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BY BOLAJI AFOLABI

While many citizens of Zamfara were surprised, others were shocked by the reality that their beloved State will be 30 years in a few months. Worse hit were the young adults in tertiary institutions and post-primary schools, the working-class category, the unemployed, and the increasing group of almajiris who daily, traverse the streets of Gusau and other towns in search of daily meals. Governor Dauda Lawal inaugurated a central planning committee to mark the State’s three decades of existence; scheduled for December 2026. With the extinction of History in our schools, and given the uninspiring commitment of successive governments to education, many people – young and old – may be excused for not being conscious of the advancing-age of Zamfara. With the depth of infrastructure decay, disturbing unemployment, corrosive poverty, pervasive hunger, debilitating hardship, unabated insecurity, and wholesale pauperization of the citizenry, particularly in the last few years such a reaction was expected.

Trust the average politician to latch on any issue for self-adulation, chest-pumping, and ego-tripping, the media handlers of Lawal did just that. They did not allow the opportunity to sneak out of exploitation. They feasted on it for maximum mileage. To prepare the grounds for the “Zamfara-birthday” the media space; particularly the social media was awash with opinions, commentaries, and articles about the “great works” in the State. Analysts who seemed to be in a literary contest tried to out-do, out-wit, and out-shine one another to burnish the image of Lawal, and market his achievements to all Nigerians. After reading one of those articles, Mallam Abubakar Maigari, a civil rights activist quipped, “I very much doubt if this person went round the entire State, it thus appears that he merely weaved the information given to him in beautiful prose.” Comrade Suleiman Bello, a colleague of Maigari commended Lawal for, “a few of the positive things in Gusau, but there is nothing near the imagery being painted in the article.”

Having stumbled on the advocacies, there was an urge to interrogate the veracity of these milestones. It grew in propensity and became inevitable. Perhaps, the discovery that Zamfara, which was created on October 1st, 1996, by former Head of State, Late General Sani Abacha; on the same day with Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Gombe, and Nasarawa States increased one’s desire to probe further. Also, with some knowledge about the political culture of the people, and with the 2027 General Elections fast approaching, one concluded that it was necessary to go, even deeper. The solution on how to go about it came in the most unexpected manner. A few days ago, the writer had a chance meeting with three people – who were part of a team that embarked on a one-week political fact-finding tour of the State.

Insisting on their apolitical status and professionalism, they agreed to share slices of their findings on the condition of anonymity. Taking turns, the “three wise men” spoke about the political situation in Zamfara – particularly, with the general elections fast approaching. As curtain raisers, they lamented about the level of insecurity in the State, which has distorted, if not eroded the agrarian vocation of people in the hinterland. For them, it was a misnomer to discover that a state with the moniker; “farming is our pride” are in a quandary as swathes of arable farmlands are deserted by the people – not for laziness but to protect and preserve lives. They claimed that the level of political consciousness of the people was thousands of miles beyond their hitherto perceptions.

Indeed, a picture of disenchanted citizenry, overarching workforce that are disillusioned by the antics of the political class was painted. The realities on ground outweigh the “eldorado” communicated by government apologists. A member of the group declared that, “across the State, you meet angry, hungry, and pained populace who are eagerly hopeful that their basic needs would be addressed. It may interest you to know that aside from the urban renewals executed by the present administration, nothing meaningful is happening in other towns across the State. From the Central to the West and North Senatorial Districts, the economic squalor, poverty, hunger, hardship, and massive unemployment gives serious concerns. Sadly, politics is the only thriving business in Zamfara; as the vast majority scramble for the crumbs from Leaders – which itself, portends danger to meaningful development.”

Contrary to the calculations and conjectures by political trackers about the state of play in Zamfara, Nigerians may be in for a shocker. Another member of the trio said that, “the present realities shows gradual shift among voters, such that the eventual results of the next elections may confirm the awareness and understanding of the populace to politics and national issues. The fact is that there is schisms in the ruling APC, as Lawal, Senator Yari, and Minister Matawalle are allegedly not together. There are purported issues of mistrust, mutual suspicions, power-tussle, egoistic tendencies, and distortions of political hegemony. While they are fully committed towards the re-election of President Bola Tinubu, the reverse is likely at the Governorship polls. As it is, Nigerians should not be surprised if the outcomes of next year’s elections differ from projections.”

Continuing, the last of the “three wise men” added, “forget the photo-ops of the men splashed in the media, the gulf between them is huge and cannot be dismissed. From reports, it is almost impossible for truce, because it is about present and future political power and relevance. These are known to the majority of the Zamfara populace; though many are diplomatic about it. The clamour for change of guards in Zamfara is real, and gradually takes a life of its own. For many people, having failed in guaranteeing security, Lawal does not deserve re-election. However, two discoveries were shocking. One, Tinubu may score more than the mandatory 25% or win Zamfara, outrightly. Two, the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) appears to be the new darling of the people for the Governorship elections, as it is gaining more momentum, and new membership.”

Two events that happened recently, somewhat confirms the issues discussed above. Following his appointment as the Director-General of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, a grand home-coming was organized for Yari by his supporters in Gusau. While addressing the media after a strategic session with his political group, Yari was unequivocal about ensuring that Tinubu wins comfortably in Zamfara. However, he was diplomatic about Lawal. A few days later in Kaduna, Matawalle after an engagement with his political group, took a similar strand. If these scenarios are carefully analysed, it is obvious that both men, who possess commendable followers in Zamfara are not only in sync, but wholly committed towards delivering the State to Tinubu. Stretched further, one can safely conclude – for now – that they seem pococurante to the Lawal re-election project.

In many ways, the frank comments by a senior member of staff of the State’s bureaucracy who pleaded anonymity was instructive, “my schedule involves covering all the LGAs, which I do regularly. Forget whatever those around His Excellency are saying or the message they are telling Nigerians, the facts on ground is that the people are looking beyond him. They are not happy with him and his leadership style. They have concluded to withdraw their support for him. For now, the people are gravitating towards the PDP, which has organic members and support bases throughout Zamfara. Also, those you may call the “original Leaders” of Zamfara politics seems to have resolved to win back executive power from Lawal, described as an ‘outsider’ whose path to victory in 2023 they believed was accidental and unfortunate.”

True, these are interesting times in the politics of Zamfara State, even as the 2027 general elections beckons. In almost a decade, two political developments has shown that the State is one that deserves keen interest and magestrial studies. PDP, the main opposition party, won executive power through the Courts and Ballot in 2019 and 2023 – with Matawalle and Lawal being the major beneficiaries. Are voters going to replicate the damning electoral flooring served Matawalle in 2023 to Lawal in 2027? Are we going to see, once again the triumph of people-power as the consequence for inertia, insensitivity, and imbalances in the polity? Will the power equation be retained and strengthened? Will there be reclaiming of executive power by the legacy group of political egg-heads?

* BOLAJI AFOLABI, a Development Communications specialist was with the Office of Public Affairs, The Presidency Abuja.

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By Max Amuchie | The Sunday Stew

There is something almost deceptively ordinary about a notebook.

It is paper. A surface for writing. It may sit on a desk, in a drawer, beside a bed or, under less ordinary circumstances, in a prison cell.

Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks are one of the great reminders that the physical circumstances in which an idea begins do not determine the distance it can travel. Written during his imprisonment between 1929 and 1935, they entered the intellectual archive of the 20th century.

The lesson is not that every notebook becomes the Prison Notebooks. It is simpler than that.

An idea has to begin somewhere.

Sometimes in a university. Sometimes in a laboratory. Sometimes in a newsroom. And sometimes, quite simply, at a desk.

This is where what I call the 4 Enoughs of the Sundiata Post Model begins.

The desk is enough to begin.

The institution is enough to sustain.

The archive is enough to preserve.

The world is enough to test.

The Four Enoughs is the philosophy of knowledge creation, transmission, continuity, preservation and testing that underpins the Sundiata Post Model. It describes the journey by which an idea moves from individual initiative to institutional continuity, from continuity to archival preservation, and from preservation to engagement with the wider world.

They emerged from the Sundiata Post Model, but they are not confined to it.

The Model Behind the Philosophy

The Sundiata Post Model began with a practical question: can an independent newsroom become more than a producer and distributor of news? Can it systematically integrate journalism, original research, conceptual innovation and scholarly dissemination to become a knowledge-producing institution?

The Model’s answer is architectural: the Media Operations and Knowledge Operations engines; the Realm of the Long Term; the Seven Pillars of institutional endurance; and the Triple Institutional Architecture connecting Sundiata Post Media, the Sundiata Post Intelligence Unit and a foundation for wider civic impact.

The 4 Enoughs is a philosophical distillation of that architecture.

The word ‘enough’ is deliberate. It does not claim each stage is sufficient for the whole life of knowledge. It claims each provides what is necessary for the stage it represents.

The desk is the point of departure. The institution is continuity. The archive is memory. The world is the arena in which the idea is examined, challenged, adopted or rejected.

The Desk Is Enough to Begin

We associate knowledge with institutions — universities, laboratories, publishers, think tanks. These matter. They provide resources, standards, legitimacy.

But they are not where every important question begins.

A question may occur to someone sitting alone. A pattern may become visible to a journalist. A writer may decide that a reality deserves to be represented differently.

The first act is often private before it becomes public. The desk is not a symbol of isolation; it is a symbol of intellectual agency. It says: begin.

This matters to the Sundiata Post Model because the Model did not begin as abstract theory. It emerged from a newsroom, and from the recognition that a newsroom could become a site of systematic knowledge production.

The desk is where an observation becomes an argument, where journalism moves toward research, where a recurring pattern becomes a concept, and where a concept becomes a framework.

The four constructs developed through this process — The Insecurity Triad, the Trinity of Sovereignty Decay, the Decoupling Sovereignty Index, and the Sundiata Post Model itself — illustrate that progression.

The desk did not guarantee their significance. It made their beginning possible.

The Institution Is Enough to Sustain

Beginning is not enduring. A manuscript can be completed and never read. A discovery can remain in someone’s papers. A journalist can develop an important body of analysis that disappears when the journalist leaves the profession.

Creation needs continuity. That is where the institution enters.

The institution is not necessarily the creator of the idea. It is what gives the idea a chance to outlive the moment of its creation.

This is central to the Sundiata Post Model. A knowledge-producing newsroom cannot depend indefinitely on individual inspiration. It needs an architecture capable of carrying intellectual work beyond its initial circumstances.

The Seven Pillars — Financial Sustainability, Human Capital and Leadership, Knowledge Stewardship, Governance, Innovation and Adaptation, Trust and Reputation, and Mission Continuity — are the conditions through which an institution sustains what the desk began.

The institution does not guarantee immortality. It creates the possibility of endurance.

The Archive Is Enough to Preserve

But institutions change.

 People die.

Editors retire.

Companies disappear.

Generations move on.

What remains?

The archive.

An archive is more than storage. It is institutional memory — the mechanism by which the work of one period remains available to another.

This is why notebooks matter. Why manuscripts matter. Why books matter. Why repositories, databases and scholarly archives matter.

Gramsci’s notebooks became part of an archive far larger than the prison that produced them. Achebe’s Things Fall Apart entered the literary archive far beyond its first publication.

The archive interrupts disappearance. It says: this existed. This was thought. This can still be examined.

Within the Model, this connects to Knowledge Stewardship. A knowledge institution must think not only about what it produces today but about what someone else will be able to find tomorrow.

It is why the SPM places importance on documentation, publication, repositories and durable records. Knowledge production does not end when an article is published. It must be made retrievable.

The World Is Enough to Test

But preservation is not validation.

An archived idea can remain untouched. A book can sit unread. A framework can exist only because its creator says it matters.

Eventually, knowledge has to leave the protection of its origin.

Readers may challenge it. Scholars may interrogate it. Practitioners may use it. Critics may reject it. Future generations may reinterpret it.

The creator does not get the final word. The institution does not get the final word. The archive does not get the final word.

The world does.

The world is not necessarily friendly. It is simply the arena beyond the creator’s control.

That is why I have come to regard intellectual work as something to be released rather than possessed.

As I wrote in the concluding reflection of the Sundiata Post Model series “If, through the development of four original constructs — The Insecurity Triad, the Trinity of Sovereignty Decay, the Decoupling Sovereignty Index, and now the Sundiata Post Model — I have made a meaningful contribution in that tradition, I am content to leave the judgment to history and to those who engage with these ideas in the years ahead.”

From Journalism to Something Larger

The Sundiata Post Model is the birthplace of the 4 Enoughs, not its boundary.

The original conception was journalistic: can a newsroom become a knowledge-producing institution? That question produced the Model. The Model generated broader questions.

What allows knowledge to begin outside conventional centres? How does it acquire institutional continuity? How does it survive its originator? How does it enter the permanent record? Who decides whether it matters?

The 4 Enoughs begins answering those questions at a level that travels beyond journalism.

The Model is a journalistic construct, but it was not built from journalism alone. Its construction drew on journalism and media studies, strategic management, and organisational theory. Behind these sits my Philosophical Triad of Enduring Influences — Sigmund Freud, Antonio Gramsci and Edward Said — the psychoanalytic, political and postcolonial traditions that framed the interdisciplinary thinking from which the frameworks emerged.

A construct assembled from those sources could not reasonably be confined to journalism.

Stated more fully, the 4 Enoughs is an epistemological framework for knowledge creation, continuity, preservation and testing — beginning at a desk, sustained by an institution, preserved through an archive, tested by the world.

Achebe and the Possibility of Travel

The history of Things Fall Apart offers a striking illustration outside journalism.

Achebe’s creative work began with the writer. Heinemann and the African Writers Series provided an institutional publishing pathway. The work entered the literary archive. And the world continues to encounter, interpret and reinterpret it.

Achebe was not following the 4 Enoughs. The point is retrospective: the sequence helps us recognise a pattern that operates across forms of knowledge and creative production.

And literature is not the only domain. The constructs developed through the Sundiata Post Intelligence Unit — The Insecurity Triad, TSD and DSI — demonstrate the same logic in political and security analysis. Their deposit across international scholarly repositories demonstrates it in scholarly dissemination.

Three domains. One pattern. The 4 Enoughs is not a claim about journalism. It is a claim about how knowledge begins, endures, is preserved and is tested.

The SPM Begins Its Journey

In my reflection last week in ‘The Sunday Stew’, I drew on Things Fall Apart to explore intellectual sovereignty as it relates to the Sundiata Post Model.

That reflection was picked up by the Ukrainian news platform, UA.News, appearing in Ukrainian alongside an English translation. It was an early instance of the Model travelling beyond its Nigerian media environment independently and reaching a European audience. More importantly, the platform engaged with the core ideas rather than merely reproducing the title.

That is precisely what the fourth Enough means.

I can begin at the desk. Sundiata Post can build the institution. The archive can preserve the work. But once the idea enters another media environment, another language, another audience, what happens to it is no longer entirely mine to determine.

The journey for the world to test has begun.

And perhaps that is where the 4 Enoughs ultimately leads: not to certainty, but to release. Not to a claim that an idea has arrived, but to the willingness to let it travel.

At a desk, it begins.

In an institution, it is sustained.

In an archive, it is preserved.

In the world, it is tested.

From the desk to the world.

Trust is sacred. Stay seasoned.

•Dr. Max Nwabueze Amuchie is a Scholar-Journalist and Media CEO, and Lead Researcher at the Sundiata Post Intelligence Unit, Abuja. An Expert Member and Peer Reviewer at ScienceOpen, he is a member of the League of Nigerian Columnists.

X: @MaxAmuchie

Email: [email protected]

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By Garba Shehu,
Former Presidential Spokesman.

There are good reasons why Leno Adesanya and his company, Sunrise Power Transition Company lost their case at the International Chamber of Commerce, ICC, an outcome that sparked widespread nationwide celebrations across Nigeria.
The ICC threw out the USD 2.35 billion claim by Sunrise on the Mambila Hydro Electric Power Project over the weekend and, as widely reported, and also rejected a USD 400 million settlement claim, ordering instead, the company and Adesanya to reimburse Nigeria about USD 11. 82 million in legal and other expenses.
As a news person -perhaps the only one- in the Nigerian team present at the January 15 2025 sitting of the tribunal in Paris, one was privileged to witness the universe of corruption, falsehood, deceit and lies by Sunrise and its owners melt on the floor of Ritz Carlton Hotel’s meeting rooms.
At the hearing, Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari featured as strong pillars of the country’s defense against this flagship scheme similar to the P & ID in using international arbitration to steal billions of dollars from the country using fraud, deceit and lies, and as did some others including Buhari Ministers, Engineer Sulaiman Adamu and Babatunde Raji Fashola.
It was, however, clear from day one that Leno and company would lose this case following the failure of all the witnesses they invited, including, of course a beautiful lady from Senegal allegedly providing comfort to one of their government contacts. (Senegalese beauties were allegedly on offer in addition to cash).
At stake in Paris was the extraction of USD 660 Million and a second one to follow for USD 2.7 billion from the country’s treasury through bogus claims of failed contracts.
The two past Presidents, alongside other key witnesses were prevailed upon by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to rise to the occasion of defending the nation against fraudsters whose stock in trade was to bribe and get government contracts, only for them to use such projects to obtain huge sums of money as costs for settlement using arbitration.
In the year before, the English Supreme Court saved Nigeria from the theft of USD 11 billion through similar schemes, and President Tinubu vowed “ not again.”
The team to Paris was led by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN.
At its meeting of 21 May 2003, the Federal Executive Council, FEC, chaired by the then President of Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, considered a memo for the issuance of Mambila contract to Leno and his company, and refused to give its approval, asking that the memo be withdrawn while noting that the establishment of new power plants must be done through a competitive process.
In spite of the above background, on 22 May 2003 – the next day and seven days before the end of President Obasanjo’s first term – the Minister of Power and Steel at that time, Dr. Olu Agunloye, sent Mr. Adesanya of Sunrise a letter purporting to indicate a preliminary ‘approval’ for Sunrise to have a role in the construction of the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Station with a value of USD 6 billion.
As far as credibility and reputation are concerned, Sunrise got the so-called “award” without any prior expertise on such projects or any real assets.
Documents placed before the tribunal by Nigeria included filed statements by Sunrise at the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC that the company had no turnover in 2017, 2018 or 2019, and had total net declared assets of only N1,000,000 (one million Naira).
At the time they received the “award,” the financial position of the company was N318,685 on 3rd December, 2004 and N270,370 as of 31st December, 2005.
A new Minister wrote to Leno Adesanya of Sunrise to confirm the non-approval of the FEC, on 3 September 2003 and therefore had no contract whatsoever with government.
A new tender process was initiated and the contract was awarded to two Chinese companies, CGGC and CGC.
At a later meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and the Chinese leader, Xi Xiping the Nigerian president requested funding by ChinaExim bank of the Mambila project, and requested President Xi to nominate credible companies to execute the contract. President Xi gave an instant commitment of the Chinese government to promoting the promote the project.
Sunrise wahala began by demanding payment of (1) GBP 33 million as the costs that it had allegedly incurred “on preparation for the execution of the project”; and (2) USD 1.2 billion, which allegedly represented 20% of the USD 6 billion estimated cost of the Project “as projected profit of our client [Sunrise] on the project.”
Sunrise sought to prevent the Project from moving forward by taking the following steps: One, filing a claim at the Federal High Court against Nigeria’s Minister of Power, the Attorney-General of the Federation, CGGC, and CGC and two, they sought an order preventing any development of the Project except through Sunrise and, in the alternative, claimed the sum of USD 960 million in alleged damages.
As a result of the Sunrise litigation, the project was held up for all these years. ChinaExim withheld funds – as would any lender – pending the resolution of the legal tussle.
In order to move the Project forward, Nigeria entered into settlement discussions with Sunrise, CGGC, and CGC. The settlement discussions were inherited by the administration of President Buhari.
In those discussions in 2012, the Federal Ministry of Power entered a ‘General Project Execution Agreement’ with Sunrise and Sinohydro (another Chinese contractor that Sunrise had involved) (the “GPEA”), an initial agreement with Sunrise relating to the Mambilla Project.
On the 14th January, 2015, a letter was signed by the Federal Ministry of Power supposedly giving approval for Sunrise to be engaged as the local content partner on the Project.
On 9 November 2019, a meeting was held between, on the one hand, Sunrise, represented by Mr. Adesanya, and, on the other, Nigeria’s Attorney-General and Minister of Justice and the Minister of Water Resources in London.
At that meeting, it was made clear to Mr. Adesanya / Sunrise that any settlement negotiated would, of course, depend on approval by the president.
At this meeting, Mr. Adesanya offered to accept a figure of USD 500 million, and the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Water Resources – no doubt under pressure to settle the dispute so that the Project could proceed – made a counter-proposal of USD 100 million ( based on claims that they had incurred expenses between USD 70-80 million).
After a series of meetings, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice and the Ministers of Power, Finance and Water Resource agreed to propose the sum of USD 200 million as a full and final settlement of Sunrise’s claims, subject, understandably to approval of the President. This proposal was accepted by Sunrise.
On 25 March 2020, a second document entitled ‘Addendum to the Term[s] of Settlement’ was signed between Sunrise and representative of Nigeria. Again, the document provides for a potential doubling of Nigeria’s liability by another USD 200 million in case of delayed payment.
On 31 March 2020, the ‘Terms of Settlement’ and ‘Addendum to the Term of Settlement’ were presented to President Buhari for the first time for his approval. Upon reviewing the documents, the President decided not to grant approval. In a hand-written and signed note dated 20 April 2020, the President withheld his approval for entry into these documents, on the basis that “FG [the Federal Government] hasn’t got USD 200m to pay [Sunrise]”.
Despite repeated attempts, President Buhari wasn’t convinced that Nigeria should pay USD 200, or even higher to someone who did nothing but merely presented an unauthorized contract document.
From here, Sunrise commenced another arbitration against Nigeria alleging a violation of the terms of settlement, at which it asked to be paid USD 680 million.
President Tinubu welcomed the tribunal verdict as the removal of the “ biggest legal hurdle” in the path of the 3,960MW Mambila power project, describing it as an affirmation of Nigeria’s determination not to succumb to the “predatory and exploitative claims by local and international entities and their enablers and funders.”
Well said.
The next steps he needs to take, in national interest and in honor of the late president whose heart was in the Mambila project until his death, is to urgently link up to the Chinese leader, to get him to fulfil his longstanding promise to fund the power project.#