The Nation Newspaper

Category: Monday

  • Civic peace

    Sam Omatseye

    The story of Anthony Joshua is a metaphor of what can be done if we apply our spirit in this country. When the Nigerian pugilist fell to Andy Ruiz Jr about half year ago, I pitied the fellow. And after I saw footages of that sweaty duel, I almost gave up on Joshua. He didn’t return me the favour. I gave up on him. He gave himself time. He probably pitied Ruiz for the ruin that was to come.

    The American-Mexican boxer’s build was a source of laughter for me, but also of curiosity. He looked more like a wrestler than a boxer. Even for a wrestler, his body looked like a mess of loose flesh. His build seemed to qualify for the street brawler of amateur manoeuvres. At that, he did not look like a man who could survive a featherweight wager.

    Shorter than Joshua, Ruiz rammed into his quarry with raw vitality and pluck. He plucked at Joshua’s every weakness. His weak points were his sweet spot. Joshua was perplexed, out-hit, out-decoyed. The opponent Ruiz seemed a bag of flesh, but actually a sanctuary of muscles. He was a rampart, a fortress of courage, indomitable, roaring with jabs and fury. Joshua collapsed from the charismatic brute to a puny Adonis. Tall but fragile, fine but not fiery, looking more like the party man who missed his way to a ring of professionals. Joshua could not penetrate, or feint punches or rage into a momentum. He fell flat before the champion.

    Fast forward to December 7. Joshua overcame all that and beat his quarry. I had told people I did not expect him to win, but I hoped for him to conquer. His victory was evidence that spirit trumps flesh, confidence overtakes resume. Joshua rewrote the story of his life, and also the story of Nigerian boxing.

    So, we can in this country do better, if we think better. As a man thinks in his heart, so he is, said Solomon in scriptures. It is not by power or might, but by the spirit. Joshua the David beat Ruiz the Goliath. He disappointed my fears but affirmed the hopes of many Nigerians. We do that in sports. We rarely accomplish such feats in governance.

    We have a few such narratives, though. I contemplated it as I put pen to paper and looked at one aspect of our national life that is a model of organisation, dedication and focus. I am referring to the transformation of Lagos from a city of brigands when I returned to Nigeria from the United States  in 2006.

    Lagos was a place of fear and trembling. At this time of year, the banks and tony places became targets of the hoodlums. They stormed a street of banks, and raped it. They would spend hours in a bank. The air quivered with gunshots, the hoodlums not even afraid to be seen. No disguises, no masks. They looked their victims in the eye; they killed when resisted. Sometimes they snuffed out unprovoked the roadside innocent. They often were powered not only by greed but drugs, their breaths were the flames of Indian hemps and cocaine. Their language was the refrain of the beast.

    They were the lords of the city. In traffic, it was common to see everyone abandon their cars and run for their lives, whether on Third Mainland Bridge or Ikorodu Road. Even in tranquil traffic, a hood may materialise beside the car and point out a gun and ask for valuables – handsets, money, jewellery. Other commuters feigned inattention, while at once grateful that they were spared or praying they were not next in line.

    So, last week, when a town hall meeting was convened by the BOS of Lagos over the Lagos State Security Trust Fund, I recalled how I travelled to the Civic Centre venue without routine trepidation I had just 13 years ago.

    The plan hatched during the years of Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu was etched under the watch of then governor of example, now the Trojan of Works, Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN.

    But how time heals. When members of the Trust Fund went to visit the BOS of Lagos after he became governor, they thought they were going to brief him on the dynamics and origins of the Trust Fund, but the men realised that Governor Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu was not only steeped in the activities. He was there on creation day. He dreamed with those who dreamed it, birthed it with those who birthed it. As commissioner for establishment, he was the operations man of the Trust Fund. This is a testament to continuum in government for which Lagos has been thankful and beneficiary.

    Since its inception, the Trust Fund, not without support from the pockets of the state Government, has become the engine room to finance security in the state. It is also a paragon of democracy at work in the saving and securing of life. Citizens and corporate bodies have been contributing. At the event that day alone, individuals and corporate bodies announced donations of over N20 million. The people donate, the government secures. From the big oil firms and banks who give millions to the average citizen who gives N50,000, the state benefits from its own citizens.

    According to Abdulrazaq Balogun, Governor Sanwo-Olu rejuvenated the purse after it dropped under the previous governor into an empty shell.  It earned one billion four hundred and one million, eight hundred and eighty thousand, seven hundred naira in 2019. This contrasts to barely five million Naira in November 2018 and early this year under his predecessor.

    Crimes come in various forms, and the new commissioner of police, Hakeem Odumosu, unveiled crimes and how they have been attacked in the city. I was shocked to learn of a mushrooming of cults in the city. The one that stood out is Awawa that now recruits children in primary schools. Their area of operation is in Surulere and its environs.

    This emphasises what the governor, who has mastered his own cadences when he speaks, said about modernising the architecture of security, to embrace social media strategies, and modern equipment. To secure we have to think. Just as Joshua gave jabs to ruin Ruiz, so Lagos and his governor should showcase one of the few fountains of Nigerian success story.

    It is not that crimes cannot happen; it is that we are on top of it. It is civic coercion for the people’s sake.

  • Adams’ Apple

    Sam Omatseye

    Somehow the impression is given that those who are ganging up against the APC chairman, Adams Oshiomhole are gaining traction.

    True, some governors are plotting, but it is a show of desperation.

    Adams’s foundation still stands sure in spite of the work of his opponents who include governors of Kebbi, Ekiti, Niger, Kaduna and of course the traitor in Benin.

    Some on the fence include the Governors of Gombe, Ondo and Nassarawa, which means they are still contemplating their positions, with Gombe almost going Adams’ path.

    Most of the other states are with the spry chairman. Again, the plotters are finding it difficult to push their case because they need to convince President Buhari, who is well pleased with his party chairman.

    The apple is still in Adams’ throat. The plotters cannot pluck it, and don’t have the numbers.

  • Obaseki’s secrets

    Sam Omatseye

    The fascinating thing about politics is that what we see in public is the charade, the rites of glamour and blood. We see the politicians in their high hours in agbadas and babaringa and bowler hats, their smiles in supernova light. During campaigns and in social arenas, they wave hands like royals connecting with the poor. In sober moments, they talk policy and affect empathy.

    In turbulent times, they retreat from the public. Their supporters, just as we saw recently in Kogi and Bayelsa, are landlords and cavemen, bearing the torch of war, burning buildings, slashing necks, breaking windows, slaying widows, despatching red-blooded youths, telegraphing fear.

    We are not too sure who they are, just like the quiet guard at the door, his bulk and mournful eyes and biceps say nothing until we provoke him. Sometimes, we see them on display when the rumbles in their souls, like a constipated bowel, cannot hide inside anymore.

    Then, as we saw recently in Edo State politics, the private spills onto the public space. The Nobel Prize novelist and author of One Hundred Years of Solitude, Garcia Marquez once said that “all human beings have three lives: public, private and secret.”

    Much of what we know of politicians is public. Their private lives they invite the public to see so we can somehow humanise them. We observe their children, their friends, when they sport, dine, dance and pray, when they are sick, or when they lose a mother or father or a child. Or when they do charity, or cry at funerals. The private is sometimes public. In his memoirs, President Richard Nixon documented the crises he endured and how the media exposed much of his life. His wife Pat was scandalised. Nixon replied, “People in political life must live in a fish bowl.”

    What fascinates the public is the unintended detail of their seamy secrets, the ones that they cannot sugar-coat with public relations cunning. They don’t tell anyone but confidants. Yet when we know, they wince. President Lincoln, a politician whose wife’s eccentricities he tried to hide, once said: “It’s not me who can’t keep a secret. It’s the people I tell who can’t.”

    That was what happened when the All Progressives Congress (APC) Chairman Adams Oshiomhole’s residence was attacked by hoodlums loyal to  Governor Godwin Obaseki. The theatre was re-enacted during a university convocation when the deputy governor, playing an Okada rider, stormed Adam’s house with hoodlums to embarrass guests like the CBN Governor and a monarch. The situation was first rigged in news reports as Adams being hostile to the governor before the full story lit the headlines.

    But how did Adams, who became the first apostle of Obaseki’s candidacy turn into the enemy at the gate? Even when he was warned that selling his candidacy was like retailing a dead goat in a muslim society. Now, the APC chairman is often reminded by those who warned him about “Godwin’s style” that the man would look the other way and knife him in the guts. Prophecy has met providence. But all these, I learned, began with the issue of party primaries, and the Governor wanted to shut out all stakeholders, including Adams.

    This led to a series of efforts to reconcile Obaseki and Adams. From all available evidence, Obaseki does not want any form of peace. He rebuffed all the overtures and suggestions from people outside the state and within APC. The first and only meeting had wheel horses of the party as well as a man of means. The politicians were Abubakar Bagudu, Governor of Kebbi State, Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State and also head of the Governor’s Forum as well as the man of means. Of course Obaseki and Adams were at the meeting. All efforts to persuade the governor of Edo State to reach an agreement about the primaries and for both men to reconcile did not yield fruits. El Rufai, who knelt to Kogites recently also genuflected to Obaseki, informing the governor that whatever happened at the party at the state level would have to be ratified by the National Working Committee. Obaseki did not budge, and the man of means in their midst was clearly unhappy with the governor’s tempestuous recalcitrance.  The meeting was stalemated. Another meeting was scheduled to hold to include a broader landscape of party stakeholders. Obaseki said he would not come to Adam’s house because his (Adam’s) people did not like the governor. Adams agreed to meet in Obaseki’s house. It did not happen. He asked them to meet at Transcorp. Adam’s agreed and went there in the company of his lawyer friend Nnamonso Ekanem (SAN).

    Obaseki told Adams that both had nothing to discuss because they were heading to mutual self-destruction. Adams reportedly forswore such a fate for both of them. Obaseki had his deputy, a one-time ally turned foe and storm rider, and secretary to government with him in the room.

    This meeting was to prepare for a meeting in Fayemi’s Abuja residence. But Obaseki did not show up for that meeting, and both Fayemi and Bagudu, who had arrived for the meeting had to do something else with their time.

    It was after that the Edo Governor sacked 18 secretaries of the local governments and councillors. He also fired over 200 senior special assistants, all appointed by him. He also reportedly asked Mrs Eghe Ogbedmudia to do a press conference to condemn APC leaders who were not on his side. The woman balked and advised the governor to reconcile all factions. Obaseki announced her suspension afterwards.

    In a recent APC caucus meeting, Katsina State Governor Aminu Bello Masari had to rebuke Obaseki when he turned such a grave matter as reconciliation into a gale of laughter, and he wondered whether the Edo State Governor thought they gathered there for trivialities.

    I have inquired, what did Adams ask from Obaseki that he turned cold to the man who engineered his rise to power from an obscure technocrat, though now an obscurantist power player? Did he ask for appointments? I learned Adams played minimal role in appointments. He only had one commissioner, Mika Amanokhai, whom Obaseki fired along with seven others. In all 33 local government areas Adams only had three. I would like Obaseki to come clean with evidence of Adams’ overbearing presence.

    A source told me that Obaseki once asked Adams if he had any interests, and his predecessor said nothing.  Yet, I wonder why he said once that, “I am not an ungrateful person.  No one made me governor. I became governor by God’s grace, with the support of many other people.”

    Men who brandish God’s grace should remember that God first made Nebuchadnezzar king.

    Lalong vs Ortom

    Irony came last weekend with two appeal court judgments. One, in Benue with the election of Samuel Ortom. In Plateau, it’s the election of Simon Lalong. Both of them ran on antipodal platforms.

    Ortom ran on ‘them versus us,’ and he took advantage of the herders crisis to con himself into the graces of his people. It worked. Lalong ran on unity. He also won.

    Now, in spite of Ortom’s divisive vanity, the herders crisis are not on the front burners. With the mollifying voice of Lalong, Plateau is now cooling towards development rather than the tempest of fear and trembling.

    I would rather follow the path of Lalong as Paul said: “Follow peace with all men…”

  • Witchcraft conference: Postscript

    WAS there real justification for the controversy that threatened the recent International Conference on Witchcraft organized by the University Of Nigeria Nsukka, UNN? Or were the prejudices that led to its stigmatization by some Christian groups, part of the contradictions the conference was set to confront?

    These questions are raised because of issues bandied before the conference; issues that led to the replacement of its original theme and the withdrawal of the Keynote Speaker. But for this thematic change, the conference may not have seen the light of the day given the negative meanings and coloration assigned to that intellectual harvest by some protesting groups.

    What were the issues? The Prof. B.I.C Ijomah Center for Policy Studies and Research, UNN had slated an International Conference on Witchcraft with the title, “Witchcraft: meanings, factors, and practices”. But as soon as it was unveiled, there arose strident outcries from some Christian groups and students of the institution protesting the purpose the conference was meant to serve.

    Interpretations ranged from allegations that it was a gathering of witches to an attempt to promote evil with some calling for its outright cancellation. There were even demonstrations within the campus of the university with some of the placards reading “we plead the blood of Jesus over UNN. We reject all forms of witchcraft overtly or covertly”.

    Apparently succumbing to pressure, the management of the university directed the organizers to change the theme if they wanted the conference to go on. This was done. Thus, the new theme became “Dimensions of human behavior”. The conference has come and gone. But with its emerging proceedings, was there real justification for the hullaballoo and its stigmatization in the first place? That is the searing question. And we may find out the attacks were highly misplaced as there is ample justification for the conference and its theme as originally conceived. What is witchcraft?  Wikipedia described witchcraft as the practice of magical skills and abilities – a broad term that varies culturally and societally and thus can be difficult to define with precision. A witch in the definition of Merriam Webster is one that is credited with usually malignant supernatural powers especially a woman practicing usually black witchcraft often with the aid of a devil.

    Evident from the above is that witchcraft and witches are practices and beliefs shared across countries and boarders and therefore not just a Nigerian phenomenon. The fact that dictionaries have definitions or explanations as to what they entail shows that the white man has some knowledge of such beliefs either in their real or imaginary frame. There is also a convergence of views that what constitutes witchcraft varies culturally and does not lend itself to precise explanation or interpretation

    That ipso facto, makes it a research question. Thus, a conference with the title “Witchcraft, meanings, factors and practices” seeks to dig deeper into the phenomenon with a view to unraveling some of the misconceptions that hitherto surrounded it, misconceptions that had led to the killing and burning alive of some old women on these shores on mere suspicion of witchcraft. Moreover, issues surrounding witchcraft and witches have at best, remained mysterious and contentious. A society that desires progress cannot but interrogate such issues. There was therefore, vision and foresight in both the organization of the conference and its subject matter.

    Curiously, the so-called Nigerian factor soon reared up its ugly head as some groups began to cast aspersions on that intellectual inquisition. They did not want the conference to hold as they considered it a gathering of witches and the sponsorship of evil. The director-general of the centre, Prof. Egodi Uchendu was so frustrated by these misplaced attacks that she lamented how ordinary academic conference was twisted to cause confusion.

    She was so piqued by events before the conference that she had to explain in a statement that the subject of the conference is on witchcraft and NOT the gathering of witches. Hear her: “surprisingly, some persons erroneously concluded that only witches can discuss witchcraft. We are not witches. We are professors and scholars intrigued by this phenomenon of witchcraft. Our conference is mere academic discussion where we shall review journals and information gathered over the years on the subject matter”. For her, the essence is the advancement of knowledge. She said it all.

    But arising from her frustrations is the propriety of the attacks mounted by some Christian organizations. Perhaps, she had this dialectics in mind when she rightly observed that church pastors discuss witchcraft regularly and also preach against it all the time. If that is the case, why were they opposed to an academic inquisition on the matter? What is there in an issue they regularly preach that scholars should be barred from discussing it? And whose interest was the stoppage meant to serve?  These posers are given fillip given that sundry pastors, seers and fortunetellers capitalize on the purported existence of witches, wizards and blood sucking demons to hoodwink and deceive their followers.

    Could the attacks have stemmed from pathological fear that some of the antics of these preachers stand the risk of being exposed by the conference? Or were there genuine issues in the challenges mounted by the Christian bodies? As things turned out, the attacks were grossly exaggerated and misconceived. It was sheer smear campaign. The argument that only witches can discuss witchcraft makes no sense at all.

    Are we now being made to believe that those preachers who regularly discuss witchcraft and blood sucking demons; sometimes setting families against each other, children against parents and wives against their mothers-in-law are witches? If that is the case, then the boundaries of witchcraft are very inelastic. We are then all witches since at one time or the other we find ourselves discussing the subject matter. That is the futility in stretching that argument further.

    Those who wanted the conference scuttled could be excused on grounds of ignorance. They may also be accused of nursing some hidden agenda. But it is this culture of ignorance that nurtures and sustains the myth of witchcraft the conference was set to expose. With the frequent deployment of such mystic and magical occurrences to explain life situations and their negative effects on the psyche of the ordinarily man, we run a mortal danger if conscious efforts are not made to reverse such narratives. That in my mind was the essence of the intellectual engagement on witchcraft. We cannot just run away from interrogating such social phenomenon if we must detach our peoples from the culture of fear and superstition that has overtime stultified national development.

    The conference was a success given the way the phenomenon was handled by various speakers. In his own paper titled, “The wealthy are no witches: towards an epistemology and ideology of witchcraft among the Igbo of Nigeria”, Prof Damian Opata said the way witchcraft was propagated and believed here had continued to kill the development of knowledge on the issue.

    Lamenting the deployment by pastors, prophet and seers of variegated foreign religions of perceived attacks by witches and wizards to put fear in the minds of their congregations, he said the truth is that witches exist for those who believe it exists and does not exist for those who do not believe in it.

    Peter Jazzy-Eze, head, Department of Sociology and Anthropology UNN, in his paper titled, “Which Witch? What anthropology knows of the adult Bugbear” argued that witchcraft did not exist but only existed in the minds of those who believe in it. For him, science and technology have overtaken superstitious belief on witchcraft which has no practical proof. He urged Africans to drop the belief in witchcraft and embrace robust knowledge in science and technology that have practical and verifiable applications.

    The issue is clear. It was neither a case of witches discussing witchcraft nor a gathering of witches. It was an intellectual inquisition into the phenomenon of witchcraft. And we are better off with the conclusions that witches only exist in the imagination of the gullible.

     

     

  • Ihedioha’s serial victories

    Femi Macaulay

     

    IMO State Governor Emeka Ihedioha’s victory at the Court of Appeal on November 19 reinforced his victory at the Imo Governorship Election Tribunal on September 20.  A report had said news of Ihedioha’s victory at the tribunal was greeted with “massive jubilation.”

    According to Prof Francis Otonta, the returning officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) who announced the result of the Imo governorship election on March 12, Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a former deputy speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, won in 11 of the 27 local government areas, polling a total 273,404 votes to defeat Uche Nwosu of the Action Alliance (AA) who won in 10 LGAs and scored 190,364 votes.

    Ifeanyi Araraume of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), a former senator, had 114,676 votes and won in four LGAs. Fourth was Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress (APC), a serving senator representing Imo west senatorial district, who polled 96,458 votes and won in two LGAs.

    Otonta had declared that Ihedioha, “having satisfied all the requirements of the law and scored the highest number of votes”  “won the election and is hereby returned.” Judgements by the governorship tribunal and the Appeal Court upheld Ihedioha’s election.

    The appellants, Nwosu, Araraume and Uzodinma had asked   the appellate court to void Ihedioha’s election on the grounds that he did not obtain the constitutional one quarter of the votes in at least two-thirds of the 27 local government areas of the state, in line with Section 179 of the Constitution.

    This is what happened at the Appeal Court: “ In a unanimous judgment, the five -man panel presided by Justice Oyebisi Omoyele dismissed the appeal by Action Alliance and its candidate, Uche Nwosu for lack of merit and upheld the judgment of the lower tribunal…

    “The panel upheld the judgment of the lower tribunal adding that the assessment of the tribunal was thorough and resolved the appeal against the appellants.

    “In Sen. Hope Uzodinma’s appeal, there was a dissenting judgment of ratio 4:1

    “Four members agreed that the appeal lacks merit… while a member saw merit in the appeal and said that the judgment of the lower court be set aside…

    “In Ifeanyi Araraume’s appeal, the appeal was also dismissed for inability of the appellants to prove their allegations against the respondents.

    The panel affirmed the judgment of the lower tribunal…”

    This is what happened at the tribunal: “The three-member panel of the tribunal had in a unanimous decision… held that Ihedioha was lawfully declared winner of the governorship election by INEC.

    “The panel chaired by Justice Malami Dongondaji, had in the judgment dismissed Araraume, Nwosu and Uzodinma’s petitions for lacking in merit on the grounds that they failed to prove allegations made in their petitions…

    “The petitioners also alleged substantial non compliance with the Electoral Act and Guidelines, including other irregularities.

    “The tribunal in its judgment held that the case of the petitioners was unmeritorious because they failed to call relevant witnesses and that evidence of witnesses called was based on hearsay.

    “The tribunal in addition rejected documents tendered by the petitioners in support of their claims on the grounds that those who led evidence in the documents were not the makers of the documents.”

    Ultimately, the Supreme Court is expected to give a final judgement on the matter. The judgements of the tribunal and the Appeal Court reflect the strength of Ihedioha’s case as well as the weakness of the appellants’ case.

    It is interesting that the appellants are involved in a joint effort against Ihedioha. So far, it has been a failed effort, and it may well end as a failed effort.  The reality is that power changed hands in Imo State, resulting in the pendulum effect. Governor Ihedioha wasn’t expected to continue on the path of former governor Rochas Okorocha of APC, even though it is said that government is a continuum.

    Indeed, the Ihedioha administration’s move to probe the Okorocha administration demonstrates discontinuity. It is curious that  the eight-member committee set up to investigate Okorocha’s performance in his two terms as governor between 2011 and 2019 is expected to “ascertain and document the locations of and balances on all bank accounts operated by Imo State government, its Ministries, Departments and Agencies as at May 29, 2019.”

    The investigative panel is also expected to ”review all financial transactions and where necessary, a forensic audit with a view to ascertaining sources of funds and the application of same;  review such   disbursements/applications of state resources to ascertain the propriety of charges levied on accounts, interest payment on loans and deposits where applicable, authorisation, etc; and review the operations of the Imo State Board of Internal Revenue (BIR) with a view to recommending appropriate strategies to reposition the agency for better performance and sustained growth and to conduct governance/financial reviews of key agencies of government with a view to documenting all revenues generated or subventions/allocations between 2011 -2019.”

    Perhaps the probe would show that the Okorocha administration had something to hide; perhaps not. Ihedioha’s inaugural speech on May 29 gave an insight into the need for a probe.  ”Pensioners are owed for over 77 months, accruing fifty-seven (57) billion naira in Pension liability alone,” he said.  ”Eight years of bad governance led to a mind-boggling decay of critical public infrastructure; a crippling debt burden without any meaningful infrastructural or institutional developments to show for such a humongous debt.”

    Ihedioha added: “In the light of recent revelations by interest groups, various institutions and agencies of state, many have asked what becomes of those who recklessly plundered our commonwealth. My answer is simple: They will be held accountable. While this administration will be forward looking and not embark on any witch-hunting, those who have held positions of authority must prepare to render account of their stewardship to the people because our resolve to hold their feet to the fire of probity and accountability is iron-clad.”

    There may well be good reasons for such investigation. Okorocha had displayed desperation to determine his successor. He had desperately wanted his son-in-law, Nwosu, to succeed him. Nwosu had defected to AA from APC after failing to get what he wanted.  In a display of crude godfatherism, Okorocha had shamelessly supported Nwosu who was the governorship candidate of a political party different from his in the March 9 governorship election.

    If things had worked out according to Okorocha’s plan and Nwosu had succeeded him, there would have been no question of a probe. Good governance implies exposing past bad governance, while carrying out the business of governance.

    The legal battle is a distraction the Ihedioha administration does not need.  The government needs to concentrate on developing Imo State. Ihedioha’s expected victory at the Supreme Court will help advance his development agenda for the state.

     

  • Sanctity of the ballot box

    It is worrisome that the outcome of last week’s elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states did not deviate substantially from the recriminations that had characterized our elections overtime. Neither were they devoid of the unwholesome tendencies that cast serious slur on the future of democracy on these shores.

    Not unexpectedly, incidents of killing, maiming, harassment, hijacking of ballot boxes, vote buying and outright rewriting and falsification of election results were the drawbacks freely traded. At least 10 people were killed in Kogi State including the woman leader of the main opposition party who was burnt alive in her home two days after the elections by suspected party thugs.

    The fatalities were less in Bayelsa State but peace still took flight as a result of electoral violence with many critically injured. International observers under the platform, ‘Diplomatic Watch’ decried the high level of violence in the two states; vote buying, killings in some polling units and credible reports on ballot box snatching. The group which included the EU, US and UK expressed sympathy for all those affected by the violence and called on the government to provide a fair and safe playing ground where all Nigerians would be able to exercise their fundamental rights to vote unencumbered.

    Elsewhere security agencies have also been taking a fair share of the blame for not rising to the challenges posed by these grave security infractions. The police and the military have been fingered by the opposition for aiding some politicians to rig the elections with brazen impunity. Even with the deployment of more than 30, 000 security personnel for the elections, armed thugs still operated feely in their vehicles without being apprehended despite the usual restrictions on movement.

    The Inspector-General of Police IGP, Muhammad Adamu did not help matters when he told reporters that the police had prior intelligence that the elections in Kogi and Bayelsa were going to be violent. If the police had such prior information and we are still left with this embarrassing level of killings and all manner of criminal infractions, it means either they did not take the required proactive steps to arrest the situation or where such responses were undertaken, they were not sufficient to elicit the required outcomes. Whichever the case, the police found itself wanting in providing peaceful and safe ground for the electorate to exercise their franchise without fear of harassment or intimidation. That much is incontrovertible and has been given ample credence by international observers.

    Adamu also rationalized the presence of helicopters during the elections on the ground that they were meant to frighten and scare away would-be ballot box snatchers and other elements intent on causing trouble. We may have to concede this claim to that security organization. But the outcome of the elections showed that the gun-boat diplomacy of the police failed to produce the required results as electoral infractions were at an all time high during the elections. It is clear the helicopters did not quite succeed in scaring away trouble makers given the high level of violence that marred the exercise.

    If one may ask, how many of those election violators were the helicopters able to detect and trace to their final rigging destinations and how many arrests were made? We ask these questions because with the superior air power of the helicopters, the police should have been able not only to neutralize the army of marauding thugs that moved with vehicles during the elections but pursued and smoked them out from their rigging hideouts. It appears none of these happened or we are yet to be told so.

    The police and the military have also been fighting allegations that they aided and abetted the malfeascence. The usual thing we hear after such elections is that impersonators are sometimes misconstrued as police and military personnel. Adamu went along this line when he said the police anticipated this and made tags for its personnel. But the overall responsibility for arresting such impostors still rests squarely on the shoulders of the security agencies. So, no matter how hard they strive to exculpate themselves from the mess, they still share vicarious responsibilities.

    It is the duty of security agencies to make it difficult for imposters of all hue to have a field day during elections. It is also their duty to apprehend and bring to book all those who make it impossible for the collective will of the people as expressed at the ballot box to triumph. Unless serious steps are taken to ensure the sanctity of elections, the increasing culture of violence will get to a level where the people will lose confidence in the entire exercise. And we are getting to that point.

    Events of the 2019 general elections and the outcome of the Kogi and Bayelsa polls are increasingly conjuring the miserable impression that all one requires to win elections is brute force irrespective of the number of deaths recorded. Contrary to the visionary and patriotic statement credited to former president, Goodluck Jonathan, we are now being made to believe that the election of some persons is worth the blood of as many Nigerians as are perceived obstacles to election winning by hook and crook.

    That is all we are contending with now. Where do we place the blame and who takes responsibility for the militarization and bastardization of the electoral process?  Who do we hold responsible if things go awry during elections?  We ask because of the recrimination between the main opposition party and the government on events of the last elections. The Peoples Democratic Party PDP had rejected the results of the elections, accusing the government of rigging and sponsoring the violence that ensued.

    But the presidency responded by accusing it of being a bad loser. For the Senior Special Assistant on Media to the president, Garba Shehu, “It has become a standard procedure for party to challenge any poll that does not return its candidate. Elections are good when the PDP wins. The opposite is the case when any other party wins”.

    Whereas one can admit the ruinous culture of not accepting defeat at elections by our politicians, often accounting for embarrassing litigations, it will be uncharitable to hide under this to cover up the monumental infractions recorded in the just concluded elections. And as evidently admitted by Shehu, democracy is not just about who wins or loses but the process. The grouse with the elections is the process. And we cannot possibly gloss over who wins or who loses when there are serious shortcomings in the process that brought about winners and losers. They are two sides of the same coin.

    Those who fault the outcome of elections in the two states have serious issues with the processes leading to and culminating in the announcement of winners and losers and not necessarily the political parties or individuals that won. And there is no way we can ignore the rules for free, fair and credible conduct without compromising the sovereignty of the electorate. These constitute the lynchpin of the democratic order.

    And in these complaints, the electoral commission, security agencies, the federal government, the presidency and individual politicians share the blame for reasons that are not hard to fathom. If they did their duties to the satisfaction of everyone, there would be no need for the complaints. You cannot beat a child and prevent him from crying. In verity, the overall outcome of the Kogi and Bayelsa polls fell short of the standard tests for a free, fair and credible conduct.

    A voyage on dissent muzzling after the damage has been done is meaningless. The right thing is for the government to work with the National Assembly to facilitate amendments to the Electoral Act; changes that will sufficiently keep at bay the embarrassing infractions witnessed. President Buhari pleaded time constraints for not assenting to the 2018 Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill. Had that bill been assented to, we may have been saved the current pass. Now is the time for him to show good faith if he wants democracy to survive.

  • Constituency con

    Femi Macaulay

    When constituents don’t benefit from constituency projects, who benefits? The answer to this question may well shed light on why Nigeria remains underdeveloped.  President Muhammadu Buhari has demonstrated that the issue is a cause for concern.

    By backing a probe of those who contributed to the country’s underdevelopment through failed constituency projects, Buhari introduced another dimension to his administration’s anti-corruption effort. At the opening of the National Summit on Diminishing Corruption in Public Sector on November 19, Buhari observed that funds for constituency projects “didn’t produce results,” and supported an investigation by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

    Buhari said:  ‘‘It is on record that in the past 10 years One trillion naira (N1 trillion) has been appropriated for constituency projects, yet the impact of such huge spending on the lives and welfare of ordinary Nigerians can hardly be seen.

    ‘‘The first phase report of tracking these projects by ICPC confirms our worst fears that people at the grassroots have not benefited in terms commensurate with the huge sums appropriated for constituency projects since inception.

    ‘‘I am, therefore, delighted that through the effort of ICPC, some contractors are returning to site to execute projects hitherto abandoned and that project sponsors are being held to account.

    ‘‘The ICPC has my full support and the support of this government to hold fully to account contractors, complicit public servants and project sponsors who divert funds meant for constituencies, or other people-oriented welfare projects of our government, or who by other means, reduce the quality and value of such projects meant for our people.’’

    Importantly, in June the ICPC had launched an investigation into N900b constituency projects in states. The probe seeks to verify constituency projects executed by immediate past senators and members of the House of Representatives in the 8th National Assembly between 2015 and 2018. The verification involves 180 key projects in the 36 states, with at least five projects identified for tracking in each state. The first phase will be conducted in 12 states across the six geo-political zones of the country: Kogi and Benue (North-Central); Adamawa and Bauchi (North-East); Sokoto and Kano (North-West); Imo and Enugu (South-East); Lagos and Osun (South-West); and Akwa Ibom and Edo (South-South).

    A report said the commission “will make recoveries on projects/contracts confirmed to have been inflated or in which contractors underperformed or did not perform at all.”  ICPC Chairman Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye said: “The level of implementation of constituency projects in 16 focus states for 2015 is revealing. Out of 436 constituency projects for the year that were tracked, 145 were completed, 77 ongoing while 211 were not executed at all. For 2016, out of a total of 852 constituency projects in 20 states in the 2016 Budget that were tracked, 350 were completed, 118 were ongoing, 41 locations not specified in the budget and 343 not done or performed. In 2017, a total of 1,228 constituency projects in the budget were tracked for performance as at June 2018. Out of these, 478 were completed, 173 in unspecified location, 200 ongoing, 13 abandoned and 364 not started. The level of performance of constituency projects is therefore disputable.”

    In summary, about 2,516 projects were tracked between 2015 and 2017; 918 were not done, 395 were ongoing and 214 could not be located. Owasanoye added: “Constituency projects are intended to be developmental, such as provision of water, rural electrification, rural clinics, schools, community centres and bursary for indigent students. In the light of annual budgetary allocations to constituency projects and based on actual releases by the government, it is firmly believed that the impact of constituency projects on the lives of ordinary Nigerians ought to be more visible…The concern is that in Nigeria, rather than address the needs of constituents, many constituency projects have become avenues of corruption.”

    It is ironic that the beneficiaries of constituency projects are usually not constituents, but corrupt federal legislators and their associates. It is expected that constituents would demand explanations from their representatives.

    Members of the National Assembly are embarrassed. But their embarrassment is beside the point. Interestingly, they offered a defence that wasn’t a defence.

    For instance, House of Representatives Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila argued that the ICPC report that informed Buhari’s position missed the point by failing to distinguish between budgeted funds and released funds. Gbajabiamila was quoted as saying:  “I think it is a breach of our collective privilege as a house and not one person. My concern is the unintended consequences of words spoken. These are words emanating from a report by ICPC. There could be unintended consequences that could come out of it. You put people’s wellbeing at risk.”

    He added:  “The ICPC could easily invoke their power of investigation and look at releases as compared to what was budgeted… I will use this medium to send this message across to ICPC and other agencies to do their work of investigation well. There is a difference between money budgeted and money released. It is as simple as ABC.”

    Gbajabiamila’s argument, which represents the position of members of the National Assembly, is simplistic and self-serving. The suggestion that the ICPC report exposes the lawmakers to attacks by their constituents is alarmist and downplays the facts of the matter. Beyond budgeted funds, there were actual released funds, which didn’t change the picture of large-scale underperformance that contributed to the country’s underdevelopment.

    If the ICPC found out that out of about 2, 516 constituency projects tracked between 2015 and 2017, 918 were not done, 395 were ongoing and 214 could not be located, it is possible that funds were not released for the projects not done. But is that the case? Concerning the 395 ongoing projects, is it the case that funds for completion were not released? What about the 214 projects that could not be located? Why could they not be located? Are they real projects or unreal projects? Were budgeted funds released for these projects that could not be located?

    It is scandalous that such projects which are supposed to develop constituencies, and thereby develop the country, are mostly con jobs.

  • The Cave man and Kogi Elections

    Sam Omatseye

    Anyone who heard the name Salome Abuh on the national stage until last week paid no heed. No one hears it now without a tear at heart.

    A woman was asleep in her home. A band of hoodlums came there, poured petrol on the house and set it on fire. They hear the woman moan and cry for help. They looked with a devil’s eye and heard with a reptile’s deafness.

    The woman cried until she descended into silence. Her party –PDP- had lost the election. At least, they should have given her a chance to live. The thugs sniffed a suya in a human body, a woman, a wife, a mother, a neighbour, a citizen. Minute by minute, she burned.

    The window’s burglary proof installed to prevent the intruder prevented her escape. The thugs are modern day cave men. They are technicians of human extermination.

    I am not for the death penalty. But in this case, I make an exception.

    The hoodlums have no place in human society. It is how politics and the caveman have defined modern Nigeria.

  • The Road

    Sam Omatseye

    The road has always fascinated our species. It is the outlet out there. Even the philosopher Immanuel Kant, who hated to travel taught our minds to move into the future via his metaphysical highway, so he gave us what we call the Kantian teleology.

    No government, no club, no school, no god operates without the road. It is our ticket out of and into our selves. So, it is little wonder that development is nothing without it. Now that we are in the dry season, the main reason we have wondered why the rains will not go away is no other than we want to leave the house. But when we leave the house, the home follows us to the road – in our imaginations, in our appetites and romances, in our dialogues, in our domestic plans, in our work.

    Even if we know no asphalt can resist a downpour, we still sulk that the roads should be fixed. Is it the failure of human artifice, the shortfall of technology, or the supremacy of the element? Everywhere the weather riles up, it routs our efforts. Hence in temperate climates, no roadwork in winter. Here the road is wounded when the sky tears up.

    So if you want to ruin a town, a party, a project, mess up the way. That can happen even in politics. So, while the Trojan of works, Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN ploughs the Nigerian road, we should not forget when the rain started to beat us under the Buhari regime. The rains did not begin in the clouds. Its first torrents sounded in the red chambers – in the Senate under presidency of Bukola Saraki, aka Eleyinmi.

    When the budget was presented, the chambers balked. They said the money was too much. But later we learned, it was not the billions that was too much but the ambition. He wanted to do more roads with much money. Fashola collided with them on two fronts. One, the senators wanted money in their pockets. Two, Saraki wanted to frustrate the Buhari government since he – Eleyinmi – was then a foe in the APC family and joining forces with the PDP.  They butchered the budget. The legislators wanted him to give them money for constituency projects. They presented road projects on roads that only existed in their imaginations, maps they conjured up. I call that a cartography of fiction. The Trojan of works was not going to be a party to the duels of politics and greed. The senators fought back, and the consequence was for him to have little money to do work in a country of many roads, roads to fit into the descriptions of G.K Chesterton’s poem, The Rolling English Road. He wrote about reeling roads, rolling roads, mazy roads, et al.

    Politics has consequences. So, he worked with what he had. Since his stewardship in the ministry, he has gulped up about 5000 kilometres of roads so far, which is significant. But in a nation of tens of thousands of roads, much is left to be done. The thing with roads is that when you travel, you don’t praise the good part, but we query the bad. The bad part slows journey, tortures the tyre, imperils the engine, slurps more fuel and prepares the body for the panel beater. The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway is going through its most concerted work since the project began, but many complain about the traffic. For all the abundant work done so far, no one will hail the Second Niger Bridge until we see the infrastructure rise out of the river.

    So are many roads now under construction or completed. Here are some of  them- Abuja–Kano; Ilorin–Jebba; Enugu-Port Harcourt; Benin–Sagamu; Arochukwu-Bende; Kano–Maiduguri dualisation; dualisation of Sapele–Ewu road Sections I and II; Apapa–Oworonsoki Road; Apapa-Wharf Road; Ikorodu- Sagamu; Sokoto-Tambuwal-Kontagora–Makera Road; Isoko Ring Road; Abak–Ekwarakwa Road; Obajana–Kabba, dualisation of Bayelsa Palm–Otuoke Road.

    There is no development without roads. The budget this year of N262 billion is little. But the budget excludes the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and the Second Niger Bridge since their funding come from a special infrastructure purse with the presidency.  At least this budget is not going to be slashed and this 9th Senate is not playing monkey games.

    So when Eleyinmi’Senate hurt the budget, they hurt the country. Lawmakers ought to see beyond their hidebound avarice and gamesmanship. If they had allowed abundant funding, more roads would be under construction today and more of the roads would have been completed. They did the same to the Customs boss Hammed Ali because he would not yield honey to the lawmakers’ lolling lips.

    The use of tax credit has drawn some flak, as though it is privilege. How would the Apapa-Wharf project or Obajana get into gear if Dangote and Flour Mills did not take advantage? Or the Sukuk facility? The NLNG is also constructing the Bodo-Bonny road along that principle.

    The complaints about roads show how development must be taken seriously. Especially roads. We are on the road more than we are in the house, either in deed or in thoughts. Sometimes when we are in the house, our homes are on the road. Historically the road is civilisation and history. There we worship, we party, we fight, we play, we plot, we make love, we die. Soyinka’s plays often happen on the road, apart from The Road. Whether it is Lion and the Jewel, The Jero plays, Death and The King’s Horsemen, or Mad men and Specialists, it is the place of his interpreters. Shakespeare and Dickens loved the Road, just as Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and even The Mad Man.

    The story of the Second World War cannot be written without how snow crippled Hitler’s army near Moscow. The Ore battle in the Civil War has gone into lore. Political campaigns are by definition road tours. In legends and history, we love the road. Moremi adventured, Lot’s wife looked back, Jacob wrestled and Paul was converted on the road. Whether it is Fagunwa’s A Forest of A Thousand demons or Homer’s Odyssey, it haunts.

    Any time I recall the great American novel, The Road by Jack Kerouac, I pray for the day when somebody would travel from state to state, his car cruising like sea on a tranquil  sea, without one complaint about a pot hole, a gully, a cater. That is what the Trojan of Works dreams. But money and politics must collaborate.

  • Lyon’s roar, Kogi’s harvest

    IT is not often that a columnist waits for the news on deadline. For the outcomes of the Kogi and Bayelsa  governorship polls, I had to comment on the strength of knowledge. So, my fingers dithered on the keyboard until I knew.

    The polls invoked paradoxes, and nothing excites a writer more than this. And we saw this at the weekend. For instance, everyone expected warfare in both Kogi and Bayelsa, but we expected Kogi’s harvest to be a child’s play compared to Bayelsa’s lords of the flies, apologies to Nobel laureate William Golding. The creeks squeaked compared to the growls and bloodlust of Kogi land grabs.

    Kogi collapsed into fear and trembling. Ballot snatching, voter intimidation, gunshots, et al. It was a Hobbesian terrain. Those with the superior will to power must triumph. He who was bound to violence was bound to win.

    But Bayelsa’s feast of paradoxes roils the mind. First, we heard the state governor’s outburst of outcry. Normally, during elections, governors soar, while the opposition is sore. Optimism and self-pride tranquilise their situation rooms. There is often tension, but it is a tension of hope rather than despair. Their minds are like the words of Poet Samuel Coleridge that “anticipation is more potent than surprise.”

    But when a governor does not only sulk, but makes an open play of his frustration, you know the game is up. When Governor Seriake Dickson started calling for polls cancellations in Southern Ijaw, Nembe and other local governments, it was obvious he knew that his candidate’s face would not break into the smile of yesterday, that yesterday being when he triumphed, if controversially, in his party’s primary. That is a historic irony.

    But it is a paradox because of the story of Oil Minister Timipre Sylva and former President Goodluck Jonathan. Who would have thought that Jonathan’s people and Sylva will be smiling together over an election result in Bayelsa. We know what harm Jonathan did to Sylva, and how the lanky fellow was kangarooed out of power as governor and, as president, he mounted a campaign against him with an EFCC hound. The irony, too, would be a horde of PDP stalwarts grumbling that their former leader has defected at home to sup with the enemy. But that is the drama that Dickson has wrought in his home state. The man Dickson called his elder brother when Sylva was the enemy has now become a sibling disaster.

    The other historic irony is that David Lyon’s victory in Bayelsa signals the first big fall of the PDP stronghold in the Niger Delta. Not Dickson, not all the oil money could hold the state for the PDP. Dickson’s party was a prisoner of hope that fell in his own stronghold. The only man for the past decade who challenged PDP in the state has been Sylva. It looked like a hope against hope. But his fight has been a testament to tenacity, a man who glimpsed light where darkness fell and leapt into it. It was a tale of epic self-confidence sometimes put down as reckless.

    Now, he will laugh while his opponents would say, like Walt Whitman in his poem The Compost, “Something startles where I thought I was safest.” Sylva has been a small man wrestling a giant for a decade. The big man brought Sylva down several times but his back did not graze the wrestling floor. The small man wearied the giant and, seeing the sweat, sagging muscles and despair of the hulk, Sylva took advantage and threw the giant in one fell swoop. That happened on Saturday.

    Also ironic was that about four years ago, it was Sylva who was holding press conferences and making the case that he won the election but that Dickson and his men had corralled violence to undo his electoral fortunes. Dickson rallied the Ijaw nation as a mantra as though Sylva were a foreigner. The same Ijaw nation looked away from him and anointed Sylva’s anointed. It is a saga of political revenge on the back of the people.

    In the election four years ago, Southern Ijaw Local Government Area was holding a huge chunk of the voters and the parties had to go through a rerun for two reasons: Its decisive tranche of voter count, and its dubious pride of place as a whirlwind of death, ballot snatching, gunshots, fights, brawls, et al. This time around, Southern Ijaw was a relatively tranquil story for Bayelsa.

    It is also a story of David Lyon known for philanthropy and large hand, as against a governor’s reputation as a tight fist. His choice as APC candidate was a no-brainer in that respect. He was described in this column as the Li(y)on of his tribe because that is the root of David. He is known for his charisma and intense power of connection.

    His campaigns were moments of bonding with the crowd. He is also an oil magnate in his own rights, a man of wealth and the common touch.

    In Kogi, the main irony is not always an irony in Nigerian politics. He did not pay salaries. He did not connect with the people. He did not unmake a bad past of governance by remaking the state for good. Rather, he became a governor known for lack of vision. But he won not only by emphasis but landslide. This column recorded his lack of popularity. But the man boasted a huge war chest but he can now beat that chest. Is it electoral justice? His opponents said he marshalled the material and materiel of state. He won not fairly but fiercely. Einstein said: “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” Was that what happened? But the analysts of Kogi politics say his PDP opponent was no better. Was this a Hobson’s choice giving the Kogi people two bad choices and they followed the road once taken?

    There is also the false humility of Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir El Rufai begging the Kogi people to forgive Yahaya Bello for his iniquities. He said he was on his knees. But in democracy, we don’t genuflect to elect. We don’t stoop to conquer. We earn our victories.

    Both victories in Kogi and Bayelsa are victories of Buhari’s APC, and more potently a great moment for the party chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, who accumulates accolades for his party while his party foes sulk and cry. It is no consolation for some members of the APC brass, including those in Buhari’s cabinet who worked for the opposition and wished APC lost because of envy of the rise of the profiles of some of their colleagues in their regions.

    The last paradox is that in the two victories, APC was at once a challenger and defender. In Bayelsa, it challenged and torpedoed the incumbent party. No one would have thought it would be a landslide. It is one of the most consequential victories in Nigerian elections. In Kogi, they held the Alamo, if many question its strategy and tactics. It is Bello’s Kogi’s harvest.