Daura, please don’t teach me nonsense!

MAY Allah bless the deposed Emir of Gwandu, AlhajiMustapha Jokolo who was the ADC to General Muhammadu Buhari in his first coming as Nigeria’s military ruler.

He told the story years ago of how Mamman Daura was the man Buhari picked to do some blueprints for his coup group in 1983 which brought on the scene the ‘competencce’ of the man who is now teaching Nigerians that subject as we move towards 2023.

In an explosive interview with The Sun Newspaper in 2008, Jokolo made the following revelations about the Buhari regime “One, the regime came in at the time it was required. Definitely. But I told you we planned and executed a military coup-d’etat which was very successful except for the loss of Brigadier Bako. There was no casualty anywhere, at any level. But the problem was that we on our own part were able to execute it as we planned it, but what happened after was frustrating. We were expecting some people to prepare some blueprints for the running of the government, but they did not.”

Who were these people?

“We commissioned Dr Mahmud Tukur and Mamman Daura. Those were the people we were expecting to prepare the blueprints for us because they were seasoned people who might have some friends who will help us because, you see, you could not expose your plans to everybody. So we had to select few people we could trust and let them know what we were doing so that they can help us. These were the people that I knew. I do not know whether there were other people.

And they failed to prepare it?

“They did not do it. We had no blueprint. So by the time we took over government, we didn’t know what to do with the government. I told you we had to think of how we were going to do it. The enormity of the atrocities committed during the civilian regime was staggering and unbelievable. You didn’t know who was right and who was wrong. So everybody was lumped together and put into jail with the hope of clearing those who are innocent and convicting those who are guilty.

“But some of them as I told you, because of inexperience and exuberance, we started setting up military tribunals. And these tribunals went about doing things their own way; jailing people hundreds of years. That was one of the things that brought us bad popularity; bad publicity. Secondly, a group amongst us who were power hungry subsequently took over from us. It was not when we took over that they started their plans. From the world go, they were planning. There was a plot within a plot because of these power hungry men.”

When Daura therefore got up to take Nigerians to class this to teach them to always join him in siding competence over zoning, it’s a best scholar on incompetence who has come to class.

It is the very incompetent Daura who forgot to prepare blueprints for coupists in his younger days that became a cabal member for a civlian regime as a septuagenarian and we have seen serious acts of incompetence from the asdimistratiom to commend Daura to teach the country about incompetence and not the other way.

We have lost count of the number of times this administration has nominated dead people as ambassadors, board members and other key positions amd not once did any apology come to the public.

Neither did the government show any remorse for announcing pardon for Chief Anthony Enahoro over 50 years after he was officially pardoned alongside others. The same lack of institutional memory was extended to Chief Ambrose Ali who was no longer a convict before the law for decades. The regime has the combination of the worst incompetence and yet so arrogant at it.

When a cabal leader of that combination is now the one telling us that the selection of our next leader should not be turn-by turn but competence, we must not assume that he knows how to spell the word that defines ability, but he wants to assault the other one that defines inclusiveness.

To start with, if we are a country where competence is a vital ingredient  in the recruitment of a leader, there is no corner of Nigeria where you cannot find such hands.

Again, if this Daura is not being disingenuous now, he should have told Alhaji Lai Mohammed to shut up in 2014 when he was blabbing that ‘NEPA BILL: would be okay for his relative as a certificate.

He buried his head in the sand then when they were printing all kinds of documents to confuse the country, but now standing up to teach us cempetence after he has secured the two terms that made a villa landlord where he became more of ‘nuisance’ to the first family.

Now the undue advantages cornered over the years appear to be nearing an end as nothing good or bad lasts for ever, and it is clear you need a nepotism leadership to keep such undue favours.

If people like Daura have their way, they would cancel the understanding that power should rotate between North and South so they can perpetuate the worst  clannishness.

Some of us will not be in the corner of taking the highest office in the land round the country if we have a structure that would not allow anybody to do what some people have used sectional domination to do over other sections in the last five years.

If we are back under federalism like the First Republic when Sir Ahmadu Bello considered it infra dig to be Prime Minister of Nigeria over premier of  Northern Nigeria who will fight over who is in the presidential villa in Abuja?

For those who have stood against restructuring of Nigeria to now want to eat their cake and still have it shows some people are not competent in any area except to teach nonsense.
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…Essential Olumilua

CHIEF Wole Olanipekun (SAN) sent me his tribute to the late Evangelist Bamidele Olumilua during the week and I read the lines below again and again. It’s a worthy example of how a man should live.

“As a politician and governor, Olumilua was not a man who would hide behind a finger; he was not used to diabolical gyrations; he would let people know where he stood on every issue, not caring if his was the lone voice. At times, his warnings later became accurate as the Swiss watch. Regarding the criminal annulment of the 12th June, 1993, presidential election, Olumilua always cautioned against any invitation to the military (to take over), as this was the disguised suggestion from some quarters, even within the rank and file of his political party, the SDP. Instead, he suggested that the court should be approached to declare Chief M.K.O Abiola as the winner of the election, rather than asking the court to simply nullify the Interim National Government headed by Chief Ernest Shonekan. He queried the utilitarian value of an exercise which would stop at the sacking of the Interim National Government without a consequential order by the court declaring Abiola as the winner of the election. His alternative suggestion was that his Party should press for a prompt election whereby Abiola would contest again as the presidential candidate as, in his considered opinion, Abiola would emerge victorious. For his position, he was called names, while accusing fingers were pointed at him. With the benefit of hindsight, Olumilua was prophetically right, while his critics were wrong.

Whilst his abode was this mortal plane, he went placidly amongst the noise and the haste; he spoke his truth quietly and clearly, and always listened to others; he knew all men have their story. As Governor of the old Ondo State, he enjoyed his achievements, always maintaining his interest in the welfare of his people; he knew it was his real possession in the changing fortunes of time that he had been elected to serve.

Governor Olumilua was always himself, and never feigned affection. He took kindly to the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of the youth. In doing so, Uncle Dele remained a custodian of values, even in his senescence. It will be told on mountains that till the very end, Bamidele Olumilua was of wholesome discipline and diligence. In the noisy confusion of life, he kept the peace in his soul. Unfortunately, Olumilua was a man who was grossly misunderstood, misrepresented and largely misconstrued because people who did not work with or close to him were interpreting and constructing him from a distance. Olumilua was a good man, kind hearted and, as an administrator, he was superb. Olumilua was fine and refined; handsome and elegant; brilliant and profound; honest and sincere; simple and sure-footed; civil and courteous; sober and reflective; spiritual and godly. He lived a fulfilled and content life. Undoubtedly, he was a beautiful specimen of humanity.

With all the sham, drudgery and broken dreams littering the world, Evangelist Bamidele Olumilua lived a beautiful life; such was his “Desiderata”. He will be sorely missed, but we take solace in the fact that he has gone to join the Saints Triumphant and the heavens are rejoicing.

Even as the currency of his goodwill continues to burn, it is a dawning reality that Bamidele Olumilua has gone gently into the night, not raging against the dimming light, but catching the sun in flight. Even in death, he continues to teach us fundamental lessons in humility, simplicity, sincerity and incorruptibility. May his luminous soul continue to rest peacefully in the bosom of the Almighty.

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