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Yomi Ogunsaya

Yomi Ogunsaya Two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, were two weeks ago finally released from Insein prison where they had been held for more than sixteen months by the Myanmar Government following their conviction and sentencing on September 3, 2018. The pair were among thousands of prisoners that were granted a presidential amnesty on May 7. They were arrested on December 12, 2017, and charged under the colonial-era Official Secret Act and subsequently jailed for seven years for breaching that Act. Before they were arrested, the two journalists had been investigating the execution of 10 Muslim Rohingya men and boys in Inn Din. That investigation culminated in their contribution to a Reuters exposé that was published in February 2018 and for which the two and their colleagues won a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting in April 2019. In the aftermath of that investigation and the publication by Reuters, the military was left with little choice but to admit to the killings and seven soldiers that were involved in the crime were convicted. In recognition of their effort and courage, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were honored with the 2018 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award. Their arrest and conviction had sparked global outrage, particularly because, as it turned out, the so-called ‘secret document’ for which they were arrested was no secret. Since their release, they have continued to receive plaudits for exemplary courage in reporting the truth in the face of apparent military intimidation and miscarriage of justice by a Myanmar government whose action, through the military campaign against the Rohingya, has been described by the United Nations as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” It has also emerged that the seven soldiers who were jailed for the killing of the 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys were clandestinely freed in November.

The arrest and conviction of the two journalists, the crime which they investigated, and now the clandestine release of the culpable soldiers provide contexts to examine a certain recent events in Nigeria which bear resemblance to the Myanmar killings, and to do so against the backdrop of the publication of a recent book of tribute in honour of Dapo Olorunyomi, founder and publisher of PremiumTimes. I have not read "Testimony to Courage", but the subject of the book, Dapo Olorunyomi, and another book, published more than a decade earlier—Kunle Ajibade’s "Jailed for Life"—capsulize my central purpose in this article, which is to offer a few reflective comments on the need for more courage in journalism in Nigeria, especially in these times of increasing dictatorship by regimes that are purported to be democratic.

I deem it fitting to begin my reflection by drawing parallels between the killing, three years ago, of over three hundred Shi'a Muslims in Zaria, Northern Nigeria, and the murder of the 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys in Rakhine state. Although in terms of scale and possible motivation, the two incidents are far apart. However, there are other basis for comparison and some grounds to make the claim that there is something which the former can learn from the latter about how courage is required in the pursuit of truth and justice. Both killings were by soldiers and both took place against a backdrop of state tolerated violence against minority groups. Myanmar is a Buddhist majority country, with a significant Muslim minority. There is a history of persecution of these minority Muslims, especially the Rohingya in Rakhine, the home of most of Burma's Rohingya Muslim minority, and many of whom were forced to flee after the 2015 Rohingya refugee crisis and the military crackdown in 2016 and 2017. Like Rohingya Muslims, the Shi'a Muslims are a minority sect within the umma in Nigeria and their persecution did not start with the Zaria massacre. Indeed, the killings in Zaria was not an isolated, one-off incident; for over two decades now, the sect has been in perennial open confrontation with the military and the majority Sunni Muslims in northern Nigeria, and as recently as late October 2018, around 46 members of the sect were killed during a joint cheeky military and police crackdown in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city. I view these killings of members of the Shi’a sect in Nigeria and Rohingya Muslim men and boys as a form of state or political violence. The anthropology professor, Carol Nagengast, writes that “Political violence encompasses overt state-sponsored or tolerated violence…(coercion or the threat of it, bodily harm, etc.) but may also include actions taken or not by the state or its agents with the express intent of realizing certain social, ethnic, economic, and political goals in the realm of public affairs…” States are primarily responsible for ensuring the human rights of their own citizens, including the right to life. However, in certain circumstances or contexts, a state could tolerate a violent action against its own citizens or a section thereof. And “…insofar as [such an action] is tolerated or encouraged by states in order to create, justify, excuse, explain, or enforce hierarchies of difference and relations of inequality”, they are “acts of state violence, even though states themselves may not appear on the surface to be primary agents.” It is impossible to exculpate both the Nigerian state and the Myanmar government from the crime—for it is nothing short of a genocidal crime in both instances—of mass killing in the two countries. The military are state agents and whether or not they acted based on directives from the government is irrelevant; what is more, the failure of the states to properly bring them to book—as in the case of Nigeria—or to ensure that they serve out their punishment in full measure cast these governments as enablers of genocidal violence.

But there is an important difference between the incident in Myanmar and the one in Zaria, Nigeria, which can be located in the response of media and journalists in both countries to what happened to their minority groups. In Myanmar, despite initial denial and the best effort of the Burmese government to repudiate any wrongdoing, the two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, displayed a great deal of courage which saw them contributing to the production of a piece of investigative journalism that brought to light the despicable situation of human rights in the country and the chilling details of the killings of the 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys. Their investigation also ensured that the courts reached a decision to convict the six soldiers found culpable in that dastardly act. Although Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were jailed on trump up charges, their work give clear indications of the fact that human rights should be pursued with courage and that truth and justice often come with a price. Herein lies the crux of my reflection in this piece. Although the Shi’a massacre was reported at the time it happened and a number of opinion pieces and editorials have been written about it, very little fact-finding journalism has gone into bringing the matter to the front burner since 2015 when it happened. To my knowledge, no soldier has been convicted for the massacre and there has not been any journalist venturesome enough to reveal beyond what is already known. I am not unmindful of the precarious life of journalists generally and the fact that Nigerian journalists are in danger of being exposed to unfavorable treatment if they dug into the matter. According to Amnesty International, “

But then, as the saying goes, freedom is never served on a silver platter. Searching for the truth can sometimes be like finding a proverbial needle in the haystack and the road to finding it is often lined with landmines. There is no doubt that journalism requires considerable courage to practice, especially in climes where a repressive regime is in place. It is in this connection that Kunle Ajibade’s Jailed for Life and the recently launched Testimony to Courage fit into my purpose in this article. Ajibade’s book is a record of his experience as a political prisoner in Sani Abacha’s gulag. It is a book about courage in the face of terror. It is this kind of courage that also animates Dapo Olorunyomi’s life and, I believe, the book that bears testimony to his political activism and his enviable achievement as a journalist and the publisher of a tabloid renowned for investigative journalism. Both Kunle Ajibade and Dapo Olorunyomi, in their separate and sometimes overlapping journalistic engagements, have given us a lot to think about in the face of increasing and often desperate attempt to gag the press and intimidate journalists. They have also shown how investigative journalism, in spite of the odds, can be liberating. For their courage in the face of terror, these journalists have suffered greatly; they have also won considerable acclaim. We celebrate them today, like the two Reuters journalists, not just because of their work, but more crucially because of the courage that defines their vocation. We need that sort of courage more than ever before in these days of unabashed repression, official conspiracy, and increasing intolerance of criticism by the state. We need a journalism that is not afraid to speak truth to power; the kind of journalism that we associate with Kunle Ajibade and Dapo Olorunyomi.

Dr. Abayomi Ogunsanya is an independent scholar and journalist. He lives in the Republic of Ireland.

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Is Adams Oshiomole A Secret Weapon Of The PDP? By Femi Aribisala

Adams Oshiomhole may not be a card-carrying member of the PDP. As a matter of fact, he is the national chairman of the ruling APC. Nevertheless, he has been a major blessing to the PDP and a systematic liability to the APC. If one did not know any better, you might conclude that Oshiomhole is a PDP plant in the APC. So counter-productive have been the activities of the APC national chairman to the fortunes of his party.

Case Against Oshiomhole

Oshiomhole’s subversion of APC interests has reached the point where his second-in-command, Senator Lawal Shuaibu, the Deputy National Chairman of the party, is now calling for his resignation. In a letter to Oshiomhole leaked to the public, he said: “We had 23 states in 2015, but after the 2019 elections we lost seven states! We also had 60 senators in 2015 at the end of the elections; we now end up with 57 senators in 2019! You were not brought in to lose the election. It is absolutely unacceptable!

He is not alone in this position within the APC. Former national chairman of the party, John Odigie Oyegun says: “Oshiomhole engages his mouth before engaging his mind, so he offends party members.” “Oshiomhole is degrading and de-marketing the party; rather than seeking to bring more people on board, he is chasing people out of the party with his ‘agbero’ style of engagement.”

The Governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, says Oshiomhole, lacks respect for truth and decency. The former governor of old Sokoto State, Yahaya Abdulkarim said: “If Oshiomhole does not quit, the APC will be dead by 2023.”

Other governors, such as former Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo, and Governor Nasiru El-Rufai of Kaduna, also want to see the back of Oshiomhole. Indeed, at one juncture, it was reported that as many as 15 of the 21 APC governors collected signatures for his removal.

The immediate past minister of communications, Adebayo Shittu says: “With Oshiomhole, (APC) would go down by the time President Muhammadu Buhari finishes his second term. Oshiomhole is full of himself. He has an ego problem and wants to dominate every environment. Democracy is not like that.”

Abrasive Style

Oshiomhole’s “gra gra” style of leadership means he specializes in insulting and aggravating everybody. Within the APC, he sees his job as that of a village headmaster, authorized to whip others into line. This makes him very divisive. Indeed, he is like a bull in a china shop. His over-bearing manner knows no bounds.

During President Buhari’s recent inauguration, Oshiomhole forgot that he is not a member of the government, but only a member of the ruling party. He arrogated himself into a position of honour among the members of the military brass at Eagle Square, only to be embarrassed by the Commander of the Brigade of Guards who had to ask him to leave the place.

Because he loves to hear the sound of his own voice, Oshiomhole often puts his foot in his mouth. He even once dissed President Buhari, the very person who handpicked him to be chairman of APC. He said: “If the President condones disrespect for his office, I will not condone disrespect for the party.” In effect, PDP does not need to berate the president of being weak. The national chairman of his party already does.

He threatened to suspend Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Productivity, from the party if he failed to constitute and inaugurate board members for federal agencies and parastatals under his ministry. Said Oshiomhole: “When we expel the minister, we will prevail on the president that he can’t keep in his cabinet people who have neither respect for his own decisions nor have respect for the party without which they would not have been ministers.”

It appears Oshiomhole can even dictate to the president who should be in his cabinet.

“Offshore Rigging”

Nowhere else did Oshiomhole do as much damage to the APC as in his handling of the party’s presidential primaries. In hindsight, it became abundantly clear that he was in over his head: he was just not up to the job.

Asked Oyegun: “How would you not have crisis in states with the confusion that Oshiomhole created when he gave the states freedom to choose their methods of choosing candidates for elections?” Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, said the APC primaries exposed Oshiomhole’s incompetence. He described the primaries as “political charade,” with “a shocking proclivity towards banditry and impunity.”

The outcome was chaos. In some states, party bigwigs sitting in Abuja tried to write the results of elections that did not take place. This was the case in Ogun. In some places like Kano, fictitious direct elections were said to have been conducted whereby President Buhari was awarded an incredible 2.9 million votes. You may well ask who counted those votes and where did the people line up?

In others, indirect votes took place, conducted by carefully selected electors charged with working to the answers. To run for APC gubernatorial candidate, Oshiomhole said the expression of interest form would cost N22.5 million naira. This money was then collected from contestants even where no election took place.

Pat Utomi paid 22 million to contest for APC nomination as candidate for Governor in Delta State. APC collected his money but held no primary. The selection was over before he even got to the polls. Said Utomi: “While I was still looking for the venue of the APC gubernatorial primaries, a friend called to tell me that the election had been concluded and a winner has emerged. APC is fraudulent and occultic.”

In short, Utomi was robbed of 22 million naira in broad daylight. In this manner, Oshiomhole devised a system to rob APC candidates of their money all over Nigeria. Even the president’s wife, Aisha Buhari (God bless her) was constrained to insist this was out of order: “It is disheartening to note that some aspirants used their hard earned money to purchase nomination forms, got screened, cleared and campaigned vigorously yet found their names omitted on Election Day, these forms were bought at exorbitant prices.”

To ensure that Buhari had no opposition, Oshiomhole fixed the nomination papers for the APC presidential candidate at a whopping 45 million naira. By implication, only those who had 45 million to burn would be foolish enough to challenge the president. The president himself, who claimed he has less than N30 million in his bank account in 2015, easily got “investors” to put up the money for him.

As a result, other presidential aspirants in the APC called for Oshiomhole’s resignation. Alhaji Mumakai-Unagha and Dr SKC Ogbonnia put out a statement that Oshiomhole: “deliberately hiked the prizes of nomination forms to scare genuine Nigerians with burning desire to salvage the nation economy, he’s gradually destroying the party to pave way for the Peoples’ Democratic Party. He imposed party executives as well as candidates in the various constituents against the wishes of the people.”

Legislative Overreach

Even though he is not a legislator and his authority as party chairman does not extend to the national assembly, Oshiomhole announced that the APC would not allow any PDP senator to be appointed as committee chairman in the Senate, except where statutorily required. This muddied the waters again for the APC in the struggle for ensuring the party maintains legislative supremacy in Buhari’s second-term.

Oshiomhole’s broadside runs against the grain of longstanding legislative practice. He does not seem to understand that Nigeria is not running a parliamentary system of government where legislators are answerable to their parties and can be whipped into voting one way or the other.

He is also ignorant of the fact that PDP votes might be required in determining who will be Speaker and President of the Senate. Indeed, as a result of his attempt to bully legislators, there are indications that some APC lawmakers are already planning to defy the party line.

Therefore, saner minds have sought to gag the loquacious APC national chairman, before he ends up putting too much sand in the party’s garri. It was reported that a high-powered APC delegation, including putative national leader, Bola Tinubu, concerned that Oshiomhole’s high-handedness was counter-productive and might create loopholes for the PDP, sat the national chairman down and told him, in no uncertain terms, to refrain from making any further comments on the election of national assembly leaders.

Oshiomhole is said to have rebuffed the delegation, insisting that, as chairman, he cannot be gagged. But he was then said to have been gently reminded that he could easily be removed from office and possibly charged with financial crimes if he did not desist. Since then, little has been heard from Mr. Chairman. He has gone underground.

From Comrade To Governor

When he was president of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Oshiomhole was celebrated for fighting energetically for the rights of Nigerian workers. But when he became Governor of Edo, Oshiomhole, quickly forgot and denied his roots. When a poor woman selling “peanuts” by the roadside appealed to him not to have her livelihood confiscated, Oshiomhole told her to “go and die.”

As governor of Edo State, Oshiomhole was another APC master at the art of grandstanding against corruption with lies, more lies and fake news. He said a senior official of the Obama administration revealed to him that a Jonathan minister stole $6 billion dollars. This was denied by the Americans and shown to be palpably false. In any case, how can one single individual possibly steal that much and from where?

He also claimed a consultancy fee of 140 billion naira was paid for the Second Niger Bridge project. This also turned out to be a tall tale. The Bureau of Public Procurement exposed this “fabu” by revealing that the total cost of the bridge is only 108 billion naira.

For all his false piety, Oshiomhole can hardly be described as Mr. Integrity. As a matter of fact, Oshiomhole went on record undercutting the anti-corruption posture of the APC by inviting those who have stolen government money to join the APC. Said Oshiomhole: “Once you join APC, all your sins are forgiven.”

In 2018, an anti-corruption crusader, Bishop Osadolor Ochei, obtained an order of mandamus compelling the EFCC to institute criminal proceedings against Oshiomhole over allegations of financial fraud. To date, Oshiomhole stands accused of official high-headedness, impervious impunity, lack of inclusiveness and dictatorial leadership.

It is not too late. Since members of the APC are now fed up with him, it might be better for Adams Oshiomhole to apply to join the PDP. But there is no guarantee that his application will be accepted.

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APC Leadership Crisis: Ruling Party Lambasts Former Chairman Oyegun

John Odigie-Oyegun, APC Chairman

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused John Oyegun, its former national chairman, of handing over a dysfunctional party to his successor.

Speaking to journalists on Tuesday in Abuja, Lanre Issa-Onilu, APC’s spokesman, said the former national chairman was responsible for the indiscipline and impunity in the party.

Issa-Onilu said the reason the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) bounced back to claim some states from the APC was because the ruling party did not live up to expectations.

“The leadership under Chief Oyegun, with due respect to him, condoned all sorts of acts of indiscipline from certain members, ” he said.

“It is not surprising that the current National Working Committee inherited such a huge mess, where the party was struggling to differentiate itself from the delinquent PDP. We all know that PDP was practically dead following the devastating defeat of 2015. The PDP bounced back not because the party has changed its insidious way or did anything different, but because APC did not live up to expectations.

“It goes without saying that when an organisation is unable to enforce its own rules, it would suffer the consequences sooner than later. We should not be ashamed to say that our party’s leadership under Chief Oyegun lacked the courage required to confront the pockets of political despots who could not operate by the party’s rules.”

Oyegun had accused Adams Oshiomhole of being incapable of leading a political party in the 21st century, denying responsibility of the mess in the party.

Issa-Onilu, however, lambasted Oyegun for a huge mess Oshiomhole is trying to clear.

“Let me agree that the NWC that led the party into the 2015 elections and continued till June 2018 did nothing different from what you would find in PDP,” Issa-Onilu said.

“It was a period the party was seen as a mere vehicle to attain political office. The system accommodated impunity as certain members appeared to be superior to the party. Their interests were far more important than the collective interests of the APC, even when most times such interests are at variance with the ideals the party stand for.

“You would recall that it was under that leadership that some impudent members of APC called the bluff of the party by imposing themselves on the National Assembly as leaders contrary to the position of the party. Where was the party? Where was the discipline when this happened? It would be difficult to calculate what lack of courage to assert the party supremacy cost APC over that period. The consequences of the inaction of the party were unimaginable.

“We all saw the consequences on governance as the National assembly practically held our government to ransom. The impunity, which President Muhammadu Buhari has rightly described as lack of patriotism, constituted an unfortunate hindrance to the smooth running of government.”

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Again, Nigerian Candidate Wins United Nations General Assembly Presidency

Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, Nigeria’s permanent representative to the United Nations, has emerged president of the 74th UN General Assembly.

Muhammad-Bande, sole candidate for the position, emerged through acclamation at the 87th plenary meeting of the Assembly in New York on Tuesday.

He is the second Nigerian to hold the office after Joseph Garba, a retired military officer and diplomat, who led the organ between 1989 and 1990.

He will be inaugurated in September. President Muhammadu Buhari had appointed Muhammad- Bande as Nigeria’s representative to the UN on March 31, 2018.

He was born on December 7, 1957, in Zagga, present-day Kebbi State.

He received a BSc in political science from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in 1979, MA in political science from Boston University, USA in 1981; and a Ph.D in political science from University of Toronto, Canada, in 1987.

He was the vice-chancellor of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto between 2004 and 2009. He served as the director-general of National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies NIPSS) from 2010 to 2016.

He served as the vice-president of the general assembly during the 71st session.

A recipient of the national honour of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR), Tijjani Muhammad-Bande is married with four children.

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