presidential ambition Archives

The recent 5G license awarded to Mafab Communication Limited on 13^th December, 2021, a company owned by Dr. Musbahu Mohammad Bashir, by the Nigeria Communication Commission has once again brought to fore the widely held belief that Nigeria is a country where favouritism and other sentiments hold sway.

Since Mafab Communication Limited won a 5G license, tongues have been wagging around how a company with no history in telecommunication industry surfaced from the blues and won a coveted 5G licence. Another allusion in the front burner is the actual ownership structure of the company.

While some said Tinubu is a major stakeholder, the communication regulatory agency Nigeria Communication Commission has come out to say that due process was holistically followed in the award of the licenses. But whether Ahmed Bola Tinubu has stake in Mafab Communication Limited or not, one thing is certain. Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a master strategist who understands that morality has no place in power-game.

Tinubu is believed to have taken mastery of using fronts, associates, friends, and relatives to achieve anything he intends to achieve. Although, some would say Tinubu is an opportunist and a ruthless entrepreneur with ravenous appetite for wealth and more wealth. But who is not? We all are! Whatever impression anyone has about the Lagos big-man, it has not deterred him from vigorously pursuing his ambitions, the latest of it being to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari as president.

Allegations have been made that the former Lagos State Governor and the ruling party National chieftain is one of the veiled faces behind Mafab Communication Ltd, a company that suddenly emerged from the blues and raked in a license that big player in communication industry like Airtel could not get.

Curiously, a hitherto unknown Mafab Communication Ltd won one of the only two 5G, 2.3GHz spectrum band licenses offered for sale by President Muhammadu Buhari APC-Led Federal Government through the Nigeria Communication Commission after paying $273,600,000. Tinubu, according to a source who claimed to be in the know is a major stakeholder in Mafab Communication Ltd. Plans and discussions are already on top gear with some USA and China based telecommunication equipment suppliers that will supply and man the equipment for Mafab Communications Ltd, according to the latest update from the company.

Although the Nigeria Communication Commission has come to Tinubu’s defence through its spokesman, Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde that the subject company has the wherewithal to be awarded the said license, event that played in 2022 budget of the commission may be a cue to what played out. Ahmed Tinubu’s wife, Senator Remi Tinubu is the Senate Committee Chairman on telecommunication. Communication technology is key in every election. Mrs. Tinubu was believed to be instrumental in the passage of N633.4billion budget for NCC in 2022 fiscal year.

Tinubu critics have opined that Tinubu is a man who stubbornly brings his tomorrow before it comes. To that extent, they said that Tinubu ensured that his wife becomes the Senate Committee Chairman because of the role she would be needed to play in the telecommunication sector and by extension, in his presidential ambition. In fact, communication, and technology are everything for Tinubu in a time like this.

The question then arises, should Tinubu have a hand in Mafab Telecommunications Ltd 5G license, how can that favourably affect his presidential ambition?

5G network is an emerging network that has a lot of possibilities. It guarantees greater speed and access to information at a higher speed. As beautiful as the benefits, there are other sides that could be used to manipulate information to one’s advantage and to other’s detriment. That includes the fact that small antennas could be installed in places of interest such as street lights, buses, selected collation centers, and other places of interest. This implies that the antennas may not be centrally located and monitored, thereby giving room for manipulation by those who intend to use it to their own advantage.

Part of the challenges associated with 5G which could be cashed in for electoral manipulation is that it may become difficult to access these locations owned by various stakeholders, which would hinder the large-scale deployment of this type of antenna. What it means is that companies of interest may be used to site small antenna in areas that it may favour their paymaster. An integrated Internet of Things (IoT) could work in anyone’s favour. Again, this innovation, could as well mean that there would not be a cohesion in deployment of small cell antennas and this could be used in a candidate’s favour against others.

Furthermore, there have been allegations of security breach against Hauwei, one of the largest players in the 5G innovation. It is said that the software and firmware used in Hauwei’s devices can be leveraged for manipulation.

Whether Ahmed Tinubu has hand in Mafab Telecommunications Ltd 5G or not, communication and technology can be used for venal purposes

***Contributed by Light Shedrack, a public issues analyst and commentator. .***

I woke up one morning to my Facebook news feed ridden with all kinds of write up about governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State nursing an ambition to become the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

As usual, I thought it was one of the antics of the loafers who throng the government house to seek favour and in return write all kinds of junk. Yes, and I rightly thought. Long before then, about August 2020, a leaked WhatsApp chat circulated around social media in which Edward Onoja, Deputy governor of the state, was scolding one of their boys.

In the chat, Edward had told the boy to go and look for a decent job. This to me means a lot. Before I delve into why I called Bello ‘s ambition a joke, let me address Edward’s comment.

It appears they know that there is no future for their followers and praise singers. If following you is not a decent job, then why do you keep them? I though some youths learned from that exchange but alas I was wrong. As you read this, there are battalions of jobless layabouts singing the praises of the Bello-Onoja administration even though one of the key leaders of the administration doesn’t think it is a decent way of making money.

Secondly, by that statement, even Edward knows the Bello presidency, like an elephant, will not fly. It won’t even take off. He was so livid that he dismissed the boy’s service as ‘undelegated sycophancy’. Whatever that means.

It also means that to be an official sycophant, you have to be delegated. I believe that those delegated sycophants are those with a Tecno phone pad, a charger and N1,000 monthly data subscription to post edited pictures and write tragic English expressions such as ‘the people does not know’, ‘Kogi State is develops ‘ and other blunders.

The whole thing smacks of mediocrity. But that is beside the point. The point here is that for Bello, whose government is the most catastrophic in the new age home and abroad, to think of becoming the president of Nigeria, we have seriously lowered the bar of governance in Nigeria.

A man whose state groans under yawning underdevelopment, the people are dying , civil servants are unpaid, health care is zero, education is comatose and roads have become death traps, should have quietly resigned, apologised and walked away in shame.

But no! Nigeria, whose political algorithm is so warped that it throws up only the mediocre to rule over the excellent, might end up throwing Bello up as the preferred candidate for the mobocratic APC.

Let me give you an instance. Before I travelled home in December 2020, I was warned to come with my drugs and first aid. That was an indication that no hospital was working. The so called hospitals are glorified halls where doctors and patients meet and probably exchange greetings. And like one popular joint at Ajaka, they just say ‘How body’?

On the day I was travelling, I got to Okene about 6 PM but between Okene and Ajaokuta, I spent an hour or more. The road was like a scene of a bombardment. It was full of craters, patches and potholes. Thank God there was no rain.

Getting to the river Niger, the entire bridge was in darkness. The street lights are all dead. Same goes for the Ganaja junction to Ganaja village roads. It is in a terrible state.

Let us talk about accountability and probity. Belloe and his deputy who have ruled Kogi State as their fiefdom have not been accountable to anyone. And the malleable State house has let them get away with it. A point in case is the opening of the Confluence University of Science and Technology. Of what use is it to a state as starved as Kogi State to have two state Universities?

Have the Kogi State University staff been well taken care of? Whatever happens to opening a school of engineering, science and technology in the school and upgrading it to a standard university instead of the poor state that it is left in?

My major concern is Bello has decided to take all of us for a ride. Forget about the photo ops. On ground, Kogi state is grossly mismanaged. We thank God for people like the Kano State governor, Umar Ganduje, a no nonsense man, who tore away the posters of the joke called Bello’s presidential campaign.

My only concern is that the lean state resources are expended on such a joke when there are shortages of infrastructure on all fronts. Who is even talking of infrastructure when the state workers haven’t been paid?

I urge everyone to call Bello and his social media hirelings to give a reasonable account of his stewardship over the years. They would resort to insults and bullying. No one would say anything that would be convincing.

If Kogi state still has elders, they must caution Bello from wasting the resources of the state in chasing a world goose. God bless Kogi State.

Alex Agbo
Public Affairs Analyst
Lagos.

presidential ambition

Tinubu the veiled face behind Mafab Communication Ltd 5G license? alleged role of Remi Tinubu and how it could benefit Tinubu’s presidential ambition

Bello and his presidential ambition; a joke taken too far

I woke up one morning to my Facebook news feed ridden with all kinds of write up about governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State nursing an ambition to become the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.