The Nation Newspaper

Category: Friday

  • A salad of old stories in a new year

    hall we say this is the year of our lives? The year American soothsayers long foretold would make or mar our dear country, Nigeria. How is it turning out for you dear reader? You must have noticed that the harmattan has turned out a little severer than in recent years. The north easterly, dusty, desert wind that often sweeps the west coast of Africa this season has been at once soothing and gruff. It has been like kind of celestial air-conditioner but tinged with dryness. Does that portend any auguries for you?

    We are not going to start the year pondering the metaphysics of the weather and Nigeria’s politics, no. We are taking on issues as they unfold even in this new, tendentious year. Here is the first in a series of our sumptuous salad to be served fresh – even in a year like this.

    The IBB insurgency Former military President Ibrahim Babangida has kicked off the year with an assault on Nigerians that is akin to a huge Boko Haram IED. In an interview granted a magazine owned by (you won’t believe it), the EFCC, Nigeria’s prime anti-graft agency, IBB argues his innocence as opposed to the widely held belief that his was a very corrupt administration. Not to be misunderstood however, he accepts his culpability but only in comparison to the current regime he contends makes him and his junta colleagues seem like angels.

    He may be right but there is need for some perspective. We must constantly remind him that our memories are not yet as blurred as his might be; besides is it not said by our fathers that he that dropped faeces by the footpath is prone to forget but he that stepped on it lives with the ugly memory. IBB remains the father, nay, founder of modern Nigeria’s graft incorporated. He was not only reckless and licentious with the treasury, he smudged nearly all that was good and noble in the Nigerian ethos.

    Babangida must quit straining to absolve and exonerate himself from what have become historical facts. As he grows older and feeble, he would do better to come clean with Nigerians so that history would be kinder to him. Catharsis is the medicine IBB needs urgently; he suffers acute psychological torment for so many evil deeds he perpetrated while at the helm. You cannot help but sympathise with him. He is in need of emotional purification; he must find peace before he returns to his fathers.

    One last point, with a scoop like this, why don’t we convert EFCC to a publishing house and if I might suggest, we shall call its journal: HOT POTATO weekly.

    Governor Akpabio’s dubious record Vs. Imoke’s Digital City One cannot help but nurse strong reservations about Akwa Ibom State Governor Godswill Akpabio’s much-touted achievements in nearly eight years. Yes, he has built a few brick-and-mortar structures; he may have even out-performed his predecessors but at what price and what opportunity costs? His 2015 budget estimate is N492 billion, the highest in the land. It has operated within this range in the last four to six years. The sum of these is sure to be higher than the budget of many African countries. If you add his huge debt portfolio you will begin to see why one is cautious in throwing in nary a word of commendation for Governor Akpabio.

    The point here is that where there are a few bridges and stadium and pavilions, there could have been paradise. Or, in order not to exaggerate, a verisimilitude of a Dubai if not one. The point again, is that there has been as much waste as there was revenue under Akpabio’s watch.

    To buttress this point, in marking the year end, Saturday, December 13, 2014, Governor Akpabio elected to stage a large jamboree at the Uyo Township Stadium. He assembled a 25,272-man chorale group flippantly tagged Unity Choir (UC) for the vainglorious purpose of breaking a world record. The Guinness World Record team was shipped in to observe and approve. This vanity fair, this obscene waste of public funds which must run into billions by a rough estimation is being presented as a great achievement by officials of the State. In an austere time of fast-tumbling oil prices, one would expect sober leaders to sharpen priorities, tighten belts and build capacities that would help diversify the state’s economy.

    Let us compare Akpabio’s chorale trophy to Cross River State’s Liyel Imoke’s master-stroke of making Calabar Nigeria’s first digital city. Working with MTN, Imoke’s government wired up Calabar, Nigeria’s foremost tourists destination for voice, data, video and other technology-driven services. This of course portends huge business opportunities and economic advantage for the state.

    In a time of shrinking federal revenues, Imoke has by this singular act opened up the world for his people to surf and explore at a touch of the button. This is indeed, the manner of world record that we crave now.

    Buhari: of certificate and certification There has been what is obviously an orchestrated rumpus over the educational qualification of General Mohammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Buhari had deposed an affidavit in lieu of the physical academic certification documents in filing his presidential form at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). This method Buhari had adopted in his three previous shots at the top job with no eyebrows raised.

    Why is it an issue this time? This time is different, this time the race is close and this time, the big, bad party, PDP, is terribly jittery. Lest why would paper document be an issue for a man who had been a general in the Nigerian Army, who had been head of state and a military governor?

    If those pushing the Buhari certificate matter think it would rub him of any shine, on the contrary, it will help to clarify for us once and for all the question of people with little learning and education carrying a whole portmanteau of certificates against well educated people with minimal certification. Nigerians would also have to decide whether to vote for a chain of mere paper certificates or for intelligence and integrity.

    LAST MUG: Maku and all the President’s men fall down: What does it say of President Goodluck Jonathan that all the men who left his cabinet to contest guber election fell face down? Well except of course Mama’s boy, Nyesom Wike. And now, to think that Labaran Maku, Jonathan’s erstwhile motor mouth, has decamped from PDP?! So it’s true that Humpty-Dumpty was pushed, eh?

    Imo politics: weep not, Okigwe zone

    Let me disclose up-front that this piece concerns me. As an indigene of Okigwe zone in Imo State, one cannot help but be interested in the politics of his homeland in all its dimensions. This is why the recently concluded Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) guber primary in the state would have many from my part of the state weeping inconsolably for a lost opportunity. Two of the three top-runners, Ifeanyi Araraume and Ikedi Ohakim who are of the same kindred in Isiala Mbano LGA garnered enough votes to trounce their closest rivals had they elected to work together. They would not; they did not. They shunned the path of pragmatism.
    They forgot that common Mbano saying that when two or more men urinate in unison, on the same spot, they achieve a rich foam head! (Please don’t ask me the value of a rich urine foam head!) what a pity now. What would have been a great opportunity for Okigwe people had a formidable duo come together is now a mirage that would remain elusive for a long time. A formidable duo has become two miserable migrants fighting political eclipse. Their loss is the gain of Owerri zone and of Emeka Ihedioha, the wily Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and an emerging political force in Imo State.

  • Riding out the gathering storm (1)

    Riding out the gathering storm (1)

    In the past week, I received numerous messages in my inbox, all about the forthcoming elections. These range from the clearly well-conceived and well-articulated State of the Nation Broadcast of Pastor Tunde Bakare, the passionate shepherd of The Latter Rain Assembly End-Time Church, to the confused partisan and jingoistic rants of some desperate defenders of the status quo. This latter group would have us remember past alignments and affiliations in which some groups, especially the Yoruba, were embarrassed and harassed and cheated out of their entitlement. But they thought they were being clever because they failed to point out that they were co-conspirators in the so-called humiliation of the Southwest. I defer discussion on this till next week. Today I would like to focus on the gathering storm and why and how we must ride it out.

    Let me start by expressing my profound respect for Pastor Bakare. He has demonstrated his patriotism beyond doubt or reproach. He has been consistent in his advocacy for true democracy and transparency in government. He has more than any clergy in Nigeria today spoken true to power. When some others cringe or move near the table inside the Rock for the crumbs that soil their mission and ministry, he remains steadfast. And when he was called upon to run for the second highest office in the land, he did not refuse because of the religion of the man whose ticket he complemented. And today, even when he is not on the ticket, he has openly endorsed that same man. That is consistency of the highest premium. Therefore when Pastor Bakare speaks, we know that it is out of the greatest concern for the good of the nation. And we are bound to examine the basis of his apprehension as dispassionately as possible.

    It is probably not a coincidence that The Washington Post ran an editorial on Wednesday January 7, 2015 with the title “Nigeria on edge”, in which the paper expressed the same fear that has triggered the address of Pastor Bakare. According to the Post, “Africa’s most populous nation (i.e. Nigeria) may be careering toward trouble.” And it goes on to suggest that “the most immediate threats to the country’s stability are not bullets from Islamic militants, but ballots.”

    It is as interesting as it is frustrating for the theory and practice of democracy that Nigeria now faces a threat to its stability because it is in fact becoming more democratic. Why, in the name of decency, should the probability of a change of leadership at the centre constitute such a headache for a democratic system? In the past 16 years, one party has controlled the centre. The Post observes that this time around, “the contest will be close.” This is because, “the APC, formed last year from a coalition of opposition parties, threatens its dominance.” And the paper goes on to note that “This is a sea change in a political landscape already inflamed by north-south tensions, an overly militarised political culture and pressure on the economy due to falling oil prices.”

    In both interventions-from Pastor Bakare and from The Washington Post– I see a genuine concern for the good of the nation. And while the Post doesn’t go as far as Pastor Bakare to suggest a postponement of the elections, it is clear that the concern for peace and stability is there.

    I cannot match Pastor Bakare’s mastery of the scripture. Indeed, the passage he used has always been an enigmatic one for me. The fact that Paul was sent to Rome is not a mystery. He appealed to the Emperor even before Governor Festus could render a verdict. Therefore to Rome he must go. Then they had to ship for Italy knowing full well the time of the year with its weather hazards. From Cyprus, the winds did not favour them; the sailors did their best under the circumstance, slowing down and taking a different route until they got to Fair Havens. That is what sailors do; they must make the best of the wind that nature throws at them. There is a lesson there for us as well, I surmise.

    Fair Havens sounds like a good place to relax and reflect on the journey ahead, especially if there was a way of knowing or forecasting what the journey ahead might look like. Pastor Bakare did not fail to get us to understand the symbolism of it all. The passage reads that “it (Fair Havens) was not a commodious haven to winter in”; or as Pastor Bakare puts it, “the harbour was not suitable to winter in.” Though the name Fair Havens implies a peasant environment, it was unsuitable at that time of the year. It was not safe for them. They would be exposed to the weather which they were not prepared for. Is Nigeria’s present Fair Havens really commodious to winter in?

    Besides, there is something to the reasoning that “even if it is pleasant and fair, this is not our destination; and we must make haste to depart. We must run and make it to the destination that we desire.” And though Paul volunteered the information revealed to him, it was not persuasive to the centurion and the ship owner. The relevant point here is that it was a civil discourse with even a prisoner of the state being given a say in the matter of when to set sail. Let everyone have a say in the matter of sailing forth in our present harbour of relaxation. The way to have a say is to have an election!

    Is Nigeria at a Fair Havens? Should she set sail and ride out the gathering storm? Or must she winter in at the harbour?

    Several arguments have been advanced for the need to winter in where we are instead of setting sail. I will try and tease out each of them.

    The major concern is that there is a gathering storm ahead, or as The Post puts it, Nigeria is on edge because there is (i) a North-South tension in the polity; (ii) a geopolitical monstrosity; (iii) a perilous economic structure; (iv) an anomalous constitution and (v) an ill-prepared electoral umpire. I think that (i) – (iv) go together because the tension noted in (i) is driven largely by the anomalies noted in (ii)-(iv).

    The North-South tension is nothing new and it is not going away anytime soon. It was planted there from the beginning of the republic by the colonisers who were convinced that it was how they can continue to dominate the country. This is why we have always had a geopolitical monstrosity, a perilous economic structure, and an anomalous constitution. The tension was certainly there at the 2014 Confab and didn’t end with that gathering of eminent and rational Nigerians. The tension remains there because it works for the political elite at whose beck and call the masses react. But the proverbial falcon may now be ignoring the voice of the falconer as the masses are seeing through the peeping Tom. Did MEND just endorse Buhari for the presidency?

    One possible solution has been suggested by an egg-head and a good friend: “Let the two major parties pick their candidates from the same zone”, he says. “And the tension would be over.” This is a fascinating approach to zoning. But will it still be a national presidential election, though?  Besides, I predict that if we go for this, it will sooner than later become clear that the tension has never been about North or South but about the brigandage of the partisan elite. For the parties will then show that they are the real problem, not the ethnics. This is nothing out of the ordinary. Politicians pursue their interests with a vengeance. This is why primaries are fought as if they were the main elections. If the two presidential candidates of the major parties were to come from the same town, not to talk of the same zone, it would not lessen the tension between the parties.

                                                                                                                                                                                                             (To be continued)

  • Fed Govt’s betrayal of conscience

    Fed Govt’s betrayal of conscience

    Nigeria’s Federal Government openly traded off its dignity in what amounted to a betrayal of conscience penultimate Tuesday night (December 30, 2014). This occurred at the United Nations Security Council meeting where voting on a proposed resolution to stop the perennial Israeli occupation of West Bank area of Palestine took place.

    The proposed resolution was to be an historic anticlimax of the 66-year-old Israeli/Palestinian conflict with a view to paving way for a two-nation solution. If passed, the resolution would have ventilated a peaceful atmosphere for the Middle East and by implication, the entire world.

    In the YES or No voting of the 15 member-nations of the Security Council, nine votes were required as the simple majority to determine the liberation of the Palestinian people from the political and economic siege of Israel.

     

    Voting pattern

    Out of those 15 member-nations, eight voted in favour of the liberation while two voted for continuous Israeli siege on Palestine. The eight nations that voted for the latter’s liberation were Argentina, Chad, Chile, China, France, Jordan, Luxembourg and Russia. Those that voted against liberation were the United States and Australia.

    The five remaining countries that opted for abstention were Lithuania, South Korea, Rwanda, Britain and Nigeria. Incidentally, two years prior to this stage of determining the fate of the Palestinians (2012), Nigeria’s permanent representative at the United Nations, Prof Joy Ogwu, had glowingly supported the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and statehood and reiterated Nigeria’s recognition of the State of Palestine. That was one year after Nigeria confirmed her diplomatic relation with Palestine on October 31, 2011. And definitely acting on the instruction of her home government, Professor Ogwu at that time voted in favour of the admission of Palestine into UNESCO as a full member-state, despite a fierce opposition from the US and Israel.

    During her speech at the UN General Assembly in 2012, Prof Ogwu underscored the right of the Palestinians to live in freedom thus: “It was quite fitting that the international community had given Palestine a non-member observer state status in the United Nations. This was not only timely but also right and just.” She then went ahead to pledge Nigeria’s commitment to working towards Palestine’s admission into the United Nations as a full member state.

     

    Dramatic u-turn

    But dramatically, when the matter came up on December 30 2014, Nigeria suddenly made a u-turn that held the entire diplomatic world nonplussed. Rather than living by her words as a dignified nation, she shamelessly cheapened out and threw her conscience to the winds apparently in return for a clandestine agenda yet to be fathomed.

    Thus, to the amazement and perhaps disappointment of most members of the Security Council, including those that voted to block the Palestinian right to a home, Nigerian government betrayed that glory as its negative decision became pivotal to UN’s rejection of the long awaited resolution that would have brought peace to the Middle East.

    The implication of this is that with the blocking of peace in the Middle East in which Nigeria played a principal role, the rest of the world, including Nigeria cannot sleep with both eyes closed for now.

    This is because, the Middle East conflict especially between Israel and Palestine has been the major determinant of global peace or otherwise since 1967 when Israel, aided by the imperialist West, further occupied the Arab lands which she has since consistently refused to relinquish thereafter despite all efforts.

    Before the voting, the anxiety created by the impending abstention of certain member-states had put a global diplomatic focus on Nigeria being an African champion of liberation movements in the past. It will be recalled that Nigeria’s role in championing the cause of liberation especially for African countries before now was legendary.

    The tenacity of such role (during the cold war years) as a vital part of Nigeria’s foreign policy that aided the independence of countries like South Africa, Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Algeria and others had once pitched the country against the imperialistic tendencies of some Western countries.

     

    How Nigeria broke

     relation with Israel

    It was against such imperialistic tendencies that Nigeria’s Federal Government under General Yakubu Gowon broke diplomatic relations with Israel for 19 years from 1973 to 1992 when the Military President Ibrahim Babangida restored that relation. In those years, religion was not at all in consideration as the issue of liberation was seen purely as a humanitarian affair which deserved human feeling rather than sheer political contention or religious sentiment.

    If religion had been at the front burner of Nigeria’s foreign policy, General Yakubu Gowon, a Christian, would not have taken Nigeria into the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) in observer status in 1969 and General Ibrahim Babangida, a Muslim, would not have restored Nigeria’s diplomatic relation with Israel in 1992 after 19 years of break (since 1973).

    Thus, through her consistency in human face foreign policy, Nigeria had earned tremendous prestige in the comity of nations and this had earned her the appellation of ‘Giant of Africa’ which she still enjoys today as a special privilege.

    Now, by deviating from that highly prestigious foreign policy and by pitching its tent with the imperialist countries the government seems to have sacrificed conscience on the platter of unwarranted and irrelevant religious sentiment which is a reflection of the situation at home in Nigeria under the current regime.

    This may be linked to fortuitous diplomatic visit of Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman to Nigeria among other African countries in June 2014 in preparation for the unfortunate betrayal for which the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked and praised President Goodluck Jonathan for a job well done.

    Nevertheless, Nigerians are urged to overlook the embarrassing diplomatic goof and wait for another chance bearing in mind that no diplomatic policy is permanently static. God bless our country!

     

    Clarification on

     published fables

    In a front page lead story (without a by-line) published in Sunday Tribune of December 28, 2014 and entitled ‘Division Within Core North Widens’, the Ibadan-based newspaper claimed that “the elite and opinion leaders among the Hausa-Fulani stock are split down the line about who to support between the two major contenders (President Goodluck Jonathan and General Muhammadu Buhari).

    The newspaper went further to state that “the elites who lined up behind General Buhari included the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa‘ad Abubakar, who is leading some northern Emirs; 11 Arewa turks, led by former minister Mallam Nasir El-Rufai; four core northern Governors led by Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of Kano State and a loose coalition of clerics said to be linked to various street groups across the northern region ……..”

     

    Fabricated news story

    Under the same news headline, Sunday Tribune came up with a sub-heading entitled ‘South-West Muslim Council Backs GEJ’, and quoted one Mallam Hakeem Adelani who it called the Secretary-General of the ‘Muslim Council’ as saying that since ‘Yoruba Muslims were not goats and rams’ they would rather vote for Jonathan than Buhari’.

    The quoted fake secretary was also reported to have said that a mosque-to- mosque campaign would soon commence in the region to sensitise the Muslim Ummah towards the clandestine political agenda of some evil politicians who want to use the name of Islam for their evil machinations.

    The concern of the Muslim Ummah of Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN) here is not about Nigeria’s political murky water in which some dirty elements in the society are swimming, but about the smearing tendency of some dirty minds in the region who think they can drag Islam and some highly placed Nigerian Muslims into their murky water. In view of the above, therefore, the following clarifications are necessary:

    The Role of MUSWEN

    The Muslim Ummah of Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN) is the main umbrella of all the Muslim organisations in the Southwest and it does not have the so-called ‘Muslim Council’ (of no particular state) on its membership list.

    MUSWEN is the only Muslim body authorised to speak for the entire Muslims in the Southwest through its Executive Secretary, Prof D.O.S. Noibi or its Media Consultant, Alhaji Femi Abbas.

    Any other person or persons claiming to be speaking on behalf of the Southwest Muslims without the authorisation of the above mentioned duo can only be a fraudster using a Muslim name to tarnish the image of Islam in the region.

    The fictitious name called Hakeem Adelani said to be the Secretary-General of   the Council is not known to MUSWEN or recognised by any of its member organisations in the region.

    MUSWEN is neither a political body affiliated to any political figure or party in the country nor is it involved directly or indirectly in Nigerian partisan politics.

    As a credible religious body which fervently believes in freedom of expression and association, MUSWEN has never and will not be involved in partisan politics let alone influence the electorate’s voting rights along religious line.

    The frivolous statement published by Sunday Tribune in the name of the Southwest Muslims is therefore a mere fabrication by enemies of Islam aimed at subjecting the name of the highly revered religious body to ridicule.

    Consequently, MUSWEN calls particularly on all Muslims in the Southwest and the country in general to ignore the insensitive and irresponsible statement reported in the cited Sunday Tribune and credited to a fictitious Mallam Hakeem Adelani who may be non-existent in reality.

    Meanwhile, MUSWEN hereby calls on the Federal Government once again to urgently address all forms of insecurity in the land with particular attention to the socio-economic sources of unrest by taking bold and practical steps towards stamping out corruption and indiscipline through the leadership’s personal examples and thereby strengthen God’s consciousness in all Nigerians.

    Finally, MUSWEN admonishes all Nigerian politicians to refrain from heating up the polity through incendiary utterances and public actions in their campaigns towards the elections that will begin in February 2015 and remember that there can be a Nigeria to be called their country only if there is peace. God save Nigeria!

     

    The ranting of a dubious cleric

    “A man who does not wear dignity as a dress cannot proclaim dignity by demand through sheer bravado” By an Arab poet.

    Self-respect is like a glass house. Anybody who values it will surely not throw out a stone from it. And when a pig decorated with a valuable ornament takes it to a refuse place it must not be a surprise. Refuse bin is the natural habitat of the pig.

    Nigerian Muslims should not be bothered by a recently published ranting of a so-called Nigerian cleric leader of the Christian faith whose antecedent is very well known. In the two parts publication in a Nigerian national newspaper last Friday and last Monday, the self-glorified irritant turned himself into a Mr. know all and quoted the Qur’an copiously out of context giving it a drunkard’s interpretation to incite Nigerian Christians against Nigerian Muslims.

    The megalomaniac wanted Nigerians to believe that the only way of ‘curbing insurgency’ in the country is to either wipe out the Qur’an from existence or edit it to suit his own satanic thinking.

    In his devilish search for a solution to insurgency, after a long, unwinding rigmarole typical of an evident ignoramus, he concluded that unless the Qur’an is edited to suit his own parochial way of amassing devilish wealth in a typical capitalist manner, the world would not know peace. To him, Qur’an (which has been in existence for over 1400 years) is the main cause of the five year old insurgency in Nigeria.

    Such an evil conclusion by a criminally avaricious agent of devil cannot surprise any sane person. Some recent exposures about his clandestine activities have confirmed his satanic tendencies.

    Rather than compounding a fundamental national problem like insurgency with a satanic solution this self-appointed public tutor should have explained to Nigerians his own role in the recent illegal currency trafficking that caused a face-off between Nigeria and South African.

    The total amount of money said to be involved in that devilish deal was $15 million. This is not the right time for any diversionary tutoring. But since people who are not related to relevance often recourse to irrelevances as a proof of their existence, the diversionary tactics can be understood even as the commercial cleric needs to be pitied. However, for the benefit of relevant information and knowledge about the divine Book called the Qur’an, a full reaction to that provocative, inflammatory outburst will be published in this column in a foreseeable future, in sha’Allah.

  • Will negative attack work?

    Will negative attack work?

    Finally, 2015 is here and Nigerians are ready to make their most important decision as a collective. Will it be for change or for the status quo? And candidates, canvassing for votes, also have a choice of campaign strategies. They may choose the moral high ground, be positive, and persuade the voters that they have viable programmes to solve the problems facing the nation. Or they may choose the path of infamy, personalise issues, and resort to negative attack that demonises their opponent.

    A strategy of negative campaign can be understood in various ways. First, it works if you try to define your opponent negatively and he or his campaign is always put in the defensive position. Second, as a result, the candidate who is so effectively baited spends an undue amount of time correcting his rival’s definition of him with little or no time to put out his programmes and agenda. Third, to the extent that the attack is effective and the negative portrayal sticks with the opponent, voters may come to wonder if he is up to the task.

    But all is not positive for the negative campaigner. Voters are neither ignorant nor naïve and there is a limit to how anyone can take them for a ride. On the flip side of negative campaign is that a candidate who indulges in it exposes himself to the charge that it is the last resort for him because he has nothing else to run on. After all, it is well known that candidates turn negative when the issues are hostile to their campaign.

    Thus, if a candidate cannot run on his record and he or his campaign chooses to demonise his opponent, voters are capable of seeing through the ploy. If a candidate has no clue as to the yearnings and aspirations of voters, he may try to scare his opponent by making a monster of him and confusing voters as to the qualities and qualification of his opponent.

    Negativism has emerged as the main campaign strategy of the ruling party as soon as General Muhammadu Buhari emerged as the standard-bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Professor Yemi Osinbajo as his running mate.  But it is quite capable of harming instead of helping President Goodluck Jonathan’s reelection bid. The reason is simple. The tactic of the campaign is to exploit the fault lines of religion and ethnicity. It was done successfully in previous elections, especially in the first and second republics. In 1983, especially, the National Party of (NPN) made religion and ethnicity the joker of its campaign. It appealed to raw emotions of its supporters, among other infamous calculations, referring to Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the Christian candidate of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) and his supporters as the Kaffir even when the chairman of the NPN was a practising Christian.

    The tactic was immoral then and its architects were shameless. We cannot be sure how effective it was then because though the NPN was declared the winner; there was an undeniable massive rigging across the land, the fallout of which ended the Second Republic. Now the descendants of the tacticians of that era are the new negativists of this and they are no less unethical. Surely the offspring of the cobra cannot be anything but poison. And true to their nature, they can only poison the well of democratic elections. That is, if they are allowed to.

    Thankfully, there is a big difference between 1983 and 2015. In 1983, the political party system was pathetically ethnicised with the NPN controlling most of the North, the UPN the West, and the Nigerian Peoples  Party (NPP) the East. Thanks to the formation of the APC, we now have two major political parties with a national spread. And though, the negativists will try because it is the only game they know, they cannot truthfully and fairly categorise the parties in ethnic or religious language.

    And try they have! What, I ask, has the metaphor of light and darkness to do with the election of a president? Is it that one party is the party of light and the other is the party of darkness? Or that one of the candidates belongs to the light while the other belongs to darkness? The imagery cannot be starker. But what does it connote? And how does it come to this? When you start dichotomising so arbitrarily and characterising so pejoratively, without any basis in fact, you invariably expose your own dark instincts. And people are intelligent enough to see through.

    We are told that one candidate is a semi-literate “jack-boot” and the other is a super-literate with a Ph.D. Assume for the purpose of argument that the facts are not in conflict with the demeaning characterisation. The question that follows is not original with me. It was nicely stated by online commentators with different styles: “And so what?” they asked. How has the “super-literate” Ph.D. performed in office? And how has his paper qualification impacted the lives of Nigerians? We are told that Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa. How has this “fact” transformed the lives of citizens?

    The question does not escape the analysts of the World Bank Nigeria Economic Report who raised the question why a country the size and wealth of Nigeria can have such a huge poverty rate. An answer is not far-fetched. The wealth is not distributed equitably. PDP claimed that it has made many millionaires and billionaires and it is true as was seen in the in-your-face display at the recent fundraiser for its presidential campaign. Has it percolated down to the masses? If it did, the rate of poverty would be considerably lower.

    We have depended on the sale of crude oil and importation of refined oil for the better part of the new civilian dispensation. Now that the United States has abandoned our crude oil, and the world price of crude has plummeted to less than $60 a barrel, there is no doubt that our poor are going to become even poorer and the rich is going to get richer on the back of the poor. What has a Ph.D. got to do with it if a leader is bereft of ideas?

    True to their nature, negativists are not perturbed when they are caught in obvious contradictions and inconsistencies. They are proud of their academic qualifications but unashamed when they make a mockery of the same. Thus one who bellyached at the prospect of a Muslim/Muslim ticket (after once suggesting an El-Rufai/Fashola ticket), and claimed credit for nudging the APC against such “insensitivity” cannot now see why there should be a Muslim/Christian ticket when the APC has opted for it. How do you even start reasoning with a person when consistency, which is the very presupposition of reasoning, is compromised?

    We are now asked to dismiss Yemi Osinbajo as a pseudo Christian because, after careful and prayerful reflection, he has chosen to share with Muhammadu Buhari a promising ticket to salvage the country. And once again, we are reminded of the metaphor of light and darkness, which now appears to be a talking point of the campaign. We have entered again that dangerous realm where serious issues of national importance are deliberately shunned aside while peripheral issues are amplified with sentiments and emotions. If the opposition spends time responding to negative attacks, it has little or no time to present its well-thought agenda to the people.

    It is certainly legitimate to ask questions about the performance of a candidate in previous office(s), and it is incumbent and respectful to voters for him to come clean. But if a simple courtesy is not extended to a candidate to address those issues and critics start making pronouncements and judgments concerning who and what he is, and proclaiming him guilty in lieu of trial, then we would have been unfair not only to the candidate but to the electorate who deserve to have an open mind to make their voting decisions. In the final analysis, the voters will decide if they prefer the status quo or they desire change in their circumstances.

     Happy New Year!

  • Agric minister’s rice conundrum

    Published below is the third of the four pieces entered for the Nigerian Media Merit Award, NMMA. Christmas is rice season in Nigeria; our Agric Minister claims that our country is 60 – 80 per cent self-sufficient in local rice production. But how come hardly anyone can find Dr. Adesina’s rice anywhere? Why was the deadline for banning rice importation moved to 2018? This article was first published Friday, October 18, 2013; it remains true.

    He is handsome, suave, always well turned out and highly articulate; not unlike a revolver. When he speaks, his audience listens, they get carried away and often he works them up to a standing ovation. Of course, we refer to our Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina. In the last two years he has turned out to be the ultimate mesmeriser holding Nigerians in awe of his presence and the presidency spellbound by his vacuous speeches and postulations. But it is all a ruse, this column has found. Adesina has sat on one of the most important sectors of the economy through these years without an iota of idea how to move it forward.

    One example we will showcase here shortly is what we call the rice conundrum, a miasma that has become a national calamity and a token of Adesina’s noisome tenure and stark inefficiency. Before we get to that, it is rather disturbing that anywhere we turn we hear what has become the raucous sound of Adesina and his agric exploits across the country and beyond but ask critical questions, look beneath the surface and it is all empty talk.

    Speaking at the Agribusiness Forum in Brussels recently, he said: “We have developed staple crops processing zones, which are to set up food manufacturing plants, a cluster of infrastructure, to close the missing link between agriculture and industry…we decided to turn comparative advantage in food production into competitive advantage by adding value through processing.”

    He said so many things like adding value to low-value crops like cassava and sorghum, putting billions of naira in the hands of farmers and creating millions of jobs for youths in the sector. Taken in by Adesina’s empty loquacity, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, blindly sings Adesina’s chorus. According to Okonjo-Iweala, “now in agriculture, where we are seeing strong results, over 2.5 million seasonal and full time jobs have been created, for instance, 450,000 jobs created are in dry season rice.”

    With due respect, these are all lies, damned lies and cooked up government statistics. As you read this, legitimate rice importers and local farmers are on the verge of being put out of business by organised and well-known smugglers in Nigeria. Mrs. Esther Olufunmilayo is the president of Rice Distributors Association of Nigeria. In a recent interview in Vanguard, she explained that most of the rice his members have sold this year is smuggled rice. She noted that government increased the tariff and levy on rice import from 35 to 1010 per cent, while the tariff in neighbouring Cotonou ports is still 30 percent. The tragedy therefore is that Nigerian importers are out of business because it is starkly unprofitable to import through Nigeria’s ports; government loses millions of dollars in tariffs to Benin Republic and our modest efforts at local rice cultivation wither.

     Another group of stakeholders, the Rice Millers, Importers and Distributors Association of Nigeria (RiMIDAN), has also cried out over the multiple jeopardy that is rice business in Nigeria today. RiMIDAN through its secretary, Shaibu Mohammed, warned that the Federal Government would lose about $1 billion in duties this year as a result of massive and unprecedented rice smuggling currently going on. But apart from government’s loss of revenue and local importers being put out of business, more injurious according to Mohammed is that the huge investment by their members in local rice farming and processing will come to naught soon because their product cannot compete with smuggled rice.

    We bet that our Agric Minister, Adesina, is not aware of this perilous state of affair concerning Nigeria’s number one staple food. In all his talking and strutting, the minister is not in tune with the critical stakeholders in the rice value chain – from the levels of paddy production, processing, marketing, importation and distribution. While he goes about postulating about banning rice importation in two years’ time, little is being done to work towards that objective apart from announcing it in the media.

    A notorious and most damning example is the National Rice Development Fund (NRDF), which levy was increased by about 100 percent in January; there is no record, no trace of this Fund anywhere. No known committee, no panel or body managing this huge fund for the development of the Nigerian rice sector towards an eventual banning of importation. The NRDF has been kept under the radar for too long; Dr. Adesina is duty-bound to tell Nigerian the status of this fund if he wants to be taken serious about his activities during his tenure. Unless otherwise proven, the Rice fund is perhaps the biggest fraud in the Agric Ministry today. As if to corroborate the fact that Nigerian government and Dr. Adesina are merely pulling wool over our eyes, at the African Agric and Foreign Ministers’ side-bar during the recent World Bank-IMF meeting in Washington, it was noted that Nigeria lags behind most other African countries in agric financing. Already, countries like Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Malawi, Mali, Niger and Senegal have met or exceeded the 10 per cent annual budgetary funding target for agriculture. And since 2003, 32 countries have created national agric investment plans that lay out priorities for meeting funding goals. Nigeria is not part of all this.

    The summit deliberated extensively on how to sustain the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP), which was launched in 2003. But Nigeria is nowhere to be found on the CAADP benchmark, as her agric sector had thrived on shambolic, haphazard hits and misses in the past decade. The real tragedy, however, is that the agric sector is so crucial that unless we show more seriousness, the current burgeoning youth unemployment will remain with us and eventually do us in.

    There is an urgent need to change our paradigm and unleash the enormous potentials in the sector through large-scale integrated mechanised farming in every part of the country. This technology has been perfected centuries ago and we only need to adopt and adapt it. The ministry’s duty is to catalyse the process. The presidency must urgently find an agric minister who understands this process, who has the hands-on and presence of mind to get real work done quickly and not a talkative who is more at home in five-star hotels and seminar environments. Dr. Adesina cannot get us any results even if he stayed on for 20 years.

    Harmattan in a time of austerity

    What a Christmas it has turned out to be for Nigerians in 2014? It is bad enough that a fractious election is brewed in this cauldron, now austerity measures are back upon us. Our crude oil, the only product we take to the market, is turning to ‘pure water’ before our bleary eyes; our currency has fallen on its face as fewer dollars are earned. The so-called subsidy budget has been cut by half and a sharp rise in the prices of imported petroleum products is anticipated in the new year. For two decades, they told us refineries cannot be built in Nigeria because they are not profitable ventures. But the real reason is that our leaders built refineries in Cote D’Ivoire, Niger and heavens know where else.

    Now it’s austerity in the land of the prodigal. The lean times would be only for the people who were always living in dire want anyway. The criminal elite and their friends will continue to live in their licentious opulence until they are routed or the land implodes. How can an economy that has been undergoing ‘reform’ and ‘transformation’ suddenly slump into a depression? How could N21 billion be raised in one night recently to support President Goodluck Jonathan’s second term election? Elections defy austerity hmn?

    Well dear reader, we are suffering from severe looting not austere times. They steal the land dry, but in this new year, never allow them steal your soul. It is well with you this year and always.

  • Letter to Chibok parents

    Letter to Chibok parents

    “…And fear a calamity that may afflict not only those who caused it but also the (innocent) ones who had no hands in its cause. And be warned that Allah’s retribution can be very severe (on evil doers)” Q. 8:25

    Dear Parents of Abducted Chibok Girls,

    Writing this letter to you at this precarious time of your lives has put this writer in a confused dilemma. Ordinarily, a dilemma should provide opportunity for choice be it positively or negatively but a confused dilemma leaves no room for such a choice. In a season like this, one should be felicitating with most of you at this festive period of the Yuletide. But how can one felicitate with people in the predicament of an indelible sorrow?  For almost nine months (since April 14, 2014) you have been agonising sorrowfully over the plight of your abducted dear daughters whose whereabouts still remain unknown today. If it were in Nigeria’s days of sanity, this letter would have been written in red ink to indicate the calamitous mood of the moment.

     But sanity has since taken flight from Nigeria with one of our inherited cultural values (kindness), courtesy of evil politics and audacious corruption with impunity. It is only a matter of personal conscience that this letter is being written to you with sorrowful tears rolling down the cheeks of this writer. Those tears are an evidence of heavy mind encapsulated in implacable agony. Your current fortuitous plight is, no doubt, an unprecedented calamity not for you or your relatives alone but also for the entire country called Nigeria. That calamity was precipitated not just by those agents of evil (called Boko Haram) who callously hold your daughters captive in an unbearable environment but also by those who facilitated the plight through endemic corruption and misrule in the name of governance.

    At the bracket adolescent age of your daughters (generally deemed innocent), those girls had been perceived as today’s dream that would fetch tomorrow’s reality. Each of them had constituted a potent arrow firmly fixed to your bows with hopeful intention to shoot through the iron gate of life. Thus, from the infancy of those girls to their present adolescent age, you (as parents) must have been full of prayers and hopes for their brighter future just as they stand as the footprints for your worthy legacies. In a nutshell, you might have seen each of those girls as your chief asset either in your lifetimes or after your demise or both.

    When hope turns forlorn

    Unfortunately, however, your dreams as well as those of your daughters’ are now being turned into a paroxysm of despair not out of your carelessness or neglect but out of the making of some satanic forces, in our country, who are evidently nonchalant to the plights of others which they covertly created. By that making, those forces have enabled the Lucifer to hijack the destiny of your daughters (albeit temporarily by the grace of God) in a manner never envisaged in Nigeria. Yet those forces are now celebrating with their own children not minding the calamity they have unleashed on the children of some fellow Nigerians, especially your daughters. Ah! THERE IS GOD OOOOO!

    In retrospect

    When your daughters started to write the West African School Certificate Examinations early this year, they were the delight of your hearts as you fervently prayed for their success in those exams.

    Which worthy parent would not do that anyway? The mere writing of that examination did not only heighten your hopes for their greater tomorrow. It also served as an impetus for you to further tighten your belts for their rise to higher pedestals in life. The anticipation was that by July this year, they would have obtained the needed results of those examinations to enable them join thousands of others in seeking admission into higher institutions through the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination.

    But alas! Man proposes and God disposes. Against all thoughts and premonitions, here you are today still waiting anxiously to take a glimpse of your daughters who are now in the gulag of unforeseen machinations of life. It was unimaginable, even after writing one of their examination papers on April 14, 2014 that a monumental misfortune was lurking around the corner to assail them just like that in a country that claims to have a government with a formidable security outfit.

    Incidentally, in the early morning of that same day, a dare devil group allegedly working as an arm of Boko Haram had wrecked a fortuitous havoc in Nyanyan, Abuja, through bomb explosions that claimed 77 innocent lives. That globally condemned barbaric incident has also become a calamitous chapter in the history of our country.

    But who could have imagined that, far away in a remote town of Chibok, in Bornu State, some hundreds of innocent girls had also been earmarked for a devilish abduction by some satanic scoundrels? Some hundreds of other innocent men, women and children have been abducted thereafter.

    Stories and rumours

    Ever since the abduction of your daughters, the story has been changing in contents and in essence depending on the source of the scaring rumours generating it. For instance, we were once told that following their kidnap your daughters were taken straight to a forest called Sambisa, near Nigeria’s border with Cameroon, which is mainly inhabited by dangerous animals, reptiles and poisonous insects. Then we were told that some of those girls were lucky to escape the kidnappers’ dragnet when one out of about 25 vehicles used by the insurgents to convey them broke down. Then we were told that the girls were divided into smaller groups and distributed to different neigbouring countries, such as Cameroon, Chad, Niger Republic and Central African Republic, where they were sold into slavery. Then we were told that some non Muslims amongst those girls were forced to convert to Islam while some had died of snake bites and malaria. Then we were told that some or most of them were daily being raped by the ‘beasts’ who are now criminally keeping them in custody. Then we were told that some or most of them were forcefully married to those criminals illegitimately.

    The stories were as many as the agonising rumours that gave vent to them. What would have been pleasant in those rumours was the fortuitous news of a successful military rescue of those girls as officially announced by Nigerian military spokesman to the delight of all and sundry but which eventually turned out to be a hoax as the same official spokesman later claimed to have been misled. This was followed by another official rumour of the killing of Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, whose fake dead body was displayed on Nigerian television and put on the internet. It also turned out to be a ridiculous hoax, especially when the supposed dead man (Shekau) resurfaced to mock the rumour of his death and labeled the mongers of the rumour blatant liars. This was also followed by another seemingly pleasant rumour of the release of all the girls through an official negotiation brokered by an Australian expert (Stephen Davies). And after a wild jubilation in ecstasy across the land, this also turned out to be another hoax. All these vividly showed the true colour of our central government.

    Meanwhile, following the abduction of your daughters on April 14,

    2014, when the government was expected to promptly embark on rescue

    mission, it was the political train of the ruling power that moved to Kano the following morning (April 15, 2014) to initiate a national campaign for ‘continuity’ (of governance). And for three weeks thereafter, the debate at the corridor of power was on whether or not your daughters were truly missing.

    Agony of parenthood

    Today, you are in as much anguish as your daughters. And thus, most of you have been forced into permanent fasting and sleeplessness as your case is a vivid reminder of a Yoruba adage that says that: “a child is better lost to death than to a clueless abduction”.

    Who could have thought that in this age of technology, when civilisation is almost at its peak, an evil occurrence like Boko Haram designed slavery would rear its ugly head again in Nigeria in our very presence while we remain helpless? Is it not curiously shameful that with a population of about 170 million people only an infinitesimal group of criminal insurgents could render our government so helpless while the lives of our daughters remain dangerously on the line?

    Reactions

    For weeks after the abduction of those girls, this writer could not sleep. My constant thought was based on the imagination that one or two of them could have been my daughters. And it could not be imagined that any sane parent or family who heard of the criminal abduction would sleep or live a normal life for weeks or even months thereafter.

    But incidentally, both the thought and the imagination were discovered to be an error as some people were totally and insensitively indifferent, an indication of heartlessness or insanity on their part.

    Such people who openly described the incident of abduction as a diversionary tactic which they alleged to have been fabricated by certain fellow politicians were rather concerned with the political continuity of the current rot in the country.

    Their show of shame was such that portrays anything different from such continuity programme as criminal. In other words the story of your daughters’ abduction, no matter how painful, and the subsequent public demand for their return were labeled as criminal especially when the children of none of them were involved. It even got to a stage where the campaign for your daughters’ return with the slogan ‘BRING BACK OUR GIRLS’ was mocked and ridiculously countered with a similar slogan coded in a political jargon to boost the propaganda for continuity.

    At a time, the Nigerian press, in collaboration with the ‘Bring back our girls’ campaigners called on Mr. President to pay a sympathy visit to you in order to console and assure you on the determination of the government to rescue your daughters. But the hawks in government would not hear of it. They dissuaded the President from doing that on the argument that it was not the President that caused the calamity. Thus, your daughters’ case is one of a turbulent life on which the Almighty

    Allah had admonished thus:

    “….And We will most certainly try you with fear and hunger, loss of property and lives as well as farm crops.  But give good tidings to the patient ones who when afflicted by a calamity only remember to say ‘we are from Allah and to Allah we shall surely return…..”Q. 2:155-156.

    America for instance

    It will be recalled that when the Western allied forces’ war againstterrorists in Afghanistan was fiercely raging, the United State’s Presidents George Bush Jnr and his successor, Barack Obama, visited the American forces in that country as a demonstration of courage in leadership and as a morale booster to the American troops. And at home in America, they also visited the parents and families of some of those troops who lost their lives in battle. But in the case of Nigeria, such was considered a taboo by the national lotus eaters who are greedily feeding fat at the corridor of power. Rather than doing same here in Nigeria to show care and sympathy, it was you (parents) who were tacitly coerced into paying a visit to Mr. President in his Abuja Presidential palace called ‘Aso Rock’.

    When a country is globally known for these types of insensitivity and injustice with impunity anything including an emergence of the likes of Boko Haram insurgency could be the outcome. That is where the Qur’anic verse quoted at the opening of this article becomes very relevant. Thus the unfortunate case of your daughters’ plight seems to be one of the results of injustice perpetrated in the land by some demagogues who never thought of its consequences.

    Meanwhile, having waited for over eight months for the return of your daughters without hope, some of you (parents) might have given up by accepting your fate and by considering your plight as your own sacrifice to a nation in which you have totally lost trust. But there is nothing too difficult for Allah to achieve. The same God who rescued Prophet Yunus (Jonah) from the belly of a whale after several months can still rescue your daughters miraculously from the satanic enclave of Boko Haram. And we pray that He does so in no distant future. Allah never sleeps nor slumbers and He is ever mindful of any sincere prayer offered to Him. By the grace of Allah, your daughters shall be out of that evil gulag to the disappointment of those who are directly or indirectly linked to that calamity. Just continue to believe that in all these “THERE IS GOD OOOOO!”

  • APC: Championing the change we need

    APC: Championing the change we need

    As a long-distance witness of the process and outcome of the nomination of the candidate and running mate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 2015 presidential elections, I find it incredibly invigorating, morale-boosting and spirit-uplifting. For those who were not just witnesses but also active participants in this remarkable experience, they have a right to see themselves as heroes in the national journey that started 15 years ago.

    Nigerian citizens and patriots, no matter their party affiliations, must be justly proud of where we are with these results, and where we could be if we persist in this struggle for emancipation.  It is not surprising therefore that major commentaries have been positive and congratulatory. It is a refreshing converse of the sordid experience of gangster democracy that we have been exposed to since 1999.

    I was one of those who hailed the formation of the APC. In “A big Deal” in August 2013, I observed that it was a big step for democracy. And Opalaba, an otherwise apolitical professional, was upbeat. But he was also cautionary, especially about possible bottlenecks and organisational hiccups. Here was his thoughtful remark then:  “But it’s just the beginning, and the end is most definitely important. My only hope is that this beginning is not thwarted; that the leadership of the new party learns from experience; that internal democracy is their watchword; that they are sensitive to the presentation of a uniquely democratic alternative to the electorate because in the final analysis, it is what matters most. It’s a game of numbers”.

    Yes, we were all concerned about thwarting the beginning, not learning from past experience, not paying attention to internal democracy and about insensitivity to the interest of the masses. And, of course, the ruling party wasted no time in its determination to define the new party even before it could settle down to business. “It is one man’s party”, they stated. “It is an assembly of tired politicians”, they claimed. “It is a group of terrorists”, they cried. And to some extent, the ugly propaganda war worked, as a few of the original collaborators defected and old dogs went back to their mess. But the lion hearts and insuperable optimists stayed put bolstered by the strength of their convictions.

    The issue of the process for the emergence of the party’s standard-bearer did not perturb its devoted leadership, as they reassured the membership that absolute transparency was their mandate. And they delivered to the disappointment of their opponents. The process was not only democratic; it was transparently so.

    Why is this important? It was clear that the process was transparently democratic, with each candidate canvassing for the votes of delegates by promoting their personalities, past records of achievements, and proposals for the restoration of the country. Assume, however, that that was not the case. Then the outcome wouldn’t have been widely accepted and lauded as it has been. If a consensus had been reached behind closed doors, it would have been insinuated by detractors that some candidates were forced to step down. The fact that a primary election was conducted in the open market place of high-wired politics lent credibility to the democratic credentials that APC has hitherto laid claim to.

    The outcome is therefore good in part because the process was democratic. But it also turned out that a democratic process actually was capable of yielding a substantively good outcome. There is no denying the fact that a substantial majority of party members and neutral Nigerians had expressed a preference for the candidacy of General Muhammadu Buhari for reason of his wide acceptability among the masses based on his previous record as former Head of State, his puritan and spartan lifestyle and intolerance for corruption, as well as his proven ability to secure the nation.

    General Buhari’s credentials are incontrovertible. If there is anyone with a proven ability to turn things around, it is he. His concern for security is not in doubt. He did it as GOC for the Jos Command in 1982 when he confronted the Chadians, who decided to bite the Nigerian fingers that were feeding them. And in 1984, as Head of State, he dealt decisively with the Maitatsine sect.  Some detractors have expressed concern about Buhari’s alleged stiffness and adherence to principles.  Indeed, given our present predicament, there is nothing worse than having a leader with an outwardly pleasant personality combined with a closet predilection for mischief and a compromised value system.

    Knowing where a leader stands is important. We have a pretty good idea about where Buhari stands on the pressing issues of our time and space, be it security or corruption or religious fanaticism. It is also important to know that where a leader stands is good for the nation. And on all counts, we know also that this is the case with Buhari.

    The matter of the choice of a running mate was apparently the last weapon that the opposition had in its arsenal. Therefore, along with a section of the media, it sensationalised the issue beyond the realm of reason. Religion, always the exploited institution by political opportunists, was once again summoned. It did not matter that we have had a religiously balanced presidency since 1999 and our economic, political, and security conditions have failed to improve. It remains to see when we are going to grow up and reject the shortsightedness and selfishness of political jobbers. Thankfully, with the uncommon political maturity of its leadership, APC has demonstrated its ability to transcend sentiments and emotions and to arrive at a resolution that is acceptable to its supporters and Nigerians as a whole.

    The choice of Prof. Yemi Osinbajo as the Vice Presidential candidate by General Buhari is a smart move that has confounded the cabal, which has held Nigeria hostage for far too long. They will have to manufacture some other red meat beside religion. The educational, professional, spiritual and ethical qualifications and qualities of Prof. Osinbajo can only be doubted by the most ignorant or incurably prejudiced person.

    Osinbajo’s achievements in the service of Lagos State as Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice where he made equal access to justice and human rights his defining achievements are there for the blind to see. The fact that he has not been a professional politician is an enduring asset that should endear him to independent thinkers, whose desire is the restoration of the glory of motherland.

    The party chairman and the executive, the governors, candidates, and party functionaries are to be commended for this outcome. Governor Babatunde Fashola deserves special commendation for his sound judgment and patriotism for pulling himself out of consideration as a running mate, citing fatigue, to avoid complicating matters for the candidate and the party.

    Without a doubt, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is the super hero of the success of the formation of APC, its presidential primary and the outcome of the party’s search for a running mate. It is very easy to cast aspersion on a person’s character. It is impossible to take away his honour and dignity.

     No one can truthfully deny Tinubu’s frontline struggle and sacrifice for the formation of a virile opposition party that is capable of competing on the national level. At the time he was fighting this good cause and getting disappointment even from those who stood to benefit from it, he did not think of what position he might have.

    Tinubu was concerned that democracy cannot grow with a dominant single party and a splintering of mushroom parties. He put into the struggle his mental, material and physical resources to the point of endangering his health. In the end, he considered the good of the nation and pulled himself out of consideration for a slot on the ticket.

    This is the mark of statesmanship and APC owes Asiwaju a deep sense of gratitude. As a man of his words, I have no doubt that he will work assiduously for the success of the party in February to the disappointment of his traducers.

  • Bullet points for Tompolo, DSS, Fayose, Patience

    Bullet points for Tompolo, DSS, Fayose, Patience

    Tompolo and the Boys Company (BC) I am tempted to start by saying Tompolo, I dey laugh o! The story of a certain fellow by the queer name of Government Ekpemuopolo Tompolo always evokes hearty laughter in me each time I read it. It always reminds me of the Boys Company of the Biafran Army. Yours truly was not eligible, being not old enough, but I heard stories of the exploits of the BC from bigger boys of the day.

    To cut the story short, young lads of the BC were supposed to be spies ferreting information from enemy camps. But most of them, they did not realise that war was death; many of them thought it was some form of a game and they got wasted in their numbers.

    When a Norwegian newspaper reported that Tompolo, a pardoned and rehabilitated Niger Delta militant, had acquired six guided missile boats (GMBs) I laughed like crazy, I laughed so hard tears welled up in my eyes. I laughed hard as so many thoughts streamed across my mind. The thought of some rickety, disused ferries (as pictures show) that were refitted with some AK47s and sold to ‘stupid Nigerians’ by oyinbos at outrageous prices; I thought of ‘General’ Tompolo, Commander of the  Republic of Niger Delta Armed Forces; I thought of Nigeria’s strategic national resources in the hands of an ill-lettered little man, I thought of a castrated Nigerian Navy taking orders from Tompolo; the thought of (and pity for) Itsekiri people who know that they can be annihilated if not exterminated in just one drunken night. I thought of and felt pity for NIMASA people who are biting their tongues trying to defend an institutionalised madness not knowing that only NIMASA still keeps silly secrets, the world now being an open door.

    I laughed some more and sympathised with both the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) and the Tompolo Ekpemuokpolo Government (TEG) knowing that as we say in my place, mgbe osuru, mgbe asi chi si tama, it may not be a matter of six rusty gunboats (that the up thrust of a submarine would wash to the shore) but 60 or even 6000, or more. So join me in laughing dear reader.

     Dilemma of the gallant DSS Give it to the Department of State Service (DSS), they are not like the Gallant Mopol as we all know; no, far from such coarseness. They are our elite force trained in the art of the clandestine and unseen. Since they bear no known means of identification, you can jolly well say they are licensed to spook.

    But the DSS may have spoofed this time when they paraded some spindly fellows they claim were fake commanders of the Boko Haram who staged a fake ceasefire negotiation with the Federal Government. The seven suspects were apparently working in cahoots with one Stephen Davis, an Australian self-style negotiator. Now why would our DSS so triumphantly and even gallantly deign to have made a breakthrough by parading this hapless conmen who had beaten them silly by exposing their inefficiency in the first place. And so many questions arise: what manner of intelligence and dossier does the DSS have on Boko Haram and the terrorism war in Africa generally? Is it not numbingly embarrassing that the Federal Government could be so easily deceived and embarrassed by these little fellows? How many millions of dollars were paid to them? Where is the money?

     Going by the narrative of DSS spokesman Marilyn Ogar, these fake  characters operated for many months between Abuja and Maiduguri, held numerous meetings in public places yet they were not preempted until they thoroughly embarrassed us. Who on earth is Stephen Davis? Can Stephen Osuji surface in Australia tomorrow and pretend to be an expert in anything and the Australian secret service would not run riot over him? Could it be that our DSS did not check out Stephen Davis because he is wearing miserable white skin?

    Sorry, DSS’ ‘success’ in catching these fake negotiators merely signposts this column’s assertion that Boko Haram is as much a failure of leadership as it is a failure of intelligence. Are we gonna parade the unit that failed in this duty?

    Emperor Fayose in wonderland I admit there are one or two other cases in the land that bear a semblance of what is brewing in Ekiti State now but let us give Governor Ayo Fayose the trophy for putting a comical edge this macabre drama. In Rivers and Edo States, there are  stand-offs resulting from executive-legislature power tussle, we acknowledge.

    But in Ekiti state, it is sardonic enough that Fayose chased majority of the State’s legislators out of town leaving only seven renegades but he has carried on as if he were a 16th century divine monarch.

    He did not only get the seven popinjays to sit and conduct the business of the House, he co-opted scallywags and miscreants to make up the number, sitting on the hallowed seats of honorable members and desecrating the legislature.

    The first time these seven renegades plus 19 thugs ‘approved’ the Ekiti State’s commissioners’ list (i.e the executive council) we thought it was a momentary lapse of memory. Last Monday the charade was reenacted now on a grand scale. The ‘mock’ assembly sat again in Ado Ekiti to pass the State’s Appropriation Bill.

    According to the report, again the seven ‘law-mockers’ were seated and all the fleeing lawmakers’ seats were occupied as visitors were allowed to seat in the chambers. Some traditional rulers where present; there was a full complement of soldiers, police, Department of State Service (DSS), Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC). The press were barred save for the Governor’s Office and House of Assembly Press Corps. No broadcast journalists were allowed to record the evil gathering on video.

    In the manner of emperors, Governor Fayose was reported to have reassured the renegade speaker that, “You, (Dele Olugbemi) are the Speaker of this Assembly and nobody can remove you from this position. I want to emphasise that this speaker would remain in office till June.” You must pinch yourself to find out if you are in 1614 or 2014 for I have just done that.

    Empathizing with Mama Peace in a time of ‘war’ What do you do with a well-known certified peacemaker in time of intense, internecine ‘warfare’? Well, that is a very tough question and this is the dilemma of our First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan aka, Mama Peace of Africa.

    Last weekend, Dame Patience was in her homeland, Okrika; she gathered the chieftains and owners of the land and declared to them in her oft unmatched candour: “Before you today is the next governor of Rivers State. He is the former Minister of State for Education, Barrister Nyesom Wike.”

    Those who have eyes have seen Dame Patience’ gloved hands in many states in the run up to the PDP primaries across the land. Mama is PDP’s field marshalling leading the political ‘army’ into the next election. She is the chief endorser, enforcer and even fixer.

    Those who know can tell that of all the battle fronts, Rivers State would test Mama’s mettle the most. Up against Governor Chibuike Amaechi of the State, no prisoners would be allowed and the winner will take all. Dear reader, you would do well to keep very far away from that vicinity so that you do not get be-splattered… ka Chineke mezie okwu. Amim.

    The Buhari epiphany

    Dear reader, you would recall that this column vowed sometime ago never to vote for General Muhammadu Buhari (retd). It must have been sometime in 2012 when he issued some mumbo-jumbo about the blood of baboons and monkeys flowing and all that. Coming when the post-election fires of 2011 were yet to be cold, one could not understand an elder statesman speaking in such manner.

    But since then, the general has continued to change his approach and project a national outlook to his politics. In view of the dire situation of our dear country today, this column will revisit that vow. Having won the presidential flag of the All Progressives Congress (APC), this must be Buhari’s epiphany. Or shall we say Nigeria’s epiphany?

    As the campaign days go by, this column will attempt some disquisitions on the Buhari factor at this juncture of Nigerian politics. It is Buhari’s be all and end all moment, his make or mar juncture; his epiphany. And mark you, he will have to work his lean butts off for it. An epic battle it will be against the incumbent, President Goodluck Jonathan.

  • No! Not like Jesus

    Whoever believes in God and the Day of Judgment should either lip well (talk responsibly) or keep mute”.

    Hadith of Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

    Monologue

    Column writing is like a shopping mall. As a consumer, you enter it with a product in mind and find a gross of other tempting products trying to lure you into purchasing them. Unless you are disciplined enough to stick to your budget, you may end up overspending your budget without meeting your need. The problem of most columnists is not a dearth of ideas but rather a deluge of them. Without stringent discipline in the choice of topics, a columnist may derail and lose the readership of his column. The planned topic for this column today is not what is appearing here. And that is because one cannot be indifferent to an urgent matter of communal interest.

     

    Dignity and pedigree

    In a Yoruba adage, words are said to be like eggs. Once they drop and break, they cannot be reassembled. A man’s private or public utterances are a major factor in assessing his dignity or otherwise.

    And dignity is a man’s vivid reflection of his pedigree. In a nutshell, an impeccable pedigree is a rare virtue which no money can purchase.

    Contrary to the above quoted Hadith and in what sounded like a toothpick blasphemy by a ‘lotus eater’, Dr. Doyin Okupe, a supposed senior special assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on government ‘defence and attack’ otherwise called Public Affairs, was widely reported in Nigerian media last Monday, as comparing his boss with the unblemished person of Jesus Christ in conduct and mannerism.

    He is yet to deny that report. While answering reporters’ questions during a press interview, Okupe was reported to have said: “People do not understand the burden this President (Jonathan) is bearing. He’s like Jesus Christ. He’s bearing the burden of everybody….”. This outrageous blasphemy was reportedly expressed in Okupe’s vain struggle to defend the indefensible and attack some perceived political foes of Mr. President.

     

    Rental crier

    As a hired presidential praise singer, that was one of his ways of keeping his job not minding the implications of such obnoxious statement and its entailed spiritual repercussion. After all, without inconsequential deification of their employers, people in such positions will easily get fired by those who hired them. But if a gentleman is sent on a slave errand with a confidential message shouldn’t he deliver the message in a gentleman’s manner if only to prove his freeborn pedigree? But in this case, the owl-like random cry of official rental criers cannot be a surprise to any discerning observer.

    Ordinarily, Doyin Okupe’s right to public utterances as regards the Presidency cannot be faulted no matter how much irritatingly sacrilegious such utterances may sound especially since the main purpose of hiring and paying him from our common treasury is to flute the tune of his employer. Thus, such random calamitous statements should rather be pitied than allowed to bother anybody knowing the man for what he is and his antecedent.

    Sometimes, when a handshake tends to go beyond the elbow, it may become necessary to reshape the boundaries of friendship. That is what this article is all about. Religion is a spiritual constituency which abhors trespass and should not be dragged into the murky waters of politics by any sycophantic political charlatan. Let the impeccable name of Jesus be kept out of Nigeria’s dirty, corrupt politics.

    Doyin Okupe, a medical doctor, like a square peg in a round hole, is not a first timer in this kind of odd PR job. He once did it for the former President Olusegun Obasanjo who had to show him a red card when he realised his error in hiring a misfit as a ‘tailor’. What else could any leader of worth have done in such a circumstance? After all, a mechanic put in a clinical theatre to carry out a surgical operation on an ailing patient in the name of a doctor can only end up causing a monumental disaster. Thus, it should be strange that this man behaves like a blind bull struggling to pass through the hole of a needle on a job outside his familiar terrain. It is a matter of stomach infrastructure which is now a political manifesto in certain political quarters. We can still recall with nostalgia, the good old days of crack professionals like Muhammad Haruna, the late Tunji Oseni and the late Remi Oyo in a similar job. And whatever anybody’s feeling may be about Reuben Abati’s (a professional) performance as the Federal Government’s spokesman at the seat of power, the clear difference is still manifestly perceivable.

     

    Jesus in the Qur’an

    By the way, before some subsidiary rental criers begin to haul verbal missiles at yours sincerely over my concern in any blasphemy against the revered person of Jesus Christ by a supposed Christian ‘PR’ man, it may be necessary to make certain clarifications here.

    Jesus, like Abraham, Moses and Muhammad (SAW) is (in Islam) a frontline Prophet of Allah. And by virtue of that venerable position, he is to the Muslim world what he is to the Christian world, diversity of interpretations in revealed Books notwithstanding. The spiritual reputation of Jesus Christ in the Qur’an is such that his name is mentioned with reverence 37 times in that sacred book. Besides, a whole chapter (19) is divinely dedicated to his mother (Mary) in that glorious Book of books. And the second longest of the 114 chapters in the Book (Suratu Al-Imran) is dedicated to the family of Mary.

    Thus, it is only an ignorant Christian who will query the concern of a Muslim in the revered personality of Jesus Christ or claim any monopoly of that great Prophet of Allah. The blatant ignorance in which religion is shrouded in our own part of the world may be a major cause of mutual hatred and rancour but it cannot obliterate the sacredness of religious norm.

     

    Comrades in blasphemy

    Maligning or denigrating Allah’s Apostles is not restricted to this era. Over the centuries, many charlatans had done it to their own peril and they ended up regretting the rest of their lives. Even during the political campaigns towards Nigeria’s Second Republic in the late 1970s, for instance, a self-adulated politician openly compared himself with Jesus and Muhammad (SAW) and concluded that he was better than both of them. Of course, consequently, he lost that election and the subsequent ones even as he eventually died in political ignominy. And in a Southwest state recently, a political demagogue adopted a slogan of ‘a vote for….is a vote for Jesus’. What an insult? Does Jesus need anybody’s vote to be what he is? And, of course, like his predecessors in blasphemy, he also lost out.

    We can also recall the 1989 plight of one Salmon Rushdie, the infamous Indian author of ‘Satanic Verses’. His intention to write that evil book with which he maligned the person of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was, as usual, to make money. But, eventually, he neither made the expected money nor lived a normal life subsequently. Today, he is half alive and half dead without knowing where he actually belongs.

     

    A fool’s paradise

    Equating with impunity the sacredness of the spiritual life with the crudeness of mundane life is like calling the bluff of God and challenging Him to a duel without a wherewithal to bear the consequence. The tempting aura of office can sometimes be as intoxicating as a fool’s paradise. But invariably, those who are caught in such a deceptive web hardly realise (until it becomes too late) that every mundane office is as transient and ephemeral as the spider’s web.

    However, it is one thing for praise singers to deify their principals just to curry favour and maintain stomach infrastructure, it is another for the deified principals to know the limit of flattery, reject the label of infallibility and call the flatterers to order particularly where excesses are too conspicuous as in the case of the sacrilegious comparison under discussion here. Where are the principals of yesteryear?

     

    Egyptian episode

    Perhaps, a pseudo PR man like Okupe needs to be reminded of a political episode in Egypt of the 1970s. That was the time the Egyptians began to feel insecure neither because of their war of attrition with Israel, nor because of poverty arising from that war but because an Anwar Sadat had become an irredeemable monster equating himself with Egypt in the name of President. In his last years in office, the man was virtually the law of Egypt. He was not just the executive arm of the government, he also usurped the legislative and the judiciary powers to the absolute irritation of his countrymen. (In recent times, similar traits began to manifest themselves in Nigeria).

    In their war against Israel, the Egyptians lost almost everything they possessed, including their youth (the presumed future leaders) who physically fought that war. The only thing they did not lose was hope.

    And, that was because President Jamal Abdul Nasir, Sadat’s predecessor in office, had ensured the keeping of hope in the citizenry before his death in 1970. The hatred of the Egyptians for Sadat reached its climax in 1978 when, in a live Presidential press chart, he told the citizens that Egypt was Sadat and Sadat was Egypt. He was answering the question of a female journalist who asked him where he got the money with which he built a whole city named after himself (Madinatus Sadat: City of Sadat)

     

    Public Reactions

    Coupled with his earlier unilateral decision to commence peace negotiation with Israel without any meaningful consultation with other Egyptian stake- holders, Sadat’s arrogance became so unbearable to an average Egyptian that whenever he wanted to address the nation, people just turned off their television sets and jumped on to the streets driving around with iron buckets tied to the boots of their cars. The irritating noise coming from those cars was believed to be a show of the extent of nuisance which Sadat had constituted to the nation. But the irony of all these was that either Sadat did not know  the extent of people’s contempt for him or he pretended not to know because he still enjoyed the flattery of a few sycophants around him who continued to benefit from the largesse of his misrule. Today, if Sadat’s name is mentioned publicly in Egypt, only a few Egyptians will not say “a’udhu billah minas-shaytan rajim”.

     

    Security issue

    Nigerian government needs to know that the constituents of security are many but they do not vary. To speak and tell the truth; to make promises and fulfil them and to uphold trust without betraying it; those are the basic qualities with which Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said a gentleman is known. But the Prophet put it in a different way. He said: “Hypocrites are known by three shameful acts: when they talk they lie; when they make promises they renege and when they are trusted they betray the trust”. From that clear description of a hypocrite will it be out of place to conclude that today’s leadership in Nigeria is hypocritical? How will the ‘PR’ Okupe react to that?

    Nigerians have been told endless lies. They have been promised in vain.  Their trust in the leadership has been betrayed. Thus, the only thing that seems to remain in their possession is forlorn life. Yet the same leadership continues to preach patriotism to the hopeless populace as if patriotism is a diehard substance achievable in a vacuum.

    Is it not a matter of morality that those who are calling for equity must come with clean hands?

     

    The good old days

    What is most painful to most Nigerians in all these is the remembrance of the good old days with nostalgia. At least they can still recall that despite the general belief that the late General Sani Abacha brought a political Tsunami to Nigeria, his regime can still be taken for a paradise compared to the one. Abacha’s evil machinations were expected because nobody voted for him. He staged a coup to serve Nigeria, and since he had nobody’s mandate to rule, his atrocities did not come as a surprise to anybody. Abacha had political enemies, no doubt, but he did not extend his enmity to the masses. By the time Allah finally accepted the peoples’ prayer and terminated Abacha’s regime in a miraculous way, Nigerians still had some flesh with which to cover their battered skeletal bones.

    In the regime, those bones were the first target of the political arrows coming from the government. The situation of Nigeria today has enabled the people to know that devils too are in sizes and degrees. Thus the masses have stopped saying Amen when prayers are officially offered for the  leadership.

    Rather than serving as an attack dog for the government, what ‘PR’ Okupe should do is to study the lifestyle of Umar Bn Khattab, the second Caliph in Islam. That great Caliph was exemplary in governance, not only for the Caliphate but also for the entire world. And, from his experience, the world came to realise that the greatest achievement that any man can betroth to his people as a legacy is positive service to humanity. That is what any genuine PR man of worth should ensure that his principal engages in. Public attack or comparing Jonathan with Jesus cannot work any miracle. This is a lesson in PR job for those who crave incursion into other peoples’ profession.

  • Decision 2015: Issues at stake

    Decision 2015: Issues at stake

    In the midst of all the chaos and uncertainties that life has cruelly thrown at them, Nigerians are incurable optimists. Of course, I am not referring to the multi-billionaires or trillionaires who through hard work, or as political pirates and economic leeches, have no idea what it is to be in the dungeon of life. The downtrodden earn my respect as they look forward to a tomorrow that they believe will be better than a today. And so, even in the most confusing scenario of the nation’s political development, they keep hope alive.

    I think that they have a good reason for their cheery outlook. It’s been 15 years since the end of the brutal dictatorship of the 1990s. We have come a long way in the journey of democracy. No one now expects a military comeback, as all stakeholders in Project Nigeria look forward to the general elections of 2015. Whether this democracy is a sham or pseudo, the masses believe that we have turned a corner in our national democratic journey. They participate without being forced. They exercise their constitutional right to determine who will govern them from local government to state and federal levels. We have a reason to be thankful.

    In spite of our federal system, however, no election is considered as important as the one that gives us a new president of the federation. While former Speaker O’Neil’s dictum remains true that all politics is local, the presidency of a country is in a league of its own and in our case, which appears to be federal in name only the reality is not lost on us.

    We have a constitution that prioritises the central government, giving it control over our national resources and the ability to control what amount of the statutory allocations accruable to states and local governments get to them and when. The centre is disproportionally benefitted in our revenue allocation formula. And it doesn’t appear that this will change in the foreseeable future because the party that controls the centre and benefits from the lopsidedness is not necessarily in a hurry to change the system.

    Now that General Muhammadu Buhari and President Goodluck Jonathan have emerged as the candidates of the major political parties—All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), we must expect a vigorous campaign from the candidates, not only to sell the manifestoes of their parties to the electorate, but to canvass their personal positions on the issues at stake in this election and how they intend to resolve them. In addition, the masses do not expect serious candidates to dwell on issues that are irrelevant to taking the poor and the middle class from the dungeon of existence to the palace of their full potentials.

    In this regard, we can simply eliminate a couple of red herrings. Religion has been used and abused since the beginning of the republic. It may not be the opium that Marx identified with it; but it surely is a dangerous elixir, which when indulged can be life-threatening to nationhood. It is understandable that when nothing else is available to them, political blood-suckers in their desperation exploit people’s religious sensibilities. It is therefore imperative for candidates who want to govern Nigeria to stay clear of religious politics and for the electorate to send them a strong message that they will not be hoodwinked by religious demagoguery on the part of any candidate.

    The second item on the list of irrelevancies is ethnicity. This is a lot easier said than done because of how the country started and the long reign of ethnic politics. The constitution itself lends credence to this anomaly in various ways, the federal character clause being the most significant. It may be argued that with the multi-national status of the country, it is unrealistic to expect that ethnicity will not creep into its political discourse. But the constitution also provides for the ideal of a nation that is not limited by the many tongues and tribes that it encircles. If we still believe in that ideal, it behooves those who would aspire to the highest political office in the land, then, to refrain from stoking the dangerous embers of ethnicity and nationality. It is not just counter-productive but also grossly irresponsible.

    What then are the issues at stake in this election? For me there are three, namely, insecurity, corruption and the economy, for which a candidate must not only provide the electorate with his plans for their resolution, but also a track record of how he has dealt with them as an office holder.

    Nigeria has not had its worse with regard to insecurity of lives and property. Yet, security is the basic minimum that a citizen must expect his country to provide for the simple reason that it is the state that has the monopoly of power to tackle the forces of evil that threaten citizens. We do not give citizens the right to carry weapons in self-defence. We do not allow the raising of private police or military.

    Citizens contribute their resources in the form of taxes for the state to secure them. But what do they get in return? Not just militants and insurgents that the police and the military are unable to degrade or destroy, but to their horror, citizens become the victims of police and military brutality. A recent case was reported in the media of a young couple brutally attacked by a policeman in Lekki simply because they dare express their right not to be harassed. And there was no recourse for them as the DPO for the area approved her officer’s action.

    What has each of the candidates done to deserve citizens’ confidence in his ability to keep them safe from internal and external attacks and hence to receive their vote?

    Corruption is the cancer that has perforated the internal organs of the nation and has made it a sleeping giant. It is at the center of our national affliction, impacting the ability to secure us and the capacity to grow and develop. Even if adequate provision of resources to fight Boko Haram was made, there can be no success or victory if the resources do not get to the battle front. Why is it that the militants have more superior weapon than our national armed forces? Could it be that Boko Haram has access to more funds than Nigeria? This is a question that begs for answer but that answer is blowing in the wind of corrupt practices. Replicate this throughout the branches and levels of government and you can see why we are where we are.

    How has the present government dealt with corruption? What can Dr. Jonathan expect to do now that he has not been able to do in four years? What is the track record of General Buhari?

    Finally, the economy is in tatters and we are playing the ostrich. The politics of centering or mainstreaming is slowly blowing up in the face of its advocates. We are asked to join the majority party so that our zones may be benefitted from the bountiful flow of petrodollar. That flow turned into a national curse when we chose to abandon agriculture and other national economic strengths without investing our petrodollar in viable economic ventures. We even abandoned the refineries because selling our crude and importing refined products feeds our corrupt appetite more effectively. Now that the world has abandoned our oil, and we have had to devalue the naira even with infrastructure decay that requires fixing, what are we going to do?

    What rabbit does President Jonathan have in his hat that he has not brought out in the open corridor of performance in the last four years?  How has General Buhari performed in the economic sphere in his former positions?

    These are the questions that intelligent people need to ask of the candidates and insist on satisfactory answers. The die is cast. Let the campaign begin and let us pay close attention to the speeches and body languages as well as to the past which is always a good guide for the future.