The Nation Newspaper

Category: Steve Osuji

  • See Brazil and die

    Kick off the fun! The month-long world’s fiesta of football is on. It is said that religion is the opium of the masses but was that in the past?  Football may well be the emerging religion of the world’s people today. And the World Cup (WC) tournament, also known as the mundial which takes place every four years, must be the revival service. It is yet another season when men (and many women too) dream football, think football, talk football and would rather eat football. Football, the round leather object and game, also called soccer, is here to keep the world spellbound and a little quiet for a while. Football, especially the World cup, has become so transcendental that even those dark fiends who are in the business of holding the world hostage are sure to take a breather. Yes, we mean professional terrorists, warlords and even armed robbers would hold their fire while the WC lasts. This is especially so in the 32 participating countries.

    The festival holds in Brasil, the South American combo of a nation where it all started in 1930 and which has over the years become the world’s basilica of the game. She last hosted the game in 1950 but has been the most successful in this queer art of kicking a round leather object around a field, winning five trophies. It has also given the world a football god – Arantes do Nacimento, better known as Pele of Brasil. There are other big Brazilian football cult heroes like Garincha, Zico and Ronaldo to name just a few.

    Welcome to Samba country:Though football has its home in England, its soul is in Brazil. The rumbustious tropical rainforest country of South America seems tailor-made for football and football made for it. Not because it has the largest football stadium, the Maracana; not even because it covers almost half of the vast South American continent, no. Brazil, with a population of about 250 million people and an economy larger than that of all her regional peers put together, epitomises the best, the worst, the most beautiful and the ugly too. A vastly rich country with a modern economy, it also boasts some of the poorest peoples symbolised by some of the worst slums (favelas) to be found anywhere. It is from the cauldron of these favelas that Brazil serves the world a thick broth of gangsterism, drugs, rape and football artistry. Brazil also boasts of great beaches, perhaps the best carnival and absolutely the most voluptuous black women to be found anywhere (you may read my lips!). It is also a rich cultural environment, a rainbow country of Caucasians, Blacks, Hispanics and a beautiful mixture of all. Brazil, the samba country, looks to me like the picture of our future.

     Every four years, the tournament gets bigger, better and more riveting. FIFA, the world body in charge of football also gets bigger and grows in importance as if it would form a world government someday. Such is the intriguing power of football which the numerous scandals in the world house of soccer have not diminished. In fact, it is feared that someday, countries may be rated by the number of World Cup silverware in their kitty. Countries not part of the four-yearly fireworks feel left out of the world community and great players not in the tournament walk with slouched shoulders throughout the show.

      Eagles flying on a wing and a prayer:Nigeria is represented by the Super Eagles in this contest, her fifth in the history of the tournament. Her first outing in USA 1994 was a glorious one and her best so far, having reached the second round of the competition and losing on penalties shootout to the finalist, Italy. Since then, it has been tales of woe with group stage ousting each time. That seems to be the last golden era in terms of soccer talents in the senior team. It was the time of Nigerian legends like Rashidi Yekini, Sunday Oliseh, Emmanuel Amunike and Stephen Keshi, to name a few. The only other time the Nigerian team had such array of talents was in the early 80s class, which had Christian Chukwu, Segun Odegbami and Adokiye Amasiemeka, among others. Though the current Eagles are African champions, the team led by Joseph Yobo has not shown character and style, the hallmark of champions. The team which has notable stars like goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama, Chelsea FC stars, Mikel Obi and Victor Moses is flying to the World Cup on a wing and a prayer. Most Nigerians can only hope that they will escape from their group, which comprises soccer super power, Argentina and minnows; Iran and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

    Coach Stephen Keshi has selected the best players available, which include three players from the home league. We hope for sweet soccer, we pray for good fortune for our Eagles. But most important, we hope to enjoy an exposition of one of the greatest genius of humanity; perhaps the greatest unifier of the peoples of the world.

     

    Siege on media: if we be the problem…

    If routine seizure of some
    national newspapers and
    their circulation vans by the military will help the now intractable fight against Boko Haram terrorists and also help free the Chibok girls perchance, please let us give them all the papers and vans they want.

    If the seizure of some national newspapers and their circulation vans by the military will help gather preemptive intelligence about the financiers, finances, heavy arms shipments and training grounds of the terrorists, please let us give them all the papers and vans in the world.

    If the seizure of some national newspapers and their circulation vans by the military will help the presidency wake up to some of the problems bedeviling our country, we will gladly move to banish newspapers for the sake of our dear country. Yes, we will gladly pay the ultimate prize for dear country if we be the problem of Nigeria. Yes, if we could, we will gladly morph into Boko Haram, just to grant the military instant victory… if we be Nigeria’s problem.

    (An ode to the Federal Government of Nigeria which through the instrumentality of the military has been breaching newspaper operations in Nigeria since early June.)

     

    Good bye Dora…

     

    Good bye Dora (Akun
    yili) our brief candle
    that burned with bright, beautiful flames. In your laughter, in your eyes, in your verve, you shined forth so beautifully, the colours of hope…

    Goodbye Dora, the oriental queen who proved that it could be done. We can still hear the clack of your stilettos in the moldy corridors of bureaucracy; and where there were cobwebs, you hung bright pearls…

    Goodbye Dora, though we will miss you sore, we draw from your well still…

  • Only three democrats in this land!

    Three are chosen?: What is a democracy without democrats operating the system in deed and in spirit? Well a mere civil rule at best. But if we want an honest answer, what we have had in the last 15 years in the guise of democracy has really been a hiatus; a vacuum waiting to be filled. This is why one is deeply disturbed by the excitement and theatrics over what we call a 15-year stretch of democratic rule in Nigeria. To celebrate democracy and reel out achievements in bricks and mortar is one of those laughable things we do around here.

    Democracy cannot equate some resurfaced roads or official vehicles ‘given’ to civil servants. Democracy is that fine art and science of governing a people in a manner that brings out the maximum potentials derivable. It is a conscious effort, it is something you have to internalize and practice. It is often spear-headed by leader-democrats who build solid institutions and inspire mass followership. Aung Kyi, the iconic Burmese activist surmised it thus:  “Development requires democracy, the genuine empowerment of the people.”

    But where are the Nigerian democrats? Hardly any; we talk democracy but just a few pursue it. In fact, through this period, this column can identify only three Nigerians who may be said to have furthered the cause of democracy in Nigeria.

    Bola Tinubu’s tireless struggle:  To properly understand and situate the depth of his roles in nurturing Nigeria’s democracy through this period, it would be best to consider how the last 15 years would have played out without his input. Coming from a life-threatening role in the National Democratic Coalition’s (NADECO) campaign which ousted the military, Tinubu went ahead to co-initiate the political party, Alliance for Democracy (AD), which swept the polls in the Southwest of Nigerian in 1999.

    He has held out since then even when his peers from the zone floundered, leading that party to metamorphose into the All Progressives Congress (APC), the major alternative to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). It has been 15 years of impassioned political activism and relentless propagation of progressive democratic ethos. He has engineered the Southwest of Nigeria into the democratic showpiece of Nigeria, providing an alternative to an obdurate conservative ruling clique. With the APC, democracy has deepened; Nigerians have a viable choice while quality changes would willy-nilly be forced in the PDP.

    Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu will no doubt get a pride of place when the history of this democracy is written. He is a man who bucked the trend; he chose to act when he could have taken the path of reclined comfort and good life like most of his peers.

    Buhari, the unlikely democrat: not a few Nigerians would consider it anathema to associate General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) with democracy but that is what the erstwhile military officer and dictator has morphed into in the last 15 years. True many Nigerians still consider him ultra-conservative and lacking in democratic salubrity but that may be because he has remained true to his cause over these years. Three times he has contested presidential election, three times he has failed and thrice he had followed his quests legally right up to the apex courts.

    As a former general (and one without a deep pocket), he joined political parties and remained a faithful party man at every step. He grew into a party leader commanding large followership over his area of influence. When he was betrayed by his former party, he founded one in his image which became an instant success. It is his formidable Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) that merged with Tinubu’s ACN to become APC. This episode is perhaps the single most important footnote in our current democratic narrative.

    Yet he has remained his starchy, soldier self over these years instead of the classic politician; he has also made some conflagrant statements in his journey. Notwithstanding, he has furthered the cause of democracy more than all of his soldiers-turned politicians of this age. Yes, even more than Olusegun Obasanjo.

    Peter Obi, star of the east: The immediate past governor of Anambra State proved to be an icon of this fledgling democracy in a very peculiar way. Coming from a place where that old, Grecian ideal might well be a fancy article of trade in Ochanja market. Ndigbo (though not unlike other tribes of the land but more peculiarly so) have long discountenanced democracy. Since 1999, governance had been by the powerful, of the powerful and for the powerful in Igboland. And during elections, only cash counts, votes don’t.

    Thus since 1999, hardly any elective office was won by vote count. Peter Obi bucked this trend in the Anambra governorship race of 2003. A businessman, he was moved to join politics after the disastrous outing of Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju. His state was like a jungle where the treasury was booty for party pimps. A man of some means, he could have joined the PDP, gotten in the mix and awaited his turn and share of the booty. But he had a mission to engage governance in the proper, democratic way.

    He won the election with his puny APGA but the PDP cabal snatched his mandate and for over three years he fought doggedly through the courts of the land to reclaim it. His ordeal in the hands of a visceral corps of power mongers in the state is a story for an epic political literature. Suffice it to say that Obi proved that votes can truly count and a non-ruling party could win fair and square. All through his tenure as governor, he showed that power, especially on a democratic platform, is not an end in itself. Lastly he proved not to be a prisoner to power like most of his peers who are so power- hungry they shop for positions and offices even after two terms as governor.

    The trio of Tinubu, Buhari and Obi represent the bright lights of this age. They sacrificed and braved odds to make an impact. It’s not all doom and gloom after all.

    Honorable mentions: Of course this is not an absolute shortlists, there must be numerous other leaders at all level holding out and holding forth on behalf of democracy. Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State is one and INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega is another.

    LAST MUG: Fani wonder: It was Fani Power those days but today we are ‘blessed’ to have a chip of an old block: let’s call him Fani Wonder or wander if you please. He has done it again – a multiple back flip that landed him back in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) fold. We speak of the now migrant politician Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode (FFK!) who jumped from PDP to ACN/APC and now back to PDP. Fani Wander is a story for another day but let’s say that we are no longer a wasted generation, we are actually a wondrous one: no qualms, no scruples, no compunctions; absolutely hollow and vain.

  • Akpabio’s theatre of the absurd

    Akpabio’s theatre of the absurd

    Comedy of no errors: If he wasn’t a governor, he would probably have made good, and in a grand way too, as a stand-up comedian. His gait, his body language, his raucous visage, especially when prodded with a microphone, would set you reeling with laughter even before he has opened his mouth. I speak of Governor Godswill Akpabio, the ebullient helmsman running the affairs of Akwa Ibom State in the last seven years. But the matter at hand here today is not funny in the manner of joyous, throaty peals of laughter. It is about something absurd, something that would come off grim and unpalatable to any right thinking man.

    Let me state upfront that though Akpabio is regarded in Nigeria as among the few up and doing governors today, I admit upfront that I have never been impressed by what I know and see concerning his achievements in office. But many are quick to testify that he is not only the best thing that happened to Akwa Ibom since its creation, but that he is the best among his peers today. It is actually as a result of this ‘popularity’ of his that one has restrained from commenting on his stewardship a number of times when occasion demanded for it, lest one be accused of being  unduly sour. Akpabio’s much touted achievements must, however, be matched against the revenue available to him in order to arrive at a valid conclusion. The state is allocated an average of N15 billion monthly, add the local government funds which is controlled by the state and internally generated revenues and that would be a huge pile. It is also one of the most highly leveraged states in terms of debt totaling about N150 billion. This nature of revenue would be enough to run even a country well. This is why I have always remained skeptical about Governor Akpabio’s much vaunted achievement but a thorough review of his term, temperament and politics will follow in the course of the year.

    The billionaire retiree: However, a bill just passed into law by the Akwa Ibom House of Assembly which grants a disproportionate and outlandish pensions package to former elected governors and their deputies has presented an opportunity for one to take a quick glance at Akpabio’s time in office. A major highlight of the law is the proposal of a N100 million annual medical bill payout to former governors and N30 million for the deputies. Other provisions include a new official car and utility vehicle once every four years;  the provision of a personal aide and adequate security for his person during his lifetime; the provision of funds to employ a cook, chauffeurs and security guards for the governor at a sum not exceeding N5 million or an equivalent of $50,000 per month.

    Other provisions of the law include a befitting house, not below a five-bedroom maisonette in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja or in Akwa Ibom State, for the governor; a furniture allowance of 300 per cent of annual basic salary once in every four years; a yearly maintenance and fuelling of vehicle allowance of 300 per cent of annual basic salary and severance gratuity of 300 per cent of annual basic salary. These are not all; there would be yearly utility allowance of 100 per cent of annual basic salary; entertainment allowance which is also 100 per cent of annual basic salary; the state shall bear full cost of burial for the beneficiary and pay a condolence allowance of a sum equivalent to the annual basic salary of the incumbent to his next of kin. There are other sundry benefits but this will suffice to prove that an ex-governor of this state will simply retire into a billionaire status and opulence.

    ‘The Graft Law’: Let us note that Akwa Ibom is not the first place in the land where this sort of absurdity has been enacted. Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State had earlier pushed a similar grotesque joke through his state’s parliament; same former Governor Bukola Saraki of Kwara State when he left office in 2011. This megalomaniac sense of benefit and entitlement has no basis in performance or achievement in office. In other words, when just any man who goes by the title ‘governor’ was done looting and wrecking his state, he is rewarded with a billion naira benefits to boot? This law and any other like it anywhere in the country is best described as ‘the graft law’.

     It is a greedy person’s proposition, sanctioned by the greedy and for the greedy. In a country still ravaged by extreme poverty (that some of these fellows cannot totally absolve themselves from), why would a few rich and affluent continue to wantonly arrogate more of state’s resources to themselves. Minimum wage remains meagre and unsustainable and pensions are hardly paid when due yet a former governor (who must have helped himself well enough to last him many lifetimes anyway) still appropriates a huge chunk of the state’s treasury for himself for life. Suppose he were fifty and lives another fifty years?

    There cannot be any justification to this beyond licentious greed and abuse of power. No House of Assembly worth its name should pass a law such as this but it was passed all the same – post haste. It is a mischievous piece of legislation that must also be revoked post haste in the near future so that commonsense may prevail. We fear that viruses like this spread faster and one hopes that many other states do not catch it. It is obscene indeed.

    Ndigbo and Boko Haram

    There is no doubt that Ndigbo are enjoying the highest number of casualties in this Boko Haram madness. It may not be entirely true to say they are particularly being targeted all the time but by virtue of their ubiquity across the country and their mercantile nature, you are liable to find more of them in any large centre of commerce. When, therefore, such places are bombed, Ndigbo suffer high collateral damage. That may be understandable but what beggars explanation is always the rush to tip all bodies into mass graves without giving people the opportunity to identify their dead.

    It happened in the Kano motor park blast and recently in Jos. Attempts by Igbo groups to identify and retrieve their members’ bodies were rebuffed. All the bodies were hurriedly interred in a mass grave. As if to cover some evidence. This is not acceptable and it is, indeed, doubly traumatic. It is unconscionable to discard identifiable corpses in a mass grave. Family members of terror victims must be given the leeway to retrieve bodies for proper burial. Once again, we call on governments across the Southeast to set up committees to track and support terror victims. Ndigbo are bearing the brunt of this madness.

  • Nta’s tabernacle

    When the Lord spoke to Moses saying: “See, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur of the tribe of Judah. And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge and in manner of workmanship, to design artistic works, to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of workmanship.

    “And I, indeed I, have appointed with him Aholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and I have put wisdom in the hearts of all the gifted artisans, that they make all that I have commanded you: the tabernacle of meeting, the ark of the Testimony and the mercy seat that is on it, and all the furniture of the tabernacle —  the table and its utensils, the pure gold lampstand with all its utensils, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the laver and its base – the garments of ministry, the holy garments of Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons, to minister as priests, and the anointing oil and sweet incense for the holy place. According to all that I have commanded you they shall do.” (Exodus 31: 1-11 NKJV).

    The tabernacle of God is with men: If only every leader were a high priest of sort and the office he occupies, his tabernacle. That is the impression that comes to mind each time one reads the intriguing passage above. One has lifted so copiously from it to showcase God’s originality and purity in enacting his first sanctuary of worship – the tabernacle.

    In the making of the tabernacle, we are apprised with the majesty of omniscience. We see how He named every material for use by name and every measure to the finite unit. Aren’t you struck by the strict code of production up to the colours of garments and the ingredients of anointing oil and sweet incense. And of course, these are followed by unambiguous injunctions about code of conduct and mode of worship. This is at the beginning of the book. At the end; in the book of Revelation (21: 3), it says, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.”

    The corruption of theft: This rather long excursion into the Bible had been triggered by the comment credited to the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), Mr. Ekpo Nta, to the effect that Nigerians mistake stealing for corruption. In receiving members of the Council of Registered Engineers of Nigeria in his office in Abuja, the anti-corruption czar took an especial umbrage, noting that “Stealing is erroneously reported as corruption. We must go back to what we were taught in school to show that there are educated people in Nigeria.”

    Mr. Nta was simply re-echoing his boss, President Goodluck Jonathan, who had spoken in like manner and logic during a Presidential Chat recently. Nta and the president seem to be upbraiding Nigerians for construing every misdemeanor as corruption. They are trying to educate us on the fine distinction between plain stealing and perhaps the more dignified ‘art’ of corruption. But Mr. Nta would have done well to explain that fine difference between theft and corruption; something beyond the analogy he furnished the visiting engineers that tagging theft as corruption is like calling a roadside mechanic an engineer.

    Chief priests of tainted tabernacles: But there is no validity to what is clearly Mr. Nta’s Freudian slip: stealing is not just corruption, it is the most invidious kind. Here are some examples. When the chairman of a commission favours his front company to win a contract in his commission, he has not only corrupted the procurement system, he has stolen the commission’s funds. Two, when a director steals about N27 billion of pension funds, he has not only managed to damage the pension scheme, he is liable to corrupt the judiciary and the police prosecutorial and investigatory order, especially in a regime of weak institutions like our. It will be difficult to convict such a thief because he can buy his way through. So is a minister who has unrestrained access and indeed helps herself to her ministry’s treasury; even the ICPC would not dare probe her. Three: Mr. Nta must tell us why he has never been able to successfully prosecute any former governor so far (including a certain James Ibori) in spite of ample evidence before him that some of them stole their states blind? And he still thinks stealing is not the heart and soul of corruption? And why, if we may ask, is Nta splitting his already gray hairs on the semantics of corruption; are there definitional impediments to jailing the corrupters despoiling our land?

    While one would sympathise with Nta and other apparatchiks of government superintending over tainted and putrid tabernacles, we think he would do well to also leave us alone and refrain from provoking us. We understand that he is helpless, supine and fiercely dependent but we only wish he would quietly enjoy his booty, grow fat and bloated on it like his colleague at the EFCC. It’s sheer folly to expect a fry to chase after sharks in this crimson sea of corruption called Nigeria. That would be hara-kiri. Perhaps ten years hence, when he is long done as the chief priest of a rubbishy tabernacle, he just might drop a tear for us and for himself; just might.

  • Our Chibok epiphany

    Would Chibok be Nigeria’s epiphany? Is this our moment of illumination? What would this violent de-flowering of Nigeria by this Chibok phenomenon portend for us all? What auguries would it herald? What on earth is Chibok? What is her metaphysics? Where on earth is Chibok? You may never find it on any map; hardly more than a few hundred people had heard about Chibok before April 15, the day Boko Haram terrorist invaded a girls’ school in Chibok in the dead of night and herded away over 200 teenage girls. Since then and as each day dawned, Chibok, a small town in the eastern-most end of Borno State, northeast of Nigeria, near the Cameroun border has become a cause célèbre for the people of the world.

    The Chibok anthologies: Chibok literally caught fire before our eyes. More than 30 days on as confusion reigned over the number and whereabouts of the abducted Chibok girls, the entire world is roused as one in strident demand for their rescue. The world went Chiboky, so to speak, thanks to Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili and others who launched the #Bringbackourgirls protests in rain and in shine; the peoples of the world have never been united on any single issue like this for a long time. Chibok took a global life of its own becoming an anthology of tales. Let us review some of the themes:

    Chibok unfrocked: Chibok is an unmapped little place near the far, right hand end on Nigeria’s map; near the verdant tropical forests that spreads wildly into the Cameroun mountains. Did you ever think such a place would be the abode of such a well-appointed, all-girls school with such large number of students who are predominantly Christians? If Chibok graduates over 200 high school girls, imagine the total number of teenagers Nigeria churns out from secondary schools nationwide yearly? Does that say something about the latent greatness of this enclave called Nigeria? Marvel at how a modicum of quality leadership could transform this country into a global powerhouse in a very short time. Why don’t we elect to discover the little Chiboks in our small towns and villages and build them into international brands? But not by default as Borno’s Chibok has turned out but by careful planning and painstaking execution.

    Chibok as a de-mystifier: Chibok also unfrocked the presidency and exposed its huge, bare backside to a bewildered world; prompting the world to dash down to Nigeria in a rush, seeking to cover our nakedness. Chibok is the shame of the modern world, a testimony of how a country could fall on its face and break to pieces in a twinkle of an eye if the world did not move to steady it. A band of miscreants was on the verge of hijacking the sovereignty of a big, bumbling country but for the world community. Who could tell what might have been in another fortnight had Nigeria been left to her wiles – an implosion?

    It is a cliffhanger of an irony that Chibok is Nigeria’s new day shame and her saving grace: had the Chibok girls not been taken, Nigeria would have continued to trudge inexorably down the cliff; she was indeed poised to drift to her utter destruction. This abduction must be a divine act in our sovereignty script in which some foreign powers would para-shoot into the country and save us from local thugs hard on gunning down our nationhood. Now that the U.S., U.K., France, China, Israel (and who else?) is here to chase back the dusty insurgents, it plays up another sweet irony: to the effect that you have to be deflowered in order to begin to enjoy sex. Foreign military/security experts are foraging our land and turning us inside out so that we may live.

    Even one month after the Chibok quagmire, a pusillanimous presidency has continued to lumber; suffused in utter confusion and lethargy, there was no deterrence to attacks just as there was no urgent pursuit of hoodlums. And no apparent coordinated intelligence trail in the wake of the abduction. Up until recently, the president was on national television appealing to parents of the girls to help government find the abductors. Not to be left out of the drama, the wife of the president plebified a national calamity with her comical performance also on national television. To think that no formal bilateral alliances were forged all these years of Boko Haram torment; to think that the National Security Adviser (NSA) was reportedly paying millions of dollars to some phony U.S. lobbyist trying to reach the White House through the back door…Chibok as waterloo and epiphany: Not even the Boko Haram insurgents will be the same again after Chibok. As at last Monday, they were already raising a white flag. For the first time since they took this path of madness, they have initiated a peace deal seeking to swap prisoners for the abductees.

    As the whole world encircles them, they must have realised that evil has no hiding place when there is a concert of efforts by the good. Now that we are at it, we must totally rid ourselves of these irritants, these fiends from hell.

    We must reclaim our country from James Town in Akwa-Ibom to Bosso on the north-most tip of Borno; from Badagry in Lagos to Birnin-Konni in Sokoto. We must regroup. It is salutary that prominent northern voices like Mohammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida and the Sultan of Sokoto, who had hitherto been squeamish and un-resolute in condemning the rascals, are speaking up. We must seize the momentum of the current upwelling of support from the world to work out our rebirth. We must ensure that this foreign intervention is a clean-and-go effort. Most important, and more threatening than Boko Haram, we must resolve our urgent and present 2015 political logjam. We may yet forge a formidable black nation if we imbibe this Chibok spirit. We just might find our rebirth, our epiphany…after we have brought back the girls.

  • The unfolding American sorcery

    An old Igbo street speak insists that nwa beke wu agbara, which translates roughly to mean that the whiteman is a spirit. It is an evocation which emanated from my brothers marveling at the inventive capacity of this long-nosed, funny-complexioned fellow. For instance, the thought of a giant mass of iron (ship) floating on water or a huge iron bird cruising in the skies would often elicit the thought that whoever wrought such a magical act must have transcended the realm of the human. He must indeed be a spirit of sort.

    If you thought the above is street talk, what shall we say of America’s prediction of the terminality of this political entity call Nigeria in 2015? About 10 years ago, a U.S. organ had supposedly made a study and determined that the Nigerian state had an expiry date. The government of the day had dismissed the prediction nonchalantly as they are wont to react to almost all serious matters of state. There was no attempt to ascribe to the report, the thought and seriousness it required by setting up a think-tank to study it and follow through some of the indications. Absolutely no reasoned response than to abuse the Americans for wishing us evil; yes, President Olusegun Obasanjo who was at the helm then merely made a joke of such piece of early warning intelligence.

    Of intelligence, sorcery and sabotage: Today Nigeria unravels so speedily that the question on our lips now is: will Nigeria survive beyond 2015? Things are happening so rapidly, they indeed cascade beyond our control. The American script plays out unyieldingly, un-forgivingly towards a catastrophic destination. It seems intelligence has combined with sorcery (and laced with a bit of sabotage?) to force the expiration of this land.

    Intelligence: The auguries were conspicuous over a decade ago that Nigeria was indeed a failing state and devoid of a critical intelligent elite or leadership, it was bound to go to pieces.

    Sorcery: How come the Nigerian political system threw up the weakest and worst leadership in her history at this critical moment?

    Sabotage: Is America fuelling the fire of Nigeria’s disintegration and demise?

    America’s post-Nigeria strategies: If the U.S. had foreseen the end of Nigeria, she surely has a post-Nigerian script prepared. What it means is that if Nigeria’s life after life is more expedient for the U.S., it makes strategic sense to orchestrate the demise of this current shambling contraption. Who’s noting, who’s working? Here are a few posers to ponder upon: was the Yar’Adua-Jonathan ticket a happenstance after all? Is this Boko Haram insurgency ordinary? Who are the masterminds and tacticians? Who are the financiers and how come we can’t track the huge funds required for this magnitude of operation? Where are the arms, ammunition (tanks and RPGs inclusive) and logistical supplies coming from? How come the U.S. has paid only lip service to this incipient terrorism in Nigeria five years on? Why has the U.S. established quasi military bases with drones and all, north and south of Nigeria?

    Why is the U.S. issuing incessant terror alerts in Nigeria, the latest being last weekend when the U.S. Department of State (USDS) warned that “groups associated with terrorism planned to mount an unspecified attack against the Sheraton Hotel in Nigeria near the city of Lagos.” If the U.S. could pick this kind of information in her radar, how come she misses the movement of funds and arms fuelling the Boko Haram activities?

    Finally, was that a gloved hand recently when the U.S.DS made a statement that the Federal Government had failed in “addressing grievances among the northern populations.” This assertion is said to be contained in the U.S. Bureau of Counter-Terrorism 2013 Country Report. According to the report, “The government of Nigeria’s efforts to address grievances among northern populations, which include high unemployment and a dearth of basic services, made little progress. Some of the state governments in the North attempted to increase education and employment opportunities, but with almost no support from the Federal Government.”

     The Federal Republics of Northern and Southern Nigeria? And now see who is here at the nick of time to rescue the girls and solve all the terror problems – the Americans. This must be sheer sorcery? Well, Korea was split; Vietnam was split; so were Ireland and Congo, and most recently, Sudan and Ukraine. Might Nigeria be split? What is the game plan?

    Again where is the NSA?

    We had echoed this question on this page recently as the Boko Haram terrorists gain the upper hand in the war and many people rushed in defence of the National Security Adviser, (NSA) Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd). But this was before the abduction of the Chibok school girls and the Nyanya I and II bombings in Abuja. The sect leader (Shekau) was supposed to have been killed yet he still sends us scare videos. When is the next blast and where?

    Upon his appointment we were made to believe that he had influence among the trouble makers and, indeed, he could open a link with the sect. But about two years on, we even forget these days that we have an NSA. Even the U.S. report quoted above indicts him thus: “…While counter-terrorism activities of these agencies and ministry were ostensibly coordinated by the Office of the National Security Adviser, the level of inter-agency cooperation and information sharing was limited.”

    Where in the maze is our NSA?

    WEF: our illusion of grandeur.

    It’s so sad that Nigeria is currently saddled with leaders with no grand vision or the ability to drive even the basic and ordinary run of business. Were they imbued with such virtues they would understand that even in the best of times, Nigeria does not have the capacity to host the world or any major international event right now. Second, the World Economic Forum, Africa (WEF) is a private sector-led showpiece (jamboree) suited for advanced countries like Switzerland, which has long overcome the basic worries of development.

    But Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and her cronies choose to ignore this point. You can’t deign to host the world when you don’t have electricity, you don’t have basic potable water; pupils still sit on bare floor or study under the shade of trees; you still grapple with common diseases like cholera and polio. Serious leaders would tackle these basic worries fiercely instead of competing with Switzerland to host WEF. By the way, how much is WEF costing Nigeria, don’t we have a right to know? Why is it that members of our economic team are adept at showmanship and at grandstanding; smart talkers but poor workers? The economy withers under them yet they pretend all is well. They are leading us no where and we know it.

  • Ode to Beauty Haram

    Beauty is transcendental. It is providence’s final testament to man’s elevated status. Beauty, no matter the form or configuration, is imbued with the divine: a bougainvillea tree in glorious bloom; a stream coursing merrily  through the country side; the setting sun in blazing orange radiance over white-caped kilimanjaro  and the mother of all beauties – a sculpted damsel set down all so delicately among earthlings by our creator. Yes, womanhood is the mother of all beauties ever created because it is the only kind of beauty with fluttering, seductive eyes. It is through femininity that our creator found a collocation between man and celestial beings.

    Supple, two-legged beauty is the ultimate weapon that can be deployed for good or for ill. Tried and tested over the ages, carnal beauty is therapy as well as  potent ammo in man’s arsenal. Humanity and his history are at their roots, the story of beauty on the wings of carnality. Races have been saved and races have been razed from the face of the earth on account of this phenomenon. Great wars have been waged and empires have been pulled back from the brinks just by the timely flash of a demure smile. Among carnal earthlings, there is nothing the heart cannot wreak while at play on the lush landscape of beauty’s canvas. Yes, kings have given away entire kingdoms; let the kingdom and all that is in it be damned! Let all souls therein perish!

     King Herod Antipas staked half the empire to his illegitimate wife’s daughter. I will give anything, up to half my kingdom, Herod vowed, bewitched by a dancing nubile beauty. No, the head of John the Baptiser it must be, insists the fiendish Queen Herodias. And pronto, it is served up to her on a platter, still dripping and still misting (Mark, 6v25). On the other hand, Queen Esther’s enthralling beauty saved her race from annihilation. After Esther had worked on the great King Xerxes who ruled over 127 provinces stretching from India to Ethiopia, he would sacrifice even his own race to sustain Esther’s as revealed in the Biblical book of Esther.

    Just as beauty is the most beautiful art of all creation, (excuse the tautology) it is also the most ruinous. From age to age, beauty never loses its potency or power to hold man in ruinous thrall. Every generation has its array of bevies and no one is ever inured to their magical powers. But may a people never be caught in the vortex of a catastrophic beauty  –  this must be the king of all prayers. Has beauty gripped Nigeria by the scrotum with her soft, manicured fingers? Are we all under the sedate sensation of a pleasurable pain; the kind of pain we seem too weak to resist? Are we under the spell of a most beguiling beauty? Beauty garnished with kleptomania is raw poison. Have we handed the purse strings of our economy to a buccaneering beauty only to watch the land go to waste in the last few years? Have we been bewitched into dumping our most prized assets on the lush laps of a queen of pearls? Remember what Cleopatra did to Anthony. In Shakespeare’s Anthony and Cleopatra, Mark Anthony, a member of the ruling Roman triumvirate was seduced by the Egyptian beauty whose perfume wafted right across from the Mediterranean. And Anthony went on a cruise … abandoning the empire.

     Yes, it can only be by the sheer power of feminine sorcery that more income only translates to more misery for the populace. It is only an overpowering feminine aura that would drill harsh conditions into the people while cruising the world in wanton and licentious opulence. Only a beguiling beauty would tell the people that the economy was crashing under the weight of subsidy while cold-blooded corruption prevailed. Our imperious beauty has charmed us all into a coma, yanking off our life support, quickening our demise while perpetuating a treasury-jacking never known in Nigeria.

     Oh, what Beauty Haram; deadlier than Boko Haram, one that cannot be summoned, probed or queried; one that has the presidency, the NASS and the judiciary under her wrapper. One that holds EFCC, ICPC and all critical institutions of state spellbound. Oh, who will save us from this calamitous beauty that has afflicted our land! The headlines may be at variance with the intention of the monarch but the headlines and pictures are what we have to draw our inferences from. He is probably the most respected royalty in the land. He is not known to meddle unduly in matters of state. Indeed, like the great king he is, his power lies in understated eminence and dignified distance from partisan frays. You never find him courting cheap photo opportunity with people in power. In fact he would tell truth to power when he must. Most important, he is known to seek the overall good of the people and he would err on the side of justice.

    Two quick examples: In the heady days of the military when our monarchs were made objects of mockery and were suborned in their dozens upon stepping on the seemingly diseased soil of Aso Rock, only one king in Nigeria is remembered to have kept his head above the muck. Various uniformed rascals wanted royal affirmation to stay forever in power; nearly all crown heads went to pay homage and genuflect to the ‘junta kings’ in Abuja except one. In fact he kept asking that the right thing be done at the risk of losing his crown.

    Again he bucked the trend in his state’s politics recently when he supported an ‘outsider’ against his ‘son’ because his ‘son’ wasn’t the choice of the people and probably not fit for the job. It was a rare show of courage and character uncommon in this age. But the monarch whose word still resonates like law in his domain stood up for the overall good of the people.

    Of course we speak of no other than the revered Oba of Benin, Omo N’oba N’edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Erediauwa. However, last weekend, our exemplary monarch acted out of character; he jumped into petty partisan fray. It may be argued that it wasn’t him as he was represented by the Crown Prince, Eheneden Erediauwa. The story, however, is that the prince had carried a royal missive from his dad to President Goodluck Jonathan in Aso Rock. The Omo N’oba reportedly urged Jonathan to run for a second term or as the headline captured it, he “put pressure on Jonathan to run”.

    Well, in an age that every iroko in the land has fallen, let’s just note that it’s quite un-Omo N’obaic? Is this a sign of the new Benin Kingdom?

  • T.A. and the Abia resurgence

    Following the orchestrated barrage of negative media assault on Governor T.A. Orji of Abia State, I intervened in this space early in the year in a piece, titled: “The most maligned governor in the land”. Of course the mindless propaganda was the handiwork of T.A.’s former boss, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu (OUK), who apparently still cannot live down the fact that his former ‘boy’ has grown into a man. It is a peculiarly Nigerian political conundrum that a predecessor would want to sit on the back of his successor like an ugly hunch. No leader around here breaks clean and lets the new guy do his thing (perhaps Peter Obi will buck that trend in Anambra).

    That is how come OUK has chosen to be an albatross to T.A. since 2007 after he handed over the leadership of Abia to him. Being a close observer, I knew how hellish the first three years in office (between 2007 and 2010) was for T.A. He was emasculated and made inconsequential, as power was located around OUK, his mother and brother. Imagine the asphyxiating frustration of being an executive governor only by name? This is a fact known to most Abians.

    Living in bondage

    But what Abians may not fully comprehend is that the state was not only in bondage for 11 years under OUK, it was in speedy regression into a Hobbessian entity where dog was virtually eating dog. There was so much activity and little governance; there were resources but hardly any development; a few power cabals grew fat while the people were famished. I had an inkling of the situation but didn’t realise the depth of the trauma until I met Eze Chikamnayo recently. Eze was in OUK’s cabinet and he is currently the Information Commissioner in Abia State. He is probably the best information commissioner in the land today. Lean like a lizard, but doughty and indefatigable with it. He is very passionate and lapses into poetry when he talks about the Abia situation past and present – OUK’s dark regime and TA’s liberating new era.

    The making of a modern Abia

    Showing some senior journalists around Umuahia, the state capital, Eze challenged them to identify one notable project accomplished by his former boss in eight years (plus three) and, if proven to be true, he would resign. He was emphatic that having served the two governors, he is in a position to know the difference and that he would be willing to debate his assertions with anyone on any television platform. In all his tribulations in the hands of the ancient regime, providence must have been preparing T.A. to break the yoke of a fiendish and fetish past and let in a blast of light and fresh air, Eze opined.

    Eze is much buoyed and, indeed, boisterous in showing off the new projects “erupting” all over Abia. He is proud that his state has finally found its bearing and that he is a part of the T.A. team building modern Abia. Abia will never be the same again after T.A., he declared. Never again the dark ages; the current ascendancy will have to be sustained by all means, Eze proclaimed tirelessly.

    Indeed, he showed off numerous landmark projects, most of them freshly minted and many more in stages of construction. There is indeed a commitment to revamp the state and leave lasting legacies. For instance, a new layout called Ogurube has become Abia’s new administrative base, hosting the new government house complex, new secretariat complex and new e-library, among over a dozen other MDA complexes. The state had ramshackle colonial sheds as government house and admin offices.

    There is an airport in the making in Umuahia North, a seaport coming up at Oboaku, new high court buildings in Aba and Umuahia, Aba International Auto Market, Abia New Industrial Market and a modern bus park in Umuahia. There is also a more laudable venture into commercial agric, like the revival of the state’s palm plantation, cocoa plantation and a cashew drying field. How to move a market

    One found two projects particularly spectacular and truly monumental. A sprawling, International Conference Centre, whose majesty seems to symbolise the emerging new spirit of Abia, and whose pillars would signpost the future of T.A.’s vision. But at that, this Centre is puny in size and economic impact compared to the all-new Umuahia Modern Market, which one may take liberty to describe as phenomenal. The Ubeku Main Market in the heart of Umuahia was as old as the ancient city. It is comparable in location to Balogun or Akpogbon on Lagos Island or Eke Ukwu in Owerri. These are markets that have grown to become sore spots to their host cities and in need of relocation.

    In achieving the most difficult task of moving Ubeku Main Market to the outskirts of town, T.A. earned his place in the history of Abia. Relocating major city markets are the most arduous of tasks. But he did not only do it, he did it in style, creating what is probably the biggest market in Nigeria today – more than 12,000 shops traversed by a dual-carriage road and tarred lanes. A 400-unit housing estate complements it.

    It is like developing from scratch a new town, but one with a huge commercial proposition. Who does not know the importance of a market to an Igbo man? To appreciate it, when fully operational, the market will probably yield more revenue for Abia than accrues from the federation account.

    It is quite obvious that Abia is on the ascendancy and that T.A. is the one who has been on a rescue mission and not his noisy neighbour in Imo State.

    Did Nyako truly pen that memo?

    You are not likely to have read the full memo (so-called) from Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State to northern governors; that is because no editor would publish such asinine and outright hate-ridden letter. It is difficult to believe that a sitting governor of Nigeria would put such poison to paper in 2014. I cannot believe that this fellow once headed the Nigerian Navy. How does he govern his state? How could a man who manifestly cannot govern his mind be left in charge of millions of people? Well, we await the northern governors’ response.

    A prayer for the girls

    Why is the matter of the over 100 little lasses abducted and held captive in a thick forest by hoodlums not attracting national attention? An indeterminate number of students were snatched from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State by the Boko Haram gang about two weeks ago. Why are there no candle vigils; no release them protests and no prayer calls across the country? All who have little daughters will better understand the trauma of these girls’ parents. EXPRESSO hereby calls for a DAILY NOON PRAYER by all Nigerians for these girls till every one of them is released. Wherever you may be, let us all join in a little prayer for the girls at noon.

  • Ekiti poll: between light and darkness

    Ekiti is a blank billboard in my head. That is to say, at the snap of a finger I do not have a brand icon to associate this state with. Not a great name like Obafemi Awolowo, Wole Soyinka, a Rufus Giwa or even a Lamidi Adedibu. Not institutions like U.I., O.A.U, I.I.T.A. No such socio- corporate entities like Omotoso, the national power hub; Ewekoro, the dusty, sprawling cement enclave and Cocoa House, that towers in her ancient majesty over Ibadan. Okay, Ekiti boasts of the vivacious Ikogosi Warm Springs, but that’s about it all. Even in monarchical stature, a neophyte like yours truly would remember first, the Alaafin, the Ooni, Soun, Olubadan and the Alake before he would pick on the Ewi if ever.

    What about great towns and cities of the west: count Oyo, Ogbomoso, Ede in Oyo; Ota, Ijebu-Ode, Sagamu in Ogun; Okiti-pupa, Ore, Ile-oluji in Ondo. But for Ekiti, a non-indigene would most probably pick out only Ado-Ekiti. Why, Ekiti is the land-locked, little cousin of the west.

    No disrespect to the great academic clan of Ekiti, notably our dear poet laureate Niyi Osundare and a teeming number of professors perhaps the highest in the land. But intellectual asset by itself will not do. Ekiti is a clime in dire need of a giant leap forward to be conceptualized and wrought by a man of stable mind, giant heart and gargantuan energy. Ekiti will be the setting for an epic gubernatorial battle come June 21, featuring the incumbent, Governor Kayode Fayemi of the All Progressives Congress, (APC); Ayo Fayose of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) and Opeyemi Bamidele of the Labour Party, (LP).

    Fayemi, who got to the government house after a tortuous post-election litigation, has brought elan and commonsense to statecraft. An intellectual and democracy activist, he has handled power with utmost dignity and aplomb that only a cultured mind could muster. Watching from afar, he has run a government with a human face, (or a nice smiling face if you like) creating a welfare environment for the aged and frail. He is reported to have revamped most city roads, upgraded the warm springs to attract visitors and impacted education. From my spot, however, his forte must be the order and peace he has brought to this hinterland state.

    But to compare Fayose with Fayemi, to put it plainly, is to compare darkness with light. It is not because Fayose has limited education (HND) comparatively, and even a more limited record of structured work experience (he is a trader). Far from it, even a drop-out can excel as a leader if he is imbued with requisite talent and grooming. But Fayose showed no such traits in his first outing as governor (2003- 2006). He is possessed of the rabble mentality (which is a necessary ingredient for getting ahead in PDP, mark you) and he is a master at working up the hoi-polloi in his affected populism. For more than three years in office (before he was consumed by the rapscallions of the PDP that threw him up in the first place) he was the picture of an excitable child riding the wild-swirling carousel of power. You will remember him for his feisty hyperactivity and a woebegone poultry project. Would anyone with the appellation of ‘governor’ build a poultry farm in this age? It’s unpardonably obtuse.

    But a multi-billion naira ill-fated poultry is Fayose’s legacy for which he still faced trial until the super unscrupulous PDP sprung him once again and assaulted us with his candidacy. There are many such like him in the fold. Once, there used to be honour even among thieves. Why has PDP become decidedly amoral and contemptuous honour? Fayose’s candidacy is an affront not only to the people of Ekiti but to all discerning Nigerians.

    What is to be said of Opeyemi Bamidele? A lawyer and activist who may be deemed to be afflicted by an acute case of what Shakespeare described as ‘vaulting ambition’ and perhaps an illusion of grandeur? Spiting all entreaties, he broke ranks with his benefactor and a political family which afforded him everything and raised him to his current status. He doesn’t seem to stand much chance though, but to think that he could have easily strolled into this same office four years hence, if only he knew a thing about patience and gratefulness. Bamidele did not only chew the finger that nourished him, he would saw off the entire benevolent arm to sate his ambition. But there is a stench about treachery and ingratitude which lingers and reaches the heavens.

    Expresso pontificates, therefore, that this election is Fayemi’s to win or lose. Though the state is a very lean one, he had nearly four years to prepare. If he has any difficulty convincing Ekiti people to return him to office that could only mean he has not done enough. With his kindly mien and his pretty, activist spouse, Ekiti people almost got blessed with two governors for the price of one. But as much as the soft issues are important, the big matters as pointed out above require a gargantuan heart and energy. Ekiti is in dire need of big, nice sunny dreams such as building on one of its strengths and becoming the intellectual capital of Nigeria for instance; like hosting a world class university, model secondary schools and international vocational institutes. How’s that for a campaign call?

    The Nyanya massacre: woe unto murderers

    He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword…he who visits innocent men, women and children with gruesome death by the bomb shall meet the same fate. That is divine injunction. Nigerians who chose the peak period of a Monday morning (April 14) to let off bombs in a crowded motor park, to kill and maim hundreds of fellow compatriots will not go un-avenged. Especially so the architects, the hidden hands and the financiers – they will not go unpunished. The mass murderers will surely be unmasked.

    Some things to cheer:

    It’s not a fluke in Anambra!

    Former Governor Peter Obi’s revamp of education in Anambra continues to earn plaudits. National examination results consistently prove the quality of the reform. In the past three years, Anambra candidates have topped NECO-organised National Common Entrance examinations. Anambra students have also led in WASCE, NECO and UTME exams. It’s quite a feat to cheer for a state that had high (male) school drop-out rate before the Obi era. The new governor, Willie Obiano must raise the bar even higher.

    200 for Presidential Special Scholarship Scheme (PSSS)

    In the first edition, it was 101 first class graduates of Nigerian universities sponsored to 25 top universities across the world under the PSSS. In this second edition, 200 of Nigeria’s brightest and best have been shortlisted to go conquer the world – so to speak. Over 300 in two years; imagine the sheer number of this plucky group in about 10 years and the impact they are capable to bring to bear not only on Nigeria’s worlds. It’s the way to go.

  • Rebasing our pure-water economy

    Our dear Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has disappointed some of us so sorely that we come to tears each time we contemplate the persistent regress of our dear country into a non-economic entity. And in our private discussions we can’t stop wondering whatever happened to Ngozi? Could she have been weighed down by the oversized portfolios of Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister for the Economy? For sure, the Jonathan administration is less luminescent than Olusegun Obasanjo’s but… We dare say that if she scored a pass mark in her first coming under President Obasanjo’s regime, this time she’s mixed up the script entirely and cannot put a handle on neither the economy nor our finances.

    This so-called economy is in dire need of radical restructure to get the damaged ship back on sail; but it’s either that she cannot see it or she prefers to roll with the punches. For instance, the annual budget never comes on time anymore (2014 budget just passed after first quarter!); she has been unable to whip down recurrent expenditure which still gulps over 75 percent of total budget; industries continue to atrophy; the huge agric sector has become mere statistical confabulations by a smooth-talking agric minister and both power and oil and gas sectors, which ought to heave the turbines of the economy, are in perpetual recession under people without a vision for the nation. We thus have an economy which is prostrate and gasping for air.

    It is from this sad milieu that we were gleefully informed that Nigeria’ economy is now the biggest in Africa and ranks 26th globally. One could not help having a good laugh at this farce; we are a people without shame, a people intent on achieving greatness through the back door. We are told that by a magical re-jigging of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures, we have suddenly become the big, bad, wolf; the economic tiger of Africa! To think that we could not sustain a vision 20-20-20- we willingly formulated: the so-called vision died a natural death because we are so unserious; the former Planning Minister had to pronounce the vision dead.

    For an economy that can at best be described as pure-water economy, not necessarily because it is terribly small, but because it is impure, embroiled in the mire, disheveled and uncoordinated. One quick indication that Nigeria does not have a properly structured economy is to check the back pages of The Economist, which publishes economic and financial indicators of major economies weekly. The only African countries worthy of mention have been Egypt and South Africa. The economic indices showcased by this London journal include: GDP, industrial production, unemployment rate, current account balance, interest rates, etc.

    Were we a serious people who appreciate our dire situation and who are hard at work seeking solution, we would have further down-graded our GDP to show the magnitude of our wretchedness. Here are some of the reasons why a downward review would have been more appropriate now:

    ONE: No defined economic agenda: The present government is merely tumbling along; it has no clearly defined economic vision or goal. All it does largely is collect rent from oil, shares it out like the national cake we call it. Most of it is eventually frittered away. In addition, the third tier of our polity, the LGAs, is near-moribund, thus a swathe of the land, more than half of the people and a chunk of the economy is left in the lurch. Who gives a damn; where then is the economy?

    TWO: No institutions: most of our social, political and economic institutions are in shambles. They are lacking in the capacity to steady the ship of state and make it sail smoothly. It is not possible to organise an economy to a world standard where these institutions have failed.

    THREE: Statistics, what statistics: The National Bureau of Statistics simply lacks the capacity to produce any valid and reliable data. That explains why it couldn’t do routine rebasing of GDP for 24 years.

    FOUR: No economic base: It is shocking that our economic managers deigned to compare Nigeria’s economy with South Africa’s. Apart from our abundance of crude oil and gas which we largely dispel into the seas, so to speak and expel into the atmosphere, we do not have an added-value production base; we are still highly import dependent including for our main food staple, rice. South Africa on the other hand is a massive industrial and agricultural entity that has proven that Africa can be first world. It is mischievous and in bad taste to compare these two economies by any indices whatsoever.

    FIVE: Wasting population: If we seek the harsh truth, Nigeria is but a mass of wasting population – comprising a horde of vibrant but impoverished youths, ill-educated, jobless and angry. What really have we done to earn the 26th position in the world? In the comity of nations, we probably have the worst power situation, we have the worse infrastructure situation, we have among the most endemic corruption and we have about the worst poverty and life expectancy indices.

    SIX: Bleak future: While the South African may have planned 20 years ahead, there are no socio-economic indices around here to bring a smile on the face of the Nigerian, yet we are told we have a big economy by our leaders. What this means is that they do not understand the magnitude of our troubles. What this means again is that we face a bleak future with no redemption in sight because nobody is working to change our situation. They fiddle and revel while our country dies.

    LAST MUG: Take heed Borno State Govt

    It was a beautiful and colourful photograph as published in the newspapers last week. Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima posed with a bevy of young ladies resplendent in their spotted orange hijab over dark flowing gowns. The young, beautiful Borno lasses have won the state’s scholarship to study medicine at the University of Khartoum, Sudan. Great idea (if you don’t mind that Sudan is strife-stricken). What troubles Expresso is that all the young ladies, by their attire, are all Muslims. Borno is not an all-Muslim State is it? Or are the non-Muslims in Borno second class citizens? Seemingly small matter like this goes a long way to brew rancor and disaffection.

    NOTE: Enquiries about the book, Blood on the Niger, by Emma Okocha may be directed to Toyin on 08065289740 or Deji on 08060205914