The Nation Newspaper

Category: Friday

  • The centennial of greed (1)

    The centennial of greed (1)

    On January 1st, Opalaba called to wish me a Happy New Year and threw in a riddle for me to solve. Mimicking the Jeopardy game, which he adores because it is a veritable workout for the brain, my friend’s riddle goes thus: “Category: Being. This being was created by greed; it was nurtured in greed; it matured in greed; and at hundred, it is being consumed and paralysed by greed.” When I feigned ignorance, Opalaba was furious. “What else do you know?” he asked. This is just such a simple puzzle.

    My friend went on to provide an answer to his invented puzzle. It was imperial greed that created the country named Nigeria. It was imperial greed that nurtured it and ensured that it had a political structure that was consistent with imperial interest. The transfer of power to indigenes didn’t change the motivation of greed; it cemented it. For indigenous greed was as potent as imperial greed. And indigenes appeared more masterful than foreigners in the matter of greed. So it was that greed determined the fate of the first republic before the soldiers tasted the forbidden fruit and had their eyes open to the immense possibilities of individual appropriation of the riches of the nation. And now it is the same greed that has consumed the nation and threatens its demise.

    Though Opalaba can be dramatic, he surely knows how to hit the proverbial nail on the head. Not given to the language of diplomacy, my friend does not always appear courteous. And so, he went on to invite “a plague on all their houses”, finding none worthy of national accolade for exemplary statesmanship. “You may have something to gain with your soft and sweet talk. I don’t; and so I can say it as I see it. You must stop this self-deception. No one is in the business of politics for the sake of the good of the nation. If not, this country would be different after a hundred years of forced marriage and fifty plus years of flag independence. Or why is it that the whole idea of restructuring the polity for the purpose of effective functioning has been so controversial? Does it mean that the political class doesn’t see that what we have isn’t working?”

    “Go back to the origin, the beginning of the being of this artifice. I have read over the five hundred plus pages of The Dual Mandate of Sir Frederick Lugard. And in my humble opinion, it’s only the most simplistic reading of that sickening material that would consider the creation of this country as due to anything but imperial greed. An act of God? Oh, please! I am reminded of the little poem that we were taught back in the elementary school in those days. The lines that stuck with me are the most relevant for my purpose here:

    Bi omode ba ku, won a ni amuwa Olorun ni. Bi agbalagba fo sanle ti o reyin eku; won a ni amuwa Olorun ni. O wa dabi enipe Olorun naa ko ni ohun ti yoo se mo. A fi ki o maa sebi kanu aye kiri!

    Translation: When a baby dies, people say that it is the will of God. When an adult passes on, they also say that it is the will of God. It is as if God has nothing else that He does beside going about the world and pursuing evil acts!

    My early exposure to this powerful denunciation of the idea of attributing every occurrence—whether explicable in other ways or inexplicable—to God has been a liberating force. I am therefore suspicious of fatalistic reasoning because it paralyses thought and practice.

    As Lugard made clearin his Dual Mandate, the British captured different nations, amalgamated them and held on to the country so created, “because it is the genius of our race to colonise, to trade, and to govern. The task in which England is engaged in the tropics—alike in Africa and in the East—has become part of her tradition, and she has ever given of her best in the cause of liberty and civilisation.” But it is not just fidelity to tradition. It also had to do with prudence and profit. “Europe benefitted by the wonderful increase in the amenities of life for the mass of her people which followed the opening up of Africa at the end of the nineteenth century. Africa benefited by the influx of manufactured goods, and the substitution of law and order for the methods of barbarism.” That, in short, was the dual mandate.

    We can raise the question whether the dual mandate has been fulfilled. We can ask whether equal benefits accrued to Britain and Nigeria. We can ask whether the interest of each of the entities that were forced to become one country was equally served. As important as these questions are, however, they are not my focus. For one thing, they are of tangential interest to the question that we must address, which is “what is the way forward now? In response to critics in his own time, Lugard insisted that the colonies benefitted as much as Britain because they were introduced to the art of good governance and the practice of liberty. Did Britain leave Nigeria with the art of good governance? Did she leave a political structure that was meant to withstand the test of time?

    In an important piece on the amalgamation of Nigeria, Chief Richard Akinjide, a Minister in the Balewa administration during the First Republic, made two important observations. First is what we all know, that Lugard came and operated in the business interest of his country and the amalgamation of the North and South of Nigeria was crucial for that interest. Chief Akinjide then made an important point, which can be glossed over but is worthy of our attention especially at this point in time. Lugard did not amalgamate the people of Nigeria. He only amalgamated the administrations of the North and South. His focus was to streamline the administration for effectiveness. He indeed ensured that the Southerners did not have access to the North. Hence the seclusion of the North until independence. We have managed to continue this tradition of segregation until today.

    The second point that Chief Akinjide made was that Lugard ensured that he fashioned a political structure for his invented country that conformed to the British model. “In the British structure, England has permanent majority in the House of Commons. There was no way Wales can ever dominate England neither can Scotland dominate Britain….They would allow a Scottish to become Prime Minster. They would allow a Welsh man to become Prime Minister in London but the fact remains that the actual power is rested in England…That was what Lugard created in Nigeria, a permanent majority for the North.”

    The clamour for restructuring must be seen in the context of the obvious malfunctioning of the structure that was created and the fact that the numerous conferences that have been initiated hardly addressed this question. The greed that motivated the invention of this artifice has continued to motivate its operation even in the hands of indigenes that ought to be motivated by the good of the country. Even if we assume that the amalgamation of the country was an act of God, the question remains if the actions of leaders have been consistent with that assumption.

  • The scripted year

    And beware of a calamity that may afflict not only the transgressors amongst you but also the innocent ones and know that Allah’s retribution can be very severe…..’’Q. 8:25

    Writing a drama is like conceiving a pregnancy. For the drama to be practically actable, the writer must take into consideration not only the theme, the setting, the characters but also the complications of such a drama as they build up spirally to the climax. He must also think of the anticlimax of the drama as well as its possible denouement.

    Nothing shows the ingenuousness of a playwright as vividly as the crew of actors who put into action the script that gives birth to the drama in question. It is like delivering a pregnant woman of her pregnancy. If the delivery process is not carefully handled, the deliverer may end up becoming an undertaker. And that is when a drama is said to be tragic.

    Brilliant students of literature must have perceived today’s entire world as a paradoxical theatre in which over seven billion human beings, including 170 million Nigerians, are watching a drama. For either ecstasy or dismay the viewers may randomly roar into controversies or anxiety as the drama progresses. But the main concern of each viewer is what may become of his favoured character.

    The dramatic colony

    In the ongoing global drama against which we had been warned in the Qur’an as quoted above, the concern of this columnist in today’s article is the ‘colony’ called Nigeria. This is not just because the colony is my immediate and paramount constituency but also because Nigeria is the heart of Africa. And if anything negative happens to her, the whole of Africa will cease to be at rest.

    Today, it is evident that the Federal Government is not prepared for the centenary anniversary of the country’s existence as a unified entity designed and imposed by the colonialists in 1914. The anniversary was expected to come up at the beginning of this year (2014) when the country is supposed to attain 100 years. But no one except the Almighty Allah is sure of what may become of Nigeria subsequent to her uncelebrated centenary anniversary. This is because the same deliverers of Nigeria as a country have prepared a mausoleum for her in anticipation of her funeral. A clandestine script was unveiled in 1995 predicting a tragic absurdity awaiting the most populous African country. The contents of the script revealed that this heart of Africa called Nigeria was heading for a break up by the year 2015 when she would be 101 years old. The designers of this devilish agenda had set a timeframe of 20 years for its execution without proffering any positive alternative. And to portray their dream as a realisable one they kept hammering the probability of the success of that obnoxious project citing some hazardous occurrences in the land as reason. Incidentally, that proposition is now being given a helping hand by the government through the proposal of a dubious national dialogue.

    Imperialists’ strategy

    For students of International Relations, such a prediction cannot be strange. It is part of the strategies often used by the imperialists either to re-colonise some old colonies or to scoop on and dominate the economies of such countries in a typical capitalist style. As a result of such an imperial strategy, Poland had once ceased to be a country for about 123 years when it was partitioned about four times by Russia, Prussia and Austria in 1772, 1792 and 1795. And for well over a century thereafter, the country did not exist. But the Polish people never gave up the resilient spirit of regaining their independence until the country was fully revived after the World War I in 1918. In contemporary time, the modern day imperialists have been doing the same successfully in some other countries none of which is now firmly on her feet. Countries like Vietnam, Korea, Yemen, China, Iran, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Somalia, Sudan, Palestine and lately the entire Arab nations all of which have had their bitter share of the subtle pillage can testify to this assertion. It is a modern day equivalence of the 1884/1885 partition of Africa carried out in Berlin, Germany, by the European imperialists, which led to the colonisation of the black continent. If any of the above countries had resisted that obnoxious project at the planning stage and stood their grand in objection to imperialism, perhaps the world would have been spared the throat-cutting threats posed today by the United States and her NATO allies against what they perceive as lesser nations.

    Incidentally, the US had also once been a victim of this same imperialists’ guillotine, especially in the hands of Britain. Yet, the cult of capitalism which has now become their common bond would not allow the duo of Britain and US (which had been mutually antagonistic) to dwell differently because it is only in such collaboration that the gains of their common interest can be accomplished. Unfortunately, Nigeria doesn’t seem to have learned any lesson from countries that had been tricked into toeing the imperialists’ path hook, line and sinker.

    Rather than looking inwards for solution to our domestic problems as the US did in her time of resistance to oppression, our own government does not only beckon to Uncle Sam for solution even to a minor problem but also cries out randomly to the collective body of imperialists for help. The official behaviour of Nigerian government is just like that of a baby who has adapted to being spoon-fed at all times even while asleep. Today, Nigerian government can hardly think on anything without reference to American or European example.

    Deceptive propaganda

    Whereas some progressive countries like Japan, China, India, Brazil and even the United States in their days of search for growth and development shut their doors to the world and made do with whatever they could produce internally which was why their sudden zoom into the limelight came to the world as a surprise. This has never taught Nigeria any lesson. Rather, all that matters here is empty and monotonous noise about becoming one of the biggest economies in year 2020 even when it is crystal clear that such wishful aspiration can only end up in forlorn. No truly progressive country in modern time has ever indulged in such empty and wishful propaganda without failing. What would have ordinarily justified such propaganda is a surprise zooming into the global economic stage as the above listed countries had done.

    It can only take a shameless country with so much wealth and without any visible progress in place to embark on such hopeless propaganda even as over 75% of her citizens wallow in penury.

    Rather than indulging in deceptive propaganda, what our government ought to have told us is how billions of dollars allegedly voted for revamping our moribund electricity vamoosed without any resultant availability of power. Or better still, how was the billions of dollars allegedly recovered from General Abacha’s loot shared among the national thieves called leaders. At least we are yet to know what happened to multi-billion naira realised from the so-called privatisation policy that threw our national economy into taters. We also need to know something about the scandalously embezzled billions of naira realised from the callous increase on fuel price in January 2012 and many others of the like. On the other hand, the government ought to have shown Nigerians the blueprint that qualifies us for such empty propaganda about year 2020 since it is a Nigerian project.

    Foreign interference

    Now, by inviting some foreign imperialist powers, including the US and Israel, to help resolve the internal problem of insecurity in Nigeria, has the government not admitted its incompetence in protecting the citizenry and thereby surrendering its authority to the invited countries while awarding contracts for image laundering abroad? And with such plan has this not also begun to compound the existing problems by externalising those internal affairs? After all, these invited countries have their own internal problems which they endeavour to solve without contracting any foreign country. Security of a country is like the heart in human body. Handing it over to someone else is like paving way for one’s fortuitous death. No serious government will ever trivialise the existence of its nation to that extent. We all know that whoever pays the piper must surely dictate the tune. Iraq, Libya and Pakistan are living examples confirming that in diplomacy, a friend today may become an enemy tomorrow.

    Yes, in the name of solving Nigeria’s problem even when they have been unable to solve theirs, the invited countries may bring their arsenal to subdue some government’s perceived and imaginary enemies. But what is likely to happen thereafter is the question which many generations of Nigerians may not be able to answer for decades in future. This has happened in most of the countries which solicited for military intervention of the imperialist countries. Today, those countries are biting their fingers in total regret. Yet, Nigeria’s ruling class which sees power as a matter of life and death is bent on forcing the country into the league of hopeless nations through desperation.

    A government is said to be in power only if it is believed to be capable of protecting its citizenry and defend the territorial integrity of the concerned nation. Any government that is incapable of doing this and rather decides to throw the gate of the nation’s security open to foreigners for whatever reason is unfit to be called a government.

    Qur’an speaks

    Globally, the US and Israel are known for their belligerence and implacable transgression against nations that refuse to comply with their imperialist policies. And it is probably in reference to such imperialist powers that Allah had warned mankind in the Qur’an over a millennium and a half ago thus: “When imperialists enter a territory they audaciously pillage and brutally destroy it even as they subjugate the juggernauts therein to the level of servitude”. Q. 12: 22

    The real problem of Nigeria is neither the destructive anti-economic activities of the Southsouth militants, nor that of the greedily callous Southeast kidnappers nor even that of the heartless bloodletting vandalism of Boko Haram. It is rather the willingness of the so-called government to turn the country into an incubator of problems while relying on foreign imperialists for solution even when such imperialists cannot solve their own domestic problems. It is like the case of an infamy who consumes poison while depending on an antidote for safety. In an axiomatic stanza, an Arab poet once opined thus:

    “We all blame time for our misdemeanour; whereas, the misdemeanour blamed on time is actually in us; We smear time with all types of iniquities and yet expect time to cleans us of any blame; Were time endowed with mouth to comment on us; it would have blamed us for generating all crimes; No dog eats fellow dog; it is only men that eat fellow men’’.

    Governmental atrocities

    The truth of the matter is that the roots of the multi-dimensional problems staring Nigeria in the face today are traceable mostly to the corridors of our government. Of all the vices that currently constitute insuperable problems for Nigeria, particularly corruption and injustice, none originated from a source other that of the government. The various high profile corruption cases since 1999 have confirmed this assertion. How, on earth, can any sensible person justify the case of immunity clause deliberately injected into our constitution to protect stealing of public funds either by the president or governors in a country where overwhelming majority of people are so wretched that they can hardly afford even one meal per day, despite the enormous wealth with which we are naturally endowed? And this so-called constitution was never subjected to any referendum as a way of assessing its general acceptability in the first instance.

    The real absurdity in that immunity clause is not just in chasing around the protected public thieves after vacating office but also in setting up anti-corruption agencies as a political camouflage. For God’ sake if a person aids a thief in casting away his property has he not become an accomplice in stealing that property? What justification will such a person have in wanting to prosecute such a thief? Those who injected immunity clause into our constitution as well as those who are in position to remove it but rather chose to retain it are together accomplices in the entrenchment and spread of corruption in the land. Ordinarily, such people should never have moral right to talk of fighting corruption because they are its creators and sustainers but we live in a shameless country where conscience does not matter.

    We are our own problems. We know the sources of what we call problems and we incubate them. We know how to proffer solution to those problems but like ‘lotus eaters’, we are so much drunk with illegality that it has become so difficult if not impossible for us to part with it. Now, as we start importing imperial mercenaries into the country to solve our immediate problems, we must not forget the social and financial implications of their coming. And we must remember that those mercenaries will like to find a permanent seat here even if they will have to invent new problems for us in order to justify their profitable stay.

    This admonition may taste bitter, especially to those in government who may have hidden agenda. But Allah’s words will never be in want of relevance. They are regularly accompanied by relevance. Allah warns us in Qur’an 13:11 thus: “Surely, Allah will not change the situation of a nation or a community until the citizens therein have resolved to change it through their attitude”. Whoever calls for equity must come with clean hands. Acting the imperialists’ evil script will do no one any good in Nigeria. Think before you act.

  • On memory lane

    On memory lane

    Eight conditions of life (according to an Arab poet) are inevitable for man. And there is no single living human being without the eight. These are: happiness and sadness; meeting and parting; fortune and misfortune; then, sickness and healthiness.”

    When, as a human, you are not happy you must be sad. When you are not meeting with some people you must be parting with some. When you are not fortunate in a venture you must be unfortunate in it if momentarily. And when you are not healthy you must be sick or ill.

    Conditions of Life

    Happiness, meeting, fortune and healthiness, all may seem to show the positive side of life just as their abstract counterparts may reflect its negative side. But the reality is that not everything that glitters can be gold.

    Happiness may be pyrrhic. Meeting may cause trouble. Fortune may be short-lived. And healthiness may engender restiveness. Incidentally, however, it takes both the positive and the negative sides of life to keep the world of man going.

    Life is neither static nor rigid. Rather, it randomly changes like weather. If it brings you happiness today, do not expect it to remain so tomorrow. Life is like a horse. You can ride it only if it surrenders itself to you. But as soon as it becomes tired of you and beckons to a new rider, you automatically become its own horse and it may then ride you to death.

    Sources of happiness

    In life, happiness is not about money or position. Neither is it about power or governance. Each and every one of these is transient even as the life of its custodian is ephemeral. As a matter of fact, there is no cause of happiness that cannot be a cause for sadness. The only known source of genuine happiness from the primordial to the modern time is contentment guaranteed by conscience. And that is the only passport on which the visa of paradise may be issued. Without contentment based on conscience, no one can appreciate the bounties of God.

    Past Leaders

    Looking at the phenomena of human life critically, one may conclude that human world is depreciating geometrically. The men of yester years were greater than those of today. Their lives were more qualitative. Their thoughts were richer. Their intentions were purer. Their gazes were more visionary. Their dispositions were more human. It is upon the foundation of their thoughts and deeds that today’s technological pyramid is built. Yet, they did not allow their reasoning to be driven by the material life of their time.

    Fearing for their hereafter, some disciples of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) once asked him a probing question about the quality of their lifestyle saying in a quivering voice thus:

    “Dear Prophet! The wealthy ones amongst us seem to have gone to the world beyond with all the existing rewards. They worshipped Allah as we are worshipping Him. They fasted as we are fasting today. Yet they were giving in charity, huge amounts of resources according to the sizes of their wealth. What is then left for us, if the paradise will be determined by the amount of our rewards?”

    Exemplary Hadith

    Replying, the Prophet said: “Has Allah not endowed you with what can fetch you the ticket to paradise? Every glorification of Allah you chant is charity; every praising of Allah you engage in during days and nights is charity; every deification of Allah you do in thought or in action is charity; encouraging good deed is charity; admonishing against evil is charity; even, mating with your wives is charity”.

    Piqued by the last assertion, the disciples asked the Prophet in unison: “Habah! Dear Prophet, how can mating with one’s wife fetch ticket to paradise?” The Prophet in a jovial tone but serious mood retorted thus: “Don’t you know that mating in the manner of an adulterer can fetch hell (because it is evil deed)? Thus, mating with legitimate wives can fetch paradise (because it is a good deed).”

    Nigeria’s founding fathers

    In semblance of the above, the great fathers of Nigeria’s independence left a legacy that can be called a footprint on the sands of time. By whatever standard they are measured today, the late Sardauna of Sokoto, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello; Nigeria’s first and only Prime Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa; the first Premier of Western Region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his counterpart of the Eastern Region, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe as well as Mallam Aminu Kano and Chief SLA Akintola were all exemplary in their styles of life their personal weaknesses notwithstanding.

    Their legacy is a fortune which amazingly turned into misfortune in the hands of their successors. Thus, the great hope which those fathers had embedded into our destiny became colonized and turned into personal property by their political heirs. Were those great fathers to wake up from their graves today and see what has become of their sweat, they would just shake their heads in sorrow and return quietly into their graves without comments.

    Dream and despair

    It is rather a luxury that those of us who were children during Nigeria’s independence can still talk of hope even if in retrospect. Neither the children of today nor those of tomorrow have the benefit of such a luxury. If the future generations of Nigerians will lay claim to any heritage from the current leadership, it is a paroxysm of despair. And when the morrow of a country depends on despair rather than hope what else should be expected other than ruins?

    Against our initial prayer and wish as a people, our country became a lily by the mossy stone in recent years. At the dawn of Nigeria’s 4th republic in 1999, an unexpected bull strayed into our national china shop and before we knew it the falcon had lost contact with the falconer. Things fell apart and the centre became the seat of the Lucifer. Thus, a bud of thorny mistletoe grew wild under the armpit of a magnificent almond tree thereby making normal access to the tree impossible.

    Wishes and intentions

    Incidentally, every human prayer is erroneously based on wish out of sheer ignorance. But since unlike humans, Allah judges by intention and not by action based on wish He granted us our prayer and not our wish. And that was because He knew that wish is like a whirlwind which could blow in any direction and blind the wisher.

    As our Creator, He knows what is best for us and the right time for it. He is too kind to be indifferent to our plight and too wise to make mistake.

    Now, having realized that we need a new round of prayer, we must learn not to take wish for intention in prayer again. If our prayers seemed unaccepted in the past we must re-examine ourselves. ‘God does not change the situation of a nation unless the people of such a nation change their ‘negative’ way of life to a positive one”.

    Thanking God

    We thank You oh Allah, for taking us through decades of undeserved hardship imposed on us by a political clique of evil agents in the name of rulers. During those unbearable decades, many people lost their lives, many lost their jobs and many more lost their wealth without any hope of a better tomorrow.

    At the instance of evil policies and vindictive attitudes of those we call leaders, Nigerian youths have become wild and heartless, parents have become helpless and frustrated, families have become dismembered, patriots have become rebels, genuine businesses have folded up thereby paving way for dubious ones, innocent men and women have been viciously hounded in gaol or wallowing in penury even as friends have become foes.

    Painful Reminder

    Shortly after the commencement of the current republic, the great serenity expected to come with democracy vanished into thin air while the future became bleak even for those who should ordinarily have a stake in it with confidence and hope. Except for Your grace and mercy Oh Allah, no one knew what the next day would bring at that time. It was one seemingly tortuous but undeclared war, the end of which only a few could hope to see.

    But by your grace we endured it all and waited patiently to bid the demonic sphinx that cast that spell on Nigeria adieu forever. Why won’t we thank You once again for granting us that wonderful gesture. The year 1999 started with a rain of hope but a vicious rain maker thought that what we deserved was storm rather than rain and opened the furnace of tempest on us. Yet, we survived it all. When we became like a cow without a tail, it was only your grace that scared away the flies from feasting on our wound. Your promise has never been in vain. Thank You for bailing us out of a mental and psychological gulag into which we were then hounded by the neo-colonialists of those days who were masquerading in the cloak of democrats. We shall forever be grateful to You as long as we remain alive.

    Incidentally, however, while we were glorifying You for giving us a fresh opportunity to dream and expect the transformation of our dream into a positive reality, a new calamity struck. The symbol of that dream was suddenly taken away from us like a star that turned into a meteor. And, now, we are back in a ship being piloted by a sailor who neither knows his destination nor possesses a compass with which to find his way.

    Yet, we know that you do not do anything without reason and whatever comes the way of man from You is in the best interest of man even if he does not know it.

    New Appeal

    Once again, we want to appeal to you Oh God to please equip us with diving suits that can assist us in swimming across the ocean of life in case the present ship hits the rock.

    Give us a leader from amongst us whose piety will be the basis of his leadership; whose conscience will be the scale of his conduct; whose words will match his deeds and whose temperament will check his greed and avarice. Select a leader for us who will be meek and affable and not one whose ambition will be so blind as to render him desperate for power at all costs.

    Choose a leader for us Oh God who will be disciplined enough to know that leadership is a privilege and not a right and therefore remember that he will one day vacate the office of power and recall his achievements or otherwise in quiet retrospect.

    Bless us with a leader who will not promise us light and spend our hard-earned billions of Naira to throw us into a permanent dungeon of darkness. We pray for a leader who will not promise us employment and use our resources to render us jobless (husbands and wives) through deliberate impoverishing policies after selling our national heritage to himself and his cronies.

    Appoint a leader for us who will not grant a paltry salary pay rise to an insignificant percentage of the citizenry and then turn round to inflict unbearable hardship on the overwhelming majority of the populace through unjustifiable price increases on our social amenities and thereby further aggravate poverty in the land.

    Here we are at your door oh! Allah, raising up our hands to You in prayer and placing our final hope on You without an iota of doubt. To You we pray oh! Allah and from You alone we expect mercy. AL-FATIHAT!

  • ‘The beginning of the end’

    ‘The beginning of the end’

    Here is the period of life against which we had been warned through the words of Ubayyi Ibn Ka‘b and those of Abdullah Ibn Mas‘ud. Here is the predicted era in which truth is to be totally rejected while falsehood and rebellion are to be loftily upheld. Should this period linger further without any change, the world might zoom into a stage where the bereaved would rather smile than cry over the demise of a deceased relation and parents would rather cry than rejoice over the birth of a newly born baby”. By an Arab poet

    In retrospect

    The title of today’s article was culled from the late Dr. Tai Solarin’s style of writing. In his heydays as a versatile newspaper columnist, Tai Solarin, a renowned educationist and atheist, had a way of casting the titles of his articles to suit his ideas and thoughts. One of such titles was the one adopted here today. It was the title of an article he wrote in 1974 as a reaction to General Yakubu Gowon’s U-turn on his earlier promise of democratising Nigeria in 1976. (In that year General Gowon suddenly told Nigerians in a nation-wide television broadcast that his promise of returning power to civilians in 1976 was unrealistic after all. He did not mention a new date. That audacious military assault on the populace prompted Tai Solarin to write his famous article entitled ‘The Beginning of the End’.

    And, incidentally, that article was the premonition that culminated in a military coup which swept General Gowon out of power in July 1975 after nine years in office as a military Head of State. The same Tai Solarin wrote another article in 1975 entitled ‘I will bomb Lagos’ which led to the change of Nigeria’s capital city from Lagos to Abuja. In the latter article he did not only condemn Lagos as the most unbefitting capital city to any civilised human being in the world which he said he would have bombed with an intention to rebuild it if he was the Head of State, he also gave a vivid physical, geographical and environmental description of a place called Abuja and recommended it as the country’s new capital. Through that famous article, Solarin could be called the founder of Nigeria’s new capital city and that was why he was appointed as a member of the Aguda panel that worked out the modalities for the establishment of a new federal capital that was Abuja.

    Season of letters

    Today’s article was to be entitled ‘Yuletide Season of Letters’ because of the barrage of tendentious and damning letters flying across the wishes and interests of certain political, economic and religious demagogues who seem to be married to ephemeral politics or courting transient power. First among those letters was from the Governor of the Central Bank, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi who, for a patriotic reason wrote a probing letter to the Presidency on September 25, 2013 reporting the failure of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to remit 19 months proceeds of oil sales to the Central Bank as statutorily required by the constitution.

    According to him, the total quantity of Nigerian oil sold between January 2012 and July 2013 was 594.02 million barrels and the unremitted amount accruing from the sale of that figure was $49.8 billion amounting to N8 trillion. He said the total amount of money remitted so far within the mentioned period constituted only 24% of what ought to be remitted while 76% could not be traced by the CBN. Based partly on Sanusi’s revelation and partly on his own observation, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, accused President Goodluck Jonathan of reluctance or unwillingness to fight corruption. Many other well-meaning Nigerians have spoken in like manner.

    Those who dogmatically believe albeit ignorantly that religion and politics are incompatible and should not be lumped together can now see why Islam is rather a total way of life than a mere dogmatic religion. In Islam, the theory of ‘giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s’ holds no water because both Caesar and whatever he portends to own belong to God alone who never slumbers nor dies. Thus, in a situation where public funds are brazenly stolen with impunity in public glare, Muslims cannot and should not keep silent. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) once counseled Muslims about this kind of situation through Hadith. He said: “Whoever sees something obnoxious among you should change it (physically) with his hands. If he is incapable, let him change it with his tongue (by condemning it). And if he is still incapable, he should then endeavour to change it with his mind (by praying for its stoppage)”. He however added that “the last option signifies the weakest faith”.

    In a situation like the one currently being witnessed in Nigeria, should religious people, especially the Muslims, keep silent and watch their future being eroded by those who do not care about other people’s lives? It is rather a sin for Muslims to keep silence in the presence of tyranny and oppression. Speaking out is in tandem with the above quoted Hadith. And whoever keeps silent is dead person waiting to be interred.

    The second letter

    The second letter was written to President Goodluck Jonathan by Ex- President, Olusegun Obasanjo, on December 2, 2013. It was a kind of epistle loaded with undisguised missiles of allegations that came frontally to the nation through the media. The main gist of the letter contained allegations of corruption, bad governance and insecurity. It was heavily pregnant with political bile the summary of which can be called tit for tat. The contents of the letter are a bundle of message that conspicuously outweighs the messenger. And reading carefully between its lines, the letter can be compared to a pot trying to paint a kettle black. In a nutshell, the addresser and the addressee can be described as two sides of an un-spendable coin.

    Though the message therein has generated a loud brouhaha across the land, it remains a mere rhetoric with which Nigerians are quite familiar. If anything sounds strange in that letter, it is the allegation of a killer squad allegedly being kept by the Presidency against the list of about 1000 political opponents and other perceived enemies of the government. We hope it is not true for such will only remind us of Germany in the time of Adolf Hitler.

    The only seeming benefit of the letter is the washing of the supposed leaders’ linens in the open which the populace watched with unbridled embarrassment. It gives the impression that the only expected legacy from this crop of leadership is nothing more than despair in spite of the rare opportunities they have in preserving the tranquility of the country. What lesson can the youths learn from such a political rancor engendered by calamitous grid based on selfishness?

    For politicians, political drama can never be strange. But the peculiarity in this case is the tacit mobilisation of the suffering masses as archers deployed to forage on foot while the gladiators remain on horses. Like an accursed nation, Nigeria has the misfortune of engaging misfits in the name of leaders to pilot their affairs, especially in a very cloudy environment. Or how can one classify a situation where two supposed national leaders decide to strip naked for competitive dance in a market place and expect sellers and buyers in that market to clap for the winner. Isn’t that shameful? If these leaders are not ashamed, we are.

    Like in the past, Nigerians have once again found themselves in a hollow ship wandering through an implacable Atlantic Ocean. Its destination remains unknown. Its pilots have lost the compass. An urgent need for a Noah to sail this drifting ship to the Cape of Good Hope should now be a matter of priority if Nigeria will continue to be called and known as Nigeria.

     

    The third letter

    While Nigerians were kept busy tossing around the ball of economic and political trouble surreptitiously kicked into their court by the combatant leaders, as they debate the two letters mentioned above with jabs of verbal pundits, a third letter emerged from a rare corner. It was written by a cluster of Bishops to the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor. The letter was written in protest against what the writers perceived as spiritual trespass.

    According to media reports, “it would be recalled that the Bishops and Clerics Forum of Nigeria (BAFCON) from the Niger Delta, under the aegis of Global Peace Relief Initiative, led by its President, Prophet Jones Ode Erue, visited the former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and the Adamawa State Governor, Muritala Nyako seeking to broker a peace deal between the G7 governors and the presidency”. That was in September 2013.

    That visit did not seem to go down well with the President of CAN who reacted by slamming suspension against them in the name of CAN. The CAN President had thought that the concerned Bishops’ action was partisan, especially when the CAN Chairman of the South-South took exception to the mediation visit without consultation. In his immediate reaction to that visit, the regional Chairman reportedly said: “There is nothing wrong with clergymen initiating or brokering peace process between two factions but for some bishops to do so in the name of a body that I head without consulting other executives gives a wrong signal and suggests a dangerous trend in the body of Christ.” Thus, about 11 Bishops were consequently suspended. This provoked the protest letter that has now constituted ripples in the brook of CAN.

    All these are confirming that things are not well with Nigeria. One can understand the turbulent economic and political situations in the country. The expectation is that when those two spheres go turbulent it is only the religious sphere that can pacify them through spirituality. But if the religious sphere too goes turbulent where will tranquility come from?

    The Message hereby appeals to CAN to please close ranks and show the usual example to the other spheres that the hope of Nigerians can once again be kindled. Religion is the last bastion of peace in Nigeria. It cannot afford to go berserk, especially at this crucial time when Nigeria needs it most. God save Nigeria that this may not be ‘The Beginning of the End’ for our dear country.

     

  • Reflections on life

    Life is beautiful. It could also be ugly. Life is exciting. It could also be boring. Life is meaningful. It could also be meaningless. And if nothing else does, this all goes to show that while life is simple, it could also be complicated. In the context of these possible modes of life, I am interested in raising the question “What kind of life?” However, as interesting as these possibilities are, they are not necessarily my focus in what follows.

    I am interested in the question “what kind of life?” for what it means for personal as well as communal existence. Therefore to the extent that the aforementioned possibilities are relevant to my purpose, it must be because they provide some clue to the question of the kind of life that is well suited to personal and communal existence. A good starting point, of course, is a deconstruction of the question in terms of its significance. Why is it a good question to raise and address?

    What kind of life we live as an individual makes us the kind of person we are. It is an identity marker. And while we don’t usually give a serious thought to the question except in the context of our religious observances, and that, only superficially, we practically provide various answers with our daily activities, intentional or otherwise. Those activities –reasonable or unreasonable, egoistic or altruistic, mean-spirited or compassionate, greedy or moderate, hustling or dignified, shameless or respectable—define the character of a person. But there is more. They also define our community: the preponderance of a character-type makes a community of people what it is.

    I should point out that my primary interest here is not politics, though I concede that there is a sense in which everything revolves around the institution of politics as the architecture of communal life. But politics derives its texture from the fabric of communal life which in turn is woven with the thread of individual lives. At best, it is a chicken and egg relationship. The political community in which we live plays a great role in the kind of individuals we are. And since individuals make up the political community, the character of the former defines the nature of the latter. And because communities are cognizant of this connection, they pay a great deal of attention to the upbringing and character development of their members. It is the stuff of civic education, whether in its conservative platonic or liberal Lockean modes.

    In our clime, we are the children of our forebears and we have them to thank for who we are and what we have become. But you may ask: who are we and what have we become? It is hard to engage in a holistic national self-glorification under the circumstance of our depressed socio-political life. But again, this is not my focus today. However, it is my hope that every mother’s son and every father’s daughter has something cheerful about a parentage that God used to bring them to life and make the necessary sacrifice for their upbringing and character development. I know I do; and I am eternally grateful.

    Despite Hobbes, we know that individuals are not atoms in the void; they access this terrestrial ball through preexisting family units. And while parents are only instruments of God’s plan, they are an important causative agent of a meaningful life.

    Let us assume that a life is meaningful when it is successful. We must then go further and define what a successful life is; and this is subject to different interpretations derived from our various worldviews and outlooks. And since our worldviews and outlooks are culture-dependent, the idea of a meaningful life is also culture-dependent, where culture is broadly defined.

    The traditional Yoruba worldview defines a meaningful life, that is, a successful life, as the life of an Omoluabi, literally, an offspring of the chief of character, the logic of which is that, all things being equal, the offspring will take after the parent. Character, then, is the defining mark of a meaningful life. Not beauty; not wealth; not power; not education; not honor; just simply character.

    This approach to life is fascinating to me, not just for what it rules in, but also for what it rules out. Typically, the Yoruba have no respect for power or honour that is not accompanied by good character. But more importantly, religiosity or spirituality without character is also an anathema. Indeed, to underscore this point and the secular import of the Yoruba worldview, the most telling aspect of the story of Iwa is the moral deficiency of Orunmila, the god of wisdom. Orunmila had married Iwa who decided to leave because she was being maltreated by her husband. But Iwa’s departure had an adverse effect on Orunmila’s fortune and he decided to search for her. The lesson here is that, for the Yoruba, Iwa (character) is so important that even the gods have to be judged by how much they measure up to her standard. In their perspective, all there is to religion is character: iwa lesin.

    The community relies on every family with the responsibility for the character education and development of their offspring and traditional families take this responsibility seriously. For, how children behave and relate to others outside of the family circle is understood to be a good evidence of the success or otherwise of their upbringing. Families laboriously and diligently commit to raising their members as responsible members of the larger community. And this is all that can be expected of any family. In the best of circumstances, where the traditional setting provides sufficient buffer, the in-built standard of iwa is a challenge for anyone to meet. In contemporary setting, however, a variety of other negative influences compete for the heart of soul of an average human being. This is where society comes in.

    Just as there are no atomised individuals, so there are no solitary families. When families combine their forces for security and welfare purposes, the society they so form assumes the collective responsibility of educating and socialising its members into its values and ideals, which cannot be at variance with those of its family units. And to do this effectively, society makes rules and regulations which it backs up with the threat of punishment in case of violation. When society fails its members in the discharge of this responsibility, and the family unit has been rendered impotent, there is character deficiency, leading to moral anarchy and brutish modes of life.

    If there are still rational individuals and family units, they would be bothered by the reversal of their moral fortune. They would raise questions about the kind of life they have been transformed into from their various family units. They would know that it is dangerous for their well-being to continue that kind of existence, and they would question the kind of social and political formations that led them there in the first place. In short, they would want to revisit the terms of their social contract. It’s Locke in reverse! As the Psalmist prays, may those who are wise think about these things.

    A self-reflection

    Fifty-six years ago, a special song was brought to my youthful consciousness. It was chosen for my classmates and me as our sixth grade graduation song but it has since become my own family anthem. Here is its second stanza:

    All the way my saviour leads me//Cheers each winding path I tread//Gives me grace for every trial//Feeds me with the living bread//Though my weary steps may falter//And my soul athirst may be/ /Gushing from the Rock before me//Lo! A spring of joy I see// Gushing from the Rock before me/ /Lo! A spring of joy I see.

    Happy Holidays!

  • As Madiba goes home

    As Madiba goes home

    I recall and reconfirm my tribute titled “An Exemplar of Humanity” on the 92nd birthday of Africa’s greatest son, Nelson Mandela, on July 18, 2010.

    Mandela’s life is a shining example of the actualisation of the desirable potentials of human existence; it is a testimony to the possibilities of human goodness; it is a justification of the rationality of faith in humanity; it is a vindication of God’s purposive creative endeavor.

    I plead against misunderstanding. Madiba is still human. He cannot be a saint for now, at least. But I offer a tribute to a human who towers above his peers in public life, and who as such offers us a glimpse into what we are meant to aspire to, a sample of what we also can be. Why we or at least those of us that choose public life like him fall short terribly at so many fronts is a question that screams out for answer.

    What matters in the life story of Madiba is not the royalty of his birth. Neither is it the ultimate victory of the cause he championed. It is not even the crown of honour he wore as the first president of a democratic South Africa.

    The circumstance of his birth was just a chance affair. Nothing morally substantial follows from that accident of history. If you believe in destiny, you would probably find some explanation. But you must be hard pressed to show why many of blue blood ended up as abysmal failures in life. Or when, as a result of the heritage of birth, they ascend the throne of their forebears, nothing consequential followed. And as we know, in quite a number of cases, even in our own clime, humanity fared worse.

    The victory of the cause Mandela championed is indeed a big deal, one of the most spectacular in the dying years of the last century. Yet that victory would still be a forlorn hope if he didn’t make the choices he made in the first place. And of course, the honour would be a dream if the cause had been lost.

    What matters then, from a moral point of view, which is the only point of view that really matters, are the choices that Mandela made from the onset of his adult life. And following the course of his life, every step of the way he has most assuredly been concerned about principle. Confronted with the injustice of racism and apartheid, he chose to fight it. Confronted with the natural inclination to vengeance and retaliation, he chose to reject it. Confronted with the African propensity to hang on to power, he chose the dignity of early retirement.

    At the young age of 24, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela had his first degree and was studying to become a lawyer. His life prospects were bright, especially coming from a royal family. But two years later, he chose to join the African National Congress. When the ruling National party declared its apartheid policies, Mandela chose resistance. The rest is history. For a young man, the meaning of these choices was clear. He knew he could run into trouble. But he was undaunted, believing in the justice of the cause. This principle of resisting injustice wherever it occurred was made explicit in the Rivonia Trial:

    “During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and achieve. But if it needs be it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

    These are the words that shaped the path of Mandela, as a freedom fighter and as the president of South Africa. The fight against domination of any shape or kind was a moral choice for him. Nothing else, including life itself, really mattered more. He was prepared to die fighting against domination.

    How many of our so-called public servants from the lowest to the highest level of governance can truly mouth these words? Rather, do they not encourage ethnic domination, which is just as barbaric as racial domination, as a means to their own personal advancement? And when confronted with bare-faced injustice from hate-mongers and ethnic war-lords, did they not run for cover, stepping aside to enjoy their loot?

    Mandela chose to fight for the “ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony with equal opportunities.” The resistance of the apartheid regime against this ideal was self-serving. But it was also clear that it was imprudent and short-sighted since the resistance did not serve the interest of White South Africans as much as they thought. It would, perhaps if there was no resistance from its victims. But how can anyone think there wasn’t going to be such a resistance?

    Sadly, in our context, that ideal remains only a dream even without the elephant of racial domination in the room. We do not have a democratic and free society. There is no harmonious living among our people. And there are no equal opportunities. Without democracy and freedom, there is no harmony and peace. It is the law of nature. Old kingdoms and empires were crushed by the power of the people yearning for freedom. Why are so-called leaders not mindful of history?

    Mandela suffered the indignity of prison life for 27 years because he chose to fight for the ideal of freedom and equal opportunities for all, even when he could have just cared for himself and his family. When he was released, the world, including those individuals and governments that collaborated with his tormentors, jubilated over the triumph of the cause for which he suffered. He had the world at his feet. He could dictate his terms. He chose, again, the consistency of his ideal, to promote harmony in a free and democratic society, rather than pursue revenge and retaliation.

    Mandela set up the True and Reconciliation Commission with the legendary Archbishop Tutu, a fellow freedom fighter and Nobel laureate as its chairman. Despite the doubts of the effectiveness of the commission, and the fear that injustice was being rewarded, the path of forgiveness chosen by Mandela meant that South Africa could face the future a united nation. It was this approach that earned the trust of Whites inside South Africa and further established the credentials of Mandela as a statesman. The subsequent honours that came the way of South Africa, including the hosting of the FIFA’s World Cup are directly related to this display of a large and forgiving spirit.

    Finally, Madiba chose the path of honour and dignity when he voluntarily withdrew from the presidency at the end of his first term. With this choice, he sent a clear message to the Big Man syndrome in African politics. He put a stamp of approval on the idea that because one led the struggle for the liberation of a people, one doesn’t thereby acquire a natural right to lead them for life.

    Mandela’s decision to remain behind the scene and provide useful advice and direction when needed is a welcome development on the continent. But it has been a hard act to follow by so many of our sit-tight politicians. Still the choice is consistent with the foundation principle which has guided him all along: fight against domination wherever it occurs. Obviously if you dedicate yourself to such a cause, you cannot also engage in domination in whatever guise.

    Principle matters; and consistency with principles is what is meant by integrity. We owe a debt of gratitude to President Nelson Mandela for showing us the possibilities of our common humanity.

    As the Hosts of Heaven celebrate the bountiful harvest of Mandela’s return, we earthlings celebrate his triumphant ascension.

  • ‘Welcoming the other’

    The title of today’s article in this column is the theme of the 9th Conference of ‘Religions for Peace’ held in Vienna, Austria, about three weeks ago. This year’s World Assembly of Religions for Peace (RfP) focused on building bridges and greater social cohesion amongst the world’s religions. The theme also imports a focus on religious repression among and within the world’s religions.

    After two days of intensive deliberations, in Vienna last November, the Assembly resolved to make a declaration which may serve as guidance for religious leaders all over the world and the declaration was unanimously adopted as follows:

    “We – more than six hundred religious leaders and people of faith representing all historic faith traditions and every region of the world – have convened in Vienna, Austria as the 9th World Assembly of Religions for Peace.1

    We have come from the global Religions for Peace family of ninety national inter-religious councils and groups, five regional councils, one world council, and international networks of religious women and religious youth. Our respective religious traditions have called us to work together for Peace. Previous World Assemblies of Religions for Peace have discerned positive elements of Peace, common threats to Peace, and a multi-religious consensus expressed through shared values for Peace. We commit to common action based upon these deeply held and widely shared values, as a foundation for affirming the imperative of “welcoming the other” as the heart of our multi-religious vision of Peace.

    Re-affirmation

    We reaffirm the positive elements of Peace shared by our respective religious traditions:

    Peace is central to our respective religions, and our diverse faiths compel us to work together to build it;

    Love, compassion and honesty are stronger than hate, indifference and deceit;

    All men and women are endowed with human dignity, share common humanity, must care for one another, and are called to consider the problems faced by others as their own;

    We accept the call to stand on the side of and raise up the most vulnerable, and to promote just and harmonious societies;

    We value women and men as equal partners in our efforts to build peace;

    Children are a paramount concern; the special state of childhood deserves our protection and care, and should receive priority from among our societies’ resources;

    Non-violent conflict transformation through dialogue and reconciliation are central to peacemaking;

    The use of nuclear weapons and all weapons of mass and indiscriminate destruction is immoral; and

    Advancing human development and protecting the earth are part of the struggle for Peace.

    The positive elements of Peace we share are inextricably linked to our shared calling to confront common threats to Peace. These threats include:

    The misuse of religion in support of all manner of violence, including violent extremism;

    An ongoing spiritual crisis that erodes values that support life;

    Violent conflict and the proliferation of arms;

    Extreme and growing inequality, including widespread violations of basic rights;

    Violence against women, abuse of children and weakening support for families;

    Extreme poverty, preventable diseases left untreated, and broad scale lack of opportunity; and

    Environmental degradation, natural resource depletion, and climate change, all of which threaten civic order and human flourishing.

    Confession

    While we confess that some religious believers betray the peace teachings of their faiths, we continue to commit ourselves – and our communities – to a culture of Peace that advances shared well-being, grounded in common healing, common living and shared security.

    Rising hostility

    The 9th World Assembly of Religions for Peace calls attention to a new threat to Peace – rising hostility.

    We are deeply troubled by this rising hostility, in society and within and among religious communities. This hostility toward the “other” is an extension of intolerance, and too often takes the form of violence. Victims of hostility are often vulnerable populations, including members of ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities; migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced and stateless persons….

    1. Religious communities can work to reverse the rising tide of hostility toward the “other” by advancing a multi-religious vision of Peace and through multi-religious action. Specifically, the Religions for Peace World Assembly calls on Religious leaders and people of faith to:

    Honour and protect human dignity whenever and wherever it is under attack;

    Foster more active collaboration between women and men in exalting the dignity of women and girls, and work together to prevent violence against them;

    Speak out on behalf of vulnerable individuals and groups, and all people persecuted, or whose existence is denied, because of their faith;

    Recognise that the well-being of immediate and extended families, as well as of communities, are a prerequisite to the well-being of children;

    Address issues of responsibility and accountability for the causes of climate change;

    Acknowledge the value of youth-led, grass-roots initiatives aimed at welcoming others and promoting sustainable Peace;

    Advance spiritual values essential to shared well-being;

    Reinforce acceptance of diversity in our communities;

    Welcome the other through prayer and service;

    Engage in multi—stakeholder partnerships to welcome the other; and

    Leverage the power of multi-religious networks to “welcome the other” by advancing human dignity, shared well-being and citizenship through concrete multi-religious action.

    2. Governments, international organizations and civil society to:

    Promote transparent governance that ensures and protects the development of comprehensive well-being and full enjoyment of universal human rights for all;

    Provide legal remedies for victims of intolerance;

    Promote social policies and legal norms that recognize the dignity of migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced and stateless persons;

    Advance citizenship that ensures human dignity while protecting the safety and well-being of all individuals, including freedom of religion or belief, and other rights of individuals and groups, whether in the majority or in the minority;

    Ensure the protection of places of worship;

    Eliminate nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, and stem the proliferation of small arms;

    Promote restorative justice to heal both the victims and the perpetrators of violent conflict;

    Address threats of nuclear exposure and contamination to protect all living things and future generations; and

    Support and partner with people of faith, religious leaders, religious communities and religious networks in their efforts to welcome the other.

    3. All people of good will to:

    Call attention to, and work to eliminate, all forms of intolerance and discrimination by states, by non-state actors, by civil society, by religious groups and leaders, and by individuals.

    Welcoming the other

    We, the Delegates of the 9th World Assembly of Religions for Peace, are united in our commitment to resist threats to Peace that take the form of hostility toward the other, and to take positive action to welcome the other by promoting the true flourishing of all human beings. These dual commitments and corresponding calls to action express our multi-religious vision of Peace”. This Declaration was made in Vienna, Austria this day of 22 November 2013. More will come in this column about Vienna Conference of ‘Religion for Peace’ in the near future.

  • MANDELA: The great Nigerian snub

    The mere suggestion by the Presidency that it was not a snub further rubs pepper on the injury. It is to tell us that we don’t even know when we are insulted. It is like someone giving you a backhanded compliment and then turns around to try proving to you that he did not mean to insult you. In order words, you are so thick to decipher a put down. This is where our government and the people in charge of our affairs are. How can we properly analyse the situation, learn the lessons there-from and make sure it never happens again if we do not see the situation for what it is?

    I speak of course about the Nelson Mandela memorial service of Tuesday in South Africa in which Nigeria attended as an on-looker while six selected heads of governments across continents rendered eulogies in honour of the great African leader and icon of the modern world, Mandela. President Barack Obama of the United States represented the western world; Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff stood in for South America; India spoke for Asia and Namibia could be said to have taken up the slot of Africa. Other speakers included President Jacob Zuma of South Africa; President Raul Castro of Cuba and the UN Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon.

    People have argued that on account of Nigeria’s frontline activism during the apartheid era alone, she deserved a spot at the podium during the memorial rites of Nelson Mandela. That may be true for Nigeria provided streams of funding, was an operational base; imbued the struggle with strategic training and logistical support. Nigeria was also in the vanguard of the Organization of African Unity’s boycotts and economic blockade of the apartheid regime. She boycotted the 1976 Olympics Games on account of the South African situation and British Petroleum (BP) was thrown out of Nigeria and its assets confiscated. These are just samples of actions taken by Nigeria in her drive to free the people of South Africa and help them regain their freedom from white oppression.

    But one thinks it would be far-fetched and presumptuous to expect the events of about three decades ago to govern the moment. Nigeria needed not have played roles in ending apartheid to deserve a special place at the memorial of Nelson Mandela. Nigeria was ignored simply because she has not lived up to her stature and eminence in the scheme of things in Africa and the world at large. Nigeria’s sheer size in the continent, her political and economic magnitude if well harnessed, ought to give her an unassailable pre-eminence in Africa.

    But because leadership has failed increasingly in the last few years, she has not lived up to her dominant and influential roles on the continent. If we had got our acts right, Nigeria ought to supply the bulk of critical manpower in tertiary institutions, finance, judiciary, defence and security across most of black Africa. And by virtue of our abundant oil and gas resources, we ought to supply the entire continent with fuel energy, bitumen, gas, electricity and other industrial by-products of crude oil. These are natural influencers that go with our sheer size and natural endowment but which lack of vision has deprived us.

    Lastly, the extremely poor quality leadership of the last two decades has completely reduced Nigeria in the esteem of the peoples of Africa and the world that we are no longer worthy to be mentioned in the gathering of the best of the world. We must face the harsh fact that Nigeria’s leadership has become so leprous today that the world would conspire to ensure that it does not take the same podium of honor taken by world leaders of note; by our unremitting malfeasance, we have alienated ourselves. Nigeria moves inexorably south when the rest of the world faces north.

    Year-on-year, we are rated among the most corrupt people in the world, among the most diseased and the most poor; they note the cash stash of our presidents, ministers, legislators and politically exposed people in all parts of the world with quiet disdain. They see us regress in all human development indices like child mortality, education enrolment, diminishing per capita and the inability to conduct elections. All the fundaments of human civilization are in recession in Nigeria and they know that we are inexorably a dying country. When our matter is raised among the comity of nations, they sigh resignedly fearing that Nigeria is bound to end up as the last big, basket case of the 21st century.

    Snubbing Nigeria at the Mandela memorial was neither a mistake nor a chance happening; it was a well reasoned, calculated and pre-meditated action designed to save the face of the world from a Nigerian embarrassment. But true to type, our leaders miss even this point.

    Is PIB the be all and end all?

    I have never given a damn about the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) in all the years of its roundabout trips between that National Assembly and the Petroleum Ministry. First I had the natural inclination to suspect that something must be wrong with a legal document that is a tome of 223 pages. What the heck? Second, I hold the oil ministry and its key subsidiary, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, as currently constituted, in eternal disdain seeing how other national oil firms have grown over the year and lifted the economy of countries. Third, I never thought a legal framework or the lack thereof is the bane of Nigeria’s oil sector – the stunted growth, the rabid corruption and the unrestrained madness in that quarter cannot be as a result of an absence of a particular piece of legislation.

    But in the heat of a debate over our blighted oil industry recently, a respected colleague availed me a copy of the PIB insisting that my perspective would change should I endeavor to go through the rather rumbustious tome. If it has such redeeming values, how come the National Assembly has kept it in its underground cellar for over a decade; how will it clean the Augean stable that the NNPC has become? Still skeptical though, I have promised to give it a shot some good day when the weather is sunny and there are glimmers of hope in the horizon.

     

    NOTE: EXPRESSO proceeds on vacation till January 2014. This is wishing you dear reader a song-filled season and may you wake with a bright new sun on the other side of this annal.

  • A more urgent summit

    A more urgent summit

    The proposal for a national summit on the future of Nigeria has generated so much political heat, thanks to the nature of our politics and the bad blood that it has created over the years, especially since the current dispensation began. One might argue that it is the nature of politics and only an idealised version that bears no resemblance to reality may have a different take on the matter. It is also true, however, that this latest iteration of the craziness of our body politic is self-inflicted by the most visible actors in the drama that it is.

    The President announced the inauguration of a committee to work out the logistics for the conference after so much vacillation. And just soon after, he introduced an unnecessary complication as if the committee’s work has not been complex enough. Apparently unperturbed by the expressed desire, indeed, demand of supporters of a national conference for one that is truly anchored in the people and birthed by the people, the President suggested that the outcome of the conference would be useful as raw material for the National Assembly’s constitutional amendment functions.

    The President’s idea of a national conference is thus ages away from the demand of the people. And there is no better evidence for this than the position of the Chairman of his Advisory Committee who insists that the Committee approaches its work as if there is no constitution, which means it expects the conference to produce a new constitution.

    Recently, however, it is becoming clear how the President and the National Assembly envision what would have been a defining feature of their domestic agenda. Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu has been widely reported as claiming that “the National Assembly has the power to discuss the report of the proposed National Conference”, to quote from The Nation’s version of the reports. Since Senator Ekweremadu is not only the Deputy Senate President but also wears a second hat as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Constitution Amendment, his comments have to be taken seriously, and they are to say the least, disturbing.

    According to the Distinguished Senator, “there is going to be a debate over the outcome of the planned dialogue at the National Assembly. It is going to be subjected to a critical debate. It has to go through legislative processes.” This is partly because, NASS has to “make sure that everything is right and Nigerians agree on it.”

    The logic of this declaration is mind-boggling. How can it ever be that Nigerians might not agree on what they endorse in a national conference where every nationality and interest group is represented? To defend an argument for subjecting the will of the people to a parliamentary debate is simply a deceptive way of trivialising the will of the people. It is to suggest that the representatives of the people are wiser (“they are experts in legislative processes”) and therefore more important than the people.

    As if that condescending attitude isn’t grave enough, the Senate’s true intention, as revealed by the Chairman, is to pull a rabbit of a seven-year single term from the hat of national dialogue. This must be the “something fundamental that can be discovered” as Ekweremadu puts it. Though Senators rejected the idea of a seven-year term for the President and Governors, the Constitution Review Committee is hoping to propose it as an amendment item. And the reason is that in the judgment of the committee, “single term tenure would resolve the crisis arising from the competition for federal power.”

    There is no doubt that there is across the board, a cut-throat competition for power and perhaps single-term tenure might help resolve that unhealthy competition. But zeroing in on this issue as if it is all there is to the national conference simply reveals the deceptive politics behind the proposal. Recall that the Senate Deputy Leader also suggests that if the amendment is passed, then the incumbent President may have two more years until 2017 and the general election postponed till then. For those who dismissed the idea of a seven year single-term as another Third Term agenda, this proposal is a non-starter. And it now appears that the opponents of the proposed national dialogue have a case.

    Since I believe that there is a lot to achieve from a well-conceived national dialogue, I wish that the proposal on national conference that was vigorously canvassed and much-awaited has been presented with an honest and sincere intention.

    There is, however, a much needed and more urgent summit.National Conference is for a determination of where the country is heading politically and economically. It is about how the various nationalities and interest groups relate to the centre. But assume that we get a handle on this important mode of governance and relationship, and we have a perfect federalism. Is anyone under the illusion that our national problem is solved and we are thereafter on the path of glory?

    There are numerous afflictions that are internal to the various nationalities that only they can resolve. And I am not here concerned so much with the issue of internal unity within the nationalities. For instance, I have never thought that there will be ever a Yoruba unity because there has never been any such thing. But in spite of the obvious concerning disunity among the Yoruba, as among other nationalities, there was a time when certain values were commonly endorsed and enforced. That is no longer the case. The fundamental concept of hard work was a prevailing ideal. Now it’s a loafer’s philosophy that is entertained. And education and training in the traditional or modern forms have always been the centre piece of our cultures. Now we are praise singers of ignorance.

    Every culture or nationality has an anomalous mode of life—kidnapping, begging, fundamentalism and fanaticism, idleness—that has emerged in the last thirty years, embraced by a significant portion of its members, especially the youth, and which have been responsible for some of the more egregious aspects of our political life, including corruption in all its aspects. And no nationality can or should be proud of its internal malaise. But what is being done? When one reads about baby factories, one wonders, where is the traditional family? Stories of young students even in rural areas skipping school and doing drugs raise concern about parental responsibility. Doing something is crucial and cannot wait till or tied up with a national dialogue or conference. There is an urgent need for every nationality group to look inwards and dialogue with itself so it does not fall into oblivion.

  • Junaid Mohammed and other cowards

    Cowardice, unbeknownst to many is a deceptive pathological condition. A coward always wears the camouflage of bravery and courage yet he is merely a weasel. Like a bully, he is imbued with the inexplicable urge to hurt and torment others but he cannot stand a prick of the pin. He will rouse a murderous mob but will tunnel into the ground when blood begins to flow. Such is the state of mind of some Nigerians who have made it a pastime lately to beat the drums of war and destruction over the 2015 presidential election.

    One such person is Dr. Junaid Mohammed, a Russian-trained physician and a veteran politician who made his mark as an acolyte of the great Malam Aminu Kano. Once upon a time, Mohammed was one of the most personable, well-spoken and well loved-politicians across even ethnic zones of the land. He was considered a ‘radical’ politician with progressive and people-oriented ideas. He was supposed to have drunk from the fount of that apostle of talakawa politics and perhaps ought to have been the touch-bearer of that ideological school, inheriting Aminu Kano. But Junaid Mohammed like a storm-tossed ship has not been able to find any political relevance since the demise of his mentor. He has moved from one party to another, from one ideological extreme to another and aligning with some strange bedfellows or another all in search relevance and even gravy.

    Our most beloved Junaid Mohammed, that eloquent young man in the House of Representatives of the 80s has in his old age ironically, grown into an ethnic jingoist and rabble-rouser. In an interview in last Sunday Sun, he simply broke the bounds of decency and decorum expected of someone who ought to be an elder statesman and nationalist. Asked whether President Goodluck Jonathan should run for a second term in 2015, he had this to say: “He is humble enough to know the consequences of his action, should he insist on running. But let me warn that he should not do anything that would plunge the country into avoidable anarchy.”

    He spoke further: “Quote me, if Jonathan insists on running, there will be bloodshed and those who feel short-changed may take the warpath and the country may not be the same again. His running will amount to taking about 85 million northerners for a ride and that is half the country’s total population. So, there will be bloodshed. We don’t pray to get to that level before his ethnic and tribal advisers pull him back.”

    Apparently, Mohammed has joined the bandwagon of the North-for-president-in-2015-or-no Nigeria campaign. In his obvious anger he was unguarded and uncontrolled in his utterances. He even rained abuses on the president: “We now have this nincompoop as president.” We may not like Jonathan but he remains the president of Nigeria and he occupies our sacred stool. We can correct and even upbraid without lapsing into naked and personal abuse. Our elders especially must set that example of civility in political discourse for the younger ones.

    One is particularly nonplussed by Mohammed’s invocation of violence and mayhem upon his fatherland should he and his part of the country fail to grab power once again in 2015. It is quite a puerile and infantile notion to think that any part of the country can be intimidated into surrendering power to another by mere threat of violence or even actual acts of bloodshed. It never happens that way. Second, statements like this do the North no good and it triggers that annoying sense of birthright and entitlement to the throne. That is not on and it is never acceptable. The North has held the number one spot longer than any other part of the country and unless it is telling the rest of us that it is indeed a birthright, others are equally entitled to it as well.

    Need we also remind that no president relinquishes power on account of threats of bloodshed and prospect of violence; not when he is constitutionally entitled to contest for another term in office? Power is gained through strategic thinking, building of consensus and pushing of laudable policies to the people, the ultimate beneficiaries.

    Lastly, whose blood is Dr Mohammed bringing to the altar for sacrifice? Of course not his children’s or his family members’ and surely not his own or his close friends’? It brings us back to the logic of the coward: he is often quick to pledge the blood of others in exchange for his selfish ends. But call for his own head and he dies before you unsheathe your sword. Have you seen our Mujahideen Asari Dokubo recently, the one who wears permanent scowl just to scare the rest of us? A few hours’ arrest recently in the Republic of Benin rattled him so much that he sings like a troubled canary about enemies of President Jonathan’s second term who pursued him across the border. Jonathan must have a second term even if the heavens fall, he declared extending that weird logic. The same manner our octogenarian Papa Edwin Clark finds every opportunity to say to us, woe betide you all if Jonathan does not return.

    But these are old tricks deployed by cowards when they sense an imminent defeat and loss. In 2015, what will be, will be – as has been ordained!

    LAST MUG: Gov. Amosun’s tower and aspects of S.W. integration

    I was waiting for the right moment to comment on the laudable South West integration agenda when I learnt about Gov. Ibikunle Amosun’s tallest building in Africa project. While one would return to the emerging flaws of the integration soon, Expresso humbly appeals to the Ogun governor to shelf the idea of a tower (of Babel?) which is a mere ego trip and holds no economic good whatsoever. All over the world, governments hardly build skyscrapers; they are economic propositions of individuals. Is the Cocoa House for instance fully occupied? Is it yielding revenues? Is it well maintained?

    We feel insulted when our governors tell us they travel abroad to seek investors; such anachronism really need to be jettisoned. And the Malaysians partnering Ogun to build a white elephant will do well for us developing our agro-industrial estates based on oil palm, cocoa, maize and cassava instead of building us a tower of wastage.

    It is the same ego-tripping that governs the rash of airports in Ekiti and Osogbo when the ones in Ibadan, Akure and Benin grossly under-utilized. Why not modern light rail lines that link major cities of the Southwest? Or are these airports and towers what the integration document ordered?