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The meaning of legal effect of next of kin (2)

By Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN

THE LEGAL OPTIONS

To avoid these uncertainties, it is good to write a Will early enough, at least from age forty, when one has any reasonable asset worthy of preservation. Another option is to acquire assets in the joint names of the couple, for instance to buy land in the name of Mr. Joe Musa and Mrs. Jane Musa, being careful to ensure that both names are reflected separately and not as Mr and Mrs. Joe Musa. Also, the couple could incorporate companies, allot shares thereof to themselves and their children and then acquire their assets in the name of the company. The fear always is about strangers and family members who deploy culture, religion and tradition to deprive surviving spouses and children of the deceased person of their due entitlement. In these cases, there will hardly be any controversy as upon the death of a spouse, the surviving wife or husband automatically takes over the assets and if it is in the name of the company, only the shareholders and directors can claim the assets of the company. There is however a recent practice, whereby a man or woman shares his or her assets in his lifetime and sees to the effective takeover thereof. In such a case, the beneficiaries take what is due to them during the lifetime of their benefactor, who is still alive to supervise the process.

DEVOLUTION OF ESTATE AFTER DEATH

In most cases, the problem is with situations where the deceased died intestate without a Will. Under and by virtue of section 7 of the Administration of Estates Law of Lagos State, 2015, “where a person dies intestate under this Law in respect of the real and personal estate, that estate will be deemed to have been vested, from the date of the death until administration is granted, in the Chief Judge …” This to me is most unfortunate, but the law is clear that survivors and family members of a man or woman who died without a Will have no power over his or her estate until administration has been granted by the Court. In practice, however, once a person dies, the family gathers together in the name of culture and tradition, to assume power of administration of the estate, especially for the purpose of distribution, amongst the survivors. Different States across the federation have different laws regulating the administration of estates but most States in the South West of Nigeria have similar laws to that of Lagos State quoted above. In some cases, decisions are taken by family members of the deceased that are patently inequitable but most people have come to accept this as normal, in order not to be branded as a witch or a greedy survivor.  A case was reported some years back of a prominent politician who died suddenly, leaving a wife with little children. Whilst the wife was still mourning her husband, the family gathered together and decided to send her back to her own family, they ejected her from the husband’s house forcefully, accusing her of killing their son. In some other cases, brothers or sisters of the deceased are granted power of administration over his estate over and above his wife and children.

LEGAL EFFECT OF MARRIAGE ON DEVOLUTION OF ESTATE

Perhaps the first thing to take note of is the nature of marriage to be contracted. Based on my personal experience in court cases on this issue, it is best never to give out your daughter through customary marriage, no matter the circumstance. It is like throwing the poor girl away into eternal bondage forever. Most cultures in Nigeria have no regard for the status of the woman in marriage, either as an equitable investor or a stakeholder in the family or even as a survivor and potential beneficiary of the assets of the deceased spouse. It is worse in Yoruba land, where the native law and custom of this tribe prescribes that a woman has no value in the scheme of things, but is regarded as part of the chattel of her deceased husband, to be shared along with his assets. If it all, she can only claim through her children. In this day and age, how can any custom regard a human being with blood flowing in her as an asset to be distributed? And the courts have not helped matters, given that even the Supreme Court has upheld this repugnant custom as applicable to all traditional marriages in Yorubaland. And I know it is the same for many other tribes, if not worse. So, the starting point is to always insist on a legal marriage, with the evidence of a certificate from the appropriate Marriage Registry, in order to protect the couple, in case of any eventuality. This is because marriage itself plays a significant role in the distribution of the estate of a dead person as no one can exclude the lawful spouse of a person from benefiting.

MODE OF DISTRIBUTION OF ESTATE

Section 46 of the Administration of Estates Law governs the mode of distribution of the residuary estate of a deceased person who died intestate. They are in the following categories:

(i)If the intestate leaves a husband or wife without any issue (child), no parent, or brother or sister of the whole blood, or children of a brother or sister of the whole blood, then the surviving husband or wife takes the residuary estate absolutely. In other words, where a man dies without a child, has no parent or brother or sister of the same parent (or even their children), then his surviving wife takes his residuary estate exclusively, without sharing the same with anybody.

(ii)     If the intestate leaves issue (child), whether or not he leaves parent or brother or sister of the whole blood, the husband or wife will take the personal chattels (cars, clothings, books, shoes, jewellery, furniture, pictures, wines and such other assets of personal use) absolutely, and in addition, the husband or wife will take one third of the residuary estate whilst the surviving issue takes two-thirds thereof.

(iii)    If the intestate leaves a surviving husband or wife, a parent, a brother or sister of the whole blood or their issue but leaves no issue of his own, then the surviving husband or wife takes the personal chattels absolutely, and in addition, also takes two-thirds of the residuary estate. Either one or both parents will take the remaining in equal shares absolutely, whether or not the intestate leaves a brother or sister of the whole blood. But where the intestate leaves no parent, the brothers and sisters of the whole blood take the remaining one-third in equal shares absolutely.

(iv) If the intestate leaves no husband or wife the residuary estate will be held for the issue of the intestate, that is the children. The problem here always is when the children are still minors, it is always a challenge to determine who manages on their behalf in the absence of their biological parents.

(v) If the intestate leaves no husband or wife and no issue but both parents, then the residuary estate will be held for the father and mother in equal shares absolutely. If the intestate leaves only one parent, the residuary will be held for the surviving parent absolutely.

(vi) If the intestate leaves no surviving husband or wife or parent or issue, then the residuary estate will be held for the following persons living at the death of the intestate, in the following order and manner, namely:

First, brothers and sisters of the whole blood and where there is no brother or sister of the whole blood, then brothers and sisters of the half blood. If the intestate leaves no brother or sister of the whole or half blood, then to the grandparents of the intestate, and if more than one survive the intestate, in equal shares. If the intestate leaves no brother or sister of the whole or half blood and no grandparents, then to the uncles and aunts of the intestate, first to those of the whole blood and if none, then to those of the half blood.

(vii) If the intestate died without a survivor, the residuary estate of the intestate shall belong to the State as bona vacantia, and in lieu of any right to escheat.

From all that you have read so far, you would have seen that sharing the estate of a person who dies without a Will, will most likely run into controversies. You would therefore do your best to avoid that, by either proceeding to write your Will immediately or take any of the steps that I have suggested herein, before strangers take over your estate after you have gone, under the guise of next of kin.

Buhari’s poverty of truth

By Suyi Ayodele

Muhammadu Buhari contested the 2015 election as Mai Gaskiya (the truthful one). He promised to publish his asset declaration form. He never did for eight years. For eight years, he lived big and clean, wearing designer shoes and wristwatches. He held multi-million-naira wedding ceremonies for his children. He ate and picked his teeth and posted his posh photos for beautiful ladies to drool over. Now he says he is poor. What is the definition of poverty? Or, rather, what are Mai Gaskiya’s definitions for truth and lie?

Mrs. Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of President Abraham Lincoln, was said to have approached her husband and asked: “Does this dress make my backside look big?” Lincoln initially squirmed, shifted on his seat and hesitated before holding his thumb and forefinger slightly apart. Then he answered: “Perhaps a bit.” Mrs. Lincoln’s response was spontaneous. She “spins on her heels and exits in a huff”, the account stated.

What happened between husband and wife in that encounter? Michael Shermer, American science writer and historian, answered this question in an April 2014 paper titled, “What Science Tells us about Why We Lie”. The article was published by the Scientific American. In answering the question, Shermer quoted a fellow American neurologist, Sam Harris, who in his 2013 booky, “Lying”, said that “By lying, we deny our friends access to reality- and their resulting ignorance often harms them in ways we did not anticipate. Our friends may act on our falsehoods or fail to solve problems that could have been solved only on the basis of good information.”

Shermer projected that Mrs. Lincoln’s question might probably be to elicit compliment from her husband or to test their love and loyalty to each other. But President Lincoln ‘failed’ the test, as Harris stated by telling “little white lies’, which “often lead to big black lies”, warning those involved that: “Very soon, you may find yourself behaving as most people do quite effortlessly: shading the truth, or even lying outright, without thinking about it. The price is too high.”

Lincoln’s ‘little white lie’ to his wife is nothing compared to what a fugitive, Alexi Santana (another false identity) did to the Princeton University, New Jersey, USA, in the fall of 1989. The account, as published by the National Geographic Magazine in its June 2017 edition, as written by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, using the title: “Why We Lie: The Science Behind Our Deceptive Ways”, says it took 18 months for the university to detect the lies.

Santana applied for admission as a self-schooled candidate from Utah, where he claimed to have been a herder. He was admitted to study Philosophy in the prestigious university. The ‘poor’ herder – again a false impression – became the darling of the university community as he scored As in virtually all his courses.

He, however, almost betrayed his true identity when a fellow roommate noticed that Santana’s bed was always neatly made. When confronted, given the poor countryside background profile he supplied to the university, Santana explained that he usually slept on the floor – a very plausible explanation that matched his poor background.

But 18 months later, a woman, who knew Santana years back identified him as Jay Huntsman of Palo Alto High School, California. The university authority got interested and began to investigate Santana. It was found out that at different times in the past, the ‘brilliant’ student, whose real name is James Hogue, had served a prison term in Utah for stealing and had been arrested several times for similar felonies in Aspen, Colorado, where he successfully passed himself off as someone else!

The university had no option but to hand over James Hogue alias Santana to the police. Thus, the end of his ‘academic’ pursuits, and possibly an end to further lies (white or black). The story of Santana is a confirmation that shame is always the lot of a liar. No matter how fast lies travel, the elders say the truth catches up in seconds! Shermer says: “Most of us are not Hitlerian in our lies, but nearly all of us shade the truth just enough to make ourselves or others feel better.” When an elder has penchant for the tall tales, what does he gain? We will answer that presently. But first, we have an appeal to make.

This is a genuine appeal from me to all good-spirited Nigerians. I mean Nigerians of immense goodwill and charity. Someone very dear to us needs help. I am tempted to open a Go-Fund-Me-Account on his behalf. But he is too shy and too ‘honest’ to accept that route. Hence, this Save-Our-Soul (SOS) appeal.

General Muhammadu Buhari is broke. You can read that again. The retired General from Daura, Katsina State, struggles, nowadays, to live comfortably. That shouldn’t be! Here is a man who served this nation meritoriously, rising to the enviable rank of a Major General in the Nigerian Army. He is not a man that should be allowed to live like a common pauper, the very stage he took the citizenry to in his eight years of rudderless leadership!

Besides retiring as a Major General in the Nigerian Army, Buhari was at a time in his career, a Military Head of State. That was between December 31, 1983, and August 27, 1985. For 20 solid months, Buhari had unfettered access to our national treasury. Yet, he did not help himself.

Fortune smiled on him again. During the reign of the expired Head of State, General Sani Abacha, a period when there was no clear-cut difference between the personal purses of our leaders and the treasury, Buhari was appointed to head the ‘richest’ agency of government, the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF). He stole no dime! Great man indeed!

Lest I forget. General Buhari was also once a Minister of Petroleum under the military government of General Olusegun Obasanjo. He maintained a clean record save for the controversial missing $2 billion oil money then. ‘Fortunately’, nobody has been able to trace the money, how it disappeared and who were responsible. The only link between Buhari and the missing money is that the Daura man was the minister of the ministry from which the money developed wings and flew into thin air!

Later in life, and in our recent past, General Buhari again found himself in power. After surmounting the initial hurdles of his inability to raise the N27 million nomination fees imposed by his All Progressives Congress (APC) party for the presidential ticket in 2025, Buhari, through the generosity of his bank in Kaduna, bought the form, contested and won the APC presidential primaries. He went ahead to ‘win’ the FeBuhari (February) 2015 general election, where he defeated the then incumbent President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

For eight years (2015-2023), Buhari was president and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces. As president, our man of high integrity lived within the emoluments of the office he occupied. He supported that with a modest farm in his Daura village where his cows refused to multiply from the initial 150 herds he declared in 2003!

Now Buhari is out of office, power and influence. He has retired to his native land, Daura to tend his cows. Life has taken a new turn for the man who once saw money and had access to money but kept faith with his avowed integrity as a man who covets nothing, steals nothing but lives a simple pastoral lifestyle. Ayi Kwei Armah, the Ghanaian novelist, probably did not project the character of Buhari when he penned his The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born in 1968. The Saints live right here with us in Nigeria! Phew!

It is therefore very saddening that after all his services to the Nigerian nation, General Buhari, former Head of State, former Minister of Petroleum, former Chairman PTF and former two-term civilian president now lives from hand to mouth as he depends on the rent from one of his two houses in Kaduna to sustain himself!

This is pitiable. This is unacceptable. Nigerians cannot afford to see a man of integrity, the very definition of honesty, like Buhari live in penury when common supervisory councillors live in opulence as a result of their ‘good works’ in office. We must rescue Buhari from the jaws of poverty. Poverty here are in twofold, poverty of liquidity and poverty of truth. This is our Macedonian call for our Mai Gaskiya. Buhari must not be allowed to live in poverty.

I didn’t make up the ‘parlous state of Buhari’s fortune. He said so himself. While addressing senior members of his APC in Katsina penultimate week. Buhari told them and the entire nation that all he lives on is the rent from one of the houses he built in Kaduna. Here is how he stated it: “After my eight years as a civil president, I have only three houses; one in Daura and two in Kaduna. I have given one out for renting where I get money for feeding.”

It is very strange in our clime that a man of Buhari’s standing would own just three houses. How come Nigerians had lived all this while with an Angel without knowing? One of the modest houses he claimed is in Daura. The remaining two are in Kaduna. Going by the vicissitudes of life, Buhari said that he had to give up one of the houses in Kaduna to tenants and use the proceeds of the rent to sustain himself.

Where is the house in Kaduna located? He did not disclose. What is its size? We would have to find out by ourselves. How much is the rent? That must be a personal information that is not for public consumption. Again, what is the expenditure of Buhari like after office? We can guess from his ‘modest’ lifestyle! If he lives permanently in Daura, how much does he need to feed, take care of his health and other dependents? These are the issues charitable Nigerians should consider and come to the rescue of Buhari. A man who was once used to the luxury of Aso Rock Villa and other high offices he had occupied in the past should not be allowed to suffer the fate of a landlord who lives on the irregular rents paid by his tenants!

Buhari probably thinks that Nigerians have a short memory. He never reckons with the fact that we know that as a retired Major General in the Nigerian Army, his pension is almost the equivalent of his salary while he was in service with the deduction of some negligible allowances.

The retired General failed to admit, while telling his transition from presidential opulence to rent-to-feed tale, that the Military Pension Board only stopped his pension when he was elected president in 2015 because the law does not allow him to earn salary and pension at the same time. Or is he saying that the Military Pension Board deleted his name from the pension roll? What about the N6.345 billion paid as severance allowance to all political office holders whose tenure ended on May 29, 2023? How much was his share of the money? Or he didn’t get a dime?

Can we also remind General Buhari that by the provisions of the Remuneration of Former Presidents and heads of state (And Other Ancillary Matters) Act, 1991 (no 32) sub-section (i), he is “entitled to be paid the sum of N350,000 per month as up-keep allowance; and (ii), entitled to the perquisites of office specified…?” if he has not been receiving that, can we know how long so that we can ‘beg’ the authorities concerned to do the needful?

Four Russians, Evgeny Nesmeyanov, Yulia Petrova, Nazhavat Abueva, Aliya Ismailova, in January 2019, published an article: “The Theory of Lie: From the Sophists to Socrates.” In the abstract of the piece, they submit that the concept of lie in European culture and social life dwells more “on the preservation of the state, the family, and the implementation of the real practice of human communication…”

Oxford Academy, in an earlier publication in 2010, entitled: “Lying and Deception: Theory and Practice”, says: “a lie is a deliberate false statement that the speaker warrants to be true”. The paper goes further to state that: “…in order to tell a lie, one must make a statement that one warrants to be true…. any lie violates an implicit promise or guarantee that what one says is true. The definition makes sense of the common view that lying involves a breach of trust. To lie, on this view, is to invite others to trust and rely on what one says by warranting its truth, and at the same time to betray that trust by making a false statement that one does not believe to be true”.

I don’t know how many of Buhari’s fans still hold the view that the man can be trusted based on what he says and what we all know to be the true picture. On a personal note, I have a difficulty here because of my upbringing. How do you tell an old man that he is not telling the truth without calling him a liar?

From Soldier to Statesman: General “Jerry Boy” Timbut Useni showed class

By Prof. Mike A.A. Ozekhome, SAN

INTRODUCTION

The passing of Lt. General Jeremiah Timbut Useni at the ripe age of 81 marks the end of a golden era of a scion of the Langtang people and a patriot of Nigeria. A distinguished officer and gentleman soldier, astute administrator and dedicated public servant, Useni’s life is a loud testament to national service, leadership, and unwavering commitment to the development of his people and Nigeria. His contributions to the nation, spanning military, political, legislative and administrative spheres, have left an indelible mark on the country’s history. As we mourn his departure, we also celebrate the legacy of a man who served his nation with honour, dignity, integrity and distinction.

GEN. USENI’S EARLY LIFE AND MILITARY CAREER

Jeremiah Timbut Useni was born on the 16th day of February, 1943, in Langtang, Plateau State, Nigeria. He joined the Nigerian Army in 1960, at a time the nation was on the cusp of independence. His military career was marked by sheer discipline, dedication and rapid ascension through the ranks. Gen. Useni’s leadership qualities and strategic acumen earned him the respect of his juniors, peers and superiors alike. He served in various capacities within the military, including appointment as the Military Governor of the defunct Bendel State (now Edo and Delta States) from 1984 to 1985. This was during the military regime of Major General Muhammadu Buhari who later became a Nigerian president (2015- 2023).

As Military Governor, Useni was known for his pragmatic approach to governance. He focused on infrastructure development, education, and healthcare, laying the foundation for the progress of the region. His tenure was characterized by a no-nonsense attitude towards corruption and inefficiency, earning him respect and the admiration of the people he served.

TRANSFORMING THE FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY (FCT), ABUJA AS MINISTER

One of Gen. Useni’s most notable contributions to Nigeria was his tenure as the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) from 1993 to 1998, during the military regime of General Sani Abacha. As the FCT Minister, Useni played a pivotal role in the infrastructural development of Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city. His leadership was instrumental in transforming Abuja from a fledgling city into a modern metropolis. He is credited as the builder of the National Assembly Complex; Apo legislative Quarters; all the Gwarimpa Housing Estates; the Diplomatic Drive; among many other enduring projects.

Under J.T. Useni’s stewardship, significant infrastructure projects were undertaken, including the construction of roads, bridges and public buildings. He prioritized the provision of basic amenities such as water, electricity and sanitation, ensuring that Abuja could function as a viable administrative, commercial and residential hub. Useni’s vision for Abuja was not limited to physical development; he also emphasized the importance of urban planning and clean environmental sustainability. His giant efforts laid the groundwork for the city’s continued growth and development.

HE SURMOUNTED CHALLENGES AS MINISTER OF FCT

Gen. Useni’s tenure as FCT Minister was not without challenges though. The rapid pace of development often led to tensions between indigenous communities and other stakeholders. However, Useni’s ability to navigate these complexities with tact and diplomacy earned him widespread respect and acceptability. His commitment to fairness and equity in handling complex challenges ensured that the interests of all parties concerned were considered and taken care of in the development process.

GEN. USENI’S POLITICAL CAREER

Transitioning from military to civilian governance, General Useni continued his service to Nigeria through active political engagement.

GEN. USENI AS A POLITICAL GLADIATOR

First served as the Deputy Chairman of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). He later founded the Democratic People’s Party (DPP), where he assumed the role of chairman. His political journey was marked by an uncommon commitment to providing alternative platforms for Nigerians seeking effective representation, rather than relying on the already well known existing parties.

He was also a prominent member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and played a significant role in the political landscape of Plateau State. Useni’s political career was defined by his sustained advocacy for good governance, social justice, egalitarianism and the empowerment of vulnerable individuals and marginalized communities.

In 2019, Useni contested the governorship election in Plateau State under the PDP banner. Although he was unsuccessful in the questionable election which he challenged up to the Supreme Court, his campaign had focused on burning issues such as education, healthcare and infrastructure development, reflecting his lifelong commitment to public service. Useni’s foray into politics demonstrated his belief in the power of democracy to bring about positive change. I should know this as his friend and lawyer who fought his electoral battles from the tribunal up to the apex court of the land.

GEN. USENI IN THE RED CHAMBER

In 2015, Gen. Useni was elected as the Senator representing Plateau South Senatorial District under the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). During his tenure in the Senate, he was recognized for his dedication to his constituents and his valiant efforts to address national issues, reflecting his enduring commitment to public service.

ENDEARING LEGACY AND ACHIEVEMENTS

Lt. General Jeremiah Timbut Useni’s legacy is one of long public service, committed leadership and nation-building. His unquantifiable contributions to Nigeria’s development, particularly in the areas of law-making, infrastructure, urban planning and governance, are a treasure to keep. As Military Governor of the old Bendel State, he laid the foundation for the region’s development and growth. As FCT Minister, he transformed a rural setup Abuja into a modern capital city. And as a politician, he advocated for the rights and welfare of his people.

Gen. Useni’s life was also marked by his uncommon humility which he wore like a second skin; and his dedication to his community. Despite his numerous national achievements, he remained humble and deeply connected to his roots in Plateau State. He was a patron of qualitative and affordable education and a champion of youth and women empowerment. He believed that the future of Nigeria lay in the hands of its young people.

GEN USENI’S LIFE WAS WEL-LIVED

The death of Lt. General Jeremiah Timbut Useni is an irreplaceable loss to the Langtang people, Plateau State and Nigeria in general. He was a man of integrity, vision and unwavering commitment to the development of his people and country. His life serves as an inspiration to all who aspire to serve their nation with honour, dignity and utmost dedication.

THE LIGHT DIMMED:
ADIEU, JERRY BOY
In Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, we are told that (“there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot; a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to tear down and a time to build; a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance; a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them; a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up; a time to keep and a time to throw away; a time to tear and a time to mend; a time to be silent and a time to speak; a time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace”).

For Gen. Jeremiah Timbut Useni, his season of transition from mortality has come. As we bid farewell to this remarkable swagger cane-carrying elder statesman who was popularly called Jerry boy, we take solace in the knowledge that his legacy will endure. The infrastructures he built; the institutions he established; and the many lives he touched stand as a monument and testament to his inerasable contributions. Gen. Useni’s life reminds us that true greatness lies in service to others, and his example will continue to guide future generations. Dave Chappelle captured this famously in lyrical poetry when he said, “The mark of greatness is when everything before you is obsolete, and everything after you bears your mark” J. T. Useni perfectly fits into this.

Your life was a gift to Nigeria. Your legacy will forever be etched in the annals of our nation’s history. Rest in perfect peace, Lt. General Jeremiah Timbut Useni. Adieu sir. Farewell, Jerry Boy.

Falana sues Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta for $5m

Fiery rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) has filed a $5 million lawsuit against Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of Facebook, for allegedly invading his privacy.

The suit, filed before a Lagos High Court, accused the social media giant of falsely associating him with a misleading health advertisement.

Falana contended that Meta, owned by Mark Zuckerberg, published a video under the name “AfriCare Health Centre” on Facebook, falsely claiming that he had been battling prostatitis for over 16 years.

He argued that this publication, which included his name, image, and purported voice, was a clear violation of his fundamental right to privacy as enshrined in Section 37 of the Nigerian Constitution (as amended) and the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023.

Through his legal counsel, Olumide Babalola, Falana is now seeking a court declaration that Meta’s publication constituted an invasion of his privacy.

He has also requested an order compelling Meta to immediately ‘remove, erase, and delete’ the misleading video from its platform.

The lawsuit, filed under the Fundamental Rights Enforcement Procedure Rules, 2009, avers that:

– Falana has never suffered from prostatitis, contrary to what was stated in the viral video.

– The misleading publication has caused him significant emotional distress, tarnishing his reputation built over decades.

– Meta’s failure to verify the authenticity of the information before publication demonstrates ‘recklessness and negligence’, as the video was widely viewed by millions (of people) worldwide.

According to Falana, the video falsely attributed a statement to him: “My name is Femi Falana, and I have been battling prostatitis for over 16 years. At the age of 50, I was diagnosed with this condition. Every day I faced pain, discomfort, and constant fatigue. I had trouble urinating, lower back pain, and other symptoms that made it difficult to live a full life. Despite consulting the best urologist in the country, no one could offer me effective treatment. I was prescribed numerous medications, physical therapy, even surgery, but the problem was that these methods only temporarily relieved the symptoms.”

Falana said he never made such a statement and had no connection to the AfriCare Health Centre.

He described the publication as false, misleading, and defamatory, adding that it was aimed at driving traffic to Meta’s platform for commercial gain at his expense.

In addition to the $5 million in damages, Falana urged the court to issue an order preventing Meta from publishing ‘false and misleading’ content about him or any other individual without proper verification.

He further stated: “For the purpose of this suit, I do not find these stories libelous but since they are false and fabricated against me, I find them offensive, reckless, insensitive, disturbing and unjustifiable intrusion into my privacy by painting me in a false light.

“By the video, the Respondent’s page has given me a publicity that paints me in false light as the insinuations in the video are false and they infringe my right to privacy right to be let alone.

“At the time of deposing to this affidavit, the video has been published to the entire world on the Internet, and it has remained there for several weeks.

“For their failure to verify the page and video before publishing, I believe the Respondent’s publicity of my name and image in a false light was done carelessly and recklessly to draw traffic to the Respondent’s platform to boost its advertisement revenues.

Credit: The Conclave with a report by Naija News

Was Kemi Badenoch Right All Along?: Shouldn’t the Nigerian Police appeal against the judgment of the Canadian Federal Court Judge that classifies the Nigerian Police as an organised crime Syndicate?

By Tonye Clinton Jaja

On 21st January 2025, the Punch newspaper reported as follows:

“Nigerian man based in the United Kingdom, James Akinwande, has replaced a pair of shoes and a wristwatch allegedly stolen from Kemi Badenoch’s brother by officers of the Nigeria Police Force.

Badenoch, the leader of the UK’s Conservative Party, recently claimed in an interview that some NPF officers stole her brother’s belongings.

She described the police officers’ behaviour as an abuse of power.

“My experience with the police in Nigeria was very negative, and coming to the UK, my first experience with the police was very positive. The police in Nigeria would rob us.

“I remember the police stealing my brother’s shoes and his watch. It’s a very poor country, so people do all sorts of things,” Badenoch said in the December 2024 interview.”

Kemi Badenoch did not mince words, she said that: ” The police in Nigeria would rob you…I remember the police stealing my brother’s shoes and watch …”

In other words, the Nigerian Police are thieves!!!

As if that is not enough, in December 2024, a federal court judge (in Canada, delivered a judgment that officially confirmed that the Nigerian Police is a criminal organisation that is notorious for bribery and corruption.

Below are excerpts of the said judgment as reported as follows:

“”But Ms. Phuong T.V. Ngo, in October 2024, dismissed Mr Nwokolo’s grievances as ill-conceived, stressing that the RPD and RAD were right to deny him asylum given a section of the Canadian law forbids the issuance of refugee status to persons who have committed “serious non-political crimes” before coming to Canada.

The justice said that Mr Nwokolo, who retired as a traffic warden under the Nigerian police, fell into this category of non-political criminals because the Nigerian security outfit was infamous for “extortion and bribery.”

“On April 11, 2022, the RPD found serious reasons to consider that the Applicant committed, under Article 1F(b) of the Convention, serious non-political crimes prior to entering Canada, namely extortion and bribery,” Ms Go said in her ruling on October 23, 2024.

Ms Go determined that officers of the force contribute significantly to Nigeria’s corruption.

“The RPD found that the police force as well as the traffic wardens are highly corrupt and that members of these forces are expected to contribute to this system of returns,” the justice stated.

Mr Nwokolo refuted the accusations, saying he neither collected bribes nor extorted citizens during his years in active service. However, Ms Go said the RPD had strong reasons to believe otherwise.

“Even though the applicant alleges that he has never taken any bribes or extorted people as a traffic warden, the RPD found that there were serious reasons to consider that the applicant participated in those activities,” Ms Go said.”

“Article 1F(b) of the Immigration and Refugee Convention Act of Canada, 2001 provides that a person with respect to whom there are serious reasons for considering that “ he has committed a serious non-political crime outside the country of refuge prior to his admission to that country as a refugee” is excluded from the protection of the Refugee Convention”.

So going by the provisions of this legislation, bribery and corruption perpetuated by the officers of the Nigerian Police are regarded as serious non-political crime!

The implication of this judgment is that all officers of the Nigerian Police (serving or retired) are deemed to have participated (either as perpetrators or as accomplices) in the omission and commission of a serious crime of bribery and corruption (which disqualifies them from receiving protection from the Government of Canada in the event that they apply for refugee status)!!!

In the case of Mr. Nwokolo, who alleged that he was just a traffic warden during his years as a police officer and he was also a pastor, these pleas fell on deaf ears of the federal court judge!!!

Is this not the type of lawsuit that the Nigerian Police ought to file an appeal against?

Is this not the kind of lawsuit that the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) ought to write to the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) to appeal against as an interested party at either the Court of Appeal of Canada or the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

This is not good for the reputation of the Nigerian Police to be classified in the same category as the Mafia and other syndicate organisations that are notorious for bribery and corruption!!!

Even some Canadian lawyers have criticised this section 1F (b) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act of Canada and subsequent interpretation of the said Section by the Supreme Court of Canada as follows:

👆 several lawyers have criticised the Supreme Court of Canada for their “harsh” interpretation of the said law to deny refugee protection to former Nigerian police officers.

“From a refugee advocacy standpoint, the majority’s decision in Febles is undeniably troubling. The plain reading approach to Article 1F(b) adopted by the SCC carries with it an implicit presumption that everyone who has committed a serious offence is categorically and indefinitely undeserving of refugee protection. It also undermines the notion that rehabilitation is a key goal of criminal justice proceedings.”

Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja,
Executive Director,
Nigerian Law Society (NLS)

Battle Against Graft: Fresh criticisms trail unresolved actions against 23 ex-governors, others

Stakeholders in the Nigerian justice system have faulted the courts, lawyers and the government over the prolonged trial of some former state governors, ministers and other Nigerians for acts of corruption several years after they were arraigned in courts.

The prosecution of former elected officials, especially state chief executives by the anti-corruption agencies in some cases has lasted for over a decade without any hope of deciding their fate soon.

A good number of the accused have even died without the cases of alleged corruption brought against them being concluded in any law court.

There are also others, whose cases are still pending in court but have been elected into the National Assembly (NASS) or serving as cabinet members in the current administration.

When LEADERSHIP Sunday sought the views of some eminent lawyers and members of civil society organisations (CSOs) on the fight against corruption by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the non-conclusion and conviction of the former governors, they blamed their lacklustre prosecution on judges, lawyers and the government.

A breakdown of the former governors whose cases have not been concluded showed that the North Central Zone has four, North West (4), North East (3), South East (5), South South (4) and South West (3).

Speaking with LEADERSHIP Sunday on the issue, the director of a Lagos-based CSO, Justice and Human Rights Reforms Initiatives (JHRRI), David Babajide, criticised lawyers for significantly contributing to delays in prosecuting criminal cases in court.

Babajide accused some of the country’s senior lawyers of facilitating corruption by undermining the prosecution of corrupt individuals through “orders of interlocutory or perpetual injunctions” that favour those embezzling public funds.

He said that in developed societies, lawyers are obligated to uphold the law above all individuals regardless of their status noting however that in Nigeria, many lawyers have placed wealthy and powerful individuals above the law.

Babagide said, “Several senior lawyers have been manipulating the criminal justice system to the detriment of society. They do this by using their expertise to assist clients in ways that violate legal standards.

“This behaviour contravenes paragraph 15 (2) of the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners, which specifies that: In representing a client, a lawyer must adhere strictly to the law, regardless of any contrary instruction from the client. If the client insists on breaking the law, the lawyer must withdraw their services.”

Babajide therefore called on the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to investigate and discipline ethically challenged lawyers found to be involved in manipulating the judiciary.

On his part, a professor of law, Ernest Ojukwu (SAN), expressed sadness at the failure of the Nigerian criminal justice system to indeed dispense fair and timely justice.

Prof Ojukwu said while the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA or laws for states) was designed to expedite criminal proceedings, its implementation has faced various obstacles.

He identified excessive adjournments, poor investigations, gaps in prosecution, lack of technology and adequate infrastructure, resource constraints, and inadequate training of judicial officers as some of the reasons why criminal cases linger in court.

Prof Ojukwu stressed that for the problems of protracted trials to be solved, there must be rigorous adherence to the provisions of ACJA on trial timelines and a limit on the number of adjournments.
He said, “Courts must introduce or strengthen pre-trial case management conferences to identify issues early, streamline the scope of the trial and set clear timelines.

“We must implement electronic filing systems and digital case records to reduce paperwork. We must ensure law enforcement officials receive ongoing training in investigative techniques, case organisation and evidence management and encourage police and prosecutors to collaborate from the outset, ensuring thorough investigations and well-prepared cases before reaching the courts.

“Recruiting and regularly training more judicial officers and adequately staffing courts can help address chronic backlogs. Judges can be more assertive in holding parties accountable for delays that lack valid justification.”

Meanwhile, rights lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN), said the problem of delay in criminal justice administration is a combination of several factors such as lack of funding of the judiciary “whereby we still have the same number of courts, to handle the upsurge in crimes and criminalities.”

Adegboruwa pointed out the lack of infrastructure and facilities as a significant issue. “For instance, there are situations where the court is ready to proceed with a case, with lawyers prepared and waiting, but no vehicle is available to transport the suspect from prison custody to the courtroom. Additionally, there are times when the suspect is present, but there is no power supply in the courtroom, leading to the adjournment of the case for that reason alone.

“In other cases, the investigating police officer is unavailable due to other official duties or outright transfer away from the trial court’s jurisdiction.

“However, the most prevalent of these factors is the lack of judicial personnel to handle the deluge of cases being heaped upon the courts daily. ACJA cannot cure all these issues.

“The search for effective criminal justice administration should, therefore, be holistic so that we do not achieve success in one area, and then failure in other areas still holds us down.

“Criminal cases should generally be given priority attention, given that the life and liberty of the defendants are involved and the cost to society of the criminal act and its prosecution,” he said.

GOCOP, Zenith Bank legal adviser pay tribute to Sundiata Post CEO’s father, High Chief Amuchie

The Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) and Mr. Mike Osilama, Legal Adviser, Zenith Bank Plc, have paid tribute to High Chief Emmanuel Ikonne Amuchie, the late father of Dr Max Amuchie, Chief Executive Officer of Sundiata Post Media Ltd and North Central Zonal Co-ordinator of GOCOP.

GOCOP, the umbrella body of professional journalists in Nigeria who are online publishers, said it was saddened to hear about the death of High Chief Amuchie.

In the letter signed by its President, Maureen Chigbo and secretary-general, Olumide Iyanda, the organisation, prayed for the repose of the soul of High Chief Amuchie.

The letter reads:

“Dear Max Amuchie,

On behalf of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP), we wish to extend our deepest

condolences to you and your family on the passing of your beloved father, High Chief Emmanuel

Ikonne Amuchie.

“We were deeply saddened to hear of this loss. High Chief Emmanuel Ikonne Amuchie was undoubtedly

a great man whose life left an indelible impact on all who had the privilege of knowing him. His

dedication to his family, his community, and his values will continue to inspire many.

“During this difficult time, we want you to know that you are not alone. Your GOCOP family stands

with you in solidarity, and our thoughts and prayers are with you and your loved ones. May you find

comfort in the cherished memories of your father and strength in the legacy he has left behind.

“May God grant you and your family the fortitude to bear this irreparable loss and grant High Chief Emmanuel Ikonne Amuchie eternal rest.”

In his own condolence message, Osilama said High Chief Emmanuel Ikonne Amuchie, the Ugo Eji Ejemba I of Uvuruikedinairi, lived a fulfilled life, adding that he would be remembered in the hearts of those whose lives he had touched positively in his lifetime.

His letter reads:

“On behalf of myself and family, I write to commiserate with you and the entire Amuchie family on the death of your dear father – High Chief Emmanuel Ikonne Amuchie, Ugo Eji Ejemba 1 of Uvuruikedinairi.

“There is no doubt that your father lived a fulfilled life as a father and grandfather. He will forever be remembered in the hearts of those whose lives he had touched positively during his life time.

“While thanking God for the exemplary life of commitment and devotion that he led, we are confident that he is resting in the bosom of the Lord and will be remembered for his selfless service to humanity.

“It is our sincere prayer that the good Lord, will comfort you all in this time of grief.

“Once again, accept our condolences.”

High Chief Amuchie, who died on December 10, 2024 at age 86, was a retired principal, civil war veteran and community leader.

He will be buried on April 25, 2024 in his country home in Umuchokoeze, Amaisii Uvuru in the Aboh Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State after a funeral mass at Christ the King Catholic Church Oze-Urban Uvuru.

He is survived by his wife, Lolo Angela Amuchie, eight children and grandchildren.

FG wades into UCH power debacle

Following the perennial power outage that has been the lot of University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State and the report that patients now bring power generators to the hospital, Minister of Power, Chief Bayo Adelabu, is billed to meet with the management of the hospital famed to have catered to the Saudi Royal Family.

The hospital has described the report that patients bring their own generators as inaccurate. The meeting scheduled to proffer a lasting solution to the electricity supply crisis is slated to hold this week at the hospital’s premises in Ibadan.

In November 2024, the video of nurses at UCH using their phones as a source of light went viral. 

In a post made on his X (formerly Twitter) page, Law teacher and rights activist, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu said: “The irony is that Ibadan, the location of the @uchnigeria, is the home of #Nigeria‘s Minister for Power, @BayoAdelabu. If the man cannot power up the biggest teaching hospital in the country which is in his community, is it your village that he will….?!”

The hospital management owes the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company unsettled debts running into millions of naira. This has resulted in the disconnection of the electricity power supply to the hospital and the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan.

The Student Union of the University of Ibadan in conjunction with the College of Medicine staged a peaceful protest to draw the attention of the Federal Government to the development but nothing has been done to the effect.

UCH’s Chief Medical Director (CMD), Professor Jesse Otegbayo, in a release, said the hospital does not operate on mini-generators and reassured the general public that the online report is a deliberate and malicious misrepresentation of the facts.

Otegbayo who said the hospital has made efforts to ensure that it continues to deliver on its core mandates of Clinical Services, Research and Training despite the disconnection by IBEDC from the national grid added that:

“The UCH management is working round the clock to provide alternative and sustainable electricity power to the hospital. Indeed, we have since embarked on a phased approach, including the provision of alternative energy (solar inverters and diesel-powered generators) in critical units such as the wards, accident and emergency, labour ward and theatres.”

According to him, the hospital has continued to engage well-wishers and stakeholders, including the Ministry of Health and IBEDC in a bid to find long-lasting and sustainable solutions to the power challenge and many have supported with generous donations to support the provision of alternative energy.

The release declared “The writer claimed, among other fabricated lies, that patients bring generators to the hospital to provide power to the wards. The hospital management wishes to inform the general public that these allegations are false and unfounded. There is no credibility in that report. The malice and misrepresentation are depicted in the several low-capacity generators displayed by the writer. The UCH does not operate these mini generators.

“Management wishes to reassure the general public that this is a deliberate and malicious misrepresentation of the facts. Despite the disconnection by IBEDC, the hospital has made concerted efforts to ensure that we deliver on our core mandates of Clinical Services, Research and Training.

“The UCH management is working round the clock to provide alternative and sustainable electricity power to the hospital. Indeed, we have since embarked on a phased approach, including the provision of alternative energy (solar inverters and diesel-powered generators) in critical units such as the wards, accident and emergency, labour ward and theatres.”

In all, the experiences of patients accessing healthcare services at UCH, Ibadan and their families have been described as horrid!

Read Also: Patients now bring generators to UCH Ibadan for treatment, FG says people are coming from UK, US to receive quality healthcare in Nigeria

Bisi Akande, poverty and Ige’s death

By Festus Adedayo

In her biography of Ayo Rosiji, one of the key politicians of Nigeria’s first republic, entitled Man With Vision, Australia-born historian, Nina Mba, citing a Holmes, called biographers “People who knead people.” In other words, biographers knead their subjects from raw flour into edible form. You then wonder what the late lecturer in the History department of the University of Lagos would have called autobiographers. Self-conjurers, perhaps. For, in the process of piecing together bits about themselves, those who write their life histories have been accused of selfishly adding together a mish-mash of two unrelated traditional soup recipes, (luru and sapa) falsifying realities and mis-painting the picture of truth. Last week, sidekick of the Nigerian president and former Chairman of the All Progressives Party, (APC) Chief Bisi Akande, chose to conjure the spirit of a dead dog. In a podcast interview with popular broadcaster, Edmund Obilo, which centered around his autobiography, My Paticipations, the 86-year-old came under heavy shellacking on allegations of historical revisionism. The specifics were that he kneaded a wrong dough of history and made a wrong portrayal of himself. In that interview, Akande coasted home with a self-portraiture as a man who sat by the edge of a smelly sewage but chose not to smell the rank odour of rot.

By the way, I passed Akande’s country home, Ila-Orangun, Osun State, by about a week ago. I was on my way to the burial of the mother of Oba Adedokun Omoniyi Abolarin, the Orangun of Oke-Ila. You cannot fail to notice Akande’s house. Its arrogance and domineering spirit in the midst of abject poverty are worn on the mansion’s lapel. Architectured to sit imperially among natives’ poor houses, the mansion fittingly tells the story of a countryside-born boy made good. Don’t bother yourself with the architectural gaffe of such a mansion being surrounded with lock-up shops. It still doesn’t diminish the majesty you see in Akande’s home. Its outward finishing struck me as a repeat of same architecture of his house in Oluyole, Ibadan. Both bear similarities with the State Secretariat’s roofing and burnt brick finishing at Abere I also saw. His government constructed the secretariat. So, when, in the Obilo interview, Akande kept referencing his retirement to his Ila country home, planting pepper at his backyard and deliberately choosing not to live the posh life of a president’s consort in Abuja, do not be fooled to believe that the old man lives in less splendour.

Sorry, I digressed. Akande made two weighty assertions in his controversy-baiting interview. One is that the presidency under Olusegun Obasanjo allegedly killed Chief Bola Ige. The second was that the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere died with the assassination of the Attorney General of the Federation. As the Yoruba say of words in convoluted circumstances as this, they need to be surgically placed in their contexts (ela l’oro). In doing this, let me begin from Akande’s assertion on Afenifere’s purported death. There is no denying the fact that Chief Ige was the darling of Southwest Nigeria. At his death, the Yoruba lost its most valuable political leader who was famously referred to as Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s heir apparent. At campaign grounds, the evocative song sang to usher Ige into such arena was “Ige has arrived! Ige has arrived! Awolowo’s heir apparent has arrived!” (Ige de, Ige de o! Arole Awolowo, Ige de o!).

The truth however remains that the January 1999 D’Rovans hotel presidential primary election of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) which took place in Ibadan marked the beginning of the cracks in the wall of the AD and Afenifere. It has been alleged that Ige sponsored the creation of alternate sociocultural groups to get back at the so-called “Ijebu Mafia” who allegedly worked against his presidential aspiration. To that extent, Akande may be right that Ige saw the fractionalization of the original Afenifere. To however say that Afenifere died with Ige will be excessive hyperbole.

Again, after the death of Ige, there doesn’t seem to exist again, apart from the two factions of the sociocultural group – either Chief Reuben Fasoranti or Ayo Adebanjo’s – who deifies or factors in Yoruba’s recent ancestor, Chief Awolowo, in all they do as the two groups. I am sure the man Chief Akande is his sidekick, Tinubu, in his closet or among his coterie of Yoruba hangers-on, gloats, like Obasanjo did in his autobiography, that the presidency which Awolowo couldn’t attain in his lifetime, was handed him on a platter. Since Tinubu became president, unless I missed it, I am yet to hear him pay tribute to Awolowo’s fabled sagacity in governance. I do not know if Bisi Akande, who is now mouthing Afenifere’s Catholicism, more than the Pope, has ever spoken to the president about this historical memory loss. It was good Obilo asked Akande if the Fasoranti who Tinubu visited in Akure as president wasn’t head of the same Afenifere he claimed was dead or if the members of the group Tinubu hosted in Aso Rock belonged to Ohanaeze Ndigbo. Such selective memory is said to be Akande’s stock-in-trade. When he engages in this kind of revisionism, his opponents remind us of his self-confession he made that he was never an Awoist until Chief SM Afolabi invited him to be a member of Awo’s Committee of Friends.

On the assassination of Ige in 2001, there is also no doubting the fact that the failure of the federal government to find the killers of this highly respected Nigerian is a blot on the Obasanjo government. On the list of assassins who possessed the raison d’être to kill Ige, the fact that the presidency ranks top is an unassailable fact. If you knew the awe with which Ige was held in Yorubaland, his resignation from the Obasanjo government would indeed have dented the Ota farmer’s second-term presidential bid. However, with Ige’s obsession for his Yorubaness and the disdain and awe with which the north held an obsessive Yoruba in power at that time, Ige’s presidential aspiration could not have stopped Obasanjo’s second-term bid. After all, even when the Southwest refused to vote for him in the first term, Obasanjo still became president. If Akande was desirous of Ige’s killers being apprehended, why didn’t he factor in more theories on the assassination? For instance, could some persons, who nursed ambition to be Nigeria’s president someday, have stopped him, knowing that an Ige presidency in 2003 could put paid to their ambition? Yes, the theory of armed robbery has been eliminated due to the clinical planning of the assassination, but, is there any possibility that we cast our nets too narrowly?

It is of great importance for us to drill down further into Bisi Akande’s claim that the government headed by Senator Rashidi Ladoja, as Oyo State governor, demanded and got a nolle prosequi in the trial of alleged Ige murderers. Was it a deliberate attempt to play politics, attempt to even political score or share political banditry? Not only did Ladoja denounce this claim with facts, he went ahead to accuse Akande of a penchant for lying while threatening to drag Akande to court for defamation.

It should also be said that while Akande was enamoured of unraveling the killers of his mentor, Chief Ige, under his leadership and direction as governor of Osun State, his ‘boys’ supervised the impeachment of his deputy governor, Iyiola Omisore, allegedly so that the Ile-Ife-born politician could lose his immunity and be ready to face trial for the same murder. If I were Akande’s interviewer, I would have raised further questions for his answer on what his government did to unravel the assassination, a few days before Ige’s murder, of an Osun State legislator, Odunayo Olagbaju. So, what moral right does he have to ask Obasanjo to find Ige’s killers when his own government equally looked the other way when Olagbaju was felled? In the interview, Akande made many other assertions on Ige’s death which should make the police ask him, instead of Ladoja, to come forward for interrogation so that the spirit of Bola Ige could get justice finally. He appeared to know more than he was telling the world, even by his own admission.

Let me go to another issue of importance in the Akande interview. Of recent, the power apparatchik that surrounds the Nigerian president must have discovered that the narrative that all his life, Bola Tinubu had wanted to become president, was flawed. At a meeting with some political operatives immediately after attending a Chatham House engagement in December, 2022, Tinubu was seen on video telling them that “Political power is not going to be served in a restaurant. They don’t serve it a la carte. At all cost, fight for it, grab it and run with it”. The vehemence with which then presidential aspirant Tinubu told these operatives of the cold-bloodedness of power had same cadence and grits with the vehemence with which a leopard pursues an impala.

No political juggernaut in the Tinubu political clan had enough cognate sidekick ‘followership’ around the president to dissolve the above narrative in the minds of the world like Bisi Akande. Since they both left office as governors of Osun and Lagos in 2007, Akande has maintained his political ‘follow-follow’ role around Tinubu. He was the most qualified for the task. So, in the Obilo interview, Akande attempted to push a counter-narrative. Tinubu didn’t want to be president, he emphasized. There was a bedlam in the Tinubu camp when he told all the scroungers around him that he would not be contesting for the presidency, Akande said further. Pius Akinyelure attempted to convince him, yet he would not bulge. Akande then had to be enlisted to do the convincing. He then told Tinubu that his being Nigeria’s president was a clarion call which he must yield to. In other words, Tinubu was persuaded against his earlier wish to be Nigeria’s president.

But, as James Hadley Chase volunteered in one of his classics, a liar must have a very good memory. The interviewer then momentarily badged in. But, that same Tinubu told Nigerians it was his lifelong ambition to be Nigeria’s president? Obilo asked. In fact, at the famous but controversial Abeokuta campaign in June 2022 where it was believed he dared Muhammadu Buhari to do his worse, Tinubu actually told the world that he, the godfather, had come to take over a throne that rightly belonged to him.

The final issue of concern in the Akande interview is his claim that only lazy Nigerians are hungry. While the interviewer squared up with him admirably over this claim, Akande’s fabled gambit of playing the ostrich sprang up here. He couldn’t see hunger in the land, he claimed. To be fair to the ex-APC chairman, he may not see hunger if his impoverished kinsmen in Ila-Orangun have found him too insulated from their existential plights, so much that going to him for help is a waste. None of his children, it is obvious, with his role as consort of the Villa, would feel the hunger in the land. So, how could he see hunger? Even when confronted with palpable cases of hunger under the government of a man he claimed was next good news after the so-called discovery of River Niger by Mungo Park in 1795, he still defiantly claimed that the pepper he allegedly planted at his backyard was the antidote to the impoverishment sown by the Tinubu government. If I may ask, why did Chief Akande ask the president to put his daughter in charge of dollar-denominated National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) and not ask that she heads Ogun-Osun River Basin Authority so that she would plant “one grain of corn and reap a thousand cobs”?

All the above put together remind me that, in their daily fight for dominance and conquest, a fleeting nature of power and dominance exists among politicians. It is the type found among the lion and a warthog. In Nigerian politics, there is an unending, constant and relentless struggle between preys and predators, with each seeking dominance and conquest. Politicians deploy worldly cunning to foist false narratives on the populace. Bisi Akande’s interview and a huge chunk of his autobiography are a further reinforcement of this frightening fight in the wild.

El-Rufai, Obasa and other godfather stories

By Lasisi Olagunju

It happened one sunny day in mid-May 2003. I was preparing to go to the office around noon when Tayo, the editor’s secretary, called me. “Mr Olagunju, don’t come to the office, Baba Adedibu is here looking for you. He came with his boys.” There were no two birds bearing ‘hawk’ in the skies of Ibadan at that time. Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu was the strongman of Ibadan politics. He earned that appellation in practical terms on the field of battle. Adedibu was death that thundered before killing; he was lightning that shrieked before striking. Alhaji Adedibu was the buyer who entered the market, bought all and paid for none. Before him, there was none so hard; after him, there has been none so dreaded.

What did I buy on credit from Alhaji Adedibu’s tray? If you offended him and he wanted you, you would surrender to him or find yourself in his presence. That was the man who came looking for me. He had enough big, street boys who made things happen for him and they were with him on that visit. I quickly checked the gate to my house and the door to my flat. I did a mind check of my recent activities. There was nothing that should make me a candidate for Adedibu’s trouble.

Tayo’s voice on the phone brought me back. “Baba said there is a report against him in the paper today and that you wrote it. He said someone in Tribune hinted to him that any story published without the author’s name was written by you, the news editor.” I laughed at that conclusion. I remembered that report. ‘Adedibu demands 12 out of 14 commissioner slots.’ The headline was something like that. I didn’t write the story. A colleague did. But I passed the story for publication because the source was very credible. The godfather didn’t like the report. He was livid at the audacity of the writer, and possibly wanted to use his visit to get a hint on who spilt the beans.

Chief Adedibu came fully prepared for me, the supposed writer of the story. He was adequately briefed on when I would arrive at the office. But he didn’t meet me. He couldn’t have met me. My masquerade did not put on its costume in the city centre and so would not suffer Adedibu’s rending effect. Eégún t’ó bá tì’gboro se l’aso won máa nya. Before that moment, I had spent all my years in Ibadan avoiding having anything to do with the old man. As a reporter, I always had excuses for not going for official duties at his popular palace at Molete, a place noted for anything and everything. Yet, Alaafin Molete’s palace was just five minutes’ drive from Tribune House and of the same distance to where I lived.

The story we published was correct. Adedibu, Ibadan’s kingmaker, wanted more than enough from the governor he made just three weeks earlier. The godfather wanted to govern the new governor and run the coming government from his home. Adedibu’s godson, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, who had just won the governorship had not even been sworn in when Chief made that demand. Fortunately, both were Ibadan – very heady, crafty and stubborn – and so were a perfect match for each other in the unfolding war. Godfather wanted everything as fruits of his labour; godson thought he could be independent of the kingmaker. The result was that they fought. If Ruth Watson’s ‘Civil Disorder is the Disease of Ibadan’ was acted as a drama, one of the two would be the hero, the other the anti-hero. Ibadan had them and felt them. Limbs were broken; heads got cracked; there were accidents at home and on the road; lives got lost; tenure got truncated. The rest is history.

Four years earlier in Maiduguri, a similar incident had opened the floor for godfathers to drag godsons. Governorship elections were held across Nigeria on Saturday, 9 January 1999. For Borno State, Mallam Mala Kachalla of the All Peoples Party (APP) won the seat with 388,058 votes. His opponent, Baba Ahmad Jidda of the PDP polled 348,800 votes. The victor and his followers started preparing for the swearing-in ceremony scheduled for May 29, 1999. But, amid all the preparations, the state’s outgoing military administrator felt a storm gathering. He got a troubling intelligence report in March that there were plans to impeach the man who had not even taken the oath of office. It was funny; it was not funny. But it was true.

Ali Modu Sheriff, born 1956, was Kachalla’s godfather. Kachalla was born in 1941, 15 years before his godfather was born. Before the election, Ali Modu Sheriff called Kachalla ‘Baba’. He was his father’s friend. During the election, there was a reversal of role; Kachalla worshipped the 43-year-old Sheriff. It is never by age, it is a matter of cash and Ali Modu Sheriff had it and gave plenty of it in service of Kachalla’s ambition. Godson won. Godfather wanted returns from his investment; he allegedly drew a list of cabinet members for the governor-elect. Godson reportedly said no; he picked some and dropped some. He flapped his wings and thought he could fly independent of the godfather who bought him the throne. He paid dearly for it. There was turbulence. His plane fatally suffered loss of altitude. Sheriff had his boys; Kachalla countered with his own boys. But if iron hits iron, one will bow to the other. Kachalla’s iron got bent and broken; the earth quaked. The next election, power changed hands, kingmaker made himself king. Godson lost everything. Life continued.

The godfather is the consummate ego tripper. Phillip Athans, author of ‘Devils of the Endless Deep’, describes the godfather as the “invader” who is determined “to be in charge of something, from the entire universe down to some back alley in the thieves quarter of the city.” The characterization is right. Even when they know that no king wants to share his throne, they still make a dash for power and the palace. Take Olusegun Obasanjo as an example. He was made president by some people in 1999; some people picked the bills. He became president and announced that if anyone thought his presidency was an investment, they had lost that investment. And for eight years, he did exactly as he promised. The same Obasanjo picked his successors in 2007 and 2011. Did he let them be? He wrote in his ‘My Watch’ (Volume 3, page 3): “I have learned from the Yoruba adage that ‘the kingmaker who does not hide his head after the installation of the king will be the first victim of the king’s wrath.” Now, did Obasanjo “hide his head after the installation of the king” as preached by him? He didn’t. The result is the long list of complaints we read in most of the pages of his three-piece memoir. It is the nature of power. The godfather is the kingmaker. He is never satisfied with half measures. The reason they are endangered and in perpetual state of war. It is the reason those very deep in Yoruba power-play say that the kingmaker’s blood provides the canvas for the king’s coronation dance (eni bá fi wón j’oyè, èjè rè ni wón máa ntè wo’lé). I heard that from my late father.

Nasir el-Rufai is fighting two wars at the same time. He is fighting the power caucus in Abuja and fighting local with Governor Uba Sani, his protégé in Kaduna. He tried to link the two fronts in a social media post last week. El-Rufai is angry because he lost his investment in Governor Sani to a more wily partner who has chased him out of a profitable partnership in Abuja. He spanked his governor for his undisguised support for President Bola Tinubu: “Every day I see this governor embarrassingly and sycophantically rambling, I used to wonder why? However, confirming that Federal Government ‘reimbursements, interventions, and grants’ in excess of N150 billion have been given selectively to Kaduna by Tinubu in the last 18 months now explains everything. By all means, defend Asiwaju for the conditional cash transfer. Asiwaju has earned it, coming from you. The people of Kaduna State will judge at the right time and place. Have a nice day,” the former governor wrote on X.

El-Rufai is (or was) godfather in Kaduna; he thinks he deserves that title too in Abuja – he, after all, led northern governors’ 2023 rebellion against Buhari’s from-north-to-north succession agenda. He thinks the revolt provided the wings for Tinubu’s eagle to fly into the northern space and into power. Truly, Bola Tinubu’s 2023 victory dress was sewn by a large confederation of provincial godfathers. El-Rufai was just one of them. Now, he, like many of the kingmakers, is down, locked out of the luxurious palace since May 2023. His lockout will be two years in May this year. He is very hurt and very angry. And justifiably so. If you eat gbì, you must be ready to die gbì. Watch him. He won’t stop until he is done. He has just started.

Follow closely the Mudasiru Obasa saga in Lagos. It is a tragedy that closes and unfolds like abracadabra. Some agents are said to have usurped the powers of the principal. They crossed the red line and are digging in. It is the digging in that intrigues me. Does it mean the palace eunuchs have grown balls, and boys have become men? Whatever answer that question attracts, I see this matter having very profound implications for politics at the national level. I see slithering snakes waltzing into the yawning walls of Lagos.

The noise over Lagos’ speakership today is because a pride of cats thought they could barbecue Mr Jones’ bull in the Animal Farm and get away with it. Imperial Lagos is a mafiadom. There are rules governing every mafia’s operations. The bojúbojú removal drama of Obasa as Lagos speaker resembles more an operation by the Mafia of Sicily. Norman Silverstein says in ‘The Godfather- A Year After’ (1974) that “What makes the Mafia frightening is its creeping secrecy, its being a closed society, its weapon (of) secret terror – defending and offending.” That reads like Lagos’ conclave. It is an elaborate structure that diminishes the intelligence of those who contrived democracy as the best form of government. What next for Lagos? Read Orwell’s 1984: “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever.”

The godfather may also have a godfather to whom he does not say no. The senior godfather may not necessarily be a politician. He may be the king’s son, his brother or, more insidiously, his marabout, babalawo, pastor or Imam. In the south, pastors and Alfas call the shots; in the north, the clerics hold the yam and the knife.

Now, how did we arrive here? A northern Nigerian story gives some insights:

Northern region’s first and only premier, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, had this young Islamic scholar called Sheikh Abubakar Gumi. Sheikh Gumi was the father of the Sheikh Ahmad Abubakar Gumi that you are very conversant with today. The older Sheikh Gumi, who died in September 1992, did humanity a lot of good by documenting his everything in an autobiography. ‘Where I stand’ is the title he gave that book of enlightenment, and I wish we all read it to understand how the Nigerian rain started and why it is still pouring.

The Sardauna loved Gumi, his brilliance and his ways and took him as his son. Godfather confided in godson on almost all matters. One day, the two had a deep discussion that changed radically the course of the Sardauna’s political career and the direction of (Northern) Nigeria’s politics.

“I was with the Premier in his house one day when he began to lament to me openly about the money he spent in the course of his political campaigns,” Gumi writes on page 101 of his ‘Where I stand’. He writes that the Sardauna lamented further that “he had spent whatever personal money he had almost to the point of bankruptcy.” The premier was disappointed in some of his lieutenants who were not as committed as he was to their joint political journey. And what was Gumi’s response? I quote Gumi in the book:

“But if it costs you personally and the party so much, why don’t you do something that would make you more popular, not only with the people but also with God?” I suggested to him.

“What could that be?” he asked.

“You see”, I explained, “if you spent, say, ten percent of the money you now lose to politics to promote the religion, it would earn you more supporters. This is beside the fact that it would be more directly in the service of God.” Gumi said the Sardauna “listened carefully and I explained to him further.” Gumi did not state what his further explanation was but he believed that was the point the Sardauna began to “pay more attention to Islamic matters”, courting local Imams for his politics, and giving “them some money, whenever he went out on campaign visits” (page 102). Mighty oaks from little acorns grow. From that point, Gumi became the guide, the godfather showing the leader the way.

Today, religious leaders play godfathers to the godfather. Behind the crisis in Kaduna and Lagos are some prophecies and predictions about 2027. The clerics are the prophets. They are the gods to appease if there will be peace.

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