Governor Yahaya Bello and the Perversion of a Court Made Mandate.

Governor Yahaya Adoza Bello of Kogi State is one of the most dangerous and uncultured political leaders to emerge in the Nigerian political scene in recent memories. Socially and politically, he is unpolished, brute, and morbidly unhinged. His morbid fascination with vergence and crude jabs smack of opportunism and insecurity. He is the ultimate local champion and a can of worms -  a threat to national peace, religious tolerance, and a formidable obstacle to sustainable development in Kogi State.

Kogi State is a Gateway State, a Nigerian microcosm to boot. Given the antiquated state of the infrastructural facilities in the two major cities,  the state deserves a political leader who understands the rudimentary of urban development and renewal, as well as, the creation of new markets and the expansion of the existing ones. 

With a massive seafood industry made possible by the presence of River Benue and River Niger, coupled with its proximity to Abuja, Lagos, and Benin City, Kogi State ought to be the number one hot spot or stop shop for out of state migrants and property developers. 

The State is abundantly endowed with some very rare mineral/natural resources deposit that, if appropriately exploited, would catapult Kogi State to one of the top IGR earning regions in Sub-Sahara Africa. (I covered the state briefly in my "International Mining and Comparative Law" class in graduate school).

Governor Bello is young, and maybe, educated. Brash? Not all. My own my, that dude is to ghetto. He has a diabolical sense of pride. And most often, he threads the path of feuds and resentment, when compromises and handshake are most desirable. 

He is a Governor today by accident. He participated in the APC Gubernatorial Primaries and was defeated. He was the first runner-up. The gentleman who won subsequently picked his deputy in accordance with the provisions of our Electoral Act and the 1999 Constitution as amended. And both of them proceeded onto the campaign trail as a joint ticket.

On the eve of the election, but before the declaration of the winner, the winning candidate (the APC guy) died. Though APC, as a political party, was eventually declared the winner, there was no Governor-elect to take the Crown. And impasse developed.

Like a bolt from the blue, Mr. Bello came into the scene to harvest where he did not sow any seed. He was defeated at the Primaries. Besides, his name was not on the ballot, either as a gubernatorial candidate or as a deputy.

The Court declared Yahaya Bello, who did not participate in the Gubernatorial race and was not on the APC ticket, elected. And was sworn in accordingly. Reason: he participated and came second in the Primaries, but the Deputy who shared a joint ticket with the deceased candidate did not participate. And I disagreed with that judgment then and today for two reasons. The Primaries has been overtaken by events. And two, his name was not on the ticket at the governorship stage. Therefore, at this stage, vesting rights cannot be supplanted.

The Primaries are normally conducted between candidates of the same political party. The Gubernatorial race is the real race. And it is between candidates of the various political parties, each fielding its own governorship candidate and the deputy, consistent with the provisions of our Electoral Act and the Constitution. These names are appropriately submitted to INEC within a specified time frame. That's all it takes for a mandate to vest following a winning vote counts. Not what happened at the primaries.

I strongly believe that upon satisfying the appropriate registration legal requirements, the joint ticket so formed, automatically enure to the benefit of both candidates - the Gubernatorial candidate and his Deputy. Because the Constitution and the Electoral Act have already given effect to that unison prior to the election and prior to the death of one of the candidates. 

The joint ticket, as well as the rights and privileges emanating from it or accompanying it has been so recognized by laws. The fact that they have not been declared the winners and duly sworn as Governor and Deputy Governor respectively is irrelevant. After all, Bello was not even on the ticket or on the Ballot. The decision, once again, in my humble opinion, was a miscarriage of justice.

Be that as it may, I must cut the Court some slack on the decision they took. Because the arguments and the case presented by the Lawyers who represented the unfortunate Deputy were completely different from the common sense arguments I put forward on this essay. It's all about the legal strategy - defining the case, framing the arguments, and finding the laws in the books to buttress your case. 

Here, it was a novel case - no laws, no statutes, and no precedents in the book. What was required, therefore, was a common sense and persuasive arguments on the part of the Deputy's lawyers.  The Supreme Court does make laws, called case laws. These are decisions not based on precedents, laws, or legislation, but on reasonable and informed judgment, and common sense.

• So, it is the responsibility of the lawyers to urge the apex court to find reasons and wisdom in its lawmaking process, through case law pronouncements, and rule for your client - the Deputy. Because his name was on the ballot, on the ticket at the actual election. 

Giving the mandate to the one who left the scene at the Primaries is legally and equitably unthinkable. It doesn't make any sense. Unfortunately, those were not the arguments or case argued by the Lawyers who represented the Deputy before the court.

The Judge cannot help you to define your case. It is the facts and the issues you presented that define the trajectory of the case. Legal strategy comes first before the laws. The same reason Yahaya Bello is the Governor of Kogi State today is the same reason EFCC is losing most of its important cases in Nigerian courts. 

Governor Bello is a time bomb waiting to explode. Kogi State needs pragmatic thinking, internationally exposed, or business-oriented individual to run the State as a profitable organization. Not a local champion who is suffering from a persecution complex and unleashing political tension and manufacturing hostile business environment in his State and beyond. It's sad to see a guy who couldn't win at the Primaries, got elected by the court and now perverting the legal gift he got, and setting the clock back in a state that ought to be a leading light in industrialization in Nigeria.

Nigerian Presidential Election: Atiku Abubakar is a Major Break from the Past.

Atiku is a Major Break From the Past. Part One. 

This is the closest, after Papa Awo, that we have come as a nation-state to making a major break from idea deficit, stagnation of thought, and cluelessness within the leadership. It has always been about "entitlement" and "it is my turn to rule" within the rank and file of the Generals since the end of the Second Republic. It has never been about ideas, visions, or what is good for Nigeria and Nigerians. 

Jonathan was an accident of history.

Musa Yar'Adua's presidency was compensation for the death of his elder brother Major General Shehu Yar'Adua. Death robbed Shehu Yar'Adua of the opportunity to take over from Obasanjo. 

Also, remember, following the death of Abacha, when IBB and his fellow retired power brokers decided to assuage the Yoruba tribe for Abiola's crucifixion, they went for one of their own - Baba. And Baba went for Buhari in 2015. Unfortunately, nepotism, infirmity, and mental impairment vanquished that esprit de corps culture of our retired generals.

If not for his death, President Musa Yar'Adua would have permanently retired the unwilling retirees of the uniforms and put a permanent end to the mistrust and ethnic divides that are hamstringing our cohesion as one nation-state.

Coming from a privileged background and the younger brother of an influential retired military officer, he knew firsthand that the South was treated as a conquered territory. He knew of the absence of equal rights or equal opportunities in the disbursement of our national wealth and our natural resources. 

And He knew at the time that the people of the Niger Delta aren't getting their fair share of the oil wealth. From the Ministry of Niger Delta to the Amnesty Program within two years, he was ahead of the pack and he was, no doubt, a major break from the status quo. And there was peace in the land. But it didn't last long. Death came too soon. 

Today, you have another chance to break from the past and embrace a digital future - a future where every one of us, in spite of our tribal, cultural, or religious differences, can feel a sense of belonging. 

To my friends and family members, let's rally around the Atiku/Obi ticket because the ticket represents that digital future. A future where reviving and escalating the audacity of Musa Yar'Adua, of his One-Nigerian philosophy, together with the vision, team spirit, and the audacity of hope of Papa Awo are the norms rather than the exceptions. 

Like Papa Awo, Atiku knows the issues; otherwise, he would not have been able to dissect and articulate them. He is interested in solutions, not excuses or "my hands are tied" escapism.

Think about that, Nigerians. Think and remember the answer Mr. Atiku Abubakar and President Buhari gave when they were asked the same question on how to revive our educational system. Atiku articulated what his administration did when he was the Vice President. He identified the problems they encountered. And he articulated what he was going to do differently if elected. 

On the other hand, President Buhari, confronted with the same question, digressed into the three levels of government and power structure, thereby holding the Local government councils responsible for our educational decay. He couldn't identify what he had done or what he would do differently. Please, don't forget, that ASUU is still on strike.

The difference is clear enough, Nigerians. To those of you who are still undecided, please watch the video of the interview again and again. Atiku is prepared. It is about the audacity of hope, of vision, and the way forward. Please, give him a chance to reform and move Nigeria forward. Enough of excuses and blame games. The idea speaks volumes. And he has them in abundance. Please, remember that. He is a major break.

Ethnicity and Religious Bigotry: A Presidential Voyage on False Narrative.

The President and his Men cherish  the virtues associated with a race-blind and religious neutral administration, but they nevertheless remaining recalcitrant embracing those virtues in totality and putting them into effect in the course of their management of the affairs of this great nation-state, Nigeria. Since his assumption of office as the Executive President, President Buhari has been having difficulties trusting Nigerians, except those from his ethnic background as well as those who share his faith. 

Take a look at the enumerated names on his speech appearing shortly after this intro, and ask yourself how come his appointments over the years do not reflect that microcosm eloquently dissected in his speech. Where is the Igbo Catholic or Lawyer or Strategist within his security team today? None of them he could trust now as he did when he was chasing the mandate.

His speech writers must be living in a different planet. That they are just realizing now that there are other tribes and cities outside of Daura and Katsina smacks of deceit and intellectual fraud. Simply put, President Buhari and his speechpeech writersriters are not the right Teachers to teach Nigerians how religion and ethnic questions are corrupting our political system and undermining our cohesion as one nation under God. 

The speech does not match his conduct in office as President. In sum, the President and his speech writersriters are pushing a false narrative.  The portrait of his Service Chiefs as a group, put a lie to his treatise. You know what is right, but you don't do it. You preach about what ought to be the norms, but you don't practice it. And as Fela Anikulapo Kuti would say, "Teacher, don't teach me nonsense."

Please, find below, the speech, as culled by his Press Secretary. 

Religion and Ethnicity a Smokescreen For Corrupt Practices

- President Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has described as “bloody nonsense” the penchant of some Nigerians to hide under the canopy of ethnicity and religion to perpetrate injustice and corrupt acts.

Hosting his former staff who worked with him during his tenure as military head of state (January 1984-Aug 1985) on Sunday night at the State House, Abuja, the President added that recourse to the smokescreen of religion and ethnicity “is just corruption, pure and simple.”

To justify his thesis, President Buhari went down memory lane, drawing lessons from his electoral battles at the courts in 2003, 2007, and 2011, where those who ruled against him were Muslims from the North, but those who defended him were Christians from the South. His words:

“I was recently forced to talk to somebody I respect a lot about Nigeria. I said in 2003, when I started out, complaints about presidential election used to start from the Court of Appeal. 

The president of the court then was my classmate in secondary school for six years. Himself, myself and Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, were classmates. My lawyer, Mike Ahamba, was Roman Catholic and an Ibo man. My first witness was in the box. Ahamba said he needed the register of voters in certain constituencies and states to prove that votes were just allocated, and not true reflection of what existed in the constituencies. He asked them to record his request and sign. They did so.

“When they came to give judgment later, the matter was not mentioned at all. In the panel was another Roman Catholic and Ibo, who raised his hand and said, this is what Buhari’s lawyer had said. Did we write to those constituencies and states to submit the register? If so, why is it not in the judgment? They just shut him up. He had to write a minority judgment. Of course, he’s now our Ambassador in United States of America.

“I petitioned the Supreme Court. Who was the Chief Justice? A Muslim, probably a Fulani, from Zaria. After 27 months, we went. Ahamba addressed the court for 2 hours and 45 minutes. They went in, came out after about 45 minutes, and said they were proceeding on vacation the next day. They were away for three months, making it 30 months in all. When they came back, they dismissed the case within 45 minutes.

“In 2007, they repeated the same thing. Who was the Chief Justice? A northerner and Muslim. After 18 months, they dismissed the case.

“The third time, who was CJ? A Muslim, Fulani man from Jigawa. After 8 months, he dismissed the case. This bloody nonsense about Nigeria on ethnicity and religion is just corruption, pure and simple. Wherever we find ourselves, let’s pray to God that we maintain our faith. That’s all we have.

“I try to do my best, and pray to God to help me. May God Almighty give us the ways and means to continue to do our best for the country. Whatever religion we follow, let’s do it seriously, as finally, we would appear before God. Whether we believe it or not, it will happen. So, we better continue to behave ourselves.”

President Buhari described the reunion and interactive meeting as an “emotional one” for him, as he had not seen some of the people since 1985, when the military regime he headed was toppled.

Commending his former Aide-de-Camp, Alhaji Mustapha Jokolo, who used his initiative to put the parley together, the President equally commended his former Number 2 man, Major General Tunde Idiagbon (now deceased), whom he said, showed uncommon loyalty and courage. His words:

“He was in Saudi Arabia, performing the hajj, when we were removed. The Saudi king said the coup was not just against us, but also against him, since Idiagbon was praying with him.

“He asked him to send for his family to join him in Saudi until it was clear where I was. Idiagbon said no, I want to go back, Your Majesty. If they kill him, let them kill me also.

“He joined the next flight and came back. I think there’s no way you can describe such loyalty, such courage. May his soul rest in perfect peace.”

Alhaji Jokolo said though the departure of the former staff from government was “unexpected and disappointing, if not regrettable,” the affected people recall the ugly experiences today, “not with bitterness because individually, they had since moved on with their lives, though painfully aware that they were victims of misplaced aggression.”

He added: “The fact that among us today are highly respected Royal Fathers, businessmen, captains of industry, lawyers and other specialists in the professions, and a university professor, speaks volumes that God is good and that values of discipline and perseverance that we imbibed under Your Excellency’s tutelage had not been in vain.”

Femi Adesina

Special Adviser to the President

(Media and Publicity)

January 21, 2019