Afolabi Gambari
Respected columnist, Professor Olatunji Dare, famously declared in one of his “Diary of a debacle” series, which he started shortly after the June 12 1993, presidential election: “Nothing is beyond happening in Nigeria.” Dare had wondered how and why an election that bore all the signs of success that could usher in a greater country was willfully scuttled by the very people who spent close to eight years dispensing enormous funds and human resources aimed at making the election a success. Till this day, it has not yet been ascertained exactly why a country’s dream was turned to a nightmare that still afflicts us.
Only two weeks ago, the Tinubu administration celebrated two years in power and awarded itself a pass mark. But how can we forget how the Hunger protest of August 1 2024, revealed some hidden things about what has become of Nigeria as a country since Tinubu mounted the saddle on May 29 2023, namely that the mass of the people are hungry and justifiably angry, leading them to so much frustration? It was only natural that anything must give, and it did give. The destruction that accompanied the protest was enough for the government to rethink its anti-social policies that had led many to think morbidly. But, more than that, the involvement of so many children in the protest should have sent a red alert to the government when kids who should be attracted by school had been attracted by violence.
In no time, the protest was quelled, but not until scores of the protesters were rounded up and detained in unknown centres. Not that the identity of those arrested, as well as the fate that befell them, should not have been known, at any rate. But the flurry of activities afterwards, which dovetailed to the quest for basic survival for many, must have imposed amnesia on the lot, such that only a tiny few would have bothered who was picked up or released or kept in detention and for how long.
But there is more to come: I was inside a cab on Tuesday, November 26 2024, when news flashed that the old Port Harcourt Refinery had commenced full operations. After listening to the news item on the cab radio, I smiled and attempted to switch to other things on my mind. I was not sure if the cab driver paid attention to the news until he reacted hysterically. “Oga,” he called me as I wondered how an elderly man like him would address me with such a title. “I said it but they would not believe me,” he further said, and continued: “This Tinubu administration means well. It promised to fix our refineries. Now, it is one refinery fixed, three more to go.”
I said to him: “Baba. Have you not been disappointed enough in this country for you to jump at any news without even being cautious?” He looked at me with one side of his right eye and said: “Oga, are you an Obidient?” To the uninitiated, the tag meant to determine if I had supported the Labour Party candidate at the 2023 presidential election, Mr. Peter Obi. I said to him: “I am not.” We were still inside the cab, totally unsure of what was happening in Port Harcourt at that moment other than what the news revealed to us.
By November 29 2024, news emerged again that the Port Harcourt refinery had halted operations. One dutiful newspaper reporter who visited the refinery for an “on the spot assessment” said he met some workers who “claimed” that the facility was “undergoing calibration, which might last till next week”. The workers did not speak from the point of authority; therefore, “till next week” could not be ascertained. At the time, the refinery was said to have resumed operations on November 26. NNPCL had said “200 petrol trucks” were “loading daily from the plant”, although there was a belief in certain quarters that the trucks were loaded with old products in the storage tanks. Only last month, authorities announced the closure of the refinery again for what they called “maintenance work”. Nothing can be more curious than the latest closure. Now the question is not “why” again but “what next”.
There is still more to come: Whether or not it was a conspiracy of sorts that got the Senator representing Kogi Central, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, a hefty six-month suspension on March 6 2025, over what the Senate committee on Ethics and Privileges called “breach of rules” is not particularly the focus here. After all, the committee has already triumphed in casting the “demon” out of where humans reside, i.e. the National Assembly premises, so that peace would reign again.
It has to be said, however, that Akpoti-Uduaghan made what looked like a last-ditch effort to serve the judges, warning that “this suspension will not be sustained” before her microphone was brusquely switched off. Perhaps, then, the judges either did not get the warning or they got it but ignored it.
But it is still not impossible that the Senate did not expect the public reaction that followed the senator’s suspension, especially the emotion that was whipped up by the words of the sentencing that stated clearly that Akpoti-Uduaghan must not be seen within the precinct of the National Assembly, nor would she receive the statutory allowances and other juicy packages that are often unrevealed and her staff would not be paid a dime while the suspension lasts – all suggesting a killing of a fly with a sledge hammer. Such a draconian measure was bound to attract emotional reaction, especially as it was meted to a supposed weaker sex.
The reactions did come – and in torrent, if not savagery. Only a dumb or practically unconscious Senate would not have reacted to the outpouring of emotions which came from far and near. The Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, who had on March 6 2025, insisted that Akpoti-Uduaghan deserved her fate, took up the responsibility to react, as should be expected, on March 8.
As if to repeat what the ethics committee already stated in its judgment, Bamidele said the Senate had not suspended the Kogi Central representative because she had alleged sexual harassment against the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio. Rather, according to the Senate Leader, she was axed “specifically due to her flagrant disobedience to Sections 6.1 and 6.2 of the Senate Standing Orders 2023 (As Amended) and her unparliamentary behaviour during its plenaries and proceedings.”
Lately, however, Akpoti-Uduaghan was dragged to court by the Federal Government for defaming the Senate President. The executive suddenly became unaware that it was interfering in legislative matters, upending the principle of separation of powers in a democracy. Incredible!
Yet, there is more to come: On the day the Tinubu administration marked its second anniversary, on May 29 2025, it commissioned a 30-kilometre stretch of the 700-kilometre Lagos-Calabar coastal road in Lagos with dignitaries that included Nobel winner, Professor Wole Soyinka, in attendance. Almost immediately after the commissioning, it emerged that only “nearly 20 kilometres” in one portion and another “nearly 10 kilometres” in another portion were completed, amounting, as it were, to less than the 30 kilometres that the administration announced that it had commissioned. Huge swindle! But did Professor Dare not warn that “nothing is beyond happening in Nigeria”?
