Suspected terrorists on Tuesday, near Dutsinma, Katsina State, ambushed the convoy of vehicles conveying the Presidency’s advance team of security guards, protocol and media officers, killing two policemen in the process.

The Presidency officials were travelling to Daura ahead of the trip of President Muhammadu Buhari to his hometown for Sallah.

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, confirmed the attack in a statement without confirming the casualty figure.

The statement titled “Gallant presidential guards repel attack on advance team ahead of President’s visit” reads:

“The Presidency has described as sad and unwelcome, the shooting incident near Dutsinma, Katsina State, at the convoy of cars carrying the Advance Team of security guards, protocol and media officers ahead of President Muhammadu Buhari’s trip to Daura for Sallah.

“The attackers opened fire on the convoy from ambush positions but were repelled by the military, police and DSS personnel accompanying the convoy.

“Two persons in the convoy are receiving treatment for the minor injuries they suffered. All the other personnel, staff and vehicles made it safely to Daura.”

But the spokesman of the Katsina State Police Command, Gambo Isah, in a separate statement, confirmed that the Police Area Commander for Dutsinma, Aminu Umar, and one other were killed in the ambush.

Isah did not include in his statement that the attack was on the presidential team.

The statement read, “Today (Tuesday), July 5, 2022 at about 11.30am, a distress call was received that terrorists numbering over 300, on motorcycles, shooting sporadically with AK 47 rifles and General Purpose Machine Guns, ambushed Aminu Umar, Area Commander, Dutsinma and team, while on clearance operation of recalcitrant bandits/terrorists, in Zakka Forest, Safana Local Government Area of Katsina state.

“Consequently, the Area Commander and one other gallantly lost their lives during a cross exchange of gun fire.

“Commissioner of Police, Idrisu Dauda, on behalf of the officers and men of the command, expresses his deep sympathy to the family of the deceased and pray to almighty Allah to repose their souls in Jannatul Firdausi.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was apprehension among residents of Kuje in the Federal Capital Territory following repeated sounds of gunshots heard in the area.

There were fears among residents that the correctional center was under attack by armed men.

A resident of the area, Joshua Friday, told correspondent that the shootings went on for about 20 minutes.

He said the situation caused panic in the area.

He said, “Currently in Kuje and the shooting has been going on for almost 20 minutes now. I can’t tell you what is happening whether it is a robbery or not but we have been hearing that gunshots repeatedly around the area the prison is located. We are all scared as I speak to you.”

When contacted, spokesperson for the Nigerian Correctional Service, Umar Abubakar asked correspondent to call him back.

Efforts to get the police spokesperson in the FCT, Josephine Adeh, proved abortive as calls to her line were not answered. She has also not responded to messages sent to her.

 

 

 

 

Managing Director/CEO, of Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, (AMCON), Ahmed Kuru has  said the Corporation has recovered about N1.4trn, which comprises of cash N681bn; Property Forfeiture N279bn; Share Forfeiture N140bn; and other strategic assets N208bn.

Similarly, a total cash recovery of over N116.9bn has been recovered on Polaris EBAs from date of acquisition to date.

AMCON MD/CEO spoke at this year’s edition of the House of Representatives Committee on Banking, and Currency retreat with the Management of AMCON among other stakeholders in  Lagos

Kuru, represented by Matthew Coker who is AMCON’s Group Head, Asset Management Directorate told the lawmakers that despite the special powers as provided by the new AMCON Act, it  still struggles with the implementation due to the country’s’ judicial system.

He said, “The Corporation’s recovery processes at this point majorly depend on the Judiciary i.e., Obtaining Possessory Orders or Orders for sale. The slow pace of our court processes and sometimes conflicting orders by the Courts, especially at the Federal High Court (FHC), which is our Court of first instance, frustrates recovery process. There are delays in obtaining dates in the Court to hear AMCON matters.

“Deposit of judgement sum as provided for in the act is not enforced by the courts, some of the obligors are still active contractors of the government. They carry out businesses with government with debtor company names or other pseudo names and the BOFIA Act that provided for a Special Tribunal on recovery and enforcements would have hastened the adjudication of our matters in court if the judiciary had constituted a task force specifically in that regard.”

Federal House of Representatives Committee Chairman on Banking and Currency, Victor Nwokolo disclosed that the  National Assembly would as a matter of urgency summon the leadership of the various key committees that are overseeing the different agencies of the federal government to investigate why the Inter-agency Committee on the recovery of the huge outstanding debt owed the AMCON are not working as directed by the Presidency.

Nwokolo said it is sad that agencies of the federal government of Nigeria work at cross-purposes rather than collaborating to ensure that they support the federal government.

He said the national assembly would in no distant time organize another retreat which would involve about six critical stakeholders to discuss in great details the strategy that would be adopted to ensure that Nigeria recovers its money.

 

 

 

Nigeria’s human rights record is “very poor” and is “worse than [the] average in sub-Saharan Africa,” a new report by an international organisation has said.

The report was authored and released on Wednesday by the Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI), a New Zealand-based organisation measuring the human rights performance of countries.

The HRMI “Rights Tracker” is the first global report to assess the 13 different human rights contained in United Nations treaties for around 200 countries.

“Compared with other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria is performing worse than average,” the report said, confirming what observers and rights advocates are saying about the Nigerian state’s human rights record and the daily experience of Nigerians.

In the report, HRMI said Nigeria’s score for economic and social rights falls within a ‘very bad’ range.

The country scored 54.6 per cent for the right to food; 48.7 per cent for the right to health; 35.7 per cent for the right to housing and 32.0 per cent for the right to work.

For all the four rights, Nigeria performed worse than most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“There is no reason for any country to score this low,” HRMI said. “Not only are countries scoring below 75 per cent failing to put in place the kinds of structures and policies that help people claim the right concerned, but the structures and policies in place most likely prevent many people from claiming their rights.”Methodology

HRMI researchers adopted two different methods for appraising a country’s performance; with the first benchmark being ‘income adjusted.’

Using the income-adjusted benchmark, the report compared countries with other countries of a similar income level, to evaluate how effectively each country is using its available resources.

“The second benchmark is ‘global test.’ This benchmark evaluates country performance relative to the best-performing countries at any level of resources,” the organisation said, noting “each assessment standard uses a set of indicators that are commonly available and most relevant for these countries.”

“Every country gets assessed on both standards to the extent the information is available in international databases,” HRMI added.

“To measure Quality of Life – economic and social rights – we start with data from international databases. Then we use econometric techniques to combine the data with each country’s level of income, to produce a score,”

“The score, expressed as a percentage, shows how well a country is using its resources to produce good human rights outcomes. Every country should be able to get near its 100% income-adjusted target by improving policies and practices, even without more money.”

Data for the economic and social rights metrics were drawn from “the 2022 update of the International Social and Economic Rights Fulfilment (SERF) Index, which covers the period from 2007 to 2019.”

The findings of the report convey a picture at odds with the human rights record Nigeria’s government repeatedly claimed has improved.

On the right to health, the report ranked Nigeria 41st out of 42 countries it reviewed in Sub-Saharan Africa; sitting just behind Equatorial Guinea.

On the right to food, Nigeria ranked 37th, sitting above Sudan, Niger, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, and Burundi on the log.

The country was also placed 35th on the right to work, finishing ahead of Mali, Benin, Zambia, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Malawi, and Madagascar.

Eerily similar in tone to last year’s report, the 2022 data highlights the seriousness of the Nigerian situation, captured by citizens’ and observers’ persistent concern about impunity and the continued disjuncture between democratic transition and democratic norms.

 

 

 

In surveying the political terrain of Sokoto state in the light of the contest to the coveted office of the state governor in 2023, the first point that comes up crystal clear on the turf, is the fact that, it is strictly going to be a two-horse and a half (sic) race. With other political parties playing the role of side attractions, it is in fact, a clash between the standard bearer of the ruling People's Democratic Party, PDP and that of the All Progressive Party, APC.

Also, anyone with a cursory knowledge of the political dynamics of the state will understand that the two candidates, Alhaji Saidu Umar of the PDP and Alhaji Ahmed Aliyu of the APC, are more or less, the mask faces of the two real political masquerades in the state: Senator Magatakarda Wamakko of the APC and Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of the PDP.

The two principal gladiators had previously encountered each other in 2019 only that, then, Governor Tambuwal was on the field directly as a candidate while Senator Magatakarda was throwing punches from the shadows, using Ahmed Aliyu as a proxy arrowhead. The Senator, a former two term governor, was trounced with the defeat of his candidate after a long drawn, energy-sapping contest finally decided after a rerun and at the electoral tribunals.

The emerging re-enactment of the encounter can be aptly described as a version of an unabating political duel of supremacy in the control of the Seat of the Caliphate. Will Wamakko's tenacity and desperation pay off this time? With Saidu Umar who doesn't have the leverages of incumbency, will he be having it easier, now that, it is a different ball game due to a change in the opponent that is in the ring with his protégé?

In other words, is Saidu Umar, the PDP standard bearer equipped with the requisite political assets and arsenals for the decisive battle ahead? That's; is he possessed of the political strength, surefootedness and steadied enough to repeat the 2019 feat of Governor Tambuwal by inflicting another defeat on the APC? 

People in political circles in Sokoto are curious and pondering on the political wisdom of throwing up again someone who was roundly rejected by the electorate at the polls in a previous outing as the party's preferred candidate?  Could it be that the powers propelling Ahmed Aliyu are aware that he has acquired new strategies, tricks and weapons in his war chest to avert the humiliation of another disastrous experience this time around? Or is it that the APC talisman and eggheads regard the PDP candidate as a walk-over for reasons of his political antecedents?

To underrate the capacity of Saidu Umar in the 2023 election will obviously tantamount to gross miscalculations  to a wrong perception of the man and a gross miscalculations of the prevailing political dynamics in the state.  Yes, he is not a dye in the wool politician as can be said of the APC candidate via the godfather of the APC.  He has however, covered such a long mileage on the political turf over the short space of time of his political Odyssey that has made him a force to reckon with in the political tableaux of the state. Or else, he could not have emerged the flag bearer of the PDP in the face of the several people of calibre who had aspired to do so.

Alhaji Saidu Umar first forayed into political scene with his appointment as Commissioner for Finance by Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal in 2015. As Commissioner for Finance, he brought to bear the ethics of prudence, discipline, due process, diligence, probity and accountability of an astute Banker and a Finance Administrator. Under his supervision, the state government, for the first time, introduced the Treasury Single Accounting system, TSA, which immediately blocked several avenues hitherto used as drainpipes of plundering the treasury. The measure also led to the recovery of over 1.5Billion Naira stashed away, lying dormant in different bank accounts within and outside the state.

Governor Tambuwal has been widely celebrated for having the vision and for mustering the political will power to initiate radical and transformative paradigm shift from the preceding culture of a recklessness, brazen kleptomania, wastefulness and rudderless drift in the management of the state resources hoisted and pursued as governance policy direction up till 2015.  For his role as a dutiful, diligent lieutenant who held then forte in the engine house of the state finance machinery, the self effacing Saidu Umar must be accorded a measure of those accolades. Indeed, his elevation to the position of Secretary to the State Government, SSG, in 2019 was a mark of recognition and reward by an appreciative Governor Tambuwal to an astute, prudent and focused Administrator.

As he goes flying the flag of the PDP in the 2023 governorship race, Alhaji Saidu Umar will definitely enjoy the advantage that goes with his grandeur in the Sokoto traditional setting and establishment as the holder of the prestigious title of, MALAM UBANDOMA of Sokoto who is a Senior Adviser to the Sultan on education, Islamic jurisprudence, the sharing of proceeds of Zakkat, trade and commerce among other critical functions that catalyse social and economic advancement of the society.

On the other hand, his opponent, Alhaji Ahmed Aliyu of the APC, is going into the race from the background as a background politician. His partisan politics began as a, "storm trooper" in the youth vanguard of the then embattled Magatakarda Wamakko in the build up to the 2007 governorship election in the state. His transition from an obscure, zestful youngster into political limelight started with his appointment into the cabinet of Governor Wamakko during which he served as Commissioner between 2007 and 2015 only subtly qualify him as a side-kick and an attachment politically, to insiders who know better. 

Ever since his début in the corridors of power, Ahmed Aliyu has remained a flying object under the powerful wings of Senator Wamakko. Theirs is a cozy relationship between a protégé, "a godson" and a dotting mentor, a "godfather” that has manifested in a series of political appointments for the ‘forced’ APC candidate further giving him away as a tool rather than as an implement.  This further culminated in in his appointment as the Executive Secretary of the Police Trust Fund, PTF, from where he resigned on the eve of the last APC convention amidst rancour of ‘rat smelling’ of alleged maleficence et-al.

Coming into the battlefield, Saidu Umar enjoys a groundswell of the goodwill and support of the elite who are desirous of keeping the state on the lane of progressive and focused leadership that has been unfolding since 2015. With dazzling landmarks of accomplishments in his tracks and also capped with the obvious formidable pillars of support from Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal and former Governor Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa, whose son is on the ticket as a running mate, the Ubandoma appears like a Colossus, as towering and lethal before his opponent in the ring.

In weighing the prospects of the APC candidate, it is also pertinent to take cognisance of the political gadfly, Senator Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko who, as it is, 2023 is a battle royale.  However, most observers believe that Wamakko might have substantially lost the powers of the political magic wand that had held the people spellbound in his hey days, years ago. With the floodgate of prominent members of the APC defecting to the PDP at this crucial stage in the march to 2023, the erstwhile strongman of Sokoto politics is being depleted of the foot soldiers that had fought his battles in the past. Talk of a General without an army! 

Whether or not the people of Sokoto are naive and always go for “street sprays” as against good and responsible governance would be manifesting this time around. If their  outing in 2019 was a fiasco, in spite of the massive resources and efforts invested, the godfather  and godson certainly have a great deal of work ahead in the 2023 edition of the battle for the political soul of the Seat of the Caliphate. The Governor and the Banker, from all indications are battle ready for the godfather and the godson combined.

The politics of divide and rule seem to be approaching it’s extinction in Sokoto sooner than later.

 

Manuga Buba Milgona This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

 

 

 

 

A community leader and House of Representatives candidate of the people's Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Toyin Amuzu has berated the federal government and the Ogun State government for their failure to protect the welfare and interests of Nigerian workers for the benefits of all. 

Chief Toyin Amuzu who is vying to represent Abeokuta South Federal Constituency at the lower Chambers of the National Assembly was speaking on the lingering work to rule embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU and the Ogun State workers. 

He said "it is so disheartening to see that such strikes caused by the I don't care attitude of those in government is affecting the youth, our children and other members of the society especially as it concerns the education and health sectors". 

The PDP candidate said, any good government must be responsible to the people, thus the two tiers of government as a matter of urgency must rise to the challenges of meeting the demands of the workers before the collapse of every sectors of the system.

According to him, "no responsible government would allow it's labour force to down tools for so long and not be worried. Are they not realizing this would also affect our economy ? Is it not the responsibility of government to protect it's workers? For how long would they toil with the future of our youth? Amuzu asked.

Chief Amuzu explained that , "Workers in Ogun state have declared an indefinite strike over the alleged refusal of the state government to pay their 21-month salary deductions. They are also protesting what they termed the “government’s insensitivity to workers’ welfare.”

"ASUU had been on strike since February 14 while SSANU’s strike started with a warning strike of two weeks, which commenced on March 27.

Chief Amuzu also explained that some of the demands of SSANU include the inconsistent issue of Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), unpaid earned allowances, and delay in the renegotiation of FGN, SSANU, Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and allied institutions (NASU) agreements, and non-payment of minimum wage arrears.

Others include neglect and poor funding of state universities, non-payment of retirement benefits to outgoing members of the unions, and usurpation of the headship of non-teaching units in clear violation of conditions of service and establishment procedures, among others.

ASUU’s demands on its path he said include the release of revitalisation funds for universities, renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement, release of earned allowances for university lecturers, and deployment of the Universities Transparency and Accountability System (UTAS) for payment of salaries and allowances of university lecturers.

 

 

 

 

PRESS RELEASE

Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, has signed an Executive Order for the compulsory installation and use of Close Circuit Television (CCTV) devices in all public and private institutions in the state.

This becomes imperative in the light of the increased spate of insecurity in the country and the need to ensure security of lives and properties in all public and private institutions and centres throughout the state.

The executive order shall be enforced at all religious places of worship, financial institutions (of all kinds), event centres, supermarkets, educational institutions (Schools), Hotels/Motels, Guest House, inns, Restaurants, Clinics and Health Centres, eateries (of all kinds), recreation or vehicular parks and other places regularly used by the public.

“Pursuant to Section 176 (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which vests in the Governor of Ondo State the Chief Executive powers of the state, the Governor hereby issues the following Executive Orders:

i. That the owners, occupiers, managers and operators of public/private institutions within Ondo State shall mandatorily install, use and maintain CCTV devices and other secret cameras to monitor and keep surveillance on the daily activities in their premises and especially monitor the ingress and egress of people/vehicles at the said places, venues and centres.

ii. That the installed CCTV devices apart from capturing all activities at the public/private institutions must also have data storage hardware and data stored therein should be made available to security agencies whenever it is required.

iii. That public/private institutions shall employ and maintain well-trained security personnel who shall man the entry and exit points to their various facilities/premises.

iv. That where necessary, the owners and occupiers of public/private institutions shall erect a well fortified perimeter fence with a security post at the entry and exit points.

v. That this Executive Order shall be enforced by all security agencies particularly the Nigeria Police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Ondo State Security Network Agency (Amotekun) and the Department of State Security Services (DSS).

vi. That violators of this Executive Order shall be prosecuted in accordance with Section 203 of the Criminal Code (Cap. 37) Laws of Ondo State of Nigeria.

Signed:

Richard Olatunde

Chief Press Secretary to the Governor of Ondo State.

June 25, 2022

 

 

 

 

Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, has told the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that his academic certificates were stolen by unknown persons while he was on self exile.

Tinubu, a former Lagos State Governor, was one of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) Chieftains who fled the country during the regime of the late Sani Abacha.

Abacha had clamped down on academics, activists and other technocrats opposed to his regime.

In his sworn affidavit in support of his nomination form for the office of the president, Tinubu said he “went on self exile from October 1994 to October 1998 (and) when I returned and discovered that my property including all the documents relating to my qualification and my certificates in respect of paragraph 3 above were looted by unknown persons.”

While Tinubu skipped information regarding his primary and secondary education in the INEC form, he, however, said he attended University of Chicago between 1972 and 1976, where he obtained B.Sc in Economics.

He also said he had B.Sc in Business and Administration, as well as certificate in Public Account.

Tinubu’s latest claims appear to contradict his previous election submissions, especially in 1999, when he ran and won the Lagos State governorship election.

He had said then that he attended St Paul Children’s School, Aroloya, Home School, Ibadan, between 1958 and 1964; while his secondary education was at Government College Ibadan (GCI), between 1965 and 1968.

Following a backlash, the former governor withheld his primary and secondary schools academic records when he recontested in 2003.

He had claimed that from Ibadan, he proceed to Richard Daley College, Chicago, from 1969 to 1971.

He finally said he attended both Chicago State University and the University of Chicago.

All the submissions were, however, challenged as fraudulent by a prominent Nigerian lawyer, late Gani Fawehinmi.

Fawehinmi, who argued the matter up to the Supreme Court, which dismissed the case on technical grounds.

In his forms, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, presented the Master’s degree he obtained in 2021, as his highest educational qualification.

 

 

 

 

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced the extension of its Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) across the country.

Ahead of the 2023 poll, the commission had fixed the exercise to end on June 30. However, given the renewed interest of Nigerians, most especially the youth, vis-à-vis pressure from other quarters, the commission considered extending the exercise.

Without giving a specific date for the new deadline, INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, at the Youth Vote Count concert in Abuja on Saturday, said the exercise continues.

“The youth want to know when the registration will end. I want to assure you on behalf of the commission that the registration won’t end on June 30. For as long as we have you people trying to register, we will continue to register you,” Yakubu declared at the main bowl of Old Parade Ground.

He said not less than 14,000 persons have also been registered at the concert venue since it became opened to registrants on June 20.

Similar figures, largely made up of the youth, were also recorded at the first leg of the concert in Lagos a couple of weeks back.

“In the last five days, we have registered over 14,000 Nigerians in this place alone. We have about 50 voter registration machines. For as long as you people have been trying to register to obtain your PVC, we will continue to register you and we will continue to make sure that you get your PVC,” the INEC chairman reassured the fun-loving youths at the awareness campaign/concert the commission organised in partnership with European Union (EU) and YIAGA Africa.

Before Yakubu’s latest disclosure, there was an interim order issued by the Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday which restrained the electoral body from going ahead with its plan to end the exercise on June 30.

The judge, Mobolaji Olajuwon, ruled on the case based on the application filed by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and 185 other concerned Nigerians.

SERAP and the other applicants in the case had argued that if the electoral body planned to end the exercise at the end of the month, it would illegally disenfranchise many Nigerians from getting their Permanent Voters Card (PVC).

On its part, the House of Representatives, last week, also urged INEC to extend the voter registration by 60 days. This was against the backdrop of various challenges recorded at various centres during the exercise.

 

 

 

 

By FESTUS ADEDAYO

"The most mis-recommending criterion against a Tinubu presidency is that, in mental depth, the Lagos Landlord is just a whiff higher than Muhammadu Buhari. Remove the cockney accent he feebly mimics, you will find out that most times, his extempore speeches lack coherence, logic and verve".

I was at the Alausa Governor’s Office in Lagos. Accessing the governor was like seeking a needle in a haystack. His Press Secretary had sent word up that an irritant interloper had come to ferret a response to a news magazine’s damming exposé on the governor. After hours of waiting, a commissioner (name withheld) sauntered in and met me where I sat immovably like Mount Kilimanjaro. “You can’t write that story,” he began in a steely voice laced with a veiled threat. “Go back to Ibadan. We will talk to your boss.” That was how the story never saw the light of the day.

The Nigerian Tribune, of which I was the Features Editor during this period, had sent me in pursuit of the facts or fiction surrounding the news magazine’s report. The principal of that ancient school, Government College Ibadan (GCI), had suddenly gone AWOL then, becoming as incommunicado and inaccessible as the proverbial excrement of the masquerade.

Through the grapevine, there was an allegation that Alhaji Lam Adesina, the governor of Oyo State at the time, had ordered that all data of the school’s attendees during the period of Governor Bola Tinubu’s supposed attendance of GCI be brought to him in the Government House, where they were then placed under lock and key. The media that were seeking the corroboration or converse  of those claims, went after the Principal of GCI. He had disappeared into thin air. Perhaps, a one-on-one interview with the governor would do?

In 1999, one Dr Waliu Balogun wrote a petition against Tinubu, leveling a number of damning allegations that bordered on fraudulent claims of educational attainments. Among other things, he accused Tinubu of lying in an affidavit attached to his Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) form that he lost his degree certificates while he was on exile between 1994 and 1998. The news magazine later published those details in a gripping exposé which left sour tastes in the mouth.

One after the other, all of Tinubu’s claims, sworn to under oath in the Form CF001 he filled with INEC, were shredded to smithereens by the magazine’s story. St. Paul’s School, Aroloya, Lagos, which he claimed to have attended, was found never to have existed, in the investigative reporting of the magazine, just as his name was conspicuously missing from the records of the Government College, Ibadan, which he claimed to have attended between 1965 and 1968. Indeed, GCI’s alumni association, the Old Boys of the school, debunked the claim of having him as a member. So also was Tinubu’s claim to have attended Richard Daley College, Chicago, between 1969 and 1971. Punctured also were the governor’s claims of being a student of the University of Chicago in the U.S. between 1972 and 1976, as well as obtaining a B.Sc degree in Economics from the university. A request to those institutions for affirmation of Tinubu’s studentship by the magazine came up with a resounding ‘No.’

Till date, in spite of his having vanquished the legal principalities spearheaded by Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN), with the Supreme Court voiding Fawehinmi on technical grounds, none of Tinubu’s classmates, schoolmates or even teachers, has come out in public to counter the facts of the legal behemoth erected against him.

Four years later, in 2003, it was time for Tinubu to fill the Form CF001 again, in pursuit of his second term bid. His enemies who were waiting for him to make those claims again were dazed when they saw what the governor filled. In all the columns, the gentleman simply filled NOT APPLICABLE – Primary School: Not Applicable; Secondary School: Not Applicable and; University: Not Applicable! Could that have meant that the man never attended any school?

Tinubu was not alone. Rife as expectations were from the new-found Nigerian republic in 1999, like alligators, renowned for the incredible nasal power of smelling a drop of blood, even in ten gallons of water, Nigerians smelt crises in the cache of scandals that involved newly elected office holders of the republic. Less than three months after commencement of the Fourth Republic, Nigeria began to manifest noticeable cracks. It took political scientists and students of Marxian dialectics to allay our fears and tell us that those cracks were curative, self-correcting and akin to the Marxist postulation of thesis and antithesis which, when they jam, produce a synthesis.

In a quick succession of messy, damming scandals, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Salisu Buhari; Senate President, Evan(s) Enwerem and Bola Tinubu got entangled in seismic, roiling scandals of identity misappropriation, subversion of their oaths of office and perversion of truth. While the earlier two were swept away by the typhoon of the crises, Tinubu not only survived the ignominy, to spite the allegations, he is today one of the top three most consequential and powerful Nigerians alive, and a presidential office aspirant to boot.

Salisu Buhari, the affable and young Speaker of the lower parliament had just then been unraveled by the media as an age inflator and certificate forger.

Hitherto a Kano-based businessman, Buhari had made an entry into politics, but barely two weeks after being sworn into office, the now rested news magazine, TheNews, in its February 16, 1999 edition, published details of his age and certificate forgery. The magazine wrote that he was actually born in 1970 and not in 1963 as he had claimed.

Again, TheNews put a lie to Buhari’s claim of having graduated from the University of Toronto, stating that he not only did attend the school, the mandatory youth service he claimed to have undergone at Standard Construction in Kano was equally fiction. On July 23, 1999, like a rain-soaked squirrel, Buhari was contrite, disgraced and admitted all the allegations. “I apologise to you. I apologise to the nation. I apologise to my family and friends for all the distress I have caused them. I was misled in error by a zeal to serve the nation. I hope the nation will forgive me and give me the opportunity to serve again,” he murmured as he resigned from the House. He was subsequently convicted of certificate forgery, sentenced to two years in prison but was pardoned by President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Senate President, Evan Enwerem, was to kiss the canvass a little while after. In the race for the Senate presidency, he had sidestepped his closest sprinter rival, Chuba Okadigbo, for the office by 66 to 43 votes. Shortly after his ascension in 1999, Enwerem was shoved into the sieve, and scrutinised on the allegation of an identity opacity. He was held up on the fire-spitting wire gauze for the falsification of his name. A ball-fire of controversy erupted on whether Enwerem’s real name was Evan or Evans. In the melee, on November 18, 1999, his ouster, spearheaded by Okadigbo and his allies, became a fait accompli.

Between his consequential emergence on the political turf of Nigeria in 1999 and now, only an armchair, analytical yokel will underrate or belittle Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s awesome and colonising genius in Nigerian politics. He became so consequential that some translucent analyses compare him to the sage, Obafemi Awolowo. It appears that immediately he got away from the drowning tidal waves of that identity theft legal tango and the lacerating fisticuffs of his numerous political adversaries, Tinubu tightened his muscles on the political levers of Lagos, a State which had always been the microcosm of Nigeria since it became the federal capital of independent Nigeria in 1960. He saw how the almighty power of the media, like a mammoth whale, almost succeeded in capsizing his ship of state and political career.

Rising from the ashes of the crises, Tinubu encircled his claw-like fists on the media, meandering himself into its total corpus and essentialising himself in its operations. While English crime thriller writer, René Lodge Brabazon Raymond, popularly known as James Hadley Chase, says that fear opens the wallets of the rich, Tinubu’s street chemistry, which he deploys, says that licit and illicit favours, prebends and perks, imprison consciences and arrest captives faster than the glue gum traps mice. Unconscionably, Tinubu waves these aces with the magisterial clinicality of a professional executioner, succeeding in the process in harvesting a huge cache of political, media, government, judicial, corporate, etcetera clienteles inside his massive pouch.

The truth is that since 1960, seldom has Nigeria had a political aficionado who has deployed the genius of the streets in the service of politics, as Bola Tinubu has done. Scarcely can anybody have the mis/fortune of encountering him without becoming a captive of his cash influence. Someone once said that even the god of Mammon would be envious of Tinubu’s sagacity in deploying its essence as a weapon.

Within the span of his Lagos governorship of eight years, from someone who those who knew him said was passably well-to-do, Tinubu grew a monstrous wealth, such that a 2015 back page opinion piece in The Sun newspaper claimed he owned almost half of Lagos and urged Buhari to clone the Vladimir Putin method with which the Russian president neutralised drug czars who funded his presidential emergence. Within this period, Tinubu also acquired a humongous political influence within Lagos and outside, that could rank aside those of the Pharaohs and emperors of old. In 2007, an ex-governor, who witnessed the miasma of power flakes encircling him as he arrived the Lagos airport, jealously told me that it was godlike.

Superficial analyses of Tinubu claim that his vice-hold grip on Lagos can be found in his ability to “build” and plant people in state and national offices, while sustaining a linear pattern of succession. This, such analysts claim, reflects his sagacity. Those who know the modus operandi of this power retention system however put a lie to it. To them, deep beneath it is an opaque, yet fastidiously maintained and pervasively sustained system of mega corruption and the perpetuation of self hegemony, through a carefully mastered mind-coercion, which is promoted by a cultic abidance to an oath of allegiance.

Those who see Tinubu’s strength in his fluid recruitment of aides, should also be able to answer why he suffers the huge casualty of his investment in such persons? Could it be that he uses them as indentured viceroys? Or that the rebellion we see from them is an attempt to set themselves free of his hold? From Babatunde Fashola, Muiz Banire, Akinwumi Ambode to Rauf Aregbesola, and many others, there must be a single thread that unifies Tinubu’s foot soldiers’ rebellion against him. Unfortunately for Tinubu, this same set of soldiers, knowing the secrets of the sustenance of their power machine, are today against his emergence as Nigeria’s president and will willingly supply the fire that will incinerate his ambition. In Yorubaland today, apart from Lagos and Osun States, which APC governor can Tinubu claim to be under him?

If nothing else, the controversy provoked by Chief Bisi Akande’s My Participations unraveled the mythic notion that Tinubu promotes his aides to the top for the love of country. Back and forth arguments, especially about Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s nomination in 2015, revealed that not only is the Lagos landlord obsessed with the self alone, the ascension of others in his loop is secondary and subordinated to the personal interest. The world saw that Tinubu grudgingly acceded to Osinbajo’s candidacy, only when his personal interest hit the rocks.

Last week, however, Bola Tinubu paid a visit to President Buhari, a few hours after the latter granted an incoherent interview where he claimed that if he named his successor, the fellow could be assassinated. A content analysis of the president’s statement must have revealed to Tinubu that he could never have been the one Buhari was referring to. Tinubu must know that Buhari knows that a plan to murder Death would be easier done than assassinating Nigeria’s Mafia don, the Capo dei capi himself.

Yoruba will totally support Tinubu in his presidency dream if he agrees to fill in the INEC forms all those claims he made of his roots in 1999. He must fill in the 2023 Form CF001 St. Paul’s School, Aroloya, Lagos, as his primary school; Government College, Ibadan; Richard Daley College, Chicago and the University of Chicago as his alma maters, without Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi swearing on oath that he filled them for him by proxy.

Counter-arguments have been proffered against the school of thought that says Tinubu’s ultra-stupendous wealth should recommend him against vying for the Nigerian presidency. You will recollect that the military apparatchik argued along this line against an MKO Abiola presidency. Abiola, they said, was as wealthy as to grant Nigeria loans. Weak as the argument was, it is strong in Tinubu’s disfavour, for its moral and deleterious implications. While the world knew that Abiola’s wealth was procured from international dealings, especially in ITT, Tinubu is said to own a pie in virtually every sector of the Nigerian economy, ranging from oil, steel, finance (tax), airline, real estate, to the media, and you name it. These are all operated in names of shells and proxies. In all these, as the Americans say, we can see the bucks but not the shop. What morality will Nigeria be preaching by having a president of such opaque composition and disposition?

Either real or imagined, it is said that the only thing that is real about Tinubu is his person and that every other ascription on him is a borrowed robe. He has not come in the open to effectively disclaim the allegation that his name is not his name; that the parents he claimed were not his; that the certificates he claimed to be his are not and that the schools he claimed to have attended, didn’t know him. I don’t know a baggage bigger than this for a country like Nigeria that is struggling to sell herself to the world, to now have its president burdened by this pernicious pedigree.

With the calamity that the Buhari presidency has posed to Nigeria, it will be more calamitous to have a Tinubu as his successor. Governing Nigeria is not all about identifying surrogates who will man critical political offices for future political gains. Nigeria needs a cerebral, healthy, comparatively morally overboard president, a man – borrowing from Oscar Wilde’s description of his gay partner friend, Sir Alfred Douglas in De Profundis – who is not a man for whom the gutter and all that is in it fascinates.

One would have expected Tinubu to heed the counsel of Apala music icon, Ayinla Omowura. Omowura must have had in mind leaders who are heavy-laden, burdened by baggage of their past, when he counseled that, as all shrubs and leaves in the forest should not be the predilection of a herbalist seeking curative herbs; not all palm trees in the forest should excite the palm-wine tapper either. In Yoruba, he expressed this as, “gbogbo ewe ko l’ojawe nja; gbogbo ope ko l’onigba ngun.” Sagacious leaders who carry stupendous moral baggage of the Tinubu hue should know the forests they ought to venture into.

The forests of presidential contest that the Lagos Landlord is about to venture into is what same Omowura, in his vinyl, referred to as “igbo odaju” – the forest of the heartless, the hard carapace-hearted hunters. At least not anyone who does not have the benefit of a real mother – a real mother’s prayers are like magic, steeped in mystical and metaphysical powers. Anyone, said Omowura, who does not have a real mother who can provide the protection of witchcraft for them, should not venture into igbo odaju. Never! Abraham Lincoln, father of the American nation, also alluded to this when he said, “I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.”

Some Yoruba lament what they call the predilection of the Yoruba for pulling themselves down. This piece would be their perfect example. It is thinking like this that has condemned Nigeria to stagnation. The truth is, the Yoruba are very proud of their pedigree and wear it like a lapel on their sleeves. So how can the same Yoruba who have preached moral uprightness to the rest of the world for centuries, now queue behind a man who cannot point his right hand at his father’s homestead? Let the rest of Nigeria be rotten eggs. The Yoruba will still underscore the societal purity. It should gladden us that the Yoruba are the ones revealing the maggots in their home so that when they expose the maggots in others, they will occupy a higher moral ground. It is better for the Yoruba not to lift a presidential leg forward than lift one that is riddled with a festering and putrid sore. In any case, what Nigeria needs is a president that is a leader who is not crippled by ill health and is adequately schooled in the nuances of 21st century solutions to our self-inflicted, existential challenges.

Since independence in 1960, six ‘major’ Yoruba sons have attempted a shot at Nigeria’s civilian presidency (excluding fringe aspirants of Babangida’s political guinea-pig era). They are Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, Chiefs Abiola, Bola Ige, Olu Falae and Olusegun Obasanjo. If Tinubu carries through his recent declaration, he will be joining this pantheon. Of this lot, Tinubu would be the only one whose pedigree is shrouded in a miasma of dubiety.

Yoruba will totally support Tinubu in his presidency dream if he agrees to fill in the INEC forms all those claims he made of his roots in 1999. He must fill in the 2023 Form CF001 St. Paul’s School, Aroloya, Lagos, as his primary school; Government College, Ibadan; Richard Daley College, Chicago and the University of Chicago as his alma maters, without Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi swearing on oath that he filled them for him by proxy.

Festus Adedayo is an Ibadan-based journalist.