The Nation Newspaper

Category: Friday

  • Like Mali, like Nigeria

    Like Mali, like Nigeria

    How that the Presidency has eventually acted by facing the security challenges bedeviling the country eyeball-to-eyeball, I rerun this piece published here on Friday March 29, 2013. Declaring emergency andembarking on a shooting war is the easy part, the main WORK is to DECLARE GOOD GOVERNACE across the entire country. Please read carefully:

    When reality struck me smack in the face, I could not cry; I actually laughed out loud as if to say, Nigeria, “I dey laugh o!” To think that Nigeria, a crumbling entity actually sent troops to Mali to quell insurgency! On a second thought, it occurred to me that our presence in Mali is not altogether altruistic; it is largely because there is some dollars to share. I will not discuss here, the number of military trucks, armoured personnel carriers and assault rifles Nigeria to make her fit to embark on a foreign peace mission. The question today is that is Nigeria truly more stable than Mali? Is it more secure, is it better governed and better led?

    Reality check

    Not that one didn’t have an inkling of the dire situation the polity in enmeshed in especially under President Goodluck Jonathan’s watch, but reality dealt me a dirtier slap when I read a report of a terrorist attack in Yobe state last Monday. Let me present the report verbatim as carried by National Mirror newspaper (Tuesday, March 26, 2013, page47):

    “Gunmen yesterday morning attacked the Bara Divisional Police Station in Yobe State killing one police man.

    “Bara is the headquarters of Gulani Local Government Area of the state.

    “Sources said that the attack began at about 1:00 am and lasted for about two and half hours.

    “The attackers burnt the police station and went away with the three cars parked in the premises.

    “The Yobe State Commissioner of Police, Mr Sanusi Rufai who confirmed the incident to journalists in Damaturu, the state capital, said though the police station was burnt with rocket propelled launcher and explosive devices, the attack was repelled by security operatives .

    “He also said that the police man killed was a corporal, adding that the slain victim was slaughtered by the gunmen in his residence at about 5:00 am after the attack on the police station.

    “The attackers, according to the police boss, also destroyed MTN and Glo telecoms masts.

    “The gunmen also carted away three local government vehicles.

    “The commissioner, however, said no arrests had been made in connection with the attack and no individual or group had claimed responsibility.”

    This attack comes exactly one week after the massive devastation of the New Luxury Bus Park in Sabon Gari, Kano, also in the Northwest of Nigeria. Yobe is a vast swath of border state. So are Borno, Adamawa, Taraba, Jigawa, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kebbi, Niger, kwara and even Oyo and Ogun. These states deserve special security attention, to say the least. From the account of the attacks in Yobe, it is obvious any notion of security in Nigeria is merely a ruse; we seem to be living by sheer Grace. For such a sensitive state where attacks have been rampant in the last two years, security is still virtually non-existent. This explains why a gang of hoodlums would operate for four hours (1pm to 5am), sacking police station, LGA office, damaging telecoms facilities and driving away with about six vehicles without a trace; they could have had breakfast if they wanted.

    Stories like Yobe’s are happening everyday across Nigeria. Last Friday, in Ganye town which is the headquarters of Ganye LGA in Adamawa State, gunmen stormed the Ganye Prisons, overpowered a combined team of Mobile Police, soldiers and other armed forces to free about 127 prisoners. About 25 people lay dead after the attack including the deputy comptroller in charge of the prison, Mallam Baba Musa. In Benue, the Tivs and the Nomadic Fulani are engaged in a killing spree; kwara, Ebonyi, Cross River, are theatres of communal wars with security agent over-powered and in retreat. Plateau State’s matter is a full-fledged debacle where perhaps, more Nigerians have been slaughtered than cattle in the last 10 years. Just last Tuesday, 28 people were killed and several villages razed in an overnight raid in Ryom Local Council. As has always been the case, Ryom could have been a jungle or the centre of the Kalahari Desert for there was no sign of government or security presence as the blood fest went on. In the south-south and south-east parts of the country, kidnappers and ritualists reign as security agencies wish they would be left alone.

     

    Where there is no government

    The reality that should be poking sticks into our eyes is that this entity has buckled terribly. Henry Okah, master-mind of the Abuja the bomber was tried and jailed in South Africa last Tuesday; James Ibori, was jailed in London recently but hardly any high profile criminal can be convicted or jailed in today’s Nigeria because our leaders have been castrated by corruption and our institutions suborned. The reality that most of us are wont to deny is that all else has failed in Nigeria except the stream of oil revenues that our leaders steal and fritter away as soon as they are earned.

    Our reality, which we tend deny, is that there is hardly any governance going on in Nigeria today. Yes, we see some governors and ministers deigning to do some work but they are not governing; they are merely executing odd, oft ill-conceived projects. Governance by a simple definition is working the institution, not working the helmsman. Therefore, while there are a few projects going on in some towns and city centres, a vast swath of space is overlooked along with larger population. Most of the 774 LGAs across the land are untouched, ungoverned and famished. Hardly any socio-economic activities go on there as the state governors hijack and squander the funds meant for this tier.

    Again, our unspoken reality is that our hinterlands are so withered and wasted that any band of boys with as many as six assault rifles could seize a chunk of the country and have the police, army, airforce running helter-skelter in their usual reactionary mode. Such is our reality and our predicament. Our naked reality is that Nigeria is no better than Mali today and if we knew any better, the UN should be considering a standby troop for Nigeria before the last few cords snap. Our REAL reality is that the current leadership lacks the capacity to pull the chestnuts out of the fire. Our leaders are only single-minded about holding power; what a pity, blind people desperate to rule a dead country.

    FEED BACK: Kalu’s Njiko Igbo and a tear for Ndigbo

    Happy Sunday Steve read your article in The Nation (May 17). What is the meaning of Njiko? Before you answer me I would like to console you. As a northerner I honestly admire such Igbo politicians like Ken Nnamani, former Senate president. The Igbo should rally round him for he might be their saving grace. To that extent, no need to weep for Ndigbo. Have a nice day – 08051571477

    Mr. Osuji I like the way you always tackle Igbo causes, but you were criminally silent when Gov. T.A. Orji sacked Igbos from other states while retaining non-Igbos – 08037649389

    Brother Osuji people like you who are still able to talk to our people should continue to do so. I returned to Igboland to find a weak and divided people. I had thought my people were strong. Rather they find so much pleasure in inflicting pain on their people. We run to outsiders to give us political power instead of looking at ourselves and bonding together.- 07063315222

    I love your write ups in The Nation. Please keep it up. – 07037999888

    It appears to me that the unique thing that makes the Igbo man prosper in business is the very thing that is his Achilles heel when it comes to politice. What that unique thing is can only be defined by the Igbo themselves – 07042325266

     

  • Readers’parliament 22

    Readers’parliament 22

    Your analysis is correct. Some parents are boastful of their ability to purchase seats for their wards to cheat at JAMB and SSCE centres. It is sad to see what our country has degenerated to. God will help us. 08023137600.

    Haba Tunji. This your piece was too harsh to Nigerians. I am sure you are not residing in Nigeria. 08033754830.

    Olatunji, I agree with you totally that, ‘We are very bad people.’ If Mr. ‘Integrity’Lawan Farouk could fall the way he did, then hope is not in sight for this society of ours. Look at the appointment of Dame Patience as Permanent Secretary. Very absurd. 08034053328.

    Remain blessed for saying the truth. All men need to be forcefully castrated, so that we can stop breeding baboons and then let the country return to stone age.08037967898.

    I wish you continue with this line of write-up. You strike a definite chord in our psychology and sociology with the message. I wake everyday with these foreboding realities of the basic Nigerian psyche. I fear for the future of this race and generation…I totally agree with your thesis. 08054967602.

    Excellent piece of writing. I agree with you 100 per cent. We need to change ourselves because we are indeed very bad people. 08079890367.

    “It is good to be bad and bad to be good in contemporary Nigeria,” truer words I have never read in Nigerian newspapers. Brilliant article today, Mr. Ololade! Please keep up the good work. And the truth shall set us all free. 08178675967.

    Thanks a lot dear. You did very well in your piece. May God bless you with more knowledge and wisdom. Amen. 08063675643.

    May Almighty God bless you for telling the truth the way it is, ‘We are very bad people.’ 08037036487.

    Olatunji, what you are saying cannot be disputed. What has eluded us is the way out of the quagmire. From Cyril Chinweike Eze. 08037907122.

    And Patience Jonathan is now a permanent secretary. Only in Nigeira can such happen. We are very bad people indeed. 07035347838.

    I have never read a more honest description of you and me. We are very horrible people. From Ehimare Ehoho. 08081322995.

    May God bless you for telling us the truth. Please keep it up. From Luka Jos. 08081767426.

    Of course, we are very people Olatunji. In Port Harcourt where I live, it’s really the picture you painted. Success through hard work is no longer the way of life. What of teachers known b ydear patience, they are now the vampires that devour their wards. Thanks. Good piece. From Ray Port Harcourt.08056666484.

    You said it all. We are indeed very bad people. None could be worse. From Barrister Obi Anierobi. 08031157593.

    Olatunji, I like your write-up. Let us be accountable for all our actions, let us stop blaming our leaders. An average Nigerian man is a criminal. From Zuby Port Harcourt. 08051603828.

    Your article is a very good one. Unfortunately you are talking to people who have long chosen the path of amorality. The assertion that the followership is as bad as the leadership is true. But in all climes, it is the leadership that sets the pace either for moral degeneracy or righteous living. The theory of the vital few cannot be wished away. The elites, opinion moulders and policy formulators who develop the framework for policy implementation and are supposed to enforce compliance are the first culprits. No society has only good people; what deters people from wrongdoing is the arm of the law which is supposed to be enforced by the leaders. That’s why foreigners come to Nigeria and beat traffic lights. Let’s get good leaders and things will fall in place. From Etokowoh Owoh Uyo. AKS. 08037975031.

    Your ability to put reality in pure perspective is outstanding. Until Nigerians move away from pretence, egoism, deceit, avarice, hate, etc, I wonder where our religious disposition will take us. From Paul Vingil. Abuja. 08035880838.

    I honestly agree with you and I pray that God endow you with wisdom, knowledge and blessedness to tell the nation the root of our problem. God bless you bro. From Wellington Sango, Ogun State. 08060244044.

    Mr. Olatunji Ololade, your write up, ‘We are very bad people (1),’ I must confess, is the best write-up ever in this morally bankrupt and unholy entity called Nigeria. More of it, please, my brother. They will surely meet the people’s justice in 2015. May God keep more of your type for the battle ahead. From Henry Oputa esq, Port Harcourt. 08033125515.

    Nice piece Olatunji. We need more of your type. Self tendencies have destroyed us all. I think that Nigeria can only be better when Nigerians think better. Indeed, we are very bad people. 08036851612.

    Your write-up captured the sad reality of the contraption called Nigeria. You mirrored the true state of the inhabitants of this country and as sad and fearful the truth is, we are all culpable in the mess our dear country is in. More ink to your pen. From Tapshak Armstrong. Jos. 08166032757.

    We are very bad people 1 says it all. Keep telling the truth. You are superb. From Kehinde Olalemi. 07063504030.

    Tunji my brother, I totally agree with you. I fully understand your angst. Our society is largely populated by monkeys and baboons in human garb, primitive in thinking and bestial in deeds. I have never seen or heard of a society so depraved as ours. Until we, as a people, embrace those things that are truly important in life and jettison the mindless and blind accumulation of vanities, we are eternally doomed as a people spiritually and naturally. From Gerard Ifeanyichukwu Okonkwo. Onitsha. 08023656124.

    What do you have to say about the south-east of the country where people are kidnapping fellow human beings including new born babies in the name of money? And all of us claim to be Christians. 08160149957.

    In fact, you have said it all and I totally agree with you. What can we do now to stop this menace and attitude of ours because each time? From Shakiru. 08030699828.

    Olatunji Ololade, since I was born in this feeble but very wicked and perverse country that is called Nigeria in 1953, I have never discerned anybody’s heart like I’ve just did yours…having gone through your humble and earnest dispositional topic, I thought I were you but of course, I’m not. This is to erase the unscrupulous position of the doubting Thomases that will oppose your write-up in anyway because Nigeria is just simply negative to the core. I’m in this position because some agents of negativity will want to counter the message of good people to this. They will want to smother this great message by which you teach all of us about how bad and wicked we are in this hopeless and worthless country we live in that is called Nigeria…A people that hails criminality are very bad people. A people that condones wicked preachers that pray for government officials who steal public money are very bad people. A people who allow their previous leaders to walk the streets with their loots, even after these leaders have lost immunity are very bad people. A people that have made their generation a thieving one are very bad people. 08036925729.

     

  • Re-thinking the northern quagmire

    Re-thinking the northern quagmire

    Indubitably, Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of Kano State loves his kith and kin in the northern part of Nigeria – a region that is currently embroiled in self-inflicted turmoil through the subversive inclinations of the malevolent Boko Haram insurgents. But he has most probably and suddenly realised that frank talk with his kinsmen remains the only panacea to the catastrophic activities of insurgents that are threatening the region with imminent annihilation.

    Kwankwaso dared to say publicly what most northern elite know, but had been shying away from, for selfish reasons and indeed, lack of valour. In apparent allusion to the upsurge in rebellious activities, especially in the north during a courtesy visit by members of the Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of security challenges in the north, he said: “We have a situation in this part of the country where parents give birth to 20 to 30 children, chose only two of them and send the rest away to God-knows where. Children are sent to places that they don’t know. They are left to fend for themselves. We have a situation where you go round the city and find garrison of children, able-bodied youths begging. These children were abandoned by their parents and they were sent away and brought into the state. They grow up to hate themselves, hate their parents, hate the leaders, hate the government and the society. They feel they were deprived, they feel injustice and they become enemies of the state and constituted authorities. They thereby become vulnerable to crime and violence.”

    No northerner, dead or living, has been more apposite in precisely depicting the northern quagmire that is gradually assuming national and international dimensions. Yet, previous and present leaderships of the region, despite their education and exposure, continue to promote a feudal cum political system that forcibly makes the greatest number of their people to remain perpetually poor and subservient to them. The Boko Haram is surely the creation of the northern political and feudal class that overtime, takes delight in breeding a largely uneducated society of almajiris in their region. Among these hoi polloi in the north, poverty, illiteracy, feudal and religious fundamentalism, and indeed, irrationality, have become a culture. This fact informs why these almajiris have become easy tool for fomenting hubbub in the hands of northern feudal/political elite, even when this elitist class keeps its own well-groomed and educated Hausa/Fulani children far away from such flashpoint areas. These almajiris and not the exposed kids of the northern leadership class, constitute a substantial chunk of Boko Haram followership now working assiduously to destabilise the country.

    Kwankwaso puts the blame of insurgency befuddling the region on;“ parents, the communities, the local government authorities, state governments and the Federal Government” but failed to tell bewildered Nigerians about steps that he has taken so far as governor of Kano state to remove the plague of almajiris and by extension that of Boko Haram from Kano. As parents, how far has he and other northern elites cum oligarchy gone in ensuring restoration of family cum societal values in the youth and the community at large; and as governor, how far has he with other governors, past and present in that region, gone to ensure that that region do not stray into anarchy? What efforts have been taken by Kwankwaso and others in his class to change the stereotype against western civilization, even when the northern leadership is an ardent admirer and beneficiary of western education? He wants parents to take responsibility of their families, yet, poverty still reigns unabatedly not only in Kano but other northern states. The administrations of northern states have done very little to impress it on their people to place high premium on western and not Islamic/Arabic education. The latter has given impetus to the creation of more almajiris by the system.

    Let us ask Kwankwaso and the entire northern elite to tell Nigerians how many wives and children most of them have? And how do they fund them; could it be through allocated resources that ought to have been used to develop their entire people and infrastructure or through immoral exploitation of the archaic system in place? Do northern governors at any time bother to put in place any social security or safety net that can dissuade abandonment of children or begging on the streets by northerners in the country? The streets of most states across the federation, especially Lagos, have been taken over by northern states’ indigenes that also double as emergency commercial okada drivers – mostly becoming harbingers of death on roads in the Centre of Excellence. Since the religion of Islam which the northerners have unfortunately turned into a culture permits marriage to more than one wife, inevitably leading to rearing of several children; and in view of the debilitating underdevelopment of the region, provision of safety net/social security by any sincere government in that region should be a necessity. But northern leaders including Kwankwaso seem not to be giving such beneficial policy any useful thought. Whatever is rampant in the north in the past and even today is that what is meant for the people as democracy dividends are cornered by the few and the oligarchy that are ruling the region.

    However, this deliberate oversight and invidious greed of the northern feudal/political/oligarchy have put the entire country in this Boko Haramic mess. And one agrees with Kwankwaso that ‘what started in Yobe and Borno is now everywhere in the north. It may eventually engulf the country – if we don’t check it now.’ It is a national issue that must be addressed. This statement should be the raison d’etre, and motivating bulwark that should goad on all northerners wherever they might be to give intelligence and inspirational support to the country’s military of Joint Task Force (JTF) comprising troops deployed to quell the Boko Haram insurrection. Boko Haram must be checked now and everybody, whether in the north or anywhere, with useful intelligence hints about this evil group, must come forward and give such to security agencies.

    The Boko Haram cankerworm should not be seen from the prism of being problem of our non-performing and inept President Goodluck Jonathan alone- Boko Haram was largely seen ab initio as a northern problem; but it has since become a Nigerian/international problem that must be destroyed – if only to prevent a re-enactment of what happened in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cote D’voire and of recent, Mali, in the country. The truth as it is now is that this northern nightmare – whether almajiri syndrome or Boko Haram – needs a rethink!

  • What we owe each other

    What we owe each other

    The pathetic picture of a young woman baring her breasts in public on a Lagos street in a desperate attempt to call attention to her miserable condition has gone viral on the web, with a wide range of comments by Nigerians. The significance of the incident should not be lost on right thinking people, who still appreciate the rationale for having a political community.

    Many commentators have called attention to the importance of individual responsibility, and that is a good point. Having too many children without adequate planning is a bane of our society. Children having children, and men acting as bullies and controlling the lives and future of women with impunity has been an undeniable part of our tragic history. The story of the young woman bears out this important observation. Yet it is also important to note that there are helpless victims of societal neglect and for them, our collective obligation is undeniable and the government, as our representative, has a huge responsibility.

    While security of the individual is one component of the rationale for government; the other component is the promotion of the welfare of the individual. In other climes, government serves as benefactor of the poor, the needy, and the sick. We know that poverty is a reality. We also know that it is pervasive in our society. Where this is the case, it is not possible for our people to be their brothers and sisters keeper the way they used to be because they are all mostly poor. The system of charity that prevails in advanced countries is not replicated here because of this prevalent and generalised poverty. In the circumstance, government has to care for those who through no fault of theirs find themselves on the wrong side of the economic divide. This is why poverty alleviation programs are important when they are not politicised.

    Government must be the insurer of last resort of citizens against the uncertainties of social life. People pay for insurance not to prevent disaster but to limit its negative impact on their resources. Diseases, disability, loss of employment, and unanticipated changes could be devastating. While some have the capacity to overcome such adversities on their own, the majority of our people are unable due to inherent disabilities. Esther Odozi is only one representative of that silent majority. As a community, we failed them.

    Despite the tremendous wealth of natural and human resources with which we are endowed, Nigeria is ranked as one of the poorest countries because of the number of poor people. There is no use going over why this paradox has been our lot. It is clear to all that we have not utilised our resources for the benefit of our people. We also know that in the last three decades, Nigeria has spent a better percentage of her resources battling poverty. Yet on the eve of President Obasanjo’s second coming in 1999, the World Bank’s report revealed that the Human Development Index (HDI) of Nigeria was on 0.416 and 70 per cent of the population was living below poverty level. So how can anyone justify the amount of resources purportedly invested in poverty alleviation with such a dismal result? This is the fundamental question.

    Since the beginning of the Third Republic, the Federal Government has used Poverty Alleviation programme as one of the instruments to combat the scourge of poverty. We can tell how effective this programme has been in light of the incidence of poverty in our midst. Whether we focus on the Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES) or the Rural Infrastructure Development Scheme (RIDS) or the Social Welfare Services Scheme (SOWESS) or yet still the Natural Resources Development and Conservation Schemes (NRDCS), the failure of the programmes is visible to the blind. The poor are still very much around.

    Our poverty alleviation programme is politically motivated with little to no sincerity about its effective outcome. A national programme, administered as a centralised federal programme can hardly be expected to effectively reach the poor who live in the states and in the local government areas. These are the first responders to the afflictions of the poor. It is therefore going to be difficult for the Federal Government to operate poverty alleviation programmes which it wants the states to be an appendage to. It could have been more effective for the Federal Government to issue broad policy goals and targets which it expects states and local governments to meet, and then give poverty alleviation grants to these local authorities to implement.

    It doesn’t help that we have an aggravated competition system of politics in which the Federal Government is controlled by a political party that is in some cases different from those controlling the states and local governments, and in which there is a lack of mature relationship between the actors. In such a situation, the necessary cooperation in implementing such a programme is lacking. And where you have an arrogant leadership at the centre, the problem is compounded. The National Poverty Alleviation Programme (NAPEP) was a victim of such condition which mandated the implementation the programme in the states through the Federal Government Controller of Works in each state, thus marginalising the states and local government authorities. And an investment of more than N10 billion went down the drain. 200,000 jobs were to be created in a country of 140 million people with unemployment at more than 40%. Instead, emergency millionaires were created in the hierarchy of the ruling party. The poor remain poor.

    Nigeria needs leaders with an adequate knowledge of the requirements of effective leadership. In addition, however, such a leadership must also have the endowment of a heart that feels the pain of the downtrodden and helpless citizens of our great country. But a leadership does not fall from the sky. It will have to come from among the citizens and be accredited and mandated by them. Therefore citizens also have to have the heart that recognises the obligations that we owe to each other. In our pre-governmental relationships, in our various communities, we are each other’s keepers. The coming of the state does not negate that relationship. It is expected to enhance it. This is why we cannot be satisfied with mere sloganising about the greatness of the country. A landmass is not great in itself; it is the commitment of patriotic citizens that make a nation great. But that commitment is not forthcoming without a realisation on the part of citizens that the political leaders place the highest priority on the interests and welfare of citizens. If what is apparent to citizens is the cut-throat competition to acquire the most for self and family on the part of leaders, then the vicious cycle of poverty and alienation is not going to cease.

    In the matter of promoting the welfare of our people and confronting the scourge of poverty, we must strengthen our educational system to give the necessary tools to our youths to make them productive citizens. Through them, we can raise the productive capacity of our economy, and provide for the needs of our mounting populations. Consider this. A well-educated citizenry is in a better position to solve the myriad problems of technological development, be it in the area of power, agriculture, including food technology, or transportation. In addition, gainful employment that is made possible when education is extended to a majority of the population reduces the potential of insecurity caused by unemployment. If only a minority makes it big while the majority suffers in silence, it’s a short step to anarchy and chaos, the kind that has characterised our democracy in the last fifty years. Esther Odozi is a national wake-up call!

  • Kalu’s Njiko and a tear for Ndigbo

    Kalu’s Njiko and a tear for Ndigbo

    You probably know the scientific fact that the sun rises from the east but I tell you today that that assertion may no longer hold true. Not for the Southeast region of Nigeria at least, indeed the sun seems to have left that part of the world entirely. The celestial element probably finds no pleasure in blazing upon a land and a people remorselessly in retreat. Today, the entire Igbo miasma would make any keen observer drop an unconscious tear. You know there are no flowers where the sun does not shine, where there is no vegetation there is denudation of monumental proportions, a phenomenon we glibly call gully erosion. And laugh if you will, but it has been said that any land that cannot harbor the white man in this age is doomed. You will hardly find a white man in Igboland today. Yes, perhaps mixed mulatto or earth-brown white, and even fugitive white man on mercenary duty, but hardly any real white man on legitimate assignment. Such is the state of the vast oriental land east of the great Niger River.

    You will shed a tear for Ndigbo if you understand the historical odyssey of this people; how they got trapped in the proverbial Nigerian rain and how they are still under the torrential downpour drenched, cold and shivering. I got another tear-evoking glimpse of it when I read an interview granted by Chief Segun Odegbami to Sunday Punch (May 5, 2013 page 76). The great national team footballer of yore who could have been something of a Cristiano Ronaldo were he playing today had this to say when asked how the Nigerian civil war affected him: “Like I said, we were reduced to just 17 pupils in my school (as a result of the pogrom and ensuing war, only 17 students were left of the entire St. Mulumba College, Jos populated largely by Igbo students). And as a young boy, I experienced the pogrom; the killing of civilians. I was walking to school one day and the people I knew, young boys and girls, were running away from the people who were trying to lynch them. For the first time in my life, I saw a dead body. I saw people throwing stones and actually killing people. I saw it, I experienced it. It was horrible and the pictures are still etched in my mind up till now, even though I didn’t quite know what was going on as a young boy…

    “But I trekked three kilometers to my school and I saw all the way from my house to the school, killings along the way… I saw it all and it was horrible. For me, we don’t want such things to happen again. In that regard, the pogrom affected me, the war affected me and many of my friends were killed, so many of them fought in the war but I did not experience the war myself. But it left a permanent scar. It’s something I dread; it brings back those ugly pictures and I pray that our country does not degenerate to that level again.”

    If the searing of Odegbami’s innocent, little mind does not break your heart, how does it make you feel that those people who were hunted down like wild hogs and mauled to death on the streets of Nigeria never learnt any lesson from their sad history? You are bound to worry if you conjecture that these fellows are still being literally chased down and targeted at every opportunity. And if perchance, an implosion results, they are likely to face the same fate as in the 60s because they have remained out there in the same vengeful rain. Since after the Biafran war, Ndigbo have not managed to come together as a people; not under one voice and not under one platform. The so-called Ohaneze Ndigbo has long become Ohaneze ndi oshi na ama. In the last 14 years, the body has been turned to an ugly bird of prey that feeds on the entrails of Ndigbo. The recent election by some mealy-mouthed young turks simply rededicated the already prostrate body to Aso Rock for the purpose of 2015. The prize is a putrid pot of porridge.

    Would you not feel sorry when Igbo statesmen hold landmark birthdays in Abuja, Lagos, London and anywhere else but their homesteads in Igboland? Many now conduct traditional marriages in the cities because they dare not return home. Home has been abused and desecrated; home has become a place of anguish for the Igbo. Your heart is bound to sink when you see some popinjays posing as monarchs of Igboland visiting Aso Rock on your behalf; people who are largely impostors with made-in-China totems and imaginary kingdoms, they are the veritable face of the unchallenged ruse and refuse that has become Igboland. You are bound to cry when you see Igbo’s biggest politicians celebrating worthless board appointments and ambassadorial postings. One becomes weary when Igbo stakes in the polity are tied to unfulfilled and unfulfillable promises like a Second Niger Bridge, dredging of the River Niger, inland port and the dualisation Onitsha-Owerri-Aba roads, among others.

    Finally, you will sob, knowing that the caterpillar defoliating our tree lives in the tree. When you see mushroom groups such as Njiko Igbo, C- 21, Aka Ikenga, Igbo Kwenu, etc, spring up purportedly on behalf of Ndigbo but otu awughi n’eshi. They are all masquerades dancing for the coins, for survival. Consider Njiko Igbo for instance, founded (though being disputed) by Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, former governor of Abia State. It is only in Igboland that leaders hold series of very high positions yet do not grow to prominence or to be statesmen. The last we heard was that Chief Kalu, the new-day champion of Igbo cause took our matter to the British House of Commons (BHC). What a calamity! What a scandalous calamity.

    If only Kalu consulted, he would have been tutored that it was the same British colonialists who wilfully impaled Ndigbo by crafting their current status in Nigeria’s political equation. How they would laugh him to scorn for his astounding ignorance of Nigeria’s recent history and how they would enjoy the comic relieve! What could the BHC possibly do anyway? Can’t Kalu see that the solution to Igbo problem is hidden somewhere here at home among Igbo leaders, elite and people? Should we overlook his past political philandering and missed opportunities, is he capable of leading change? Only if he would allow some light to filter in. But first, where is the new moon, the very symbol of a rebirth? Has he swum the stream of no return that imbues one with the spirit of self-immolation or has he carried the sacred sacrifice of the people to the cross roads to offer up his self?

    As it stands we all can see through Kalu’s veil of hidden motives in Njiko. On the other hand, this assignment requires self cleansing, Spartan discipline and dogged enlistment of other Igbo leaders; it must be a concert of all stakeholders tediously meshed by a visionary, tenacious (and for the umpteenth time,) selfless leader. And where is the philosophical underpinning, the institutional backbone and the administrative platform? The very pillars that will stand when human energy wanes and our frailties bob up to subvert the grand idea.

    Make no mistake about it; to lead a people out of their peripatetic history into a glorious new dawn is not a champagne party. It is often a life-time endeavor needing extreme sacrifice. The reward of course is to own a chunk of history. Does Kalu have such wisdom, grit, rigor, stamina and temperament to change the course of Igbo history? I think not but will be glad to be proved wrong.

  • Indebtedness

    Indebtedness

    Debt, like promise, is a bond. No responsible person reneges on it without facing the wrath of law or that of God. To be indebted is to be bonded in one way or another. Such indebtedness does not necessarily arise from pecuniary loan.

    In Islam, debt is not about money or material substance alone. The entire life of a Muslim is a debt which he must pay promptly or by deferment. Whoever reneges on a debt or deliberately fails to fulfil a promise is a hypocrite. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) gave a vivid description of such a person when he said that: “Hypocrites are known by three traits: when they speak they lie; when they promise they renege and when they are trusted they betray”.

    The issue of indebtedness is so serious in Islam that the verse of the Qur’an which explains the law guiding it is the longest in that Sacred Book. Qur’an 2:282 states as follows:

    Oh believers, when you contract a debt for a fixed period, put it in writing. Let a scribe write it down for you with fairness; let no scribe refuse to write. The person incurring the debt should dictate but if he is infirm or ignorant, let his guardian dictate in fairness. Let there be two male witnesses to the writing. But if two men cannot be found then one man and two women whom you judge fit to act as witnesses; so that if one of them forgets the other will remember. Witnesses must not refuse to give evidence if called upon to do so. So, do not fail to put your debts in writing, be they small or big, together with the date of payment. This is more just in the sight of Allah; it ensures accuracy in testifying and is the best way to remove all doubt. But if the issue in hand be a bargain concluded on the spot, it is no offence for you if you do not commit it to writing. See that witnesses are present when you sell to one another, and let no harm be done to either scribe or witness. If you harm them, you shall be committing transgression. Have fear of Allah. He teaches you (what is right); He has knowledge of all things. If you are on a journey and cannot find a scribe, then, let pledges be taken. If anyone of you entrusts another with a pledge, let the trustee restore the pledge to its owner; and let him fear Allah, his Lord. You shall not withhold testimony. He that withholds it will have a sinful heart. Allah has knowledge of all your actions”.

     

    Material Indebtedness

     

    Allah’s decree on material debt as contained in the above verse of the Qur’an is for Muslims to avoid arguments that may lead to rancour. There are other forms of debt not mentioned in that verse but which have far-reaching effects on Muslims. For instance a Muslim becomes indebted when he strikes a deal with a woman on marriage. As soon as the deal is sealed according to Islamic injunctions both parties become indebted to each other.

     

    Matrimonial Indebtedness

     

    The husband is bonded to all matrimonial responsibilities just as the wife is liable to all matrimonial duties. And that kind of indebtedness is for life barring any unforeseen circumstances. Parents are indebted to their children as soon as those children are born. They are expected to ensure that the children are given good names and relatively comfortable life by providing them with all the necessary materials to ensure their survival. Not providing such materials as shelter, clothing, feeding and protection against danger will amount to a breach of fundamental rule of indebtedness.

    Thus, indebtedness may be moral, psychological, social, political, spiritual and physical. An example of a moral indebtedness is where, as a Muslim, you come across an accident spot where people are dead or maimed and you stop to give a helping hand. Once you see such a spot, it becomes a moral debt on you to help your fellow human beings bearing in mind that anybody, including you, could have been involved in such an accident. A psychological indebtedness is one in which you live in affluence or extra comfort when your immediate neighbour or your friend or mate is wallowing in abject poverty. As a true Muslim, you must share such God’s endowed pleasure with those in your neighbourhood who have nothing to live on. You must remember that without sheer opportunity you could have been one of those people. And you do not know why Allah has provided you with such comfort in the midst of those who are wretched. Whatever you possess in that circumstance is a test from Allah which a true Muslim cannot afford to fail. It is in reference to psychological indebtedness that Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said: “Whoever passes a night with his stomach filled after dinner while his neighbour goes to bed on empty stomach is not a Muslim”. Claiming ignorance of neighbours’ plight is not tenable before Allah. The emphasis of Islam on neighbourliness is such that everyone should know and care about everyone else in the neighbourhood. That is why the institution of Zakah as a pillar of Islam was established.

     

    Moral Indebtedness

     

    The example of social indebtedness is one in which orphans, abandoned babies, widows as well as aged people are adequately taken care of. If any or all of these are neglected the society will eventually pay for the social nuisance they will constitute. This is where the social activities of some Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) which sincerely engage in helping such people come handy. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said: “ Whoever amongst you sees something abhorrent, let him correct it with his hands; if he is incapable of that, let him use his tongue to correct it (by inviting other people or reporting it to concerned authorities). If he is still incapable of that, then, let him resort to good intention (by showing disapproval of it).

     

    Parental Indebtedness

     

    Indebtedness to parents shifts onto the children when those parents attain old age. They become like little children that need care for survival. At that point, it becomes incumbent on their children, who are now adults to take good care of their aged parents just as those parents had taken good care of them when they were incapable of caring for themselves at infancy. Allah also decrees on this by declaring as follows:

    “Your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him, and show kindness to your parents. If either or both of them attain old age with you, show them no sign of impatience, nor rebuke them; but speak with them in temperate words. Treat them with humility and tenderness, and pray for them always by saying: Oh Allah, be merciful to them as they were merciful to me when I was an infant”.

    By following the letters of this supreme decree, a Muslim is simply fulfilling the rule of indebtedness. There can be no room in paradise for anybody who shuns his or her parents or treats them with disdain. The Prophet laid strong emphasis on this when he said: “Paradise lies at the feet of mothers”. This does not mean that caring for the aged parents is for mothers alone. The prophet mentioned mothers here because they are closer to children at infancy than fathers. Therefore, the care for both parents in old age is a debt which all Muslim children owe their parents and must pay if they want ‘Al- Jannah’ to be their last abode.

     

    Job Indebtedness

     

    An employee is indebted to his employer in terms of service as long as he earns his living in that employment. A teacher is indebted to his pupils or students once he accepts responsibility to teach those pupils. A ruler, be he a king, president or governor, is indebted to the ruled with respect to good governance, as long as he utilizes their mandate. Ditto the legislators, the civil servants who live on public revenues. And for the judges, justice is a debt which they owe those who are seeking justice in their courts. Denying them is like challenging the rule of Allah in a Court of law. On the other hand, the ruled too are indebted to an upright ruler to the effect of their allegiance so long that ruler holds fast to the rule of law and maintains justice in his governance.

    Security agents are equally indebted to the citizenry whose lives and property they claim to be securing. Their duty is to ensure that such citizenry are of good conduct and law-abiding. To terrorize or ride roughshod over them as is generally known with Nigerian police is to breach the rule of Allah on indebtedness. By protecting lives and property of the citizenry, the police are not doing anybody any favour. They are merely carrying out the duty for which they are paid. And, it is only by carrying out such duty diligently that they can enjoy the cooperation of the citizenry and earn their respect. Those security agents must remember that their source of income which comes in form of salary is from the sweat of this same citizenry.

     

    Spiritual Indebtedness

     

    For Muslims, spiritual indebtedness starts with the declaration of ‘KALIMATU-S-SHAHADAH’ (testimony) and it extends to other fundamentals of Islam. That declaration is the foundation of faith. To renege on it is to demolish the house over one’s head. It is impossible to remove the foundation of a house without demolishing the house. And, when a Muslim stands up for Salat five times a day, what he does is to reconfirm the oath he had taken before Allah. Suratul Fatihat (the opening chapter of the Qur’an is so heavily pregnant with meanings that only a devil can turn round to disclaim its contents or deny his allegiance to Allah thereafter. The most committal verse in that chapter is the fifth verse which reads: “You alone we worship and to You alone we look up for help”. That commitment, which we repeat not less than 17 times daily, is so fundamental that to act in contradiction to it is spiritually criminal. And that is why Allah states categorically that He can forgive any sin committed by any human being except associating anything else with Him.

    Also, as a Muslim you are permanently indebted when it comes to ‘SALAT’. Not only must you observe it at its ordained time, you must also observe it with full attention and complete dedication. SALAT is one of the most telling debts on Muslims. It should also be noteworthy that good deed can elicit debt. SALAT is a major debt which Allah does not overlook. Even at the point of death when a Muslim is incapable of standing on his feet he is supposed to observe SALAT even if he will do so with his mind. No good Muslim will owe SALAT and feel comfortable. You may not be queried on it by any human being but your conscience will surely not allow you a breathing space. Just as no one wants to be owed in whatever form, no one should think of owing any other person.

    The consequence of betraying the rule of indebtedness is beyond human imagination. Nigeria is gradually sinking into a quagmire today because of the insensitivity of the rulers to the plight of the ruled in that regard.

     

    Governmental Indebtedness

     

    Ventilating the atmosphere for peace and harmony in the country is a major debt which the ruling class owe the populace. If such a debt is not paid by the ruling class the breakdown of law and order in the land as now being experienced must not be blamed on the ruled. Security is never based on guns and soldiers. Insecurity is like a huge smoke hovering furiously on top of a chimney. Anybody who wants to dispel it must quench the fire from which it oozes out. No sensible government can expect any prevalence of peace and harmony in a country which is as rich as Nigeria but where over 70% of the populace live in abject poverty while the so-called rulers continue to feed fat on their blood. If the current spate of corruption continues for some time more, the corporate existence of Nigeria as a country may be just a matter of time. Let the lotus eaters within the political class reflect on this and repent before it becomes too late. Nigerians’ docility must not be taken for granted indefinitely. Elasticity has its limit.

  • Emergency declaration: Reason, not politics, please!

    Emergency declaration: Reason, not politics, please!

    Indeed, most Nigerians may not be fans of President Goodluck Jonathan because of his dowdy and most times grouchy approach to public affairs. As president with awesome powers, his country men and women would have wanted him to deploy his supposed high educational attainment for good causes by coming up with inspiring policies and actions that are rare in history. As a minority from the South-South, most of us, ab initio, looked up to him to rise to the occasion by proving to doubting Thomases that a good leader can also emerge from his ethnic region; and also make the nation’s political kingmakers regret decades of denial of leadership roles at the centre for people from the Niger-Delta. But he absolutely failed to so far lead the nation aright, leading us to the question of whether he thinks that the Nigerians unnecessarily disparaging him on virtually all his actions.

    In all conscience, the truth is that the president has clearly run adrift on salient issues of power generation, economy, employment generation, poverty alleviation and other developmental matters that Nigerians daily crave solutions for. Worse still, insecurity has bloomed to a level that can modestly be equated with that of a state of war. In view of these, most analysts have always viewed every policy decision by the president with contempt. It should not be so, especially on his latest action of state of emergency. Before now, most Nigerians wanted the president to take decisive action against Boko Haram that means, “Western education is sinful.” The sect comprises Islamic insurgents that have rejected western values and is calling for replacement through enthronement of Islamic education. The group has constituted itself into the greatest threat to the nation’s corporate survival today. In Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Yobe, Kano, Kaduna, Abuja and Nassarawa states, among other northern states, the foot paths of Boko Haram have been awash with indelible blood-stains of innocent Nigerians. The churches were its members’ prime target; mosques are not spared, while public buildings, including police and military stations and barracks respectively, have witnessed devastating bombings. Even market places do have a dose of Boko Haram’s cruelty against humanity.

    The group refused to dialogue with the government. It actually has the effrontery of rejecting the amnesty shamefully canvassed for it by the northern elite. Yet, the killings of innocent souls continue unabated. The president had folded his arm long enough before waking up from his deep slumber. Yes, he did wake up; thus early this week, he declared a state of emergency in three states – Adamawa, Borno and Yobe. Deafening hullabaloo greeted the emergency rule declaration. The president deserves commendation for complying with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

    But most analysts still believe that a state of emergency will not solve the problem that is an equivalent of war that the Boko Haram has unleashed on the northern part and by extension, the entire country which lives under the fear of the cankerworm. A state of emergency is actually a governmental declaration suspending within a jurisdiction, few normal functions of government arising from a total or imminent breakdown of law and order. Such declaration could on some occasions be the consequence of natural or contrived disasters like the Boko Haram’s. But most times, it arises during periods of civil unrest, internal armed conflict or a declaration of war.

    Those that are averse to the declaration of war on Boko Haram by President Jonathan might be right to an extent when viewed from the aphorism that the greatest test of leadership is the ability to recognise a problem/crisis before it becomes an emergency. The reality today is that this current president failed that test having failed to recognise early enough that the Boko Haram insurgency is serious subversion until the problem now inevitably called for an emergency. As a result of his dithering nature, the president could not muster in good time, the desired courage, despite having been imbued with such constitutional powers to act in the nation’s interest before the matter gets out of hand. Now that Boko Haram members in some parts of Borno State have hoisted their subversive flag and have shown considerable disdain for the sovereign entity called Nigeria, our irresolute president has finally acted.

    There is a truism that it is better late than never. The issue now is not to berate the president for acting late. Rather, we should all be elated that the man, for once, realised the need to not only act but to also talk tough after his many years of timidity in power. Those that are talking about true federalism, state police and sovereign national conference as means that could finally solve the Boko Haram cankerworm could not be completely right because the motive of the promoters of the sect is far from these germane issues threatening peaceful coexistence among the various ethnic groups in the country. The undisclosed fact is that promoters of Boko Haram are only goading foment of trouble for President Jonathan so as to create a leeway passage for the return of a northerner to power at the centre in 2015. It is too bad that the president has, due to so many false steps until the last one on emergency, failed to impress anybody, which is why it has become the norm for every sane Nigeria to desire a change of leadership come 2015. How are we so sure that if a northerner emerges as president in 2015, he will carry out the much-desired surgery on the Nigerian Federation?

    However, the political leadership of the other regions must be careful so as not to fall prey to the selfish agenda of the northern elite that are already seeking amnesty for members of the group they created – an insurgent group hiding under the guise of Islamic religion (of peace), to foist mayhem on Allah’s creation. The president should not be deterred by criticisms against his declared emergency. One could only hope that he would quickly seize the moment by mustering effective force which yours sincerely believes will quell the insurgents and send a signal to their promoters in the hierarchy of the northern elite that their waterloo is imminent unless they jettison this inimical act to our national stability.

    Whatever any group or persons might say about the state of emergency declared in the three states, the fact remains that force, according to Dwight D. Eisenhower, when effectively deployed, can protect in emergency even when ‘only justice, fairness, consideration and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace.’ Even if Jonathan has obviously failed woefully in our collective estimation, can we in all assurances say that the northerners can guarantee all the above desired true federalism ingredients if they reclaim power in 2015? This poser is why we must, on this emergency rule matter, allow reason, not politics, to prevail.

  • Useful idiots (3)

    Useful idiots (3)

    We speak in several pitiful tongues. And every tongue reels a different story of identical loss and misery. And so one comes to callousness, a savage ruthlessness and culture of protest that drives us to ruin our world; dateline Boko Haram, MEND, Ombatse and the complex bigotry, avarice and bloodlust characteristic of all. Yet this page will not contain the genocide, amorality and grotesque body count we have learnt to perpetrate not because they are too horrendous and unwieldy to keep tab of but because there is neither wisdom nor tact in rehashing the consequences of our towering idiocy and bloodlust.

    We blame the older generation for everything. We claim they created a very difficult world for us to live in; a world that is rigged to booby-trap our efforts to survive and that is why many of us fail. We also accuse the ruling class of keeping us unemployed, prone to corruption, exploitation, crime and the devastation of our economy and social infrastructure. We accuse them of denying us access and right to the Nigerian dream.

    What have we done with such world that they have given us? What are we doing to make it better for you and me and the generation that will succeed us? Nothing. Rather than evolve in thought and attitude, we choose to rant impotently and wallow in self-pity. And when we choose to productively engage our faculties, our conscious quest is marred by our inclinations to self-destruct.

    If our world is ruined, we are to blame for it. This is because we are major actors in every tragedy and perpetrators of every calamity that accentuates our ruin. We are the hoodlums causing chaos at random, according to the whims of benevolent godfathers. We are the policemen mounting road blocks to fleece hardworking compatriots of the little money they manage to make, everyday. When they refuse to cooperate, we simply shoot them to death.

    We are the bankers pilfering the lifesavings of the poor. We are the bank chiefs stripping Peter to pay Paul and robbing the downtrodden to feed our wantonness and greed. We are wives to the thieving governor, and gigolo to the rogue bank chief. We are the journalists who sold out, the watchdog who became lapdogs and then, dung-dogs. We are armed robbers and thieves. We are the activists exploiting the downtrodden to perpetuate our grand schemes of greed.

    No matter the ills visited upon our generation, we lost the right to howl and cry ‘foul!’ the moment we agreed to do everything and anything to make money, including serving as instruments for the attainment of the perverse goals of the criminal ruling class. Shame that we have to look unto the same generation that we accuse of ruining our world to take measures necessary to save our world. The current ruling class won’t save us. They can’t. And that is because like you and me, they are held captive by greed, irrationality and base immoralities.

    Every generation considers itself uniquely challenged like we do and each generation truly is, in different ways. But I don’t buy into over-generalizations and self pity. Like we accuse older generations before us, successive generations will accuse us of ruining their world claiming we had better chances to resolve our crises and recreate the world that they would inherit from us.

    Our sense of entitlement goads us to believe that we are entitled to a good, fair life but for the ruling class and older generation that thwarts our dreams of bliss. When the older generation claim that we are ill-educated and unemployable, we respond in kind, claiming that they render us so with visionless leadership and substandard education. Truth is, school is a bore to many of us. And artisanship doesn’t quite do it for us. We breeze through school and apprenticeship unenthusiastically, thinking that somewhere or somehow, something would give and we would chance on bliss.

    Notwithstanding, some of us enter the labour market thinking it wouldn’t hurt to be exploited a little. Having being raised on the mantra that “Slow and steady wins the raise and tiny drops make an ocean,” we subject our will to the grindstone and stoically tread the path of obedience and honest labour. But the path of industry and honesty hardly ever pay off in the long run.

    Eventually, we realize that the system is designed to thwart our dreams while enabling the dreams of the exploitative one per cent at the top, and we get mad. We get mad because our leaders do not see us as human beings with cosmic value and rights anymore. But despite our dissatisfaction, we keep them in power and keep asking them for handouts. Our rage and rant hardly ever articulates our towering need for realistic opportunities.

    We do not choose to be treated with dignity. That is why the government and our employers become entitled to take away our dignity. That is why we are entitled to expect nothing from our politicians anymore. We should be ashamed of our sense of entitlement. We should be embarrassed by our failure as a generation. We should be ashamed that we go through life thinking the world’s a sweepstake.

    We believe the world is for the taking by a lottery; this is understandable as a carrot on a stick that the top one per cent – comprising government and big business – perpetually dangle before us. Thus the Nigerian dream has evolved from a promise and belief that every Nigerian will get to have a good life, a job they enjoy, a generous paycheck, affordable housing, healthcare and transportation and a secure retirement, into some reality show fantasy and a pipedream.

    Today, the Nigerian dream comprises a tall fantasy that every Nigerian will get to live a charmed life. It offers attractive fantasies of palatial residences in exclusive neighbourhoods home and abroad, fancy cars, easy money, consequence-free indolence, sex, fraudulence and violence to mention a few. The Nigerian youth consider these perks their birthright and they heartily pursue them on the streets and now ubiquitous reality TV shows where parents and their children from relatively humble backgrounds engage in funfest of foolishness and inordinate lust for unearned riches. The tragedy of this development resonates in the number of‘has-beens’ and reality show runners-up still loitering the red carpets for the barest chance to hug the limelight for no justifiable reason or attainment.

    Each generation has a responsibility to wisely develop itself and become indispensable to the world despite all odds. It is the only way we could equip ourselves to take over the country’s leadership and use the resources and power available to us to provide this generation and the next, a secure, sustainable country that will be stronger than the one inherited.

    We need to stop whining and begin to take action now to reverse the rapid decline of our country. If we wait until we are older, it will be too late. Life in the future will be worse.

    Our hubris and sense of entitlement is sickening and truly mind boggling. It’s about time we seek our Nigerian dream not because we are ‘special’ but because we truly deserve it.

     

     

    • To be continued…

  • Scaremonger and APC

    Scaremonger and APC

    Since the announcement of the mega merger to form the All Progressives Congress (APC), there has been a new art of scaremongering and there is something paradoxical about it.

    Let me substantiate. Various spokesmen of the ruling party have gone from demonising the leaders of the proposed merger to scaring one segment of the electorate, especially in the Southwest, that APC is their death knell as a people. In series of press briefings and statements right after the announcement of the merger, Presidential spokesperson Doyin Okupe had some harsh words for the party and its prospects. On the one hand, Okupe asserted that the merger will crumble within a year on the ground that “it is a weak association.” The basis of this assessment is unclear given the widespread nature of the membership of the merging parties and the levers of power they presently control. But Okupe is so sure of his position that he chose to stake his future identity on the veracity of his prediction.

    On the other hand, however, in an effort to paint ACN as a regional party, Okupe ended up disparaging the Yoruba as diehard regionalists. In his thinking, the only attachment that the Yoruba have with ACN is its identity as a regional party. This translates to the view that the Yoruba are not worried about the programmes that are beneficial to them, nor are they concerned about the ideological orientation of a political party. “The party’s only relevance in the Nigerian politics is that it is the outfit with which the Yoruba politics stands out. So when they have lose (sic) that garb, they are gone,” Okupe predicted.

    Recall that this has always been the tragic resort of opponents of both the Action Group and the UPN. Okupe indeed referenced these parties as examples of his meaning. Recall also that one of the campaign slogans of PDP in 2003 was the need for the Yoruba to go into the mainstream of Nigerian politics. Now, the leadership of ACN is making the move via a different route and the scaremongers are at work.

    From another angle in the same art of scaremongering, the leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF) Alhaji Mujadid Asari Dokubo declared in an interview with Saturday Sun that the “emerging merger of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) with the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) and a faction of the All Peoples Grand Alliance (APGA) will spell doom for Yoruba people.” In Dokubo’s chauvinistic assessment, “it is political suicide for the Southwest to align with the North in the power equation.”

    The reasoning is so far out that it is hardly worth examining from a rational perspective. First, if the issue is about experience, isn’t it true that the Southsouth in general, and the Niger Delta in particular have always aligned with the North in federal elections since at least the second republic? Dokubo asserted that “nobody calling himself progressive would go and align with feudalists.” This is a valid point; but it begs a question: Do we identify feudalism with ethnic nationalities or with mindsets and practices? Do we dismiss offhand the prospect of progressive policies coming out of particular groups and individuals just because of their ethnic origin? This appears to be Dokubo’s challenge and the challenge of all of us having been so caught up in ethnic politics and name calling that are detrimental to whatever aspirations we have as a nation.

    Recently, I came across a YouTube video on the visit of the late Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa to the John F. Kennedy White House in 1963 and I was pleasantly surprised. I never heard Alhaji Balewa speak during his lifetime, and watching that video sparked in me a pride in the founding fathers of this country that I found myself giving a standing ovation at the end of the video. Balewa spoke with class. He was articulate and confident. His speeches were brief, casual and off-the-cuff, yet profound. Of course, we could disagree about the policies of his party but we should now learn that name calling is a game beneath our collective dignity as a nation. After all, no one has a monopoly over such practices.

    The second question is this: in what sense is the proposed merger of four parties into APC an alliance with any particular zonal establishment? The parties are spread all over the country. While ACN has control of state houses across the Southwest, it also draws membership and National Assembly members from other zones. The leaders of the merging parties have consistently declared their intention to uphold the principle of internal democracy within the party and in particular in the matter of the choice of flag bearers at all levels. Yet the scaremongers cannot wait for the party to emerge and demonstrate its commitment to democratic principles. They want to cause so much stress for the pregnancy so that their desire for a miscarriage would be realised. In whose interest is this?

    Here then is the paradox. The leaders of the proposed APC have been so methodical and deliberative in their choices that opponents are so scared about the possibilities and potentialities of the party that they would rather not have it come to life. The deliberativeness is not just about the months of dialogue and negotiations; it is not just about the choice of ideologies and manifesto. It is also about symbolism. When they chose the name of the proposed party, they came up with an acronym that carries so much symbolism that it scares the hell out of the opposition: if you have a headache, APC is the answer. In case you are molested by kidnappers and armed robbers, we are the Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC). In a political universe where symbols are sometimes much more effective than substance, it is not uncommon for the sensibilities of the electorate to be attracted to such eye-catching symbol as the broom and the promising chorus of “change” that comes with APC.

    There is a third question: if the reasoning of the NDPVF leader is valid, why can’t the Northern zones be apprehensive of an alliance with the Southwest since indeed, the ACN can boast of its strength and the widespread nature of its mandate? It seems that the thinking here is that what makes an alliance with CPC so scary is that the North can consume its partners. Yet in the same breath Dokubo suggested that former President Obasanjo, a Yoruba, “changed the political landscape” because he made “a conscious effort to create a balance in the patronage distribution in Nigeria.” But it was very clear to all in 1999 that the North wanted Obasanjo as president and voted overwhelmingly for the PDP. Was that not an alliance with the Northern establishment?

    The bottom line is this. APC is becoming a reality and there is palpable fear concerning its impact in the political scene in 2015 and beyond. Whatever side one takes—for APC, PDP or against both—the one benefit that the nation as a whole stands to gain from the emergence of a strong APC is the deepening of democratic norms and practices. Two strong parties vying for acceptance by the electorate at the center is the best thing that would happen to the country since the aborted third republic.

    What makes this approach better than the Babangida initiative of a two-party system is that it would have evolved from the practice of democracy itself. Having learned the importance of numbers, and having benefitted from the frustration of the people with the ruling party and the lackluster leadership at the centre, political sense dictates the rationality of splinter parties coming together under one umbrella for a common cause. Of course, the new party must have to show that it is different, not just in terms of symbols but more importantly in terms of the substance of its programs encapsulated and effectively articulated in its manifesto.

  • G’bye Sir Alex, the man who made chewing gum cool

    G’bye Sir Alex, the man who made chewing gum cool

    I grew up with the notion that the chewing of gum was such an irresponsible act. In fact my Mama and some of my early school teachers were sure it was the pastime of scarlet ladies and motor-park boys. So it was an abomination both at school and at home (Aside: it is also outlawed in my house today). But Sir Alex Ferguson, the wizard of Old Trafford proved my Mama and teachers wrong on this matter of chewing gum. Ferguson (you must know him of course unless you are one of those who think football is the grand folly of 22 grown men chasing one round leather object all over the field for 90 minutes in which case you should not read this piece), probably the most loved man on earth today after Mandela of course, reigned at the Manchester United Football Club (MUFC) for 26 years. He retires this month at the age of 71.

    Fergie as he is called, is always beamed to the entire world (yes, that is almost not an exaggeration, almost the whole world view Man. U matches) chewing furiously at his gum as if that is the talisman to win matches. The more intense the game, the more furious his jaws hammer at the gum and the redder his face gets. If you consider that this rather iconic image must have been seen by viewers nearly 1500 times, the number of matches he handled at MUFC, then you would understand why this singular quirk of his character caught my interest. So if Fergie, one of the greatest men alive today chewed gum for the whole world to see then what was Mama and my teachers talking about, chewing gum must be cool. Riding on Fergie’s validation, I found myself chewing gum especially on long drives and dreary office days (never at home yet). And I have found that it is an extremely jaw-hurting exercise. In just few minutes my jaws would ache and the impulse to spit out the damn thing would be stronger than any joy derived from chewing it. Even as I write this, I am chewing Wrigley’s Extra Long Lasting Flavour SPEARMINT and all I wish is to spit it out.

    If I had Fergie to interview that would be my first question: How do you manage sir, chewing hard for 90 minutes; is it that you have a metal jaw or you have a specially customized soft chewing gum (come to think of it, why haven’t the Chinese given us Fergie Gum?)? I am not a Man U fan, in fact I will first watch an Arsenal match before any of Man U’s but his gum chewing kind of won me his admiration and I wager that it says something about his personality, character and confounding success in the round leather game called football.

    The genius of Sir Alex Ferguson can be said to have thrived on his hardy singlemindedness , that rare knack to drive oneself remorselessly to the peak of one’s performance each time and every time one has a task at hand and achieve the result one needed; the ability to absorb pain without wavering, the discipline of a great marathoner and the eye for sighting great football talent from miles away. There is also the fitness factor, each time I see Fergie on tv lately, I often wonder how this 71-year-old still carries on with coaching in this very physical game of football. Though he started slowly at MUFC when he arrived in 1986, in less than five years, he perfected his techniques; he soon mastered the game, conquered his club and ruled over the football world. He retires today sitting atop a footballing empire that has 659 million followers worldwide and was worth $2.3 billion upon its listing at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) recently.

    It is a mark of Fergie’s strong personality that over 26 years, he groomed some of the biggest football star of our time yet he suffered no significant star trouble. Eric Cantona, Andy Cole, Roy Keane, David Beckham, Ruud Van Nestlerooy, Edwin Van Der Sar, Ryan Giggs, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and many more, were his protégés at some point in his long Man. U life. He is at once a coach, a father and a taskmaster to the boys. He is said to love them as much as he would lay it thick on them bringing up the fabled ‘Fergie freeze’. He was in charge and would brook no messing around from any player, especially a ‘swollen-headed’ type. He is said to cold-bloodedly freeze out any player who begins to get too big for his boots whereupon the player would choose to either shape up or ship out. A certain Van Nestlerooy was a goal machine for MUFC with a glorious career ahead of him. He was said to have got big-headed and Fergie froze him up leading to his premature exit from Old Trafford and unfortunately, a less -than illustrious career.

    While the big European clubs changed coaches like undies (7 big clubs changed 116 coaches in 26 years), Fergie sat put at MUFC garnering silverware with the appetite of a glutton. Apart from his fabled love for choice red wines, which some would consider a ‘good’ vice, Fergie is clearly a straight guy, and a family man who stuck to his wife of over 40 years, Cathy, whom he said was the key figure throughout his career “providing a bedrock of both stability and encouragement”. Apart from his legendary mind games before big matches, he never sought undue publicity. I do not remember any scandal, ill report or unprofessional conduct about him. He seems such a stable and principled character.

    So much to say about Fergie and I am sure books have been written about him. His untrammeled successes never got to him, in fact he seemed to live far above his trophies untouched, unperturbed to the point that he became the ultimate trophy of MUFC. And I want to close by saying that apart from making chewing gum cool, he made football cool, he made success cool, indeed, he is such a cool fellow. That is the ultimate lesson we must learn from Sir Alex Ferguson.

    LAST MUG: Adieu Pini Jason: Anyone who loves good, well-written, well-reasoned public commentary would know Pini Jason and would love his writings. Pini, as we all called him who probably kept one of the longest running columns in the Vanguard newspaper passed on last Saturday. Apart from being one of the long-standing fans of his page our paths crossed from 2007 to 2011 while we were on a call of duty to Imo State. He was Special Adviser on Special Duties while I was Chief Press Secretary to the then Governor Ikedi Ohakim. Ogam, as I called him, we worked quite closely in a number of committees and on projects and just as he showcased in his writings, he was a man of high convictions. He was forthright and had clear opinion on any matter; extremely brilliant, he didn’t suffer fools gladly. Nigeria journalism has lost a master. Gaa nke oma, Ogam.