By Steve Osuji

The traipsing horde of marabouts represent a mortal paradox. They are his beginning and they are about to be his end. They are like the stubborn flies that are lowered along with the casket.

If Khalifa Atiku  Abubakar’s life has run like a fairytale, the political aspect of the last four decades or so, has been an Arabian serenade.

The boy from rustic Jada, around the Adamawa-Cameroon borders, providence must have made him for the sole purpose of leading his people. Imbued with innate qualities from the onset, he has continued to direct the affairs of his people at every level of his life.

Leadership therefore comes to him as a divine entitlement and not a ceremonial bequeath. Not an endorsement he must crave. Not a turban he must wear.

His gait, his mannerisms and all the appurtenances of a deity, he wears them like  babanriga.

ENTER THE MARABOUTS

Of course, royalty is sauce for marabouts. The one cannot do without the other

For many years, the fable has cemented about the Khalifa’s horde of marabouts. They are said to be a permanent part of his existence. They visit from some of the most exotic monasteries.They serenade him ceaselessly, offering prayers and supplications to Allah on his behalf so he doesn’t have to take the trouble to do so, or be troubled at all.  They make angelic appearances and ululations to keep his very presence holy and consecrated. Every malevolent adversary to the Khalifa is intercepted at the supernatural levels.

They also whisper to him how he would ultimately lead Nigeria. For about 30 years, this message has been reinforced so much that it has virtually become part of their  worship songs.

ATIKU probably listens to no other song or any contrary message.

As long as Allah lives, Khalifa will rule Nigeria. Unless of course he declines the diadem.

There are also the urban marabouts like Dele Momodu (and lately, Kenneth Okonkwo.) Momodu is best described as a GBAJUE strategist who operates from five-star hotels. He’s those kinds of rogue consultants who would borrow their clients wristwatch to tell them time and send them a fat  invoice.

Therefore, it’s only for a pernicious motive such as described above that  a rational and supposedly educated adult like Momodu would insist an Atiku is the best candidate to lead over 200 million Nigerians in this age. To think that Momodu once contested for the same seat he now vows only an octogenarian is deserving of today.

A man visibly incapacitated by age and ailments. Not many serious minded people support this Atiku bid.

Hakeem Baba-Ahmed,  Chairman of ACF recently weighed in thus: “As for my senior brother Alhaji Atiku Abubakar…. I respected his persistence and his decades of experiences running for president. But for 2027, it’s a firm NO from me.

“At his old age, he should have taken a bow after 2023, transitioned into an elder Statesman role, and thrown his weight behind a younger, very competent candidate with a fresh anti-corruption mindset.

“Instead, we see the same recycled playbook, the same alliances of convenience, and the same transactional politics tagged around him.”

HOW ATIKU DERAILED THE ADC GRAND Prix TRAJECTORY

If you believe Allah has already made you president even before the ballot is cast, nothing would make you step down for any opponent, even if the life of the coalition depended on it.

This explains why Atiku dug in when ADC emerged.

It soon became obvious to all that the ticket wasn’t negotiable. It was in his back pocket from day one!

No logic of geography, equity, competence, capacity, age, ail, hailstones and hellfire would permeate Atiku’s head. This was the time long foretold by the shrouded fairies.

ENTER PETER OBI AND THE EASTERN BLOC

Instead of backing down, the wily, old,  political fox dug in. He rallied the old guard of Oriental politics. He co-opted them into convincing their star boy, Peter Obi to run with him.

He convinced them that half bread was always better than none. He asked them the last time an Igbo man was in Aso Rock? Never!

Not since Aso Rock was built!

Is there any other route to the Villa than the North? No.

Is there anyone living today who could hitch them a ride to the promised place if not the Khalifa? None.

His gambit worked. On the eve of this year Obi and Igbo grandees made a historic entry into the new coalition.

Momentum welled instantly and ADC suddenly became the cause celebre.

OBIDIENTS kicked – Obi or nothing  – and the movement shook to its seams. Khalifa maintained his trademark ice cool!

HOW APC BUBBLE BURST

With Obi seemingly delivered and  tucked in the bag, Atiku and his inner Marabouts must have held an elaborate thanksgiving! They had never been wrong, they must have sang through the night. The numbers have added up at last.

But they neglected to cross the T’s and dot the I’s. They got arrogant already.

They foreclosed negotiation; they gave no inches – not to Obi, not to Ndigbo, not to obidients. They foisted an Atiku Show as they began to play down the Obi Mo!

Atiku couldn’t be held down to give an inch or make concrete commitments at least on paper. For the Igbo elders he cajoled to ‘rein in’ Obi, he couldn’t  guarantee them an affidavit sealing  a one-term of four years. They bought time, they delayed to make the time lapse so that decamping would become impossible.

Atiku began to live in  Aso Rock in his head, already, instead of taking Obi to his inner sanctum swear before him as Obasanjo did to him the other day…

THE ASO ROCK IN ATIKU’S HEAD

Atiku’s Arise TV interview last April broke ADC’s camel’s back. His body language was already presidential. He reduced Obi and his movement to merely eastern votes. And Rabiu Kwankwaso as a mere  Kano champion. He of course presented as master of the north and the last pan-Nigerian!

That interview gave Atiku away for what he really is: an obdurate and insufferable autocrat.  He thought he had captured the ADC and all the men were backed to the wall as all party doors and windows were closing.  He was already baring his fangs…

HANDWRITING ON THE WALL

Of course Obi, Kwankwaso and their followers saw through Atiku’s bait, for that’s what it is. Atiku would become a barracuda if he became president. He would run a one-man show. He would stake for two terms and he would frustrate all the coalescing elements out of ADC in less than less than two years to carry through his plan.

ATIKU’S LAST GAMBIT: NOT TOO LATE TO MAKE HISTORY

If Atiku could chase away all his marabouts today, both the spiritual and urban. If he swallows his pride yet, forgoes his ambition and leads his supporters to forge one formidable opposition going into the 2027 presidential election he may still have waged one foot in the door of history.

The grandswell  movement would signpost a turning point not only for Nigeria, but represent a glorious finale for Atiku.

His epitaph shall then read: HERE LIES ATIKU ABUBAKAR, THE FATHER OF NEW NIGERIA!

• LASTLINE: ANOTHER OFFICER DOWN, WHEN WILL THE NIGERIAN ARMY ACT?

It seems Nigerian army officers are particularly being targeted and cut down with utmost ignominy.

After the rather humiliating incident of the abduction of Maj. Gen Rabe Musa and his wife in Borno last June, one would have thought the Nigerian military would read the riot act.

But a few days ago bandits struck again killing another officer, Col. Abdulsalam Udeh in an ambush as he arrived at his home  from work.He resisted abduction and died in the process. His wife and driver were also injured.

Hoodlums used to be in awe of the military. Today, the fight is being carried home to the military officers.

Let the military do a deep soul search. Let them determine and set a deadline to end and indeed, stamp out terror in Nigeria.

The war against terror has lasted for embarrassingly too long. And in all the conversations, there’s no word about resolution or closure. In fact we can’t see any presidential strategy on the table to end the war.

Perhaps the Nigerian military needs to go to Ghana and study why terror is not as prevalent there as in Nigeria.

By Azu Ishiekwene

If the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) was sick when Professor Ishaq Oloyede was appointed Registrar 10 years ago, it might have been said that even great institutions have their difficult times. That’s not unusual. But JAMB wasn’t sick.

It was dying and becoming so irrelevant that those it was supposed to serve were wishing it dead. JAMB was not just a problem; it had become the problem of gaining admission to higher institutions, with heartbreaking stories of thousands of candidates for whom hard work and good WAEC grades no longer seemed to matter.

Beating the system became the sport, and fraudulent coaches, often assisted by JAMB insiders, established “miracle centres” with large signboards offering hallelujah promises of how to pass your exam without sitting for it. We can smile now, but believe me, it was not a laughing matter.

Centralised national school placement was not always the thing. Before JAMB was created in 1978, universities and other higher institutions conducted their own admissions.But once JAMB was established andadmissions were centralised, schools’ discretion was curtailed.

As the demand for higher education outstripped supply and public and private higher schools proliferated, standards collapsed.The regulator, which was supposed to serve candidates, began to serve itself instead, feeding off the misery of desperate candidates.

It was at this point, wheredesperation met corruption, that Oloyede was appointed JAMB registrar.

The power of one

In an article entitled “JAMB: Dirty Secrets of a Cut-off War,” which I wrote nearly a decade ago, I cited how the broken admission system was only able to cater to the needs of about 25 per cent of largely qualified students who applied yearly, and how registrars and admission officers were worsening the problem by trading in cut-off marks.

As if the problem outside was not serious enough, the problem inside JAMB at the time was even worse. As I wrote in an article last year, one of the biggest dramas in the institution’s 48-year history unfolded two years after he was appointed registrar, following his exceptional record as vice-chancellor of the University of Ilorin.

JAMB introduced computerised examinations in 2014, but the system, still in its infancy, was marred by delays, confusion, and scratch-card fraud.

Oloyede ordered an investigation, which found that the place was infested with snakes, including boa constrictors in human form, that had allegedly swallowed millions of naira from scratchcardsales.

Snake-charmer’s den

One Philomina Chieshe, a clerk at JAMB’s Benue State office, “swallowed” N36 million from the sales of scratch cards and told investigators and the court that it was indeed a snake that had mysteriously devoured the money.

Seven yearsafter she was arraigned before Justice Peter Affen at the FCT High Court, Abuja, in 2019, neither Chieshe nor any of the reptiles in the scratch-card hole have been held accountable for the fraud. Apart from swallowing N36 million, which was equivalent to $100,000 at the time, the snakes also appear to have swallowed the court and the prosecutors.

This was the mess Oloyede inherited – a regulatory institution no longer fit for purpose, but never short of scandalous, self-serving ingenuity.

The original idea of JAMB, which, interestingly, was recommended by vice chancellors ofseven federal universities at the time, was to serve as a clearinghouse. Multiple admissions by candidates were creating a problem for the growing number of those seeking admission. While some candidates were offered multiple admissions and ultimately used only one, other qualified candidates were shut out. So, JAMB was a child of necessity.

Band-Aid or what?

As a sworn enemy of centralised systems, which often breed corruption and tyranny, I expressed the view, even in the early days of Oloyede’s tenure,that the system was unreformable.I thought the best we could hope for was a Band-Aid before JAMB finally collapsed under the weight of its corruption.

Oloyede’s tenure has proved that occasionally, elephants dance. Over the last 10 years, the board has transformed from a snake-infested wasteland of corruption and mediocrity into one of Nigeria’s most responsive and better-run public institutions. To promote openness, accountability, and inclusiveness,it has expanded the decision-making process to include independent and other professionals to monitor and evaluate the board’s activities, particularly the UTME exam.

A new sheriff

Of course, some problems remain, like the increasing and more sophisticated cases of impersonation and the challenges presented by the misuse of Artificial Intelligence (AI), parents’ active involvement in examination fraud, and the rising cost of managing examinations, which could be up to four times the present cost of N4 billion, when the Federal Government’s review ofthe allowances and benefits of civil servants takes effect in October.

The new registrar, Professor Olusegun Aina, will find, as he takes over, that sooner than later, JAMB may be heading into a serious financial crisis due to rising operational costs. Unless steps are taken, it could move from a regulator that remitted over N55 billion to the federal treasury – compared to less than N60 million the year before Oloyede took office – to an institution that will struggle to survive financially.

In the months ahead, the examiner will be facing its own test, its own JAMB question, namely: how will it square its finances without raising examination fees?

As Oloyede leaves office, he leaves behind a legacy of transforming one of the most lethargic public institutions into a regulator that combines fairness and transparency, especially using biometric controls, CBT centres, e-PINS, USSD, and other digital payment systems.

Today, JAMB operates as one of Africa’s largest and most centralised university admissions systems, through the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS), which has been recognised for improving efficiency and transparency in admissions.

Looking ahead

His sterling tenure has not completely cured my pessimism about centralising admission, especially in a country like Nigeria, already chafing under the tyranny of many things federal. Yet, Oloyede has demonstrated that where there is a will, it’s possible to find a way and make a difference.

His tenure and the public appreciation of his work, even during very difficult times – notably staff negligence that nearly marred the 2025 UTME exam – show that public service can indeed advance the greater public good. His successor has the unique advantage of building on a firmer foundation; yet, that advantage can quickly become his albatross if he mismanages it.

Ishiekwene is the Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP and author of the book, Writing for Media and Monetising It.