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Category: Steve Osuji

  • Lagos is not a Yoruba ‘town’

    Situating the debate Now that the 2015 elections have been won and lost, it will do us some good to give more perspective to the Lagos debate in order to achieve some logical conclusions. Last Friday, in my pre-election prognosis, I had started on the premise of that age-worn Igbo maxim: O biara be onye abiagbulaya, mgbe o ga-ala mpu-mkpu apu kwa laya. It simply means live and let live but pithier and more beautiful in its literal sense: bear no ill-will against your host lest you be afflicted by hunch back as you return home. This and several other Igbo dictums are indications that the Igbo universe has a deep culture of mutual respect and reciprocity.

    Recall that the Lagos monarch, Oba Rilwan Akiolu, had sparked off a latent ethnic controversy a few days to the April 11 governorship election when in one anxious moment, he had ‘decreed’ that Ndigbo and other non-indigenes in Lagos would have the Lagos lagoon to contend with if they failed to vote his candidate. His ‘fatwa’ was even more irksome in concluding that “what you people cannot do in Onitsha, Aba or anywhere you cannot do it here.”

    Surely this comment coming from a paramount royalty exhibits a rare form of intolerance and bigotry that should never be allowed in the 21st century. Understandably, the Oba’s bombshell is triggered by the March 28 presidential election in which APC in Lagos lost five House of Representatives’ seats with Igbo PDP candidates winning two. There was therefore apprehension among some Lagosians and in Lagos APC that the numerical strength of Igbo voters in Lagos could cause an upset in the guber race, thus the unrestrained threat: ‘vote APC or perish.’

    One is taken aback at the dissemblance of some Yoruba commentators, even highly enlightened ones, who are expected to serve as guiding lights to the illogical hoi polloi. Not a few have made excuses for the monarch, positing that he is kabiyesi – he that cannot be questioned. But we also know many obas in history have been deposed, de-throned or even put down! Well, a few issues have been thrown up by this episode:

    First, Ndigbo in Lagos have not run foul of any law of Lagos State by voting Jimi Agbaje or the PDP. It is democracy at work and as the electoral process gets better, the people will increasingly vote their conscience and their votes will continue to count. And it is unfair, if not hypocritical for anyone to seek to abuse Ndigbo as if they have broken any law by exercising their democratic rights.

    While we are at it, why are Ndigbo always singled out and made a scapegoat? There are hordes of aggrieved Yoruba in Lagos and the Southwest who got huge cash inducement and they voted for PDP. Nearly all the Southsouth people in Lagos and the Southwest would have voted for PDP as well. So it is sheer ethnic baiting to make it seem as if only the brash, ungrateful Ndigbo plotted to undo the APC in Lagos.

    Nobody, no matter how highly placed, is allowed to issue hate messages that are liable to lead the untutored mass to violence and tribal frictions. Election is not a do-or-die affair and we must refrain from making it seem as if losing is the end of life.

    This brings us to the issue of the status of Lagos. So many commentators are hinging their logic on Ndigbo doing in Lagos, what they would not accept in their place and I think that is simply asinine if not an illiterate argument only heard in motor parks. The point is that Lagos is in a class by itself – a mega city. Providence, geography, colonialism and Nigeria’s geo-political history have made it so. Lagos is willy-nilly carrying a role foisted upon it by these factors way beyond its control. Lagos is at least one hundred years removed from Onitsha, Ibadan, Kaduna or any other Nigerian city.

    Lagos is no longer a Yoruba town as some of my Yoruba friends would want to so circumscribe it. Come to think of it, Lagos is not even a Yoruba word, we seem to forget that! Lagos is a burgeoning cosmopolis which is striving to earn her pride of place among the world’s cities. One merely chuckles when some folks get provincial and seek to own Lagos. Yes, there are indigenes; yes, they may own Lagos but they cannot circumscribe Lagos.Like London or New York or even latter-day Dubai, great cities will inexorably evolve to be no-man’s land. For example Nigerians and especially Yoruba have won important council elections in England. By their growing number and importance, in less than 50 years a Nigerian of Yoruba extraction could be mayor of London, or even prime minister. When the time comes, there is nothing anyone can do about it.

    When the time came for Barak Obama, a Black American of Kenyan origin to rule America, there was nothing anyone could do about it. Not even the White Ango-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) who believe they own America. Not the inimitable Jewish clan. Who runs Dubai today? Does it matter? I think not; what matters is that they have a complex city, the mall of the world to run and they seek a throng of ‘strangers’ to come have a stake.

    A city is like a brothel which thrives by the very traffic of strangers. It is a prodigal that grows by undoing its progeny. A true city is not home to indigenes strapped in bante (loincloth) smudging the glistening sheen of modernity. A city is an open sesame, a spell for making barriers fly open and engendering massive growth and development. What is a city without the throng of ‘visitors’, paying huge taxes, laying massive investments and shooting skyscrapers into the skyline in morbid capitalist quest?

    Takeaways and what Akin Ambode can do: The incoming governor must take off where Governor Babatunde Fashola stopped; he is here to build a megacity, a global top 20 not to nurse the wound of indigenes. The best cities in the world thrive on state of the art infrastructure, unflappable security and water-tight rule of law. Apart from fast-tracking modern infrastructure, he may need to set up an agency to take charge of non-indigenes (non-Yoruba more appropriately); what really is their size, what are their grievances and special needs; why would they vote against a ruling party, etc. What are the best avenues to reach the critical mass of non-indigenes? Another election will soon be here and the thinking party will get the votes. The best cities of the world are judged by the quality of their laws, the soundness of institutions and the astuteness of minds running it.

    Finally, I sincerely think Ndigbo deserve some respect and understanding for their enormous contributions to the making of this mega city. If someone could quantify how much taxes, levies and dues derived from their work and business activities daily, it would be clear that this city needs Ndigbo as they need the city. It also must be stated that Ndigbo have nothing to be ashamed of for choosing to sink with PDP; they will have to live with the consequences anyway. It will smack of “negative triumphalism” to borrow Reuben Abati’s tautology for anyone to pillory Ndigbo for their choice.

    And Okonkwo comes to town: My cerebral colleague, Olakunle Abimbola writing in his column (Republican Ripples) The Nation last Tuesday brought Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’s’ (TFA) protagonist – Okonkwo, into the fray. But his perspective is flawed because he does not quite grasp the sociology of the Igbo man. Using the TFA analogy, it is not for nothing that the book opens with a wrestling match. That signifies gamesmanship, rivalry, chivalry and strength. Again, nowhere in TFA is found any concept of monarchy or over-lordship. What is preponderant are forums of elders trading in wisdom, young men of valour, industry and free-spiritedness that border on irreverence. That is what we are; that is the constitution of our DNA and it will be unfair to expect us to change overnight because we live in Lagos or London.

    Historically, Igbo abhor monarchy. Never mind the self-crowned aberration found on nearly every street of Lagos and beyond, they don’t represent Ndigbo. Again, most of the so-called paramount rulers in Igboland cannot trace their crown a hundred years back. This is in contrast to some stools in Yorubaland that may date back nearly a thousand years. So here are two peoples of vastly contrasting cultures and acculturation. What this means is that each of our peoples have strengths we can tap into and build upon. They also have their foibles, their peccadilloes which we must understand and tolerate.

    We must acknowledge and regard each other from these perspectives. But most important, we must always remember that what counts ultimately is our common humanity under one maker. And whatever else we may claim to be, whether indigene, aborigine or stranger element would not matter at the end of the day. What would matter is the quality of life we extract from this space; the smiles we are able to evoke from our neigbhours, colleagues and associates regardless of tribe or tongue. How do we improve on this space we find ourselves today and make it even better for our children? Finally, we often forget too quickly that we are but mere mortals – here today and gone tomorrow, but the city abides.

  • Yes, let’s probe NNPC; declare assets

    While this column is in favour of a President Muhammadu Buhari drawing the line from June 1, 2015 and moving on swiftly with the enormous tasks at hand, an enquiry into the activities of our petroleum behemoth is in order. All appointees declaring their assets is also sine qua non for anyone to hold any post in the new era.

    The activities of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation as well as that of a few other strategic national agencies need to be reviewed and put into perspective as a tool for revamping the economy. Never again must such savaging of NNPC as happened under Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke be allowed to happen – ever.

  • Ambode and Ndigbo: O biara be onye abiagbula ya…

    It is one of those dictums a child picks up as he grows up in an Igbo household. O biara be onye abiagbula ya, mgbe o ga ala  mkpu mkpu apukwa la ya. Let the visitor bring no ill-will on his host so that no harm accosts him as he departs. It is a maxim that re-echoes the basic truths of life about reciprocity; mutual co-existence and social graces. Igbo society and culture pay ample attention to mutuality, to meting equal measures to all. This must have spawned the other deep saying: egbe bere, ugo bere; nke si ibeya ebela nku kwa ya: let the hawk perch and let the eagle perch and let he that will hinder the other lose his wings.

    It is from this standpoint that one reads what seems like a looming face-off between Ndigbo in Lagos and their host, the Yoruba. The 2015 election is turning out to be a watershed in the relationship between these two great ethnic groups in Nigeria. First is the scenario at the national level where Ndigbo chose to go down with the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ostensibly to spite the Yoruba dominated All Progressives Congress (APC). There is no doubt that the age-old rivalry between the three major tribes in Nigeria has been at play here.

    With the Hausa and Yoruba dominant in APC, Ndigbo naturally opted to stick with PDP. As Ndigbo and PDP took a shellacking in the presidential election, Lagos presents the next political turf. Apart from what may be considered an eternal rivalry with Yoruba, the teeming mass of Igbo in Lagos had felt injured by certain policies of the state government which must have led many to vow to vote against the APC government at this election. PDP was quick to latch on to those grievances. There was also a crowd of estranged elements in APC too. And the result was a close contest as never been seen before in Lagos during the Presidential and National Assembly polls of March 28. PDP had swept five of the 24 Federal House of Representative seats with Ndigbo getting two of those slots and one for an Edo indigene. Even Accord Party won one federal seat.

    It is indeed quite a feat surely unprecedented in Lagos if not Nigeria’s politics. It is a sure sign that Ndigbo in Lagos has numerical strength which if properly harnessed, is capable of causing a political tsunami sooner than we think.

    In fact, as soon as tomorrow when the governorship and state house elections hold: the PDP crowd (with a highly sellable candidate in Jimi Agbaje), the non-conformist Yoruba like OPC and Afenifere, all the south-south ethnic groups plus the horde of Igbo voters could spell trouble for the ruling APC in tomorrow’s governorship diadem in Lagos. And indeed, Ndigbo may have the block/swing vote that might decide tomorrow’s fate.

    This explains why this matter of Ndigbo in Lagos has gotten so very tacky in the way of most inter-tribal issues. Let’s do a cliché and say that the atmosphere in Lagos is tense and electric. For the first time, the ruling party in Lagos sweats profusely over a guber election which was hitherto taken for granted.

    Akin Ambode, the APC candidate is not only a quality proposition he has proved to be an election warrior – indefatigable and pragmatic. His academic and work records are unmatched by any of the other candidates.

    Noticing the ace held by Ndigbo after March 28, he had swiftly moved round all the Igbo groups and clusters in Lagos reaching out and showing them why they would be better off with him at the Round House, Alausa come May 29. Even when the Oba of Lagos dropped a clanger, (see box) he was quick to reassure all ethnic groups that his would be an inclusive government and Lagos would be home to all.

    Five reasons Ndigbo Lagos are better off with APC: I must add my little voice to the call from numerous quarters that Ndigbo in Lagos would be better off voting for the APC candidate, Akinwunmi Ambode. Here are just five reasons:

    First and most important in my estimation is that Ndigbo must cut their losses. Having lost at the centre with PDP, Lagos is the next most important bloc both politically and economically. By my rough estimation, there are millions Igbo living and working in Lagos. There are some third generation Igbo living in Lagos with investments deep and wide. Ndigbo could get a foot into the ruling party through Lagos by voting Ambode. Politics is another word for pragmatism – practical solutions and benefits. Though Agbaje seems a nice guy, to vote him is like entering into a cul de sac. For Ndigbo, PDP today is a road that leads to nowhere, ‘one chance’. Let Ndigbo consider for a moment that Ambode scrapes through without Igbo votes, we would have lost both Abuja and Lagos – that will be very costly!

    The second reason Ndigbo should prefer Ambode is that APC has over these years, shown a better record of performance than the PDP. In nearly every state, APC have out-performed PDP.

    Third, Agbaje has no public service experience so will require at least a year or more to understand the service environment while Ambode will touchdown running.

    Fourth, with APC government at the centre, Lagos is bound to get the requisite special status it requires to make life more bearable for us Lagos dwellers. There is a sore need for more and improved infrastructure here, especially, roads, transportation and power.

    The fifth and last reason we must vote Ambode is that Ndigbo have made their point and the lesson has been learnt. We are in a better position to consolidate in APC Lagos, bargain better as a group, and influence and shape policies. A golden moment presents itself in Lagos for Ndigbo through APC and they must show wisdom this time around.

    Going forward for APC, it is my opinion that the party is gradually coming to terms with the fact that Lagos is a multi-ethnic cosmopolitan city. That is the harsh reality. To seek to change that or circumscribe that fact will probably amount to bringing the entire place down. The party that will win and rule here will always be the thinking and most strategic one. It is almost like in the US with plural ethnic groups like the Hispanics, Blacks, Chinese, Jews, etc.; any party that must win these block votes must court and manage these groups most delicately. Our political maturation must arrive with a truckload political pragmatism in tow.

  • A gaffe of royal proportions

    Our Kabiyesi has done it again. In the beginning, before the race started, Oba Rilwan Akiolu of Lagos had ruffled not a few feathers when he hoisted Akin Ambode as his anointed guber candidate for APC Lagos. The muted tension generated by that royal statement took quite a while to be doused.

    Last Monday Kabiyesi did not only ruffle but went ahead to pluck a few feathers when he said that Ndigbo would either vote his candidate Ambode or have the entire Lagos lagoon to contend with. Reactions from the comment were of oceanic proportions, to put it nicely.

    Though the ‘royal’ comment has been retracted and APC top hierarchy has denounced it, there are still issues to be raised. First, Kabiyesi must be father to all – meaning all candidates, indigenes and non-indigenes. Two, this is a democracy and the will of the people will ultimately prevail as we improve the process. Three, we must show more restraint and tolerance; we must refrain from making election a do-or-die affair.  Four, it is not only Ndigbo who voted against APC; there are some Lagosians who have a grudge to bear against APC. There are the likes of OPC and numerous south-south people who would ordinarily vote PDP. Seeming to heap it all on Ndigbo would only provoke ire and alienate votes.

    Having said that, one appeals to Ndigbo to accept Kabiyesi’s recant and back Ambode. As I have explained in the main piece, APC and Ambode will favour Ndigbo better. O bigo anyi aka n’obi.

  • PDP: Humpty-Dumpty finally had a great fall

    Heavens heaved a sigh Earth shifted a notch And the world held her breath

    What manner of race is this?

    The heavens heaved…

    Could an earthquake pass so quietly without tremors, would a tsunami happen without a big splash? Has Humpty Dumpty which was long suspended in a state of falling, finally hit the ground unceremoniously? Well, maybe just as well; why would a lumbering, rotund fellow sit on our wall for so long anyway? What on earth was the listless, over-sized egg doing desecrating our wall for all of 16 years? Perhaps it couldn’t even get off the wall by itself so we have done it the favour by giving it a shove. And we say hurray, Humpty Dumpty has finally had a great fall and all the straw men around it could not put it together again.

    When Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje led a chunk of members to stage a walkout from a PDP convention and formed a parallel party in November 2013, I had noted that Humpty-Dumpty was having a great fall. Though one was thrilled then by the suspended animation of a falling cartoon character, one never really conjectured PDP as a fallen edifice; crashed and crushed.

    Yes, though it became apparent a long time ago that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was an unviable proposition doomed to fail, one never imagined it would come so suddenly and with such apathetic thud. But PDP’s Humpty-Dumpty finally had a great fall last weekend as Nigerians gave it a final nudge at the presidential polls. Vacuous members had boasted that their party would rule Nigeria for 60 years but they could only get 16 years.

    It was on such confounding hollowness they had forged the party over these years. There was neither philosophy nor principle; neither reticence nor edifice. Yes, in 16 years, their permanent abode remains an ugly, uncompleted monolith desecrating the Abuja skylines. Yes, PDP is so derelict it could not manage to make for itself, a befitting home all these years. It is actually a misnomer to tag it a political party. It was only a raucous amalgam of bootleggers and fortune-hunters. Nation-building must have been the last item on their agenda if ever it featured.

    Yes, it was a child of circumstance having emerged from the foundries of a testy military era. But the early fathers were men of some substance, some integrity and some nationalistic fervour. You would never dismiss an Alex Ekwueme at his prime or Sunday Awoniyi, Solomon Lar, Adamu Ciroma and Audu Ogbe, to name only some of them. But they were less lucky, or shall we say, not circumspect in picking their pioneer presidential candidate in 1999. General Olusegun Obasanjo (retired) who was fresh from prison was foisted on the fledgling party and it started its decline right then.

    Obasanjo garrisoned the party, conquered it and had it in his rein for eight years. A soldier with a tendency for megalomania he could never cotton to the fact that a political party was an organic part of democratic governance. In fact he never understood the true essence of democracy. All he wanted was power; almost absolute power and its appurtenances. He therefore whipped PDP into his own peculiar shape; he molded it in his own ugly image and pressed it into his own selfish purposes. At the end of the first eight years, PDP was more a bohemian gambling club than a political party. It could hardly manage its affairs how much more guiding a new democracy to a worthy future. But who cared anyway? The founding fathers who had an inkling as to the spirit behind the body had been worsted and dispersed by Obasanjo. The common chord which therefore held the new PDP together was our national treasury. Thus for 16 years, all PDP did was to manage to hold on to power by hook or by crook and then binge on the treasury. They were like pirates upon an eternal booty, they were feasting endlessly. There was no rhyme or reason to their actions. The people pined away and the country became imperiled and tottered. Yet like the brigands they are, they carried on as if all was well; they boasted about the biggest party in the Black world that would rule for 60 years.

    But PDP’s folly has been debunked by its own contradictions and providence has rescued Nigeria from its vice grip. Now that PDP is suddenly an opposition party one hopes it would sober up and begin to regroup and rebuild in the mold of a proper party. It is also hoped that the All Progressives Congress (APC), the new party in power would endeavor to organize itself in the manner of a proper political party that would engender positive democracy.

    It is hoped that we are on to a truly new beginning now that the people have managed to regain their voice and shooed out President Goodluck Jonathan, the last of the PDP mojo. But he manages to steal victory even in his loss and capitulation. Did you notice how a jittery world rallied to gingerly remove the hand of the baboon from our soup pot lest he spills the soup, as Ndigbo would say? They carefully nudge Humpty from the wall so that he does not bring down the wall with him. Let’s call it our moment of grace.

    But Professor Attahiru Jega, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is the x-factor in this new, unfolding, paradigm while General Muhammadu Buhari may well be the last soldier standing. Can he change the game?

  • Now that Ndigbo are in opposition

    I wrote not too long ago on this space asking whether Ndigbo would sink and swim with President Goodluck Jonathan and some readers came at me like rabid dogs. Some even labeled me outcast. Who is the outcast now? Who is the greatest loser in the unfolding political arithmetic of Nigeria? Just like PDP, Ndigbo too have become political Humpty Dumpty, the silly, big egg that has suffered a shameful fall.

    Going forward, and if they manage to gather themselves together, they will be more pragmatic in their political calculations and eschew excessive sentimentality. They will also have to do away with most of their leaders who think with their stomach and who have no clarity about tomorrow.

    It is just as well that for once in our political lives, we are operating from the opposition camp. So much for years of opportunism, whoredom and romance with just any government in power; now we have to work for our keep, make our own case and determine how we want to play the field. Again, perhaps this is the treatment we need in order to wise up in the politics of this land.

  • 10 reasons to vote out Jonathan

    This piece is perhaps the most difficult I have had to write. Why is it so? It is the eve of a major election battle between two leading contenders. Even though readers of this column must know by now that my sympathy lies with the APC candidate, General Mohammadu Buhari, it still appears unfair at this last hour to back one candidate against the other. This has been my tormenting dilemma for many days. I have had to cast and recast the above headlines in over half a dozen ways just to defang the piece and soften its bite.

    Unfortunately, I had to return to my original and (if you like, primordial instincts). I fell for my conscience; I was suckered by the extreme love for my country. No other sentiment could win over my primitive conscience and the flag. I believe quite strongly that in the overall interest of our fatherland, Nigeria must move on now without Goodluck Jonathan. I adduce below, just ten reasons in my order of their gravity:

    One: The small matter of honour: This point has been flogged so much that one must not dwell on it, but that does not make it less crucial. Indeed, it is for me, the primary reason why Nigerians must not vote for Jonathan. He has proven not to be a man of his word. He is a president that we cannot trust or rely upon the words he speaks on his honour. He told us he would run for just one term. He has not only denied it, he challenges us to prove it. For me and for any decent person, presidents are made of nobler stuff.

    Two: Not capable: This job is beyond President Goodluck Jonathan’s ken and that is the simple truth. It is Igbo wisdom that what a man does not know is always above his head. The delicate art of the presidency of any country is too serious to be appropriated on base sentiments. After about six years on this job, any discerning and honest mind can tell that this president cannot grasp the magnitude of this office. While one loathes to throw in the word ‘clueless’, it is quite apparent that it did not surface by chance. Our country is far worse off today than it was six years ago and it would be plain dishonesty to make excuses for him. If the country had flowered and bloomed, he would have taken full credits. Another four years of Jonathan is sure to spell doom for Nigeria because the more he tried (and in fairness, he does try to improve) the more he fails. Pathetically, he appears like a man digging roundabout himself. He actually needs our help; to help him OUT.

    Three: How to run the most corrupt country in the world and be cool about it: How President Jonathan could sit pretty on the dungeon of a stinking, messy, corrupt, country without a nose mask is a wonder. It is either that he is congenitally corrupt whereupon he no longer knows what constitutes corruption or he has an entirely different definition all of his own, or both. For instance, most cabinet members have been on a binge in the last six years; nearly all MDGs reek and you need no forensic audit to perceive that. One can list over a dozen cases begging for attention.

    Four: No fire in his belly: The Boko Haram saga is a glowing testament that President Jonathan is too weak and indecisive to run a country. And when weakness meshes with corruption the result is sure fatality for any country. For five years, the budgets for war-wares and welfare of the military were being spirited away by the Presidency, the Ministry of Defence and the military brass. The country’s defence and security situation (like in all other spheres) were a torrid mess such that a rag-tag Boko Haram militia was dead on seizing the country from President Jonathan and his messy military. It was so pathetic that the Western world working through the US and Britain could not work with Nigeria’s military because everywhere stank.

    The US and Britain had to resort to working through a roundabout route via Chad, Niger and Cameroun to save Nigeria. To think that Chad and Niger are landlocked countries with no seaports; they are among the poorest in the world. Between them and based solely on their annual budgets, they cannot muster a modern fighter jet. These countries used to be under the sustenance and security umbrella of Nigeria. Today, their soldiers are on our soil liberating us because we have a president that does not just get it. We may not want to hear this, but our president has almost become a pariah among leaders of notable nations of the world.

    Five: Where are the Chibok girls?: About six weeks ago when President Jonathan told the nation that the girls would soon be released; that the multi-national force was closing in on the Boko Haram hideouts where the girls were kept. Challenged again two weeks ago, he said he believed the girls were alive for their bodies would have been displayed in the manner of Boko Haram had they been killed. Even if we overlook that morbid faux pas, how in good conscience are we supposed to vote President Goodluck Jonathan tomorrow if over 200 school girls abducted nearly a year ago are still missing with no clue whatsoever as to their whereabouts? In other lands where there is honour this president would never have the face to stand an election; in fact, he would have resigned.

    Six: How to wreck an economy: A country whose leadership has no honour, is weak, incapable, and the atmosphere festers with corrupt practices cannot expect to have a decent economy. Under six years of Jonathan’s rule, he has left the economy comatose and in disarray. Nigeria has earned the most revenue in the last five years than at any other time in her history. Yet no attempt was made at investing properly or diversifying the economy. Now crude oil prices have crashed, the naira has caved in with it and the so-called economy is in the throes of death.

    Seven: The demolition squad of Dame, Diezani and Adoke: Apart from the perils that the president brought upon his administration, there are three people who lent him the most hand and the more reasons we should not vote for Jonathan tomorrow. They are his wife, Dame Patience Jonathan, his Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke and his Minister for Justice, Mohammed Adoke. Dame Patience is as grasping and irrepressible as she is detestable. Everywhere she goes and in all she does, she spreads ill-will like dark confetti. Diezani has curled around Nigeria’s most important asset (crude oil) in the last six years like a boa constrictor and has asphyxiated it. She simply made it the center of corruption and Jonathan is too weak to check or chuck her. Mr. Adoke is simply the minister of no justice, he has the EFCC under his belt and he makes sure all the big thieves in the land who are his friends are never prosecuted. In the last five years, Adoke has invoked so much havoc on Nigeria’s judiciary system and her fight against corruption yet he expects reasonable, patriotic Nigerians to vote for his boss tomorrow?

    Eight: Desperation for power: Ironically, President Jonathan seems not to know how so poorly he has performed in his first term. Yet he would do just anything to return for a second term. He would burst our treasury and use up all the fund therein to ‘bribe’ the electorate; he would court the devil and all the criminals in the land; he would spring all the people standing trial for monumental fraud and draft them into his campaign. He would buy up traditional rulers, the clergy, students, militants and just anybody to return for a second term. He considers it his birthright, which is a dangerous notion. He has forgotten entirely that only yesterday, he had no shoes.

    Nine: No Presidential charisma and aura: Presidential poise, gait, charisma and the ancient art of oratory and public speaking would be considered special gifts of nature. Though they may be learned and mastered, we will not crucify President Jonathan for sorely lacking these essential tools of leadership. By the same token, we won’t take the blame for becoming utterly discomfited each time our president faces the microphone. Having been in public life since 1999 and at very high levels, one would have expected him to have learned these crucial skills. Not even in the last six years has he shown remarkable improvements. A leader and a president at that must exude an over-awing confidence that inspires his people. Perhaps Jonathan is better off as a senior civil servant.

    Ten: Raw deal to Ndigbo:  I have kept this for last because it concerns me. Only goodness knows the spell Jonathan has cast on my people to make them follow him so foolishly. Not minding that the south-south alone will never give you any political advantage in the future; not minding that most of our people and businesses are in the southwest and north. Also, not minding the fact that President Jonathan has treated Ndigbo worse than any other president in recent history. A few examples will suffice. First, the southeast got the least –  only 5% – of all the projects executed in Nigeria in the last six years. Just about N75 billion against the northwest that topped with N497 billion. With this, it is apparent that hardly any major project was done in the southeast by Jonathan. The 2nd Niger Bridge, a forgotten promise, hurriedly dusted  a few months ago months ago at the onset of another election, is the only major project in Nigeria structured on public private partnership as if Ndigbo do not pay tax like any other people.

    Only Igbo appointees were removed with indignity under Jonathan: Dora Akunyili whose rare courage ensured Jonathan’s ascendancy was shooed out. Prof. Bath Nnaji, brain behind the much vaunted power reform was not only disgraced, Jonathan ‘vetoed’ his power plant. Princess Stella Oduah whose monstrous work revived most of our airports in such short time was pressured out while a Diezani Alison-Madueke sits pretty. Rosemary Ukamaka of Immigrations was axed for employment racket while Abba Moro who staged a killer racket remains in office. Festus Odumegwu was promptly sacrificed and General Azubuike Ihejirika, the best COAS in recent times was hounded out.

    Finally there is no single Igbo man in Jonathan’s 12-man National Security Council (NSC); no Igbo is heading any of the over a dozen military, intelligence and paramilitary organs today under Jonathan. Igbo wu Igbo unu mukwa anya?

    How Jonathan can win: Lastly, one could actually raise over a hundred reasons not to vote for President Goodluck Jonathan tomorrow but that will be a pointless exercise. For any discerning Nigerian of conscience, Jonathan has failed woefully and we actually need to rescue him from himself by removing him from the job. But even in losing the election, he could still steal victory by organizing a good election and effectuating an orderly hand over. That would be his ultimate victory.

  • ICG: The conversation Ndigbo want

    Any knowledgeable Igbo man who is awake to this time must have seen the recent appearance unto the scene of an ad hoc body called Igbo Conversational Group (ICG). It is clearly the handiwork of former governor of Imo State Chief Ikedi Ohakim, an astute and thinking man.

    The critique of ICG would be business for another day but suffice to ask just two questions today: why “Conversational” and not perhaps, ‘Dialogue’ or ‘Intervention’? Secondly, are we seeing in ICG the same kind of skirmishes by Chief Orji Uzo Kalu recently after he had roundly lost out of power? He made the same noises and raised the same questions about Igbo marginalization. So much sound and fury followed by cold dust.

    Sadly, Igbo elite don’t seem to see the big picture. There is a huge vacuum; Ndigbo crucially need a leader now than at any other time of her history. But leadership of a people is not a poolside champagne party. It is a cross, it is a long distance race and it is selfless and thankless. But there is a crown. Who is ready?

  • Amaechi: The courage of his convictions

    Your vote or your treasury? This is an uncertain time; indeed, it is a treacherous time in the life of our dear country Nigeria. It is a time of buying and selling of conscience, buying and selling of name, of personality, of associations, of ethnic groups and of voters. In fact if you have anything of any value, you can sell it now, pronto! Our traditional rulers like Obas, are selling like hot cake now –  in dollar denominations. Their unfortunate counterparts like Obi, Igwes and Emirs have sold in naira. Groups like Ohaneze, Afenifere, OPC, MASSOB, CAN, NANS, celebrities and stars, most of them have cashed in on their names in billions of naira.

    Though all the political parties that can afford to are doing it, most of us can see that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its leader, President Goodluck Jonathan are the chief culprit in the on-going money-for-vote promo. Never has money been so deployed to woo voters in the annals of Nigeria’s electioneering. It is as if Nigeria’s entire treasury has been emptied for the purpose of this election which partly explains why the economy is prostrate and the land is famished. PDP especially isthrowing money about as if it were the sand of the desert.

    It is truly a treacherous time. There is so much perfidy in the air and it seems the country is being disemboweled. We are celebrating a ribald festival of villains and renegades and the atmosphere reeks. All we hear around us are the guffaws of small men who are reveling in today’s ‘burnt offering’ not minding the constipation of tomorrow. It is akin to the bazaar of the Barbarians; of locusts feeding frenzy on the grain fields without a thought about tomorrow.

    It is no season for the courageous; for people of noble convictions. It is a time patriots are booed in the market place. We are currently at the crossroads, we are at the bank of the Rubicon; we are actually pulling a tug-of-war and ‘Team Evil’ seeks to pull ‘Team Good’ across the line. We are at a time when darkness threatens to overcome light. It is the new moon of the rampant mob upturning our sacred groves. It is a season that has exposed the latent debaucheries of our debauched elders.

    The man who said ‘No’ Reflecting upon this forlorn season, people like Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State comes to mind. One of the few men of courage and convictions left in this clime, when the story of this era is told someday, he is sure to take his place in Nigeria’s emerging dawn. It would be recorded that he was one of the few men stood up to defined this age.

    He will stand out not because he governed a state for there are many governors present and past. Not because his state is an oil-rich and strategic one. No, there are richer and more appointed parts of the country. It would not be because he acquitted himself very well in the call of his duty as a governor. A few other governors did quite as well by the standards of the time.

    In fact, as we often say, you do not really need a governor to do most of the brick and mortar stuff. Of rephrased, the critical job of a governor is not to build roads and bridges and schools. The key call of a governor is to lead a state by example and to drive whatever noble vision he has set. Where there is a perceptive governor, the ministries, agencies and the citizen would build to the end of the world.

    Regardless, Governor Amaechi built stuff and he is said to have performed in his time, better than all his predecessors. One has not been to Rivers for a long time during his tenure but perceptive friends and family members who live there tell me so upon enquiry. They speak about his grand vision, his bold, fearless constitution and his expansive and down-to-earth nature. They think he is a leader in the classic sense who has provided inspirational leadership.

    Great; but we are concerned here today by the manifest courage of his convictions. He did the uncommon by standing up to a presidency which was transforming into a leviathan. In Nigeria’s queer federalism presidency often gets carried away and act like a monarchy or benevolent dictator. From the seat of power in Aso Rock, Abuja, presidents hold court and make the states their footstools.

    The king and the community field They contrive all forms of aberrant actions to subvert the polity and subjugate the states. For instance, the presidency arrogated to itself the powers to keep and release the national revenue at its time and according to its whims. If there are any accounts from the accruing agencies, they are opaque and shoddy. The presidency simply hands down to the federating states, just any figures that pleases it and this has been going on in the last 16 years. It does not matter that it is against the constitution; in fact, there are so many harmful practices against the constitution, the state and the people which our presidents can just simply JETTISON and expand the democratic and social spaces. But they would rather not.

    In the last two years, Governor Amaechi has been contending with the presidential leviathan that seeks to constrict our spaces all the more. It is analogous to the story of a king who keeps encroaching on the community playing field. Each time he finds a reason to take a little more; if nobody challenges him, he carries on until he takes it all. Anyone who stands up to the rapacious king is easily accused of seeking to dethrone him. Yet everyone benefits from the community playing field.

    Such has been the dilemma of Amaechi. If the wife of a president could snatch a microphone from an elected governor in public and tongue lash him, you can only imagine what goes on with lesser mortals. If a president can choose to abort the election of governors’ forum and in fact, set the body in disarray, there is no telling the magnitude of presidential powers. When an entire state; treasury, governor and all, are virtually surrendered to the first family to do with as they like, then we cannot claim to be under a civil rule. It is indeed this strain of uncivil actions that Governor Amaechi has stood up gallantly against in the last few years to his near peril.

    We salute his courage.

     

     

     

  • National ID card scheme hits the rock again?

    Fashioning an identity card for the citizens of this country must be some sort of adventure in the land of no return. Even the first trip to the moon could not have been more troublous. No fewer than three previous times have Nigerian governments tried to identify her citizens but all such attempts have been botched after huge contracts had been awarded.

    When a highly regarded professional, Mr. Chris Onyemenam was appointed a few years ago to initiate another national identity gamut, we thought the time was now to kill the serpent; what with today’s vastly improved technology. But we may have rejoiced too soon. After about three years, the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) is troubled once again. Since roll out was announced with fanfare over a year ago, nothing more is heard. I don’t know anyone I know who has the National ID.

    Recently, the major contractor/technical partners of NIMC had to send a long, open letter to the president through several national newspapers. Writing to the president through an open forum means that all other channels of engagement had broken down. It also means going to the court of public opinion.

    This is indeed a shame. This scheme failed in the First Republic, the Second Republic, and in Obasanjo’s era. The contractors cry of bad faith; we urge NIMC to seek mediation and ensure utmost integrity in their processes. That is the least we expect for our generation has a point to prove that we can succeed where our fathers failed. The ID scheme is too crucial not to be up and running in this age. We expect a lot more from Chris.