Victor Moses and Asisat Oshoala were the biggest winners in the inaugural edition of the Aiteo-NFF Awards 2018, after winning the men's and women's Player of the Year awards on Monday.

Chelsea wideman Moses saw off competition from Leicester City's Wilfred Ndidi and Anthony Okpotu of Lobi Stars to win the Player of the Year award.

Oshoala, the reigning CAF Women's Footballer of the Year, bested Francisca Ordega and Charity Reuben to win the female prize.

At an event held at the Grand Ballroom, Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos the duo were named winners in front of an audience including FIFA President Gianni Infantino, FIFA Secretary General, Fatma Samoura, CAF President Ahmad Ahmad and the evening's host, NFF President Amaju Pinnick.

It was an opportunity for past and present Nigerian football dignitaries to be gathered together and honoured in an award ceremony to celebrate the best of the nation's football during the last 12 months.

Coach of reigning Nigeria League Champions Plateau United, Kennedy Boboye, was named Coach of the Year award (Men), and Sikiru Olatunbosun of MFM FC was honoured with the Goal of the Year award for his exceptional strike against Enugu Rangers in the Nigeria Professional Football League.

Other winners on the night were former Super Falcons goalkeeper Ann Chiejine and home-based Super Eagles left back Ikouwem Udoh, who capped a memorable year by carting home the Young Player of the Year award (Men).

FULL LIST OF WINNERS

Young Player of the Year (Women)

Rasheedat Ajibade

Young Player of the Year (Men)

Ikouwem Udoh

Fair Play Award

Remo Stars FC

Fans of the Year

El-Kanemi Warriors

Coach of the Year (Women)

Ann Chiejine

Coach of the Year (Men)

Kennedy Boboye

Goal of the Year

Sikiru Olatunbosun

Development Award

Channels Sports

NFF Platinum Award

Gianni Infantino

Legend 11

Ann Chiejine; Austin Eguavoen, Christian Chukwu, Uche Okechukwu, Felix Owolabi, Nwankwo Kanu, Austin "Jay-Jay" Okocha, Segun Odegbami, Adokiye Amiesimaka, Mercy Akide-Udoh, Thomson Usiyan

Player of the Year (Women)

Asisat Oshoala

Player of the Year (Men)

Victor Moses

ESPN

The Independent National Electoral Commission must accept responsibility for allowing persons younger than 18 to get ‎their names in the voters’ register, writes Tobi Soniyi

Penultimate Saturday, videos and photographs of underage voters casting their votes during the Kano State local government election went viral on the social media.

The photographs left many seething with anger. Even though it is common knowledge that underage voting is rampant in the northern part of the country, it is an illegality people no longer want to condone.

The Independent National Electoral Commission, which has the sole responsibility of registering voters for all elections did not help matters with its response. ‎This further infuriated the people. In a statement by a spokesperson, Oluwole Uzzi, INEC said the disturbing pictures did not relate to any election it conducted or had responsibility for, thereby allaying fears over its capacity for credible elections.

No one is in doubt that INEC is statutorily empowered to conduct all elections, except local government councils conducted by the electoral commissions in each state.
Acknowledging the pictures of the underage voters, the commission stated that “as far as we can ascertain, they (the pictures) relate to a local government election conducted at the weekend (in Kano).

“While the commission remains resolute in our commitment to sanitise the nation’s electoral process and deliver free, fair and credible elections, we cannot be held directly or vicariously liable for a process outside our legal purview.
“Our part, INEC assures the public that we are doing all we can to ensure a credible election.”

Since all elections are conducted based on the voter register prepared y INEC, the commission’s attempt to absolve itself of any blame amounts to‎ unnecessary hair splitting. The commission was roundly condemned by stakeholders except the beneficiary of the fraud, the All Progressives Congress.

In its response, the Peoples Democratic Party called on INEC to review and sanitise its voter register, particularly in Kano and Katsina States, to check underage people from voting.

The PDP in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said Nigerians had lost confidence in the commission.
Ologbondiyan said reviewing the voter register was the only way the commission could demonstrate its independence to Nigerians.

The PDP condemned the commission for attempting to cover its complicity in the “widespread impunity recorded”, particularly under age voting that characterised the state local council elections.

The party said it was INEC that registered the minors as voters in the first place.

Ologbondiyan said the commission should as such not in any way attempt to exonerate itself of involvement in the electoral fraud simply because it did not directly conduct the elections.‎

The statement said: “Is it not INEC that registered the minors and issued them with Permanent Voter Cards to participate in elections as clearly documented in the Kano council election.

“Can INEC truly acquit itself as the original culprit who set the stage for the eventual participation of the minors and overall rigging of the elections.”

Ologbondiyan said INEC should not give lame excuses or exonerate itself at a time it should be taking decisive steps to protect the sanctity of its sensitive materials such as the PVC.

He said: “Indeed, if this INEC is serious about the sanctity of sensitive electoral materials, by now, it should have ordered the immediate review of its voter register in Kano and Katsina states.

“INEC supposes to be fishing out and prosecuting those who registered the minors and clean up the electoral system in the affected states.”

Ologbondiyan accused INEC of allowing itself to be used for irregularities in favour of the ruling party.

This, according to the party, was witnessed in the last Saturday’s Mashi/Dutsi Federal Constituency Supplementary election in Katsina State.

He said: “Finally, we want INEC to note, and in very strong terms too, that Nigerians will not accept anything short of credible, free and fair general elections.

“The commission should therefore ensure that it does not allow itself to be used by the APC against the will of the people, particularly in the 2019 elections, as such will be highly resisted.”

In Oyo state‎, participants at a youth summit of the PDP in also on INEC called to revisit the voters’ register of Kano State.

Hundreds of youths from across the 351 political wards of Oyo State who converged in the capital, Ibadan for the 2018 youth summit urged INEC to scrutinise the register and delete all underage voters; as well as guard against future occurrence of such in order to safeguard the nation’s democracy.

In the past, INEC had easily got away with such infraction. ‎With more people taking their civic duty seriously, INEC must rise to the challenges.

‎If the spontaneous condemnation that followed the discovery of underage voters in Kano is anything to go by, INEC should understand that voters can no longer be taken for a ride. Besides, the commission must also be mindful of its reaction to issues of public interest. The response of Oluwole Uzzi to underage voters casting their votes not satisfactory and against the weight of evidence.‎

INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu had attempted to clarify the issue. Speaking in Lagos last Friday at a workshop on the implementation of the Election Project Yakubu said the commission could not ascertain whether or not the voter register it gave the Kano SIEC was used or discarded.

He said; “By way of clarification, I wish to state that the commission is aware of the discussion around the Voter Register and the concern expressed in certain quarters on the possible prevalence of ineligible registrants on the voter register. The commission is equally concerned for the simple reason that the credibility of an election draws from the credibility of the voter register. The eligibility for registration as a voter in Nigeria is clearly defined in Section 12 (1) of the Electoral Act. This includes citizenship, residence and the attainment of the mandatory age of 18 years.

“Recent reports of violations by underage persons following the Local government elections in Kano State is deeply disturbing.

“It is true that the State Independent Electoral Commission had requested INEC for a copy of the voter register. I can confirm also that a soft copy of the register was made available to the state. The voter register in Kano State is the one used for the 2015 General Election. In July 2016, INEC used the same register to conduct a State Assembly bye-election in Minjibir Constituency which has 78,210 registered voters spread across 126 polling units clustered in 11 Registration Areas (Wards). In that election conducted by INEC, no single incidence of underage voter was recorded.

What therefore happened in the last Local Government election conducted by the State Electoral Commission? Was the voter register actually used or not?

“We wish to assure Nigerians that the matter will be fully investigated. A National Commissioner from INEC will lead a team to Kano next week involving technical staff of the commission drawn from the Voter Registry (VR), Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and the Electoral Operations (EOps) Departments for an immediate and comprehensive investigation. We will share the findings of the investigation with Nigerians.

“I wish to assure Nigerians that going forward, we will interrogate the voter register nationwide in order to purge it of any possible ineligible registrants.”

The assurances by the commission’s chairman will go a long way in calming frayed nerves. However, he would be held accountable for the promises he made. Underage voting has become a recurring fraud in our electoral system. Nigerians deserve to know how those who are not qualified get into the register. It keeps happening because no one has ever been punished for the illegality.

INEC chairman also used the opportunity to give an update on the continuous voter registration saying:“Turning to the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, I am glad to report that from July to December 2017, some 3,978,682 citizens were registered afresh nationwide; 135,127 unclaimed Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) were collected; and 166,073 requests for transfers and 334,086 requests for replacements of PVCs were recorded.

For the new fresh registrants, the gender distribution shows 58% male and 42% female. In terms of the distribution by States, Rivers State recorded the highest number of new registrants, followed by Delta and Lagos while Kwara, Gombe and Ondo recorded the lowest. The Commission will be posting detailed information and analysis of the ongoing CVR on our website on a continuous basis for public information from next week”.

ThisDay

State police should be part of the wider conversation on restructuring the federation

Control of police by the states gained more converts last week with critical stakeholders throwing their weight behind the idea that has been variously thrown up as the panacea for the worsening security situation in the country. Speaking on behalf of the 36 governors, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) Chairman and Governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari said there is already a consensus on the issue that states should be allowed to set up their own police once they can afford it. His intervention came after Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo had canvassed similar position. Amplifying the idea further, the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, believes it could work the same way states established their own universities.

However, while many Nigerians seem excited that strong voices are being added to the call for state police, it is noteworthy that this is not the first time the NGF would toy with the idea. After one of its meetings five years ago, for instance, the then Ekiti State governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, who is now the Minister for Solid Minerals, made the same case on its behalf. “Each of the federating units (which are the states) should have control over their own security apparatus. That is not to say that we still won’t have a federal police which responds to federal issues but in terms of wider knowledge of what obtains in my locality, the best person to use is somebody from that locality who has a much better, much richer understanding and will be faster in response to the immediate needs of that environment,” argued Fayemi at the time.

As we reiterated in a recent editorial, there may be a need for some clarity of thought and the benefit of historical hindsight. The greatest legacy of the post war era in Nigeria is the emergence of a national military and police. The personnel of these federal institutions live and operate alongside colleagues from across the nation in mixed barracks and operational formations. The lines that dangerously divided the polity and threatened national cohesion are thus blurred as the central command takes precedence over regional or ethnic nudging. Therefore, we hope the committee established by the governors will explore all the issues before coming up with its recommendations.

This is important because Nigeria has been on this path before. A more recent effort to delist some of the exclusive functions and add them to the concurrent list suffered defeat in the National Assembly as both chambers killed the devolution of powers amendment bill. What this suggests is that the vice-president and the governors will have to go beyond seminal pronouncements and take concrete actions that would facilitate not only the establishment of state police but also the birth of a more workable federal arrangement that will allow the states to develop at their own pace. That will come within the larger conversation on the need to restructure the country.

Thisday

As a national leader of All Progressives Congress, Mr Bola Tinubu, begins to reconcile warring sides in the ruling party, his wife, Mrs Oluremi Tinubu, a senator, has decried that her husband was “trashed” after the party won the 2015 elections.

President Muhammadu Buhari had mandated Tinubu to reconcile aggrieved party members ahead of 2019 general elections, an assignment the former governor of Lagos State has since begun.

But his wife, who is representing Lagos Central Senatorial District at the Senate, on Monday featured on Your View, a breakfast show of Television Continental, where she alleged that Tinubu was sidelined despite his efforts towards ensuring that APC won the polls.

Mrs Tinubu, who disclosed that she was forced to discourage her husband from his continued loyalty to the Presidency and APC, said the party leader was always harping on the development of the country.

She said, “He was campaigning, I did too. We were running three campaigns in my house. And for him to be trashed like that? But I saw somebody who has love for this country. I hate to speak because when I stand in front of God, I don’t want to, because of this man, go to hell.

“Occasionally, I would chip in and I would say, ‘You’re still helping out? Why are you helping out?’ He would say, ‘This country matters to me more.’”

Wife of Mr Buhari, Aisha, had lamented that those who worked for her husband to get into power had been sidelined in the scheme of things under the current administration.

Mrs. Tinubu however pointed out that despite that the Buhari-led administration was now under massive criticisms, the President remained “the candidate to beat” in the forthcoming poll.

She said, “Change takes only one person to champion. And you need leadership. For me, Buhari is still the candidate to beat. Leadership is inspirational. Management is technical. If you have all the degrees and you’re smart and savvy, it is not about leadership. How many people are you inspiring?

“And Buhari, how many years has he been there? I am not campaigning for him. I am not; because I have looked at the dynamics; the poor still trust him. I will tell you: when it comes to integrity, Buhari has it. I don’t know about now.”

Punch

The Catholic faithful began this year’s Lenten season last Wednesday, February 14, 2018, to commemorate and follow the footsteps of  Jesus Christ , who in His ministry, engaged in self-mortifying 40-day prayer and fasting. This is a period of self-denial, ostensibly from food, in order to dedicate oneself to the will of God and to meditate on the moral and spiritual lessons of the Christian faith.

The season began with the ceremonial Ash Wednesday as many Christians of Catholic persuasion thronged to their places of worship to have ashes pressed upon their foreheads to demonstrate their recognition and acceptance of their humanity as expressed by the Almighty God in Genesis 3:19, thus: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” 

Speaking to Catholic faithful on this year’s Lent, Pope Francis, while celebrating Mass at the Domus Sanctae Marthae chapel at the Vatican on Friday, February 16, 2018,  said “Fasting weakens our tendency to violence; it disarms us and becomes an important opportunity for growth. On the one hand, it allows us to experience what the destitute and the starving have to endure.

On the other hand, it expresses our own spiritual hunger and thirst for life in God. Fasting wakes us up. It makes us more attentive to God and our neighbour. It revives our desire to obey God, who alone is capable of satisfying our hunger.”

He said further, “Love can also grow cold in our own communities… The most evident signs of this lack of love: selfishness and spiritual sloth, sterile pessimism, the temptation to self-absorption, constant warring among ourselves, and the worldly mentality that makes us concerned only for appearances, and thus lessens our missionary zeal.”

The message of the Pope is relevant to the Nigerian Christian in this season of distrust, mutual suspicion, religious acrimony and open hatred that has spread across the country as a result of multiple social disagreements. 

From the North to the South of the country, bloodshed has become common place and revenge, instead of forgiveness, has become the order of the day. It is high time Nigerians harkened to the Pope’s call for mutual love as this is the way to go if the country must attain lasting peace and unity.

We call on, not only Catholics, but Christians of all denominations, to follow the footsteps of Pope Francis to preach the message of love and peace in this Lent season. This is because in recent times, some Church leaders have embarked to preaching revenge, almost inciting their followers to take up arms against their perceived enemies, instead of encouraging them to work for the peace of the country. Violence and revenge cannot solve the besetting problems facing Nigeria. 

Furthermore, Christians should use this Lent period to pray for Nigeria. There is no gainsaying the fact that the country needs divine intervention. Over the years, our leaders have experimented with ideas proffered by experts in different sectors, but their wisdom has not yielded the desired results. We therefore call on Catholics to pray for the country in this moment that they have decided to humble themselves and seek the face of God.

The Holy Bible is replete with instances of how God intervened in human affairs when they prayed to Him. Therefore, the Catholic faithful should intercede for Nigeria’s redemption from hatred and violence as they fast and pray to the Almighty God in this Lent Season.

Daily Trust

South Africa made us proud last week by throwing Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma under the bus. Finally. After putting his countrymen and women through so much stress in the dying days of his presidency, the redoubtable party organiser eventually kicked the dust when the African National Congress gave him the boot. 

Power, the aphrodisiac; the cocaine of authority, the N-bomb, the Krokodil, the Grey Death, the oxycodone, and heroin of life. The delusional wielder of power flashes a permanent grin at the world like a cunning hyena until the world rises up as one to say, enough! 

It was tragic that a man who joined the ANC in 1959 and served in various capacities through the years till he assumed the ultimate prize in 2009 would end up in disgrace as he did. He had served 10 years in jail during the liberation struggle and helped in no small way to establish the ANC at the grassroots. The mistake he made was thinking that his rich past of service to the cause of liberation entitled him to blur the line between state and personal coffers. 

There was a tinge of irony in Zuma’s disgraceful end. After his dismissal from office as Deputy President to Mbeki (1999-2005), he rallied his forces to defeat Mbeki at the party elections in 2009 and forced the President to step down on the advice of the party. The same party was to give Zuma hemlock to save South Africa from further shame in 2018. Karma?

Zuma played the cards adroitly to the very end. It is doubtful if he would ever have agreed to resign if not for the vote of no confidence waiting to bury him in parliament. The permanent grin for which he had become famous to the chagrin of my South African friends was wiped out; in its place was a stone face uglier than his statue in Owerri. (What ‘noble’ qualities informed the decision by Governor Okorocha to mount a statue of Zuma in Owerri? Birds of the same feather?)

It was fitting that Fate chose Valentine’s Day to give South Africans and the rest of us who wish that country well the gift of a new beginning. In the run-up to the denouement there was a hint that Zuma was prepared to play dirty, splashing dung at past heroes and other notables. His guardian angel must have whispered to him, “When you’re in a ditch, stop digging”.

South Africans are going to miss his dancing and chanting of  Lethu Mshini Wami (“Bring me my machine gun!”) with which he often mesmerised the ANC crowd.

The litany of corruption cases aside, Zuma internationalised his level of depraved ignorance in his defence of the famous rape charge against him. A 31-year-old woman, daughter of one of Zuma’s comrades-at-arms, alleged that Zuma had raped her. Zuma said the liaison was consensual. He admitted that he didn’t use a condom despite knowing that the woman was HIV positive. He said he took a shower immediately afterwards to prevent the disease. 

The laughter in the court had hardly died down when ace cartoonists picked up the matter. Jonathan Shapiro, the South African cartoonist known as Zapiro, created a standard Zuma character with a peanut head and shower. That image has stuck.

Corruption wrestled Zuma to the floor because he failed to nip it in the bud. Indeed he was an acolyte of the cankerworm. His opaque dealings with the Gupta family (Two years ago, Atul Gupta was named the seventh-wealthiest person in South Africa, with an estimated net worth of R10.7 billion, that is $773.47 million), sharply divided ANC’s supporters who were torn between sympathy for a comrade and loyalty to the nation.

President Cyril Ramaphosa now has the task to translate the dream of the majority of South Africans for a better life to reality. Daunting as it appears, Ramaphosa has what it takes to achieve success. He has been through the ANC mill; he is rich; he is streetwise. If he can create jobs by tackling the warts that stifle the economy and boldly marshal a plan to make access to education painless for the disadvantaged blacks, he would have started well.

Thank you, South Africa, for saving Africa the continued shame of a Zuma presidency. Coming after the well choreographed dethronement of Uncle Bob Mugabe and happening around the same time as the resignation of Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn amidst protracted anti-government protests, this is good news. 

All through the turmoil, there was no recourse to tribal or religious sentiments! Africa is making a statement to whom it may concern: We can tackle our own problems with our internal structures and don’t need meddling of outsiders no matter how well meaning.

I cannot conceal my disappointment with Prof Ishaq Oloyede and JAMB management for failing, refusing or otherwise neglecting to include me in the committee they set up to determine the species, size, appetite, temperament, feeding habits and likely physiological disorientation of the snake that swallowed N36million at its Makurdi office.

I urge Oloyede to turn away the snake charmers that Senator Shehu Sani brought to assist in the investigation. I was once attached to a snake charmer for research purposes and for several weeks he failed to apprehend the puff adder we were looking for. I noticed that he had a crooked pinkie finger on his right hand. When I asked him how he got it, he looked at me intently and said, “bacin rana!” [A bad day; meaning he was bitten by a snake].

Just because I was a small lecturer while Professor Oloyede was a Vice Chancellor does not mean he should write off my experience as the teacher of UG 300 level course Chordate Biology. This very important course taught about the biology of lancelets, tunicates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Reptiles include turtles, tortoises, crocodiles, alligators, caimans, gavials, lizards, snakes and the extinct dinosaurs.

Since I am still hopeful that JAMB and EFCC will see reason and come looking for my expert services in this matter, I did not wait to sign a juicy contract but have already commenced my investigation in order to determine the attributes and motivations of this snake that caused such a national uproar. In the wake of this uproar businessmen, market women and politicians all over Nigeria are spreading bitter kola around their vaults and deposit boxes in order to ward off snakes.

Snakes bite for only two reasons: food and defence. Snakes bite people mostly when they step on them. If you step on a poisonous snake, it might decide to deliver to you a “dry bite,” that is, bite you without injecting the poison. This is because it has either squandered its poison elsewhere, made a mistake in coordinating between biting and injecting poison, or because it decided not to waste its poison on you because you are too big to be eaten. A snake is not foolish.

When it moves about shooting out its forked tongue, it is “smelling” for other animals and also detecting heat emitted by a warm-bloodied animal. The snake can determine both the direction and size of the animal nearby. If it is too big to be eaten, the snake will change direction. Now, for a snake’s forked tongue to detect either the smell or heat emitted by a sack of money, locate its direction and size, stealthily approach and swallow it suggests that something went wrong with the snake’s biological set up. 

Mint naira notes have a sweet smell but they do not ordinarily emit heat, not being what we call homoeothermic or “warm blooded” in Biology. In fact naira notes do not have blood, as far as I know, apart from the single mercury strand that The Mint inserts in a note as proof that it is genuine. I suspect that the naira notes at JAMB’s Makurdi office were freshly minted. Naira notes rolling off the Mint are quite warm. It must be that heat that deceived our dear snake, which mistook the JAMB money for food and swallowed it. Since this event happened in Benue, maybe herdsmen had a hand in it. Benue is the Ground Zero of herdsmen’s activities; it could be that the naira notes were transported to Makurdi on the backs of cattle. A cow’s backside is very warm and the offloaded naira notes will be emitting heat long after the cow crossed back into Nasarawa State to feed and drink because of the Anti Open Grazing Law. 

The puzzle is, most snakes in Nigeria feed on grasshoppers, mice and rats and could not possibly swallow a wad of naira notes. In any case, snakes first sneak up on a moving animal, strike it dead before they begin to swallow. If it is a python, it would first wrap the animal in a coil and squeeze it to death before it swallows. My fear for Mrs Philomena Chieshe’s account is if a python wraps a sack of money in its coils and it does not sense movement, it would simply uncoil and move on. After all, the Benue State Assembly has not yet banned open grazing by snakes in the Benue River valley.

We must now determine the snake’s size. The largest snake in Nigeria is the African Rock Python, sometimes called Sheba’s python because the biblical Queen of Sheba kept them as pets. I do not know if our sister Mrs Philomena Chieshe’s name was mentioned in the Bible, which could explain why she is attractive to snakes. Now, one Nigerian man has already stated that the size of a sack containing N36m depends on whether the money is in N1,000 or N500 notes. If it is in what Abeokuta market women call “one with two heads” [i.e. N1000], then N36m is only 360 wads of notes. A six foot python might be able to swallow this sack whole. If the money was in N500 notes then we are talking of 720 wads. A rock python may have trouble swallowing 720 wads, unless it fed fat on River Benue banks after the cows left. 

Quite possibly, this JAMB snake was imported from abroad. It could either be a Reticulated Python imported from Asia,or a Giant Anaconda imported from Brazil’s Amazon jungle. Either of these pythons could grow to be as long as Dangote Cement truck. To them, JAMB’s sack of money is but a small snack. I really pity our sister Mrs. Philomena Chieshe because her racing to the Police Station to seek help will be of little use. Even before the current fuel scarcity, most police patrol vehicles that you see parked by the roadside have no fuel in their tanks. So, before the police can get a few gallons of fuel and race to JAMB’s office, the python would have digested the money. 

A python has one of the most powerful stomach juices in the Animal Kingdom. Unlike a human stomach that could be upset by a meal of beans, a python’s stomach can digest bone, hair, horns and hooves. When a python swallows an animal, all that is left after some hours is a tiny drop of excrement. Such a stomach will make short work of JAMB’s naira notes including the paper, colours, pictures, wrappers and mercury. Sorry Professor Oloyede; your N36m is now but a drop of python faeces. And you must still pay me for this consultancy service.

World silver medalist Christian Coleman broke the world record in the 60 metres, when he ran 6.34 seconds at the U.S. indoor national championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Sunday.

Fellow American Maurice Greene had held the record of 6.39 seconds for 20 years.

Now he will lead the American team to next month’s IAAF world indoor championships in Birmingham, England.

The performance at high altitude in Albuquerque was particularly pleasing for Coleman after he had bettered Greene’s world record time with a run of 6.37 seconds last month in South Carolina, but was not ratified for technical reasons.

“I wanted to go get it,” Coleman said after the race.

“I put a lot of work in my start and transition. It’s all paying off.”

Reuters/NAN

Did you read Professor Ango Abdullahi in a national newspaper yesterday? If you didn’t, this is what he was quoted as saying on why Nigeria won’t stop grappling with herdsmen’s attacks: “The land belongs to Nigerians and herdsmen are Nigerians. If an Igbo man can go to the North and set up a business, why won’t herdsmen go to the South, including your village, to graze their cattle?… Where we come from, you don’t pay for land, you only ask for permission to use it. That is why I said you people are biased against other people and that is why the peace of this country will be very difficult…” That is from a member of the Fulani elite and spokesman of northern elders’ forum. Through him, we can now understand the enormous problem we have on our hands.

Muhammadu Buhari deserves our sympathy. It is not easy at all to be president of anywhere. Being president of Nigeria can be a punishment if your ethnic group is in the eyes of the storm. Those you back with everything are the first to stab you for doing nothing for them. President Buhari is easily a typical Fulani man. He loves his cow so much that he ignores every other thing. But in the last one week, at least two Fulani leaders have accused him of abandoning them. Chairmen of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association in Kwara and Oyo states spewed bile.

They said Buhari had not done well for them, his kinsmen. They even threatened to report our president to God. Could it be that the God of herders is different from that of their victims? This is Fulani’s worst moment ever, they said. One of them did not forget to add that they won’t vote a Buhari in 2019.

They were right. This moment is the very worst for the Fulani and his costly cow. It is the scariest for the usual and the unusual victims of Fulani herdsmen — farmers, office workers and even air travelers. This is also the worst season for Buhari himself as he swims in his own beef pepper soup. Every strongman has a heel of vulnerability. Jonathan had his own in that far corner called Chibok. The bloodhounds called killer herdsmen appear to be this president’s own Chibok girls.

And it is shocking that both presidents’ response mannerisms are identical in tragedy. Jonathan felt the Chibok disaster was contrived to fight and stop him. He ignored the victims until it was too late. Buhari feels the noise about what herdsmen are doing all over is pure injustice. The herdsman’s ancestral paths – north to south – have been blocked. So, why wouldn’t they kill to clear their way? Ango Abdullahi said something like that. Buhari’s defence minister also said so. The president heard him; we heard him too.

There were cries for the sack of the minister who defended the aggressors. Buhari didn’t hear that; or he didn’t know what wrong the gentleman said (or did) that must take him out of his job. He ignored the calls. The man is there in the full glory of power, waxing lyrical, enjoying his fura de nunu. He will remain there until the market is over.

The Nigerian cow and its Fulani are the new lords of our manor. Runways and hallways are their conquered playgrounds. They get bolder by every official endorsement they get for their misbehaviours. They started deep in the bush, oppressing farmers and their luscious wives. Then they moved to the villages and took over harvests in communal barns; then to the towns, grazing in flustered palace grounds. They then, with the swag of conquistadors, marched into the cities and universities – even attempting the takeover of a local government.

Farmers and other victims of this new terror feel betrayed by Buhari. They say he is backing his kith and kin. Blood is thicker than water and it goes without saying.  Herders too feel their Fulani brother has abandoned them. God will ask him, they vow.  That is what you get when you are a hawk with forgetful talons. You must never have power and be very absent in your responsibilities.

A leader must never be indifferent in all moments. That has not been the case with Buhari. He has been visibly absent where decisive presence is demanded. And as we look up to the man who is our president to do something, he looks down on us and wonders why we are troubling his preparations for re-election. Goodluck Jonathan did just that four years ago. What we feel is called deja vu. We were here before.

Where I come from, the cow is just meat. It is nothing more than meat. And how much meat do we need to fill our contented cheeks? We do not think any hunger for beef should make us turn cow to an ancestor deserving veneration. But the Fulani thinks his cow is not second in command to any other creation. It is the god of his existence. That fact is in the Fulani man’s mythology. The first Fulani to be rich followed the direction of a water spirit to worship and water cows. He ended up with great wealth and others, till today, follow his example. There is also the Fulani folktale of “A man, his sons and a Cow” adapted into a book years ago by the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA). 

It is the story of a man whose love for his treacherous cow made him disown all his three sons. That is the life of the Fulani. The cow has rights over the rights of any other creature. And I hope that is not the explanation for the cold shoulder victims of Fulani attacks have been receiving from those they chose as their leaders.

How long will the Fulani go with his current campaign for space and more space? He will go far unless he meets his match. That is his history. He is a celebrated king of marathons who rarely loses campaigns. Whether in or out of the bush, the Fulani is the wily snake that skins other animals. He is the timid leopard that takes over the forest with the sneaky smile of the powerless. Leopard is the patient aggressor, the ferocious great watcher of the idiocy of his victims. Someone said it is ‘the supreme hunter” with the “symbolic magic of nocturnal energies and creativity.”

Hear Ango Abdullahi again on why the herdsmen had to kill: “The truth is, if you want to kill me and I have a chance first, I will kill you; or do you want people to be killed and not defend themselves? By your reporting, you have denied them justice and government also has denied them justice by not going to arrest those that are killing them. So, they defend themselves.”

In its report on fiscal federalism, the All Progressives Congress (APC) Committee on Restructuring headed by Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State unequivocally acknowledged the demands of Nigerians for the restructuring of the country. The APC initiative was in response to the sustained public outcry over the current, grossly unjust and hypocritical system that negates the cardinal principles of federalism. Ordinarily, the idea of restructuring should not have warranted unnecessary debate and delay if successive administrations in the country had not played the ostrich while the roof of the Nigerian house was literally on fire, and refused to appreciate that every nation remains a work in progress. Indeed, if the governing APC had honoured the critical provision in its manifesto on restructuring which encompasses fiscal federalism or what some stakeholders in the Nigerian project have dubbed resource control, the country would no doubt have made significant progress since 2015.  In the existing order, the constituent units of the federation run like beggars to the centre for mere handouts, whereas natural resources of high-yielding revenue potential are domiciled in their jurisdictions.

In the midst of the laissez-faire attitude at the centre, isolated efforts have sometimes been made by the states to contest some nagging issues concerning fiscal federalism. One of this was a suit by Lagos State challenging the Federal Government over the control of inland waterways, in which it was able to secure a favourable judgment. In the Second Republic, some states challenged the Federal Government over its plan to forcibly acquire land, a major financial and economic resource, under the Federal Low-Cost Housing Scheme. The action revealed the rotten underbelly of the convoluted federal arrangement in the country. Similarly, about 15 years ago, the 36 states jointly challenged the power of the Federal Government over issues bordering on the waterways. This led to the Supreme Court judgment on the littoral states, and the onshore and offshore dichotomy.

The subsisting revenue formula anchored on Section 162 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) is based on population, equality of states, internal revenue generation, landmass, terrain and population diversity, with special 13 per cent provision for oil-producing states. The formula is predatory and parasitic; it is all about resource sharing and not generation and management. It kills the initiative. It is no wonder then that petroleum exports, which accounted for only 10 per cent of export earnings in 1962, now account for about 90 per cent or more for a country that had ample opportunities to diversify its economy and restore the lost glory in agriculture,  its economic mainstay at Independence in 1960. Therefore, the recommendations in the el-Rufai committee report, including the one on fiscal federalism, are instructive.  They seek to empower states to control natural resources within their respective territories and only pay taxes or royalties therefrom to the Federal Government. It is only proper, as espoused by the report, to amend Petroleum Act, LFN 2004, Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act (2007), Land Use Act (1978) and Petroleum Profit Tax Act, 2007. However, the ghost of the onshore/offshore dichotomy must not be resurrected.

An upward review of the current revenue sharing formula in favour of the states through the amendment of the Allocation of Revenue (Federation Account etc.) Act (2002) should be regarded as sine qua non. The government must neither isolate nor distance itself from the popular wishes of the  Nigerian people. We wholly align ourselves with other stakeholders in demanding the implementation of the recommendations, and urge the National Assembly to liaise and cooperate with the Executive in ensuring their quick passage, along with others  on power devolution and state police.  The ample gains of the First Republic when the principle of fiscal federalism held sway have bolstered the campaign for a re-ordering of the existing system that encourages lethargy, inertia and lack of foresight and ingenuity. Surely, an end must come to the absurdity created by military interregnum and sustained by a gluttonous ruling class so far. It is time to enthrone a system that guarantees fairness, equity and justice. This is the only way to stave off the impending implosion in the country.

Tribune