By Smart Ofugara

The crucifixion of Jesus Christ as told in the holy Bible witnessed the question and answer session. Pilate had asked Jesus Christ if He was in the king of the Jews and Jesus replied him by saying you have said so.

Going further as was the tradition then , Pilate was supposed to release a prisoner to the people. The choice of prisoner to be released was between a notable prisoner, called Barabbas a robber and Jesus Christ who had done nothing to harm anyone or the society.

The people prevailed on Pilate to release Barabbas the prisoner who was a robber while Jesus Christ was handed over to be crucified. The emphasis here is for you to examine the commonwealth of our dear nation as it concerns its uses, the beneficiaries, expectations and the dilapidated nature of infrastructures, lies and pain inflicted.

Democracy as a form of government is one in which participation of the people is paramount. One major understanding that everyone or the citizens must know is that life is like a bank account where you have to make a deposit first before you can issue a cheque.

Consequently,the time to stand on the fence is past and so is the time to stay aloof gone.

Twenty three years down the road, we have witnessed the same people circle themselves in power. We have complained, we have collected our #5k and bag of rice to our own detriment. We have watched companies leave our shores, we have seen prices of basic goods rise beyond our reach. We have seen conflict and rise of gangsters. We have seen nothing done to open the seaports that God had blessed us with. We watched as values we once upheld diminished in our lives and society.

We watched how churches became the viable industry preying on the psychic of people with nefarious activities emanating in trickles.

We saw the empowerment of PORTFOLIO BUSINESS MEN killing our industries that we once cherished as sources of our livelihood but have been driven underground.

Today they bring in bad petroleum products to sell to us and no one or company is held liable. Some of us may remember the kerosene saga that exploded in our homes with no one held liable. Have we seen the end of this kind of wickedness that is being meted upon us as a people?

We see prices go above the roof with no end respite . The worst of it all is that these people who have held the reins of power these past twenty three years have either no idea of what to do or have deliberately ignored what to do effectively to improve the economy, and the sustainable society.

We have watched how the cement companies or industries fell into the hand of one man called Dangote. The results are painful as the unit cost of a bag of cement is something else. We have watched how our refineries fell to one man called Dangote. The projected pain remains unknown once he becomes operational. My sense of history tells me that it will not be good.

We have watched how importation of basic commodities like rice, sugar, salt fell to one man called Dangote while we watched how difficult it has been for Innoson, Ibeto,BUA, and others whose industries and initiatives would have created sustainable jobs for our esteemed youths and able bodied individuals are repressed.

We have watched and heard how scarce foreign exchange is made available to the high and mighty at the detriment of others and our society.

The pain in all of these is that those who control power have failed to initiate control, regulations, and supervision in an equitable and just manner to the benefit of humanity and society.

We have watched how those who have held power since 1999 either as PAs,SAs, Local government chairmen , councilors,legislators,ministers,governors, appointed DGs or chairmen of parastatal, Senators or Presidents ran the country aground. They have started warming up because they have our stolen resources to deprive genuine people with positive ideas and good policies to turn the country or nation into the right direction.

We see them on our air waves, we see them in our communities, we know what they were doing prior to 1999 and how they have used government resources for their personal gain.

We have seen how many of them encroach into our schools land to build their palatial mansions with our stolen resources .

Yet the instruments of government is silent. Better still is the question of who approved such buildings and did the supervision at the so called ministry planning and urban development.

A clear example is St Malachy Grammar School, Sapele, Delta State as a living example.

Should this be the case? Don’t we have respect for our institutions? Should the failure of government mean that citizens should now take advantage of the weak and helpless to boost their short sighted egos?
This brings me back to the beginning of this essay.

Who should we choose in 2023? Are we going to allow these groups that are not accountable to us run the state of affairs? Are we going to sustain them by recirculating them in new names of deceptions with fake and unsubstantiated promises?

Are we going to make our voices count? Are we going to sit on the fence and say it does not concern me? Or are we going to behave like the story of Jesus Christ and Barabbas the thief where the people actually asked for Barabbas.

Written by Smart Ofugara

By Gbenga Aruleba

This Ogbeni is a study in so many bad things in our politics shaaaaaaaa.

One of those so called *foreigners* in Lagos politics, eight years in charge of A VERY LUCRATIVE PORTFOLIO under a very open minded and accommodating leader, he supported your aspirations to then go and rule in your state, backed you to the tilt, money, strategy and all, and installed you as governor, you spent 8 years and even in the worst political turbulence, this your benefactor never turned his back on you.

After 8 years as governor, and 16 unbroken years in a slippery revolving political landscape, you GRUDGINGLY agree to have a successor, Whom you started fighting from the very start and even publicly declared opposition to, (for what, exactly).

Now, your character has come full circle as you begin to Denigrate and malign your benefactor whom THE WHOLE WORLD KNOWS made you who you are?

Yet, in all this, it’s not as if you are hungry o. You are still holding a very LUCRATIVE ministerial portfolio.

Man, if you don’t know, YOU ARE TESTING GOD.

Me: sigidi ti ni ki won gbe ohun lo si odo lo we, the consequence is already known.

By LOVETH ORHERUATA

It is not uncommon to see those who already see their failure in a contest resort to mudslinging. That is precisely what comes to mind reading a recent gibberish titled: “Edevbie Aspiration Wobbles as Ibori Sins Haunt Him,” published in Deltacreekreporters.com on February 15.

While it was obviously a demonstration of cowardice for the writer to use a pseudonym, it aptly reflects the unstable character of his sponsors.

In the attempt to discredit David Edevbie, the frontline aspirant for the PDP ticket for the governorship of Delta State, the writer, dwelling on the testament of one Strive Masiyiwa over his ECONET loss, merely regurgitated a worn-torn bitterness against against Chief James Ibori and failed to articulate any offence by David Edevbie.

However, on Ibori, Deltans have continued to and will forever appreciate him for his great achievements in the development of Delta State when he was Governor.

They know what happened to him. They know how he fought and gave his all for resource control and how the struggle led to the payment of 13% derivation for the oil-producing states, an achievement without which virtually all South-South and the Niger Delta States would have been wallowing in a financial lurch.

Deltans know how he supported Chief Alex Ekwueme against the return of President Obasanjo in 2003, how he fought against the Third Term agenda and the gang up to punish him for being independent, daring and committed to a better bargain for the Niger Delta, all of which culminated in his being hunted down.

The likes of Ken Saro-Wiwa and Diepreye Alamieseyeiha were also hunted down for this cause just as Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo) was dragged to the wires for years. It is only unfortunate to see that some fellow Niger-Deltans would be sold to and would celebrate the propaganda and onslaught against them.

The ECONET story is old and also well known. Masiyiwa did not bring a dime to invest in Nigeria but believed he should maintain a huge shareholding in the business over and above the real investors. Worst still, he arrived in Nigeria with over 200 foreign workers for a business supposed to employ Nigerians.

Challenged to pay for his shares, he resorted to blackmail, which didn’t hold any water. His removal from the business has been his source of bitterness, for which he mustered his international connections to get back at Ibori.

So much for that. Suffice to repeat, as earlier stated that, no matter how much you throw mud at Ibori, Deltans will forever regard him as the political father, the architect of its increasing development.

On Edevbie, the writer, unable to tie any wrongdoing to him, only ended up emphasising his outstanding qualities.

The article inaccurately states that “Edevbie was an investment banker at the London office of the Commonwealth Development Corporation when he was called up to serve as Commissioner for Finance and economic planning in the Government of James Ibori in 1999.” For the record, he was actually a Development Economist at this stage of his career, but it’s evident that the writer would not know the difference. He was in charge of the Commonwealth development investments in Asia and the Pacific, a position by which he was involved in developing such Asian countries as Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong etc.

Let us add that he had had a distinguished professional career as an Investment Banker at Barclays and Hill Samuel Banks before then, all of which accounts for his great experience.

In obvious jealousy and fright over Edevbie’s high qualification, capacity and competence which are well acknowledged by all Deltans, the writer suggests that “there was nothing remarkable in his knowledge and practice of financial management, but he had the good sense of appointing two very professional Special Assistants who introduced some novel efficiencies and centralised the payment system in the state ministry of finance.”

We thank the writer for at least crediting him with the “good sense” to employ competent hands, which is what is exactly needed for the job – the “good sense” to engage good hands to deliver development to Deltans. At least, Deltans can be assured that Edevbie has that “good sense.”

It is also reassuring, as the writer recognises, that the good hands he engaged helped to deliver “some novel efficiencies and centralised the payment system in the Ministry of Finance” managed by Edevbie.

Reminded about this innovation as the writer has done, Deltans can see that when Edevbie says his vision is to modernise the state, it is not an empty statement. He has demonstrated it severally.

However, the real import of the novelty is that the payment system was discharged with less physical or personal contact with contractors. The commissioner did not have to get into any relationship with contractors, and the contractors needed not to see the commissioner before their payment was processed.

It is common knowledge that such personal contact leads to compromises, bribery, nepotism and favouritism.

Understandably, the contractors who were used to undercutting the system had wished it remained as chaotic as possible so they could wangle their way against sanity and, as the writer suggests, they did not like him for the automation and efficiency he introduced – presumably the reason why they accuse him of snobbery.

The writer stated further that “people went to him with pretended smiles on their faces just to get their money… because he was the man who signed the cheques.” Again a display of extreme ignorance – the Accountant General and not Commissioner of Finance issues cheques. But again, why should Edevbie be expected to engage at the same level with those the writer himself has described as pretenders?

What the writer forgot to add, however, is that by 1999 the state budget level was a paltry N6b and that, within four years, Edevbie increased the state revenue and budget level to N60b, almost a 1000 per cent performance. This record is available at the state office.

That feat is what pushed the state onto the path of real capital development for which Ibori is credited and celebrated by Deltans, and which has been sustained into the present time.

It must be for these track records that Edevbie was not only appointed as Commissioner for two terms by Ibori but also by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa both as Commissioner of Finance and as Chief of Staff. Not bad for someone with an unremarkable knowledge of financial management!!

It must also be for his proven capacity that he was taken into the Presidency as Principal Secretary to President Umaru Yar’adua, a position he utilised most effectively to conceptualise, canvass and deliver the creation of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, the Amnesty Programme and the actualisation of the 13% derivation which the Niger Delta states now enjoy.

This attempt to throw mud at David Edevbie has only ended up like the story of Ballack and Ballam for, indeed, seeing and having nothing to say against Edevbie, the writer only reminded us of his high quality and demonstrated capability, and Deltans are grateful for it.

This obvious, poorly hatched de-marketing strategy will not work, no matter from which quarter it has been sponsored.

It is needless to state that in all that has happened over the years, Edevbie has not been indicted nor charged for any offence, neither in Nigeria nor outside our shores.

It is also needless to point out the contradiction in stating that he does not have a social life and to state at same time that he loves football, the passion of virtually all Nigerians.

The people of Delta State are now much wiser and know better. They know that no other aspirant matches Edevbie’s intellectual capacity, work experience, detribalised nature and open-mindedness. That is why they have resorted to attempting to tarnish his image with obviously false information.

Suffice to note that Edevbie, the shining star, cannot be buried under lies, and the truth will eventually prevail.

Deltans want real progress and development and not platitudes and deceit from primordial politicians of questionable backgrounds or that lack experience.

Deltans know what to do and will do the right thing to the chagrin of these traducers when the time is right.

By NewsView

It is not uncommon to see those who already see their failure in a contest resort to mudslinging. That is precisely what comes to mind reading a recent gibberish titled: “Edevbie Aspiration Wobbles as Ibori Sins Haunt Him,” published in Deltacreekreporters.com on February 15.

While it was obviously a demonstration of cowardice for the writer to use a pseudonym, it aptly reflects the unstable character of his sponsors.

In the attempt to discredit David Edevbie, the frontline aspirant for the PDP ticket for the governorship of Delta State, the writer, dwelling on the testament of one Strive Masiyiwa over his ECONET loss, merely regurgitated a worn-torn bitterness against against Chief James Ibori and failed to articulate any offence by David Edevbie.

However, on Ibori, Deltans have continued to and will forever appreciate him for his great achievements in the development of Delta State when he was Governor.

They know what happened to him. They know how he fought and gave his all for resource control and how the struggle led to the payment of 13% derivation for the oil-producing states, an achievement without which virtually all South-South and the Niger Delta States would have been wallowing in a financial lurch.

Deltans know how he supported Chief Alex Ekwueme against the return of President Obasanjo in 2003, how he fought against the Third Term agenda and the gang up to punish him for being independent, daring and committed to a better bargain for the Niger Delta, all of which culminated in his being hunted down.

The likes of Ken Saro-Wiwa and Diepreye Alamieseyeiha were also hunted down for this cause just as Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo) was dragged to the wires for years. It is only unfortunate to see that some fellow Niger-Deltans would be sold to and would celebrate the propaganda and onslaught against them.

The ECONET story is old and also well known. Masiyiwa did not bring a dime to invest in Nigeria but believed he should maintain a huge shareholding in the business over and above the real investors. Worst still, he arrived in Nigeria with over 200 foreign workers for a business supposed to employ Nigerians.

Challenged to pay for his shares, he resorted to blackmail, which didn’t hold any water. His removal from the business has been his source of bitterness, for which he mustered his international connections to get back at Ibori.

So much for that. Suffice to repeat, as earlier stated that, no matter how much you throw mud at Ibori, Deltans will forever regard him as the political father, the architect of its increasing development.

On Edevbie, the writer, unable to tie any wrongdoing to him, only ended up emphasising his outstanding qualities.

The article inaccurately states that “Edevbie was an investment banker at the London office of the Commonwealth Development Corporation when he was called up to serve as Commissioner for Finance and economic planning in the Government of James Ibori in 1999.” For the record, he was actually a Development Economist at this stage of his career, but it’s evident that the writer would not know the difference. He was in charge of the Commonwealth development investments in Asia and the Pacific, a position by which he was involved in developing such Asian countries as Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong etc.

Let us add that he had had a distinguished professional career as an Investment Banker at Barclays and Hill Samuel Banks before then, all of which accounts for his great experience.

In obvious jealousy and fright over Edevbie’s high qualification, capacity and competence which are well acknowledged by all Deltans, the writer suggests that “there was nothing remarkable in his knowledge and practice of financial management, but he had the good sense of appointing two very professional Special Assistants who introduced some novel efficiencies and centralised the payment system in the state ministry of finance.”

We thank the writer for at least crediting him with the “good sense” to employ competent hands, which is what is exactly needed for the job – the “good sense” to engage good hands to deliver development to Deltans. At least, Deltans can be assured that Edevbie has that “good sense.”

It is also reassuring, as the writer recognises, that the good hands he engaged helped to deliver “some novel efficiencies and centralised the payment system in the Ministry of Finance” managed by Edevbie.

Reminded about this innovation as the writer has done, Deltans can see that when Edevbie says his vision is to modernise the state, it is not an empty statement. He has demonstrated it severally.

However, the real import of the novelty is that the payment system was discharged with less physical or personal contact with contractors. The commissioner did not have to get into any relationship with contractors, and the contractors needed not to see the commissioner before their payment was processed.

It is common knowledge that such personal contact leads to compromises, bribery, nepotism and favouritism.

Understandably, the contractors who were used to undercutting the system had wished it remained as chaotic as possible so they could wangle their way against sanity and, as the writer suggests, they did not like him for the automation and efficiency he introduced – presumably the reason why they accuse him of snobbery.

The writer stated further that “people went to him with pretended smiles on their faces just to get their money… because he was the man who signed the cheques.” Again a display of extreme ignorance – the Accountant General and not Commissioner of Finance issues cheques. But again, why should Edevbie be expected to engage at the same level with those the writer himself has described as pretenders?

What the writer forgot to add, however, is that by 1999 the state budget level was a paltry N6b and that, within four years, Edevbie increased the state revenue and budget level to N60b, almost a 1000 per cent performance. This record is available at the state office.

That feat is what pushed the state onto the path of real capital development for which Ibori is credited and celebrated by Deltans, and which has been sustained into the present time.

It must be for these track records that Edevbie was not only appointed as Commissioner for two terms by Ibori but also by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa both as Commissioner of Finance and as Chief of Staff. Not bad for someone with an unremarkable knowledge of financial management!!

It must also be for his proven capacity that he was taken into the Presidency as Principal Secretary to President Umaru Yar’adua, a position he utilised most effectively to conceptualise, canvass and deliver the creation of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, the Amnesty Programme and the actualisation of the 13% derivation which the Niger Delta states now enjoy.

This attempt to throw mud at David Edevbie has only ended up like the story of Ballack and Ballam for, indeed, seeing and having nothing to say against Edevbie, the writer only reminded us of his high quality and demonstrated capability, and Deltans are grateful for it.

This obvious, poorly hatched de-marketing strategy will not work, no matter from which quarter it has been sponsored.

It is needless to state that in all that has happened over the years, Edevbie has not been indicted nor charged for any offence, neither in Nigeria nor outside our shores.

It is also needless to point out the contradiction in stating that he does not have a social life and to state at same time that he loves football, the passion of virtually all Nigerians.

The people of Delta State are now much wiser and know better. They know that no other aspirant matches Edevbie’s intellectual capacity, work experience, detribalised nature and open-mindedness. That is why they have resorted to attempting to tarnish his image with obviously false information.

Suffice to note that Edevbie, the shining star, cannot be buried under lies, and the truth will eventually prevail.

Deltans want real progress and development and not platitudes and deceit from primordial politicians of questionable backgrounds or that lack experience.

Deltans know what to do and will do the right thing to the chagrin of these traducers when the time is right.

By Oghenekaro Samuel Johnson

“I would rather a thousand times be a free soul in jail than to be a sycophant and coward in the streets” -Eugene V. Debs

On Saturday the 5th of February, 2022, barring last minute changes, the drums will be rolled out amidst ostentatious political fanfare as Rt. Hon Chibuike Amaechi, Minister of Transportation, Catholic Knight of St. John, will be turbaned by the Emir of Daura as the “Dan Amanar Daura”, meaning the “trusted son of Daura”. While Daura will regale in the pomp and pageantry concomitant with an event of that magnitude, there will be eerie silence mixed with frustration from expectation that has been murdered in both Okerenkoko, Delta State and Ubima in Rivers State. Somehow, Amaechi has managed to demonstrate, with carefree gusto and queerness that what is good for Daura is not good for Okerenkoko and Ubima.

As the Daura event hits the national airwaves, not a few Nigerians will remember with heavy heart the altercation that erupted between Rt Hon Amaechi and then Minister of State Petroleum, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu, at a federal government townhall meeting in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, in 2016.

Amaechi, with magisterial swagger, had summarily overruled the continued federal government investment in the Maritime University in Okerenkoko, Delta State, with impervious insensitivity on the phantom ground of “misplacement of priority, insecurity” and what he termed “humongous amount of money” that was paid by the government to acquire the land for the university.

Mr. Ibe Kachikwu, completely miffed by such brazen brashness and callous insensitivity to the people of Niger Delta by Amaechi, courageously disagreed with the Minister of Transportation, arguing that whatever reservation he might have about the processes that had gone into the Maritime University, it was wrong to throw away the baby with the bathwater. “Any facility that is located at the South-South, we should work close to developing it”, Kachikwu had posited, drawing a thunderous applause from the audience much to the chagrin of the grimacing Minister of Transportation.

For his boldness and expression of support for the development of critical educational infrastructure in the south-south geopolitical as in any other part of the country, Ibe Kachikwu was bitterly persecuted and actively blackmailed by the powerful super-minister Amaechi until the hapless man was unceremoniously pushed out of the cabinet.

Sadly, today, whatever reservation Amaechi had about Okerenkoko is a child’s play compared to the massive investment in the University of Transportation Daura and the crippling insecurity raging in that part of the country, but never has it been said by the Minister that the infrastructure should be cancelled. What is good for Daura cannot be good for Okerenkoko.

If Amaechi’s shocking attitude to Okerenkoko was disconcerting, his inexplicable about-turn on the University of Transportation Ubima, which he himself had suo moto proposed will be a study in knavish sycophancy.

The Minister of Transportation, since 2017, had been singing it like a song at the slightest opportunity in every forum that the federal government had concluded plans to build a University of Transportation in Ubima, his home town in Ikwerre LGA of Rivers State, and that the project was to be funded as part of CCECC’s Corporate Social Responsibility by investing a component of their profit from construction of railway in Nigeria.

Back home in Rivers State, Amaechi’s publicist and propagandist, Chief Chukwuemeka Eze, has been inundating news outlets in his ceaseless composition of monotonous panegyrics for Amaechi, listing the proposed University of Transportation Ubima as “Amaechi’s achievement for Rivers State” in his scarcely reasonable vituperation.

Not only that, in Amaechi’s community Ubima, countless thanksgiving services have held in churches, with local women wriggling their waist in choreographed dance patterns, carrying offerings of their agricultural produce on their heads in procession to the alter to thank God for this unseen University which their illustrious son said plans had been concluded to construct in their home town.

Even on the political scene, the unseen university had been deployed as instrument of bragging right in Rivers State against the ruling party.

You can now understand why everyone was jolted when, after raising hope to Mount Olympus about University of Transportation Ubima, on one hot afternoon in October 2018, Amaechi announced that the University was now going to be constructed, not in Ubima in Rivers, but in Daura in Katsina.

And before his vuvuzelas could come out to rationalize such disheartening about-turn, perhaps, thinking that the Minister might have been handed down a superior instruction about the location of the university, Amaechi himself came out to say that the decision was not influenced by anyone, that it was his own call, uninfluenced, to take the University to Daura.

As if that was not bad enough, on the day the groundbreaking for the University of Transportation Daura was done by President Buhari, Amaechi, on live television, stood before a stunned and bewildered Nigerian audience and declared himself a sycophant.

He stated, “I have no regrets, Mr. President, siting this university where I have sited, and I repeat quickly that I was influenced by nobody, so if I am being accused of sycophancy, let me admit in advance that I am sycophantic”.

The self-declared sycophant may actually have no regrets at all, but while Amaechi has scavenged personal honours by knowingly depriving his own people the benefit of the University of Transportation Ubima which he himself, on his own accord, had promised to site in his place in exchange for a title from the Daura Emirate, disappointment will envelope his land on Saturday. And so will gloom strangle the neck of Okerenkoko and the South-South for the frustration of the maritime university by the Minister of Transportation.

Amaechi could have sited the University of Transportation in Daura, but he did not have to oppose the Maritime University in Okerenkoko. He could have moved the university to Daura even after the promise to Ubima, after all, he is only a Minister and people will understand if the President’s home town takes precedence over that of the Minister, but he did not have to brag that he was a sycophant who was influenced by no one. Therein lies the tragedy of Amaechi and his place in the history of the Niger Delta.

By Emma Agu

It is only a thin line between heroism and martyrdom. Time and again, social entities look for leaders with sufficient gumption to bite the bullet on their behalf. When such leaders lose, in the process, they could become martyrs. When they succeed, they are crowned as heroes or heroines.

But between martyrdom and heroism, there is only a thin line. What perhaps distinguishes the two is that, in most cases, martyrs do not live to tell the story. But some heroes do.

The world is replete with people who suffered martyrdom in pursuit of the freedom of their people. Latin American freedom fighter Che Guevara, and the United States Human Rights activist, Rev. Martin Luther King Junior and many more, paid the supreme price in the quest for freedom. Nearer home, Nelson Mandela’s place in history was assured when he chose life in prison for the liberty of his people.

Nigeria is not devoid of great men and women who, at grave personal risk, stood up to be counted against colonialism, official highhandedness and fascism. The late Gani Fawehinmi and Bala Usman, both of blessed memory, are emblematic of a genre of patriotic Nigerians who, through relentless advocacy and public demonstrations, stood on the way of Nigeria descending into fascism as brutal military regimes foisted a reign of terror, on the people. What stands them out from the pack is the boundless altruism that underscored their actions. They were patriots who came at the nick of time.

Today, Nigeria is caught in a new crisis of confidence that calls for patriots to rise to be counted. The country sits atop a time bomb. Forces of disintegration prowl the landscape, ignoring invidious premonitions of danger, even catastrophic implosions. Atop the murky waters of pride, self-delusion and brinksmanship, the ship of state sails perilously towards the precipice. Between 1981 and 1983, as he screamed himself hoarse, a blind elite arrogantly ignored the relentless entreaties of the late Obafemi Awolowo, until the Shehu Shagari Administration was stopped in its tracks by the ‘Men on Horse Back’.

Nigeria was on the same path again in 2010 when the country sailed precariously on murky waters due to the ill-health of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Ardua. The country stood on edge, almost rudderless because a section of the political class, against reason, stood on the path of constitutionalism by blocking the incumbent Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, from taking over from an ailing President Yar’Ardua. The complex logjam had all the trappings of a religious cum ethnic and regional crisis.

Yar’Ardua, a Moslem and Fulani from the North had barely been in power for two years after succeeding President Olusegun Obasanjo, a Christian and Yoruba by tribe from the South (who was in power for eight years) when ill-heath effectively ended his Presidency.

As Yar’Ardua was moved from one hospital to the other, some powerbrokers, predominantly from the North, spewed various theories to stop Jonathan, a Christian from the South, from succeeding the ailing president. Thus, the stage was set for high stake political drama, one which outcome was clearly unpredictable. What was clear was the unwillingness of most Northerners to stake their heads against opposition to Jonathan.

Surprisingly, as hope receded, from unusual quarters rose a patriot, a man of straw, a constitutionalist and statesman who, defying every odd, led a group of compatriots in defence of the Constitution. Contextually, this harbinger of piece, stood out from others, for four significant reasons:

First, he was a Moslem. Second, he was of the Hausa-Fulani political stock. Third, he was from the North. Fourth, he was of the minority All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) that was led at the time by Muhammadu Buhari, who maintained a principled distance from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that controlled a majority in both chambers of the National Assembly.

To those who want to know the implication of the above four considerations, here is a simple response. The promoter of that bulwark of defence of the Constitution, the patriot who led his compatriots to roll back the Armada of conceit against the Constitution, had simply offered his head at the guillotine of Nigeria’s chequered politics. He was on his way to political martyrdom. His head could have been chopped off from Nigeria’s body politics forever. Luckily, he survived and for a country that does not have a great reputation for recognising heroes, his celebration may yet be deferred. Just for a short period.

That man, the mover of the Doctrine of Necessity Motion, that paved the way for Goodluck Jonathan, the unassuming scholar from the Niger Delta, to break the glass ceiling of Nigeria’s tripodal political monopoly, was Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed, who is today the Executive Governor of Bauchi State where, the mantra of his Administration is inclusive Government. Through astute diversity management, Bala Mohammed, a doyen of the civil service, a seasoned technocrat, an unrepentant constitutionalist, a compassionate manager of men and an astute politician, has welded disparate emotional strata of Bauchi State into a united front that is preoccupied with the breath-taking infrastructural projects that have received the commendation of eminent Nigerians such as former President Goodluck Jonathan, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former President of the Senate David Mark, APC Leader Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu and a host of others too numerous to mention.

The fact that there is a groundswell of support for Bala Mohammed’s second term among both Muslim and Christian religious groups in Bauchi State, all in a bid to thwart speculations that he is nursing a presidential ambition, is ample evidence of his diversity management credentials, in a state that was previously characterised by inter-group suspicion, fuelled by elite insensitivity.

It is also to Bala Mohammed’s credit that, before Bauchi, he had set a record in diversity management, as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) between 2010 and 2015. Groups fell over each other with awards for him, all in recognition of the inclusive nature of his administration. He was able to achieve unprecedented stakeholder buy-in because he ensured that the FCT represented Nigeria in word and in deed. Uppermost in his management credo, at the time, was an unwavering commitment to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

By his antecedents, so far, Bala Mohammed has demonstrated that he is, at, once a true Moslem, a proud Northerner a patriotic Nigerian, a humanist, a bridge builder and an avowed Constitutionalist. He has also maintained the position that a conference of Nigeria’s constituent nationalities had become imperative to resolve the sore points that threaten the country’s fragile unity and stability. It is this pragmatism that throws Bala Mohammed up as, perhaps, the prospective elixir to the deep-seated political and socio-economic malaise presently ravaging Nigeria.

He possesses the genuine disposition, sacrificial spirit and political will, to repress the DNA of parochialism that is the root cause of Nigeria’s political woes.

More than ever before, if anybody is in a position to damn sectional Czars and re-enact the 2010 constitutional feat, that saved Nigeria from self-destructing, Bala Mohammed can be trusted to provide that leadership.

Will he get the chance? That is the Zillion Naira question which answer depends on many factors. From what I know about him, Bala Mohmmed’s eventual response to the several endorsements he has received will depend on the way, the raging debate over what part of should produce the President is resolved. Besides, his party parades a crowd of highly qualified candidates such as former Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim, renowned pharmacist and quintessential industrialist Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa and Governor Aminu Tambuwal, not to mention Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, a statesman for whom Bala Mohammed has the highest respect. It is a mark of that respect that informed Bala Mohammed’s decision to invite the former Vice President to commission a major road project in Bauchi State, to mark his (Atiku’s) 73rd birthday, a day that was almost treated as a public holiday in Bauchi State.

It is within the above context that Bala Mohammed’s much touted call on the former vice president to step than for younger elements should be seen and understood. What needs to be added is that Bala Mohammed, by birth and training, revers age, tradition and achievement. He is passionate about seniors, particularly ex-servicemen and women whose patriotic services form the anvil on which the unity and progress of the country revolve. If, in the end Bala Mohammed runs for President, it will be because of his belief that the labours of our heroes past shall never be in vain and that, just as our forefathers preserved this great nation for us, his (Bala) generation has a moral duty to prioritize the legitimate demand of the millennials, for a just, fair, inclusive and prosperous society.