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Editorial

Escape of Nadeem Anjarwalla: Shame of a shameless country!

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Nigerians woke up on Monday to another shocking story – a damning narrative of how Nadeem Anjarwalla, Executive Manager of Binance for the African region, escaped from the guest house, where he was being detained in the care of the Office of National Security Adviser (ONSA), currently being manned by Nuhu Ribadu.

As usual, it is another regaling narrative in the series of pure, but bizarre episodes that have continued to shock the world even as they provide some sort of comic relief to them at the same time, with the consistency that could only be likened to movie scenes.

After all, is this not the country where monkeys cart away catches of currency notes and snakes swallow millions of public funds? While those in saner climes, one of them derisively describing Nigeria as a fantastically corrupt country, wonder what specie of homo sapiens inhabit our space, while sharing tea or quaffing beer in the club, we, especially our leaders have continued to supply them with more salacious ingredients to do so from our seemingly endless reservoir.

Unfortunately, we never seem to be in short supply of the most outlandish tales or quiver at their obvious nonsensicality and absurdity. It never occurs to us that we live in the comity of nations where our behaviours count and are counted against us. We simply carry on as if nothing matters.

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The case of Nadeem Anjarwalla, presents no less in illogical and ridiculous to say the least. This was a man the Federal Government, had taken in for high economic crimes, such as money laundering and terrorism financing transactions – crimes, which outcomes have led to sorrow, tears and blood – through which hundreds of people have been sent to their early graves due to hunger, poverty and want and others from in the bushes as victims of kidnappings and mindless carnages.

PREMIUM TIMES, which broke the story on Monday, narrated how the 38-year-old Binance executive, made good his escape on Friday, 23 March, from the Abuja guest house where he and his colleague were detained after guards on duty led him to a nearby mosque for prayers “in the spirit of the ongoing Ramadan fast.” It was from there that he bolted out of the country aboard Middle East airliner, the report said.

In confirmation, Zakari Mijinyawa, spokesman of the ONSA, who continued the story, in a statement, on Monday, added: “Until his escape, Nadeem Anjarwalla, who holds British and Kenyan nationalities and serves as Binance’s Africa regional manager, was being tried by Nigerian courts. The suspect escaped while under a 14-day remand order by a court in Nigeria, and was scheduled to appear before the court again on April 4, 2024.

“The Office of the National Security Adviser confirms that Nadeem Anjarwalla, a suspect in the ongoing criminal probe into the activities of Binance in Nigeria escaped from lawful custody on Friday, March 22, 2024. Upon receiving this report, this office took immediate steps, in conjunction with relevant security agencies, MDAs, as well as the international community, to apprehend the suspect.

“Security agencies are working with Interpol for an international arrest warrant on Nadeem Anjarwalla. Preliminary investigation shows that Anjarwalla fled Nigeria using a smuggled passport. The personnel responsible for the custody of the suspect have been arrested, and a thorough investigation is ongoing to unravel the circumstances that led to his escape from lawful detention.”

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Any informed Nigerian and those watching from elsewhere would have known the implication of this watery, infantile, obtuse and asinine tale. It is an open and short case. The matter has ended! Cul-de-sac, simplicita! From now on, politics takes over. The next stage is the Government Magic the legendary Fela Anikulapo Kuti spoke about in one of his epics. Soon there would be an order from the Presidency for the immediate rearrest and a threat to deal with those involved in the incident.

Anjarwalla No Longer in Nigeria”: Binance Reacts to Executive's Escape from Custody - Legit.ng

This will be followed with trading of blames, then media interviews, where political stalwarts, will attempt to shift the blames away from the key players with direct roles in the saga, make excuses and cite other countries where criminals similarly escaped from custodies and finally blame opposition for trying to politicise the issue, when they should join hands in solving the problem. Curtain falls!

Indeed, who would be surprised, knowing the country we are in, hearing tomorrow that a panel has been set up to “investigate” this shameful incident? Of course, the move in the main would be a ploy to ending the current public outcry rather than any worthwhile attempt to arrive at the truth? Who would be surprised if billions of Naira are approved and brand-new vehicles purchased for the members of that would-be panel, naturally made of up party officials and their cronies? Who would be surprised that the end of this saga would probably be a report submitted at another grand ceremony, which would end up on top of those already gathering dust on the shelve for years?

Else, who has been held responsible for that freakish tale of a snake swallowing millions of Naira? Or did it not happen in Nigeria? Has anyone heard anything about the Betta Edu saga again? Naturally, the hullaballoo against the suspended Minister of Humanitarian Services, that suffused the entire Nigerian firmament only a few weeks ago have disappeared in the winds. Are the key figures mentioned in that odious affair, including her ministerial colleague, whose company was used to salt away the funds meant for humanitarian purposes, not prancing about in the corridors of power yet?

One thing that is as sure as death is that Anjarwalla, did not just escape. He was probably led out of the country leisurely and effortlessly through a well-oiled protocol. No one should also discountenance the involvement of very powerful people in high places. Otherwise, the puerile account that there is no alternative to removal of petrol subsidy, and it was in the interest of Nigeria, rather than vested interests, should be accorded the same credibility.

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What should be in issue is why? Was Anjarwalla led out of the country, because he induced his collaborators with money, which he must have had plenty of, given the level of his supposed crimes? Was it for religious reasons, given the part it plays in Nigeria? Or was it to ensure that what happened in Vegas remains in Vegas – in other words to buy his silence so that he does not name his collaborators in the high crimes when and if the matter finally ends in court? Find answers to these questions, solve the mystery behind this disgraceful saga.

Come to think of it, is there any other country in the world where a shipload of stolen crude oil is arrested and rather than use it as evidence against the culprits involved, it is set ablaze to destroy the same evidence, as constantly happens in Nigeria?

Is there any other country in the world, outside those officially in war, where hundreds of students or citizens are corralled into the forest and millions demanded in ransom only for some of them who are lucky to be “rescued” just like that without consequences to the culprits, as happens in Nigeria constantly and consistently? Any other country with such infantile tales?

Is there any other country in the world where a government official would so brazenly raise a memo for N1.5billion or equivalent just to inaugurate a 37-man committee to fix the salaries of citizens and remains in the same position an hour after?

Where else in the world have four refineries built with the sweat and blood of citizens simply gone kaput and the same citizens are made to suffer the ugly fate of high oil prices as a consequence of importation, as in Nigeria for decades now? Where else in oil producing countries across the world has it been reported that proceeds from crude production end up in private pockets more than get into public till as Nigeria has suffered these past years?

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Indeed, which other country across the globe has presented the kind and type of sordid stories the world has been regaled with from Nigeria? Will there be more? Just wait! If not in days, in weeks! Soon, the Anjarwalla tale will give way! Soon another more funnier, odder, and weirder episode will come. Just wait!

 

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Editorial

Anambra terror war: Soludo must be scientific, not crude!

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Only those with criminal inclinations or outright criminals and their patrons would be unhappy with the current vibes in Anambra State regarding the apparent determination of the government to end the orgy of bloodshed in the state.

Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, the Governor, who seems to have swallowed the bug has certainly taken the fight to the criminals, who had before now entrenched themselves deeply in the state, to the extent that Anambra, reputed to be home to the highest cluster of billionaires in Nigeria, if not the African continent or even among the black people of the world, has suddenly assumed a new, absurd, ignoble and dreadful status of a playground for villains. What a sad story! Terribly so!

In fact, anyone who was anywhere near the state during the last Yuletide season, would easily attest to how much Anambra has sunk, degenerated and become a shadow of itself – its hitherto vibrancy, robustness and vivacity all gone. Not only that movements of men and materials were measured, activities, especial social, which used to be loud and audacious, went under. It was all subdued hush and shush arena.

Therefore, we must state from the outset that we are on all fours with this ostensibly extensive measures being taken by Agu Awka, to turn things around and return the state back to its original status. We cannot say it loud enough that we support Soludo with our full chest in this regard.

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Of course, the current scenario would not be the first time Anambra would be travelling this route. From time immemorial, the state, either as a government or the people had, had to engage criminals in frontal combats.

Be it the Boys Oye that took place in Onitsha and environs more than four decades ago, the invitation of the Bakassi Boys by the government of the late Chinwoke Mbadinuju, or Peter Obi’s initiative that resulted in the clearing of the Akpaka Forest, which transformed a once dreaded hideout for bandits into a prime housing estate, the people and successive governments had never yielded the state to criminals permanently.

It had always been a battle in which the state proved its superiority as the custodian of the instrument of force. Soludo, could therefore neither be faulted in toeing the same line of his predecessors, nor assailed for using the same to enforce government’s superiority over the evildoers.

Never mind the imputation in some informed quarters that he is coming to the party a little too late and that his motive is not totally altruistic. In fact, many of his critics insist that he was actually pushed to action by the lacerating impacts of some of his opponents, especially those on the political turf with him and more particularly those seeking to take his job.

Nobody, including his supporters would likely forget in a hurry the lashing the governor has been getting in recent times from Reverend Father Chibuzu Emmanuel Obimma, popularly known as Ebube Muonso, the fire-eating Catholic priest in the state, who has been on his case for allegedly allowing the security situation in the state degenerate to its all-time low.

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The jury is out on whether these, coupled with the impact they are likely going to have on his bid for re-election this year, were what gave him the jolt in the arm to undertake his current move. We are not worried about that aspect. The fact is that he has moved. He is now battling the terrorists head-on. Quite gratifyingly so!

What we are worried about, however, are the concomitant sad tales that have tagged along the operations from those the governor has assigned as his footsoldiers to undertake the onerous task. These soldiers are not smelling roses at the moment.

The overwhelming enthusiasm with which the Agunechemba security outfit driving the Operation Udo Ga-achi, the battle-cry for engaging the criminal elements in the state, seems to have been cut short in certain quarters, as their activities are fast become quite suspect. This is in spite of the huge successes the outfit has reportedly recorded in such a short time.

The greatest culprit in this regard, came from last week’s operation in Owere-Ezukala, a nondescript farming community in Orumba South Local Government, where the security setup took the battle to fish out supposed kidnappers and other criminal elements.

The operation seems to have blown in the face of the operatives, not the least, Soludo and his government, given the outlandish, sordid, if not creepy narratives with which the public is now being assaulted. Not a few are only completely scandalised, but outrightly outraged.

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In the last few hours, the trail from the outcome of that operation, is suggesting that the narrative of the security operatives regarding the feat they claimed to have achieved in the community are not only a ruse, but farcical. It is even more so, when it appears that the tale bearers were deliberate in their attempt to lead the public by the nose.

In fact, immediately after the operation, locals in the community, had taken time to discredit the earlier claims that the criminals lurking in the Owere-Ezukala Forest had been arrested. They sent out several voice notes indicating that the security outfit, which had posted videos celebrating their victory, were nowhere near the forest and that the people they claimed to have arrested, including the three “kidnappers” they claimed to have killed were innocent people they accosted in their homes.

Sadly enough, it is now becoming evident that the version of the community folks is more credible after all. Video evidence, including that of the family of one of the victims suggests that the young men killed in the operations were artisans working at a building in the community.

Those who hired them for the job have also testified that the said bomb-making elements displayed by the security men as recovered from the victims, were in fact, welding machines used to construct wrought-iron designs in the building they were working on. The building itself was said to belong to a priest in the community, who also confirmed that the victims were working for him and not criminals.

Added to this was the subsequent release of another victim, described as the kingpin of the alleged kidnap gang, who was subsequently found to be clean, as attested by the community, now celebrating his safe return in another trending video.

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That this incident has cast a lot of shadows on this ambitious security project by Soludo, is not only saddening, it is devastating. We insist that nothing short of the immediate investigation, arrest and prosecution of those involved in this odious and hideous crime that is nothing outside extra-judicial killing, will conduce enough punishment.

It is galling that both the operatives and the government have remained mum on the matter. That will not work. Soludo must come out with a definite statement on the issue promptly. This will arrest the descent of public confidence, calm nerves and instill fresh impetus into the security project. He must not only identify and deal with the bad eggs in that outfit, but ensure there is no repeat.

Incidentally, one of the victims comes from Isuofia, his own village, making it quite easy to ascertain the veracity of the family’s story as to the innocence of their son. If eventually the innocence of the victims is established, their killing must be seen as pure crime and not a “mistake” or “collateral damage” as many are now insinuating.

Outside this, the Anambra security project must now assume scientific rather than crude methods in its implementation. We suggest the procurement of hi-tech equipment, including drones for reconnaissance to map out the areas of operation and sound intelligence to track down the bandits before operations.

We hear this is what obtains in neighbouring states. We have said it repeatedly and we cannot say it enough that certain tales around Soludo, arguably the most educated and influential governor in the South East if not Nigeria, are in the least, palatable.

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How could it be said or heard for instance that the former university teacher, economist of world renown, hitherto consulting for some of the most elite and influential global institutions and former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), would be associating his government or even be building his governance structure around questionable characters – people whose conducts could not be elevated beyond street urchins and motor park louts.

Sadly, those are part of the sights and sounds the publics are fed with most times from the state. The case of Okechukwu Akanaeme, former Chairman of the Onitsha Chamber of Commerce (OCC), who has remained in a vegetative state since last year, after men said to work for Anambra State Waste Management Authority (ASMATA), broke his spine with a pestle, remains quite fresh.

Indeed, nobody would actually quarrel with the governor, if he took it as his remit to hug such a notorious image. As a politician, he would have to account for that with the Anambra people at the appropriate time. Where we would worry, and indeed worrying, is when it becomes a danger to the very people he superintends over. That is the issue with the instant case of the Agunechemba operation in Owere-Ezukala.

We will go all the way with the governor for as long as he remains deliberate, committed and decisive in this war against the terrorists in Anambra. But that is the farthest we could go. Anything outside credible, cogent and verifiable conduct, he loses the plot!

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Editorial

Courage or conceit? Questions over Tinubu as THISDAY’s ‘Man of The Year’

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A few days before the announcement of President Bola Tinubu as THISDAY Man of the Year (MoTY) for 2024, the crew hosting The Morning Show, a breakfast programme on Arise News network, had informed their viewers that a joint project was in the works between the two sister organisations towards making a credible choice. Do not forget that both organisations are owned by the versatile media mogul, Prince Nduka Obaigbena.

When Tinubu was eventually named, on January 31, 2024, Reuben Abati, the alter ego of the Arise News branch in that joint team, made a job of work of it, with a clear attempt to exonerate the television network from the decision. Instead of the previous announcement that it was a collaborative project with a sister body, he sent an unequivocal message – this is the handiwork of THISDAY Board of Editors.

To the discerning, this explanation, seemed to have underscored the level of debate which might have gone down between the two tendencies in the THISDAY-Arise house to warrant the latter pulling out. Mind you, this ubiquitous THISDAY Board of Editors, a body supposedly embodying the intelligentsia arm within the leadership of The Nigerian Newspaper of Record, arguably one of the most authoritative Nigerian publications for decades, is not new to controversy. Rather, it has since established an uncanny reputation for taking positions on national issues, which many consider totally at variance with the reality on ground if not outrightly insensitive.

Recall that notorious stance of the same team on the likely outcome of the 2023 presidential election, which eventually turned out embarrassingly vacuous in the end, despite the load of work and research the team claimed to have invested in reaching to its conclusion.

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That the Arise News team, quickly beat a retreat by taking the Pontus Pilate option of washing its hand of the choice of Tinubu, is not only quite revealing, but instructive. Only very few would fail to notice its implication either.

The reverberating echoes trailing the announcement, from a groundswell of the Nigerian public, tells the rest of the story. That the fire ignited by that singular outing, has refused to dim, not to talk of extinguishing, attests to the criticality of its impact to the polity.

Like many Nigerians, we find this outing quite nauseating, to say the least. Yes! The idea of MoTY, is global as it is common knowledge. We agree that it is usually not an endorsement of right or wrong and that the recognition is given to a man or woman that has made the greatest impact to the society within the year in question.

But in this regard, THISDAY was clear and unequivocal on how it got to the choice. We therefore base our total aversion to the choice of Tinubu from its own mouth. Unfortunately we declare that not a single submission, argument or reasoning for reaching this strange conclusion is agreeable in anyway, because they do not reflect the realities on ground.

We neither agree with the direction Tinubu is headed nor his ideas of salvaging the ruins Nigeria has become over the years could be achieved by further leading the country into the dark alley filled with gloom or doom or plunging it into the bottomless pit of hopelessness where abject poverty and sustained hunger has become a daily singsong before his own idea of of Eldorado comes to pass.

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What is more? It would have made more sense if the President is also embarking on the same journey with the ordinary Nigerians. Unfortunately, he is not. Rather, everything suggests that he is living his best life, having achieved his life-time ambition of grabbing, snatching and running away with the nation’s number one job. Like millions of other Nigerians, we are not blind to witness the sheer opulence surrounding him and the lavish lifestyle he leads alongside his acolytes within and outside the Aso Rock precinct.

Yet, no leader, military or civilian has driven Nigeria into the level of poverty, misery and hopelessness as the country is currently undergoing under the President. He has struck Nigeria with the deadliest blows and the hardest times in its six-decade history.

So, how could such a man be mentioned even in passing, let alone being conferred with such a rewarding recognition using the superlative terms the THISDAY Editors, employed to arrive at their decision – terms like courage, daring, doggedness or resilience? Of course, these terms, if used in the negative sense, would have made more proper meaning in today’s Nigerian reality. Out of all these accolades, the term courage, seems most disconcerting if not outrightly annoying.

Pray! What is the courage in punishing your country deliberately, simply because you possess the powers to do so? Is it courage or indiscretion that a surgeon would deliberately refuse to apply anesthesia before putting his patient under the knives knowing the sure outcome? What manner of a surgeon would that be?

Tinubu is wont to remind Nigerians that the pain in the country is like a woman undergoing childbirth and the joy would come after successful delivery. But which woman would survive a Cesarian Section delivery with the doctors cutting her up without first sedating her to kill the pain?

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That is exactly what Tinubu has done with his subsidy removal and floating of the Naira, the two major policies that are central to his much-trumpeted reforms idea, which has left the remaining citizens yet to die in near-death pains and the same economy he claims to be salvaging gasping for breath out of asphyxiation.

It is even more tragic that the President has continued pushing on despite the excruciating agony in the country. Is it too difficult for Tinubu or those egging him on to see the number of people dying as a result?

No! Far from it! It is not courage for a man to beat up his wife or any woman for that matter because he has the powers to do so. It is rather an act of weakness, if not cowardice. It is also not courage to beat up a man in a wheelchair or be flogging a sick horse or even a lion with broken legs. These are akin to what Tinubu is doing to Nigerians.

In fact, the All Progressives Congress (APC), government of the past 10 years or so, has so dealt with Nigerians through the systematic bastardisation of every segment of the polity that there is hardly any breath left in them for any fight. They are now like a sick horse lying prostrate on its stomach – an easy pick for any prey.

It began with Muhammadu Buhari, who practically disembowelled the entire polity and left the citizenry decapitated, dishevelled and disoriented. From being dubbed the biggest in Africa and one of the best investment destinations of the world with most alluring climate for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), the fortunes of Nigeria under him plummeted to the unenviable position of the poorest country in the world.

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That was the country Tinubu met and now preying on. So, what is the courage in further plunging the same people into more poverty and worsening their misfortune, knowing that they neither possess the energy nor the resources to fight back? What is daring about it? Do you dare a hungry man who has not eaten for months and is lying helplessly on his belly to a fight?

That he has gotten away with the two deadly policies is not a function of any sort of courage, nerve or bravery, more than it is a testament of the vanishing tigritude in the Nigerian tiger from the continuous pummelling it has been getting daily over the years. That is why Tinubu can afford to prance about with cavalier abandon. It is therefore neither an acceptance or endorsement of those policies. Nigerians are simply bemoaning their fate silently, waiting to be saved somehow or accept their sure death someday. Simple!

Besides, what is left of their fighting spirit, has been taken away by the instrumentality of the almost completely weakened national institutions, which are now clearly turned against them. Citizens’ dissent, a veritable tool of holding government accountable has not only been outlawed but defiance is met with brute force.

In a situation where the police, the army and other security forces are there to put down any form of demonstration and where public protests have become so risky that demonstrators are lucky to get home with their lives and limbs intact, what else is left?

With what happened in the 10-day #Hardshipprotest, of August 1-10, 2024, where many of the partakers barely escaped the brutality of the security operatives unleashed on them in the streets while scores of others spent months in detention dungeons, including children on charges of treason – a hitherto heavy, scarce crime – which has now become an everyday mantra for even the mildest disputes found in civil cases like Dele Farotimi’s defamation trial, no one is left in doubt as to where Nigeria is headed today.

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Perhaps, the eggheads at THISDAY, were confusing recklessness and heartlessness, undue obstinacy needless stiff-neckedness for courage. That is the only other plausible explanation for their strange choice. We do not want to join in imputing other motives

Otherwise, leadership courage, as a phenomenon is not difficult to discern. Many other leaders before him, had shown clear examples. From Keneth Kaunda, Nelson Mandela, to Robert Mugabe, Africa has a surfeit of great men and women who went into the trenches to liberate their countries and others who took definite stands in various forms that became demonstrable evidences of courage.

Indeed, courage could only come by confronting greater obstacles like David challenging Goliath and not vice versa. The Goliaths of Nigeria are there for all to see. They are the vested interests that have led Nigeria to its prostrate state. They are the powerful and the mighty, not ordinary Nigerians. These people are not affected by subsidy removal. Their state of the art cars have not disappeared from the streets like those of the ordinary Nigerians. They still fill their tanks at filling stations and still throw lavish parties.

They are the ones to be targeted. Instead of the whimsical announcement – subsidy is gone – through which he plunged Nigeria into the progressively catastrophic state it has witnessed since the last 20 months or so, Tinubu would do well to direct his gaze towards the Niger Delta for instance. There, he would find the powerful men that would match him force for force. He should go and defeat them. That would qualify him for the glorious crown of bravery.

A courageous leader would stand toe to toe, staring eyeball to eyeball with the behemoths that are believed to still be diverting half of the proceeds of the nation’s oil production into private pockets till date. If that massive pillaging of the commonwealth is ended, the production capacity ramped up by another half and the proceeds therefrom added to the national coffers, who would quarrel even if Tinubu is dubbed the modern-day Caesar?

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In recent years, some parts of Nigeria have become totally inaccessible by the ordinary folks due to banditry and terrorists, said to be funded and armed by foreigners with vast interests in illegal mining operations and other criminal activities.

Courage ought to push President Tinubu to look in this direction and confront the monster, local and foreign. That way, farmers would return to their farms to produce food with attendant domino-effect of curing the malaise of food insecurity and attendant social vices. That way, citizens, including those in refugee camps would join in hailing and decorating his cap with the golden feathers as the New Nigerian hero.

What stops Tinubu from being spotted in Lagos boarding a local flight to Abuja, or driving himself in the street of Lagos or travelling incommunicado on Lagos-Ibadan, Abuja-Kaduna or any other federal highways? What stops him from alighting from his vehicle to listen and assure those women, who cheered him as Jagaban, now crying, ebi n’pa wa?

That is how to be daring. That is how to be courageous. That is how to exhibit rare leadership. That is how to win the hearts of the people. That is how to win the MoTY in a positive sense. Anything else is not only the inapposite, it is fraud.

Courage is not about making quirky, uncanny, impulsive, spur of the moment declarations. It is not a function of using any means necessary to sustain mindless, insensitive and callous policies including shutting down voices of opposition.

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You can only be lionised as a hero for acts of bravery or valour. In that case, you must either have fought a lion with bare hands and defeated it, or more at home, at least fought your equals on fair ground. Tinubu has not done any of these. Famished Nigerians are not on fair grounds with him.

Further we say and further we maintain, unleashing untold hardship on citizens earns Tinubu no badge of honour as the THISDAY Board of Editors, tried to infer. The two policies, which sustenance this body hinged their decision on, are nothing but rash, instinctive and insensitive, if not reckless, foolhardy and outrightly wicked. No more no less!

Millions have died already due to hunger, starvation, disease and stampede. Many have jumped into lagoons, hung themselves on trees or quietly ended it all by taking poison. Many have killed their brothers or engaged in other malevolent acts to survive. Millions are going to die this month and in the months to come. How many more need to go before reality dawns?

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Editorial

Ordeal of ‘Olori’ Naomi: A metaphor for Tinubu’s failed state

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Nothing speaks more to the irony of fate and contradiction! Since the first stampede in Ibadan on Wednesday, December 18, 2024, Nigeria has been in a set of unusual frenzy – one that underscores everything the country has turned out in recent years – a country were the wicked reigns – a country where the victims are confined to applauding their oppressors or suffer for not doing so.

Silekunola Moronke Naomi, the ex-wife of the Ooni of Ife showcases the symbol of this uncanny situation. She is currently an inmate at the Agodi Correctional Centre in Oyo State. Her offence was organising the event that led to the deadly Oyo stampede on that fateful day where 35 children reportedly lost their lives.

How did she get there? Kindness! Her good heart led her there. The narrative was that she had earlier sent out an invitation to help 5,000 indigent children of the state to come for some freebies in the spirit of the Yuletide. But she simply got more than she bargained for. Many say, this was not her first time. But how was she to know that these were not normal times. She never envisaged the level to which the country had generated. That was the anti-climax.

Now, she has become the victim. Slammed with a four-count charge of “conspiracy and murder” before the Chief Magistrate Court in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, she is ostensibly being made to carry the can of the entire frustrations from the obvious failures that have beset the country over the years – outcomes of not only an insipid and clueless leadership, but one led by a political party that has served the citizenry with nothing outside one thing – PAIN!

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They insist that she must pay for her “crimes.” Their footsoldiers are all and about, boasting that she must be used to set examples against those others who commit similar mortal sins or are intent on doing so. The police – now a willing tool – more as an agent of repression and oppression, have suddenly found a new gusto. They now want to do their duty and enforce the law.

Even the President, upped this ante when he told his visitors, at his first media chat in Lagos: “I’ve been giving out foodstuff and commodities, including envelopes in Bourdillon, for the last 25 years, and I’ve never experienced this kind of incident because we are organised and disciplined. If you know you won’t have enough to give, don’t attempt to give or publicise it.”

That Tinubu, chose to toe this line of blaming others outside himself, remains the major tragedy. But you know what? All the frenzies are tailored for one thing – a distraction. They are meant to deviate from the main issue – hunger in the land. The ground for that calamity was watered by the callousness and mindlessness, if not the bestiality of the past 18 months since the government of President Bola Tinubu took charge.

We submit that no government, past or present, has plunged Nigeria into the level of bottomless pit of hopelessness witnessed during this period. Not even the government of Muhammadu Buhari, his predecessor. Yes, under that locust-ravaged eight years, the performance of Nigeria became so abysmal that it became the poorest country in the world. Yes, Nigeria struggled with other countries in the world for the top position in the misery index. Yes, Nigerians became so despondent that many incidents of frustrated citizens practically jumping into lagoons or drinking poison to end it all, became rampant.

Yet, things were never this bad. In fact, whatever the country witnessed in that era, have increased in multiples under Tinubu’s nose. If indeed the ex-queen committed any crime, it was not in her kindness to save these Nigerians from imminent sure death by hunger, it was in not capturing the level of hunger and despondency in the land.

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For those calling for her head, including the analysts making noise in the media, what plans could she have put in place to wedge those scores of empty bellies? What magic could she have performed to contain that hungry crowd with fire in their eyes? Did these critics not hear that mothers, practically threw their children over the fence, so that they would not miss the opportunity of grabbing something, if only to assuage the hunger of that day? What magic could have sufficed outside abandoning the project totally.

Indeed, witnesses have come out to testify that the December 18th event was not the first time the same Olori organised the event. Yet, she never had such a sad outing. Where then did she err to the level of being served such a sad fate, all because she wanted to feed the poor? This is the question many of her traducers must answer. When has kindness become a crime?

Okay, the police that are now harrying and haunting her with murder charges, where were they before the incident? Did they need to be invited before they would act in public interest? How many times were they invited to hound Nigerians into detention or even liquidating others during demonstrations? Who invited them during the August 1-10 hunger protests?

Yet, the same institution, which was quick to corral scores of underage children into their gaol and charge them for treason simply because they protested against the biting hunger in the land, could not find and employ the same enthusiasm in protecting hungry citizens from plunging to their early death in the same manner. They now needed to be invited.

Ostensibly, the similar calamities that occurred in Abuja and Okija in Anambra State, on Saturday, December 21, just some few hours after have since shown where the problem lies – the empty stomachs of Nigerians – their hopelessness – their misery – no more, no less. They also indicate that the solution does not lie in rounding up the Good Samaritans like the Olori, but in tackling the crisis from the root – filling those empty stomachs. Nothing else would work.

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Mathew Hassan Kukah, could not have made a better point in this regard, when he said in his Christmas message that: “The tragedies that occurred in Okija, Ibadan, and Abuja where innocent people lost their lives in stampedes at food distribution points are a metaphor for the situation of desperation that citizens have been thrown into. The failures of government to respond concretely toward ending the horrible crisis of hunger and desperation has created the conditions for these avoidable tragedies.

“Citizens are lapsing into despair. The Catholic Church is not new to providing succour for the needy and vulnerable. Government needs to work more closely with institutions that help to promote the common good of our society.”

Before him, Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), in the 2023 presidential election, had pointed to the danger in the current clampdown on the Olori and others, saying: “While still in mourning mood over the precious lives lost due to tragic incidents stemming from the distribution of palliatives, I am deeply pained that such occurrences are a reflection of the severe hunger and poverty currently ravaging our nation.

“I want to make a heartfelt appeal to the government to reconsider this action. Acts of goodwill, even when they unintentionally result in unfortunate outcomes, should not be criminalised. This particular initiative was intended to alleviate suffering and bring relief to the people.

“If accountability is to be sought, it should begin with the leaders and policymakers whose cumulative actions—or inactions—have inflicted the widespread hardship and suffering we see today. It is the systemic failure of governance, not the efforts of well-meaning individuals, that should be scrutinized. As a nation, we must collectively retrace our steps and prioritise policies and actions that uplift the lives of our people. Let us redirect our focus toward creating a system where no citizen is left desperate for necessities.”

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Because we are on all fours with the above views and also insist that the main culprits are Tinubu and his government for wantonly battering the Nigerian economy by unleashing such mindless, heartless and outright wickedness on the citizenry through his obviously impulsive policies, Olori Silekunola Moronke Naomi and all those similarly arrested must be released immediately. Let the wicked pay for their sins, not the benevolent and kindhearted.

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