Nigeria Times

By Thomas Uzah

The recent happenings in the country indeed call for concern from discerning minds. The EndSARS protest has opened a new vista in the battle for the soul of the country. Those against the interest of the country almost had their way, but for a timely intervention, which some segment of the country have decided to turn a blind eye to, instead, they have elected to turn the truth on its head in a most despicable manner.
The events of the past weeks have also brought to our consciousness how slippery the social media space can be with the propagation of fake news. In the social media space, the truth can be turned on its head, and the people would believe without verifying. Yes, that was the case with the EndSARS protest and the intervention of the Nigerian Army in the incidence at the Lekki Tollgate in Lagos state. Some might say the approach deployed by the soldiers were wrong, I would agree to a degree, but I am of the firm belief that the intervention was with the best of intents because, before our very eyes, anarchy was looming with the attack on police units and formations, as well as government and private concerns.
Indeed there was palpable tension. That was what most Nigerians didn’t realize, and if decisive actions were not taken, we would have been singing a different song today and as usual, accusing fingers would be raised against the security agencies for failing to act, and in good time.

I must state that there were also a group of people that felt threatened by the commitment displayed by the Nigerian Army in dousing the tension and as such they capitalized on the Lekki Tollgate incidence to get their pound of flesh for daring to alter their plans towards destroying Nigeria.
The social media merchants fell easily for the trap and went to town to peddle all sorts of misinformation about what truly transpired. And the Nigerian Army was leveled with all sorts of accusations which in my opinion, was deliberate.
We thank God the dust has settled, and things are beginning to take shape. The Lagos State government set up a Judicial Panel of Inquiry and Restitution to investigate what transpired to make appropriate recommendations to the state government.

While it is indeed a welcome development, there seems to be a snag in the activities of the Judicial Panel that should give all a cause for concern. The way and manner the panel has been conducting its business is indeed worrisome. It seems the members of the panel are not in tune with the present reality and the task before them. They have arrogated to themselves the power of life and death and seem to have thrown in the trash can all the principle of decorum.

Their actions seem prejudiced, and I am forced to believe that at the end of the day, we might be seeing a Kangaroo contraption designed to cause more harm than good and we stand the risk of a bigger monster than the thugs and hoodlums that hijacked the EndSARS protest.
This fact Nigerians must come to terms with and be circumspect with the actions and inactions of the panel and the revelations that would follow very soon. It is expected that the members of the panel would stand firm in fulfilling its mandate. Ironically that seems to have been sacrificed on the altar of personal and selfish aggrandizement.
It is indeed a shame and quite depressing. So much so that I wonder when we would get things right in Nigeria. I also wonder when individuals entrusted with public trust would rise above board and do the right thing devoid of political considerations.
This is indeed not the time for selective judgment, but rather a time for sober reflection and ensuring that those found to have contributed to the escalation of violence across the country are brought to book to account for their nefarious activities.
So far, this hasn’t been the case with members that are meant to be steadfast in the discharge of their duties have been grandstanding in the media and saying all that is not meant to be said and granting interviews that further compound issues at stake.
This is the starkness of the reality before us, and it is hoped that things would take a turn for good; else we would have wasted considerable time and resources with nothing to show for it and back to square one with more issues to deal with in our plates.

The members of the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry and Restitution must quickly realize that posterity would not be kind to them if they continue in this fashion which by all indication negates the objectives for its establishment in the first place. This is not a time to play politics or engage in media grandstanding. They must understand that to whom much is given, much is expected.
Nigerians want the truth and all those that peddled false news that was responsible for the escalation of violence are brought to book unless they want to feign ignorance to the role of fake news in the violence that almost brought the country to its knees. There should be no preferential treatments. All parties must be given a fair hearing, and the conclusions arrived at, a true reflection of what truly transpired.
In my considered opinion, the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry remains a Kangaroo contraption in the light of the way and manner it has carried on with its activities. I pray that there is deep retrospection so, at the end of the day, those that are guilty are brought to book to serve as a deterrent to others in the future, and the victims adequately compensated in the spirit of fairness.

Uzah PhD is head of mass communication department, Kwararafa University Wukari.

By Philip Agbese

Anyone taken aback by the turn of events around the #EndSARS protests and the Lekki Toll Gate conundrum in Lagos State must have been negligent of the events that led to the 2019 election that produced Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu as the state governor. He emerged candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in a bitterly fought primary between him and his predecessor, Akinwunmi Ambode, who lost out to the well-oiled machinery of Sanwo-Olu’s godfather.
Almost one year and half later, Ambode’s warnings to Lagos state’s voting population have proven clairvoyant, almost prophetic. His successor has proven to be disaster on steroids. His shambolic running of the state perfected the environment that primed the young population of the state into the baying mob that has left over N1 trillion in destruction of public infrastructure and private property.

Because I was not dismissive of the warnings from Ambode at that time, I am not surprised at the happenings in Lagos State, especially Lekki. After all Mr. Ambode warned but no one listened. He cautioned that his then challenger’s state of mind should be interrogated but people thought everything was politics. Ambode told us preparatory to the electioneering campaign that this man has a health issue but it was waved aside.
It is no wonder that Sanwo-Olu’s singular mishandling of the #EndSARS protests plunged the country into chaos. When the protests first began, rather than play the firm leadership roles expected of him, he preferred to join the protestors thinking erroneously that prancing and chanting with the protestors will lessen their anger at the apparent failings of his government that had worsened whatever brunt the people were bearing from brutal policemen.
Everything was fine while the protestors obstructed and inconvenienced other Nigerians and their businesses. The moment they moved to Lekki Toll Plaza, and threatened the economic interests of the governor’s godfather, his dark side emerged. He could have let them be and allowed his godfather suffer the inconvenience of fleecing the state for a few days but he certainly is not given to such patience. So the governor lost his cool and allowed forces beyond the state take over.
Soldiers fired into the air, with video evidence to prove, when the protest at Lekki Toll Gate was becoming menacing. Sanwo-Olu’s co-protestors claimed a massacre – we should forget that they never had bodies o blood stain to prove that such carnage existed only in the tortured subconscious of the raging cyber mob of clout chasers, fledging celebrities and paid activists.

In the classical Sanwo-Olu style, knowing what he has done and the coming consequences, he did not call for Federal support even though he knew he has no capacity to contain what he has triggered. To compound things, he continued with his ill advised plan and went on to bait his associates in the picket line when he asserted that no life was lost when that was not the agreed script with his protesting associates. What followed was complete chaos. Lagos burned. Sanwo-Olu’s hoodlums burned people’s businesses as retaliation for the losses his boss has supposedly suffered. Government and private property burned at the hands of the hoodlums and the governor added his ancestral home for good measure so that he won’t be suspected as being part of the chaos machine that ruined Lagos. The sad part of that war on Nigeria was the high casualty rate inflicted on law enforcement officers, policemen and others on legitimate duty.

Tragically, Lagos set the pace for the wave of violence that spread across the country. The looting was mindless. It followed the Sanwo-Olu template. It became so effective that it laid waste to the country in a matter of days.
In the whole of this, the Sanwo-Olu was wrapped and entrapped by his own many contradictory statements like when he said he tried to call the President when Lagos was being pulled down by #EndSARS protesters or hoodlums as they were later labelled. The same man said that he did not know where the soldiers who shot into the air came from. Later he said he invited them but did not ask them to shoot. Sanwo-Olu declared that no one died from the incident only to return with news of a casualty from blunt force trauma.

Not done with inconsistency in utterances, the governor added insensitivity to his already lacklustre handling of the crisis when he received his godfather, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu in audience. Sources said the latter flew into France and was forced home by terrorist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) even though there was a spin to create the impression that the Jagaban was in Lekki on the night of the pandemonium and no one saw him. That visit was what jolted Sanwo-Olu’s memory that some persons died at Lekki Toll Gate, but he forgot as a result of memory lapse.

It became necessary for the governor to attempt hiding behind one finger as he hurriedly cobbled together a Judicial Panel of Inquiry, which on the surface is the legitimate step to take but one that Sanwo-Olu managed to taint with his see-saw predisposition. There is the notion of Kangaroo court and that is what the Lagos state governor has become.
According to Wikipedia, “A kangaroo court is a court that ignores recognized standards of law or justice and often carries little or no official standing in the territory within which it resides. A kangaroo court may ignore due process and come to a predetermined conclusion.”
Sanwo-Olu did not even attempt the pretence of making it appear as if the Judicial Panel, like a court, will determine its own conclusion. He set up the Panel and went about making pronouncements that already rubbished whatever the panel will come up with. He has made his own words cathedral over Lagos and Lagosians. This is the Kangaroo hall of shame where helpless eminent Nigerians will be made to sign an already prepared script .
This shame that the governor is exporting from Lagos to the rest of the country is one everyone must watch with keen interest even when they find neither entertainment nor value in it. We must watch closely because, just as he precipitated the violence that enveloped the country, Sanwo-Olu may yet export his diseased concept of a judicial panel to the rest of Nigeria, which will effectively doom the country. As we watch the Lagos Governor squirm in the miasma he concocted, we must ask a fair question. Can a judicial panel of inquiry constituted by Sanwo-Olu still he trusted to do justice? The answer is no. He cannot and must not be a judge in his own case.

Agbese is a human rights activist and wrote from the United Kingdom.

By Sola Oteniya

Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu appears to me as the latest and finest jester to emerge on the country’s political firmament. Lagos is very strategic being the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria. Years back, I read even intellectuals stylishly referring to it as the macrocosm of Nigeria.

In saner climes, whoever is entrusted with a public mandate to govern the state should be a person with impeccable credentials; upright with enviable records of excellence, integrity and infectious selflessness. But having followed Gov. Sanwo-Olu’s leadership of this complex state keenly for about two years now, I am under the compunction to believe the alleged allusion to his mental instability and criminal inclinations by his predecessor, ex-Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode might likely be true.

Ambode had amplified in 2018 on Sanwo-Olu’s past mental rehabilitation at Gbagada General Hospital and his criminal records of being napped for spending counterfeit US Dollars in a nightclub in the United States. The former governor proclaimed loudly that based on Sanwo-Olu’s doubtful history, it was a potential disaster for Lagosians to support such a character to become the political leader of the state or assume the job he was being propelled to do.

As I know of some Nigerian politicians, especially at partisan times, Sanwo-Olu profusely denied all the allegations. However, actions  speak louder than words. As governor now, Sanwo-Olu strikes me more as an unstable character, barren of finesse to govern and thus, confirming through actions, his unflattering past mental health crisis and unresolved criminal records previously labelled against him.

He neither prepared for the hectic mission nor had any clear vision, devoid of ideas on how to offer rewarding service to the state. As expected, Sanwo-Olu emerged in Government House Alausa, dazed and confused like a fowl poached out of its shelter into the open fields in the dead of the night.   

I am not surprised at the happenings in Lagos/Lekki to be specific.  After all, Mr Ambode cautioned all of us before now, but we wouldn’t listen. As usual, we reduced everything to politics and ignored him. Most Nigerians are tilted to darkness and I was not surprised when Lagosians voted Sanwo-Olu as Governor in 2019.

I do not doubt that the people of Lagos goofed terribly in the choice of Sanwo-Olu. I have come to know; the strength of a leader is measured mainly by his sagacious outings in times of public crisis. Sanwo-Olu, however, has shown to be devoid of this leadership dexterity or traits.

The Lekki Toll Gate #EndSARS protests incident assails my mind strongly. It has attracted national outrage because the governor abdicated his responsibility as the Chief Security Officer of the state with his poor handling of the protests by its manifest signs of turning into violence and bloodbath.

To my utmost surprise, Gov. Sanwo-Olu’s belated announcement of a 24-hour curfew, its stealthy extension to 9 pm same day without considering the traffic gridlock and mobility peculiarities of Lagos was his first display of incompetence to manage the crisis. His order to security agents to fortify Lagos to forestall further breakdown of public law and order by hoodlums, miscreants and criminals who hijacked the otherwise peaceful protests had no feedback mechanism. It means, the Governor may have abandoned the state willy-nilly to subordinates. 

With the alleged Lekki shootings by soldiers, Sanwo-Olu is completely lost in giving the accurate account of the incident. It shocked me that the Governor was easily caught in the web of self-denials and contradictions. He is parroting so much on the incident, but discernibly in doublespeak.  

By Sanwo-Olu’s various narrations on the incident at different times, it is suicidal for me or any other person to vouch for his accounts of the Lekki incident. The Governor has deepened my conjectures on whether he requested the Nigerian Army into Lagos or never consented it; 30, 70, 12 persons, seven or “only” two or one protesters was killed from the incident.

And the number of persons hospitalized who sustained injuries, supposedly shot by soldiers, Police bullets or wounded from the chaotic stampede is also a mystery of scientific complexity. If a State Governor has disappointed me in recent times, it is Mr Sanwo-Olu. Despite his exalted office, he preferred to follow the herds of social media merchants and the fake news reeled out on the incident, running his mouth incoherently and inconsistently like an accident victim.

I am astounded to hear Sanwo-Olu inconsistencies and incongruent accounts of a single incident on security in his state. The Governor celebrated self- contradictory statements. At first Sanwo -Olu claimed he tried to call Mr President when Lagos was being violently pulled down by #EndSARS protesters or hoodlums as they were later truly nicknamed. 

At this point, the violence of the #EndSARS protesters had peaked evident in the torching of several police stations; gruesome murder of policemen; unlawful and coercive release of suspects in police custody. Massive weapons were also carted away by the hoodlums. But to my amazement again, Sanwo-Olu claimed days later that he didn’t know where the soldiers came to Lekki. People with criminal instincts are also cheap liars.

It compelled me to ponder why the Governor was attempting to call Mr President but was physically disrupted by the enraged protestors. But shockingly too, Sanwo-Olu said; “For clarity, it is imperative to explain that no sitting governor controls the rules of engagement of the military…” I started wondering whether Mr President sat in Abuja and intuitively knew there was a problem of frightening magnitude in Lagos and decided to deploy soldiers without Sanwo-Olu’s consent.

And when pressurized, the Governor countered himself by saying he invited soldiers but didn’t ask them to shoot. In another aftermath rendition of the Lekki incident, Sanwo-Olu told Nigerians in a state-wide broadcast the next day that no one died from the Lekki incident; buttressing it by his visit to the scene immediately and then claiming there were no bloodstains at the spot.  

Sanwo-Olu later rebuffed himself as he told CNN’s Becky Anderson in an interview that only “Two dead bodies, that is what we have seen from all the morgues, that’s what we have seen going to hospitals, that’s what we have seen as a record…. I have been to the ground, there is no scratch of blood anywhere there.”

The same Governor again reenergized his rehearsal of self-contradictions. He tweeted on the second day of the incident that, “Information reaching us now is that a life was lost at Reddington Hospital due to blunt force trauma to the head. Three of the injured protesters have been discharged, while some are in the hospital. There is no record of any fatalities.”

The Governor’s contradictory reversal of himself indicated clear disparities with what transpired at Lekki Toll Gate. His rigmarole began after his political godfather, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the Jagaban later visited him. Some sources claim Tinubu flew into France in the wake of the protests but was reportedly forced back home by irate IPOB members resident in that country to face the fire he ignited in Nigeria.  

It sounds more to me like the Jagaban was at Lekki that night as a talisman and no one sighted him. Therefore, the Jagaban was angry with Sanwo-Olu’s repeated claims that no one died or just one person neither were there any bloodstains at the spot.  The Governor realized the anger of his boss and had to rejig his tales, and started vibrating the inanities or cooking the stories of the death toll or should I believe he initially forgot? He then, unconscionably pinned soldiers to the shooting at Lekki obviously as an afterthought.

But as the Nigerian Army has repeatedly articulated, it was never involved in the #EndSARS protests initially, but the “decision to call in the Military was taken by the Lagos State Government after a 24-hour curfew was imposed;” and at no time did soldiers open fire on protesting civilians.

The fate of Lagos today is the paroxysms of poor leadership by an inexperienced, deceptive, mentally and psychologically unstable leader like Sanwo-Olu. This is the macabre dance from Lagos and Nigerians must watch with keen interest. Having voiced this far, can the Judicial Panel constituted by Sanwo-Olu to probe the Lekki incident still be trusted to do justice or be fair to all parties?

The answer is certainly NO!  The Governor can’t be a judge in his case. Sanwo-Olu’s antecedents on this matter justify an already pre-determined bias or judgement. Let the Federal Government constitute a neutral Judicial Panel to conduct the probe of Lekki incident.

Oteniya PhD wrote from University of Lagos.

By Charles Ibekwe

With the turbulence of #EndSARS protests gradually calming down in states rocked by the senseless riots in the pretext of protests by some Nigerian youths, a lot have been exposed. Nigerians now know the covert agenda of some leaders and senior citizens to destabilize the country, through clandestine sponsorship or encouragement of public anarchy and bloodshed.

While there is an undisputed national consensus that the reasons precipitating the supposedly peaceful #EndSARS protests were genuine, its conversion into criminal acts and violence were not in tandem with the spirit of democratic liberties of expressing grievances. Strangely, in spite of the obvious danger, expressed through violence, killings and destructions by protesters, the it was deducible that utterances of some highly placed Nigerians were crafted to rather embolden the incensed protesters in mayhem.

Often, Nigerians are reminded of the sanctity of human life. It is the duty of everyone to preserve and respect lives. God Himself frowns at shedding of innocent blood. And where it occurs, it behooves on leaders and other highly placed citizens to talk and act in a manner that would calm frayed nerves rather than inflame the acts of bloodshed.

But Nigeria’s self-acclaimed human rights Lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana displayed highly irresponsible conduct throughout the duration of the #EndSARS protests. His utterances, threats to security agents and the Government in the face of the bloody protests bolstered the hoodlums, miscreants and criminals who hijacked the protests to now wantonly kill security agents and other innocent Nigerians.

There is no doubt that Femi Falana’s various utterances, TV appearances, interviews and public statements incited the youths. He thus demeaned his status at a time he would have observed restraint as a senior citizen.

And the instant reaction from the rioting youths was to forcefully seize security agents in the line of duty and murdered them in cold blood like animals. Policemen suffered the worse fate and one wondered which patriotic person could see the horror and the carnage, but still argue for the protection of the violators of human lives. But Falana did excitedly!

One can easily understand that Falana and family have considered instigation and incitement of public unrests as business. His wife, Mrs. Folake Falana and songster, Falz have been conscripted into this business. Therefore, it doesn’t matter to the Falanas whether the reasons for public unrests are genuine or when the legitimacy is lost as in the case of the #EndSARS protests in later days.

Consequently, days after the Federal Government of Nigeria responded speedily to some of the immediate demands of the #EndSARS protesters, Falana and his bogeys kept amplifying the fire. He encouraged the violent protesters by asserting that Government has merely scratched the problem on the surface and unprepared to respect the lawful rights of Nigerians. And in the age of social media activism, his messages circulated widely.

National security of Nigeria was on the verge of being completely compromised with the killing of security personnel and innocent Nigerians by the #EndSARS protesters. But Falana unconscionably took the incitement further under the banner of Alliance for Survival of Covid-19 and Beyond (ASCAB), a body he chairs. He shamelessly challenged the decision of government to take the necessary steps as degenerative bloody protests demanded to restore the public security sanctity.

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria mouthed endlessly indecorously and laughably that President Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), “… should not invite soldiers to resolve a purely democratic issue….” This message bolstered the #EndSARS protesters, and like ISWAP terrorists, they began to massively target security agents and the hapless ones were caught and murdered gruesomely. It was a clear message that Falana and coy acquiesced to the shedding of blood of the innocent.

The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo is also culpable in the inglorious murder of Nigerians. His conversations or engagements with the public throughout the violent protests were in dissonance with the measures Government adopted to quell the mayhem, but rather, he cleverly incited the protesters.

On October 5, 2020, two days preceding the commencement of the #EndSARS protests and whilst the evil plots still smoldered in dark chambers, the Vice President confessed without any judicial probe and against established leadership protocols, SARS brutality against Nigerians. He gingered the intending protesters by saying “I am very concerned, in fact, very angry about what I see, happening to young men and women who are arrested, in some cases maimed or killed by men of the police force.”

The worse of it all, Prof. Osinbajo for political expediency hastily admitted the alleged shooting and killing of protesters at Lekki Toll Gate in a tweet. By his early conclusions, he wittingly convicted Nigerian soldiers before trial, unlike a leader of his status. The posturing of Osinbajo on the matter could better be appreciated on recognition that the early propagandists of the alleged Lekki killings, including excited celebrities are no longer vacating public doubts with evidence to back up such claims.

Perhaps, the Vice President knew what transpired at Lekki better than eyewitness, like DJ Switch who is recounting the incident like recollections of a malnourished child with unpardonable distortions. And come to think of it, a judicial panel has just been constituted to probe the alleged Lekki shootings and killings. Deliberately, Osinbajo was hastily too flippant on such a sensitive matter unlike a leader.

Furthermore, the Vice President completely ignored consultation with Mr. President before making some of the inciting public statements. Nearly 10 days after the EndSARS protests turned bloodily violent, Osinbajo again tweeted on his verified Twitter handle; “Dear Nigerians, I know that many of you are angry, and understandably so. We could’ve moved faster and for this we are sorry.”

But Osinbajo knew, and as would later be admitted by President Buhari’s nationwide address that Government quickly responded to some of the immediate demands of the protesters. Government disbanded SARS on the fourth day of the protests (October 11, 2020), ordered arrest and prosecution of suspected culprits and a promise to carry out a total reform of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) which bows to time.

Regrettably, Osinbajo detached himself from the actions of Government in resolving the issues and preferred to push his private agenda on escalating the crisis. And his poster boy, Femi Falana immediately aligned with Osinbajo in the false claims that the Federal Government and other authorities “ought to have moved speedily to address the demands of the protesters.” It was unconcealed, both were pursuing a secret agenda and rather preferred the brutality of the #EndSARS protesters on innocent Nigerians and its continuation than abatement.

The Vice President worked in direct antithesis with Mr. President on the crisis. He never pretended to be a problem solver, but an aggravator. And even the shedding of blood of security personnel and innocent Nigerians could not prick his conscience to observe restraint.

The political leader of Southwest, and APC national leader, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu believed to be the political pillar of Prof. Osinbajo and a close ally of Femi Falana was also passive. He refused to call the duo to order until very belatedly after enough damage had occurred. Tinubu is therefore vicariously complicit in the incitement and killings of the innocent, especially policemen, some of whom were burnt alive by protesters.

Tinubu maintained comfortable silence until a lecturer in the department of History and International Relations at the University of Ibadan, Prof. Alexander Adebisi punctured it. He accused Tinubu of sponsoring the protests to discredit the leadership of President Buhari.

The lecturer claimed, Tinubu felt his 2023 Presidential ambition was threatened, as the APC was unlikely to hand him its Presidential ticket. So, bankrolling the protests is meant to destabilize the country and rubbish achievements of the Buhari Presidency.

Therefore, it is time for Nigerian activists to rise up and critically assess the roles and influence of these prominent leaders in the shedding of blood of innocent Nigerians. Their direct and vicarious links to the mobsters who perpetrated these crimes against humanity is likely to qualify them as guests/accomplices in the accused box of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague.

Ibekwe is a human rights campaigner based in Enugu.