Immortalization - capitaltimesnews.com

CapitalTimesNews / 6 days

1 min read

Senator Smart Adeyemi has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to immortalize the late Christian Chukwu, the legendary former captain of Nigeria’s national football team. Chukwu led the country to its first Africa Cup of Nations title in 1980 and passed away recently at the age of 74. Adeyemi, a former representative of Kogi West Senatorial District, made the appeal in a statement, saying, “The exploits of Christian Chukwu remain fresh in the minds of Nigerians. He was undoubtedly the best of his generation.” The senator believes that honoring Chukwu would inspire aspiring athletes and patriots across the country. “We hope the country will honour him in a lasting and significant way, to motivate others to give their all for the nation,” Adeyemi stated. He also urged sports administrators to prioritize the holistic development of sports in the country. Chukwu’s legacy includes leading the national team to multiple AFCON finals and serving as head coach of the Super Eagles.

HUMPHREY NWOSU: SENATE DID NOT SURPRISE ME – Tonnie Iredia

CapitalTimesNews / 2 weeks
0
8 min read

Late Professor Humphrey Nwosu, the outstanding Nigerian who led the team that conducted the June 12, 1993 presidential election recognised worldwide as the best in Nigeria’s history was buried last week. He was aged 83.As Director of Public Affairs and spokesperson of the Nwosu-led electoral commission, I am pained that I was unable to play my anticipated roles in the burial ceremonies due to my absence from the country.In absentia, however, I monitored events and offered suggestions and indeed sent recorded messages and tributes.I am grateful to my other former colleagues who kept the flag flying. But I have remained miserable that no one dissuaded South East senators and a few others from seeking the support of the senate for the immortalisation of the most successful chief electoral officer Nigeria ever had. The effort was superfluous. Behold, even the South East Senators failed to recognise that many legislators are hardly well disposed to any person who stands or ever stood for free and fair elections.The major reason Nigeria has had a subsisting plethora of electoral malpractices is because our political class lacks faith in credible elections hence, they fought desperately against the bill on electronic transmission of election results because it could stop rigging.Indeed, some two decades back during a debate on an electoral reforms’ bill, Senator Tsuari reminded his colleagues that many of them got into the senate through electoral malpractices.Although the senate harassed him and Senator Nuhu Aliyu who said he recognised many crooks in the senate that he had dealt with before retiring as Deputy Inspector General of Police, such insider testimonies were instructive. Thus, it is redundant for anyone to lose sleep simply because the senate refused to honour a man whose performance attracted international applause and commendation. Someday, many good-hearted Nigerians will honour Humphrey Nwosu because researchers will establish that elections before and after his time were a sham. For example, our first major election in 1959 witnessed the pouring of acid into ballot boxes to distort results. The next one in 1964 saw electoral officials declining to register opposition politicians thereby returning several candidates of the ruling party unopposed. In the case of the 1979 election, the ‘twelve two-third of 19’ hullabaloos portrayed the declared winner as holding-on to a stolen presidency. The 1983 election on its part produced results for polling units where voting did not even hold. That was the last election before the era of Humphrey Nwosu. After Nwosu, the next election was in 1999, with former American President, Jimmy Carter who led international election observers stating that the number of voters at the polling booths did not match the results announced. In 2003 and 2007, the observers were unanimous that Nigerian elections were far below the global benchmark. The 2011 election ended in violence across parts of the country with many deaths. In 2015, half of the country compulsorily used the newly introduced Card Reader while the other half relied on ordinary register and incident forms. In 2019, many people believed that the electoral body deployed a manipulated technology to rob the main opposition of victory just as the 2023 election suffered from an inexplicable glitch. Did any of these anomalies happen under Nwosu? The senators who blocked Nwosu immortalization relied on a few incoherent arguments. One said if Nwosu had declared the winner, his brother would not have died in the crisis that ensued. A second said he knew M.K.O Abiola and that when the latter visited Kano he rode in his car. A third senator said by not declaring the results Nwosu lacked the courage to die in active service. These legislators were probably victims of selective hearing who heard only what they wanted to hear about June 12. They didn’t hear that Nwosu tabled the results before a court as soon the government of the day became ambivalent about the contest. They also didn’t hear former President Babangida in a book launch declaring the real enemy of June 12. Unlike our current senators who recently refused to obey a court order stopping them from investigating a subject, it was only superior legal arguments that convinced Nwosu to justifiably disregard the last-minute order of Justice Bassey Ikpeme stopping the June 12, 1993 election. In other words, Nwosu’s seeming disobedience of the said order had nothing to do with irrational courage. He rightly disobeyed because Section 19(1) of the Presidential Election Decree No. 13 of 1993 ousted any court from making Ikpeme’s type of order. Second, the legendary Justice George Oguntade had earlier ruled that the electoral body did not even need to appeal such illegal orders. Third, the above facts were presented to government which reluctantly gave a go-ahead for the election to continue. Midway into the election, another court presided over by Justice Dahiru Salleh did not only stop further announcement of results but went on to issue a warrant of arrest on Nwosu and his principal officers. The then Attorney General, Clement Akpamgbo who earlier rationalized the disobedience of the first order was now the one who served Justice Salleh’s warrant on Nwosu. Other things which most people did not know included the following: a) Nwosu still proceeded to the Court of Appeal Kaduna Division against Salleh’s order; b) part of the documents he presented to the court was an attachment of results of the election showing that Abiola won; c) government then suspended the electoral body leaving Nwosu and his commissioners with no platform to hold-on to; d) as the court was preparing to make a ruling, the June 12 election result was annulled; e) those who say Nwosu should have announced the result even if he had to die, did not know that Nwosu was really not the one to make the announcement but another national commissioner, Professor Felix Ideriah, who was in fact the chief retuning officer for the election. Nwosu could not have usurped the position of Ideriah as Yunus Ari Hudu the then Adamawa REC illegally did with the 2023

𝐓INUBU’S 𝐒ELF 𝐈MMORTALIZATION

CapitalTimesNews / 3 months

6 min read

By Dr. Ugo Egbujo A leader with an eye on posterity won’t have the appetite for the vanity of naming projects after himself. True immortality will be bestowed by history, not monuments that can be renamed. Tinubu needs to submit himself to some clear-eyed, sober reflection. This preoccupation with self-glorification and immortalisation is a telltale sign. There are now Tinubu Barracks in Abuja. It is a frenzy of self-immortalization. There is a Tinubu Airport in Minna. There is a Tinubu Polytechnic in Abuja. It was approved this week. There is a Tinubu Library at the National Assembly. The NASS wants to establish a Tinubu University of National Languages. All these naming ceremonies have happened in less than two years. Some say it is not Tinubu. But it is sleazy. The president can’t watch his aides and subordinates outdo themselves in this sycophancy marathon. There is no virtue in it. Many say this idea of Oba of Nigeria matches Tinubu’s ego. It’s immoral for a leader to spend public funds to build a monument and allow his appointees to hang his name on it. Nigeria is not a banana republic Tinubu’s men have defended immorality. Their defence is that Tinubu didn’t start it. Buhari named a university after himself. Yet that comical defence is shamelessly bold. They are effectively saying that Tinubu, who came to renew hope, is building on the ignoble foundation of a few former leaders. That mischievous defence doesn’t bother to answer the question of propriety. With the rate at which the Tinubu eternalisation project is going, after 8 years, his name could be on the river Niger Azikiwe built the University of Nigeria in Nsukka. He named it after Nigeria. He only got an airport named after him long after his death. Awolowo built universities. He named none after himself. He only got a university named after him when he joined his ancestors. Obasanjo presided over the affairs of the country twice. He didn’t name a Federal University or an airport after himself. Tinubu needs a special adviser on ethics. Our people say we can know the faces from the fart. A leader committed to such brazen self-aggrandizement can not save himself from other associated temptations. If a leader can’t resist the urge to name projects after himself, if he lacks the discipline and decency to desist from childish self-immortalization, can he resist the urge to refrain from becoming synonymous with the state? Time will tell. Idi Amin There is this joke about Idi Amin. Amin appropriated all the titles in Uganda and named himself the conqueror of the British Empire. The joke was that he flirted with the idea of renaming Uganda. He felt the Idi Republic would be a better name. After all, he was Uganda. But he was only stopped when he was told that since the people of Cyprus were called Cypriots, if Uganda became Idi, then Ugandans could easily become Idiots. The joke doesn’t quite capture all of Idi Amin’s vanity. Mobutu At some point during Mobutu’s reign, his name was ubiquitous. The fawning by his aides had gone malignant. Worshipping Mobutu in public became synonymous with patriotism. Before every news broadcast on TV, an image of Mobutu descending from the clouds would be aired to remind the people of his divine ancestry and mission. People were expected to stop all they were doing to clap. Mobutu was God sent. He was a messiah. He wasn’t a mere mortal. Tinubu has to draw the line now. His apparent delight in this self-glorification is ruinous. It is a sign of moral laxity. It’s a sign of ongoing conflation of public and private political interests. It is a sign of incipient and paralysing delusions of grandeur. It is a thing the juvenile juntas in Niger or Mali should be doing. It will attract clowns to surround him. One of the most significant deficits of Tinubu’s government is its nonchalance to corruption. It doesn’t feel so dirty. Tribalism, nepotism, cronyism, etc, are all rife and permissible. Corruption is the abuse of power for private gain. In this government, a minister can revoke the title of a plot of land and give it to his inlaw. Nothing is scandalous. When people complained that Tinubu was so brazenly concentrating power in the hands of the Yoruba, Tinubu heard the complaints and intensified the lopsidedness. Nigerians are resigning to that insensitivity; they no longer care. Their president is tone-deaf. When he chooses a course for personal or group advantage, he gives no damn about public sentiment or opinion. But the naming of barracks after living politicians is remarkably naive. Our military institutions must be protected from such flippancy. We must preserve the sacredness of certain institutions. We shouldn’t make them subjects of cheap politics. A barrack could be named after a president who lived, died, and left inspiring military feats. Abacha still has a barrack, too. So why is Tinubu enamoured with his name on a barrack if it puts him in a fairly despicable company? So, should we expect more projects to be named after Tinubu? The Lagos Calabar road would fit and perhaps complete that preposterousness. It is the largest road project on the continent. It was awarded to a friend without due process. It could also be named after the father of modern Lagos. Two other prestigious projects would be the universities of Ibadan and Lagos. Since those who built them and those who came after them didn’t have the nerve, Tinubu could also take them. Perhaps, when he reaches surfeit, he will discover the folly of the adventure. Tinubu might say he won’t suffer the fate of Mobutu and Idi Amin. I agree with him. But he must remember Wike. When Wike was governor, he named a local government headquarters after himself. His statue was installed. Then, he installed his protege as his successor. It all seemed perfectly immortalised. But soon after, he fell out with his godson. A few months ago, his

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SENATOR ADEYEMI URGES TINUBU TO HONOR LATE GREEN EAGLES CAPTAIN CHRISTIAN CHUKWU

HUMPHREY NWOSU: SENATE DID NOT SURPRISE ME – Tonnie Iredia

𝐓INUBU’S 𝐒ELF 𝐈MMORTALIZATION

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