By Ikechukwu Amaechi

I had very instructive discussions with two A-list Nigerian politicians before and after the Edo State governorship election; the first being on Wednesday, three days before the poll. Both men have held positions of responsibility in government both at the state and federal levels.

The first politician dismissed the optimism of those who believed that given the pedigree of the 18 candidates and sophistication of the Edo electorate, the odds favoured the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Dr. Asue Ighodalo.

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), he was unequivocal that the result of the election had already been written. “I don’t know why Nigerians are so naïve. They don’t seem to know what they are up against. Which election are they talking about? The same election which result had already been written?” he asked.

That was incredulous. I reminded him how the Edo electorate stepped up to the plate in the 2020 governorship election. He riposted that times have changed and INEC has become more brazen, emboldened by the unscrupulousness of the new kids on the leadership block.

We left it at that, but I hoped to prove him wrong. It turned out on Saturday that he was spot on and I was wrong. On Sunday, at exactly 2.33 pm, when INEC’s deviousness was on full parade, he sent me a text message: “I told you.”

Earlier on Sunday, at exactly 9.37 am, the second politician called to lament. What he said was spine-chilling. “Have you seen what is happening in Edo? These guys have become so brazen. This is unbelievable. What this means is that anyone contesting elections in Nigeria today will be doing so at his own risk.” He was hoping to run for the governorship of his state in 2027. Not anymore after the Edo electoral heist by the APC, he said.

None of them is from Edo. So, they had no dog in the fight, so to speak. But as stakeholders, they are as worried as every other well-meaning Nigerian. But I am more worried now because of what they said.

Before now, the risk we faced as a result of the insufferable duplicity of INEC was voter apathy. Over the years, as people came to the realization that their votes never counted, voter enthusiasm waned.

According to INEC records, only 28.63 per cent of all eligible voters participated in the 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections. That was a new low in what has become a steady decline in the turnout of voters during elections. For instance, while as in 2011, voter turnout was an impressive 53.7 per cent, it dropped to 43.7 per cent in 2015 and 34.75 per cent in 2019.

After the 2023 elections, it was apparent that the voter apathy will intensify and the Edo governorship election where only about 22 per cent of the 2,629,025 registered voters voted has confirmed that. One would have thought that such embarrassing statistics will make the electoral umpire have a rethink. No! Instead of thinking of how to clamber out of the putrid hole of electoral malfeasance, the hardened enablers of electoral fraud are still digging.

Now, the consequence stares us in the face. Even politicians no longer have faith in INEC and if things remain the way they are, no credible Nigerian will waste his time and resources contesting elections again. The implication is that going forward, certificate forgers, age cheats, drug barons and sundry fraudsters will have the electoral field all to themselves.

The Edo election has confirmed what every discerning Nigerian knows: the Mahmoud Yakubu-led INEC is a fraud with no moral fibre to conduct free, fair and credible elections.

But by this brazenness, INEC has also finally overreached itself. As the legendary Chinua Achebe said in his book, A Man of the People, Yakubu now epitomizes that vile character, Josiah, the local shopkeeper, who tricked a blind beggar and stole his walking stick. As one of the villagers said, “Josiah has taken away enough for the owner to notice.” In the same vein, Yakubu and the INEC gang have crossed a line with the conduct of the Edo poll and longsuffering Nigerians have noticed.

Already, director of the Abuja school of social and political thought, Dr. Sam Amadi, has called for the disbandment of INEC as presently constituted, insisting that evidence abounds the electoral umpire was to blame for every bad election conducted in the country.

I agree in toto! And I make bold to say that the APC candidate, Senator Monday Okpebholo, didn’t win last Saturday’s Edo governorship election. He lost woefully to the PDP candidate, Asue Ighodalo, no matter what the fraudulent INEC says. And this is not a speculation. Results announced at the polling booths confirm Ighodalo’s victory to the eternal shame of those who toy with the sovereign will of the people. What INEC did was a perpetuation of the electoral fraud that has made Nigeria a laughing stock in the comity of democratic nations.

If you are still in doubt, consider the fact that all the accredited civil society organizations (CSOs) that observed the poll have rejected the result, insisting that it lacks integrity. The problem, as it has always been the case, started at the point of result collation from the ward, local government to the state level, which flew in the face of the Electoral Act 2022.

A coalition of civil society groups, including Advocacy for Quality Leadership and Health Awareness Foundation; Grassroots Development and Peace Initiative; Citizens Rights and Leadership Awareness Initiative, etc., alleged on Sunday that INEC used two sets of result sheets — one used in the field and another that favoured the APC – during the collation in specific senatorial districts.

The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room and some of its accredited member organisations, including Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD-West Africa), Yiaga Africa, Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI), Nigerian Women Trust Fund (NWTF), and TAF Africa, were even more scathing in their report.

In a statement on Monday, they noted that while as “the voting process was concluded in a relatively peaceful atmosphere, the results collation process in some LGAs were not peaceful and did not meet electoral integrity standards.”

Concerned that the Electoral Act and INEC guidelines on collation were wilfully compromised, particularly in Egor, Ikpoba Okha, Oredo, Esan West and Ovia South-West LGAs, they said: “Our observation of the collation process shows that it was neither transparent nor opened to representatives of the various candidates in some cases. In addition, it lacks transparency in the application of the provision of the Electoral Act and the INEC Guidelines on over-voting and cancellation of results from polling units.”

Bemoaning the over-voting that was reported from more than 370 polling units across the State, they returned a damning verdict: “It is our observation that the Edo State Governorship election 2024 failed to fulfil the requirement of the conduct of credible elections, and again, raises questions about election credibility in Nigeria. As with recent polls, INEC’s ability and willingness to conduct credible elections in Nigeria remains questionable.”

The big elephant in the room has always been collation and Yakubu knows. As a history professor, he is most likely aware of the admonition of the Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin, to his party apparatchik in 1923 thus: “I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this — who will count the votes, and how” because, “Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything.” The devil in Nigeria’s elections is always in the counting.

So, INEC allowed the electorate to vote in Edo and then willfully manipulated the counting to decide the “winner.” What is even more worrying is the impunity. For instance, as at 8:40 am on Sunday, results from 4455 out of the 4,519 polling units where elections were held – 98.58 per cent – had been successfully uploaded on the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IREV), which means that Nigerians knew as a fact who won the election. Yet, bypassing its own portal, the self-same INEC had the audacity to collate results from only God knows where that was totally at variance with what was uploaded.

Those who want to be diplomatic have called for calm, asking those holding the short end of the electoral stick to follow due process in seeking redress.

Due process would mean going to court. That will be foolhardy because it is another layer of the fraud. As Mr. Jibrin Samuel Okutepa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), noted recently, “No matter the volumes of evidence, the judiciary appears to have taken stand and seems to be siding with the people who have no regard and respect for the sovereignty of the people.”

To be sure, no petitioner can successfully sidestep the daunting legal banana peels starting from dubious concepts of demonstration of documents, dumping of documents and calling of agents polling unit by polling unit, to the requirement that certified true copies of public documents must be tendered by the makers and the new, albeit impossible proviso that no subpoenaed witness can testified unless his or her frontloaded statements on oath are filed along with the petitions within 21.

Here, Okutepa’s advice, for me, suffices. “It is my proposal to all ‘losers’ of elections in Nigeria not to waste time and resources to file election petitions because it is easier for an elephant to go through the eyes of the needle than for anyone who was robbed of victories in our elections to get immediate remedies and electoral justice.”

If I were Asue Ighodalo, the latest victim of Nigeria’s soulless electoral mafia led by Prof Mahmoud Yakubu, I will not go to court. The matter will be settled on the streets of Edo. If that is what those inclined to being politically correct call anarchy, so be it.

Truth be told, unless and until Nigerians show the capacity to resist the malfeasance of INEC and their enablers on the streets, not in courts, this impunity will not stop.

By Sylvester Udemezue

(1). While we await report of the “investigation” said to have been “launched” by the EFCC, I need to humbly offer my opinion on an aspect of this video which, in my view, smacks of crass ignorance of the law on the part of the presenter of the video clip.

(2). Assuming it’s true that Femi Falana, SAN, had indeed advised Bobrisky to apply for pardon (prerogative of mercy pursuant to Section 175 ,CFRN, 1999), does this fact bring any taint upon Mr Femi Falana or in any way make Femi Falana complicit in any alleged or seeming perversion of justice or encouragement of corruption?

(3). The answer in my opinion is NO.

(4). MY REASONS:

(a). With due respect, there is absolutely nothing wrong in a prisoner approaching a lawyer for legal advice. If Bobrisky had indeed contacted FALZ and FALZ got his father, the respected learned silk Femi Falana to offer legal advice, that if Bobrisky wished to come out before the end of his jail term, one option open to Bobrisky was to apply for pardon pursuant to Section 175 of the CFRN, 1999, I see absolutely nothing wrong in the advice.

(b). Also, such a piece of advice by the learned silk under the circumstances, does not mean the learned silk was encouraging corruption; from the facts Bobrisky wasn’t convicted of with corruption but of spraying money, which in my view, is a very minor offense that has nothing to do with corruption or money laundering. I was even shocked that Bobrisky was sent to prison over such a minor breach of the law, especially considering he had pleaded; payment of fine should have been enough punishment for such minor infraction. Every right-thinking person should be surprised, as I am, especially considering we are in an era when restorative justice is being encouraged.

(c). Finally, it’s possible that as of the time Mr Falana offered the alleged legal advice, Mr Falana was not aware that Bobrisky wasn’t serving the jail term in any prison but at a lodge near prison. There is no evidence showing in the video clip, that Bobrisky disclosed such fact to Mr Falana. Hence, Mr Falana was entitled to assume that Bobrisky was speaking to him from the prison yard. After all, more often than not, prisoners are allowed even by prison wardens to use phones imfrom inside the prison.

(4). Conclusion: In my opinion, if this story is true, then the evidence available from only the video clip exculpates learned silk Falana from any wrongdoing and from any unprofessional conduct. With due respect, the presenter of the video has unjustifiably called out Mr Falana, out of his (the presenter’s own) ignorance of the extant law. He accordingly owes Mr Femi Falana, SAN, an apology for this smear campaign, founded upon ignorance, against Mr Falana. He should additionally retract this false allegation and false representation against the learned silk.
Respectfully,
Sylvester Udemezue (Udems),
Proctor,
The Reality Ministry (TRM).
08109024556.
[email protected].
(25/09/2024)

By Suyi Ayodele

Isabel dos Santos is the first daughter of Angola’s longest-serving president, José Eduardo dos Santos, who died on July 8, 2022. The late Angolan president ruled the country for 38 years (1979-2017). Isabel grew up in the presidential palace. She became influential in government circles. That transformed her to become rich, not just rich, but wealthy. At a time, Forbes recorded her as the richest woman in Africa. She leveraged on her father’s presidency to corner good business deals. She sat atop Boards of the nation’s biggest companies from telecommunications to oil, prospecting for precious stones and other thriving enterprises.

But now, the ‘Daddy’s Girl’ is in trouble. Forbes, for instance, has deleted her from the hall of fame of the richest in Africa. Why? Shortly after her father left power, the truth of how she became wealthy started coming to light. All over the world, where Isabel has her assets, there are plans to have them frozen. The reason is simple. The ex-first daughter is said to have acquired her wealth through underhand dealings during the 38 years her father ruled Angola.

This is how Forbes, in a May 27, 2022, article, describes her: “As best as we can trace, every major Angolan investment held by Dos Santos stems either from taking a chunk of a company that wants to do business in the country or from a stroke of the president’s pen that cut her into the action. Her story is a rare window into the same, tragic kleptocratic narrative that grips resource-rich countries around the world.” The summary of Isabel is that of a lady who became wealthy without any antecedent of good business in the enterprise world. Her father, the late president Santos of Angola, was the proverbial squirrel that cracked her financial palm kernel.

At home here, we have more than enough shares of our own Isabel dos Santos. Never in the history of Nigeria have we been assailed by the impunity and affluence of the children of our leaders. That ugly trend started with General Muhammadu Buhari, who, as our husband between 2015 and 2023, could not impose the simple discipline of discretion on his children.

In this current political dispensation, we have had an Olusegun Obasanjo as our president. The most noticeable of his children, while he presided over our affairs (1999-2003), happened to be his first daughter, Iyabo. While one may find it difficult to defend the claim that Obasanjo was instrumental to Iyabo becoming a commissioner in Ogun State and later a senator, we cannot deny the fact that the woman, on her own, has all the credentials required for those positions. And, on a general note, besides her foray into politics, Iyabo remained lowkey all through her father’s presidency. I cannot recall here, any inanity she engaged in.

The late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s children did not come across as children who were over-indulged when their father was president between May 29, 2007, and May 5, 2010. The best we knew of his children while he was in office is the fact that his daughters, Zainab, Nafisa and Maryam, all married into homes of affluence. His successor, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ), is unarguably the only president in this dispensation with no known indulgence of children. Apart from his wife, Madam Patience, who was loud and frivolous like other First Ladies of this era, GEJ succeeded in reining in his children. Majority of Nigerians don’t even know the names of President Jonathan’s children. They were shielded, and still shielded from public glare. “Clueless”, as they labelled the Otuoke-born politician, Jonathan has demonstrated to us that he has full and adequate control of his children.

In contrast, the one they said is the Mai Gaskiya, and epitome of discipline of our era, General Buhari, is the one who first subjected our sensibilities to serious attack with the way and manner he used the State resources to pamper his children. Hanan, one of Buhari’s daughters, took advantage of her father’s position to fly about in Presidential jets to attend the most frivolous of all functions like flying to Bauchi to go and take photographs of the traditional Durbar and the architectural designs in the city!

The Presidency later explained to us that the president’s daughter needed the Bauchi photographs for her fieldwork in her Master’s programme at one of the universities in the United Kingdom. Bunkum! Needless to say, when Hanan touched down in Bauchi with the Presidential jet and the insignia of the president, Bauchi State Government officials were at the airport to receive her.

If we felt that we have seen it all in Buhari’s case, Nigerians have new tales to tell in the attitudes of the children of our current husband, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. From the first daughter of the president, Folasade Tinubu-Ojo, to her two brothers, Seyi and Yinka, it has been one indulgence to the other. Seyi, until his father was prevailed upon, was said to be attending the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in the Presidential Villa. While Yinka has been relatively self-effacing, Seyi remains loud and ubiquitous! At one time, he was spotted in the Presidential jet enroute to Kano to go and play polo!

The president’s son was present ‘officially’ when the new Chief Justice of Nigeria was being sworn in. Someone said the big boy was learning the rope, that one day may come when the young shall grow and he will swear in his own CJN.

The most recent of the explorations and exploits was the trip by Seyi and Yinka to Maiduguri, Borno State, last week. They were said to have gone to the flood-ravaged state to commiserate with the victims of the self-inflicted pains caused by the failure of government to do what is right. In the one-minute and 18-second video of the visit in circulation, not less than 20 Borno State Government officials received the duo at the airport. And before you ask if the Office of Sons of the President is part of our government structure, Seyi and Yinka were driven straight to the Government House to see Governor Babagana Umara Zulum; and from there, they were moved to the Palace of the Sheu of Borno, Alhaji Ibn Umar Garba, in a state-visit style. On that trip were a handful of aides, whose duty was to attend to the nation’s First and Second Son!

I tried to rationalise that trip. Someone, however, said that my attention should be on the kindness Seyi Tinubu demonstrated in Maiduguri. The president’s son was said to have donated N500 million to the victims of the Borno flood, in addition to other items. Wao! I think, like it was suggested to me, Seyi deserves our accolades. He is such a generous son of our husband. His mum, (or, step-mum), Mrs. Remi Tinubu, also donated the same amount (N500m) to the flood victims, days before Seyi breezed into Maiduguri. Nigerians are fortunate to have such a generous First Family. We should not ask how Seyi made his money. That will amount to what my people call etanu (malicious envy)!

When you have a father who was once a senator, who once ruled Lagos for eight years, and still appoints who rules the state to date, you cannot but be rich. When the man who sired you transformed from being a kingmaker, National Leader of an opposition-turned-ruling party, and becoming the president of the most populous Black nation, N500 million is nothing. Why? The elders of my place say that when the madman is given a hoe, he makes the heaps in between his two legs.

Nobody begrudges a child who resembles the father (Omo ò lè jo baba ká máa bínú omo). Seyi cannot have a father like Daddy Tinubu, who does not know the tribal marks money has, the Ninalowo (Money is meant to be spent), and be stingy! “What is money? Money is nothing. Premium or Nothing.” Those are lyrics of Flavour the Afro-pop star in his Big Baller Single. The aides and officials who were on that trip would also ‘lick’ their fingers; I take a bet on that! My friends, Seyi’s fans, told me that he is a “self-made man”, and I agreed with them. Most children of our politicians are “self-made.”

One of the “self-made” children of our leaders was also in the news last week. His name is Abdulaziz Abubakar Malami, son of the immediate past Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami. If the video is real and its content true and correct, Abdulaziz is just 29 years old, but he already has a conglomerate that runs into billions of Naira. The narrator in the video, where Abdulaziz’s wealth is flaunted, said that the young man has in his employ, over 2,000 staff. The narrator added that besides being a lawyer with a law firm located at Sani Abacha Road, Birnin-Kebbi, Kebbi State, there was nothing else about the one described as “the third youngest Nigerian” managing one of the richest conglomerates in Nigeria.

The junior Malami is said to own a secondary school, a university, a clothing line, hotels, a rice mill, supermarket and others. His father, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), and former AGF is just 57 years old. Before the senior Malami became a minister under Buhari, he was not known as old money. But the God of transformation smiled on his family. There is nothing God cannot do. Today, his son, who is not 30 years yet, is said to sit atop a conglomerate that employs over 2,000 Nigerians. All we are required to do is to praise the boy’s ‘industry’ and his sense of ‘patriotism’ in establishing companies that have taken away a full 2,000 people off the job market. Some children came to this world with the star of fortune! Juxtapose the aforementioned against this story from the days of my childhood.

We were three little primary two pupils of Local Authority Primary School East (LA East), Ikole Ekiti. The first is a cousin. He will not be reading this because of his present circumstances. The second, my childhood friend, and twin brother, is an officer in our state’s local government service commission. Then, yours sincerely was the leader of the ‘gang’ that day.

Our Eskisi ma, (teacher), had a presence. We knew her as Eye Pelu (Pelu’s mother), that’s what the locals called her. Pelu, her son, was our classmate too. It was harvesting time. The older pupils in the higher classes worked on the school farm and harvested groundnuts. A basket of the groundnuts was kept in our class. We had the mid-day break, called “long break”, and Eskisi ma stepped out of the class. Pelu took the advantage. He went to the basket of groundnuts, took a handful, and beckoned on us to come forward for our ‘shares’. He attached a condition. He took the mother’s cane and announced that anyone who accepted to be flogged by him would partake in the groundnuts.

In my little head, I knew that taking the groundnuts in the first instance without permission was wrong. I was taught that early in life. Besides, I could not reconcile why Pelu should flog me first before giving out the groundnuts; we are of the same age bracket. Then, something also told me that the items belonged to all of us, and Pelu was just an Omo Tisha (the teacher’s son).

I stayed back. My cousin and my friend likewise. The three of us shared the same bench in the class. When Pelu was through with those who volunteered to be flogged, he came to us. He asked why we didn’t get up to collect groundnuts. Trust yours sincerely, I was the spokesman for the ‘rebels’. I answered by saying that the groundnuts were not his’ and he had no right to take them or flog anyone. The devil took over Pelu. He landed the cane on me. Mine was a natural reflex. I leapt on him like a leopard. The two other rebels joined. It was a commotion. Sacrilege! Nobody would dare touch an Omo Tisha those days! A classmate once told me that he nearly fainted the day he saw his teacher answering the call of nature! Teachers, then, were regarded as deities, not mortals. Pelu’s yell attracted those in the adjoining classes.

Eskisi ma and two others rushed in. They saw the ‘abomination’. The fight stopped. The three of us stood up, we knew we were in trouble. One of the Eskisi mas that followed Eye Pelu wanted to descend on us. Eye Pelu restrained her. Our Eskisi ma asked what happened. We explained. She confirmed from one or two other pupils if Pelu indeed took the groundnuts, and she got an affirmative answer.

It was like a flash. The next thing we saw was that Pelu was on the floor. The mother, with her heavy presence on top of him. She was beating, pinching and kicking the son. Then she burst into tears. We were alarmed. Other Eskisi mas and sirs came and took her off the boy. The three of us, musketeers, lost colour. We were shaking like a virgin seeing ‘it’ for the first time. We knew we were finished. If Eskisi ma could handle her son, Pelu, the way she did, there was nothing she would not do to us. We waited with bated breath.

Normalcy was restored. Eskisi ma simply went back to her table without looking in our direction. She ordered everyone back to their desks. The three of us stood where we were. She looked at us and asked us to go back to our seats. We obeyed her. Minutes later, class resumed, and Eskisi ma taught us as if nothing happened. That session ended and we moved to a higher class. Eskisi ma did not change her attitude towards us, she never mentioned that we once beat her son. No other teacher reprimanded us for beating an Omo Tisha (teacher’s child).

The lesson registered in my heart in an indelible manner. I got to know from that cradle incident that it is the responsibility of every parent to teach his or her children ethics, morals and good discipline. Pelu’s mum felt bad that her son would go and touch the groundnuts kept on her watch. She knew it was wrong to use the community’s patrimony to indulge her son! No leader should do that! She felt she had failed; that was why she cried while beating Pelu. Wonderful woman, our Eskisi ma, Eye Pelu! While on this script, I asked my friend about Eye Pelu. He answered that our Eskisi ma is healthy and kicking. I owe her a visit; I intend to make that happen as soon as possible. Such a treasure must be honoured! Do we still have leaders like her around?

It is obvious our “self-made” children of today are lucky. They did not grow up when we had many teachers like my old Eye Pelu. He did not sit under the tutelage of a no-nonsense Eskisi ma, who had the orientation that State property is different from one’s personal effects. They don’t have the picture of their school Eskisi mas or sirs, beating up their children for daring to touch what belonged to the entire school without permission.

They did not grow up under a mother, like Eye Pelu, whose philosophy is, ohun tí a fi ńké omo wà lórí àte Òyó (what one uses to over-indulge a child is only gotten in the wares of an Oyo trader). Growing up, they were probably not told to differentiate between government property and assets and family belongings. From the State House in Lagos to Aso Rock Villa in Abuja, the philosophy is, gbogbo ejò ni jíje (all snakes are edible). So, leaping to Kano from Abuja in the presidential jet for a polo game is no big deal. Donating N500 million from an inexhaustible bank account is as easy as A B C!

As for those who think that these children are like Angola’s Isabel dos Santos and would want to interrogate their wealth and the tax or taxes they pay, I have one piece of advice: Tell your own old man to join politics and conquer the world like Alexander the Great, Napoleon and yes, our Nigerian husbands!