#SomberTuesday! Contestations on the results of the elections continue. But there was at least one reported effort to persuade the Labour Party’s Peter Obi (made by former Governor of Enugu state, PDP’s Senator Chimaroke Nnamani) to drop his lawsuit and negotiate a deal for the Southeast. The Party has also raised an alarm alleging that Lamidi Apapa, whose chairmanship of the party is still under contention, has approached the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, asking it to dismiss all the cases filed by the party and its presidential candidate.

Disputations over the results continue at the governorship and National Assembly levels. The most serious case is in Adamawa State, where there was a runoff between APC’s Aishatu “Binani” Dahiru and the incumbent, PDP’s Ahmadu Fintiri. The debacle that erupted involved the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Adamawa, Hudu Yunusu-Ari, prematurely announcing on April 15 that Binani had won before the conclusion of collating results for the runoff election. INEC declared the announcement null and void and had the returning officer declare Finitri as the winner.

In the meantime, in a case of mistaken identity, the ex-Vice Chancellor of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Prof. Abdullahi Zuru, who is an INEC National Commissioner, was brutally attacked, and even stripped naked by people who thought he was Hudu Yunusu-Ari, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC). 

Binani made a victory declaration. When INEC declared the announcement null and void, Binani brought a lawsuit against INEC. The next hearing is on April 26. Many Nigerian women have lamented the situation as Binani would have been Nigeria’s first elected female governor if elected. She has also been criticized for not following due process. Frankly, to succeed in Nigerian politics, the women have had to accommodate themselves to the practices already normalized in the system. Binani is no exception. In preemptively announcing her victory, she did what many male politicians have done in similar situations.

The deeply contested nature of Nigerian elections and politics continue. It doesn’t help that INEC is inefficient, reactive and that its haphazard management of the elections further decreased the confidence of the electorate in the integrity of both INEC and the elections. Ethnic divisiveness and hate speech are increasingly normalized, making it clear that the project of nation-building is still challenging. Nigeria is democratizing but democracy remains elusive. So is electoral integrity.

The currency scarcity combines with a weak and declining economy to make life difficult for everyone, particularly the masses due to the technological logjams and hiccups.

Majority of Nigerians are youths, and the country’s political, economic, and social conundrums cause them hardships serious enough that many have embraced japa–leaving the country by any means necessary to seek better opportunities abroad, as the only avenue to success and upward mobility. In a country with so many young people, the political leadership at the highest levels are octogenarians. Who repesents the youths? Why are patriarchy, oligarchy, and gerontocracy so entrenched in Nigeria? Where are the women in leadership? How about the people with disability? Can poor Nigerians aspire to political office? What is the essence of democracy?

Why have we allowed personal and human insecurity to become banal realities? Why are there so many abductions and kidnappings? Why are our political institutions so weak? Why is infrastructure so woefully inadequate? Why do we have such high unemployment and underemployment? Why so few decent jobs? Why is fulfilling the social contract between the people and leaders so impossible?

Nigerians need democracy and economic development, personal and human security. They want a country that prioritizes its citizens’ wellbeing and welfare. The masses need to meet basic needs as a matter of urgent  priority. They should be able to hope for a brighter future just like the elites.

#EndSARS youth protesters were active participants in the elections, who were confident that voters would be free to choose their representatives, but they were made to understand that our democracy provides no such opportunities. In their #EndSARS demonstrations, they demanded good governance, an end to police brutality, extortion, impunity, economic inequality, marginalization, targeting of youths and other minorities, and cessation of political violence but were brutally suppressed.

The 2020 Lekki massacre should be seared in our collective memory. Peacefully demonstrating youths at #LekkiTollGate & other locations faced state-sponsored violence and repression. What is the meaning of democracy if peaceful protests are so handled? There is a need for deep reflection on how to address our challenges of nation-building, democratization, and sustainable development.

#NigerianWomenArise #EndPoliceBrutalityinNigeriaNOW #EndSars #EndSWAT #EndImpunity.

Howard Zinn’s statement should be taken seriously by Nigerians interested in democracy: “Civil disobedience, that’s not our problem. Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while, the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.”

Now to my weekly repetition: Let the kleptocrats give back our stolen wealth so that we can fix our infrastructure, schools, hospitals, and also offer worthwhile social protection to our people. Let the masses enjoy the full benefits of citizenship in Nigeria. Let the leaders and political class repent and build peace with justice.

This is no time for politics as usual. The people elected should be those trusted to bring justice, equity and human security to the entire country, not expedient, unethical and egocentric individuals determined to dominate for self aggrandizement or sectional gain. We don’t need oligarchs’ continued domination. We also need a government that puts the interests of majority of citizens first.

By Sonnie Ekwowusi

President Buhari has come to judgment. After exercising presidential power, judgment follows. Pricked by pangs of conscience on the last Sallah Day, Buhari realized that he committed many injustices against numerous Nigerians during his 8-year misrule. Consequently, he apologized to Nigerians and begged for their pardon. “God gave me an incredible opportunity to serve the country. We are all human, and if I have hurt some people along the line of my service to the country, I ask that they pardon me… All those whom I have hurt, I ask that they pardon me,” said a seemingly remorseful Buhari.

President Buhari has destroyed the lives of countless Nigerians during his 8-year misrule. Therefore, it is not surprising that he is now sitting in judgment with his conscience. A man reaps whatever he sows. The obligation to avoid inflicting physical or psychological harm on others is a primary ethical teaching of Prophet Mohammed (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him). “He who causes harm will be harmed by Allah, and he who acts in a hostile manner will be treated in a hostile manner by Allah” (Jami’al-Tirmidhi, No. 1306). Unfortunately, the Buhari administration has caused tremendous harm to many Nigerians. As we speak, many Nigerians, young and old, are leaving the country in search of the so-called greener pastures abroad. And if the mass exodus of Nigerian medical doctors from Nigeria to Europe and America is not arrested now, there will be fewer or no medical doctors available in Nigeria by 2030. Writhing under the pains of suffocating Buhari’s policies, many multinationals shut down their operations in Nigeria, while others simply fired their staff. From 2016-2018, for example, 9.3 million Nigerians lost their jobs. From 2015-2018, poverty in Nigeria tremendously increased. Nigeria has now taken over from India as the poverty capital of the world. According to the African Development Bank (ADB) Nigeria Economic Outlook, about 152 million Nigerians live on less than $2 a day, representing approximately 80% of the country’s estimated population of 190 million.

The United States Department of State has issued a damning assessment of Buhari’s government. In the 48-page Human Rights Violation Report, it stated that impunity remained widespread at all levels of government in Nigeria during Buhari’s reign. It notes that the Buhari government lacks transparency. The report also indicted the Buhari government for not adequately investigating or holding police or military personnel accountable for many extrajudicial killings. The Buhari government came to power on the mantra of fighting corruption. But tragically, the Buhari government is now defined by corruption. For example, the United States Human Rights Report has scored President Buhari’s government low for corruption. The Report states, among other things, “Although the law provides criminal penalties for conviction of official corruption, the government did not implement the law effectively, and officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. Massive, widespread, and pervasive corruption affected all levels of government and the security services.”

Buhari’s currency redesign policy is still inflicting pain on Nigerians. Imagine having money in your bank account and not being able to access it because of a badly-conceived currency redesign policy. Imagine bank customers endlessly queuing up under the sun to access their own money in the bank. I gather that many hospitalized sick Nigerians have died simply because their relatives were unable to withdraw money from the banks to purchase drugs for the deceased. Is this not a sin that cries to heaven for vengeance?

At the twilight of the 2023 Election, Buhari promised Nigeria and the international community that he would leave a legacy of a free and fair 2023 election in his 8-year tenure. Now, it is no longer news that INEC organized the most rigged election in the history of elections in Nigeria. Why has President Buhari not queried or sacked the INEC chair Prof Mahmood Yakubu for organizing the most scandalous election in Nigeria?

The foregoing attests that President Buhari has failed in office. Buhari’s suffocating policies have led to the deaths of many Nigerians. This is why the man is laboring in vain to pacify his conscience, which has adjudged him a failure. A guilty person might escape human justice wrought in the court of law; they might take flight from their guilt through ingenious rationalization, but they cannot escape from the ultimate justice in the recesses of their conscience. The natural law is written in the heart of every rational person. Therefore, every rational person, whether they are Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, atheist, Marxist, internet free-thinker, juju worshipper, agnostic, animist, or otherwise, is under the judgment of the natural law written in their heart. For example, in one of the tragedies of Sophocles, the woman Antigone sought permission from the King to give her dead brother a burial befitting a human being. But the King refused because the dead brother was adjudged an enemy of the State. However, Antigone approached the King and told him that there was another law (natural law) higher than the King’s law, which obliged the King to give her brother a proper burial. Antigone was neither a Christian nor a Muslim. She had never read the Bible or the Koran, yet she recognized a higher law, the law of conscience, which obliged the King to give her brother a befitting burial. When we commit an injustice, our consciences continue to torture us until we make amends.

There is this anecdote of some Japanese ladies who had committed several abortions in their youthful days. Pricked by their consciences, they went and molded some effigies that actually looked like the babies they had murdered, placed them one by one on a platform, and started bowing before these effigies, asking them for forgiveness for the murders they had committed. This is natural law at work. In Dostoevsky’s epic work, Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov tried to erase his crime from his heart by ingenious rationalization, but upon discovering the inescapable basis for ultimate justice in his heart, he went to Siberia and served an eight-year prison term to appease his conscience.

Therefore, if Buhari really wants to appease his conscience and have a restful and peaceful retirement in Daura or Niger Republic, he should make amends or reparations for the many injustices he committed against Nigerians. Allah will treat him the way he treats others. Allah will not have mercy on him unless he has mercy on others. Therefore, President Buhari should treat people well in the remaining days of his tenure. He should show mercy to others to enjoy mercy and peace in Daura. He should show kindness. Allah loves those who are kind. Therefore, President Buhari should order the release of all prisoners unjustly detained in Nigerian correctional centers, including Nnamdi Kanu, who, in actual fact, has been discharged and acquitted by the court but is deliberately left to languish in prison. Buhari should also ensure that his government obeys all pending court orders served on it.

Ninety percent of President Buhari’s key political appointees are from his part of the country, and he refused to alter this imbalance in conformity with the pluralistic and multi-ethnic nature of Nigerian society and the Federal Character principle as enshrined in section 14(3) of the 1999 Constitution. Now, as he is quitting office, how would Allah judge him for this act of injustice? The Golden Rule states, “Honesty is the best policy.” Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, says, “stand firm for justice…even if it be against yourselves, your parents, and your relatives.” Therefore, Buhari should stand firm for justice and correct the lopsided political appointments in his government before he leaves office to avoid his conscience torturing him when he retires to Daura. He should also order for the arrest and prosecution of INEC chair Prof Mahmoud Yakubu for squandering a gargantuan sum of N3O5 Billion in organizing the most chaotic and rigged election in Nigeria. There is no doubt that Prof. Yakubu is a big disgrace to Nigeria. Therefore, justice demands that Buhari should fire Prof. Yakubu before he (Buhari) leaves office.

Ethical conduct is the anchor of the Islamic personality of a Muslim. There is an obligation on Muslims to improve and enhance the welfare of others, including care for the sick. But President Buhari cares no hoot about the welfare of the sick. Rather than improve and re-equip the existing public hospitals in Nigeria so that many sick Nigerians could go there for medical treatment, Buhari prefers going for medical tourism in London to cater for his own health. Therefore, in his remaining days in office, Buhari should show mercy to sick Nigerians. He should visit the hospitals and console the sick patients there. If President Buhari wants peace in his retirement, he should ensure that the daughter of Zion and conscience of Nigeria, Leah Sharibu, regains her freedom. Otherwise, the bad prayer of this girl will never allow Buhari to enjoy peace in his retirement. President Buhari has not only over-borrowed money but also misused the borrowed money in inanities. In fact, Nigeria’s rising debt profile spells doom for the incoming government.

Therefore, if Buhari wants peace in his retirement, he should team up with the incoming government to rein in Nigeria’s debt. Buhari is very conscious of his place in history. He is afraid that history will judge him harshly and negatively. But he should not forget that he has repeatedly promised to end insecurity in Nigeria. Even in March 2023, the President reiterated his government’s commitment to winning the war against terrorism and other forms of insecurity. The truth of the matter however is that insecurity in Nigeria has worsened despite Buhari’s assurances that he will defeat insecurity before leaving office. As Buhari leaves office without fulfilling his aforesaid promise, it is doubtful whether he will enjoy peace in his retirement.

By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

There are two countries whose well-being and stability reach into nearly every part of Africa. One is the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which is nominally in the Central African region but which shares borders with nine countries extending to all of the continent’s four other regions – Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. Unsurprisingly, the DRC is in the regional organisations of every region of Africa except those of the North and of West Africa.

The second is Sudan. With a current landmass of 1,886,068 km² Sudan is nearly double the size of Nigeria and the third largest country in Africa behind only Algeria and the DRC. Its neighbours include Chad, Central African Republic, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, and South Sudan; and its regional reach extends to the Middle East and North Africa, Central Africa, Eastern Africa, and West Africa. Even more, Sudan’s geo-strategic significance covers nearly all of the continent’s fragilities, including the Congo Basin, Horn of Africa, the Great Lakes of Africa, the Gulf of Aden, the Maghreb, the Nile Basin, the Sahel, and the Indian Ocean. A popular land route for Muslim pilgrims and a magnet for all manner of irregular hawkers of violence, Sudan holds the key to nearly all of Africa’s significant strategic exposures from governance, through Climate Change, to international terror.

But Sudan has known little peace since independence in 1956 as a Condominium of Egypt and the United Kingdom. In 67 years of Independence, it has seen at least 17 attempted coups, six of which were successful. Two of those successful coups have occurred in the last four years, the first in April 2019 resulting in the overthrow of the 30-year long rule of General Omar Al-Bashir, and the second in October 2021 resulting in the overthrow of the power-sharing arrangement that was to return the country to civil rule in 2022.

On both occasions, Egypt, itself at once both uneasy neighbour worried about the course of the Nile (which substantially flows through Sudan before emptying in its territory) and former colonial power, was always an enthusiastic business partner with the Armed Forces of Sudan. To many people, General Burhan, who nominally heads the Sovereignty Council, as the ruling military arrangement in Sudan is called, is a client of Egypt.

These two recent coups were a joint enterprise between the two most organised and best financed entities in the country: the Sudan’s armed forces commanded by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, a four-star General; and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, better known by the nom de guerre, Hemedti. The RSF is the new name for an entity that used to be known as the Janjaweed, an expeditionary unit of largely lawless irregulars, to whom the government of Omar Al-Bashir outsourced the violent pacification of Darfur. In many ways, it was an internal mercenary force which fed off its crimes. This arrangement suited all sides: the Army could conserve its assets; the regime could deny direct responsibility; and the leadership of the Janjaweed could make a lot of money and political capital too.

In the decade and a half from the beginning of the Darfur campaign around 2004 to the overthrow of the regime of Omar Al-Bashir in 2019, Hemedti, who comes from one of Sudan’s most troubled regions in Darfur, built up considerable personal wealth and strategic capital, and the bandit force which he originally constituted as the Janjaweed emerged to become what Alex de Waal described as “now the real ruling power in Sudan. They are a new kind of regime: a hybrid of ethnic militia and business enterprise, a transnational mercenary force that has captured a state.”

In Darfur, the Janjaweed were responsible for a long and distinguished record of credibly attested atrocities, including crimes against humanity that have since become the subject of investigation and prosecution by the International Criminal Court, ICC. They also managed to export their skills in the deployment of indiscriminate violence to clients in the Gulf States, including Saudi Arabia, who found them useful for outsourcing atrocities in Yemen. From his early origins as a bandit and violence rustler, Hemedti managed through these kinds of arrangements to insinuate himself into respectable company in the region, becoming an almost indispensable factor in the security of arguably the most fragile region in Africa, with support from an assortment of actors including the Gulf States and renegade General Khalifa Haftar in Libya.

The threat posed by the Janjaweed was always very evident even to the uninitiated. Until 2019, they were a kind of iron fist underneath Sudan’s velvet gloves. After the overthrow of Bashir, Hemedti, as the commander of the Janjaweed-in-Government nicknamed the RSF, became effectively the power behind the throne. The marriage between him and Burhan always seemed rather convenient. It was only a matter of time before he made his bid for power.

On or around 15 April 2023, Hemedti launched what would effectively become Sudan’s 18^th coup attempt by bringing the guns and heavy artillery into Khartoum which were formerly trained on Darfur. The build up to this unfolded almost in slow motion amid the ruins of the effort to integrate the RSF into Sudan’s Armed Forces. While struggling to retrieve some respectability from that, Hemedti reportedly picked up rumours that the assets of Egypt’s Air Force stationed at the Merowe Air Base in the north-west of the country, including the relatively sophisticated Egyptian MiG-29M medium weight ‘4+ generation’ fighters, were planning a strike on him. So, he made the first move and attacked.

Whether this could end up as Sudan’s seventh successful coup is presently unclear. The fact that Burhan and Hemedti, both committed Islamists, were too impatient to defer the outbreak of military hostilities until after the end of the Holy Month of Ramadhan is notable. As Muslims all over the world marked the Feast of the Sacrifice this week-end and amidst rising civilian casualties in this most urban of Africa’s recent wars, both sides proclaimed an unconvincing ceasefire, supposedly to enable the victims mark the Eid.

Anyone with even limited knowledge of Sudan may be disappointed but not in anyway surprised by this turn of events. Much of the present tragedy was both foreseeable and predictable. The most surprising thing of all is the absence of any effective plan for addressing it. While the people of Sudan are slaughtered by those supposed to protect them, the world and the region carries on in apparent resignation and confusion. Karim Khan, the Prosecutor of the ICC, appears so fixated on Ukraine, he cannot find the bandwidth to acknowledge the conflagration in Sudan, where Darfur, itself currently an active case under the watch of both the ICC and the UN, has also degenerated into warfare.

For its part, the United Nations Security Council appears to have outsourced the situation to the African Union who have in turn outsourced it to the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which is chaired by Sudan, whose duelling rulers each seem to believe that they have the military solution to this war. All they can muster at the moment appear to be Zoom meetings.

While regional countries try to scramble, Nigeria, Africa’s self-appointed big-brother, has barely noticed. Yet, the links between both countries are beyond geographic. In 1903, Frederick Lugard sacked Sultan Attahiru of Sokoto, who made a last stand at Burmi (now near Bajoga in Funakaye Local Government Area of Gombe State) where he and over 700 of his family and followers were slaughtered nearly 120 years ago in August 1903 in the “destruction of the town by a British force of 30 whites and 500 native rank and file”. His surviving son, Mohammed Bello, led the remainder of Attahiru’s survivors into exile in Sudan where their descendants have lived since then. Above all, the embassy in Sudan is Nigeria’s most lucrative foreign mission.

For Nigeria, the crisis in Sudan is not just a matter of security and geography, it is also inescapable history and economics.

A lawyer and a teacher, Odinkalu can be reached at [email protected]