The Nation Newspaper

Category: Steve Osuji

  • Election flakes starring: Ndigbo, Kerry, Dasuki, Tompolo, Amaechi, etc

    RE: Southeast sinking with Jonathan?

    This question I raised here last week and it turned out it is a sore, delicate point. By noon of last Friday, I had received a deluge of text messages that would have crashed my phone if it were of Chinese mode. While a few saw my point and concurred that Ndigbo must vote with wisdom and open mind, a good number cursed and abused me. One went as far as calling me an ‘Osu’! Gee, what blind passion we exhibit in debates.

    Their concern, or rather grouse, as I could discern include the claim that Goodluck Jonathan is their ‘brother’; that North has ruled for too long; that General Buhari is a Muslim extremist; that Jonathan must have his second term as others have had and that Buhari being instrumental to making the polity ungovernable should not benefit from it.

    To reiterate the point of my article and give omnibus answers to the points raised, I say that Goodluck Jonathan is no more a ‘brother’ of Ndigbo as Muhammadu Buhari. As an instance, Igbo properties were hijacked in Kano during the civil war as they were in Port Harcourt. Two, has the constitution banished people from up the Niger from participating in the polity just because Northern generals ruled during our years of interregnums? That Buhari is an extremist is sheer propaganda orchestrated by his opponents. He is just an average Nigerian persona who would seek to allow his people a little edge at any given opportunity. That is human nature.

    Lastly, that Buhari might be even remotely linked to the Boko Haram carnage in the Northeast of Nigeria is as insensible as it is insensate. It will take an extremely foolish and irrational person to unleash or even condone such killings and destruction of his people as we have witnessed. Need one remind that he too was almost killed; mosques (including the Central mosque in Kano) have been bombed during prayers, Emirates have been sacked and emirs killed in cold blood. It will be unfair to blame these heinous acts on Buhari.

    The questions many chose to shy away from or deflect are whether Jonathan has the requisite capacity to run this country; whether he has tackled some of the problems confronting the country today adequately and whether he has performed well in office to deserve our votes once more? Let’s not also forget that a northerner picked an Igbo man as vice president shortly after the civil war and that there are probably more Igbo who have found home across the North than in the South.More important, Ndigbo must eschew primordial sentiments and vote wisely in the overall interest of the country.

     

    John Kerry to Nigerian leaders: behave or be busted

    No, that is not exactly the message though that is how it eventually came across in the media. It is the problem with this thing called news-peg. It was a most timeous and significant visit. I want to see it as the most symbolic move the US has made in Nigeria in a long while.

    John Kerry, the powerful US Secretary of State, visited us over the weekend. He met separately with the two front runners in the presidential election of February 14. He spoke pointedly to them on the need to conduct a peaceful election. And he urged “all of Nigeria’s candidates to do what is best for their country no matter the outcome on election day.” That is quite profound if the candidates truly understand the import of the statement.

    But when he closed on this note: “So let me be clear: Anyone who participates in, plans, or calls for widespread or systematic violence against the civilian population must be held accountable, including by ineligibility for an American visa,” it became the news and overshadowed the import of the message. But any Nigerian patriot must commend the US for this timely intervention disregarding how it rubs off on us at the moment.

     

    SamboDasuki ricochets in London

    Let me confess upfront that Col. SamboDasuki, the National Security Adviser, NSA, had long disappointed most of us who thought the world of his prowess. We were benumbed enough that his tenure has had little impact on the rampaging terror group, Boko Haram, now he seems to dabble into extraneous matters and throws so many spanners in the works. What is Sambo doing in Chatham House, London telling the world how unprepared Nigeria is for the upcoming election and the need to postpone? Why would he make such sensitive political statement abroad? Would Britain’s chief of security come before a Nigerian audience and suggest to it that a forthcoming general election in Britain be postponed?

    Dasuki’s London bombshell has only led us to the suspicion that he is flying a kite for a jittery PDP that fears defeat at the February 14 election. We expect our security guru to reassure us about the debacle in the northeast of Nigeria. Need we remind him that the Boko Haram has grown in strength under his watch? What on earth was Dasuki doing in London the same period the gang was almost over-running Maiduguri, capital of Borno State!? A man whose house is up in smoke cannot be delivering lectures abroad unless he knows something we don’t know.

    Tompolo, Dokubo, Boyloaf and all that bluster

    Looking at these boys, it is apparent they were not born during the Biafran war or they were not old enough to make it into even the Boys Company. This must explain why they are always full of fitful noise and hot air. Someone must tell these boys that wearing a huge frown and screaming at the rest of us is a telling sign of cowardice and fear. We are not impressed.

    No proper, well-groomed adult would invoke war. No real man who has witnessed real war would insist on war ever again. War and violence are the cheap commodities of idiots and untutored people. We must keep reminding AsariDokubo and his cohorts that Nigeria remains one entity under a constitution; election will hold on February 14 as scheduled, Nigerians will exercise their rights to vote their choice and the winner will preside. No band of boys bearing a few AK47s can change that.

    One’s real worry about the persistent threats of ex-militants like AsariDokubo, Government (Tompolo) Ekpemuopolo, Victor (Boyloaf) Ebika- bowei, Eris (Ogunboss) Paul and the rest of them, is that in their rascality, they are showcasing the innate weakness of president, Goodluck Jonathan. They are showing us that the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian armed forces requires an alternate ‘army’ to stand erect.

    It is sad that this last threat was made right before an elected governor of Bayelsa State, SeriakeDickson in Government House. Recall too that Mr. Jimi Agbaje, the PDP guber candidate for Lagos State had echoed this threat earlier in his campaign. It was indeed a rude shock that a man of Agbaje’s supposed enlightenment would mount a rostrum and threaten Nigerians to vote his candidate or be damned! Misguided youths who ought to be chided and called to order are now in the counsel of our leaders, governors and presidents. Does that explain why the ship of state is adrift?

    But have you noticed thatthese so-called ex-militants have become so fresh-skinned and bloated that I would wager they don’t want to go into the creeks anymore lest they drown. Besides, have you seen any billionaire fighting in any creek!

    Other flakes

    One, what is Governor Isa Yuguda and Mohammed Bala doing throwing stones at each other from the same (glass) house? What does that say of the PD.Two, that was quite maladroit of Governor ChibuikeAmechi to seek to bar the PDP from using the stadium in his state for campaign. If the stadium is good for his party, it must be good for the other party as well. No excuses, no explanations would hold water. Three, is it for real that a certain NdudiElumelu claimed he bribed some folks in PDP headquarters N750 million to swing the PDP Delta State governorship ticket for him? How come, a mere House of Reps member? Why, there so much money in this country and some of us are cooking our leather shoes to eat at the next meal?

    To Gov. Amosun, game-changer at 57

    This is a salute to Ogun State’s man of steel and bulldozer, Governor Ibikunle Amosun, as he turned 57 last week. He is one of the few examples of what a long time four years can be and what far-reaching achievements can be crammed into a term of office. He also debunks the myth that some states are not viable because they get little allocation from the Federation Account.
    The outstanding, if not astonishing performance of Amosun in Ogun seems so unassailable that even his opponents seem flat-footed and flailing. Anyone who knew Abeokuta, Ota and other towns of Ogun only needed to return there and marvel. Ogun people should never have any difficulty re-electing their governor to complete the job he has started.
    This is wishing the game-changer many more active years ahead.

  • Must Ndigbo sink with Jonathan?

    Time for strategic calculationsIn exactly 18 days, Nigerians will go to what promises to be an historic presidential election in her annals. There is no doubt that this exercise on February 14, 2015 will change the political and socio-economic configurations of our dear country, Nigeria whichever way the pendulum swings. This is the time for geo-political zones to make strategic calculations and pitch for desired positions in the coming dispensation.

    As incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and General MohammaduBuhari (retired) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), two front-runners in the coming election slug it out, where does Ndigbo stand? As a proudnwafor, I will be remiss to stand aloof and tell you, my brethren, that it does not matter how we vote on that day or that the outcome would be insignificant. No, Nigeria has a lot at stake and every ethnic bloc has something to gain or lose depending on how it votes. Let no one deceive you about this fact.

    Will Ndigbo swim and sink with Jonathan? In 2011, the Southeast cast the highest per centage of votes for President Jonathan’s election to office. Ndigbo voted him for various sentimental reasons that we all know too well, but understandably so.

    Now, with first term about ending, should Ndigbo vote overwhelmingly for President Jonathan once more? Let us answer by saying that there is need for circumspection; there is need for wisdom and there is need to ask a few critical questions. Let us also add that it is insulting that it is being taken for granted that Ndigbo would blindly throw their votes at Jonathan. That must never be the case.

    Circumspection: It was not Igbo vote alone that earned Jonathan presidency in 2011. Igbo vote alone cannot win presidential election in Nigeria, so since we are a collective, we must be mindful where majority of our compatriots are leaning so that we do not end up being alone and lonely when the votes are counted.

    Wisdom: no one can stop a moving train. If there is a national consensus that the time has come for a change, there is little Igbo vote can do to change that. If the overall mood of the nation is that of an urgent need for a change of dispensations, if there is a groundswell, a momentum sweeping through the land, then commonsense dictates that you cannot swim against the tide lest you sink.

    Critical questions: And if Ndigbo are bent on sinking with Jonathan (assuming he is truly under the water gasping for breath), the logical thing is to ask ourselves: why do we want to sink with Jonathan?One, has he run the country well enough? Two, has he fulfilled his promises to Nigerians and in particular, Ndigbo? If the answer to these questions is yes, then let’s vote him even against the tide of a negative electoral prospect. But if nay, it would be foolhardy, if not sheepish to insist on voting him just because he has asked us to or because he is our ‘brother’.

    One: Has he run the country well? In other words, has he provided leadership; has he shown that he truly understands the import and significance of the number one job in the land? These questions are deeper than they seem. There are leaders but few can truly lead a country well. Few have the capacity, the acumen and the gravitas to hold a country together for four years. My submission is that President Jonathan has not proven that he can lead Nigeria. He appears a man of good heart and gracious spirit (especially when he is not politicking) but leadership is made of “sterner stuff”, to chip in a bit of Shakespeare. President Jonathan’s ability to lead Nigeria or lack thereof is a topic for another day. Let’s note for now, that he has fallen short of our expectations.

    Of leadership and achievementDid he fulfill his promises? It is incredulous when some people outline rehabilitation of railways, airports, Benin-Ore Express road, etc. as some key achievements of this administration. Apart from the fact that these are paltry for a nearly six-year effort, right-thinking people know it is not about the effort but the vision, the strategies, the deliverables, the costs and overall impact on the individual and nation as a whole. It’s about leading.

    For instance, how can a president deign to be at work when under his bemused watch, corruption is ravaging the land and the damn thing is so odious that the whole world covers its nose because of the foul smell wafting from Nigeria? Examples are legion but a few outstanding ones would suffice.

    First, the Petroleum Minister, Mrs. Diezani Alison Madueke is known to have wasted about N10 billion of public funds shuttling and carousing around the world. Note that this is not mere allegation because every flight is logged. But what is pathetic in this is not that a public officer played around with billions of public funds but the fact that she was buffered by the Presidency, the judiciary was suborned thus the National Assembly was cowed and hamstrung from calling her to account.The chain effect is that She did not only soil her office, she dazed the presidency, damaged the judiciary and the NASS. Why would any other minister subject himself to NASS’ oversight after Diezani’s refusal?

    Second, how can we speak of any achievement when the economy has virtually been run aground? This administration seems dead on arrival with our strategic national asset – oil and gas – in the hands of an errant and uncontrollable minister? Instead of building new refineries and growing the sector, we have witnessed over four years of unmitigated looting and diversion of our oil and gas resources through dubious importation of products, phantom subsidies, opaque crude oil swaps, stealing and such miasma never experienced in the industry.

    Third, one Abba Moro, said to be Minister of Interior organized an employment scam to fleece jobless youths.

    The sheer ineptitude that characterized the exercise caused the death of 19 and injury to scores of hapless Nigerians. One would expect the president to summarily dismiss such a fellow. But he is still glued to his soiled seat, an ugly reminder of President Jonathan’s crippling inertia.

    What about the mind-numbing matter of handing Nigeria’s maritime security to an erstwhile renegade who raised arms against the country? One can list over a dozen sordid cases of unspeakable graft and gross dereliction of duty under Jonathan’s charge.So much for achievement and leadership.

    Two: Did he fulfill his promises to Ndigbo? Let us admit and admonish that it is not about Ndigbo. If Jonathan had been a great president for all, his specific promises to Ndigbo may not matter. His promises to Ndigbo would be a topic for another day but suffice it to say thatNdigbo have not enjoyed any extraordinary benefits or favoursunder Jonathan.

    In summary, Ndigbo must refrain from voting sheepishly; we must eschew the sentiments of four years ago; we must be clear-headed. Also, let us ignore that horde ofAso Rock contractorsposing as Igbo leaders, whosay Ndigbo has endorsed Jonathan;ask the right questions and vote wisely.Igbo wu Igbo, ucheunu o di kwaya e? Kaanyi were ire anyiguoezeanyionumakanaanaghiagwaosintisi agha esule.

    Fayose: who unleashed the dragon?

    To think that this fellow, Ayo Fayose, is the governor of a state with the fate of millions of Ekiti people placed in his hands? One would think he learned some useful lessons from his past stint in office which came to an ignominious and abrupt end. Apparently he neither learned a thing nor changed a bit. Are there no wise and learned people in Ekiti anymore? Why are they living with a bull in their china shop and no one is speaking up?

    Why won’t Fayose face the onerous task of serving the much-deprived Ekiti people? Why does he delight always in playing in the muck? From defiling the courts to routing the State’s Assembly and handing out stomach infrastructure chickens to policemen. Now it’s a morbid advert about heads of state that died in office and a hint that APC candidate, General Buhari might die if voted into office.

    How would families of these demised leaders feel seeing their patriarchs in such grim light on the front pages of national dailies? Besides, death comes to us all… how can he tell he would serve out his term unless he has anti-dote to death?

    Just because Fayose‘won’ election does not make him all wise. He surely needs help. There must be people in Ekiti who must make it a duty to offer him some wise counsel even if unsolicited.

  • Islam in the age of anarchists

    f an Alfa (a Muslim cleric) does not live two houses away from mine, I  would be saying the worst things about Islam now. And you would not blame me, going by the carnage and wanton destruction being inflicted on humanity by people who hide under the cover of Islam.

    But the Alfa down my street is the most benign specie of man I know. At a community end of year get-together last December, he prayed so much for us all and country until the congregation got weary.

    Following upon a directive from the Lagos State Government, some residents had complained about Alfa’s early morning call of the faithful, insisting that it infringed on their right to beautiful early morning snooze. Alfa had stopped forthwith to make early morning calls with his megaphone. His little mosque has not closed down either. Yet he remains his wonderful self – amiable, genial and self-effacing.

    And now that the matter has been called to mind, it suddenly occurred to me that many of the people I interact with daily are unbeknown to me, Muslims. Indeed they are not mere Muslims, they are ardent and keen believers; some even sponsor mosques of their own.

    The Community Development Association (CDA) in Alimoso LGA, Lagos that I belong to and in which I am treasurer, has Muslims as chairman, secretary and publicity secretary. The chairman has a mosque in his compound. His faith has never been an issue except when he would take offence if we failed to celebrate Sallah with him and share in his rams.

    Thinking about it now, my closest friend and confidante in the neighbourhood is a Muslim. I would entrust my house to him each time the entire family travelled. He also built a mosque in his compound which he sponsors solely. His wife is a Deeper Lifer.

    Redoubtable Alhaji Salihu Ehimeakhe, a former boss of mine, a statesman in his own right (especially in business circles), is in my estimation a near perfect specimen of humanity. When he employed me as manager of corporate affairs in a bank he headed many years ago, it never mattered that he was a Muslim. Even though he would observe his prayers every afternoon, we never seemed to have noticed. Till today, he remains a mentor and source of inspiration.

    All these people have families. They have children I know they love and cherish dearly and they spend enormous resources training them in schools, home and abroad. None of that balderdash about education (Western or Eastern) being an abomination. These people do not only love life, they cherish humanity by their very relationship with their neighbours. The last thing on the mind of these people I know so well would be to kill and destroy.

    If you suppose my environment of example may be wrong, about three decades ago, I had my National Youth Service in the old Sokoto State, Northwest of Nigeria. It is the seat of the Caliphate and home of the Sultan, the supreme head of Nigeria’s Muslims. It remains one of the most memorable experiences of my life. Sokoto of the 80s was remarkably quiet, indeed serene in a sublime way. There were just one or two mosques in the ancient city and Muslim faithful would pray under the shade of trees most days safe for Fridays when all roads led to the central mosques.

    The people epitomised peaceful living – with themselves and strangers in their midst. Churches flourished in designated areas and there was ample social intermingling.

    Down East, across the Niger, there exist large settlements of Northerners who are predominantly Muslims. In fact, Northern Muslims must be the largest settler population group in Igbo land.. Right from the large trading colony after the Onitsha head bridge to Aba, Umuahia, Ama Hausa in Owerri and Garki in Enugu and every major town of the Southeast.

    Last December, we bought items from two itinerant hawkers right in front of the village hall in our remote part of Isiala-Mbano. We made jokes with them and many were astounded that ndi-ugwu (people of the hills, as northerners are generically referred to by Igbo) could find their way around our forest homesteads. Not a few were apprehensive, but after a brief hearty interaction, we discovered that these were ordinary folks plodding the countryside questing for livelihood. This piece was actually triggered by a photograph on the back page of The Punch of last Tuesday. It depicts a security guard at the gate of an elementary school in Dougirei, Jimeta, in Adamawa State, searching kindergarten pupils (probably between the ages of two and five) with a bomb detector before they are allowed into their school compound.

    The picture strikes home as surreal and violent; it is an image of innocence being violated, as those kids are prodded with that cold, strange device.

     Suicide bombing was the macabre dance of men; then women joined in by desecrating their hijab with IEDs. Today, our innocent little girls are turned to zombies and angels of death by satanists who are erroneously called Islamists.

    I was about to pen harsh words about Muslims and Islam turning innocent little girls into weapons of mass murder when it occurred to me that I would be in serious error as all around me are Muslims who are dignified and impeccable beings.

    Then you wonder: who are these blood-thirsty anarchists engaged in senseless killing spree in Nigeria, Cameroun, Mali, Kenya, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, France and even China? Why is the world suddenly infested with people the media has termed “Islamists” who are intent on destroying humanity and world’s civilisations?

    It is blood for the sake of it; carnage for no reason. Hardly does a day pass without targeted explosions or shooting spree in one part of the world or the other. In market places, worship places, bus and train stations, military checkpoints, just anywhere two or three are gathered, man is under attack – and for no reason whatsoever.

    Evil people are bent on destroying humanity. We shudder at what might happen should they acquire more lethal weapons like gases, biological and nuclear capabilities! This is why the world must rise as one to fight this insipient madness.

    As respected Nigeria’s former head of state, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, cried out recently in a “Letter to Nigerians”: “… we must be able to realise that what is happening has nothing to do with religion; and it should be obvious enough by now that satanic forces are at work to set us against each other.” He described them as “forces of darkness.”

    We want to hear more of such unequivocal condemnation of these hordes from hell. True Muslims, clerics, intellectuals and leaders… everyone must speak up in sustained, strident voices. They must teach their ignorant members that killing in any guise, even suicide, will only earn you a place in HELL. Let us drum it in that virgins are never gifted… here or beyond.

    PDP: This sinking feeling…

    Is night falling on Africa’s biggest party; the one that was recently declared would rule for 60 years? Why is it that one cannot help seeing an image of the Peoples Democratic Party and its presidential standard-bearer as some kind of specie undergoing rapid atrophy? The bumbling behemoth seems to have all but crumbled under its sordid weight.
    Most of the big guns of PDP unbeknown to them, are already walking with their shoulders slouched as if they are already defeated. Please take a critical look at them.
    The centre no longer seems to hold for the party. All former leaders and founders have deserted it and are shunning its campaign train. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo now openly supports the opposition APC candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari. Founding father, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, long sidelined, has issued a warning. Retired military President Ibrahim Babangida would not be categorical that he would vote PDP. Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State, who is supposed to lead PDP’s campaign in the Northwest, is nowhere to be found as the campaign train chugs on creakily.
    Woe alas, the big, bad monster totters! How will it fall…!?

  • A salad of old stories in a new year

    hall we say this is the year of our lives? The year American soothsayers long foretold would make or mar our dear country, Nigeria. How is it turning out for you dear reader? You must have noticed that the harmattan has turned out a little severer than in recent years. The north easterly, dusty, desert wind that often sweeps the west coast of Africa this season has been at once soothing and gruff. It has been like kind of celestial air-conditioner but tinged with dryness. Does that portend any auguries for you?

    We are not going to start the year pondering the metaphysics of the weather and Nigeria’s politics, no. We are taking on issues as they unfold even in this new, tendentious year. Here is the first in a series of our sumptuous salad to be served fresh – even in a year like this.

    The IBB insurgency Former military President Ibrahim Babangida has kicked off the year with an assault on Nigerians that is akin to a huge Boko Haram IED. In an interview granted a magazine owned by (you won’t believe it), the EFCC, Nigeria’s prime anti-graft agency, IBB argues his innocence as opposed to the widely held belief that his was a very corrupt administration. Not to be misunderstood however, he accepts his culpability but only in comparison to the current regime he contends makes him and his junta colleagues seem like angels.

    He may be right but there is need for some perspective. We must constantly remind him that our memories are not yet as blurred as his might be; besides is it not said by our fathers that he that dropped faeces by the footpath is prone to forget but he that stepped on it lives with the ugly memory. IBB remains the father, nay, founder of modern Nigeria’s graft incorporated. He was not only reckless and licentious with the treasury, he smudged nearly all that was good and noble in the Nigerian ethos.

    Babangida must quit straining to absolve and exonerate himself from what have become historical facts. As he grows older and feeble, he would do better to come clean with Nigerians so that history would be kinder to him. Catharsis is the medicine IBB needs urgently; he suffers acute psychological torment for so many evil deeds he perpetrated while at the helm. You cannot help but sympathise with him. He is in need of emotional purification; he must find peace before he returns to his fathers.

    One last point, with a scoop like this, why don’t we convert EFCC to a publishing house and if I might suggest, we shall call its journal: HOT POTATO weekly.

    Governor Akpabio’s dubious record Vs. Imoke’s Digital City One cannot help but nurse strong reservations about Akwa Ibom State Governor Godswill Akpabio’s much-touted achievements in nearly eight years. Yes, he has built a few brick-and-mortar structures; he may have even out-performed his predecessors but at what price and what opportunity costs? His 2015 budget estimate is N492 billion, the highest in the land. It has operated within this range in the last four to six years. The sum of these is sure to be higher than the budget of many African countries. If you add his huge debt portfolio you will begin to see why one is cautious in throwing in nary a word of commendation for Governor Akpabio.

    The point here is that where there are a few bridges and stadium and pavilions, there could have been paradise. Or, in order not to exaggerate, a verisimilitude of a Dubai if not one. The point again, is that there has been as much waste as there was revenue under Akpabio’s watch.

    To buttress this point, in marking the year end, Saturday, December 13, 2014, Governor Akpabio elected to stage a large jamboree at the Uyo Township Stadium. He assembled a 25,272-man chorale group flippantly tagged Unity Choir (UC) for the vainglorious purpose of breaking a world record. The Guinness World Record team was shipped in to observe and approve. This vanity fair, this obscene waste of public funds which must run into billions by a rough estimation is being presented as a great achievement by officials of the State. In an austere time of fast-tumbling oil prices, one would expect sober leaders to sharpen priorities, tighten belts and build capacities that would help diversify the state’s economy.

    Let us compare Akpabio’s chorale trophy to Cross River State’s Liyel Imoke’s master-stroke of making Calabar Nigeria’s first digital city. Working with MTN, Imoke’s government wired up Calabar, Nigeria’s foremost tourists destination for voice, data, video and other technology-driven services. This of course portends huge business opportunities and economic advantage for the state.

    In a time of shrinking federal revenues, Imoke has by this singular act opened up the world for his people to surf and explore at a touch of the button. This is indeed, the manner of world record that we crave now.

    Buhari: of certificate and certification There has been what is obviously an orchestrated rumpus over the educational qualification of General Mohammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Buhari had deposed an affidavit in lieu of the physical academic certification documents in filing his presidential form at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). This method Buhari had adopted in his three previous shots at the top job with no eyebrows raised.

    Why is it an issue this time? This time is different, this time the race is close and this time, the big, bad party, PDP, is terribly jittery. Lest why would paper document be an issue for a man who had been a general in the Nigerian Army, who had been head of state and a military governor?

    If those pushing the Buhari certificate matter think it would rub him of any shine, on the contrary, it will help to clarify for us once and for all the question of people with little learning and education carrying a whole portmanteau of certificates against well educated people with minimal certification. Nigerians would also have to decide whether to vote for a chain of mere paper certificates or for intelligence and integrity.

    LAST MUG: Maku and all the President’s men fall down: What does it say of President Goodluck Jonathan that all the men who left his cabinet to contest guber election fell face down? Well except of course Mama’s boy, Nyesom Wike. And now, to think that Labaran Maku, Jonathan’s erstwhile motor mouth, has decamped from PDP?! So it’s true that Humpty-Dumpty was pushed, eh?

    Imo politics: weep not, Okigwe zone

    Let me disclose up-front that this piece concerns me. As an indigene of Okigwe zone in Imo State, one cannot help but be interested in the politics of his homeland in all its dimensions. This is why the recently concluded Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) guber primary in the state would have many from my part of the state weeping inconsolably for a lost opportunity. Two of the three top-runners, Ifeanyi Araraume and Ikedi Ohakim who are of the same kindred in Isiala Mbano LGA garnered enough votes to trounce their closest rivals had they elected to work together. They would not; they did not. They shunned the path of pragmatism.
    They forgot that common Mbano saying that when two or more men urinate in unison, on the same spot, they achieve a rich foam head! (Please don’t ask me the value of a rich urine foam head!) what a pity now. What would have been a great opportunity for Okigwe people had a formidable duo come together is now a mirage that would remain elusive for a long time. A formidable duo has become two miserable migrants fighting political eclipse. Their loss is the gain of Owerri zone and of Emeka Ihedioha, the wily Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and an emerging political force in Imo State.

  • Agric minister’s rice conundrum

    Published below is the third of the four pieces entered for the Nigerian Media Merit Award, NMMA. Christmas is rice season in Nigeria; our Agric Minister claims that our country is 60 – 80 per cent self-sufficient in local rice production. But how come hardly anyone can find Dr. Adesina’s rice anywhere? Why was the deadline for banning rice importation moved to 2018? This article was first published Friday, October 18, 2013; it remains true.

    He is handsome, suave, always well turned out and highly articulate; not unlike a revolver. When he speaks, his audience listens, they get carried away and often he works them up to a standing ovation. Of course, we refer to our Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina. In the last two years he has turned out to be the ultimate mesmeriser holding Nigerians in awe of his presence and the presidency spellbound by his vacuous speeches and postulations. But it is all a ruse, this column has found. Adesina has sat on one of the most important sectors of the economy through these years without an iota of idea how to move it forward.

    One example we will showcase here shortly is what we call the rice conundrum, a miasma that has become a national calamity and a token of Adesina’s noisome tenure and stark inefficiency. Before we get to that, it is rather disturbing that anywhere we turn we hear what has become the raucous sound of Adesina and his agric exploits across the country and beyond but ask critical questions, look beneath the surface and it is all empty talk.

    Speaking at the Agribusiness Forum in Brussels recently, he said: “We have developed staple crops processing zones, which are to set up food manufacturing plants, a cluster of infrastructure, to close the missing link between agriculture and industry…we decided to turn comparative advantage in food production into competitive advantage by adding value through processing.”

    He said so many things like adding value to low-value crops like cassava and sorghum, putting billions of naira in the hands of farmers and creating millions of jobs for youths in the sector. Taken in by Adesina’s empty loquacity, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, blindly sings Adesina’s chorus. According to Okonjo-Iweala, “now in agriculture, where we are seeing strong results, over 2.5 million seasonal and full time jobs have been created, for instance, 450,000 jobs created are in dry season rice.”

    With due respect, these are all lies, damned lies and cooked up government statistics. As you read this, legitimate rice importers and local farmers are on the verge of being put out of business by organised and well-known smugglers in Nigeria. Mrs. Esther Olufunmilayo is the president of Rice Distributors Association of Nigeria. In a recent interview in Vanguard, she explained that most of the rice his members have sold this year is smuggled rice. She noted that government increased the tariff and levy on rice import from 35 to 1010 per cent, while the tariff in neighbouring Cotonou ports is still 30 percent. The tragedy therefore is that Nigerian importers are out of business because it is starkly unprofitable to import through Nigeria’s ports; government loses millions of dollars in tariffs to Benin Republic and our modest efforts at local rice cultivation wither.

     Another group of stakeholders, the Rice Millers, Importers and Distributors Association of Nigeria (RiMIDAN), has also cried out over the multiple jeopardy that is rice business in Nigeria today. RiMIDAN through its secretary, Shaibu Mohammed, warned that the Federal Government would lose about $1 billion in duties this year as a result of massive and unprecedented rice smuggling currently going on. But apart from government’s loss of revenue and local importers being put out of business, more injurious according to Mohammed is that the huge investment by their members in local rice farming and processing will come to naught soon because their product cannot compete with smuggled rice.

    We bet that our Agric Minister, Adesina, is not aware of this perilous state of affair concerning Nigeria’s number one staple food. In all his talking and strutting, the minister is not in tune with the critical stakeholders in the rice value chain – from the levels of paddy production, processing, marketing, importation and distribution. While he goes about postulating about banning rice importation in two years’ time, little is being done to work towards that objective apart from announcing it in the media.

    A notorious and most damning example is the National Rice Development Fund (NRDF), which levy was increased by about 100 percent in January; there is no record, no trace of this Fund anywhere. No known committee, no panel or body managing this huge fund for the development of the Nigerian rice sector towards an eventual banning of importation. The NRDF has been kept under the radar for too long; Dr. Adesina is duty-bound to tell Nigerian the status of this fund if he wants to be taken serious about his activities during his tenure. Unless otherwise proven, the Rice fund is perhaps the biggest fraud in the Agric Ministry today. As if to corroborate the fact that Nigerian government and Dr. Adesina are merely pulling wool over our eyes, at the African Agric and Foreign Ministers’ side-bar during the recent World Bank-IMF meeting in Washington, it was noted that Nigeria lags behind most other African countries in agric financing. Already, countries like Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Malawi, Mali, Niger and Senegal have met or exceeded the 10 per cent annual budgetary funding target for agriculture. And since 2003, 32 countries have created national agric investment plans that lay out priorities for meeting funding goals. Nigeria is not part of all this.

    The summit deliberated extensively on how to sustain the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP), which was launched in 2003. But Nigeria is nowhere to be found on the CAADP benchmark, as her agric sector had thrived on shambolic, haphazard hits and misses in the past decade. The real tragedy, however, is that the agric sector is so crucial that unless we show more seriousness, the current burgeoning youth unemployment will remain with us and eventually do us in.

    There is an urgent need to change our paradigm and unleash the enormous potentials in the sector through large-scale integrated mechanised farming in every part of the country. This technology has been perfected centuries ago and we only need to adopt and adapt it. The ministry’s duty is to catalyse the process. The presidency must urgently find an agric minister who understands this process, who has the hands-on and presence of mind to get real work done quickly and not a talkative who is more at home in five-star hotels and seminar environments. Dr. Adesina cannot get us any results even if he stayed on for 20 years.

    Harmattan in a time of austerity

    What a Christmas it has turned out to be for Nigerians in 2014? It is bad enough that a fractious election is brewed in this cauldron, now austerity measures are back upon us. Our crude oil, the only product we take to the market, is turning to ‘pure water’ before our bleary eyes; our currency has fallen on its face as fewer dollars are earned. The so-called subsidy budget has been cut by half and a sharp rise in the prices of imported petroleum products is anticipated in the new year. For two decades, they told us refineries cannot be built in Nigeria because they are not profitable ventures. But the real reason is that our leaders built refineries in Cote D’Ivoire, Niger and heavens know where else.

    Now it’s austerity in the land of the prodigal. The lean times would be only for the people who were always living in dire want anyway. The criminal elite and their friends will continue to live in their licentious opulence until they are routed or the land implodes. How can an economy that has been undergoing ‘reform’ and ‘transformation’ suddenly slump into a depression? How could N21 billion be raised in one night recently to support President Goodluck Jonathan’s second term election? Elections defy austerity hmn?

    Well dear reader, we are suffering from severe looting not austere times. They steal the land dry, but in this new year, never allow them steal your soul. It is well with you this year and always.

  • Bullet points for Tompolo, DSS, Fayose, Patience

    Bullet points for Tompolo, DSS, Fayose, Patience

    Tompolo and the Boys Company (BC) I am tempted to start by saying Tompolo, I dey laugh o! The story of a certain fellow by the queer name of Government Ekpemuopolo Tompolo always evokes hearty laughter in me each time I read it. It always reminds me of the Boys Company of the Biafran Army. Yours truly was not eligible, being not old enough, but I heard stories of the exploits of the BC from bigger boys of the day.

    To cut the story short, young lads of the BC were supposed to be spies ferreting information from enemy camps. But most of them, they did not realise that war was death; many of them thought it was some form of a game and they got wasted in their numbers.

    When a Norwegian newspaper reported that Tompolo, a pardoned and rehabilitated Niger Delta militant, had acquired six guided missile boats (GMBs) I laughed like crazy, I laughed so hard tears welled up in my eyes. I laughed hard as so many thoughts streamed across my mind. The thought of some rickety, disused ferries (as pictures show) that were refitted with some AK47s and sold to ‘stupid Nigerians’ by oyinbos at outrageous prices; I thought of ‘General’ Tompolo, Commander of the  Republic of Niger Delta Armed Forces; I thought of Nigeria’s strategic national resources in the hands of an ill-lettered little man, I thought of a castrated Nigerian Navy taking orders from Tompolo; the thought of (and pity for) Itsekiri people who know that they can be annihilated if not exterminated in just one drunken night. I thought of and felt pity for NIMASA people who are biting their tongues trying to defend an institutionalised madness not knowing that only NIMASA still keeps silly secrets, the world now being an open door.

    I laughed some more and sympathised with both the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) and the Tompolo Ekpemuokpolo Government (TEG) knowing that as we say in my place, mgbe osuru, mgbe asi chi si tama, it may not be a matter of six rusty gunboats (that the up thrust of a submarine would wash to the shore) but 60 or even 6000, or more. So join me in laughing dear reader.

     Dilemma of the gallant DSS Give it to the Department of State Service (DSS), they are not like the Gallant Mopol as we all know; no, far from such coarseness. They are our elite force trained in the art of the clandestine and unseen. Since they bear no known means of identification, you can jolly well say they are licensed to spook.

    But the DSS may have spoofed this time when they paraded some spindly fellows they claim were fake commanders of the Boko Haram who staged a fake ceasefire negotiation with the Federal Government. The seven suspects were apparently working in cahoots with one Stephen Davis, an Australian self-style negotiator. Now why would our DSS so triumphantly and even gallantly deign to have made a breakthrough by parading this hapless conmen who had beaten them silly by exposing their inefficiency in the first place. And so many questions arise: what manner of intelligence and dossier does the DSS have on Boko Haram and the terrorism war in Africa generally? Is it not numbingly embarrassing that the Federal Government could be so easily deceived and embarrassed by these little fellows? How many millions of dollars were paid to them? Where is the money?

     Going by the narrative of DSS spokesman Marilyn Ogar, these fake  characters operated for many months between Abuja and Maiduguri, held numerous meetings in public places yet they were not preempted until they thoroughly embarrassed us. Who on earth is Stephen Davis? Can Stephen Osuji surface in Australia tomorrow and pretend to be an expert in anything and the Australian secret service would not run riot over him? Could it be that our DSS did not check out Stephen Davis because he is wearing miserable white skin?

    Sorry, DSS’ ‘success’ in catching these fake negotiators merely signposts this column’s assertion that Boko Haram is as much a failure of leadership as it is a failure of intelligence. Are we gonna parade the unit that failed in this duty?

    Emperor Fayose in wonderland I admit there are one or two other cases in the land that bear a semblance of what is brewing in Ekiti State now but let us give Governor Ayo Fayose the trophy for putting a comical edge this macabre drama. In Rivers and Edo States, there are  stand-offs resulting from executive-legislature power tussle, we acknowledge.

    But in Ekiti state, it is sardonic enough that Fayose chased majority of the State’s legislators out of town leaving only seven renegades but he has carried on as if he were a 16th century divine monarch.

    He did not only get the seven popinjays to sit and conduct the business of the House, he co-opted scallywags and miscreants to make up the number, sitting on the hallowed seats of honorable members and desecrating the legislature.

    The first time these seven renegades plus 19 thugs ‘approved’ the Ekiti State’s commissioners’ list (i.e the executive council) we thought it was a momentary lapse of memory. Last Monday the charade was reenacted now on a grand scale. The ‘mock’ assembly sat again in Ado Ekiti to pass the State’s Appropriation Bill.

    According to the report, again the seven ‘law-mockers’ were seated and all the fleeing lawmakers’ seats were occupied as visitors were allowed to seat in the chambers. Some traditional rulers where present; there was a full complement of soldiers, police, Department of State Service (DSS), Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC). The press were barred save for the Governor’s Office and House of Assembly Press Corps. No broadcast journalists were allowed to record the evil gathering on video.

    In the manner of emperors, Governor Fayose was reported to have reassured the renegade speaker that, “You, (Dele Olugbemi) are the Speaker of this Assembly and nobody can remove you from this position. I want to emphasise that this speaker would remain in office till June.” You must pinch yourself to find out if you are in 1614 or 2014 for I have just done that.

    Empathizing with Mama Peace in a time of ‘war’ What do you do with a well-known certified peacemaker in time of intense, internecine ‘warfare’? Well, that is a very tough question and this is the dilemma of our First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan aka, Mama Peace of Africa.

    Last weekend, Dame Patience was in her homeland, Okrika; she gathered the chieftains and owners of the land and declared to them in her oft unmatched candour: “Before you today is the next governor of Rivers State. He is the former Minister of State for Education, Barrister Nyesom Wike.”

    Those who have eyes have seen Dame Patience’ gloved hands in many states in the run up to the PDP primaries across the land. Mama is PDP’s field marshalling leading the political ‘army’ into the next election. She is the chief endorser, enforcer and even fixer.

    Those who know can tell that of all the battle fronts, Rivers State would test Mama’s mettle the most. Up against Governor Chibuike Amaechi of the State, no prisoners would be allowed and the winner will take all. Dear reader, you would do well to keep very far away from that vicinity so that you do not get be-splattered… ka Chineke mezie okwu. Amim.

    The Buhari epiphany

    Dear reader, you would recall that this column vowed sometime ago never to vote for General Muhammadu Buhari (retd). It must have been sometime in 2012 when he issued some mumbo-jumbo about the blood of baboons and monkeys flowing and all that. Coming when the post-election fires of 2011 were yet to be cold, one could not understand an elder statesman speaking in such manner.

    But since then, the general has continued to change his approach and project a national outlook to his politics. In view of the dire situation of our dear country today, this column will revisit that vow. Having won the presidential flag of the All Progressives Congress (APC), this must be Buhari’s epiphany. Or shall we say Nigeria’s epiphany?

    As the campaign days go by, this column will attempt some disquisitions on the Buhari factor at this juncture of Nigerian politics. It is Buhari’s be all and end all moment, his make or mar juncture; his epiphany. And mark you, he will have to work his lean butts off for it. An epic battle it will be against the incumbent, President Goodluck Jonathan.

  • Aribisala: In the prison of a closed mind

    Locked in a mental prison Lately, when I read Femi Aribisala’s (FA) weekly intervention in the Vanguard every Tuesday, I cannot help but see the picture of a man behind bars noodling away in his quiet, lonely world. No, not quite like Kirikiri, Nigeria’s hell-hole misnamed maximum security prison, but a windowless semi-lit enclosure where a self-imprisoned, languid inmate finds peace and liberty. This is the inescapable image that forms in my mind when I read FA, especially his recent un-nuanced barrage against Bola Tinubu, leader of Nigeria’s main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Let me confess upfront that by my humble estimation, FA is among the best newspaper columnists today. He pens in the manner I would love to: unencumbered, simple and straight to the point. He calls a spade by its name and does not seem to enjoy the luxury of working up a sentence or stringing adjectives. He stands akimbo on the rock of his conviction; never to equivocate, but not keen to other premises.

    But the danger in this manner of writing, in resting inexorably on the strength of one’s strong convictions is that sometimes, unbeknown to us, we may just be sitting on the wrong rock; or worse, we may get locked up in our own maximum prison. Consider the mirthless incongruity of having to tear down a prison door to save a prisoner from himself.

    Reading FA’s installment last Tuesday, one could not help but make this rather demure intervention whatever it may be worth. The issue is the Between a phenomenon and a conundrum Tinubu phenomenon or conundrum if you wish, in the milieu of today’s Lagos/Southwest and Nigeria’s politics. FA’s titles his piece: “Time to get rid of Tinubu’s cronies in Lagos,” and let me quote the second paragraph of the article, which encapsulates FA’s viewpoint and mindset.

     “Enough is enough. The domination of Lagos politics by one man has gone on for too long. Lagos must be wrested from the control of Bola Tinubu who has enslaved the politicians in the state and privatised its resources in the last 16 years.”

    It is true that Tinubu has become the most influential politician to emerge from the Southwest, if not Nigeria, in this dispensation and I also agree with FA that he may have profited immensely from his political activities in the last 16 years. However, FA will be living in denial if not self-imprisonment not to acknowledge that Tinubu’s politics has imbued the Southwest and indeed Nigeria with rich positive influences that the entire national treasury cannot buy.

    If we must admit, he is probably the most pragmatic political thinker of this arid time. FA will agree that he is on the verge of winning his place in history as perhaps the most influential personage in Nigeria’s post-independent democratic evolution. By his solo effort and single-minded doggedness, he has reworked the politics of the Southwest of Nigeria and introduced a new equation in the unfolding national politics.

    He has given a fresh impetus, a new meaning and if you like it in the parlance of the day, a new swag to the Southwest; he has given them a peek to the wonderful opportunities and possibilities that are beyond the federal incubus. Though still at infancy, his effort has opened our eyes to the inherent richness of a truly plural political environment that imbues peer competition and quality benchmarking. Imagine Nigeria without APC Recall that the ruling PDP had become an ogre gobbling up every opposition before the coming of AC, ACN and currently APC. APP, ANPP, APGA and the like did not flounder and hit the rock by chance, they were worsted and decimated by the ruling party. There are so many erroneous summations to be highlighted in FA’s full page treatise but we will stick with the main issue.

     FA is particularly piqued by the recent Lagos State governorship primary in which Tinubu’s preferred candidate emerged. He said that “Tinubu’s “godfatherism” means candidates for public office of his political party are not elected by popular vote, but selected from Tinubu’s bedroom on Bourdillon Road and then imposed on the party. They are then held under his tight leash by the Jagaban and are required to do his bidding on pain of being summarily replaced or impeached.”

    Hmm, one feels FA’s deep pains but perhaps a bit of understanding will ameliorate his despair a little. First, solid democratic institutions far transcend transient political offices. Let’s not drown in the small matters of now; let us imagine what might be if we grew a robust APC over the next 50 years for instance, when it will be sturdy enough to throw up its candidates without a ‘visible’ godfather.

    Then again, imagine what would be if there was no Tinubu and ACN/APC? Does FA honestly think Lagos and Southwest would have fared better under the current PDP crowd? Talking about imposition, has anyone in PDP won any primary anywhere in Nigeria today without the nod of Papa and even Mama in Aso Rock?

     FA tells the story of how Tinubu recently rigged in John Odigie-Oyegun as chairman of APC, causing Tom Ikimi and Ali Modu Sheriff blow the whistle and to back-flip to PDP. Now this must be a laugh; in the first place, these fellows can now flagellate up and down like a stalwart phallus because someone took the pains to create an alternative. But really, would FA allow any of these men to be chairman of a party that he leads? Not likely.

    Anoint me or be damned Finally, he also cites a certain Muiz Banire spewing the banality that “APC people must shine their eyes this time around.” Great, what about ‘the last time around’ when he was favoured and anointed and he made good enormously? By the way, don’t we all know that party politics all over the world, without exception, suffers some form of imposition/anointing? No one walks off the street and becomes a candidate anywhere in the world, none.

     As we say in my place: ana enwe obodo enwe, obo anaghi atogbo ka ogbogoro; that is to say, every town has its principalities and over-lords, you don’t find any town lying around the bush path like a pumpkin. That is the wisdom of elders. Let’s nurture APC and not kill it.

    A love letter to Mrs. Juliana Godwin

    I love this woman. The more I look at her photograph, the more my admiration for her grows. There she is dressed in girlie, long skirt-and-blouse school uniform with sandals and a white pair of socks to match. You would never know she is a 42-year-old mother of four grown up children unless someone revealed that fact to you. Lean, almost wiry, an infinitesimal smile defines her lips, complemented by a bright glint in her eyes. Her mien, half defiant, half triumphant radiates her will to live.
    Sunday Vanguard, December 7, 2014, page 25 had the amazing story and picture of Mrs. Godwin from Ryom in Plateau State. Last year, she chose to return to school, 30 years after she left primary school in 1983. Now 42, she did not enrol for evening classes or part-time study; she started from junior secondary school class one. “I am the oldest person in the class of 80 students. I participate in every school activity and I am happy with that…, but I do behave myself as an adult,” she says.
    If you thought returning to school was an act of courage, how about the fact that she made four children, learned dress making and hair plating; she hawked ‘pure water’ in the market; sold tomatoes and pepper and roasted corn. She also trained in soap-making. At a juncture, she was the breadwinner and even today, she is paying her way through school.
    Most daunting, she is in a marriage. Hear her: “My husband was against my decision and quarrelled seriously with me. But I didn’t give up on my decision.” I send my love and goodwill to Mrs. Godwin and to millions of Nigerian women in her situation. Women whose lives have been quarantined in marriage; women ruinously condemned to family, husband, children and dusty existence; women who have ‘lost’ their lives for the sake of others. I recommend Mrs. Godwin to them and I say to them, it’s never late to reclaim your life.

  • Riddle: What’s Ogwuche doing at Orisunmbare?

    Riddle: What’s Ogwuche doing at Orisunmbare?

    Don’t attempt, dear reader, to unravel this riddle; you will never be able to even if you spilled your gray matter. You must know Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche of course? He is the mis-guided army officer’s son who allegedly masterminded the bombing of Nyanya, Abuja’s bustling bus terminal last April, killing about 75 persons and injuring twice as many. Loving his own life so much, he had escaped to Sudan immediately after the bombing incident, but was extradited to Nigeria a few weeks after.

    Now what on earth is Ogwuche doing at Orisunmbare? Where on earth is Orisunmbare? Or has that wily fellow escaped to this tongue-twister of a place? Again not in a hurry dear reader, this will have to unfold at its own pace. An old Igbo wise saying often wonders why we tend to leak our finger so rapidly while at meal; are we ever going to file away the fingers by any chance?

    Ogwuche is not anywhere near Orisunmbare. One would be surprised if he ever had heard about this little obscure place. Orisunmbare is a little seedy community under Egbe-Idimu Local Council Development Area in Alimoso, which is the largest local government area in Lagos State. The only other way to describe this rustic side of Lagos is that it is the fringe community dotting the perimeter fence of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) – the less urbane side of a long fence.

     Apart from sharing the back fence of an illustrious behemoth, MMIA, the only other claim to fame for Orisunmbare is an Air Force base (Electronic Maintenance Division), which is successfully alienated from the people. Well, there is another government facility, a small power plant; one of those 33kva substations under the Niger Delta Integrated Power Plants (NIPP). The contract for its construction was awarded in 2004 during the reign of President Olusegun Obasanjo when he had his infamous skirmish with Nigeria’s power sector.

    The Orisunmbare IPP was announced to have been completed after some 10 inglorious years in the making and billions of naira allegedly paid the contractor. The residents were relieved having lived in a state of semi-darkness all these year and having paid one exorbitant bill after another upwardly reviewed exorbitant bill. It was a Federal Government facility built through the instrumentality of the Federal Ministry of Power and the now rested Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

    Today, the facility has been ceded to its new owners, the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC), lately Ikeja Electric (IE).Now thousands of consumers who are hooked to far-flung sub-stations who had lived with residual and rationed power supply thought it was time to jump for joy upon learning about the completion of this IPP. But there may never be light at the end of this IPP tunnel.

     After ten years in the making, it has been determined that inferior materials had been used therefore the plant cannot be powered-on due to the feat that it would meet a dreadful fate in just few weeks – the new owners think it might just go up in flames! Gee! Ten years, billions of naira of tax-payers money yet hapless consumers are condemned to indefinite darkness, daily use of generators and upwardly-reviewed electricity bill.

    Yet what is this long Orisunmbare jeremiad got to do with Ogwuche, the suspected terrorist? Well, nothing directly except that last week, the court sitting in Abuja struck out the case against Aminu Ogwuche on grounds of ‘want of diligent prosecution’. According to report, there has been a mortal turf fight between the Nigeria Police and the Department of State Service (DSS) on whose case it is. Not a few Nigerians were scandalized and incensed over this development on the Ogwuche affair.

    Can you see the riddle now? Well the point of it all is to show us how our country is being run or not run. In a far-flung little community of Orisunmbare a small power plant could not be actualized in ten years with all the waste and harm it has caused. Be sure that nobody will be made to account. And in Abuja at the seat of power, what is probably the most important and most sensitive case in our terror war cannot take off after seven months.

    The Ogwuche affair ought to give you sleepless night dear reader because it concerns hundreds of lives; it concerns the integrity of our presidency, the integrity of the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), the Minister of Defence, the Inspector-General of Police and the Director-General, Department of State Service (DDSS).

    Dear reader, these are the most powerful positions in the land; these are the most sensitive positions in the land; these are the people we have trusted our lives in their hands. Yet they have revealed to us that we have misplaced our trust. By this singular act, they have revealed to us that the affairs of our motherland may well be on auto-pilot. Nobody, it seems, is thinking or working or both. Imagine for a moment how the Ogwuche case would have been treated in the United States or South Africa or even Ghana? Can you see the connection now, from the mundane (Orisunmbare) to the very sensitive (Ogwuche) – zilch.

  • Congratulations President Diezani

    Congratulations President Diezani

    Not to be accused of anything, let me join the numerous contractors, Nigerian oil sector jobbers, gawkers and worshippers of mammon to felicitate with the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Her Excellency, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, upon her appointment as the ‘first ever female’ President of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC. The media have been inundated with messages of this great triumph. And gee, Nigeria is now blessed with two president!

    Without seeking to spoil their fun however, I am quick to admonish that they are celebrating a whited sepulcher that has little or no significance in global scheme of things. OPEC today, is no better than a whale stranded by the shore gasping for breath; it is only but a short time before the behemoth passes out. Smart countries as busy hedging against the turbulence ahead and acquiring capacity for gas and alternative fuels while laggards are hankering after the presidency and scribe of a moribund OPEC bureaucracy. P is for PETROLEUM and petrol is passé, stupid.

    What with the US pumping about 8 billion barrels of crude oil per day into the market? What with an overabundance of gas and shale oil in the US? What with Saudi Arabia no longer interested in cutting production to help shore up oil prices (for the sake of wayward countries who have mismanaged their oil wealth)?Have you wondered why the 166th Meeting of OPEC held in Vienna last week couldn’t be bordered about cutting production?

    While we felicitate with President Diezani, we need to remind her that having failed to build even simple modular refineries; having supervised Nigeria’s crude export, massive importation of petroleum products and a dubious ‘subsidy’ regime, she had better braced for the catastrophe ahead. As crude price falls radically and our currency crashes dramatically; soon enough the pump price of petrol will push up to about N150 to N200 per litre because we can no longer afford the current products importation binge. What explanation would she give Nigerians?

    Jude: When a great soul takes flight

    It still seems surreal that Jude Isiguzo is no more. A member of The Nation family, his sudden demise last Saturday still leaves many of us in shock. Death comes to us all but some people are so alive you assume they have transcended death. So Jude could die, some of us still wonder. If Jude could die…yet some more still wonder. He was young, vibrant, master of his news beat and chairman of our chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ). Adieu smiling comrade; beke oji ochi eme oji, gaa nke oma o!

  • The Malabu malfeasance

    NMMA winning entry (1): Below is one of the four entries sent in for the award. The Malabu story still reverberates across the globe today – from London to Rome and New York. This peculiarly Nigerian bogey must rank among the worst corruption cases in modern times. The real story, however, is that while it gives the rest of the world sleepless night, not so for Nigerians and her leaders who are marinated in it. It was first published Friday June 21, 2013.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Would Okonjo-Iweala bite the bullet now?

    “Time for Okonjo-Iweala to go” is the title of a short piece in this column on January 31, this year. It was an early warning that Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala had reached the end of her tether and therefore, should take a bow.

    The reasons adduced were: unduly high level of corruption in the system; over-bloated recurrent budget and subsequent poor formulation and implementation of annual budgets. Last Monday, the chief manager of our economy unilaterally declared something she termed “austerity measures” on the wings of our declining oil revenues. And she backed it up with the usual grandstanding and chest-thumping, speaking about a well-managed country and competent teams crafting a set of right policies to respond to shock.

    Well, it is our duty to remind her that in her Obasanjo days, her song was REFORM and in this era it has been TRANSFORMATION and see where we are today. She has been doodling with our economy for nearly a decade now and all she seems to have been doing is disbursal of monthly allocation. Today we face imminent damnation because she had no grand vision to revamp basic infrastructure like power, transportation, agriculture and even our oil and gas. None of these things that would have helped us diversify and grow the economy was put in place.

     Worst of all, she never was able to cut bloated government expenditure; we still import most of our petroleum products and most of our food and household needs. She has added no significant value to the economy over these years. All she has done is to sell crude and share proceeds. Even the production and merchandising of that sole product – crude oil has been such a messy affair in her time. Now crude prices are falling, a phenomenon that was long-foretold; Nigeria faces imminent doom and she tells us about crafting austerity measures, what a joke!