22032019- INEC holds make-up polls in 17 states, FCT tomorrow

Vanguard, FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2019—43
Kawu Modibo’s constant campaign of
calumny against Saraki
RIGHT OF REPLY
By Sola Ebiseni
KAWU Modibo's usual
attacks on the Saraki family,
particularly Bukola Saraki, the
enigmatic Nigerian Senate
president, is not just a past time but
actually an occupation pursued with
uncanny passion. A media man of
repute, Lanre Kawu (as he then was)
often leverages on the abundant
press space available to him in his
harangue of the person of the former
Kwara governor and all he stands
for. This Kawu often does, unmindful
of his own reputation, in repeating
worn-out allegations which have
seen the best of their days, but
unsuccessfully, with both the EFCC
and the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
One could easily have dismissed
his latest tirades entitled "Final
meltdown for the Saraki hegemony"
as one of such envy-inspired diatribe
for which he seeks relevance in his
local Kwara politics, even with
unverified outlandish figures of
releases from the federation account,
as if the parameters for revenue
allocation to Kwara is different from
the rest of the federating states. This
time around, he ventured into
national politics, perhaps oblivious
of the current political status and
stature of his object of attacks,
beyond local Kwara political
squabbles.
How could Kawu expect
Nigerians to take him seriously when
he claimed that Saraki's return to
Senate in 2015 was a benefit from
Muhammadu Buhari. The question
is when did Buhari ever win any
election in Kwara State, particularly
in his previous three consecutive
presidential contests in 2003, 2007
and 2011, until his political
partnership with the Sarakis in 2015.
Besides, Kawu should have sought
other means of ingratiating himself
to President Buhari rather than
claiming that Saraki's acts, as the
head of the Nigerian parliament,
were responsible for the president's
lacklustre performance.
For the information and
education of Kawu and his cohorts,
if anything qualifies Bukola Saraki
as the hero of Nigerian democracy,
since Buhari's presidency, it is his
unmatched capacity to steer the ship
of the National Assembly, in a way
that he and his colleagues wittingly
weaned our democracy from the
dictatorship of the president. Not
only can these salutary endeavours
be diminished by the whims of
anyone, they have certainly taken
Bukola Saraki far away from the
local Kwara boy of Kawu's fixated
perception.
The much fuss by Kawu about the
loss at an election could only
diminish his learning and
understanding of democracy, its
precepts and workings. While he
admitted that the Saraki political
group, which has become an
institution or hegemony, as he would
love it referenced, has dominated
Kwara politics for upwards of four
decades, one begins to wonder the
big deal in the group's performance,
however low, in the current elections.
Certainly, the problem is not of he
who lost an election but of a so-called
political or educated elite, so
psychologically transfixed, in the
assumptions that Saraki family or
Bukola or anyone for that matter,
could never have lost an election. The
•Senate president, Bukola Saraki
reality of the electoral process, even
in advanced democracies is that, no
matter the performance of
politicians or political parties, the
people often want to try other hands.
That is the philosophy behind fixing
terminal or tenure ends, with no
respect for performance ratings
which are often based on subjective
political indices.
This is the rationale behind the o
to ge (Enough is Enough) message
as the dominant campaign mantra
in the current electioneering process
in Kwara. It is not a political death
sentence, but of the need to try other
hands in the process of development.
This is the inalienable right of the
people in any democracy. It is
instructive that Saraki has
demonstrated statesmanship in his
reaction to the electoral events, while
those who should devote their time
and energy to their vision in the
daunting task of governance, are
rather preoccupied with obsequious
analysis.
In trying to impress some powers
and justify his new self discovery, even
beyond his petty political squabbles
with his imaginary Saraki foes,
Modibo's piece is, clandestinely,
It seems rather
gullible to
pronounce a man,
still in his middle
age, politically dead
and embark on
singing his nunc
dimitis over a
momentary
electoral hiccups
laced with ethnic cards. It is evident
in his patronising references to "our
people" and "our state" which
pervades his diatribe, that he
reckoned not with some ethnic
groups in the state, particularly the
Yoruba majority. This observation is
strengthened by my personal
interaction with Kawu with relation
to his perceptions of Kwara politics
and its complex ethnic relationships,
which the Saraki group has long
managed with almost magical
dexterity.
For instance, Kawu's reference to
traditional rulers was only to emirs
and never a mention of Obas, whose
Yoruba people are the indisputable
majority, or the rulers of other tribes
like Nupe and
Baruba, as if
Kwara is a
typical north
western state. In
the same vein, he
would have
wished that the
Constitution of
Nigeria be
amended so that
Kwara Central
Senatorial
District be
reflected as
Ilorin Emirate.
No wonder, part
of Saraki's
offences,
according to
Kawu, was also
that one or two of
his aides or a personal assistant of a
minister from his camp, are
allegedly persons from a
neighbouring Yoruba state. It would
have been permissible if such persons
have been from some foreign land
even if Mali or Chad.
While revelling in what he saw as
political revolution in Kwara, he
mischievously and deliberately
avoided the o to ge message of the
revolution because of his repulsion
for the language and angst for its
Yoruba ethnic nationality. I had
engaged Modibo during the 2014
National Conference, of which we
were both delegates, on why he
changed his name from Olanrewaju,
with which he was known back in
school and later as a broadcaster.
His reply was that he then recently
discovered that his parents were
Malians or Futa D'jallon migrants
to Ilorin. His other weird comments
on the history of Ilorin and its ethnic
settings are also in tandem with his
disdain for the Yoruba and which has
since dictated his views. He has
forgotten that in Ilorin, the location
of one’s father’s house in the family
compound also say a lot in how his
father came to be a claimant to being
a part of the compound.
We leave the interpretation of this
symbolism for Kawu to decide his
own place in his family compound.
Kawu may only take notice that, in
its fullest essence, the ignited o to ge
revolutionary fire will not be limited
to democratic politics but will sweep
through the land initially created as
West Central State, uprooting every
hegemony, even those perpetuated
by centuries of falsehood.
Neither the Saraki family nor
Bukola is infallible as humans, in
the same way there will never be a
public administrator immune to
criticism. I have only viewed the
Sarakis from the distance and only
more closely observed Bukola
recently with my involvement in the
Atiku campaigns. All over the
country, he not only added value to
the campaigns, which he led as
Director General, he also came up
as the hero of the people.
In the South West states, for
instance, the crowd would teasingly
insist on his addressing them in the
Yoruba language, which he did
admirably. In other parts of the
country as well, he was applauded.
He exudes humility and was warmly
received, contrary to the image of a
man seeking obeisance from people
as he is being mischievously
presented by Kawu. Yet in his
mutually contradictory opinion,
which smacks of untold vendetta,
part of Sarakis' offences, according
to Kawu, was the success of the
family even when they have no royal
blood in their veins.
The Saraki family and its political
machine are a case study, not only
in Kwara but, in the politics of
Nigeria. Abubakar Olusola Saraki
was Senate Majority Leader during
Shagari's presidency of the Second
Republic. Not much was known of
him in the First Republic and the
military politics thereafter but during
Babangida's Third Republic, he
contested in the presidential
primary of the SDP before he and
the likes of Shehu Yar'Adua, Olu
Falae, etc. were banned by
Babangida. I was then the Chairman
of the old Ilaje-Ese Odo Local
Government of Ondo State, having
been elected also on the platform of
the SDP, after just barely leaving the
NYSC.
Notwithstanding his fortunes at the
national level, Dr. Olusola Saraki,
from his entry in the Second Republic,
has enacted a regime as king maker
in Kwara, from Adamu Attah of the
same NPN, Cornelius Adebayo of the
rival UPN and every elected
governor up to his son, Bukola, who
not only became governor of Kwara
State and successfully took over as
kingmaker, but has surpassed his
father to occupy the constitutional
number three position but, de facto,
the second most powerful position
in Nigeria, after the president.
Proverbial
banana peels
Without prejudice to the
achievements of his predecessors,
Bukola Saraki's Senate Presidency
has been the most eventful but
challenging in the face of the gangup
of the President and his party
against him. Where others, older and
apparently more politically suave,
have bitten the dust, slipping by
stepping on the proverbial banana
peels on the red rug of the Senate
chamber, Bukola has taken the
challenges in his strides, giving
stunning leadership for his
colleagues who, across party divides,
have shielded and made him
impregnable by the Aso Rock hawks.
In the final analysis, it seems
rather gullible to pronounce a man,
still in his middle age, politically
dead and embark on singing his nunc
dimitis over a momentary electoral
hiccups, at a time his star is just
illuminating the national political
firmament. Their beclouding venom
could not allow realistic reasoning
that Saraki's commitment to his PDP
nationwide campaigns assignments
could have taken its toil on his
concentration on the home front
political activities.
For Kawu and his ilks, it is far very
easy to write and denounce political
actors, from a comfort corner,
especially by those who have never
tested and indeed afraid to try their
own popularity in elections. One can
therefore only advise those who
presently feel invested with the
people's mandate to be focused on
making a difference and shun the
distractions from unhelpful
vengeance seekers.
Those who deceived the people
with the change slogan at the federal
level in 2015, have soon now resorted
to different shenanigans and trying
to twist the verdict of the people just
delivered against their patriarch. Let
them not sing uhuru too early.
•Ebiseni, lawyer and former
Commissioner in Ondo State, is a
member of the PDP Presidential
Campaign Council.
Tension rises
over multiple
Customs
checkpoints
By Godwin Oritse
LAGOS—ANGRY freight for
warders operating in the
Western Zone have issued a 72-
hour ultimatum to the Federal
Government to call the Comptroller
General of Customs, Col.
Hameed Ali to order and address
the multiplication of Customs task
forces at the ports.
They threatened that if the
situation is not reversed by
Monday, they will withdraw their
services.
At a joint press briefing held in
Apapa, yesterday, various
associations which include
Association of Nigeria Licensed
Customs Agents, ANLCA,
National Association of
Government Approved Freight
Forwarders, NAGAFF, and
National Council of Managing
Directors of Licensed Customs
Agents, lamented that the
customs boss had allegedly
deployed a team from Abuja to
checkmate activities of the various
commands.
The freight forwarders
identified 10 units of customs
constituting bottlenecks inside the
port. Some of them include: CG
Strike force, compliance team,
Federal Operations Unit,
Monitoring, Special Force, CG
task force, information team,
Customs Police, among others.
The latest development
which spiked tension in the
port was the recent
deployment of a special team
from Abuja to inspect third
party cargoes at the port.
Only 4.7% of
MDAs use IT
—NITDA
By Emmanuel Elebeke
ABUJA—THE
Director
General of National
Information Technology
Development Agency, NITDA,
Dr. Isa Ali Pantami says only 4.7
per cent of Federal Government
Ministries, Departments and
Agencies use information
Technology, IT, in efficient
manner.
Dr. Pantami disclosed this at the
stakeholders engagement for
Nigerian Government Enterprise
Architecture, NGEA, held at
Rockview Hotel, Abuja.
The DG said the figure is a
manifestation of the real MDAs
where some transactions leading
to delivery of government
services are completed and
carried out through a single
portal, even if those transactions
require actions and business
processes from two or more
government agencies.
To drive home digital economy,
the NITDA boss said there is a
strong need for sufficient
deployment of IT in government
to ensure desirable outcome as it
remains a major strategic tool for
implementing government
policies.
He then called for concerted
effort in creating a one stop e-governance
transaction in Nigeria through IT
interoperability.