We planned to kidnap Ibeju-Lekki monarch – Abductors of Lagos landlords

Kunle Falayi

Five suspects – Natei Okunna, James Akegbe, Thank-God Jegede, Trust Bourdillon and Timi Inomi – who carried out the kidnap of four landlords in Isheri North area of Lagos State on September 17, are now in the custody of the Inspector-General of Police Response Team.

The suspects were hunted down across three states – Ondo, Ogun and Delta states – after they got a N12m ransom to free the landlords.

PUNCH had reported that the landlords, Kennedy Ucheagwu, Dr. Omololu Bello, Fidelis Esang and their trainer, Olalere Olawale, were jogging around their area when they were abducted at gunpoint by the suspects

A police source said Akegbe (A.K.A JJ) was the first to be arrested in his hometown of Ore in Ondo State, while the leader of the gang, Okunna, an ex-Niger Delta militant also known as Osama, was trailed to his hideout in Sapele, Delta State.

The IRT operatives trailed the other three suspects to various hideouts in Ogun and Lagos states.

After their arrest, more details emerged about the abduction of the landlords, which netted the kidnappers N12m after many days of negotiation and reduction of the N1.2bn they initially demanded.

For instance, the suspects stated that the landlords were kept in the creeks of Ikorodu, Lagos, an intricate network of hideouts used by many criminal gangs in Lagos as a result of the fact that the area is largely inaccessible to security agencies.

But the police said the most important victory about the arrest of the suspects is that it stalled the plans of the suspects to kidnap the traditional ruler of Ibeju Lekki, Oba Rafiu Salami, whom the suspects said they had already perfected plans to abduct.

A police source explained that the suspects already sent out scouts to monitor the movement of the monarch, but had yet to choose a date to grab him before they were arrested.

It would be recalled that kidnappers suspected to be Niger Delta militants had on August 7 kidnapped another Lagos monarch, the Oniba of Iba, Oba Goriola Oseni, who was only released after a ransom of N15.1m was paid.

The police said the Inspector-General of Police had mandated the IRT to ensure that no such abduction occurred again.

Okunna, 29, said in his confessional statement that an informant brought them the job and told them that the security around the Ibeju-Lekki king was lax.

 “We sent him to watch the oba’s movement and tell us how often he comes to the waterside.  Our informant gave us a positive result, but we have not chosen a date yet,” the suspect said.

Okunna said he stopped being a militant when he became a beneficiary of the presidential amnesty for Niger Delta militants.

He said as soon as the amnesty office stopped paying his monthly stipend, he went back to his old ways.

He said, “During the amnesty programme, I was trained as a marine pilot in South Africa, but when I returned to Nigeria, I could not get any job and was only surviving on the stipend they were paying us monthly. The stipend stopped in 2015 and I relocated from my hometown in Warri North Local Government to Lagos to join some of my friends who are into pipeline vandalism in Ikorodu area of Lagos State.

 “When I arrived in Lagos, a friend, Vickar, accommodated me and showed me how the pipeline operations were being done. It was when the pipeline operation stopped that we went into kidnapping. We had a camp in Ishawo, Ikorodu but when the Army started bombing us, we fled and set up another camp inside the creek at Ajegunle, around Ikorodu.

“We had carried out many kidnappings before the job of the landlords came. When my boys went to kidnap the landlords, I did not go with them because my rank was higher. I was like a boss. I sent one of the boys to do surveillance on the landlords till we chose a day to strike.

“I was in the camp when they brought the landlords and I instructed them to ensure that they did not go hungry. But I was not the one who negotiated the ransom.”

Okunna said he left the camp three days after the landlords arrived and lodged in a hotel with his girlfriend. He said he was there till the ransom was paid and N500,000 was brought to him.

“I was assured every other member of the gang had got their shares. The plan to kidnap the Oba of Ibeju-Lekki was already on before we even released the landlords,” he said.

Akegbe who was arrested in his house at Ore, said he was a fisherman and a native of Arogbo, Ondo State.

He explained that when his fishing business became unprofitable, he decided to join the kidnapping gang.

Speaking about the kidnap of the Lagos landlords, he said the gang’s informant told them the exact time the landlords usually came out to jog in the morning.

According to him, seven of them arrived Isheri through the waterways in one boat, armed with five guns.

He said, “Four of us stood by the roadside with guns waiting for them. When they sighted us, they got scared and tried to run away. We pursued them, shooting in the air until they lay on the ground, shaking with fright.

“After we took them to our camp, it was Julius and Senior-Man, who negotiated and collected the ransom from where it was dropped in Ajegunle. My share of the ransom was  N300,000.”

The third suspect, 27-year-old Jegede, who is a kinsman of Akegbe, said he worked as a cleaner in a hotel in Isheri North.

Jegede revealed that his step-father, a man he identified simply as MB, was the one who brought the job of kidnapping the landlords to the gang.

The police are still on the trail of the step-father.

Jegede said, “My step-father did not tell me about the plans. One of our gang members whom we call Trust, was even the one who told me about the kidnap plans. Trust also told me that it was my step-father that brought the gang.  The man married my mother and they had four children together. He is a fisherman and hunter.  He normally hunts inside the Isheri bush and he lives inside an uncompleted building within the area with my mother.

“After I heard about the job, I told the gang I was interested and I was told all I needed to do was  monitor the movement of the landlords and alert them anytime I saw them jogging. When we eventually got the ransom, I got N300,000 while my step-father got N500,000.”

Twenty-eight-year-old Bordillon on the other hand, said his role in the kidnapping was ensuring that there was food in the camp to feed the captives.

He also admitted that he and Akegbe led the landlords out of the camp and dropped them where they found their way home after the payment of the ransom.

 “I sell foodstuff with my wife at Ikorodu. I have been involved in a number of other kidnappings with the gang. I was taught how to shoot by our leader (Okunna). I went with them to kidnap the landlord and was one of the people who shot in the air when the landlords were trying to run away,” Bordillon said.

He also said he got N300,000 as his share of the ransom.

The Force Public Relations Officer, Don Awuna, who confirmed the arrest, said efforts were on to arrest other members of the gang who are still at large.

Contact: editor@punchng.com

Rapist attacks Lagos couples, kills pregnant woman, injures kids

Afeez Hanafi

There was unease at Oluwoye community in Ibeshe, Ikorodu area of Lagos on Friday after an assailant suspected to belong to a gang of rapists in the area, killed a 30-year-old pregnant woman Afusat Yusuf, and stabbed her husband, Kazeem Yusuf. The man is now in a coma.

Saturday PUNCH learnt that the rapist also inflicted injuries on the couple’s two kids – Rodiat and Opeyemi, aged six and five respectively.

It was gathered that the attacker had gained access to the couple’s apartment around 2am on Friday through the window and attempted to rape Afusat. 

The woman’s husband, Kazeem, was said to be awake in the process and reportedly resisted the rapist, who resorted to hacking him and their two kids with a machete.

Not done, the suspect went to a neighbouring building and unleashed terror on another couple, 52-year-old Sunday Robert and his wife, whose name had yet to be ascertained. The suspect subsequently fled the area.

While Afusat died on the spot, Kazeem and the children were rushed to the Ikorodu General Hospital, where they are still receiving treatment.

The incident was reported at the Ipakodo Police Division.

A resident, who identified himself simply as Adisa, lamented the spate of attacks on residents of Ibeshe community and its environs, saying the government had not made significant moves to address the attacks.

He said, “There have been series of attacks by this gang of rapists on residents at different parts of Ibeshe. Several women have been raped and killed. Female children were also molested.

“Around 2am today (Friday), a member of the gang attacked two houses. In the first house, he hacked a pregnant woman, Afusat, to death and seriously injured her husband and their two children. He inflicted a cut on Rodiat’s ear and smashed an object on Opeyemi’s mouth. He also attacked a couple in  another building. They have been taken to a hospital.

“Residents are moving out of the community because there is no solution in sight to these attacks. Those of us who do not have anywhere to run to are living in fear. The government has not come to our aid despite our outcry.”

A community leader, who spoke on  condition of anonymity for fear of being hunted by the gang, said the community had petitioned the Lagos State Government without getting meaningful results.

He said, “We need the government’s help in Ibeshe. We have gone to the governor’s office to make complaints but there is no response yet. We also met with the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode on Community Affairs.

“We want the government to unmask the gang members and those who are using them. This community lacks security.”

Another resident, Dele Olayiwola, said, “A member of the gang, Badoo, who was arrested had been charged to a Magistrate’s Court in Surulere by the police without notifying us. How are we sure that the case will be diligently prosecuted when people who will testify in court were not informed?”

The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Dolapo Badmos, said the command was already on the trail of the suspect, adding that the Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, had directed the homicide section of the command to investigate the case.

She said, “The division received a distress call in the early hours of Friday that a family had been attacked by unknown men . The DPO of the Ipakodo divsion led a team to the area where the corpse of the victim was taken to a morgue. Her husband and their two kids, who were also attacked, were rushed to a hospital where they are undergoing treatment. One Sunday Robert was also injured in a separate building.”

Lagos sex workers beg customers for jobs

There was a time when the red-light districts of Lagos like Allen Avenue, Opebi, Ojuelegba and CMS, among others, bustled with human traffic of customers and sex traders who paraded their ‘flesh wares’ under the glare of traffic lights in the night.

Those days, when young women in various stages of undress walked up to any vehicle that pulled over beside them and made seductive gestures to male occupants in a relaxed manner, seem to have passed.

Now, as Saturday PUNCH investigation revealed, a new desperation has descended on the sex traders of Lagos, one with a hungry intent to make quick cash, any amount of cash even, just to survive the hard times, as fewer customers visit the sex hubs.

There is no doubt that the economic crunch in the country has made these young women hungrier. As companies are developing strategies to survive hard times, Lagos prostitutes have re-strategised their operations in order to cope.

In one of the “fact-finding missions” of our correspondents to Allen Avenue, Tania, a young woman, whose youthful but heavily made up face suggested she could be between the ages of 22 and 26, told one of our correspondents, who posed as a prospective customer, that she would prefer an overnight service.

Asked why, as all her negotiations tended towards the fact that she did not like the popular “short-time”, favoured by men who simply want to “get in and get out”, Tania explained the economic sense in her strategy.

“I won’t have to pay for the daily room charge to Sisi Mi (apparently, the sobriquet of her madam). Even if I do short-time and I don’t use the room, we do it beside a wall or on the boot of your car, so far as I go back to the room this night, I will still have to pay,” she said.

Before the dark cloud of economic crisis descended on the sex trade in Lagos, sex workers in the city charged between N10,000 and N20,000 for an overnight service depending on a customer’s bargaining power.

Tania readily agreed to N5,000 but she added the caveat that our correspondent must buy her a plate of food on the way home.

Despite efforts by Tania to mask the desperation showing in her voice, it was clear the young lady did not want to get through the night with an empty pocket in a season when customers are not forthcoming.

Our correspondents learnt that in the days of plenty customers, Lagos sex workers hardly showed patience with any customer, whom they suspected did not have any interest in obtaining their service.

Commercial sex workers are aware that many young men simply derive satisfaction from engaging them, discussing prices, telling them to show enticing body parts, only to walk away from the bargain. These are fools prostitutes do not suffer gladly.

But that night, Tania was unusually patient, another evidence of the desperation in the trade.

When our correspondent later discharged her with an excuse that instantly brought an expression of disappointment on her face, she turned back a moment later as she made to walk away.

One might have concluded that she wanted to say something to make her bargain more enticing.

But she simply brought out her phone.

“Can you give me your number? I will give you mine too,” Tania said.

The inquiring eyebrow she saw made her explain further.

“If you know anyone who needs a cleaner or housemaid, please let me know. I am good at such jobs. I am only doing this to survive,” she said.

It was a frank explanation, one that laid bare the underlying financial struggle that sometimes pushes many of the young women into the sex trade.

At Allen Roundabout, one of our correspondents was relaxed with a bottle of drink at Pekas, a popular bar known to host many ladies of the night.

It was instantly noticed that the spot, which used to be thronged by numerous sex traders, was no longer what it used to be in terms of human traffic.

A light-skinned young lady, who seemed to be in her 20s,  strolled by immediately and introduced herself as Ruth, desperate to strike up a conversation with the man sitting all alone.

In the middle of the conversation, she pointed out that it was quite impolite of the gentleman not to offer her a drink.

She then took it upon herself to call one of the waiters who evidently knew her and ordered a bottle of beer.

During the conversation, she could not help complaining about how unprofitable the trade had become as she tried to explain why so many of her colleagues who used to parade the streets were not available.

She simply could not hide the fact that she was desperate to spend the night with our correspondent.

“How much this job dey pay?” “You know the risk involved in this job?” switching to fluent English she continued, “Most of us on the streets are not happy to be here. If you are lucky, you meet a decent man and he takes you off the street. Girls are becoming fewer here because they are looking for greener pastures,” she said.

The lady, who later identified herself as Ruth, further shared a story of her colleague who had become a business owner courtesy of a man whom she serviced regularly.

“Sade is lucky,” Ruth said, as she made a sympathetic gesture to another young lady on the side of the road, who had just been rebuffed by a motorist passing by.

She said, “Like play, like play, Sade don leave us waka. I was there when a young man she called Richie first came to pick her. Later, he began visiting monthly. To cut the long story short, the bobo began to tell Sade he liked her because she is really beautiful.

“She told him that she would love to stop this job and he helped her out. As we speak, Sade is a shop owner somewhere in Ogba, Lagos, and she sells wine and other drinks.”

When Ruth noticed that the correspondent was not willing to play ball, she rounded off the conversation with a prayer.

“I pray that the Lord that took Sade out of the street would also favour me,” she said.

 When asked how much would be needed to take her off the street, her eyes suddenly lit up and she said, “Bros, If I see a job that pays N45,000, I’ll stop this hustle.”

But it turned out that like others met earlier, many if the ladies shared the same feeling.

At a brothel situated at the top floor of a three-storey building around the Ojuelegba Bus Stop, at least 15 sex workers mill around the place per night.

It was learnt that the preference of these young ladies was “short-time” for which they charge between N1,000 and N1,500.

When one of our correspondents paid a visit, the ladies swarmed the prospective customer like a swarm of bees as usual, showering him with compliments.

Sitting in the bar of the brothel, a young woman, who had been making seductive moves almost broke into a run just to come over when she was beckoned on.

The ensuing conversation revealed her trade name to be Gift and she further explained that she lived in Ikeja and came to the brothel daily. How true this was could not be ascertained.

Gift initially said she charged N1,500 for a “short-time but when one of our correspondents told her that he had only N500, she pleaded that he should make it N700.

Gift obliged to have some drinks and once she started drinking, she sang like a minstrel.

Gift said that “market” was very poor at the moment and all the girls were feeling it. Like most of her colleagues, her reason for getting into the trade was financial desperation.

“If I get a good job like this ehn? I don commot be that,” she said in pidgin English.

According to Gift, she is a secondary school dropout and this has been affecting her chances of getting the kind of jobs that are good enough to take her out of the sex trade.

She told Saturday PUNCH that before she became a commercial sex worker, she worked in a factory that paid her a salary that could barely feed her, even though she was used like a slave.

She said to make matter worse, the expatriates who ran the factory made life unbearable and whenever she complained to her friends, she was always advised to quit her job and join them on the street.

So, after working in the factory for about two years as a contract employee without any savings, she threw in the towel and joined her friends.

Gift said, “I have been in this job for about three years now. I am not ashamed because I need to survive. But every day, I pray to God for any helper because I know I cannot get a good job with my qualification but with the right connection, anything can happen.

“I don’t mind being a receptionist because I am pretty and I speak well but God has not given me that opportunity.”

When asked if she was the only one who had the desire to quit the profession, she simply said, “Ask any of the girls here, almost everyone would tell you they want a decent job. I don’t know anybody who wants to do this till she dies,” she said.

But when a sex worker whom our correspondents met at Empire Street, Ojuelegba, Surulere, another hub for the sex trade in Lagos, voiced her opinion about why customers were scarce, her explanation was even more serious.

Sex workers certainly know how to choose simple trade names that customers might find pleasing to the ear.

For this sex worker, a dark complexioned lady with tired eyes and lips that sent out a plume of cigarette smoke each time she talked, the name of choice was Rose.

Sex workers like Rose would readily engage any young man in a conversation as long as they believe that the end result would be that their services would be sought.

“When money no dey, how prick wan stand?” she said in pidgin English, in response to an earlier question that it seemed she and her colleagues were no longer getting customers like before.

Her explanation that when there is no money, men are not likely to think of sex, may sound simple and funny but has an underlying truth.

In fact, experts suggest that financial trouble that brings stress is one of the psychological causes of lack of erection or erectile dysfunction.

“The brain plays a key role in triggering the series of physical events that cause an erection. A number of things can interfere with sexual feelings and cause or worsen erectile dysfunction like depression, anxiety and stress,” doctors and researchers at global health care organisation, Mayo Clinic, said.

Apart from this, it is unlikely that a man who has no money to eat would have any to purchase sex.

To find out why Rose already looked tired that night, one of our correspondents asked her how many customers she had already attended to in order to get a sense of how often customers still seek her services.

“Two” she held up two fingers. The time was almost midnight. Suspicion crept over her face a moment later and she said, “Why you dey ask?”

It seemed her tired face might be from parading the streets endlessly without finding many customers after all.

But she did agree to a “short-time” (one round) of N500.

 “You sef know say that price too small. Market no dey at all, now you dey get am almost free, you still dey consider am?”Rose said, when she sensed some hesitation.

Even though there was no doubt that Rose’s colleagues would have taken the same price slash, she bluffed and pointed to her friends.

“See those girls, even though nothing dey their body like my own, dem go vex if dem hear say I dey call this kain price for you. Dem go say I dey spoil market for them, But me I just dey consider una,” she added.

One of our correspondents decided to take the conversation further and asked why she did not quit altogether if the trade had become that unprofitable.

To this, Rose shook her head as if disbelieving the ignorance behind such a question.

She explained that since the time she started the trade, no time had been this worse.

According to her, she had done all she could to find a job but had got nothing.

“As you see me, I finished secondary school. What do you do? Maybe you can help me find work?” she switched from pidgin to proper English in an effort to support her level of education.

Asked what she could do, Rose explained that she could work in a business centre and operate a computer. She added that when she finished secondary school and there was no way for her to proceed for higher learning, she learnt how to make beads in Umuahia.

It was also gathered that business is dull at a popular brothel called Jolly Friends, in Ikeja too. The ladies in this establishment looked older compared to the various establishments visited by our correspondents.

They seemed to be in their late 20s and early 30s and unlike the other brothels visited, these ladies seemed to be out for business strictly and no time for talking.

The two ladies that spoke to our correspondents only divulged scanty information after they felt the way their wares were bargained was ridiculous. They did not bother to give their names because they had seemingly detected that the young men in front of them were not interested in entering “the other room” with them.

One said, “See the way you dey price us. You think say na like that dem dey talk. If no be say things hard, I suppose don leave you enter room. How you go dey price me for N500? Wetin go cost you to make am N1,000?” she queried.

Her colleague was quick to chip in. In her statement, she made it known that the only reason they seemed desperate was because of the hardship experienced in the country.

“If no be the way things be, you fit come dey price us like this before. This time last year, if you no get 5k, wetin you for dey find for here. I no blame you, na the economy I blame,” she said.

Contact: editor@punchng.com

Five things that make women’s breasts sag quickly

Arguably, the breast seems to be one part of a woman’s body that means different things to different people, and that could be the reason why women pay so much attention to it.

Beyond the fact that it is the source of food for a newborn baby, men see it as more of sex organ that makes sex more pleasurable, and for women, apart from its being important for breastfeeding after childbirth and being a body part that enhances their outlook, it is one of the routes to sexual satisfaction, as findings have shown that fondling the breasts is one of the quickest ways for women to reach orgasm.

Such is the importance of the breast, or boob as some prefer to call it, to all concerned.

Meanwhile, it has also been found that the firmness or otherwise of those two soft, protruding organs influence women’s self esteem, and they also impact on how attractive they are to men

For most men, the bigger the better, and the more firm the breasts are the better, which make women to do all they can to make the breasts look firm, including using all kinds of bras.

It should be noted that the breasts tend to sag with age and after childbirth and or breastfeeding. But be that as it may, there are some human activities that could increase the likelihood of sagging.

So, given the much importance men and women attach to the firmness of a woman’s breasts, it seems helpful for women to know how best the breasts should be treated to avoid sagging (quickly).

Mismanaged breastfeeding: It is largely assumed that a woman’s breasts tend to sag after pregnancy and breastfeeding, and this is entirely understandable because of the release of some hormones and the secretion of milk which could increase the size of the breasts. In fact, some people assume that with the way the baby draws the nipples in the process of suckling the mother’s breasts, the breasts would lose firmness and end up being droopy afterwards. But those assumptions may not be true. According to a gynaecologist, Dr. Bolanle Shukra-Okesina, women can retain the firmness of their breasts even after breastfeeding, depending on how the woman manages the breasts during and after the period.

She said, “Breastfeeding per se does not make the breasts to sag. If the woman uses the appropriate bra size and she takes enough of fluid, especially water, when breastfeeding, the breasts will not sag, even after breastfeeding. Also, during pregnancy, the woman is expected to change the size of her bra as the breasts increase in size. She is supposed to use the appropriate size at every stage because the breasts need to be supported by a firm bra.

“When the milk stops after breastfeeding, the breasts would on their own go back to their normal size. So, if the woman does the right thing, the breasts have no reason to sag.

Crash diet – This factor particularly applies to women who are watching their weight and are doing everything to lose some weight, especially people who are obese, because according to Shukra-Okesina, losing weight could make the breasts to sag. She said in the process of losing weight, a breast would also give up its fat and some ligaments and if the diet is deficient of fat and some calcium-building elements, it would eventually sag. “If a woman who is watching her diet is not taking balanced diet, perhaps to lose some fat, it can make the breast to sag,” she explained.

Furthermore, a breast surgeon and president of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, Michael Edwards, in his piece on Women’sHealth, said, “Each time a woman gains and loses weight, breast tissue becomes slack.” He also believes that excessive exposure to the ultraviolet rays from the sun could take its toll on the breasts by stretching out the connective tissues and damaging the skin.

Wrong bra size: One other factor that has been found to influence the firmness or otherwise of the breasts is whether women use the bra that is appropriate for their breast size. According to the gynaecologist, the breasts would likely sag if women with (relatively) big breasts do not use the size of bra that can lift the breasts and keep them in position.

And for women who wear the kind of bras that make the breasts to shake, perhaps to appear buxom, Edwards warned that the more the breasts bounce around, the more the skin of the breasts and collagen would be stressed, eventually leading to sagging. Thus, women should wear bras that keep the breasts intact and in shape.

Smoking: This act has been found to have serious adverse effects on the human system, especially the functionality or efficiency of some internal organs, but not many would know when women smoke, it tends to have some effects on their breasts. Edwards had this to say, “Any amount of smoking weakens and ages skin by decreasing the blood supply to the skin surface, and the breasts are not spared in this.” and according to a consultant endocrinologist, Dr. Olamoyegun Michael, smoking weakens the ligaments that hold the breasts, which could ultimately lead to sagging.

Wrong exercise: No doubt, exercise is good for the body, and people across all age groups are advised to engage in it. In fact, there are exercises that help to make the breasts firm, including push-ups and lifting dumbbells. But it has been found that some exercises are inimical to the firmness of the breasts, especially running. Findings show that when a woman is running and she is not wearing the appropriate bra, like a fitted sports bra, the breasts would naturally be moving up and down, which can lead to the breakdown of the connecting tissues, leading to sagging eventually. For those who are able to, findings have also shown that weight lifting also helps to make the breasts firm as it strengthens the muscles underlying the breasts. So, if you have the capacity, try it.

There are myths surrounding breasts sagging, and among them are excessive suckling or fondling and abstinence from bra. But according to Olamoyegun, suckling the breasts or fondling them does not lead to sagging.

In effect, doing the needful while breastfeeding, eating balanced diet and in reasonable quantity, avoiding too much exposure to sunlight, abstinence from smoking and doing the right exercises could reduce the likelihood of sagging.

Why most women have different breasts sizes

It could sound strange to some people, especially men, that a woman’s two breasts, and in fact, most women’s breasts are different in sizes. This is more so for men because some do not pay attention to it inasmuch as it doesn’t affect their activities in any way. But, no doubt, it is a major concern for some women who have noticed it.

Even though it is not applicable to all women, most women have different sizes of breasts. It is called asymmetry, and people wonder what could be the cause.

When asked, Dr. Olamoyegun, a consultant endocrinologist, said there is nothing abnormal if a woman has different breasts sizes. Thus, there is nothing to worry about.

He said, “It is normal and it is not a symptom of any ailment. It is not all women, but most of them. It may not be very conspicuous but  a woman would notice if the sizes of her breasts differ.”

According to Prof. Arpana Naik, a surgeon at Oregon Health and Science University Portland, Oregon, more than half of all women have (slightly) different sizes of breasts.

She said, “No one really knows what causes breasts to develop differently from one another, but possible contributors include hormonal changes or traumatic injuries. For instance, one report in the medical literature describes two cases of breast asymmetry that developed as the result of injuries the girls received to their “breast bud” area during gymnastics when they were 10 and 11.

“Generally, however, slight differences in a woman’s breasts are of no concern. If the differences are greater than one bra cup, size, however, they may cause some psychological distress, particularly during adolescence, when a young woman’s body and psyche are already changing so rapidly.

“However, sudden or recent differences in breast size due to underlying breast masses should be evaluated by a breast surgeon.”

She also advised that women should always go for breasts examination, whether they have the same breasts size or not.

For those who are not comfortable with the different sizes, she had this to say, “In the rare instance that the asymmetry causes such distress that your doctor recommends surgery, talk to the surgeon about breast reduction, rather than implants.

“Studies find that women with asymmetry who undergo reduction are generally more satisfied than those who have implants.”

We can’t suspend judges without probe, NJC replies NBA

Ade Adesomoju, Abuja

The National Judicial Council on Friday rejected the suggestion by the Nigerian Bar Association to suspend serving judges who were among the seven arrested by the Department of State Services between October 8 and 9.

The NJC, in a statement by its Acting Director, Information, Mr. Soji Oye, said it had no powers to suspend serving judges without investigating a petition accusing the affected judges of certain acts of misconduct.

It said lawyers who were members of the NJC participated in the emergency meeting of the NJC where the raid on the houses and the arrest of judges were condemned. 

The NBA President, Mr. Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN), made the call on Thursday in Abuja at the valedictory court session held in honour of a retiring Justice of the Court of Appeal, Justice Sotonye Denton-West.

Mahmoud said at the event, “We therefore strongly recommend that, without prejudice to the innocence or otherwise of the Judges involved in the ongoing investigations, they should recuse themselves from further judicial functions or required to proceed on compulsory leave until their innocence is fully and completely established or until the conclusion of all judicial or disciplinary proceedings”.

But reacting to NBA’s stance on Friday, the NJC said acting in line with NBA’s suggestion would amount to violation of section 158 of the Constitution.

The statement read in part, “Thus, the current position of the Nigerian Bar Association vis-à-vis its recommendation that the affected judicial officers involved in the ongoing investigation of Judicial Officers by the DSS, be requested to proceed on compulsory leave until the conclusion of all disciplinary proceedings against them, is unacceptable to the NJC; as it breaches the 2014 Revised Judicial Discipline Regulations formulated by NJC pursuant to Section 160 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended.”

“It is to be reiterated also that by the provisions of Section 158 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, NJC shall not be subject to the direction or control of any other authority or person while exercising its disciplinary power of control over Judicial Officers in the Federation.

“The members of the public are hereby informed that the mechanism that will determine a judicial officer to be directed or requested to proceed on compulsory leave or be suspended from office, is a disciplinary power that NJC can only exercise after initiating disciplinary proceeding on the complaint or petition forwarded against the Judge, after he has been found culpable.

“Therefore, to act on the recommendation of the NBA, it is not only contrary to the provisions of Section 158 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, but it means NJC will direct any judicial officer that has been petitioned even if the allegations contained therein are frivolous and baseless, to proceed on compulsory leave or be suspended from office without complying with the rule of law.”

“That is not the understanding of NJC of the intention of the framers of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended vis-à-vis its constitutional powers and functions on initiation of disciplinary proceedings culminating in suspension of Judicial Officers.

“Thus, to act on the request of the departments of government and the recommendation of the NBA, the 808 judicial officers that had been petitioned and accused of professional misconduct and corrupt practices, without investigation by NJC, would have all been suspended or sent on compulsory leave and the courts would have been deserted.

The NJC reiterated that without receiving a petition against a judge even when the judge was accused of robbery or murder, it didn’t have the power to suspend such a judge.

The statement said, “NJC is not unmindful of the concern of the public on a situation whereby a judicial officer is being investigated and or prosecuted for commission of a criminal offence such as murder or robbery; and whether he is not supposed to be requested or directed to proceed on compulsory leave or be suspended from office.

“In the circumstance, unless the subject judge accused of commission of the offence of murder or robbery is petitioned to NJC, it shall not assume the disciplinary power of control over judicial officers to suspend or direct the Subject Judge to proceed on compulsory leave.

“Thus, NJC can only direct any judge alleged of committing such criminal offences, to go on compulsory leave or be suspended from office if he has been investigated and found by NJC culpable of misconduct.”

The NJC said NBA members were part of the emergency meeting of council condemning the act of the DSS.

The statement added, “The participation of NBA Members in the Emergency Meeting of NJC was necessitated by the unfolding events between the DSS and the Judiciary, bordering on administration of justice.

“Suffice it to say that the decision of NJC in respect of the recent events and the current state of the Judiciary, particularly in condemning the invasion and arrest of the judicial officers by the DSS and considers it as a threat to Independence of the judiciary, which portends great danger to our democracy; and a clear attempt by the DSS to humiliate, intimidate, denigrate and cow the Judiciary, was unanimously taken by the members of the council present, including the President and other members of the Nigerian Bar Association at its last Emergency Meeting which was held on 11th October, 2016.

“The list of NJC members present at the meeting is as follows:

“Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed ( North-East); Hon. Justice W.S.N. Onnoghen, Justice of Supreme Court (Deputy Chairman), South South; Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, President, Court of Appeal (North-East); Justice E. O. Ayoola, retired Justice, Supreme Court (South-West); Justice Umaru Abdullahi, Former President, Court of Appeal (North-West); Justice V.O.A. Omage, Retired Justice, Court of Appeal (South-South) and Justice I.N. Auta, Chief Judge, Federal High Court (North-East).

“Justice B. A. Adejumo, President, National Industrial Court   (South West); Justice H.Y. Heman, Chief Judge, Gombe State                         (North-East); Justice A.N. Nwankwo, Chief Judge, Ebonyi State (South-East); Justice Okoi Ikpi Itam, Chief Judge, Cross River State (South-South); Kadi Mukhtar Imam Jega, Grand Kadi, Sharia Court of Appeal, Kebbi State (North-West); Abubakar Balarabe Mahmoud, President, Nigerian Bar Association (North-West); Dr. Garba Tetengi, Nigerian Bar Association (North-Central); Mrs. Debbi Obodoukwu, Nigerian Bar Association (South-East); Tijjani Inuwa-Dutse, Esq., Nigerian Bar Association (North-West); Hajiya Rakiya Sarki Ibrahim, Retired Public Servant (North-Wes); and Mr. R. I. Inga, retired Permanent Secretary (North-Central).”

The statement added, “Other members of NJC (full complement), that were absent from the meeting but sent their apologies, are as follows:

“Justice S. A. Akintan, retired Justice of Supreme Court (South West); Justice I. F. Ogbuagu, retired Justice of Supreme Court      (South East); Justice Nasir Ajanah, (North Central); Chief Judge, Kogi State; Justice M. L. Abimbola (South West); Chief Judge, Oyo State; Justice D. A. Ayah (South South), President, Customary Court of Appeal, Bayelsa State; and Augustine Alegeh, (South South), former President, NBA.

I’d rather have Tinubu as godfather of South-West politics than Buhari –Aribisala

Femi Aribisala, a columnist and social commentator, in this interview with GBENRO ADEOYE talks about Nigeria’s economy, politics and other issues

You were one of the biggest critics of the All Progressives Congress in the run up to the 2015 elections, how do you feel today seeing Nigeria in arguably its worst economic situation?

I feel very sad. This is a situation that some of us foresaw.  In the first coming of President Buhari, everything went from bad to worse.  We had to queue for essential commodities.  Raw materials and spare parts needed to keep factories running were scarce.  Rather than create jobs, tens of thousands of workers lost their jobs.  Inflation rose to the astronomical levels.  It is not surprising, therefore that, when Buhari was overthrown in 1985, there was wild jubilation throughout the length and breadth of Nigeria.

Today, we are back again to square one.  President Buhari has returned to make a bad situation worse.  We have no one to blame but ourselves.  Given his past record, he should not have been re-elected.  George Santayana says: “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”But at the same time, the government has argued that the economy is doing badly because of oil prices that crashed, Nigerians’ overreliance on imported goods and the fact that past administrations failed to invest in infrastructure when Nigeria did better financially. Don’t you agree with the argument?

 It is not true that past administration failed to invest in infrastructure.  Some of the rail lines that the present government is inauguration are legacies of the Jonathan government.  Some of the airports they are thinking of selling were rehabilitated by Jonathan.

 The truth of the matter is that, while in opposition, the present government made sure we would not prepare for the rainy day.  It mobilised the public against the removal of petroleum subsidy.  APC governors fought the government against savings during the oil boom.  But now in the oil crash, the government has been maladroit in handling it.  While it certainly cannot be blamed for the oil crash, it must be blamed for mishandling the crash.  This government is remarkable for making a bad situation so much worse.  To date, Nero continues to fiddle while Rome is burning.

Some people will also say that in addition to all the challenges mentioned above, oil and gas production has dropped due to activities of militants in the Niger Delta area, which has further affected the country’s income and power generation. Do you still think that this government should be totally blamed for the condition in which we are today?

 The buck stops with this government and with this president.  At his inaugural, the president claimed grandiloquently: “I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody.”  But after 16 months in office, we now know that President Buhari belongs to the North and not to the South.  His appointments have shown a distinct disregard for Nigeria’s federal character.

 President Buhari’s maladroit approach to Nigeria’s diversity has created new fissures.  Fulani herdsmen continue to kill innocent farmers while Buhari sees no evil and hears no evil.  We are now saddled with a burgeoning secessionist movement that gets more incendiary by the day as the government continues to violate Nigerians’ right to self-assembly by shooting down pro-Biafra activists.

It is Buhari’s body language of Northern domination that has energised an irredentist movement in the Niger Delta leading to the blowing up of Nigeria’s economic jugular of oil pipelines and installations.  President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was also from Katsina, nevertheless he was able to broker peace in the Niger Delta.  But when you have a president who argues that he should not be expected to treat areas that only gave him five per cent support the same as those who gave him 95 per cent support, then it is not surprising if those in the five per cent support areas start blowing up pipelines.

I have said it before and I say it again, the problem of Nigeria today is President Buhari.  He has shown insufficient sensitivity to Nigeria’s diversity, and this has been highly problematic.  President Buhari campaigned for the presidency with a “change” mantra, but he himself has not changed.  The change must begin with the president.

What do you think about the anti-corruption war of this government?

There is actually no real war against corruption going on today.  There is not even a fight against corruption, how much more a war.  What we have is a government attempt to decimate the opposition and create a de facto one-party state under the guise of fighting against corruption.  The PDP was not the only party in power before 2015.  Parties of the APC coalition were also in power at the state level.  So why is it that only the PDP is being prosecuted?

 You cannot fight corruption with corruption.  That is what the government has been doing.  You cannot fight corruption by abrogating the rule of law.  We have heard so much hyperbole about this fight against corruption, but with very little actual results.  It has all been just one big propaganda exercise.  The fight against corruption has become a poor and pathetic make-shift substitute for effective public policy.

  What is your take on the recent arrest of judges by the Department of State Services?

There is no other way to see it.  The invasion of the houses of the judges, especially the Supreme Court justices, was a blatant assault by the executive on the independence of the judiciary.  This government has lost all credibility in its fight against corruption.  He who comes to equity must come with clean hands.  The government attacks the judiciary when it does not get the verdicts it wants.  It has been complaining that the judiciary is not backing its distorted fight against corruption and has now decided to cow the judiciary to compliance.

 It has been blatantly violating the rule of law with impunity.  Now it has opened another campaign that it is not getting its way because the judiciary is corrupt.  What balderdash!  The executive cannot become the judiciary.  The executive must also not be allowed to violate the principle of separation of powers in the Nigerian Constitution.  The gestapo display of the DSS in invading the houses of the judges in the dead of night harks back to sharp practices of President Buhari’s secret police in his first coming in the 1980s.  The DSS is not the EFCC.  We must resist this blatant assault on Nigeria’s fragile democracy.

The government recently proposed the sale of some national assets, do you think it was needed?

This should absolutely be resisted.  It will just provide another scenario whereby some well-placed friends of the government will be dashed with the national patrimony.  In any case, the less money this government has, the better.  A government that allegedly spent N270 million cutting grass in IDP camps cannot be trusted with money.

  In the past, you have accused the APC of winning the 2015 presidential election because it was ultimately more unscrupulous than the PDP, what do you think about the recent elections in Edo State?

Do you really believe the APC can win a free and fair election in Nigeria today?  I don’t think so!  The Edo election was not an election.  You conduct an election, then collate the result at night and in secret.  That is bizarre.  What INEC did in Edo was to inaugurate a new departure in election rigging in Nigeria.  The result that was finally announced was out of kilter with what happened at the polling units.  In my view, the election will be overturned at the courts.  Perhaps the assault on the courts by the executive was part of the process of ensuring the election will not be overturned by intimidating judges.

 If you think it was rigged, some people will argue that the PDP has won elections in Bayelsa and other states under this government. So why then do people accuse the current leadership of INEC of working for the APC or of being an ‘inconclusive body’?

 It is not surprising that the PDP won the election in Bayelsa and it would not be surprising if the APC wins an election in Katsina.  Bayelsa is the home-state of Goodluck Jonathan: Katsina is the home-state of President Buhari.  So we can expect them to prevail in their homestead.

It is right to accuse Buhari’s INEC of being the organiser of inconclusive elections.  Since 2015, INEC has organised inconclusive elections in Kogi, Bayelsa, Osun,  FCT, Imo and Nasarawa.  Perhaps it was in the attempt to try and break away from this tendency that INEC was constrained to announce bogus results in Edo.  This government just does not seem to be able to do anything right.

From the mindset that the APC is ultimately more unscrupulous than the PDP, what do you think will happen in the 2019 elections?

 Under the present circumstances, the only way the APC can win the 2019 presidential election is if the election is rigged.  Once bitten, Nigerians will certainly be twice shy.  Certainly, it will not be possible for the APC to fool Nigerians again with the kind of pie-in-the-sky promises it made during the 2015 elections.  Remember that the naira was supposed to be miraculously made equal to the dollar.  Now it is over 500 to 1 dollar.  Millions of new jobs were to be created in a matter of months.  Now unemployment has skyrocketed.  Even the banks have been hemorrhaging jobs.

 Nigerians cannot be fooled again.  Nobody will be impressed by President Buhari wearing a black suit and bow-tie again.  In fact, the best thing for the President is not to even contest in 2019, otherwise he will be disgraced.

 I don’t envisage the APC coalition surviving.  I see Bola Tinubu seeking greener pastures.  What I envisage is another coalition outside of the current APC but with a Northern president.  That coalition will include the South-West, the South-East and the South-South with a big chunk of the North.  If that happens, Buhari and the APC are toast.

   What do you think about the alleged current travails and conspiracy against Tinubu by a suspected cabal in the North and the presidency?

Tinubu is an experienced politician, but a bad student of history.  In 2011, he formed an alliance with Abubakar Atiku and the People Democratic Movement, who represents a more progressive part of the North, but could not prevail against the colossus of the PDP.  Therefore, in 2015, he entered into an alliance with Buhari and the core North, which has never even had any progressive pretensions.  There is nothing progressive about President Buhari.  Everything about the president’s politics was smoke and mirrors.  He commanded the support of a significant number of the Northern poor, in spite of the fact that there is absolutely nothing in his CV about advancing the interests of the poor.  He is a conservative politician opposed to any restructuring of Nigeria’s polity through a national conference.  His only claim to popular appeal is a questionable belief that he is anti-corruption.

 It was only a matter of time before uneasy bed-fellows of the APC came to logger-heads.  Once the election was won, the APC started falling apart.  The PDP wing of the party conducted a coup and hijacked the National Assembly.  Now the organs of the party have been wrenched from Tinubu’s Action Congress of Nigeria.  As we get closer and closer to 2019, the fighting will become more vicious and more incendiary.  I don’t expect the APC to survive.

 You wrote an article on ‘time to rally around Tinubu’, but some people will ask why they should do that when he was just another politician losing a political game. What do you say to that?

 My article was not a personal defence of Bola Tinubu.  My criticism of him in the past has never been personal.  They have been about political strategy and, I daresay, political wisdom.  My article was written as a defence of the South-West against what I see as a political plot by non-South-West outsiders to use the power of incumbency to split the South-West vote against the South-West.

The political reality on the ground is that Tinubu controls a significant degree of South-West political allegiance.  It has made him the bride of several of the more recent presidential elections.  Without Tinubu’s ACN, APC would not have materialised.  Without the support of the Tinubu wing of the APC, President Buhari would not have won the nomination for president of the APC. I keep having to remind people that the North did not vote for Buhari in the APC poll for the presidential nominee of their party.  The North voted overwhelmingly for Kwankwaso and Atiku.

 Without Tinubu’s wing of the APC, President Buhari would not have had the semblance of a national spread.  The election would have had to go into a second ballot because the President would not have met the statutory requirement of getting one-third of the votes in two-thirds of the states.  Without Tinubu, Buhari would have been, at best, a Northern president.

Therefore, the current assault against Tinubu is not only an assault against Tinubu: it is an assault against the South-West.  It comes from a determination to split the Tinubu coalition in the South-West.  In effect, it is an attempt to diminish the power of the South-West in Nigerian politics.  My position is that this must be resisted politically.

Tinubu, we know is a godfather, so are you saying that Nigeria is better off with god-fatherism in politics?

I would be the last person to speak in favour of godfatherism in Nigerian politics.  It is anti-democratic.  That was precisely why I spoke against Tinubu’s style of politics in the past.  But whether I like it or not, the reality is that Tinubu has been operating as a kind of godfather of South-West politics, and that his godfatherism has been effective.

If the current assault against Tinubu had been about his godfatherism, I would have lent my voice to that and said “count me in.”  But the assault against Tinubu is an attempt to replace a South-West godfather with another godfather.  What is worse about this is that it is an attempt to replace a South-West godfather of the South-West with a North-West godfather of the South-West.  That is unacceptable.  It would amount to going from the frying-pan to the fire.

 In politics, you have to be a political realist.  You never really get your ideal situation.  You often have to choose between bad choices.  Often you have to make a choice between two flawed candidates.  I am from the South-West.  Ideally, I would rather not have any godfather of South-West politics.  But barring that, under the present circumstances, I would rather have Tinubu as the godfather of South-West politics, than have Buhari as the godfather of South-West politics.  To the extent that a Tinubu can never be the godfather of North-West politics, then Buhari must never be allowed to be the godfather of South-West politics.

And even if Tinubu is being persecuted today, some people will also say that he has not totally lost out and that he has been rewarded for his efforts so far. After all, he is one of the richest men in the country. How would you react to that?

 I am not qualified to speak about Tinubu’s riches.  So I cannot tell if his riches come as a political reward or as a result of his industry.  I don’t even know how rich Tinubu really is.  But, in any case, I doubt if Tinubu has been or could have been financially rewarded for his political efforts under the present dire economic climate.  The resources for doing that are now few and far between.

The issue is about political reward.  In politics, power is traded for power and, in that regard, the balance-sheet for Tinubu at the moment is very dismal.  He has been used and dumped.  He has received next to nothing for his huge political efforts.  Even the President’s wife acknowledged that, without Tinubu, her husband would not have become president.  So what has Tinubu been given for his efforts?  Nothing!  After the election, there was a lot of speculation that Tinubu would be rewarded with nine nominees to the president’s cabinet.  He got none.  His candidate for Speaker was rejected.  His candidate for President of the Senate was rejected.  He has not even been made Chairman of the APC Board of Trustees.  All he had is a glorified title of “National Leader,” which does not even get him a seat on the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party.

I believe that is why he has now found it necessary to relinquish even that inconsequential title, so that it can be evident to all that he has received nothing for his efforts.  But the enemies of Tinubu in the APC coalition have not stopped there.  They are now determined to cut down his Iroko tree in his power-base of the South-West.  Time was, when it was presumed that the main organs of the APC was controlled by the Tinubu wing of the party.  But the recent shenanigans in the party, in particular his public spat with John Odigie-Oyegun, the chairman of the APC, show that that control, if it was ever there, has now been lost.

 It is even surprising that you appear to be coming to the defence of Tinubu now when you probably blame him for bringing the current government in and it is obvious you don’t like this government that the APC Tinubu is part and parcel of. How would you react to that?

 I think I have been justified in my dislike of this government.  The government of President Buhari has been an unmitigated disaster.  To tell Nigerians that now is preaching to the choir.  I still blame Tinubu for being a midwife of this disaster.  But my concern now is not about the past.  My concern now is about the future.

Nigeria is a democracy.  In our democracy, there are periodic elections.  The next presidential election will hold in a little over two years’ time.  Immediately the last election was conducted, the jockeying started for the next one.  That is the reason why one of the first things this government did in coming to power was to arrest Sule Lamido.  The alleged grounds were corrupt practices while he was governor of Jigawa.  But, as far as I am concerned, the real ground was the realisation that he would give President Buhari a run for his money if he were to win the PDP nomination for president in 2019.

 So, as I said, my interest is in the next election.  My position is that under no circumstances should President Buhari be allowed to win another election in Nigeria.  Four years of this government is more than enough.  What is irritating is that, instead of implementing policies to better the lot of Nigerians, the government is making political moves designed to secure the re-election of the president in spite of his atrocious performance in office.  This must be resisted.  We need another president in 2019.  We have had more than enough of President Buhari.

 If the alleged conspiracy against Tinubu continues in the party, do you think that Buhari or any candidate he brings forward can win the presidential election in 2019 without Tinubu’s support?

That is why I say it is time to rally round Tinubu.  If we rally round Tinubu, we will ensure that the South-West cannot be used again.  If we rally round Tinubu in the South-West, we will ensure that the South-West cannot be used to play political football in 2019, which seems to be the agenda of some of Tinubu’s now undisguised enemies in the APC.  With or without Tinubu, I don’t think President Buhari can win another presidential election in Nigeria.  He has no record to run on.  Without Tinubu, the president should not even bother to run.  But his body language says the president still intends to run.  Moreover, there are still others in the APC coalition jockeying for position.  What they are trying to do is get the South-West vote without Tinubu by cutting him down.  What this amounts to is an attempt to get the South-West vote by enslaving the South-West.  This must be resisted politically.

 If you think the APC may lose the election in 2019 without Tinubu’s support, then isn’t that a good thing since you never wanted the APC in power in the first place?

As I said, my concern is really not about Tinubu.  My concern is about the bargaining position of the South-West in the coming political dispensation in 2019.  The South-West should resist any attempt to neutralise it and diminish its power at the table.

  Do you honestly think that our economy would have done better under former President Goodluck Jonathan if he had won the last election with the way he was being regarded as ‘clueless’?

 You can continue calling Goodluck Jonathan clueless if you like, but it is now clear that he had a far better grasp of running the Nigerian economy than does President Buhari.  To be frank with you, one of the problems we are confronted with today is that President Buhari is clearly out of his depths.  The president simply does not know what to do and he does not seem to have around him the people who know what to do.  One of the indices of good leadership is appointing the right people to meet the challenges on the ground.  To date, President Buhari’s cabinet is remarkable for its mediocrity.  No matter what you say of Goodluck Jonathan, he had some very capable hands in his government.  Many of them are now occupying choice positions at home and abroad.  That is why at some point in the life of this administration, I wrote an article in the dailies saying it is time to beg Okonjo-Iweala to come back.

 Some people ask if you are a PDP-sponsored writer, with the way your articles seem to be more in support of the party than the APC. What is your answer to that?

I don’t belong to the PDP. I have never belonged to the PDP and I will never belong to the PDP.  I am not a politician and I will never be a politician.  It should be possible to criticise the APC without it being assumed that you are sponsored by the PDP.

 But don’t you think that the two parties are two sides of a coin as some Nigerians believe?

 APC and PDP are tweedledum and tweedledee.  They are yin and yang.  That is why there is so much cross-carpeting.  Today you are PDP; tomorrow you are APC.  Quite a number of the APC bigwigs were yesterday’s PDP musclemen.  Nevertheless, in what is, to all intents and purposes, a two-party system; you still have to choose between them.

  You criticised Buhari when he promised to make the naira equal to the dollar during his campaign then. What is going through your mind now that naira is over N400 to a dollar? Is it ‘I told you so’?

I think you are a little behind on that one.  It is now over 500 to the dollar.  There is no benefit in saying “I told you so.”  No Nigerian can be triumphant about a situation that has impoverished us all.  The problem is that there does not seem to be any end in sight.  The naira is in free-fall.  The government is in the laboratory, trying different experiments because the people it put in charge just don’t know what to do.  But they would be the last to admit this.

The current state of the naira is perhaps the greatest indictment of Buhari’s presidency.  What was he thinking when he promised to make the naira equal to the dollar?  What is he thinking now?  How could he have been so wrong?  It shows President Buhari does not understand economics.  He does not understand public policy.  We are stuck with him until 2019.  But come 2019, Nigeria deserves a better president.