WÀHÁLÀ SLEEP, YÒNGA GO WAKE AM BY S. KADIRI

[Salimonu Kadiri]

Nigeria has abundant of Ministries, Departments and Agencies created to solve all kinds of national problems, real and imaginary. However, all identified economic, industrial and structural development remain unresolved because laws and regulations are discountenanced by Nigeria's public officials without exclusion. Although Nigerian public officials are the most unproductive and anti-citizens in the world, yet they are the most arrogant and proud for nothing human beings on this planet, earth. Nigeria is supposed to be giant of Africa but, those who have turned the country into the dwarf goat of Africa are shamelessly chest-pounding in pride for failing to perform their duties to Nigerians. 

The YÒNGA in this essay is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa. On Wednesday, 6 November 2024, the Chairman/CEO of NIDCOM, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, featured in the morning Brief Programme of Nigeria's Channel Television. She was asked if the Nigerian Government had identified Kemi Badenoch who was born to Nigerian parents and spent most of her childhood in Lagos. Mrs. Dabiri-Erewà responded, "It depends on if she identifies the Nigerianness in her. We (NIDCOM) have reached out to her once or twice without any response, so we don't force people to accept to be Nigerian." What is NIDCOM? This question needs to be answered in order to understand how YÒNGA went to wake up the sleeping WÀHÁLÀ named, Kemi Badenoch.

When Olusegun Obasanjo became civilian President of Nigeria in 1999, he contacted Jimmy Carter, the US President between 1977 and 1981, as well as Andrew Young, US Ambassador to the UN 1977-1979, who were acquaintances of Obasanjo when he was a Military dictator in Nigeria, 1976-1979. He requested them to convince American industrialists to come to Nigeria and help him industrialize the country. Responding, Carter and Young told Obasanjo that with abundant agricultural and mineral resources in Nigeria and good climate, what President Olusegun Obasanjo needed to do was to convince some of the Nigerian geniuses in science and technology working in the USA to return home to put their talents to use in developing Nigeria industrially. President Olusegun Obasanjo bought their idea and on Saturday, 9 September 2000, Obasanjo personally inaugurated the Nigerian In Diaspora Organisation (NIDO), in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Similar NIDOs were inaugurated later in Britain and other parts of Europe. The primary purpose of NIDO was to supply Nigeria with knowledgeable Nigerians in the field of science, medicine and engineering to develop Nigeria. Under normal circumstances, the Nigerian Embassy in Europe and America should have been assigned with the responsibilities of vacuum-sucking their respective ambassadorial jurisdiction of Nigerian talents to return home to build up the country industrially and economically. Instead, a gigantic bureaucracy called Nigerians In Diaspora Commission with a Chairman who is also the Chief Executive Officer was set up. The main duty of the Commision is to target Nigerian experts abroad and induce them to return home to use their talents to liberate Nigeria from the claws of underdevelopment and abject poverty. Therefore, the duty of NIDCOM and its Executive Chairman, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, is not to be telephoning around the world to congratulate or appreciate persons of Nigerian ancestry, who Nigerian Government had never cared about, before successful achievements in their countries of abode. Had Abike Dabiri-Erewa kept abreast with the news of what was going on around the world, she would not have overreached herself by telephoning Kemi Badenoch, the sleeping WÀHÁLÀ. And who is Kemi Badenoch?

Kemi Badenoch was nee Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke before marrying to a Scottish man, Mr. Hamish Badenock. Born to her Yoruba parents in London, in 1980, her first two maiden names were abbreviations of OLÚWAKÉMI and OLÚWAFÚNMITÓ, meaning respectfully God-Cuddles-Me and God-Gives-Me-To-Train or nurture. Living in Britain, the parents probably shortened their daughter's name to make it easy to pronounce for their British host. Getting married, Olukemi further shortened her first name to Kémi meaning, cuddle me. Fast forward, Kemi received her primary and secondary education in Nigeria before returning to UK at the age of 16 where at the age of 23 she graduated in Computer System Engineering at University of Sussex in 2003. Two years later, at the age of 25 in 2005, she joined the Conservative Paty and four years later, she bagged Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree. In 2017, she was elected as a member of British Parliament. Under Rishi Sunak's Premiership, Kemi was appointed Minister of Business and Trade in February 2023. As a UK Minister of Business and Trade, Mrs. Kemi Badenoch arrived in Nigeria on February 11, 2024 to begin a three-day visit, purposely as it was said, to deepen the UK-Nigeria partnership. According to a statement from the British High Commission in Nigeria, while in the country, Minister Kemi Badenoch and the Prime Minister's Trade Envoy to Nigeria, Helen Grant, "will have meetings with the Federal Government of Nigeria, State Governors, as well as British and Nigerian business leaders and investors." Thus, on Tuesday, February 13, 2024, Kemi Badenoch and Nigeria's Minister of Trade, Doris Nkiruka Uzoka-Anite signed what was called Enhanced Trade and Investment Partnership on behalf of their two countries. Whatever negative experience Mrs. Kemi Badenock might have encountered during her meetings with the Federal government, State governors and Nigerian Business leaders and investors has never been disclosed by her. One can only guess that she might have been appalled by the corrupt attitudes of the Nigerians she met on her visit to Nigeria. However, there was no record that the Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, ever had any contact with Mrs. Kemi Badenoch, UK's Minister of Business and Trade, before, during, or after the latter's visit to Nigeria. As Kemi Badenoch was not never congratulated by Abike Dabiri-Erewa when she was appointed Minister of Business and Trade, one can ask why now?

In October 2024, Kemi Badenock canvassed to be elected as the leader of the Conservative Party, after the resignation of Rishi Sunak. As if Mrs. Badenoch suspected that the majority white members of the conservative party believed, being a Nigerian aborigine, she would replicate the backwardness of Nigeria in UK if elected a leader of the Conservative Party that could eventually become prime minister of Britain, she distanced herself from Nigerian politics and its accompanying economic insecurity. Declaring to her Conservative audience that she was 100% mentally British, she said, "This is my country. I don't want it to become like the place I ran from. I grew up in Nigeria and I saw firsthand what happens when politicians are in it for themselves, when they use public money as their private piggybanks, when they promise the earth but pollute, not just the air, but the whole political atmosphere with their failure to serve others. I saw poverty and broken dreams. I came to Britain to make my way in a country where hard work and honest endeavour can take you anywhere. I grew up in a place where fear was everywhere. You cannot understand it unless you've lived it. Tripple checking that all the doors and windows are locked, waking up in the night at every sound, listening as you hear your neighbours scream as they are being burgled and beaten, wondering if your home will be the next." I have omitted where she described Nigeria as a Socialist state because that was an obvious exaggeration. Otherwise, everything she said about Nigeria was true and should have signalled a warning to NIDCOM's Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, to stay clear of her.

However, Kemi Badenoch was elected the leader of British Conservative Party on Saturday, 2 November 2024 and while at the same time economically alienated and deprived Nigerians were drowning in the Mediterranean Sea in their desperate bid to become diasporan Nigerians, the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, grabbed the telephone to identify with the newly elected leader of the British Conservative Party and leader of opposition in the Parliament. As I said earlier, her office was not established for the purpose of congratulating successful Nigerians abroad but to entice them to return to Nigeria to help develop our country. She had no need to contact Mrs. Kemi Badenoch. Remarkably, after Kemi Badenoch had snubbed Mrs Abike Dabiri Erewa, the statements of the former about Nigeria, made before being elected leader of the Conservative Party and opposition in the British Parliament became known to Nigerian politicians and its media. They all accused Mrs. Badenoch of denigrating her ancestral country. The Vice President of Nigeria, Kashim Shettima, in anger, asked her to remove her Nigerian name and replace it with British one. That provoked Kemi to say she is not a Nigerian but a Yoruba and moreover, she had nothing in common with Northern Nigeria, the home of Boko Haram. Ironically Vice President Shettima was the Governor of Borno State when Boko Haram kidnapped about 300 school girls in Chibok, in 2014 of which many are yet be rescued up till today. That happened when a State of Emergency was in force in Borno State and dusk to dawn curfew was being enforced by the security forces. Yet Boko Haram marched into Chibok, kidnaped 300 girls and drove them 60 kilometres to Sambisa forest with no security forces in sight to challenge Boko Haram. The online Nigerian Vanguard of August 2022 gave clue to why insecurity persists in Nigeria. Https://www.vanguardngr.com/2022/08/a-negotiators-bombshell-highly-placed-people-making-money-from-insecurity/.   That of course, cannot justify Kemi Badenoch's claim that she is not a Nigerian but a Yoruba. The present government of UK deals with the government of Nigeria and if Kemi Adeosun should succeed in winning the next British Parliamentary election to become Prime Minister of Britain, she would have to deal with the Federal Government of Nigeria and not just with the Yoruba section of the country. Commonsense wise, as His Majesty UK Prime Minister, she will not be able to choose between being loyal only to Scottland, the home base of her husband, against Ireland, Wales and England just as claiming to be Yoruba and not Nigerian. While on a three-day-visit to Nigeria in February as UK minister of business and trade, she did not sign agreement with her Yoruba ethnic group of Nigeria but with a Nigerian Minister of Trade, Mrs Doris Nkiruka Uzoka-Anite. That aside, Mrs. Kemi Badenoch did not denigrate Nigeria when she denounced the stealing of public funds by Nigerian public officials, impoverishment of Nigerians by politicians who had failed to fulfil their promises of better life for citizens and thereby becoming chief precursors of crimes and insecurity in Nigeria. 

Kemi Badenoch did not denigrate Nigeria but it is Nigerian public officials, elected or selected, appointed or employed who by their actions have been denigrating Nigeria. The year 2005, when Kemi Badenoch joined the Conservative Party, the Governor of Plateau State then, Joshua Chibi Dariye, was arrested in London for laundering millions of pounds sterling stolen from the state he was governing. He was granted bail but he jumped bail and travelled back to Nigeria to continue to rule as Governor until his two terms constitutional tenure ended in 2007. He was subsequently prosecuted by the EFCC and got jailed for ten years in 2018, but he was pardoned by President Buhari less than two years in prison. The same year 2005, the then Governor of Bayelsa State, D. S .P. Alamieyeseigha, was arrested in London for money laundering which he had used to buy a lot of property in London. He was granted bail and his passport was seized. But Alamieyeseigha got new travel documents and she dressed like a woman to travel by train to Paris from where he flew to Cameroon and later to Bayelsa. He was later impeached and jailed six months in Nigeria but he served his jail term in the hospital. James Onanefe Ibori was Governor of Delta State between 1999 and 2007. At the end of his tenure in 2007, the EFCC filed 170-count charge of treasury looting and money laundry against him. In December 2009, Justice Marcel Awokunlehin presiding over Federal High Court Asaba, absolved James Ibori of all the 170-count charge of corruption and money laundering brought against him by the EFCC. On April 25, 2010, Ibori flew to Dubai where he had substantial properties. In UK, the authorities had come across £20 million order for a private jet from Canada in the name of James Onanefe Ibori. At the request of UK government, Ibori was arrested in Dubai in May 2010 and finally extradited to UK on Friday, 15 April 2011. Ibori was jailed 13 years on April 17, 2012 after pleading guilty to stealing £250 million from Delta State when he was the Governor and laundering same in London to buy properties there. The narrative can be infinitely long but the effect of stealing public funds in Nigeria are very obvious for anyone to see. The hospitals have become death Chambers, roads have progressed to cemetery burying vehicles and human beings inside them, skyscrapers are collapsing to rubbles because they are built with blocks containing 95% sand and 5% cement and the country has 18 million out of school children. And when Kemi Badenoch talked about thieving police in Nigeria, the Nigerian elites accused her of elevating British Police above the Nigerian Police. Let me end this write up about the Nigerian Police.

I just want to recall the case of Kemi Adeosun who was born and educated as an Accountant in London, UK.  She worked in many reputable companies before she decided to return to Nigeria at the age of 34 when she obtained her first Nigerian passport. Otherwise, on numerous occasions that she had visited Nigeria, she obtained visa in her British passport. On returning to Nigeria, she applied for exception to serve in NYSC since she was 34 when she became a Nigerian, even though she graduated at the age of 22. Her application for exemption to serve in the NYSC would appear to have been filed for her by a courier or tout according to the custom in Nigeria. She was eventually handed a paper of exemption from serving in the NYSC. On November 11, 2015, Kemi Adeosun was appointed Federal Minister of Finance by President Muhammadu Buhari. Used to the ways things are done in the UK where she was born and educated, she began biometric audit of Ministries, Departments and Agencies. After the Federal Executive Council meeting of Wednesday, 21 March 2018, Kemi Adeosun told the waiting press that out of the 371,800 total police officers on the payroll in Nigeria, biometric audit revealed that 80,115 were ghost police. The monthly basic salaries and allowances paid to the 80,115 Ghost Police was N23.3 billion. How long the ghost policemen had been on the payroll was not disclosed. All over the world, ghosts are disembodied spirits frightening people but in Nigeria ghost policemen or workers could walk to the bank, sign cheques and collect salaries!! Instead of backing up Kemi Adeosun to demand to know who were the disembodied spirits collecting N23.3 billion every month, vicious campaigns were launched against her. It was said that the certificate of exemption from serving in the NYSC was forged. The NYSC authorities confirmed that Kemi Adeosun actually applied for exemption but the Commission never took any decision on it and did not explain why it failed to act on the application for over four years. However, Kemi Adeosun's courier or tout would appear to have procured a forged NYSC exemption certificate for her. On September 14, 2018, Kemi Adeosun resigned as Minister of Finance over an allegation that she illegally obtained her NYSC exemption certificate. She immediately filed a suit at the Federal High Court, Abuja, seeking declaration on whether she was entitled to NYSC exemption or not, before returning to UK. Almost three years after filing the suit and returning to Britain, Justice Taiwo Taiwo of Abuja Federal High Court, on July 7, 2021, held that Kemi Adeosun being a British citizen when she graduated at the age of 22, in 1989, was not qualified to report for NYSC service. And when she returned to Nigeria at over 30 years of age, she was not eligible to present herself for NYSC scheme. An NGO named Centre for Social Justice filed a suit at a Federal High Court, Abuja seeking Court Order to compel the Inspector General of Police to release details of 80,115 ghost police officers. Court ordered the IGP in 2019 to publish details of the Ghost police officers as requested by CSJ but the Court Order was disobeyed.

Those who are accusing Kemi Badenoch of denigrating Nigeria and insulting its Police should tell the world how kidnappers was able to kidnap 300 students in Kankara, and transported them on motor bicycles to the forest 85 kilometres away without encountering any police challenge? How could kidnappers be telephoning relatives of victims to negotiate and receive ransoms without police or security agents being able to trace the kidnappers while at the same time one Sheikh Ahmad Gumi was able to stroll in and out of the forest to negotiate with bandits and kidnappers? Before anyone can criticize Kemi Badenoch, I want such critic to tell Nigerians, which ministries, departments and Agencies at Federal, States, and Local Government's levels in Nigeria are fulfilling the primary purpose for which they are established? Like Kemi Badenoch, I love Nigeria but I don't like what Nigerian public officials are doing, with Nigeria, and to vast majority of Nigerians.

Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GyitDd7-JY 

Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjq3Hg9-b7Y