Inside Stuff With MARTINS OLOJA

Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Governor of Kano state who seems to be brushing aside that retrogressive weapon called political correctness to be a significant bridge builder between the North and the South appears to have realised too that he needs to be a peacemaker at home at this time.

The two business giants (who hail from Kano) Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Chairman of Dangote Group, Africa’s richest man and Alhaji Abdussamad Isyaka Rabi’u, Chairman of BUA Group, have been fighting ‘a good fight’ over some business-related matters in the South. It is noteworthy that the two tycoons bowed to the initiative of their resourceful governor who brokered peace between them last week at the Governor’s Lodge in Abuja where they vowed to work together “for the growth and development of the country”.

The businessmen have been in the news over a rift on control of sugar production in the country. Both parties had dismissed the allegation that Dangote was planning to see to the increase of sugar price, through pressurising BUA to succumb to the increment.

‘Origin of the conflict’

In the statement on the resolution of the conflcit, the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Abba Anwar, said the reconciliation meeting took place on Wednesday in Abuja. Anwar said the meeting was held to end claims that the duo was at loggerheads over the control of sugar business in the country. According to the report, after the meeting, the leaders of the two companies agreed to work together to supply enough sugar to the country. “They all dismissed allegations that Dangote was planning to see the increase of sugar price, thereby pressurising BUA to succumb to the increment. They described the allegation as baseless and lacking any iota of truth. The meeting was seen as the zenith of other similar efforts to reconcile the two giants by the governor. Alhaji Aminu Alhassan Dantata played the role of a father during the meeting,” the statement added. The meeting was also attended by some prominent Kano indigenes, including Alhaji Aminu Alhassan Dantata; a representative of the Emir of Kano and Sarkin Dawaki Babba, Alhaji Aminu Babba Dan Agundi; Chairman of Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA), Mr. Adamu Fanda; Chairman Kano State Council of Jumaat Mosque Imams and the Imam of Ahmadu Tijjani Mosque, Kofar Mata, Sheikh Nasir Adam, and the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Niyi Adebayo. In their separate remarks, Ganduje and Dantata admonished the two businessmen on the danger the economy may face if they allow the misunderstanding between them to grow.
In their response, the two business moguls promised to avoid anything capable of creating misunderstanding between them.

We need to understand that the conflict between the two prominent businessmen from Kano isn’t new, after all. Even Reuters, an international news agency was among reporters of the grudge in 2017 when BUA Group asked President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene in a Dangote mining feud.
Then it was reported that Nigerian conglomerate BUA group had accused Dangote group of trying to force it to relinquish mining rights in a limestone field as part of a bid to monopolise the cement market and asked the president to intervene, according to a letter BUA’s chairman authorised.
Both BUA and Dangote have an interest in cement in Nigeria and have expanded rapidly across Africa. Nigeria, which has Africa’s biggest economy, has become a cement exporter from being a net importer. But the 2016 recession and currency crisis had hit domestic demand, reducing sales for companies, which were then trying to cut costs.

BUA’s chairman, Abdulsamad Rabiu, said Dangote group was undermining security around his plant in south-south Edo state, a region with limestone, a key ingredient in cement. Dangote’s cement operation is in the central state of Kogi. A Dangote group spokesman then referred news media to the Mines ministry statement and said he did not wish to comment further on the issue. The Mines ministry said BUA group did not have a mining lease for the disputed site, which is the subject of a legal case. The ministry, in a statement, also said it had issued a stop work order to BUA. It said the area was within a section owned by Dangote.
“Our cement business has of late come under intense, consistent attacks … as the minister, Dangote group and their cohorts have sought to employ instruments of state … to forcefully wrest control of our mining areas,” BUA said in a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari. Rabiu called on Buhari to investigate. He said the company was under pressure to relinquish its mining area to Dangote. Dangote group, majority owned by Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote, already has around 70 per cent of market share in terms of output in Nigeria. Lafarge Africa, the local unit of Franco-Swiss cement maker, LafargeHolcim ranks second, industry analysts said then.

Last week, (specifically, on April 8, 2021), before the peace mission in Abuja, there again emerged another crisis, between Dangote, Bua groups, this time it was not over cement, it was a dispute over who controls the sugar market in Africa’s biggest economy. While Dangote accused his competitor of attempting to appropriate undue advantage, Rabiu said Dangote wanted to monopolise the market and manipulate prices. Dangote denied the price-fixing allegation in a statement on April 9.
But documents obtained on the dispute have thrown some light on the accusations and counter-accusations by the two sides, and the government’s role in the feud. In January this year, Dangote Sugar Plc, supported by Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc, accused rival BUA International Limited of skirting the backward integration policy of the National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) by setting up a sugar refinery in Port Harcourt. Backward integration is simply a business model in which a firm expands into its supply chain rather than buy raw materials elsewhere. As an example, instead of buying maize from external suppliers like farmers, a company producing infant food may choose to invest and own maize farms and supply itself. This often helps in reducing cost. There is also forward integration, in which a company buys its own products for other purposes.

In the sugar business context, the Nigerian government through the regulator, NSDC, has mandated sugar companies not to build refineries and process imported sugar extract, but invest in developing the supply side — namely, sugar cane plantations. This is expected to reduce Nigeria’s import-dependence, stimulate the economy, create jobs and support the Naira.
While that is being developed to meet the country’s demand volume, the NSDC allocates quotas of sugar extract firms can bring into the country based on its backward integration investment size. Dangote Sugar Plc, supported by Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc, two of Nigeria largest sugar makers, argues that BUA has not met the backward integration requirement of the government to set up a new refinery, which they believe would confer an advantage on the firm. The government had in 2019 assured that no new sugar refinery would be allowed for now, they said.
In a joint letter to the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Niyi Adebayo, Mr Dangote and John Coumantaros, respectively chairs of Dangote Sugar and Flour Mills of Nigeria, argued that BUA’s new refinery in Port Harcourt could stand-in the way of “the attainment of the National Sugar Master Plan (NSMP) and the sustainability of Nigeria’s local sugar industry.”
The migration of the ‘good fight’ from cement to sugar was the point at which the peace maker, Governor Ganduje stepped in last week and the rest they say is history. ‘Blessed are the peace makers…’, I believe.

Doubtless, we need more Gandujes at this time to work for reconciliation, lest we will shout ourselves into trouble again as we did from 1964 to 1966 when we lost federalism and self-governance to ‘soldiers of fortune’. Now we are shouting for restoration of federalism from the creators of the ‘Federal Republic of the Nigerian Army” we have been running. There are so many irreconcilable differences in all parts of the country that require wisdom and presence of our elders without making noise. This country needs quiet operators like Ganduje who would not want to throw away the babies and the bathwaters all over the place. There have been too many broken walls we need Nehemiahs at all levels to rebuild, lest we will be too divided to develop the country together. We need the Nehemiahs who will weep over the debris, the swamp we have stepped into because of incompetence and corruption of our leaders at all levels. This should not be read as a campaign weapon for Ganduje. It is not, as conspiracy theorists always conclude these days. Let’s just give him the credit that he deserves as a peacemaker at this time. You don’t have to be president or governor to be significant in your country. You may need to be political leaders to be prominent but you don’t have to be elected as a president or vice president to be significant as a citizen.

You don’t have to be a minister or a group chief executive of an oil corporation to be significant. You may need such positions just to be prominent. But as Rick Warren, that purpose-driven cleric and author I have repeatedly quoted here teaches, not all prominent people are significant, after all. According to the author of ‘The Purpose-Driven Life’, you can be prominent without being significant because not all prominent people in this world are significant. In the same vein, you can be significant without being prominent but God the almighty, our creator is daily waiting for significant people to remake the world and prepare people for his kingdom. So, those ‘crisis entrepreneurs’ who would like to seek gains from the national insecurity our country is facing, so that they can be prominent enough to seek leadership positions in the country should note that they will not be regarded as significant in the country. We will point out the place of notoriety in their prominence and so they will surely get their reward sooner than later here on earth. We can’t continue to be potential leader of the black race as the federation with a complex diversity is slipping away from us, no thanks to incompetence everywhere we go now. Here is the thing, we need authentic reconcilers, for instance who will reconcile the ‘aggrieved’ and seemingly ‘unforgiving’ Fulani boys who have taken to the forests to be bandits. Professor Yusuf Usman, not an ignorant Fulani brand ambassador, told us at a webinar on banditry and kidnapping last week Thursday that the Fulani nation is desperately fighting some injustice done to them, although another contributor told him that the Fulani should not think they have “monopoly of grievances”. We need reconcilers and peacemakers like Ganduje, anyway so that we can find peaceful settings to do business of developing our country.

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I was visiting a senior over the weekend when our conversation devolved into the soul of the Nigerian banter: how is the country going, I asked?

He paused. After a moment of reflection, he took a deep breath and said, “There is tension.”

I thought that was obvious and required no special gift to see. The tension sucks. There is tension between those in government and those who are not. Even among those in government, there is tension between the cabal and the fringe players. Tension between those who think policies ought not to be governed by fear and those who think government by fear modelling is the only way.

Tension between those in one section of the country who feel hard done by and excluded, and those who think the other section is crying wolf where there is none.

Tension between those in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). And even within the parties there is tension between the natives and the migrants, between those who hold the purse strings and those making noise and spending the money.

There is tension between farmers and herdsmen; tension between communities where fault-lines have surfaced and those where deep-seated resentments have washed up.

There is even tension between fintech companies and banks; between service providers and users; and between employers and labour unions. Tensions motivated by religion, weaponisation of political appointments, and so on.

Tension is the mother of motion. So, what’s the problem?

He repeated that there is “serious tension” in the country and, this time, his words carried a strangeness and urgency that caught my attention.

The senior explained that the tension he was referring to, was not in any of the categories I had in mind. It had little or nothing to do with ethnicity, partisan politics or position in government. It was a more insidious, more dangerous and potentially malignant kind of tension, one which had not only come to define our existence in recent times, but which threatens to consume us.

It’s potentially destructive tension.

I was all ears. And then he continued. In Nigeria today, there are broadly two classes – those between the ages of 25 – 45 (the #ENSARS generation); and those above, say between 50 and 65, the new population on the threshold of the geriatric ladder.

Back in the day, he said, by the time our fathers reached the age of 45 or 50, they would already be looking old and grey. There were a few exceptions, of course. The point was that the vast majority of 45-and-above lived relatively short, perilous and laborious lives, with very little of the benefits of modern medicine, science and technology that we currently enjoy.

By the time they reached middle age, the senior said, our fathers looked really advanced in age; some, in fact, like the great-grandfathers of today. A good number of them coveted the security of the civil service or other pension-paying jobs. They retired quite early and were happy to enjoy their retirement drawing on their pension, which never failed.

If there was tension at that time, the senior said, it was a different kind of tension, comprising mostly ribaldry over politicians and their shenanigans, community disputes and whether or not their children would have a better future. Life was, well, good.

He paused. And with a countenance that seemed overcome by a sudden flush of misery, he continued. Today, when you ask, “How is the country?”, the answer is different. It’s different because the tensions have changed quite dramatically. Those between the ages of 25 and 45 are pitched in a deadly oedipal war against those between the ages of say, 50 to 65.

This, he said, was what he meant. Today’s young people, those in that first age bracket – derisively called the #ENDSARers – are a different breed. Millions of them have the best education abroad, while those who went to school at home are making the most of technology to improve themselves and their place in society.

They are wiser, more adventurous, more independent and determined. They are increasingly impatient with excuses for why Nigeria is being so badly and catastrophically run. For them, for example, the country’s predicament and the incompetence of the old guard are summarised by Jack Dorsey’s decision to set up Twitter’s Africa headquarters in Ghana instead of Nigeria whose 25million Twitterratti nearly equals Ghana’s population.

Their confidence in the system is so broken, so badly damaged that for days during the #ENSARS protest, for example, they refused to appoint leaders, because for them, “leader” has become a byword for corruption, incompetence and retrogression.

The young, today’s young, want a place at the table and they want it now. Some think it’s driven more by entitlement rather than by preparation or performance. Or perhaps by that feeling in every generation that its burden is the heaviest. Whatever it is, the senior said, #ENDSARS 2.0 is only a matter of time.

On the other side of the barricade are those who are between the ages of 50 and 65 mostly living longer, healthier lives. That should be good news for the younger generation that their parents are living healthier, longer lives, but it’s not.

Ask rhythm and blues icon, Brian McKnight, who made a video about one year ago entitled, “Ungrateful children”, in which he accused one of his children of saying, “Dad is better dead.” But dad isn’t going yet. Science, medicine and technology have led to longevity. As lives have lengthened, however, so have complications and uncertainty arising from money issues and the economics of longevity.

And this, the senior said, is at the crux of the tension. While the younger generation cannot wait to take the helm in politics, business and government, the older generation increasingly more responsible for looking after themselves in middle and old age, and without the certainty of job security or pensions, is clinging to power.

Older people are particularly impacted by the tension in countries such as ours with virtually no social safety net and runaway inflation. They are forced to stand their ground and fight with hair dye and foundation-reinforcing facial make-up to keep the young from encroaching.

For those in government used to extravagant comfort, it’s another matter altogether. They dig in through means fair and foul to keep their place at the table because they believe they still have gas in their tank and are young at heart.

The senior told me that at 60, he could still do all the things he used to do at 45 – and that includes all things good and not-so-good. He said he could think like a 45-year-old and though he’s an outlier in the Executive Management, with people mostly in their late 30s and early 40s in the majority, when the chips were down, they could hardly out-think him.

This is where the tension lies: the young consider themselves prepared to take over, and can longer wait to do so.  But the older generation, faced with the vagaries of the sunset years, especially the ravages of inflation, higher health maintenance costs, and mounting family pressures, is still not prepared to yield, whatever they might say about the youth being tomorrow’s leaders.

The senior insisted that at the heart of the multi-faceted tensions that I may prioritise, this particular type – tension between the young and the middle-age/old – cuts across: it cuts across ethnic and regional boundaries, across party lines, communities and families. Youths across all regions of the country, he said, want basically the same things – opportunities to express themselves, platforms to unleash their creative energies, and space to innovate and build.

But they are not getting any of that. Instead, what they are getting are failed promises and long lines of warmed-over politicians or their godchildren, all determined to recycle themselves.

That lack or denial of opportunity is what is manifesting as protests, massive migration and, in its regrettable and extreme form, separatism or insurgency. That is “The Tension.”

In typical Nigerian manner, we agonised over the matter, knocked it back and forth, and moved on, hoping – and perhaps praying – that the problem will go away. I don’t know. Perhaps sociologists and psychologists would examine the conundrum of generational tension and the impact of oedipal wars on social progress?

• Ishiekwene is the Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP

Thecrestng

A quiet revolution took off on April 8, 2021, by 11.05 am. It was unheralded, without ostentation, almost unsung. But it was something that would have great impact not only on today, but also on tomorrow, and the future.On the date in question, a train took off from Warri, headed to Itakpe, bearing 96 pipelines to be used for the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipelines project, being undertaken by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).It was the first major haulage being undertaken through rail, using the standard gauge line constructed by the Muhammadu Buhari administration as part of the infrastructure renaissance in the country. Under that revolution, you have massive road projects, bridges, rail, airports, and many others.Quietly, significantly, without pomp, circumstance or much ceremony, the train took off on April 8. It carried those 96 dead weight pipes that would otherwise have been freighted on the roads by equivalent of 32 trailers, with attendant danger and destruction. But in eight hours, the train, with its princely cargo arrived its destination, a development NNPC describes as “less costly, safer, faster,” and something that would protect our roads.Looking at the train taking off from Warri to Itakpe, I remembered three things. The first was a footballer in the 1980s, who played for New Nigerian Football Club, and the Super Eagles. His name was Samson Ozogula.The way stocky and thickset Ozogula moved with the ball caused fans to nickname him Zion Train. He advanced like a thundering typhoon, slicing and meandering through the defence lines of opponents, before dumping the ball at the back of the net. Ozogula was a moving train. (By the way, where is he now? Like most of our sporting heroes, he is probably forgotten somewhere, forced to eke out a living, remembering his own exploits with a shake of the head).Seeing the train move from Warri enroute Itakpe, I also remembered Femi Anikulapo-Kuti and his Positive Force Band. As a young journalist, I covered that band, sitting through their many rehearsals, first somewhere in Somolu area of Lagos, and later at Omole Estate, in Ikeja area. They had one vigorous dance style called the Ozogula dance. It was rhythmic, pulsating, energy sapping. If you were not fit, and you engaged in Ozogula dance, you were bound to see stars. No wonder I didn’t see any member of the band with spare flesh on their bodies. Ozogula dance was like Zion Train, a cyclone rumbling through the countryside.And again, as the train took off, I remembered Bob Marley and the Wailing Wailers. (I mean good wailers, not some yeye ones we currently have in the country, crying perpetually like babies who had their lollipops taken away). Marley and his band ‘wailed’ about ills of the society, using music to advocate for peaceful change.The last studio album released by Bob Marley before he died of cancer in 1981 was titled ‘Uprising.’ It had star hits like Redemption Song, and Zion Train.Oh people, get on board (you better get on board)…Don’t gain the world and lose your soul (just don’t lose your soul)Wisdom is better than silver and goldTo the bridge (ooh, ooh)Oh where there’s a willThere’s always a waySoul train is coming our wayZion train is coming our way…Two thousand years of historyCould not be wiped so easily….That was the music Zion Train by Bob Marley. Rastafarianism, to which Marley subscribed, believes that there’s an earthly Paradise/Heaven located somewhere in Ethiopia, Africa, where Emperor Haile Selassie, the totem of the Rastafarian movement hailed from. So, Marley asked as many as were willing to “get on board now,” as Zion Train moved.Our own train that moved on April 8 is Buhari train. The train of economic emancipation. Transportation nirvana, ecstasy, dream come true for Nigerian businesses. “You better get on board now.”I’ve always said it, and I say it again: Nigeria currently has serous challenges, particularly in the areas of security, joblessness, quality of life, and the like. But that is not all that typifies the country. Under President Buhari, massive other things are happening. Second Niger Bridge, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Enugu-PortHarcourt, Bonny-Bodo, hundreds of other roads, Loko-Oweto bridge, new, ultra-modern airports, AKK gas pipelines, railway infrastructure round the country, and many, many other good things. True, insecurity dwarfs these lofty things for now, however they are there, if we would but see them, and talk about them, and encourage our hearts that Nigeria is not what the poet Godfrey Chaucer calls “thoroughfare of woes.”Marley’s Zion Train is a metaphor for a path or channel that leads to Heaven. And he urged people to get on board, for “wisdom is better than silver and gold.” The Buhari train is physical, leading Nigeria to an economic kingdom, a Canaan, flowing with milk and honey. Get on board now. It is transportation emancipation. Liberation. Release. Relief. Doorway to business success and prosperity. “You better get on board now.”Marley sang that “two thousand years of history, could not be wiped so easily.” True. That is how the footprints of Muhammadu Buhari would remain indelible in Nigeria. The man who came, and made our resources work for us, who turned infrastructure around, knowing there can’t be meaningful or sustained development without infrastructure. “Where there’s a will, there’s always a way.”President Buhari has shown us the way. Oh, people, get on board. You better get on board.*Adesina is Special Adviser to President Buhari on Media and Publicity.

thecrestng

A PANDEMIC OF IDIOCY: Folly, mediocrity, idiocy and acute lack of commonsense has defined this epoch from 2015 to date.
And shorn of the crippling equivocation which has been the signpost of these times, I put it all down to the status of Nigeria’s current NUMBER ONE: PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI.
He, or to be charitable, his leadership seems to have spread a thick incubus over the landscape of our dear country Nigeria. Imagine for a moment, a large, dark blanket spread over a country… that seems to be the Nigerian imagery since 2015.
The wise among us have become somewhat stupid and the previously simple of mind have been force-fed with a repast of knavery …

Today, Nigeria seems to suffer a pandemic of idiocy!
Every action and inaction of government at all levels portrays a polity that has virtually gone off the hook. Consider the question of security (insecurity if you like): federal and state governments have continued to act as if Nigeria is the only country in the world where humans are naturally imbued with tendencies for vice. Perhaps all the criminals of the world have found home in Nigeria whereupon the problem has become utterly unmanageable!
But that would be a fallacy. Man is man everywhere, only the capacity to manage him makes the difference anywhere.
Nigerians have been buffeted with every known malaise in the last decade (but compounded in the last five years). The entire security cum military and paramilitary hierarchy in the land has been defied by a band of forest gangs for all of 10 years.
Buoyed by the successes in the northeast the marauders of the northwest have banded up and are intent of chasing away so-called elected governments.

In the southwest and southeast, youths of these areas are being radicalised by an obdurate federal government, unbeknownst to it. The FG seems to be walking joyously into the sophisticated antics of youths of the south.
KNEE-JERK RESPONSES TO FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES: Has anyone in government given a deep thought to this 10-year-old security miasma that has dogged us all? Heck no.
In the first place, Western countries and international conflict organisations were aghast at the situation here but somehow, they couldn’t understand the crisis. This is because the atmosphere is muddied by a peculiar Nigerian graft. How could ISIS or ISWAS be troubling Nigeria and the world see no cause for alarm? Why is terror uprising prevalent only in Nigeria out of all countries of the continent? We don’t hear anyone ask these kinds of questions.
Joint regional forces of adjoining countries were initially activated and deployed but it soon fizzled out. Why? Nobody is asking.
Why has Boko Haram been decimated in Cameroon, Chad and Niger yet Nigeria with a better economy and a more sophisticated military remains a hotbed of BH? A poser for you.
Why is it that with all the military arsensl at our disposal, including air power, we cannot checkmate an uprising within our borders?
A scrappy civilian vigilante Joint Task Force (JTF) was cobbled up to no avail; more air power was procured and a rather obnoxious internal air bombardments are allegedly going on. Yet no respite and no critical questions raised.
Service chiefs upon service chiefs have fallen rather disgraceful at the feet of the waif, Shekau; yet the war rages on… only in Nigeria.
Hundreds of military generals are promoted every season (I would be ashamed to be labelled a general in Nigeria today), yet a band of sahel rats continue to worst them.
Nobody seems to be thinking and asking the right questions.

AND NOW THE FOLLY OF AMOTEKUN AND EBUBEAGU: Of course, terror dressed in different uniforms threatens to consume the entire country and our leaders are completely at their wits end.
Southwest leaders after huffing and puffing for months, managed to raise a useless contraption called Amotekun. Since it fully took off over a quarter ago, incidents of crimes and vices seems to have doubled in the zone; with citizens becoming refugees in Yorubaland.
While we may give the Yoruba political leaders thumbs up for being able to think through and deliver a security scheme no matter how flawed, their Igbo counterparts have been completely stumped in the face of all sorts of marauding danger.
But a few days ago, governors in Igboland announced the founding of a zonal security outfit to he known as EBUBEAGU: the fearsome awe of the lion! What a laugh!

Three elements are common to this fuddy-duddy they call security outfits:
One, between Amotekun and Ebubeagu, both Yoruba and Igbo are confused whether they refer to the lion, tiger or leopard as the symbol of the two outfits.
While the originators may have the the image of the lion in their minds, it turned out that what the lion (king of the jungle) means in English is a bit confusing from what it means in Yoruba and Igbo.
For weeks, my Yoruba kins grew much grey hair over this little matter and eventually settled for the leopard, the poor cousin of the feline family when compared to the lion and tiger.
My Igbo people are still pounding their cranium against a hard surface to determine between agu and odum, which one is actually the lion and the tiger.
It is this childish superficiality that has underlined what’s supposed to be a crucial matter of state.
Two: these security outfits: Amotekun and Ebubeagu are not allowed to bear arms by the federal government so what we have are mere DRESSED UP MANNEQUINS, not really better than the boys brigade.
Three: these two babies have been conceived by the governors while ‘standing up’ therefore they have birthed imbecilic creatures.
The governors have only succeeded in wasting our time while our security woes continue to escalate. And while they are about their folly, our people, especially the youths have found heroes and indeed saviours in Sunday Igboho and Nnamdi Kanu.

While our governors doodle, Igboho and Kanu have managed to raise a ‘force’ that has repelled Buhari’s naive 21st century Fulani resorgimento. But while majority of Yoruba and Igbo are joyous, the Igboho and Kanu phenomenon is simply an attempt to counter Buhari’s failed leadership with acute illegality. The result, eventually, would be mutually assured death: MAD!

HOW TO SAVE THE DAY: One: southern leaders need to stand up as one and call Buhari to order over the incipient Fulani hegemony he has overtly encouraged and tolerated,
Two: southern leaders ought to have challenged Buhari in court over his discarding of restructure, especially as it concerns State police. It’s not too late to commence the process NOW,
Three, and most crucial, there’s a need to convoke conferences on the state of Nigeria’s economy and another on the root causes of insecurity in the land.
Finally, Buhari certainly needs help. His mediocre and nepotistic appointments need to be disbanded immediately so that Nigerians who are capable and fit-for-purpose would onboard.