Editorial
Eight years of hell or the beginning of new country – Nigerians decide
In the next few hours Nigerians will make a major decision. That decision will give answer to the basic question, which has been quite and more prevalent on the political horizon in the last few months – eight years of more suffering or a giant step to the building of a new Nigeria. Let that fact be established from from the outset.
That is what the 2023 presidential election is all about. Of course, the reason for four, instead of eight years is obvious. It is rare, if not impossible to vote out a President by the ballots in this part of the world no matter the records of the occupier of that seat. In fact, but for the serious constitutional obstacle which peg their tenures to a maximum terms of years in office, many African leaders, including Nigeria, would never leave power till they die.
Indeed, many of such leaders, have successfully circumvented that stumbling block by changing their constitution or manipulated same, such that they now enjoy elongated tenures or have become live Presidents. That is why Africa presents a horde of lifetime Presidents today like Teodore Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea, who has been in power since 1979, and who is the longest serving President in the world today.
On the stage with him are Paul Biya of Cameroun, who came to power in 1992, Jose Eduardo do Santos of Angola, 1979-2017, Denis Sassou, Republic of Congo, Yoweri Musaveni, 78, who has been in power for 34 years from 1986.
Of course, but for his assassination in April 2021, Idris Deby would still have been the President of Chad till date in the same manner Robert Mugabe, who came into power in 1980, would probably have died in office if not that he was ousted by his own allies, who were instrumental to his decades-long stay in power. Of course, there are still Isaiaas Afwerki of Eritrea, who also makes the list, having been in power since 1991.
Not that Nigeria has not tried to join that league. Had the third term agenda, allegedly plotted by former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, succeeded, perhaps he would still have been in power today. But a quick check on that alleged move, has at least reduced the problem of the country to just managing the constitutionally allowed eight years, which President Muhammadu Buhari is enjoying today, even to the astonishment of many people across the world for his abysmally low, if not scandalous outing that has seen the citizens reeling in unimaginable pain.
It is actually Buhari’s miraculous retention of power in 2019 that underscores the apparent picture of the futility of changing a Nigerian President through the ballot box. For despite the angst in the country during that crucial election and the burning desire to shove him out, he still found a way of “winning,” even with wider margin. Today, despite the stamp of authority etched on that outing by even the Supreme Court of Nigeria, not a few citizens are still dazed about how he managed to retain power.
Indeed, nobody needs go further in their stupefaction as to what happened. The only Nigerian President that would not enjoy a second term no matter the record, is the one who could adopt the philosophy of Goodluck Jonathan, in saying that – my ambition is not worth the blood of any Nigerian. Period! Else, everything would be thrown into it, including all the institutions – security, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and the judiciary – to make it work.
This is why Nigerians should not entertain themselves that they would not be stuck with their decisions today in eight years time, assuming there is the need to re-emphasise that again.
Luckily, the lengthy nature of the campaigns for this year’s election, has given Nigerians ample time to hear the arguments and see the candidates for what they are. So, the assessment and concomitant decision in a few hours time, is not for want of cogent and verifiable facts by the electorate. They would vote purely on the basis of their own countenances.
Since June last year, the clear indications have been there about what choices Nigerians would be presented. The voting public were the ones who heard how some of the candidates were still stuck and still are today with either identity issue, or struggling to explain away a single matter of producing a common Primary School certificate or even naming their classmates in either primary or secondary schools or indeed any level of their education.
They have themselves watched and seen demonstrable evidences and clear signs of sickness and inability of some of the candidates to be at grasp with their mental faculties. They have watched the countless gaffes and all the disturbing dramas that came with them.
Yes, they are no strangers to the issues of corruption, with terrifyingly repugnant details that trailed some of the candidates as would flies to a dead meat. In some case, they heard tapes where the candidates themselves owned up to details of how they set up odious enterprises in the name of Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) to frisk the national purse, thus giving vent to their well-established links with economic brigands that have helped in keeping the country down.
In other words, the character and pedigree of the candidates are an open book, somewhat. What remains is what Nigerians – the electorates do with them. Would the dark past and even the nebulous present of the lives of some of the candidates be brushed aside in favour of primordial sentiments?
With the deadly blow the recourse to nepotism and such other abhorrent considerations have wrought on the system, does ethnicity still present a seductive, alluring and enticing option to Nigerians. That is the question the same Nigerians must answer in a few hours from hence. Whichever way it goes, the consequences would remain – not in four, but – eight years. It’ll however be their choice!
The Nigerian history book will certainly not forget Monday, April 8, 2024. On that day the nation’s democracy was dealt yet another hammer-blow. Just like the pains felt by Christians a fortnight ago, when the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was being replicated on Good Friday, the pains and shock of the nailing of democracy to the wall, is unimaginable to lovers of democracy in Nigeria and around the world, by that very disastrous outing.
From the outset, let us say that we at Whirlwindnews.com.ng, have followed the twists and turns of this story, flinching and wincing at the sheer intolerance and impunity of Godwin Obaseki, Governor of Edo State.
We have been shocked beyond words at how much he could descend in his manifestation of sheer pettiness, narrow-mindedness, impulsiveness, if not outright childishness in his handling of his dispute with Philip Shaibu, his erstwhile deputy, whose only offence on record, was that he dared go against his wish by offering himself to be the next governor of the state, in the September 21 governorship election, a clearly legitimate ambition he has absolute right to.
Before the turn of events with the declaration of his ambition, the pair, had maintained themselves as chummy – happy good buddies in public. All that suddenly disappeared into thing air. Having so tracked the sequence of the events from beginning to this sad end, we do not hesitate to pronounce the governor the guilty party in this matter. What a sad story! What a sad day!
It becomes sadder still when we consider that Obaseki, is one of the most educated and high-profile governors in Nigeria today in terms of content and exposure. To this extent, his conducts in terms of public behaviour, official and private activities and more importantly, democratic credentials ought to be topnotch consistent with his high attainment.
But what did we see in the case in question? Nothing different from his counterparts, who found themselves into office out of thuggery or other manners of political brigandage and malfeasance replete in Nigeria’s political space. He clearly has not lived up to his billing.
There is no telling the fact that the Dennis Osadebey House in Benin would be swarming at the moment with all manner of political hounds, cheerleaders, praise-singers and goons, including the members of the state House of Assembly, who executed the odious project.
There will be celebration, no doubt. The fatlings reserved for this special occasion would have since been slaughtered and used to prepare exquisite cuisines. There would be surplus of choice wines which would go with other delicacies, soft and loud music and other concomitant accessories accompanying the backslapping and merrymaking.
In the end, Obaseki would have won the ego war. Even friends of Shaibu, who had egged him on in the war every Nigerian outside the imbecilic realm knew from the outset he would lose, would have returned to pledge their loyalty to the governor and denigrate his former righthand man in every manner.
But that is where it would end. From henceforth the governor would have lost any claim to democratic identity. For the simple reason that he has soiled his name, so disastrously, whenever those who helped Nigeria’s democracy are called to mount the rostrum, Godwin Obaseki, would be missing on that list, unless prepared by equally decadent, insipid and or deficient individuals lacking democratic ethos.
In the end, what did he gain? Perhaps, a well-oiled and massaged ego and nothing more! Shaibu, would certainly be the winner in the long run. Like others before him he has approached the courts to intervene in the matter and because as is wont in other cases, like the child sent by the father to steal, those who prosecuted the project, would naturally have been tempted to break the doors with their legs, by discountenancing due process, including valid court orders, in their bid to please the governor. In other words, the impeachment is most likely going to be set aside.
Obaseki-Shaibu
Yes! He would not have served out his term, but if the benefit of hindsight is anything to go by, if the impeachment is quashed at the end of the day by the courts and all the benefits accruing to him therefrom, paid and in the eyes of the law, he is returned to his original position as if nothing happened, what then?
So, why embark on a project with such a fleeting, phantom and temporally gains? Why lose everything, just to enjoy such a short-lived bliss? Indeed, what Obaseki did is not peculiar to him. Instead, he would be joining the special class currently occupied by President Bola Tinubu, who as governor of Lagos State, had the record of supervising the impeachment of two deputies, Isah Yuguda of Bauchi, Sullivan Chime in Enugu, the late Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo, Seyi Makinde of Oyo, Rochas Okorocha of Imo, Timipre Sylva of Bayelsa, Bello Matawalle of Zamfara and Yahaya Bello of Kogi.
Except Tinubu, who managed to wangle himself to the Presidency, where are the others today? Some of them have fizzled out, while others have at one time or the other become victims of the obsessive and excessive powers, they had used in dealing with their deputies.
Who knows? The day might come when the same Obaseki, might face the same monster that he unleashed against Shaibu. Hopefully, if and when that day comes, he would look back and remember what April 8, 2024, looked like in Edo, when he held the levers of power and used it to determine political life and death. Today, he has established himself as not only a dictator but the Emperor of Dennis Osadebey. What a sad ending of a blistering public image!
The name of Allen Onyema, has been on the lips of many Nigerians for the past one week or so now. Not that he is a stranger to Nigerians or vice versa. In fact, he has been a household name since he broke into national consciousness with his Air Peace Airlines – an outfit that is as strange in its ways as its numerous deeds are pleasant to the souls of many a compatriot.
Outside the enemies of Nigeria, of which there are a surfeit that the nation is cursed to live with and endure, prancing about everywhere including the corridors of powers at every level, only very few would likely discountenance the positive impact of what he has done for Nigeria using this carrier.
When Nigerians were being killed in South Africa as a result of the xenophobia that broke out in the country, it was Onyema that elected on his own to deploy his aircrafts to lift them out of the country and bring them home. That was in 2019. A few months after, in 2020, during the outbreak of COVID-19, when foreign airlines shut their doors on Nigerians or charged cut-throat fares, he was the one the nation ran to once again to rescue citizens.
Between April and May, 2023, he was again on song, this time to airlift Nigerians from Sudan, after the country broke out into a fratricidal conflagration that caused non-citizens to flee the enclave. At great risk and cost, he again responded swiftly and diligently. In all these interventions, the common denominator, was that missions were carried out in the main, free of charge.
In other words, he bore the cost himself. And what cost? The money involved were not minor amounts that could be waved away lightly. They were industry-size costs capable of making serious dents on any firm, and could indeed bore holes into the pocket of both Air Peace himself as a businessman. Yet he endured.
Look at his latest foray on the Nigeria-London-Nigeria route, which commenced operations on Saturday, March 30, 2024. A typical Nigerian businessman could have keyed into it to make a kill. If Onyema were not some kind of uncommon, scarce and far-in-between patriot, he would have seized the moment like his contemporaries in exploiting the current systematic bastardisation of a country under the heavy pall of all manner of greedy Shylocks, practically squeezing the very life out of the citizens.
What if he had just halved the prices of his tickets on that route? He would still have been been smiling to the banks with humongous profits, while seen at home as a hero with the same people he would be exploiting eulogising him. But did he travel that route?
Indeed, before he moved in, there had been a flood of tales of terrible and horrible experiences Nigerians went through outside the asphyxiating cost imposed on them as fares. One of the stories, narrated how in one of the neightbouring countries, where two Nigerians, had gone in the search of cheap tickets, after being fleeced by criminal immigration officials, were clamped into a jail on trumped-up charges and later jailed – a double jeopardy, having lost their London opportunities.
During his appearance on Monday, on The Morning Show, a breakfast programme on Arise Television, the airlines boss elaborated on the impetus of his intervention – how Nigerians travelled to as far as Morocco, Egypt, Qatar and other near and distant countries just to reduce the heavy financial weight as well as the hassles of running around for the reprieve.
Hear him: “Nigerians are happy. It is as if a kind of burden has been lifted off their shoulders. A situation where Nigerians were paying (through their nose) – my own staff, paid N15million on Business Class to the UK. Some people paid N17million. Then, because some people couldn’t pay, Nigerians were going to South Africa, fly six hours to South Africa, overfly Nigeria airspace to fly to London, for another nine or 10 hours, just to get a cheaper fare.
Onyema addressing his colleagues at the event
“Nigerians were going to Morocco, Egypt, Qatar, eight hours, lay over of about three hours, you do another eight hours to the UK, just to get something cheaper. Then, if you want to fly direct, it’s a different ball-game. The humongous fare was unbearable for them.
“But when we came, what we did was, assuming we slashed the N15million to N10million, people will still clap for us. But, no, we brought it to where it belonged. We brought it down to N4million. We’re not losing by doing N4million. That I can tell you. We brought it – Business Class to N4million, brought the Economy Class to N1.2million and at the same time giving students rebates.
“Immediately, the same airlines that were giving dollar as an excuse, for the fleecing of my country, came down withing 24 hours. Air Peace distorted the market. All of them started coming down within 24 hours. They started begging people, doing social media rounds all over the place and brought their fares from N15-17million to N5million and even begging people.”
Now, he has taken his hitherto one man show patriotism a notch higher. He is now trying to co-opt others playing in his league to follow suit. On Thursday, he made the first pitch publicly by when he addressed members of the Corporate Nigeria under the aegis of Organised Private Sector (OPS). One of the guests, he was quoted by Ajuri Ngelale, President Bola Tinubu’s spokesman, as seizing the opportunity of a parley with the Nigerian leader to plead with his colleagues, to deliberately slash down the price of their commodities, goods and services.
Citing his own example when the President hosted members of the OPS to Iftar – the fast-breaking evening meal of Muslims in Ramadan at the time of adhan (call to prayer) of the Maghrib prayer – at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, Onyema, pleaded with his colleagues to copy the example of Air Peace, in order to help the President, achieve his goals.
Hear him: “President Tinubu is thinking of the Nigeria of the future. The ease of doing business is coming back gradually. I can attest to that in the aviation sector because of the people you appointed to head that sector. I can also attest to what our High Commission in the United Kingdom did in making Air Peace flights into Gatwick Airport a possibility.’’
Whirlwindnews.com.ng is on all fours with this patriotic call. We cannot thank Onyema enough for the manner he has deployed his resources in the service of Nigerians. This call is just one of the demonstrable evidences of his loyalty to the nation and the people of Nigeria. What Onyema succeeded in saying at that forum, even without doing so directly is that these people could still live large without killing Nigerians through their exploitative ways.
No doubt, the call is likely to fall on deaf ears in the main, because the audience he was addressing is made up of those who put the country in its current parlous state in the first place – the economic brigands who have adopted all manner of ways to pillage the nation’s commonwealth and fleece Nigeria to the bones.
Yes! Amongst them are the foreign exchange speculators, who have warehoused the forex they got from official sources in the evil gambit of selling them off to make huge profits rather than employing them to purchase machinery and raw materials to produce and grow the economy.
Seated in that audience were likely to be the bankers that never do any real sector business outside cheating the system and declaring outlandish profits or those responsible for the wanton and indiscriminate hike in prices of their products out of sheer pleasure of watching Nigerians suffer as would medieval sadist that see human suffering as sport.
Yes! There were thieves in that audience, for whom the words of Onyema, would be like pouring water on the back of a duck and who rather than be roused to pity and repentance like the people of Biblical Nineveh, were likely to be thumbing their nose at him, if not cursing under their breaths and angling for his head on platter as would Herod with John the Baptist.
Yet, he has spoken as a patriot. Perhaps, few might buy into his message, have a change of heart and do something in this direction. Nobody knows how much a little downward dip in the price noodles or biscuit could save the mother preparing his child for school from her nagging headache or how happy that man trying to erect a two-room structure in his village could be on hearing that he could now buy cement cheaper.
Even if unheeded, let Onyema’s pleas continue to be the tiny voice knocking at the conscience of those who hear them in that audience. One day, something must certainly give!
Nigerians woke up on Monday to another shocking story – a damning narrative of how Nadeem Anjarwalla, Executive Manager of Binance for the African region, escaped from the guest house, where he was being detained in the care of the Office of National Security Adviser (ONSA), currently being manned by Nuhu Ribadu.
As usual, it is another regaling narrative in the series of pure, but bizarre episodes that have continued to shock the world even as they provide some sort of comic relief to them at the same time, with the consistency that could only be likened to movie scenes.
After all, is this not the country where monkeys cart away catches of currency notes and snakes swallow millions of public funds? While those in saner climes, one of them derisively describing Nigeria as a fantastically corrupt country, wonder what specie of homo sapiens inhabit our space, while sharing tea or quaffing beer in the club, we, especially our leaders have continued to supply them with more salacious ingredients to do so from our seemingly endless reservoir.
Unfortunately, we never seem to be in short supply of the most outlandish tales or quiver at their obvious nonsensicality and absurdity. It never occurs to us that we live in the comity of nations where our behaviours count and are counted against us. We simply carry on as if nothing matters.
The case of Nadeem Anjarwalla, presents no less in illogical and ridiculous to say the least. This was a man the Federal Government, had taken in for high economic crimes, such as money laundering and terrorism financing transactions – crimes, which outcomes have led to sorrow, tears and blood – through which hundreds of people have been sent to their early graves due to hunger, poverty and want and others from in the bushes as victims of kidnappings and mindless carnages.
PREMIUM TIMES, which broke the story on Monday, narrated how the 38-year-old Binance executive, made good his escape on Friday, 23 March, from the Abuja guest house where he and his colleague were detained after guards on duty led him to a nearby mosque for prayers “in the spirit of the ongoing Ramadan fast.” It was from there that he bolted out of the country aboard Middle East airliner, the report said.
In confirmation, Zakari Mijinyawa, spokesman of the ONSA, who continued the story, in a statement, on Monday, added: “Until his escape, Nadeem Anjarwalla, who holds British and Kenyan nationalities and serves as Binance’s Africa regional manager, was being tried by Nigerian courts. The suspect escaped while under a 14-day remand order by a court in Nigeria, and was scheduled to appear before the court again on April 4, 2024.
“The Office of the National Security Adviser confirms that Nadeem Anjarwalla, a suspect in the ongoing criminal probe into the activities of Binance in Nigeria escaped from lawful custody on Friday, March 22, 2024. Upon receiving this report, this office took immediate steps, in conjunction with relevant security agencies, MDAs, as well as the international community, to apprehend the suspect.
“Security agencies are working with Interpol for an international arrest warrant on Nadeem Anjarwalla. Preliminary investigation shows that Anjarwalla fled Nigeria using a smuggled passport. The personnel responsible for the custody of the suspect have been arrested, and a thorough investigation is ongoing to unravel the circumstances that led to his escape from lawful detention.”
Any informed Nigerian and those watching from elsewhere would have known the implication of this watery, infantile, obtuse and asinine tale. It is an open and short case. The matter has ended! Cul-de-sac, simplicita! From now on, politics takes over. The next stage is the Government Magic the legendary Fela Anikulapo Kuti spoke about in one of his epics. Soon there would be an order from the Presidency for the immediate rearrest and a threat to deal with those involved in the incident.
This will be followed with trading of blames, then media interviews, where political stalwarts, will attempt to shift the blames away from the key players with direct roles in the saga, make excuses and cite other countries where criminals similarly escaped from custodies and finally blame opposition for trying to politicise the issue, when they should join hands in solving the problem. Curtain falls!
Indeed, who would be surprised, knowing the country we are in, hearing tomorrow that a panel has been set up to “investigate” this shameful incident? Of course, the move in the main would be a ploy to ending the current public outcry rather than any worthwhile attempt to arrive at the truth? Who would be surprised if billions of Naira are approved and brand-new vehicles purchased for the members of that would-be panel, naturally made of up party officials and their cronies? Who would be surprised that the end of this saga would probably be a report submitted at another grand ceremony, which would end up on top of those already gathering dust on the shelve for years?
Else, who has been held responsible for that freakish tale of a snake swallowing millions of Naira? Or did it not happen in Nigeria? Has anyone heard anything about the Betta Edu saga again? Naturally, the hullaballoo against the suspended Minister of Humanitarian Services, that suffused the entire Nigerian firmament only a few weeks ago have disappeared in the winds. Are the key figures mentioned in that odious affair, including her ministerial colleague, whose company was used to salt away the funds meant for humanitarian purposes, not prancing about in the corridors of power yet?
One thing that is as sure as death is that Anjarwalla, did not just escape. He was probably led out of the country leisurely and effortlessly through a well-oiled protocol. No one should also discountenance the involvement of very powerful people in high places. Otherwise, the puerile account that there is no alternative to removal of petrol subsidy, and it was in the interest of Nigeria, rather than vested interests, should be accorded the same credibility.
What should be in issue is why? Was Anjarwalla led out of the country, because he induced his collaborators with money, which he must have had plenty of, given the level of his supposed crimes? Was it for religious reasons, given the part it plays in Nigeria? Or was it to ensure that what happened in Vegas remains in Vegas – in other words to buy his silence so that he does not name his collaborators in the high crimes when and if the matter finally ends in court? Find answers to these questions, solve the mystery behind this disgraceful saga.
Come to think of it, is there any other country in the world where a shipload of stolen crude oil is arrested and rather than use it as evidence against the culprits involved, it is set ablaze to destroy the same evidence, as constantly happens in Nigeria?
Is there any other country in the world, outside those officially in war, where hundreds of students or citizens are corralled into the forest and millions demanded in ransom only for some of them who are lucky to be “rescued” just like that without consequences to the culprits, as happens in Nigeria constantly and consistently? Any other country with such infantile tales?
Is there any other country in the world where a government official would so brazenly raise a memo for N1.5billion or equivalent just to inaugurate a 37-man committee to fix the salaries of citizens and remains in the same position an hour after?
Where else in the world have four refineries built with the sweat and blood of citizens simply gone kaput and the same citizens are made to suffer the ugly fate of high oil prices as a consequence of importation, as in Nigeria for decades now? Where else in oil producing countries across the world has it been reported that proceeds from crude production end up in private pockets more than get into public till as Nigeria has suffered these past years?
Indeed, which other country across the globe has presented the kind and type of sordid stories the world has been regaled with from Nigeria? Will there be more? Just wait! If not in days, in weeks! Soon, the Anjarwalla tale will give way! Soon another more funnier, odder, and weirder episode will come. Just wait!
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