I felt insulted when I saw the video of how the people of Niger Republic denigrated our President, Bola Tinubu. The insolent crowd displayed a banner with pictures of our President on a car, poking fun at him. Even his first name, Bola, was changed to Ebola.
Nigeria should not tolerate this insult. We desperately need the services of the former Niger Delta agitator, Alhaji Asari Dokubo, and the Lagos State Parks Management Committee Chairman, Mr. Musiliu Akinsanya also known as MC Oluomo. President Tinubu should contract them to send their boys to Niger to teach this tiny country a lesson. This has become more necessary now that the Senate has denied the President the support to deploy troops in Niger. Obviously, Dokubo has shown that he has the capacity to engage in any fight, no matter how tough. After all, it is not a crime to engage mercenaries to fight your enemies. That is what the Wagner Group in Russia does for a living. Niger military rulers have even asked for help from this group against the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) planned intervention.
No doubt, many Nigeriens are angry over the role of Nigeria in the planned invasion of their country by ECOWAS forces. Tinubu is the current Chairman of ECOWAS. Following the coup that toppled President Mohamed Bazoum of Niger on July 26, 2023, ECOWAS leaders met in Abuja and resolved to impose sanctions on Niger. They gave the military regime led by Abdourahmane Tchiani up to Sunday, August 6, to restore the ousted President or face military action. Nigerien soldiers have turned a deaf ear to this warning. They dared ECOWAS forces to do their worst. And they are emboldened by the support of fellow military regimes in Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali.
These Niger soldiers have failed to realize that Tinubu is a dogged fighter. That is why, despite warnings by well meaning individuals and groups against military intervention in Niger, the President wrote to the Senate, seeking support for “military buildup and deployment of personnel for military intervention to enforce compliance of the military junta in Niger should they remain recalcitrant.” He said his government would embark on sensitization of Nigerians and Nigeriens on the imperative of his planned actions, particularly through the social media.
Unfortunately, the majority of Nigerians are against this military action. They believe our soldiers are stretched and have been fighting on different fronts. The insurgency in the North is there. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed. Millions of others have been displaced from their homes. The menace of known and unknown gunmen has not abated in the South-East. The evil exploits of bandits and kidnappers in different parts of the country are still a source of worry.
There are other existential problems that have brought our country to its knees. Chief among them is poverty and hunger. Over 133 million Nigerians are multi-dimensionally poor. Unemployment is a serious problem. Many of those who have jobs cannot afford the basic necessities of life because their take-home pay hardly takes them home. These people need food more than war. They need better jobs. They need adequate palliatives, as the sudden removal of fuel subsidy has catapulted the cost of living to an unbearable level. Our debt profile has ballooned to over N70 trillion. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) embarked on protests last week. It has threatened to go on strike soon if its demand for better welfare for workers, among others, is not met. Simply put, Nigeria cannot afford to engage in any type of war now.
This is where people like Dokubo and Oluomo come in. Dokubo, for those who do not know him, is an Ijaw warlord. He is also a close friend of our President. I got to know him in the late 90s when I was a correspondent of TheNews magazine in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital. Then, he and some other Niger Delta militants were fighting for resource control. At some point, they went underground and started destroying oil pipelines. Many soldiers sent to engage them met their Waterloo.
What the militants had going for them was their perceived extraordinary spiritual powers anchored on Egbesu, a deity of the Ijaw people. The belief is that bullets don’t kill Egbesu adherents. It was not until the late President Umaru Yar’Adua set up amnesty programme for militants that some sanity prevailed in the Niger Delta. They surrendered their weapons and embraced peace.
Today, Asari Dokubo is engaged in war of a different hue. He is ready to defend Tinubu and his legacies at all costs. Last June, the President invited him to the seat of power in Abuja. At a press conference he later addressed in Aso Rock, Dokubo denigrated our military and accused them of being behind 99 per cent of oil theft in the country. He also boasted of his capabilities and volunteered to use his boys to assist in halting the menace of oil theft.
When rumours to truncate the inauguration of Tinubu as President on May 29, 2023, were rife, the Ijaw warlord sent his boys to Abuja to confront whoever dared to stop the inauguration. Even the last NLC protest in Abuja was distasteful to him. His boys reportedly moved in to do counter protest. The governor of Rivers State, Siminalaye Fubara, is not spared. Dokubo threatened him the other day, saying a clash between him and Fubara would make Boko Haram attacks in the North-East a child’s play. How can we have this type of superman in Nigeria and a tiny Niger will be insulting our President anyhow?
Was it not former President Olusegun Obasanjo who once advocated using our juju to deal with South Africa in the heyday of apartheid? Since we have a man who has supernatural powers like Dokubo, we should not waste time to deploy him and his men.
The Ijaw warlord can be assisted by Oluomo, another good friend of our President. During the last general election, Oluomo did a good job for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). He threatened Igbo in Lagos who would not vote for the APC, to stay at home and not venture coming out to vote. With the help of his own boys, he succeeded in isolating some of the strongholds of the opposition Labour Party and stopped many of its supporters from voting. Some were attacked and seriously wounded. Until date, nothing has happened to MC Oluomo. Such a man has the capacity to deal with these Niger people.
Tinubu must send a clear message to our Senate that failed to approve his letter for the invasion of Niger through Dokubo and Oluomo. The Senators must be told in clear terms that lily-livered people don’t win war or political power. None of these two things is served à la carte, as our President would say. The soldiers in Niger snatched power from Bazoum and ran with it. We must snatch it back from them and return it to Bazoum. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Those who claim that Tinubu also snatched power in the February 25 presidential election are just being mischievous!
Re: The trials of Justice Ariwoola
Dear Casy, there may not be presidential aspirants in 2027 unless the ongoing Presidential Election Petition Court does the needful by upholding justice no matter whose ox is gored. What will be the need contesting against Tinubu in 2027 when he must have consolidated on power by appointing the service chiefs, the Independent National Electoral Commission chair, the Chief Justice of Nigeria etc of his choice who will definitely do his bidding? The current judges we have should take a cue from the late Justice Garba Nabaruma-led election tribunal who declared Peter Obi as the duly elected governor of Anambra State in late 2005 before the Court of Appeal finally affirmed the judgment on March 16, 2006. Before Peter Obi v Chris Ngige case, no governor had ever been removed through the tribunal in the history of Nigeria. After Peter Obi, many governors had come to office through the courts. Such a precedent should be set for the Nigerian presidency. The ongoing presidential litigation is the most appropriate time for it to happen in the life of this country. The current Justices handling various election cases should emulate Justice Garba Nabaruma’s courage. Heaven will not fall now since it didn’t fall in 2006.
-Ifeanyi, Owerri, +234 806 156 2735
Casmir, the maxim “uneasy lies the head that wears the crown” is true, vis-a-vis the present position of Justice Ariwoola! As the CJN, he is undoubtedly, on the ‘hot seat’! Along with other justices, they would ultimately, decide who among the trio of Tinubu, Atiku and Obi fulfilled the constitutional requirements as the worthy, authentic, true winner of the February 25th presidential elections. Justice Ariwoola’s influential, commanding and decisive position exposes him to the corrupt and ‘intimidating tendencies’ of desperate politicians who lack any iota of scruple as they tend to ‘pervert the course of Justice in their favour’. The pre (“presidency is my lifelong ambition”) and post election statements (“to avoid anarchy, don’t remove me from office, because, I didn’t score 25% in FCT, Abuja”) of Tinubu, has brought even more pressure on the CJN who is now a ‘gold fish’ with no hiding place as he is being closely monitored by Nigerians and non Nigerians alike! Ariwoola must play his role very well with the fear of God and according to the dictates of his conscience. ‘Carrots’ would be dangled before him, duress would be applied, but, he must go after carving his name in gold!
-Mike, Mushin, Lagos, +234 816 111 4572
Casmir, the beauty of democracy is the freedom of the three arms of government, namely the executive, legislature and judiciary. In any advanced democracy, each of these arms works fearlessly to ensure the maximum benefits. In such democracies, the appointment of the occupants of each arm is based on merit. There is no godfatherism, ethnicity or religious bias. That’s why there’s a full commitment to the rule of law. Unfortunately, in a democracy that is saturated by mediocrity, the independence of these three arms becomes a great miracle. In a country like Nigeria, godfatherism, ethnicity, religious bias form the basis for occupiers of these arms of government. This practice has adulterated the democracy we have. It has also made the occupants of these arms of government unaccountable to anyone except their godfathers. The trials of Justice Ariwoola are indicators to those morbid fears of the electorate originating from absence of trust in judiciary. The CJN and his colleagues have every chance to prove everyone wrong by doing the right thing so that posterity will be on their side.
-Pharmacist Okwuchukwu Njike, +234 803 885 4922
Lately, all has not been well regarding the very ugly perception of the Judiciary by the Nigerian people. There exist some of the very worrisome decisions of the Supreme Court that have continually left many agitated minds in utter shock and disbelief till this day. Usually, under the guise of technicality which should now not have any place in the world of substantive justice, the Supreme Court has more often than not sidelined justice and hidden under the cloak of the following ‘’that the issues raised by the opposition lack merit and hereby dismissed.’’
-Edet Essien Esq. +234 810 809 5633