that is at least 2000 years old.

When 1.3 billion Catholics which l have likened to old generation politicians is matched against 644 million Pentecostals,that l have tagged as our youths or Obi-dients,the old generation politicians more than double the number of Obi-dients.
The conclusion to be drawn from the analogy above and what readers should ponder is: can the Obi-dients out number,out maneuver or over take the old politicians in Nigeria,just like that ?

I think not !

Simply put,although in recent years,the number of Pentecostals in Nigeria has grown in leaps and bounds,it can not eclipse the Catholics over night.
So also would Gen-Z not defeat at the snap of the finger the old school politicians that have become entrenched.

That is the prism from which l am interrogating the Peter Obi quest to become the next number one Aso Rock Villa occupant in 2023.

As l have brought to the attention of youths in my previous interventions on the same issue,our youths should remember the dictum ‘old soldier never dies’

In my reckoning ,therein lies the dilemma after the conduct of a reality check on the feasibility of Peter Obi’s presidency in 2023 is made,and a question which our youths must ponder.

Of course l am not by any stretch of imagination proposing that the youth phenomenon and Peter Obi effect on the 2023 general elections would not be significant.

In fact,the high impact is evidenced by the prevailing political evolution triggered by the injection of youths and Nollywood into the 2023 political milieu.

That by itself is likely to compel a run-off in the presidential election to be held in February next year as no single political party may be able to win 2/3rd majority votes outrightly as demanded by the 1999 constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria which stipulates that for a party to be empowered and single handedly be entitled to be the ruling party at the center,2/3rd majority of votes must be won with across the country spread.

If that is the only difference that Gen-Z and Obi-dients would have wrought on Nigerian politics,when the hurly burly is done and after the electioneering process is over,then they would have convincingly earned themselves the title of the heroes of democracy in 2023.

It may be recalled that before Nigeria’s independence from British colonial rule in 1960,general elections were held in 1959,but they were inconclusive as none of the political parties was able to secure enough votes to meet the 2/3rd majority threshold which is a constitutional requirement.

According to records,NPC garnered 142 ,while NCNC had 89 and Action Group,AG won 73 seats. The numbers were not enough for each of the parties to form government alone.

Consequently,a coalition government had to be formed between NPC,as the senior partner with sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa from Bauchi state as the prime minister, and Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe from Anambra state ,as President, representing NCNC which was the junior partner.

My crystal ball tells me that a similar situation to what obtained in 1959/60 may arise after the much anticipated 2023 general elections.

Should the above permutation materialize,history would not only be repeating itself,but there would be a fortuitous reset for our beloved country,politically.

That assumption is underpinned by the fact that it would compel politicians to share power equitably as opposed to the present situation whereby the president from the platform of a ruling party that is not partnering with other parties have total control,such that he could solely determine who gets what.

If he is a clannish and religiously bigoted president,he would assign all the critical positions to members of his ethnic group and religious leaning.
That is incidentally the justification for the unnerving agitation for power shift and presidency rotation as well as restructuring of the political system currently wracking our dear country

While not being unmindful of the fallout of Muslim-Muslim presidency ticket by the ruling APC and the riling up of Christians who feel that they are about to be erased from Aso Rock Villa if APC is voted back with Muslim president and Vice President,l worry about the consequences of weaponizing Christianity by Obi and his supporters who have been visiting churches-Dr Paul Enenche’s Dunamis church in Abuja and Pa Enoch Adeboye’s Redeem Christian Church of God Camp in lagos -where men and women of God have been giving him rousing welcome, even as some online video footages of pastors where they are quoting Bible verses to validate their support for the LP candidate have been trending.

Thus wittingly and unwittingly,the church is being dragged into the arena of politics in Nigeria which in my view bodes no good to the body of Christ as it might amount to desecrating the house of God and it could even set Christians and Muslims on a collision path. More so as it has the tendency to exacerbate the negative energy which the APC standard bearer Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his running mate,Kashim Shettima, Muslim-Muslim ticket is already eliciting.

Contrast mr Obi’s cavorting with men and women of God in their sanctuaries alongside their congregation to the presidential candidates of the three other political parties-Bola Ahmed Tinubu,Atiku Abubakar and Musa Rabiu Kwakwanso that are front runners and Muslims,but are not directly or indirectly campaigning in mosques.
Not even Peter Obi’s running mate senator Datti Ahmed,also a Muslim is openly visiting mosques to lobby fellow Muslims,directly or indirectly.

I recognize and commend mr Obi’s determination to appear detribalized by making his quest for the presidency a pan-Nigeria initiative,hence he has resisted attempts to make his campaign an lgbo agenda by distancing himself from Ohaneze Ndigbo,Indigenous People of Biafra,IPoB and other lgbo-centric agendas,which is good.

Nevertheless ,l would like to respectfully advise mr Peter Obi’s camp to borrow a leaf or two from the 44th president of the United States of America,USA,Barack Obama who avoided being cocooned into becoming or being cast as a black candidate during his run for the office of president in 2008 by dissociating himself from rhetorical comments about his race by the pastor of the church in Chicago where he worships.

The deployment of that strategy helped
in many ways to bolster Obama’s ‘there is no such thing as Black ,Brown or White America’ element in his famous speech to the Democratic Party convention as he was commencing his race to the White House which he won in 2009.

Also,does the LP flag bearer’s romance with the churches not vitiate his strategy of detaching himself from the lgbos,and could it not pitch Christians who are showing open preference for him against Muslims who may be wary and therefore cast their votes against Obi’s run for the presidency even when one of their own is Obi’s running mate?

Without a doubt,the presidential candidates of the other political parties who are Muslims are consulting and courting members of their faith,but in more nuanced ways.
Is there nothing in the approach of other presidential flag bearers to guide Obi’s camp? Can ‘Obi-Dients’ be less noisome and more strategically subtle?

If Obi comes across to Nigerians as solely enjoying the confidence of Christians,how about lfeanyi Okowa,governor of Delta state and vice presidential candidate of the PDP who is also a Christian?
Would Christians ditch him?

Now,if per adventure Obi fails to win the presidency in 2023,would there not be a backlash of credibility issues in Christendom since some pastors have been openly prophesying that God has ordained Obi to be president ?

How can we avert a repeat of the negative fall outs of the infamous Reverend Father Mbaka prophecy about the 2015 and 2019 Mohammadu Buhari victorious run for the presidency and the saga of the charismatic priest thumping down Peter Obi ,on account of his alleged tight handedness,when he worshipped with him in Adoration Centre as the running mate of Atiku Abubakar for the presidency of Nigeria in 2019?

With all sense of humility,l urge the Christian Association of Nigerian,CAN to please take note.

Magnus onyibe,an entrepreneur, public policy analyst ,author,development strategist,alumnus of Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy,Tufts University, Massachusetts,USA and a former commissioner in Delta state government, sent this piece from lagos.
To continue with this conversation, please visit www.magnum.ng

When assessing the reasons for the non-development of countries in sub-Saharan Africa like Nigeria, commentators and scholars cite corruption as being responsible. My response has always been to point out the fact that Africa does not have a monopoly on corruption. The Bible has numerous illustrations of corruption. Jeremiah 17:9 ASV says that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?” And who can forget Judas Iscariot’s utterances when he sought to betray Jesus in Matthew 26: 15-“What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?’ So, they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. ” The fact is that human beings have always been corrupt, and as such, I refuse to accept Africa being labeled as corrupt-not because I condone corruption but because it is important to call out all the different versions of this practice in different settings, albeit with different names. For instance, I would argue that lobbying is actually bribery covered with a more luxurious-looking package because the latter’s objective of buying power is focused on the same outcome as the former’s goal of influencing power by offering contributions. The bottom line is that corruption ranges from the individual level to systemic, as in the case of the ill-reputed biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, which we are told were eventually destroyed. Thus, all people are prone to be corrupted!

To be clear, the objective of this article is not to make excuses for corrupt practices; it is meant to provide food for thought for readers to consider the possible origin of the form of corruption found in Africa by highlighting the possible link between slavery/colonialism and corruption. Essentially, I am arguing that slavery and then, subsequently, colonialism were implemented with the use of enticements to compel and persuade African chiefs and leaders to work with the Europeans by selling their people or agreeing to other forms of extractive practices. Enticements are certainly not the same things as gifts—for instance, in the account of the three wise men bearing gifts for the infant Jesus, they were meant as a mark of respect, a celebration of life, and symbolism. 

Let’s consider the Europeans’ entanglement with Africa. To start off with, the scramble for Africa’s resources that led to the division of the continent by the Europeans at the Berlin Conference of 1884 was an extremely audacious and corrupt exercise because those gathered there had no business carving out and sharing an entire continent that did not belong to them in the first place! Thereafter, guns were used to subdue the natives as their lands became occupied—again, these acts of violence were definitely forms of corruption. Subsequently, when they had captured these regions, the colonial masters proceeded to impose unfair taxation systems on the indigenes that required payment of taxes in European currencies. This meant that natives could only earn their living by working for low wages in the colonialists’ establishments. The resultant effect was that entire family member ended up being employed in colonialists’ enterprises to make ends meet instead of pursuing their own family businesses and developing their specialized skills. The notion of taxation on its own is not corrupt because it ensures that public goods are funded and provided by the state. However, the manner in which people were enslaved to work for little pay as well as the way in which local chiefs were employed and motivated to collect taxes was dreadful and corrupt. The chiefs enriched themselves from this process because they kept back some of the proceeds, thereby amassing wealth from tax revenues.

There is also the notion of divide and rule, whereby, using conquest, the colonialists aligned with one group to overthrow the ruler of another faction, thereby creating rifts and disunity. This resulted in rivalry as certain groups became perceived as favored by the colonial masters as they ended up enjoying more perks for their loyalty.

Then you have the building of the public sector during the colonial era. Africans in the civil service were employed as junior staff, and they worked alongside their European colleagues, who were employed as senior service staff. This senior service personnel was entitled to car allowances, first-class travel, and European-style quarters with rent set at 10% of their salary, whereas Africans had shorter vacations, bicycle, and motorcycle allowances, and, among other things, voluntary retirement at the age of 45. This disparity in payment and benefits made the junior service staff extremely resentful, and they ended up creating alternative avenues to earn income by demanding payment from citizens to have their files treated. Similarly, in the private sector, foreign companies employed indigenes in the most insignificant roles and paid them very little, whilst their European colleagues earned and lived lavishly. Consequently, the society inherited from the colonial masters mostly lacked trust, thereby leading to disenchantment, discontent, and dissatisfaction post-independence. Essentially, people sought the fastest way to make money by any means necessary.

As human beings, we “learn by doing” and “develop capabilities by routines”—thus, it would appear that the practice of corruption has evolved into part of society’s DNA post-independence in all sectors, not just the public sector. Africans learned by observing the colonial masters offer their chiefs “mirrors” and “shiny objects” for them to sell their souls and their people into slavery. They also observed the colonial masters extract their local resources to export them into their own countries, then turn around to sell them back to Africans in the form of finished goods in shiny packages rather than invest in manufacturing and technology in Africa. Nigeria at independence in 1960 had a total of 389 industrial establishments to produce soap, cement, tobacco, textiles, and brewing.

We mustn’t forget the numerous African artworks “taken” from Africa and kept in museums in Europe and North America today. This colonial looting was another form of corruption. Sadly, despite several attempts by African countries to claim these objects back post-independence, it is estimated that at least 90% of pre-colonial artworks remain outside of Africa. Today, Africans are self-looting and draining the continent’s resources and keeping them safe in investments and assets in other continents, further strengthening other nations’ wealth to the detriment of their future generations.

In Africa today, there are different actors in the public, private, and civil society sectors that facilitate the institution of corruption. It has now become so pervasive in society that even those who preach against it in their shiny suits and collars in places of worship are not excluded as they amass wealth from their poor congregants who are sold false hopes of a better tomorrow. It would appear that some of the temples of worship are also in need of the money changers’ tables being overturned and cleared up.

Our young people have not been spared! Numerous young people are full-time fraudsters, graduating from cybercrime training schools to become big-time fraudsters, appearing on the covers of business magazines or as influencers on social media with millions of followers! From large sums of money misappropriated by government officials to large sums of unexplained funds stolen from estates, farms, and homes by domestic staff who, like junior staff in the colonial days, observe their masters’ movements. So, who has the moral authority to judge the domestic staff thieves or the young cyber criminals? Who should be put away in prison with a longer sentence-the embezzlers or the house? Come to think of it, are there any legitimate institutions available to address corruption, especially as these same institutions are active participants and actors in its ecosystem? The bottom line is that the institution of corruption is actively sustained by the institutions set up to deal with it, thereby creating a vicious cycle.

Sadly, the resultant effect of the growing importance of this deviant institution called corruption is that the African continent is hemorrhaging from resource leakages. If Africans do not change their ways and stop this leakage, their resources, such as valuable artworks, will continue to leak out of the system and be exported elsewhere, making it difficult for them to be reclaimed or returned to the continent. The fact is that we are all social agents that need to hold the system accountable, and as such, it is in our collective interest to ensure that we develop local capabilities to build up institutions to ensure that resources are kept on the continent for development.

We need leaders that will facilitate the reframing of the narrative written for Africa by turning this vicious cycle of corruption into a virtuous cycle so that we can sustainably reclaim the continent for growth and prosperity for future generations!