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Orebe Femi, 47, Osolo Way, Ajao Estate , Oshodi, Lagos (2026)

Name: Orebe Femi
Address: 47, Osolo Way, Ajao Estate , Oshodi, Lagos, NG
Telephone: +2348056504626

31/07/2022

A BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF THE TINUBU ROADMAP TO NIGERIAN GREATNESS

The starting point for every presidential aspirant should be the
appreciation that disaster looms in Nigeria. It is a nation on
crutches. It worsened the other day when bandits, or was it Boko Haram
elements, looked President Muhammadu Buhari in the eye, figuratively
speaking, and said they will kidnap, not just him, but together with
a serving state governor and bring them straight into the bush where
they had then just finished giving the remaining 43 victims of the
Abuja - Kaduna train kidnap they have held for over 100 days, the
beating of their lives. What made it worse was that many days after,
according to the equally threatened governor El Rufai of Kaduna state,
the president was still unaware of the gratuitous insult. Nigerians
are going through a lot of trauma.
Unfortunately, insecurity is only one of the many demons tormenting
the soul of the country.
The economy lies prostrate as epitomised by the fact that we spend
about 118 percent of our revenue on debt servicing; the Naira is now
hardly worth its name just as Education, at least at the tertiary
level, has been literally dead for the past 5 months with nearly all
Universities shut down.
All these may not have been for lack of trying on the part of the
Buhari government. Indeed, presidential spokespersons are never tired
of saying that the President is doing his best. I think it is time we
agree with them but we must let them know that the President's best
has certainly not been enough.
While we may concede all the unexpected headwinds - the low oil prices
for a considerable length of time, two successive recessions, Covid -
19 and the ongoing Russia- Ukraine war, much more could still have
been done and it is safe to say that the government is clearly
overwhelmed.
This past week, however, Ladi Williams, a guest on Channels TV Morning
Show, introduced a very brilliant insight into the whole discourse.
According to him, the time has come for Nigerians to realise that at
about 80, President Buhari is no longer the young Buhari we knew as
the fire - eating, non-smiling Nigerian military Head of state of the
‘80’s. Therefore, rather than all the criticisms, we should
appreciate, and commend the bit he has been able to do. I agree with
him. It was also his suggestion that Nigerians must now begin to look
more seriously at those individuals angling to succeed President
Buhari in less than a year. This is what his spokesperson have always
told Nigerians, adding for emphasis, that no one government can do it
all. So whatever rough edges the president might leave behind, we must
now begin to critically look at, not political parties, but rather
that individual, who would be most fit for purpose, sorting things out
and rebuilding Nigeria.
That, I must say, drove me to today's piece. It will bring to the
public space again, what one of the 3 leading presidential candidates,
namely, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC, has presented to
Nigerians as his roadmap to Nigerian greatness.
Being multi- sectoral, the document's critical analysis shall be left
to those who are competent to do it. All I would do, therefore, is
list the key things he promised, while also making some brief
comments on the candidate and the two other leading candidates
beginning with the redoubtable former Nigerian Vice President, Alhaji
Atiku Abubakar.
Thanks to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigerians now know that
almost as soon as Atiku got into office, he unfortunately, became
distracted, plotting to replace him as President. This he said Atiku
did because the Marabouts who told him he would be elected governor of
his Adamawa state, but would not rule as such, because he would be
nominated into a higher office, also told him he would become
president, almost without trying. President Obasanjo further said that
the dislocation caused by this in government was why Atiku couldn’t
achieve much in office, even though Nigerians would, forever, remember
that under his direct supervision, national investments worth about
$100Billion were sold off for less than 20 per cent of the cost.
President Obasanjo described Alhaji Atiku in his book, in words that
are far beyond me to repeat on these pages. The former President also
wrote that Atiku "achieved federal character in the manner in which he
acquired wives - Yoruba, Hausa, Fulani and Igbo - Christians among
who he, w***y nilly, converted to Islam; an aspect in which he differs
from Tinubu who is married to a Christian, Oluremi, an Assistant
Pastor of the Redeemed Church, to boot..
Concluding on Atiku, President Obasanjo wrote:"And knowing all that I
discovered about him, what would have been an unpardonable mistake
(that is, after calling making Atiku his Vice a mistake), and sin
against God would have been to foist him on Nigeria. My mistake was
containable and it was contained, ".(quotes excerpted from Olusegun
Obasanjo’s Memoirs: My Watch(Part 2)
If Atiku was not good enough to lead Nigeria in 2007, Nigerians must
now look critically to know if he is the man Nigeria, literally on its
knees, needs in 2023.
Governor Obi, the Labour party’s presidential candidate, would best be
remembered for investing Anambra state's funds in his family business.
In addition, there is unconfirmed talk of his actions leading to
Hausa traders leaving the state for Delta state during his time as
Anambra state governor.
As the tenure, in public office, of the three leading candidates were
contemporaneous, let us then say that this was the same time APC's
Tinubu was laying the foundations of a then absolutely rustic, refuse
- laden Lagos state, to turn it to the fifth largest economy in
Africa. That was the Lagos President Obasanjo described as follows in
early 2001, while launching the Global Campaign for Good Urban
Governance in Nigeria, as part of a key programme of the United
Nations Centre for Human Settlement (HABITAT):"Lagos, with its
notoriety, qualifies as an urban jungle which should not be inhabited
by any sane person".
The same Obasanjo would later seize Lagos state Local Government funds
in 2005, an action which Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, speaking at the
Ekiti state’s “Fountain Summit 2021,” said provided ample opportunity
for the Tinubu - led Lagos state government "to think like a sovereign
state, able to overcome its financial challenges" adding that. "the
capacity of the state to rethink its predicament at the time resulted
in huge increase in its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), which is
today in the region of N45 billion"
With a promise that TEAM TINUBU will lead Nigeria "to a new era of
economic prosperity, peace, security and political stability", below
is a bird's eye view of his promise to the nation:
To decentralise the police and create hundreds of thousands of new
jobs simultaneously.
To transform Nigeria into an enviable country, where there will be
justice, peace and prosperity for all; a great country, the pride of
Africa, a role model for black people worldwide.
To make Nigeria a thriving democracy, with a fast-growing industrial
base, capable of producing the basic needs of the people as well as
exporting to other countries.
To turn Nigeria to a robust economy where prosperity will be shared by
all; irrespective of class, region, or religion as well a safe and
secure country with abundant food, affordable shelter and quality
health care for all. A nation founded on justice, peace, and
prosperity for all.”
He promised to launch a new National Industrial Policy which will
focus on special interventions to reinvigorate specific strategic
industries.
He undertook that stimulating jobs will be his top priority as
President and that he will launch a major public works program with
heavy investment in infrastructure, and manufacturing and agriculture.
His administration, he promised, will build an efficient,
fast-growing, and well-diversified emerging economy with a real GDP
growth averaging 12% annually for the next four years, translating
into millions of new jobs, especially for millions of Nigerian
youths.
He promised to create six new Regional Economic Development Agencies
(REDA) which will establish sub-regional industrial hubs to exploit
each zone’s competitive advantage and optimise their potential for
industrial growth.
The presidential aspirant also promised to formulate a new National
Policy on Agriculture to boost food production.
He promised to formulate a new National Policy on Agriculture to boost
food production.
He promised to promote the establishment of new commodity exchange
boards, while also strengthening the one in Lagos in order to
guarantee minimum pricing for agricultural products such as cotton,
cocoa, rice, soya beans, corn, palm kernel, and groundnuts.
On infrastructure, he promised to “Build A New Nigeria (BANN)” by
developing a National Infrastructure plan, which will cover strategic
roads, bridges, rail, water, power, seaports, and airports, spanning
the length and breadth of the country.
His administration, he promised, will combine government funding,
borrowing, public private partnership, private sector financing and
concession to initiate a medium and long-term financial model for the
BANN initiative.
“On Electricity, he promises an action-oriented, and immediate, focus
on resolving existing challenges of power generation plants, gas
purchasing, pricing, transmission, and distribution. The
administration’s critical goal willto have 15,000 megawatts,
distributable to all categories of consumers, nationwide to ensure
24/7 sustainable supply within the next four years,” he added.
On the oil and gas sector, Tinubu said there will be no need for a
subsidy because the market will be open and transparent. “Supply will
come from local refineries, and the forces of demand and supply will
determine the price of petroleum products will establish a National
Strategic Reserve for Petroleum Products to stabilize supply during
unexpected shortages or surplus periods. This will eliminate any form
of product shortages and prevent wild swings in prices.
25 per cent of the nation’s budget will go to Education.
He will continue the free school feeding programme of the APC, feeding
“millions of primary school children across the country”. On tertiary
education, his administration will eradicate strikes by encouraging
the institutions to source for funds through grants and corporate
sponsorships, with all the institutions granted financial autonomy.
Like Education, he will increase funding for health care to 10 per
cent. The National Health Insurance Scheme will be relaunched to grant
health insurance cover to most Nigerians.
Let us all now put the fire to his feet for details and further elucidation as we must do for all the contestants.

30/07/2022

They All Need To Hear This.

19/11/2019

Hi Guys.
Read this piece ( the main article) and see, how uncanily, it mirrors the Supreme Court explanation of why it quashed Atiku's appeal against Buhari's victory.
It mirrors it so much, in fact, almost sequentially, some might claim that his lordship, the CJN, Justice ibrahim Muhammad, who wrote the judgment which was read by Justice John Okoro, must have availed me a copy of that priceless document, even though this article reached my editor, a whole 48 hours before the apex court sat to give reasons for its judgment of October 30, 2019.
Some of us, the unlearned, often wonder as to why a lawyer, worth his salt, would not tell his client that he/she has a bad case, not worth pursuing further.
If a complete legal illiterate like yours truly could write, as I do below, giving reasons why the PDP, and its candidate, should not have appealed the PEPC's decision, an opinion the apex court's explanations tallied with completely, it beats one hollow that acclaimed lawyers, SANs to boot, would not take pity on their client, and honestly advise him/her, against going further.
I, however, know at least, 3 eminent members of the silk, who would, respectfully, advise their clients to go no fuurther as doing so would be pointless .
It may, however, have to do with where they come from, and their ethical, upbringing.
Happy reading.

WHAT MOTIVATES THE NIGERIAN POLITICIANS' LITIGIOUSNESS?

First and foremost, what's happening? Who are those eager to propel President Buhari's name onto the negative side of history despite his best efforts at righting several wrongs in the country, even if he were to succeed only in finally, and effectively, clubbing corruption, our number one problem, to submission ? Who are these people fighting battles Buhari most probably didn't send them? Who are these enemies of freedom of speech and of association, two fundamental freedoms all over the world, that Nigerians must now have to go to court to protect theirs?

Why this near total disdain for court decisions which, of course, did not start today in this administration but with the long running Col Dasuki case? And can Omoyele Sowore singly topple this government? How many battalions has the Pope got?

How come Lai Mohammed now waxes lyrical, ever eager to circumscribe free speech? Has he forgotten, so soon, the amount of scurrility he threw at President Goodluck Jonathan, half of which, not even Femi Fani Kayode has managed against President Buhari? Yoruba bo nwon ni ti a ba ran ni nise eru, a fi tomo je - meaning of course, that if you're sent to deliver a slavish message, you do it like a free born. Mokan mokan loye nkan o.

Is the current, totally needless and anachronistic exertions of the National Assembly, feverishly trying to pass a law regulating the social media, and, another, prescribing the death penalty – in this day and age – for a nebulous hate speech, the way to show you are cooperating with the executive branch?

Why are some people so eager to take us back to the Abacha days minus, of course, its state sponsored assassinations? How come the Army, and even Customs, now unilaterally give directives they have no constitutional powers to give as in the court - halted identification exercise and the order banning sale of petroleum products 20 kilometres to the border?

What is afoot? Why this creeping totalitarianism? No matter how crafted, a Hate Speech Law, in the year of our Lord two thousand and nineteen, would be, to use PDP's words, “savage, repressive, cruel and murderous". To imagine that the bill even proposes a death penalty - where, for God's sake, are the David Mark's and the Sola Adeyeye's of yore?

I digress.

By far the most litigious group in Nigeria today must be the politicians who head to court in droves every election cycle, as if they must - the reason INEC is currently battling with about 1600 court cases according to its chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu. This he disclosed at an interaction with the Senate committee on INEC. Asked how the commission funds these cases, the chairman said that the commission makes budgetary provisions, based on projections of cases adding that the number of in-house lawyers handling them are now completely inadequate. The above should give Nigerians an idea of what huge amount of money goes into this meaningless legal extravaganza that benefits only individuals.

Consider for instance, the Atiku/PDP case against the election of President Muhammadu Buhari about which the Supreme court recently made the final pronouncement. While Atiku going to the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal was logical, progressing beyond it was absolutely ill -thought of , given the incurable issues that emerged from the tribunal - legal facts that made a complete nonsense of the case going beyond the tribunal stage, as even a non lawyer should see, ahead, the futility of such an effort. For instance, isn't it forlorn to call only 5 polling agents as witnesses from the 191,000 polling units where the law prescribes that for a petition to succeed, the appellant must present a polling agent from each of the polling units across the country to testify? The interesting case of the so-called INEC server is another. How a prosecution counsel could wish to validate the most important part of his case, upon which depended the fate of the entire case, by relying on a witness who would, at best , be described as a hack, must reckon as the joke of the century.

According to the PDP candidate that 'server' had given him victory over Buhari by allotting to him a total of 18,356,732, against Buhari's 16,741,430 but when he was to provide irrefutable evidence for that salacious claim, he did no better than present a witness - David Ayu Nyango Njoga, an uncertified I.T ‘expert’ from Kenya, assisted by a poor Osita Chidoka, both of who failed miserably to prove anything; the reason the Supreme court threw off that leg of the case by holding "that the manual provided by INEC made no room for electronic transmission of results, and that for that to happen, the Electoral Act must be amended to that effect".

Nor was that all.

The issue of President Buhari's qualification was another leg of the case which no serious prosecution counsel should have pursued further after the tribunal has held that: " Mr Buhari is not only qualified, he is eminently qualified to contest the election because ” the evidence tendered regarding Buhari’s qualifications could not be relied upon, since the PDP did not issue or make the certificate, nor was a "candidate required , under the Electoral Act , to attach his certificate to his form CF001..."

Why in the face of all these incurable defects did the litigants still choose to go to the Supreme court? Were there a higher court, Atiku would obviously still be in court , no matter how obvious these lacunae. As the multi- award winning Chairman of The Nation's E ditorial Board, Sam Omatseye , puts it in ATIKU'S REQUIEM: " …t hey hope, in their fantasy, that they could court the heavens and so God is made flesh, wrestles like Jacob and upturns the ruling. Not even the assertion that the Supreme Court is infallible because it is final is any consolation".

In trying to answer th e question, as to what motivates the politician’s eagerness to always head to court, it is conceded that Atiku, as one of Nigerians richest politicians , if not by far the richest, does not exactly fit into the class of those whose primary focus is to share in the stupendous loot our politics offers, especially at the National Assembly where, no thanks to former President Obasanjo's inflicted successors, whose personal weakness es the National Assembly members exploited to become totally unconscionable, awarding themselves perquisites that were far and above what the Revenue Mobilisation, Fiscal and Allocation Commission approved for them, and took whatever salaries and allowances caught their fancy .

To understand Atiku's motive , therefore, we may have to press former President Obasanjo into service as he generously answered this question in his book, : My Watch , wherein he wrote: (slightly edited): "What I did not know, which came out glaringly later ...was his propensity for poor judgment, his belief and reliance on marabouts , his trust in money to buy his way out on all issues and his readiness to sacrifice national interest for self and selfish interest".

Shall we just say then that his motivation was simply power. Being already so rich, Alhaji Atiku Abubkar wanted power.

While we would have to leave the former Vice President to ponder these obviously harsh words from a man he remains , like forever , beholden to, we must, as a nation, do something about the sinking hole our politics has become, and forcefully rein in a National Assembly whose membership has become so attractive former governors, most of who ruined their respective states now rush to, increasingly turning it to a sinecure position. Since the Revenue Mobilisation commission has become so prostrate it no longer serves the national interest - witness also its inability to come up with a new revenue sharing formula in over a decade, Nigerians must put heads together to untie the inscrutable nut the National Assembly has become , gulping annually, a minimum of N125B almost for doing nothing.

It has been suggested, for instance, and in respected quarters too, that we do away with the senate. While that is a proposition that may take time to eventuate , I think concrete steps must be taken to rescue Nigeria from the stranglehold of a mere 469 citizens.

But the rapacity does not stop there,

It is the craze for loot that makes politicians think nothing of what becomes of their political party even where they had held high positions like governors, legislators, ministers etc . This is what has decimated the APC in places like Zamfara, Rivers and is presently manifesting in Bayelsa state. Many more may actually be in the offing in places like Edo and Ondo states – two states where elections are at hand, and where politicians are, traditionally, in the habit of fighting to the death.

The essence of this piece, therefore, is that what motivates most of our politicians is not service to the people but loot and unless Nigerians move to sanitise this ugly situation, we would, continually, be under their stranglehold.

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