The Nation Newspaper

Category: Friday

  • Fast-forwarding to 2019…

    How cruel time can be: the ultimate mirage that hounds weary travellers, the albatross of the slothful. To think that there is just one year separating today and the next election! Seems like yesterday when President Muhammadu Buhari was ushered into Aso Rock with so much fanfare and goodwill. It was as if Nigeria just won her independence anew.

    If he wasn’t a Messiah, he must have been a good clone – that was the feeling in the air May 29, 2015. But what a downer it turned out to be, what a crushing disappointment the PMB presidency has turned out to be so far for most Nigerians. Not only that he has not delivered much, it does not seem like he would be able to in the brief period left.

    Though about two and one half years are remaining, they are brief because the President has spent his best years in office. The first two years are usually the best times for work in a four-year tenure and any governor or president who misses the high and tide of this period would have little to report at the end of his tenure. By the end of this year, 2019 politics would have heated up the polity so much that it would take a superhuman not to be distracted in pre-election year.

    Crucial lessons from our recession: But this article is not an attempt at 2019 punditry; the title above may well be a bit misleading. It is about the lessons this government and indeed, Nigeria must learn from the adversity of our recession. And indeed, it would be a most cruel thing to happen should we miss these lessons. And perhaps more crucial (ironically) to PMB and his team is that learning these lessons quick would determine the outcomes of the 2019 general election.

    The first point we must realise and acknowledge (though a tough task) is that this administration brought the lingering recession on itself and the polity. A little bit more perspicaciousness would have mitigated if not averted our current dire economic situation.

    Yes the oil price plunged, but we knew that since 2014 and it was predicted much earlier. The new government was supposed to come with a response to that major paradigm shift? But even till now, no coherent response to such crucial matter.

    Second, this government picked a poor cabinet made up largely of people who cannot buck the trend. It may be argued that number one does not create an enabling environment for exco members to soar but a performer is one who could rise above even the worst adversity. Not one cabinet member has shown that trait so far.

    Three, the foreign exchange challenge became a debacle. Nobody fights against powerful interests headlong without getting hurt. It is commonsensical that you need the wiles (not to mention grace) of a David to take on a Goliath. Un-floating the currency ought to have been a gradual, tactical process. There are always conditions precedent; but the administration proved to be blank on all these. More on this later.

     

    N5000 stipend: A scam foretold

    This column would want to wager that two years down the line, this specious scheme would have come a cropper. The scandal will hit the ceiling and the world would hear how some ‘cabal’ or ‘syndicate’ legitimised a huge scam in the guise of empowering the poorest Nigerians. We speak of the so-called Social Investment Programme (SIP) recently approved by President Muhammadu Buhari to pay N5000 to the most poor and vulnerable Nigerians.

    For a government that lacks the will and capacity to accurately enumerate its workforce even in this electronic age; that is plagued by hundreds of thousands of ‘ghost’ workers; how can it deign to identify the poorest Nigerians across our vast, unwired hinterland? What is their number; can this stipend really empower; can Nigeria afford it; for how long?

    Let us admit that PMB and his party probably mean well, but it is curious that they mis-diagnosed the ailment. They are trying to resolve through the backdoor, the complete collapse of local government administration in Nigeria.

    PMB had vowed during inauguration to get the LGAs to work, but he has been unable to apply his mind to it so far. If nary half of accruable monthly revenues are applied in the 774 LGAs, the economy of these units would thrive and there would be far less wretched people in our land.

    PMB must make the LGAs work. The poor need work, not dole.

  • Bogus budget in recession time

    When one hears government spokespersons announce so magisterially that “government has no money”, one tries not to choke. One often concludes that the speaker is either starkly ignorant about government revenue streams; he is being smart by half by projecting falsehood; or worse still, he is just parroting what he has been told, not knowing any better. It could well be that all these scenarios are true of such a person in which case the situation must be considered calamitous both for the spokesperson and the nation.

    To buttress the point that money has never been the problem of this administration or any other one at that, let’s take a look at how the Federal Government and some of its agencies have appropriated funds for the 2017 fiscal year. A cursory look at some items in some proposed and even appropriated budgets will make one think there is no one in charge of the country’s budgeting process.

    If appropriation documents had been poorly prepared in the past, the situation has not changed one bit today. Who really is responsible for our national budget? Whose duty is it to take all the estimates from all federal agencies and run through them with a fine-toothed comb? If we are serious about running our economy and developing this country, it starts with preparing quality financial plans first and secondly, rigorously implementing them.

    What really is the job of the Ministry of Budget and Planning with thousands of workers at its behest? We already know the quality, capacity and character of the Appropriation Committee of the National Assembly, going by the padding-gate of 2016. So apart from the fact that no one seems to apply some rigour to ensure that realistic figures are presented, there may well be a ‘syndicate’ both at the executive and legislative ends engaged in venal manipulation (padding)  of the budget figures for their benefit.

    While the budget padding scandal of last year is yet to blow over, what seems to manifest this year are bogus and outlandish figures littering the estimates from most Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs). One needs not be an expert to detect that some of these figures are out of this world.

    Let us take a few examples. The figures from The Presidency and State House’s proposals are most distressing. First, a total sum of nearly N43 billion has been out-laid for the State House Abuja. This in itself proves nothing but the bogus detail is what is troubling.

    Maintenance of Presidential jets is allotted N2.4 billion. Straightaway, what is the President still doing with so many aircraft when two will suffice? If we are in a recession and we are told the treasury is dried, why are we spending money in this manner? Many airlines in Nigeria and Africa do not have six aircraft in their fleet. So why would President Muhammadu Buhari continue to allow such stupendous waste of public funds in maintaining aircraft in this lean period?

    Apart from spending so much on jets, the 2017 budget also has another N1 billion for the President’s domestic and foreign trips. There is N123 million for feeding of the first family in 2017 and another N100million for canteen and kitchen equipment in the State House.

    If you thought the State House and Presidency bandied bogus figures for exotic menus, consider these from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The apex bank has approval to spend N3 billion on lunch in 2017. Other curious heads are: N44 billion for administrative expenses; N298 billion for operational expenses; N3billion for development expenses; N9 billion for strategic initiative and N4 billion as contingencies.

    CBN has also set aside N40.4 billion for 60 intervention projects across higher institutions and even secondary schools in Nigeria. And how about this: CBN has earmarked N760 million for rebuilding Nyanya Motor Park; N3 billion for intervention in military barracks across six zones, among other curious ‘intervention’ projects.

    And we ask? Just because the CBN is headed by a governor does that mean he has become a state governor? Apart from what looks like a reckless ‘bandying’ of figures in the guise of budgeting, is the CBN not overreaching itself and encroaching on the duties of the federal cabinet? Is the CBN not supposed to remit earned revenues into the federation account?

    Two other agencies have recession-debunking estimates. The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) may also be guilty of bogus budgeting as well. FIRS is spending N590 million on refreshments and meals; N750million on fuelling generators, N400 million on electricity charges and N750 million on cleaning and fumigation; N3.5 billion on local travels, just to mention a few unsettling headings in a litany of incongruities. NCC has allotted itself a hefty N2 billion for travels; N9 billion for school support programme and N2.2 billion for subscribers database management.

    Though one is aware that often there is a gulf between estimates and accrual, or between approved figures and available cash for release, it is apparent that these estimates are far from realistic and these budgets are remarkably untidy. And this tardiness, nay, manipulativeness, if you like, runs across the MDAs.

    From the foregoing, there is no sign whatsoever that there is recession in the land. The second point to be made here is that there is no sign that our budget or even the economy is under anyone’s rigorous purview. For agencies that have annual budgets much bigger than many state governments; you would think someone responsible takes a critical look at their appropriations.

    We conclude that if these seeming abominable figures have been passed by NASS, then we are truly in troubled times and I fear for this administration.

     

    The fall of Sambisa Republic

    There was no end to the back-slapping and rejoicing a few days ago over the eventual ‘conquest’ of the Sambisa forest by Nigeria’s military. The way the hurrahs went Sambisa could have been another country. But it is only a forest reserve which was abandoned by wayward governments. Now it took our entire military over five years to reclaim it from hoodlums who could not resist annexing a vast unmanned territory.

    But what an anticlimax; it was like making love without orgasm. Sambisa was touted as the impregnable Boko Haram garrison headquarters. If all the rascals escaped by night, where are the APC tanks, the heaps of arms and ammunition and the Hilux pick-up vans?

    Most importantly, where are the rest of the Chibok girls? Where are the kingpins, the financiers and the ones holding the Chibok girls? Where are the Boko Haram leaders we purportedly negotiated with recently? Who are the negotiators? If the Chibok girls are not in the forest, it means they are kept in some houses somewhere in Yola, Bauchi or heavens know where? Or what are we to think now?

    Several times the military told us they had killed Shekau, now it is almost certain Shekau may well be an apparition we have spent millions of dollars chasing after. Let someone stop this Boko Haram heist please!

  • National resolution for 2017 and beyond (1)

    National resolution for 2017 and beyond (1)

    Nigeria enters 2017 in a bad shape, perhaps, its worst economic meltdown since the oil glut of the 1980s led to harsh austerity measures. With divine intervention, the country survived that period but learnt nothing from it. History has thus repeated itself.

    I just attributed to divine intervention the nation’s survival of harsh conditions when, all things being equal, she should have collapsed. I could have cited chance or sheer luck. But it feels good to be reassured of a superior being’s interest in our survival.

    As a former leader put the matter recently, Nigeria was created by God and God does not make mistakes, and the one who created the nation will not stand by to see her crumble. The God who has been our help in ages past is still our hope for years to come. If so, the various agitators for her collapse and disintegration in favour of more homogenous artifices may be wasting their efforts! Unless, of course, God changes His mind.

    And change of mind is always a possibility for the divine who is self-controlled and owes none any explanation. Paradoxically, however, were a survey of Nigerians conducted today, a sizeable majority would favour a change of mind on God’s part, with preference for a dissolution of the God-officiated marriage by which the many became one. The reason is not far-fetched. They are tired of a country that is endowed with the potential for greatness, but has settled for smallness its entire life.

    It’s no use cautioning cynics against impatience. They have been patient for more than half a century. It is counterproductive to counsel them against the unknown. They rationally respond that when the known poses an imminent threat to personal survival, the unknown cannot be worse. And there is little doubt that as it is presently constituted and operating, this nation poses an imminent threat to the survival of many of her citizens and residents. Just go to the street corners and the dung hills and you will find tears rolling down your face for God’s creatures. A loving God will change His mind in a jiffy.

    But the good news is that it can be fixed, provided the root cause is recognised and dealt with sincerely. If Nigeria was created for greatness and if the greatness of the nation was to have a multiplier effect on the citizens, there must be a formula that the original author, who provided that, has been abandoned at some point. The remedy is to find it and apply it once again.

    Let me suggest the following reasoning to find that formula: The greatness of a nation is a function of the goodness of its people. Therefore, for a nation to be great, it must have good people. But the goodness of the people is a function of the goodness of their leaders. Therefore, there must be good leaders. However, the goodness of leaders is a function of the strength of the institutions which create them and monitor them. Therefore, there must be strong institutions. Ultimately then, for a nation to be great, it must have strong institutions.

    What is an institution? It is a system of rules and practices established for the purpose of efficient and effective governance. Strong institutions produce good servant leaders and prevent the emergence of leaders that see the nation as their personal estate. Strong institutions prevent the abuse of power.

    Consider the case of electoral institutions, a pillar of democratic system of government. With a weak system of rules and practices governing elections, electoral corruption is unavoidable. For the better part of her life, this nation had a corrupt electoral system. It was the immediate cause of the first military incursion into politics and it nearly caused the disintegration of the nation.

    We did not learn from that near-death experience which we repeated during the Second Republic, leading again to another military takeover. When finally we appeared to get something right about electoral system in 1993, the personalised rule of the military ensured that it never worked. The institution of the military, which produced strong leaders for the purpose of the defence of the country from external attack, found itself being asked to respect the institution of “bloody civilian” elections. The tail wagged the dog and it also nearly led to the disintegration of the country.

    Since the beginning of the Fourth Republic, we have seen the rise and fall of institutional structures which had not been designed well to withstand the assault of egoistic leaders who prefer personal rule to the rule of law. From the Police to EFCC, from Code of Conduct Bureau to INEC, each has been tools in the hands of those they were supposed to rein in. It is not just at the federal level. The states and local governments are veritable grounds for the emasculation of institutions, including the judiciary, whose independence is constitutionally guaranteed. The latter has sadly been exposed as corruption-ridden.

    The country has indeed been subjected to the ridiculous competition between the executive and the legislature in the matter of controlling governing institutions. Witness the ongoing effort on the part of the National Assembly to cow the Code of Conduct Bureau.

    Surely, there is always self-interest and self-preservation lurking around the corridors of power. Just as I write this column, a news flash appeared on my screen. The Republican Congress in the United States voted to gut an independent ethics law that Democrats had put in place after a series of scandals some years ago. Republicans who now control Congress and the White House wanted Congress to control the Independent Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE). But what happened? There was an avalanche of criticisms, including two tweets from the president-elect. Republicans had no choice but to bow to public opinion and reverse their decision just within 24 hours.

    Meanwhile, in our corner of the world, there is intense suffering in the land, with great anxiety for the future, and a frightening precursor to national upheaval which handouts cannot prevent. No human being is satisfied with the indignity of waiting for a handout from anyone. We are wired to be productive agents and not idle consumers. With good planning, strong educational and economic institutions assign people to tasks they are capable of performing without the intervention of god-fathers or god-mothers.

    Whenever they suffer from human-made problems, as in the United States economic recession of 2008, citizen resilience, combined with the smartness of good leaders bring them back up. This is why the U. S. unemployment rate is now 4.6%, the lowest in more than 10 years. Our economic institutions are weak because leaders either have little or no clue, or are encumbered by self-seeking gimmicks that preclude respect for the objective laws of economics.

    What then must be our national resolution for the year 2017?  From the experience of established democracies, we know that strong leaders produced by strong institutions risk a hostile backlash from the public when they attempt to weaken those institutions which have worked effectively and efficiently.

    We must collectively resolve, therefore, to create and sustain strong institutions of governance going forward. This is of course contingent upon our collective willingness to give the Nigerian experiment another chance. The leadership slogan of an indivisible entity is just that. Without a willingness on their part to build the institutions that will ensure its indivisibility, it is all going to be a mirage. But the indivisibility of a country must be the outcome of citizens’ reflection on its meaning and promise for them. It cannot be commanded from above.

    Assume then that there is the willingness to give the Nigerian project another chance. There must be individual and collective efforts to identify institutions that are required for democratic governance in a federal setting, and a determination to strengthen them. It will not be easy as the leaders at various levels may be tempted to place their self-interest above the national interest. They need to be persuaded to the side of reason. Otherwise, they must be shamed. No one is indispensable.

  • Waiting for January 20

    Waiting for January 20

    ‘And those are the days of life; we interchange them (like batons) among people….’                 Qur’an                    

    PREAMBLE

    All eyes, across the world, are on the 20th day of January 2017.  That is the day that the new America’s President elect, Donald Trump, will be formally ushered into the White House in Washington with a swearing in ceremony. Waiting for the event is a confirmation of America’s leadership of the contemporary world.

    There is no doubt that this event will be historically electric positively or negatively. A similar wait had taken place in February 1933 when Adolf Hitler was sworn in as the Chancellor of his country. The speech he delivered on that day eventually altered the destiny of Germany and reshaped the geography of the world. Will Trump be like Hitler? Time will tell.

    History as a teacher   

    History is a well known phenomenal teacher. It teaches the old and the young alike. Its students are always drawn from far and near. It examines those students from time to time and gives them examination results periodically. Its lessons are generational and cut across races and cultures. Yet, it has no peculiar language. But then, it faces a fundamental problem. That problem is not in repetition that has become the culture of history but in getting mankind to understand its repeated teachings and heeding 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 ladders of experiences with which they mount the pyramid of life.

    The Bible and the Qur’an

    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 departure and adopted Paul for a name.

    Another was 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. He eventually rose to become the second Caliph of Islam and spread the dine religion across nations and continents.

    Jesus had wished that Saul, a well educated person, accepted his message but that wish did not materialize until after he 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 at that time 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 was reported to have once said of him as follows: “Were there to be another Prophet after me, he would have been Umar”.

    Irony of life

    Incidentally, another thorny bud seems to have grown, this time, under the armpit of an unexpected American bitter tree. That proverbial human tree is an avowed racist and morbid hater of Islam that has just emerged as President elect. His physical appearance anywhere is a vivid reminder of the fact that one man called Adolf Hitler once lived in the continent called Europe. And for the first time ever, majority of Americans, through a conducted poll, have openly expressed fear and uncertainty in the leadership of their newly voted President even before his swearing into office. But it may be too early now to rule out the possibility of fruitful hope. After all, no one expected the turn of event with Paul after Jesus and with Umar in the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad (SAW). Whatever happens in that so-called ‘God’s own Country’ however, as from the 20th of this month, is like an incubated egg waiting to be hatched. What kind of chicken will come out of it is a matter of guess.

    Future shock

    The narration above may be an indicator of a future shock for which the world 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 their 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 vein, far from prophesying, I 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 Rome and Arabia of the past, the doubting ‘Thomases’ may commence their repugnant arguments from here. But the roots of tomorrow gargantuan tree of peace are being firmly planted in today’s fertile soil.

    Terry Holdbrooks Jr.’s conversion

    Terry Holbrooks is an American native of Huntsville in Alabama. 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. But along the line, he indulged in drugs, illegal sex and tattoos which covered 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”.

    Finally

    It was only during his fourth visit to the recruitment office that he was allowed to take part in the military’s aptitude test when the recruiter realized the potential in him. Then, Holdbrooks signed up for the 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”.

    Thus, the 29 year old Terry Holdbrooks Jr., enrolled in American Army in 2003/2004 and was posted to Guantanamo Bay as a military Police officer in a detention camp earmarked for people pronounced as criminals. 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.

    How Islam beckons

    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.

    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. That was Holdbrooks before 2013 when he embraced Islam.

    Horse’s mouth

    To hear from the horse’s mouth here is what he said about the book he wrote on his experience: “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.

    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.”

    “You’ve got to realize 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.”

    As a restless lackey that he is it took him just three nights to read the Glorious Book from cover to cover. For the first time, he found a religious text that met his logical criteria in the Qur’an. 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.”

    He took Shahadah

    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.

    “If Prophet Muhammad (SAW) were to come back to the 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.

    The same Guantanamo is now a subject of conflict between President Barrack Obama and President elect, Donald Trump. While the one thinks it should be closed down, the other wants it left open for African and Arab criminals. If Guantanamo had been closed down in 2004 as Obama planned, how could the like of Holdsbooks have become a vociferous propagator of Islam in America today? Allah’s way of doing things is full of wonders. Nothing is impossible with Him.

  • EXPRESSO People – 2016

    EXPRESSO People – 2016

    It is time again to cast a glance at the outgoing year and situate it in the annals of events. For this column, it is time to present to you the people who have impacted on this column most positively.

    EXPRESSO People are those rare and select men and women – preferably Nigerians living here – who have brought hope, gladness and much cheers to the lives of Nigerians. By their actions and utterances, they have inculcated in the rest of us, sustained belief and hope that our fatherland may yet find that compass to navigate out of troubled waters.

    Our people for 2016 are, (in the order mentioned) – Peter Obi, Akinwunmi Ambode/Atiku Bagudu, Genot Rohr, Shehu Dikko and Mark Zuckerberg.

    Peter  Obi: Shifting

    leadership paradigms

    If this former governor of Anambra State were in a better ordered society, he would stand behind pristine rostrums almost every other week, picking up awards, presenting lectures, being appointed to academic positions and generally chairing different forums that push the frontiers of knowledge in organisational and administrative leadership.

    For eight years of leading a troubled and dishevelled state, he displayed rare and outstanding qualities that are uncommon among governors in these parts.

    This column had always followed his trajectory over these years and would unabashedly raise his banner. But Nigeria, and indeed the world seem to have come to a sudden realisation of Mr. Obi’s especial prowess last October when he gave an independence lecture at Covenant Christian Centre, Lagos. The world cottoned to what this column had described as The Peter Paradigm. The media – traditional and new – was agog, astounded at Obi’s phenomenal exploits.

    Obi’s is a long story that is yet to achieve denouement; it is a refreshing oasis in a parched, unforgiving desert that will require a tome to properly articulate. Suffice to present here in bullet points, a few markers that made up the story.

    • Obi believes that the bane of Nigeria today is official wastefulness and licentious breach of public treasury.
    • During his tenure, he contained and indeed abolished the illegal Office of the First Lady, which remains a huge drainpipe in most states to date.
    • Apart from drastically cutting the pervasive wastes and expansive frivolities that have permeated Nigeria’s governments across board, he ensured accountability in public procurements, eschewed the self-aggrandisement associated with the so-called security votes and Government House overheads and curbed the excessive and wanton revelry of the executive office.
    • While almost all governors bequeathed huge debts and unpaid salaries and pensions to their successors, Obi did not only refuse to borrow a dime in eight years, he made mandatory savings every month he was in office.
    • As if he foresaw the 2014 crash in crude oil prices and attendant recession, by the time he left office that year, he had accumulated savings amounting to billions in naira and foreign currencies, fixed in various financial instruments both local and international. This was unprecedented as

    other governors were hankering after securing huge foreign loans.

    • His state Anambra was no less developed than any other state. Indeed, he outperformed his contemporaries in integrated provision of social amenities, in ensuring he built the best network of tarred roads; making Anambra’s candidates tops in most national entrance examinations in his time, among other feats.

    As has been noted above, the Peter Paradigm is a book in the making, which could redefine governance in Nigeria and the developing world.

    Ambode/Bagudu: 

    forging a phenomenal tie

    It is not certain whose idea it was, but that will not matter now. The outcome is even more phenomenal that the two men have become folk heroes not only in their states, but to Nigeria.

    We speak of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State and his Kebbi State counterpart, Atiku Bagudu. Both leaders have risen as one and created a beneficial synergy not known in Nigeria. Kebbi in Northwest of Nigeria is a major rice grower, while Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria in the Southwest, is perhaps the biggest market for rice in Africa. It is said to consume about N135 billion worth of rice per annum.

    It is thus a commercial marriage made in heaven. While Kebbi invested in inputs and farmers, Lagos invested in modern mills. And what difference just one year of two planting seasons can make. This novel wedlock has produced LAKE (Lagos/Kebbi) rice and it is poised to become the major brand in Lagos soon by its bold entrée this season. Here are some points to note concerning the grand initiative of these two honorees:

    • This is probably the first time Nigeria is witnessing this manner of interstate business alliance and across two tribes. To think that most of such regional collaborations have failed.
    • This is a practical and working example of the much touted diversification.
    • While we commend Governor Ambode for seeing an opportunity hundreds of kilometres away and reaching for it, we also applaud Governor Bagudu for his open-minded embrace of the programme. They both have lifted our spirit.

    These two men are on to something grand and noble and we urge them to work harder at it. We expect them to keep fine-tuning the value chains so that by the second and third year, LAKE Rice would have flooded the huge Nigerian market preparatory to taking on the world.

    Gernot Rohr:

    A roaring magic

    This self-effacing Franco-German football tactician has brought sunshine to our faces once again. Before he literally sneaked in to handle Nigeria’s senior national team a few months ago, the team was nearing disaster. Regardless of boasting of competent professional footballers playing across the world, Nigeria’s team, the Super Eagles, seemed perpetually stumped and struggled with even the worst teams in Africa.

    Today, Nigeria’s senior national team under him is a roaring success so far. Three matches in the World Cup qualifiers and he has already achieved what can be termed a roaring success, opening a near-unassailable lead even in a ‘group of death’.

    More remarkable, the Super Eagles play today with the sure-footedness of a true giant of Africa as well as displaying an exciting pattern of play long forgotten. And he is so unobtrusive and so good natured about his work and his initial successes. With Rohr, we can say bring it on once again!

    Shehu Dikko:

    Thumbs up to the LMC!

    Even though Nigeria’s football house may seem to be in perpetual twirl, the League Management Company (LMC) seems to be grinding out commendable results.

    Chairman Shehu Dikko and his team at the LMC have in the past few years been managing Nigeria’s local league and they have increasingly been making a good job of it. Recently, it presented its financial report – a rarity here -and it declared surplus, an even rarer rarity.

    Take a bow Dikko and the LMC crew, you make this column proud, keep working at it.

     

    Mark Zuckerberg: 

    The coming of the Mac!

    Zuckerberg, the god of Facebook fits in here because of his celebrated visit to Nigeria this year. At a time when the US and British governments were issuing safety warnings about Nigeria, Mark’s coming was tonic.

    More notable, he worked the street of Nigeria ‘un-garrisoned’, partook in Nigerian delicacies and donated seed money to some emerging digital hubs run by Nigerian youths.

    Expresso is wowed indeed by Zuckerberg and the entire EXPRESSO PEOPLE

     

  • Ahmadu Bello’s Christmas message

    Ahmadu Bello’s Christmas message

    “The truth has come and falsehood has vamoosed; surely, falsehood is meant to vamoose (in the presence of the truth)”.  Q. 17: 81  

    Here is a season in which recalling certain aspects of Nigerian history if only to put the records straight. History is a living phenomenon that is common to all people around it in time and in space. Whether or not it is interpreted and relayed positively or negatively, the fact remains that history is not anybody’s personal property and cannot be anybody’s monopoly.

    This article contains one of the most memorable aspects of Nigerian history which have consistently left a sour taste in the mouths of some of its actors. But despite the sour taste it can never get stale.

     

    Death of an icon

    One of the foremost political icons in Nigeria’s first republic and a patriarch of the political party called Northern People’s Congress (NPC), was Alhaji (Sir) Ahmadu Bello, the first and only Premier of Northern Nigeria. He became Premier of Northern Nigeria in 1954 through a popular election and was killed as Premier in January 1966 in a tribal/religious military coup plotted mainly by soldiers of Igbo extraction and led by one Major Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu. The plotters had killed this icon in cold blood before looking for reasons to justify their heinous crime. The three reasons they later gave were corruption, tribalism and religious bigotry. It was a matter of calling a dog a bad name in order to hang it.

     

    The Premiers’ flanks

    Among the four Premiers in Nigeria at that time, only Ahmadu Bello could not in any way be evidently linked to corruption. Unlike others who lived opulently, Ahmadu Bello was an ascetic personality who served his people patriotically without any blemish. He left only a small residential bungalow in his home town of Sokoto at the time of his death. Who else left such a flank? Sir Ahmadu Bello could also not be singularly accused of tribalism because tribalism was the basis of all the existing political parties of the time. No Premier from 1954 to 1966 could be exonerated from tribalism directly or indirectly. They were all guilty of it.

    It can be recalled that certain tribal groups such as Ibiobio State Union (IBU), Ibo Federal Union (IFU) Egbe Omo Oduduwa (EOO) and ‘Jam’iyyar Al-Ummar Nigeriya ta Arewa’ translated as Northern Elements Progressive Association (NEPA) which later transformed into Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) were all socio-cultural organizations that metamorphosed into political parties. All those parties preceded ‘Jam’iyyar Mutane Arewa’ meaning Northern People’s Congress (NPC) to which Ahmadu Bello belonged. Many other ethnic-based political parties later emerged to broaden tribalism in Nigerian politics. If anything, Ahmadu Bello was the least tribally inclined Premier of his time. Why did his killers link him alone to tribalism?

     

    His 1959 Christmas message

    Of the four Premiers in Nigeria’s first republic, only Ahmadu Bello was bold and sincere enough to allay the fear of the minority groups in Northern Nigeria by making a public policy statement about his government’s stand concerning tribalism and religious bigotry. Here is an excerpt of what he said while sending a Christmas message to northern Christians in 1959:

    “…We are people of many different races, tribes and religions, who are knit together by common history, common interests and common ideals. Our diversity may be great but the things that unite us are stronger than the things that divide us. On an occasion like this, I always remind people about our firmly rooted policy on religious tolerance. Families of all creeds and colour can rely on these assurances. We have no intention of favouring one religion at the expense of another. Subject to overriding need to preserve law and order, it is our determination that everyone should have absolute liberty to practice his belief. It is befitting on this momentous day, on behalf of my ministers and myself, to send a special word of gratitude to all Christian missions”.

    “Let me conclude this with a personal message. I extend my greetings to all our people who are Christians on this great feast day. Let us forget the difference in our religion and remember the common brotherhood before God, by dedicating ourselves afresh to the great tasks which lie before us….”

     

    The fabricated version

    Years after Ahmadu Bello’s unjustifiable assassination, some evil elements in the media, in active conspiracy with certain political demagogues went to fabricate another statement and credited it to the late Premier as a justification for killing him. The concocted statement was culled from an unknown newspaper called ‘The Parrot’. Here is the fabricated statement:

    “The new nation called Nigeria should be an estate of our great grandfather Othman Dan Fodio. We must ruthlessly prevent a change of power. We use the minorities in the north as willing tools and the south as a conquered territory and never allow them to rule over us and never allow them to have control over their future.” The statement was said to have been made on October 12, 1960. The question is this: how can a Christmas message in Nigeria be sent in October? But liars never think of the implications of their lies.

     

    Truth and falsehood

    Now, looking at both statements very carefully, any sensible person should be able to see clearly, a distinction between truth and falsehood. The Premier’s Christmas message quoted above was made on Thursday, December 24, 1959 through a radio broadcast and it was published by all newspapers in the country including the vociferous ‘West African Pilot’ owned by Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, the boisterous ‘Tribune’ owned by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the clamorous ‘Daily Times’ jointly owned privately by certain prominent individuals at that time. It was equally published by many other smaller newspapers in Nigeria. All those newspapers are identifiable in Nigeria’s media history even though most of them are now defunct. On the other hand, the place and occasion of the fabricated statement credited to Ahmadu Bello was not indicated and cannot be traced in Nigeria’s newspaper history.

     

    Evidence of fabrication

    The first time any genuinely existing newspaper ever made reference to that fabricated statement was on November 13, 2002 (42 years after it was purportedly made. And ‘The Tribune’ newspaper that published it only claimed to have culled it from an online column published on October 24 2002 by a purported Yoruba Journalist (name withheld) who entitled it ‘the northern Agenda’. It can therefore be deduced that the statement was actually fabricated not in the 1960s but in October 2002, by the so-called columnist who credited it to a newspaper that never existed. The objective was to give it an undeserving credibility. What a country! What a people! What a shame! This is a typical case of an obvious mischief by heartless mischief makers just to fetch ephemeral fame and illegal income.

    The belief was that once such a fabricated article appears on the internet and is ignorantly quoted by some inconsequential writers, it would automatically become a document of facts. That is Nigeria for you.

     

    The Coup episode

    January 15, 1966 was a Saturday like no other one in the history of Nigeria. It was on that day that the bitter seed which germinated and grew into the thorny tree that now feeds Nigerians with unpalatable political fruits was planted. The evil planting marked the beginning of an agonizing voyage of destiny on which Nigerians embarked without a compass. Coming up in the sacred month of Ramadan, the day actually came to confirm the axiomatic thought of an Arab poet who once asserted in a couplet that: “Nights are heavily pregnant; they give birth to wonders in the days….”

     

    The preceding Friday

    The preceding Friday (January 14, 1966) had been quite eventful for the then Premier of Northern Nigeria, Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello who was extraordinarily busy from morning to night. He had planned to travel to Sokoto with the then Ghana High Commissioner, Mr. Yakubu Tally, who had come to spend the weekend with him in appreciation of his role in ensuring the formation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) through the merger of the Monrovia and Casablanca groups that had been mutually antagonistic on certain ideological grounds.

    On that Friday, Sir Ahmadu Bello, as usual, observed the Jum’at Prayer in company of a retinue of his Ministers and government officials. He hosted the Premier of Western Nigeria, Chief Samuael Ladoke Akintola, (his political ally) in the newly formed Nigerian National Alliance (NNA). The latter had come to alert his colleague of a premonition hovering over Nigeria through an impending bloody coup d’etat that could clear the existing political stable wheat and chaff. His alert was not however strange to Sir Ahmadu Bello who had earlier got the same security hint.

    The duo jointly reviewed the then volatile political situation in the country but failed to reach a conclusion on how to forestall the impending calamity.

    Akintola’s effort

    Chief S. L. Akintola, pleaded with his host to persuade the then Prime Minister, Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, to act promptly to curb the impending disaster that was swinging restlessly like a pendulum over Nigeria before it could devour them all. But Sir Ahmadu Bello was reluctant. He believed that only the will of Allah could prevail in any given circumstance. His fear was that in the sacred month of Ramadan, it would be better to be martyred than to be an assassin. To him, any attempt to foil such a virtually mature coup would be so bloody that even the country would have nothing left to bleed with. By that belief, hardly did Sir Ahmadu Bello realise the implications of paving the way for a ruinous destiny to take its course.

    The whole scenario was like a valedictory drama of fate in which the actors were blind to the denouement which the viewers had vividly perceived. And when it was time for the two Premiers to part, it became apparent that they were meeting perhaps for the last time alive. In a sober but sorrowful tone, the host bided his guest “bye for now,” and the guest, whose feet were already on the staircase of his aircraft on his way back to Ibadan replied: “if we ever get to see again”.

    Thus, both spoke in coded language in the presence of their entourages who could not decode their language. By the time when cities started to return to life, in the wee hours of the following morning, the die had been cast as the picture had become clear that the night had tragically discharged the contents of its cargo to the amazement of the entire world. A bloody coup in Nigeria had swept the country’s democracy away with the rulers as casualties. It confirmed the maxim of the above quoted poem and the rest has since become history.

     

    The major casualties

    The heartless rascals in Nigerian military who struck in the January 1966 coup to terminate a democratically elected government must have foreclosed the consequences of their criminal action. They killed virtually all the major key players in the then Nigerian politics except those of Igbo extraction and of course, some non-Igbo people who were then in prisons. The Prime Minister, Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and the Minister of Finance, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh were killed in Lagos. The Premier of Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello, was killed with his wife and some other people in Kaduna, the then Headquarters of Northern Nigeria. The Premier of Western Nigeria, Chief Samuel Akintola was killed in Ibadan, the then Headquarters of the South Western Nigeria while some military top brass of non-Igbo extraction were killed in different military barracks across the country.

    Except for Lt. Col. Arthur Unegbe who was killed for being too close to Maimalari and could not be trusted, no other Igbo man of note, politician or military, was killed in that coup. As a matter of fact, if there was any feeling of the coup in the Eastern Nigeria at all, it was that of victory and heroism. The top military officers who were killed in the senseless coup included: Brig. S. A. Ademulegun (South West); Brig. Zakari Maimalari (North East); Col. Kur Mohammed (North West); Lt. Col. J. Y. Pam (North Central); Col. S. A. Shodeinde (South West); Lt. Col. Largema (North Central); Lt. Col. A. G. Unegbe (South East); S/Lt. James Odu (Mid West) and a host of others.

    The false allegations

    After the dust had settled, it became evident that virtually all the planners of that coup as well as its executors were of Igbo extraction. Thus, the other ethnic groups who were severely affected saw the coup as a tribal one. But much more than that, the Muslims in the country saw it as a religious coup that could not be sensibly justified or defended, the killing of Chiefs Akintola and Okotie-Eboh notwithstanding. This was because the then Governor of Eastern Nigeria, Sir Francis Akanu Ibiam was as deeply involved in religious matters as Sir Ahmadu Bello. The one was a Vice-President of the World Council of Churches. The other was the Vice-President of the Muslim World League. If religion was therefore the reason for the coup, the two of them ought to have been killed for bigotry. But history entails a variety of interpretations especially in a society where conscience hardly plays a role.

     

    Coup planners and executors

    That overwhelming majority of the planners of that coup as well as its executors were of Igbo extraction could not have been a mere coincidence. It is particularly notable that the chief beneficiary of the coup (Major-General Johnson Aguiyi Ironsi) was also of Igbo extraction. Almost all the military appointments after the coup were for men of Igbo extraction and none of these, except Hassan Katsina and Muhammadu Shuwa was a Muslim. How else could a coup be tribal and religious in? After all, as far back as 1953, a frontline Igbo politician had set such agenda for his tribe’s men when he quoted as saying that “Ibos’ domination of Nigeria is a matter of time”.

     

    Nigeria’s founding fathers

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

    No matter what those weaknesses might be, their legacy was a fortune which amazingly turned into misfortune in the hands of their successors. Thus, the great hope which those fathers had embedded into our destiny as a people became colonized and turned into personal property by their political heirs. Were those great fathers to wake up from their graves today and see what has become of their sweat, they would just shake their heads in sorrow and return quietly into their graves without comments. Yet, the situation remains unchanged today as tribalism and religion take the front burner of Nigerian politics. Where can we go from here?

  • Can anything good ever come out of politics?

    Can anything good ever come out of politics?

    I admit that I have raised a loaded question, with no expectation of a satisfactory answer, a candid expression of my frustration with politics of self-interest parading as anything but.

    Politics is the institution for managing the affairs of a community for the well-being of its people. As such, it is a noble venture. As the political community is the highest organisation, politics is conceptualised as the highest institution worthy only of selfless patriots.

    There is a good reason for that characterisation. A community is a close-knit entity with a common purpose and a sense of history that binds it to the past and links it to a hopeful future. Active agents on its political scene come and go, but they share a common objective of contributing their quota to the progressive transformation of the community. Their pride is in the sacrifice they make for the community, even when they have little or nothing to show for themselves.

    An early documented intimation of this conception of politics came from Aristotle for whom politics is the highest calling and politicians have the noblest assignment of framing the constitutional order of the political community, the goal of which is the good life of citizens. Note the characterisation of the three elements: politics: the highest calling; politician: with a noble assignment; political community: with the goal of good life of citizens.

    If the good life of citizens is the goal of the political community, it makes sense that the institution established for achieving it must be of the highest ranking, and active agents in that institution with the responsibility for achieving the good life for citizens must be deemed as having a noble assignment. In that regard, the question “can anything good ever come out of politics?” would make no sense. The fact that this question makes sense is, therefore, a challenge to the characterisation in question.

    Does the political community exist to promote the good life of citizens? Think of the foundation of local communities, from family to village to city. Chief Awolowo got it exactly right in People’s Republic. Every family wants the best for its members, and it must be assumed that when they join other families to form the nucleus of a state, they do not give up the goal of seeking the good life for their people. Therefore, a political community can be assumed to be justified because it seeks the good of its citizens.

    If the above makes sense, then it is reasonable to claim that the institution established for the accomplishment of the goal is of the highest ranking. What is devoted to benefiting the entire community and prioritising the needs to be pursued for members is certainly a higher order than that which aims at the good of a section.

    It must also follow that the group of citizens who take on the responsibility for the achievement and realisation of the goal for the people have a noble assignment. Politicians are a different breed in the positive way. They frame the constitutional order that makes possible the seeking of the good life and its achievement.

    Something is not right! The above is not the reality that stares us in the face. The political community that we know does not seek the good life of its citizens. Politics as we know it does not appear to be the highest calling. Indeed, it is one of the most debased of any calling, which is why many good people find it nauseating and repugnant. And while it may still be a noble assignment to fashion the constitutional order for a people, it has evolved into a vile and base task in the hands of political charlatans.

    What has changed then and since when? At the family and village levels, the political goal of the good life predominates as the community identifies the key actors who take the assignment seriously. With the combination of villages, the understanding of the good life gets murky, interests clash, and there need to be negotiations and compromises. Intrigues set in and the process of debasement follows in short order.

    With the combination of tribes and tongues, the escalation and intensification of tension and anxiety over the understanding of the good life and its requirements is inescapable. Amid such a heightened sense of expediency, various characters of dubious integrity are catapulted onto the stage of politics with varieties of motivations and questionable agenda, which may be far out of the field of any sense of the good life that any of the component communities may have set itself. In the circumstance, there is a clash of conceptions of the good life, not just among the component communities, but also among the individual politicians. This is the state of politics, politicians and political communities today, ours included.

    Can anything good come out of politics today then? Let us grant for discussion what is a contestable assertion: that we have come to an agreement on the good life for citizens of this country and it is encoded in the Constitution as Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy. It is contestable to the extent that the 1999 Constitution itself is a work in progress still being litigated in the court of public opinion. To the credit of its framers, however, the bone of contention regarding the principles that are presented as the good life for citizens is that they are still not justiciable.

    So, we have the good life. But we still do not agree on the various aspects of how to achieve it for the people. What structure? What level of government is responsible for what? And this is where the betrayal of the idea of politics as the highest calling and politicians as having a noble assignment is most pungently demonstrated. The hustle and bustle of politics as we come to know it becomes glaring in the attempt to frame the constitutional framework for achieving the good life with politicians seeing themselves as representatives of sections whose interest must outweigh that of the collective. They hold the Aces because there is no real threat to the existence and prospering of their sections should the collective fail or disintegrate.

    There is a second level of hustle and bustle which further complicates the volatile political environment of differing tribes and tongues. Lone Ranger politicians with selfish agenda can negotiate across ethnic and national boundaries in a manner that benefits them but harms their immediate group. It is the nature of the contemporary politics. Some may find it a degenerate form of politics because of this; others may consider it intrinsic to the nature of politics. And it is the most problematic for the characterisation of politics as the highest calling and politicians as having a noble assignment.

    For in the case of politicians with agenda of self-interest, there is nothing ennobling unless there is, what is unlikely, a coincidence of self-interest of the individual with the good of the political community. A system can probably withstand the egoism of a few, but it will collapse under the weight of many self-conceited individuals hustling for their share of a national cake they are not inclined to bake. They move from party to party in search of spoils. They look to exploit precarious circumstances which they probably helped to instigate.

    About the clash of the conceptions of the good life sought by the various communities that come together voluntarily or by force, it is also inconceivable that something good can come out of the politics that ensues unless there is a strong determination for compromise to reach common grounds on fundamental issues.

    But when such compromises have been attained, they are products of elite self-interests parading as the common interest. In the end, the good life for citizens is stymied while the special interests of a few get promoted. So, some good does come out of politics when elite compromise unintentionally benefits the collective. If the compromise lasts, stability can be sustained. But the moment it collapses, the benefits to the collective is fatally assaulted.

  • A world of war celebrates the prince of peace

    A world of war celebrates the prince of peace

    I did not plan on writing on religion so soon after last week’s conclusion of my two part series, “Risky path toward theocracy.” But two related events last Sunday changed my course.

    First, in his sermon, my pastor alluded to the troubling senseless violence going on in the country. Kidnappers are on the loose. Militants are wrecking disaster. Armed robbers are on the prowl. To us, it was stale news. Then he threw in the bombshell about human beings beheading fellow human beings and cutting them into pieces as if preparing them for the cooking pot. It must be one of those fake news, I told myself.

    I certainly did not want to believe such a terrible story of human cannibals in the civilised world. But my pastor’s follow-up question was pertinent: what is the role of Christians in a world that is lost in evil? Are we contributing to human depravity or aiding and abetting sin? In the midst of abject poverty that leads people to crime, suicide and homicide, what is the Christian message? It was a sermon, so there was no room for answer.

    Second, however, at a house fellowship in the evening, the discussion topic was the coming of the Prince of Peace and the question was “how can the message of peace that Christ delivered be effectively disseminated today?” Unlike the pastor’s question, this question was a call to open discussion. My contribution to that discussion is the subject of the column today.

    The paradox could not be starker. The world is in tumult. From east to west, from south to north, peace is elusive. There is external aggression and vicious internal repression. International terrorism rivals domestic disturbance. Religions preach peace but practise war in its various dimensions- in word and in deed. How then can the message of peace be disseminated when the messengers are neck-deep in war?

    Let us step back a little. Before Christ, there was religion but no Christianity. That’s pretty pedestrian. What is significant is that the religion of the Old Testament celebrated violence as God’s ordinance through his prophets. Declarations of war were considered divine and any order to destroy an entire nation with its innocent children had to be carried out to the letter. Within communities, it was an eye for an eye. And the ultimate punishment reserved for the blasphemous was death on the cross, which became the lot of Christ himself.

    Then Jesus the Christ was born as God’s final gift to a sinful world. He was to serve as the supreme sacrifice for humankind. He preached and practised peace in word and deed. He fed the hungry. He healed the sick. He blessed the poor. He intervened to save a poor adulterous woman from her hypocritical accusers. He even saved one of his assailants from the sword of an angry disciple who had sliced his ear in defence of Christ. And he taught his listeners to avoid conflicts by turning the other cheek so their attackers can gratify their aggression.

    For true believers, then, Christ had set the bar for the promotion of peace and the dissemination of his message. Believers are to promote the well-being of the poor because doing it for the wretched is doing it for Christ himself. They are to be peacemakers so they can be true children of God. And even if they were persecuted, as he predicted, they should rejoice in the understanding that they have a place in heaven. In any case, he also admonished that just as his kingdom was not of this world, they also are not of this world. They must therefore not build their treasures here on earth.

    Where are those true believers now? The first disciples tried their best to abide by the master’s instructions. They prayed their ways through persecutions in the hands of the established religious traditions. They were martyred but did not give up the faith or betray the cause of Christ. They were poor in material wealth, giving their lives to itinerant preaching and healing without pomposity. It was because those who witnessed their actions saw in them the attributes of Christ that they named them Christians or Little Christs. Generations later, those Little Christs were a rarity. Today, they are virtually non-existent.

    From being the persecuted in the aftermath of Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension, the “Little Christs” became the persecutors once they gained political power. They went after pagans like lions after their prey. Whereas Christ preached with compassion, the political Christians, with the backing of the state, preached hate. In concert with the entrepreneurial class of the time, they endorsed the Atlantic slave trade, which killed millions of Africans and took many more to the New World as chattel slaves in the plantations of “Christian” capitalists where they were treated as expendable properties. Slavery was abolished only when it was no longer useful for capitalism.

    Meanwhile, from the same New World that treated Africans only as tools of labour, came missionaries that preached the gospel of Christ in the African homeland. But the land that sent them to Africa continued to treat the sons and daughters of Africa they had enslaved as expendables, unworthy of the rights and protections that were extended constitutionally to their fellow human beings. It was fellow (White) ministers of the Church that attacked Martin Luther King Jr. for being too aggressive about civil rights. His response to them was the Letter from Birmingham City Jail which exposed their hypocrisy.

    They have not changed. Obamacare provides health insurance for the poor, with tens of millions benefitting. Evangelicals overwhelmingly supported a presidential candidate and congressional candidates who promised to repeal the law. One presidential candidate with evangelical credentials even rated Obamacare as worse than slavery.

    Perhaps foreign Christians are a different species that falsely identify as Christians. What about native Christians from the heart of Africa? What has been the state of Christ’s message of peace and compassion?

    Recall that Christ himself predicted all that is being experienced today. Didn’t he tell his disciples to be aware of foxes in sheep’s clothing? Did he not tell us that many will falsely come in his name? What has been common to most if not all Christian evangelicals today is the shameless love of money, fame and power at the expense of the peace of God and compassion for fellow humans.

    The Internet is saturated with fake news and one must not indulge in lending many of them credence. But reading about a pastor who made a deal with a man to have the man fake death and be placed in a coffin so that at a rally, the pastor will “resurrect” him from his death, I wonder what Christianity is becoming. Is this how to disseminate the message of Christ? How about the exploitation going on in a number of African mega churches. The poor are in need of help with food, shelter and education, but many churches are milking them dry.

    There are notable exceptions, of course, where members are taught the principles of success and economic breakthrough, without the emphasis on the miraculous. But even in providing opportunities for higher education which is the modern avenue to success, many poor families are left out in the lurch with costs way beyond their reach.

    We have wondered aloud why, despite the phenomenal growth of Christianity, with churches littering every city corner across the land, there is more violence and less peace in the land. The epidemic of violence appears congruent with the expansion of churches.

    The reason is not far-fetched. While Christ’s message is delivered in all sanctuaries 24/7, the practice of that message has not been commensurate with the words. So the world of war persists even as it celebrates the prince of peace. So long as word and deed are poles apart, the paradox endures. Fortunately, so do the words of Christ. In the fullness of time, the hypocrites using his name in vain as tools for their personal worldly gains will receive their judgment and be damned in hell.

  • Redefining Nigeria’s identity

    “Man is history after his demise. Therefore, endeavour to be a pleasant history for others to read after you might have left the stage”. 

    Arab poet

    PREAMBLE

    Man is both a product and a producer of history. He lives by history and leaves history behind as his legacy at the time of his departure from this ephemeral world. This confirms the fact that man and history are like Siamese twins. The one cannot do without the other. History makes man just as man makes history. The synergy between the two makes them look like a pair of scissors in which one blade cannot effectively function without the other.

    This is a period in Nigeria when recalling history is a necessity. How did Nigeria come into being as a country and as a name? Is this name fitting and appropriate for the country that bears it? Can the name be changed and can changing it make any reasonable difference? These are some of the questions that ‘The Message’ seeks to answer today.

    Accident of history

    On January 8, 1897, an article appeared in Financial Times which suggested a name for the vast land around river Niger which had then been colonized by the Royal Niger Company on behalf of the British Empire. The suggested name was Nigeria and the author of the article was one Miss Flora Shaw, a 45-year-old journalist. She was then the colonial editor of Financial Times as well as the writer of a weekly column named ‘The Colony’ in that newspaper.

    In coining the name Nigeria, Flora Shaw logically took many facts into consideration. One: the area in question had no specific name by which it could be called other than a protectorate of the ‘Royal Niger Company’. Two: She considered an earlier suggested name ‘Central Sudan’ as an aberration since that name already belonged to an area around the Nile River occupied by a population of Black Africans now called Sudan. She equally considered the name ‘Slave Coast’ which the colonialists had attempted to give to this area as derogatory and finally settled for ‘Nigeria’, which she coined from ‘Niger Area’.

    Flora Shaw’s profile

    Born at 2, Dundas Terrace, Woolwich, England on December 19, 1852, Miss Louisa Shaw (fourth of her parent’s fourteen children) was a novelist and frontline, versatile female journalist who gained fame through her pungent analyses of African colonial economy. She was later to become ‘The Honourable Dame Flora Lugard, the wife of Frederick John Deatry Lugard of Abinger who colonised Nigeria and amalgamated its southern and northern parts in 1914.

    Flora was six years older than Frederick who was born in India on January 22, 1858. The two historic personalities married in 1902 and lived together without children for the rest of their lives.

    Historical facts

    Four historical facts are manifest here. First: the name Nigeria had come into existence far away from England and long before the country that now bears that name became a country.

    Second: the name was coined five years before Flora Shaw married Frederick Lugard. Therefore, contrary to the general erroneous belief that it was Mrs. Lugard who named our country Nigeria, Flora was Miss Shaw and not Mrs. Lugard when she coined the name.

    Third: it can be said that Nigeria came into existence through the efforts of a bachelor and a spinster who later became a couple.

    Fourth: by sheer coincidence, Nigeria’s second First Lady, Flora Azikiwe, the wife of Nigeria’s first President, shared the same first name with the wife of Lugard: FLORA.

    Lord Fredrick Lugard’s profile

    Baron Frederick Lugard was a military adventurer and an ardent administrator who played a major part in Britain’s colonial history between 1888 and 1945, serving in East Africa, West Africa, and Hong Kong. His name is particularly associated with Nigeria, where he served as High Commissioner (1900-06) as well as Governor and Governor-General (1912-19). He was knighted in 1901 and raised to the peerage in 1928.

    As at the time of Lugard’s incursion, most of the vast region of over 300,000 square miles (800,000 square km) was still unoccupied and even unexplored by Europeans. In the southern areas were mostly animists and in the northern areas was predominantly a Muslim population with big towns and large walled cities.

    Lugard’s intention

    Lugard’s intention was to merge these two areas and people of diverse cultures and spiritual inclinations together and manage them as a single people in a single nation. Within three years of his expedition, he had established a British control over the large territory by diplomacy or by swift use of his meager force.

    Although in hastening to take the major states of Kano and Sokoto, he engaged the hands of his more cautious home government, only two serious local revolts marred the widespread acceptance and cooperation that he later enjoyed. His policy was to support the existing native states and chiefdoms with their laws and their courts but at the same time forbid slave raiding and severe punishments for minor offences as well as to exercise control of central authority using the native rulers as agents. Thus, to achieve his objective, he merged the Southern part of what later became known as Nigeria with the Northern part with a tacit approval for the Christian religionists to mobilise their evangelical machinery – the Christianisation of the animist Southern part of the new colony.

    Historic marriage

    After Lugard’s historic marriage to Flora Shaw in 1902 and the latter could not stand the Nigerian climate, Lugard felt obliged to leave Africa and accept a junior position of the governorship of Hong Kong which he held from 1907 to 1912. That was like stepping down as president to accept the post of a governor which no African Head of State has ever tried even if to display statesmanship.

    And on arrival in Asia, this daring British adventurer from continued his surprising degree of success to such extent that most historians of his time became nonplused. He founded the University of Hong Kong and ensured its standardisation as well as its sustainability. Today, that University is one of the best in the Commonwealth of Nations.

    A Centenary hoax

    Ever since the exit of the British colonialists in 1960, Nigeria has remained a country without focus, despite the enormous resources at her disposal. In less than half a decade after independence, the crude hands of African inexperience had begun to show conspicuously in governance as ethnic and religious flavours started to reflect vividly in a republican ethos. Then, an insuperable mountain of corruption crept in with overwhelming tenacity on the citizenry and turned all hopes into a forlorn even till today.

    Now, after 100 years of the indigestible absurdity called merger, why does Nigeria continue to wallow hopelessly in a paroxysm of despair as the last 17 years of the so-called fourth republic has shown an unprecedented history of relentless corruption with unbridled impunity?

    As if in a nightmare, we suddenly found ourselves in a situation where figure 16 politically became higher than figure 19 and open theft was officially defined and treated as being outside the framework corruption. Billions of dollars were growing wings and flying away from our national and state treasuries through the artful pens of our so-called leaders. Thus, our foreign reserves were daily being depleted even as Legislators, Judges, Ministers and other governmental cronies began to compete with one another in living like princes and princesses under a clueless ‘Emperor’.

    A Democratic tenure

    Four years is a long period in a democratic tenure of a nation. It is long enough to lay a solid foundation for a nation. It is long enough to build a formidable edifice that can be inherited from generation to generation. If 17 years of a democratic dispensation cannot do any of these in Nigeria of today how can one be sure that a whole century will do? If a journey of one year cannot take a traveller off the spot of embarkation who says 10 years may be able to take him to his destination?

    As an OPEC country, we have abundant oil wealth but we must import refined fuel for domestic consumption from individual Nigerian refineries built outside Nigeria from which we are compelled to import and theft is not considered as part of corruption. We have a massive army of unemployed youths and we cannot provide electricity to enable them be self-employed. Yet, we are insisting that we must continue like this even as billions of dollars are being stolen daily. Where are we going from here?

    Government’s failure

    Perhaps no one in the recent past has analyzed the problem of Nigeria more succinctly than Mrs. Hillary Clinton. When she visited Nigeria in 2010  as America’s Secretary of State, she took time to speak directly with ordinary Nigerians in a ‘Town Hall’ forum. At that forum she said among other things that: “….Nigeria, Africa’s biggest energy producer and second-largest economy, “faces a threat from increasing radicalisation that needs to be addressed. And describing corruption in Nigeria as unbelievable, she reiterated that the government’s failure to deliver basic services helped to foster extremism in young people…adding that: “The failure of the Nigerian leadership over many years to respond to the legitimate needs of their own young people, to have a government that promoted a meritocracy, that really understood that democracy can’t just be given lip service, it has to be delivering services to the people. She lamented poor governance and deteriorating living conditions which she said made Nigeria’s disaffected young people ripe targets for militants looking for recruits to attack the West.

    Substantiating her assertion, Mrs. Clinton said, when she met with a group of Nigerians in the capital city of Abuja, “people were … standing and shouting about what it was like to live in a country where the elite was so dominant, where corruption was so rampant and criminality was so pervasive”. And “that”, according to her, “is an opening for extremism that offers an alternative world view”.

    Poverty knows no tribe, religion, gender or age. It cuts across all strata of human life with no exception. That was the belief that spurred one time Chinese leader, Mao Zedong, in the 1960s, to transform China into a formidable nation of today. Any country that cannot feed her people will have no moral right to urge such people to think of a solution to any problem. A hungry person is an unreasonable person.

    Obama’s advice

    In his own direct presidential address to Nigerian populace on Tuesday, March 24, 2015, the American President Barrack Obama said of tomorrow’s elections and the subsequent ones as follows: “Hello.  Today, I want to speak directly to you – the people of Nigeria.

    Nigeria is a great nation and you can be proud of the progress you’ve made.  Together, you won your independence, emerged from military rule, and strengthened democratic institutions.  You’ve strived to overcome division and to turn Nigeria’s diversity into a source of strength.  You’ve worked hard to improve the lives of your families and to build the largest economy in Africa.

    “Now you have a historic opportunity to help write the next chapter of Nigeria’s chapter of history by voting for progress or further retrogress in the upcoming elections.  For elections to be credible, they must be free, fair and peaceful.  All Nigerians must be able to cast their votes without intimidation or fear.

    “So I call on all leaders and candidates to make it clear to their supporters that violence has no place in democratic elections and that they will not incite, support or engage in any kind of violence-before, during, or after the votes are counted.

    Against violence

    “I call on all Nigerians to peacefully express your views and to reject the voices of those who call for violence.  And when elections are free and fair, it is the responsibility of all citizens to help keep the peace, no matter who wins. Successful elections and democratic progress will help Nigeria meet the urgent challenges you face today.  Boko Haram – a brutal terrorist group that kills innocent men, women and children-must be stopped.

    “Hundreds of kidnapped children deserve to be returned to their families. Nigerians who have been forced to flee (their habitats) deserve to return to their homes.  Boko Haram wants to destroy Nigeria and all that you have worked to build.  By casting your ballot (correctly), you can help secure your nation’s progress.

    “I’m told that there is a saying in your country: ‘to keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done’. Today, I urge all Nigerians – from all religions, all ethnic groups, and all regions – to come together and keep Nigeria one.  And in this task of advancing the security, prosperity, and human rights of all Nigerians, you will continue to have a friend and partner in the United States of America”.

    The columnist’s comment

    Ordinarily, such a cross-Atlantic presidential speech would have been unnecessary if we had learnt from the examples of great African leaders such as Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Sam Njoma of Namibia, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Ahmadu Ahidjo of Cameroon. With the political change guards in 2015, most people assumed that the woes of Nigerians were over. It was hardly remembered that it is not enough to plant a crop to be qualified as a farmer. The real farmer is the one who imbibes the patience with which to wait and harvest the crop at the right time of fruition. The time of harvesting is almost here. With or without the presidential sermon of an American Obama, the reality on ground requires only a little more patience to end Nigeria’s woes of hunger. It took a long time of greed and avarice to build up the wall of hunger. It must take a reasonable time of patience to demolish it. Whatever name we now give Nigeria, positive or negative, we should not relent in saying: God save Nigeria! And we shall eventually surmount the problem of the moment.

  • Five Christmas hampers for PMB

    Never did Nigerians have a bleaker Christmas than this; except during the war perhaps. But that of course, would be understandable. But for the discerning, the people of this country are under fire – and this is not a mere literary expression. Raging underneath the psyche of the generality of the populace are painful psychological torments, emotional distress and mental dishevelment. The sheer weight of hopelessness – you just don’t know what tomorrow would bring – bogs down everyone regardless of tribe or tongue.

    This has impacted on Christmas, robbing it of its cheers and its sight and sounds. What a drab, dreary Christmas it has turned out to be. “Not even a grain of rice has anyone sent my way this year,” a senior journalist quipped when ribbed about Christmas hampers. But regardless, this column would package five baskets of bounteous hampers for President Muhammadu Buhari for his Yuletide enjoyment.

    Let it be noted that this is a mere recap, as most of these points have been raised here previously since PMB’s ascension last year.

    Of insular mien and economic aridity: We have learnt by now that PMB is naturally insular and devoid of much mirth and cheers; no man learns to use the left hand in old age so we live with that. But a smile here and a back-slap there could work like magic wand untying even the knottiest of national issues.

    But we ask: has this ever so inscrutable mien in anyway translated to the arid state of our economy? First, there is a mind-bending discordance in the polity but it is much more pronounced in the economy.

    We all know that the oil sector is crucial in several respects. For instance, the National Bureau of Statistics just announced that Nigeria spent about N960 billion importing petrol-fuel products in the first five months of this year. Though this figure is far lower than we did last year, the full import is that we may be spending about N2 trillion importing just petrol fuels in one year. Petrochemical products not inclusive.

    You would think that government would speedily respond to a hobbling problem like this. But up till now, there is no clear-cut policy on refineries. Only this week, Ibe Kachikwu (minister) said one thing and Maikanti Baru (NNPC) said the direct opposite concerning the refineries.

    Feckless FEC: The above point dove-tails into the second basket of hamper. This Federal Executive Council (FEC) must be the most unpurposed and ineffectual in recent history of presidential cabinets. No bright spark of light, no x-factor and one cannot find anything to cheer or commend.

    As noted here recently, 18 months was the time it took Mrs. Stella Oduah to almost conclude a massive overhaul of about 12 airports across the country. But 18 months of PMB’s administration, the aviation sector is on the verge of collapse and some of the huge projects Oduah initiated are uncompleted if not abandoned. We don’t even know who the Aviation minister is. This is just one example; it is the same in every ministry and sector. Poor and uninspiring as former President Goodluck Jonathan was, apart from Stella Oduah, he had the likes of Prof. Bath Nnaji, who was replaced by an equally up and doing Prof. Chinedu Nebo, Mrs. Ifueko Omoigui at FIRS and Dora Akunyili at the initial stage. All these people earned big wins for Jonathan in spite of himself. No such performer with PMB so far.

    Graft war as a non-starter: PMB’s determination to dredge the swamp of graft in our system is also stumped. One and a half years down the line, the method being applied has become humdrum if not stupid with not ‘bankable’ result.

    This column has shouted itself hoarse on this issue and there is no point sounding like a bad gramophone. Even the office of the Attorney-General is lacking in both intellectual and institutional capacities. One example though that bears repetition: the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation is the key to fighting official graft if equipped and empowered. If this has happened, we should have its first report now.

    The rise of a power cabal: Obviously, a cabal has emerged which has managed to sequester the president and drive the presidency. Nothing wrong in such power games, except when the cabal is unenlightened and myopic. A selfish, clannish and power-mongering cabal will only breed ill-will for the presidency and engender endless crises in the polity. Unfortunately, this is where we are now.

    INEC/election conundrum: This crucial task has already been mired by the presidency. The appointments, from the headman to the recent national commissioners, are on the face of it, unenlightened, to say the least. It is doubtful if this team has the perspicacity to reform our electoral process or even conduct credible elections. Sad.

    Something salutary though: Let us concede, though grudgingly, that there are some stirrings in the agric sector. It is still very insignificant but it is a start. There is still massive importation of food and not enough is being done to push back that scourge. We should ban importation of rice, poultry products, vegetable oil, fish, milk, in the next one year for a start and drive local production and substitutes more seriously.

     

     

    Military siege to Southeast

    Just as suspected, the dance of the ‘python’ in this festive period in Igboland has been a source of pain and sorrow. Early travellers for the Yuletide have reported most punishing military checkpoints, especially from the Onitsha head bridge. This has caused many people to stay overnight on the road. Even the Nigerian Customs Service has joined the bazaar.

    This is very provocative. Compared to Kaduna, Taraba, Zamfara, Adamawa, Nasarawa and even Benue, the states of the Southeast are very peaceful. Kaduna has been a killing-field with ethnic militia better armed than the army. One is not aware of any military operation going on in any of these places.

    Apart from ‘Operation Python Dance’, there is another ‘Operation Show of Force’ going on in Aba right now. The precedence and implications of this are far-reaching.

    But most telling is that in all of this, the military is contriving to usurp the powers and duties of the police. The police should be empowered to do its duties around the country. Period.

     

    MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL.