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How Nigerian Government Gave Indicted Cocaine Trafficker Multi-million Dollar Supply Contract

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4 years ago

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The investigation, which was done by Nigerian journalist, David Hundeyin and reported by West Africa Weekly, delves into how the rot in the system led to an embarrassing scarcity of passports for Nigerians at home and abroad.

This report exposes the rot, racketeering, ethnic nepotism, complete failure of due diligence, and how an indicted cocaine trafficker has come to control the supply of passports to Nigerian citizens.

The investigation, which was done by Nigerian journalist, David Hundeyin and reported by West Africa Weekly, delves into how the rot in the system led to an embarrassing scarcity of passports for Nigerians at home and abroad.

“We acknowledge and apologise for the challenges faced in the past few weeks regarding passport booklets availability. I am glad to inform you that booklets are now available and are being distributed to all our passport issuing centres.”

With these words on March 31, former Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) Babandede verbally signed a cheque that the NIS would subsequently fail to cash. Through the course of his tenure as CG, Nigerians had become used to chronic passport booklet shortage and the associated black market arbitrage, but the shortage had become acute by 2021. He needed to make a statement to reaffirm his competence.

Speaking at the commissioning of the Maitama Passport Express Centre – itself a master class in formalised black market arbitrage – Babandede made that statement, and then some. A special team would be dispatched to “facilitate enrollment and production” of passports across Nigeria and its foreign missions. New passport offices to service air passengers would be sited at the airports in Lagos, Kano and Abuja. The new “premium passport processing centre” in Abuja would cut the length of passport issuance and renewal from several weeks to just 72 hours.

Ultimately, Babandede’s statement turned out to be just that – a statement.

From when he made these pronouncements until his retirement earlier this month, passport booklets continued to be a scarce and expensive commodity in Nigeria. Several factors were blamed for the baffling inability of Africa’s most populous country to provide passports for its citizens. Chronic corruption at the NIS; disputes between the NIS and a private contractor responsible for printing booklets; scarcity of forex to pay for security printing materials; even an alleged unofficial government policy to stem brain drain by making passports hard to access – all these have variously been blamed for this state of affairs.

As is so often the case in Nigeria, no theory or explanation should be dismissed out of hand, which is why when I set out to find out what is really behind the perennial shortage of these little green booklets, I was prepared for anything. Or at least I thought I was. What would emerge as I sank my teeth into this however, was not a story about supply chain disruptions or government inefficiencies. It was nothing like I had ever seen before, which is saying something.

Think Transformers meets Black Mirror meets Karishika, with protagonists who are part Elon Musk, part Lawrence Anini and part Bakin Zuwo. There is a murder in New York; a million dollar cocaine deal in Bogotá. Court cases in New Jersey; a legitimate high tech manufacturing operation in Kuala Lumpur; art exhibitions in Lagos; high society marriages; prominent placement in lifestyle and celebrity magazines, and the most comically brazen lawbreaking hidden in plain sight. If this story were a movie, it would be the conceptual offspring of Michael Bay and Ugezu J. Ugezu, which is to say, low on plot and purpose, but high on sheer crash-bang value.

There are 3 main characters in this story. Their existence and relevance was determined after speaking to 5 different sources within the NIS ecosystem. These 3, more than any other people, have had the most influence on passport issuance and the wider state of the Immigration Service. Unsurprisingly, the first name on the list is immediate past CG Muhammad

None of my sources have any especially nice words to say about him, but neither do they have any bitter personal complaints either. The impression that comes through about Babandede is that of a fundamentally limited man who is neither virtuous nor especially malevolent. As one of the sources puts it frankly:

“He tried to make some moves such as the passport express centres, but it didn’t work out because he was just there to make money before he retired. He didn’t really care about fixing any systemic issues like staff motivation or the ISTL contract. All that one was not his business.”

The sources inform me that under Babandede’s tenure, complete opacity was institutionalised, with Immigration officers now not even knowing how much to expect on their payslip at the end of the month. Apparently during his tenure, NIS staff were migrated to the Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system (IPPIS), and with that went any sort of transparency regarding staff pay scales, deductions and entitlements. As a source colourfully puts it during one of our long conversations:

“It has now got to the point that you don’t know what will come in at the end of the month, and whatever it is that comes in – you just have to take it like that. The deductions vary every month so we don’t know how much we will take home. So tell me as a man with people depending on you, how else will you survive if not through ‘egunje’ (bribes)?”

While the sources mention different things that Babandede could have done to protect NIS staff welfare and morale, they all have one consistent criticism of him – his alleged ethnocentric posting policy. During his tenure they say, desirable NIS postings such as NIS offices in Lagos, were given exclusively to northerners, while the southerners working there were all posted out. The Ikoyi immigration office I am told, is now staffed almost exclusively by northerners – a state of affairs that would be impossible if the roles were reversed.

Under Babandede and even in these early days of his successor Idris Jere, the sources say, many northerners in the NIS, encouraged by the prebendalist disposition of their superiors, are keen to let everyone know that it is “their turn” and they are in power. Following Idris Jere’s appointment a source claims, the next most senior Deputy Comptroller – a southerner from Lagos – who might have been next in line to succeed Jere, was promptly transferred to Sokoto. At press time, I have been unable to independently verify this.

The other name that every source mentions is a certain “Liman” at the Ikoyi Passport Office. None of the sources bothers to hide how they feel about this fellow. This man and his extreme racketeering they say, is one of the major reasons behind Nigeria’s passport shortage. A bit of research brings up his name as Abdullahi I. Liman, a Deputy Comptroller in charge of the Ikoyi Passport Command of the NIS.

Every single source has a terrible story to tell about Abdullahi Liman. Liman they say, is responsible for the northernisation of the Ikoyi Passport Command. Even worse one source tells me, under Liman’s tenure, the atmosphere at the Command has taken on explicitly polarised ethnic and religious overtones. Take this anecdote from one of the sources for example:

“You can imagine that you are in the middle of doing a capture, then all of a sudden your colleague who is also capturing will just stand up and leave his station with a crowd of people there – because he says he is going to pray. You now end up doing his work for him, can you imagine that? This did not happen before Liman came in.”

Liman they say, is in the habit of pointedly using Hausa to converse with his subordinates at work, which automatically puts every southerner working under his command at a real career disadvantage. Speaking English – or in fact any other language but Hausa – at work is now a career demerit at the Ikoyi Passport Command under Liman’s watch.

A few days after I speak to this source, this story by the Foundation for Investigative Journalism was published, detailing persecution of a southern NIS officer at the Ikoyi Command in the exact ways described by my sources. Notice the reporter’s description of his interaction with Liman.

Up to this point, I have relied on testimony from sources I consider trustworthy, but even their knowledge of affairs at the NIS has its limits. While people like Abdullahi Liman are running rackets within the NIS to restrict access to passport booklets in large population centres like Lagos so as to create a lucrative black market, the sources are also clear that they believe that the NIS simply does not have enough passport booklets. To truly understand why the NIS appears to have not just a distribution problem, but also a supply problem with passport booklets, I had to figure out whose interests were served by the status quo.

First, a brief primer on how Nigeria’s passport system works.

Starting in 2003, Nigeria adopted the e-passport standard to defeat counterfeiting, resulting in a contract awarded to IRIS Smart Technologies Limited (ISTL) which commenced in 2007. The scope of the contract was to implement the Nigeria Harmonised ECOWAS Electronic (SMART) Passport Autogate Systems as well as to supply e-passport booklets, wafers, laminates and maintenance services from 2006 and 2015. ISTL is affiliated with Malaysia’s Iris Corp, which carries out the actual security printing services including supply of e-passport booklets.

The services that ISTL renders to the NIS include creating and maintaining the electronic database containing the passport details of Nigerian citizens, as well as maintaining the communication infrastructure that keeps a constant uplink between passport registration offices and the ISTL data centre. In case the reader has not seen the problem with this, allow me to spell it out clearly:

A private company working for a profit incentive has full and unrestricted access to the sensitive data of all Nigerian passport holders, but more importantly, it alone has access to this data. In other words, ISTL has more access to passport holders’ data than the NIS itself. ISTL does not actually produce passport booklets, but sub-contracts production to the Malaysian firm Iris Corp. Essentially, this company that most people have never heard of, controls a valuable sovereign database exclusively, and all it has to do is maintain a few dozen closed VSAT links from passport registration centres. Essentially, tech support.

This in fact caused a row between the NIS and the company in 2017 when the 10-year contract came up for renewal. Speaking to Daily Trust in 2017, some NIS insiders claimed the following: That the initial contract was a threat to national security because it vests control of the Country Signing Certification Authority (CSCA) – an official government seal – in ISTL, instead of the Nigerian government, which on paper is a risk factor for fraud;

That its implementation did not follow due process;

That the database and other infrastructure was paid for by the Nigerian government, but ISTL holds on to government property and uses tactics such as refusing to train NIS officers in the management of the system as a way to strong-arm the government into renewing its contract;

That NIS officers cannot conduct basic maintenance and repairs on the ISTL systems, meaning that the Nigerian government cannot withdraw from the ISTL contract without incurring catastrophic costs, which violates public procurement regulations;

That the contract had questionable exclusion clauses that gave undue advantage to ISTL at the expense of the Nigerian taxpayer.

The Malaysian company subcontracted by ISTL to print the booklets meanwhile, has found itself facing corruption probes by Malaysian authorities over its activities in other African e-passport jurisdictions such as Guinea. So putting this picture together, we have a tech support company that has somehow wrangled its way into a $138 million 10-year government contract (which was eventually renewed in 2019). Its main activity is maintaining equipment and an electronic database, and it sub-contracts passport booklet printing to a company halfway around the world whose executives have been arrested on corruption charges.

For the purpose of balance, it must be pointed out that the $138 million figure is not paid by the government, but rather comes from the company’s revenue generation activities within the scope of the e-passport project. It is also important to point out that the criticisms of the ISTL contract were possibly made in bad faith by individuals who merely wanted to replace ISTL with their own companies. Indeed, the senior NIS official quoted by the Daily Trust in 2017 remarked, “[The controversy] is between contractors who want the contract. The NIS’ concern is simply the supply of the booklets.”

It is also important to mention that the cost of sub-contracting Iris Corp to print the booklets is paid is USD, while ISTL’s revenue comes in naira, with the CBN refusing to provide forex for the company. This I am reliably informed, is the material reason behind the chronic booklet shortages since 2017 – the cost of printing passport booklets has more than doubled in dollar terms since 2015. Hence, ISTL simply cannot afford to print as many booklets as before.

With that being said, we now know that there is an incredibly lucky or powerful entity behind ISTL. Who is this person? This is where the story really takes a few turns, so hold on to your hats.

High Society Gentleman or Ex-Cocaine Trafficker?

On its website, ISTL describes itself as a “major subsidiary of the flagship company, Image Technologies Limited (Imagetech).” A quick CAC database check on Imagetech brings up the elusive character behind the curtain.

For a Lagos socialite, Olayinka Fisher is a man who somehow keeps a decidedly low profile. For one thing, while researching this story, establishing what exactly his name is turns out to be quite the task. In some places, he is “Yinka Fisher.” In some other places, he is “Olayinka Fisher.” In still other places, he is “Olayinka Fischer” or “Sonayon Fisher.” Only in a few places that he would rather the world did not know about, does his full and correctly spelled government name appear: “Olayinka Sonayon Fisher.” So who is this guy and what is there to him?

Quite a bit, as it turns out.

The story starts in Mr. Fisher’s previous iteration as a high flying Nigerian diplomat in in mid-to-late 1970s. At the time, when he was still known to the world as Olayinka Sonayon Fisher, he was the Second Secretary of the Nigerian Mission to the United Nations.

Researching the many variants of his name online, references to his diplomatic career can be seen right up until about 1980 when he seems to vanish off the face of the historical earth. In 1989, he resurfaces on CAC documents in Nigeria as the majority shareholder in a new company called Imagetech. Presumably at this point, the high-achieving diplomat has decided to pivot into a career in tech entrepreneurship. Nigeria being what it is, nobody ever really bothers to ask why, and by 2003 he is signing the contract above for ISTL under President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The good times are rolling. Following the end of his marriage to River State scion Doris Amachree, he weds Dr. Pius Okigbo’s daughter Anne. He becomes an avid art collector and patron of the arts. He hosts art exhibitions with the Spanish Embassy in Lagos, which are co-curated by both of his sons who share his love of the visual arts. To all intents and purposes, he is the SI unit of the classy and respectable old money Lagosian. There’s just one problem:

According to U.S. court records, Mr. Fisher allegedly used to be part of an intercontinental cocaine smuggling ring.

I obtain the following documents from the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. They detail court proceedings from a 1983 case involving a violent drug dealer wanted for a murder in the Bronx, New York, a successful American businessman who dabbled into the illegal drug business with him, and a Nigerian diplomat who used his diplomatic immunity to traffic shipments of cocaine into the U.S. on their behalf.

The diplomat’s name? A certain Olayinka Sonayon Fisher.

According to Tracy Wong, the indicted American businessman, he paid Fisher the sum of $50,000 for a single shipment. The indictment further states that this arrangement lasted for at least 2 years with multiple Cocaine trafficking trips made worth several million dollars. Exactly how much Fisher made from this arrangement in total is a question only he can answer, but it certainly raises a few interesting questions.

Perhaps the most telling part of this story is that following the release of this NYT article and his subsequent exit from the diplomatic corps, Fisher appears to have intentionally dropped all mention of “Sonayon” from his name. In fact, it took the extraordinary step of making a few calls to my hometown Badagry, where the name “Sonayon” also originates from, to confirm his identity. The fact that this has somehow slipped under the radar for decades despite his custody of one of the most sensitive databases in Nigeria is a sign of a catastrophic failure of state intelligence and due diligence.

Making this point further, I speak to a lawyer, Solomon Igberaese to give his professional opinion of this issue. He points out that according to the Public Procurement Act 2007, someone with Fisher’s background should have been disqualified from the public procurement process. In his words:

“Falsification of fact can be interpreted to also include drug trafficking. Carrying out drug trafficking under any other guise will constitute falsification of fact. That he concealed packages inside diplomatic pouches certainly qualifies as falsification of fact. Again the section said falsification of facts relating to any matter.”

So there we have it – possibly the most mind-bending story in Nigeria’s rich history of dodgy public procurement and contracting. For added measure, the third person in the drug ring, a career drug dealer called Joseph Anthony Margarite was also wanted in connection with a murder at the time of his involvement with Wong and Fisher.

Culled from the Sahara Reporters  

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Enugu Revenue Leader Details Tax Plans, Commits to Responsible Fund Management

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1 month ago

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August 8, 2025

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In a bid to address rising public concerns and social media speculations about taxation in Enugu State, the Executive Chairman of the Enugu State Internal Revenue Service (ESIRS), Emmanuel Nnamani, has provided clarifications on the government’s tax policies. During a press briefing in Enugu, Nnamani dismissed what he described as “false and misleading claims” and reassured residents that the government’s fiscal operations are firmly rooted in law, transparency, and public good.

Clarifying Misinformation and Affirming Legality

Nnamani opened the session by stressing that no taxes or levies in Enugu State are imposed outside the provisions of the law. “Taxes and revenues in Enugu State remain within the limits of the law. We do not impose any levies outside what the law permits,” he stated, pointing to the Personal Income Tax Act (as amended) as the guiding legal framework.

He explained that the ESIRS collects personal income tax through two lawful means: Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) for those in formal employment, and Direct Assessment for informal sector workers. While compliance among salaried workers has been largely smooth, the agency sometimes employs legal enforcement mechanisms to ensure compliance among self-employed individuals.

Formalising the Informal Sector

A key challenge, he noted, has been bringing the informal sector—especially market traders and transport operators—into the formal tax net. Upon assuming office, his administration discovered that an overwhelming 99% of informal sector actors were not remitting taxes to the state, largely due to the disruptive influence of non-state actors engaged in illegal collections.

In response, the government introduced a consolidated ₦36,000 annual levy for market traders. This amount, payable between January and March, covers all relevant state-level charges, including those by the Enugu State Waste Management Agency (ESWAMA), Enugu State Structures for Signage and Advertisement Agency (ENSSAA), storage fees, and business premises levies. “Once this amount is paid between January and March, the trader owes nothing else for that year,” Nnamani clarified. Traders who fail to pay by March 31 are subject to enforcement.

For street vendors operating outside structured markets, an annual levy of ₦30,000 applies, with ESWAMA charges handled separately. Transport operators such as Okada riders, Keke drivers, minibuses, tankers, and trucks pay via a daily ticketing system.

A Human-Faced Approach to Enforcement

Although the law allows for a 10% penalty on unpaid tax and an interest charge tied to the Central Bank’s Monetary Policy Rate of 27.5%, Nnamani disclosed that the state has adopted a softer, pro-business approach. Instead of the full punitive charges, a flat ₦3,000 penalty is applied in most informal sector cases to promote ease of doing business and encourage voluntary compliance.

Taxation and the Cost of Rent

Addressing growing concerns over rising rent, Nnamani rejected claims linking the trend to state tax policies. He described the issue as a national challenge influenced by supply and demand, rather than fiscal policy.

Citing personal experiences dating back to 2015, he observed that a shift in private development preference – from rental apartments to gated residential estates – has contributed to the housing squeeze. “If we had more high-rise buildings, rent would drop,” he noted. The state government, he added, is taking proactive steps through the Ministry of Housing and Housing Development Corporation to build mass housing and student hostels near institutions like ESUT and IMT, freeing up central city housing and helping moderate rents.

Technology, Transparency, and Trust

In line with its commitment to transparency and digital innovation, the ESIRS has launched a tax calculator on its official portal – www.irs.en.gov.ng – allowing residents to compute their taxes with ease and clarity. “This is about transparency and giving our people confidence,” he said, inviting residents to compare Enugu’s tools with those in more advanced states like Lagos.

Understanding the Cost of Development

Responding to concerns that Enugu has become one of Nigeria’s most expensive states, Nnamani acknowledged the perception but clarified that the temporary inflation is largely demand-driven. With Enugu undertaking widespread infrastructural renewal – including smart schools, primary health centres, and hospitality infrastructure – the surge in construction activity has led to increased demand for building materials like granite and rods, which are sourced from other states.

“Once these projects are completed, demand will drop, and prices will stabilise,” he assured. He emphasised that the projects are visible testaments to what taxpayers’ money can achieve when properly managed.

A Call for Mutual Understanding and Civic Partnership

More than a tax clarification, Nnamani’s address served as a reminder of the symbiotic relationship between citizens and government. He appealed for public understanding, noting that when citizens fulfil their tax obligations, the government can, in turn, provide essential services and infrastructure that uplift everyone.

His message was clear: responsible taxation, managed transparently and invested wisely, is the bedrock of sustainable development. From roads to schools and healthcare to housing, Enugu State is demonstrating how taxpayers’ money, when efficiently deployed, can improve lives and build the future.

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The Leadership Deficit: Why African Governance Lacks Philosophical Grounding

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2 months ago

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July 30, 2025

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Leadership across nations is shaped not only by policies but by the quality of the individuals at the helm. History has shown that the most transformative leaders often draw from deep wells of ethical, philosophical, and strategic thought. Yet, in many African countries—and Nigeria in particular—there appears to be a crisis in the kind of men elevated to govern. This deficit is not merely political; it is intellectual, philosophical, and deeply structural.

There is a compelling correlation between the absence of foundational wisdom and the type of leaders Nigeria consistently produces. Compared to their counterparts in other parts of the world, Nigerian leaders often appear fundamentally unprepared to govern societies in ways that foster justice, progress, or stability.

Consider the Middle East—nations like the UAE and Qatar—where governance is often rooted in Islamic principles. While these societies are not without flaws, their leaders have harnessed religious teachings as frameworks for nation-building, modern infrastructure, and citizen welfare. Ironically, many of Nigeria’s military and political leaders also profess Islam, yet the application of its ethical standards in public governance is nearly non-existent. This raises a troubling question: is the practice of religion in African politics largely symbolic, devoid of actionable moral guidance?

Take China as another case study. In the last four decades, China’s leadership has lifted over 800 million people out of poverty—an unprecedented feat in human history. While authoritarian in structure, China’s model demonstrates a deep philosophical commitment to collective progress, discipline, and strategic long-term planning. In Western democracies, especially post-World War II, leaders often emerged with strong academic backgrounds in philosophy, economics, or history—disciplines that sharpen the mind and cultivate vision.

In stark contrast, African leaders—particularly in Nigeria—are more often preoccupied with short-term political survival than long-term national transformation. Their legacy is frequently one of mismanagement, unsustainable debt, and structural decay. Nigeria, for example, has accumulated foreign loans that could take generations to repay, yet there is little visible infrastructure or social development to justify such liabilities. Inflation erodes wages, and basic public services remain in collapse. This cycle repeats because those in power often lack not just technical competence, but the moral and intellectual depth to lead a modern nation.

At the heart of the crisis is a lack of philosophical inquiry. Philosophy teaches reasoning, ethics, and the nature of justice—skills that are essential for public leadership. Nigerian leaders, by and large, are disconnected from such traditions. Many have never seriously engaged with political theory, ethical discourse, or economic philosophy. Without this grounding, leadership becomes a matter of brute power, not enlightened governance.

The crisis of leadership in Africa is not solely one of corruption or bad policy—it is one of intellectual emptiness. Until African nations, especially Nigeria, begin to value and cultivate leaders who are intellectually rigorous and philosophically grounded, the continent will remain caught in cycles of poverty and poor governance. True leadership requires more than charisma or military rank—it demands the wisdom to govern a society with justice, vision, and moral clarity. Without this, the future remains perilously fragile.

♦ Dominic Ikeogu is a social and political commentator based in Minneapolis, USA.

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ADC & 2027: Is this alliance strong enough to dismantle APC & defeat Tinubu?

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2 months ago

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July 26, 2025

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It will not be easy to defeat Tinubu and the APC

Let me emphatically state without any ambiguity that for the opposition to make President Tinubu lose grip of Aso Rock in 2027 and force him to the status of a “former president” is a herculean task that requires more than defeating him in polling booths. Anyone who has followed President Tinubu’s political success from Lagos to Abuja will agree that he is a master of Nigerian politics. Therefore, to take power away from him, the opposition members must understand that the hurdle facing them is not child’s play but a huge political combat.

But yes, of course, the alliance of ADC without any doubt is very capable of defeating President Tinubu and sending APC out of Aso Rock, but caution must not be thrown to the wind – members of the party must be self-examining, honest, holistic, and critical in taking decisions without sentiments.

Why Peter Obi is the best choice for the ADC alliance

In all fairness, there are notable political heavyweights in this alliance, but if a square peg must be put in a square hole, considering records and national acceptance, Obi currently is the most popular accepted politician in Nigeria and should be the choice of ADC.

We must say it as it is, Obi is not a perfect human being, but in the annals of Nigerian politics, no one, dead or alive,/has the kind of political records he has, and this has endeared him to the hearts of millions of Nigerians. He is just real and different. Whether he is in a public service or in a private business, Obi has remained who he is: humane, caring, humble, civil, considerate, fair, and incorruptible.

In 2023, many did not give him any chance when he left PDP to join Labour Party, but for his character, competence, and transparency, etc. Nigerians not only followed him as a man of honour, but they also spent their money in his campaign throughout the country. It was a generally held view by the majority that he defeated President Tinubu in 2023, allegedly.

If Obi is not part of this political alignment, the best way I would describe the coalition would be an “old wine in a new bottle”, because the new bottle cannot make the old wine taste differently. There is no one in the alliance that we do not know his/her history and political antecedents. WHILE many of them are desperadoes and manipulators, and the reason we do not have Nigeria Airways and constant electricity, etc., many owe Nigerians an explanation of those stealing our gold, etc., in Zamfara State.

What I dread about the coalition

My fear is that I am constantly seeing the hands of Esau but hearing the voice of Jacob in the alliance. I say so because I have seen mischievous steps selfishly played out that are politically suicidal to the alliance and that will not be good for the interests of all Nigerians.

If Nigerians were to choose who will be the candidate of ADC, I am pretty sure that Obi would have an easy ride, but here only party agents will, and that is where the danger lies. Obi, we all know, is not ready to bribe anyone to vote for him because he sees politics as a service to the people and not a business. Owing to this reason, many say he is stingy, and I was in total shock and disappointed the day I saw Barr. Kenneth Okonkwo reprimanded Obi on national television for the same reason. But it is what it is, and I will leave that for another day. Obi is not a desperate politician, and this is one of the things that has differentiated him from others and why we Nigerians really want him.

I am frightened that Obi may be schemed out as the ADC presidential candidate. But let me re-echo this as a warning. If Mr. Peter Obi does not emerge as the candidate of the coalition or is forced to walk out of the alliance, the coalition becomes toothless, what late veteran football commentator Ernest Okonkwo would have described as “beautiful nonsense”. It will make the participation of ADC in 2027 a mere political exercise that will end in futility as long as the presidential election is concerned. And if, for any reason, Obi agrees to be a running mate to anyone, I will withdraw my support from him and give it to President Tinubu.

Mr. Peter Obi, Sir, you are not ready to buy the agents, and many of the agents seem not ready to vote for you either because of your kind of politics of “I will not give shi shi”. Games are already on. Are you ready for this coalition? Did you consider very well, and the coalition was not a trap for you, Sir? Because members of the alliance know that you are the most acceptable Nigerian politician currently and the only person the majority of Nigerians want. They are consciously aware that without you, they cannot defeat APC and President Tinubu, hence the ploy with the alliance. Furthermore, they know you will not try to influence the conscience of any party agent to vote for you during the primary; therefore, they will take advantage of that and influence the agents against you. Please, Sir, if you feel what I suspect, kindly withdraw from the alliance even before the primary. You are the hope of millions of Nigerians, and anywhere you go, we are sincerely willing to follow you.

Why the coalition should be encouraged

Irrespective of my expressed fear, the coalition is a good one. But let me re-emphasize that the mission of ADC members to wrestle power out of the hands of Mr. President in 2027 is like one going into a lion’s den to take its meat. It will not be easy. To get this accomplished, members of the party must make sacrifices and be willing to do away with selfishness. Mr. President is a man who knows how to compensate and care for those supporting him, like he has done to Nyesom Wike, the FCT Minister.

Wike, who may become a victim of his own political arrogance, could be consumed by his overzealousness to be a president one day, and will go to any political extent to make sure that his launch is not taken away from his mouth. And there are many Wikes around Mr. President. The mistake someone like Atiku made was not ensuring that Wike was forced out of the PDP before he left. His continuous stay in PDP is not politically good for ADC’s coalition. I will not be surprised if PDP’s structures are used in supporting APC in 2027 at some point. Consequently, it is a requisite without option that members of the alliance tenaciously combine their resources and strength together for the battle ahead without betraying each other. They must proportionately be prepared to match Mr. President and APC strategy-to-strategy, propaganda-to-propaganda, intimidation-to-intimidation, and force-to-force, etc. That is the only way President Tinubu and the APC could be beaten to submission.

Long, incredible processes an election winner must go through, or else he /she will be declared the loser.

In Nigeria, it absurdly seems like even winning all polling booths in an election is not enough for one to be announced a winner by the electoral umpire INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission). Why? Because there appear to be three stages, the candidates must first struggle with and overcome.

Stage (1): The candidate, his/her political party, and their agents must first of all make sure that the ballot boxes are safely transported from the polling booths to their designated collation centres without being hijacked by thugs or hired hoodlums and swerved with manipulated and stuffed boxes.

Stage (2): They must equally make sure that at the collation centres, the real figures are correctly computed without alteration.

Stage (3) – INEC: Here, the party agents must be very vigilant and ensure that the real figures, deprived of Tippex and cancellation of digits, are actually submitted without extra zeros and numbers added or removed. This becomes crucial in view of what happened in 2023, where INEC’s IReV, for whatever reason, failed to transmit election results from polling booths. This issue must be addressed and avoided so as not to repeat itself.

Remember, once the INEC Chairman announces results and pronounces a winner, one can do nothing but go to court. But the danger is that those factors that induced the announcement of the wrong winner are more likely to also influence courts’ proceedings and sustain what should not be sustained as a final judgment.

Thus, to say that any election winner in Nigerian polling booths who is not well-connected could get announced as a loser by INEC unless a miracle happens, and the most powerful one with political strength and financial influence gets declared winner is a statement past experiences have supported. Whosoever is not willing or who does not have the capacity to go through the processes that influence the final outcome should not bother going into politics, at least for now. It is sad and a very terrible situation, but that is the fact.

If coalition members fail at this juncture to get the electoral system reformed, it is not a good one. And I wonder why they are silent on this crucial point. Though one does not need to be pessimistic, if they fail to ensure that their engineers certify that all BIVAS machines are in good condition before being taken to their various destinations and results transmitted from polling booths, it may not be abstract to say that the election may have already been won and lost even without votes being cast.

Why Obi needs the alliance

In a free and fair election, Obi will clearly defeat APC and President Tinubu with or without the coalition. But because Nigeria is a country where elections are neither free nor fair, considering the factors analyzed above and below, Obi needs the alliance as much as the alliance needs him to close the loophole witnessed in 2023.

On the day of the election, coalition members should make sure that voters’ votes are counted as cast, results transmitted as enshrined in the electoral act without flimsy excuses on any concocted technical hitch, and figures written on the official provided result sheets. They should have the capacity against any bullion van, armored cars, bulletproof jeeps, and other private cars moving around. They should be at the forefront to defend their party’s votes and mandates and mobilize their confidants and agents throughout the country. It is no longer enough to tell the masses to stand with empty hands and defend their votes against well-armed criminals illegally moving around polling booths and collation centres, changing figures, and altering results. Most importantly, they must have the capacity to make the INEC Chairman announce the original documented results and not manipulated figures with Tippex. Anything less will be the same story as it was in 2023.

Conclusion

My sincere message to ADC party agents is that, in their capacity to decide who becomes the presidential candidate of their party, lies the hope of millions of Nigerians for a functioning society. They must be critical and holistic because the choice they make will either take Nigeria out of the throes of death, shape the future we all will be proud of, or pave the way for the continuation of hunger, killings, criminality, hopelessness, and disaster.

We have chosen before based on religion, but it failed us. We have also chosen based on ethnicity, and it was a tragedy. We have equally made choices based on party even when we saw better choices, but our loyalties were rewarded with hunger, insecurity, terrorism, killing, rascality, corruption, sorrow, and tears. We cannot continue in the same direction anymore. We must get it right this time by choosing capacity, integrity, competence, tolerance and a person of honor. Peter Gregory Obi is that option. Choose wisely.

♦ Uzoma Ahamefule, a refined African traditionalist and a patriotic citizen writes from Vienna, Austria. WhatsApp: +436607369050; Email Contact Uzoma >>>>

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