10012021 - Foreign powers fingered in Nigeria's escalating insecurity

PAGE 20 —SUNDAY VANGUARD, JANUARY 10, 2021
The Kukah homily and
other things
Ido often sympathize
with Femi Adesina
and Garba Shehu,
two of President Buhari’s
key spokesmen. They are
regime insiders par
excellence. Their work
often involves dousing the
wild brushfires set off by the
President. Certainly, Buhari
does not make it easy for them.
His lack of insight about how
to run the shop in the 21st
century does leave much to
be desired. And it is the
unfortunate work that
Adesina and Shehu have
signed on to, to craft the
defense of the President. But
there is a problem with that.
Take Femi Adesina as an
example. Just a few weeks
ago, he penned his regular
defence of the President, on
the President’s birthday, on
17th December: “If only more
Nigerians knew this
President,” Adesina wrote, “If
only they knew the essential
Buhari, the quintessential
patriot and gentleman, they
would behave differently,
handle him with more care,
and show him more kindness.
Yes, everyone needs kindness,
even Presidents.” Adesina is
begging Nigerians to love
their President. But on what
basis? Nigerians would love
Buhari if they found Buhari
lovable. The problem is that
Nigerians feel duped by
Buhari. And what makes
Buhari a “patriot”? A patriot
is one who embodies and
defends the highest ideals of
the nation. Could anyone
truthfully say Mr.
Muhammadu Buhari is a
“patriot” in the real sense of
that word? I’m afraid not.
Is Buhari a “patriot”? the
jury is still out. As for being a
gentleman, I’ll not worry too
much about that. But I’ll worry
more about Adesina who
suggests that because the
President gives him “hard
currency,” he does not consider
him “stingy.” He has a “soft
side.” Here is Adesina about
the President: “… May 2018,
I was billed for China for a 12
days course for senior
government officials from
Africa. He said when the
journey was two days away, I
should come to see him. I did.
You know what he said?
‘Adesina, I know that you don’t
have money. But you are too
shy to ask.’ We both laughed,
and he gave me an envelope
which contained foreign
currency. How much? You
think I’ll tell you? For where?”
First, one is distraught by this
revelation. Mr. Adesina is the
Chief Press Secretary to the
President of arguably one of
the most important nations in
Africa. If he was more
conscious of his role, he would
not have gone on a 12-day
course in China for senior
government officials in Africa.
It is quite beneath him. I mean
what is China teaching that
requires senior government
officials in Africa? At best, the
Foreign Ministry should have
sent a level 13 officer; senior
enough, but without the same
level of potential exposure as
the President’s Chief of Press.
Besides, how many courses
has the Nigerian Foreign
Ministry organized for senior
government officials in Asia
to come to in Abuja? But
secondly, why does the
President need to give his
Chief Press Secretary an
envelope containing foreign
currency as some kind of
personal gift to go on an
officially sanctioned
“course.”? Two things are very
obvious here: Adesina’s
relationship to the President
is based on some kind of
paternalism. There is however
an ethical problem which both
Adesina and the President fail
to see: Public officers
exchanging monetary gifts is
problematic. The President is
a public officer – the Chief
Civil and political servant of
the state. Adesina too is a
public servant paid from
public treasury. His trip to
China may have been covered
by an already over generous
“estacode” regime. And even
worse is that he expects
ordinary Nigerians who have
lost their jobs, their businesses;
who are sick and cannot
afford adequate medical
treatment; who labour under
Every Nigerian who
loves Nigeria agrees
with Kukah, those
baying for his silence
are enemies of
Nigeria
one of the most primitive
infrastructural deficits of any
modern nation, and who have
seen the spike as never before
of violent crime and
kidnapping under this regime,
and a terrifying economic
and social climate, to be
impressed by Buhari’s
personal generosity?
Nigerians don’t even want
that kind of “owambe
charity.” They want the
President to do his job.
Adesina in another essay
claimed that President Buhari
is present and sentient. He is
not “Jubril from Sudan” as
some of his adversaries have
claimed. But it is becoming
increasingly uncertain that
Buhari is still the man many
cast their votes to elect as
President of Nigeria. Many
Nigerians do not for a
moment believe that the
President has been replaced
by a “double.” Conspiracies
do often happen. What one
suspects, and too many
Nigeria increasingly suspect
this, is that Buhari is being
After losing bank to Abacha, they want to take over my property
— Ralph Obioha, ex-NADECO chief
*’Police arrested me over 20 times’
*Matter will be in court soon-Ex-bank chief
By Ugochukwu Alaribe
A
former chieftain of the
National Democratic
Coalition, NADECO, Chief
Ralph Obioha, is not a happy
man. He is accusing a former
top official of the defunct First
African Trust Bank of wanting
to take over his property
located at N24A Ikoyi
Crescent, Ikoyi, Lagos State.
Obioha alleges that the
takeover bid is being executed
in collaboration with his
former lawyer.
First African Trust Bank
stopped functioning after
Obioha fled abroad during
Abacha regime.
Obioha stated that he had
entered into an agreement to
complete then-unfinished
building and share the units
between them.
The soft-spoken Obioha,
who was a front liner in the
struggle to end military rule
in Nigeria, said he had in
1991 acquired the land from
the late renowned sculptor,
Prof. Ben Enwonwu.
Narrating his ordeal to
Sunday Vanguard in
Umuahia, Obioha said he
started erecting the building
through a firm introduced to
him by the former bank chief
(erstwhile employee) in 1993,
before he had to flee into exile
following the onslaught
against him and other
NADECO chieftains by the
Abacha regime over the
refusal of the military to swear
in the winner of the 1993
presidential poll, Chief
Moshood Abiola.
“Political unrest rocked
Nigeria following the refusal
of the military to swear in
Chief M.K.O. Abiola as the
winner of the 1993
presidential election. The
truncation of Abiola’s
mandate predicated a
massive unrest with General
Sani Abacha assuming full
military powers and I, being
a front liner in the struggle,
fled into exile in the US, partly
for my safety and, most
importantly, to continue with
the struggle for the
restoration of democracy. The
construction of my property
at 24A Ikoyi Crescent, which
had foundation level, had to
stop as my flight to US, which
we believed will be brief,
turned from months to years.
I didn’t return to Nigeria until
1998,” he said.
Four years after his return
from exile and the property
lying uncompleted, the ex
NADECO chieftain said the
former bank chief
approached him to allow him
complete the building on the
basis of sharing the four units;
two each to himself and the
erstwhile employee.
According to him, the
former bank chief also
undertook to perfect the
Certificate of Occupancy of
the land and other fees.
Obioha lamented that the
agreement to allow the
former employee complete
and share the building
between them was his major
undoing as the latter allegedly
rented one of the two units
belonging to him (Obioha),
paid rent thrice and declined
further payment since 2018
while still occupying the unit.
He explained: “My
erstwhile lawyer called me in
the US and announced that
he will no longer act as my
lawyer, that I should return
immediately to Lagos and
collect my property file with
him. When I returned to Lagos
after a week, the lawyer
refused to honour any
invitation for us to meet, except
once and did not return the
property file to me till date.
We spoke on phone and he said
there was a fire incident in his
office, which consumed my
property file.”
The former NADECO chief
accused the former bank chief
of having a hidden agenda
and allegedly collaborating
with his lawyer, to take over
the property. Obioha further
alleged that he had earlier
handed over some documents
including the agreement he
had with the bank chief to the
lawyer for safe keeping.
“The bank chief wants to use
my former lawyer to deprive
me of my property. The
missing agreement which my
former lawyer claimed was
burnt in a fire incident that
took place in the bank chief’s
property was contrived to
destroy evidence, particularly
the part that established
things that the bank chief was
to perfect the land title, build
a first class finished building
of the highest standard,
ensuring all building
approvals are obtained and
consent obtained from me
before any changes will be
allowed. It was convenient for
all these agreements to be
burnt by fire as alleged by the
erstwhile bank chief and my
former lawyer. If there was a
fire outbreak, there are laid
down procedures that must be
followed. Why didn’t the duo
obtain a police report of the
incident? As my lawyer, why
didn’t my former lawyer
swear to an affidavit of facts
over the incident and obtain
CTC of the burnt documents
and make them available to
me?
“The former bank chief and
my erstwhile lawyer were
aware that the enforcers of the
Abacha junta invaded my
country home in
Arondizuogu, Imo State and
carted away title documents
on my property holdings in
Nigeria including the ones I
received in respect of 24A
Ikoyi Crescent. I felt assured
that my lawyer, was in safe
custody of the original
documents of 24A Ikoyi
Crescent. The former bank
chief also told me Abacha
closed the bank because of my
NADECO activities. But it is
regrettable that I was
betrayed. My former
employee believes that the
shielded from the Nigerian
public, while a coterie of
power-hungry insiders has
seized constitutional power.
This kind of state capture is a
coup. The Constitution of
Nigeria makes the President’s
well being a constitutional
issue for a reason. It is because
a President who is no longer
healthy; who functions as
some kind of marionette of
power interests inside his
regime; those who lie to
Nigerians and govern in his
name only, places the nation’s
interests in peril. A sick
President is a danger to a
nation’s security. A sick
President imperils the nation
in too many ways. Nigeria
could become the victim of a
foreign capture and
manipulations by other
means. By gaining direct
control of the Presidency,
using their proxies, those
powerful nations who
conduct “courses for senior
African government officials”
take charge of the nation’s
sovereign will. It is a
nightmare situation. And
Nigerians are probably living
it. Even when Adesina tells us
that Buhari is in charge,
Nigerians feel that nobody
seems actually in charge.
Everything is in a free fall.
Boko Haram and armed
bandits run the North now. A
Catholic bishop was
kidnapped in Owerri, and it
feels oddly normal and silent.
In fact, just recently when the
issue of cross border crimes
was raised, President Buhari
is said to have declared, “Only
God can supervise the border
between Nigeria and Niger”.
Heck No! This is enough. This
is precisely what Bishop
Mathew Hassan Kukah has
said which has roused both the
fears and the fury of these
interests that have captured
the state. In his Christmas
homily, Kukah spoke truth of
the kind that rattles. The Igbo
often say of that kind of truth
telling, that it is not unlike
eating roast breadfruit nuts
and barring the teeth to show
it in all its prurience. Here is
the kernel of Bishop Kukah’s
pointed homily: “As our
country drifts almost
rudderless, we seem like
people travelling without
maps, without destination and
with neither Captain nor Crew.
Citizens have nowhere to turn
to. After he assumed power, a
delegation of the Catholic
Bishops’ Conference had
audience with President
Buhari. In the course of our
discussion, the President
shared with us his frustration
over the state of decay and rut
that he had met. In frustration,
I vividly recalled him saying
that, from the decay and
neglect, it seemed as if
preceding governments had
been doing nothing but just
eating and going to the toilet!
Looking back, one might
conclude that those were
happy times because at least
there was food to eat and
people could go to the toilet.
Now, a journey to the toilet is
considered by the poor an extra
luxury. Our country’s inability
to feed itself is one of the most
dangerous signs of state
failure and a trigger to
violence.” Every Nigerian who
loves Nigeria agrees with
Kukah. Those baying for his
silence are enemies of Nigeria.
Court issues warrant for arrest of ‘selfimposed’
king in Delta
By Festus Ahon
AMagistrate Court
sitting in Ibusa, Delta
State has issued a
warrant for the arrest of one
Mr. Rueben Raleigh Ogode,
who is facing trial for
installing and parading
himself as a traditional ruler
in Ughievwen kingdom
contrary to the Traditional
Rulers Council and
Chieftaincy law of the state.
The defendant who was
initially charged to the
Magistrate Court, Otu-Jeremi
before the charge was
transferred to the Chief
Magistrate Court, Ibusa,
failed to appear before the
court on the adjourned date
even when his counsel was in
Court.
The Court which sat last
Thursday had before now
obliged Counsel to the
defendant an adjournment on
the ground of alleged illhealth
and ordered the
Counsel to take the Registrar
of the Court to the hospital bed
documents to the property are
out of sight, this is why he is
shouting that the production
of the documents is all he
wants. He has even made
claims that the land doesn’t
belong to Prof. Enwonwu, but
to Lagos State government.
He was paying rent on the unit
he rented and suddenly
stopped. He wants to become
a landlord through the backdoor.
I bought the property at
24A Ikoyi Crescent three
years before a friend
introduced the former bank
chief to me and I employed
him. “He has written several
petitions against me to the
Ikoyi Police Station. I have
lost count of the number of
times he has brought
purported officials to seal my
to sight the Defendant.
Counsel to the Defendant
failed to comply with the
order of the court.
At the resumed hearing last
Thursday, the Prosecutor
applied to the Court for the
issuance of a bench warrant
for the arrest of the Defendant
property. I have been arrested
over 20 times by the police on
flimsy reasons.
“Each time, the police told
him to maintain peace. The
former bank chief has also
dragged me before the Lagos
land grabbers committee, who
washed their hands off the
matter because they
discovered he has no case".
He has been playing the
ethnic card that he is a
Lagosian while I’m Igbo, but
that is nonsense. I knew he was
a Lagosian before I employed
him in my bank.”
Contacted, the erstwhile,
bank chief told Sunday
Vanguard that he was in a
meeting, and has a wedding
ceremony to attend but later
said the matter would be in
court soon. He also promised
to talk to Sunday Vanguard
later.
and to bring him before the
Court to face his trial.
The application was
granted by the court for lack
of any cogent reasons for the
absence of the defendant.
The Court has adjourned
the matter to January 18,
2021, for further hearing.
GRADUATION: Alade Aromashodu of Vanguard Media
Ltd (2nd right), wife, Kemi (2nd left); Hamid Aromashodu
(3rd left); Quadri Aromashodu (1st left, front row); while
Yinka Aromashodu (1st right) and Mukandam Ahmod
Olasunkanmi, founder of Darwas Quranic Centre, Igbenren
Ota (3rd right) and TolaniAromashodu,(1st right, front row),
at the Quranic Graduation of Hamid/Quadri recently.