POLITICS
Buhari’s October 1 Rhetoric, Mailafia and Akunyili’s Murder
![](https://dailyasset.ng/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Buhari.jpg)
By Festus Adedayo
I find a symbolic similarity between the travails of Dr. Chike Akunyili and Reverend Richard Henry Stone, (1837–1915) the latter’s which I picked from his memoir that contained his missionary activities in Nigeria entitled, In Africa’s Forest And Jungles.
Stone was an American missionary who came to Africa during the nineteenth century to represent the Southern Baptist Convention and who spent years among the Yoruba-speaking people of Western Nigeria. He lived in Ijaye, Abeokuta, and Lagos and traveled to “Ibadan, Lahlookpon, Ewo, Ogbomishaw, and Oyo” in his own words.For both Stone and Akunyili, I struggled, with scant success, to reconstruct the horror of the grisly movie in which they starred.
Akunyili had been shot and killed at Nkpor, Ideimili Local Government of Anambra State by yet unidentified gunmen. About eight other people were said to have been shot dead or beheaded in that melee. Save for the video circulating on the social media of his huge frame lying on the bare floor, writhing in unimaginable pain, his face a huge mask and gash of ripped flesh and blood, Akunyili didn’t live to recount the gory horror of his waylay by that band of bloodthirsty hounds in the last minutes of his life. Nor could he tell anyone how these messengers of death fired rude, hot leads at his cerebrum. What transpired between Akunyili and those beasts between that moment of his ambush and his eventual gruesome killing? Did he plead with them to spare his life? Did he identify himself? Did they know he was the widower of Dora, that ecumenical spirit, the angelic Amazon who saved many Nigerian lives from drug fakers? Were the killers that impervious to recognizing Angelic spirits that they did not identify one in Chike? Questions. Questions. No answer.For want of a picture to fill that void, I fled into the experience of Reverend Stone who had been subjected to a scene of similar waylay, over a century ago. Again, while Akunyili was said to have been driven in a car, Stone was riding a war horse, which he named Bucephalus, sold to him by the legendary warrior of Yoruba, Ijaye kingdom, Kurunmi who Stone had the opportunity of meeting with, a man he, in the memoir, called a despot. The Ifa oracle had earlier counseled Kurunmi to dispose of his horse and subsequently ride only white horses. After selling the horse to Stone, Kurunmi then purchased a beautiful Arabian white horse as replacement.
Kurunmi, translated to mean “death has ruined me,” had a legendary fame of a warlord of the empire of Ijaye, which is just 20km distance from present day Mokola in Abeokuta. From the account of respected Yoruba history authority, Samuel Johnson, Kurunmi was the “greatest soldier of his age” who possessed huge mystical powers and was highly dreaded. An ally of the Oyo Prince Atiba who later became Alaafin, Atiba later installed him as the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland.
Unsuccessful in my bid to reconstruct the horror of the grisly movie wherein Dr. Akunyili starred in the last minutes of his life, I began to look at the symbolism of Nkpor, where he chose to breathe his last; or where his destiny chose his extinguishing. Descendants of a hunter named Okoli Oti, Oti’s sons, Omaliko, Oji and Dimudeke played ancestral roles to Oji people of Umuoji and Dimudeke. Nkpor people, otherwise named Umudim, were relocated to where they are due to incessant wars with their neighbours. Nkpor people, from time immemorial, are known to be warriors, which got them the moniker obodo dike (land of the brave). They are also known to be peace-loving and accommodating. Why then would a peace-loving Akunyili, on a peace-loving soil, be killed by people whose skewed sense of peace is killing their brightest?
I went into this long history to conjure the comparatively agonizing travails Akunyili went through in the hands of his own killers. Stone, a man of peace, intent on rescuing a fellow man opposed to slavery, escaped being killed but comparatively, Akunyili, who friends and acquaintances in Enugu State told me was a man of peace who lived his life saving others as a medical doctor, was killed by men who stood for everything but peace. While Stone’s crime was riding a war horse associated with Aare Kurunmi, enemy of Bashorun Ogunmola and his slavery-disposed allies, Akunyili’s sin was allegedly being found with accoutrements of the enemies of Biafra – a gleaming car suggestive of “Nigerian beasts” and a police orderly that is the metaphor of the injustice his people suffer.
President Muhammadu Buhari came on national television, a few days after the murder of Akunyili, with his ritualistic homilies which he yearly places at the groove of an almost dead god of One Nigeria. In his October 1 Independence speech, the Hobbesian life that is nasty, brutish and short that Nigerians live under the Buhari presidency merely received an euphemistic treat from him. No remorse from the president on the fact that when Nigerians leave their homes in the morning, there is no guarantee that they will come back in one piece. Even during the Nigerian civil war, life did not regress into this frighteningly Hobbesian cul-de-sac.
Buhari has not been able to answer the question of why and how Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Adeyemo, a.k.a. Igboho, who terrifyingly shrink the president’s balls today, were disregarded and inconsequential entities in 2015 when he came into power. Who canonized, deified and catapulted them to this level of renown and worth? It was Buhari and his hostility against equity and good governance.
Buhari, in the said speech, in his time-worn characteristic, found the Nigerian media most convenient group to scapegoat. “Our media houses and commentators must move away from just reporting irresponsible remarks to investigating the truth behind all statements and presenting the facts to readers…The seeds of violence are planted in people’s heads through words. Reckless utterances of a few have led to losses of many innocent lives and destruction of properties,” he said.
The president was however dead wrong. What has led us to where we are today is Buhari and nobody or nothing else. All other growths from this are mere offshoots. This platitude of imploring us to “take this opportunity, on this special day that symbolizes the unity and oneness of our great nation… to embrace peace and dialogue, whatever your grievances,” is mere cant and hypocritical. President Buhari has this conquest and ethnically-driven mentality that is unrivalled in the history of Nigerian leadership. He is unforgiving, self-righteous and persuaded in his own understanding, at the expense of others’.
Added to his skewed understanding of justice and equity and administration of Nigeria, the stage was set for implosion of people who seek other loops to equity and fairness, no matter how foul. This is the logic that makes IPOB’s animalism in the Southeast to fester and why characters like the duo, in Buhari’s own narrow admittance, would be funded by a National Assembly member. This government’s disregard for equity has led to the growth of people who carved out allegiance to anything but Nigeria. Buhari is the sole reason why otherwise inconsequential characters like Igboho and Kanu are holding Nigeria to ransom and why Chike Akunyili and so many others have been killed by men who foolishly think killing their kith and kin and burning structures in their locality will remedy this government’s arrogant and inequitable governance.
This administration still harbours a narrow conception of what the media represents. Nigeria is not an Iron Curtain with its barrier. All shades of opinions, including the so-called “irresponsible remarks” that Buhari so much abhors, in the spirit of free speech, must be accommodated and reported to the world. When he, as presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), in May 2012, made the generally considered irresponsible remarks that if the alleged rigging of 2011, when he was voted out, happened again in 2015, “by the grace of God, the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood,” in the name of free speech, the press gave him a voice, even though the statement was divisive, outlandish and dripping with Osama bin Laden-kind terror temperament.
Buhari seems to perceive a thin divide between his despotic decrees of 1984 and legislations and policies in a democracy. He thus cannot stomach free speech and its appurtenances. Banning Twitter, a major ventilating window of free speech and seeking to formulate, directly or through legislative proxies, stringent regulations, legislations and policies aimed at muzzling the press and controlling the traditional and social media space seem right to him. Rottweilers and Alsatian dogs like the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) are used to enforce this rout of free speech. In the abhorrent October 1 speech under reference, the president felt compelled to mention an unnamed legislator as the financier of Kanu and Igboho but the administration he leads has been tongue-tied and feels not compelled to reveal the sponsors of banditry in Nigeria. What manner of Janus-faced sense of justice is that? Aghast at this double-faced justice, a motion was moved last week by his northern kinsmen in the National Assembly to get bandits declared as terrorists.
I feel compelled to bring into this argument the last days on earth of Obadiah Mailafia, ex-Deputy Governor of the Central Bank, who died a few weeks ago. Till date, the Buhari government’s unforgiving disposition to contrary opinion and whatever it feels was wrong with Mailafia’s interrogation of the state of the Nigerian state has impeded it from commiserating with the family he left behind. Yes, the government has the freedom to choose who it showers its obsequies on, but the optics of this synchronize with the near-fabulous story of a military Head of State who allegedly divorced and never forgave his first wife till her unfortunate death, her crime being that she sought his freedom from the shackles of his prisoners.
Mailafia’s last days on earth, from accounts published in the media, where he dictated hospitals to be taken to, dreadfully imploring his family against taking him to government hospitals, speak to the apprehension among people opposed to this government that it can speed up the death of those who hold contrary opinions to it. Even Papa and Baby Doc of Haiti were not known by this heinous intolerance.
As we pray for the repose of the souls of Akunyili and Mailafia, it is evident that only Buhari holds the key to Nigeria’s peace and progress. The moment he chooses to administer this country as a national and not Fulani leader; a peace-loving leader and not one who delights in attacking violence with violence, the likes of Akunyili will not die in vain, for, we would have succeeded in steering our beloved nation away from the precipice of hatred, bigotry, divisiveness and despotism.
POLITICS
PDP Crisis: Party Chieftain Faults Kogi State Congress, Seeks Redress in Court
![](https://dailyasset.ng/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/PDP-logo.jpg)
From Joseph Amedu, Lokoja
The Kogi State Congress of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) held last Saturday August 31, in Lokoja, has been described as ‘illegal, fraudulent, null and void’.Capt. Joe Agada rtd, who made the declaration at a press briefing in Lokoja, told newsmen that the purported state congress was illegal, lacked credibility and adherence to party guidelines.
Agada maintained that his group had concrete proofs to show that the majority of delegates at the purported congress that allegedly produced, Enemona Ayebe, as state PDP Chairman was characterised with illegality and marred with anomalies. Agada stressed that the basic bloc of the State Congress which is the Three-Man Ad-hoc Ward Delegate Congress where they were supposed to elect 717 delegates in Kogi, purportedly conducted by Rt Hon. Boyelayefa Dabekeme led committee, was marred with grave anomalies and impersonation of Returning officers from FCT, Nassarawa, Imo and Kano States.He insisted that the development compromised the integrity of the ward congress and therefore rendered the entire process null and void.He added that the delegates that allegedly produced Ayebe at the purported State Congress held on August 31, 2024, was marred with impersonation of delegates across all the 21 local government areas of the state.He noted that the guidelines for the conduct of PDP Ward, LGA, State and Zonal Congresses as well as the National Convention in PDP Constitution, for the purpose of selecting party executive committees at all levels, were jettisoned.The PDP chairmanship aspirant stressed that the accreditation at the State congress was highly manipulated and populated with non-statutory delegates across the 21 LGAs of Kogi State.Agada stressed that the PDP should not see the illegality issue as a party internal affairs, but as a matter that would be challenged in Court.According to Agada, the Supreme Court has made a distinction between processes that are called internal affairs of the party, and what the Court can inquire into.”In the 2022 judgement, the Supreme Court affirmed that where an action has not taken place, it is the internal party affairs.”But where an action has taken place, an aggrieved member of the party who has locus and concerned that a bridge of the Constitution of party guidelines has been violated by the party itself, can seek redress in court.”This is why we did not participate in the purported illegal state congress because we have a focus as we have declared our abstinence,” Agada said.He added: “We will approach the Court because the injuries done to our aspirations cannot be compensated by quantum damages in lieu of the financial compensation.”It is an interest that must be protected, hence, the need for the press briefing to alert the general public of the illegality of the kangaroo PDP state congress in Kogi”.Agada noted that the Kogi PDP Caretaker Committee Chairman, Sen. Laal Danjuma; and its Secretary, Philip Gyunka, had written to the INEC, DSS and Police, PDP NWC to notify them of the anomalies that marred the purported state congress.Agada also said that aside the illegality of the congress, the purported elected Kogi PDP Chairman Enemona Anyebe, had been debarred by the PDP Disciplinary Committee in his Ogugu ward 2, from holding any party office due to anti activities.According to Agada, Anyebe was found guilty of participating in anti-part activities by Ogugu ward 2 Disciplinary Committee on May 3, 2019, which was reconfirmed on March 20, 2024, with authentic proof.He stressed that the debarred Ayebe neglected and failed to appeal the disciplinary committee actions until August 31, when the purported state congress was held.Agada emphasised that there was a subsisting Court order restraining Anyebe from holding any party office position or participating in any elective positions at all levels including party ex-officio.”My interest in seeking to become Kogi PDP Chairman is to build the party; it is all about developing the party, and not personal interest like others.”We found this party together and we believe in the objectives of our founding fathers; we will not allow it to die in our hands.”We will approach the Court to stop the PDP National Working Committee from recognizing and ratifying any purported executive that emerged from the illegal congress in Kogi. We will follow this case to its logical conclusion,” Agada said.Agada further accused the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike of using his influence to cause crises in Kogi and 10 other States across the federation during the August 31, PDP State congress, held nationwide.”Wike is the man behind the PDP crisis in Kogi as well as 10 other States across the federation during the August 31, state congresses.”The PDP at national level has not been bold enough to sanction Wike, and one single person is holding the entire party to ransom. Wike is out to weaken and destroy PDP, and he must be stopped now.”I can tell you, if PDP goes the way it is going now, then, forget about PDP in the 2027 general elections,” Agada warned.
POLITICS
INEC Urges CSOs to Scrutinise Political Parties, SIECs
![](https://dailyasset.ng/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/INEC-chairman.jpg)
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has called on Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to extend their scrutiny to the activities of political parties and State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs).
CSO’s scrutiny will promote transparency and accountability in electoral processes, deepen democracy and enhance the conduct of local government area elections in Nigeria.
INEC Chairman, Prof.
Mahmood Yakubu, made this appeal when the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room, led by its Convener, Mr Yinusa Z Ya’u, visited the commission’s office on Thursday in Abuja.Yakubu commended CSOs’ contributions to improving Nigeria’s electoral democratic process but stressed the need for them to engage other stakeholders to deepen democracy.
“Remember, most of the improvements that you see in the conduct of elections are as a result of the activism of the civil society but sometimes, the civil society is quiet about other elections.”
He emphasised that flawed primary elections and local government elections can undermine the entire electoral process.
“Take the conduct of party primaries for instance. Political parties conduct primary elections and INEC conducts secondary elections.
“So, the most important process is actually the primaries conducted by political parties. It is the candidates they present that we put on the ballot.
“Citizens can only choose from the candidates presented by political parties,” he said.
Yakubu urged CSOs to scrutinise political parties’ primary elections and SIECs’ conduct of local government elections, as these have a direct impact on the quality of candidates and the electoral process.
“Elections are conducted at the local government level by the SIECs and they declare all the candidates of the ruling party winners. Yet, we don’t hear anything from the civil society.
“At INEC, we appreciate constructive criticisms. It is an ingredient for change. But we want all the components of elections to be alright.
“We cannot have one component going right and another going another way.”
The Team Leader of the Civil Society Situation Room, Yau, noted that his organisation shares a common interest with INEC in consolidating democracy and conducting elections in Nigeria.
He highlighted the group’s efforts in mobilising citizens for Permanent Voters’ Card (PVC) collection and promoting peaceful polls in Edo.
Yau also affirmed the group’s commitment to urging political parties to play by the rules and not undermine the electoral process.
NAN)
POLITICS
TDF Faults NLC Over Tinubu’s Purported Betrayal on Fuel Price
![](https://dailyasset.ng/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/NLC.jpg)
The Democratic Front (TDF) has faulted the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) over claims that President Bola Tinubu betrayed or deceived them on fuel price to arrive at the N70,000 minimum wage.
TDF added that Labour and government mutually negotiated and agreed on the minimum wage.
Malam Danjuma Muhammad, the Chairman of TDF, said this in a statement in Abuja on Thursday.
He said the President could not have been emphatic and decisive on the pump price of fuel in a deregulated market.
He said: “We are disappointed with the often repeated wrong postulations of the Joe Ajaero-led NLC against the government and person of President Tinubu”.
He added that most of what the NLC said could not add up, stressing that the negotiation of the minimum wage was never debated as a condition on how much fuel would be sold.
He said that Tinubu never hid his desire or pretended over his preference to make the ideals and philosophy of a liberal free-market economy the focal point of his economic transformation agenda
“As a matter of fact, he announced an end to the age long petroleum subsidy regime in an unprecedented fashion during his inaugural speech on May 29, 2023.
This, according to him, is to herald commencement of the end of state-controlled economic policies and protectionism in the Nigeria investment ecosystem.
He said, that he believed that Tinubu would not, for whatever reason, give personal guarantee or assurance to anybody or group, on a specific price of fuel in Nigeria.
He added that the President knew that in the absence of government subsidy, such prices were solely determined by the unpredictable dynamics of market forces.
“We, therefore, view the accusations against Tinubu by Ajaero as untrue and a ridiculous attempt to blackmail the President.
” We understandably note that the withdrawal of fuel subsidy by the government has compelled the NNPCL to respond to the dictates of market forces.”
This, according to him, is in order to cope with the logistics of importing refined petroleum into the country.
” The increase in the pump price is to accommodate the landing cost of the product.”
He said that TDF expected fuel price to crash with the expected infusion of locally refined fuel from Dangote Refinery into the Nigerian market.(NAN