By Ikeddy ISIGUZO

BURKINABE military leader Captain Ibrahim Traore was the star attraction at Tuesday’s inauguration of Ghana’s President John Mahama. Dressed in a military attire, Traore had a holstered pistol at his waist. He was widely cheered in his show that analysts rightly concluded was an affront on democracy and a defiance of ECOWAS’ stance that military administrations should give way to elected governments.
At the event where wild applauses greeted Traore was President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, also President of ECOWAS, that in July 2023 issued orders to the military government in Niger Republic to leave within seven days. ECOWAS was reportedly mobilising a military intervention to restore civil rule in Niger Republic. ECOWAS imposed sanctions limiting trade and communication with Niger Republic, but these have been lifted.
Burkina Faso and Mali, Niger Republic’s immediate neighbours, ensured that the sanctions did not work.
“Visible weapon by a (Head of State) at such an important event, although seen as an assertion of power could also be a symbol of intimidation and raises concerns about… how we enforce our security laws internally,” a Ghanaian analyst Barnabas Nii Laryea wrote on Facebook. “This was insanely dangerous thing to do. It’s not about trust. For national security reasons, this was very reckless and shouldn’t be allowed again,” Seth Dough, a Ghanaian lawyer, posted on X.
Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger Republic are all under military rule after a string of successful coups, Mali (2021), Burkina Faso (2022), and Niger Republic (2024). On 6 July 2024 they formed the Alliance of Sahel States, a confederation. It is against neo-colonialism in Africa and the world. It also disagrees with French and ECOWAS policies, deeming them contrary to the interests of the Alliance.
ECOWAS was concerned that if the three French-speaking countries succeeded they may entice the military in other ECOWAS States to join their agenda. Some former French colonies in West Africa are buying into the agenda of the three countries that would leave ECOWAS in a matter of weeks.
A more global concern was the presence of Russian mercenaries in Mali. The French forces that were fighting terrorists in the Sahel were driven away by Mali. The Russians replaced the French and are believed to be harvesting the mineral resources and influence that were once France’s. Assimi Goïta, interim President of Mali, is the actual leader of the Alliance as his coup appears to have set off the others.
Traore knew what he was doing when he turned up in Accra in miliary gears, and armed. His manner of attendance spoke of war, power, military rule as the counterpoint to civilian governments. He was representing the Alliance of Sahel States as the only Head of Government that was present. The Prime Minister represented Mali.
For the Burkinabe leader, Accra was a grand farewell to ECOWAS. There were “two regional leaders in Accra”, Tinubu and Traore. If ECOWAS wants peace, the Alliance was ready – and also prepared for war. Tinubu took all these in. Nigeria’s commitment to ECOWAS is high. Beside hosting the headquarters, Nigeria last month cleared 19-year outstanding obligations of N85 billion and $54 million which included part of 2024 dues.
Former French colonies in ECOWAS are sympathetic to the Alliance’s grievances. Cote d’Ivoire, once a bastion of French interests, is with Burkina Faso. Ivorian President Alassane Dramane Ouattara is originally from Burkina Faso and his interests in France have waned. Guinea is a perennial enemy of France. The French stripped Guinea of every moveable asset before its independence in 1958.
Senegal, and Chad, Nigeria’s north eastern neighbour, where they share the Lake Chad, have similar views with the Alliance. Chad is not renewing its defence pact with France, and like Senegal has spoken in strong terms against French troops on African soil.
Chad needs Niger’s cooperation to fight Boko Haram. The Alliance is willing to help. Chad while breaking up with France lamented that France did not assist its troops when 40 of them died in a Boko Haram attack.
The departure of the three-member Alliance from ECOWAS on 29 January 2025 is only 17 days away. President Tinubu would bear the infamy of the one under who ECOWAS that would be 50 on 28 May – a day to Tinubu’s second year in office – disintegrated. What a record!
Tinubu’s heightening relationships with France transverse trade, defence, and a pointed attention on mining of solid minerals which Mali, Chad and Niger Republic once provided for France.
In fairness to Tinubu, he inherited ECOWAS’ 15-member bloc that started degrading with the departure of Mauritania in December 2000. It gave no reason. Some say that the increasing signing of protocols that involved members in the internal affairs of others inconvenienced Mauritania. One such policy could be the proposed regional currency.
The intensity of Tinubu’s chumminess with France has made him an impartial arbiter in ECOWAS. But for the Atlantic Ocean on our southern border, Nigeria is entirely surrounded by French-speaking countries, who also dominate the numbers in ECOWAS – Republic of Benin, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Mali, Gambia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. The question is how much longer would the other five remain in ECOWAS.
Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau though Portuguese-speaking, are too close to Senegal that they too have French-speaking tendencies.
The English-speaking countries are not much different. The Gambia depends on Senegal’s port in Dakar for imports, some of which go all the way to Burkina Faso, Mali, and parts of Niger Republic. Ghana is interested in the security of its northern border which it cannot protect without great relations with Burkina Faso. Was that what informed Traore’s Accra performance?
An ignored power bloc in ECOWAS is the 52-year-old Mano River Union that preceded ECOWAS. It joined Guinea, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, and Sierra Leone to explore the economic benefits of the 320-kilometre Mano River that originates from the Guinea Highlands in Liberia. Finances and the long wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone slowed down the Union but it is still flowing.
On the same Tuesday that Traore was embarrassing Tinubu in Accra, the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, was making one of the most thoughtless decisions in Nigeria’s football history, by appointing former Malian coach, Éric Sékou Chelle, as Head Coach of the Super Eagles. His coaching abilities are too vacuous to merit an examination.
A Malian to manage a major national asset at the peak of the international row with Mali over ECOWAS?
We assume that security agencies, and the Foreign Ministry are involved in screening foreigners appointed at this level. Is it possible that nobody noticed that Chelle is from Mali which with Burkina Faso and Niger Republic have been exceptionally hostile to Nigeria since 2023?
Whoever engaged Chelle is embarrassing the President, if not Nigeria.

Finally…
PRESIDENT Tinubu is on his third trip to UAE in 17 months. Is that not too many trips to one country?
THE National Assembly needs to over-sight the $52.88 million Nigeria has just received from the US as “recovered assets”. The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi has explained that $50m of the money would be deployed through the World Bank for rural electrification. He said the remaining $2m would be used by the International Institute of Justice to expand the justice system and combat corruption. Who decided that? And the remaining $.88m is obviously too small to deserve accounting?
WHY are we praising the Federal Government for establishing five more aviation schools when it cannot finance one school?

• ISIGUZO is a major commentator on minor issues

Mele Kyari, a geologist and Group CEO of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), has dug his way into the tunnel of history. Within a space of two months, he announced the successful revamp of two refineries. In November 2024, Port Harcourt refinery came on stream. The following month, December, Warri refinery burst back to life. Both are not performing optimally, yet. But the journey has only just begun. Kaduna refinery is projected to begin production later this year. And if all goes well, a substantial percentage of the nation’s local petrol consumption would be sourced in-country. The implication on forex, job creation and economic reflation is enormous, positively.
So what? Some Nigerians have asked this question. I won’t even tag them naysayers. There is a tincture of justification in their rage. But if such Nigerians did not rage against those who in the past brought the refineries – Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna – to ruins, they should not shudder at the celebratory dance of President Bola Tinubu and his laudation of Kyari and his team for achieving both the improbable and the impossible. After many years of redundancy, after several failed attempts to restream the moribund refineries with billions of dollars wasted in the fitful misadventures, someone has finally belled the cat. Such a person deserves a worthy pat on the back.
Little wonder, President Tinubu was gushing at the news of Warri refinery cracking back to life. Here, I salute the wisdom of Tinubu in keeping Kyari on his job. Against a crude and virulently malicious campaign to get Kyari out of the way, Tinubu ignored the mob and renewed Kyari’s tenure. One of the missteps of the past was a high and volatile turnover of leadership at the nation’s oil and gas behemoth. Commonsense management will tell you that job insecurity, at any level, is antithetical to sustainable planning for long term goals. Fixing a refinery, especially one that has been rendered comatose for many years (with some bolts and parts gone rusty) is not a one-hour flight. It’s a long-distance haul, requiring patience, precision and meticulous planning. Had Kyari been shoved aside to fit the script of his ‘enemies’ and political mandarins seeking to give ‘wise’ counsel to Tinubu, these refineries would never have come on stream. In the stereotypical Nigerian way, the new management would have reviewed the contract, reworked the papers and even re-awarded aspects of the contract to another corporate. Herein is the wisdom of Tinubu in retaining Kyari highly commendable.
As more Nigerians push for the refineries to attain 100 percent production efficiency, it is apposite to state what Kyari did differently. How did Kyari succeed where many others in the past failed woefully?
Dateline: October 21, 2021, NAF Conference centre, Abuja: Kyari was Special Guest of Honour at the All Nigeria Editors’ Conference. He spoke off the cuff on the subject, “Insecurity as it affects the Oil and Gas sector.” He showed a good grasp of the malaise that has afflicted the Nigerian oil and gas industry. He, however, raised a banner of hope that under his watch, “things are now done differently.” He said issues of refineries not working, crude oil theft, among others, are all traceable to the Nigerian elite which include the editors and everyone present at the event.
Kyari said that refineries had become comatose because the leadership elite had been doing things the wrong way over the years by relying on the builders of the refineries to come to Nigeria to fix the refineries. This model, he explained, does not happen anywhere because there are specialists whose business is to fix such refineries. They are not the builders but their job is to fix them when they break down. He called such companies EPCs (Engineering, Procurement and Construction). He gave an analogy: “You cannot ask Toyota to come down to Nigeria to fix your Toyota car. You give it to a technician. This is the error we have been repeating over the years.”
He credited President Muhammadu Buhari for giving his management the free hand to do the right thing. “This is the first time in history that NNPC and its subsidiaries are allowed to do things the way things should be done. Now, I can confirm to you that we have taken responsibility and we will fix the refineries. We have started the process, contractors have been mobilised to the Port Harcourt refinery, while the same process for Warri and Kaduna refineries will be concluded by the end of this year,” he told a now excited crowd of over 200 editors, representatives of several government agencies including security agencies and the private sector. He got a standing ovation afterwards.
Fast forward. Three years later at the twilight of 2024, two of the refineries had become operational once again all because Kyari walked a different path. It’s no magic. Just focussed, honest leadership. Kyari had been sincere as the helmsman of the NNPC even to his own hurt. The first NNPC honcho to open the ledger for public scrutiny. He did not only audit NNPC accounts, he got them published. And for once in ages, Nigerians got to know the assets, liabilities, strength and weaknesses of the company they own. Kyari has shown that he is a different breed of leader, a transformational leader who has used the same personnel at NNPC, in the same country, against the same headwinds to achieve milestones, some once thought unattainable.
Retaining Kyari, a man he did not appoint, is one of the smartest decisions of President Tinubu. Kyari bestrides two worlds in Nigeria’s oil and gas history. The pre-PIA (Petroleum Industry Act) and the post-PIA, a delicate transition that required experience, emotional intelligence, industry knowledge, and leadership savvy. If the transition was a kind of exam for him, the geologist, earth scientist of crude oil marketer of renown simply aced it. He proved one thing: Nigeria’s challenges can be surmounted by Nigerians.
He deserves all the Presidential plaudits and a green ribbon around his neck as a memorial of national honour.

By Engr Prince Wilfred Edeoga

Enugu state emerged out of the various balkanization of old East Central State of Nigeria by the then military in power.

During the first republic Nigeria operated a parliamentary system of government and M I Okpara was the Premier of then Eastern region from where Enugu state later came into being.

Under the leadership of M I Okpara, Premier of then Eastern region of Nigeria, the region was believed to be the fastest growing economy in West Africa; an agro-based economy that brought about outstanding infrastructural development in the region.

Today Enugu state government led by Dr Peter Ndubisi Mbah seem to have gone back memory lane to unearth the glory of yesteryears with a view to implementing further the Okpara like agenda of boosting the economy as well as building more sophisticated infrastructure in the state.

And driven by the Okpara fit, Mbah believe that Okpara’s style of administration which had hitherto been jettisoned by former administrations in the past would be rekindled to function with the realities of global best practices towards bringing Enugu state to an outstanding and blossoming economy that would cater for her people and visitors alike.

Consequently Mbah was quick to action when he dare the demagogue to tackle security issues which had brought economic activities to an abysmal level in Enugu state, knowing that security of life and property is a paramount responsibility of government for growth and development. Although security is a national problem, but Mbah has been able to bring about relative peace in Enugu state soon after he assumed office. The establishment of a situation monitoring room with security cameras giving visual tracking of security in Enugu is a masterpiece to buttress the resolve of Mbah’s administration’s commitment to security of life and property.

In his agenda to make Agriculture the main stay of Enugu economy, he has taken broad steps through direct and partnership investments in agriculture. These include the 100billion partnership project on palm production, the 100billion partnership investment in cassava, rice and other cash crops in Isiuzo local government area, assistance to farmers in provision of land, seedlings and fertilizer for effective growth of the sector.

Since history of Nigeria no government has ever budgeted and implemented what governor Mbah is implementing in the Education sector. The sum of 158 billion is over and above the UN prescribed investment in education budgeting, so Mbah’s administration has accorded priority to education in his belief that it is the bedrock of development. To say the numerous educational goals he has, and set to achieve include 262 smart schools in every ward in Enugu state with all the ultra modern learning equipment to be installed, the upgrading of Igboano health institute to a University, fully rehabilitated school of nursing with ultra-modern facilities among many others.

One would think Mbah is from the moon, no, he just is one entity who believe that our country Nigeria should be made better like the other western nations. Government they say is a continuum, as such he has embarked on building, rebuilding and completing abandoned projects and dilapidated infrastructure in the state. The International conference abandoned by previous regimes is now being completed with a 5 star hospitality center which will make Enugu state a tourism hub in the Southeast..

Mbah seem to be in a hurry to implement his promises to Enugu people thus, he
declared emergency on water production and reticulation in Enugu. Although the project is still on-going, the governor has proved himself by providing water in a 180days as promised.

One cannot count the numerous projects that are on-going in Enugu state. In the health sector, there’s an ultra modern health centers under construction in the wards and designed to help reduce primary healthcare problems in the rural areas.

The flag off the dualization of Abakpa Nike road, the Nowas-T-Junction- Ibeagwa-Ogbeke-Ugwogo Nike-Opi Nsukka Road on October 28, 2024, is one project that cannot be left without mention among the numerous roads constructed and under construction in Enugu since Mbah’s administration. It is roads and roads everywhere.

The harmonization of tax burden has finally erased the issue of multiple taxation on the citizen, therefore engendered the ease of doing business in the state. The recent clamp down on land grabbing, promotion of modern transportation system, especially with the ultra modern motor packs under construction in Old park, Garikki, Nsukka, etc, are just unprecedented happenings in Governor Mbah’s administration.

On sports, the Mbah administration after setting a new management team with adequate funding for Enugu Rangers international, the club went ahead to win the national league trophy.

As one who has excelled in both public and private concerns, Gov. Mbah has shown vision and will to pilot Enugu to an enviable height. That’s why the many reforms in the civil service where the activities are now digitized to enhance efficiency. The ministries and parastatals have all the implements of trade; from both goods and chattels needed for the workers services. The workers welfare is second to none as he has approved the sum of 80k as new minimum wage.

The moribond Hotel presidential Enugu is now undergoing reconstruction, the Nigergas, the floor mill and other creation of employment infrastructure which activities had been comatose is being fixed by the super focused Mbah administration.
I am not writing to enumerate Mbah’s achievement within the period in office, I wish to highlight a few achievements recorded by this man who has shown administrative wizardry.
Is Governor Peter Mbah ambitious? Yes He is, otherwise how could he be handling all the monumental projects within a short space of time, moreso when there is scarce resources. Is Mbah a magician? Not just a magician but a man with the wand for the management of people and resources.

True to type, Mbah is justifying the mandate Enugu people seeded to him by hurrying to bring about an unprecedented change to human development, infrastructure and peace in Enugu State.

However the Chief servant of Enugu state has attracted to himself an unrivalled followership due to the many successes recorded in his administration in a shot time. Of course His Nkanu people and indeed Enugu are proud to have a brave, meticulous, diligent and vision packed person in him.

• Engr Prince Wilfred Edeoga writes from Enugu