The King Is Naked, Why Fear The King?

 By Felix Oguejiofor

A naked king is like the legendary naked truth: both are contemptible, unwanted.

As the legend goes, truth, always impeccably dressed in white, was the darling of everyone. On the other hand, lie, always dirty and in rags, was despised by everyone, a complete turn-off. One day, according to the legend, truth went to the stream to bathe and, to be sure, she removed her white clothes, put them by the side of the river and dived into the water. Lie, ever looking to better her lot at the expense of truth, took the latter’s white clothes, put them on and ran away.

Truth came out of the water in her full nakedness and ran after lie, to no avail. In one of the most dramatic examples of trading places, well before the legendary Eddy Murphy and Dan Aykroyd acted it out in the 1983 epic American comedy film, Trading Places, lie, now resplendently dressed in white (white lie) became society’s darling while truth, now completely naked and unkempt, became society’s despised and unwanted. As it is today, while many would rather be told ‘white’ lies, very many others are simply loathe to hear the ‘naked’ truth. Meaning that even truth, once it becomes naked, becomes abhorrent!

When I first read about this legend in one of columnist Ike Abonyi’s must-read pieces in his Thursday Political Musings column in New Telegraph, it struck me as quite symbolic of the current Nigerian situation: our king is, certainly, naked now and the aura of the throne gone. So, society must of necessity redeem itself. Or will the cabinet answer to a naked king on the throne? Will a land and people allow a naked king to interact and conduct business with other kingdoms on their behalf? Will the palace guards still give their limbs to protect a naked king insistent on sitting on the throne of their forefathers?

In ancient Israel, as recorded in the Bible, once the glory of God left a king, he was all but dead to the kingdom. Until his death, Saul was only a king in mouth after the God of Moses and Joshua pulled His support from His own anointed and gave it to David. It was obvious from the unimaginable missteps of Bubu that the glory of God had long left his ‘house and kingdom’ (read APC).

Indeed, while the lifeless one was king, we, at first, lived in mortal fear of him. Because we thought he was a king with his clothes on. For a moment, even our eternally erratic power supply stabilized and we were only too happy to ascribe the development to the king’s aura and our fear of him. The usually disruptive, not to say sabotaging, electricity workers, it was said, were afraid of the long, punishing hands of the presumably no-nonsense king. Until we discovered that he was nothing more that a hobbled Khalifa, one with neither the purity of heart nor the wisdom that progressive leadership required: he was just an existence in time and space – a naked king without any substance!

Needless to say that our honeymoon with Bubu was brief, nothing more than a year plus, before he was completely unmasked as a man with nothing to offer as a leader. What we did was to stop fearing him and start despising him. Any surprise that Bubu, to say the least, was such a disaster, a leader who turned Nigeria upside-down for the eight years he answered president?

Unfortunately for the current king, he became naked from the very beginning. Therefore, having known or seen him inside out, what do we have again to fear him for? As my friend Abraham Ogbodo recently offered in one incisive piece on a platform to which I also belong, Bola Tinubu has no wherewithal to recommend him for the Nigerian presidency beyond the corrupting influence of money. Of the three most prominent presidential candidates in the February 25, 2023 election, Tinubu has the least national appeal. And one doesn’t even have to believe former SGF, Babachir Lawal’s word for it. For, as they say, by their fruits we shall know them. And, of course, PBAT’s fruits aren’t exactly the universally or, if you will, nationally consumable types.

So, yes, why would the Nigerian establishment still hail this king? Striped of all moral authority (thanks to the recent discoveries about his embarrassing propensity for forgeries) to reward good behaviour or punish infractions, why would the operators of this system still appear so willing to do the bidding of this king, even to the extent of courting the risk of practically throwing the nation under the bus without a tinge of conscience? Why so eager to please a naked king?

Let’s face it, what judicial system would garland a man whose obvious infractions of the law warrant that he should actually be out of circulation for his sins? While Bubu was clean enough (or so we thought initially) to harass even the judiciary and get away with it, on what grounds would the Nigerian judiciary subject itself to the current public pillory and odium that have become its lot, for the sake of one man whose records have been proven by courts of competent jurisdiction in Nigeria and elsewhere to be unwholesome, unable to withstand any legal scrutiny?

What debts of obligation, which must be repaid even at the risk of  destroying the foundations of the nation’s democracy, does the Nigerian judiciary owe PBAT and others like him holding positions of trust in society but with personal records that are clearly at odds with what are permissible under the law? Would the Nigerian Bench and Bar so conveniently destroy the hallowed position of the judiciary as every democracy’s bulwark against dictatorship and other manipulative geniuses of politicians, simply on the altar self-aggrandizement?

Elsewhere in the world (as we recently saw in the case of Atiku Abubakar v Bola Tinubu in the district courts of Illinois, Chicago, the United States), the judiciary gets people who infract the law to account for their actions, irrespective of their status in life.  Immediate past President of the of the United States, Mr. Donald Trump has been in and out of courts since leaving office in 2020 for his alleged offences against the law, in his private and business life. Every attempt by President Tinubu’s lawyers to prevent the Illinois courts from forcing Chicago State University (CSU) to release the president’s academic records expectedly fell through because the United States courts couldn’t be dissuaded from releasing the documents whose release, the courts were persuaded, was in public interest.

 

 The American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had initially said it would not make public its files on PBAT until 2026 but had to decide otherwise, agreeing to release them batch by batch starting this month (beginning from October 23, to be precise). The FBI’s change of plan followed a freedom of information request filed last year by Aaron Greenspan, owner of PlainSite, a website that pushes anti-corruption and transparency in public service,  in collaboration with Nigerian investigative journalist David Hundeyin. Again, the need to serve justice in public interest overrode the technicality of the seeming inviolability of FBI’s rules and schedules, hence the decision to release PBAT’s well ahead the earlier scheduled 2026. Although PBAT’s lawyers are fighting hard to prevent those FBI files on him from being made public, it is most likely that, as in his case with Atiku, the Nigerian leader will have his files with FBI made public as already scheduled by the agency.

 

That is what Nigerians expect from their judiciary: to always courageously stand on the side of justice for the many and not destroy its own essence just to serve the interests of a few powerful elements in society. As the Supreme Court hears LP presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi and his PDP counterpart, Atiku Abubakar’s appeals against the ruling of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) dismissing their petitions against INEC’s declaration of Tinubu as winner of this year’s February 25 presidential election, starting this Monday, the question many have asked and continue to ask is, will the Nigerian judiciary ditch technicalities and stand on the side of justice for the many this time around?

Soon, very soon, that question will be answered one way or another.

*Oguejiofor is a commentator on public issues 

Gov Ambode: There Shall Be Secondary After The Primary!

By Abraham Ogbodo

And so, Ambode could not be forgiven his ‘sins’ by the godfather. He has been smashed like a gadfly and when the polls open sometime in February next year to pick a governor for Lagos State after the 2015/2019 electoral cycle, his name shall be missing from the ballot paper. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who is part of the Akinwunmi Ambode administration in Lagos as managing director of Lagos Property Development Corporation (LSDPC) has been chosen by the oracle to replace him. 

*Bola Tinubu and Gov Akinwunmi Ambode

It wasn’t as if a proper trial was conducted and Akinwunmi Ambode found guilty of serious and unpardonable sins. He was just unfortunate to be on the scene at this time. The charge, specifically, was that he had forgotten, since he became governor about three and half years ago, to invite the real owners of Lagos State to the dining table. It was not also said that he was eating alone while others were kept at bay salivating. 

Between Rotimi Amaechi and Godswill Akpabio

By Abraham Ogbodo

My task today is to compare and contrast two illustrious sons of the Niger Delta Region. They are Rotimi Amaechi and Godswill Akpabio. Maybe I shouldn’t have added ‘’illustrious’’ because they have illustrated very little outside self-aggrandizement.

*Amaechi and Akpabio 

Amaechi literally came from nowhere to become so rich and powerful. Before 1999, his entire life and livelihood had been defined by Dr. Peter Odili, who was Rivers State governor between 1999 and 2007 and owns Pamo Hospital where Amaechi had worked as a public relations officer before his astronomic rise to Speakership of the Rivers State House of Assembly.

Akpabio may be a little deeper, but I shall return to him presently.

Understanding Adams Oshiomhole

By Abraham Ogbodo

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Adams Oshiomhole is used to public shows. He lives as if every situation in life is a piece of drama that must be acted out. Even at that, he does not respect the rules of the stage and stay within his role.  For no clear reason, he loves to be the lead actor always, even if the director casts him to merely play a supporting role.

*Adams Oshiomhole 

As president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) when Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was the President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, it seemed Nigeria had two presidents. Then, if a man or woman only mentioned the ‘President’ in describing the head of state and number one citizen of Nigeria, he or she would be required to give further details so that it would be known if the description applied to Obasanjo or Oshiomhole.

Nigeria: Another Paradise Just Lost

By Abraham Ogbodo

I apologize for the rude exit. When one friend called to find out what happened to Backlash, I told him the bitter truth. I was tired of pushing positions that had not drawn down on President Buhari’s nepotism, tyranny and cluelessness on one hand and enhanced his statesmanship, democratic credentials and capacity to govern well on the other hand.

*President Buhari 

 My last appearance on this page was on April 15. Since then, the degeneration in national life has continued unabated. In fact, the bizarre has become the norm. Yet, the purpose today after the break is not to give any good news. It is to reinforce the futility in expecting a reversal in the narrative of negativity. I apologize for increasing your worries.

Nigeria: How Not To Govern Lagos

By Abraham Ogbodo

Lagos State is very peculiar. In terms of landmass, it is the smallest state in Nigeria, measuring just about 3,345 square kilometers, which is about the size of a local government in Niger State with a landmass of 76,363 square km. But that is where the smallness of Lagos State ends. In every other index of measurement, the state is a towering giant.

It is the most populous, claiming to accommodate 25 million human beings or about 16 percent of Nigeria’s estimated population of 150 million. 

 Estimates also say that about one third of industries in Nigeria are in Lagos.

Nigeria: The Return Of Decree 4

By Abraham Ogbodo

Last week, I wrote on a proposed bill, which seeks to calibrate free expression into love and hate speeches, with the latter attracting serious penalties including 10 years imprisonment and death. As I wrote from one end, a colleague, Mr. Don Okere, editor of Daily Independent Newspaper was at another end battling to call public attention to the unlawful detention of the Abuja Bureau Chief of the newspaper, Mr. Tony Ezimakor by the Department for State Security (DSS). The reporter was kept for days and incommunicado for refusal to disclose how he got information that the DSS had paid a princely $2 million to secure the release of some of the Chibok schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram terrorists in April 2014.

I do not know, who between Lawal Daura, the Director-general of DSS and President Muhammadu Buhari should take the blame for this. From the little I know of Daura, he is loaded with a lot of native enthusiasm that forbids him from pretence. Most times, and perhaps, without realising it, he presents himself more as a Fulani than he does as a Nigerian. He also does not pretend about his big stake in the Buhari presidency.

Obasanjo’s Sermon In The Creeks

By Abraham Ogbodo

Last week, former President Olusegun Obasanjo was in Bayelsa State preaching love. He went at the instance of the State Governor, Seriake Dickson who wanted him (since the incumbent president is not readily available for such task) to commission projects built by the state government as part of the activities to mark the sixth anniversary of the government of Dickson in the state.

*Obasanjo and Dickson

Obasanjo did a little more outside the official schedule. By some arrangement, he was appropriated to lay the foundation stone of the second private refinery after Dangote’s, but the first in that region of the country, penultimate Saturday.

The Azikel Modular Refinery sitting on about 20 hectares is being powered by Dr. Eruani Azibapu Goodbless, President of Azikel Group in collaboration with foreign partners.  

Buhari: The Making Of A Tragic Hero

By Abraham Ogbodo

The Aristotelian perspective defines the tragic hero as being complete in all the indices of greatness, but lacking in an essential character trait that makes all the difference. This is called the tragic flaw in literary theory and criticism. But for this tiny character failure, which occasions the tragedy, the tragic hero will have arrived safely at destination in the great journey called life.

*President Buhari

This was when tragedy was defined as the exclusive experience of kings and princes. That definition changed with the advent of the 20th Century American playwright and essayist, Arthur Miller, who made every man (not only noble men) a tragic hero.

Buhari’s Presidency: Facts And Fiction

By Abraham Ogbodo

I am worried about the ongoing narrative that Nigerians desired a change from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) misrule and agreed in 2015 to kick out Goodluck Jonathan and vote in Muhammadu Buhari as President.

Nothing sounds more fraudulent. Was there a consensus at anytime on that? The answer is no. Rather, the Buhari presidency was a risk specifically undertaken by a tiny but powerful clique solely for its benefit and not the benefit of Nigerians.

*Jonathan and Buhari

Now that the risk has failed and woefully too, the same clique is trying to change the narrative and make the mistake look like everybody’s mistake. It will not happen. I know the truth is always a casualty when history is being hurriedly written from many perspectives. But not this time please because I am going to tell the truth to shame the devil and stop it from escaping with vain glory. 

Between Gov Ayo Fayose And Gov Nasir El-Rufai

By Abraham Ogbodo

I have an award for good governance to give and the choice of a winner is between Governors Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State and Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State. One is APC and the other PDP. On this alone, I am seeking to be properly guided in this difficult choice to escape the charge of partisanship. It will also be unwieldy if too many factors are loaded into the assessment. I have therefore limited the scope to recent happenings, like the way the two governors have engaged workers in their respective states. 

*Govs Fayose and El-Rufai

First, Kaduna State. Governor el-Rufai woke up one morning and sacked 22,000 primary school teachers in the state. Less than a week after and when the furor of the first massive sack had not settled, there was a follow up with the sack of more than 4,000 workers across the 23 local government councils in the state.

Altogether, some 26,000 persons were made jobless (and perhaps, homeless too) in less than two weeks. According to the governor, the sacked workers had been profiled and found to be grossly unfit for public sector operations in Kaduna State. Naturally, the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) failed to appreciate the argument of Governor el-Rufai that the 22,000 teachers failed basic test for competence and had become more of an affliction on than a solution to the pupils. The council workers were mainly sacked for redundancy.

Memo To My Friends In Aso Rock Villa

By Abraham Ogbodo

Before I get started, I have a confession to make. In my little way, I try to avoid the friendship of big men. I will explain. Big men and (women too) can hardly appreciate the worth of a small man. They cannot initiate a short telephone conversation with the small person to say ‘I am just checking on you my friend.’ If they manage to do, it is not to say hi but to complain, most times bitterly, about some matter that a small man didn’t handle to their ultimate satisfaction; or reel out more directives after which they recline to their exclusive economic zone and wait for when the unfortunate small man will become useful again.

*Garba Shehu, Femi Adesina and Laolu Akande

The big man thinks his bigness, and the fact that he allows some social access more than compensate for every effort the small man puts in to sustain the relationship. As a Christian, I asked God to give me the wisdom to manage big men and women. He told me to stop pretending to be a big man’s friend. The application of that wisdom has never failed me. I have just offered free of charge what took me days of fasting and prayers to secure from God.

I have had to give this background so that my friends in Aso Rock Villa, who however became big men on May 29, 2015 or thereabout, will understand why I have somehow maintained a safe distance. They are Femi Adesina, Garba Shehu and Laolu Akande. All three are evidently big men by any interpretation. The first two are my senior colleagues; they became editors of national titles long before I did. Laolu Akande is my junior in every sense. 

Now That Nigerianism Has Failed!

By Abraham Ogbodo

Last week, the movement for the restructuring of Nigeria got more converts from an unlikely quarter. Some 16 youth groups in the North rose from a meeting late on Tuesday to declare the unwillingness of the North to continue in a Federation that has the Igbo as part. The groups, which met in Arewa House, somehow the symbolic throne of the Northern establishment and which gave the meeting added significance, were actually more far-reaching.

As if they were the appointed deciders of the fate of Nigeria, which has been hanging precariously on a balance for more than a century, they gave till October 1 for every Igbo man, woman and child in Northern Nigeria to leave for the ‘Republic of Biafra’. Next day, some Northern elders including Governor el-Rufai of Kaduna who said they were taken aback by the action of the youths dissociated themselves from the quit notice and even called for the arrest and prosecution of members of the groups.

Nothing happened. Instead, the youths returned a day after to reinforce their declaration. For opposing the declaration, Nasir el-Rufai and Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State were isolated for some tongue lashing. A statement signed by spokesman of the Northern youth coalition, Mallam Abdulazeez Suleiman said: “we are particularly disappointed by the treacherous positions assumed by Nasir Ahmed el-Rufai and Kashim Shettima who in pursuit of their blind ambition for the vice presidency chose to side with secessionist Igbo against the interest of peace-loving Nigerians.”

The statement said there was nothing altruistic about the position of el-Ruffai and Shettima on the quit notice because both governors “are openly known to be waiting in the wings for President Muhammadu Buhari to die so they can further their plot to seek the presidency.” Specifically on Shettima who spoke on beh: “Shettima has disconnected from reality as he gets intoxicated by immoral wealth and property acquisition at the expense of people of the state suffering the devastation of Boko Haram.” This was what Robert Louis Stevenson described in Treasure Island as ‘quarrel among the pirates.’

Nigeria: Awaiting The Second Colonization

By Abraham Ogbodo

Why are we what we are in Nigeria? Nothing is ever promptly handled to create maximum benefits. If it is road construction or rehabilitation, government waits until a tiny pothole becomes a dangerous crater and lives lost through accidents caused by the failed part of the road and after a deafening public outcry too, before a contract is awarded for the fixing.

This national lethargy is even more manifest in government – labour relations. No proposed strike action by workers union is ever nipped in the bud. Government usually lives through the build-up and in a fire-fighting approach sets up committees to negotiate a cease-fire with the warring union after everywhere had been put on fire. It is all a measure of our inability to sift through the issues of today and articulate a proper future. More or less, we live by the day or in everyday language, from hand to mouth. No nation attains greatness operating on pay-as-you-go basis.

Is the fault in our star or style? I mean is there anything about our geo-ethnic locations that makes perception difficult? We are incapable of perceiving danger even if it is just an inch away. An online trending statement allegedly by South African Apartheid President P.W Botha, but which has been reworked or adapted to suit the personalities of Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and American President Donald Trump, is very hard on the Black race.

The summary of it all is that the Negro lacks completely in the essentials to cultivate a high culture. He is neither innovative nor resilient and hides under the circumstances of his social evolution to always remain under his challenges instead of rising above them. It is a damning verdict, nevertheless, supported by ample evidence in the observable political leadership of the Black world. Also, a video of an American Black preacher, Dr. David Manning of Atlam World Missionary Church in Harlem, New York on the same subject matter of the copious and inexplicable inadequacies of the Black race went viral.

The narratives in both instances came close to creating a separate taxonomy outside the homo-sapiens specie for the Black race. The commentators only stopped short of branding black people sub-human. The temptation is to lash out at these bigots and proclaim (not prove) that Blacks and Whites are denominated in a common humanity and the so-called difference between them is not any more substantial than illusive perception of pigmentation. And that is largely true because even President Trump, in a moment of absolute sanity, said in his inauguration speech that the same red blood runs in the veins of everybody.

Nigeria: Democracy Minus The PDP

By Abraham Ogbodo  

This is Nigeria’s fourth attempt at democracy hence the ongoing dispensation is aptly called the Fourth Republic. Ordinarily, some measure of mastery should be assured having gone through the same process four times over. But if nothing is learnt or mastered in subsequent performance and the approach remains constant, sheer repetition of a process is not going to translate to different outcome.

Last week, Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko visited Aso Rock Villa. It could be described as unplanned visit because the decision by Mimiko to be at the headquarters only propped up after INEC had made statements about parties and their candidates in the upcoming governorship election in Ondo State. Specifically, the governor was in Abuja to tell President Muhammadu Buhari that Ondo State is being pushed to the precipice following the decision by INEC to stay with Jimoh Ibrahim, instead of Eyitayo Jegede, as the PDP candidate in the November 26 election.

The background to all of this is rather familiar. There is a certain Ali Modu Sheriff who has become like a shadow that cannot be detached from the substance except darkness is induced. This is what has forced the PDP to have two leadership faces. Modu Sheriff is one and the other is former governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Ahmed Makarfi. This monstrous outlook has subsisted even when the party has gone extra lengths within the prescribed rules to prove that it has only one face represented by Makarfi. Somehow, the party is not able to use all the means of communication available to it to say to who its national chairman is and who is not.

Others who seek to reap political benefits call the current state of affairs in the PDP intra-party crisis. Because the crisis is not yielding to judicial arbitration, the capacity of the party to attack and kill the snake in its house is greatly weakened too. If nothing is done, the PDP could be obliterated to free the democratic space of opposition politics. There is no other quicker way for a conscious society to migrate on its own volition from democracy to dictatorship.

For now, this whole thing about the PDP’s inability to solve its problems may taste very sweet. The official position is that the APC and the presidency have no hands in what is happening in the PDP, contrary to the belief in some quarters. The problem has been fully offloaded at the doorstep of the judiciary to crack. It is taken that the courts have the powers to decide even, in spite of the PDP, who between Modu-Sheriff and Ahmed Markafi is the authentic chairman of the party. Consequently, persons and institutions central to the imbroglio and which can at least voice opinions to create a refraction in the narrative are showing an unusual degree of piety.

Killing The Economy To Kill Corruption

By Abraham Ogbodo    

The battle against corruption has become the sole purpose of the Buhari Presidency. It is being prosecuted as if all other things that define good governance shall follow automatically as soon as victory is proclaimed. I can go ahead to suggest that the appointment of ministers in this month of September, which has only 10 days to finish, as early promised, be shelved. It is no longer necessary since the entire business of government has been consolidated into a single effort – war against corruption.

One man or at most one ministry to be called Ministry of War Against Corruption can do the whole job. News that Buhari has branded ministers as noise makers is very encouraging. No serious war anywhere in the world is fought and won with noise makers. In the spirit of the new revelation, a proposal for amendment of the operating constitution to make the appointment of ministers by a sitting president discretionary can be forwarded to the National Assembly for consideration.

I am not even too sure if the NASS itself will fit properly into the new order. The members are even noisier than the ministers. They are rascally and violent too; often using fists like junior school pupils instead of debates to settle issues. They are also very lazy. They work for one week and go on recess for four weeks. This war against corruption is neither for noise makers, rascals nor lay-abouts. All of this considered, we can push for another amendment of the constitution to operate this democracy without the NASS. It sounds alarming but since kings can legitimately kill to survive in a Machiavellian setting, we cannot go wrong if we allow the robust end of achieving a permanently corruption-free Nigeria to push us to disband the useless National Assembly.

With PMB, we have one in a millennium chance to catch all the thieves in Nigeria and change our circumstances. And so, if he asks to shut down the banking system, as he has done, to catch thieves who hide their stolen dollars in domiciliary accounts, he should be obliged. He is working to preserve the life of Nigeria and as we all know, in the rule of life, self preservation comes first. On this note alone, the threat by one self-appointed global regulator called JP Morgan to punish Nigeria on account of Buhari’s approach should be completely ignored.

JP Morgan or whatever it is called is not a very reliable teacher. It teaches nonsense and this has serially got it into trouble with the authorities in Washington DC and to which it has paid billions of dollars as fines. Besides, what does JP Morgan know that our own dear JP Clark or any other JP in Nigeria does not know better? And by the way, who made JP Morgan judge over Nigeria that is presided over by PMB?

The Central Bank as directed by PMB (since there is no finance minister till perhaps September 30) is doing a fantastic job. The point is that when there is too much money in the system and the citizens are behaving like lunatic astronauts, going to the moon to build houses, the thing to do is a serious mop up to precipitate a liquidity squeeze that will instill some sanity. This is what Buhari has done. It is a fundamental micro-economic principle and one does not need a certification by Harvard Business School to understand it. I don’t understand why JP Morgan, which should know better, is nagging over this like a bad house wife.

Now That Atiku Has Spoken

By Abraham Ogbodo

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the one better known as Turaki Adamawa has spoken. It is not as if he had been struck dumb by a strange spirit, or something close to such and there had been protracted efforts to recover his speech and good result only came last Tuesday when he spoke at a book launch in Lagos.

In fact, the man has been talking since the beginning of this democracy on May 29, 1999. It is just that he has been saying other things that do not command hot attention. Things like how his love for the new found democracy in Nigeria pushed him and others to stop former President Olusegun Obasanjo from evolving into a life president as Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

He has also been talking on his unequalled leadership prowess, and how such had put him in a better stead to occupy Aso Rock Villa in 2007, instead of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua; in 2011, instead of Goodluck Jonathan, and even in 2015, instead of the incumbent, President Muhammadu Buhari. It was while waiting till 2019 to represent the same matter that the Turaki, launched more forcefully into the subject matter of Restructuring Nigeria.

He got the right attention for the first time since 2007. Essentially, he said this Nigeria that Nigerians love so much would vanish, leaving everybody fantastically short-changed if we continued in our ways. His words: “our current structure and the practices it has encouraged have been a major impediment to the economic and political development of our country. In short, it has not served Nigeria well, and at THE RISK OF REPROACH (emphasis mine) it has not served my part of the country, the North well. The call for restructuring is even more relevant today in light of the governance and economic challenges facing us. And the rising tide of agitations, some militant and violent, require a reset in our relationships as a united nation.”

Atiku said much more in his about 2000-word message. The choice of that quote is actually to underscore the inherent hesitation in his speech. He came close to confessing that he was being compelled (apparently by forces beyond his control) to say something he shouldn’t say as a Fulani man from Northern Nigeria. In all, ‘Restructuring of Nigeria’ is not among the high topics taught at all levels of intellectual engagement up North. And if it is ever discussed, it is to explain that restructuring of Nigeria into anything other than what obtains currently, is a sin against the North and Islam.

This is why Atiku, in all sincerity, shall need some support from his northern constituency to be able to stand by his big message, come rain or shine. If he remains a lone voice in this wilderness of political restructuring, his people may think he is ‘possessed by demons.’ Although Alhaji Babarabe Musa and even Dr. Junaid Mohammed have said something, voices with higher pitch are required to make the Atiku’s message get close to a reflection of Northern thinking in the light of current national challenges.

Now That Body Language Has Failed!

       By Abraham Ogbodo 

LINGUISTS contend languages could die if they fail to expand to accommodate new notations. This was what happened to Latin, which at some point in the history of western education was the language of scholarship. The English language, which has grown to conquer the world was, more or less, vernacular and interjection of Latin in scholarly presentations in England and elsewhere was seen as a mark of erudition.

As a young man, I did not know what had happened to Latin. I thought it was still alive and kicking and I had wished for it to replace French in my first year in the University when the latter was a compulsory elective course for Theatre Arts students. It was my first classroom contact with the French language where everything is either masculine – le or feminine – la, and the learner does not have a clear guide as to who or what is a man or a woman. When I told my French lecturer one day that I would prefer Latin to French, she laughed and replied in French: “ Latin est mort!”

Permit the long digression. I was only trying to establish that language, including body language can die if not properly nourished. Everybody was happy when the Buhari Body Language was introduced into the curriculum of the political economy on May 29, 2015. It was linguistically efficient and people understood it without interpretation. Importers of fuel understood it and began immediately to conduct the business of fuel importation and distribution to sales outlets in the new language. It was understood, for instance, that fuel could flow ceaselessly at N87 per litre with or without payment of subsidy. The long queues at filling stations vanished overnight and there was jubilation in the land and in the camp of the APC, which promptly appropriated the turn-around as part the change it promised Nigerians.

In fact, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who until recently was publicity secretary of the APC said nothing was more evident of the change than this strange situation when the president could get things done without expending effort and scarce resources. He named the new approach that ensured performance without corresponding investment, Body Language. He said it was working far better than anything previously known.