by Pius Adesanmi

My title plays on the title of Professor Femi Osofisan’s inaugural lecture at the University of Ibadan, “Playing Dangerously”, and my reasons shall become apparent presently. First, an anecdote. Back in secondary school, one of my close cousins, Bola Akanbi, fell in love with Professors. Bola and I were then sharing the same bedroom in my mother’s staff quarters bungalow in the sprawling compound of Titcombe College, Egbe.

Bola’s Dad, one of those colonial, missionary-trained, no-nonsense, secondary school principals like my own Dad, was doing his doctorate at the University of Ibadan. Dr Samuel Akanbi and my father belonged in a generation of Spartan educationists who spiced their impeccable Queen’s grammar with Latin and spotted a District Officer “parting” (a straight line carved through the hair with a comb) on the right of left side of their heads. They could drive you home at the end of a school day to “cane you” in front of your parents and be thanked generously for it by your parents before your Dad proceeded to give you “jara” (supplementary) caning for the disgrace. Infrequently, Bola earned a hop-along trip whenever his Dad was going for consultation with his doctoral supervisor at Ibadan. Those were the days.

That was before the academic hemorrhage to Euro-America that Paul Tiyambe Zeleza has analyzed so brilliantly in a number of works. Many of the big names in the Faculties of Arts, Education, and the Social Sciences were still around in Ibadan. That’s where and how Bola’s love of Professors began. Bumping into some of those names must have done things to the impressionable mind of a secondary school kid. Bola would return to Titcombe from Ibadan to regale us with stories of Professor this and Professor that, laced with routine school kid’s exaggerations and a considerable swagger of superiority.

Soon, things extended beyond the University of Ibadan and Bola came to acquire an encyclopedic knowledge of the names of Professors in most Nigerian Universities. His hobby was to reel out names of professors, stressing every syllable of that word, looking at us like primitive baboons when we professed ignorance of those names. “You mean you don’t know Pro-ffe-ssssor Jacob Festus Ade Ajayi?” “What about Pro-ffe-sssor Obaro Ikime?” “Pro-ffe-ssssor Eskor Toyo?” “You don’t know them too? Suegbe l’eyin boys wonyi o”. And Bola would strut away like a royal peacock, hissing and bemoaning the fate that placed him in the company of such ignorant peers as us. In essence, if you were a professor in Ade Ajayi’s generation in any Nigerian university and you were worth knowing, Bola knew you in his little corner of the world in Titcombe college.

Then the radio announcements came in dizzying succession in the 1980s: “I Colonel Joshua Dogonyaro of the Nigerian Armed Forces” (1983); “I Colonel Joshua Dogonyaro of the Nigerian Armed Forces” (1985). “I Brigadier this, I General that”. Coups and counter-coups. We gradually became a generation that new more about martial music coming early morning on national radio than we knew about fuji or juju music. National ethos was changing. All the values we knew were being bastardized by the military before our very before. Principals like my Dad or Bola’s Dad had better watch out. You had better be able to recite the national anthem or pledge “with immediate effect” or a considerably younger Group Captain Salaudeen Adebola Latinwo, Military Governor of Kwara state, could barge into your office – through the window, always through the window – and ‘frog jump’ you. On national TV, we saw those despised soldiers publicly frog jump Nigerians in our fathers’ generation. We saw them slapped and horse-whipped in the street. In graver situations, the soldiers could deny you your share of “essential commodity” (essenco).

These changing scenarios were playing out as we approached 100 Level. During our transition from secondary school to University, Bola’s diction had changed. Now, that’s a paradox. Here was a school kid who spent his time in secondary school memorizing the names of a mind-boggling number of Nigerian Professors. This same kid got to the University and Army Generals became his new fascination. His encyclopedic mind dropped the database of Professors and replaced it seamlessly with a brand new database of Generals. He was also now less enthusiastic about University education. He was only just there at the University – going through the motion. His mind was really at the Nigerian Defense Academy in Kaduna and he spent a couple of years trying to get in. Like most Nigerians in my generation, Bola was seeing possibilities of himself as a newly commissioned military officer first serving as ADC to a military governor before participating in a coup to become a governor himself. In my own moments of messy privacy in the toilet, I would practice on top of my voice: “Fellow Nigerians, I, Major General Pius Adesanmi, of the Nigerian Armed Forces”… That sounded kinda cool.

There is however a lot more to why Professors crashed from their Olympian pedestal and eventually disappeared from the mind of Bola Akanbi. If we admit that there is a story here that we may now tentatively entitle “the rise and fall of Nigerian Professoriate in the mind of one Nigerian school kid”; if we also agree that Professors Ayodele Awojobi and Charles Soludo are at antipodal ends of this story, we need to begin to critically map and understand the trajectory that took us from Awojobi’s brightness to Soludo’s penumbra. We need to know when, where, and how the rain began to beat Nigeria’s professoriate, especially in view of an uncomfortable history of dangerous and unethical demissions that Charles Soludo has inadvertently but tragically come to symbolize.

Daniel Elombah, the prolific publisher of elombah.com has recently offered an excellent dissection of Professor Soludo’s ethical about-turns and moral summersaults. What needs to be added to Elombah’s treatise is the fact that there are broader national contexts and histories that have led us to Charles Soludo. It is a national malaise, not a regional or Anambra problem. Those contexts and histories are, in turn, linked to what Obi Nwakanma, a prominent Nigerian poet and public intellectual, likes to discourse as the collapse of “the University idea” in Nigeria. Whereas most analysis always reduce the crisis in our Universities to empirical and material details – collapse of infrastructure, outdated libraries and laboratories, etc – Nwakanma has always contended that we have in fact lost the idea behind the derelict structures. The fortunes or misfortunes of the professoriate in our recent history is a good place to start engaging the loss of the University idea.

For what, in fact, Bola Akanbi had plugged into back in secondary school wasn’t just the title of Professor or the considerable body of knowledge that the wearer of that title is normally deemed to have acquired. That school kid plugged into an over-arching halo, aura, and awe that devolved from the considerable socio-political, moral, and ethical capital that the Nigerian professoriate had come to acquire in the public space largely due to the critical interventionism and public activism of a long line of engagé Professors symbolized by the likes of Ayodele Awojobi, Wole Soyinka, Pius Okigbo, Eskor Toyo, Omafume Onoge, Bala Usman, Adebayo Williams, and Attahiru Jega, just to mention those few randomly. Add to this the collective public profile of the hot literary lefties of a certain era – Professors Biodun Jeyifo, Niyi Osundare, Femi Osofisan and others. Such critical and activist modes of inhabiting the public sphere was what created a certain national idea of the Professor-as-demiurge or the Professor-as-vates – the image and idea that mesmerized a secondary school kid.

By moving beyond the cocoon of academia and making knowledge production an expression of the people’s will and desire, in the people’s language, and always in opposition to the organized banditry otherwise known as the Nigerian state, these engagé Professors carved a Gramscian trajectory that came to define the public face of Nigerian professoriate. You will recall that the Italian, Antonio Gramsci, by far one of the most famous thinkers of the 20th century, gave us the idea of the “organic intellectual”. In addition to analyzing social life according to systemic and scientific protocols, the organic intellectual harmonizes and expresses the consciousness and feelings of the people. In this academic professor, town and gown meet and a social vision/mission is born and pursued often at great personal costs.

It is often wrongly assumed that Ibrahim Babangida, the military despot who ruled Nigeria from 1985 to 1993, destroyed education by deliberately underfunding the Universities, wrecking academic and non-academic unions, and triggering a mass exodus of the Professoriate by making the words ‘Professor’ and ‘poverty’ much more than a matter of poetic alliteration. Those are mere empirical consequences of a much more symbolic and graver assault on meaning. Babangida was far too sophisticated a buffoon to be content with merely undoing the Professor materially. He targeted the aura and the halo, demoted the demiurge, and vanquished the vates. What Babangida undermined and put on life on support were the idea and the ideal that society had vested in the professoriate. General Sani Abacha only needed to remove the oxygen later.

Babangida’s strategy was brilliant. Part of the professoriate’s capital with the Nigerian public was the idea that an indissoluble union of character and learning inhered in it. Babangida would have none of that Siamese twin. He performed a surgical operation, severed character from learning, and threw the former into a septic tank. To demystify the professoriate, Babangida manufactured two Professor types and unleashed them on the Nigerian public: Professor Errand Boy and Professor House Nigga.

Professor Errand Boy was the man Babangida somehow convinced to leave campus and come on board “on national assignment”. He gave this Professor sufficient perks and resources to discourage any idea of a return to campuses he was simultaneously starving of funds. But the real intention was to make his public image pedestrian. That was achieved by bouncing him from post to post and office to office like ping pong. Chairman of some special agency or parastatal today, Minister of some Ministry outside of his zone of competence tomorrow, Ambassador to some backyard country next tomorrow, back to Chairman next week. Professor Errand Boy would, of course, be inherited by subsequent regimes and administrations and bounced around just like his inventor, Babangida, did.

The bouncing back and forth had consequences: in the public’s mind, the boundaries between Professor and office messenger got dangerously blurry. One would almost need a calculator to tabulate the posts held under the military by Professor Jerry Gana alone. The more aura, halo, and social capital they brought to the table, the better for Babangida. Hence he also got Professors Tunji Olagunju, Adele Jinadu, Sam Oyobvaire and a host of other distinguished academics to constitute an unimpeachable pool of knowledge producers in Aso Rock. And they ran errands with unalloyed love for the military puppeteers. Those who today make grandiose claims about the “legacies” of the professor-servicers of Babangida forget too easily that whatever the said professors did in terms of bringing so much intellectual fire power and ideas to the governance of Nigeria at the time was subsumed within the symbolic economy of Babangida’s subterranean politics: demystify the professoriate. With Professor Errand Boy, the awe was gone. The rash of quota Professors being manufactured in the northern part of the country did not help matters in terms of public respect for the professoriate.

From the standpoint of the soldiers, Professor House Nigga was an improvement on Professor Errand Boy. Here, we cross the threshold of errand running into the territory of faith. Professor House Nigga’s work for Babangida was not just an assignment he mistook for service to the nation. He saw his job as a sacerdotal mission because he was a true believer who was genuinely in love with his master. Like the house nigga in American lore, if Babangida was sick, Professor House Nigga declared to the nation: “we are sick”. If Massa Babangida went to France to treat radiculopathy, Professor House Nigga wore sackcloth, poured ash on his own head, prayed, and fasted till Massa returned. This pathological love of Massa has been known to subsist long after Massa has left office.

Consider this scenario: more than a decade after Babangida left office, you are ill to the point of death in a Boston Hospital. This man, whom you served so faithfully at the risk of your own professoral reputation, does not lift a finger to help. Yet, you remain a believer, constantly trying to smuggle the tyrant into a nice corner of Nigerian history in broad daylight. Then Babangida’s wife lands in a California clinic and you are the first to release an online statement urging prayers for her. What greater love hath a man for his Massa? We are effectively in the province of what Wole Soyinka calls “inhuman” love when discussing Senghor’s infinite capacity to forgive the colonial atrocities of France and still find a wuruwuru way to place France on the right hand of the Father “among the white nations”. This love for Babangida by a Professor he somehow convinced to believe that a research centre could forge democratic ethos under jackboots and a pile of decrees is inhuman – inhuman because “superhuman” according to Soyinka. Are we surprised that our subject is still online today celebrating his role as one of the “founding fathers” of Nigeria’s current constitution – a flawed, illegitimate document imposed on the nation by a bunch of arrogant Generals who dared to utter the solemn words, “we the people”?

In Professors Errand Boy and House Nigga, Ibrahim Babangida demystified and pedestrianized the Nigerian professoriate. This was a sophisticated way of preparing the ground for the gaggle of Professor-servicers that Sani Abacha would instrumentalize later in his own much cruder fashion. What Abacha added to Babangida’s template was his ability to convince so many credible and impeccable Professors that it was possible to work for and with a killer like him and somehow come out of it all with the squeaky-clean reputation with which most of them went in.

The combined effect of Babangida’s and Abacha’s assault on the professoriate was to erase the halo, aura, and ideal that society had invested in those persons. Ironically, lowered ratings and expectation by society meant freedom to descend even lower in the logic of he that is down needs fear no fall. This explains a new phenomenon that emerged with the advent of ‘democracy’ in 1999. I was still in graduate school at the University of British Columbia. I would phone Nigeria and ask casually after Professor X or Professor Y. You got an answer that became increasingly frequent and worrisome: “ah Prof has left o. He has gone back to his Local Government to contest for Chairmanship o. Prof is now a PDP Chieftain in his Local Government Area”.

The problem wasn’t that Profs were leaving in droves to join politics. I believe that our tragedy as a nation devolves from the fact that the best among us have abandoned leadership and governance to the Orangutans among us. The problem was the kind of politics the Professors joined and the terms of engagement – electoral politics as defined and determined by the PDP, by far one of the most corrupt and oppressive institutions ever to bestride the African continent. This is no place to rehash the sorry, disgraceful, and embarrassing profile of that bastardy of a political party. Suffice it to say that unrivalled ability to lie and loot and a one hundred per cent deficit in integrity are the two most important membership requirements of the party. When Wole Soyinka described Abacha’s regime as “the open sore of a continent”, he was describing a counterfeit or “bend down” open sore. The Peoples Democratic Party in Nigeria is the genuine or original open sore of the African continent.

This purulent political institution benefited immensely from the demystification of the professoriate by the military. With the road to demystification smoothly paved by the soldiers, all the PDP needed to do was to create a worse personage than Professors Errand Boy and House Nigga. Enter the PDP’s Professor Nutin Spoil. Where Professor Nutin Spoil is not a regular jobber like Professors Errand Boy and House Nigga before him, he is neck deep into everything that makes the ordinary people of Nigeria sick and tired of the accursed democracy that has held them hostage since 1999. As electoral umpire, Professor Nutin Spoil is otherwise known as Maurice Iwu; as participant in and beneficiary of the PDP’s culture of electoral violence, massive rigging, and and daylight political robbery, his name is Oserheimen Osunbor.

This, in essence, has been our compulsory rite of passage to the unfolding tragedy that is Professor Charles Soludo, Nigeria’s latest and, according to Daniel Elombah, palpably most disappointing Professor Nutin Spoil. Suddenly we are dealing with the familiar and the strange united for better for worse in the same body. There is the Charles Soludo that we know: one of Africa’s most brilliant economists. A stellar academic trajectory saw him become one of the youngest full Professors of Economics ever to emerge from Nigeria. Then there is the Charles Soludo that we don’t know: he becomes Governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank; becomes an overnight billionaire; buys up choice properties in London; sends his kids to private schools in London that only the kids of Middle East oil Sheikhs should be able to afford; joins PDP politics; gets himself an offshore godfather in a dubious character like Chief Tony Anenih; participates in the subversion of democratic ethos within the PDP to emerge as the party’s governorship candidate in the forthcoming Anambra elections; roams the land now in a convoy of thugs and loads of money that he is distributing to buy the election.

Where is the Professor of Economics? Where is the Economics he taught as a Professor at the University of Nigeria? Even in secondary school Economics when we read those famous textbooks authored by O. Teriba and O.A. Lawal, one sort of got the impression that Economics is all about the prudent management of scarce resources. Would the students Professor Soludo trained – especially the doctoral students he supervised – be able to square up his gargantuan profligacy with the theories he taught them? What did he teach those students about looting and plundering the resources of the state in Africa? Did he attend graduation ceremonies in his years on campus? Did he wear an academic gown? Did he mouth the usual platitudes about “character and learning” as the graduands filed past the academic staff? What does he think of all these things now as he spends looted in the attempt to buy the office of Governor of Anambra state? How does he plan to recoup that investment? What’s in it for Chief Tony Anenih, his offshore godfather from Edo state? How does the Professor feel about bringing himself so low that a charlatan and a buffoon like Chris Uba now feels sufficiently enamoured to ask Nigerians to determine who the criminal is between himself and Charles Soludo? The horror! The horror!

Questions. Questions. Questions. Yet, Professor Soludo just happens to be the most famous Professor Nuting Spoil around. Others abound in the system, contributing a restless run of nails to the coffin of what they once professed. Sometime last month, some Professors in the Senate of the University of Benin, led by Professor E.P. Kubeyinje, acting Vice Chancellor of the University at the time, put their heads together and somehow concluded that it was a great idea to invite Elder Chief Stakeholder James Ibori to deliver the University’s 2009 Founder’s Day Lecture! A thoroughly embarrassed Nigerian cyber community has sufficiently addressed this unbelievable violence inflicted on the very idea of the University by the Professors in Benin.

Here are some facts that the specific Professors Nutin Spoil responsible for the invitation knew about James Ibori: (1) he was convicted twice in London in the 1990s for theft and shoplifting; (2) he is wanted in London for money laundering and other related charges; (3) he is still standing trial in Nigeria for corruption. None of these facts discouraged these Professors in Benin from giving this convicted felon a university pedestal to address graduating students. Apart from Professor Kubeyinje, the Nigerian people need to know which Professors actually sat down in a lecture hall to listen to James Ibori. Hopefully, they had the decency to at least forget their academic gowns at home?

When next our folks in Benin want to invite a guest lecturer, let them borrow a leaf from Obafemi Awolowo University. OAU has just reduced the shame brought on us all – us is the Nigerian academic community – by the University of Benin when it recently invited the globally acclaimed human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, to deliver its Distinguished Alumni Lecture.

Let the Professors in Benin not tell us that they can find no better alumnus of Uniben than a third class graduate of that institution convicted twice for theft by the Queen of England. If James Ibori wants to invest part of his huge loot in education as part of a broader process of restitution, there are ways to do it.

Yet, Nigerian Professors abound, at home and abroad, who are doing this thing the way it ought to be done: quietly, diligently, and steadfastly. From Toyin Falola to Eghosa Osaghae, from Jimi Adesina to Aduke Adebayo, from Demola Dasylva to Obioma Nnaemeka, from Dele Layiwola to Onookome Okome and thousands like them, Nigerian academe remains the root and home of so many bright stars in the firmament of global academe. But, in the nature of things, the good apples don’t get to define the public face of the professoriate. The political jobbers do.

By Luke Onyekakeyah

THE unhealthy rivalry that prevented President Yar’Adua from presenting the 2010 budget at the National Assembly (NASS) is an ill wind that blows no one any good. Since 1999, when the current democratic dispensation started, Nigerians have not gained anything from the annual ritual called budget made by governments at all levels. What we have witnessed is colossal budget failures apparently caused by infighting and acrimony from the preparation to presentation and implementation.

Consequently, the budgets end up not achieving anything. That explains why infrastructure services across the country remain in deplorable condition. The question is if the previous budgets that were allowed to see the light of the day recorded no success, what would be the fate of a budget that the lawmakers have frustrated from the outset? How on earth would the budget effectively serve the purpose for which it was meant?

Special Adviser on National Assembly Affairs, Senator Mohammed Aba Aji reportedly delivered copies of the budget to the NASS on behalf of President Yar’Adua. This is the second time under this administration that the two chambers of NASS were on warpath over supremacy. The first was in connection with the review of the 1999 Constitution, in which the two fought over the nomenclature of the chairman of the review committee. That contention frustrated the joint sitting of the two chambers as each went it alone. What started as an affront has now assumed a frightening dimension. No one knows what would happen next. If the budget couldn’t be presented, would it ever be approved? What about the implementation, which is the most important aspect?

It is worrisome that a legislature that is predominantly PDP should always engage in a face off that could be resolved internally. This is not in the national interest. What would happen if there were multiple dominant parties? Won’t the business of law making grind to a halt? It is strange that lawmakers belonging largely to the same party now constitute a stumbling block and frustrating a president that belongs to their fold. I can’t imagine the democrats in the US Congress always moving against President Barack Obama in any matter of national importance.

Certainly, what is happening here underscores the futility of expecting much from the legislators. Besides, selfishness and lack of concern for the ordinary citizen is at the bottom of it all. Otherwise, the budget is meant to improve the lot of the common man? Do these lawmakers care whether or not the budget is presented or not? Do they care whether or not it is implemented?

I must point out that the rivalry over in which chamber the budget should be presented is novel in our post-independence experience. It simply underscores the degenerate political culture that has taken root in the land. It is a dangerous trend that should be stopped forthwith. I have not heard of any country where the head of state, in peacetime, sets out to present a budget but was frustrated by the lawmakers. It is unheard of and portends danger for the polity. By their action, the lawmakers have missed the opportunity to have the president read his appropriation bill with the fanfare that goes with it.

It is important to realise that countries have norms and traditions that keep the system going. Not every norm and tradition may be written in the Constitution. There are unwritten laws in every society. Though the 1999 Constitution states in Section 81 (1) that “The President shall cause to be prepared and laid before each House of the National Assembly at any time in each financial year estimates of the revenues and expenditure of the Federation for the next following financial year”, it has been the tradition in this country for the president to present the budget to a joint session of NASS in the lower chamber of the National Assembly, presumably because it has wider space to accommodate the lawmakers. The tradition has been there in good fate without strings attached.

I don’t think that those who started the practice had any sinister motive other than the interest of the country. It saves time, resources and energy for the president to have the budget presented in one joint session than to read the same document separately to the two chambers. And after the joint presentation, each chamber constitutionally takes the document back to its fold for separate debate.

In other climes, budget presentation marks an important event. In Kenya, for example, many offices close for work on budget day (which is fixed) to be at the parliament to listen to the finance minister who usually presents the budget. That is the tradition in Kenya and no one has kicked against it. But in our own case, a tradition that meant no harm to any body is being used to create bad blood out of selfish interest.

If this tradition has been upheld for decades, and as a matter of fact, since 1999 when the present democratic dispensation began, why remembering only this year what the Constitution says? Since this is the third budget of the Yar’Adua administration, where were those supremacists when the two previous budgets were read in the same fashion at the lower chamber? Were they sleeping or what? These questions are warranted if there was no hidden agenda by the lawmakers.

Whatever is the cause of the unpatriotic act by the two chambers of the National Assembly is not in the national interest. It is also not in the interest of the Yar’Adua administration or the ruling PDP. For, I don’t think that there has been such a situation in this country before. Denying the president the opportunity to present his budget, which is his Constitutional right, amounts to a slap on the president, the Constitution and the people of Nigeria.

If the contention was caused by overt egocentric disposition of the Senate President, David Mark and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, then the two have a duty to explain in whose interest they were fighting for. They should explain why their personal ego should stand over and above the interest of the country. But if unseen forces contrived the contention, as some are wont to speculate, to save President Yar’Adua in his unhealthy condition the pain of reading the long budget, then there is no wisdom in doing that either.

For the Constitution mandates the president to present the budget at any time in each financial year. What it means is that the president has a period of twelve months to present the budget. It is as flexible as that. President Yar’Adua could have chosen another time when he is better disposed to do so. All that is needed is understanding and rapport in government circles to reach a compromise. But the whole thing has been handled in the most embarrassing and undignified manner. At the same time, the matter is not yet over until the budget is passed and signed into law.

It is most regrettable that the history of budgets under this democratic dispensation is a history of rancour, acrimony and personality clash. These merely herald the expected failure of the budget at the end of the day. If the energy put in fighting over the budget presentation and approval was put in its implementation, Nigeria would have been better off. But this, sadly, is hardly the case. There is intense fighting over what figures should be approved for sub-heads that end up with nothing to show.

The budget, if properly articulated on the basis of specific national needs, is a critical instrument for national development. National development can only be accomplished on effective budgets. Without such instrument, no development could be possible. To that extent, the importance of budget to national development cannot be overemphasised. Thus, anything that frustrates the preparation, presentation and implementation of the national budget could as well be regarded as our collective enemy.

Each time the ordinary citizen looks at what is happening at the corridors of power at all levels of governance in this country, one has course to conclude without equivocation that there is no sincerity in the leadership. There is little or nothing to convince the ordinary Nigerian that someone at the leadership position, with responsibility over his or her welfare is thinking about that.

That is why the lawmakers could frustrate the budget without losing anything. As a matter of fact, they have everything to gain. It is the ordinary citizens that suffer. For instance, does it matter to the lawmakers if the roads are impassable? Do they care whether or not there is water or electricity? Who cares whether the schools have teaching facilities or whether the hospitals are functional? The lawmakers are special people. They have been numbered among the saints. Whatever it is that worries we mortals is not for them. Let the budget go to hell. What would the people do? Nothing.

Simon Kolawale Live!

My phone rang. I was deep in sleep, but I was rudely woken up Wednesday morning by the call. “Sorry to wake you up, Simon. Have you heard? The president is dead,” the voice said. Half-awake, or half-asleep, I replied: “It’s not true.” Why was I so confident President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was not dead? Well, let’s look at it this way: anytime the man travels, he dies. He dies on a regular basis. There are times that he dies even when he has not travelled. There is hardly any month that the man is not rumoured dead. For that reason, I am very reluctant to flow with the rumour. Also, if Yar’Adua dies, it will be announced officially. Nobody can hide it. As a Muslim, he will be buried same day. You cannot bury him in secret and lie to Nigerians that he is still alive. Even when the almighty Gen. Sani Abacha died, we were informed immediately and his remains were flown to Kano for burial same day. But why are people so eager to write Yar’Adua’s obituary? Well, he is seriously ill. That breeds rumours. Also, there are those who are so uninspired by his leadership that all they wish is that he would leave office – resignation or death is a matter of details. Just go! That is the message. So the rumours keep flying around. We have to realise however that we are not God. In our culture, it is uncharitable to be discussing somebody’s death while he is still alive. Illness, life and death are beyond our powers. I am not Yar’Adua’s fan, but as a fellow human being, I feel nothing but sympathy for him. It could be anybody. Anyone who has lost a loved one to complications arising from an internal organ problem will feel nothing but sympathy for the president. I am so uncomfortable with people ridiculing him on the basis of his ill health. It is in bad taste. But the current spate of rumours and conjectures has set me thinking about possible scenarios in our fragile polity. I’m writing on that today.

For those who say the president should resign, their request will certainly throw up a lot of issues which will again test our feeble nationhood. If Yar’Adua leaves office now, who succeeds him? The natural answer to that is, of course, Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan. Section 146 of the constitution is very clear on that. But if a Southerner becomes president just two years after another Southerner (Olusegun Obasanjo) finished a two-term tenure, what happens to the “power shift” and “power rotation” arrangements? The answer looks quite simple if devoid of political sentiments. But what is politics if not sentiments? Ask a Northerner the question of who succeeds Yar’Adua in the event of resignation and his answer will most likely be different from that of a Southerner. The Northerner – who will “lose” if power returns to the South so soon – will be quick to point out the informal political understanding that power should rotate between North and South. He will probably suggest that Jonathan should resign and allow a fresh presidential election to be held so that the “understanding” can be maintained. Jonathan could be offered a way back as running mate so that he can return to his position. On the other hand, the Southerner – who will “gain” if Jonathan becomes president – will argue that rotation is “unconstitutional” and the constitution should be followed in this instance. The argument will go on and on. These are the sort of debates that test our fragile nationhood. They raise tension, revive old wounds and set us back again.

The Jonathan Scenario is a timely reminder of many “knotty” questions that we never envisaged while we were writing the constitution and putting political arrangements in place. There are so many other questions that we have not had to answer yet, but they may raise their heads one day. For instance, if we say power is shifting to the South after spending eight years in the North and then the president-elect dies, the constitution says the vice-president-elect will assume office. In this case, the VP-elect is going to be a Northerner judging by our “political understanding”. That would mean a Northerner succeeding another Northerner. How would Southerners take that? Another scenario: even though we had a rotation understanding in 1999, but in 2003, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari ran for presidency on the ticket of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). If he had defeated Obasanjo of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Buhari would have been sworn in as president, making a mess of the power rotation understanding. Let’s look at another scenario. Let’s say Yar’Adua is strong enough to rule Nigeria for eight years but he is defeated by a Southerner in the 2011 election, what will happen? The Southerner will be sworn. That’s what will happen. That would effectively disrupt whatever power rotation understanding we have on ground. But let me complicate things a bit. If Yar’Adua steps down in 2011 and the rotation agreement throws up another Northerner as president, how many years will he spend? Let’s say the possible eight years. That automatically means the North would hold power for 12 years consecutively, whereas a Southerner (Obasanjo) was there for only eight years. This scenario-painting I’m doing may look frivolous or even silly, but that is exactly the sort of complication we have in our hands now with the Jonathan Scenario: we never knew it could come to this! That was how “12 two-thirds” became a problem in 1979 because we did not do enough scenario-painting while writing the constitution. Essentially, power rotation is a PDP arrangement. It has nothing to do with the constitution. It was employed in 1999 to settle certain problems. With the annulment of the June 12 election, won by a Southerner, Nigeria was thrown into a prolonged political turmoil. The bad blood it generated was such that the political elite had to just reach an agreement that a Southerner, and a Yoruba in particular, must be elected president in 1999. Since then, we seem to have agreed that power should be changing hands between the North and the South on an eight-year basis. Also, the six geo-political zoning arrangement, which has become so popular and widely accepted today, is not constitutional. The idea of picking a candidate from the South and the running mate from the North is also not constitutional. All these are political arrangements that seem to have been accepted and appear to be helping us in our not-so-inspiring nation-building efforts.

All I have tried to do today is to tilt our thinking in the direction of the complexities that still lie ahead of us. The Jonathan Scenario is just one of the dozens that we will have to deal with one day. But you may want to ask: where do I stand? Should Jonathan become president in any eventuality? Or should he resign so that the political understanding that we seem to have established can be maintained? I’ll be honest with you – I can’t be bothered. I have seen enough in Nigeria to know that it is not somebody’s “tribe and tongue” that matters but what they have to offer. If a leader is doing well in office, Nigerians hardly discuss the sectional issues. Inasmuch as I keep talking about political balancing and political accommodation, I know in my heart of heart that what Nigeria needs is a leader that can make things happen – the real issue is not North or South, man or woman, Ijaw or Fulani. We know this very well. We only pretend not to know because of political sentiments. All said and done, I wish the president quick recovery – Jonathan Scenario or no Jonathan Scenario. That is the least I owe Yar’Adua as a fellow mortal being.

by Sam Omatseye

From the outset, I must confess loyalties. I owe no passion for any of the football fancies of the day. I am an agnostic in this feverish play of pieties that exalts the foreign to the asphyxiation of local talents.

While many of us, in our post-colonial imbecilities, may throw our weights behind Manchester United or Arsenal or Chelsea or Liverpool, I am light with indifference.

When loyalty mattered, I was a fan of two teams, Bendel Insurance and Ilerika’s Stationary Stores. I glory in my antiquity.

Yet the prompting for this article is not that sport where a leathery round object plays bride to 22 purposeful wanderers. I am writing in the province of politics.

The other day, I heard a young man, who happens to be a longsuffering Chelsea fan, call out Manchester United as PDP. I asked why that correlation. Was it because the team, which plays a game of lacklustre fruitfulness, often dominates the league?

No, said the young man, in his ungainly stride and rhetorical stumbles like many lowly Chelsea fans. His point was that Manchester United cheats its way to glory like PDP in Nigeria’s elections.

First, I thought that was sour grapes. He should ask his team to win rather than quibble over the pettifogging matters of officiating. The referees, he countered, often ruled for Man U, when justice belonged to the other team. I learned later that this spurious deployment of metaphor was very common among Nigerian football fandom.

I tried to examine some recent developments in the country. If Man U. style of soccer was pitted against the political style of the PDP, the comparison would stand as superlative flattery for the PDP. The PDP guys play such foul games that the fans who make such links manifest a weak command of imagery. I understand fans of Arsenal, which plays with winless elegance, and Liverpool who walk alone in serial stumbles, share in this collective fever of cursing.

There is too much sticking by the rules in Man U. to warrant such flattering fuss. The games, unlike the doings of the PDP, take place before all and we see how rules are followed by players and officials.

The recent acts of the PDP that caught my attention included the farce developing in Anambra State and the Bode George saga.

Let us examine the kidnapping of Pa Soludo, the father of ex-CBN chief who has abandoned the nifty suite for the politician’s native garb. He is running for governor on the platform of the PDP. We know that Man U. could not have won a game the way Soludo won the ticket. But I have dwelled on that matter in the past few weeks.

But the latest episode was a farce. The man, 78, is old enough to be the grandfather of those who carried out this outrageous remaking of the old gbomo gbomo syndrome. But this is no omo or child. This is gbagba gbagba (elder kidnap) syndrome, as some of my internet readers suggested after my recent column on that subject.

The story is the sort you read in a gangster movie, like the Good Fellas. In his quiet village, ostensibly immune from the perversions of politics, the man was whisked away. Who are the kidnappers? The farce began. Soludo’s men said it was an act of political brigandage (my words). Chris Uba, the lean, restless maelstrom of Anambra politics, said it was politically motivated (not my words). The camp of Peter Obi, Anambra governor, said it was politically motivated. So everyone seems to believe that the wayward who demanded N500 million for Pa Soludo’s release were not mere desperados for cash. They carried out a revanchist scheme to make Soludo pay for spiriting away the party ticket. What happened to his father may be called Dadnapping.

But eyes have not left Chris Uba, not necessarily because he masterminded this one. We all remember that the last time a high-profile figure lost his freedom in the giddy night of abduction, Anambra was the theatre. Ngige, then a governor, was the victim. And who was the man in the middle of the story? Chris Uba. He deflowered the state into a romance with human heist for cash. Chris on the one hand is believed to have lost out to the PDP at the centre. The same way he lost out in the regime of Ngige. His brother Andy, juvenile with judicial appeals, is pushing his luck. Both brothers seem to be losing out in a show of a dysfunctional family.

But what is really tragic about this is the lack of respect for a cardinal element of our civilised culture: reverence for elders. It is one thing that makes us African. Remove the respect for elders, and we lose the right to be Africans. Respect for elders does not mean succumbing to the wisdom of age. It does not mean genuflecting before injustice from the old. It means, whatever our position or our ideology, we shall not treat them as though they are not older than we. It means we have no right to kidnap them. Even in Western societies, senior citizens have a special place, in public institutions, in buses, etc. They are treated with respect.

What happened in Anambra amounts to what our foremost novelist Chinua Achebe, also an Anambran, described as a “loss of the sense of the ridiculous”, in his latest book of essays, The Education of a British-Protected Child. What he meant was a sense in which nothing is beneath us anymore. Kidnapping is barbarous enough, but kidnapping an elder is beyond the pale. That is sort of thing Achebe lamented.

We no longer have limit but that defined by the beastly instincts inside us. Some writers like German novelist Erich Maria Remarque say Bushmen were better. In All Quiet on the Western Front, which critics call the greatest war novel ever, he said Bushmen are better because they can improve.

“Bushmen are primitive and naturally so,” he laments. “But we are primitive in an artificial sense, and by virtue of the utmost effort.” Remarque poured into his classic novels his experience in the First Word War.

Our attitude as Nigerians to these events also recalls what Remarque describes as “the indifference of wild creatures.” No matter the absurdity, we take in our strides. Just like animals.

The other incident was the jailing of Boy George or, as his parents named him, Bode George. I do not gloat as many do over his fate. He was convicted, but what many think about is how he had taken part in the initiation of injustices in electoral heists of the PDP in the Southwest. The farce was prepossessing as the man who owned Nigeria with his acolytes was asked to slip on prison uniform, forfeited the right to eat meals from home and is seeking to live a special life in prison, above the law, as he did when he was outside, the very thing that landed him in jail.

What excites me is the brilliance of the judge, Justice Bunmi Oyewole, a man I knew as a student at the University of Ife. I am glad he turned out this way. He was an exceptional student in our union days. He evinced sharp mind, panache and an ideological steadiness. At the Students representative Council, he was always a joy to watch and hear. His scientific mind was already blossoming at school as a clear-headed exponent of ideas. I recall, he started his points by saying, “in the first case…”

He is the sort of angels we need in our courts, men with incorruptible dossiers. Remember the Reverend King saga and the man who sliced him to size? Yes, it was him. We need him in the Court of Appeal. I hear they have recommended him.

by Reuben Abati

WHY won’t the NPA Six who were convicted by Justice Bunmi Oyewole’s court, a court of competent jurisdiction, and who have since been kept in prison not wear prison uniform? The only explanation that can be gleaned from reports in yesterday’s newspapers is that Nigeria runs a two-prison system: one for the rich convict, another for the poor. The Sun newspaper in its “Life inside Bode George’s Cell” (October 31, p.13). and The Vanguard in its “Why Bode George, others refused prison uniforms” (October 31) offer a sad picture of all that is wrong with the justice administration system in Nigeria. The import of legal conviction and imprisonment is to remind society of the supremacy of the law and of the equality of all persons before the law. In reality, Nigerian Prison authorities allow a variation of this when they receive convicted persons into custody. If the reports in The Sun and Vanguard newspapers truly reflect the situation in Bode George’s cell, then whoever is in charge of the Kirikiri Maximum Prison has some explaining to do. Besides, higher authorities must find out why those in charge of the Kirikiri prison have allowed it to be turned into a PDP party secretariat.

We are told that Chief Bode George stays in a special cell, in a VIP section, and one asinine prison warder suggests that no one should expect a big man like that to be kept in the same section with pickpockets and armed robbers because after all, there is a classification of convicts by the prison authorities. Need that fellow be told that indeed pickpocketing and armed robbery may be a lighter than the grounds of the NPA six’s conviction and that the kind of privileges that Chief Bode George and co. are said to be enjoying violate the intent of their conviction by the court of law? Chief George, the papers report, has refused to wear prison uniform and the prison authorities have allowed him to bring along with him, a suitcase of clothes. A few days ago, we were informed that Chief George’s measurements had been taken and that his prison uniform would be ready by Friday. So why won’t he wear it? There is only one uniform for Nigerian prisoners. The case of the NPA six has already been determined; they may be granted bail pending the determination of their appeal for bail, but until then, they have to abide by the rules of prison life. At the moment, Chief George and his men are behaving as if the success of their bail application is a foregone conclusion but that is presumptuous and outrightly contemptuous.

Chief George is said to be taking this in his stride and reassuring his supporters that his imprisonment is the handiwork of his enemies and part of the price of leadership. The supporters reportedly arrive very early and they practically fall over each other to see their Godfather. To all intents and purposes, the Kirikiri prison has been turned into a car mart and a party secretariat. The Sun report states that Chief George starts holding court by 8 am. He obviously thinks that his conviction is a joke and the prison officials also see it as such! The big man does not eat prison food. Every day, his family and friends bring special delicacies for him to wolf down. Does he drink beer? Or wine? Or fruit juice? And is he also having that while in prison custody? I can imagine all the prison officials falling over themselves also to pay homage to the PDP chieftain.

One of them is quoted as saying that the likes of Bode George will always have their way in prison because an average warder’s salary is so poor; he survives by depending on the generousity of rich inmates. Corruption within the prison system compromises the justice system. No wonder it was disclosed not too long ago that persons who had been convicted and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment for drug-related offences found their ways out of prison and the records were doctored accordingly to cover them up. This was the finding of a panel set that was set up to probe the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency under the previous administration. There has been no further word on that scandal. A fresh probe of Nigeria’s prison system is long overdue.

The only inconvenience that Chief Bode George suffers, The Sun newspaper states is the lack of electricity. The prison generator is put on at 4 am and it is switched off at 6 am reducing the PDP big man to a fighter of mosquitoes, using every available fan to ward off heat and insects. If Bode George gets his bail and he gets out of this, he would at least have learnt that special lesson: no condition is permament. He must also have learnt one or two lessons about public service: namely that it is a double-edged sword for those who play games with the demands of integrity. Another lesson about human behaviour: prior to his conviction, he must have considered himself a sacred cow, an untouchable Godfather, but now he must know that he is human after all and that the law is no respecter of persons. He must not complain. What has been proven through him is that President Yar’çdua takes the rule of law seriously or that he does so when he so wishes.

This year alone, he has watched quietly as bank CEOS who donated to his campaign fund and that of the PDP were publicly humiliated. He has also refused to get involved in Bode George’s trial. Hopefully, all the persons who think that they are rich and privileged would learn from this, taking to heart the last line in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex that no man should consider himself happy until he takes that happiness to the grave in peace. The air of happiness that is being created around Bode George’s presence in Kirikiri Maximum Prison is false. When all the visitors who see him in batches of five at a time leave, he would be left alone with mosquitoes and the eerie darkness of damp prison walls. He needs to be reminded that if he had been in China, he and the five others may have been given the death sentence. If he had been a Frenchman, he would not think that being convicted for corruption is a joke. Jacques Chirac, 76, former French President who has been charged for corruption is showing more sobriety than Bode George and he has not even been convicted yet. Chief Bode George and his men should stop behaving as if they are in a Guest House at Kirikiri. They are in prison. The reports about the special privileges that they seem to be enjoying should lead to an investigation.

But there is a flip side to all of this: with Bode George turned into a common criminal, and public opinion concretely against him and the malfeasances of the NPA six, the PDP elite may find in this a good excuse to launch a war through the courts against members of other political parties who may have skeletons in their cupboards. Allegations would have to be proven in a court of law of course, but should it happen and certain opposition figures get convicted, they would have no moral justification to complain about political persecution. The PDP hawks have made an example out of their own men, they may spare no knife in hacking the “political enemy” . Once this is upheld by the court of law establishing actual wrong-doing, so be it. More interesting scenarios await us before the 2011 general elections. But in the meantime, higher authorities should put an end to the offensive “Owambe”scene that Bode George and his supporters are allegedly staging at the Kirikiri Maximum Prison. Allowing a two-prison system that is based on class discrimination defeats the purpose of that system. There should be no hierarchy among prisoners, no double standard, no VIP-treatment behind prison walls.

Soludo’s Baptism Of Fire

PROFESSOR Charles Chukwuma Soludo would remember when he was baptised Charles at his family church. But that is nothing compared to the kind of baptism that he is currently receiving in Anambra state. His 78-year old father has been abducted. The kidnappers want N500 million, another group, OMEGA 12, has asked him to pay N5 billion. Is it possible for two different groups to kidnap one man? Soludo’s wife and children have since been relocated abroad. He has also moved his mother out of the family house. He and his supporters insist that whoever is behind this cannot break their will. But how much price is Professor Soludo willing to pay to realise his ambition of becoming the Governor of Anambra state in 2010?

There is no doubt that he is strong-willed. When he ran into trouble as CBN Governor over the redenomination of the Naira and he was practically disowned by the Presidency, he refused to heed the advsie that he should resign his appointment. If he is driven by the same resolve in this matter, he may choose to dare his opponents and damn the consequences. But if his father manages to survive the attempt on his life, Soludo would have to relocate him too. He may also have to relocate his siblings. And his nephew. And his in-laws. Even his associates. And he has to constantly look over his shoulders, lest he too is kidnapped. In the same Anambra state which he wants to govern, a sitting Governor was once abducted from the Government House. And those who did so are still active in that state, obviously.

Soludo’s travails have been linked to the manner of his emergence as the PDP Gubernatorial flagbearer in Anambra state and Chris Uba’s highly revealing outburst this week would further confirm that assumption. Hear Chris Uba as reported: “Soludo is a visitor in the state, he is a visitor in the party, but when he came we started the primaries, and in the delegate election he got only five, and when he got these few votes, Soludo himself went and brought a court order and told me, Chris Uba, that he brought that court order. He later came to my house to beg me for us to discuss. I told him to go first and vacate that court order, he told me the court order cannot be vacated. He also told me that he has about three court orders in his pocket….He has been calling me, begging me to soft pedal; and I said I will not soft pedal, that he must vacate because he came in through the backyard and he must leave through the backyard…

Soludo is not a member of our party, Soludo has not attended meeting anywhere… Soludo is a blackmailer but he cannot blackmail me to stop. I will continue to fight the cause I believe in…I will continue to fight his candidature till I get him out of office. He can’t try this in this party, he has ruined all the banks in Nigeria and he wants to ruin the party, it can’t happen. He knows the whereabouts of his father, let him bring back his father. Soludo is not at peace with his people, he is fighting with his people, he created an autonomous community. I want Nigerians to judge me and Soludo who has a skeleton in his cupboard…I am fighting a just cause and I have followers and my followers will not support illegality as exemplified in Soludo’s candidature.”

Weighty words, quite interesting but would Chris Uba be willing to tell us what the “skeleton” in Soludo’s cupboard is and how in specific terms he has as he alleges, “ruined all the banks in Nigeria?” And as for him, is he saying there is no skeleton in his cupboard? Does Chris Uba remember any one called Chris Ngige at all? Soludo is being exposed to so much harrassment because he wants to be Governor. Chris Uba says he came to beg him. A Professor of Economics and former Governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank going to beg Chris Uba? Did he prostrate? How much book dis Uba read sef? I hope Soludo will not fall into the trap of swearing to an oath at a shrine! Howsoever the drama of his Gubernatorial ambition plays out, Soludo must see in this the urgent need for him to join the campaign for electoral reform. And hopefully, also, he would see good reason to keep away from the PDP: a party with an unlimited supply of strange characters and incidents.

In the end, the Anambra debacle is all about the underdeveloped nature of Nigeria’s political process and the failure of the PDP. By 2011, there may be more copycats kidnapping the parents and relations of candidates. And if all aspirants have to start the race by first relocating their relations to neighbouring countries, this would not only drive up the cost of political particpation, it will also shut out well-meaning candidates and compel us to ask: who would be left to vote in Nigeria’s elections? An electoral system that requires political aspirants to send their loved ones on exile to prevent their abduction belongs to the age of barbarians. Kidnapping for whatever reason is unjusitifiable, it is criminal. The kidnappers of Pa Soludo must be found and the innocent man must be brought back home. This is another test case for the Nigerian Police.

by Simon Kolawole

I don’t know much about Chief Andy Uba. He had always run his life away from the limelight, until he dived into the “murky waters” of politics. I have met him only once – at the THISDAY summit tagged “Nigeria Meets the World”, held in New York two years ago. He was in company with Alhaji Aliko Dangote. As I greeted Dangote and tried to “escape”, he grabbed my hand, turned to Uba and announced, mischievously, “Andy, this is Simon!” I had written very critical articles against Uba, so I was expecting some outpour of expletives. That was why I did not want to greet him in the first place. But, to my surprise, he greeted me warmly and asked, rather rhetorically: “Simon, what have I done to you now?” He came across to me as a soft-spoken, humble gentleman. All I did was smile. People I’ve criticised usually curse me when we meet. I was expecting a similar treatment from Uba, but he disappointed me.

In the event that you don’t know Andy Uba, an introduction will suit you. He was Special Assistant to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo. He was the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the April 14, 2007 election in Anambra State. He was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). He was sworn in on May 29, 2007. But, in the shadows, there was a court case instituted by Governor Peter Obi to determine if he had served out his tenure in accordance with section 180(2)a of the 1999 Constitution. Obi had challenged the 2003 election in which Dr. Chris Ngige was declared winner by INEC. Obi pursued his case to a definitive conclusion and was sworn in as governor in March 2006 – almost three years after litigation. The next question was: would he serve just one year and leave office when the Constitution guaranteed him four years? Two weeks after Uba was sworn in, the Supreme Court returned Obi to the Government House with a judgment that his tenure would expire on March 17, 2010. The court berated INEC for conducting the April 14 election when it was well aware that there was no vacancy.

For whatever reason, Uba refused to give up. In a way, you would not blame him. He probably saw himself as a victim of circumstances. He probably felt a sense of injustice – a feeling that he was not responsible for INEC’s actions and errors. To everyone’s surprise, however, Uba went back to the Supreme Court, asking the apex court to reverse itself and restore him to office. The Supreme Court rarely reverses itself. I still do not know what gave Uba the confidence to try his luck. Several times he went back to the court but he eventually withdrew his plea and returned to a lower court, the Appeal Court, this time around to discuss the petition from the April 14, 2007 election. An elections petitions tribunal, basing its stand on the Supreme Court pronouncement on Obi’s tenure, had dismissed the petitions rising from Uba’s election on the ground that the election should not have held in the first place; in law, they say you cannot build something on nothing. The case ended up at the Appeal Court where the panel ruled the lower tribunal out of order. It said, curiously, that the tribunal should have listened to the petition on its merit, despite Supreme Court’s verdict. If you ask me, this was the beginning of Uba’s dilemma. The Appeal Court, for reasons best known to them, raised Uba’s hope and we are yet to get over it till today.

In the next few days, the Appeal Court sitting in Enugu is expected to give a “declarative verdict” on the status of Uba in line with its February 2008 judgment that the result of the April 2007 election was still “live” in spite of Supreme Court’s ruling on Obi’s tenure. Is Uba governor-in-waiting? Should he take over as soon as Obi’s tenure expires on March 17, 2010? Strong indications are that the Appeal Court will rule in Uba’s favour and spark off another round of controversy. A group recently placed an advert in the newspaper accusing Uba of inducing the judiciary to do his bidding. They said Uba had been promised the Anambra governorship as a “parting gift” by a top shot of the Appeal Court. A pro-Uba group has denied the allegation, describing it as nothing but blackmail. Whichever way you look at it, however, there is a buzz in Uba’s camp. The expectation is very high that he will be declared governor-in-waiting by the Appeal Court panel, which is said to be split 3-2 in Uba’s favour. This is quite intriguing.

Now let’s look at the matters arising. One, the Supreme Court has ruled in very clear terms that Obi’s tenure expires on March 17, 2010. That should be easy enough to understand by anybody. Two, the Constitution states clearly in Section 178(2) that an election to the office of the Governor of a State shall be held on a date not earlier than sixty days and not later than thirty days before the expiration of the term of office of the last holder of that office. In simple English, or arithmetic, 60 days to March 17 would be January 17, while 30 days would be April 17. INEC has fixed February 6 for the election, which is well within range. Where does April 14, 2007 come into the picture? The Constitution in front of me here does not say “not earlier than 37 months or later than 36 months”. Three, by constitutional provisions, the sitting governor is allowed to seek another term in office because he is entitled to a maximum of two. The incumbent will therefore be denied his right to contest. Four, since INEC has fixed February 6, 2010 for the governorship election in line with Supreme Court’s judgment, what happens to the winner of the election? Will he too become governor-in-waiting to assume office when Uba’s tenure expires on… I don’t even know what date that would be now.

Since feelers from the Appeal Court indicate that Uba is coasting home to victory, I think the Nigerian judiciary is in for a torrid time. The reputation it has won in this democratic dispensation will become food for the dogs. If the Appeal Court upturns the Constitution and Supreme Court’s pronouncement on this matter, I guess the logic will continue to haunt the justices for the rest of their lives. The honourable justices should also think of their names. The Anambra conundrum has claimed many victims in the judiciary, notably Justice Wilson Egbo-Egbo, whose career was terminated in disgrace. Whether we like it or not, a good name is better than silver and gold, no matter what the modern man thinks.

If the Appeal Court goes ahead to upturn what the Supreme Court has said on Anambra State, of course the case will go back to the Supreme Court. Any argument that a governorship election petition ends at the Appeal Court will obviously not hold water, because this is ultimately a constitutional matter, not just an election petition. The final question will be: going by Section 178(2) of the 1999 Constitution, can an election be held 36 months to the expiration of the tenure of the incumbent? The clear answer is no. On what law was the April 2007 election based then? Can you build something on nothing? The answer is no. I have this funny feeling that if the Appeal Court justices allow themselves to be lured into upturning a Supreme Court judgment, the National Judicial Council (NJC) will eventually pounce on them. My gut feeling is that many of them will end their careers like Egbo-Egbo. “Egbo”, in Yoruba, means “wound”. They will nurse their wounds for life – if they stand constitutional logic on its head.

Bode George and the Way Forward

The conviction and jailing of Chief Bode George – and five others, let me quickly add – came to many Nigerians as a shock. Most of the people who called me were incredulous. “Are you sure Bode George has been jailed?” was one question I had to answer many times. Now, I don’t blame the Doubting Thomases. When was the last time a big politician was sentenced to jail and given a prisoner’s uniform for corruption? You have to go all the way back to the Muhammadu Buhari/Tunde Idiagbon era to get an answer to that. I’m talking of 1984-85 – some good 24 years ago. Those born then have graduated from the university and married and had children. Quite some history. Since then, those who get sentenced to jail are the guys who snatch handbags at Oshodi. The guys who steal the billions usually get national honours and police escorts. So Nigerians are entitled to scepticism.

Even as I write this, I (like many other Nigerians) don’t really believe George will serve his jail term. It’s very unNigerian for a big fish to be caught and served justice in large dosage. While I do not rejoice over the plight of George (many of the politicians who are celebrating his downfall are worse criminals), I am delighted with the judgment for several reasons. The symbolism should not be lost on us if we are to strengthen nation-building and facilitate Nigeria’s development. First, it is assumed, or believed, that no big politician will ever go to jail in Nigeria. This belief fuels impunity and despair. Impunity because politicians engage in bad behaviour knowing fully well that they will never be brought to justice. Despair because many Nigerians have given up hope of justice. They end up saying “Nigeria is finished” and never expect anything good to come out of their country. This judgment is therefore capable of sending a warning signal to politicians that they can actually go to jail.

Also, there’s a high possibility that the George judgment will have a positive effect on other judges across the country who may have also come to believe, like many Nigerians, that big politicians cannot go to jail. Now they know those guys can indeed go to jail. The judges, I believe, will henceforth be encouraged to slam the hammer on these guys. Until Peter Obi pursued his election petition to a logical conclusion, no governor had been removed from office by the judiciary. This must have discouraged many judges from giving big judgments. However, as soon as Obi won his case and was installed governor of Anambra State almost three years after the election, the other tribunals and courts took their cue from the case and began to take big decisions. I expect the Bode George judgment to have a similar effect on other judges who are handling political cases involving former governors and former ministers.

Three, I expect that President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua will not interfere in this case, although his party is talking tough (“It is not over yet,” the party’s scribe, Abubakar Baraje, has said). Indications so far are that Yar’Adua is ready to allow things to run on their own. When the Minister of Power, Lanre Babalola, moved against the big guys at the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), attempts were made to reach Yar’Adua to call off the action, especially as a top prince was involved, but he refused. The recent removal of Francis Atuche as MD of BankPHB was a shocker – Atuche was Yar’Adua’s banker. The Yar’Adua family is a major shareholder in BankPHB (the president declared this in his assets form). Yet Atuche and BankPHB were not spared the hammer. I therefore expect that the President will not make any underground moves to get George and co. off the hook. In which case, our institutions will have an opportunity to grow in strength. The judiciary as well as the anti-graft agencies will only gain from this. Anything short of this and the judgment by Justice Joseph Olubunmi Oyewole will just be another false dawn.

by Dele Momodu

There is no better time than now to examine the socio-political dynamics of corruption in Nigeria. The landmark judgment handed down to some bigwigs of the ruling party last Monday has made the topic even more attractive to commentators. But I’m not about to comment on that particular case, which like most things Nigerian, is already being politicised. My only worry is why it is ever so difficult for our politicians to accept a simple verdict, and if necessary, challenge it later.

Rather they must cast aspersions on the judiciary when things are not favourable and hail it when it is expedient to do so. The good thing about legal tussles is that there are always options to be explored, and it is almost impossible to accuse everyone of bias, from the lowest to the highest courts of the land.

The judiciary is the last hope of the common man whatever the imperfections that may exist within the system. No matter what you want to say about the Yar’Adua government, those days of brazen disobedience of court verdicts are gone. The type of political rascality we see on parade in Anambra State would abate when it is certain that politics would be played in the true spirit of democracy, and the perpetrators of anarchy would enjoy no protection from the government.

A strong message must be sent out that no one is above the law of the land, and that membership of the ruling party would not guarantee automatic victory at the polls. The only reason the political gladiators fight to finish is because of the high stakes that the control of political offices has become. Winners always take all, without any consideration for others.

This is why we must establish the rule of law as one of the major pillars that can save us from total Armageddon. Even if the economy and regular power supply are beyond the capabilities of the federal government, President Umaru Yar’Adua would be fondly remembered for his avowed protection of the rule of law. As such, we must continue to encourage his administration to even do better. Let us hope that all the cases in many of our courts pertaining to corruption and election rigging are quickly concluded and respected by all parties.

Nigeria is in desperate need of a miracle. Most of our national institutions have collapsed and the process of restoration has been painfully slow. If the judiciary can rescue us as an impartial arbiter, perhaps we’ll be able to avert the imminent conflagration that some politicians are hell-bent on attracting to our nation. It is so sad because only a few of our politicians are ready to talk about what positive contributions they can make to the country. We do not know their manifestos. Theirs is not about service. It is all about making money by all means. Nothing scares them because of the belief that they can get away with anything. Sadly, they are not wrong. They often do.

It is almost a given in Nigeria that corruption is it! We are now better known for corruption than for our wobbly dexterity in the field of soccer. It is as if corruption is non-existent elsewhere. But it does exist everywhere. The problem is we’ve not managed our own situation well. There have been flashes of good efforts here and there, from the regime of General Murtala Mohammed to the present administration. But they remain flashes of hope. We have never really been able to set up a proper structure that can punish, discourage and reduce corruption at all levels.

Our style has always been to handpick a few people, hype the operations up to the highest level, and everything goes quiet again. There have been many cases of double standards, and of sacred cows. There are no clear cut criteria that we can strongly hold on to as to how we arrived at certain decisions. A few governors are arrested and painted as devils incarnate while many bigger cats walk away as if they were never in power. Such situations would always compromise the integrity of the war against corruption.

The war ought to be fought across board, and with sincerity of purpose. We have also not been able to bring our infrastructural development to a standard where most Nigerians would not have to erect their own government at home and at work. The pressure this puts on the individual is huge, and every human being must survive first before being a radical and patriot. It is the first rule of the jungle.

I’m interested in proposing my ideas on how to truly combat the menace of corruption. This should be more productive than the staccato fashion virtually all Nigerian governments have used to fight against corruption these past years. It seems both the governments and the governed are not very clear about how to deal with this stubborn goat called corruption. Before we continue, we must agree on what constitutes corruption and corrupt practices. My definitions are going to be elaborate and all-encompassing. I’m not unmindful of the controversy that this topic usually throws up everywhere, but every solution begins at the level of discourse and theoretical postulations. This assignment cannot even be concluded in one column. But we must start from somewhere.

Every human being has the proclivity to be corrupt. It is the degrees that differ. While some can resist corruption, most people cannot. I’ll love to see the man who has never fallen for the temptations of corruption at one time or the other in his lifetime. In fact, my theory is that if you’ve not been tempted, you can’t claim to be a radical. If you’ve not received bribes in different forms, you must have been offered gratifications or inducement at one time or the other. A friend of mine once said that “if you search the wardrobes very well, you’ll find some white cockroaches.”

Corruption therefore is a common phenomenon and cannot be reduced to the exclusive preserve of political office holders. The Nigerian state makes corruption too irresistible. A country where there is no form of social security is a natural habitat for criminals, induced or hardened. There is also the lack of a credible pension scheme. The fear of the future usually haunts most of our public servants who now believe that you must prepare for the dark days ahead.

Unfortunately, the virus has now spread to the private sector and is of epidemic proportions. A nation is doomed when the public and private sectors are both corrupt simultaneously. Such is the tragedy we face in Nigeria. There seems to be an unwritten law that the only avenue to success is through making money corruptly. And the easier way is to have a juicy government appointment. Such positions of power usually attract serious lobbying. It is almost impossible to get such plum jobs on merit.

If public officials regard themselves as servants of the people, there’ll be no compulsion to fight over any special placements, rendering the godfathers would be idle. There will be no need to organise thanksgiving services over government appointments. But you and I know it doesn’t work that way most times. A powerful appointment confers on the appointee an instant power over life and death. Your house soon becomes a beehive of activities. Suddenly, you are the beautiful bride of everyone, and the toast of every lip.

This is what I call the institutional corruption. It is a crime in some communities for their kith and kin to return home with poverty after a meritorious or even unproductive service in government. Such appointment is seen as an invitation to partake in the cutting and eating of the national cake. The man who holds the biggest knife returns with the chunkiest part of the proverbial cake. That is never a big deal. It only becomes a major deal when you fail to return home with enough to show for your stint in the kingdom of thieves.

This is why the lazy promoters of zoning and federal character will never give up the fight. It is the same reason Nigeria will find it difficult to make substantial progress in the comity of nations; when the right people will never find themselves in the right positions. A situation where a Donald Duke for example, and there many of them, cannot be offered a strategic post by their own PDP government is a tragedy. When a hardworking man cannot be encouraged, then bad people would continue to thrive.

Every political party has its good and bad people. But the good materials find it hard to have a say in what goes on. Many of our ambassadors fall far below expectations in a modern world. The Ministers see themselves as representing a sectional block. They are loyal to their parties and communities and not to the nation.

My theory is that you cannot put people who have failed in their personal lives in positions of authority. They will first try to take care of their personal failings. They are the ones who build the biggest mansions in a village where they don’t live. They buy expensive cars for their young kids in order to oppress their mates. They marry brand new and more sophisticated wives to announce their newly-acquired status. The poor wife who followed them from the village, and suffered through thick and thin, is no longer posh enough to be seen with Oga. It is a case of beautiful wife, big budget. Now imagine a country where a public servant has acquired countless wives and concubines, the result would always be catastrophic.

The next form of corruption occurs where a man cannot survive on his income. This is induced corruption. I’ll love to see a hardworking man who can easily pay all his bills on the salary he takes home. You have to pay a minimum of two years rent in advance when you don’t earn your salary in advance. You have to furnish the apartment no matter how modest. You must pay for electricity, and buying a generator is not a luxury but a necessity. You have to pay school fees, buy a car, and furnish your apartment, stock up on food for the house, among so many other things. Is it not one of those supernatural wonders that some salary-earners in Nigeria are not only able to pay all those amazing bills but even have enough to buy choice properties all over the world?

•To be continued

by Reuben Abati

“MI’LORD has caught a big one. In fact not one, five. It is a wonderful day for Nigeria”.

“You always like to jubilate when someone falls on bad times. What’s the matter with you?”

“Why shouldn’t we jubilate? No, tell me, why shouldn’t we roll on the floor with laughter from rib to rib? When last did the long arms of the law catch up with big men who have mismanaged public resources? Madam Farida Waziri’s EFCC has been busy with too many cases in progress. Everyone who wanted progress with the anti-corruption war started yearning earnestly for Ribadu, the action-packed former Chairman of the EFCC. Now something big has happened”.

“I know. Mrs. Waziri has been beating her chest. President Yar’Adua must also be pleased”.

“But it is the judge that we should praise. He has shown courage and determination. It doesn’t matter what they do to him after this. He will be remembered for his courage in sending six big men to jail in one day, without the option of fine. What was it again? – the splitting of contracts, abuse of office, and disobedience of lawful orders.”

“Heavy matter”.

“And the whole matter took 14 months. The case began in August 2008 and now, it has been determined. Some other judges allow cases to drag on endlessly. And lawyers would be allowed to keep making frivolous applications just to delay the course of justice”.

“I hear this Oyewole is a no-nonsense judge. I recommend his example to other judges. Take a case, stay with it, do justice in record time”.

“You know for a moment, I thought Chief Bode George was going to get away. I mean the man is a big man in every sense of that word in Nigeria. Former Governor of Ondo State. Former Principal Staff Officer to the No: 2 man in the Abacha Government. National Deputy Chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (South West). The topmost chieftain of the PDP in Lagos State. A friend of the one and only OBJ of the do-or-die politics fame. A judge looked at the man straight in the face and sent him to jail?”.

“They are already sewing his prison uniform at Kirikiri. Have you not heard? He will get it today. The moment he arrived, the prison authorities took his measurements. The law is no respecter of persons. Nobody is above the law. That is the good news in all of this.”

“Even those five others are big men. We are talking of Board members of the Nigerian Ports Authority and a former Managing Director of the NPA. The NPA is one of those lucrative departments. When a man is given a high position in a body like that, he throws a party”.

“But there is something about the case that I still don’t quite understand. I think there is an escape route for the NPA Six when the matter goes on appeal”.

“It doesn’t matter. What we know at the moment is that the men have been convicted. That is the position of the law. Did you not read that when Chief Bode George arrived at the Kirikiri Maximum Prison, one of the first inmates to welcome him was Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, Abacha’s Chief Security Officer who has been in that prison for nearly nine years”.

“Ten”

“Whatever”

“No condition is permanent, my brother”.

“I’d like to see more big men in jail. May be that will curtail their greed”.

“Like who and who?”

“Like all the ones whose cases are still pending.”

“Name one person”.

“I don’t want to be charged for contempt; only a Court of Law can determine who goes to jail”.

“You see? You are a coward. You don’t want to offend anybody”.

“Okay, you too, name somebody you think also deserves a prison uniform and a special welcome by Abacha’s CSO.”

“Walahi, prison no good o. So, where do you think they will keep Chief Bode George. Will they give him a VIP suite?”

“You think Kirikiri Maximum Prison is a five-star hotel?”

“I understand it is organised like one and you can stay in a VIP suite if the price is right. You may even get a chance to have your wife sneak in for an overnight stay, again if the price is right. This is Nigeria. Were you not in this country when the wife of a prominent prisoner took in while he was still in prison and it was reported that the pregnancy was his. At night, you may even be allowed to go home and return at dawn before anyone notices your absence”.

“One of these days, this your mouth will put you into trouble. But whether there is a VIP suite in prison or not, I don’t think Chief Bode George will find it funny”.

“I hear he is not taking prison food.”

“Don’t worry, he’d soon adjust.”

“But why are you talking about Chief Bode George? What about the other five?”

“This is Nigeria. Don’t be surprised if they are granted amnesty sooner than you think.”

“You think they will be granted bail pending the hearing of their appeal?”

“I suspect the men will be released at the Court of Appeal. I have been reflecting on the grounds of their conviction. Splitting of contracts, Abuse of office. Disobedience of lawful orders. These look to me like administrative irregularities. I mean when did a contract become an atom? Is Bode George a scientist turning contracts into atoms, and splitting them to create a bomb?”.

“Yes. A bomb of free cash. It swells the pocket, the mouth, the belly, and it can send a man to prison… Because public funds are involved, when you split contracts in order to top up prices, you are violating the law. This case should teach Board members of public institutions that if they abuse their fiduciary responsibilities, they may go to jail”.

“How will those big men look in prison uniform”

“That is not important. They don’t do fashion parade in prisons. A prison uniform is a prison uniform. One elewon is not different from the other”.

“Jesus Christ, the husband of widows!”

“I understand Chief Bode George’s supporters wanted to make trouble at the court premises. They became unruly, raining curses on the judge, and threatening journalists”.

“If they are not careful, they’d join their man in prison.”

“And to think Chief Bode George caused all this by suing The News magazine for libel. If he had known, he would have kept quiet.”

“It is like Jeffrey Archer and the UK Daily Star. Look, it simply means that big men should watch how they behave. A big man today can wear a prison uniform tomorrow. That is the way of the world”.

“Even if they sew prison uniform with damask, may my enemy never wear it”.

“Why? Your enemies should wear prison uniform. What kind of prayer is that?”

“You know I am a Christian. We are taught to pray for our enemies.”

“Well, don’t pray for people who split things that shouldn’t be split”.

“Like who?”

“Like the kidnappers of Pa Simeon Soludo, the father of Prof. Charles Soludo”.

“Prof. Chukwuma, please. He has retired his Charles.”

“Look, that is not important to me. What kind of country is this? Why would anyone kidnap a man, an old man, 78 years old, just because his son wants to be governor?”

“Some people’s wives and mothers have been kidnapped before now. And this is the second time they’d take Pa Soludo. When his son introduced banking consolidation as CBN Governor in 2006, and some banks lost their licenses, he was also abducted. He lost an eye during that incident”.

“It is a clear sign of Nigeria’s underdevelopment.”

“More like the failure of the Nigerian state.”

“It is obvious that certain elements are determined to intimidate Prof. Soludo, and frighten him”.

“The kidnappers are asking for N500 million.”

“What price must a man pay to be part of the Nigerian governance process”?

“Certainly not the life of a father.”

“It is called collateral damage, though”

“It is pure criminality and it should be condemned. It raises serious questions about human security.”

“This Nigeria tire me, no be small”.

“Look at what is happening with the U-17 football tournament that we are hosting. When other countries host such an event they end up making profit from ticket sales and endorsements. Nigeria is losing money. Other countries gain international recognition and pride, but Nigeria is ridiculing itself”.

“I hear FIFA is not happy with the Local Organising Committee. They are complaining about low turn-out at the stadium”.

“But I have seen some improvement this week”.

“Artificial improvement. To keep the tournament going, the Nigerian authorities are renting crowds to fill the stands”.

“I know”.

“For the Nigeria-Honduras match, 40,000 tickets were given out free to encourage spectators to come to the Abuja National Stadium”.

“In many of the centres, school children are taken out of school and forced to make up the numbers at the stadium, I don’t remember which match I was watching. It was around 7.30 p.m. and I saw these helpless children, secondary school pupils, watching a football match they probably were not interested in. That’s child abuse”.

“In Lagos, the state government provides free transportation to and from the stadium”.

“In Bauchi State, Governor Isa Yuguda is buying up all the tickets for the matches, and asking people to just come to the stadium. He is paying N20 million.”

“All the governors and Ministers who are buying up tickets for free distribution, I hope it is their personal funds they are spending. I really hope so.”

“It is not only the Nigerian authorities that are bribing the spectators. I read a story in the Nigerian Tribune about how the Italian U-17 team decided to distribute sweets and T-shirts to spectators.”

“Wonderful.”

“And trust Nigerians. They supported the Italians.”

“When are they going to serve food? I beg if you know where they are serving food, let me know.”

“Hungry man.”

“But you know, the biggest scandal of the U-17 tournament occurred on Wednesday in Enugu. It rained heavily and the Burkina Faso-New Zealand match had to be suspended. The artificial pitch was flooded. It became bloated.

“I saw it on television. I saw concerned officials using buckets to drain water from the pitch’

“Nobody used a plastic bucket. You sef?”

“You mean you did not see people frantically using towels to drain water? I saw people using knives and blades to rip the flooded pitch open”

“And that is a pitch that was specially imported and installed. Expensive installation.”

“You never know. May be someone split the contract, and the contractor had no option but to do a shoddy job.”

“It is a shame.”

“Don’t worry. Soon, it’d be over.”

“That thing I said about food, don’t forget eh/”

“Mr. Food.”

“I just want to split some dollops of pounded yam.”

“Don’t worry, you won’t end up in Kirikiri for that.”

by Femi Adesina

Did our futurologists miss it in their crystal balls? Or were they as blind as bats in the daytime? How come they never told us that a Lagos Boy would pass through Kirikiri prison this year? Yes, perhaps the greatest ripple in the political waters this year so far is Monday’s conviction of former naval officer and top gun of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George.

For 15 months, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had prosecuted George and five other members of the board he chaired, which ran the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) from 2001 to 2003.

They had been accused of abuse of office, contracts inflation, disobedience to constituted authority, contracts splitting, conspiracy to commit crime, among others. And on Monday, Justice Olubunmi Oyewole of the Lagos High Court handed them a jail term of 28 years each, but they would only spend two-and-a-half years each in prison, as the convictions are to run concurrently.

The nation, and indeed the world, had waited rather impatiently for what is generally called a ‘high profile’ conviction from the EFCC, particularly since Mrs Farida Waziri took over as chairman in June last year. Former Edo State governor, Chief Lucky Igbinedion had been convicted for corruption, with a fine option that was described as not more than a massage (not even a slap) on the wrist. Thirteen Filipinos were also convicted for economic crime in a landmark case, the Vaswani Brothers had got themselves deported once again for economic crimes, billions of naira had been recovered from convicted fraudsters, yet what Hilary Clinton told us in her recent visit here was that the EFCC had “fallen off” in the last two years.

Now that the EFCC has prosecuted Bode George and others to a logical conclusion, I like that kind of falling off. If this is what it means for an anti-crime agency to fall off, I surely like it, and want more of such. Let the EFCC “fall off,” but let it get more big shots to answer for their crimes, and I don’t care what Hilary Clinton and other cynics say. Or do you?

The grip on Bode George’s jugular brings up a number of issues. One is that sacred cows too can eventually fall to the knackers. They can be led like sheep to the slaughter, dumb before the shearers. All we need is a dispassionate commitment to what is right, no matter whose ox is gored.

I remember how it all began. Chief Bode George was the Deputy National Chairman (South) of the rampaging PDP. If anybody had a sense of invincibility, it was George. Was he not one of the henchmen of the emperor, Olusegun Obasanjo? Was he not the one who led the tsunami that saw the PDP overrunning the entire South-West, except Lagos? They ran the country like a fiefdom, a personal estate, and their word was law. Under the Obasanjo regime, chairman of the EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, had personally investigated the contract bazaar at the NPA. His report indicted Bode George, but Obasanjo threw the report back in Ribadu’s face. The then EFCC boss kept quiet. His mandate was to hound enemies of the regime, not allies, and once he was told to shut up on Bode George, he played the obedient servant to the hilt.

In August last year, just two months after assuming office, Mrs Waziri pulled George in. I remember the man had been abroad, and rumours were rife that his arrest was imminent. When he landed at the airport, Bode George was all puff and bluster, telling the media that he had nothing to fear. Now, just 15 months later, he has every reason to fear. The wind has blown, and we have seen the chicken’s rump.

Ribadu has hailed George’s conviction, saying the law was at last catching up with the bad guys. From his Oxford University, United Kingdom base, he said it was “a measure of the shamelessness of our elites and the institutions that fuel their values that Chief George would be awarded national honour in our country, and that he could later sue some newspapers for libel on account of the damming indictment report I prepared against him. Chief George’s subsequent prosecution is evidence that ultimately, the law catches up with the bad guys.”

Very well said. Like I always maintain, Nuhu Ribadu did his level best in the fight against corruption in Nigeria. But his term was by no means perfect. He is not the paragon that some people try to make of him. Just like every one of us, he had weaknesses. He indicted George in a report in 2005. What then happened? Why didn’t the case go to court till Farida Waziri exhumed it in August, 2008? And Ribadu was in office till December 2007. Obasanjo left office in May of that year, yet he never revisited the indictment he gave in 2005. The truth is that under Ribadu, Bode George would never have seen the door of a courtroom, not to talk of standing inside the dock. He was a sacred cow, he was Obasanjo’s man, and it was outside Ribadu’s brief to touch the untouchables under Obasanjo.

I have written before that I have more confidence in the integrity of the cases filed before the courts by Farida Waziri. She seems more sedate, painstaking and thorough than Ribadu, who preferred the swashbuckling, headline-grabbing approach. Yet, this woman and the agency she leads have been the object of virulent campaign of calumny round the world, championed by Ribadu and his loyalists who thought the EFCC chairmanship was a traditional title that lasts for life. Never think nobody else can do a job you have done appreciably like Ribadu did at EFCC. Never like Elijah, think you are the only true prophet of God left, because there are many thousands others, who have never bowed their knees to Baal.

Bode George’s conviction is glaring evidence once again that nothing lasts forever. And what goes round comes round. You lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas. The only thing permanent in this world is change. Bode George in Kirikiri? It’s like a bad dream, nay, nightmare. It could never have happened when Obasanjo and Ribadu held sway. But a Pharaoh would always come, who does not know Joseph. More than anything else, this conviction has reinforced the rule of law mantra of the Umaru Yar’Adua administration. It is no mere platitude. Remember that Bode George coordinated Yar’Adua’s campaign, yet the law is the law. The president could have intervened, and the man would never have been arrested in the first place, not to talk of ever standing trial and getting convicted. At least, this is something good from a leader we have called a chronic foot dragger, a slowcoach, and many other names. Yes, he is all that and more, but he has at least respected the law and its processes.

We must equally commend Justice Olubunmi Oyewole of the Lagos High Court, who got this case concluded in 15 months, and who delivered judgment without fear or favour. He could have allowed frivolous injunctions upon injunctions, which would see the case drag for many years, till everyone loses interest. One hopes other judges handling corruption cases can take a cue.

Again, did you ever see Bode George in manacles while the case lasted? Did you see him dragged on the floor like they did to Tafa Balogun? Did you see him in handcuffs like they did to DSP Alamieyesigha, Abubakar Audu, and some others? There is a difference between playing to the gallery for the sake of temporal applause, for the acclaim of the international community, and doing things decently, in tune with what obtains in the rest of the civilised world. I pray we never return to the era characterised largely by sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Under the Babangida regime, Bode George, then a Navy Captain, was military governor of Ondo State. When he finished his tour of duty, a period not considered outstanding, he was asked what he would be remembered for. Jocularly, he said: “The people would remember that a Lagos Boy once passed through this state.”

George’s lawyers and the PDP have indicated that the verdict of the High Court would be appealed. Fine, it’s their right. Bode George may either get discharged, or the court can affirm the ruling of the lower court. But in the interim, one thing is clear: A Lagos Boy is now passing through Kirikiri prison.