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Fans of ‘The
Project’, a politics-centred interview programme on Television
Continental (TVC) in Lagos, will have to look for another programme
because there are claims that the programme has been dropped from the
station based on the directive of Bola Tinubu. Mr Adekeye said the
decision to discontinue the programme was communicated to him on phone
by the management of the station on Tuesday, 48 hours after he had a
meeting with the management where they informed him of Mr Tinubu’s
displeasure with an article he had written earlier in the month.

On 4 February, Mr
Adekeye wrote an article he titled “Dynasty Toples Democracy” that was
published in NEXT’s opinion page. In the article, he expressed his
dissatisfaction with the manner Mr Tinubu, leader of the Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN), was personalising the party. He also
criticised Mr Tinubu’s romance with the Congress for Progressive Change
(CPC) in search of a vice president position at the detriment of his
party’s presidential candidate, Nuhu Ribadu.

Eleven days later,
Kehinde Bamigbetan, Chairman of Ejigbo local council in Lagos and
former spokesman for Mr Tinubu wrote a rejoinder he titled “Tinubu Does
Not Deserve Ribadu’s Scorn” that was also published in NEXT.

“Let the real
Muyiwa Adekeye, political consultant and protégé of Nuhu Ribadu, the
presidential candidate of Action Congress of Nigeria, shake off the
paraphernalia of his pretence and stand where he truly belongs,” Mr
Bamigbetan wrote in his opening paragraph for his rejoinder.

He criticised
Mr.Adekeye’s opinion and choice of language in the article. “Adekeye’s
reference to our leaders as potentates indicates the little regard he
has for experience and expertise on the field,” he added.

After the programme was routinely aired that week, Mr Adekeye was invited for a meeting with the management of TVC.

At the meeting,
“they left me with no doubt that the owner of TVC (Mr Tinubu) was not
happy with my articles,” Mr Adekeye said. “I was told that Mr Tinubu
was unhappy with some of the things I said in the article… and I made
it clear that I wasn’t going to surrender my right to express myself
freely as a Nigerian.” The following day, Mr Adekeye wrote a reply to
Mr Bamigbetan’s rejoinder, but published it in another national daily.
The article gave his programme a red card. According to Mr Adekeye, the
morning after his second article was published, the station manager,
Gbolahan Olalemi, informed him that the “directors have decided to rest
the programme.” Mr Olalemi in an interview with NEXT, however, denied
the allegation that the programme was dropped based on the orders of Mr
Tinubu. He said that the claim came as a surpprise to him. “The man
(Mr. Tinubu) doesn’t even know there is a programme called The Project.
How could he have said it should be dropped?” The Project was first
aired on 8 January and since has hosted high profile guests like Nuhu
Ribadu, ACN’s presidential candidate, Tunde Bakare, CPC’s vice
presidential candidate,

Adamu Ciroma, chairman Northern Elders Forum, and Kayode Fayemi, the governor of Ekiti State.

The station
manager, however, said the programme did not meet up with the station’s
quality standards and needed to be improved and that was the reason it
was dropped.

“I called him and
said he should improve the quality of The Project.” The station manager
said. He added that he had at some point offered to produce the
programme himself to ensure it got the needed standard.

Mr Adekeye, however, disagreed with the station manager.

“There is a Yoruba
saying that: if a witch cries at night and a child dies the following
morning, everyone knows the cause of the child’s death,” said Mr
Adekeye, tracing the fate of his programme to his articles.

Mr Bamigbetan who still speaks for Mr Tinubu told NEXT he was not
aware of Mr Adekeye’s difficultuties with the station. “This is news to
me. I will dig into it and get back to you,” he said.

When Fola Adeola was belatedly
announced this week as the ACN running mate to presidential candidate
Nuhu Ribadu, it completed the campaign roster of the four main
candidates vying for president. Almost as important as the presidential
candidate, the role of a running mate cannot be underestimated. As the
country’s number two citizen, the deputy’s credentials must therefore
be just as strong as the presidential candidates themselves.

The architect and the academic

The debate had raged, ever since
one-time university lecturer Goodluck Jonathan was named acting
president, over whether he would appoint a number two. That discussion
became moot when he was eventually named as substantive president. His
decision to pick Namadi Sambo can be described as a surprise at the
time. Apart from the fact that there were more prominent contenders,
Mr. Sambo’s three-year tenure as governor of Kaduna had not seen any
great distinction. Expectations were high in 2007 when he was elected
into his first major political role. He trumpeted an 11-point agenda
which he promised would reposition Kaduna as a national force. Promises
were made to revive the state’s health and educational sectors as well
as improve water supply, infrastructure and roads. As of May 15, 2010,
when his name was submitted to the National Assembly, no significant
inroads had been made in any of these areas. Mr. Sambo did record
significant success in cleaning up Kaduna’s image as a hotbed of ethnic
clashes. He is widely credited as the brain behind Operation Yaki, an
innovative task force which combined the strengths of local vigilante
groups, the police and even the armed forces. The security force has
been responsible for reducing crime in the state and preventing the
spillover of clashes that have occurred in Plateau and Bauchi. Prior to
his life in the public sector, Mr. Sambo was a businessman of some
renown. He still owns three companies and developed a reputation as a
very prominent architect in the 1980s. A quiet, unassuming character,
he is not the most inspirational of speakers and will probably connect
only with his constituents.

The banker and the policeman

The Action Congress of Nigeria
(ACN) were the last major party to name a presidential running mate.
The delay bordered on the absurd after at least three names were on the
verge of being announced before being pulled at the last minute. It was
hardly heartening to supporters of the party that Sunny Ugochukwu,
Ngozi Okonji-Iweala and Chris Ngige were all considered before former
banker Fola Adeola was eventually named this week. The delay also
exposed the underlying rift that lay between Nuhu Ribadu and Bola
Tinubu. The setbacks notwithstanding, Fola Adeola will join the
campaign trail from Monday and appears a popular choice amongst party
support. With Nuhu Ribadu at the helm, the ACN are using the
‘progressive’ tag as a mantra and, on paper, Mr. Adeola certainly fits
the bill. The chartered accountant was the founder and managing
director of Guaranty Trust Bank until he retired in 2002. His
professional life has been largely without scandal and GTB was one of
the banks that avoided the banking crisis of 2009.

In spite of his impressive CV, Mr.
Adeola comes with no real political experience. This is not for a lack
of trying. As a PDP candidate, he contested in the 2007 elections for
the Ogun Central Senatorial district but eventually lost out to Iyabo
Obasanjo-Bello. In 2003, he was reportedly offered the position of
finance minister in President Obasanjo’s regime. He refused for reasons
that remained undisclosed. He has played a prominent role in the
National Pensions Commission but has never been involved in frontline
politics. What he may lack in political sense, he makes up for in
strong rhetoric. Where Mr. Ribadu is more reticent, his running mate is
a trained motivational speaker. His speeches, however, are usually
aimed at high-level professionals and executives. It will be
interesting to see if he can adapt his style when addressing grassroot
voters. As a Muslim, he and Ribadu echo the Abiola/Kingibe ticket in
1992’s annulled elections. Supporters point to the overwhelming
popularity of that particular duo. Critics, on the other hand, suggest
that ethnic and religious tensions have heightened somewhat since then.

The pastor and the general

Many of Muhammed Buhari’s critics
have expressed concerns about his inflexible style, expressing concern
that this may extend to his religious views. The former general has
been at great pains to deny suggestions that he has an underlying
radical Islamist agenda. It is believed that this counted against him
in the 2003 and 2007 elections. It was always likely, therefore, that
he would pick a Christian southerner as a running mate, but he went a
step further by naming a bonafide pastor in Tunde Bakare. It remains to
be seen if the move is a masterstroke for the Congress for Progressive
Change (CPC) but Mr. Bakare is an immensely popular personality.
Although not a politician, the head of the Latter Rain Assembly, has
never been shy about criticising the government. So vehement was his
criticism that he was detained and questioned by state security
officials in 2002 for speaking out against President Obasanjo’s
administration. He famously called the former president ‘a false
messiah.’ A fiery character, the Pentecostal pastor has achieved great
success through his brand of ‘televangelism’ both domestically and
internationally. He also started an advocacy group, Save Nigeria Group,
which played a pivotal role in organizing protest rallies during the
late President Yar’Adua’s protracted absence. The pastor created a stir
last year after his group visited President Jonathan last year and
reportedly declined a $50,000 gift. His lack of political clout is an
obvious disadvantage but, like Mr. Adeola, he can speak directly to a
crowd, thanks to his background as a lawyer and pastor. Mr. Buhari is
occasionally labeled as being aloof but his running mate talks in a
language that people can identify with.

Although an intriguing choice as
running mate, he is similar in many ways to Mr. Buhari. The two men can
be described as radicals who often hold extremist views. Neither has
yet displayed a capacity to show great flexibility in their approach.
As a firebrand character, Mr. Bakare’s presence in the campaign team
will not counterbalance the public’s view of Mr. Buhari.

The governor and the governor

At 71, John Odigie Oyegun is the
oldest of the men seeking to be vice-president. As the All Nigeria
People’s party (ANPP) presidential candidate Ibrahim Shekarau’s running
mate, Mr. Oyegun does however possess some political pedigree. In 1992,
he was elected as the first civilian governor of the newly-formed Edo
state but was removed when Sani Abacha seized power. A development
planner by training, Mr. Oyegun had previously been in the employ of
the federal civil service and had served as a permanent secretary
across several ministries. ANPP’s strategy is clear. The plan is to use
Mr. Oyegun to capture votes in the South-South where the party has no
foothold. Although Mr. Oyegun is remembered favourably from his
20-month stint, he has little clout in the region. He is the party’s
deputy chairman in the south but his appointment may lend little value
to the chances of the ANPP. Mr. Oyegun is a highly knowledgeable and
eloquent individual but his age might be a disadvantage. With the
rigours of a political campaign to consider, this could prove a crucial
factor for a party still struggling with its identity.

The plan for the general elections
suffered a setback last week when a federal high court sitting in Abuja
ruled that there should be no governorship elections in five states in
April because the governors started their terms after they won rerun
elections in their states. The governors of the five states: Ibrahim
Idris of Kogi, Aliyu Wamako of Sokoto, Timiprieye Sylva of Bayelsa,
Murtala Nyako of Adamawa and Liyel Imoke of Cross-River had, last
September, challenged the decision of the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct governorship polls in their
states this year while, according to them, their tenure was still
running. They also asked the court to stop their party, the People’s
Democratic Party (PDP), from conducting any primaries for the
governorship elections in their states.

The presiding judge, Adamu Bello,
in his judgment, held that since the 2007 elections which initially
brought the governors to power was nullified and set aside by courts of
competent jurisdiction, the oath of office and allegiance subscribed to
by the five governors had been nullified and set aside along with the
elections.

“The tenure of governors starts counting from the day they took their oath of office and oath of allegiance,” the judge said.

The ruling also set new dates for
the termination of the tenures of the governors. Ibrahim Idris, Kogi,
will stay on till April 5, 2012; Aliyu Wammakko, Sokoto, remains till
May 28, 2012; Timipre Sylva, Bayelsa, leaves the next day on May 29,
2012; Liyel Imoke’s tenure in Cross River terminates on August 28,
2012; and Murtala Nyako, Adamawa, gets his tenure extended till April
30, 2012. INEC had last August announced that the tenures of governors
who were re-elected after their 2007 elections were cut short by
tribunals would end on May 29, 2011. The position of the electoral
commission was bolstered by an amendment to the electoral act. Section
135 of the principal act, which deals with governors’ tenure, was
amended in subsection (2) by insertion of a new paragraph, c. It states
that: “In the determination of the four-year term, where a rerun
election has taken place and the person earlier sworn in wins the rerun
election, the time spent in the office before the date the election was
annulled, shall be taken into account.” INEC also advised political
parties to organise primaries in the states, which the affected
governors also participated in, although their lawsuit challenging the
primaries was still in court. As it happened, all the governors won the
party primaries and have already started their campaign for the April
election.

Appeal the judgement

INEC said at the weekend that it
was still studying the judgement and will not announce its next move
until its lawyers have provided legal advice. But one of the counsel to
the commission said at the weekend that the electoral body might appeal
the judgement.

“Our teams of legal experts are
still studying the judgment and may likely appeal against it and
election will hold in those states, as we will apply for an order of
stay of judgment pending the determination of the matter,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Some of the candidates of other
parties have also threatened to challenge the court ruling regardless
of the decision of INEC on the matter. The governorship candidate of
the Congress of Progressive Change in Adamwa State, Buba Marwa, who
expressed disagreement with the court ruling on the extension in which
the tenure of the state governor, Mr. Nyako of Adamawa state will
subsist until 2012, said the ruling makes rigging of elections
attractive to the political class.

“The deeper meaning is that it is
an incentive to rig. We are not in agreement and that is why we are
appealing it for the elections to hold this year,” he said.

“This is in fact without prejudice
to what INEC will do because originally the governors took INEC to
court. But as an interested party we are appealing the case and I have
reached out to all our teeming supporters and members of our great
party, the CPC to remain calm and continue with our programmes. Because
our programmes continue and we are expecting to flag of in a couple of
days.”

In his explanation of the
rationale for his planned court action, Mr. Marwa said a postponement
of governorship elections in the five states will only serve to confer
“additional bonus” to the benefitting governors.

He said the issue to be considered
was whether the original framers of the constitution intended for the
occupants to serve four years as governor or they can continue to take
advantage of judicial electoral victories to serve “extended tenure of
office”.

“Because if I know this will
happen, then I will rig the elections blatantly and in a manifest
manner so that the other side will take me to the tribunal,” Mr. Marwa
said. “This type of thing is something that we should address.” Mr.
Marwa’s stand is at variance with that of other opposition political
parties in the state, who are rather appealing to INEC and the federal
government to appeal the judgement in order to have it set it aside.

Aghanya Dennis, the former
national publicity secretary for the CPC called for an appeal by INEC,
adding that the judgement can only be resolved by the Supreme Court.

“The matter should be appealed by
INEC and the Supreme Court should give it accelerated hearing. Maybe
the judgment may be upturned at that level,” he said. “The danger in
the judgment is that electoral crime is encouraged rather than
discouraged. For somebody who was confirmed to have enjoyed a stolen
mandate in the first place and his victory was upturned by a court of
law to be given this reprieve by the same court of justice is a
contradiction to the same justice the court is expected to give. A
thief is a thief, however, you look at it. But whom do you blame, the
judge who abided by the constitution or the beneficiaries of the
judgment who are exercising their constitutional right?” Basssey
Ewa-Henshaw, a senator, (PDP, Cross River) said he was baffled by the
judgment, especially as it ran counter to an earlier ruling by the
Supreme court.

“If I remember correctly, the Supreme Court had already taken a
decision on the matter, that if you were the incumbent and you had to
go for a re-run and you won, your tenure continued from where it
stopped. This judgment is a bit baffling to me and I need to be able to
look at the two judgments to know what the judges used as a foundation
to arrive at their decisions. The Supreme Court is the apex court and
it is superior to the Court of Appeal,” he said.

A few lawyers have frowned at the Abuja High Court ruling
extending the tenure of the governors of Adamawa, Bayelsa, Cross River, Sokoto
and Kogi states based on the fact that they swore new oaths after rerun
elections were conducted in their states.

Presiding judge, Adamu Bello, said any elections in Kogi,
Sokoto, Adamawa, Cross River and Bayelsa states would have to wait until next
year. The ruling also set new dates for the termination of the governors’
tenures. Ibrahim Idris, Kogi will stay on till April 5, 2012; Aliyu Wammakko,
Sokoto remains till May 28, 2012; Timipre Sylva, Bayelsa leaves on May 29,
2012; Liyel Imoke’s tenure in Cross River terminates on August 28, 2012; and
Murtala Nyako, Adamawa got his tenure elongated till April 30, 2012.

According to Ubani Monday, a lawyer: “We have to have this
matter resolved at the appellate court, but in my own opinion, that judgement
is legally right but morally wrong. Because allowing a situation where someone
who has been in power without the people’s mandate to spend three and a half
years and you now send him for a rerun election and the system is manipulated
in his favour and now give him extra four years.

“Then all those years that he spent without the people’s
mandate, what has happened to it? They didn’t punish him, they did not bring
him to any justice, they did not in any way query him and they now feel very
emboldened to add to his years, and morally, it is wrong to give such people
this traditional tenure elongation.”

Malachy Ugwummadu, also a lawyer, told NEXT at the High Court
premises, Ikeja that only the Appeal Court could resolve this, as the electoral
commission had two controversial rulings to deal with. However, the Independent
National Electoral Commission says it is still studying the case to be sure
weather election will take place in the states.

Baffling judgement

According to Aghanya Dennis, former CPC national publicity
secretary, “the matter should be appealed by INEC and the Supreme Court should
give it accelerated hearing. Maybe the judgment may be upturned at that level.”

According to him, “the danger in the judgment is that electoral
crime is encouraged rather than discouraged. For somebody who was confirmed to
have enjoyed a stolen mandate in the first place and his victory was upturned
by a court of law to be given this reprieve by the same court of justice is a
contradiction to the same justice the court is expected to give. A thief is a
thief however you look at it. But whom do you blame, the judge who abided by
the constitution or the beneficiaries of the judgment who are exercising their
constitutional right?”

Basssey Ewa-Henshaw, a senator representing PDP, Cross River
said that he was baffled by the judgment.

“If I remember correctly, the Supreme Court had already taken a decision on
the matter that if you were the incumbent and you had to go for a rerun and you
won, your tenure continued from where it stopped. This judgment is a bit
baffling to me and I need to be able to look at the two judgments to know what
the judges used as a foundation to arrive at their decisions.”

The Federal Government has ordered the police to enforce the law
prohibiting use of tinted vehicles on Nigerian roads. The Minister of Police
Affairs, Humphrey Abah revealed this at a press conference in Abuja, “with
effect from February 28, 2011, owners of tinted vehicles would be made to
remove them by policemen on the spot, CAP M21, Motor vehicle prohibiting tinted
glass Act, forbids use of heavily filmed cars.” he said.

Mr. Abah said, the Federal Road Safety Corps and Road Traffic
Services personnel are to assist the police in enforcing the law, and cars with
factory-fitted tinted glasses are exempted from the directive. With this new
directive ,only the President, his vice, governors, the Senate President, his
deputy and majority leader as well as the Speaker, House of Representatives are
permitted to use tinted glasses in the country.

The ministry boss warned that “unauthorised use of siren will
attract severe sanction as such vehicles will be confiscated, adding that
owners of vehicles with foreign numbers have two weeks to register them or
remove them from the road.”

As part of the enforcement of the new law, Mr. John Haruna, the FCT Police
Commissioner, revealed that “his men had arrested and arraigned drivers of
tinted cars, most of which belonged to highly placed people.” Mr. Haruna
maintained that “the existing taskforce would be enlarged with personnel of the
State Security Service, Civil Defence Corps, police and the military to enforce
the ministerial directive.”

The continued
absence of Ibrahim Ida, Chairman Senate committee on Defence and Army
has stalled the passing of the Anti Money Laundering bill.

Mr. Ida represents
Katsina Central constituency in the Senate and heads an ad hoc
committee that was mandated by the Senate in July last year to
recalibrate the bill which the senator thought too harsh at the time.

Mr. Ida has since
the beginning of the week been absent each time the bill came up for
hearing. Traditionally, the Senate does not legislate on bills if the
author is not present in the plenary because the author has the
responsibility of defending the spirit and letters of the bill as well
as offer clarifications to fellow lawmakers on any ambiguous part of
the bill.

The anti-money
laundering bill is a complementary legislation to the anti-terrorism
bill which was passed by the Senate last week. Both the anti-money
laundering and anti-terrorism bills are based on recommendations of the
Financial Action Task Force (FATF), established by the G7 Summit held
in Paris in 1989. The anti-money laundering bill will replace the 2004
version of the same bill which is said to lack the relevant provisions
that will make it fully compliant with the recommendation of FATF.
Passage of the anti-money laundering bill will mark Nigeria’s full
compliance with the international requirements for combating terrorism
recommended by FATF.

President Goodluck
Jonathan, for the third time in 11 months, written the lawmakers early
last week to expedite legislation on the Anti-terrorism and Money
Laundering Bills. Following the President’s repeated appeals to the
lawmakers, the Senate hurriedly passed the anti-terrorism bill on
Thursday last week, with enthusiasm to pass the complementary
anti-money laundering bill this week. However, each time it was
presented for hearing, Mr. Ida, the author of the bill was absent.

When contacted,
Mr. Ida rejected calls and did not reply text messages sent to his
official mobile line. The bill is not new to this kind of treatment at
the upper chamber . In July 2010, a deliberation on the bill was called
off after a slow-moving debate and adoption of the individual clauses
in the bill due to the absence of the initial author of the bill, Sola
Akinyede (PDP Ekiti state).

Although the
senators complained of the complex provisions of the bill which they
said could only be explained by the author, the senators also showed
apathy towards the bill. It was thereafter committed to the Mr. Ida
headed ad hoc committee for further calibration but it never came back
for hearing till the president’s last letter of reminder. Deadline for
the passage of the bill has since expired on June 30.