The Nation Newspaper

Category: Friday

  • Why not Hijrah holiday?

    It never rained but poured in November last year when Nigerian Press stirred up brouhaha over the declaration of one day Hijrah holiday in the State of Osun by Governor Rauf Aregbesola. A particular Southwest newspaper went completely off the track over the issue and exhibited untold ignorance in a manner of a king dancing naked in a market place by writing an editorial on the matter thereby subjecting itself to public ridicule. It was a display of blatant ignorance shamelessly celebrated by some other newspapers of the like.

    Shortly after that episode, another Governor of a Southeast state (Imo) declared six weeks holiday for Christmas against the constitutional tradition of two days that Nigerians are familiar with. And the same newspapers that earlier sparked brouhaha kept mute in what confirmed unbridled sectarian hypocrisy typical of shamelessness in Nigerian professional journalism. The connotation of their silence in the second case cited above is that the declaration of one day Hijrah holiday was wrong because it was not inherited from the colonialists whilst the six week Christmas holiday was right because it tallied with their religious interest even if it was unjust and contradicted the norm of conscience. That is the extent of slave mentality in Nigeria as often exhibited in the name of religious chauvinism.

    Succinct assessment

    Taking a retrospective assessment of the two above-mentioned scenarios after six months (last May), a well known Professor of Medical Biochemistry, Abdul Kareem Hussain, decided to chronicle the historical background of all the known calendars in the world as a way of tutoring some ignorant, self-arrogated Nigerian journalists on the essence of Hijrah holiday for mankind. Though a Medical Biochemist, Prof Hussain’s intellectual wellbeing has never restricted him to any straight jacket enclave of literacy because he knows the difference between literacy and knowledge. To him, literacy is merely a means of documentation of events and occurrences while knowledge is like a farm where all necessary crops must be planted and harvested for the assured survival of the farmer.

    Yours sincerely first had an encounter with this intellectual colossus in 1984 when he delivered a public lecture on Hijrah calendar at the Yoruba Tennis Club, Onikan, Lagos, where many Nigerians first got the idea of Hijrah calendar. In that lecture, he did such a thorough analysis of the subject that he thereafter became a reference point for most researchers on Hijrah and the use of calendar. The summary of what he said on that occasion, according to my records is as follows:

    Experienced narration

    After many millennia of incessant wandering in search of sanity and reason man was able to sight the crescent of civilisation. While he advanced along with his new crescent, he reflected on his past wanderings and thought of sharing the experience of this with his successors in order to leave a mark of guidance on the threshold of life. Civilisation, therefore, taught man to chronicle the experiences of his peregrination on earth by the means of calendar. And today, the chronology of events and the human evolutionary development are traceable only to the beginning of the use of calendar.

    By definition calendar is a system of reckoning time in which the beginning, the length and divisions of a year are arbitrarily defined. It is a table that shows the months, the weeks and the days available in one specific year. It is a schedule especially one arranged in chronological order as of the case on a court docket.

    Types of calendar

    Since the discovery and the use of calendar as an aid to historical records the world has journeyed through various stages of reckoning events through time and space. The use of calendar itself is a pointer to the earlier civilisation of the races or communities which made use of it. One of the earliest calendars which have helped in piloting human history through the millennia is the Chinese calendar which is supposed to have begun in 2379 B.C. In this Calendar, years are reckoned in cycles of 60, each year having a particular name that is a combination of two characters derived schematically from two series of signs, the celestial and the terrestrial. Months are also reckoned in cycles of 60 that are renewed every five years and each month consists of 28 to 30 days.

    There is also the Jewish calendar used by the Hebrews which engaged in the reckoning of time from the year of creation as based on a periodic cycle of 19 years with the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th and 19th year of each cycle designated leap years.

    This is followed by the Hindu calendar which began in about 400 CE. It is Lunar-solar in nature and the Hindus believe so much in it even till date. In this calendar, the solar year is divided into 12 months in accordance with the successive entrances of the sun into the signs of the Zodiac, the months varying from 29 to 32 days.

    Another calendar is the one called Roman calendar which is an ancient lunar calendar designating the days of the new moon as the ‘calends’ and the days of the full moon as the ‘ides’ while the 19th day before the ‘ides’ are designated as the ‘nones’. The original Roman calendar, introduced about the 7th century bc had 10 months with 304 days in a year that began with March. Two more months, January and February, were added later in the 7th century bc but because the months were only 29 or 30 days long, an extra month had to be intercalated approximately every second year. Thus, the days of the month were designated by the awkward method of counting backward from three dates: the calends, or first of the month; the ides, or middle of the month, falling on the 13th of some months and the 15th of others; and the nones, or 9th day before the ides. This rendered the Roman calendar hopelessly confused especially when officials to whom the addition of days and months was entrusted abused their authority to prolong their terms of office or to hasten or delay elections.

    Pagan origin of Roman calendar

    Most of the months in the Roman calendar were dedicated to various gods of the Romans. The calendar, though got the blessing of the Christian leadership and was refined by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 CE, as polytheistic token. For instance, January from ’Janus’ is the Roman god of doorways and beginnings. February from ‘Februs’ is the Roman god of purification. March from ‘Mars’ is the Roman god of war. May from ‘Maia’ is the Roman goddess of growth and spring season. April from ‘Aprilis’ is the month of the goddess of love and beauty. June from ‘Juno’ is the sister, the wife and coequal of Jupiter, the supreme Roman god. July named after Julius Caesar and August after Augustus Caesar. The months of September, October, November and December indicate 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th respectively in the old Roman calendar. These last four months are a misnomer in the order of numerals within the calendar. For 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th in numerals to represent 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th months in the calendar are incomprehensible. But they were retained for sectarian sentiment.

    The Julian calendar

    Also in 45 BC, Julius Caesar decided to use purely solar calendar on the advice of Sosigenes who flourished in the 1st century. This calendar, known as the Julian calendar, fixed the normal year at 365 days, and the leap year, every fourth year, at 366 days. Leap year is so named because the extra day causes any date after February in a leap year to “leap” over one day in the week and to occur two days later in the week than it did in the previous year, rather than just one day later as in a normal year. The Julian calendar also established the order of the months and the days of the week as they exist in present-day calendars. In 44 BC, Julius Caesar changed the name of the month Quintilis to Julius (July), after himself. The month Sextilis was renamed Augustus (August) in honour of the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus, who succeeded Julius Caesar. However, some authorities maintain that Augustus established the length of the months we use today. The Gregorian calendar which puts January as the first month of the year was adopted by England and America in 1752. It is the calendar now commonly used throughout most parts of the world.

    Other calendars

    Yet, there are other known calendars which include the Roman ecclesiastical calendar used by the Catholic sect, the French revolutionary calendar introduced by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1793, the Gregorian calendar introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 CE. But by far the most authentic of them all is Hijrah calendar because of its uniqueness and eventfulness as authenticated by its clear historical background. The idea of putting this calendar into use was suggested by Caliph Umar Bn Khattab in Madinah as a historic landmark for Islamic religion. And it has since been in use throughout the Muslim world especially in determining the beginnings and ends of every lunar month as well as Muslim festivals.

    Qur’anic source of Hijrah calendar

    Of all the calendars mentioned above, Hijrah alone, which is the Muslim divine calendar, is unique for its eventfulness and clear historical background. Its dating began on the 16th of July 622 CE a day after the migration of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) from Makkah to Yathrib (Al Madinah). After a non-such persecution and threats to his life by the Makkah pagans, the messiah of mankind had to migrate for the safety of his life and, by implication, for the rescue of humanity from the wildness of inchoation.

    Whereas every month of Hijrah calendar has spiritual importance apart from the universality of its blessings for mankind, its effect from 622 CE is only symbolic of modernity as it actually came into existence over 5,000,000 years ago when it was decreed and its months were christened by Allah Himself. The Qur‘an testifies to this as follows: “Surely, the number of months with Allah is twelve months in one year in Allah’s decree since the day when Allah created the Heavens and earth. Of these months four are sacred (Muharram, Rajab, Dhul- Qa‘dah and Dhul-Hijjah). This is the only straight and righteous path”. (Q. 9: 36). No other calendar can be so referenced in any revealed Book other than the Qur’an. The twelve months mentioned are Muharram, Safar, Rabi‘ul Awwal, Rabi‘uth-Thani, Jumadal ’Ula, Jumadath-Thaniyah, Rajab, Sha‘ban, Ramadan, Shawwal, Dhul Qa‘dah and Dhul Hijjah. Thus, the significance of Hijrah calendar is manifest not only in the eventfulness of its historical background but also in the divinity of its months. Unlike other calendars which were imposed for the purpose of worshipping material gods or to subject people to psychological subservience, Hijrah calendar is an evidential indication of human salvation. And besides, it has divine sanction. Nigeria is for us all and no one should think of creating an environment of subservience for a major chunk of the populace.

    Conclusive tutorial

    In his conclusive submission, Professor Abdul Kareem aims at educating Nigerian media to the effect that Hijrah was not peculiar to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) as some other Prophets had preceded him in emigration. For instance Prophets like Nuh, Ibrahim, Lut, Ismail, Ishaq, Ya‘qub, Yusuf, Shu‘ayb and Musa, all emigrated from place to place before finally settling down. Of all these, only Prophet Muhammad’s Hijrah has a direct bearing on the practice of Islam. And since no Muslim has ever objected to the declaration of any public holiday for the adherents of other religions in Nigeria, it will be foolhardy for any responsible person to constitute himself into a cog in the wheel of Islam in any part of the country by opposing a declaration of Hijrah holiday constitutionally for Islam. In a sane society whatever is considered good for the goose must equally be good for the gander. But those who take their hatred for Islam as a hobby should know that no amount of barking even by millions of dogs can ever halt a surging train.

     

    Watch out

    As traditional of ‘The Message’ column, a daily column to be called RAMADAN GUIDE will be published for 30 or 29 days during the coming sacred month of Ramadan. It will contain a thorough exposition of some verses of the Qur’an as well as analyses of some Hadith of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) plus jurisprudential explanation of some hitherto ambiguous areas in all possible ramifications. Watch out! This may be your greatest means of becoming authentically familiar with Islam. And besides, it may provide an opportunity for pious Muslims to trade with Allah by sponsoring the 3×2 space earmarked for that purpose.

    Muslims hold conference on democracy

    The popular Premier Hotel, Ibadan, will be playing host to a conglomerate of Muslim clerics and laity from all parts of Nigeria between July 6 and 7, 2013. The conference will afford such people the opportunity to discuss Nigerian democracy as it affects them and their faith. The objective is to further examine the compatibility of democracy with Islam and be better informed about it. The conference will create a good avenue for participants to know the role expected of Muslims in it to enable them disseminate same to others. This is the first time a conference of this nature is being held in Ibadan. Abuja was its venue in the previous years. Attendance is strictly by invitation.

  • Five things Gov. Fashola ain’t getting right

    Five things Gov. Fashola ain’t getting right

    Let me first raise a mug of my favorite beer (no brand name dropping now) to our dear governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola (BRF) on his turning 50 last Friday. I welcome him to our club, the golden age of gray and wisdom; a great club if you know how to live it. Great guy yea; and the song has been sung ad nauseam, I bet even he doesn’t want to hear it anymore.

    But suffice it to articulate in a few words what one considers to be the BRF essence. He stands out clearly as the best governor in Nigeria today and perhaps the greatest leader of this age first because he has remained unaffected by power and second, he has exhibited leadership by sheer force of personal example more than any one else among his peers. Put differently, bewildering grace under the enormous influence of power and such transparency that is self-accounting, self-evident and that seems to ring through and true. Let us add a work ethic that is alien to today’s leaders. He has indeed been the real breath of fresh air in a Republic that is suffused with charlatans and power hogs.

    We are daily embarrassed by governors and political leaders who seem to have no clue as to why they are in office, who are so excited by the office they occupy that it has become an end in itself and indeed, the end of the world for them. Many show such manifest greed that you can see currency notes sticking out of their ears and dangling from the neck of their spouses and family members. While BRF has managed to put a handle on power, most of his contemporaries are virtually being storm-tossed in the rise and tide of power. And the tragedy is that they are not aware of that fact. But while a book could be written on the BRF paradigm in this murky ocean of mis-governance, here are a few things not quite right in Lagos today.

    LGAs AS ROAD TO NOWHERE: perhaps the most tragic phenomenon blighting the country today is that we have turned our local council governments into a mere concept. Our LGAs have become an endless, worthless and mischievous argument while the hapless inhabitants languish. All over the country – from Sokoto to Borno, from Bayelsa to Anambra, Edo, Ondo, one cannot find any glittering example of a 3rd-tier administration at work. What we have now range from the most opaque system to sheer brigandage. And the result across the country: extreme impoverishment of the larger population which yields itself to extreme crimes like violent robberies, kidnapping, cultism, human trafficking, militancy and terrorism. Because hardly any economic activities go on in our local administrative units, large swathes of our people and territory are left bare and barren.

    This is the case in Lagos under BRF as it is in most parts of the country. This explains why the more BRF does, the more he has left undone. For every one facility he provides, there are about 57 others thus the need to work in tandem with the 57 administrative units for Lagos to lift from its morass of decay, crimes and slumhood. While one does not wish to be embroiled in the constitutional debates and politics of it, the point remains that BRF has not been able to device a mechanism that would make the local councils work.

    ONE MAN SHOW? Another point to ponder about the BRF era is a lack of robust delegation of responsibilities to cabinet members and aides. Though it is a national affliction of Nigeria’s leadership and not peculiar to BRF, we long for the day when our governors, presidents and heads at all levels would retreat to the background, to the quiet crannies where concepts and ideas reign while the aides are allowed ample initiatives to play the field. I look forward to the day when a works commissioner for instance, would own his projects, run his projects, sell it to the people and commission it without the governor ever showing his face. Most governors are busy building roads, culverts, gutters, classroom blocks and flyovers that they miss the most important point which is governing.

    OTHER POTENTIALITIES OF LAGOS: There is a notion that Lagos State is so fortuitously situated; that indeed the gods had provided all the food the state needs and that she only needs to prepare it. That is true to some extent. The revenue templates are there for instance and the dough would stream in in billion unhindered, no matter who is in the Round House. The BRF government has particularly perfected taxation as its main stream of revenue (you won’t believe that one has been taxed off one’s pants!). We have not seen this government pursue the other economic potentialities of the state other than taxes and rents. For instance, tourism, her aquatic splendor which is largely dormant, agric export, ICT and entertainment could be catalyzed to be huge revenue machines.

    REAL SECTOR IN REGRESS: Lagos State used to be the thriving hub of manufacturing and industrialization. Today, though there are still some machines rolling but they seem cranky, exhausted while many have simply packed up. Recently no fewer than 70 companies were delisted from the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE); these were hitherto thriving entities mostly based in Lagos, providing quality jobs and impacting the state’s economy. A drive through Oba Akran Avenue/Henry Carr axis of Ikeja Industrial estate is sure to make your heart sink – vast industrial complexes have been converted to miracle churches.

    Apart from picking juicy taxes from companies, when was the last time government engaged organized business groups with a view to ameliorating their challenges and ensuring their continued existence? How many new major real sector operators have berthed in the state in recent years and what are the strategies for attracting and sustaining businesses?

    HIGH-MINDED and HIGH-HANDED? BRF’s obvious high mind seems to naturally breed high handedness and this has largely defined his style of governance. It is a style that earns bounteous results but it also draws its flaks. Examples abound: the doctors’ strike palaver could have been better managed knowing that we are dealing with the high end of our society that could not be banished. The reverse case is the commercial cyclists (okada) who were off-handedly banished just because we could do so. With a little more circumspection, they could have been better managed and contained to the benefit of all. The okada affair is ironically, to the benefit and ruination of the police in the state today. The state university affair is also a point to note. The state must never be perceived to be profiting from public education. If subsidies are banished, if fee must be charged, it ought to be just enough to run well. The suspended bridge toll too could have been priced at half the current rate and the economy of the state would never have collapsed in September or even the near future. If we have paid for the bridge to be built, why do we have to pay even more to use it?

    Having made these points, we reiterate that BRF remains the best among his peers by miles.

  • Tradition endures

    Tradition endures

    IT has not always been well with tradition. There have been serious philosophical objections to the idea of tradition and its sacredness. Utilitarian thinkers, for instance, tell us that traditions are not self-justifying, or that moral traditions can frustrate the moral progress of societies and individuals. In the wake of our own struggle for independence, traditional authorities were denounced by nationalists and progressives. Recently, however, both in intellectual and political circles, there have been a renewed respect for tradition and its values. And while the requirements of democracy have generally been pitted against tradition, a number of philosophers from Alasdair McIntyre to Alain Locke and David Gauthier have raised questions about the narrow-mindedness and absence of self-examination that inform ordinary thinking about democracy as well as the lack of self-examination that limits the diffusion of democratic ideals.

    Tradition is a customary way of doing things that is unique to a group. It is what is handed down from generation to generation. To borrow a religious language, it is the acceptance of the faith of our fathers. As renowned sociologist Shils puts it, the “decisive criterion (of its traditionalism) is that having been created through human actions, through thought and imagination, it is handed down from one generation to the next.” Of course, being handed down does not entail being accepted. A tradition is a tradition only because it is accepted by the next generation that also passes it on. The continued acceptance of a tradition is the basis of its endurance.

    It is important to note that the acceptance of a traditional idea, belief, or practice is subject to what the people it serves make of it in terms of their well-being. The notion that a tradition has a suffocating grip on a people is, therefore, misleading. It depends on the moral weight that the people accord it. This is what Kwame Gyekye has in mind when he notes that “the continuity or survival of a tradition depends on the normative weight it can carry with (a) generation” that accepts it and “much of the authority of an inherited tradition is said to have derived from the evaluative activities of a recipient generation.”

    What goes into the evaluative activities of a recipient generation? How do individuals and communities come to the conclusion that a way of life that they inherited from their forebears have meaning for them and is good for their well-being? These questions assume that we really have a choice in the matter. And to some extent, we do. After all, we can choose to ignore or even eradicate those traditions that we find unacceptable for various reasons. The limitation has to do with the fact that a recipient generation is not completely isolated from the giving generation. Unless a whole generation of potential receivers collectively commits patricide, they will have their parents for the better part of their lives. So did those parents have their own parents. There is therefore an interlocking and intersecting relationship of givers and receivers with givers interested in and monitoring the receivers’ attitude to the tradition of their parents and grandparents. In general, we are obedient and loyal offspring of the community that seers us.

    The foregoing thoughts came to mind as I gleefully watched the excitement, love, affection, and respect with which the Okeho community in the United States of America and their friends welcomed the traditional ruler of Okeho, HRH Oba Rafiu Osuolale Mustapha Adeitan II and his amiable Olori Taibat Omotola Mustapha during their recent visit to Washington. From the time they landed at the Baltimore-Washington International Airport to their departure three weeks later, the admiration of the people was palpable. And their royal couple did not disappoint expectation. They comported themselves with utmost dignity, and an apparently natural penchant for decorum that distinguishes the royalty, including gentle reminders from Kabiyesi about proper dress code and dignified outing.

    As appropriate to his status as the father of all, Kabiyesi was comfortable in the mosque as well as in the church and endeared himself to both the Jumaat and the Congregation. Thus, the royal couple participated in the worship service of Alafia Baptist Church in Maryland, and Kabiyesi’s address to the Congregation on the theme of unity felt very much like a sermon, a point that the Pastor noted with appreciation.

    At the civic reception in their honor, Oba Mustapha Adeitan II reminded his audience, mainly Yoruba in the diaspora of their origin with the observation that “a river that forgets its fountain will soon dry up” and “eniti o sole nu, o sapo iya ko” (the loss of one’s origin is tantamount to the recovery of a load of suffering). He also noted with satisfaction the laudable programs and projects that a good number of folks had embarked upon in the homeland all of which had impacted the lives of people positively.

    Okeho is a small community with concerned individuals with very big heart who are committed and dedicated to its progress and development. And, consistent with his emphasis on the theme of origin, Kabiyesi did not forget to place on record his heart of gratitude to all Okeho indigenes including those in the diaspora, especially those that are resident in the United States for finding time to visit Okeho from time to time. For this helps to ensure that they are aware of not only the condition of their people but also of their needs and aspirations for which the privileged ones can be of assistance to the community.

    Among those individuals who have been of tremendous help to the progress of the community are Mr. Jacob Moyo Ajekigbe, the former Managing Director of First Bank Plc and Kabiyesi did not forget to appreciate him as he had done at every occasion in the last several years. Another is Alhaji Moshood Raji Bomodeoku who after an illustrious career in the Federal Civil Service relocated to his community and set up businesses, including a tourist centre, Moshra Gardens.

    What is the relevance of all this to national discourse?

    I started out as an integrationist, one that believes in the idea of a one indivisible nation. I still do, but I now firmly believe that all conditions for integration must be satisfied. One such condition is that this belief must be shared by all and no one part is made to bear the burden of unity while others loaf around. With this is the moral need for equitable distribution of resources and amenities. It used to be the case that some were regarded as drawers of water and hewers of wood. Do we serious still want to believe this? I hope not. It is therefore incumbent on the political leaders nationally and locally to approach their mission with the fear of God, with the understanding that even the backwoods of the nation are endowed with living humanity that deserves justice.

    Finally, for me it is important for us to understand that the building blocks of a united nation are the communities that make up the nation. It is for a good reason that the Yoruba suggest that if the living room is not healthy, the entire city is nothing more than a slum. Therefore, we have to ensure that our hometown is healthy. All politics is local is the famous axiom attributed to late U.S. Speaker O’Neil. Therefore, if you have not already been actively engaged in your community, even if you are not a politician, it is important to assume that responsibility of community involvement. It is the least that you can do as a human being.

  • POT-POURRI: Governor Jonathan and other stories

    POT-POURRI: Governor Jonathan and other stories

    Most Nigerians must be pretty sick of and wearied down by President Goodluck Jonathan and his obsession with the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF). The impression hitting us out here is that the president suffers multiple nightmares over NGF and Governor Rotimi Amaechi. In between shuttling out to attend some piddle-diddle foreign meetings (better left for the foreign minister or vice president) and taking on NGF-Amaechi, there seems to be nothing else happening.

    It just makes one wonder whether the president would rather be a governor, which explains the above title. Two years gone in the life of the Jonathan Presidency and nothing to report (thanks that all the anniversary noise has died down and one can really attempt an assessment). The two critical questions to ask any leader in a tenured position are: are the people you lead happier with you today than when you started? Would you win an election if held today? If you want an honest answer Mr. President, it is no, no. The truth is that Nigerians are disappointed and disillusioned and there are hardly achievements (concrete or symbolic) to point to. Without sounding apologetic, one says that not to malign but on the contrary, to offer some help.

    In two years, the Jonathan presidency seems to have only done well in alienating Nigerians, impoverishing them or both. The presidency ought to be troubled that east, west, north or south, we cannot find true, core supporters rooting for the president; not young, not old, not male, not female. That is indeed worrisome. Yes, he has faced enormous security challenges since inception but he would earn no plaudits for managing the problem well in the face of the enormous funds thrown at it. And this brings us to the issue of today; it is as if the security distractions are not enough and the president creates invidious palaver of his own, helping to bug his self down and drag the presidency to the bog.

    The feud with Governor Amaechi of Rivers State who is the chairman of the NGF came to a head last month when Amaechi trounced the president’s candidate in a re-election. Yet there is no let up, instead a subterfuge faction of the losers was installed and the ensuing tussle has continued to take its toll on the entire country with our president not too far removed from the commotion. Last Wednesday, the authentic version was to meet and the presidency climbed down from its kilimanjaroic heights to torpedo that meeting by fixing a Presidential dinner the same day, the same hour. But Gov. Amaechi showed more grace by aborting the NGF meeting to honour the president. That is statesmanship.

    How much lower can it get? Presidential handlers should be depressed that each time they try to cut down Amaechi he grows even taller. The Goliath illogic teaches that he should never engage David in combat because win or lose, Goliath loses anyway. The presidency at its regal and majestic summit should never be in desperate contention with any body or group for any prize because the president’s loss is our collective loss; a president’s hiccup is a national hiccup which is why he/she must stay aloof, removed and detached.

    It has been canvassed in this column earlier that the right approach would be for the president to decidedly ignore the NGF. The simply reason being that the much desired second term (which we all know is the bone of contention) does not ultimately depend on whether he has the NGF in his pocket or under his armpit. Rather, it would depend on how much work he delivers to the people. The lesson again, a Goliath will never win a David.

    STATE OF THE NATION BILL: Jonathan won’t talk to us. It is strange that President Goodluck Jonathan has shot down the State of the nation Bill which would have given him a platform to address his people once a year. The National Assembly has passed the bill but number one thinks differently. It is the practice in many parts of the world for president/heads of state to give an elaborate speech detailing the activities of government in the course of the year. Smart leaders make a world of this opportunity: they set the stage as they would and pick their roles to the delight of their people. In the U.S. for instance, the State of the Nation Address is a cause célèbre. Why President Jonathan would shy away from it is unfathomable.

    DAVID MARK: death for oil thieves, death for corrupt politicians to. Senate president, David Mark recently advocated death sentence for oil thieves in Nigeria. Perhaps alarmed by the reports from the Nigerian national Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that we may have lost about N7 trillion to oil thieves in 2012, Mark thinks imposing death penalty would be the antidote. One is surprised that Mark seeks to eradicate ringworm while leprosy ravages the land. Can he not see the direct and indirect links between official corruption and oil thievery? Can’t he see it is a bazaar, a feeding frenzy of corruption? The Ogas at the top are neck-deep into it and everybody else helps his self. What is good for Jonah is good for Marc and for Tom, Dick and Harry. There is so much President Mark can do to kill the monster sitting right there in his chambers; so much.

    OSUN N10BILLION ISLAMIC BOND: ouch Aregbe. Our comrade governor, Rauf Aregbesola is fast growing into an unmanageable enigma. Today he blazes a trail to the right and tomorrow he counters it with a blast to the left. We thought the first lesson in leadership is to leave religion out of government. But our dear gov would not only embrace it, he does not faint to poke it in the eye. Yesterday it was about hijab and Muslim holiday, now it is about OSUN ISLAMIC BOND. Surely the state can raise bond without the distraction of starting a holy war. All these religious wahala he is invoking will not add an iota of good to his work as a governor and worse, he messes with an otherwise good legacy. Some of these seeds he sows today will grow into ‘evil’ trees 20 years hence. How would he love that for legacy?

    SUNTAI PHOTO SHOW: why doesn’t he just resign? No week passes without we seeing the photo of Taraba State’s ailing governor, Mr. Danbaba Suntai in newspapers straining to show that he is well, that he can stand erect, that he can stand. We sympathize with Suntai who was involved in an unfortunate plane crash, we feel for his household. But the wise action to take now is to resign as governor and allow the state to move on. Running a state is onerous enough for the fully fit. We think that in the interest of the people of Taraba and for his sake too, he should take a graceful bow. That would be most honorable.

    EXPRESSO IS TWO: long live Expresso. July 1st is second anniversary of the debut of Expresso. A long, wearisome and obdurate road it has been but the beat must go on. I raise my glass to all the ardent readers, they are the mainstay of this column.

  • The Malabu malfeasance

    MOUTH-WATERING OIL BLOCK: It is a 15-year-old story showcasing Nigeria’s oil sector at it messiest, successive Nigerian governments at their puerile best, multinational oil companies at their shadiest and why Nigeria remains among the poorest countries in the world despite huge oil resources. It has gone on for so long in the hushed manner of Nigeria’s oil business until The Economist of London removed a bit of the veil on it last week (June 15, 2013 edition). It is a story of greed, brigandage and the grand-scale pillaging of a country as probably has never been witnessed in modern history. The sordid story concerns a mouth-watering oil block, OPL 245 awarded to a fictitious firm, Malabu Oil and Gas which had no records, assets or staff.

    According to the report, Malabu was ‘established’ only a few days before it was handed this oil block estimated to have a possible 9 billion barrels of oil! A certain fellow called Dan Etete who was Nigeria’s Petroleum minister in 1998 must have awarded the oil block to himself and of course fronting for fellow rogues in government then including members of the Abacha clan. The dictatator, General Sani Abacha was Nigeria’s head of state then. This matter has dragged for so long because in the conclave of thieves, there is no speaking in low tones over a big loot; and this one is humongous. Therefore, the fight over it has been protracted between Etete and his gang, Shell/ENI and NNPC/the presidency. The news today is that Shell/ENI after plodding through the murky tunnels of OPL245, finally shelled out the sum of $1.3 billion, verisimilitude of a bribe if not the real thing, to pay off all petty thieves, fraudsters and government officials who have cottoned on to this deal for 15 years.

    SHELL-SHOCKED AND UNASHAMED: Though Shell pretends to have dealt with the government of the day and also pretended that it paid out such huge sum to the Nigerian government but the oil giant was well aware that it was dishing out slush fund into a “black hole”. It was a ‘pay’ brokered by (don’t be surprised) Mohammed Bello Adoke, the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice. Shell’s bounty according to The Economist, may have been “round-tripped” back to bank accounts controlled by public officials. The magazine says further: “Of the $1.1 billion, $800 million was paid in two tranches to Malabu accounts. This was then transferred to five Nigerian companies that appear to be shells. One of these, Rocky Top Resources, received $336.5m some of which seem to have been passed to unknown “various persons”, according to the EFCC’s reports. Some $60m went to an account controlled by Mr. Etete who has said that he received $250m in total for his role in the deal…”

    Global Witness, the NGO that trails official corruption across the world sees the OPL 245 affair as “a lesson in corruption.” If ever one had any doubt as to the ethical status of Shell, this singularly desperate deal has exposed it for what it has always been, a roguish multi-national. Shell remains the detestable British Empire still trading in Nigeria only by another name. It is a Luggardian behemoth that is divisive, corrosive, corrupt and corrupting. Over the years, Shell has been leveraging on Nigeria’s weak government and lack of institutions to get away with mass murder, so to speak. Its home government seems to be hand-in-glove with her trading outfit making no efforts to rein it in. Unlike what obtains in the U.S. lately where multinationals are bound by corporate governance rules and laws of the U.S. (which is why many officials of multinationals operating especially in Nigeria have been convicted and jailed), it does not seem to be so in Britain and many E.U. countries.

    Shell which for more than 50 years, has controlled over 60 per cent of Nigeria’s oil wealth was reprobate even in its dealings with the Niger-Delta environment in which it operates. After so many years, the region remains desolate, retarded and damaged. In cahoots with Nigeria’s renegade governments, Shell never made any comprehensive effort to lift and develop even its immediate vicinity of operation. It is acute deprivation that led to the restiveness and militancy which erupted in the last decade. Unfortunately, Shell is deeply engrained in the Nigerian morass that there seems to be no stopping it or changing its mindset – well, perhaps until the oil is drained.

    ETETE, NIGERIAN ELITE, NNPC AND A COUNTRY WITHOUT GOVERNMENT: The Economist report avers that Nigeria is “arguably the most complex environment of all,” to transact business. Please read the most corrupt environment of all. Nowhere else would a serving minister of petroleum award itself a juicy oil block using a ‘nonexistent’ company yet he is allowed to benefit immensely from such crass corruption helped by the country’s chief law officer, the attorney-general. Ratty Mr. Etete, typical Nigerian elite, had been convicted of money laundering in France; the huge sums being the bribe money from foreign investors while he was in office. In a serious society, Etete ought to have been arrested, prosecuted and jailed, instead, he was allowed to profit hugely from a grand fraud he hatched and executed as a public official.

    Why has Nigeria grown into a banana republic? Because it ranks among the most corrupt countries of the world having maintained its position in the top five of the most corrupt table in the last decade. In the Malabu affair, those who ought to sanction the culprit became the chief beneficiaries; top government functionaries scrambled to get a share of the loot. Consider the list of Nigerians mentioned in this deal aside Dan Etete, there is notoriously corrupt Diepriye Alamieyeseigha who is the acclaimed boss of our sitting president. There is the Abacha family, Abubakar Aliyu and Adoke. Nigeria’s oil industry has become an elaborate fraud where serving government officials including heads of government scramble for and award oil blocks to themselves through proxies. Nigeria’s chief resources which ought to be developed for the good of all are handed to a few who become stupendously rich to the detriment of the populace.

    For a long while, Nigeria has lacked patriotic and purposeful leaders thus the country has been running literally on auto-pilot; without governments. This explains why the country has become so imperiled with a mass of jobless youths threatening to upend the ship of state. Sadly, those at the helm even now are so enamoured of immediate gains they are blind to the imminent danger. They seem to have lost any sense of right and wrong too. In other countries, this Malabu affair that has brought us so much international odium would have elicited judicial enquiries that would shake up the entire nation. Not so here, it has long been swept under the carpet because everybody is involved. Everybody, what a shame!

  • Echoes of Babel

    Echoes of Babel

    The nation’s narrative, unambiguously disseminated to the whole world, in the last fourteen years, through the medium of the central administration that has been under the control of the largest party in Africa, has been nothing but depressing for the masses. Unemployment has shot through the roofs. Security is an unrealisable dream. Missed targets of set goals for power generation have been as predictable as the daily occurrence of incessant power failure itself. Poverty is on the rise just as a few continues to swim in undeserved opulence, no thanks to the unjust system of fraudulent reward.

    In the face of all the tales of woe that our people have had to deal with in the last decade and a half, the party in power has continued to claim victory in national elections, no thanks to the coalition of forces and the solidarity of agencies, including INEC, that have been responsible for those “victories.” We also know that the egoistic tendencies in human nature have kept even some of the more conscience-minded individuals in the fold. They have moved out and gone back in because of the belief that the PDP is the only party through which their ambitions can be realised.

    Times have changed. No, we still have a depressed society in material and spiritual terms, and then some more. In 1999, we didn’t have to deal with Boko Haram terrorist network. Now, the fear of Boko Haram is the beginning of wisdom across the North.

    Times have changed for the supposed supremacy of the largest party in Africa. The chickens of greed and crass egoism bereft of self-discipline are coming home to roost and there are loud echoes of Babel in the house of cards that has endured quite a bunch of self-created political storms. These times remind us that a house of cards does not last long.

    A political party that is built solely on individual member’s interests in self-promotion and individual success, and is not bound by a common interest in a political ideal that places the interest of the nation above self-interests, is one that is built on sand. It is a house of cards. The reason is simple. Without a common interest is something that is bigger than the self, what is left are conflicting interests. The interest of each individual to make as much as possible for him or herself must run into conflict with that of his fellow member. There has to be a third-party interest—that is what a common ideal is, and that is what is lacking in the PDP. They pay lip service to the party as supreme. But it is gibberish; each individual knows that the reason the party was established was to serve as a means to the satisfaction of individual interests. For its members, there is no moral in politics.

    For the exponent of politics without morals, the idea that it is for the purpose of managing the affairs of the state for the benefit of its citizens does not make much sense because they either do not acknowledge that there are other citizens whose interests are worthy of promotion, or because they see themselves are best suited to identify the interests that need to be promoted and how. In both cases, politicians with this mindset put themselves above all other citizens, and justify to themselves any action or policy even if it makes no sense to the other citizens.

    Recent happenings within the ruling party demonstrate the mentality of its membership. The national leadership of the party is completely determined to return President Jonathan to power in 2015. As far as it is concerned, other political parties don’t have the means to challenge its dominance at the centre, not even the emerging APC. Therefore its calculation is to secure the President’s nomination by the PDP. And anything that obstructs the movement of the elephant in the forest is sure to be vigorously attacked and cleared off the path.

    So Amaechi has to go, and so in the new mathematics approved by the PDP, 19 is less than 16. Of course, they knew this all along. But they insisted that if 19 of their governors endorsed Governor Jang for the position, they all were expected to vote for him. Therefore, even if they did not vote for him, the earlier endorsement subsists. It is an argument that makes sense with the psychology of egoism where there is no recognised neutral arbitrator to resolve conflicts of interests.

    Sometimes, however, conscience manages to prevail and individuals are lifted above and beyond considerations of self-interest. So Governor Lamido can no longer keep silent and he felt the need to let the struggling cat out the bag of moral pollution. Nine PDP governors voted for Amaechi, he pronounced. The house of cards is collapsing fast and echoes of Babel can be heard loud and clear. What has been the motivation for Lamido’s coming out with such a revelation? Not a mind-reader myself, I can only speculate. It could be conscience, as I surmised above. But it could also be self-interest, and from just one act of whistleblowing, one cannot conclude that our politicians are redeemed or redeemable.

    There is more. Governor Wamakko of Sokoto State was suspended from the party. It was clear from the beginning that this was one action that Tukur’s NWC would regret as the Northern governors were up in arms against the decision. Tukur caved in and Wamakko’s suspension was lifted. Has Wamakko suddenly showed remorse and has he become loyal to the party hierarchy? Don’t count on it, given human nature. The mass resignation of NWC members and the impending sack of the National Chairman is ominous for the party.

    And there is more. In the Southwest, the fortune of the party at the polls has been sealed by two factors. First is the outstanding performance of the ACN governors in the five states they control. Even the worst critics of these governors attest to the incredible development projects in education, road construction and health and welfare interventions. And this is a region where voters reward achievement and are not asking for anything more.

    Second, and more to the point of my topic today, is that the PDP house of cards is also collapsing in the region even faster than in the nation at large. For one thing, the access to the promise of patronage is now disastrously limited and those whose idea of party membership and political activism is influenced by such considerations have no real motivation. For another, the generalissimo of Southwest PDP, former President Obasanjo is himself no longer in reckoning in the national leadership of the party. That was after he has effectively contributed to the collapse of the party in Ogun and Oyo states.

    And now in Oyo State, strange fellows and coming to share a bed with the rumoured romance between former Governor Alao Akala and his former boss and nemesis, former Governor Ladoja. What this romance means for the PDP in Oyo state is unpredictable for now. But something significant caught my attention from a recent interview granted by Chief Alao-Akala on the relationship between the two and his own ambitions. In reference to Oke-Ogun state and the question whether he would present himself as a Senate candidate against the incumbent Senator Hosea Agboola, who was his former Commissioner for Local Government, Akala not only dismissed his former commissioner’s credentials, but he was also dismissive of the entire Oke-Ogun electorate. In his political calculation of electoral politics, he only needed Ibadan and Ogbomosho, which influences his idea of partnership with Ladoja.

    Politicians calculate all the time. But it is usually done discretely and with some finesse. If you boastfully discount a swath of land and its population, you have alienated them and cannot therefore count on their support. What this would mean for the PDP in Oke-Ogun in particular, and Oyo State in general, is anybody’s guess. It is true, however, that a divided house cannot withstand the united competition of its opponents. These echoes of Babel are truly instructive.

  • The Guantanamo irony

    The Guantanamo irony

    History is a well known phenomenal teacher. It teaches the old and the young alike. It examines its students from time to time and gives them examination results. Its lessons are generational across races and cultures. But then, it faces a fundamental problem. That problem is not in repeating itself perpetually but in getting mankind to understand its teachings and heed its warning.

    In virtually all celestial religions, history plays such a prominent role that gives it the permanent identity of a teacher. And from its beneficial teachings, human beings build experiences with which they keep life going. In both the Bible and the Qur’an, we are told of arch enemies of God’s message who dramatically turned round to become voluntary Ambassadors of the same message to which they had been antagonistic. One of such enemies was Saul, an avowed anti-Christ who dramatically accepted the message of Jesus after the latter’s ascension and adopted Paul for a name. The other is Umar Bn Khattab who had plotted the murder of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) but dramatically accepted Islam on the day he was to carry out his plot and eventually became a Caliph of Islam.

    Jesus had wished that Saul, a well educated person, accepted his message but that wish did not materialize until after Jesus had left the stage. If Saul had not accepted Christianity when he did, perhaps the situation of that religion would have been different today. In the case of Umar Bn Khattab, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) had prayed to Allah to enable one of the two famous persons bearing Umar in Makkah accept Islam. Although his mind was on the other Umar, it however turned out that Umar Bn Khattab was the one favoured by Allah. And Umar Bn Khattab’s acceptance of Islam became so remarkable that the Prophet said of as follows: “Were there to be another Prophet after me, Umar would have been”.

    Now, a similar fin of history has reached the United States of America where a morbid hater of Islam and torture agent of that country, dramatically embraced Islam recently. It is an indicator of a future shock for which the West must be prepared. Why was it that after the conversion of Saul, the Greek Empire and subsequently the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as an official religion? Why was it that after Umar Bn Khattab embraced Islam, the whole of Arabia formally accepted that Divine Faith as state religion? And by analogy, shouldn’t America be getting ready for a similar eventuality? The coded bile of history is ordinarily bitter but when it becomes a part of the body system, survival without it becomes impossible. It sounded odd when speculations began that Rome could adopt Christianity as state religion. It sounded unbelievable that Arabia could adopt Islam as official religion. But reality eventually prevailed and today, the rest remains a property of history. In the same token, I, far from prophesying, foresee a day when America will become the home base of Islam to give the genuine Divine religion an impeccable reality of life. As it happened in the past, the doubting Thomases may commence their repugnant arguments from here.

    Who is Terry Holdbrooks Jr.?

    He is an American and native of Huntsville in Alabama, United States. He grew up a troubled kid with junkie parents that dumped him at age 7 on his ex-hippy grandparents to be raised. By 18, he’d completed both high school and trade school which is suggestive of brilliance on his part. He indulged in drugs, illegal sex, rock-and-roll and tattoos through which his ink would eventually cover his arms from shoulder to wrist. His earlobes were stretched to a plug that a thumb could pass through.

    Thus, when he walked into an Army recruiter’s office in Arizona a year after 9/11 saying he wanted to join the Army, to be able to kill people and get paid for it, the recruiter looked up briefly and turned back to his computer saying “No, thank you”.

    It was only during his fourth visit to the recruitment office that he was allowed to take the military’s aptitude test (ASFAB) and the recruiter realised the potential in him. Then, Holdbrooks signed up for military police because it offered a bonus. And when his unit was transferred to Guantanamo, the sergeant detoured through New York to take them to Ground Zero where he told them to “remember what Muslims did to us and who you are supposed to protect”.

    So, Holdbrooks arrived at the hot, seared base expecting hulking killers in every cell. What he found were doctors, taxi drivers, professors. One scary “terrorist” was 12. Another was in his 70s and dying of tuberculosis. Holdbrooks identifies himself as antagonistic, questioning, independent person. He is naturally suspicious – and found his suspicions turning in a surprising direction.

    How Islam beckons

    The 29 year old Terry Holdbrooks Jr., enrolled in American Army in 2003/2004 and was posted to Guantanamo Bay (which is a detention camp for people pronounced as criminals) as a military Police officer. Part of his duties was not just to prevent those detainees from escaping but also to escort them to interrogation rooms and then return them to their cells. He knew the kind of stresses and tortures those detainees were undergoing in repeated questionings. He had dodged their thrown poop when anger ripped down the row of mesh wire cages. When detainees were punished with the “frequent flier program,” he’d moved men from one cell to another, every two hours, round the clock.

    All along, his perception and understanding of Islam was not dissimilar from those of his military colleagues in Iraq, Afghanistan or even Guantanamo Bay. However, the thought of accepting Islam as a rightfully guiding religion crossed his mind after several months of conversation with the Muslim detainees in that camp.

    Holdbrooks has since published a 164 page book on the episode of his journey to Islam but he verbally told the story especially his observations about the controversial detention camp to a congregation of 80 people at the Huntsville Islamic Centre in Huntsville on Saturday, May 25, 2013 in which he revealed that “most of those detainees have lost hope in life. They’ve decided it’s better to die as one of them is down to 70 pounds.”

    Before he became a Muslim, Holdbrooks was wearing the beard of a bald Amish guy, the tattoos of a punk kid and the twitchy alertness of a military policeman. Take him to a restaurant, and he’ll choose the chair with its back against the wall. Take his photograph and he’ll prefer to look away from the camera.

    Now, he is travelling around America with Khalil Meek, a co-founder and executive director of the Texas-based Muslim Legal Fund of America. They are raising money for that non-profit civil rights organisation, which helps pay legal fees to free American Muslims who have been accused of vague crimes or placed on no-fly lists and other restrictions under the increasingly broad “anti-terrorism” provisions.

    Even beyond raising money for legal defence, Holdbrooks said he wants to stir Americans to action through his book which is available for sale online at www.GtmoBook.com.

    To hear from the horse’s mouth here is what he said about the book: “I tell this story and I wrote the book so idiot-simple that anyone could read and understand that the existence of Guantanamo is something to be ashamed of. I just want to share information with people in depth and then let them make up their minds.”

    Constructive rumination

    At Guantanamo, Holdbrooks mulled over the information which the Army instructors had taught him along with others about Islam after watching the so-called terrorists, days after days. What he’d been told wasn’t lining up with what he observed. He noticed that the detainees read their Qur‘an. They kept their daily schedule of prayers and remained undiscouraged under horrendous pressure.

    “How can you wake up in Guantanamo and smile? How can you believe there’s a God who cares about you?” Holdbrooks asked amazingly. He quoted one of the Muslim detainees as saying: “I am happy to have spent time in Guantanamo. Allah was testing my ‘deen’ (faith). When else would I have had five years away from all responsibilities, when the only thing I had was my Quran, and I could read it and learn Arabic and mental discipline from it”.

    “Fortunately for us,” Holdbrooks said. “Most of them are bigger men than some of us would be.” As he got to know the detainees, and learned their stories during his long night shifts, he came to see them as individuals many of whom enjoyed talking about the same things he does: Ethics, philosophy, history and religion. Many others had let him know what they thought of the 9/11 attacks which they believed to have violated the teachings of Islam.

    In appreciating their endurance, patience and courage, Holdbrooks said: “Here, I had all the freedom in the world, and I was miserable while they had nothing, and they were happy. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that something’s going on.”

    During the time he had off from his escort and cleaning duties at the prison, Holdbrooks began to read more about Islam online. One prisoner he engaged in discussions most of the time, a former chef from England, gave him his own copy of the Quran.

    “You’ve got to realise the significance of that,” Holdbrooks said, his tough bravado breaking for a moment. “He’s been in this cage for 23 and a-half hours every day. If you lose your Qur‘an, you’re out of luck. That’s it. You’ve lost everything.”

    It took him three nights to read Glorious Book. As a restless seeker in his teens, he had studied Christianity, Buddhism and Judaism but never saw much sense in them. In the Quran, for the first time, he found a religious text that meets his logical criteria. And after reading it satisfactorily, he said; “It made sense from the beginning to the end. It doesn’t contradict itself. There’s no magic in it. It’s just a simple instruction manual for living.”

    And after three months of intensive study and conversation, Holdbrooks told the Muslim detainees one night that he wanted to become a Muslim. And in response, the detainees explained the implication of that to him. They said: “Converting to Islam means you would have to change your life style including your diet. You will quit drugs, drinking, profanity and tattoos. Then, be prepared for good relationship with everybody – wife, neighbours, the Army and the government”. Thus, little by little, Holdbrooks made the changes as he found a measure of health, discipline, family and peace of mind which he never had before.

    Return to happiness

    By the end of 2008, he had found himself wondering with the question: “When last was I happy?” And the answer, he realized, surprised him: When he was in Guantanamo – because there he was being a good Muslim.

    Holdbrooks has been clean-minded since 2009 – a victory he credits to following Muslim dietary codes, including daytime fasting several days every week, not just during Ramadan. Last fall, he returned to a decent family life by marrying a nurse he met at his Mosque. They had spent a year of careful acquaintance in accordance with Muslim guidelines and he has just finished a bachelor’s degree in sociology. Nowadays, he spends most weekends travelling with the Muslim Legal Fund of America to tell his story. Holdbrooks is, today, a part of a small, but growing, number of former Gitmo guards who are speaking out about conditions at the torture camp and are calling for the camp’s closure. Besides, he has a message for fellow Muslims thus:

    “If Prophet Muhammad (SAW) were to come back to Earth today, people would find the best examples of Islam in the United States. American Muslims have a responsibility to live their faith so that others can see a true example, not the perversions of the terrorists or the tyranny of corrupt governments. He concluded that: “For every little step I took toward Islam, Islam was taking more steps toward me”. Thus, the man who was employed to quench the glow of Islam became a propagator of Islam in America.

    Watch out for Ramadan guide

    In a few weeks time, Ramadan, the king of all months will be here again, In sha’Allah. What does it take to meet it? How can one thrive effectively in it? What are the activities therein? What are the preparations for it? What does it hold for couples? What becomes of one after it? These and many other relevant questions will be answered through RAMADAN GUIDE to be published daily as usual throughout the scared month. Watch out for it!

  • Like June 12, like Biafra

    TOFA’S FICTIONAL JUNE 12: I was in a quandary as to how to open and manage the long, sad story of Biafra and June 12, 1993 in just about 1000 words until I read Alhaji Bashir Tofa’s comment on the issue. Recall that June 12 represents the day Nigerians voted for a certain MKO Abiola; the day they bonded and chose Nigeria for the first time in her life and for her sake. Remember June 12, the E-day that took the baton from the Biafra war on our relay race of infamy. And remember Tofa, the neophyte who was drafted to run against MKO on that day of history, a man whom the gods ensconced on the laps of history but who can’t figure out that phenomenon even 20 years after.

    What did Tofa say? He said that the June 12, 1993 election is fiction, a dead issue. If you thought he made a mistake, he didn’t, he repeated it a few days later in Daily Sun interview (Wednesday June 12, 2013, page37) thus: “I sincerely believe that it is an episode that we need to get over with and look forward to a better electoral process and, therefore, a better democracy.” Gee! This really is the real problem with Nigeria; we are so blessed with non-leader leaders. How could a former presidential candidate, a leader in every respect describe his country’s history as fiction and ask that it be forgotten? How can you manage today and shape tomorrow if you discard yesterday? Is it possible that Tofa cannot see the connection between yesterday and today or, is he simply shuffling the cards of perfidy that has been perfected by the average Nigeria elite? Can’t he see that for 20 years June 12 has not gone away and like an aggrieved ghost, it will not? It has to be atoned.

    JUNE 12 AS A SHORT CHAPTER IN THE BIAFRA BOOK: If Tofa cannot fathom a history in which he was an actor-observer, how can he decipher the mysteries and metaphysics of the Biafra war of 46 years ago? Of course he suffers a blurred vision (or no vision at all) like most Nigerians, and surely cannot see that June 12 is but a short, sad chapter in the Biafra-Nigeria story. Whereas June 12 is an injustice to MKO Abiola and Nigerians of goodwill, Biafra was injustice to the Igbo race and humanity. Whereas Abiola lost his mandate, his wife, his businesses; a few Nigerians died and we lost our resolve to reconstruct our mother land anew, Igbo race suffered genocide. Untrammeled genocide executed with licentious impunity. It was about the extinguishing of the lives of about one million people, yes 1000,000 people. It was the infamy of a brother gleefully slaughtering his brother man, woman and children by sword, by axe, by machete, mortars and by starvation. It was a cold calculation to exterminate.

    The Biafran injustice unlike June 12 is the story of vengeful hatred, of mass killing of a people on the streets of Nigeria, of beheading people and loading their torsos on Eastern region bound trains, of cutting open pregnant women and harvesting their fetuses, of forced digging of own graves and burying alive, of mass execution, and mass burials on shallow graves…of unspeakable blood-cuddling bestiality not known in modern history. To begin to talk of material losses of Ndigbo in that blight is to chase a rat when one’s house is blazing. Is it the malicious shrinking of Igboland into a potato-sized, landlocked area it currently occupies, the excising of the mineral rich areas, the seaports and worse, seizure of entire towns and cities built up by the Igbo. For instance, the entire Port Harcourt which built by Igbo was hijacked and to hide the infamy, a funny re-designation of the streets and neighbourhoods with quasi-Igbo names was enacted. Thus after the war, Umokoro (the children of Okoro) suddenly becomes Rumuokoro, a blatant rumour and national thievery that has remained unchallenged till today. Oh, what woeful national chicanery turned to state policy! And we have lived this lie for 46 years.

    The Biafran injustice, unlike June 12, is the orchestrated brigandage of seizing Igbo houses and estates across the country in the guise of abandoned property. If it is not coordinated stealing on a national scale, how could a man abandon his property in his country? And many are still keeping those stolen properties till today, suffering no pang of conscience, passing to their generations, accursed, bloody heritage. What about the stolen shares, voided insurance policies, lost cash balances in the banks, lost businesses and business debts? It was a holocaust by another means but unlike Hiroshima which has continued to enjoy physical, emotional and spiritual restitution, Biafra gets only snide remarks and Igbo have received no concessions, no reconstruction, no reconciliation and no sign of remorse from their traducers.

    THRIVING CULT OF VILLAINS: Tofa calls June 12 fiction because Nigeria too is fictional. He wants us to forget it because we are a people living in denial. All this means nothing to him because he is a part of the growing cult of villains leading us as we shamble through this journey to nowhere. They do as they like, they say what they would, they live in a heady, heedless world of their own. They invoked Biafra upon us, reaped the bounties and left us to nurse the wound and live the trauma. For them Biafra was fiction better forgotten and un-interrogated; same June 12 – fictional Nigerian history.

    But what might be the mindset of a man who participated in the history of a people and does not recognize it. Tofa did not see his duty as a leader in Nigeria in June 1993 to re-enact a robust democracy in Nigeria. The same way General Ibrahim Babangida could not see that history was handing him a gift as the maker of modern Nigeria. He was so enamoured by the immediate fropperies of power he couldn’t see it. Sadly, he still has not seen it as he still not reconciled to it. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo is MKO Abiola’s kinsman who suffered from acute case of sibling envy. He bad-mouthed Abiola even in his travails and in death, he would not acknowledge or recognize him notwithstanding that he was the chief beneficiary of June 12. His tragedy today however, is that even after enjoying the largesse of June 12 as a two-term president of Nigeria he remains a wee little personality under Abiola’s shadow.

    General Sani Abacha is gone, so ingloriously gone that he is better left well alone. Chief Ernest Shonekan who was a subterfuge president for a few unremarkable days is still around or is he? Same for Senator Arthur Nzeribe the master of no scruples, the old man who would leak the soup plate with his tongue as Igbo would throw their jibe. He who was in the vanguard of that mindless scheme called ABN; the very instrument for scuttling June12. Where on earth is he now? Name them: Chief Tony Anenih is still up and about, roaming the world seeking to fix things that are not broken. Anenih was the erstwhile chairman of Abiola’s party that won an historic election. We must not forget General David mark, reigning senate president. He was among the young Turks, the giddy ‘Babangida Boys’ in the Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) whom Babangida said, said Abiola must not be president. Mark still has not said anything to Nigeria on June 12.

    Enough said. But a man who does not know where the rain started to beat him, will never know where it stopped beating him, that is vintage Chinua Achebe. If we do not know that our troubles started with Biafra and the Igbo question we will be long in the cold.

  • Between then and now

    Between then and now

    What has changed since June 12, 1993? The uniformed services, shamed out of office after thirteen years of official terrorism, are no longer in direct control. Beyond that, the body politics hasn’t changed a bit. Indeed, there are significant lessons unlearned.

    I do not want to belabour the reader with the known quantity. An election was contested keenly, and a candidate won with clear margins of victory across the nation, a once in the lifetime of the sleeping giant that would have created the much needed action in the direction of nationhood. But that was not to be because in the eyes of a few, Nigeria was not to be unless they are in charge.

    There were protests and rallies, and then a prolonged battle sustained by the undying optimism of a minority led by NADECO and a coalition of progressives at home and abroad. The struggle was not without its ups and downs. The forces that have always scuttled the emergence of a political nation out of the motley crowd of ethnic nations were at their strongest. They turned the battle against military dictatorship into a sectional and sectarian struggle. It became a we-versus-them affair. And within the struggle itself, ego had its field day and the stress of the battle clearly showed. In the end, the unseen forces that believed in a future for the country intervened giving her a second chance.

    How has the second chance been used? I want to focus here on four areas of national life that contributed to and/or directly caused the debacle that was the aftermath of June 12, 1993 elections.

    First is our system of electoral politics and the way we approach elections. The remote and immediate causes of the June 12 fiasco have been well documented. What still stands out was the way the military administration of General Ibrahim Babangida manipulated the sensibilities of the political class and mischievously dribbled them for purposes other than national interest. His idea of leadership at the center was coloured by, not necessarily evil, but certainly primordial considerations of personal and ethnic hegemony. While the June 12 election held the promise of a united nation, Babangida and his crew opted for the unity of a clique promoting the agenda of hegemonists.

    Sadly, nothing has changed in our electoral politics since the beginning of the present dispensation fourteen years ago. Between 1993 and 1999 the nation was at the brink of collapse as the clamour for peaceful separation rang clear and loud. Shouldn’t it shock reasonable people that we have not moved a bit from the insanity that almost leave us dead as a nation?

    Electoral manipulation greeted the very first elections in 1999 and has only undergone various forms of perverted perfection since, with desperate declarations of elections as “do or die” events. The deliberate and bare-faced bungling of the election of the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum is the latest example of the shamelessness of the political class. And it is a mirror image of the June 12 experience. For just like that experience, we are now treated to the drama of participants in a free and fair election shamelessly denying their involvement and asking for evidence of their participation. They are protesting, after the event, that the election shouldn’t have been conducted because NGF Chairs have always been selected by consensus. Well, shouldn’t this have been agreed to by all participants? And if there was not an agreement because some die-hard democrats preferred an election, and you acquiesced, do you have a right to complain because the outcome doesn’t favour you? It’s all in character, and is good evidence that we have learnt nothing and gained nothing. And it is just an indication of what to expect in 2015.

    June 12, 1993 represented hope for a new sense of nationality with the expectation of a genuine unity of purpose. However, the hope began to be shattered with the struggle for the restoration of the mandate that followed the annulment of the election. Instead of a united front, efforts were made to regionalise and ethnicise the struggle. And that effort has not abated even since the return of civil rule in 1999. We can debate the depth of our ethnic tensions at this time compared with 20 years ago. I am sure, however, that no one can deny what is obvious, that we do not now have a united country and the very idea of a nation is constantly being threatened. If a group can insist that their man must be president or there will be an end to the country as we know it—whatever the election results are—then we know that something is terribly wrong with our sense of who we are and what ideals we espouse.

    We now think in terms of our ethnic nations, its marginalisation and all, with no corresponding interest in the entity named Nigeria. Why don’t we just get together then and reach a peaceful accord for everyone to go to their tents? I think what now holds the country together is the private interests of the political class. It is why the various elements of the ruling party who would have nothing to do with each other still get together to reconcile their differences. The Northern Governors Forum is out to protect the interests of the North. So is the Southsouth Governors Forum. These groups are majority PDP governors. But there is no overriding PDP national ideal that prevents conflict and promotes harmony between the sections. What does is the private and sectional interests that each governor wants to protect. As long as those interests are there, and can be protected by patching up difference, we may expect the Nigeria project to go on. But this is not a guarantee for lasting hopes for the survival of talk less of the prospering of the nation.

    Finally, we may ask about how we have fared with respect to respect for the rule of law and combine this with the so-called war on corruption. The two are related and have always had a combined effect on the prospect of national development and progress. The first president inaugurated after the June 12 debacle was himself a victim of the manipulation of the rule of law. But he went on to perfect the art of manipulation in many ways, the most egregious being how he mocked the Supreme Court ruling on his seizure of Lagos State Funds.

    Subsequent administrations continue to mock the rule of law. The Nigerian Judicial Council is by our constitution the authority over the appointment and discipline of judicial officers. But their pronouncements now have to be agreeable to the political class, otherwise they are ignored with impunity.

    The June 12 debacle is attributable in part to the depth of the corruption of the body politic literally and metaphorically. And we have learnt nothing from that experience. This is why there is so much cynicism about the government rhetoric on corruption. If there is a war going on, it is not visible to the majority of our people. Indeed, they see the opposite when we granted pardon to a notoriously corrupt politician who the international community has written off and an irredeemably corrupt person. The politician that our judicial system absolved from the crime of corruption was found culpable by a foreign court. It is unclear how long we have to wait for our government to redeem itself and our nation from the current state of political stupor.

  • Tablet of knowledge

    If we work marble it will perish; if we work upon brass time will efface it; if we rear temples they will crumble into dust; but if we work upon immortal minds and instil in them just principles; we are then engraving that upon ‘TABLETS’ which no time can efface but will brighten to all eternity”. Daniel Webster (1782-1852)

    Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola, the Governor of the State of Osun, being a black man from Africa, may not have many things in common with Daniel Webster, the white American author of the above quotation. But venturing into the inner rooms of both men’s minds individually, one is likely to discover a common signpost upon which a common indelible identity is inscribed. That identity is FORESIGHT which is the hallmark of statesmanship. Incidentally, both Webster and Aregbesola are statesmen in different lands and at different times but with similar goal. And, in their unified identity, both of these extraordinarily oratorical men will go down in history as statesmen with footprints on the sands of time.

    Daniel Webster is, today, globally remembered for his forthrightness and vocal championship of justice both of which have put his name in the history’s hall of fame. Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola’s uniqueness in setting pace for African leaders in the realm of governance has conspicuously marked him out as a vertical political leader in the midst of horizontal others. If the phrase ‘Giant Stride’ bears the insignia of achievement, it must be synonymous to Rauf Aregbesola in connotation. Of all the elements of legacy that can be bequeathed to any human being, none is comparable to knowledge. It is only with knowledge that the continuity of human civilisation can be guaranteed across generations and times. This is an axiom upon which Ogbeni Aregbesola placed a premium for the certainty of today and the assurance of tomorrow.

    Going by the quoted poem above, any sensible person will confirm that in contemporary Nigerian system of governance only the ingenuous ‘Tablet of knowledge’ (Opon Imo) is qualified to be the mother of all legacies. The thought of it was right. Its design was right. Its environment is right. Its time is right. And since all it takes to be right in governance is to get things right no pleasant success of today can turn into a bitter failure tomorrow except by accident of negligence. With the ‘Tablet of Knowledge’ at hand for secondary school pupils in Osun State who says the time for renaissance is not here? While presenting the wonder ‘Tablet of Knowledge’ publicly penultimate Saturday, Ogbeni Aregbesola stated thus inter alia:

    “The idea of an electronic tablet is not our invention, and we make no such claim, for it would be patently false. But we have made something completely unique out of the existing idea. Hence, we make bold to say that Opon Imo is a tablet like no other on the face of the earth. As we speak, learning devices are usually e-readers that require internet connectivity to access their library resources. But Opon Imo stands alone. It is a complete library in a single computer tablet. It’s a complete and closed system that cannot interface or interconnect with any other system, because it does not need them to function. It was commended at Harvard University and by the Mayor of Pittsburgh who made no disguise of his admiration for the device.

    It is a first-of-its-kind standalone learning tablet in the world for self-paced study. It provides three major content categories vis-à-vis, e-library, virtual classroom, and an integrated test zone. The virtual classroom category contains 63 e-books covering 17 academic subjects for examinations conducted by WAEC, NECO and JAMB as well as non-academic life-enriching subjects such as History of The Yoruba, Sexuality Education, Civic Education, Ifa on ethics and morals, enterprise education, hints and tips on passing SSCE and ‘How to live a Healthy and Happy life’. This section also contains an average of 16 chapters per subject and 823 chapters in all, with about 900 minutes or 15 hours of audio voiceovers.

    In the integrated test zone of the device, there are more than 40,000 JAMB and WAEC practice questions and answers dating back to about 20 years. It also contains mock tests in more than 51 subject areas, which approximates to 1,220 chapters, with roughly 29,000 questions referencing about 825 images.

    From the foregoing, there can be little argument that Opon Imo is a veritable tablet of knowledge that levels the learning playing field for all students from different social backgrounds. It allows students to learn at their own pace, wherever and whenever they choose. It provides robust and uniform learning content for all students, and offers a feedback mechanism for monitoring their performance.

    Opon Imo also has the advantage of offering a highly interactive computer-based learning and testing environment. Opon Imo weighs 1.1kg. Its small size and light weight allows for flexibility in its use, which means a student armed with Opon Imo can learn walking, sitting or even lying down. With Opon Imo, learning becomes fun, easy and interesting. Because this tablet of knowledge is going to be distributed free to our students, it not only relieves their parents of the financial burden expended on learning materials, it likewise relieves the students of the burden of their book-laden backpacks. As the Mayor of Pittsburgh enthused, it also relieves students of ‘bad back’. His argument is that carrying a heavy backpack is bad for the back, therefore doing away with backpack is good for the back.

    Opon Imo has numerous other advantages. It can be solar-powered; it can record audio lessons; saves students the stress of copying notes and spares them more time to learn; facilitates early exposure of students to ICT; it has up to six hours of battery life; and its touch screen makes for easy use. To crown it all, this little device will greatly facilitate our free education policy by saving the state a lot of money that would have had to go into procuring text books on an annual basis. Indeed, the saving is humongous. Were the state to engage in the physical purchase of hard-copies of textbooks for the 17 subjects taught in our public schools, hard-copies of 51 audio tutorials, hard-copies of JAMB and WAEC past questions and answers for all subjects for a period of 10 years, it would (conservatively speaking) cost a whopping sum of N50.25billion.

    In addition, we do not have to buy books as long as the tablets are in use. We also cannot quantify the cost of the virtual classroom which does not even exist anywhere, except in Opon Imo.

    The introduction of Opon Imo is a precious high point in our comprehensive plan to totally remake the public school system in Osun. Our first concern after our inauguration was education. We discovered then, to our chagrin, that only three per cent of secondary school leavers in the state had the requisite pass for admission into tertiary institutions. We quickly held a summit of education stakeholders which looked into the state of education in the state and made far-reaching recommendations.

    In a world tilting inexorably towards ICT, Opon Imo is a bold statement of our determination to qualitatively redefine public education. With Opon Imo, we are certain to open the doors of good education to more of our students who would otherwise have been denied that priceless opportunity. Through education we are rescuing our children from possible misery. As Victor Hugo famously put it, “He who opens a school door, closes a prison’. Through Opon Imo we are opening more doors to more students to learn. By educating our youths we are also doing our society a world of good for an educated society will most likely be a better society. This is duly affirmed by Maya Angelou who pointed out that, ‘When you know better you do better”. With this milestone and those words of wisdom can anything else be called ‘FORESIGHT’? In a nutshell, the ‘SOURCE’ remains the ‘SOURCE’.