• Ndigbo are not only asking Nigerians to support their quest for presidency in 2023 based on equity, fairness and justice but also because the Southeast region is blessed with competent people

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Nigerians love clichés to bits. But if there is anything they love more than clichés, it is their penchant to determine the fate of Ndigbo based on preconceived notions.

As the curtain is slowly but inexorably being drawn on the Muhammadu Buhari presidency and the political silly season is, once again, upon us, those two tendencies are manifest.Advertisement

The buzz phrase these days is the fallacy that power is not served a la carte. Interestingly, that banality is only voiced in reference to the legitimate clamour for a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction. And you ask, what do they really expect of Ndigbo?

You often hear people speaking tongue-in-cheek that “power is taken and not given,” ostensibly latching onto Gloria Steinem’s phrase that “nobody gives you power; you have to grab it,” without putting it in context as Steinem, an American feminist journalist and social political activist, did.

For instance, fielding questions on Arise Television on August 4, 2020, elder statesman, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, former Liaison Officer to former President Shehu Shagari, said: “Igbos should not expect power to be served on them, they should build bridges if they want a president of Southeast extraction.” Yakasai insisted that “power is taken and not given.”

While the nature of power in itself involves contestation, the idea that it must always be taken and not given is not true. In Nigeria, power has always been served a la carte since independence in 1960.

When Shehu Shagari became president on October 1, 1979, he did not take power, it was given to him because his ambition was to become a Senator before he was handed the presidential ticket of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) at the party’s national convention held at the Casino Cinema, Yaba, on December 12, 1978.

Having been adopted by the Northern political establishment, he easily defeated other more flamboyant, wealthier and politically astute aspirants like Maitama Sule, Adamu Ciroma, Dr. Olusola Saraki, Joseph Tarka and Professor Muhammed Iyi Abubakar in the primaries. He became Nigeria’s first executive president on a platter of group endorsement, and in spite of himself, having been served power a la carte.

Olusegun Obasanjo was in prison when the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was founded in August 1998 by former Vice President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, and other members of the G-34. Yet, in deciding who the party’s presidential candidate would be, Ekwueme, who rallied round the most potent opposition against General Sani Abacha’s transmutation agenda, was by-passed for a reluctant Obasanjo. He was served power a la carte.

Late President Umaru Yar’Adua wanted to return to Ahmadu Bello University as a lecturer after his eight-year tour of duty in Katsina State as governor. He neither had the gumption, war-chest nor even the national name recognition to propel him to Aso Rock. Yet, he became president without any struggle. Simply put, he was handed the presidency on a platter of Obasanjo’s whims.

President Muhammadu Buhari, who had run on his own steam three times, only made it to Aso Rock when most Northerners felt that President Goodluck Jonathan’s quest for a second term was not only greed for power taken too far but an unpardonable breach of the rotation principle which favoured the North at the time. Even members of the PDP from the North, including the then National Chairman, Adamu Mu`azu, worked against Jonathan. In Bauchi State, where Mu’azu was governor for eight years, PDP lost the 2015 presidential election to APC, scoring only 86,085 votes, a paltry 8.4 per cent as against 931,598 polled by APC.

Even during the military era, power was served a la carte to Yakubu Gowon after the bloody July 29, 1966 counter coup by Northern military officers. He didn’t struggle to become Head of State.

The junior officers who overthrew Gowon in a palace coup d’état on July 29, 1975 handed power over to General Murtala Muhammed. General Joseph Garba, one of the architects of the coup who later became Minister of External Affairs, narrated how Murtala even gave them conditions for accepting the offer.

When Murtala was assassinated on February 13, 1976, reports had it that General Olusegun Obasanjo, his second in command, was reluctant stepping into his shoes. Rather than struggle for power, he was persuaded.

So, why will it be different now simply because there is clamour for a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction?

Yakasai talked about Ndigbo building bridges. Isn’t that what they have been doing even before the idea of Nigeria became a reality? There is hardly any Igbo leader of the old generation that was born in the Southeast. Both Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu were born in Zungeru, a town in Niger State, which was the capital of the British protectorate of Northern Nigeria from 1902 until 1916.

Presently, there is no community in Nigeria’s 774 local governments, no matter how remote, that you won’t find Ndigbo.

So, why is the bar being raised so high simply because Ndigbo are laying a claim to the national political diadem?

Before now, the question has been: where are the Igbo candidates? Now that some Igbo aspirants, including Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, a renowned pharmacist, founder and former CEO of Neimeth Pharmaceutical, former president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, foundation president of the West African Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, former Chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group and Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, and Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, a lawyer, who became Senate President at the young age of 39, and also served creditably as Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), have raised their hands to be counted, the story is changing.

Suddenly, zoning of political offices has become a taboo to some political actors.

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who obviously wants to run again for the presidency in 2023, is now repudiating the PDP zoning principle.

Speaking at the 94th National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the PDP on Thursday, October 7, Atiku urged the party to be guided by the spirit of fairness and equity rather than zoning in determining the presidential candidate.

“Where the President comes from has never been the problem of Nigeria. It will not be the solution to the problems of Nigeria. There is no such thing as a President from Southern Nigeria or a President from Northern Nigeria. There is only one President, a President of Nigeria, for Nigeria and by Nigerians,” he said.

On the face value, there is nothing wrong with his position. But juxtapose it with his stance on the same issue at the 2011 PDP Convention when he squared against Jonathan, and the hypocrisy jumps out.

Hear him then: “The founders of this party, in their wisdom, devised rules for the rotation of power between North and South in response to cries of marginalization and domination. We wanted peace and justice to reign. And we put it in our Constitution (Section 7.2.c), and we all know what a Constitution means.

“That provision has not been altered. In 2002, an expanded caucus of our great party met and reaffirmed that policy…. I have always put Nigeria first before my personal interests and ambitions.”

So, what has changed? If rotation of power between North and South was desirable in 2011, what makes it undesirable in 2023?

Truth be told, equity, fairness and social justice demands a Nigerian president of Southeast extraction in 2023. In which case, after eight years of a Muhammadu Buhari presidency, power should gravitate to the South. And it will be unconscionable for the Southwest that has held the presidency and vice presidency for 16 solid years in a period of 24 years or the South-South that was there for five years to deny Ndigbo the opportunity.

But even if the only criterion for determining who becomes president in 2023 is competence, Southeast has a glut of competent people.

Fortunately, all those who have declared interest so far are not running because they are Igbo, but because they are competent, knowledgeable and proficient Nigerians, who possess the requisite skill sets to save their beloved country from implosion. That makes it easier for Nigerians to decide.  

Inside Stuff With MARTINS OLOJA

If the authorities in Lagos and Abuja continue to listen to their lawyers who would not teach us the significance of the spirit of the law on the Lagos #EndSARS panel report, they should reflect on what another significant lawyer and member of the panel Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN) too has disclosed: ‘There are documents to defend report of #EndSARS Panel’.

As the controversy over the report rages in the media, the representative of the civil society on the panel too had asked the Lagos state government to focus on the #EndSARS report instead of ‘demonising’ the panel members.

On Monday, the panel submitted two documents — a consolidated report on cases of police brutality and another on the Lekki incident investigation — to the Governor of Lagos state.

A few hours after submission of the report, the 309-page document appeared in the media space, thanks to the people power some have coined citizen journalism. In the report, the panel says the, “killing of unarmed protesters by soldiers on October 20, 2020 could be described in the context of a massacre”. When the CNN and a few other media organs described the alleged killings then in the same context, public information officers not only berated the media, they denied that there was any killing until the panel’s report last week.

The report has attracted different reactions, with some persons citing grammatical errors in the document and professionalism of the military establishment as if the military should be above the organic law of the land.

Specifically, Abiodun Owonikoko, counsel to Lagos State Government on the panel, had said Adegboruwa could not have given an “objective” position on the Lekki incident owing to his absence during sittings.
But in his rapid response in a statement issued on Friday, Adegboruwa said it was improper for the government to subject the panel to media trials and attacks. He added that it was wrong for the government to allege discrepancies, adding that there are documents to defend the report submitted by the panel. His words:
‘I have listened to the narratives of the Lagos State Government through one of its Learned Senior Counsel at the #EndSARS Panel, to the effect that Nigerians should reject the report of the Panel because I signed it, since I was not present at some of the sittings of the Panel,” the statement reads…I served on the Panel on the mandate of the Governor of Lagos State, who told me on telephone that I was chosen to represent CIVIL SOCIETY. I requested for and approval was granted in writing, that my appointment was on a part-time basis…Furthermore, the Governor told me that two members were chosen to represent civil society on the Panel so that one of us would always be present at the Panel to excuse the absence of the other. I accepted the appointment in good faith, to serve the people, to calm frayed nerves at the time and also to restore normalcy to Lagos State. So, at all times, I functioned in partnership with my colleague from civil society, and there was no major sitting of the Panel in which both of us were absent…I also served on the Panel free of charge, from October 19, 2020, when the Panel was inaugurated till November 15, 2021, when the Panel submitted its report. The government was well aware of my identity, my perspectives, my philosophies and my general convictions, at least since my university days, before it nominated me into the panel, that I will always say things the way they are. All Panel members acted in good faith, independently and in the fear of God Almighty…It is therefore improper for Lagos State Government, through its lawyer that appeared before the Panel and other sponsored agents, to subject the report of the Panel and indeed the integrity of Panel members to media trials and attacks, all in the bid to build up the contents of its White Paper, which we can now reasonably foretell, from these sponsored media attacks…It is indeed uncharitable for the same government that urged the Panel not to be held down by strict rules of technicalities of law in order to unravel the real truth about the Lekki Toll Gate Incident, to now through its counsel, talk about alleged legal discrepancies, to frustrate the good work of the Panel that it set up…There are documents to back up and defend the report submitted to the Governor by the Panel but I have chosen to defer to His Excellency and to await the White Paper as promised because I believe that the Governor meant well in setting up the Panel and giving us free hand to operate. I appeal to His Excellency to continue in that note of sincerity…There is no minority report from the Panel as the report submitted to the Governor on November 15, 2021 was unanimously endorsed by all members of the Panel, who worked tirelessly, day and night, to serve the government and the people, even at great risks to their health, personal safety, career and family obligations and their general well-being…I’m very sure that Panel members would have been lionized to the highest heavens if we had bought into the narrative of the government before the Panel that it was criminals, cultists, hoodlums and unknown gunmen that operated at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020…’

He urged the government to focus on the recommendations in the report instead of “seeking to demonise panel members and their report or to evade responsibility”.
There is no reason to use any bombast to tell the amiable Governor of Lagos State Babajide Sanwo-Olu that he should not blow up the opportunity that the #EndSARS panel report 2021 has provided for him to enroll his name in a Hall of Fame. He should be advised by good people of Lagos state not to make any attempt to be an artful dodger in the name of that bait called political correctness.

He should note that he has known the truth through the panel he set up, funded and that truth is abundantly able to deliver him from damnation. How do I know that? Truth is generally believed to be the most powerful force on earth. As I have noted several times here, even if you succeed in keeping truth in a grave, it won’t stay there. Recall that the organic truth was kept in a grave for only three days: death could not lock Him down even in the grave.

Behold, some inconvenient truths have emerged from the grave and only the power of apologising I noted here the other day can set the influential Governor of Lagos State free. Nigeria’s president who the report indicates didn’t order deployment of the troops directly on 20/10/2020 said he would wait for the response of Governor Sanwo-Olu. This is not a time to trade blame.

It is a time to learn remarkable lessons on civil relevance and competence.
This is not a time to allow vanity and pride to take over from the power of strong conscience nurtured by truth. This is not a time to rely on the audacity of sophistry and legalism. This is a time to borrow some brilliance from that ancient preacher who taught the world to deconstruct time and season, and say: ‘there is a time for everything…’ Yes, Mr Governor, there is a time for politics.

There is a time for recourse to knowledge. There is also a time for request for wisdom from an open heaven, just to access ornament of grace – to know the truth. There is a time for oratory. There is a season for the oracle. This is not a time to talk about mechanical inaccuracies in a report that deconstructs another ‘tragedy of victory’. This should not be a time to count the magnitude and even the enormousness of inconsistencies in the letters of the #EndSARS panel report.

Can’t we borrow another brilliance from the master strategist of our time who rebuked some revenue consultants to accord more priority to weightier matters of the law instead of obsession with payment of tithes and offerings? The Governor of the economic capital of West Africa should note this: Lagos isn’t just one of the 36 states of the federation. It is just geographically located in Western Nigeria as its destiny is now being shaped by all Nigerians. That is why the place is congested. It is now a house on a hill that can’t be hidden. The business hub of the richest black man is in Lagos, our Lagos. It is like the way the ‘New York Times’ once described New York Vs Washington D.C: “New York makes the money that Washington spends”. There is therefore a sense in which one can claim that: ‘Lagos makes a significant part of the money that Abuja spends’. Hold your breadth, this is just to underscore a point that Lagos is actually Nigeria’s most significant state, unarguably, Nigeria’s economic capital the late Murtala Muhammmed wanted to legalise as ‘commercial and special capital’ in the 1979 constitution then in the works in 1976 before was killed by some ‘soldiers of fortune.

Here is the conclusion of the whole matter, handsome Sanwo-Olu, you have fought a good fight by setting up and funding the sitting of the strategic panel for a year. You have won the hearts of people and even the international community by receiving the two separate reports on the epic #EndSARS bloody protests. You should not allow the neo-merchants of crisis in your region to bamboozle your good self into demonising the panel members and the report, which smacks of a preface to another White Paper debacle.

Mr. Governor this is a defining moment when you need to build on the remarkable tone set by Anthony Blinken, the U.S Secretary of State who didn’t blink at all before noting that the submission of the report signifies what he called, ‘democracy in action’. Don’t allow any pundits and political consultants to lead you into temptation that would make you to blow this opportunity of a lifetime.

The demonisation nurtured by sophistry going on in the media on the letters of the report isn’t healthy. What of the power that is in the spirit of the report? What of the consequences of the ‘news’ in the report? News is what somebody, somewhere is trying to hide: the rest is advertising. Governor, don’t blow it. Don’t play politics with the power of truth, lest the consequences of the news (items being hidden) will continue to generate more follow-ups and investigations till eternity. Deal with all these undercurrents now with the power of that simple, magic word ‘I am sorry’. Let’s all absorb all the lessons of 20/10/2020 in the interest of humanity. Let’s not continue to celebrate impunity. Let’s respect truth before reconciliation. Truth is too sacred to be trampled upon before reconciliation and peace talks. May the God of all grace direct Governor Sanwo-Olu’s steps on this ‘penkelemesi’, sorry peculiar mess!

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AFP, the French wire service reported on November 18 that “Hundreds of Nigerian Boko Haram jihadists who are being held in a camp after surrendering to the military rioted on Wednesday to demand the right to slaughter cows for meat” in the Gidan Taki outskirts of Maiduguri.

The terrorist protesters were part of the 18,000 Boko Haram terrorists loyal to Abubakar Shekau who “surrendered” to the Nigerian military after Shekau killed himself in a battle with a rival terrorist faction now known as ISWAP.

A Gidan Taki resident by the name of Usman Bunu told the AFP, “They still consider anyone not in their fold as an infidel, which is why they want to be allowed to slaughter their cow themselves.”

On August 1, 2020, I wrote a column titled “De-radicalisation’ of Terrorists Doesn’t Work” where I warned about what is unfolding now. I have taken the liberty to republish it in hopes that people who make decisions about “reintegrating” terrorists to the communities they have devastated will pay heed.

The de-radicalisation, rehabilitation, and reintegration of so-called repentant Boko Haram terrorists have emerged as one of the centerpieces of the Buhari regime’s governance, which is not surprising given that Buhari had said in the past that government-sanctioned retaliatory aggression against Boko Haram terrorists was an attack on the North.

Every sober observer knows that deradicalising, rehabilitating, and reintegrating remorselessly bloodstained mass murderers into the very societies they drowned in oceans
of blood—especially without compensating and mollifying the people they displaced, widowed, and orphaned— is a singularly wooden-headed policy. But it helps, nonetheless, to look at evidence from research— and from the experiential data of societies that attempted to de-radicalise terrorists.

Since Nigeria isn’t the only country that grapples with the question of what to do with— and to—nabbed terrorists, what can we learn from other countries?

The UK has a programme that it calls “Desistance and Disengagement Programme,” which works to de-radicalise terrorists. The US state of Minnesota, which has a large number of Somali immigrants and a fair amount of domestic terrorism, also has a “Terrorism Disengagement and Deradicalisation Programme” designed to jolt terrorists back from the precipice of fatal extremism. So do many countries in Europe and Asia.

The data from the UK is mixed, but it nevertheless provides a cautionary tale for Nigeria. For example, three past beneficiaries of the country’s “Desistance and Disengagement Programme” went on to murder 24 people between 2017 and 2019 in the aftermath of their “deradicalisation.” Other countries have similar experiences.

Deradicalisation of terrorists is not always a failure, of course. According to the Business Insider, “Between 2001-2012, Malaysia put 154 extremists through deradicalisation schemes. Of those, 148 had ‘successfully completed the de-radicalisation programme and were released, without later re-offending,’ the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR) wrote in a 2012 paper.”

However, an emerging consensus is that because terrorists are often animated by a single-minded, tunnel vision of society, it is often impossible to be certain that a deradicalisation programme can reverse their predilection for violence. A 2019 research by the European Union’s Radicalisation Awareness Network, for instance, concluded that, “Even after the very best of prevention efforts, some individuals still go on to become (violent) extremists.”

The Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST) also said there is “limited evidence about what supports positive change, which makes it difficult to determine if an intervention’s approach is likely to be successful.”

Similarly, the UK’s Christopher Dean, a psychologist who created a deradicalisation programme called the Healthy Identity Intervention (HII), admitted that it’s difficult to be certain that a terrorist has been completely deradicalised. “People can get more reassured and confident about change and progress that people are making, but I think we have to be very careful about saying someone has totally changed or has been cured,” the Independent of the UK quoted him as saying.

I don’t know how Nigeria’s Boko Haram terrorists are being deradicalised and rehabilitated—and I hope someone will systematically study this—but the result of their work stares us in the face. Many of the so-called deradicalised and reintegrated Boko Haram terrorists actually only reintegrate to their former terror cells from where they murder soldiers and civilians alike.

On July 26, for example, a soldier fighting Boko Haram in Borno sent the following social media message that tugged at my heart strings: “Good evening sir. I’m presently in Monguno. I’ve been wanting to hint you on the recent happenings. During the last two attacks June and July (in Monguno), some of the so called rehabilitated Boko Haram guys-Non State Armed Groups (NSAG) joined their former colleagues in attacking the community and ran back to the BUSH with them. This is to say that the whole rehabitation [sic] narrative is a sham.”

Ali Ndume, who represents Borno South in the Senate, told ChannelsTV on July 30 that a recently “de-radicalised,” “rehabilitated,” and “reintegrated” Boko Haram terrorist murdered his father, stole his father’s cows, and vanished.

“Some of them that returned to Damboa, after two, three days, they disappeared,” he said. “I learnt reliably that even in the course of de-radicalisation, they said they are not willing to come to live with the infidels. This programme really needs to be looked into immediately. I am gathering information and position of my people and even go legal.”

Ndume’s observation has support in research. A German researcher by the name of Daniel Koehler who studied German neo-Nazis and terrorists inspired by religion found that, “The solitary problem for these individuals is always that there’s a global conspiracy against their race or religion; the solitary solution to such persecution is violence, with the goal of placing themselves and their group in control of a revamped society.”

They are not persuaded by moral or theological arguments, he said. He makes the case for “the careful reintroduction of problems and solutions into a radicalised person’s life, so that they can no longer devote all their mental energy to stewing over their paranoia.”

I doubt that the people who are tasked with the responsibility to “deradicalise” Boko Haram terrorists in Nigeria—if there are any, that is— have the intellectual resources to do what the German researcher suggested. How do the Boko Haram “deradicalisers” determine that “deradicalised” Boko Haram terrorists have “repented” and are ready to be unleashed to the societies they terrorised before their capture since even people who research the deradicalisation of terrorists say no one can be certain that “deradicalised” terrorists won’t relapse to their old ways?

Plus, people in the communities that the Nigerian government is reintegrating Boko Haram terrorists to don’t want these washed-up terrorists in their midst. Don’t the people’s opinions and preferences matter? TheCable of July 24 reported Borno residents to have told the government to integrate the terrorists back “to govt house or Aso Rock” instead of their communities.

The anger of the communities is understandable. While government is “reintegrating” terrorists, it is disintegrating the victims of the terrorists. While villainous Boko Haram terrorists are pampered, the surviving victims of Boko Haram’s murderous barbarism endure precarious existence in filthy, dangerous Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps. It’s like they are being punished by the government for being victims of terrorists’ brutalities.

While Boko Haram terrorists are being treated with excessive indulgence, their victims in IDP camps are serially raped—both figuratively and literally. Babachir David Lawal stole millions from them, and he is still walking free. Umar Farouq Sadiya stole date palms (worth millions of naira) donated to them by Saudi Arabia. She has been rewarded with appointment as minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.

The cruel irony!

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), women in IDP camps in the Northeast “resort to transactional sex for survival.” Because of the unsanitary conditions of the IDPs, there are periodic outbreaks of cholera that kill scores of people. Plus, even in their state of helplessness, they are still subject to episodic Boko Haram murders.

When a Nigerian Airforce jet bombed an IDP camp in Rann, Borno State, on 17 January 2017 in error, which caused the death of at least 115 people, Buhari didn’t find it worth his while to console them, much less visit them.

About three months later, on 22 March 2017, Boko Haram bombed another IDP camp in the Muna Garage area of Maiduguri. Again, there was insouciant silence from the same government that is bending over backwards to please Boko Haram terrorists.

Obviously, the Buhari regime rewards and celebrates homicidal outlaws. Its message to Nigerians is unmistakably this: if they want to be taken seriously and indulged by government, they should be organised, vicious mass murderers.

As the sun was casting long shadows on the ground one Saturday in April of 2018, a 21-year-old Nigerian named Kenneth but mostly known as Dagba Junior headed out with his friends for a weekend hangout. After horsing around for a while, the crew ended up lounging in a local pub at Ikorodu, a Lagos suburb. As the night wore on, they ate, drank and gyrated to Afrobeats but at some point, Ken decided to treat himself to a little extra. He went for this new craze in town called gutter water, a dangerous cocktail of drugs including codeine, tramadol, rohypnol, cannabis and juice which young Africans now use to get high on the cheap. Next thing you know, the young man went into an uncontrolled seizure, foaming in his mouth. He was rushed to a nearby hospital where minutes later, he was pronounced dead. His friends from school described Kenneth as a jolly good fellow with big dreams.

Kenneth’s story is one that has become all too common in most of Nigeria’s major cities, though grossly under-reported. In fact, it could be heard across the whole continent of Africa where a generation of poor, unemployed and under-employed youths have taken to illicit drugs as an escape from poverty.

According to a 2018 survey commissioned by Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Centre for Research and Information on Substance Abuse with technical support from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), one in every seven persons in Nigeria, aged 15–64, had used a drug in the past year, many of whom suffered drug-related disorders. The highest level of drug use was recorded among people aged between 25 and 39. Kano, Nigeria’s second largest city, records the highest number of people with history of drug use and the most amount of people arrested for illicit drug trafficking. Thirty-seven percent of that city’s population, according to one official figure released by NDLEA use drugs.

The ancient kingdom was once a bustling commercial hub, known for its leather and cotton goods that for centuries attracted merchants from across the Sahara to North Africa and Europe. Kano was also reputed to be one of the largest industrial centres in Nigeria, second only to Lagos. Following the introduction of Sharia in the year 2000 many non-Muslims and traders left the city. The problem was compounded by Boko Haram insurgency and after a series of coordinated bomb blasts and shooting that killed about 178 people in January 2012, many fled the city and so did businesses, leaving many young people with no job and plenty of free time. Many streets in a once bustling area of the city are now gradually being replaced by dusty alleys filled with kids doing cocktails of recreational drugs.

In this new race to the bottom, the South-East promises not to be outdone. There is a frightening drug phenomenon sweeping across the South-East and making zombies out of young people. The culprit drug is locally called “mkpulummili” which is a brand of crystal methamphetamine. A recent video making the round showed a teenage boy under the influence, tenaciously grabbing on the breast of a female manikin, in a lewd act.

In June 2015, the Special Enforcement Team (SET) of Nigeria’s NDLEA busted a drug trafficking ring led by one Sylvester Ikejiakwu aka Blessed. He was accused of running methamphetamine production facilities in Ozubulu, Ekwusigo LGA of Anambra State. Mr. Ikejiakwu, the Group Managing Director of Blessed Group of Companies, allegedly hides under the cover of motorcycle spare parts business while running a drug cell that has international affiliation.

The rest of Africa is not spared of the illicit drug epidemic. Methamphetamine is also popular in South Africa where in the streets of Cape Town, it goes by the name of “Tik”. In Kenya, one study found that many street children were addicted to sniffing glue. In all, there is a rich assortment that goes from Tramadol and Codeine to everything from cobwebs, lizard poop, petrol fumes and rat poison.

Being a medical practitioner who has witnessed the devastating effect of illicit drug use in America’s inner cities and treated my fair share of addicts, I have often dreaded that this day will come in my homeland. Drug abuse has torn families apart, churned out thousands of child victims and utterly decimated an entire generation of people, young and old. A drug infested population is a hotbed for violent criminal behaviours and, according to Brig. General Buba Marwa, chairman of the NDLEA, there is a nexus between recreational drug use and terrorism, insurgency, kidnapping, banditry. It’s frightening to contemplate Africa’s future in the face of illicit drug epidemic given that rich nations of the western world continue to grapple with and are ravaged by it, despite the enormous resources at their disposal.

Many reasons have been given for the increasing incidence of drug use in Nigeria. Aside from socio-economic factors that breed vulnerable population, there is also a big problem from the supply side of things. Cheap synthetic opioids manufactured in China and India have been making way into the African market. Added to this, is the alleged duplicity on the part of Nigeria’s big pharmaceutical companies in the thriving black market for illicit drugs. That may be part of the reason why at some point the Nigerian government banned codeine which is often found in cough syrups.

Interventions should as a matter of priority target the unconscionable and ruthless death merchants who produce or distribute these killer drugs. It is crucial to focus more on preemptive rather than reactionary measures and the approach needs to be multi-faceted, coordinating with all stakeholders including the government, faith organizations and community leaders. Preventive measures need to target the youths and other vulnerable population such as students, commercial sex workers. Of course, Good governance creates gainful employment opportunities to a teeming youth population and helps to distract them from seeking drugs to drown misery.

A holistic approach to the problem would also involve the establishment of drug rehabilitation programs. At one point, Kano pioneered a model where drug abusers were institutionalized and made to undergo sixty days of rehabilitation that encompasses detoxification, counselling and skills acquisition that will help the victims navigate life thereafter. Torturing addicts, arresting and throwing them in jail while leaving the drug barons to enjoy their I’ll-gotten wealth, may not help in the long run but rather, produce repeat offenders who will come back to harm the society. The best way to down a tree is not by cutting off its branches which will regrow sooner than later. The roots need to come off.

Few years ago, a man from South Florida named James West was caught on video trying to break down the door to the Fort Lauderdale Police Headquarters. Tracy Figone, the police detective who watched the incident stated that “His power was so forceful that, when he pulled, you could see the doors shaking, and him throwing the rocks that cracked the impact windows,”. Upon investigation, he was found to be on a street drug named flakker. Since then, many of such incident have been reported including another man who ran through the street screaming that he was a god before committing a sexual act on a tree.

Aside from causing agitation, convulsion, delusion, victims of flakka manifest with superhuman strength marked by violent outbursts. One researcher reported that “it gives users what feels like the strength and fury of the Incredible Hulk”. They look like reanimated dead bodies; hence it’s colloquially called the zombie drug. Mkpurumiri as it turns out, is our own flakka.

Nigeria is currently at its lowest ebb as a nation with a near complete economic collapse, total breakdown of law and order, widespread banditry and terrorism. With purposeful leadership, a renewed sense of shared commitment, however, there is still a modicum of chance that Africa’s most populous nation may be able to pull back from the precipice. But it’s doubtful that any nation could survive a zombie apocalypse. 

•Dr. Agbo, a public affairs analyst is the coordinator of African Centre for Transparency and Convener of Save Nigeria Project. Email: [email protected]

“When the army announced last week that beginning Tuesday it would commence ‘Operation Crocodile Smile’—not against Boko Haram insurgents in the North-east but rather across the country “to identify, track, and counter negative propaganda in the social media and across cyberspace”—it was obvious to discerning Nigerians that EndSARS protesters were their target. It was also clear that the intervention would not end well. Crocodiles don’t smile. When the big reptile opens its mouth, it is not a friendly gesture; it is to kill and destroy. And that was exactly what happened at the Lekki-Epe toll gate in Lagos on Tuesday night following what appeared to be a well-orchestrated attack under the cover of darkness. The exact number of lives lost in that tragic incident as well as in other cities (where criminals have hijacked the civil protests) in the past one week remain a matter of speculation. But no one will dispute the fact that what we are now experiencing is a national calamity. The irony to the Lekki tragedy is that you can be shot by soldiers while protesting extra-judicial killings by the police!”—From EndSARS to Bloodbath, 22 October 2020

“That a blood-stained flag is being used to symbolize what happened at Lekki tollgate on the night of 20th October 2020 is a sad commentary on our country. The story behind it is that when soldiers arrived at the scene, protesters took a knee, waved the Nigerian Flag, and began singing the National Anthem. The shots that reportedly followed stained the flag. In these days of alternative facts, nobody can be sure that exactly was what happened. But it really doesn’t matter. To feel safe and secure in your own country is a basic right. The EndSARS protests resulted from the denial of those rights by agents of state. To be shot by soldiers (with or without a flag) while protesting is a stain on the conscience of any nation.” —Lekki and the Bloodstained Flag, 29 October 2020

In the wee hours of Wednesday, 21 October 2020, according to the Judicial Panel of Inquiry set up by the Lagos State Government to probe the EndSARS protest, “three trucks with brushes underneath were brought to the Lekki Toll Gate… to clean up the scene of bloodstains and other evidence.” It was a futile exercise. Blood is a peculiar (some would say spiritual) fluid that often exacts revenge. Particularly when spilled unjustly. That is perhaps the only way to explain why it would take a panel set up by government to return a verdict that indicts authorities and vindicates the claim by the protesters as to what transpired that fateful night.

We must commend the Lagos panel for staying the course. Two reports were submitted, one regarding police brutality cases and the other, findings on the investigation into the shooting incident at Lekki tollgate. The challenge now is for the Lagos State government to conclude the process to allow justice to be served for the victims and culprits. Chaired by Doris Okuwobi, a retired Judge of the Lagos State High Court, with Babajide Boye as Secretary, panel members include Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN, Taiwo Lakanu, a retired Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Patience Patrick-Udoh, ‘Segun Awosanya, Oluwatoyin Odusanya, Lucas Koyejo and Majekodunmi Oluwaseun. In all, 48 victims were identified by the panel. Eleven were confirmed dead, four said to be missing but presumed dead while 24 sustained gunshot injuries.

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has constituted a White Paper committee and we await their conclusion on the shooting incident and several far-reaching recommendations made by the panel on extra-judicial killings and torture by the police. But the greater burden lies with the federal government. In the wake of the tragedy, a number of officials were fixated as to whether any shooting even occurred. That unfortunate debate has now been laid to rest. But as I also stated last year, even before the panel counted the body bags, the scars inflicted in the hearts of many of our young people will be lasting. This is a tragedy that goes even deeper than scars inflicted by bullets. And it is something we must deal with.

When in April this year an American police officer, Derek Chauvin was convicted for the murder of George Floyd, President Joe Biden described it as a ‘too rare’ step to deliver “basic accountability” for Black Americans who had for decades endured police brutality. “It was a murder in full light of day, and it ripped the blinders off for the whole world to see,” said Biden in a national broadcast. “This can be a giant step forward in the march toward justice in America.”

There is a lesson the authorities in Nigeria can take from that tragic incident which also sparked national outrage, and this can be the moment. Aside from taking responsibility, the message Biden sent out was that a law enforcement badge should not insulate anybody from the repercussions of naked abuse of power that cheapens human life. The only culture permissible in a democracy is one that respects the freedom and rights of the citizenry. What we have been dealing with over the years is a tradition of abuse by agents of state that encouraged the excesses of the now-disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) whose personnel resembled licensed thugs. It was the resistance of our young people to that culture of abuse that led us to where we are.

It is sad that our collective psyche has become so numb that sanctity of life does not seem to mean much any longer in Nigeria. To change that narrative, we must not accept cover-ups or half measures in dealing with these reports. Those found culpable for the shooting by soldiers at Lekki tollgate as well as human rights violations by the police should be apprehended, prosecuted, and made to face the full weight of the law. That is the only way to appease the memory of the victims and their surviving relations and to reassure Nigerians that this is a new day.

Islam, Christianity, and Yorubaland

The claim by a young engineer, Sikiru Adebowale, that he was denied a job by the late promoter of the collapsed 21-storey building at Ikoyi, Femi Osibona on account of being a Muslim, has been weaponised by the Muslim Rights Council (MURIC) Director, Prof Ishaq Akintola. To him, it is evidence of “the sufferings of Yoruba Muslims under their overbearing and selfish Christian overlords who want all political offices, all civil service vacancies, all teaching jobs, all construction works, etc. for Christians and Christians alone.” Taking a cue from MURIC, other commentators have joined to denigrate the Yoruba people on what they consider religious intolerance, based on a false construct.

Yoruba people have never claimed exceptionalism when it comes to religious tolerance. Although I find the 2013 journal article, ‘The management of religious diversity in West Africa: The exceptionalism of the Wolof and Yoruba in the post-independence period’ by Dr Irene Osemeka of the University of Lagos, quite fascinating. The dominant view, which is true, is that in Yorubaland, religion is not a predisposing factor when it comes to politics, business, or social interactions because there is hardly any family without adherents of both faiths. For instance, there is still a generation in my village who would not know me until somebody reminds them that I am ‘omo Muni’ (Munirat’s son) because that is my late mother’s birth name as a Muslim before she became Felicia after marrying my father.

Although Osibona is no longer here to defend himself, I do not doubt the ‘testimony’ of Adebowale on the rejection that saved him from death in the collapsed building. But context is also important. It is possible that as at the time the interaction took place, Osibona might be playing to an audience, especially since Adebowale did not disclose the people who witnessed the drama. But I am sure of one thing. On that same day that Adebowale was denied the job, if Alhaji Femi Okunnu (or Osibona’s friend, the Oluwo of Iwo) had sent two engineers who were Muslims, they probably would have been employed, even if it meant sacking some Christians to accommodate them! That is the way our elites work.

This is not to say there is no tension or competition between Muslims and Christians in Yorubaland. There are buried issues which explain the manner Adebowale was quickly absorbed by another company promoted by a Muslim. In recent years, there has been a controversy around the wearing of Hijab and some Islamic leaders have complained about Muslims being marginalised in terms of appointments in a particular Southwest state. I am also aware of the damage that might have been done to the psyche of Muslims who attended Christian Mission schools many decades ago and were conscripted into practices they considered alien to their own faith. These are issues that we should not gloss over and we can have meaningful conversations around them to facilitate better accommodation in Yorubaland.

However, as Simon Kolawole rightly pointed out in his last Sunday column, ‘Yoruba Muslims and Fifth Columnists’, until the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) campaigned for a ‘Christian’ to succeed Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN in Lagos in 2015, the politics of religion was largely muffled. Simon cited several examples to buttress the spirit of accommodation that have for decades defined political interactions in Yorubaland, including the emergence in 1999 of a certain Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the candidate of the Alliance for Democracy (AD). Although Simon concluded quite correctly that the Afenifere leaders who were predominantly Christians supported Tinubu, a Muslim, against Funsho Williams, a Christian, there is an important detail he missed. Five persons decided that outcome and by implication the governorship of Lagos in 1999. They were Abraham Adesanya, Solanke Onasanya, Olanihun Ajayi, Ganiyu Olawale Dawodu (all now of blessed memory) and Ayo Adebanjo. As it would happen, Dawodu, the only Muslim among them, was the one who backed Williams while the ‘Ijebu Mafia’ quartet (all Christians) supported Tinubu!

I do not mind a healthy debate on the place of religion in Yorubaland and it is an issue that many scholars have interrogated. One of Nigeria’s foremost historians, the late Professor Isaac Akinjogbin, once argued that religion never defined Yoruba ethnic identity and inter-personal relationships essentially because there is no family tree that is purely Christian or Muslim. In his 2015 Nigeria National Order of Merit (NNOM) lecture, ‘Bonds, Boundaries, and Bondage of Faith’, Harvard Professor, Jacob Olupona explored what he described as apparent contradiction in the Nigerian faith traditions, using the Yoruba worldview to explain his thesis.

Son of an Anglican priest, Olupona told a story that only Yoruba people can relate with. “In the early 1960s in my father’s church, the entire local community rejoiced and celebrated when the first Imam made the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca), because it was considered an honour to have the first ‘Alhaji’ in their community. The Imam’s extended family, mainly Christians, wanted to have a thanksgiving service in the Anglican church in celebration of this community honour. While this may seem incongruous to modern Nigerian sensibilities, this culturally pluralistic community—and indeed this was the case in many other locales in Yorubaland—saw the various religious systems as alternative traditions, to the extent that a devotee of one felt free to consult another. The traditions engaged each other in meaningful, intellectual conversation and practical exchange, underscoring the cultural capital they represent for us.”

When Olupona and I spoke on phone yesterday and I told him what I was writing on, he said he had followed the debate but does not think it merits the attention many people give it. “I would have been very worried if some of what I read were coming from highly respected Yoruba Muslim scholars like Prof Ishaq Oloyede, Deremi Abubakar or Amidu Sani. That would have disturbed me greatly. I am not worried about MURIC.”

But I am worried about MURIC. Prof. Akintola presents himself as the voice of Islam in Yorubaland, at least within the public/intellectual space. It cannot be an accident that we only began to hear of him after the death of the former Secretary General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Dr AbdulLateef Oladimeji Adegbite. If that is the vacuum Akintola wants to fill, then he needs to be more broad-minded. The legacy of the Seriki Musulumi and Baba Adini of Egbaland was a lifetime of promoting peace and harmony in Yorubaland and across Nigeria while standing for his faith. When Adegbite died in October 2012, I dedicated my column to him.

As I wrote in that piece, even when he had no hesitancy in proclaiming his Islamic faith for which he had no apology, Adegbite was not a man who would engage in loud professions of superior righteousness. “But he earned the respect of many, including Christians like me, because he was honest, honourable and respected the rights of other people. This is being attested to by those who served with him in the inter religious council. The late Secretary General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs was a man of strong convictions. Yet he did not make merchandise of his religion, and his public interventions were usually devoid of the hypocrisy so commonly resorted to by many charlatans who play the politics of religion to command attention in our country.”

That piece, (https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2012/10/04/abdullateef-oladimeji-adegbite-1933-2012/) will serve Prof Akintola and others who think like him in Yorubaland—whether they profess Christianity or Islam.

Adieu Sani Dangote

About 5am yesterday, I arrived Kano International Airport from Abuja with my chairman, Nduka Obaigbena, former Cross River State Governor, Donald Duke and president of the King’s College (Lagos) Old Boys’ Association, Kashim Ibrahim-Imam, to join several others, awaiting the arrival from Miami, Florida, of Alhaji Aliko Dangote, who was performing a most painful chore: bringing for burial the remains of his younger brother, Sani. At 6.35am, three planes touched down, one of them carrying Ahaji Aliko, their mother, Hajiya Mariya, the widow, Aisha, as well as the eldest son of the deceased, Mohammed, among several other family members. The moment Dangote saw a close friend sobbing at the foot of the aircraft as he alighted, he also could not hold his emotions.

Highly cerebral, Alhaji Sani was a man of ideas who enjoyed healthy debates on issues. He brought that intellect to bear at his brother’s company where he was Group Vice President until his death. Although I didn’t relate as closely with him as I do with his elder brother, I found him very friendly, and I have heard many speak of his uncommon kindness and blunt disposition. That much was evident from the number of personalities that congregated in Kano yesterday. Buried at the family’s historical Sarari Graveyard after prayers both at his residence and at the palace of the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Sani has played his part and now with his maker. May God comfort his family and grant him Aljannah Firdaus.
• You can follow me on my Twitter handle, @Olusegunverdict and on www.olusegunadeniyi.com

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

“On Thursday, November 19, 2020, Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, addressed a press conference in Abuja to debunk the damning report of the Cable News Network (CNN) on the brutal assault against #EndSARS protesters by the military at the Lekki tollgate on October 20, 2020.

“Nigerian youths who were protesting against the brutality of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a police unit established to combat armed robbery, but which went rogue and became synonymous with unlawful killings, torture and extortion of innocent citizens, were massacred by security agents.

“CNN alleged in the report titled, “They pointed their guns at us and started shooting: How a bloody night of bullets and brutality quashed a young protest movement,” that peaceful #EndSARS protesters were massacred at the tollgate plaza by Nigerian soldiers who were drafted by the government to quell the protest.   

“Lai Mohammed was in his element. It is not for nothing that he has been dubbed the “Joseph Goebbels” of the Muhammadu Buhari regime. But what people fail to realise is that if Goebbels, the minister of propaganda for the German Third Reich under Adolf Hitler, was alive today, he would have been Lai’s student in the inelegant art of disinformation.

“I dare say that even with the meticulous #EndSARS report produced by the Justice Okuwobi panel, Nigerian rulers will continue to be brutal and animalistic in their dealings with fellow citizens unless the people draw a line in the sand.”