The Trumpet Newspaper Issue 612 (December 13 - 26 2023)

TheTrumpet
Africans now have a voice... Founded in 1995
V O L 29 N O 612 D E C E M B E R 13 - 26 2023
25 th
Killers
convicted
after officers
analyse
1,000 hours
of CCTV
opposition three years on
Continued on Page 2>
By Luke Melchiorre
Hon. Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu 4 (Credits - CC BY-SA 4.0)
Black November:
Remembering Uganda’s
massacre of the
Koray Alpergin - Killed
Anumber of persons have
been convicted of killing
Koray Alpergin after
Metropolitan Police homicide
detectives identified their
involvement through analysis of
more than 1,000 hours of CCTV.
26-year-old Ali Kavak of De
Quincey Road, Tottenham was
found guilty of manslaughter,
kidnap, false imprisonment and
perverting the course of justice.
33-year-old Tejean Kennedy of
Cricklewood Broadway, NW2
was found guilty of manslaughter,
kidnap and false imprisonment.
34-year-old Steffan Gordon of
Dehavilland Close, Northolt had
pleaded guilty to kidnap. He was
found guilty of false
imprisonment.
35-year-old Samuel Owusu-
Opoku of Dunbar Road, N22 had
pleaded guilty to perverting the
Continued on Page 4

Page2 TheTrumpet DECEMBER 13 - 26 2023
News
Black November:
Remembering Uganda’s massacre
of the opposition three years on
Continued from Page 1<
Hon. Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu
November marks a sombre
anniversary in Uganda’s recent
political history. In 2020, the east
African country’s leading opposition
politician, Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi
Wine, was arrested. He was on the
campaign trail ahead of the 2021
Presidential elections.
Mass demonstrations demanding the
release of the popular musician-turnedpresidential-candidate
broke out in and
around the capital, Kampala. Over two
days, security agents of the regime of
Yoweri Museveni – in power since 1986 –
cracked down on the protests.
They fired live ammunition into
crowds of protesters, killing at least 54
people and injuring many more. The
regime arrested over a thousand people.
Hundreds more have since been reported
disappeared.
Three years on, the effects of the
massacre loom large over Uganda’s
contemporary politics.
The Ugandan Human Rights
Commission recently announced it was
closing the files of 18 opposition
supporters who remain missing. This has
renewed demands for justice and
government accountability in connection
with the 2020 killings.
In my research, I have charted
Kyagulanyi’s unlikely political rise from
his landslide victory as an independent
candidate in a 2017 Parliamentary byelection
to his 2021 run for the Presidency
against Museveni.
Kyagulanyi and his supporters have
been subject to arrest, abduction and
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Hon. Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu
unlawful detention. They have been
tortured and some have been killed.
Given this history, it’s not surprising
that the Kyagulanyi-led opposition party,
the National Unity Platform, has been at
the centre of calls for justice.
Over the last month, the Party has
spearheaded a boycott of Parliament in
protest of the Museveni regime’s
worsening human rights violations. The
opposition has demanded that the State
take full accountability for the November
2020 killings and inform Ugandans of the
whereabouts of those who remain
missing.
With just a little over two years to the
next Presidential election in 2026, I trace
the fallout from the November 2020
massacre to highlight its implications for
both the Museveni regime and the
Kyagulanyi-led opposition.
Calls for accountability
The initial impetus for a parliamentary
boycott came on Uganda’s independence
day on 9 October 2023. This followed
security officers storming the National
Unity Platform’s headquarters. They
broke up a prayer meeting of Party
leaders and families whose loved ones
have either died or disappeared. In the
raid, 14 people were arrested.
In addition to the boycott, the National
Unity Platform has released a list of 20
Ugandans who have disappeared, 19 of
them since the November 2020 protests.
The Party routinely posts briefs of the
missing on its social media platforms in
commemoration of what it calls “Black
November”.
The Museveni regime hasn’t budged.
However, this pressure has led to some
action. According to the leader of the
opposition in Parliament, Mathias
Mpuuga, the human rights commission
has started to re-contact the families of the
missing to get statements.
International repercussions
The 2020 killings and subsequent
arrests and disappearances have had
recent international repercussions. At the
end of October 2023, for example, US
President Joe Biden announced his
intention to end Uganda’s participation in
the African Growth and Opportunity Act
(Agoa) trade programme. Agoa gives
exports from qualifying African countries
duty-free access to the US market.
In justifying this decision, the White
House pointed to the Museveni regime’s
“gross violations of internationally
recognised human rights”.
This official censure was additionally
inspired by Uganda’s recently passed
anti-homosexuality law. The White
House branded it in May 2023 “a tragic
violation of universal human rights”.
There had also been earlier warnings
from the US Bureau of African Affairs
amid rising levels of State repression
during the 2021 election campaign. The
bureau said
there will be consequences for those
who are continuing to undermine
democracy (in Uganda).
Museveni is considered one of the
United States’ closest and most reliable
military allies in Africa. He has been a
“donor darling” of the West for decades.
In a New York Times op-ed in 2020,
Kyagulanyi labelled Museveni
“America’s Favorite African Strongman”.
Indeed, despite the Museveni regime’s
worsening human rights record, the US
has provided Uganda with hundreds of
millions of dollars in development and
military aid. This has helped fund the
Museveni State’s robust militarisation.
Time will tell if the Biden
administration’s Agoa decision is
anything more than a slap on the wrist.
There are certainly reasons to be sceptical
that it is. But given that Uganda currently
trades approximately US$200 million in
exported goods to the US annually, the
decision will have real economic impact.
The Museveni succession
So where does all this leave
Kyagulanyi’s Party, with just over two
years until the country’s next Presidential
election?
Political rumours about a possible
Museveni succession are rife. Some
suggest that his son is being groomed to
be his political heir.
Despite the Ugandan President
“officially” turning 80 next year,
opposing him presents the opposition
with familiar obstacles.
First, they must contend with
unceasing State repression. In September
2023, for instance, Kyagulanyi was
received warmly by massive crowds
during his tour of Uganda to drum up
grassroots support. This campaign,
however, was cut short by the
government, which accused him of using
the rallies to “incite violence (and)
promote sectarianism”.
Second, since securing a sixth
consecutive victory in elections in 2021,
Museveni’s government has co-opted,
infiltrated and divided the country’s
fragmented opposition.
Continued on Page 3

News
Black November:
DECEMBER 13 - 26 2023
TheTrumpet
Page3
Remembering Uganda’s massacre
of the opposition three years on
Continued from Page 2<
The country’s second-largest opposition
Party, the Forum for Democratic Change,
for instance, has been mired in a political
scandal. It’s been alleged that some of its
top leadership accepted campaign funds
from Museveni to foil a possible electoral
alliance with the National Unity Platform
in 2021. Kyagulanyi recently conceded that
his Party isn’t “really safe from Museveni’s
infiltration”.
Finally, Museveni’s grip over Uganda’s
military remains strong. This means that
any transfer of power through electoral
means from Museveni to a Kyagulanyi-led
opposition seems unlikely – regardless of
how Ugandans actually vote in 2026.
Indeed, Kyagulanyi has little connection to
Uganda’s powerful military establishment.
All this suggests that as Ugandans
memorialise a tragic part of their recent
past, their post-Museveni political future
remains deeply uncertain.
• Luke Melchiorre is Associate
Professor, Political Science and
Global Studies at Universidad de los
Andes.
• This article is republished from The
Conversation under a Creative
Commons license. Read the original
article.

Page4
TheTrumpet
DECEMBER 13 - 26 2023
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News
Killers convicted after officers
analyse 1,000 hours of CCTV
Continued from Page 1<
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course of justice. He was found guilty
of kidnap.
A 17-year-old boy was also
charged with perverting the course of
justice and pleaded guilty to this.
Two other men have been charged
as part of the investigation and will
stand trial at a later date.
43-year-old Koray was initially
treated as a missing person when
police were contacted on 14 October
2022 after his friend became
concerned for his welfare. The next
day, Koray’s body was found near to
Oakwood Hill Industrial Estate in
Loughton and homicide detectives
began an investigation.
Their enquiries resulted in the
identification of a number of men
involved in the kidnap of Koray from
outside his home address in Enfield
on 13 October. The group of men had
bundled Koray into the back of a
white van after he arrived home in his
car.
Koray was then taken to a disused
restaurant in Tottenham where he was
repeatedly physically assaulted,
resulting in 94 separate injuries to his
body including 14 fractured ribs and a
blow to the head, which caused brain
damage. The pathologist who
analysed his body estimated that he
Koray would not have survived his
injuries long after they were inflicted.
After killing him, the men then
moved his body to a trading estate in
Tottenham, before moving it again to
Loughton.
Detective Chief Inspector Matt
Webb, the lead investigator, said the
case was one of the most complex his
team had dealt with.
DCI Webb said: “The
circumstances of Koray’s death were
like something you see in a gangster
Kavak Ali
Steffan Gordon
movie. First he was kidnapped by a
group of men in a highly organised
operation that involved placing a
tracker on his car. He was then taken
to a disused restaurant where he was
subjected to a horrific attack.
“The individuals responsible for
his death were careful to cover their
tracks by cleaning the restaurant and
burning out cars used to move
Koray’s body. However, we cracked
this case through painstaking and
lengthy analysis of CCTV that
demonstrated the group’s collective
activity and presence at key locations.
We also presented detailed mobile
phone records to the jury showing
how they were in contact before,
Samuel Owusu-Opoku
Tejean Kennedy
during and after Koray was
kidnapped.
“I am pleased that these extremely
violent and dangerous men have been
convicted and will now be in prison
for a long period of time. This should
send a message to those involved in
organised crime and serious violence,
we will leave no stone unturned and
are determined to bring them to
justice.”
Anyone who knows the identity of
anyone else involved or their
whereabouts is asked to contact
police by calling 101 or
Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800
555 111.
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Opinion
Nigeria’s Delegation at
DECEMBER 13 - 26 2023
TheTrumpet
Page5
COP 28 in Dubai
The biggest story in Nigeria at the
moment is the size of Nigeria’s
delegation to the Conference of
Parties (COP) of the United Nations
Summit on Climate Change, otherwise
known as COP 28. In simple terms, the
objective of the Conference of Parties is
to secure multilateral, bilateral
agreements on the consensus by a panel
of international, intergovernmental,
climate change scientists (IPCC) that for
our world to be safe, global temperatures
must be kept at a level not above 1.5C, as
adopted in the 2015 Paris Climate
Agreement, beyond which the whole
world will be at risk. Before this year’s
conference, it was disclosed in a UN
Report that the world was indeed
endangered and that the threshold could
go beyond 2 degrees C. By September
2023, the world had exceeded the
projected limit, far above pre-industrial
levels.
This was meant to put pressure on
world leaders to pay more attention to the
threats of carbon emission, climate
change, and the impact on human
communities, that is challenges induced
within the global ecosystem by the rise in
sea levels, hurricanes, floods and
environmental disasters, occasioned by
man’s abuse of and neglect of the
environment: man-made, manconditioned
environmental crisis.
Climate adaptation, carbon markets, and
climate financing are issues that have
been atop the global agenda in the last
three and more years. UN Secretary
General, Antonio Guterres, said the
“emissions gap is more like an emissions
canyon”.
From COP 26 in Glasgow, Scotland,
to COP 27 in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt,
the Africa Climate Week organized by
the African Development Bank Group in
Nairobi, Kenya, in September 2023
(Africa’s 11 th Conference on the subject),
and now the COP 28 in Dubai, United
Arab Emirates, the goal has been to keep
global warming to a limit of 1.5C or 2
C.– the second threshold in the Paris
Agreement. High income countries
account for the bulk of green-house gas
emissions. At COP 26, commitments and
pledges were made across the public and
private sectors. At COP 27, in Egypt last
year, many key arrangements remained
unresolved, especially the demand by the
developing countries for a loss and
damage fund to compensate low-income
nations. The main achievement of this
year’s event would be the resolve on Day
One to agree on a loss and damage deal
for green-house gas emissions. Payments
are to be made into the fund on a
voluntary basis. The World Bank will
host the fund for four years on an interim
basis. A number of countries have already
made pledges: Germany ($100 m), UAE
($100m), United States ($17.5 m) and
Japan ($10 m). It is still a far cry from
what is required, but it is a historic, hardfought
achievement.
For good reason, Nigeria is a
participant at COP 28. We showed up in
2021 at COP 26, where during the
presentation of National Statements,
President Muhammadu Buhari pledged
Nigeria’s commitment to a net-zero
emission policy. Buhari was not in Egypt
for COP 27, the country was represented
by Mohammed Abdullahi who was then
Minister of Environment. This year at
COP 28, Nigeria’s new President, Bola
Ahmed Tinubu is fully on the ground in
Dubai for the World Climate Action
Summit scheduled for a total of 13 days –
November 30 to December 12. President
Tinubu has been very active, participating
at high level sessions where he has shared
the platform with world leaders including
the COP 28 President, Sultan Ahmed Al-
Jaber, former US Vice President and
Climate Change activist, John Kerry and
the Chinese Envoy on Climate Change.
President Tinubu has also met on the
sidelines with Chancellor Olaf Scholz
with whom he discussed Nigeria’s energy
needs and the need to deepen
collaboration with Germany, Prime
Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands,
President William Ruto of Kenya,
President of Namibia, Hage Geingob, and
climate activist and philanthropist,
Michael Bloomberg. He has made
statements about Nigeria’s commitment
to end gas flaring, reduce carbon
footprint and commit not just to an
energy mix, but an eco-friendly future
driven by sustainable, alternative energy
to turn Nigeria into an investment
friendly environment for carbon market
investments. He has also been using
every opportunity to ask for collaboration
with other nations. At the African Green
Industrialization session on Saturday,
President Tinubu further made a strong
case for Nigeria and Africa.
It is most unfortunate, however, that
Nigeria’s participation which should have
turned out as one of President Tinubu’s
major outings on the international scene
from the perspectives of economic
diplomacy and sovereignty affirmation,
has now been marred, irretrievably by
reports of Nigeria’s large delegation at
BY REUBEN ABATI
the conference - the largest from Africa,
the fourth largest globally after the host
country, UAE, Brazil and China,
attending a 13-day event. There has been
some quibbling and tittle-tattle over the
exact size of the delegation. I am familiar
with that. In our time, when the Naira
exchanged for less than N150 to the
dollar, and Nigeria was a high performing
economy in Africa, with an annual GDP
growth of over 6%, Sahara Reporters
constantly complained about the size of
the President’s delegation to
conferences.
If the number was anywhere near 30,
Sahara Reporters would raise an alarm,
and if I called to complain about a
deliberate attempt to de-market the
country and the Presidency, the Publisher
- Omoyele Sowore would tell me that he
was an Ijaw man who had no reason to
de-market his own brother, and that in
any case he had a copy of the delegation
list. I put it all down to sabotage from
within. But this time the situation is
slightly different. The information out
there in the public domain about
President Tinubu’s delegation to Dubai is
extracted by the analysts from the COP
28 website, and from reports by
Statisense, a leading AI data company,
and instructively from State House list.
Whereas the details and figures may
differ just slightly, what is clear is that
Nigeria has a total delegation of 1,411
Continued on Page 8<
World leaders at COP 28

Page6 TheTrumpet DECEMBER 13 - 26 2023

DECEMBER 13 - 26 2023 TheTrumpet
Page7

Opinion
Page8 TheTrumpet DECEMBER 13 - 26 2023
Nigeria’s Delegation at COP 28 in
Dubai
Continued from Page 5<
persons in Dubai for COP 28. One
newspaper reported that the main
delegation travelled to Dubai in three
plane loads – chartered flights, and the
worst part of it is that the Nigerian
government did not give the contract for
the air freight to any domestic airline.
The total cost of the air ticket for the
590 delegates on the Federal
Government’s account is estimated at
N880 million. To be added unto this is the
vast expenditure on hotel accommodation
and estacodes. In a Statisense report,
estacode per night for a Minister is $900,
Special Adviser $800, Director General
of MDAs - $900, House of
Representatives member - $900… and so
on. The only category that I did not see is
the estacode for mistresses, family
members and confidantes who according
to the opposition parties, notably the
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the
Labour Party (LP) are all over Dubai as
delegates. Ovieteme George, Arise News
Correspondent reporting from Dubai, has
claimed that he has not seen most of the
delegates at key events that he has
covered so far, not even at the Nigerian
Pavilion: at most, the President and a few
persons are the active ones at the event.
Our investigative journalists would do
well to check the shopping malls of
Dubai, or cozy hotel rooms where far
more pressing and important climate
change discussions may be taking place
among Nigerians!
Debo Ologunagba, speaking for the
PDP has complained about an “overbloated
delegation” brimming with
“cronies, political minions and mistresses
at huge expense to the nation”. Peter Obi
says Nigeria’s capacity to compete with
China should be in the area of
productivity, rather than the waste of
resources on delegates to conferences,
junkets, as well as unnecessary ceremony
and showmanship as a mode of
government behaviour - at a time more
Nigerians are living in multi-dimensional
poverty. Waziri Atiku Abubakar, PDP
Presidential candidate, says Tinubu is in
Dubai for an “owambe” party, an allcomers
jamboree that is ridiculous and
indicative of a lack of governance,
awareness and responsibility. The only
voice of protest that I have not heard is
that of the Nigeria Labour Congress
(NLC) and the Trade Union Congress
(TUC) who have been championing the
call for accountability in the management
of State resources. Someone has since
whispered to me that they too may have
their representatives in Dubai as part of
the COP 28 party!
The tone of the response by the
Federal Government is to dismiss the
protests as opposition gimmickry. I doubt
if this is politics. Temitope Ajayi,
spokesperson to the President, was the
first to offer a defence along the line that
most of the delegates in Dubai are from
the private sector and civil society
organizations who paid their way to the
conference to promote their respective
causes, and that in any case, it is standard
practice for all delegates to be registered
against their country of origin, in addition
to Nigeria being the most populous
country in Africa. Ajayi was responding
to reports that the Nigeria Council on
Climate Change has 54 persons in Dubai,
53 from the Ministry of Environment, 36
from the National Assembly, and the
Presidency - 138 and so on and so forth,
making a total of 590 on the government
list. Yesterday, the Minister of
Information, Mohammed Idris fouled up
the waters further in a press statement, in
which he argued funnily that the Federal
Government-sponsored delegation “is
made up of a total of 422 persons.” He
even tried to revise the breakdown in an
even funnier manner. Would anyone ask
the Minister, what exactly is the
difference between 422 and 590? Can he
tell Nigerians the difference between
Okeke and Okereke? Sometimes, it is
better for our leaders to keep quiet than
to open their mouths and embarrass
government. Minister Idris obviously
does not get the point. He even mixed up
the numbers in trying to “set the records
straight”.
COP 28’s official published list says
more than 97,000 participants are
attending COP 28 in person. In order to
justify his spin, he cuts the number to
“more than 70,000”! Very bad optics.
African leaders have often been criticized
for rushing to any International
Conference to mark the attendance
register whereas they should be insisting
that some of these conferences should be
Continued on Page 9 >

Opinion
DECEMBER 13 - 26 2023
TheTrumpet
Page9
Nigeria, revenue poverty
and taxation atrophy
When our forefathers came up
with the wise saying that
‘the earnest wish of potters
is for earth to be clay’, it was not only
worthy of commendation but also no
mean achievement. The beauty of the
adage is that, in some 1000 years to
come, it will still be relevant. So,
instead of concentrating on having
more wealth, the wisdom in it is
learning how to be frugal and
maximally productive with the little
that’s available.
Simple Economics: economic
activities breed taxation while taxation
without representation is problematic.
Generally, the mission of governments
is revenue generation which practically
translates to poverty on the people’s
part. Impliedly, there’s poverty of
revenue but taxation schemes are a-
plenty. Why? While taxation is
multiplying itself, revenue assurances
are shrinking. So, it is more or less a
case of revenue nowhere and it is a
problem for the State because the State
is supposed to be a basket of revenue
whereas it is atrophying.
Objective observers will agree with
yours sincerely that most governments
want more revenue, whereas
governance-seeking and people-loving
governments seek accountability.
People have come to governments and
said to themselves: ‘we are here to take
our own portion of the national cake.’
Well, it is to show that Nigeria is in
trouble and, until Nigerians come to
terms with the fact that government
exists only for itself, and that the
largesse of the government will always
go to certain people whether they (say
that they) are in government or not,
Nigeria won’t move forward. It is a
very terrible statement but that’s the
truth.
High crime rate! Beggars
everywhere! Slave-owners thriving!
We are a rich country with poor people:
what a paradox? The town is tough!
The people are hungry and need help!
But we can’t continue this way.
Something must give. We must arrest
the situation before it is too late. We
must not forget the invisible hands and
the unknown calculations of economic
fate. Besides, economic injections
don’t always determine the directions
of economic flow. Otherwise, all
inflations of the world would have been
controlled or confined ASAP.
Come to think of it, part of the
reasons adduced by the Bola Tinubuled
administration for the removal of
fuel subsidy was that there would be
more money for the States to carry out
BY ABIODUN
KOMOLAFE
the business of governance. So, one
wonders what has become of
governance in a State like Osun where
Governor Ademola Adeleke has, in less
than a year in office, started lamenting
“cash crunch”, to the extent of
suspending foreign trips for its top
officials. If we may ask, what’s the total
allocation to Osun from November 27,
2022 to date and how much did each
beneficiary of the State governmentfunded
foreign trips collect as estacode
and associated allowances? Of course,
the people deserve to know when the
Continued on Page 10 >
Nigeria’s Delegation at COP 28 in
Dubai
Continued from Page 8<
held in Africa. This year, Morocco has
sent a delegation of 823 persons to Dubai,
Kenya, 765; Tanzania 763, Ghana, 618!
Nigeria has a low GDP compared to other
countries, the country’s currency is over
N1,000 to the US dollar, inflation is
27.33%, Nigeria is planning to borrow
almost 100% to fund its 2024, 27.5
trillion, budget. Nigeria has now been
said to have the same number of
delegates with China in Dubai but while
China is the second largest economy in
the world, Nigeria runs a bankrupt
economy. It is so bad that Nigeria imports
traditional African batik, popularly
known as adire and cassava flakes, garri,
that our grandmothers used to produce -
from China! We even import toothpicks,
and yet we have 1,411 persons attending
a conference in Dubai spending to help
build the UAE economy. The Tinubu
administration tells Nigerians to tighten
their belts and make necessary sacrifices
for the country to regain and restore
hope.
Our leaders must lead by example.
Malawi is not in Dubai this year. This is
because its President, Lazarus Chakwera,
in November, decided to suspend all
foreign trips by himself and government
officials till March next year. He
cancelled his attendance at COP 28 as
part of a number of austerity measures
that he announced. Malawi recently took
a four-year loan from the IMF – about
$170 million. The country also devalued
its currency, the Kwacha, by 44%. The
country faces a cost-of-living crisis. The
President says the country needs to save
money, and the responsibility for doing
so includes everyone in government. In
Zambia, President Hakainde Hichilema,
upon assumption of office, refused to
collect salaries for eight months, stating
that he was more interested in serving the
people. He refused to buy new cars for
the Presidency. These are living examples
for Nigerian leaders to emulate. Most of
our people in Dubai COP 28 at
government expense have no business
being there. We can only hope that all the
1,411 persons attending the party in
Dubai will return home and not use the
opportunity of the UAE visa to “Japa.”
When all is said and done, Nigeria must
institute regular mental health checks for
public officials. I simply cannot
understand why as part of the main
highlights of Nigeria’s participation at
COP 28, top executives of two
government agencies with headquarters
in Abuja - the Rural Electrification
Agency (REA) and the National Agency
for Science and Engineering
Infrastructure (NASENI) are in Dubai to
sign a joint Memorandum of
Understanding and make a song and
dance out of it. This is the very height of
buffoonery and stupidity!
Now, the main event itself: the
success of COP 28 would depend on
what language is used in the final
agreement – whether there would be an
agreement to “phase out” fossil fuels or
to “phase down”. This is one of the most
controversial issues at COP 28 despite the
fact that 100 countries already support a
phase-out of fossil fuels. UN Secretary-
General Antonio Guterres told COP 28
last Friday that “the science is clear…Not
reduce. Not abate. Phase out with a clear
time frame.” Many other countries have a
different attitude. UAE’s Sultan Ahmed
Al Jaber, President of COP 28 was not
joking at all when he thundered at a highlevel
meeting that there is “no science
behind the demands for a phase-out of
fossil fuels.” His country is in fact
planning to ramp up oil production. He
insists that a phase-out decision would
block sustainable development.
Some progress may have been made
with regard to loss and damage funding,
Article 6, climate adaptation/financing,
but the looming failure to reach a
consensus on the future of fossil fuels by
December 12 may well be the major story
of COP 28. Other countries may not have
voiced their hypocrisy openly but there
are many of the privileged, developed
countries, and Big Oil companies that are
just window-dressing on climate issues
and the scale of the energy transition. In
September, the UK Prime Minister, Rishi
Sunak did a U-Turn on net zero
emissions. He had earlier approved 100
new licences for oil and gas drilling for
the North Sea. Green groups in the UK
were aggrieved; they subsequently
launched an attack on his North Yorkshire
home. He could not be bothered. It
should therefore not be surprising that the
UK has pledged just a mere $60 million
to the loss and damage fund. The US
even did worse: $17.5 million, and Japan
- $10 million. Payments to the Fund are
voluntary, keeping the devil at the centre
of the details.

Page10 TheTrumpet DECEMBER 13 - 26 2023
Opinion
Nigeria, revenue poverty and
taxation atrophy
Continued from Page 9<
rain started beating them.
It is a tragedy that nobody is
interested in the calculus of spending
our resources, not those in government,
not friends of the government. That’s
why Osun wants investors but will not
want to invest in research or what can
generate commerce. Added to it is that
the current government is running like
a vehicle with no headlamp, focus or
direction as to what to do. As a matter
of fact, it has no policy statement or
standpoint; and no coordination at all.
Otherwise, aren’t there opportunities in
Osun beyond gold mining, which can
be developed to the level of generating
income for the State? The same thing
goes for other parts of the country.
Without doubt, what we need is a
new thinking. It is the general thought
and it is correct. God is not going to
recreate the world. So, it is either we
discover it or make use of it. In terms of
mineral resources, it was created when
the wide, wild, world of war was
created, with an amount of resources
maybe yet to be discovered, or will
ever be discovered by man before the
end of the world. Therefore, it is a
question of vision on the part of the
leadership. That Nigeria has been a
victim of bad leadership is not only a
terrible equation but also valid
statement. It is our problem and it is a
double-edged sword. At the national
level, everybody wants to go to the East
to refine crude. This terrible thing,
which brought along with it wealth as
well as the repudiation of wealth and
other terrifying battles of life, is also a
double-edged sword.
The issue really is that Nigeria must
develop; and, for Nigeria to develop,
pieces of Nigeria must learn the
philosophy of development. Pure and
simple! Government should allow free
hands to run the economy. There
should be no compulsion of free flow
and there should be no repression of the
process. Once that is done, free
economy is assured and unhindered
development is guaranteed. Nigerians
are shouting ‘Tinubu’, but Tinubu is
just one man from Lagos. So, let a
Zamfaran be thinking of developing
Zamfara State and … Nigeria; and ditto
for an Akwa Ibomite who must be
thinking of developing, essentially
Akwa Ibom State, then Nigeria. Until
we are able to transform our thought
processes to that frame of mind, the
country will continue to be challenged.
Wait, unless there is an inflow of
solutions elsewhere or a lifeline
economic prosperity that flows into a
country’s economy from somewhere
else, Nigeria must undergo a turbulent
period, one time at a time. The actual
thing is to ask for a new orientation for
the entire country and, this time around,
it is more about orientation and purpose
on the part of the leadership and
expectations on the part of the
followership. Leadership has to be
tasked. It has to be focused and
responsible. Our challenge as
Nigerians is that we cannot afford to be
careful because we do not even have
the knowledge.
As things stand, Nigeria is in dire
need of goals-targeted and goalsdelivered
leadership. So, let our leaders
swallow their pride and make Nigeria
work. Promises of a better tomorrow
for dear country are sweet words to the
ears but let them push narratives and
characterizations that can first and
foremost help put food on the table of
the masses. Let the government
evaluate the people’s needs with a view
to putting in place life-saving
programmes. That’s why the soon-tobe
resuscitated National Homegrown
School Feeding Programme by the
Tinubu-led administration is a step in
the right direction. According to
Yetunde Adeniji, the Senior Special
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Assistant to the President on School
Feeding, the Programme would “cater
for over 10 million pupils across the
country” and it would “ensure that no
child in each public school is left
behind.” In her words, “the school
feeding initiative under the President’s
Renewed Hope Agenda is targeting
pupils from Primary One to Three
across Nigeria. It resonates with the
sentiment that every child deserves the
opportunity to flourish and contribute
to the nation’s development.”
Lastly, congratulations to Zacch
Adedeji, for the confirmation of his
appointment as Chairman of the
Federal Inland Revenue Service
(FIRS) by the Senate. It’s no doubt a
call to duty, for the tasks before
Nigeria’s Tax Chief and other handlers
of the country’s fragile economy are
enormous. From the East to the West,
and from the North to the South, they
deserve Nigerians’ support to succeed
in that area of governance, because tax
evaders will see and treat them as
enemies while indulgence on
government’s part will only spell
deepening poverty for the populace.
May the Lamb of God, who takes
away the sin of the world, grant us
peace in Nigeria!

DECEMBER 13 - 26 2023 TheTrumpet
Page11

Page12 TheTrumpet DECEMBER 13 - 26 2023
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DECEMBER 13 - 26 2023 TheTrumpet
Page13

Page14 TheTrumpet DECEMBER 13 - 26 2023
Opinion
Still on the Wike-Fubara feud
By Abiodun Komolafe
If we go back to the history of
Nigeria, the truth is: dear
fatherland has learnt nothing. In
the days of Obafemi Awolowo and
Ladoke Akintola, this was how they
started inventing stuff that had never
been in existence; and that has
continued to trouble the Nigerian
State, even till this day. Therefore,
what’s yet unclear to the likes of the
Minister of the Federal Capital
Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, and
his protégé, Governor Siminalayi
Fubara of Rivers State is that, since
society is like a cyclical entity, the
chicks will always come home to
roost. Since what goes around
comes around, whether Wike, who
was Governor until May 28, 2023,
has his way or Fubara forces his way
through, whatever it is now will
surely come back.
Nigerians must learn that, if we
crave a just society, there is a price
for it. So, whosoever wins an
election should be sworn-in; and
whosoever loses should go home
and prepare with a view to reclimbing
the horse that has fallen
him or her. If we don’t have that
understanding, if it is not
internalized and, most importantly,
if it is all about power at all costs,
then there will always be problems
of unimaginable proportions to
contend with. That’s what’s
happening to the political gladiators
in Rivers State. Since nobody wants
to lose, doing the careless
permutations and reckless
realignments with the winning
forces has been the catalyst for
Nigeria’s sorry pass. In Nigeria,
governance is secondary, if not
tertiary, while self is primary, and
the ultimate. That’s why, even the
villagers are getting used to high
figures. The prices of our cars for
official duties are in billions of Naira
and expenditures over some few
things are in trillions. But there is
nothing to show for them. So, what
type of society is ours? Look
around: the roads are horrible and
infrastructures are non-existent. As
a matter of fact, one can take
Wike and Fubara
segments and keep writing.
There is a serious lesson in the
Wike-Fubara feud: when one aligns
with a force just to achieve one’s
goal, one must be cautious of how
one invests in that goal. For
example, when was their agreement
solidified? One doubts if it’s up to
ten years. But look at how it has
faltered and fallen like a pack of
cards? Well, Wike may not yet
understand that power calculus is a
very dicey thing: once you are out of
power, your power turns to powder.
But again, when was Fubara brought
in that he has grown wings to the
extent of showing his true colours?
What has he swallowed within such
a short period of time that he now
wants to bite the finger that fed him,
so soon? Why didn’t he do that
when he was campaigning and
begging the people, including Wike,
for votes? Yes, Fubara should have
told Riverians not to vote for him
because of Wike but because of what
he (Fubara) was capable of doing.
Had the then Governorship
candidate been bold enough to tell
that to the people - and the people
voted for him - he would not have
been under Wike’s shackles.
Incontestably, there are
inevitabilities of certain events in
life. The philosophers attempted to
unravel them but they couldn’t.
Even the scientists had to quickly
agree to some certain things that lie
in the hands of fate which are
beyond the understanding of mere
mortals. The First Republic lasted at
the backbone of the practice of
politics in Great Britain. So, when
situations that were not typically
similar to our own homegrown
political incidences started arising,
problems started showing up. For
example, ‘Operation Wet e’ was
never in Britain; and ditto for the
‘Wild, Wild West’. The Awolowo-
Akintola fracas, which once defined
politics in Western Nigeria, didn’t
happen in Britain. It’s because
Nigeria’s leaders could not match it;
and … that signaled the doom of the
Continued on Page 15>

Opinion
DECEMBER 13 - 26 2023
Still on the Wike-Fubara feud
TheTrumpet
Page15
Continued from Page 14<
First Republic.
Back in those days, the
Awolowos of this world had
examples from other climes,
especially Great Britain to fall back
on. In other words, they always
found examples in the West. As
such, politicians of that era were
under obligations to obey or
conform to the doings of the Party
because there were examples to
draw from. It’s not that it was easier
to do so, it’s because they had no
choice.
Indeed, that’s where the Whites
are wiser. They determine what
happens from the Crown to the
Government. They see themselves
as certain special people who run the
affairs of the State and, be it at work
or in the church - in everything they
do - they conjure their thinking
around the fact that they’re going to
give an account of what they do here
on earth to a superior power,
whether they like it or not. Over
there, the Judge is not just the Judge
because the system has so made
him. Instead, he is the Judge on
behalf of the people and he or she
will give an account. Indeed, that’s
what regulates that society.
Go to Britain! The Lord
Chancery has a responsibility to the
King, not the Prime Minister. So, the
Prime Minister cannot just wake up
one day and decree that a Brewery
be built in Ijebu-Jesa, my Native
Nazareth. No, it doesn’t go that way!
Those people are not used to that
arbitrariness. Theirs is a clime where
orderliness reigns supreme; and that
has become a tradition. They have a
regime of usages that nobody, even
when he or she wakes up from the
wrong side of the bed, can just
deviate from. It will be strange to
them. Nigeria’s problems emanated
- subsequently became aggravated -
because, culturally, all the laws and
the norms being practiced in Nigeria
were foreign in context and content.
Wike and Fubara
As a matter of fact, they were
migrated social structures.
Politics contains an attachment,
and that attachment is on its own a
whole independent and different
ballgame. When the man, Fubara
and Wike were doing their things
and plotting their graphs, it was not
in the open and it was not debated
democratically. Surely certainly, the
fallout is what’s now coming out and
bringing everybody together. At that
time, the nitty-gritty of that
concocted connivance was never
meant for public consumption but,
now, it has become public property.
So, Nigeria’s political gladiators
should learn one or two lessons from
that. As Yorubas would always say,
‘Oro ti a ni ki Baba ma gbo, Baba
naa ni yio pari re’ (The father of the
house would be finally consulted to
resolve all the knotty issues that
were previously hidden from him).
As fate would have it, all that was
cooked in secret, Wike and Fubara
will now have to tell the world how
it all happened.
Tragically, while Wike may not
yet appreciate the structure and the
texture of the trouble in which he
has courted, Fubara may have yet to
grasp the shape and the size of the
amazing mess in which he is
conveniently immersed, all because
of the struggle for power and
relevance. Now that they have
signed up their individual destinies,
the clear prescription for Wike is to
learn some lessons in power from
Rotimi Amaechi, his predecessor in
office. Before Fubara also
contemplates outshining his master,
let him grab a copy of Robert
Greene’s ’48 Laws of Power’.
Otherwise, he may need to sit at the
feet of Chris Ngige a la Okija Shrine
to avoid finding himself in the cycle
of crises, again and again.
A word is enough for the wise!
May the Lamb of God, who takes
away the sin of the world, grant us
peace in Nigeria!

Page16 TheTrumpet DECEMBER 13 - 26 2023
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