I begin with President Muhammadu Buhari’s improper and condemnable behaviour in not expressing regret with regard to those wounded or killed in different parts of the country, especially in the Lekki Toll-Gate area of Lagos where the protesters were orderly and never rioted throughout their two-week-long action.
Not commiserating with the families of those killed showed the president as a heartless and uncaring leader and that he was the one who gave Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu the order to impose the curfew at 11am and make it take effect at 4pm, a period of five hours.
Is it not surprising that such a short notice could be given in a big city like Lagos where some people who live in Ota and Mowe in Ogun State, Agege, Egbeda FESTAC Town and Ikorodu work in Ikoyi, Victoria Island and Lekki which are 40-60 kilomiters away from their homes. What was proper and should have been done was to have made the curfew declared at 11am to have started at midnight that Tuesday or 6am the following day. The protesters at Lekki toll-gate did not engage in violence, so why send solders to disperse them at 8pm?
Some government and military officers even gave the impression that those who attacked the protesters at Lekki could be fake soldiers, they forget that Almighty God sees everything that happens on the earth and that there is a Day of Judgment in the Hereafter. I watched Barrister Femi Falana the Human Right activist on Arise News Television on Monday saying that his group had already identified the barracks from where the soldiers deployed to Lekki Toll-Gate came from and some of those they killed.
We wait to see the outcome of the investigation by the panel the Lagos State Government set up. But this notwithstanding my advice to the victims of the ENDSARS protesters and the families of those who died is that they should sue the Federal Government and the Army. This is the only way we can get to know what actually happened at Lekki Toll-Gate because the Government and Army can influence the report that the panel set up by Governor Sanwo-Olu would submit. It is also a court of law that can ensure that the victims and their families are adequately compensated, I recall that the Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt in 2013 awarded the sum of thirty-seven billion Naira (N3 billion) as compensation to be paid by the Federal Government to be people of Odi in Bayelsa State, for the Killing of scores of them and large scale destruction of their properties by soldiers of the Nigerian Army.
Tinubu & Oshiomhole’s political future (5)
My article in this column on November 30, 2016, four years ago, had the title: ‘Bola Tinubu’s Northern Nightmare. In it, I revealed the cause of the problem he was having in which many key northern leaders in their All Progressives Congress (APC) were sidelining him. I let it be known that it was because of the way he treated Afenifere leaders in the years 2000 – 03. In 1998, they dumped late Engineer Funso Williams to back him to become the candidate of the Alliance for Democracy for the 1999 governorship election in Lagos State.
I understood that they did so because of the yeoman’s role he played for five years from 1993 – 98 in NADECO (National Democratic Coalition) during the struggle for the actualization of the June 12, 1993 presidential election won by late Chief Moshood Abiola and the money he gave to win them over. But a few years after he became Governor Tinubu started disrespecting them and eventually left the Alliance for Democracy to form the Action Congress of Nigeria. Till today Afenifere has not been the same again.
I am the person Almighty God has since 1993 been sending to those He wanted to be Nigeria’s President during some of the elections that had taken place in the last 27 years. But as at now, I don’t know if the Lord would send me to anyone for the 2023 presidential poll, or if He would not as was the case in 1999, 2007, 2010 and 2015.
But from the present situation in the country, it is doubtful that if Tinubu has interest that he can emerge the candidate of the APC for the 2023 poll or succeed Buhari. If the party decides to zone the presidency to the South in 2023, it is likely that its candidate will come from either the South – East or the South – South.
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, a Yoruba man like Tinubu, was president for eight years (1999 – 2000) while Professor Yemi Osinbajo, another Yoruba man, has been Vice – President for five years (2015 – 20) and would be one for eight years in 2023. Consequently, many an APC member in the North would not want Buhari’s successor to come from the South – West.
They would prefer someone from the South – East or an Igbo man from the South – South. From the way things are they would prefer Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, the Minister of Transportation, to Tinubu, especially given the fact that he is Buhari’s right – hand – man and someone who has been working hard to extend the railways to the President’s Katsina State and to the borders of Nigeria with Niger.
Given the abysmal or extremely woeful performance of President Buhari in handling the nation’s economy and its security and his abhorrent Fulanization policy and the disunity it has caused, it is doubtful if an APC candidate can succeed him in 2023. Northern leaders in the Peoples Democratic Party are said to be considering Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as their party’s candidate for the next presidential election.
If it happens most northerners would prefer to vote for him since he cannot seek re – election in 2027 and the presidency would return to one of the three zones in their region. For this reason, many a northerner in the PDP and even APC would prefer to vote for Jonathan instead of Tinubu or any APC candidate.
Mr. Adams Oshiomhole who is from Edo North had been Governor of Edo State for eight years (November 12, 2008 – November 12, 2016) and the National Chairman of the APC for two years (July 24, 2018 – June 16, 2020). But his cantankerous behaviour in both positions rules him out of consideration to be his party’s candidate for the 2023 presidential poll.
So, all Oshiomhole can aspire for is to go to the Senate in 2023 and given the performance of the candidate of his faction in the September 19 governorship election in Edo North, he stands a good chance of winning. But this is if he does not have a stronger opponent in the local politics of their area.
Concluded
Prepaid meter problems (6)
The leader of the two men who came to install my prepaid meter on August 27 just told me to press the buttons on the remote control when I want to load or register the token figures on the receipt issued when I paid my fee. He did not tell me I had to punch or press the buttons with vigour and do so fast.
It took three days before I got someone who had the same experience and told me what to do before I overcame the problem. Two months later, on October 19, when I wanted to load my meter for the third time I couldn’t do so as the token figures I punched did not register in my remote control.
So until Monday, October 26 when I wrote this article I was in darkness because of the curfew. I don’t know yet if the remote control has gone bad or something else is responsible for the non-functioning. But it will be too bad and unfair if it is that I have to purchase a new remote control.This is why companies supplying prepaid meter must be made by the Federal Government and National Assembly to give their customers a period of guarantee. How can I have the remote control of a prepaid meter installed on August 27 go bad in less than two months and I have to be responsible for repairing or replacing it? It is absurd!