The Nation Newspaper

Author: The Nation

  • Sundry Misusages XXXV: Severally . . . plus more

    The first entry here should interest you. The reason is, it is one adverb whose meaning and usage people do not just care about. You would even think it is a mark of lexical sophistication, judging by how frequently you read statements like “I called you severally,” “I visited him severally,” I repeated it severally” and so on and so forth. You have read it from so many acclaimed writers that you may have started wondering that you yourself are the problem. Maybe you are just a charlatan or a busybody bothering about whether a columnist, author or professor has used severally correctly.

    Severally

    Here are two examples of how mindlessly the adverb severally is being misused:

    (a)…Jega went on: “The American think tank, Fund for Peace, has severally defined a failed state as one that suffers loss of control over its territory, incapacity to protect its people, loss of monopoly over legitimate violence and sharp economic decline, among others….”

    (b)…Achebe was nominated severally for the Prize, but he did not get it because his works had to be weighed against the competition, other works also nominated by other groups.

    People are used to forming adverbs from the adjective forms of many words by simply adding the letters ly, as in: actively from active; and quickly from quick. And in such formations, there is hardly any loss in the sense of their meanings, in either the adjective forms or the adverb derivatives. But this is not so with the adverb severally in correct usage, even when it is derived from the adjective several meaning a few times. The reason is, the adverb severally has assumed the character of an idiom or an English standard expression with its own meaning which is only remotely related to its adjectival base – all because it is assigned for formal and legal usage. Defining severally to mean separately, the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary illustrates its usage thus: “Tenants are jointly and severally liable for payment of the rent.” Elsewhere, it is stipulated “that severally should only be used to mean individually or separately. It is mostly used by lawyers, and when they say tenants are jointly and severally liable for payment of the rent, what they mean is that apart from being a collective responsibility, it is an individual or separate responsibility for tenants to pay their rents” (“Pop” Errors).

    So, it is gross misusage in the two examples highlighted above where the verb severally has been applied apparently to mean a few times. This betrays a complete unfamiliarity with the special nature of the word. Such ignorance underscores the imperative for the writer to know certain terms by their nature, functions and specific applications. Such is the spirit and soul of language borne by correct usage.

    In the two defective sentences at issue here, we will simply replace severally with several times or a few times, thus:

    (a)…Jega went on: “The American think tank, Fund for Peace, has several times defined a failed state as one that suffers loss of control over its territory, incapacity to protect its people, loss of monopoly over legitimate violence and sharp economic decline, among others….”

    (b)…Achebe was nominated several times (or a few times) for the Prize, but he did not get it because his works had to be weighed against the competition, other works also nominated by other groups.

    Shambles/Species

    By its somewhat awkward morphology, the word shambles is mostly misused, the difficulty arising perhaps from whether it is a plural or singular noun. Because it ends with an s, it is prone to being taken for a plural word, which it is not. That explains the misuse in the following:

    Security is in shambles.

    Correct usage demands that we precede shambles with the article a, because It is a singular noun denoting “a situation in which there is a lot of confusion.” Moreover, it is not a stand-alone noun, meaning that it must be modified by the article a at all times, as already mentioned.

    The word species is as problematic, as often, like shambles, it creates difficulties of usage. Species should be understood as both singular and plural. Thus, it is correct to say, “This is a species of cats” and “There are many species of cats.” In the former, species is used as singular and in the latter, as plural.

    Now then, back to the wrong usage of shambles, below is the correct way to express the idea:

    Security is in a shambles.

    Shall/Should/Will/Would/May/Might/Can/Could/Must

    All the above modal verbs are often misused, particularly in relation to the verbs they help, as in:

    The NPA is prepared to reduce port taxes, should this interim arrangement holds.

    In this construction, the combination or association of the modal verb should and the verb holds is wrong usage and very unacceptable. According to “Pop” Errors, “These modal or auxiliary verbs – Shall/Should/Will/Would/May/Might/Can/Could/Must – always take their main verbs in the simple present form unconjugated, irrespective of the persons (I, you, he/she/it, we, they) concerned.” In other words, what will forever be acceptable is: shall go; should go; will go; would go; may go; might go; can go; could go; and must go. The tense warranting the use of the auxiliary will not make a difference. For these reasons, the sentence at issue should go as follows:

    The NPA is prepared to reduce port taxes, should this interim arrangement hold.

     

    You would even think it is a mark of lexical sophistication, judging by how frequently you read statements like “I called you severally,” “I visited him severally,” I repeated it severally” and so on and so forth

     

  • Bayelsa, Kogi polls: How prepared is INEC?

    Abuja Bureau Chief ONYEDI OJIABOR examines the pitfalls which the electoral commission should avoid during the Bayelsa and Kogi states governorship polls.

     

    The governorship elections will hold in Bayelsa and Kogi states on Saturday.

    Eligible voters in the two states are expected to troop out to elect their governors.

    The stakes are really high for the elections, if claims and counter-claims of schemes, designs and intrigues trailing the run-up to the crucial elections are anything to go by.

    Stakeholders and observers alike are, however, looking forward to credible, free and fair elections in the two states.

    Gladiators in the elections are on top of their games calculating and plotting to out do their opponents to carry the day.

    Kogi and Bayelsa are states of interest in election matters considering the high level of volatility in the states.

    The volatility in the two states not withstanding, it is obligatory for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in line with its mandate, not only to do justice but to be seen through and through, to have done justice in the elections.

    Stakeholders say the electoral umpire is not taking chances “because its image is at stake.”

    The umpire, it was learnt, has continued to hold a series of strategic meetings and consultations with stakeholders to perfect its programmes of action.

    The two state elections will be combined with two more elections by court order as confirmed by the INEC.

    According to the INEC, in Bayelsa State, the governorship election will be held simultaneously with Brass 1 state constituency supplementary election in six polling units in Cape Farmosa ward of Brass Local Government Area.

    It was learnt that the supplementary election would have been held about seven months ago but for the protracted litigation that was finally settled by the Supreme Court.

    In Kogi State, the governorship election will be combined with the Kogi west senatorial re-run election ordered by the authority of the election petition appeal tribunal and reaffirmed by the Court of Appeal.

    Although there may be other interested parties, the Kogi west senatorial re-run election appears a straight fight between two unrelenting gladiators.

    Irrepressible senator Dino Melaye of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will battle indefatigable senator Smart Adeyemi of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the coveted senatorial seat.

    Observers say the Kogi west senatorial re-run election is one election they cannot wait to hear its result. Adeyemi and Melaye are not new to the game. They have travelled the same road before. This time around, sons of the soil of Kogi west say a number of factors will play out to decide who emerges victorious.

    Findings show that one of the factors that may influence the voting pattern is the interest of Kogi west after four years.

    INEC gave the number of registered voters in the Kogi west senatorial district as 432,515. It also declared a total of 2,076 as the number of registered voters in the six polling units in Brass 1 State constituency, Bayelsa State.

    While giving a load down of the preparations of the electoral arbiter for a hitch free outing in the elections, INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, said Bayelsa with eight local government areas has 105 registration areas, 1,804 polling units and 923,182 registered voters of which 498,790 (54.3 percent) are males while 424,392(45.97 percent) are female.

    Professor Yakubu put the number of permanent voter cards collected across Bayelsa state as at 30th September 2019 at 889,308(96.3 percent) with 33,874 (3.7 percent) still uncollected.

    Kogi state on the other hand has 21 local government areas, 239 registration areas, 2,548 polling units. The number of registered voters is put at 1,646,350 of which 825,663 (50.1 percent) are male while 820,687 (49.9 percent) are female.

    The number of PVCs collected in the state is put at 1,485,828 (90.2 percent) leaving 160,522 (9.8 percent) uncollected.

    To deepen transparency and accountability, the electoral umpire assured that it will make available detailed figures of PVCs collected in each state by local government and registration area.

    On its level of preparedness for the elections, the commission recalled that six months ago, it released timetable and schedule of activities for the Bayelsa and Kogi governorship elections in which 14 activities were itemized, including dates for the implementation of each activity. So far, according to the commission, as at Thursday 30th October,2019, 10 out of the 14 activities have been successfully implemented, including the conduct of party primaries and the nomination of candidates.

    At the end of the process, 45 political parties in Bayelsa state (42 male and 3 female) and 23 in Kogi state (21 male and 2 female) will be on the ballot, INEC declared.

    Read Also: Kogi poll: Bello will triumph, says Tiamiyu

     

    The commission further informed that all non-sensitive materials for the elections have been delivered in Bayelsa and Kogi states and have been appropriately batched in line with the commission’s plans.

    To forestall hiccups especially given the volatile nature of politics and elections in Kogi and Bayelsa, the commission decided to engage stakeholders early and continuously in addition to other focused engagements in the states.

    The engagements, it was learnt, were aimed at hearing from stakeholders what additional steps INEC needs to take in order to ensure peaceful campaign, election day activities, collation of results and declaration of results.

    Security agencies were not left out by the commission in the strategic engagements to ensure unimpeded access to voting locations and collation centres for accredited media organisations in addition to adequate protection for all, including election officials and the voters.

    Apparently to make assurance double sure, the commission went further to agree that the rules of engagement for security officials on election duty should be reprinted and made available to security personnel and stakeholders.

    Although the commission expressed concern about the possibility of voter harassment, inducement including vote buying and other sundry violations of the Electoral Act, it planned to deepen collaboration with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Offences Commission to keep their eyes on the movement of cash during the electioneering campaigns and on election day with the aim of inducing voters.

    INEC is not moved by claims, counter claim, half truth. It simply wants to focus and deliver wholesome electoral success in Kogi and Bayelsa come November 16.

    The race is on. The topography looks hard. Candidates have negotiated the difficult curve line of party primary and nomination. They are on the touchline waiting for the whistle. Voters will decide who will be the first to brace the tape on the finish line on Saturday.

     

    ‘The race is on. The topography looks hard. Candidates have negotiated the difficult curve line of party primary and nomination. They are on the touchline waiting for the whistle. Voters will decide who will be the first to brace the tape on the finish line on Saturday’

     

  • Assembly demands probe of PDP supporter’s killing

    From Bassey Anthony, Uyo

    Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly yesterday demanded an investigation into the murder of one Godwin Thomas, said to be a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state.

    Thomas was shot dead last Thursday at Ndiya Ikot Ukab in Nsit Ubium Local Government Area by a yet to be identified police officer.

    The member representing Etinan State Constituency, Aniefiok Dennis, said the deceased was an ardent supporter of the PDP in the state and wondered why he was gruesomely killed for no reason.

    The lawmaker described the deceased as a struggling young man, who was killed, leaving behind a wife, three-year-old daughter, mother and father to cater for.

    He urged the House to help to uncover his killers.

    Read Also: PDP, APC clash over fresh violence, killings in Rivers

     

    “We want proper investigation to be carried out by relevant authorities to uncover whoever is behind the killing of Mr. Godwin Thomas and to ensure that no other person is killed in the state, unjustly,” he said.

    Speaker of the House,  Aniekan Bassey, condemned the killing and maintained the House would employ all legal means to bring the perpetrators of the crime before the law.

    “It is a very unfortunate situation. We will do all we can, within our powers to uncover the killer. That is what we were elected to do. The police have issued a statement, likewise the state government. We (the House of Assembly) hereby condemn the torture and killing of Mr. Godwin Thomas. We will do our part in this case”, he said.

    The Speaker, therefore, directed the House Committee on Security to interface with the state Police Command and other relevant security agencies to investigate the matter and ensure the arrest and prosecution of the culprits.

     

  • APC chieftain to politicians: stop campaign for 2023 president

     

    A Chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Nduka Anyanwu, has called on political stakeholders to stop the campaign for 2023 presidency to allow President Muhammadu Buhari concentrate on good governance to Nigerians.

    Anyanwu, who is the APC Ex-official representing South-East, gave the advice in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday.

    He said that it would be unfair and a distraction to the president for some people to start campaigning for 2023 six months after the 2019 general elections.

    Anyanwu urged politicians in the ruling APC and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to avoid heating the polity.

    He cautioned that if the distraction was not curtailed, it might have negative effects on the good intention of the president for the nation.

    Read Also: APC factions ‘suspend’ Oshiomhole, Obaseki, others

     

    “Politics should be about the development of our land. We just finished an election about six months ago and people are already heating up the polity, this is not right.

    “Buhari is laying a solid foundation for the betterment of our nation, so we must commend the judiciary for upholding the will of the people,” he said.

    The APC stalwart appealed to party members and other Nigerians in opposition parties to give the ruling party a chance to deliver.

    “The Supreme Court has determined the winner and the loser, it is time to develop our nation, let all, irrespective of our political affiliation, support the Buhari-led government and the APC to take the country to  the next level,” he said.

  • Tam David-West in final escape

    By Femi Adesina

    Now, my introduction to Professor Tam David-West was on this wise: I was brought up by a very strict, educationist father, who would not allow his seven children travel during holidays, particularly the long vacation at the end of the session. He had his own way of keeping us busy.

    My town, Ipetumodu, in Osun State, is about ten to fifteen minutes’ drive from the university town, Ile-Ife. During holidays, my father would drive us to the bookshop on campus, and we would leave the place laden with all kinds of books. That was our own holiday.

    In 1980, we went on the annual visit to the bookshop. We bought our books, and my father bought one for himself. The title was Philosophical Essays, and the author was one Tam David-West.

    I had just finished writing the secondary school leaving certificate examination, and shouldn’t have any taste for essays yet, whether philosophical or not. But because of the way we had been brought up, I read anything and everything. I started reading Philosophical Essays whenever my father was not busy with it, and eventually ‘borrowed’ the book. You know that kind of ‘borrowing,’ which you never return. The remnant of that book, with the front and back covers torn, is in my library till today.

    I read Philosophical Essays from cover to cover, and noted very many profound quotations from it, which eventually became part of my writings in later years.

    As a journalist with Concord Press, I wrote a piece in the early 1990s, and quoted from Philosophical Essays. A few weeks later, somebody came calling in our office. It was Professor Tam David-West. He said he read my piece, in which I had quoted him. That was the beginning of a friendship that lasted almost 30 years.

    Over time, I quoted David-West profusely in my writings, and curiously, he, too, quoted me in his many essays. He read everything I wrote as a newspaper columnist, and I was instrumental to the publishing of his essays, first at Concord Press, and later at The Sun newspapers.

    One other thing endeared us to each other, apart from passion for writing. We both loved Muhammadu Buhari with an enduring love. David-West had served him as petroleum and energy minister, and became a passionate Buharist, just like myself.

    When Buhari joined partisan politics in 2002, he had two willing and enthusiastic soldiers of the pen behind him, among thousands of others. Prof David-West and myself. Between 2003 and 2015, when Buhari finally won, we wrote tons upon tons of articles. So committed was David-West that when he wrote what we considered too voluminous to publish free, he would procure pages of the newspaper, so that the articles could be run unedited.

    Read Also: David-West spoke truth to power, says Tinubu

    Beyond writing, we became family. When my siblings, Foluke and Tayo, were named professors at the Obafemi Awolowo University and University of Ibadan, respectively in 2012, Prof David-West was chairman of the reception held for them, where we asked him to give a professorial charge. He did.

    Also, when my mother passed on in 2013, and we held a commendation service for her in Lagos, the professor drove all the way from Ibadan to attend. He sat at the same table with the then General Muhammadu Buhari, who had flown in from Kaduna to also be part of the event.

    Every August 26 is Prof David-West’s birthday. But because he didn’t like celebrating, you know what the man would do? Travel abroad before the date. He jocularly called it ‘August Escape.’ When he was to turn 70, I impressed it on him that he deserved to be celebrated. Shortly before the date, he traveled to London. August Escape.

    On Monday, at about 11 a.m, the erudite professor of virology made his final escape. An hour after it happened, I got a phone call from somebody who was with him in his final moments, telling me what had happened. Sad, sad. Yes, when you are 83, anything can happen, but I still felt quite sad to hear about the final escape of my senior friend.

    Prof David-West, in the last few years of his life, became quite prayerful. He prayed at 9 a.m, 4 p.m, and 6 p.m. And because we were always talking, he would call me when prayer time was approaching, to tell me that he would switch off his phone for some time. Now, he’s gone to where phones can never reach. Oh, what a life!

    He had been on admission at the University College Hospital (UCH) in Ibadan for a number of days, and was to be discharged to go home on Monday. But before the doctors allowed him to go, the professor discharged himself. To eternity.

    As a build-up to the 2011 presidential election, David-West sought to correct the malicious falsehood peddled for long about our common hero. So, he wrote a book titled ‘The 16 Sins of Muhammadu Buhari.’ It was all to debunk 16 allegations often leveled against the man from Daura. When the book was presented at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) in Lagos, I was Master of Ceremonies. It was the first day I met Gen. Buhari in person, though we had spoken on phone many times, as he had always read my articles, and would call to discuss the content.

    Prof David-West had sent me a number of times in recent years to give his goodwill message to President Buhari. And whenever I passed the word, the President would laugh, and say: “the indomitable David-West.”

    One very gratifying thing the president did was in December last year. He wrote the professor a personal letter of appreciation for his support, included a Christmas/New Year greeting card from State House, which I had the duty to deliver. The professor appreciated it greatly.

    My colleague and successor as Managing Director/ Editor-in-Chief of The Sun Newspapers, Eric Osagie, is also a David-West person. When the man turned 80 three years ago, Osagie did a piece, celebrating him. The professor loved it so much, that he photocopied the article, marked out some sections, and sent to me. A couple of weeks ago, before he took ill, he had sent the same article to me again. And on hearing the news of his death on Monday, Osagie sent me a text message: “David-West was a great man. We can never forget him. His memory will linger forever. Loyal to the end.”

    True. He was loyal to the end. There were some people, who had tried to drive a wedge between President Buhari and the renowned virologist, through snide comments. But the man would call me, and say: “I believe in President Buhari. He has not changed, and won’t change.”

    Every year, when he did his August Escape, David-West always came back with gifts for my wife. Lace fabric, and perfume. It was as constant as the Northern Star. When I broke the news of his passage on Monday, the first thing my wife said was “oh, he always bought me lace and perfume.” Well, we will only be remembered by what we have done, after we have faded away like the stars of the morning.

    I remember an interview David-West granted to The Sun before the 2015 election. He was in Port Harcourt, and I had sent our Bureau Chief, Chris Anucha, to talk to him. During the dialogue, he had declared that even if his father ran against Buhari in an election, he would vote for Buhari. That was where I took the headline from.

    Time, like an ever rolling stream, bears all its sons away; they fly forgotten as a dream dies at the opening day. Tamunoemi Sokari David-West, the essayist, academic, virologist, record keeper, anti-corruption crusader, a stickler for time, dyed-in-the wool Buharist, is gone. When I lost my sister in 2015, he was at the funeral service. As the coffin was being moved from the church to the cemetery, I broke down in tears. The professor came, hugged me, and began to cry with me. Why shouldn’t I now cry for him?

    I’m doing so.

     

    • Adesina is Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Buhari.

  • Revisiting mad men and economists

    Preamble

    What can a president do in a troubled economy? Anything except work magic to revive it. Matters of ‘economics’ lend not to such supernatural sleight of hand. To exit the bad times, a president must work the numbers. He has to plan. And then pray. Because matters of ‘economics’ are not responsive only to the pragmatics of planning and the empirical realignment of numbers.

    A president –in addition to planning- must set out to reassure the people. To let them know they are in good hands. And that he is on top of the situation. Even if, in the meantime, he is not. The president is like the paddler of a boat in troubled waters. He cannot afford ‘panic’ amidst the tempest of roaring waters. There is a 50-50 chance of surviving the elements of nature; but there is hardly any chance of surviving ‘panic’ on board. The boat can capsize.

    Thus the psychology of surviving bad times is as important as the economics of it. If not more important. America’s Franklin Roosevelt during the Great Depression of the 1930s knew this the hard way. With panicky Americans huddled around their radios every day to hear from their president, Roosevelt knew better than to befuddle them with ‘economics’. He reached instead the psyche of a despairing people in the language of ‘hope’ and not the gibberish of micro economics.

    Roosevelt, even at the Depression’s bitterest point, assured a despondent America ‘I got your back’. And he told the Americans they had nothing to fear. If anything, he said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. And although the Depression lingered six more biting years since Roosevelt spoke, plus the efficacy of his exit plans was a subject of intense debate, Roosevelt’s success in restoring hope and confidence to America was never in dispute.

    In 1992, the bad economic times visited America again. Democratic candidate Bill Clinton was just angling to return the presidency back to his party. An incumbent President Bush Snr was battling to keep it for the Republicans. Yet neither Bush nor Clinton had offered credible ideas about how to get America out of the woods. Contrary to axiomatic wisdom Americans ditched the devil that they knew, Bush, and settled for the saint they did not, Clinton.

    Bush had ignored the lesson of Roosevelt in troubled economic times: not to ever engage the minds of the people with ‘economic jargons’; but rather to reach their hearts in the language of ‘hope’. Bush offered ‘information’ to Americans -by way of a 29-page economic jargon titled ‘Agenda for American Renewal’- when he should simply have given ‘inspiration’: first to admit he knew how much it hurt; and frankly too how it could even hurt more. But then he should tell Americans with all the rhetoric at his disposal how it was inevitable that America would once again overcome. Bush went around instead saying that the recession was over even when the recession had just begun.

    An upstart Clinton, not because he knew any better, turned and twisted Bush’s knife-in-the-wound when he said that his incumbent opponent had mid-wifed the worst economy “since Herbert Hoover” (the ill-fated president of the Great Depression). That was not entirely true. America had had many bad economic times since Herbert, and long before Bush’s. America is no stranger to the ‘bad times’. In truth America is home always to the ‘bad times’.

    Voodoo economics

    Even the world’s acclaimed quintessence of the ‘free market’ system, namely the American ‘economy’, is not entirely immune to the vagaries of the voodoos of capitalism. And so it has always been for other capitalist economies, of the West and of other climes -so much that it can safely be said that ‘periodic slumps’ have become the veritable hallmark especially of ‘vibrant’ ‘free market’ economies.

    In fact economists often warn that whenever an ‘economy’ beats all predictable odds to ‘bubble and bubble’, we should watch out soon for the ‘burst’! Meaning that no matter how well or poorly run, capitalist economies essentially are prone to ‘boom and bloom’ sometimes, even as they are at other times, inexplicably susceptible to sudden ‘doom and gloom’.

    Sometimes even doing the ‘economically-needful’ may just be what it takes to slip into a ‘slump’. Or so said the U.S. economist Alan Greenspan: “Even (as) a moderate rate of ‘IN-flation’ can hamper economic performance, (so can) moderate rates of ‘DE-flation’… most probably lead to similar problems”. It is thus immaterial that the best brains are on top of it, any ‘capitalist economy’ -even with the cleanest ‘bill of health’- can still sooner be in the ICU (intensive care unit) than a man with a ‘heart attack’.

    Said Frank Borman, U.S astronaut and business executive: “Capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell”. It is almost a ‘given’ that capitalist economies are doomed to such a state of flux for the reason that selfish, conniving man will not allow the earthly affairs of humanity to take their natural course. Said E. F. Schumacher, an economist: “Modern economic thinking…is peculiarly unable to consider the long term and to appreciate man’s dependence on the natural world”.

    Man has deliberately created a Frankenstein system of economy and to whose unpredictable monstrosity even he, has become a perpetual victim. But these ‘unpredictable monstrosity’ man chooses to call ‘market forces’ rather that what it truly is, ‘forcing the market’. ‘Market forces’ are the soulless factors that reward ‘opportunism’ and often punish ‘industry’. Yet they are celebrated today as the defining criteria for ‘free trade’ -ironically in a fast globalizing world that is gradually but assuredly slipping into the command control of vested interests. Free trade is not necessarily as free.

    Such is the craze now about the dogma of ‘economics’ –like the self-harming creed called ‘rule of law’- that Schumacher, in  lamenting man’s naïve submission to the vicissitude of ‘economic’ forces, said: “Call a thing immoral or ugly, soul destroying or a degradation of man, a peril to the peace of our world or to the well-being of future generations; as long as you have not shown it to be ‘uneconomic’ you have not really questioned its right to exist, grow and prosper”.

    Nor can the global media be said to be innocent –advertently or inadvertently- in this unfolding conspiracy to hand over the world’s resources to the command of vested interests. John Maynard Keynes, the British Economist, in his ‘Essays in Persuasion’ wrote: “editors all bloody and blindfolded, still piteously bow down before the free play of economic forces”.

    Theocratic economy

    The undoing of modern democratic capitalism as a system of economy is traceable to its deviation from the path of its theocratic origin. When Jesus -in the Bible- stormed the house of God to chase out that era’s ecclesiastical ‘bureau de change’, he captured in one singular action the notion of a world economy envisioned by God which -of a necessity- must be non-usurious if it is to be free from the exploitation of the many by the few.

    Islamically, the object of theocratic economy has been to leave the windows of ‘profit’ and ‘loss’ widely open. So that all who go into business transactions are exposed equidistantly to the possibilities of either making ‘profit’ or registering ‘loss’. Because in reality ‘business’ is about the only game of chance that religion can be said to have permitted. Unfortunately democratic capitalism with its concept of so called ‘risk-free’ investment, promises –albeit deceptively- to shut the window of ‘loss’ -for good- and to leave the window of ‘profit’ –permanently- open.

    And herein lies the venom of the capitalist system. The very point at which man defied the transcendental order of ‘godly economics’ to install ‘usury’, was the tipping point that returned man from the path of bliss intended for him by God to the path of self-imposed drudgery! Naïve man gleefully subscribes to life insurance policies, paying premiums all his life in the hope, ironically, of making a ‘killing’ -even after ‘death’. Yogi Berra, the American base-baller known for his witty barbs mocked at this capitalist greed when he jived: “I took out a big life insurance policy because I want to be rich -when I die”.

    We believe that by ‘saving’ or ‘investing’ in a so called risk-free, interest-yielding, capitalist businesses today, we have outsmarted Jesus by feigning a moral rebuff of ‘usury’ only to celebrate ‘interest-taking’. Modern man believes that like the soulless ecclesiastical money-merchants of Jesus’ time, he can multiply his estate without lifting a finger. And yes, in reality we seem to make some fleeting gains in insurance, stocks, mortgages etc. But all of this gain inevitably aggregates to a national burden which the system –being risk-free- has to pass to the larger economy; and upon which in the long run, all our fates are hung.

    In fact “The trick now” as Alan Clark even put it “is not to live off the interest on one’s capital, but off the interest on the interest”. So that to the exclusion of existing goods and services, ‘money’ now grows ‘money’. We rejoice always at the prospect of reaping where we did not sow.  But truth is the curse of unearned ‘gains’ always awaits us all. Because in reality interest-making upon which the free-market economy derives its oxygen bears always a transcendental curse.

    Jesus was quintessentially a better economist than Adam Smith. Because even as far back, he knew that if money – without a concomitant growth in goods and services -was allowed to incubate money; and currencies to hatch their own kind, there would be as many ‘false economies’ as there would arise false christs and false prophets.

  • Mamman Daura at 80: A tribute

    By Clem Baiye

     

    Publisher of Leadership, Mr Sam Nda Isaiah, called me last week Wednesday afternoon, to inform me that Malam Mamman Daura, former Editor and Managing Director of New Nigerian Newspapers would turn 80 on Saturday, November 9. The reason for calling was to ask if I could write a tribute to this gentleman who employed me in 1973 when he was editor of New Nigerian. To be candid, I told my friend Sam that the deadline was rather tight but that I would do my best to turn in a script in good time.

    I had the privilege of working with Malam Mamman, as we all called him. Or, to put it more accurately, I was under his tutelage in the best meaning of the word. Though I did not have the close personal relationship with him as I had with his immediate successors, Malam Turi Muhammadu and Malam Aminu Abdullahi, both of blessed memory, I learnt a lot from him.

    Only about two months ago, I was reminiscing to Malam Ahmed Joda, retired federal permanent secretary and highly respected technocrat about his influence on me. I told the eminent elder that I had never met anyone with a better command of the written English language than my first editor. Some could equal him but never outshine him in syntax or the lexicon. His latinisms and bon mots were timely. He was a surgical wordsmith with literary nous. His was a master class in elevated prose. Malam Ahmed Joda was not surprised by my observation, because he chaired the panel that employed Daura.

    Mamman Daura was appointed editor of the New Nigerian about four years before he employed me. When I joined, I was told stories of his impeccable dress habits. Never flashy, he reportedly favoured conservative lounge suits for a few years before he turned to Nigerian traditional wear of kaftan and babban riga. In whatever garb, he was simple. I noticed how he treated with courtesy and respect seniors in age like Alhaji Abidina Coomasie, the veteran news hound and Alhaji Rasak Aremu. Mr Adeleye Fagbemi, Alhaji Baruwa and Mr. Clement Isaiah received similar treatment. All the aforementioned gentlemen are of blessed memory. He and the Managing Director Malam Adamu Ciroma, (also regrettably late) were on first name basis.

    His legendary attributes of calmness, studied silence and taciturnity were there. So was his prodigious intellect. And with his two degrees from the famed Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland; his understanding of various issues, both arcane and quotidien was exceptional. A man of great personal discipline; his abstemiousness and self-control made one wonder what could crack him. But, read his editorial commentary or his contributions to CANDIDO: The Man Behind the Mask; a column which used to appear on Wednesdays, and you will know that though he was reserved, his pen was not. He had pithy expressions like “Objectivity, Objectivity, where are you now?” and “there was no room to swing a cat”.

    Since my editor was not given to being verbose, how did he bring his influence to bear on younger elements like me? His written commendations were highly sought and cherished. On an occasion, I had written a piece, a story of an interview with the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo at Kaduna airport on the controversial 1973 census. After my boss had read it, he remarked at the bottom of the script – SPLENDID. That made my day.

    ‘I always remember him for giving me the opportunity of working for a great newspaper which has sadly fallen on hard times. With Malam Mamman, you do not go to engage in small talk. As a habit, his social interactions were rather limited. He never hugs the headlines and hardly ever gives an interview’

    Daura typifies the saying “Brevity is the soul of wit”. Or, to borrow Jane Austen, he was laconic. Give him a copy and he would cut the fat out and drain the dross. On another occasion, I left my home in Kaduna and stopped somewhere to follow a lead about a gruesome homicide.

    Read Also: Buhari, Tinubu greet Mamman Daura at 80

     

    I followed the criminal investigating team from the scene of the incident as the body was taken to the mortuary. I wrote about all sides of the story, covered every ground and went to the office to submit it. So, this excited reporter wrote about a “sliced throat”. Trust him to spot the gaffe. He called me in to his office and gently corrected me, it should be “slit throat”.

    He then commended me and asked what my plan was for the future. I replied that I intended to enter university and return to the newspaper. Much later, I was shown a copy of his comments in my file where he had said some complimentary things about me and added “he is a good chap……. We want to attract him here after his degree.”

    I always remember him for giving me the opportunity of working for a great newspaper which has sadly fallen on hard times. With Malam Mamman, you do not go to engage in small talk. As a habit, his social interactions were rather limited. He never hugs the headlines and hardly ever gives an interview. A lover of cricket, he is up to date on cricket scores, batsmen and spin bowlers. With me he has always been polite and friendly. As he becomes an octogenarian, I wish him many more years in rude health.

    Many happy returns, Malam Mamman.

     

    • Baiye, a business executive, is based in Lagos.

  • NYSC’s misguided youths and their warring pastors

    Last week, it was reported that the authorities of Nigeria’s National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) decamped one Miss Tolulope Ekundayo, from Sagamu Orientation Camp in Ogun State for insisting on wearing skirt as against trouser which she claimed negated her Christian faith. The NYSC Director in Ogun, Mrs. Theresa Anosike, however defended NYSC position saying “ by insisting on wearing skirt instead of trouser, Ekundayo acted against the undertaking which she had earlier signed along with her colleagues on dress code.’’ She also disclosed that the misguided young lady swore she “will rather forgo the service year than wear the kits.’’’

    Development later confirmed she was egged on by her father and her pastor.  Not long after boasting to the NYSC authorities that the person her father sent to pick her was on his way, a man who “identified himself as Apostle Adenuga Otaru of the Antioch Church, Sagamu, who also doubled as chairman, Remo chapter of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, turned up and signed an undertaking to take the girl away.

    And within the same weekend and for a similar reason,  two female corps members – Okafor Love Obianuju and Odji Oritsetsolaye, – were said to have been expelled from the 2019 Batch C Stream 1 in Ebonyi NYSC camp . What runs parallel between the Ekundayo, Okafor and Odji cases was the encouragement of their Pentecostal pastors. In fact in the latter case, the  Christian Association of Nigeria’s (CAN) Special Assistant on Media and Communications to the CAN President, Rev. Adebayo Oladeji, issued a statement  to warn that the ‘two ladies should not be victimised for holding on to their faith.’

    First, logic would have suggested the wearing of long trouser in mosquito invested camps where these young girls and other members engage in various sporting activities and paramilitary training which involve climbing, running and jumping would have made more sense except that we also know that for Nigeria, Christians and Muslims clerics and their poor miracle seeking youths, there can be no meeting point between reason and religion.

    But let us first examine what the Holy Books say about dressing. All the holy books especially those of the Abrahamic religion- the Torah, the Holy Bible and the Holy Quran demand of women is decent dressing. Thus First Timothy 2:9-10 admonishes women “who profess godliness to adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty”. First Corinthians 6:19-20 also advises women to “glorify God in their body by dressing modestly and not provocatively” to prevent men lusting after them because their “body is the temple of the Holy Spirit”. Similarly, the Holy Quran (7:26] says “O children of Adam, we have provided you with garments to cover your bodies”, stressing that “the best garment is the garment of righteousness” while in 24:31, God orders the women to “cover their bosoms whenever they dress up”.

    Most scholars believe Hijab as a dress code therefore has nothing to do with the Torah, the Bible, Islam and the QURAN. It had its origin in Greco-Roman culture, of women wearing the veil and men, head-cover, a cultural practice adopted by the Jews who wrote it in the Talmud and later by Christians while the Hadith book writers, after the death of Prophet Mohammed took after the Jews as they did with other Jewish traditions.

    The purpose of religion in society according to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the Abrahamic religion we subscribe to in this part of the world, as demonstrated by Jesus Christ, the Messiah and the greatest social crusader the world has ever known as well as Mohammed, the last prophet, is promotion of peaceful co-existence to avoid bloodshed between the privileged avaricious few (the 1% that control the resources of the world) and the underprivileged majority in society.  Jesus Christ underscored this when He said to the pastors of His day “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees; you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices – mint and dill and cumin. But you have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy and faith, and for serving as blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel (Mathew 23:23-26).

    Read Also: Why we evicted Corps Members from Ebonyi Camp- NYSC

    Jesus seems to be speaking of today’s Nigeria prosperity prophets and pastors who exploit the fears of the most vulnerable, especially the youths in our society. They abandon their primary role of providing the moral tone desperately needed to create a moral society and are busy breeding Christian and Muslim fundamentalists who when not fighting with authority over the right to wear veils in law courts, are engaged in fruitless struggle over wearing of skirt in mosquito invested NYSC camps where youths undergo some form paramilitary and other forms of physical training.

    In the circumstances where Jesus admonished his rebellious Jewish kinsmen to “give on to Caesar what belongs to Caesar”, our pastors are sponsoring rebellion of youths against the state. And for maximum effect, they are adopting blackmail as a weapon.

    Today their battle-cry is ‘“In this country, religious right is an inalienable right that must be respected”. Or “If our government agencies have no regard for the way people worship God, then it means they are satanic”. And they are advising affected corps members to go to court, citing the way the Muslims sued the Nigerian Law School over the hijab controversy.

    The pastors have however not told Nigerians how decisions of some state institutions to enforce dress code constitute a breach of religious rights of Nigerians.

    Unfortunately, our nation is the greatest loser. As students in the universities – fertile ground for great and sometimes grandiose ideas, who are being trained to manage society, the youths are expected to be at home with all the religions of the world from Pre-historic religion or belief in Supreme Being and fear of the unknown to Egyptian belief in afterlife; Judaism and its Babylonian origin; Christianity and the mystery of the incarnation and Divinity of Christ; Hinduism and Law of Karma, Buddhism; Confucianism; Taoism and Shintoism. Tragically our youths hardly read anything. The result is that prosperity prophets, pastors and Imams become pathfinders for those who by virtue of youth are expected to curious, discerning and adventurous.

    And as products of our universities,  youths are regarded as the  ‘salt of life’, saddled with onerous responsibility of managing society, through policy conceptualization, policy formulation and implementation  that will determine the fate of children yet unborn, those in school , the working population and the aging. That we have a dysfunctional system and a decaying society is precisely because our bureaucracy is populated by ill-equipped youths.

    Tragically, our warring pastors and Imams, who are currently engaged in unproductive arguments over the wearing of veils and trousers don’t believe our young girls have anything to learn from Israel, (the chosen people) where religion is not allowed to stand in the way of reason and consequently lead the world in science, commerce, arts, literature and communication and Saudi Arabia where girls serve as pilots of some of the world biggest commercial aircrafts and jet fighters.

     

    ‘Logic would have suggested the wearing of long trouser in mosquito invested camps where these young girls and other members engage in various sporting activities and paramilitary training which involve climbing, running and jumping would have made more sense…’

     

  • Do we need this law?

    IT IS not for nothing that the proposed law against hate speech is being vehemently opposed. It is a suspicious piece of planned legislation aimed at dealing with the media. Not a few in this administration have come to see the media as enemy, but it was not so when the ruling party was in opposition.

    Today, under the guise of hate speech, many of them want to exact a pound of flesh from some journalists, who offended them in the past, using the law, which the Senate is already working to the answer to pass. But come to think of it, what is hate speech? Are there no laws already in our statute books to deal with it? What the government needs now is not a law to antagonise the media because the media is not the problem.

    The law it needs is that, that will help it win back the people’s love. Before you know it, people will start relating the proposed law to the anti-media Decree 4 which came into being when then Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari was military head of state. I wish them good luck in their work on the National Commission for Prohibition of Hate Speeches (Establishment etc) Bill 2019.  But if only they knew what is good for them, they will not start what they cannot finish.

  • No roads like ours!

    ‘We have some of the best roads in the universe! Go to any part of the country, you will see things for yourself. You do not need a minister to tell you how good or bad our roads are’

     

    ANY Nigerians are outraged by the statement credited to Minister of Works & Housing Babatunde Fashola that ‘’Nigerian roads are not that bad’’. I am not joining the fray because I do not believe that the honourable minister will ever say that. He has since accused the media of misquoting him. As someone observed at our meeting on Tuesday, ‘’they (public officers) are always accusing us of misquoting them’’.

    As a polished person, no one ever expected the minister to speak like that in public. He is too refined and urbane to lend himself to such inanities. We  know the state of our roads. We have some of the best roads in the universe! Go to any part of the country, you will see things for yourself. You do not need any minister to tell you how good or bad our roads are.

    Whether in Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Kano, Rivers, Kaduna, Gombe, Bauchi, Nasarawa, Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Borno, Plateau, Yobe, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kebbi, Katsina, Bayelsa, Osun, Anambra, Imo, Abia, Delta, Edo, et al, our roads are a beauty to behold. From afar, you will see the roads gleaming in the sun. Like a mirage, it will appear as if you are seeing an ocean ahead of you while driving. The roads are just too good and well paved. Not even the developed countries have our kind of roads.

    I will take you on a journey on some of them, especially in the Southwest, so that you will know how lucky and blessed we are to have such infrastructure. So, if the minister said our roads are ‘’not that bad’’, he sure knows what he is talking about. Our roads are not bad. It is as simple as that. If you say they are bad, the onus is on you to provide the evidence. Do not forget that the minister is not only a lawyer, but a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) for that matter.

    Read Also: Roads situation: I was misquoted, says Fashola

     

    If you expect me to say the roads are bad, after the minister’s pass verdict on them, you are wasting your time. Who am I to challenge the minister who knows all our roads like the back of his hands? The man who sleeps and wakes on these roads should know what he was saying when he said the roads are ‘’not that bad’’. Go through those  three-letter words again. The man was not saying what you and I do not know after all. He did not say the roads were not bad; he said they were ‘’not that bad’’.

    So, why do some people want to skin him alive on the social and mainstream media? If people do not have work to do, they better go and look for one. Is it an offence for a public officer to be frank with his countrymen. This is the problem with us; we prefer leaders who lie to us. When we see one as honest and brutally frank like Fashola, we start to call them names. ‘’What does he know? Why should he say the roads ‘are not that bad’? Is it because he does not ride on them? Pray, if the works minister does not ride on our roads, why is he holding that post?

    Our people are bellyaching for nothing. They should let the minister be. Come with me to the Lagos – Ibadan Expressway where Julius Berger and RCC have been working for the past two years. The road cannot be said to be in the best condition. If it were, will Berger and RCC be working on it? No, dumb head. That’s what the minister was saying that you are calling for his head. Check out the Lagos – Badagry Expressway. As governor of Lagos State between 2007 and 2015, Fashola began work on the deplorable road, but could not complete it before he left office.

    In his first coming as minister of power, works and housing in this present administration, he wanted to finish what he started on that road, but the differences between him and his successor as governor did not allow that. Today, contractors have returned to the road, courtesy of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu. I refuse o accept that our roads are death traps! They are not. I just pray that motorists will not come to harm driving on them. How can roads that are so smooth be death traps and the haven of highway robbers? Ask me o, as if I don’t know.

    But wait a minute. Have you ever travelled on these roads – Ibadan – Oyo – Ogbomoso. Ibadan – Iwo – Osogbo. Ibadan – Ife. Ibadan – Iseyin – Shaki.   Agbara – Magbon – Atan – Sango.  Sango – Ifo – Abeokuta.  Lokoja – Okene – Auchi – Ekpoma. Asaba – Enugu.  Benin – Port Harcourt.  Egbema – Omoku – Ahoada, Calabar – Uyo. Enugu – Onitsha. Aba – Ikot Ekpene – Calabar – Itu. Abuja – Minna. Kano – Saminaka –Ugwan Bawan – Jos. Maiduguri – Ngala.  Biu – Gombe. Damaturu – Biu? If you have, you will get what the minister was saying about ‘’Nigerian roads not that bad’’. You drive on these roads with your heart in your mouth. You have to move slowly because virtually every portion of these roads has collapsed. As you are dodging one crater here, another will just pop up in front of you and if you are not careful, you will end up in it and be at the mercy of prowling hoodlums looking for who to devour.

    Are we not lucky to have such good roads on which we sleep and slip into dream world as we cruise on them? Why won’t the minister boast of them?