Columns
Now that Labour has been defeated!
Sunny Igboanugo
The little hope Nigerians had about any form of respite from the vice grip of a merciless cabal operating in the country as a government, has finally evaporated. Early in the evening of Monday, June 5, 2023, news filtered in that the strike action called by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the concomitant protests thereof to challenge the sudden hike in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol, had been called off.
By later that night, the news was confirmed by Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff (CoS) to President Bola Tinubu, who went on to reveal, what he said was a set of agreements entered into by the NLC, which was joined by the Trade Union Congress (TUC), which was previously absent, but had to rush in later that evening.
In fact, there was a kind of uncanny drama that followed the entire sequence to Monday’s meeting. On Sunday, June 4, the TUC was at the same meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, with the NLC vehemently denouncing the parley. In fact at the time the Sunday meeting was going on, Joe Ajaero, NLC President, was on Arise Television, swearing before his host that the main workers’ union would not return to the table for talks with anybody on the subsidy matter until the old prices were reverted to.
Then, on Monday, it was the turn of the TUC to be absent. Nobody knew why. Festus Osifo, the President, had told reporters after the Sunday meeting as leader of his team that the union for the senior staff in the public service, had also handed down a set of demands to the government, among which was a reversion to the old price and to be followed by a proposal for increase in the wages of workers.
It would take some keen, discerning observer to see something strange in the behaviour of the labour leaders or at least suspect that much. But the meaning might not register quickly for the uninitiated or a non-follower of the activities of labour unions in the recent past. An smart follower, would have discover the pattern long before the drama got on the way proper.
What is more, a casual glance would expose labour more as an accomplice in the handing of Nigerians the short end of the stick, over the decades, since the end of the era of the genuine leaders actually fought with their full chest out for the welfare of workers and the ordinary man in the Nigerian street.
As much as 1993, during the June 12 struggle, Nigerians who had relied on the same labour to retrieve their mandate, which was handed to the late Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO), Abiola, suddenly discovered that they were clutching on mere straws when the NLC under the late Paschal Bafyau, dumped the agitation and practically went into bed with the military government at that time, including Sani Abacha, arguably the most despotic leader ever witnessed in Nigeria.
Since then, others after that era in upping the ante, established a certain pattern, which became emblematic of the Adams Oshiomhole era. It took a dimension in hoodwinking Nigerians to believe that the solidarity songs, the street protests and the sit-at-homes initiated were for them, when indeed, they were actually some well-choreographed activities to ride on their backs to feather their own nests.
Figure out the Oshimhole of those days and the one who now lives in a mansion said to be one of the wonders of Nigeria – built on a vast acreage of land with with artificial lake and swimming pool on the rooftop, to understand your true standing with those who have since taken over where he stopped.
It is even instructive that we’ve started hearing about strikes again in the period of Ajaero and Tinubu. During the eight-year period of President Muhammadu Buhari, when Ayuba Wabba, was in charge, the word seemed to have disappeared. That was why the government got away from blue murder with the way it related to Nigerians.
For all it is worth the said meeting said it agreed to establish a joint committee to review the proposal for “any wage increase or award and establish a framework and timeline for implementation,” and for the federal government, the TUC and the NLC to review the World Bank-financed cash transfer scheme and propose the inclusion of low-income earners in the programme.
It was also agreed that the federal government and organised labour would revive the Condensed Natural Gas (CNG) conversion programme earlier agreed with Labor centres in 2021 and work out detailed implementation and timing and to review issues hindering effective delivery in the education sector and propose solutions for implementation as well as look into and establish the framework for completion of the rehabilitation of the nation’s refineries, as well as for the federal government to provide a framework for the maintenance of roads and the expansion of rail networks across the country.
Now try and make sense out of it if you could. But even an imbecile knows that this is clearly an obvious joke. For all you know the same people who came out with the funny document they call agreement, would be on the issue of a new minimum wage for the next two years at the end of which they may come out with an addition of a paltry N10,000 extra to up it from the current N30,000.
They could not even push to reduce the PMS price by a kobo as the Oshiomholes used to do, when they would sneak in at night to fix the price with the government, come out in the morning to shout, then return in the afternoon to “negotiate” and in the evening, announce the actual figure they had already known all along.
No, even that drama that served as some kind of elixir and a balm to soothe the wounds of Nigerians, has also become a sort of luxury. What about the talk about local refineries? That demand too, which the NLC and TUC insisted as a sine qua non, and condition precedent for the removal of the so-called subsidy, has obviously died a natural death.
But wait for it. In the next few weeks when the appointments would start in earnest, check what the lucky ones would go home with. Of course by now, orders must have been placed for the latest makes of brand new vehicles that would roll out of factories in Japan or Europe – the real guzzlers of the nation’s resources.
Watch as each of the would-be ministers are escorted home with at least five of such vehicles, fuelled, of course at the expenses of the same government that has no money. Watch the sudden transformation that would come to them and their family members.
Watch as the other appointees and those close to the corridors of power spend money as if it is going out of fashion. Nobody would remember subsidy then. Nobody would tell you that government is broke.
That is when you realise that the Nigeria they envisage is not for you. If by now you have not realised what ‘state capture’ is all about, watch what would happen in the coming months and years. Nigeria is permanently cornered in such a way that citizens have nowhere to run.
You’ve seen how the judiciary has been used to stop the proposed strike even before it took off. Do you go to the street for protest? The same police and army, who have been complaining more than you about the hardship in the land, would all be too glad to shoot you, because that is the only means of letting off some pent-up anger or assuage the feeling of self-importance.
The media? Deadend as well. The last few days, would have shown that that road has been sealed as well, because either by default or deliberately, or for obvious reason, that road seems closed. The same media that are supposed to ask critical questions seem sold on the single story. If all you hear now even from such a critical sector that ought to be the last hope of the common man is that subsidy is a taboo, where else would you go?
So, in the end, it is what it is. Millions of Nigerians will suffer, millions more will die – of hunger, of disease, of suicide. Tragedy.
By Sunny Igboanugo
Dangote, NNPC: Too early to cry, too late to beg Tinubu
Greed is one of the most debilitating diseases a man could suffer, if not the most devastating. Now, let me tell you about greed. In fact, let me cite an example of how destructive the demon of greed could be both to the person that becomes a victim by coming under its grips and the society that shares as a victim.
Did you know about Pablo Escobar? Full name: Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria! He was not only the most notorious drug baron in Columbia, if not world history, but the richest criminal of global reckon, amassing, before his death in 1993, more than $30billion from the production and sale of hard drugs. In today’s rating, the raking of the infamous drug-lord, founder of the Medellin Cartel, has been put at well over $70billion.
Now, imagine if he were still alive. His earnings must have hit trillions of dollars. But never doubt that he would not only have remained in that business, but would have continued to accumulate more, regardless the havoc of his wicked enterprise. Why? Simple – the spirit of money. Irrespective the amount of money he must have amassed, he would still be in it. After all, he was, until he was finally caged by the law and died as a result.
In fact, one account quoted Roberto Escobar, accountant to the late kingpin, as saying the gang spent $2,500 a month for buying rubber bands to wrap his stacks of cash alone. Just imagine that. You’re talking about more than N5million in today’s equivalent. Mind you, we’re not talking about electronics or garments – those tiny rubber used in binding money – $2,500 worth monthly. Damn! That must be truckloads of bags of the stuff. Just to bind money! Yet, he never stopped. That is the disease of greed.
It is as contagions as the substance Escobar and his gang sold – more intoxicating than the hardest liquor – more deleterious than cancer – and more dangerous than the worst crime. It steals the soul from the victim and replaces it with stone or something more innate and more lifeless. It turns human beings into monsters – merciless beasts that kill and destroy without pity.
Now, take a sample of how beastly Escobar was. I’ll start with what he did to those who opposed him. A judge, was said to have given a judgement against him in court. Guess what he did? The judge was kidnapped by his henchmen and brought before him. After the personal encounter, the unfortunate jurist, one in many of his victims, was taken into a helicopter and flown high enough and let off in the middle of the city, head-first, so that when he crashed on the hard ground, the mess made by the brain that splashed on the ground, decorated the road like a paint. That was to teach others to be more prudent with their ideas.
That was just one part. There were other more blood-chilling stories. Though an outlaw himself, he was said to be merciless against those who went against the rules, particularly pinching his money. Ordinarily, you became stupendously rich by working in his well-knit organisation. But that was until you got itchy fingers. Then, you were taught a practical lesson of the difference in his diametrically opposing world – of maximum pleasure and agonising pains.
For it was said of him that stealing from his vast wealth was the greatest sin in his empire. The consequences, was in fact, worse than attempting to double-cross him. You could picture what such punishment would be! Horrible death! Hanging could the most merciful. Otherwise, you could be fed alive to one of his pet pythons, thrown into the crocodile-infested ponds to be feasted upon, fried in a drum of boiling oil or simply burnt alive on a stake.
Now, does it offend your sensibilities to situate or comprehend that such a man could be so brutal against those who tried to pay him back in his own coins – the same measure he was using in cheating the system and destroying the society? An irony and contradiction in terms, you might say!
Then I say, my compatriots – that is the same way you cannot make sense of what is happening in your country, Nigeria today. It made no sense to you yesterday, it is not making sense today and it will not make sense tomorrow. That, of course is because you don’t belong to their world – a dusky world, where everything is conducted in pitch-black darkness – a soulless world controlled by the demon of greed.
So, this Monday morning, September 16, 2024, when Rufai Oseni, a popular voice on national affairs and one of the anchors of The Morning Show, a breakfast programme on Arise News Television, after doing what he knows how to do best – dissecting the issue of Nigeria in the clearest terms – for the umpteenth time, concluded by appealing to the conscience of the powers that be in Nigeria – those responsible for the current excruciating suffering in the country – to soften their legs on the pedal, reduce the speed and slow down the galloping vehicle with which they are driving the collective fate of Nigerians down the slopy hill, the question, I asked myself was, did he understand?
For emphasis, he had tried logic, remonstrating that the money they were amassing today, would be useless to them at death and behind them. He emphasised that their children would squander the same accumulated wealth by wasting them on mundane fancies, only for things to return to the basics. Yes! The same children would be left groping for survival, simply because they made no meaningful contributions in creating the wealth. Touching and convincing argument to make, you’d suppose.
His words: “Have mercy! Have mercy on Nigerians. Stop the stealing, reduce the corruption. The hardship is too much. Nigerians are dying of poverty, hunger and disease.” With a glint in his eyes, he pled again: “Have mercy! Stop killing Nigerians!” Who was he addressing? That was the question I asked myself.
It was akin to that scene in the court of Venice in Shakespeare’s epic – The Merchant of Venice – where Portia pleaded with Shylock, the Jewish merchant to have mercy and spare the life of Antonio, but which was ignored because he (Shylock), wanted nothing outside having his pound of flesh, to satisfy his urge for vengeance for past wrongdoing for which he bore years of grudge.
In the same TV show on Monday, Ojy Okpe, the face of What’s Trending, a segment of the programme, played a trending video in the social media of a Nigerian mother going by the tag – the _victorious_chisom, passionately begging President Bola Tinubu and wife, Oluremi, to have mercy on her and her children.
“Dear President,” she began, “the hardship is telling on us, especially we, widows, like me. I’m a widow of two children who are still toddlers. I became a widow, Your Excellency Sir, because of the insecurity in Nigeria. My late husband was kidnapped in 2022 and was killed, despite paying ransom. Your Excellency, I’m law-abiding, I’m hardworking. And despite being a widow whose children were made fatherless due to insecurity, I still keep pushing. I still live in Nigeria. I still stay and live in Nigeria.
“My dear President, please I’m begging, the hardship is too much, the hardship is telling on us. Many young widows are suffering. Please pity us. Have mercy on us. Dear First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, please, you’re a mother and you’re a wife and I know and I believe you know what we are going through, especially young widows like us.”
Then, the clincher: “At this point, I’m fed up. I’m tired. I can’t take it any longer!” That was how she ended. The rest of her sad story was told by tiny droplets of tears lurking at the corners of both eyes, refusing to flow down. Who knows how long she had been crying for the tears to have become that tiny that you’d have to look hard enough to observe them?
If you had watched as I did, I’m sure you heard clearly, when Reuben Abati, another anchor in the programme, stated the obvious in his concluding comments. “She spoke for the rest of us,” he had said. No! She didn’t! She rather spoke for the millions of voiceless families that are worse than her – mothers dying in silence, who have no access to phones, not to talk about data or media space to post the littlest snippets of their anguish.
She spoke for families who have buried one or two of their children due to lack of money to buy cheap medicines to treat common malaria – millions of others who go to bed with empty stomachs and have done so for days and weeks on end and millions more who are waiting to be swallowed up by the elements.
If I were close to that woman, I would have asked her to save her breath, wipe her tears and wait for the appropriate time, because that moment is coming when she would need them. Surely, by that time, nobody would need to tell her it is time to cry. But not now that petrol is still selling at N1,000. No! After all, it is still cheaper than the price in Togo and Benin Republic. Didn’t IMF say so? Aren’t they the masters we listen to? They said Nigeria is still selling cheaper than other countries. Why? Why should it be cheaper when we need all the money to keep the Villa comfortable? Or don’t they know that in there is where we have “Thinking People” – whose brains are sharper than Socrates and Aristotle put together – the reason they’re taking such BOLD decisions to redeem years of mess? These Nigerians self! Did they think that deep thinking is conducted under inclement weather? No! Such thinking need the coziest environments such as diamond-encrusted chairs and ornamental beds inside the bellies of N5billion yachts to conduct.
That said, she should therefore await the time she can no longer afford data or must have sold her phone and other belongings and found a space with her children in the cold streets, if not a worse situation. The road she is currently trodding would surely lead her to her destination where she would find the right corners to cry at the appropriate time, assuming she could muster the strength to shed tears at that point. Of course, she would not be alone there. That’s for sure. She would have company – plenty!
As for her appeal to Tinubu, what mercy does she want the President and family to show? Is Tinubu the cause of her situation? Didn’t he meet a bad economy, inherited from Muhammadu Buhari, his predecessor? Come to think of it, didn’t he alert the nation early enough that he would continue Buhari’s “legacies,” where he stopped? If Buhari flogged them with koboko and he’s now flogging them with snakes and scorpions, what crime did he commit? Isn’t that the idea of promise kept?
These Nigerians self! Didn’t the woman hear him tell his China host that he’s a “reformer?” How else are reforms conducted? What else is reform than spending money like it is going out of fashion – buying new Presidential planes, acquiring new yachts, exotic cars for himself, renovating mansions and putting other facilities in place for pleasuring himself and those now “serving” the country? Didn’t she hear him say subsidy is gone? Did he have water in his mouth when he said so last year or was his voice not audible enough?
Coming to the issue everyone is complaining about, was he the one that employed the people at the NNPCL or did they see him around Dangote? Why should he demand anything from them? Do they want to knock his head together with those voracious, avaricious and powerful members of the Vested Interest Club that have dared his predecessors to move against them?
Is it this Presidency that he crossed seven rivers and seven forest to get, confronting all the elements in the wilderness to boot, that these troublesome Nigerians now want him to fritter away by leading him to confront such monstrous behemoth with bare hands. Ko le wek! E no go work for them! If the woman wants mercy, let her direct her tears to the appropriate quarters. Why does she want to stain his clothes with her tears? Why should anyone blame him for the pervading greed that has been there even when he was still hustling in Chicago – whose origin is as old as Nigeria itself?
Even the legendary Fela sang about it – the N2.8billion, missing oil money! What was the verdict of Justice Ayo Irikefe? Didn’t he look into his crystal ball and declare that no oil money was missing. So, kini big deal? If the problem was not dealt with in 1979, how could he, Tinubu fix it now? In fact, why should he?
Besides, how many times and for how long would he continue to sing it like a song that Nigeria under him is like a woman in labour who must bear the pangs of it no matter how long it lasts? What’s with Nigeria about impatience? Even if the woman dies, what about it? She wouldn’t be the first. Many other women have died and many others waiting to die. Right now, even when some are reeling under the pangs of childbirth, many are at this minute enjoying the pleasure – and asking for more – that would make them visit the labour room tomorrow to bear the same pain.
Come to think of it, what did they contribute to his road to the Villa? Didn’t they hear him recount how he snatched, grabbed and ran with power? Did they think he would go through all that and not enjoy his prize to the fullest?
Did they think a world-class accountant with enough sharp memories to be able to last him a lifetime – that goes to bed with figures, forgets easily? Did they think he didn’t hear the trolls and catcalls during those days of Bala-blu-bulaba? They were laughing then and calling him names. Who’s laughing now?
What were they thinking he alluded to when on the night of March 1, 2023, after Mahmoud Yakubu, the INEC chairman declared him winner of the presidential election he told them – I hear you! Loud and clear?! This is surely payback time to them for their move through their “votes” or lack of it. O! How they would – in full!
Did they think that his memory is so short as to forget the favours – such as losing Lagos and Abuja? What if the courts had not come to his rescue? What if those judges had believed Peter Obi that 25 per cent votes in Abuja is like the Use of English in JAMB – a compulsory subject each student must pass or Atiku Abubakar, who insisted he was nowhere near Chicago State University, not to talk about possessing their certificate?
Next time they should know how to cast their votes. You get mercy when you deserve it. Yes! Nyesom Wike, his henchman in the FCT has promised Abuja will never happen again. Lagos, was an error too that the MC Oluomo and other leg-men have since corrected! Maybe when these people learn to cooperate and stop voting nonsense! May be then, “Sister Mercy” might have returned from the market! But for now, she’s still on her journey yet. Her heading home would either be in 2027 or 2031. That is a long time to start shedding tears now!
My name is Sunny Igboanugo, I’m The Tiny Voice
There is this saying that some proud residents boast of, which is that you cannot see Aba in standing position. To be able to see Aba, you must bend down, they tell you. In Lagos, there is another version that when you read This is Lagos, as you’re entering the Nigerian prime city, it is not just an ordinary expression of welcome. There are people – elements – phenomena – even principalities and powers the authors have in mind, for which they are alerting you – either for good or ill.
What this means is that you should not take things on their face-value. Behind every situation, issues, and circumstances, there are compelling nuances that impel and propel them. It is everywhere in virtually all human endeavours. But nowhere is that expression or the meaning thereto, more than in politics. You must take every political action beyond the surface. You must get to the nerves and bones of every issue.
Now you must have heard the exchange between Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Bode George, former National Vice Chairman (South) of the former ruling party and its leader in Lagos State. In recent days, both have had their fare share of presence in the media, engaging in the odds and ends, this and that of the PDP, from the disciplinary committee and reconciliation committee the party set up recently to the issue of the 2027 presidential election as it relates to the party.
It is the latter that has caught my attention – the 2027 polls, that is. Last Wednesday, George, former Military Governor of Ondo State, was on Atiku’s matter over the issue. I’m sure you’d be wondering what is, with 2027 and election at this time. Wonder no more. This is Nigeria. Campaigns, have started in earnest. Beyond the night movements that are done surreptitiously and in the thickness of darkness, take every comment you read or hear about from the mouth of politicians today as part of the journey to the next election.
Never make the mistake of saying, 2027 is too early. No! Politicians only need a few day’s rest from the last election, before scheming for the next. In fact, for some of them, it is an everyday job. Or did you not hear Atiku accusing Tinubu of already amassing money to relaunch himself to power in 2027. That is how we roll here. That should tell you that nobody is resting.
Now, let us address the issues in question and attempt a critical examination of them. As I indicated earlier, everything you hear now is about the positioning for the next election. At the vortex is the ambition of the former VP to run again for the nation’s number one job. If the Waziri Adamawa throws his hat in the ring, it would be his seventh attempt.
Should he run? My personal position is capital No! Why? The answers are simple. It would be the height of insensitivity for him to do so. It would also be the highest exhibition of naivety for him to attempt gunning for the presidency again at this stage of his life, career and age. That lifelong ambition has eluded him and he must come to terms with it. All the indices, calculations and arguments are against him. What will happen is that he will become a convenient excuse for the All Progressives Congress (APC) to retain power, especially if President Bola Tinubu is running for second term.
In fact, if Atiku decides to step out again, nobody else should waste time in contesting, because it would be the surest way of handing over power to Tinubu. It would be a replay of the 2023 presidential election where the buccaneers and brigands that hoisted the electoral heist on Nigeria, would do an encore. It would create the same effect. Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), if he decides to run again, would gain all the momentum, capture the fancy of the electorates and win the election as he did in the last edition. But the elements will once again take over. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), will have a convenient excuse to rig the election again and hand over to the APC.
In the end, Obi would come first, but would be relegated to the third position, Atiku, who would come second, would maintain his position and Tinubu, who, given his current failure in government, would worsen his case from what it was in the last election, would of course come a distant third again as he did in 2023. Once again, the excuse would be that Obi and Atiku divided their votes for Tinubu to advance.
Why this damning assessment for the ex-VP? I don’t see anyone coming out with his full chest to support him in the Nigerian South. What would be their reason? Yes! If he picks the PDP ticket, as he is likely, given that he has his way around it, some of the governors on the platform of the party, especially in the South South, and some parts of the North would work for him, rig one or two states and that would be it. As usual, he would be usurping the position of the area under the PDP zoning arrangement and under the larger convention of power-sharing between the North and South in Nigeria.
So, I’m convinced that the best Atiku could get is the second position and the outcome of his involvement, would be to play the role of a spoiler. In that case, Bode George is right to ask him to wait till 2031 to contest again, because that would be the time he would have a fair chance, as it would then be the chance of the North to go for the position once again.
But is that the end of the matter? Again, capital No! the political coconut and juggernaut from Lagos is not telling the entire story. He is keeping something back, decidedly too. And that is where politics comes in, ditto, the suspicion I talked about earlier, which I said must compel us to take every word from the mouth of a politician with a spoon – not even a pinch of salt.
Now, retired military tactician, who prides himself as one of the founders of the PDP, should know that the zoning arrangement of the party did not just stop of power being shared between the North and South. He should be the one telling then non-initiates within the party and outside it that there should also be rotation of power among the zones that make up the South or North as the case may be.
But he has consistently failed to do so. His voice was quite strident in the last election about the injustice in the former ruling party. But nowhere did I hear him extend the argument that justice must be done to the Igbo people, either in the PDP or the nation at large. So, when in his latest edition, he came out loud and clear once again with this mantra that power must remain in the South, the question remains, where in the South?
Hear him: He said: “I have not defected to any other party. While I was in Wadata Plaza, Alhaji Abubakar was in the Villa as Vice President. So, we know ourselves and the two of us know the principles guiding this party. We should not do anything that will destroy our party and the country.
“In 2027, the concept of Turn-by-Turn Nigeria Limited must be strictly followed by our party. PDP must look for a southerner to wrest power from the APC because that party of strange bedfellows wants to destroy this country, economically and politically. So, Nigerians are waiting for us to rescue them in 2027 but a southerner must lead the battle.”
Incidentally, the last time I heard Atiku speak about this, he did not dispute the fact of the existing zoning arrangement in the party, but only insisted that it must be fully carried out. He had stressed that if the advocates of zoning push further that the presidency should be zoned to the South East, he would give up the contest.
The meat derivable from the argument of the former VP was that if the party had zoned the position to the South East, neither he, nor the likes of Nyesom Wike from the South would have contested. It means that a Peter Obi, could have easily emerged from the PDP fold and given the momentum around him, combined with its strength nationwide, the party, baring other manipulations stood a better chance of victory.
Now, even if it was mere sophistry that Atiku was playing at, as it was clear that even him did not come out with his full chest to pursue that line, the argument still stands. At least, the party would not have descended into the crisis it faced during the period, with Wike’s G-5, which is what it is suffering today.
Why did Bode George, an officer and a gentleman, not toe that part of honour? That is where the real question is buried. Even with his sanctimonious posture, that he chose to stop halfway in the South-must-take-it argument, makes the toga of deceit fit well on the Lagos PDP boss.
It is even worse with the whispers that he is actually working for Wike. Until Oga of Lagos, is willing to speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, he is as guilty as Atiku he is accusing – a worse offender in hypocrisy!
My name is Sunny Igboanugo, and I’m The Tiny Voice!
On the night of Thursday, July 25, 2024, Benjamin Kanu, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, was the guest of Prime Time, a public affairs programme on Arise News Television. From beginning to the end of that programme, I continued to twist and flinch as each word he spewed hit me like a sharp point of needle being poked on my body.
As a journalist myself, I could put myself in the shoes of Constance Ikokwu, the anchor of the programme at that point. An Igbo herself, she must have been struggling to maintain a balance between professionalism and the fact of her ethnic reality, during that engagement. Indeed, she must have been in a fix, as it were. I would have been myself.
The Deputy Speaker, the brain behind the enactment of the Act for the establishment of the South East Development Commission (SEDC), by the National Assembly, which President Bola Tinubu signed into law, two days earlier, was actually in a triumphant, celebratory mood. He had projected the feat as the coming of uhuru for Ndigbo, describing it as the demonstration of the love the President has for the Igbo people.
Anyone would cut him a slack for feeling on top of the moon by achieving the feat and succeeding where others had failed previously. I would. But the matter got quite bemusing from there when he began to give the impression that the gesture was all Ndigbo needed to turn 360 degrees in their feelings for Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In the first place, the creation of the SEDC, is not exclusive to Ndigbo. Before it, there have been similar bodies like it across other zones in the country. In fact, on the same day Tinubu was signing the document, he also did so for the North West Development Commission (NWDC). Before that, there was the North East Development Commission (NEDC), created under former President Muhammadu Buhari and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), for the oil-bearing areas of Nigeria, mostly concentrated in the South South zone.
So, what’s the hype? Was it that Ndigbo, had now been singled out for a special treatment, or the fact that they were finally given what others had enjoyed for years? What’s there enough to roll out the drums? That’s one of the questions I had expected the beautiful anchor to put to her guest. I had also expected her to raise the issue of the general mistreatment of Ndigbo since the APC got into office in 2015, which Tinubu had virtually taken to a new level.
I had expected her to ask the DS if he felt comfortable that a mere Deputy Speaker, would be the highest position Ndigbo, the third leg of the Nigerian tripod, was entitled to in Nigeria and if he was comfortable being the one that would now speaking in place of the likes of Zik of Africa, the late Owelle of Onitsha, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe, Akweke Abyssinia Nwafor Orizu, who represented the Igbo faces and voices in the First Republic.
Even after the civil war, regardless they were a defeated people, Nigeria, in apparent recognition of the place of Ndigbo in Nigeria’s history still had the presence of mind to secure a pride of place for them. That was how the likes of the Alex Ekwueme, and Edwin Ume-Ezeoke, Vice President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, respectively, emerged among other prominent positions, in the Second Republic.
Come to a more recent times, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the next full civilian rule, Ndigbo were still not left out. The likes of Chuba Okadigbo, et al as Senate Presidents, Vincent Ogbulafor, National Chairman, Ojo Maduekwe, National Secretary, Pius Anyim Pius Anyim, Senate President and later Secretary of Government of the Federation (SGF), were in the first 11 of the Nigerian structural team, while the duos of Ike Ekweremadu and Emeka Ihedioha, Deputy Senate President and Deputy Speaker of the House or Representatives, held forte at the National Assembly.
Down the ladder, Ndigbo were never left to warm the bench either or reduced to mere spectators. In fact, they were the major strikers, with the likes of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Oby Ezekwesili, Osita Ogbu, Ernest Ndukwe, et al. They were not only reputed to be the main drivers of the Nigerian economy, but majorly the face of Nigeria in the international arena as well.
That was until the coming of Buhari, who changed everything. Nobody knows how much sleepless nights he suffered during this period when Ndigbo was doing their exploits. In his private moments, he would have thought, Ndigbo of all people! Imagine an Igbo man becoming Chief of Army Staff before his eyes. A people he conquered! Unthinkable! That must have accounted for the vehemence with which he released his venom on them in his eight-year full onslaught, as accentuated by his “97-5 per” cent model, that saw him not only fully excluding them in appointments, but allowing their homeland descend into the worst security situation since the civil war.
Yes! Kalu, the Deputy Speaker was right. Tinubu was actually chummy with Ndigbo. Throughout his eight years as governor of Lagos State, Igbo people featured prominently both in his government and, or politics, officially and privately. All these changed when he met Buhari and got infected by the Buhari phenomenal disdain and outright hatred for them. Since then, he has taken it to an all high. At the APC, demeaning the Igbo man has remained a major party policy ever since – Organising – Treasurer and other trivial positions are all they now get in a so-called national party.
I wonder if the Deputy Speaker was aware that the same Tinubu recently made a whole 16 appointments without a single Igbo man. It happened just a few days before his Arise TV appearance. There is a saying that whoever wants to stop a fight must start when fingers are being pointed. Tinubu has since passed that stage to a point of trying to wrestle down Ndigbo, a task, which will naturally be as futile as it was with Buhari and others who had tried.
But one of the most interesting nuances of the whole Thursday encounter was the angle of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. Incidentally the DS is representing Bende Federal Constituency, home to the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). Introducing the Kanu narrative, he described his encounter with him during a recent visit at the facility of the Department of State Services (DSS), where he has been in detention since July, 2021. The coming of the SEDC, was major during the parley.
Hear him: “One of the things he told me was I like The Peace in the South East Project that the President came and flagged off. He sent the Vice President to flag it off in Bende on the 29th of December, 2023. He said the eight thematic areas of that peace in the South East, I like them. If I’m released from this incarceration, I’ll be in the forefront of projecting the eight thematic peaceful agenda of peace in the South East project.
“When a man starts talking like that, the followers will also talk in that manner. He’s no longer talking violence. He’s no longer talking conflict, he’s no longer talking agitation, he’s talking how do we use peace as a vehicle to heal our land. I saw him and I saw in him a man who wants peace.
“I saw a man, who was impressed that we’re taking steps towards rebuilding the zone. And I assured him that this President that I know will assent to this South East Development Commission. He told me one thing – he said – if this man signs this bill into law, it means that he truly loves South East. He told me he would lead the support for the President.”
I’ve since heard many people, practically scoffing at the intriguing revelation. Not a few believe the IPOB boss they know could not capitulate so easily. I have no way of knowing the truth until I hear from him. Regardless, assuming the report is true, and indeed the move is a sort of a tradeoff or a pitch to use the freedom of Kanu to endear APC to Ndigbo for Tinubu’s political benefit, it is most likely dead on arrival.
The only way the APC could win election in any part of Igbo land today is via state capture – such as has remained their template over the years. Even the DS himself may not be able to swear to Kamanu that he did not travel that route to power. In fact, the very first utterance from Kanu in support of Tinubu, as things are today between him and Ndigbo would put an end to his deification even from his close allies. Like the proverbial god that begins to misbehave, Ndigbo will simply show him the tree from which he was carved.
I don’t need go far to cite examples. The scenery around the late Ikemba Nnewi, Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, when he returned to Nigeria, in 1982, may never be replicated in the history of Ndigbo. The crowd that welcomed him on May 18, of that year, and at the welcome party in various cities, could actually make it to the Guinness World Record (GWR), as the hugest in history. Everywhere he went showcased similar enthusiasm. Ndigbo closed their shops, while people struggled to have a sight of him. Even the late Osita Osadebe, historic highlife maestro, waxed a special record to welcome him back. Such was his popularity.
Then, he did the unthinkable. He joined the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). The ruling party, must have banked on him to garner all Igbo votes. Many even swore that it was the deal ab initio, from his abode in Ivory Coast, where he was on exile after the failure of the Biafran effort. But whatever dividend they had hoped went with the wind. Ndigbo simply did the needful. He could not even win a senatorial election against Edwin Onwudiwe, a lowly commissioner in his home Anambra State on the platform of the ruling party.
As alternative, the Igbo NPN chieftains, who had made the gamble, actually had to use other means as counter, such as employed in the eventual capture Anambra State from the Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) of the late Owelle of Onitsha, Nnamdi Azikiwe. Till date, the way the NPN, wrenched away power from Jim Nwobodo in favour of Christian Chukwuma Onoh, remains one of the demonstrable examples the impunity and the audacious nature of the use of political power responsible for not only the vulnerability democracy in Africa, Nigeria inclusive.
To further adumbrate the point of the futility of the IPOB boss for political purposes, I will also cite a more recent case of Orji Uzor Kalu (OUK). Incidentally it was under him that the DS cut his political teeth. Perhaps he would know. In his early days as Governor of Abia State, OUK was a phenomenon in the South East. At a point, he became the most virulent voice of Ndigbo for his audacious and daring courage in speaking out for them and was already being primed as the next authentic Igbo leader. I remember a former governor and one of his contemporaries, with whom I had a private dinner at that time practically gushing with envy at Kanu’s exploits and popularity.
Who else was there at the Cinema Hall of Hotel Presidential, Enugu, when Kanu addressed Ndigbo in Nigeria and the diasporas, as a keynote speaker during the 2001 World Igbo Day? I recall the crowd that spilled beyond the huge hall to the veranda as much of the crowd practically pressed their ears to the wall to hear him speak. It was the picture I gleaned from the depiction of the scenario at Virginia Assembly, USA, on March 23, 1775, where Patrick Henry, gave that historic speech – Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death. History had it that so inspiring was it that one of the listeners pled in his will that he be buried at the exact spot where he stood to listen to it, which was granted at his death. Such was OUK at that time.
Then, like the butterfly thinking itself a bird, he made that blunder the day he offered an official apology to Nigeria on behalf of Ndigbo for engaging in the civil war. He never recovered from the backlash of that particular political hara-kiri, which eclipsed the bright political profile. Today, Mmiririenyi, having been reduced in weight and size, is no a shadow of himself.
To worsen the matter, his most recent fixation these days, seems some attempts to turn the edge of his political dagger against the same Igbo people, perhaps in a sort of vengeance to cut his pound of flesh, as could be seen in his professed love for Buhari, at a time he was actually flogging Ndigbo with his biblical snakes and scorpions.
Now, what am I labouring to say? If that outing by the DS is an attempt to sell either APC or Tinubu to the South East, it would be akin to repeating the NPN gambit. I totally agree with the top lawmaker that the release of Kanu might be the solution to the massive insecurity in the South East currently. Yes! It is capable of putting a face to the perpetrators of the various crimes. At the moment, IPOB is being blamed for everything, including a man’s failure to get erection or inability to impregnate his wife. It appears every crime in the area today is virtually an open and shut case as they are conveniently labelled with the IPOB tag and thrown into the trashcan.
I therefore fully support his push for Tinubu to order Kanu’s release. But that is where it ought to stop. They say, you have to be close to someone to perceive smell of his body. Luckily, the DS seems to be among those who have access to Tinubu. He sees the SEDC Act as a gamechanger. I wonder why he seems not to be seeing the fact that it is actually Buhari and not Tinubu that is still holding Kanu and could only be released if he says so.
Yes! Tinubu, could actually order the release, but it would be at the displeasure of his predecessor, who had to break the banks to ensure that the IPOB boss was brought back to Nigeria. Yes! There are a million reasons he ought to have regained his freedom like the others like him in other parts of the country. But to Buhari, Ndigbo are not like other Nigerians. Would Tinubu elect to offend him, just yet? Could he risk it? Perhaps the DS has a genie he could spring from the magic lamp to achieve that feat. I support him wholeheartedly to give it a trial. But to make Tinubu smell roses in the South East? That’s a different kettle of fish.
I like his enthusiasm and his emphatic declaration, when like Michelangelo’s flourish, he said: “Watch what will happen in the South East. With the beautiful step the President has taken, a lot of things will start coming down.” Such enthusiasm! We wait!
My name is Sunny Igboanugu, I’m The Tiny Voice!
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