By Denrele Animasaun

“You should never be ashamed to admit you have been wrong. It only proves you are wiser today than yesterday” —Jonathan Swift

Is there something emotionally wrong  with us Nigerians that while we had just about shifted our political trajectory some are now hell-bent in throwing the proverbial baby out with the bath water? Nigerians, we need to talk and clear the air or we run the risk of deepening the long held resentments and hatred for one another. The last couple of days as you will see below, shows that it is obvious that time has come for that conversation

Oba Rilwan Akiolu

The Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu, last week, was caught on camera warning Eze Ndi-Igbos on who to vote for: “On Saturday, if anyone of you goes against the Ambode I picked, that is your end. If it doesn’t happen within seven days, just know that I’m a bastard and it is not my father who born me, and “On Saturday, if anyone of you, I swear in the name of God almighty Allah, goes against my wish that Ambode, insha Allahu, will be the next governor of Lagos State, the person is going to die inside this water.”

He said it and in this day and age, no one should be told how to use their vote regardless of what a prominent person says. That cannot be compromised and be block bought, no matter who demands it. The Oba went on that “I’m not ready to beg, appeal to anybody o. And that’s why Asiwaju and the governor said, I said that is your own. Even the two of them they cannot disobey me. Nobody knew how I picked Ambode. Jimi (Agbaje) is my blood relation and I told him in a plain language he can never be governor in Lagos for now. “The future belongs to God. I am not begging anybody to go, but you must not, I repeat what you people cannot do in Onitsha, what you cannot do in Aba or anywhere.”

To demand the Oba to apologise, would be unprecedented faux pas and the Oba in spite of his un-statemanlike.True, we cannot expect the Oba to lose face but there are other ways to ensure harmony reigns. Anything other than that would be counterproductive and it is no way to remedy the situation.

Somewhere along the way, the Oba’s council of chiefs failed to advise the Oba that what he said was not in keeping with what we expect from a ruler of his stature and importance.

From what is known and respected about Lagos and Lagosians is its diversity. That is the beauty and the strength of Lagos and its people. What the Oba had demanded, in the old days would have been common place, when the Oba was an absolute ruler and the subjects do his bidding as a result. Nowadays, the Oba is seen as a unifier and the elder to all Lagosians in respective of the tribes. This is what makes Lagos truly unique. If people know about Lagos they would wish their own state was that inclusive. Historically during the Biafra War, it pledged all in Lagos to support all Igbos as refuge and for those that went back during the war to the east, their property and homes were protected and rents collected by their owners on return, we accounted for them. For the Gordion Ojiako, the spokesperson of the Eze Ndi Igbos in Lagos, should not have promised that Igbos would vote massively for the APC on Saturday’s gubernatorial election. We cannot be so blind to lead people and expect them to follow without question.

All together forward

“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools”-Martin Luther King, Jr

My hat off to Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State for taking on an important subject tribal partisanship. Like a competent matador, he held firmly to the bull’s horns and steered the beast to halt. This particular election has been telling and it was pretty ugly as it has shown the depth of partisanship and divisiveness along religion and tribal lines.

This was vicious and the political parties took advantage. We all bore witness as we see the votes cast and distributed across the nation. So Okorocha was brave enough and talk eloquently he did too. While addressing leaders of the APC and party supporters in Owerri, he spoke about the political progress of the Igbos as lagging behind the other major tribes and that this was due to their leaders’ selfishness. He laid the blame on the leaders’ lack of vision. He went on to say that this may have denied the region the opportunity to produce the next President of the Senate.

Many have thought this but never has there been a time when in a gathering of Igbo leaders that the subject has been discussed. Then in an open letter, he made very salient observations; that they (Igbos) couldn’t override a pathological hatred for General Buhari and that instead, they cut their nose off to spite their face. He went on that they “played tribal and religious politics to the tilt as drunken sailors, and failed the man and the chance to make history as Senate President”

He said that people let emotion get in the way of politics and blames the herd mentality where many followed the likes of Peter Obi and Arthur Eze, who were only after their own interest and not serving the masses. He bemoaned that after over five decades of post-independence, other tribes have produced many presidents time over and the Igbo are yet to do so. Instead he said they blame others. “If only the Hausas didn’t do this or Yorubas didn’t do that, perhaps the god of politics will bless our lot. And sadly it won’t stop until we learn to coexist with others instead of our ‘better than thou’ attitude when dealing with the Hausas and Yorubas. We are not better than anyone, these folks we thumb our noses at, are God’s creatures like us. We don’t like the Hausas and we don’t like the Yorubas, yet we populate their states in search for our livelihood”

I do hope that the time has truly come to have an open and honest conversation and we all have to take a long hard look at ourselves. Okorocha has passed on the dialogue baton and I applaud him.

Where is the money?

The controversy over the alleged missing money started September 2013 after Mr. Sanusi sent a memo to President Jonathan, alleging that the NNPC was diverting oil revenues for at least 18 months, amounting to $49.8 billion, about N8 trillion.

Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II, then the CBN governor, was hounded off his post for exposing multibillion-dollar shortfalls in oil revenues reaching the treasury. He submitted to parliament a 300 page of documentation in support of his claim. Reuters has since reviewed the dossier, which offers one of the most comprehensive studies of waste, mismanagement and what Sanusi called “leakages” of cash in Nigeria’s oil industry. The dossier includes oil contracts, confidential government letters, and private presidential correspondence and legal opinions.

Of course the president confirmed that there would be top ranking investigations. It seems that Alison Madueke, is getting uncomfortable but she insists that the report will vindicate her.

At an investigative hearing by the Senate Finance committee in 2014, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said the un-reconciled amount stood at “only” $10.8 billion. Whatever the amount, it is difficult that the amount of money can just disappear and stay unaccounted for so long.

It seems that this time, Nigerians will know what actually happened to the missing money. On Monday, the presidential candidate of the APC, Muhammadu Buhari, urged President Goodluck Jonathan to release the full report and publish same in national newspapers to allow Nigerians establish how their money was spent. No more sticky fingers, private jet ,personal ATM and anyone who dare try, there would be consequences.