Believe me, I’m not writing as a wailing wailer, or as a Prophet of doom. I am not writing as a clairvoyant or a seer. I merely write as a realist. The symptoms of a failed nation are just too palpable to be missed or ignored by a reasonable people. I am not talking about a State which has failed because of social and economic policies that even the authors and protagonists cannot decipher or fathom. This nation is on the precipice because its leaders are playing Russian Roulette with the security of Africa’s biggest and most important country. It is all now a matter of guesswork, that the gun is loaded, but the way we are going it is looking like every chamber is now full and not just one. Whatever shot you fire is bound to be the killer shot. Our leaders clearly know this but are in such an inebriated state that they have become oblivious, impervious and immune to all the danger signals.

I know power makes people blind. It intoxicates, addles the mind and takes full possession of the powerful, especially if they want to play God. This is why I’m shocked that some Nigerians are already daydreaming about becoming President in 2023, when they have no guarantee that Nigeria will still be alive by then. Or maybe I should not be surprised because what better can one expect from this bungling class of crass elements. The usual leading contenders, as typical of this confounding breed of persons, are pretending that all is well, although they know much better having been the contributors to, and cause, of the problem. They must not be seen to be criticizing the rudderless, directionless and visionless government of President Buhari lest they are marked down as enemies of the President. They know that elections are never held here, stricto sensu. What we have is a selection process with the hapless people being trundled out to deceive the unsuspecting international observers who can’t believe that what they are seeing is possible even in a Banana Republic. Simply put, elections are largely controlled from the very top, where the omnipotent President holds sway, and the outcome of the selection process is dictated by his whims and caprices.

If nobody has yet told the President, then he must hear this somehow. Our security situation is more than dire and grim. It is now catastrophic. Nigerians are now being killed, kidnapped and raped in places that used to know only peace. The orgy of banditry has since moved from the core North and middle belt to Yorubaland, previously considered a safe haven. The tales are unbelievably horrid and terrible. The situation in Ondo State is so critical that the Governor Arakunrin Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) has now cried out that the “Fulani bandits” must move out of his State within seven days. I salute him for having the courage to say it as it is, being a member of the same party as our most reluctant President who seems unabashedly unaware of the bloody forays and operations perpetrated by some of his kinsmen in far-flung territories and domains outside their traditional space. The Governor obviously cried out in utter exasperation, frustration and, perhaps, fear. I knew him as a die-hard Buharist. But only a bastard would sit arms akimbo and watch his mother or daughter being raped by some monsters and say or do nothing! That is the situation in which Arakunrin Akeredolu has more or less found himself. As with the President, he has discovered, albeit tragically, that family comes first. Nobody will watch over yours, when theirs is also threatened by the same fate. As the Yorubas will say, “a ki so ori olori, ki awodi gbe t’eni lo”!

Osun State has virtually become a major theatre of war involving series of killings and kidnappings. I don’t know if the Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola, has been as vociferous as Arakunrin Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), but I am sure he is slowly being driven to come to the same conclusion. Akeredolu has nothing against the Fulani. There are many great and peaceful Fulani living in different parts of Nigeria. Some generations of Fulani people have fully integrated in those communities outside their sphere of influence without anyone raising eyebrows. But these bloodthirsty wanderers and vagrants, who are said to have meandered their ways from outside Nigeria, must be flushed out and ruthlessly dealt with regardless of whether the current President of Nigeria is their godfather, avuncular mentor, swami or whatever he represents to them.

The situation in Oyo State is just as scary. I have read the account from no less a personage than the highly respected and revered Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III, another die-hard Buharist who now appears ready to part ways with Buhari if necessary. I have had the opportunity of sitting with Iku Baba Yeye, as we fondly call him, and I know how disappointed this esteemed traditional ruler is that the Federal Government has refused to act speedily and decisively on the matter of the gross insecurity ravaging and destroying the country. I was not surprised to receive his lengthy letter to the President days ago which I hope Buhari found time to read, or someone found the opportunity to read to him. I won’t bother to talk about very reserved and highly respectable and regarded Northern Leaders led by the spiritual monarch, The Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar, a cosmopolitan and cerebral leader I have come to love and adulate so much for his simplicity and forthrightness. Virtually every part of the nation is haemorrhaging to death while the Federal Government is watching helplessly and hopelessly!

The Alaafin has done well by properly documenting some of the dastardly acts of these merciless bandits and his public missive to our President, Muhammadu Buhari excerpts of which are worth repeating on these pages because the letter is one for posterity whatever fate befalls the entity presently known as Nigeria and whichever way the country goes in the end:

“In recent times however, I am worried about the security situation in the country, especially in the South West geo-political zone, nay the entire Yoruba-speaking area of the country including KWARA, Kogi, and Edo States.

“This has to do with the incessant and increasing menace of Fulani herdsmen that have laid siege in almost all the highways of Yorubaland. Whether in Owo, AKURE, Ilesanmi/Ife-Ibadan Road or Ibarapa zone and Ijebu area of Ogun State, the story is the same.

“I have held series of consultations with opinion moulders and eminent Yoruba leaders across board about the menace of these cattle herdsmen with such assault like raping of our women and on some occasions in the presence of their husbands. That is apart from massive destruction of our agricultural lands; which ultimately points to imminent starvation…

“After due consultations with Yoruba leaders… we are worried by the audacity of these lawless people in effecting their illegal acts in broad daylight on our usually bushy highways without any arm of security being able to do anything…

“Now, we cannot even talk of parading suspects, when in actual sense, no major arrests have been made in this part of the country. Without arrests we cannot talk of their facing of the law.

“Unfortunately, and painfully indeed, in the face of the apparent helplessness of our security agencies, where do we go from here?”

It is at the wake of this manifest frustration of our people that our people have found it unavoidable, even though reluctantly to resort to alternative measures to safeguard their lives and property… Today, it is not merely infraction in the course of doing business, but blatant and criminal violation of the constitutional right to life and liberty of innocent citizens of Yoruba land. A few publicly known instances will suffice.

Certain individuals were kidnapped along Erio-Aromoko Road, Ekiti State. They were tortured and exposed to danger in the forest for upward of two weeks.

These victims included the Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association, Ikole Branch, Adeola Adebayo, whose decomposing body was eventually found after a ransom price of four million Naira had been paid.

Two officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps, both Yoruba, were picked up along Ilesa-Akure highway. In the process of this kidnap, an unnamed individual died.

Musibau Adetumbi, a legal practitioner based in Ibadan, was going to attend an Appeal Court session in Akure when he was kidnapped along Ilesa-Akure highway. Professor Adegbehingbe, a surgeon at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife was abducted along Ibadan-Ile-Ife highway. Dr. Muslim Omoleke, the Administrative Secretary of the National Electoral Commission was kidnapped around Ilesa, Osun State.

Mr Ayo Oladele, an employee of Guinness Nigeria, and an Old Student of Christ School, Ado-Ekiti, was abducted and taken away and lately, Dayo Adewole, son of a member of your 2015-2019 executive council and Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole was kidnapped on his farm at Iroko, a village along Ibadan-Oyo Road…

As ugly as the picture above seems to be, the people of Yoruba land have remained generally peaceful and have resisted concerted efforts to push them into civil disobedience or adopting self-help mechanisms to protect themselves…

I am therefore writing to you, as a concerned stakeholder in your administration, to alert you and demonstrate to you, the urgency of the need to quickly respond to these and other issues concerning Yoruba land….

There is a general impression among opposition group that you are not known to take decisive and proactive steps in many matters of national interest and that you are not usually too disturbed about the gale of insecurity in Yoruba land…

As no major arrest of Fulani pseudo herdsmen has been made till date in Yoruba land, suspects cannot be paraded, let alone arraigned…

I am aware that members of the Odua People’s Congress scattered all over the world are already being mobilized to stand in the defence of their land and are ready, willing and able to raise an army of volunteers as was done in 1968 by the Agbekoya…”

These are pearly words of wisdom and advice from a monarch who is practically deified in Yoruba land. The President has been stridently admonished and strongly advised in forceful, resounding and vibrating language which is reverberating all over the polity. Effectively, Alaafin Adeyemi is saying that enough is enough and that things will get pretty unpleasant and nasty, pretty soon, unless the President wakes up from his deep, almost comatose, slumber and does the needful by a wholesale revamp and reshaping of our security architecture and thereby protect his fellow Nigerian citizens. The President swore to uphold our Constitution, it is about time that he started upholding that oath by acting like a patriotic Nigerian and safeguarding all his people and preserving their property.

On a similar note, I have been watching the videos of a militant Yoruba man, named Sunday Igboho, from Oyo State and what I see is raw determination to unleash mayhem, if need be, to protect his kinsmen from the brigands and mosstroopers trampling on them and their rights. The views Igboho expresses are symptomatic and reflective of the views of most of Yoruba land. He is the latest Yoruba hero for his fearlessness.

I hope and pray that President Buhari would appreciate this authentic security briefing from The Alaafin, one of Africa’s most important custodians of tradition and culture and resist the temptation of sending his trigger-happy military against the people of Oyo State. They are obviously ready for a full-scale showdown and battle in order to redeem their manhood against the rampaging kidnappers, rapists, raiders and corsairs. I foresee a civil war and bloodbath if action is not taken soon.

May this cup pass over us…

The post Pendulum: Who Shall Tell the President Nigeria is Dying? | By Dele Momodu first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

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Ayobamidele Abayomi Ojutelegan Ajani Momodu had all these ‘packaged’ for him in copious measures by the Creator as he journeyed down to this world sixty years ago.

It has been a very long time since I wrote tributes like this about anybody, anywhere. I have, perhaps, become lazy or maybe I have been too busy keeping myself and my businesses alive to bother about scripting eulogies to deserving friends and loved ones.

I can quickly submit here before I forget that I am yet to meet a Nigerian that has passion for Journalism as much as Basorun Dele Momodu. And I have so many reasons for my submission. It is no gainsaying that the Creator bestowed on him a far more than average intelligence quotient matched with a gargantuan native balance to push ahead in life. He is truly a man with a divine mission.

How did I meet Basorun?

I first met him while I was a student of the defunct Oyo State College of Arts and Science (OSCAS), Ile Ife, Osun State in 1982 after I left Lagelu Grammar School, Ibadan.

Even at that time, it was obvious he was going to end up in life as a popular man. I knew him. But I was sure he did not know me. I was certainly not one of those to attract his attention that time. He was one of our young lecturers and I recall that he handled English Literature under Mr Ogunmodede then. But he was so popular we all called him ‘Dele Mad’. How we came about that, I cannot readily recollect here. Seye Oyeleyo of DAWN Commission, a friend and fellow student at that time may recollect…

After our encounter in Ile Ife, I did not get to hear anything about him until I got to Lagos in 1991.The story of my sojourn in Lagos will come later (if I end up squeezing time to knock it together).

I landed in Lagos after serving in Bauchi and running a company with Brother Gbenga Adeyemi (Guze), the elder brother of one of my mates at Lagelu Grammar School, Ibadan. I left the North-Eastern city owing to the religious riots that broke out in 1991. I thereafter chose to stay briefly in Ibadan before proceeding to Lagos in tandem with the adrenalin of adventure which had overtaken my being. I took my father’s car with me. It was this car that I used in borrowing money to uplift the career of a popular juju musician in whose talent I had faith. He defaulted in paying and the issue became a media war between us. I still have copies of editions of The Punch, Daily Sketch, Vanguard, Nigerian Tribune, Daily Times, Hints and several others who published our ‘war’ then. It was during this brouhaha in 1992 that I encountered Dele Momodu officially.

Apparently, he read about the media brickbats the musician and I were throwing at each other and somehow, we met and he sat me down for a serious lecture. During the session, he told me the story of how he fell out with his own boss too, late May Helen Ezekiel who owned Classique Magazine. He told me about how he started a media war against her before Otunba Mike Adenuga, the owner of Globacom lectured him on why it is against the laws of propriety to engage close associates or friends in media war. This drew me to Momodu and prompted me to immediately drop my ‘toga of battle’ to follow him just like Peter began to follow Christ the Messiah.

By this time, he was a major distributor of the now defunct famous Abiola Bread owned by late Basorun Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola. He sold bread with his blue-colored Volkswagen Jetta Car. At the same time, he was a Contributing Editor at the defunct FAME WEEKLY MAGAZINE where he maintained a weekly column, PENDULUM.

Bob Dee, as I met others calling him that time was the man everybody wanted to talk to and be with. His column was one of the very major reasons people bought FAME WEEKLY MAGAZINE. The directors then were Mayor Akinpelu, Kunle Bakare and Femi Akintunde-Johnson.

Unofficially, I became Bob Dee’s Personal Assistant running stuffs for him. I must at this point confess that this new relationship with the prolific writer fanned the flair for writing in me. I would take the manuscript of his PENDULUM from him as he wrote each page and re-write. I never really graduated as an apprentice writer because we almost immediately got involved with the MKO Abiola presidential campaign.

Bob Dee got his friends to employ me as a reporter at FAME WEEKLY. I was put under the late WALE OLOMU to also learn how to write entertainment stories. But Dele Momodu was still my boss.

Later, Prince Nduka Obaigbena asked Bob Dee to set up THISDAY Newspapers for him. He gave him a brand new Peugeot 504. Before this time, Chief MKO Abiola had arranged for a grey Mercedes Benz for him.

The newspaper took off somewhere on Norman Williams in Ikoyi, if I still remember. Okagbue Aduba, a complete gentleman, was brought in as the pioneer Editor. This is an interesting story for another day.

The point here is that Bob Dee put everything he had behind everything he did and is still doing. He is an excellent multi-tasking guru who kept his weekly column writing alongside his private consultancy businesses while still ensuring that THISDAY took off even as he continued running stuffs for MKO Abiola and his campaign team.

Permit me if I miss anything out because at this point, things started moving at a dizzying pace. The Jos Primary election that produced MKO Abiola took place; Baba Gana Kingibe was chosen as his running mate; their party was Social Democratic Party (SDP);Bashir Tofa emerged as the candidate of NRC; the elections held and MKO won. Yes, he won. Thereafter, the June 12, 1993 struggle started. We all abandoned what we were doing to concentrate on how to actualize the mandate given to the legendary MKO.

At this time, the owner of THISDAY, Nduka Obaigbena had become a strong anti-June 12 advocate. He wanted Bob Dee to join him. Of course, Dele Momodu declined, stuck to the June 12 struggle. He never wavered. He was resolute. This landed him in Alagbon. He was detained for several days. After this, we smuggled him out of Nigeria to the United Kingdom.

While in London, he never allowed the challenges he faced in the bid to firmly entrench himself in his new abode to obliterate his passion for journalism. This was how he ‘conjured up’ with the idea of establishing OVATION INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE.

For those who do not know, we operated in Lagos like a ‘triumvirate family’. Dele Momodu was the father, Kunle Bakare of the then, Fame Weekly Magazine was his best friend and son and I was the grandson. In those days, if one of us was at the then famous Nite Shift Nite Club with Ken Calebs Olumhese, you could be sure the others were around. Such was the strength of the chord that bound us! The rest is history.

When he therefore came up with the idea of OVATION INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE, he relied on Kunle Bakare and my humble self. We handled the Nigerian end of the business. We would arrange for materials and send to him. He would then package and publish and send to Nigeria. We distributed the magazines alongside FAME WEEKLY.

Somehow, Bob Dee and Kunle Bakare fell out. This became a huge dilemma for me. I assumed Kunle Bakare was my best friend that time. God bless his enigmatic wife, Desola. I was unfortunately caught in the middle of a quarrel between two great friends. I did not know what to do or on whose side to stay. Bob Dee was my boss. Bakare also known as Mr. KB was my friend.

It took me almost three months to make up my mind on what to do. I give thanks to God for the lives of Chief Ezekiel Fatoye, Godwin Mekwuye of Vivid Imagination, Hassan Fatungase of the then Bakers’ World and Sir Doksy, now Oba Adedokun Abolarin, the Orangun of Oke Ila; late Sonny Okosuns, Olabode Opeseitan, Daniel Wilson and Daddy Showkey. They helped me to make up my mind.

I had two options -join Kunle Bakare and abandon the OVATION INTERNATIONAL project, or stay with Dele Momodu and lose KB’s friendship and resign from Fame Weekly as Assistant Editor.

Chief Fatoye, Hassan Fatungase, Vivid and Doksy and others all asked me one question…How did you meet the two warring gentlemen? My answer, ‘Dele Momodu introduced me to Kunle Bakare’. Then, they unanimously advised me to stay with Dele Momodu, who, at this time could not come to Nigeria.

After this admonition, I packed Ovation Magazine’s documents and all appertaining to it out of the Wemabod Estate, Ikeja office of FAME WEEKLY MAGAZINE to Afisman Drive, Anifowose in Central Ikeja where late Brother Rotimi Seriki(another wonderful soul), the husband of senior sister of Dele Momodu’s wife had a ready office for Ovation Magazine. So, the business of running the magazine continued under my humble self. And this was an assignment I carried out to the best of my ABILITY. Afterall, I could not have offered what I did not have. The rest is history…

As someone close to him at that time, I learnt so many lessons following him around, I learnt to practically worship him because he was to me, an enigma. He could speak both Yoruba and English fluently, he could write both, he was creative and he was extremely humane. He loved to read and had a very rich library. These were the virtues in him that served to cement our bond.

I stand the risk of sounding like a broken record but, permit me to mention specific examples to buttress the virtues that made Bob Dee tick.

Selfless

Bob Dee was not a rich man, but I saw him, at that time, sponsor at least four young men through their Law School programmes. One of them, Barrister Bamidele Abolarin (Super Dee) lives in Ibadan like me today.

Live and Let Live

Bob Dee lived for the day. If he had ten thousand naira, he would dash out eight and keep two. And if he had reason to dash out the two, he would. Fellow journalists would come to him at his Adigboluja, Ojodu, Lagos residence with myriads of problems and he would not only listen, he would lift fingers to support. Examples are too numerous to mention here. One of us then had problems with his wife because he did not have a car. Dele Momodu dashed him his Jetta Car!

Courageous and Committed

If you are looking for an example of courage, Bob Dee was one. For those who can remember, in 1993 during the heat of the election annulment, Bob Dee staged a ‘coup’ which saw the leader of the infamous Association for Better Nigeria (ABN), Chief Abimbola Davis speaking to the press from The Kitchen Restaurant on Allen Avenue. After the epochal media meeting, we all ran away. Davis was smuggled out of Lagos to Togo using a Peugeot 504 car that I was commissioned to arrange. Bob Dee also disappeared while I escaped to Ibadan. In addition, Bob Dee was in charge of several underground moves to actualize the June 12 mandate of MKO.

Today, on behalf of my wife, Oluwatoyin and children, I thank him for being a great mentor to me despite our differences. He taught me that I must always restrict myself to my area of competence, be contented and to always stay on my own lane. He also lectured me on the need to dress well and be decent at all times. These orientations I got from the great Bob Dee, added to the Grace of God have helped me in life. This, to me is a relationship, brotherhood beyond Ovation. I am always proud to associate with this selfless mentor.

Basorun Dele Momodu, omo Iya Oyo, happy 60th birthday sir! God bless you, God bless your elegant wife, Omobolaji and all your children.

Olayinka Agboola is the Crew Leader at Parrot Xtra Magazine, PMParrot.com and Parrot Xtra Hour On Radio

The post Dele Momodu@60: Relationship Beyond Ovation | By Olayinka Agboola first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

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I have known the presidential media assistant for more than two decades now and I, as well as those who know him, know that his short fuse is akin to an epileptic fit. That he would translate this drawback into the management of his office was not a surprise. What is surprising is that mature minds in the presidency couldn’t rein in this personal limitation from becoming an official imprimatur that paints the hallowed office of the Vice President in the visor of a common motor park tout whenever this fit is in full blossom. Like in the rejoinder under reference.

Not only do I know Mr. Akande very well, on my part, I thought he was my friend and that he is aware that friendship shouldn’t stand in the way of making comments on issues that affect the country. Specifically, I knew Mr. Akande in 1995, about 24 years ago, at the Tribune House, Imalefalafia, Ibadan, Oyo State. Surprisingly, while Akande pretends never to have worked there, I still carry the glory of this frontline newspaper which made me what I am today.

Those who are in the know would tell you what Akande used the Saturday Tribune newspaper he edited then for, which he knows that I know. With what we all know, Akande is the least person to impute motives to what journalists write. It is on record that almost all the lead stories in the newspaper under his editor-ship were against the government of the day. Would it be right to say he collected money from the opposition then?

I hope Mr. Akande remembers that I was not just an insider in the Tribune then, we were sufficiently close for me to know what he did. The language he used for me in the said rejoinder did not in the least shock me, his friend – I assume! – of almost 24 years, given the fact of what I know about how Mr. Akande regards relationships. My friend, Akande, was a member of a 5-man circle of very closely-knit friends in the Tribune at that time. Can he explain why the other four were sacked in 1997 and he did not only survive the sack, he, like a supplanter, took over the post of one of his sacked friends? Or has he forgotten how he became the editor of the Saturday Tribune, a position he took from his sacked friend? Till today, Mr. Akande’s friends still lament the knife with which his Cassius stabbed their Julius Caesar. The quadruple facilitated his employment at the Tribune. This is basically why I am not bothered about his intemperate language. All of us, his friends, do not expect anything noble from Mr. Akande.

On March 17, 2018, celebrated and respected journalist, one of our immediate forefathers in the pen profession, Mr. Dele Momodu, wrote a very emotional piece about Mr. Akande. He entitled it An Open Letter to Laolu Akande. In that piece, Mr. Momodu traced the genealogy of his association with Akande. He began by wondering “what people eat or drink inside the Aso Rock Villa that makes some of those of (our) ilk, who we once admired, misbehave the way you (Akande) did last night.” Like me, Mr. Momodu had known him for more than two decades. He wrote about how, on meeting Akande in America where he was sojourning, he “expressed the difficulties and vagaries of life (he) faced in America,” how he made him North American Bureau Chief for Ovation International and how, at some point, the editor “complained about the way you handled transactions and so on” and how he “simply abandoned a company that provided some modest income for (him) in America.”

He had been publishing a ragtag online medium called Empowered Newswire which visiting Nigerian politicians to the US claimed he was using to extort money from them. Mr. Akande’s reply to a similar piece I did critiquing the VP authored by Momodu was, “For good measure, Bob Dee, maybe we should just remind our readers that not only are you an active member of opposition, you also retain with top notchers of the PDP significant business relationships.” It was a euphemism for alleging that the respected journalist was compromised.

I noticed that in the said rejoinder, Mr. Akande repeatedly referred to me as “Mr.” Being someone with visceral hatred for titles, I do not bother about whatever prefix anyone attaches to me but, in this instance, I noticed that this was done for spite purpose, even when Mr. Akande is aware that I hold a PhD – not honoris causa – from the Department of Political Science, University of Ibadan, same school I am aware that Mr. Akande struggled unsuccessfully for close to two decades until he abandoned his doctoral pursuit. For his information, while he is stagnant intellectually, I have gone a step forward to acquire an LLB from that same University of Ibadan .

Now back to his claim of my manufacture of the information in the piece. While I owe him no apology whatsoever, explanation or any detail, I leave Nigerians to place us side by side and judge who is believable between us. Here was a presidential aide who, about a week ago, took about 200 million Nigerians for a ride, telling them that there was no sack of his principals’ aides by the President. A few hours after, a colleague aide of his at the presidency told the world that there were indeed sacks of the same people. Mum has been the word from the supplanter since then. In saner climes, it was enough reason to resign his portfolio. Shamelessly, he still appends his signature to releases. No remorse, no shame. Till today,

Mr. Akande is apparently one of those “government people” whose warped and narrow minds cannot conceive the possibility of anyone critiquing government personalities without having been compromised. He has failed to tell the world who could have compromised me to write an old information that was common knowledge on the Nigerian information highway. I am sure that those who were privy to the information must be laughing themselves hoarse at Mr. Akande’s unexampled attempt to make a corpse walk.

As a parting shot, the person I pity most is the VP who is trapped in the cocoon of this irascible element who has transposed his short fuse into the management of the press of the vice president. I recommend the examples of his colleagues – Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu – to him. When you critique their boss, not only do they take it in their strides, they do not smear the critic in swine lingo as Akande does. Today, Mr. Akande has scant regards among Nigerian media chiefs due to this limitation of his and how he cannot maintain friendships. No wonder the office has almost nil media rating. Many of the barbs the professor VP receives are ostensibly ones meant for his media chief who will descend into the gutters and splash sewers on whoever tells the world that his principal isn’t exactly a nephew of Angel Gabriel. No one is.

Dr Festus Adedayo, a seasoned journalist, columnist and media consultant; writes from Ibadan, Oyo state

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Both Atiku and his running mate pointed out some policies they intend to operate if elected.

Reacting, Bruce said the performance of Atiku and Obi was an indication that Nigeria needed them.

In a series of tweets, the business mogul said despite the alleged hostile environment and pressure, Atiku “never cracked.”

He commended Atiku for responding to his principles and not the environment.

“Under pressure, @atiku did not crack. This is kind of leader Nigeria needs. A leader who will never crack under pressure. This is why I will vote for Atiku. #NGCandidates

“The environment was hostile, yet @atiku was friendly and professional. That is Leadership in action. A man who does not react to his environment, but responds with his principle. #NGTheCandidates,” he tweeted.

On his part, veteran journalist and Publisher, Dele Momodu insisted that Atiku’s performance was far better than that of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Momodu tweeted: “I think whosoever watched the ATIKU ABUBAKAR and PETER OBI performance tonight would have decided who to vote for on February 16, 2019.

“As for me and my house, I think ATIKU ABUBAKAR is far better than MUHAMMADU BUHARI but YEMI OSINBAJO and PETER OBI can duel.”

The Senate President, Bukola Saraki on his part tweeted: “With the February 16th General Election drawing closer, tonight, our Presidential and VP candidates, @Atiku and @PeterObi, were guests on #NgTheCandidates where they laid out their well-articulated plans to tackle insecurity; create jobs; and get Nigeria’s economy working again.”

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The internet is a giver of false hopes and confidence. I want to believe that the power of the internet is exaggerated and overrated in our dearly beloved country. Everyone who is able to buy some data sees himself as an omnipotent blogger who can install or bring down any government. This delusion of grandeur is not local to Nigeria but is pervasive all over Africa and it is tragic.

Suddenly every blogger is a celebrity. I make it a habit to check the number of followers they command and control. I check their tweets and scrutinise their influence. People with less than 50,000 followers claim to own the heavens and the earth in a country with a population fast approaching 200 million. The sad thing is that those who should know better believe their influence and begin to help the bloggers in peddling what is mostly drivel and sometimes blatant falsehood. What is worse, about 70 percent of the population are largely illiterate or ill-lettered. Ignorance and poverty have also combined to render many of us irrelevant. When some of this illiterate and ignorant population seize upon some of the rubbish peddled by the bloggers, you can imagine the outcome. Distorted and misleading information travels by the jungle express of rumour mongering that Nigerians seem to have perfected into an art form. With the knowledge of the effect that they have, many bloggers have resorted to uncouth language and brazen attacks on whosoever they disagree with. No effort is made to persuade and convince.

Let me posit my thesis right away. Unless Nigerian youths purge themselves of the arrogance associated with the social media, the journey of liberation may be much longer than we think or know. We must all pay our dues before we can begin to flex muscles of greatness and apotheosis. There are no short cuts to these things. Our youths must read and learn the history of revolutions. No matter how commonly available internet data has become, thanks to a company like GLOBALCOM, with humongous investments in submarine cables and state of the art technology, every one of us must still go through the rudiments of political science. And it is not as simple as it seems.

The good news is that there has been so much hoopla about youth participation in the governance of Nigeria. The mantra is simple and easy to remember: NOT TOO YOUNG TO RUN. Very apt and nice. But how are they going to change an age-old habit that has become irremovably sticky? What I see is discomfiting. I see feel-good advocates and crusaders who see their activities as only a means to an end. I see a cockiness that shows me that we think this is a joke or some circus clownery. Nigeria is not going to change overnight just because we have internet and smartphones. Many of our forebears paid the ultimate and supreme price trying to change Nigeria for the better. They were better focussed and ready to suffer the excruciating pains of being non-conformist. Ask Herbert Macaulay. Ask Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikwe, Tafawa Balewa, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Ooni

Adesoji Aderemi, Nzeogwu, Odumegwu Ojukwu. Ask Olufunmilayo Ransome-Kuti. Aminu Kano, Balarabe Musa, Moshood Abiola. Ask Wole Soyinka, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Tai Solarin, Gani Fawehinmi, Kenule Saro Wiwa, Femi Falana. And so many others who passed through the trenches of oppression and repression.

Someone needs to draw attention to false claims to martyrdom by those without any history or record of sustained struggle. Those who sit in the comfort of their homes and think they can influence decisions and elections are only kidding. A political revolution is never a tea party. They can lie to themselves in their braggadocio but not to those who understand the game of power. Ultimately they are not fooling the Nigerian people. Ask the common man today what he feels about the so-called agitators today and you will truly find your answer,. The people are not stupid. Show me any youth organisation in Nigeria with a membership of up to one million people. Show me any demonstration in Nigeria with a followership of 50,000 followers that lasted one week running. Yet we saw unrelenting crowds in Egypt, Brazil, Venezuela and other far-flung places. They probably had more internet penetration than us but still did not keep their arms akimbo while awaiting a socio-political miracle. If Nigerian youths are going to make any remarkable difference in the foreseeable future, they must prepare for the long-haul and not the opportunistic and psychedelic joke we see all around us today. The Government too needs to be careful not to elevate charlatans and attention seekers into what they are not. There is at present a growing tendency to do so.

2018 is almost knocking and 2019 will soon follow, yet none of us can say with any degree of certainty the top three youthful and cerebral candidates Nigerian youths would readily support when the times comes. What we are likely to see again is merchandising with smart boys chasing juicy contracts from the highest bidder.

Everyone loves money but we must be ready to sacrifice something for our long-suffering country before we can claim the honour and the glory. A man who does not want to get wet should never go near the river. That is why the sacrifice Chief Abiola paid can never be dismissed as little. I’m not sure the “ajebutters” (silver-spoon kids) of today are ready for a “sit-at-home” not to talk of “sleep-in-prison” situation.

Where do we go from here? There are certain basic ground rules that we must establish and regulate well ahead of the 2019 general elections. The first criteria that must be sorted and settled as a matter of principle is that of age. We’ve tested the young, the middle-age and the aged and most have wobbled and fumbled. What we need therefore is to insist that no matter the situation, Nigeria needs men and women of strength and stamina henceforth. Our infrastructure deficit makes it imperative for us to search, seek and support our best eleven. We can no longer afford to have musical chairs and seat-warmers for God’s sake. Enough of crawling snail-like at a time the rest of the world is moving at supersonic speed. Anyone above 65 has passed retirement age and should please spare Nigeria the agony and aguish of weak and ineffectual leadership.

The priority of Nigeria in 2019 would no longer be the war against corruption since Mr Magu has already declared victory over the malignant cancer that has almost killed our country. That is the main reason many people had no choice but to vote for a man we considered old but strong enough to drive the fear of God into our recalcitrant looters. While it is the right of every Nigerian above forty to contest Presidential election, it is also the right of Nigerian youths to reject any aspirant or candidate above retirement age. This is the reasonable thing to do but if we fail to establish this principle as early as possible, we should stop lamenting like the Biblical Jeremiah.

The next principle that must be critically reconsidered is the issue of zoning system. If Nigeria does not kill zoning, zoning will kill Nigeria. I do not care where the President of Nigeria comes from but I care about the age and competence and stamina of my President. Nigeria is well endowed with some of the brightest brains in the world but zoning promotes mediocrity as well as corruption. While the original idea of zoning was to promote a sense of belonging, it has since been bastardised to engender a sense of negative and destructive competition. Zoning is now a formula of rotating thievery and roguery. It is clear that in today’s Nigeria, whichever tribe attains power would always thrive better than the others. And this has generated too much tension in the land. It is one of the reasons many are agitating for restructuring right now which may eventually lead to implosion and explosion. There is no justification for this. Careful national planning is all encompassing. No tribe should feel that it would be neglected if its “person” is not in power. Visionaries do not think like that and they do not engender such a feelin. Government is not about the sharing of positions but the development of infrastructure and of the populace.

There are practical ways we can tackle the urgent needs of Nigeria. Our present system is too slow and sluggish. In 2010, I approached Mallam Nasir El Rufai to be my running mate which he politely declined. My aim was to have a combination of similar minds from the South and the North. But something positive came out of that attempted synergy. He told me that he and a group of like minds were thinking of assembling a star-studded team and the idea would be to have like a shadow cabinet that can be sold jointly to Nigerians to give a preview of what their government would look like. For me, that remains a brilliant idea. It would be fantastic to be able to visualise what our next government would promise Nigerians in terms of personnel and content. If we had this type of arrangement before the election, it would have given us an idea of the type of leaders to expect. This would also save the political parties of acrimonious primaries. This is the beauty of the British Parliamentary system which we can adopt even in our Presidential system.

Let each of our parties showcase their team instead of showing us only one strongman and a weaker Vice. APC would be forced to present a formidable team if they see that PDP has gathered some much brighter and tested team instead of an ill-assorted bunch of politicians foisted on the nation only by godfathers and political expediency. I will be too excited in the next dispensation to see such names as Yemi Osinbajo, Donald Duke, Nasir El Rufai, Babatunde Fashola, Godswill Akpabio, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Rabiu Kwankwaso, Akinwumi Adesina, Charles Soludo, Oby Ezekwesili, Fola Adeola, Jimi Agbaje, Rotimi Amaechi, Peter Obi, Aminu Tambuwal, Bukola Saraki, Yakubu Dogara, Nuhu Ribadu, Pat Utomi, Bolaji Abdullahi, Akinwunmi Ambode, Tony Elumelu, Ibe Kachikwu, Awwal Tukur, Kayode Fayemi, Ibrahim Dankwambo, Seidu Mallami, Wale Babalakin, (not in any particular order) and so many other distinguished Nigerians at home and abroad joining hands with our up and coming young Turks to move our economy and society in the right direction. The next President of Nigeria must have substantial and sufficient educational qualifications for the job. Experience in politics is not necessarily a sine qua non. Note that most, if not all, of those I have mentioned have national appeal and are detribalised to a large extent. I do not say that the President or his deputy should come from their number. Only that it would be nice to see them in a future government that has a mix of youth and experience. Divide and distribute them into different political parties and select President and Ministers from them, it won’t matter if any of them is from the North or South.

If the youths don’t insist on those principles and do everything possible to enforce them, nothing is going to change. We are going to wake up the day after the election and discover that someone closer to 80 than 60 would have won again, largely assisted by those under 40.

Shame!

The post The Challenges Ahead of Nigerian Youths first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post The Challenges Ahead of Nigerian Youths appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.