Columns
Samoa Agreement: They gave our fathers mirrors, now, they give us SUVs
By Sunny Igboanugo
Picture this! Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy (MoF-CoMoTE) in Nigeria. During this period, her official movement was like that of an Arabian monarch. Pomp and circumstances, pomp and pageantry, pomp and ceremonies, whichever is applicable.
It was chaos – blaring sirens, breakneck speeding pilot cars, swerving and dangling along the road with dark-goggled, war-like-well-kitted policemen hanging or perching dangerously on them – a convoy of luxuriant Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs), looking as if freshly-minted from the factories in Japan, squeezed in the middle and trailed by backups with equally well-kitted operatives. You would never miss it.
Today, the same Okonjo-Iweala, is now the Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), a global entity worth zillions of times in rating and influence than a mere minister of a country, not the least, in Africa. But spot the difference. Today, the same woman goes to her office in just one car and a driver. All the chaos is gone. In fact, the only ceremony to underscore her present status, was when she assumed office on March 1, 2021.
What was it like? On that day, a welcome party was organised, comprising no more than a dozen men and women, probably only staffers of the organisation, who lined the corridor leading to the entrance of the building, clapped, shook hands and led the way. End! No speech, no food, no drinks, no party. The ceremony did not even last up to 10 minutes.
Pan to Number 10 Donning Street, home of the United Kingdom Prime Minister. On Friday, July 5, 2024, Rishi Sunak, stood at the foyer of the building to give a farewell speech after 19 months in office as PM. After a short speech which lasted for less than 10 minutes, he stepped into a waiting Audi sedan, and drove away.
Enter Kier Starmer, his successor, few minutes after. He even came in a smaller car alongside his wife into the welcoming cheers from a large crowd that gathered at the same venue, went about shaking hands and exchanging kisses. No airs, no chaos, no security forces with whips in hands brandishing all manner of firearms to scare away citizens.
That session ended and with his own speech, equally short and pointed, he moved into his residence and that was it. From now on, all that would come from him are policies of how to make UK better and leave the country better than he met it. He would never give approval to any contract, let alone sign one. It will be the duty of the bureaucracy to prepare all his budgetary items, which would be geared towards this end. Nobody would hear him making budgetary provisions of billions of British Pounds for feeding in that residence or billions more for either the purchase of more vehicles or the changing of tyres of the ones already acquired.
In fact, if he needed an extra pillow for his bed, he would have to buy it from his own pockets. If he needed to repair the air conditioner, he simply alerts the maintenance team that are probably inhouse.
Now, does anyone think that even without any single person wielding a gun without an open show of the paraphernalia of security presence in that arena, the British PM is more vulnerable to attack than an African President on a day like this? Certainly no! Any fly that posses a threat at that event would be dead before it could even get close to achieving the aim.
Do not forget that the UK is home to the most impressive, exotic and expensive automobiles in the world. Rolls Royce, reputed as one of the world’s most prominent vehicles only fit for the royals is a British product. So is Range Rover, Jagua, among others. So, the PM, could as well order hundreds of the latest and most luxurious of these cars, have them fitted with state-of-the-art contraptions to deliver maximum comfort only fit for royals.
But why are they not doing so? Simple answer! Restraints! Both official and personal fetters, ensures that such a route would never be travelled. On the official side, the workload and the proclivity for government office as problem-solving arena as opposed to a place for maximum enjoyment, strips them of any impetus towards such a life of ease and pleasure. Besides, it is completely impossible, for such a demand to be met, assuming a PM with such mindset finds his way into office. Official checks and balances would make sure of that.
From where would he start to make such a requisition? Would it come from watertight chain of bureaucracy where every official is put in check? Certainly impossible. Even a mere mention of that or a shadow of it could cost him his job. So, no official limousine, no long official convoy. Even an official plane is not there. Why? The PM is just like any other British citizen and sees himself as so.
On the individual level, it is all about values, about honour. How would a British man of high office feel with the insinuations, side glances and snide comments given to politicians and people in high places in Nigeria, let alone being labelled a thief? He would probably lock himself in a room and put a bullet in his scull rather than live with the shame. Yes, it is an ample incentive for suicide.
There, values and honour far outweigh any form of vainglory. Thus, because the essence of such opulence and individual display of it, would be lost, or be swallowed in belly of high value, nobody would travel that road. In other words, instead of attracting admiration the result of such open display, would conduce public disdain, ridicule and rejection. It is an environment, where the littlest veneer of mistrust would not only individual rating in the society, but also consequently destroy political fortunes.
Unfortunately, those values as found in Britain and other western nations, are intrinsic. They are confined within the territories of those countries. They are never carried beyond the shores of the land. Elsewhere, particularly in Africa, those individual and official restraints are not encouraged among leaders. Rather, the same British officials, loathing of the slightest act of malfeasance in his country will do everything and use every means to encourage African leaders to steal, as long as the proceeds would end up in their country in the form of buying expensive goods and properties or simply salting away raw cash.
Indeed, because leadership evolution in Africa is still tied to the apron-string of these western nations, those who want to copy western styles are not allowed to do so. Because directly or indirectly, African leaders secure, hold and enjoy power at the pleasure of these controlling forces abroad, the recruitment process is careful and deliberate to ensure that government offices from top to bottom are populated by economic brigands – mindless thieves without mercy for the common till.
This is what the west look forward to – simple application of different dynamics, in pursuance of the ubiquitous term – national interest – a dangerous phenomenon that is as ruthlessly delivered as it is destructive to the recipients.
Ask yourself what happened to all African leaders, who tried to live like a British PM. First, they were dubbed rebels and marked as dangerous. Is it a coincidence that the likes of Zaire’s Patrice Lumumba, Nigeria’s Murtala Mohammed, Burkina Faso’s Thomas Sankara, and most recently Tanzania’s John Magafuli, virtually all met some sort of unpleasant, and in some cases, brutal ends? The case of the sudden death, through “COVID-19 complications,” of the late Tanzanian President, reputed to have rejected foreign loans and foreign pressures that he believed could further fetter his country, controversial as it is, remains quite revealing.
The rest and many more of these leaders, were brutally mowed down in their primes to stop their ideologies from taking firm roots, in sequence of events, with the overt and covert imprimaturs of western plots. Of course, their places were supplanted by individuals with diametrically-opposing ideals, such as dominate the continent today.
So, because, one way or the other, they have the dominant role in the recruitment process, they choose very well by ensuring that only those with the mindset of extravagance, unquenchable greed, insatiable knack for egocentrism, narcissism make to the leadership podium, as opposed to what is acceptable in their countries. Frugally-minded leaders with sound national agendas are never allowed close to power.
Why? The enduring argument is that the west needs bad leaders in Africa and elsewhere to thrive. Indeed, it is stressed that the day leadership in Africa finds expression in prudence, moderation and uprightness, a heavy hammer-blow would be delivered to the heart of Europe and America. Not only would it end the mindless feasting and pillaging of the rich natural resources of the continent, but it would also end the tendency of African being a dumping ground for luxury goods from the west.
So, while Members of Parliament (MPs) in Britain would ride in trains and buses to work and legislators in the US resort to car-pooling to save cost, their Nigerian counterparts, would apply proceeds of loans obtained from their countries to buy SUVs. While the Governor of New York would drive to work in one car, the governor of Zamfara, one of the poorest states in Nigeria will do so in a convoy of 10 cars.
While the PM of The Netherlands rides bicycle to work, his Nigerian counterpart, goes to the mosque, church or his private home in a convoy of 120 SUVs, all fuelled at the expenses of the common purse. But also picture the difference in the societies created therefrom. Again, they are as sharp and contrasting as night and day.
The result clearly show in the development of public infrastructure. So, while those in power in Nigeria use public money to purchase SUVs to navigate roads ridden with craters, muds and ditches, the roads in western countries, in contrast, provide a completely different picture. There, public funds are used to pave their roads into classy, durable and enjoyable structures for the public, but here, only few enjoy the SUVs cruise while the rest have to survive on what is left. Even at that even the SUVs offer little succour in the end. Many of them had even imprisoned their owners either in stretches of immovable traffic or impassable spots on the same roads.
Now, the abiding question is why this difference. Again, simple answer. The sight of an SUV, does not create the same imagery in the west as in Africa. In Nigeria, it connotes arrival and announces wealth and influence. It is the sign of the Nigerian big man. In the UK however, it is rather a burden. Anybody on a regular salary could equally walk into a car shop and get it either on rent or hire-purchase on easy terms. But that also means higher taxes in all ramifications. So why travel the route in the face of alternatives.
It is this dynamics that remain at play. Recognising the influence of pride, egoism, self-conceitedness in the African leadership structure, the west knows that promoting these tendencies is the most potent weapon to preserve their leechlike relationship with Africa. So, not only do they pump in more SUVs, they ensure that only leaders that will buy more and more of them would get to office or survive in them.
They are aware of how these leaders act like little children lured with new toys and how they are fascinated with little things. They could not have forgotten how the forebears of these people sold off their children into slavery with mundane gifts like whiskeys, gunpowder and mirrors. It is not surprising that they are doing exactly the same today just to buy SUVs and other fancy products from Britain and other countries around the world.
So, do not be taken aback by the length Nigerian officials could go. When the white man gave their fathers those mirrors, they used them as symbol of wealth. People flocked their homes simply to use the mirrors to see their faces. For that privilege alone, they were able to take other people’s wives and marry many for themselves from the numerous women making themselves available just to be called wives of men who had mirrors.
Today, the raison d’etre is not different. In recent days, the controversy across the nation is about the Samoa Agreement and the implication of Nigeria and African countries signing it. Stop asking why they did. The alluring smell of money is such a binding factor. For $150billion loan, they could willingly sign off anything after perceiving that irresistible smell. For that money, they are willing to allow half of their citizens being corralled into slavery to go and work in foreign factories as before or sign off their entire continent into colonialism once again.
When they do, never ask why. The reason is staring everyone in the face. Just like their ancestors received mirrors, and to demonstrate the I better pass my neighbour mentality, sold out their children to slavery, their sons might all but be willing to repeat the same just to be the toast of the society. They will do it. All for what? Today’s mirrors – SUVs!
My name is Sunny Igboanugo, I’m The Tiny Voice!
By Sunny Igboanugo
For many citizens and outsiders watching events in Nigeria, hear me. Don’t dismiss with the wave of the hand the threat of Monday Okpebholo, Governor of Edo State. Never ignore an iti-boribo or dare his raised fist – you’re making a fatal error.
What’s iti-boribo? I’ll explain shortly. Iti is lighter. But Iti-boribo is the extreme form of daftness – I mean, mental density – dull-wittedness – intellectual vacuity – rational-vapidity, phrenic-blandness – a blank mind, incapable of logic or objective thoughts – an intellectual mistake!
In most cases, it’s a dangerous state of being. But in others, it is very useful. It only depends on the circumstances. Take your mind back to those days in schools. I don’t know what happens in today’s age of the internet, social media and computers, those in our days when schooling was a bitter-sweet experience – without school-runs, school buses and children confronted all manner of elements on their ways to and from schools.
The imprimatur of iti-boribo was everywhere, in different shapes and sizes. Think of your individual samples, experiences and your own versions. Let me attempt one or two myself.
There was one called Kpoti in my primary school! That was his generic name, in school and community. It’s difficult to remember his real name. On this particular day, a sudden uproar halted all activities. Even we the “infants” already enjoying our recess had to pause to the noise from the “Primary,” our seniors still in session.
Kpoti, the archetypal iti-boribo – the highest level of the term, had on this day, delivered a grand performance of his iti-boriborism. The English teacher, had asked him to make a sentence with children.
Looking over the classroom wall, which some of us saw as the biblical wall of Jerico, but which he towered over, he delivered the thunder – “The Children are wuharing na field.” Nwughari in Igbo meant group movement like in a market. In this instance, it was the onomatopoeic expression of the children are playing in the field. That was the end of the day’s class. The teacher couldn’t take it any longer. It was the height of daftness – a class performance that resonated beyond the school and till date, still resonates in many quarters.
But the outside, Kpoti was a critical member of the society. He was quite prolific in many other ways. An excellent climber of palm trees, a strongman on the football pitch and outside it, the protector of the school team.
Trust Kpoti with the womenfolk, who he helped in harvesting their palm fruits and tilled their farmlands in addition to other village duties the English language teacher could never dare. Without Kpoti, the football team, would be disembowelled and stripped of the guts. Confronting opponents especially in other communities proved problematic. Who dared engage in any physical fight with the team or its supporters, with Kpoti around? He was the Goliath that protected everyone.
So, intellectualism or lack of it, did not diminish his total worth eventually. In fact, because he built his own formation of brutes that terrorised his environment, he was both feared and respected, such that even the brightest of the pupils simply paid homage to be admitted into his protective wings.
Take another example, Julie. She was the female replica of Kpoti. Also a pupil, but well-established in her own right as an iti-boribo. On this evening, after the close of school, when many of us brought wares to the market for our mothers and later descended on the mango trees surrounding our school.
Unbeknownst to us, while plucking the ripe mangoes, our school vice headmaster was somewhere watching. He later chanced on us and matched us into one of the classrooms. The implication wasn’t lost on anyone. We were still kneeling down awaiting the stings of his trademark akpuruekwe on our backs when Julie did the unthinkable. With an acrobatic, Olympic-style back-flip, she scaled this same classroom wall with a dexterity that would put many athletic high-jumpers to shame and make them gasp with envy.
As she sprinted down the field with the speed sure to leave world sprint record holders green with envy, even the teacher, couldn’t hold back. His symbolic stern mien dissolved into throaty laughter and in the end, all of us were let off the hook as a result.
Now you see that iti-boribo, have their uses. In most cases, whatever they lose in terms of intellectual acuity are compensated in many other ways. In the military, for instance, some of them get to the top of their career by making up what they lost in brainwork with sheer gift of courage and skills of field-battle.
But it is a different kettle of fish to assign them with tasks that require intellectual exercises. That becomes an albatross and, in most cases, not only counterproductive, but signal clear danger to the society. That seems to be the case in this Okpebholo outing.
Who wouldn’t recall how for months on end, the anchors of The Morning Show, the breakfast programme on ARISE NEWS, laboured to bring him as a candidate to discuss his programmes as governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the September 21, 2024 election. It never happened. His handlers explained it away that he was too busy with his campaigns to engage the media.
But not a few knew swore that he had mortal fear of the media they would expose him as the Kpoti of Edo State. Well, he has since became and the world is now witnessing the outcome.
First was the presentation of the state budget, last year. Ordinary N605billion that a kindergarten child could 20 minutes of labouring without success. In the end, he simply jumped it. Yet, the budget was approved.
Don’t even question what business a governor of that quality of education has with such a high office. The joke would be on you. It means you don’t know the Nigeria of today and the makeup of its leadership under the APC.
Have you seen the West African Examination Council (WAEC) result he supposedly sat for and obtained at the age of 36 years? Add that to the picture.
But then, it comes handy at this time. Surely, you don’t believe becoming the numero uno in a state like Edo, one of the intellectual bases of Nigeria is by chance. Ask yourself why? Kpoti was never useless. Same here. Those who made him governor, know exactly what they were looking for.
They know that Edo State, is the headquarters of the Obidient Movement – the group of Nigerian youths determined to making Peter Obi President as way of achieving the New Nigeria or their dream. If they must be stopped, there’s only one way – to deploy a Kpoti. They’ve since found one.
In The Godfather – that classic by Mario Puzo – Luca Brasi one of the characters, was depicted as 100 per cent loyal to Don Coleone because he believed there was no life outside him. He lived for nothing else, completely deadened to other societal stimuli that he practically threw the baby fathered by him into a furnace.
The Okpebholo I see would not hesitate to throw Nigeria into the furnace to please his patrons. You heard him boast delivery of 100 per cent Edo votes to APC in 2027. How is he going to achieve this if not go for broke and take no prisoners?
Else what is Obi’s offence? Why would a governor, who ought to roll out the drum to celebrate a philanthropist kind enough to donate a whopping N15million to an institution be the one to shoot the gesture down, when he ought to be harvesting the act as a point of contact for more philanthropy, if anything, to lessen the burden on his shoulders as governor?
Of course, the answer is obvious. The ululations you heard from those students at the School of Nursing, as they sang and danced in praises of Obi, was like a hot spear piercing his heart. He couldn’t simply stand it.
That is why he must not be ignored. In fact, those equating Okpebholo’s comments with that of Hyacinth Alia of Benue, who also refused Obi entry to the camp of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in his state, may be comparing oranges and apples. Alia is not a Kpoti. He’s not an iti-boribo. He knows the consequences of hurting anyone, not the least, a politically exposed person like Obi.
On the contrary, this can’t be said of the Edo New Sheriff in Town (NSIT). For him, there’s definitely no fallback position. Even he, himself, would not believe his senses about becoming a governor. So, to those who made it possible, he owes nothing but total loyalty and dedication – the type Luca Brasi gave to Don Coleone!
He would do the unthinkable, if he felt it was necessary. He would do it and leave the rest to the likes of Adams Oshiohmole and Kassim Afegbua to do the explaining. After all, they not only have the key, but the full explanation of how he became governor.
Besides, by the time you’re reading this, Nyesom Wike, must have been holding court at the Dennis Osadebey House in Benin. Figure that in, and the picture become clearer as to why not only, Obi, but Nigerians entirely should be apprehensive.
I repeat, it will be a fatal error to believe that Okpebholo’s was just engaged in political talks. He’s definitely not making an empty threat. He has told anyone that cared that he was not joking that Obi must not venture into the state without his approval. It’s left to you to ascertain if such approval would ever be given in the first place.
Okpebholo, like the bird dancing in the middle of the road, which has its drummers in the bush, also has the godfathers goading him on. And like the child sent by his father to steal, he will break the door with his feet, fearing no consequences.
Instead of daring him to act, he must be stopped from acting. When a Luca Brasi is sent on a mission, he doesn’t leave it unaccomplished. He either does it or dies trying. And when he raises a weapon, don’t dare him. He’ll use it. Don’t dare Okpebholo. Iti-boribo ajoka!
So, Daddy Freeze as an Honest Bunch anchor, claimed that Peter Obi was MD of NPA under Sani Abacha. What sort of human beings do we have in Nigeria these days?
Pray! Is it that he doesn’t know or ought to not know, who the MD of NPA was, at any point, which is supposed to be a public record? And you’re hosting such an influential platform? What a disgrace!
What is he doing there? Why not concentrate on feasting on the ignorance of Nigerians that populate that his regular show? I thought he was already making a kill there with the type of wealth I see him flaunting – in expensive cars and exotic wristwatches, mimicking the likes of Dino Melaye? Oh! I forget that for Nigerians, money can never be enough.
But why go to such show like the Honest Bunch, which has managed to keep some measures of level-headedness as one of the prime podcasts shows in Nigeria today? Is it to disfigure or pollute it? And why would the management, which was so sensitive as to expel Nedu, the man Daddy Freeze took over from, over what appears an honest mistake, in order to maintain its integrity, keep him a minute longer having committed such a fatal sacrilege, obviously in order to please someone somewhere?
Imagine Peter Obi, as MD of NPA – Nigeria Ports Authority. He didn’t even retain the ugly lies other goons like him have been telling and retelling for years now, in attempt to pin something on Obi, albeit unsuccessfully. He had to take his own a nudge higher by claiming that he was an MD – Managing Director! DAMN!
And to try to couch it with the usual lullaby to serenade his audience – a gambit the growing members of his club like that other one that calls himself Seyi Law, usually throw up to try and hoodwink Nigerians – I’ve no problem with Peter Obi, I like Peter Obi, but I can’t bring myself to think that he once worked with Abacha – he was once the Managing Director of NPA! What a shame!
He even accused Obi of being responsible for the toxic fuel that was once brought into Nigeria under the same Abacha, claiming that there was no way he, as the head of the NPA then, could pass the integrity question.
Here is part of his exact words: “My greatest criticism of Obi – I love him as a person – I think he’s brilliant, but I can’t divorce him from the fact that he worked hand in hand with Abacha. He was the MD of the (National) Ports Authority under a regime like General Sani Abacha’s regime. We know that in this world, corruption of a country starts at its ports.
“How can we have this great, fantastic political leader, who is a saint today, but worked with General Abacha?… There is no way we can divorce this Abacha – you cannot be a head of ports and you tell me…” Such crawling ignorance! All in a bid to achieve what?
Meanwhile, what’s his own record that he feels, qualifies him to clean Peter Obi’s shoes in terms of integrity? Is it not the same man a court in Port Harcourt once ordered to pay N5millon to his fellow man, as fine for committing adultery with his wife and coveting the same woman as his own wife? Was he not the same man that travelled to the UK to dine and wine with Hushpuppy, a criminal convict, currently serving jail term in the US?
So, parading this awful moral travesty, he still finds it in his own head to stand in judgement over other people on matters of integrity – no less a person as clean as whistle, such as Peter Obi – the only known politician in Nigeria who has dared anybody including those in authority to scrutinise his record on the pain of resigning his political aspiration if anything could be found to indict him! What a world – a Nigerian world!
If I didn’t see the video myself, I wouldn’t have believed that the man who I thought was highly intelligent, the way he carries on, and coming from a family of intellectual parantage, would fall into such a trap. But here was he, displaying such a disgraceful outing. I ask again, what is he still doing there in the Honest Bunch? Did Nedu’s error equal the fatal hara-kiri he just committed to be thrown out?
Naturally, his own programme on social media fits into his persona, because there, morality takes the backseat. Nobody talks about morals at strip clubs or of a musician having women’s underwear thrown at them while performing on stage. If he even stopped at restating this particular lie that Peter Obi worked with Abacha and left it at that, it would have been acceptable. But standing on an apparent high-ground to suggest that he doesn’t like him because he did, is like a prostitute complaining that her colleague snatched her customer. Quo warranto?
I hope Daddy Freeze actually appealed that case and got a reprieve from a higher court. Because if he didn’t, the implications are grave. It means he cannot sue anyone for libel because there won’t be any integrity to protect. It also means he cannot stand surety for anybody. All that is required, if he did, is for his traducer to raise the issue of that judgement and the document he signed becomes as worthless as a toilet paper. I hope someone, particularly his lawyers have adverted his mind to this. They should, if they hadn’t.
My advice: Aburo, Daddy Freeze, keep your support about Obi! Balogun market doesn’t recognise that one trader did not come to the market. You’re permitted, like Reno Omokri and Seyi law, et al, to trend with his name and make plenty dollars doing so. But you have to device other reasons like others have done for doing so. Never you go moral. Because that is the department where you score zero – bankrupt, I mean.
Indeed, your own case is even worse on this score, because unlike you, Reno Omokri and Seyi Law, are not on record to have been found guilty of such grave malfeasance as you were once recorded. So, if it happens that anyone had approached you to feast on Obi – if they had not done so, it is a matter of time before they come knocking – and supposing that is indeed what you’re angling for – never you wax moral. Find another reason. That way, you can chop the money they paid you jejee? I na acha ka utu ocha!
My name is Sunny Igboanugo, I’m The Tiny Voice
By Sunny Igboanugo
This Reuben Abati sef! What was he trying to say again this morning on Arise? After the 2023 presidential election, when Nigerians were bemoaning their fate as the courts were churning out one bizarre, funny and outlandish verdict after the other – judgements without justice in support of the obvious heist – he took it as his remit to pour cold water on the righteous indignation pervading the land.
He chose a time of general anger, moral outrage, weeping, wailing, mourning and gnashing of the teeth trailing the official endorsement of the political larceny that had just happened to people to deliver his notorious declaration – Public opinion is kilometres and kilometres away from law.
Such insensitive, if not thoughtless move, as he sought to paper over a serious injury to the essence of decency and heavy blow to public good and integrity of democratic ethos, rankled at that time as it still does today. It was akin to adding salt to injury to a grieving community.
As many asked then, what then is the essence of law if it defeats or is glaringly antithetical to public opinion? From whence did the dictum – justice must not only be done, but seen to be done derive from if public opinion is not part of the context?
I remember the treatise of Justice Obiora Nwazota, former Chief Judge of Anambra State, when he dissected the issue of public opinion in relations to the phrase – right-thinking members of the society – and how he concluded that the term did not suggest fish mongers at Ose Okwodu market must be the ones to decide. Anyone with little education or tiny matter in his brain, ought to discern between the shape of the letter ‘B’ and the footprint of a cow!
So, on Thursday, when Vice President Kashim Shettima, took to the podium to make a profound statement, in one of the rarest outings on the nation’s political scenes in recent times, to the fact that No President in Nigeria has the powers to Remove a councillor, not to talk of a governor, his audience heard him loud and clear.
Now, Shettima, has been on the political scene for much of the 25 years the current experience has lasted. Before becoming VP, he was a commissioner in Borno State, from where he rose to the seat of governor and then Senator. Is this the same man that would mount the podium to speak on such a sensitive matter at a time the State of Emergency is still a live-issue, and you say he is not referring to the same matter?
It means the VP must be a political daft – which he obviously is not – not to know, or at least suspect the interpretation the public would attach to such a comment at a time like this, given the prevailing circumstances and arguments on the matter.
Pray! How does the constitutional interpretation of Removal and or Suspension become the issue or dominate the debate when Sim Fubara, has remained out of office as governor and democratic institutions in the state out in the cold as a result of the emergency rule in Rivers State? Is that not the bottomline here instead of the fine grains of law?
What law is Abati trying to teach us, dan Allah, e jowo, biko nu? We may not all be lawyers, but as Nwazota, said, we are not all fish-mongers as well. We are capable of discerning a common issue and determining what someone says. We understand KS, very well and know that he said what he meant and meant what he said.
If anything, this is a man, whose job is currently at stake and has remained subject of intense speculations. Would it not be more apposite to interpret his outing as loud coughing to draw attention to himself and indicate that he is still very much around and perhaps warn those toying with the funny idea of seeking his leg for pepper-soup to be wise and more prudent?
I’m particularly enchanted by Abati’s immense intellectual prowess. It literally puts me in my rightful place as “uneducated” and “unlearned” – his usual terms for dismissing people like us. In fact, each time I listen to him, I seem to regret that half of my school hours were wasted fighting in the streets or plucking mangoes than being in the classroom. He is one of the major reasons I never miss watching The Morning Show on ARISE NEWS, each day, if I could help it.
But even at that we cannot be detained permanently by inability to measure up to his scholarly attainments or deceived all the time by legal masturbations in a matter that is as straightforward as the statement of the VP. You can only tell a blind man that there is no oil in the soup and not that there is no salt.
I don’t know whether his outing on Friday is intentional or inadvertent. But whatever it is, may I plead with Reuben Abati, my brother and compatriot to apply brake and add hydraulic. To him I say, this day borrowing from Fela Anikulapo Kuti – Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense! _ The Tiny Voice
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