The Nation Newspaper

Category: Friday

  • Service or servitude?

    My service to my people is part of the discipline to which I subject myself in order to free my soul from the bonds of the flesh…For me the path of salvation leads through the unceasing tribulation in the service of my fellow countrymen and humanity”.

    Mahatma Ghandi (1869-1948)

    The above quoted statement by the late Indian Statesman, Mahatma Ghandi, epitomises patriotism in all its ramifications. However, it requires life, hope and sincerity of purpose to be so dedicatedly determined. Perhaps, if Ghandi had been a Nigerian he would have made such a statement with reservation and that is if circumstances of life would ever permit him to make it at all. This indicates that an Indian of Ghandi’s status and intent might be an aberration in Nigerian environment. Detailed analysis on this may be left for another day.

    About a year ago, (precisely May 22, 2013), the compulsory National service scheme in Nigeria generally known as National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) was 40 years old. It was another time for the federal government to roll out drums characteristically in celebration of the occasion with pump and pageantry. And the cost, as usual, was though not disclosed, must have run into billions of naira. From that jamboree, new millionaires must have emerged while bank accounts of some government officials must have swollen beyond imagination. Yet, we are fighting corruption tooth and nail.

    The Value of 40

    Forty years is universally acknowledged as the age of maturity. It is the age of mature reasoning when man is expected to handle matters with little supervision. It is the age at which the mistakes of the adolescent years are corrected. Incidentally it is the age at which every Prophet of Allah except Isa (Jesus) was commissioned to deliver Allah’s message to mankind. Any man at that age who can still not think before acting is called ‘a fool at 40’. Ditto a government or a nation.

    The establishment of the NYSC scheme by the military government under the leadership of General Yakubu Gowon was not fortuitous. With the promulgation of Decree 24 of 1973, the scheme was established on May 22 of the same year not only as a demonstration of the government’s genuine intention to fulfil the regime’s post civil war policy of ‘Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Reconciliation’ (otherwise called three ‘R’) but also to accelerate the country’s socio-economic development as well as to foster national unity and integration.

    Purpose of NYSC

    The Scheme was charged with the responsibility of mobilising, deploying and administering Nigerian Youths who must have graduated from tertiary institutions. Their duration of compulsory national service was scheduled to be one full year during which they are to be groomed for leadership. The objectives of the Scheme which compel the youth graduates to serve in States other than those of their origin are as follows:

    1. To inculcate discipline in Nigerian youths by instilling in them a tradition of industry at work and of patriotic service to Nigeria in any situation they may find themselves

    2. To raise the moral value of Nigerian youths by providing them with the opportunity to learn about higher ideals of national achievements as well as social and cultural improvement

    3. To develop in the Nigerian youths the attitudes of mind, acquired through shared experience and suitable trading which will make them amenable to mobilisation in the national interest

    4. To enable Nigerian youths acquire the spirit of self reliance by encouraging them to develop skills for self employment

    5. To contribute to the accelerated growth of the national economy

    6. To develop common ties (among Nigeria youths) geared towards the promotion of National unity and integration

    7. To remove prejudice, eliminate ignorance and confirm, at first hand, the many similarities among Nigerians of all ethnic groups and

    8. To develop a sense of corporate existence and common destiny of Nigerian people

    The Cardinal Points

    There were four cardinal points upon which the scheme is based. These are Mobilisation, Orientation/ Induction Course, Primary Assignment/Community Development Services (CDS) and Winding Up/Passing Out. Through these cardinal points the scheme mobilises Nigerians below the age of 30 years who are graduates of Universities, Polytechnics and (initially), Colleges of Education for a one year national service in any part of the Country. Such qualified Nigerians are given an instrument of mobilisation otherwise known as Call-Up letter which shows the state in which to serve and other particulars relating to the prospective Corps members.

    Also, a three weeks training programme primarily designed to prepare corps members for the one year national service is provided and the training takes place in venues called Orientation Camps located in all the States of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    The orientation course provides a platform for interaction among Nigerian Youths of diverse backgrounds and inclinations. Then, at the end of the Orientation exercise, corps members are posted to serve in both the public and private sectors. During this period, they provide skilful assistance in meeting the much needed man-power in the rural and urban Communities. The corps members are distributed to all the communities which now make up the 774 Local Government Areas in the 36 states of the Federation plus the Federal Capital Territory.

    In addition, a Community Development Scheme was designed to be carried out by the Corps members along with their Primary Assignments. The CDS was planned to bring development to the host Communities through the activities of the Corps members for whom a day was set aside in a week to carry out Community Development initiative based on community need and to provide a platform for sustainable development in active cooperation of host communities.

    Finally, a winding up/passing out programme was designed to draw the curtain over the service year and bring the corps members together once again to enable them share their experiences during the service year and deliberate on their individual future agenda. This is an opportunity for most corps members to exchange contact addresses and thereby establish permanent relationships. Thus, from such relationships, intertribal marriages and business partnerships emerged. The scheme remains one of the greatest achievements of General Yakubu Gowon’s regime as Nigeria’s military Head of State.

    Policy Formulation

    At the time of formulating the NYSC policy, Nigeria was still a country plagued by a myriad of problems generally known with underdeveloped countries such as poverty, mass illiteracy, acute shortage of high skilled manpower (coupled with most uneven distribution of the skilled people that are available), inadequate socio-economic infrastructural facilities, terrible housing shortage, lack of water and sewage facilities, roads, healthcare services, and effective communication system.

    Faced by these almost intractable problems, which were further compounded by the burden of reconstruction after the civil war, the government and people of Nigeria set for the country, fresh goals, and objectives aimed at establishing a new Nigeria from the debris of the old. The aim was to build a united, strong and self-reliant nation; a dynamic economy; as well as open opportunities for all citizens in a free and democratic society.

    It must be remembered that only six Universities existed in Nigeria by that time. These were the University of Nigeria, Nsukka; University of Ibadan, Ibadan; Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; University of Lagos, Lagos, University of Ife, Ile Ife and University of Benin, Benin City. All these Universities, except University of Ibadan, (which was left behind by the colonialist as a national heritage) were forcefully acquired by the federal military government from their regional owners. And the inadequacy of needed manpower supplied by these Universities warranted the inclusion of graduates of Higher National Diploma (HND) from Polytechnics and later, the holders of National Certificate of Education (NCE). (The latter was however excluded with time when more Universities and Polytechnics emerged).

    These universities and other institutions of higher learning are normally expected to serve as training grounds for future leaders, besides being committed to the advancement of learning and knowledge as well as training of people for good citizenship. Perhaps the deviation experienced from this expectation led to the accusation levied by members of the public against the products of those institutions of being too elitist in their outlook and of not identifying with the plight of the common man by appreciating the predicament of the vast majority of the citizenry who live in the rural areas.

    Besides the reasonable policy of emulating compulsory national service from some civilised countries, the year 1973 symbolised the foundation of many great thoughts that would have made Nigeria a great African nation. That was the year in which Nigeria could be said to have gained economic independence by changing the national currency from pounds and Shillings inherited from the colonial masters to Naira and Kobo. It was also the year in which Nigeria’s oil boom began.

    Corps members were paid a monthly stipend of N100 which was only a little less than the new salary of a fresh University graduate at that time. That stipend was not to be increased until the 1980s when inflation began to force the corps members to agitate for more. And for most of the 1980s the stipend paid to corps members was not more than N200 per month. It was only in the 1990s that the stipend attracted some major reviews. And besides the stipend paid by the federal government states and private companies also paid some token to those deployed to them for service in addition to accommodation provided. This is no more the case today. Corps members are now deployed at their own expense. The idea is that they should bear all their expenses from the N19500 or thereabout paid to them monthly.

    Irony of Life

    Ironically, some so-called former militants of the South-South who are virtually illiterates without any skills and are not engaged in any job are paid N60,000 per month for doing nothing other than laying down their weapons of vandalism. The implication of this is that any youth who wants to share in the federal government’s largess can go vandal and then negotiate with the government for a regular monthly fee in lieu of vandalism. Those who are being forced to serve their country for paltry monthly N19,500 are University graduates. And those who are paid N60000 per month for doing nothing are stark illiterates. Yet after one year of compulsory service by those corps members, there is nothing for them in terms of job even while the ex-vandals will continue to enjoy their largess of N60000 per month. What an irony? What a country?

    Apart from preparing corps members for formal post graduation jobs and managerial administration in theory, NYSC is also supposed to serve as a major employer of labour by opening doors for many job seekers to be employed across different cadres. But is this the case now? There are hundreds of thousands of University graduates who have served their fatherland only to end up loitering around and riding motorbikes on commercial basis. Is this how to develop a nation? If University graduates are rendered so useless in a country where sheer mediocre are glorified what future is expected of such a country?

    The year 1973 in the history of Nigeria can be called the turnaround year. But how much of that turnaround was utilised for the benefit of the country is a different question.

    During the celebration of the 20th anniversary of NYSC scheme the need to reassess and upgrade it arose. Thus, Decree 51 was promulgated on June 16, 1993 to replace Decree 24 of 1973 with which the scheme was originally established. The aim of the new Decree was to look beyond the immediate present and think of the future leadership of the country for which the corps members were being groomed. This was done with a view to giving them the proper guidance and orientation relevant to the needs of the country. But now, 20 years after the new Decree, where is the result?

    Deep down in the hearts of the formulators of the NYSC policy the scheme was primarily to inculcate in Nigerian Youths the spirit of selfless service to the community, and to emphasise oneness and brotherhood of all Nigerians, irrespective of cultural or social backgrounds. The history of our country since independence has clearly indicated the need for unity amongst all our people. And, looking at the scheme retrospectively, it is evident that its real effect is vivid not only in the understanding of the cultural settings of certain tribes by corps members from other tribes but also in the settlements of some of those corps members in some parts of the country which, hitherto, could never have been in their dreams.

    Pertinent Questions

    Now, over 40 years after the commencement of this visionary scheme how much of the country’s objectives have been achieved? Does the scheme truly remain a national service that it was design to be or a servitude to a political clique called leaders? In its early days, NYSC was the pride not only of the serving corps members and undergraduates looking impatiently towards their turn to serve but also that of the nation. Does that still obtain today? Has corruption not derailed the original purpose of that laudable scheme? Are the genuine graduates of Universities and Polytechnics not being replaced by ghost graduate as characteristic of Nigerian system? Are graduates qualified for the service not being delayed for a year or two to enable corruption thrive by bringing in hoodlums and political thugs at the expense of the nation? Have factors like nepotism and tribalism not crept into the scheme today? Have stories of embezzlement and other financial scams not disorientated potential corps members and devastated the zeal in them to serve their nation? And what has become of hundreds of thousands who have served in the past many years?

    Are Nigerian graduates useful for Nigeria today as originally planned?

    Is Nigeria really reaping the fruits of the NYSC scheme today? Should compulsory service to the nation be an end or a means to an end? And now that corps members are incessantly becoming sacrificial lambs either at the slaughter slabs of some barbaric elements in the north or in the dragnets of some brutal kidnappers in the East shouldn’t there be a review of the law guarding that scheme if only to safeguard humanity and civility? Should parents continue to lose their children at that level to barbarism and unwarranted brutality in the name of non-existing national unity? Some people sat down to plan the establishment of this scheme. Besides planning to embezzle money through its celebration what plan does the current government have for sustaining it and safeguarding the lives of the youths being compelled to serve the nation?

    Conclusion

    These and many other questions are begging for urgent answers from the current government while some elements in the government are getting richer by the day. If the pleasant past produced the agonising present to the benefit of a clique of misfits let no one assume that the agonising present will produce any hopeful future. The days of life are never the same in other countries. They cannot be the same in

    Nigeria.

    “Allah never changes the situation of a people (or a nation) until those people have sincerely repented and refrained from their iniquities”. Q. 13:11

  • It’s the structure, stupid!

    It’s the structure, stupid!

    It is the burning question; the snake on the rooftop; the five hundred pound gorilla in the room. It is the zillion naira question that we choose to ignore at the nation’s peril. It is the fundamental question of “what structure?”

    President Goodluck Jonathan’s speech is still being analysed. There has been more of commendation than analysis or debate. It is to be expected and the President must be very pleased. I only hope that in our native hagiographic disposition, we do not lose sight of the basics. The President wants delegates to his conference to remake Nigeria in a way that enables her to fulfill what he regards as her destiny. And time is running out already.

    While I appreciate the caliber and antecedents of a sizeable number of the delegates to this conference and have no reason to doubt the integrity of many more, I am not very optimistic about the outcome. This is because of the mixed signals coming from the groups and entities that matter. One day, we are told that the conference’s resolutions will be subject to a referendum of all citizens. On yet another day, we are informed that there is no enabling law and the conference resolutions must have to go before the National Assembly and debated as amendments to the constitution. I am wondering if our privileged legislators have seriously entertained the question of whether the fundamental question of “what structure?” is fixable by way of amendments.

    Of course, fixing anything by a patchwork of amendments is not utterly inconceivable. The challenge however is that if such amendments are extensive enough to cover all flaws, we may end up having the semblance of a completely new constitution. Isn’t it better then to discard an ill-fitting outfit than go through a process of alterations that destroy its beauty?

    But there is at least one more important consideration than the aesthetics of constitutional amendment. In the first place, no matter how we dress it up with the fanciful language of legitimacy, it is obvious that the 1999 Constitution was an imposition by a military clique bent on having its will after a self-inflicted indictment in the court of the people. The fact that the nation has been contemptuously made to put up with it for the last 14 years simply shows the pretentiousness of its “democratic” awakening.

    It should have been a triumph of the people’s will over the dictatorship of the gun if in 1999, elected representatives opted for a new beginning that prioritises a genuine constitution of the people by the people and for the people. It didn’t happen because those who found themselves beneficiaries of the people’s revolution from 1993 to 1998 were not representatives of the people but sympathisers of the military cabal and its civilian clique. The long and short of the matter then is that a military-imposed democratic constitution is an absurdity that has to be excised.

    What has made governance in Nigeria ineffective and thoroughly detestable in the last fourteen years? I don’t know of any reasonable analysis that focuses on just one causal factor. There is a multiplicity of factors, including bad leadership, docile followership, poor accountability regime and an inadequate constitutional arrangement. However, since it is the foundation of all other factors, the constitution has a pride of place in the constellation of factors for the explanation of bad governance.

    For instance, the immunity clause in the constitution explains why bad leaders are difficult to get rid of. The revenue allocation formula ensures that the states are beggars at the table of the federal government, meaning effectively that a greedy governor with no moral qualm only has to be a mainstreamer and all is well for him. But that doesn’t translate to a buoyant welfare scheme for his people. Witnessing the opulence that is displayed in Abuja and the developmental eye-sore that confronts them in the creeks, militancy has an unusual, if deadly, appeal to the hopeless youth.

    But there are reasonable people who think that the constitution is alright and the revenue formula is sacred.

    In 2005, former President Obasanjo organised the National Political Reform Conference in Abuja. It turned out, as we now know, that it was a ruse; and there was a hidden agenda in spite of his declaration of “no hidden agenda”. But that conference brought to light the sharp divisions among its component parts that this country has yet to overcome after fifty years of coexistence.

    By putting it this way, however, we do a lot of injustice to ourselves. For it appears we blame ourselves for what others before us have not been able to achieve due to no fault of theirs. Scotland and England have been together for far longer and they cannot boast of eliminating divisions. The last elections showed that the Scottish National Party won more votes in Scottish Parliament than the Labor Party and may now opt for independence from the United Kingdom at the next opportunity. So divisions in a multi-national state are not abnormal and, indeed, they should be the foundation of our constitutional arrangements. This is the merit of a genuine federal system which we do not now have.

    This time, it appears that consensus is gradually emerging over the question of structure

    I seek indulgence to refer to six fundamental proposals made by the Northern States at the 2005 conference. First, the Northern states recommended “that the Conference should endeavour to strengthen and re-affirm the corporate existence of Nigeria as an indivisible, indissoluble and plural national state under a Federal System, comprising three tiers of government, Federal, 36 states and 774 local governments.” Second, the Northern states opted to “reject in its entirety any attempt to convert the (geo-political) zones into regions and any reference to them as such should be expunged in any official document…”

    Third, the North insisted that the “concept of rotational presidency among the so-called zones should be discarded as it is subject to manipulation and abuse by unpatriotic Nigerians. It is neither in our constitution nor in our electoral laws.” But, fourth, the North went on to recommend that the “Presidency should rotate between the North and the South and this time around (2005) it is the turn of the North.”

    Fifth, the North suggested “that constitutional provision needs to be made for rotation within the states to provide opportunity to the various minority groups have (sic) access to the position of governorship within the states and to give them a sense of belonging.”

    Sixth, on resource control, the North chose to “stand by the constitutional provision that the Federal Government should hold in trust, control and facilitate the exploration and exploitation of all mineral resources in the country as enshrined in Section 44 (1.3) of the 1999 Constitution.”

    Clearly, these proposals go to the route of the challenges facing the nation. The Northern states are aware of competing positions which call into question the legitimacy of those constitutional provisions they revere; and, starting from next week, I intend to interrogate them with alternative visions. Meanwhile, I submit that the issues cannot be resolved by the National Assembly whose members have sworn to protect the very constitution that is being challenged. Furthermore, it is unrealistic to expect that constitutional amendments, which only deal with the facade, can correct the foundational problem of national existence. And this underscores the wisdom of the proposal for a Sovereign National Conference to deal with the fundamental question of structure.

  • National interest

    National interest

    The National Conference is under way. Delegates represent a variety of interest groups-ethnic nations, professional associations, trade associations, political office holders, political parties, student groups, among others. Every group, but especially the ethnic nations, has interests to protect and promote. Thus far, this has played itself out in the matter of the adoption of procedural rules. Thanks to the wisdom of the elders, it did not explode. The expectation of the president as convener is for delegates to think of and privilege the national interest in all their deliberations to the point that were there to be a conflict between the private interest and the national interest, the latter must prevail.

    The question that has not been addressed is “what is the national interest?” and how does a delegate or group of delegates know it when an issue is presented to them for deliberation and decision? Take a concrete example: Whether they are for it or against it, resource control is certainly a burning issue in the minds of many delegates and the groups that they represent and it will surely come up in the following weeks or months. What exactly is the national interest in this matter? And how might a delegate be guided by considerations of national interest in his or her contributions on the matter?

    This is an age-old issue.In the age of monarchical rule that preceded our republican constitution, the national (aka community) interest was variously interpreted depending on the balance of power in the community. With a powerful ruler, the community was the king. This was what Louis XIV of France meant with his infamous “L’ tat, c’est moi” (I am the State) declaration. He meant he was the absolute ruler who had the authority to determine what the national interest was. That was not the case in most traditional Yoruba communities where the king was surrounded by a traditional council of chiefs capable of dethroning him and requesting his demise. Our military past was not radically different from the Sun King’s idea of the state as the property of the ruler. While one single military ruler may not have been in a position to make that claim, the supreme military councils came close, if not in words, at least in practice. They determined what the national interest was. That explained why a nation that deliberately went for a federal structure at the dawn of independence was transformed into a unitary system almost overnight.

    Thankfully, we passed that stage, and I am confident that no delegate to the National Conference would wish the country go back to the era of dictatorial pronouncements on national interest in our new, even if imperfect, democratic setting. If this optimism is shared by all, the question then is “what is the national interest and how is it to be determined?

    A simple answer is that the national interest is NOT the interest of an abstract entity called the nation because there is no such abstract entity. The nation is “US”, the flesh and blood human beings that make it up. Our interests constitute the interest of the nation, that is, our interest, if you forgive the tautology. An abstract entity doesn’t have an interest simply because an interest is something that only sentient beings have.An interest is a generalised means of satisfying our wants. It is what Philosopher Rawls refers to as “primary goods.” In this sense, a foremost interest of any one citizen of this great country is security. For security is a generalised means of satisfying each citizen’s wants. And this explains why when government fails to provide adequate security, individuals find their own ways of ensuring security for themselves and their families.

    We engage in myth-making when we proffer the idea that there is some “national interest” located in some ethereal realm beyond the loci of individual interests. Surely, the interests that we have as individuals are many and may run into conflict. For a politician to win an election his opponent has to lose and the satisfaction of one interest cancels out the other. What should not be lost out of consideration in this apparent conflict of interest situation is that they both have a common interest in the system of elections.

    National interest, then, is nothing more than the common interests of the nationals. Nigeria is a nation of individuals and groups. President Jonathan invited these groups and individuals to meet to fashion out a road map for the Nigeria of their dreams. They will come, indeed must come, to the conference hall with their various interests at the top of their minds. To expect the opposite-that they will drop their individual and group interests at the entrance to the conference hall-is to expect a miracle. It will not happen.

    What we can expect, and must demand of the delegate, is to be prepared to negotiate in good faith, focusing more on their common interests than on the divergent wants and desires. For it is the nature of interests that each is capable of serving as the means of satisfying many divergent wants and desires.

    Let us take the extreme example of resource control. The question is how has the policy of federalising or centralising the control of resources served individuals, states, and communities well in the almost fifty years since it has been adopted as national policy in the “national interest?” We know that prior to 1966 every state was almost, if not totally, financially solvent. Each was doing well educationally and industrially. We adopted resource control as a means to uniting the country and we ended up with resentment and visible division along ethnic nationality lines. None, except those closest to power at the center, can claim to have benefitted from the policy of nationalising resources. The dictate of our common interest as national interest appears clear in this regard.

    How about security? I must assume also that there was good intention behind the centralisation of security. Fractious political climate in the First Republic was a serious concern for the military leaders that took over. Of course, it was under their watch that hell broke loose and a civil war ensued. Their prescription for unity and peace was for the central government to take charge of security because the states were “politicising” police functions. We continue to hear this same charge even when it seems clear that the federal government cannot conscientiously absolve itself of culpability in the matter of politicising the police. Since we all have a common interest in adequate security of life and property, delegates must set aside their political affiliations and come to an agreement on the decentralisation of the police with effective antidotes against politicisation.

    Education is another area of interest and it should be clear that every group and family have an interest in good education for their children. But it is an understatement that our educational system has crumbled completely under the weight of over-centralisation. The president recently expressed his frustration with state governors for not doing much about primary and secondary education while expressing satisfaction with the federal government’s handling of tertiary education. We know, however, that the number of universities established by the federal government is just one aspect of the story. Another aspect deals with how these institutions are faring. What types of students are they producing? Do they have the resources they need to do their job well? Delegates to the national conference have a responsibility to rub minds on this important issue of how best to educate our children and prepare them for the 21st century economy.

    Finally, it all boils down to national (common) interests in the issue of restructuring the country.If we ask the question: which individual, group, ethnic nation, religious group or denomination, gender is benefitting from the present centralisation of resources and administration of the country since 1966, I am sure only a few citizens can answer in the affirmative. The North has clearly stated that it has suffered more than other regions with the present arrangement. It is time then to let our common interests, rather than our fear of the unknown, chart the course of the future. This is national interest.

  • Confab: The merry makers in Abuja

    This column will not be distracted by the on-going grand revelry in Abuja which most of us have been deceived to think is a national conference. As has been noted once before in this column, it is indeed more for me a national cake sharing conference than a serious meeting of minds by people in a troubled nation needing urgent catharsis. I dismissed this jamboree first because the chief convener, President Goodluck Jonathan, is not particularly interested in a conference or any scheme to lift Nigeria from her current morass; two, he does not really appreciate the fact that the country he oversees is in extremely dire straits; three, there are a few quick actions he could take in his capacity as the numero uno which will begin to set the country aright, but has neglected to take; four, he could have dredged up the reports of over half a dozen past confabs, (back to Aburi) and set up a small committee to pick out some of those crucial matters troubling us.

    Finally on why I think this conference is a ruse, should it by any chance conclude that a certain Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is the crooked log that upsets our bonfire, would Mr. President gracefully stand down and allow an interim government set our dear country aright? You guessed it!

    We are back on that worn path that we have walked aimlessly since after the civil war. When each head of state reach the end of his tethers and has no more tricks in his bag, he plays the final gambit: set up a talk show; assemble all the politicians and kakistocrats in the land and throw in a sprinkling of the so-called progressives and critics; dole out enough money for them to revel for a few months while the head perfects his next move.

    The scheme is working quite fine so far: so many compatriots who have never seen a million naira in one bunch in the last decade; people whose bank accounts have been cold and forlorn for years suddenly find their treasuries leap to life and a series of glad-tiding alerts warm their hearts every forth-night. Wow! What a fresh lease of life, what good life, what good fortune! In the ensuing licentious three months, the city of Abuja would hear it from some of our nouveau riche delegates; those who love strong drinks would get bacchanal and quaff the quaff of their lives, while those who are hot in the tail will find solace in the bosom of the city’s Cleopatras. The real story of the Jonathan confab will however be told in the winter of the years to come.

    We want to wager that this talk show has the potential to turn out worse than previous ones because of the set of people attending now. We are a more thoroughly dumbed-down nation now. Very few in that hall understand the enormity of issues at stake and the attendant urgency; half the people are gerontocrats who would sleep through the show while many couldn’t care less whichever way it goes – they are there for the money and would do anything (including filibustering) for even more money. Lastly, how many other countries have had as many conferences and still remain in the doldrums? Could it be that we suffer collective mental impairment and require conferences upon conferences before we can sort basic questions of nationhood?

    The power paradox

    While we indulge in what one wants to consider as inanities, important matters that affect the very soul of the polity are passing us by. The other day in far away Windhoek, Namibia, we were told that President Goodluck Jonathan, while on a visit, signed a MoU for the setting up of a refinery in the tiny southern African country. According to report, it would be a private venture between Nigerian and Namibian businessmen. This was all the information made available. But we ask, does it require a bilateral MoU if some businessmen seek to expand their frontiers? Why Namibia which has no crude oil and not Nigeria which has crude but no refineries? If our president could catalyse the building of a refinery in a distant land, why has he not done so for his country that has been embroiled in energy crisis even to this moment? There are so many questions to be asked which suggest that something is fishy, if not phony, about this refinery.

    From Namibia to the Democratic Republic of Congo where yet another MoU has been reportedly signed by Nigeria for the importation of electricity from the Inga Power Dam Plants. According to Mr. Mohammed Wakil, Minister of State for Power, Inga hydro plant being built on the Congo River is expected to generate about 40,000 megawatts on full exploitation. Nigeria is expected to take a chunk of the power to form a West Africa regional power hub. Brilliant idea if we were operating at the magnitude we ought.

    Do we really want to wire power from Congo DR, across three countries to Nigeria? We can’t even transmit all of 5,000 mw today if we generated it! Who will bankroll this seeming outlandish scheme? Just like in energy, the power sector is in a state of chaos and we need all the investment we can get at home. It is like sending troops to Afghanistan when a war is raging at home. We must quit playing games with our country.

  • Fake prophecy

    Fake prophecy

    There is something strange about prophecy which remains a puzzle to mankind. It is like the night which is invisibly pregnant but delivers wonders in the day. Genuine prophecy is neither by coinage nor by pretext. Its roots are firmly planted in the rich soil of divinity.

    And only Allah appoints prophets for an appropriate nation with an appropriate mission at an appropriate time. But this has been bastardised by self-styled prophets of the modern world who see prophecy as an umbrella of fortune under which they can hide to mine gold and silver. Such people only sooth-tell satanic dreams to their ignorant and parochial victims who are callously milked in the name of prophecy.

    Except for King Daud (David) and his son King Sulayman (Solomon) who were divinely guided to show the world how wealth is legitimately acquired and managed, no prophet of Allah was stupendously rich. This can be compared with today’s situation where prophecy is measured in terms of billions of dollars or naira at the disposal of fraudsters parading themselves as prophets. Today, prophecy in religion has been fully turned into a platform for preaching prosperity rather than posterity at the expense of godliness and humanitarianism.

    Genuine Prophecy

    It is not by clandestinely predicting the number of Kings who will die in a locality in the coming year or the governors who will lose their seats to opponents that a person can proclaim self a prophet. Genuine prophets are known not by words of mouth alone or amount of wealth they possess but by the exemplary actions that may serve humanity in good stead for many, many centuries. Prophets Isa (Jesus) and Muhammad (SAW) are good examples of this.

    Prophecy, therefore, is not to be judged on the basis of yearly predictions. Virtually all the religious tenets and regulations in Christianity and Islam today are reflections of the prophecies of the two great men mentioned above in the past two millennia or thereabout.

    In contrast, however, fake prophecy today is a product which finds a large market in Nigeria. Ignorant and parochial people queue up in multitudes before fraudsters with the intention of moulding their future to suit their wishes or solve insuperable problems. Such people are forced to carry out satanic instructions which eventually bring ruins to them and pave ways for those fraudsters to zoom into material fortune without any care for conscience. Most broken homes and criminal activities of Nigerian youths today are traceable to fake prophecies and insensitive display of wealth in Churches and Mosques in this country.

    Prophet Muhammad (SAW) had forewarned the Muslim Ummah, over 1400 years ago, against the calamity which false prophecy could bring to them. Addressing his disciples on a particular occasion, he said:

    “There will be calamity!” He repeated this three times. But rather than asking him of its cause, the disciples simply asked for the solution. They had no cause to doubt him. And he told them to look for the solution in the legacy he was leaving behind. That legacy is the rule of law contained in the Qur’an and Sunnah.

    Rule of Law

    The Prophet emphasised to them that nothing besides the rule of law would ever bring them the needed harmony in the world. He described the Qur’an as the all-time permanent solution to the various problems of all times reiterating that only individuals, groups or nations that hold it (Qur’an) tenaciously would never go astray.

    The Qur’an, according to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) is the mirror with which to view the past retrospectively and draw a lesson from its experience. It is the effective compass with which to find the way in the hazy wilderness of the present. It is also the impeccable telescope with which to view the future. In other words, the Qur’an is an everlasting prophecy recalling the occurrences of the past, serving as the guidance of the present and tuning focus on the future.

    By asking the world to follow the rule of law in all their ways, the Prophet never aimed at rising from his grave to govern any particular nation or region of the world. Neither did he leave any heir behind who would inherit the governance of the world. His objective, according to the mission he bore, was for the world to be in harmony.

    And, it is only in the interest of mankind to uphold the rule of law for the sake of their harmonious co-existence.

    To marry according to the rule of law; to divorce, if need be, according to the rule of law; to raise families according to the rule of law; to transact businesses according to the rule of law; to play politics according to the rule of law; to give judgment according to the rule of law; to conduct elections according to the rule of law; to legislate according to the rule of law; to govern according to the rule of law, these and more are the elements of the mission preached by Prophet Muhammad (SAW). And, is there any individual, group or nation not affected by all these in the world today?

    Every aspect of life has its rule of law. We work in the day and rest in the night not by our own volition but in accordance with the natural rule of law that guide our existence. The sun rises in the East and sets in the West to obey the rule of law that controls its operations. Fishes live in water. Plants grow generically and are fed by their roots in obedience to the natural rule of law that governs them. Harmony becomes disrupted when deviation occurs in any of these.

    Carnivores like lions, vipers and eagles will never voluntarily feed on plants. Neither will herbivores like elephants, camels and goats, feed on flesh. To force them to do otherwise, in the name of experiment, is to cause disharmony in the animal kingdom.

    Cause of Disharmony

    The world is in disharmony today because of deliberate deviation from the rule of law by those in power. Stronger nations want to dominate weaker nations as in the case of America in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    Governments want to enslave the governed as in the case of Nigeria between 1999 and 2014. Groups want to exploit individuals as in the case of the business elite and the consumers. It is all an evidence of dogs eating dogs in the stable of greed. Why won’t disharmony prevail?

    But Allah so much loves mankind that He does not leave them permanently in the hands of devilish pirates. From time to time, Allah sends conscientious individuals either as rulers or as counselors to rescue the oppressed people. That was the fortune of Nigeria when Umaru Musa Yar’Adua emerged as President.

    His insistence on rule of law first sounded odd to some lawless elements who took such stand for granted because they never experienced rule of law in Nigeria. But that is the blessing which our country needed as a solid foundation for a strong building. Rule of law is the first sign of sanity in a society. It is an evidence of decency in a people.

    Remembering Yar’Adua

    In beaming the light of rule of law on Nigeria, Yar’Adua was not a mere touch-bearer he also recognized the fact that one did not necessarily have to be governed by Shari’ah to abide by rule of law.

    What the Qur’an teaches which the Prophet emphasised is for everybody to follow the rule of the law by which he or she is governed. To do this is to follow the guidance of the Qur’an.

    If we had a President in Yar’Adua who could voluntarily return his annual security vote of about two billion naira to the national treasury because he did not see the need to spend it and he did not see it as a personal booty; if we had a President in him who could return the budget to the National Assembly for amendment because he felt it was unnecessarily inflated at the expense of the populace; if we had a President in him who could promptly react positively to the cry of the people on high cost of food items in the market, who could cause the price of cement to crash in favour of the downtrodden masses and suspend any increase on price of petrol indefinitely until his death, it was only because he had the fear of Allah at heart. Thus with him in power it was becoming crystal clear that Nigerians were beginning to appreciate the fact that harmony was truly in sight. And such great gestures which had eluded this country for a long time before he became President came to add greater values to the lives of Nigerians. Rule of law is about conscience and decency of character.

    It marks the difference between man and beast.

    If Yar’Adua did not achieve anything beyond establishing the rule of law in Nigeria that singular achievement was great enough for posterity. And what is more, he achieved much more by bringing a ray of hope to millions of Nigerians in less than two years of his leadership in a country where the sky had been dangerously cloudy. No sane person will sensibly compare sleep with death.

    Lost Paradise

    Prophet Muhammad never spoke in a vacuum. His utterances were divinely guided. And the Qur’an confirms this thus: ‘’He (Muhammad) never spoke out of sheer whim; his expressions are no other than inspired revelations; he is taught by the One who is mighty in power…”

    Nigerians of today have become like the Israelis of yore who after being rescued by Prophet Musa (Moses) from the scourge of Pharaoh, showed ingratitude to Allah and were thrown into the wilderness of life. Having suffered in the hands of a blind and deaf Nigerian Pharaoh for eight terrible years and having been liberated by an unexpected Moses, it only behooved conscientious people to be grateful not necessarily to that Moses but to God who used him for this divine gesture. The sharp difference between the road to hell and the one to paradise which Nigerians have experienced within one decade had shown how wonderful Allah is in His deeds. It also confirms the genuineness of Prophet Muhammad prophesy as attested in Qur’an 20 verse 124 thus:

    “When my guidance is revealed to you, he who follows it shall never err nor be afflicted; but he who gives no heed to My warning shall live in distress and be raised blind on the Day of Resurrection…”

    In his message to the nation on the occasion of Mawlidu-n-Nabiyy and

    Easter of 2008, President Yar’Adua appealed to Nigerians, with humility, to exercise patience with his administration saying there was need for thoroughness and decency to take off. He neither used any abusive language that was the hall-mark of his predecessor nor did he ask Nigerians to continue to bear the unbearable while his own family lived aristocratically.

    Having a man like him at the helm of affairs while he was alive was a special blessing of Allah which Nigerians only came to realize after his demise. And today, that reality is a lost paradise. The Qur’anic verse quoted above must always be a reference point for all decent, law-abiding people. From all indications then, there was a sign of light at the end of our tunnel. When one compares the governing style of today with that of yesterday and weighs the one with the other, it will be obviously realised that the difference is clear. It is impossible for a man to give what he does not possess. For both the rulers and the ruled the only panacea to Nigeria’s plight, especially in a situation where ordinary feeding has become a luxury, is the rule of law. Anything contrary may only pave the way to waterloo. For rulers and politicians, to rely on fake prophesy, as now prevalent in Nigeria, is to cling desperately to a sinking straw. Those who did it in the past are now part of the debris of history. The dreamers of today cannot be different tomorrow. Let those who have ears heed this axiomatic warning.

    “Allah does not change a people’s lot unless they change what is in their hearts. If He seeks to afflict them with a misfortune, none can ward it off. Besides Him, there is no protector (for any rational being).” Q.13:11. God save Nigeria!

    Watch Out!

    In an effort to rejuvenate the Nigerian Muslim Ummah educationally against the ongoing emasculation by the power that be, the Nigerian

    Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) has started a quarterly

    Magazine titled ‘Prime Renaissance’. The magazine being packaged by the Media Committee of the Council has a variety of issues that will serve the Ummah in good stead. And yours sincerely is its Editor-in-Chief.

    To know some details about the aims and objectives of the magazine, please read the opening of its maiden edition entitled ‘OUR MISSION’ below:

    Intention is a mission upon which every human action is based. This fact was emphasised in the very first Hadith of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in which he said that: “all actions are surely based on intention and everybody’s action shall be judged according to intention…”.

    The intention of this timely noble magazine is to genuinely carry out the three basic objectives of journalism: Information, Education and entertainment which have been grossly abused and even bastardised by agents of bias through the colouration of politics and religion. This modest effort is aimed at putting the records straight by bringing genuine, unpolluted knowledge and correct information to the teeming population of Nigerian Muslims and others who are desirous of genuine and undeniable facts and figures. And this is why the magazine is rightly titled ‘PRIME RENAISSANCE’….

    In the course of our publications, we intend not only to right the wrong in terms of information and education dissemination but also in terms of character building in our youths and harmonisation of the society, especially the Ummah, for the purpose of peace and tranquility.

    Thus, the activities of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic

    Affairs (NSCIA) as well as those of the regional or provincial Muslim organisations in the country will be projected and highlighted for the generality of Nigerian Ummah. Muslim women in Nigeria will occupy their rightful place in this magazine as much as the Muslim children, the handicapped, the underprivileged and the crème de la crème of Nigerian society.

    This magazine shall be purely religious in contents and in outlook.

    But religiousness here does not mean that such areas as politics, economy, social events and international trends will be non-Grata.

    Every aspect of human life is encompassed in Islam and none shall be compromised in this magazine for whatever reason. It is our mission to make this magazine a compendium of knowledge and genuine information that will serve as a worthy reference for generations of yet unborn Nigerian Muslims…

    With this unprecedented step from the apex body of Islamic Affairs in

    Nigeria, one of the hitherto missing points can be said to have been found. It is hoped that sustaining it should not be a problem. Readers, Muslim and non-Muslims alike, are welcome on board of this new ship as it cruises on the storming sea of this era.

  • President Jonathan’s parallel messages

    President Jonathan’s parallel messages

    My intention in the next few weeks, other things being equal, is to follow the schedule of the National Conference. Last week, before its adjournment for logistic reasons, Conference leaders alerted the public to its agenda. It would start the conference with a discussion of President Jonathan’s address at the inauguration of the conference on Monday, March 17, 2014. This is commendable. It is Mr. President’s conference and there is no doubt that his vision for the conference and his hopes for a good outcome could be an invigorating starting point for delegates. This is why I also choose to take a look at the president’s address to the conference in this piece.

    I see two parallel messages in the president’s approach to the conference and both are implicated in his address. First, the president recognizes and does not shy away from the diversity of the country. Indeed, some would say that he endorses and encourages that diversity with his extension of invitation to groups, including nationality groups, professional organizations, and civil society groups. “You come to the (National) Conference as nominees and representatives of different interest groups,” President Jonathan observed.

    Second, however, as the Number One Citizen, the president is mindful of his responsibility to protect and promote the national interest. He must therefore not be seen as encouraging division. Hence, his message to the conference delegates: “I call upon you to put the best interest of Nigeria before all other sectional or group interests.” Indeed, a very close look at Jonathan’s address shows this message as the dominant one. Thus he finds it “regrettable that there are persons who believe that we cannot undertake any collective task in our country without the hindrance of ethnic rivalry even after 100 years of nationhood.”

    The combination of the two messages above appears innocent and indeed, many would argue, statesmanlike. The president recognizes the reality of diversity, but he also prioritizes national interest and admonishes delegates to embrace his vision. That is what presidents do, even if the reality that they face and acknowledge is starker with dire consequences.

    It is not only presidents that are forced to confront the dilemma of reconciling the obviousness of diverse interests with the urgency of promoting national interest. Philosophical reflections have focused on the dilemma as well, and this is to be expected since philosophy is second order reflection on reality. While idealists see a national interest that is over and above any individual interests, liberals conceive of national interest as nothing more than the summation of individual interests. Collective interest, for liberals, is at best a myth, and at worst, a deceptive parade of private interests as collective interest.

    Liberals are more realistic and down-to-earth honest in their approach to political discourse and practice than idealists. A standard conception of politics is that it is the institution that determines “who gets what, where, and when?” Another way of putting this is that it is the forum for sharing goods and services and deciding whose interests are favored. If this is true, and I am almost sure that no delegate to the national conference will honestly deny that a good outcome for them and for their involvement in this conference is that their group, if not individual interests, are favored. Voting, here, as in the larger political context, is the registration of interests, whether as individuals or as groups. I register mine; you register yours. Depending on the procedure we adopt, you may win or I do. This being the case, it is unrealistic, and may indeed amount to demanding the impossible, to ask delegates, as representatives of particular group interests, to jettison such interests in favor of an undefined national interest.

    Of course, that it is unrealistic does not stop one from trying. We just saw Jonathan try. And before our very eyes, delegates did not allow him to completely step out the door before group interests seeking recognition and advancement flooded the floor of the conference. As of the second full day of deliberations, they had not agreed on modalities for making decisions in the absence of unanimity.

    Idealism thrives on mythic thinking and Rousseau was the 18th century champion of political mythmaking. Seeing the state of nature as morally depraved, he welcomes the political association formed by social contractors as the best thing that can happen to members. The state of nature is the state in which there is no political authority and where anarchy makes moral norms impossible. Human beings in such a state would want to quit it and voluntarily form a political association. Once they succeed, they have traded their private interests for the general interest, that is, their interest as members of the political association. They will rationally do so because to do otherwise would risk going back to the state of nature which no one wants to do.

    The practical consequence of this, for Rousseau, is that when these individual members of the new political community meet to discuss issues pertaining to the community, they must come without any attention to their private interests and each of them must vote on the basis of what is good for the community. Rousseau goes on to assume that since everyone will abide by this injunction, decisions could be reached unanimously and whatever decision is so taken must be considered as the general interest. But, of course, there may be outliers whose votes are not in consonance with those of the others. Well, that is too bad because it follows that those outliers have not purged themselves of their private interests. They must therefore be forced to comply with the decision of the super majority. But, for Rousseau, that is actually not forcing them at all because it is really freeing them from the shackles of private interest-forcing them to be free, an oxymoron of the highest order.

    Surely, our President is no Rousseau, and he is certainly not in the business of forcing citizens to be free. But his charge to make national interest a priority in the deliberations of the conferees comes close to an idealist proposition. In fact, I would argue that Rousseau has a more valid basis for making that charge than the president. In the context of Rousseau’s charge, those citizens that just emerged from the state of nature have a greater interest in keeping their new political community from falling apart than they have in going back to the state of nature. In the case of Nigeria, citizens did not emerge from state of nature. They had their pre-colonial communities. They had their pre-amalgamation provinces. Lastly, they had their pre-military regions. Rightly or wrongly, the majority of the conferees still see themselves in the light of these entities from which they evolved. They can happily go back if the Nigerian project failed and their interest in this alternative reality has been variously expressed.

    What is even more relevant is that the president himself acknowledges this reality and endorses it by inviting delegates to the conference as representatives of various group interests. But you cannot eat your cake of national interest and still have it. You cannot invite delegates to represent primordial interests only to rail against those interests: “Indeed, I am quite worried when I hear people say that some participants in this National Conversation are coming here to defend and promote ethnic or clannish agenda,” says President Jonathan. Really? How can Mr. President be worried? The Presidential Advisory Committee went around the country soliciting inputs from those “clannish” interest groups. The committee presented its recommendation advising the President on which groups to invite. The President accepted the recommendations. Is he now seriously worried that those interests represented by real people are threats to the national interest? What is the national interest anyway? This question will be dealt with next week.

  • Small men, big jobs

    A further reflection upon the macabre Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) job interview of two weeks ago brings one to the conclusion that we are being scourged by so many small men occupying big positions. A scan across the horizon reveals that many public officials are ensconced atop such helms that overwhelm them ab initio and leave them floating like waifs all through the duration of their appointment. Since they scant understand the magnitude of their assignments, its essence and strategic imports, they embrace the ephemeral trappings of the office and enmesh themselves in the great money rush.

    Ministry of Interior is among the most strategic offices in any land. It oversees, immigrations, prisons, fire service, civil defence among other para-military organs. Before the NIS deathly job saga did you ever hear of a certain Comrade Patrick Abba Moro? For one who has been at the helm of these strategic agencies of state since 2011, did you ever hear him make a policy statement that envisioned this high office? Did you ever see him visiting our derelict prisons in search of hands-on insight; did you ever see him at far-flung immigration border posts in quest of first hand knowledge of the conditions prevalent out there?

    Apparently, all he has concentrated his mind on since 2011 would be how to organize a job scam that would fleece thousands of poor Nigerian jobless youths. Because the whole exercise was a grand ruse and his mind was set on a nearly N1 billion stash, Comrade Moro’s mind apparently shut down. He stopped thinking; he circumvented all rules, he bypassed NIS which duty it is to recruit; of course he could not conceptualize interview procedures. Only his money was on his mind. Would any serious country appoint such a one to head her interior ministry? And would any man with a modicum of honour still sit in office after his grand heist consumed so many lives and brought national odium? What a dangerously small mind.

    Everywhere you turn under the Goodluck Jonathan dispensation there is hardly a redeeming figure who truly understands the depth of responsibility inherent in his or her high office. All you see are very small people scurrying around with intent only on finding the gravy. Consider Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke at the petroleum ministry: while we are yet to digest her private jet saga, the latest news that streamed in last Monday is that Nigeria plans joint petroleum products refinery with Namibia. She has proven her lack of capacity to the point that she cannot even manage the arithmetic of her job. She cooks the figures from our oil industry so badly that the whole nation is dying of heart burn from the char she feeds daily. Everyday there is an outbreak of sad news and figures from Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s quarters like an epidemic.

    As if these were not enough, a petroleum refinery that will be jointly owned by Nigeria and Namibia is in the offing. This was one of the major decisions reached during President Jonathan’s recent visit to Namibia. The refinery, according to report, will be sited in Walvis Bay and will be wholly private sector financed. Now isn’t it preposterous that Nigeria would catalyze the building of a refinery in another country while there is none functioning properly within her shores in the last two decades? We are the only major crude oil producer that imports all her petroleum products whereas the cost of importing these products in one year would build giant petrochemical complexes

    Nigeria’s vast oil and gas sector has ample capacity to turn around the economy of Nigeria in a very short time. Our gas properly harnessed, would drive electricity while the petrochemicals would fire industries and awaken huge export potentialities across sectors, creating massive quality jobs for our youths. But all these are seemingly lost on Mrs. Alison-Madueke, a billowing material girl who is obviously more enamored with jet-setting, jewelry and all sorts of silly lares et penates that would soon fade away. Surely her mind cannot accommodate such intangibles as legacy and history. Why is history not shaped like a giant pearl just for her sake? One thing is sure though, let them spirit away our collective refinery to Bechaunaland if they choose; the day of reckoning will surely come.

    It is almost an all ramifying phenomenon which is why you cannot single out any outstanding public officials today. Key MDAs that drive our nationhood (health, agriculture, education, industry, science, etc) are dormant and semi-moribund having been sucked of substance and essence. This is what happens to a country when small people take charge of important state affairs.

    BOOK BLURB: 

    Of Conscience and History

    Students of recent Nigerian political history will find “Conscience and History – My Story”, by Peter Odili a rich collection. If you overlook the “Detailed Sectoral Achievements” on chapter F, the book offers some noteworthy insights and uncharted perspectives of our current political experience coming from someone who did not only see it all but participated extensively. Dr. Odili was a two-term governor of Rivers State from 1999 to 2007.
    Conscience cast some fresh light on the dark intrigues and subterfuge that pervaded President Obasanjo’s last days and his endgame; the last minute shenanigans that earned us the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and current President Goodluck Jonathan. The book showcases the devious uses Obasanjo deployed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) under Mallam Nuhu Ribadu to. How Odili’s presidential quest was scuttled by power musketeers who stood to the last minutes to ensure that not only did Odili not get the PDP ticket, his name was expunged from the already prepared speech of the nominee, Umaru Yar’Adua which was to declare Odili vice presidential nominee.
    The book is also an interesting story of a brilliant academic career and an all-round sportsman in his innocent school days; it is the story of the Nigerian civil war and its effect on a fledgling young man. It is a book which some of the actions recorded in it still reverberates. A book which details some legal proceedings that are now landmark precedents in Nigeria’s jurisprudence. It is history in motion, a great read.

  • Sheikh Lemu’s award

    Sheikh Lemu’s award

    A Nigerian of global recognition, Sheikh Ahmad Abubakar Lemu, an erstwhile Grand Qadi of Niger State and Chairman of Presidential Panel on Nigeria’s Post-Election riots in 2011, is one of the five winners of this year’s (2014) King Faisal International Awards. He won the Prize not only for Service to Islam but also in recognition of his efforts towards educational development particularly his defence of Muslim women’s rights as well as his initiative in combating religious extremism in Nigeria.

    Other winners of the award in various categories this year include: Prof. Gerd Faltings of Germany (for Science); Prof. Yuk Ming Dennis Lo of China/UK (for Medicine); Dr. Abdullah Ibrahim Allawi AlBussabah of Iraq (Prize for Arabic Language and Literature), and H.E. Professor Abdul Wahab Bin Ibrahim Abou Sulaiman of Saudi Arabia (for Islamic Studies). The monetary value of the prize in each of the five categories consists of the following:

    1. A hand written Diwani calligraphy certificate, summarising the Laureate’s work.

    2. A commemorative 24 carat 200 gram gold medal uniquely cast for each prize.

    3. A cash endowment of SR 750,000 (US$200,000).

    Co-winners in any category share the monetary grant. The Prizes are awarded during a ceremony in Riyadh Saudi Arabia under the auspices of the King of Saudi Arabia.

    Profile

    Sheikh Lemu who is Chairman, Council of Trustees, Islamic Relief Commission Office, will join other four other winners in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for the conferment of the award on Sunday, March 30, 2014. A devout Muslim, composed intellectual, and an advocate of moderation and open-mindedness, Sheikh Lemu is a member of several international Islamic organisations worldwide. He is the second Nigerian to win the prestigious award the first being the late Sheikh Abubakar Mahmud Gumi who won the award in the same category in 1987.

    Sheikh Lemu’s legendary efforts towards enhancement of education, development and call to Islam are evident in his series of lectures, seminars and class tutorials. He has authored many Islamic books, pamphlets and school references thereby fulfilling a significant part of the needs of Nigerian community. He also serves as an important resource person for many Nigerian Muslim generations, helping them to understand Islam and to expand their knowledge of the religion.

    Sheikh Lemu is a frontline scholar playing a significant role in defending Muslim women’s rights an effort that culminated in the establishment of the Union of Muslim Women’s Societies in Nigeria and promotion of peaceful co-existence among the various religious and tribal groups against sectarian violence. It is also due to his effort that the Islamic Da‘awah (Propagation) Institute aimed at combating extremism was established. He has won several national and international accolades and prizes for his services to Islam.

    Lemu has a solid educational background in both Islamic and western systems. He started his career as a teacher under the Bida Native Authority and was at different times, principals of the School for Arabic Studies (SAS), Kano, and the Arabic Teachers’ College, Sokoto. He was appointed Grand Qadi of Niger State after the creation of the state in 1976.

    Born 85 years ago in Lemu, Niger State, Sheikh Lemu is a national and world acclaimed Muslim scholar and jurist. The President of the Minna, Niger State-based, Islamic Education Trust (IET), he is married to a British woman, (Aisha Lemu) who embraced Islam at his instance and also became an author of several Islamic books. The delegation to the occasion which will take place on Sunday, March 30, 2014 will be led by Nigeria’s Vice-President, Architect Muhammad Namadi Sambo.

    King Faisal Foundation

    The King Faisal Foundation was established in 1976 by the sons of King Faisal who was just murdered. The Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Foundation is Prince Muhammed while its Managing Director is Prince Khalid Al-Faisal. The foundation is one of the largest philanthropic foundations in the world.

    The Arabian Peninsula now called Saudi Arabia consisted of two major components (Hijaz and Najd) which existed independently of each other until 1932 when the two were fused together by a Prince called Abdul Aziz Bn Abdur-Rahman Al-Saud who named it Saudi Arabia and became its first King.

    People had inhabited Hijaz and Najd since 15000 to 20000 years before the coming into existence of the modern state. But in the early 18th century, a Muslim scholar and reformer named Sheikh Muhammad Bin Abdul Wahhab began to advocate a return to the original form of Islam. For this, Abdul Wahhab was initially persecuted by local religious scholars and leaders who viewed his teachings as a threat to their power bases. He therefore sought protection in the town of Diriyah, which was then ruled by Muhammad Bin Saud.

    Both Muhammad Bin Abdul Wahhab and Muhammad Bin Saud jointly resolved to dedicate themselves to the restoration of pure Islamic teaching in the community. With that resolution, Bin Saud established the First Saudi State, which prospered under the spiritual guidance of Bin Abdul Wahhab, simply called Sheikh.

    By 1788, the Saudi State was already ruling over the entire Central Peninsula called Najd and by the early 19th century, its rule had extended to most parts of Hijaz, including Makkah and Madinah.

    However, the popularity and success of the Al-Saud rulers aroused the suspicion of the Ottoman Empire, the then dominant power in the Middle East and North Africa. And in 1818, the Ottomans dispatched a large expeditionary force armed with modern artillery to the western region of Arabia and besieged Diriyah, which by then had grown into one of the largest cities in the peninsula. Ottoman forces leveled the city with artillery and made it permanently uninhabitable by destroying all its social and economic means of living including wells and date palms.

    The Second Saudi State

    In 1824, the Al-Saud family regained political control of central Arabia and the then ruler, Turki bin Abdullah Al-Saud, transferred his capital to Riyadh, some 20 miles south of Diriyah, and established the Second Saudi State. During his 11-year rule, Turki succeeded in retaking most of the lands lost to the Ottomans and endeared his rule to his people by ensuring that they enjoyed fundamental human rights while enhancing their well-being.

    However, the established calm was shattered in 1865 by a renewed Ottoman campaign which sought to further extend its Middle Eastern empire into the Arabian Peninsula. Thus, faced by a much larger and better equipped army, Abdulrahman bin Faisal Al-Saud was forced to abandon his struggle in 1891. He sought refuge with the Bedouin tribes in the vast sand desert of eastern Arabia known as the Rub’ Al-Khali, or ‘Empty Quarter from where his family left for Kuwait to settle down until 1902. With him on that trip was his young son Abdulaziz, who was already making his mark as a future leader.

    The Modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

    The young Abdulaziz was determined to regain his royal patrimony from Al-Rashid family which had taken over Riyadh and established a government there backed by an Ottoman garrison. Accompanied by only 40 men with implacable determination, AbdulAziz staged a daring night march on Riyadh to displace the city garrison known as the Masmak Fortress. This historic event marked the beginning of the formation of the modern Saudi state. And on September 23, 1932, the country was named the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, an Islamic state with Arabic as its national language and the Holy Qur’an as its constitution.

    The Prize award wing of King Faisal Foundation is dedicated to the support of intellectual development and knowledge. While announcing the names of 2014 winners of the award recently, the Chairman of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees said “Every day, in every corner of the (Saudi Arabian) Kingdom, we are working to build educational establishments to improve the lives of our people. This prize is an expression of that”.

    The yearly King Faisal International Prize is the Arab world’s most respected award, often referred to as the “Arab Nobel Prize” as many of its recipients have also received the Nobel Prize in their respective fields.

    The Foundation rewards individuals and institutions whose accomplishments are not only exceptional in their own right, but also make significant contributions to human knowledge and development.

    Memory Lane

    A mild drama occurred in 1987 when the late Sheikh Gumi won the Prize. Gumi’s award was announced barely six months after Professor Wole Soyinka won Nobel Laurel in September 1986. General Ibrahim Babangida was then in the saddle as President. The latter’s government and Wole Soyinka did not see eye to eye, before then, for many reasons. But when the award was announced, the government saw an opportunity in it to silence a chronic critic by appeasing him with a governmental largess.

    On the order of President Babangida, the then federal government quickly zoomed into action by arranging a large entourage to accompany the first black African Laureate to Stockholm where the award was to be conferred. The group was conveyed in a national air jet. All the expenses were borne by the government. And on arrival at the Murtala Muhammad Airport in Lagos, Wole Soyinka was met with the national honour of Commander of Federal Republic (CFR).

    Six months later, the King Faisal Foundation announced Sheikh Gumi as a winner of the Foundation’s prize thereby making him the first black African to win that prestigious award. At that point, the same federal government that rallied round Wole Soyinka decided to switch off and pretended not to hear of Gumi’s award winning.

    MKO’s role

    It took the singular effort of the late business mogul, Bashorun MKO Abiola to arrange for the reception of the award in Riyadh as he chartered a jet for that purpose. Abiola quickly invited some prominent Nigerian professionals, technocrats, clerics and academics (200 of them in all), to form a befitting entourage for Sheikh Gumi and he bore the cost. Abiola’s action was to prevent any feeling of rejection in Gumi as a Nigerian. Observing this obvious injustice, yours sincerely, then a journalist and a columnist in Concord as well as a Personal Assistant to MKO, decided put pen to paper and exposed the government’s hypocrisy querying its decision to favour a citizen and disfavour another on a similar issue in the same country where both were freeborn citizens.

    The article reverberated across the length and breadth of the country and sent jitters to the government even as the matter became the talk of the town. Sensing the implications of such a discriminating attitude, General Babangida’s government suddenly changed gear. An official message was sent belatedly to Abiola asking him to hands off the arrangement, saying the government was ready to take it over and bear its cost. But Abiola, a democrat to the core, would not take a unilateral decision on such a sensitive matter. He summoned his think-tank cabinet, including yours sincerely, to a meeting for deliberation on the matter and a consensus was reached that the government should appoint a delegation to meet with a private delegation from the plan already on ground to reach a compromise.

    The two teams met at the office a Colonel (name not remembered) who then served as secretary to the then military Chief of Staff at the old Senate building, Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos. Alhaji Liad Tella, (an editor in Concord and a member of MKO’s kitchen cabinet) and I were the chief negotiators. At the end of the meeting, it was resolved that the entourage be divided into two equally (i.e. 100 for the federal government and 100 for the private arrangement. The understanding was that the federal government would bear the cost of its nominated members while MKO would bear the cost of the private team). Yours sincerely was part of the entourage to Riyadh.

    Philanthropic Magnanimity

    Meanwhile, since 200 people had been invited for the Abiola team while the government came up with extra 100 nominees what would then become of those earlier invited with their passports already submitted for ticket and visa? This was a big question which also took MKO some time to answer. Abiola said since he had fully budgeted for the trip, it would be unfair to return people’s passport without travelling. He then announced that those who could not make the Riyadh list should proceed to Makkah for Umrah (Lesser Hajj) a decision that satisfied everybody.

    And on reaching Saudi Arabia, MKO just went ahead to cater for everybody not minding the list or the team they belonged. At least, nobody received less than $2000 from MKO’s personal pocket. Some people were even paid $5000, some received $4000 and some were paid $3000 depending on their respective status. We pray the Almighty Allah to bless the soul of both MKO Abiola and that of Sheikh Abubakar Gumi.

    Today, with a second Nigerian (Sheikh Lemu) winning the prestigious award, history seems to have rekindled its brilliant glow in favour of Nigeria and we are lucky to witness the fit. ‘The Message’ hereby joins all well-wishing Nigerians in congratulating Nigeria’s latest Laureate for achieving this exemplary glory and wishes him longer life with sound health and the best of AL—AKHIRAH. Amin!

  • A decade of glory

    A decade of glory

    It has been only a few weeks since my temporary but unavoidable absence from this page. But as some earthshaking local and international occurrences during that period demonstrate, a twinkle of an eye could screen a hundred years of comment-deserving news.

    One of the hard-hitting international events was the Putinisque thumbing of the West with his in-your-face embrace of realpolitik as the new world order. When we thought that the cold war was over, Putin’s Russia decided to assert its interest against moral considerations.

    A second event was the mysterious disappearance of a Malaysian jet above the Indian Ocean. If reasonable people can disagree on the rightness or wrongness of Putin’s annexation of Ukraine, there is no argument about the tragedy of 239 souls missing without a trace.

    Beside the international events, there have been some newsworthy local events, tragic and comical. Boko Haram no longer has the capacity to surprise anyone except those irredeemable optimists who fail to acknowledge the sad reality of our national weakness in the face of determined psychopaths butchering innocent children in their sleep. Isn’t it a national embarrassment that every time someone makes a declaration of intention to root out Boko Haram from the nation, the sect responds with a more ferocious lethal force?

    And there is the tragic paradox of a nation that challenges her children to go to school, work hard, and get a diploma, only to turn around and get them killed. I do not know of a universe in which it makes sense for a government branch to invite half a million candidates to 20 centers for job test and interview. Assume even that there are 50 centers and the candidates are evenly distributed so that there are 10,000 in each center. What was the plan for their supervision? There was no adequate security. Only a few gates were opened at each stadium for more than 10,000 candidates seeking jobs to file in. And the agency was surprised about the outcome. Indeed, some officers were quoted as suggesting that no one was to blame because the deaths were natural. This too must not shock us because we heard it before in the case of murdered corps members.

    While I care about the world and the prospects of the cosmopolitan ideal, the local has a special appeal for its urgency and impact. If Boko Haram is not effectively contained now, none of us is safe. Consider the prospect of the sect’s infiltration of the southwest with millions of youths facing daily conditions of hopelessness and helplessness. Can anyone really afford to sleep with their eyes closed? It is stressful having to constantly reflect on these avoidable tragic national stories and I want to discipline myself to resist it. Life is short, as my friend keeps dinning into my ears.

    Of course, the national news is not all bleak. The arguments for and against the timing of the National Conference have not prevented the conferees from sitting even though logistical issues have forced an adjournment barely 24 hours after its inauguration. We must anticipate and pray for a good outcome because therein lies the future prospects of the country. If we get it right, we may have a new security regime that privileges local and state governments. We may have a new attitude to education and job creation if the center is effectively trimmed. This is therefore a potential good story. But there is plenty of time and since the leadership of the conference has promised to make it open with a website which will hopefully update the public on the deliberations, I promise to follow its work with rapt attention in the weeks to come.

    Today, however, I have some good, heart-warming, indeed joyous, local news to share with my readers. As many of my friends know, I am fond of tradition because it is empowering if we harness it effectively. We are all products of tradition because we are the offspring of our progenitors and we bear the mark of their imprint in language, customs and mores, and yes, in education. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, known for his insistence on the virtue of traditional education and nationalistic upbringing of children, remains one of my favorite philosophers. As Rousseau was fond of his native Geneva, so I am tied to the apron string of Okeho, where my umbilical cord remains buried in the family compound.

    This weekend, sons and daughters of Okeho have a good reason to celebrate the life and reign of HRH Oba RafiuOsuolale Mustapha, Adeitan II affectionately referred to as Ilufemiloye (my people want me on the throne). The unanimous choice of Okeho ten years ago, Kabiyesi has reigned with wisdom and fairness; and he is loved and admired by all and sundry. He has been a rallying point for intellectuals and the business class, youths and elders, and men and women. A Muslim by faith, Kabiyesi has embraced all faith traditions. He and his Olori and the family attend major Christian events, rotating among churches for such observances. Most importantly, he has championed the development of the town by encouraging natives and outsiders to establish businesses in town.

    Okeho has a fascinating history which could be of interest to our current national discourse. The town derived its name from its geographical setting of hills and holes (Oke-Iho) characterised by a site chosen because of the refuge it provided against foreign invasion.

    Onjo is the title of the traditional ruler. The first Onjo of Okeho was Ojo Oronna from OjoKosiwon ruling house in Ilaro Egbado of Ogun State. A crown prince, OjoKosiwon was not allowed to ascend the throne of OluIlaro and he therefore relocated to the area that became Okeho around 1750. This is relevant to our contemporary fascination with the boundary between indigenes and settlers.

    A short distance from the first settlement that Oronna created there was another settler named Olofin with his family. The two met and started living as neighbours. Other settlers soon joined the two and formed what is known as Okeho. Settlers from the other ten towns with their Chiefs who had lived at a considerable distance from one another were forced to consolidate their defence against the Dahomeans, and powerful Oba ArilesireArojojoye who reigned between 1800 and 1820 AD allocated lands to the settlers from the ten different towns.

    The settling of Okeho is thus a perfect real-life illustration of the theoretical position of Chief Obafemi Awolowo in The People’s Republic. As Awolowo observed, “Where different families lived as peaceable neighbours, they sooner or later discovered that some advantages of division of labour which were otherwise lacking might accrue to them if they united or co-operated with one another for purposes of production and exchange.” The eleven towns,made up of eleven extended families that constituted the quarters or wards of Old Okeho, included Ijo, Isia, Ogan, Bode, IsaleAlubo, Gbonje, Olele, Imoba, Isemi, Oke-Ogun, and Pamo. These still maintain some element of independence on various issues and each is still interestingly referred to as “ilu” (town) as in Ilu Isia. This is true federalism at work.

    The settlers accepted the authority of Onjo because of his royal origin and sense of administration. This led to the installation of the first Onjo and subsequently twelve Onjos at Old Okeho. It is instructive to note that Old Okeho was the only town that did not fall to the conquest of the Fulani Jihadists and Dahomean invaders while all other towns situated south of Old Okeho up to River Opara were scattered by the invaders.

    This weekend, as Okeho sons and daughters celebrate their loving Kabiyesi and his amiable Olori Taibat Omotola Mustapha, they are surrounded by the seven mountains and hills Eti-igun, Olofin, Akasube, Biayin, Okofori, Meseole, and Obaapa that protected their forebears from Dahomean invaders and have since been sources of pleasure and serenity away from the stress of urbanity.

    Ogoyii, Oluwa, yeeogoyii! Mase je kobaje! Mase je kodaru! Mase je kobaje o! Oluwa, yee, ogoyii. May Kabiyesi’s reign be long, happy, and prosperous.

  • The road to Moscow

    The road to Moscow

    Say oh Lord! The Sovereign of all dominions! You bestow power to whomever You wish and withdraw power from whomever You wish; You exalt whomever You wish and abase whomever you wish; In Your Hand lies all that is GOOD. You embed the night into the day and embed the day into the night; You bring forth the living from the dead and You bring forth the dead from the living. You grant sustenance to whomever you wish beyond all reckoning” Q. 3: 26-27

    Nights are pregnant. They invariably give birth to wonders during the days. All pleasant or sad events found in the records of history are often conceived in the night. The belly of nights is a mystery that cannot be easily explained through the success or failure of human dreams. Man is a mere spectator in the environmental drama going on in the theatre of life. He only reacts to that drama randomly as it affects his interest. The main actor in that drama is the phenomenon called destiny.

    Rein of Power

    In history, great empires and nations have reputation for rising to the peak of their glory at a time. They also have notoriety for falling unexpectedly to the abyss of life’s dungeon at another time when they might have reached the elasticity limit of their power wielding. And as it is with nations so it is with rulers. In this, what obtained in the past still obtains in the present. This confirms that humans are like flakes of history they rise today and fall tomorrow according to the dictates of momentary tempest. Yet the world surges ahead without looking back at them.

    There seems to be a striking similarity between the events and developments that precipitated the fall of the Union Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) and those prevailing in Nigeria today. The two countries may not have much in common but they significantly share a destiny that pilots their affairs separately. Like the defunct Soviet Union, Nigeria was forcefully fused together as a country in 1914 and subjected to the hegemony of the British colonial empire.

    This year, Nigeria is said to be 100 years old in theory. But in practice, she is still a teething country crawling with her many tribes and tongues towards an unstable boat with which she wants to sail across the rough sea of life.

    The Soviet Experience

    For the Soviet Union, the 74 years that lay turbulent between 1917 and 1991 can be described as the most electrical in the 20th century history. That period symbolised the nearest signal towards the end of human world. It was an era of blind ambition for mutual destruction between the capitalist West and the communist East of Europe through unbridled competition for unwarranted armament. It was an era that kept the existing historians of that time as busy as the bees in an active apiary.

    In those years, the competition between capitalism championed by the US and communism championed by the USSR was so fierce that the entire world was incessantly restive. It took only the grace of Allah to get our world propelled till date.

    That frightening ideological Cold War however took a dramatic turn in December 1991 when the world watched helplessly with amazement, as the great Soviet Union, suddenly crumbled like a pack of cards and amazingly disintegrated into fifteen separate countries. According to analysts “Its collapse was hailed by the West as a victory for freedom, a triumph of democracy over totalitarianism, and an evidence of the superiority of capitalism over socialism. The United States rejoiced as its formidable enemy was brought to its knees, thereby ending the Cold War which had hovered over these two superpowers since the end of World War II. Indeed, the breakup of the Soviet Union transformed the entire world political situation, leading to a complete reformulation of political, economic and military realignments all over the globe”.

    What led to that monumental historical event deserves a good study but it is of less concern here than its political implication for contemporary Nigeria. Going the memory lane, one may be recall that the Soviet Union was built on approximately the same territory as the Russian Empire of yore which it succeeded. After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the newly-formed government developed a Socialist philosophy with gradual and eventual transition to Communism. The philosophy was intended to overcome ethnic differences and create one monolithic state based on a centralised economic and political system. However, this State built on a Communist ideology, was later transformed into a totalitarian state in which the Communist leadership had total control.

    However, the project of creating a unified, centralised socialist state proved problematic for many reasons some of which are as follows:

    1.The pioneer leaders underestimated the extent to which the non-Russian ethnic groups in the country (which comprised more than fifty percent of the total population of the Soviet Union) could resist assimilation into a ‘Russianised’ State.

    2.The central government’s economic planning failed to meet the needs of the State, which was caught up in a vicious arms race with the United States. This led to gradual economic decline that eventually necessitated the need for reformation.

    3.The Communist ideology which the Soviet Government worked hard to plant in the hearts of its populace, never took firm root because it was incompatible with the primordial economic culture with which people were familiar. Eventually, the government lost whatever influence it had originally wielded.

    The Gorbachev Debacle

    By the time the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, rose to power in 1985, the country had slipped into a situation of severe stagnation, with deep economic and political problems which required a ‘surgical operation’ to effectively confront and overcome. Recognising this situation on assumption of power, Gorbachev introduced a two-tier policy of reform. One was glasnost which meant freedom of speech; the other was perestroika meaning economic reform. And based on these, Gorbachev released many political prisoners in February 1987 and called for the blank pages of Soviet history to be filled. He also renounced the Brezhnev Doctrine saying the Kremlin would no longer intervene militarily in the Eastern Bloc’s internal affairs. This was closely related interpreted to mean that the states in the Eastern bloc would become economically self-sufficient. Glasnost was the cornerstone of alleviating Cold War tensions aimed at drastically reducing Soviet military spending and creating an international reputation of a liberal leader for Gorbachev.

    In doing these, what Gorbachev did not realise was that by granting complete freedom of expression to the people, he was unwittingly removing the carpet of governance from his own feet. This meant that he inadvertently awakened in the people the insatiable economic yearnings and political emotions that had been bottled up for decades and could now become powerful enough to burst the bubble. Unfortunately, his policy of economic reform did not bring the immediate results which he had envisage and publicly predicted. The Soviet, haven become aggressively impatient, seized the opportunity of their newly granted freedom of speech to criticise Gorbachev for his failure to improve the country’s economy.

    Thus, Gorbachev’s miscalculation led to un-foretold collapse of the Soviet Union at a time when some dozens of countries around the world were looking up to USSR for rescue from the claw of Western imperialism. Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the Soviet Union with the intention of transforming the economy and easing Cold War tensions because he realised that the USSR could no longer compete with the United States in the Cold War arms race as its economy was far weaker than that of its rival.

    While surging ahead with his ‘Reformation Agenda’ of glasnost and perestroika coupled with liberalisation of the Soviet military might, Gorbachev did not realise that what actually sustained communism for a long time in Eastern Europe was the Red Army which he came neutralise. He strongly believed that with the implementation of his two newly formulated policies the USSR could allow the Warsaw Pact states to operate autonomously without the threat of Soviet military intervention even as those countries remained allies to the Soviet Union.

    Brezhnev Doctrine

    Hitherto, Gorbachev’s predecessor, Leonid Brezhnev’s policy towards the Eastern European Bloc, known as the ‘Brezhnev Doctrine,’ had forbidden any democratisation or economic integration with the West amongst Warsaw Pact states. And before Brezhnev, Joseph Stalin had also maintained the Eastern Bloc as Soviet’s satellite states through the threat of force. However brutal those previous policies looked, they were actually the cornerstone of the stability of Soviet’s Eastern Blocs. The main reason why the Eastern Europe remained communist and under the Soviet’s sphere of influence, was the use of the Red Army as an instrument of threat.

    By September of 1989 when Hungary opened its borders with Austria thereby paving way for East Germans to cross into West Germany through Austria it became obvious that communism was approaching its end. About eleven thousand East Germans thus fled the communist rule which indicated that a vivid anti-communist feeling had begun as people took to the streets to show their resentment. This culminated in the collapse of the Berlin wall on the 9th of November, 1989 and incident that eventually led to the unification of Germany and the collapse of communism.

    The West German population enjoyed a much higher living standard than that of the East, and therefore East Germany was willing to join West German governance. The East German thinking allowed the Chancellor of West Germany, Helmut Kohl, to reunify Germany under Western conditions. This meant a reunified Germany would join NATO and the European Community. Gorbachev planned on allowing cooperation between Europe’s capitalist and communist camps, but did not anticipate East Germany to join the capitalist camp outright.

    That historic unification prompted the then President George H.W. Bush of the US to openly proclaim, during a November 1990 speech in Paris, that the Cold War was over.

    Conclusion

    For Nigeria, there are many lessons to learn from the rise and fall of the Soviet Union which cannot be taken for granted. When the Bolshevik regime led by Vladimir Lenin zoomed to power like a hurricane in 1917, hardly was it envisaged that it would end the way it did in 1991. Like the defunct Soviet Union, Nigeria is now toying with the tail of a tiger through what is called National Confab. After a seemingly unwinding economic and political rigmarole, President Goodluck Jonathan decided to grab a blind bull by the horn. He suddenly announced on October 1, 2013, the readiness of his government to organise a National Dialogue that later came to be known as National Confab. The shoddy manner in which that announcement became experimented and the lopsidedness that characterised the selection of participants in it as well as the dictatorial tendency it entailed have since polluted the environment with a stench of suspicion.

    Two major factors, besides ethnic and religious, are particularly militating against the Confab at this material time. One is the current fragility of the country and the freezing tension of the coming 2015 general election. The other is lack of legal backing for it. The one is as dangerous as the other. And the multifarious protests and agitations against it across the country are a confirmation of this assertion.

    To continue to pretend not to see or feel the presence of a surging furnace behind a pervading fog is to be determined to sit on a keg of gunpowder. He who rides on the back of a lion must think of how to alight from it. A Nigerian Gorbachev at this precarious time may be too costly for our country. God save Nigeria.