BY 'Fisayo Soyombo
Year 2014 was high-octane for the average Nigerian journalist. Nothing else is expected of a year preceding the presidential election of Africa’s most populous country.
It was drama-filled as well. Drama is the term to ascribe to the defection of a country’s fourth most senior official from the ruling party to the opposition party. TheCable thrust itself into the drama early enough, exclusively reporting Aminu Tambuwal’s defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) far before the speaker confirmed it to the federal house of representatives.
There was the thrilling presidential primary of APC, which produced Muhammadu Buhari a former general and three-time presidential aspirant, as the party’s candidate.
From the emergence of Akinwunmi Ambode as Lagos governorship candidate (long predicted by TheCable), the firing and rehiring of Stephen Kesi as Super Eagles coach, to the death of Dora Akunyili, unarguably one of the most loved public officials ever in the history of the country, here is a rundown of how TheCable reported the biggest stories of 2014.
In ‘The man who would be next Lagos governor’, we reported on April 29, 2014, that Akinwunmi Ambode, erstwhile accountant-general of Lagos state, was fovourite to become governor, in the event that his party, APC, wins the election.
Seven months on, Akinwunmi is not yet governor but he has already won the party’s Lagos state primary to emerge its candidate for the 2015 election. If APC wins next year, Ambode is governor – as TheCable predicted.
It’s not the kind of story any conscientious journalist sends to his editor and then bolts to the beer parlour on a merrymaking spree. In mid-2014, TheCable exclusively obtained documents from the Central Family Court, First Avenue House, High Holborn, London, United Kingdom, which showed that Reverend Anita Odegwa Oyakhilome had filed a law suit against her husband and founder of Christ Embassy Church, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome. On August 29, 2014, we ran the story.
Anita’s case for divorce were “unreasonable behaviour” and “adultery” (inappropriate relationships with members of staff).
Oyakhilome was mum on the allegations for more than a week; and when he spoke, he denied his wife’s accusations, branding all that had been written about him as “crazy”.
In September, TheCable reported, exclusively again, that after failing in his bid to stall the suit, Oyakhilome was assembling his legal team for defence.
The fall of the Oyakhilomes is the fall of the church; their rise is the church’s, as well. Our hopes and prayers are the resuscitation of this once-blissful marriage. In 2015, we earnestly wish to report that the lawsuit has been withdrawn and the couple are back together. But then, that is Pastor Anita’s call!
On Friday, July 25, 2014, we reported that Nigeria was facing a potentially deadly crisis, following the death of Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian who initially got us all to believe he was in Nigeria for a conference. In the end, the crisis was deadlier than we had imagined. And a lot had happened, too, that the public did not know. One by one, we began to unearth them.
On August 4, we reported that one of the doctors who attended to Sawyer – later discovered to be Dr. Stella Adadevoh – had contracted the virus from him. Within 10 days, three Nigerians who had contact with Sawyer had died. Sawyer deliberately infected them.
We then uncovered, on August 9, how an official of the Liberian embassy in Nigeria, attempted to force First Consultants Hospital to release Sawyer, whom Jonathan would later angrily describe as “the crazy man”. If that had happened, Nigeria would surely still be battling the viral disease by now. That Liberian official was eventually recalled.
On September 24, we reported the confirmation of Onyebuchi Chukwu, the then health minister, that there was no longer any Ebola case in the country. Finally, on October 20, after a mandatory 42-day (two incubation cycles of the virus) wait, the World Health Organisation officially declared Nigeria Ebola-free.
In September, while waiting for the WHO, we published the touching account of Dr. Ada Igonoh’s battle (and survival) with Ebola. It is one of the most riveting, emotion-tingling real-life stories anyone would read anywhere in the world!
In all, 20 people contracted Ebola in the country. While 12 survived, the remaining eight died. Nigeria’s victory over Ebola was globally recognised. A rare plus!
In the early hours of October 30, we broke the news that security aides to Aminu Tambuwal, speaker of the federal house of representatives, were about to be withdrawn. It happened a few hours later. On Monday October 20, 2014, Tambuwal had registered as a member of opposition APC, effectively ending his membership of the ruling party. TheCable reported it, despite a statement from Imam Imam, the speaker’s aide, discountenancing reports of the defection.
Sensing a potential “political and legal” onslaught from his former party, Tambuwal soft-pedalled on the official announcement of his defection, but we didn’t recant our confirmation of his defection.
While Tambuwal was busy refraining from officially confirming his defection, TheCable was occupied with analysing the provisions of the law on his status as speaker or member of the house. In THE QUESTION: Can Tambuwal remain speaker? published on October 21, the constitutional procedures for the removal of a speaker were considered.
Finally, on October 28 – eight days after he actually joined APC – Tambuwal announced his decision to parliamentarians. But, strategically, he made the announcement only after the plenary, and after he had secured adjournment of the house to December 3!
There are primaries, and there are primaries. Just like it has been predicted that the 2015 presidential election could be the most keenly contested in the nation’s history, it was unsurprising that the lead-up to the emergence of the presidential candidate was intriguing. PDP had little excitement to offer. As far back as in September, it had named Jonathan its sole candidate for the election. It was settled.
But APC had a battle in its hands. It wanted to stage a primary, yet it wanted all aspirants to unite behind the eventual winner. It knew – and everyone knew – that should it be rocked by post-primary rancour, it stood no chance against the all-conquering presidential machinery of PDP. The heavyweights were deemed Muhammadu Buhari, who has contested every presidential election since 2003; and Atiku Abubakar, ex-vice president. But Rabiu Kwankwaso, governor of Kano; Rochas Okorocha; governor of Imo; and Sam Ndah-Isiaih, publisher of Leadership Newspaper, were also in the running.
On December 10, APC held a primary election for all five. If there was an award for the singular most-followed political event of 2014, surely, it would be this primary. TheCable treated it with no less seriousness. For the 22 hours that the primary lasted, we provided blow-by-blow updates, even in the dead of the night when some of the candidates and party leaders excused themselves to catch some sleep! And this was immediately followed by an extensive analysis of why Buhari won, defeating Kwankwaso – not Atiku, as widely expected – in second place.
TheCable’s readers so loved the coverage that some of them took advantage of the comment section to praise the team. One reader, Lawrence Ikem Fejokwu, particularly went the extra mile of sending a mail of commendation to the editor.
“Dear Editor, Just a quick note to commend you on the professionalism, thoroughness and comprehensiveness of your coverage. In particular, your non-stop coverage of the APC primaries with live multimedia updates is simply incredible! Given the constraints of technology in Nigeria, this coverage is even more impressive,” he wrote.
“I commend you and your team for the great work. I will continue to visit the website daily and pray you and your team will meet with great success as a reward for your superb work. Please share my commendation with members of your team, particularly those directly responsible for the live coverage of the APC presidential primary held at the Teslim Balogun Stadium. Kudos!”
Nothing more to add.
It all started in April. A photo of frail-looking Dora Akunyili, fondly remembered for her time at the helm of NAFDAC, was all over the Internet, prompting huge concerns about her health.
But she doused the concerns in a well-circulated FAcebook post, assuring her fans that she was attending the national confab only after clearance from her doctor. She was fine after “a major sickness”; she only needed to “re-grow some flesh”. Everyone was happy – or so it seemed – until May, when TheCable reported that she was flown to India for an “urgent treatment”.
Within three weeks, the rumour mill was in full spin. Some media platforms reported that Dora had died. Of course, she hadn’t; and a family member confirmed this to TheCable.
On June 6, TheCable reported that Dora was in a very critical condition. The following day, we reported her sad passing. Our story, OBITUARY: How misdiagnosis led to Dora’s death, published on June 8, shed light on her first major health scare back in 1998 and how wrong diagnosis from foreign doctors stalled the early discovery of cancer, which she eventually died of.
Our other reports highlighted her spirited war against fake drugs and how her son once told her she was burning people’s money, and how one of the doctors who performed her last surgery had told her to fix a thanksgiving service for her 60th birthday, assuring her that he would personally attend.
Dora died one month before that birthday thanksgiving – sadly.
After Nigeria was knocked out of the World Cup in Brazil, Stephen Keshi spoke exclusively with TheCable at the Brasilia Palace Hotel that he had resigned. Trust Keshi and his ego: his contract had actually expired and he was obviously trying to get another one. He eventually got a rolling contract. But hours after the Super Eagles of Nigeria struggled to secure a 3-1 victory over Sudan on Wednesday October 15, Stephen Keshi, coach of the team was sacked by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). TheCable broke the news right in the dead of the night. That was in the wee hours of Thursday, October 16. We quickly followed our news on Keshi’s sack with THE AFTERMATH: Who moved Keshi’s cheese?, which pithily examined his reign as Eagles coach and how he failed to spot that the time long came for him to move on.
Apparently, Keshi was not reading TheCable, because not only did he force his way back to the Eagles through President Goodluck Jonathan, his team failed to nail an AFCON qualification spot – and his stature as one of the continent’s finest coaches has now been greatly diminished.
October 17 was a very joyous day for Nigeria. According to the federal government, Boko Haram had announced a ceasefire, ending more than five years of gun and bomb attacks, and paving the way for the recovery of more than 200 girls abducted from Chibok on April 14.
Alex Badeh, an air chief marshal and chief of defence staff; and Mike Omeri, coordinator of the National Information Centre (NIC), who announced the ceasefire, “confirmed” that there was contact with the insurgents, who had already “announced a ceasefire”. Security sources told TheCable exclusively that the Chibok girls would be “released in batches”, beginning from Monday October 20.
But the joy was short-lived. That same day, Boko Haram resumed its attacks. While security chiefs told TheCable that the ceasefire had been marred by the factionalisation of the sect, Amni Wali, minister of foreign affairs, said the attacks were done by “other rogues and criminals” – rather than the core Boko Haram members.
Idriss Déby Itno, president of Chad, who was reported to have brokered the ceasefire deal, maintained that the arrangement was intact and those masterminding the attacks must have been “dissidents”. But whatever faint hopes of a ceasefire still nursed were extinguished by an Abubakar Shekau video threatening to kill ceasefire negotiator Danladi Ahmadu.
However, after Déby began shunning the Nigerian government’s enquiries on the ceasefire, a senior military officer told TheCable exclusively that Chad was fuelling the insurgency in the northeast in a bid to realise its long-running ambition of taking over the oil-rich Chad Basin.
On November 17, TheCable exclusively uncovered how members of the Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenges in the North made billions deceiving the president that they had contact with Boko Haram members. It was clear from all indications that there was no ceasefire. If anything, the fire of Boko Haram attacks had only been sealed.
On Wednesday December 17, Yemi Osinbajo, a professor of law and pastor at the Redeemed Christian Church of God, was announced as the running mate to Muhammadu Buhari, APC’s presidential candidate. Looks simple? Very far from it.
There were six days of intense politicking, during which even the ruling PDP slammed APC for finding it difficult to choose a presidential running mate. Although the position was zoned to the south-west, Rotimi Amaechi, governor of Rivers state, and Adams oshiomhole, governor of Edo state, attempted to gatecrash the party. Bola Tinubu, leader of the party, was himself believed to be interested, but he would later say he turned down the position after he was offered. Well, TheCable had predicted the eventual choice four months earlier, in a story titled EXCLUSIVE: APC considers Osibajo for VP slot, published on August 21.
In December, TheCable was one of the first to see My Watch, one of the most controversial memoirs ever written by a Nigerian former public office holder. In a series of exclusives on the book, TheCable revealed Obasanjo’s claim that his daughter Iyabo was induced by President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration to write the widely-publicised open letter against him; as well as his claim that he was deceived by Yar’Adua on the severity of the health travails that eventually led to his death.
We also revealed Obsanjo’s account of the struggles of Nuhu Ribadu, former chairman of the Economic and Financial crimes Commission (EFCC) with Yar’Adua, which he said was due to Ribadu’s refusal to marry Yar’Adua’s daughter. And we reported, exclusively also, how PDP governors visited Obasanjo in Abeokuta to beg him to delay release of the book until the conclusion of the 2015 presidential election. At the time of the visit, it was thought, erroneously, that the governors had gone to persuade the ex-president to support Jonathan’s re-election ambition.
TheCable was still in the business of releasing these exclusives when Buruji Kashamu, one of those indicted by the book, secured the order of an Abuja high court restraining publication of the memoir or extracts from it, as TheCable was doing. Obasanjo himself confiscated the book. Case closed.
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