Editorial
Parlous fate of the Naira: Did Shettima actually call Nigerians ‘clowns?’
“It is not only disheartening and disenchanting, but also heartbreaking that yesterday when the Naira plummeted to N1,500 to the dollar, instead of us to coagulate into a single force and salvage our nation economy, sadly, some clowns are celebrating on Twitter of an impending implosion of the Nigerian economy.”
Only a passive observer will fail to see the mortal danger in this statement, made by Vice President, Kashim Shettima, last week. Apart from the obviously and inherently inelegant language, unexpected of a senior government official, let alone Nigeria’s number two citizen, it points to danger.
Whenever leaders and those in authority appear vulnerable to criticisms, or afraid of hearing the truth, it signals frustration, a dangerous element, which whenever it sets in, brings nothing good. This is the reason Nigerians must activate their antenna from now on.
Why did Harold kill John the Baptist? Answer! He was a thorn in the flesh of the royal family. His immediate and specific sin particularly, was that he told him that it was wrong for him to marry Herodias, the wife of his half-brother, Herod Antipas.
That has been the pattern. Across history, dictators and bad governments, had always been loathing of any form of criticisms and in most cases put those involved down, sometimes in the most vicious and brutal manners. History is replete across the world of examples. As a result, history is replete with tales of how people died in the most horrible ways, including being roasted like animals, burnt on stakes, their heads chopped off by guillotines or subjected to extreme hunger.
Nigeria is no different. It was in Nigeria that a journalist, Minere Amakiri, had his head shaved with broken bottle on the orders of a governor, for pointing the flaws of his government, said to be decked in wanton revelry, unchecked profligacy, careless overindulgence, mindless waste and mindboggling extravagance.
It was in Nigeria that Kalakuta Republic, owned by the foremost Afrobeat maestro, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, was razed down by the infamous unknown solders, and had himself in and out of detention for his unflinching attacks against bad leaders. It was in this same country that Dele Giwa, Nigeria’s foremost celebrated doyen of journalism had his bowels, blown open by a parcel bomb due to his fearless knack for speaking truth to power and holding leaders accountable.
It was here that Gani Faweihinmi, almost lived inside prisons as much as he did outside for constantly pricking the conscience of evil leaders Nigeria were constantly cursed with, alongside many of his colleagues in the civil society struggles like Olisa Agbakoba, founder of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), Beko Ransome Kuti, Abdul Oroh, Femi Falana, among others.
It was in Nigeria that officials and members of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), were harried by day and haunted by night, with many of them scampering out of the country, some through bush-paths to escape the bloodthirsty government that desperately wanted their hides, one of them Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the current President of Nigeria.
In fact, the likes of Tinubu, Wole Soyinka, Ralph Obioha, Kayode Fayemi, among others who successfully fled the country, were counted as the lucky ones as many others were brutally murdered or escaped death by the skins of their teeth.
Here is a short list to ginger back the mind to that eerie era. Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, a General and former Chief of Army Staff, who died mysteriously inside Abakaliki prison, Emmanuel Olu Omotehinwa, an Admiral in the Nigerian Navy, who was shot in his home at Ikoyi in May 1996, Kudirat Abiola, wife of Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola, who was shot and killed near 7UP junction at Ikeja, on June 4, 1996, 80-year-old Bisoye Tejuosho, Iyalode of Egba and mother of Dapo Tejuosho, the current Osile of Oke Ona, Suliat Adedeji, Ibadan-based businesswoman and politician, shot and killed in her residence in November 1996.
There were also, Toyin Onagoruwa, son of Olu Onagoruwa, who was shot in front of the father’s house at Yaba, Lagos, on December 18, 1996, Alfred Rewane, NADECO chieftain, killed on October 6, 1995, Babatunde Elegbede, an Admiral in the Nigerian Navy and former Chief of Defence Intelligence, who was shot dead along Gbagada-Oworonshoki Expressway on June 19, 1994.
There was Bagauda Kaltho, a reporter with The News magazine, who suddenly disappeared in 1995, and whose death is being linked in certain quarters to a bomb blast at Durbar Hotel in Kaduna. There was the late Alex Ibru, former Minister of External Affairs and Publisher of The Guardian, who escaped death narrowly after his vehicle was sprayed with bullets on Falomo Bridge, in Ikoyi area of Lagos. Though he survived after losing one eye, Chinedu Offoaro, a reporter with same publication, was not that lucky as he has remained missing since his disappearance in May 1996.
It is important to travel this road of history to project the fact that criticisms are not sweet music to the ears of leaders, especially bad leaders. Yes, it could really be argued that most of the cases happened under the military. That may not be totally true. There had been many cases of oppression against vocal voices in the society since 1999, when civilians took over.
As usual, the major casualties, were journalists. Till date, the death of Godwin Agbroko, former Chairman of Editorial Board of ThisDay, remains a mystery. Nobody has found the killers of Bayo Ohu, Assistant Editor with The Guardian, who was killed in his home on September 20, 2009, or Aboyomi Ogundeji, a member of the Editorial Board of ThisDay, who fell under a hail of bullets by some gunmen along Dopemu, a week earlier on September 9, 2009.
Apart from these cases of fatalities, there are numerous others of reporters being pulled out of their desks by security operatives under one guise or the other and had one trumped up charge or another hung on their necks, for as much as exposing or criticising the ills of a government.
Take the case of Agba Jalingo, Publisher of Cross River Watch. He once spent a total of 179 days in detention after he was arrested between 2019, and again 2020 for accusing Ben Ayade, then governor of monkeying around with N500million belonging to the state, and was slammed with charges of terrorism, treasonable felony, and cybercrime, and incarcerated for almost six months, before he was released.
Then, in 2022, he was a guest of the prisons once again, when he was arrested and detained at the Kuje Correctional Centre on the orders of the Federal High Court, Abuja for defaming Elizabeth Ayade, the wife of Frank Ayade, a brother of Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade.
His arrest, which was carried out by Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command, saw another set of charges, who had laid siege on his home in Abuja, was that his publication false and was released “for the purpose of causing her annoyance, ill will, and insult,” on the person of Ayade, with offence, punishable by Section 24 (1)b of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc) Act 2015.
So, you see the danger and why Nigerians should begin to worry. An intolerant government, could go to the extreme to exert its anger on the people without suffering consequences as had been shown either in the situation during the military era in Nigeria, where nobody was brought to book for either the brutality the officials unleashed on the people or the fatalities to boot, or in less, yet damaging situations, such as used by the likes of Ayade. In each case, there is always the weapon of state.
Meanwhile, in the instant case, the VP seems to be blaming everyone else but himself. This was the selfsame Shettima, who almost ate Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party in 2023, for suggesting that it is a huge waste of money to spend a whopping N15billion to complete his official residence in Abuja, as reflected in this year’s budget and another N3billion for that of Lagos, when a paltry N5billion was allotted to students’ loans.
It does not occur to him that he is the guilty party here and instead of his transferred aggression, a simple reversal of policies, would do the magic and earn him the elusive love he obviously seems to crave at times like this.
You want Nigerians who are the real victims of the current poor rating of the Naira to be clapping for you when you looked them in the face and mocked, thumbed your nose and stuck out your tongue against them when they told you beforehand that the road you are travelling would lead to perdition.
They told you that this was the wrong time for the country to be spending N5billion for a yacht for the President; that spending about N30billion for luxury cars for the President, at this time was blue murder; that the wife of the President has no place in government to enjoy N1.5billion worth of luxurious vehicles when many Nigerians are out of school and that it was completely unthinkable to spend N160million to buy a vehicle each for the 360 members of the House of Representatives and more for 109 members of the Senate.
You ignored all these, and while rolling yourself in grand opulence, you now want the same Nigerians to cover their heads in ashes and go into mourning. What a way of beating a child and denying it the pleasure of crying!
It began less than 10 minutes after taking the oath of office. In his address to the nation, he uttered those three-letter words – subsidy is gone. The ink with which he signed the documents declaring him President was yet to dry.
That was it. From that moment, Nigerians have known nothing but poverty, tears and death. It was a declaration that came out of impulse rather than articulacy. It was not even contained in his original speech prepared for the occasion. But it sprouted out – from a rash, unthinking and impetuous mental construct.
But the effect was instant, the impact direct. From that moment, Nigerians have never known peace. Every thing took a cue. Minutes after, the news broke that the price of Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise known as petrol had jumped from N189 to N550. It was that instant. Today, it hovers around N1,500.
The effect: Within minutes, transportation cost quadrupled. So too, commodity prices. Caught unawares, marketers, who had earlier thought it was a day of the rains as customers rushed to their shops, soon became suspicious and then got wiser – these were not ordinary customers but smart alecs playing a fast one on them.
They stopped selling, retrieved the items they could from those who had not disappeared with their goods and closed shop to study the situation properly. Hours after, they responded. A plate of eba and soup, went up from N200 to N1,000. Prices hit the rooftops.
In fact, the vehicle transporting what used to be Nigeria, which had been moving at a horse and buggy pace in the days of Muhammadu Buhari, stopped abruptly, engaged the reverse gear and began galloping backwards. That has remained the ugly, parlous tale of the Tinubu days, since May 29, 2023.
Now, the expectation would be that the President and his government that wrought such a horrendous punishment on the polity, would themselves take some blows. But nada! Instead, the opposite was the case. Within months of plunging the citizens into the untold hardship Tinubu went on a binge, spending money – in the words of Olusegun Obasanjo, former President – like a drunken sailor.
Few weeks after, as Nigerians were reeling and gasping in pain from the impact of their new situation, 469 newly-minted Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs), rolled out from factories in Japan, where they were produced into the premises of the National Assembly for the just inaugurated members.
Put the cost at N100billion – that is N160million for each unit, plus other charges. Reason: The lawmakers needed the vehicles because of their good suspension system, to navigate the so many bad roads in Nigeria. Yes, you heard right. How could they think well and make good laws after the hassles of the bad roads? Tinubu saw reasons, acquiesced and voila!
But it did not end there. Tinubu suddenly realised that Kashim Shettima, his deputy, needed a new home “befitting” his new office. Pronto! A voucher of N21billion was raised and he had it. Till date a haze still hovers over the project.
The last news that was heard was that Number Two refused to take residence because the entire environment, including the toilets was wired to the teeth to monitor him. And Number Two needed privacy.
Again, in the same weeks, Oga Patapata, also realised that Madam needed to transport more comfortably. Pronto! It was arranged. Another voucher was raised for cars for the Office of the First Lady. Cost N1.2billion. Of course, madam needed the comfort for peace at home.
Naturally, since transportation is not done by land alone, he also took care of that. For the sea, a yacht was procured. Cost N5billion. Because the birds in the presidential fleet were not good enough, Tinubu did the needful.
He enriched the fleet with the one befitting of his status and had it transformed to mimic the US Air Force One. To complete the status symbol project, he also added a replica of The Beast, the US presidential automobile.
Ironically, the funds used in procuring these luxury lifestyle, came, not out of productive ventures of Nigeria, but through borrowing. Today, Tinubu has practically borrowed Nigeria blind, doubling or even tripling that of his predecessors.
Meanwhile Nigerians had upped the ante from mere groaning and skreiching. Citizens, unable to take it anymore, now stop their hitherto sleek vehicles on the Third Mainland Bridge and plunge into the Lagos lagoon to end it all. The option is now more rampant than remote and occasional.
Many others, taking the Socrates option, now drink hemlock and many more simply sleep off without any intention of waking up. That is where we are. That is the new Nigeria – the Tinubu Nigeria. But there is more.
Terrorists and the landlords of the forest, having now discovered that the Commander-in-Chief has other fancies than security and welfare of the people – the constitutionally-declared primary purpose of government and scant regard for the citizens, have practically gone haywire. They have taken over and established their authority.
Presently, outside those wantonly slaughtered or butchered in their homes like animals at the abattoir, incinerated alive while sleeping on their beds, among other forms of decimation, many more citizens are now spending months, going to years as victims of captivity with them in various forests in Nigeria.
In their rampage, the terrorists have since broken all barriers considered out of place hitherto. One of their escapades is the present videos of the school children and teachers taken from Oyo State. The gory imagery captures the current Nigerian story.
For instance, on Thursday, just as the sound of heavy celebration was going on in neighbouring Ogun State as the world marked the Ojude Oba yearly carnival, two of the victims, one of them with a toddler on her back, were pleading for their lives, as others went through various forms of torture, including heavy whipping like beasts.
Don’t forget that the terrorists had earlier slaughtered one of their colleagues. In the new video, the totally terrified women, informed that they had chosen another victim to be similarly eliminated. Yet, no word about rescue! Terrible!
Interestingly, if not painfully, Tinubu’s response, in the few cases he bothered, was to see the crisis through the politics lens. His most recent reaction was to tell the world that the harvest of attacks and carnages ravaging the country, were sponsored by his political enemies, intent on shoving him out of power. That to him was all that mattered.
Now, where are your powers as C-in-C? They are mostly found in the most disgraceful economic and political acts of impunity. Nigerians now waking up to hear of the award of brain-dazing contracts such as the N15trillion Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and Badagry-Maiduguri Highway – with scant regard for official regulations, is now becoming more common than rare.
Few days after one of the teachers was beheaded and the video of the hideous act made to circulate on the social media, the President and his All Progressives Congress (APC), party, rolled out the drums of his winning the party’s ticket to contest the 2027 presidential election.
To say that it has been three years of weeping, wailing, mourning and gnashing of the teeth, is a clear euphemism. There is no starker way of putting it than calamity – pure, unmitigated catastrophe – disaster.
Then comes the big question. Nigeria is already breasting the tape of these ruinous years of the first term. Suppose Tinubu succeeds in renewing his tenure by January next year? Will Nigeria survive five more years of a life like the last three? What will be left of Nigeria? Is there a way out, outside shouting – God forbid!?
Now that Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has fully executed his plot against Siminalayi Fubara, Governor of Rivers State, where would it be placed in terms of identity, nuances, ethos and history? Where would it be placed in democratic arrangement and value? In other word, by what name would it be called?
So, this is what President Bola Tinubu’s much-advertised democratic credentials is all about? This is what being listed among the arrowheads in the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), the body that fought relentlessly against the late Sani Abacha and his henchmen has finally come to?
Is this where “The Last Man Standing” – apologies Tony Elumelu – has ended up? So, after wedging an epic battle for and through Lagos State, against then President Obasanjo and practically defeating him, even if perceptibly, in all the struggles – such as running government without federal allocation for years and surviving the political onslaught that took away other South West states like a tsunami, it has come to this?
Don’t forget that it was this selfsame Tinubu that served as the bastion of opposition in Nigerian politics from when he was Governor of Lagos State, not only standing up against Obasanjo, but undertaking the relentless battles that led to the All Progressives Congress (APC), winning the war eventually in 2015.
So, this is what all the struggles, the speeches, the colloquia, the meetings and the strategies have come to – the end result? So, the definition of democracy, to Tinubu, is selling the dog to buy a monkey – replacing democratic bad-behaviour with democratic-heist? So, this is it?!
Make no mistake about it. What you saw play out in Rivers is nothing but Tinubu at work. It is all about him, it is for him. Never make the mistake of adorning Wike in the toga of a powerful man. That would be a fatal error of judgement. Every power he exercises, real, imagined, inferred or contingent belong to and are exclusive to Tinubu.
Take away the President and Wike would turn to a political meek-lamb or a jellyfish. Fubara would have eaten him for lunch a long time ago. So, Tinubu it is – the reason the klieglights must be beamed on him. That is why he must carry the can in this odious construct in Rivers in particular and the entire Nigerian political scenario in general.
With the picture that assaulted Nigeria regarding the APC primaries that have just held, what is different from the edition we saw in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of old? Is it not worse or the worst in real and imagined terms? What then has Tinubu been fighting all these years?
Incidentally, where we have Wike today, we had Lamidi Adedibu, the Amala Politics exponent, Tony Aneni of the Mr. Fix-it fame and the Uba brothers in Anambra to whom the political firmament in Nigeria once bowed, among many plethora of examples.
So, there is nothing really new about the development, but for the fresh dimension that has been introduced into the narrative by the Wike phenomenon, which is totally novel. Before now it was a case of one behemoth in a political party rampaging the system.
But today, it has gone beyond that. Wike has developed the penchant for taking no prisoners. In his own strange construct, he has now coalesced the entire APC and PDP structure into his shoulder basket, from where he dispenses favours.
Imagine Kingsley Chinda, purchasing APC governorship election form, as a PDP federal lawmaker without first resigning from his original party. That is how wacky it has become. Wackier still is that nobody – not even the APC apparatchik has been able to raise a finger. Why? Obvious answer – the Tinubu factor.
Now, here is the danger. By the heist in Port Harcourt adding to the sequence of political oddities and absurdities since the Tinubu years, it has become obvious that Nigeria is headed towards a Paul Biya’s Cameroun, a Yoweri Musaveni’s Uganda and Zimbabwe under the late Robert Mugabe.
Tinubu, has shown obvious incapacity to tackle the parlous economic crisis in the country with 150 million Nigerians plunged into multidimensional poverty and many more growing the list daily, while also displaying uncommon powerlessness towards addressing the debilitating state of insecurity.
Under his nose citizens are daily being forced from their homes into the forests by terrorists, with some of them taken from their crutching positions, positioned before the camera and slaughtered – heads cut off like animals at an abattoir and video images freely displayed on social media.
Yet, by what has now happened in Rivers State, it has become obvious that Nigerians are not being factored into the whole equation and if they were, scant regard is paid to their opinion, ending in their powerlessness to change the situation. That is the tragedy!
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