By Bolanle Bolawole

“There is a tide in the affairs of men\Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune\Omitted, all the voyage of their life\Is bound in shallows and in miseries\On such a full sea are we afloat\And we must take the current when it serves\Or lose our ventures” – Brutus, in William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”.

Are we not “afloat” on “such a full sea” in Nigeria today? Have we “taken at the flood” the “tide in the affairs” of this nation? Have we taken “the currents when it serves”? And if not, do we not now stand the risk of losing “our ventures”? We did not seem to have done the needful when we were cobbling together disparate entities to make what is now called Nigeria. We had brought strange bed-fellows together; worse, the rules of engagement have been made to hamstring everyone, as it were, denying them the freedom needed to flourish and blossom at their respective pace. If the founding fathers erred, succeeding generations have compounded matters.

The army of occupation, the wanton troopers as they were called in Mogwugo Okoye’s “Storms on the Niger”, made matters worse with the imposition of unitarism on the country. If the federalism of the First Republic did not travel far enough, the top-to-bottom command structure that decades of military rule foisted on the people has been tragically flawed, such that, today, 56 years after Independence, not only is Nigeria nowhere near a nation, the calls for true federalism has become a din.

But how many of those calling for true federalism or fiscal federalism actually have an understanding of what it means? How many of them are not simply playing politics or playing to the gallery? How many of the states of the federation can make ends meet on their own – paying salaries and meeting other developmental needs? Even with the largesse from crude oil receipts, the states as well as the Federal Government are still neck-deep in debt. As many as 28 states are not able to pay salaries and pensions, not to talk of executing any development projects.

How will such states fare without the monthly handouts from Abuja? It is true there are mineral resources all over the country; but time and funds are needed to harness them. Since the 1950s we have spoken glibly of diversifying the economy but no concrete action in that direction has been taken. Many of those asking for fiscal federalism also speak from both sides of the mouth: They support resource control even as they clamour for the creation of more states. One of them wants 54 states even as he is in the vanguard of the campaign for fiscal federalism. How will the 18 new states reduce the already burdensome cost of governance?

The South-west, too, clamours for fiscal federalism but it is the most flustered of the regions today, dependent on others even for the food it eats – tomatoes, pepper, onions, millet, yams, potatoes, beef, fish, name it! It has no sure means of survival for now as cocoa, which used to be the mainstay of its economy in the days of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, has fallen into neglect. If 50 percent resource control only is applied today, as was done in the First Republic, how many state governors will even be able to run their secretariats and fuel their fleet of cars? Yet, this is not a wish to put down fiscal federalism but to say it will take years, even decades, of meticulous planning for it to become feasible without dislocating the entire country. And the sooner we start, the better. The more time we waste, the more costly the venture becomes. The more we dither and prevaricate, the more perilous our present circumstances and uncertain our future.

…PDP’s festering sore
The Peoples Democratic Party’s self-inflicted problem is festering. Modu Sheriff, removed as chairman at PDP’s Port-Harcourt convention, is not going away quietly. This Frankenstein monster is teaching PDP the lessons of its life; to wit, crass opportunism is a vice. Want a free political lunch? Get ready to have raw pepper sprayed in your eyes! Sheriff is fighting dirty. His is a case of the rabbit: he either eats the beans or he scatters the whole lot. Sheriff is prepared to scatter PDP if he is not allowed to have his way. But having his way is said to be too costly a venture for many of PDP’s leaders. Sheriff is said to harbour presidential ambitions. While party leaders who head-hunted him as interim chairman thought they could use him to re-build the party, Sheriff himself had other ideas.

This, then, is a clear case of “cunning man die, cunning man bury am”. Ultimately, however, Sheriff will kiss the canvass because the momentum is no longer with him, especially after the PDP Board of Trustees threw their weight behind the caretaker committee set up by majority PDP leaders at the Port-Harcourt convention. Soon, he may have his hands full with the EFCC already tucking into his babariga. The moment PDP governors deserted Sheriff; his political career on PDP’s platform came to an abrupt end. Reports had it that Ekiti state’s Gov. Ayodele Fayose was the arrow-head of the sponsors of Sheriff; after which he got his colleagues to buy into the project. For as long as Sheriff played by the rules there was no hoopla, but the former governor of Borno state showed his hands too early.

Not only did he plot to overstay his welcome in office as chairman, he reportedly also began to dig-in, building political structures that, if allowed to mature and take root, would have seriously whittled, if not completely annihilate, the relevance of his sponsors. So the decision was made to expunge the cancerous growth before it festers and does untold damage. I think Fayose and others have learnt their lessons: Cutting political corners is extremely dangerous when it backfires. In his characteristically humorous manner, Fayose has not denied that he supported Sheriff; but has said if a wife you purposed to marry is discovered on the wedding day to be HIV-positive, will you still go ahead with the exchange of vows? Of course, not many men – or women, as the case may be – will be audacious enough to take the risk. With PDP governors waving him bye-bye, Sheriff’s fate is sealed. He deludes himself if he thinks he is going anywhere.

The forces ranged against him are just too much for him to overcome. Not even a helping hand from the ruling APC, as some PDP leaders are alleging, will avail him much; neither will the courts, whose orders he brandishes at every turn. Sheriff’s alibi holds no water; he is like a drowning man clinging to all manner of straws. If the courts had stopped the Port-Harcourt convention, what was he doing there? Was he not the one who sanctioned the setting up\composition of the convention committee? His appearance before the committee to be accredited confirms his approval of, and deference to it. Once the convention committee has taken office, could Sheriff interfere in its constitutionally-assigned roles? I seldom put anything beyond politicians; therefore, I will not be surprised if APC tries to profit from the misfortunes of PDP; if circumstances were reversed, PDP could do likewise. But my advice: Let APC heed the advice given to Okonkwo concerning the “sacrificial lamb” Ikemefuna in Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” – “Bear no hand in his death”. APC should have no hand in PDP’s current travails. As they say, let the child die from the hands of its parents.

…Who is the next Chief Justice of Nigeria?

When Nigerians fly kites and tests the waters, know that mischief is in the air and treachery is afoot. Incumbent Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mahmoud Mohammed from Taraba state, is due for retirement on November 10, 2016. As the 15th CJN, Mohammed took office on November 20, 2014; he was born on November 10, 1946. At 70 years of age, he is due to retire and by convention, the next ranking Supreme Court judge, Justice Walter Onnoghen from Cross River state, is supposed to take over. Onnoghen was born on December 20, 1950; meaning he will soon be 66years and, if allowed to take over from Mohammed, will have a little less than four years to spend in the saddle. “If allowed” because of the suspicious kites that have been flying and the murky waters that are being tested by some disingenuous Nigerians. Suddenly, such people are realising that it is possible; indeed, desirable, to appoint the CJN straight from the Bar! We are being shown the example of Kenya that is said to have done so; and of two very distant instances of the first indigenous CJN, Sir Adetokunbo Ademola, 1958 – 1972 and Dr. Teslim Elias’s, 1972 – 1975.

The likely purpose of this scurrying of the history books and the sophistry of the arguments advancing the “merits” of appointing a CJN from the ranks of greenhorns, as it were, is to prepare the grounds to scuttle the tradition of the Number Two becoming the Number One, which has served the apex court well for decades. But we must be careful: Under a Muhammadu Buhari\APC government bristling with unfair treatment of the South in Federal appointments, another injustice must not be added to the pile already in place.

The last time a Southerner was CJN here was Justice Ayo Irekefe, 1985 – 1987. Ever since, for about 30 years non-stop, following the seniority succession system that some sophists are now trying to scuttle, it has been Northerners all the way. Muhammed Bello, 1987 – 1995; Muhammadu Lawal Uwais, 1995 – 2006; Salisu Modibo Alfa-Belgore, 2006 – 2007; Idris Legbo Kutigi, 2007 – 2010; Aloysius Iyorgyer Katsina-Alu, 2010 – 2011; Dahiru Musdapher, 2011 – 2012; Aloma Mariam Mukhtar, 2012 – 2014; and Mahmud Mohammed, 2014 till date. It is now the turn of Walter S. Nkanu Onnoghen; after him comes, again, two other Northerners, namely; Ibrahim Tanko Mohammed and Suleiman Galadima. ​

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