Loud Whispers with JOSEPH EDGAR

Mudashiru Obasa: Let’s Not Throw Stones   

If there is anything I hate with a huge passion is being bullied. I do not like being bullied or anybody around me to be bullied. Mr. Obasa is a bully; simple and straightforward. What he just did, leading his assembly to reject 17 commissioner-nominees  submitted by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu is nothing short of bullying and an act designed to embarrass the governor in the public space.

One can understand rejecting may be two or three, but a whole 17 shows nothing but a huge disrespect of the office of the governor and a dare for that one to do his worst.

This is more telling especially if you consider the fact that they both belong to the same party which is now the ruling party both at the state level and also at the centre.

In response to very strong feelers from all quarters railing against the historic faux pas, he went on air and reportedly said “If you live in glass houses, don’t throw stones.” Na wa.

Well, we have heard all sorts of reasons as to why this happened. Reasons from religion, lacklustre performance during the last elections to even the very childish reason of being the governor’s friends. All of these fail very badly in covering the real reasons behind this mess up – a personal vendetta on the part of Mr. Speaker – a fight for the hold of the power structure within the party, thereby exposing its weakness and inordinate ambitions towards succession.

No matter what it is, Lagosians should be watching very closely because the state is just too important economically and otherwise to be enmeshed in a needless struggle between the Executive and Legislature. The consequences would be too dire to contemplate for the common man.

Donald Duke, My Sincere Condolences

Let me seize this opportunity to send my sincere condolences to my brother and ex-Governor of Cross River State, Mr. Donald Duke on the recent passing of his dear mother.

We here in Shomolu have received the news with muted respect. Mummy served Nigeria well by not only bringing to us the very handsome and charming Mr. Duke – from his looks, she for born am for Caribbean but she decide to born am for us-  she also  went ahead to instil in him very strong values and ethics that have made him one of the most distinguished and celebrated Nigerian leaders.

It is in this right that we here in Shomolu will be sending a high-powered delegation to the funeral. We are also observing a full day silence in her honour. All hotels, beer parlours, betting bars and shrines would be shut down on the day of her burial and the Duke of Shomolu would request to speak at her grave side, where he will deliver a four-hour homily that would come in songs, tears, and poetry as we send forth a very lovely and beautiful mother.

We stand by you, Mr. Duke and may God give your family the strength to carry on at this very hard time. After it all, when you are ready, you come and let me spoil you with very well cooked afang served by some of the most beautiful damsels in Shomolu. Come alone o. Thank you. 

Gabon and the Coup Next Door

You see, this particular coup weak me. We have to pull back and study it well before we shout. Mr. Tinubu has done well to announce that he is consulting with the African Union before making a pronouncement, because this one no straightforward o.

So, the Bongo family has held down the oil rich country for 50 years. They had even started grooming a successor and superintended a “baroo” election holding the country down to ransom and forging on it one of the most inept and corrupt regimes on the continent.

Yes, coups cannot be accepted and will not be encouraged but when the people have strangulated all democratic institutions in this their 50-year misrule, what other hope do the people have?

What we had in Gabon, was it a democratic government? It was an illegality and as such we must see this coup in a very different light.

This one hard o. We cannot support the coup even though it seemed to have kicked out an evil family with the support and full joy of the people, but supporting it will be laying a very bad and confusing precedent.

See us trying to fight in Niger Republic against the same thing and are here now in Gabon wanting to support the aberration that is a coup d’état.

This one pass me, so I will not say anything. Let me pass on this abeg. It’s not everything I will comment on.

Nyesom Wike: PDP, Call this Bluff

Mr. Wike is very dangerous to democracy. His position and public postulation serve to weaken very key institutions of democracy. Bestriding both political parties the way he is doing and with such pomp and arrogance will weaken both parties, throw up very spurious precedence and eventually lead to the collapse of democracy if we are not careful.

He has been appointed to the campaign council of both parties to the elections in Bayelsa State even though the APC has its own. He claims to have taken permission from the party to serve the government. He claims to serve Tinubu and not APC and has been making very dangerous utterances that remain very divisive and inimical to cohesion and growth.

My thinking is that, PDP should rise up and expel him. This should be done immediately. There is no other damage that Wike can do to PDP that he has not done. He has disrespected their rules, campaigned against them, funded opposition all in public glare and without any remorse.

Why is PDP afraid? Can someone ask them why?

Oba Otudeko: Let First Bank Breathe

Ordinarily, Baba should be resting in his villa. Instead of doing this, he is however orchestrating what is looking like the “last fight” of a very colourful career. His career over the long years has left many institutions gasping for breath and has majorly left “our” First Bank gasping for breath too.

When I think of First Bank and its unfortunate romance with Chief Oba Otudeko, the image that comes to my head is that of the wildlife documentary where a very beautiful and delicate gazelle is caught in a fight for its life with a very hungry lion. The gazelle will just be struggling, knowing fully well that it is a futile fight that would eventually end in victory for the lion who needs its flesh to survive.

That Oba Otudeko needs First Bank like that lion to survive is not something that can be disputed, hence his life-threatening battle to maintain control despite the many challenges he faces in this quest.

First Bank under his stranglehold has moved from a very vibrant and proud Nigerian heritage institution into a limp and very sickly baby. This humiliating turn for this once proud brand can be traced directly to the overarching influence of this lion king and all attempts to rescue this “our bank” over the years always sha falls flat.

The sad thing is that, chief’s holdings in this bank is so negligible that one is beginning to think how can one wield so much influence with less than 20% shareholding?

With trillions of naira in bad loans, a shaky standing in the system and a loss of leadership, First Bank has to be rescued. The rescue mission has started and is evidenced by the announced Rights Issue. This will give very credible stakeholders the opportunity to finally pull the bank out of the evil clutches of the “jerubabel” that has held the bank to ransom all of these years.

Let me quote an influential shareholder that spoke to me last week, “Edgar, leave the 80-year-old man alone. FBN means a lot to him and his family and I do not know whether to share sympathy or pity.”

My people, I cannot sympathise o. FBN means much more to Nigerians than one family. The jobs at risk, the fortunes of Nigerian shareholders at risk, the integrity of the financial system and the economy at large.

First Bank must be rescued. Simple. Thank you.

Temi Poopola: NGX Spreading Its Wings

The NGX under Mr. Temi Popoola seems to be spreading its wings and flying very strongly into the sky. Reports that we are getting show a tremendous increase in all performance indicators.

Let me quote some statistics for some of you that don’t understand these things: the All-Share Index has risen to 66.4 points breaking the 15-year record of 66.3 set March 5, 2008.  This according to analysts is as a result of the surge in banking stocks as investors rush to take advantage on the back of record earnings.

Market capitalisation also rose by closing at N39.6 trillion up by 0.51% up from N36.6 trillion last Monday. Year to date performance stands at 25.53%.

Some have ascribed this to some of Tinubu’s policies leading to the opening up of the markets with his reforms especially in the forex regime and the subsidy.

But a lot can also be ascribed to the new lease of life at the NGX. Mr. Temi now leads a new and invigorating team which has led to a quicker turnaround, seamless efficiency and better corporate governance. With a new board headed by my brother  Kwairanga and with people like Mohammed Garuba of Cardinal Stone and Nonso Okpala of VFD Group, the NGX is now the darling of investors seeking a refuge in the current economic headwinds.

It is this renewed confidence in the market that has seen this surge in investor response throwing up these record-breaking performances that we are seeing today. Well-done guys.

Patrick Doyle, I Agree Not with Thee

Veteran actor and bi-racial personality- Patrick Doyle has looked for trouble. Why I call him bi-racial? Na Itsekiri and Calabar man at the same time. Anyways, that is not the point, he just came out with a bold but very ineffective statement.

He has been reported to say that there is nothing that Burna Boy has done that has amounted to greatness. He claimed that before we call Burna Boy great, we should recognise such greats like Sunny Ade, Fela , Majek Fashek and the rest.

You see this argument used to lead to fights.  That was how the other day, I argued that Bolanle Austen-Peters is the mother of modern-day theatre, the people nearly cut my balls. They were arguing this Patrick Doyle lame argument and calling Hubert Ogunde and Duro Ladipo.

See, much as I respect and recognise very succinctly the role these late greats played in their fields, their contributions cannot in any way be compared to what we are seeing here o.

Apart from Fela or maybe Sunny Okosun at some point, most of these people — and also maybe Majek — never cracked mainstream. They all went abroad to play at small Nigerian concentrated venues and birthday parties which they called tours. They struggled but never ever got the world acclaim recognition that we are seeing today.

Even Fela never cracked mainstream but was very popular in the alternative music festivals that littered Germany, France and other such musical backwaters but never the huge arenas like Madison Square Gardens that these boys are filling up today.

Burna has achieved greatness in all its ramifications. Greater than Fela or any other African artistes of anytime. Filling up giant stadiums, generating millions in dollar sales, global facial and branding recognition and eventually winning the Grammys. Baba Doyle abeg that na greatness my brother.

He came into Lagos last December and pulled in over 30,000 people to Eko Atlantic City for example. Please, how do you even define your greatness? Let’s start from there first.

No matter the definition, Burna Boy has ticked whatever boxes you want to throw at him. His influence is global and not limited to a region.

Abeg, let me stop here before one Baba from una generation come and beat me. Please let’s not denigrate these boys, they are doing far, far and above anything anybody has done in the past. Go and watch Asake, Davido, Wizkid at the O2, pulling a crowd like the world cup final. Mr. Doyle, abeg mind yaself.