The Nation Newspaper

Category: Monday

  • Credible elections

    The challenge of free, fair and credible elections has been in the public space for some time now. And with barely two weeks to the presidential and National Assembly elections, anxiety over the preparedness of the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), to conduct an election that will satisfy credible standards has been mounting.

    Not unexpectedly, allegations on the possibility of the coming elections being manipulated and compromised have been traded from right, left and centre. This should not be surprising given the history of elections on these shores.

    But for the 2015 elections that were largely considered free and fair culminating in the defeat of an incumbent president, other elections before then were trailed and marred by allegations of electoral fraud of all hue. There were also incidences of violence resulting in several deaths in some parts of the country as those not satisfied with their outcome took to violent protests.

    Though the 2015 election was not without its own shortcomings given that in some parts of the country; people below the voting age were cited voting without reprimand, that election still stood out as one of the best we have had in this country. And the way the incumbent president threw in the towel by congratulating his opponent even when the final results were yet to be declared added up to the good rating that election has since enjoyed.

    Given this enviable record, general expectation is that the coming elections would be a substantial improvement on the last one. It is the general feeling that the current regime being a beneficiary of free and fair elections and the uncommon magnanimity of the last regime in conceding defeat, should yet set a higher performance electoral standard than what we saw in 2015.

    That has been the expectation. But this optimism seems to pale in the face of mounting allegations that the Buhari regime is set to manipulate the outcome of the coming elections. Just last week, former president, Olusegun Obasanjo attacked President Buhari accusing him of plotting to rig the coming elections. In an open letter titled “Point for Concern and Action”, Obasanjo among others alleged that the president and his party were recruiting collation officers who are already awarding election results.

    He said the current plan is to drape the pre-determined results with a toga of credibility and also use violence of unimaginable proportion which will be unleashed in high voting population areas across the country to precipitate re-run elections. These are very weighty allegations especially coming from someone like Obasanjo.

    But the presidency faulted the allegations and restated its promise to ensure the conduct of credible election that will satisfy both voters and the international community. Others have lampooned Obasanjo accusing him of nursing a sinister agenda.

    A statement by the senior special assistant to president on media, Garba Shehu said “claims that President Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have embarked on self-succession project by recruiting collation officers who are already awarding results based on their projects to actualize the perpetuation agenda, in which the people will not matter and their votes will not count is not only utterly false, but copious note from the book on the failed third term agenda of Obasanjo”.

    And in far away Taraba State, former Defence Minister Theophilus Danjuma alleged plans to rig the election in that state through imposition against the wish of the people of the state. “This time, they have perfected run off. Once you don’t win the first time, the second time, they will sit down and write the result and announce it in the run-off. They will award votes and this is the primitive democracy we operate in this country”, Danjuma claimed.

    Apparently due to rising concerns on the prospects of the elections being compromised, the governments of both United States of America US and United Kingdom UK came out last week to warn against any attempt to compromise the outcome of the coming elections. In a statement in Abuja, they warned that politicians working to scuttle the elections would face some sanctions. They said they do not support any political party or candidate as their interest is in a genuinely free, fair transparent and peaceful process because of the position of the country in the sub continent.

    It is thus very obvious that irrespective of the veracity or otherwise of some of the allegations that have been peddled, there are serious concerns on the prospects of the coming election meeting the standard test of free and fair polls in which the collective will of the electorate as expressed in the ballot box will reign supreme.  Both the government and INEC have come out time without number to reassure their commitment to credible polls that will satisfy voters and the international community.

    Even with these copious assurances, suspicion that the election will still be rigged has continued to mount as we have seen from raging allegations. And that is a measure of the do-or-die attitude of politicians when they contest for electoral positions. There is the general feeling that given the slightest opportunity, politicians on these shores will definitely rig elections. That goes without saying.

    By now, we are familiar with the phenomenon of vote buying which has compelled INEC to design a number of strategies to curb. But even as INEC invents these strategies, politicians are quick to invent and exploit loopholes to sabotage that policy. But these infractions are not as worrisome as when the government in power or the electoral umpire sets out to compromise the outcome of the elections. That is the dimension that has been brought to the fore by the trending allegations.

    We may dismiss the allegations for want of credible evidence. We are also at liberty to accept the assurances from the government and INEC to conduct credible polls. But one thing that stands out very distinctly is that our politicians will rig election given the slightest chance. It is as bad as that. What this implies is that the electoral umpire must be above board in its conduct of the coming elections. It must shun pressures from the government if the alarm raised will not turn out as self-fulfilling prophesy.

    There have been allegations that the INEC usually hides under minor excuses to order re-run so as to give the government the chance to concentrate its efforts in those singular elections and sway the outcome to its advantage. We have had many instances of such since the tenure of the current INEC chairman and the outcome has been quite revealing. We must guard against that in the coming election as Nigerian have seen through the inherent subterfuge in such re-run elections.

    Beyond all this, the fate of the coming elections is in the hands of INEC. How they go about it in the face of mounting allegations that some of its staff disposition may not command the confidence of the electorate and the political parties is entirely their own. The political atmosphere is already charged. What the electoral umpire does or fails to do in the weeks ahead will have serious repercussions for this country.

    The country is already inundated with serious security challenges in many fronts that we can ill afford to host another crisis arising from disputed elections. It is therefore incumbent on all those that wish this country well to do all within their powers to ensure that the coming elections are a substantial improvement on the 2015 outing. We cannot afford any less.

  • TouchStone: Atiku a political prostitute – Sam Omatseye

    Political analyst and Chairman, Editorial Board of The Nation Newspapers, Sam Omatseye, joined by Member, Editorial board Femi Macaulay to discuss the CCT trial of CJN Walter Onnoghen, President Muhammadu Buhari and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar chances at the 2019 elections and Former President Olusegun Obasanjo latest Letter.

  • Illegal arms stockpiling

    When a key government functionary speaks, we are wont to take him seriously. This is more so when the issue in discourse concerns his area of competence. Thus, when the Director-General (DG) of the National Task Force on Prohibition of illegal importation of Small Arms, Ammunition and light Weapons, Dr Osita Okereke cried out that governors and politicians are stockpiling arms to kit thugs for the coming elections, not a few Nigerians were taken aback. Before now, traditional rulers in Edo State and Niger Delta militants had also warned that politicians were amassing arms and ammunition to arm thugs ahead of the elections. What seems novel in Okereke’s alarm is the alleged involvement of governors in this sordid deed.

    Hear him: “Information reaching us shows that some politicians, including governors have been acquiring arms and ammunition to be given to youths during the forthcoming elections. In addition, they are also acquiring police and army uniforms for these youths for use during the election”.

    Given this new dimension, it will be risky to dismiss the alarm with a wave of the hand. Not with the current wave of insecurity in the country that has stretched the creative energies of our security agencies to the fullest. Not with the killings and loss of properties of inestimable value around the country arising from crimes of all hue.

    The DG spoke at the National Assembly as part of the efforts to persuade the senate to fast-track the passage of the bill on the Establishment of National Commission for the Prohibition of Illegal Importation of Small Arms, Ammunition and Light Weapons into law. For him, timely passage of the bill will checkmate the deployment of illegally acquired weapons by politicians during the forthcoming elections.

    He also listed other advantages of the bill to include stemming electoral malpractices and associated violence, creation of jobs in the local government areas and eradication of all forms of criminality thus attracting foreign investors.

    There are two strands of issues raised by the DG. The first is the acquisition and stockpiling of arms and ammunition including police and army uniforms by governors and sundry politicians to be given to youths to levy violence during the elections. The other is the justification for the passage of the bill on the establishment of a national commission for the prohibition of illegal importation of small arms, ammunition and light weapons.

    Given the way the DG presented his case, there is the temptation to suspect that his alarm on the acquisition and stockpiling of arms and ammunition by governors and other politicians to subvert free and fair elections is motivated by a desire to drum support for the passage of the bill into law. This is especially so in view of his contention that all that is required to stem illegal arms importation and guarantee violence-free polls is the passage of that bill into law. This claim appears somewhat contentious.

    But the controversy raised by the above claim, cannot whittle down the weight of the issues involved in governors stockpiling arms and ammunition for the elections as well as acquiring army and police uniforms to compromise its outcome. The matter deserves all the seriousness since the DG appears very certain of his claims. The puzzle remains how these arms and ammunition that seemingly escaped the prying eyes of our security architecture came to the knowledge of the DG? The poser is reinforced given that security issues of this magnitude are so critical to escape our security agencies. Or is it a case of connivance and collaboration?

    Though we are yet to be told the governors involved in this illegal activity, it will be too risky to dismiss the allegations given previous elections that were marred by violence and intimidation of voters by people said to be in army and police uniforms. Even now, allegations on the prospects of the coming elections being rigged have been freely traded by the opposition. That is why the weighty issues raised by Okereke must be thoroughly investigated and the public made to know their veracity or otherwise.

    No doubt, the coming elections are as sensitive as they are crucial given the stakes. The political temperature is very high and care must be taken to avoid incidents and developments that will further heat up the polity. The allegations raised by the DG are bound to have deleterious consequences on the conduct of the elections as voters will be contending with the authenticity or otherwise of those adorning army and police uniforms.

    They have also put the integrity and credibility of our governors to serious test. The governors have been cast in the mould of evil elements planning to levy mayhem on their citizens just because they crave to satisfy their vaulting ambitions of winning elections for self-serving purposes. For governors that swore to oath to protect lives and property, it is scandalous they will be the very people to hatch devious plans to annihilate their people. But this may not be entirely surprising if our past political experiences are anything to go by.

    That is why the federal government must not brush aside the allegations. It is true governors have immunity and therefore cannot be searched. But other politicians are not so immune to searching and prosecution. The government must therefore get at the bottom of this issue to disabuse minds that the coming elections will be highly violent. Of course, such confidence building measures are indispensable in enhancing the overall outcome of the election.

    Beyond this, there is the temptation to suspect that Okereke spoke the way he did to drum support for the establishment of the National Commission on the proliferation of small arms and ammunition. He sees the commission as an antidote to all the security challenges facing the country including kidnapping, armed robbery and banditry. He even envisions the commission as a substitute to state police.

    Without delving into the folly of these sweeping claims, it is clear Okereke carried his advocacy to indefensible limits. He even thinks the commission can effectively check all the unwholesome practices associated with our elections if it is established now. The veracity of this claim is hard to fathom. It is also possible his claims that governors are stockpiling arms, police and army uniforms to kit thugs and compromise the elections, may be part of the larger agenda to find justifications for his pet project.

    That is why a thorough investigation must be conducted on the matter. For, it stands as an indictment on our security agencies that governors and politicians will be involved in such unpatriotic and illegal activity without their knowledge. Or do we assume the information was availed the DG by the relevant security agencies? Whichever the case, we run a colossal risk not getting at the root of the matter.

    Beyond this, the issues raised by the DG are not entirely alien to us. That politicians will invent unconventional ways to manipulate election outcome through violence and deployment of thugs are very familiar features of our electioneering process. The use of illegal arms and ammunitions to intimidate and harm voters is also new. What appears very frightening is the alleged active connivance and participation of governors – chief security officers of their respective states in this unwholesome venture. That is the potent danger as we approach the elections.

  • SANs and Onnoghen circus

    His eyeballs shone across as his fist thumps resounded from his oak desk. That afternoon, in his striped navy blue suit in his office at Anthony in Lagos, he was in a combative temper. “If there is a case between a rich man and a poor man,” roared the late Gani Fawehinmi to now Senator Babafemi Ojudu, Dele Momodu and myself, “I will find the law for the poor man.” This was in the late 1980’s when Gani was the people’s armoury against a state of army and anomie.

    That was the Gani, who did not flaunt an elitist conscience as a lawyer. He bonded with hoi poloi. That Gani will be growling in his grave now. His younger colleagues are pitching their tents with an oppressor in a puerile defence of one of their own. That is what the Walter Onnoghen case has made of otherwise cerebral and intuitively intelligent lawyers today. Gani would have said it was right to prosecute Onnoghen. He would have said the NJC has nothing to do with this. He would have asked Onnoghen to explain  how he was able to afford over 50 houses on his little salary. He would have wondered why his colleagues did not understand the difference between a public servant and judicial officer.   He would have questioned his mnemonic faculties and asserted that a chief justice who can forget such a lump sum could forget crucial matters of law while dispensing justice. He could have asked Walter Onnoghen to resign and return to the arboreal tranquillity of his village.

    But it astounds that our judiciary has fallen into such decay. But it should not. The judiciary is no high tower, or Noah’s ark. It is not immune from the maggoty rot, the prevalent purulence of the Nigerian society. Corruption is writ large even in the argument of lawyers who want to defend Onnoghen and claim that the CJN ought not be prosecuted at the Code of Conduct Bureau. In the first place, did Onnoghen fill the assets declaration as a judicial officer or as a public servant or a Nigerian citizen? He did it as a Nigerian citizen and public servant. If filling the form were exclusive to lawyers, then it would be a matter for the NJC. But as he filled it, so the soldier or doctor fills it for the public office. Does it mean that a journalist who fills an asset declaration form and lies or suffers memory loss, will have to go to the media council and not CCT? If a judge commits murder, is that a case before the wigged and hoary personages of the NJC?

    Even at that, as I stated in my TVC show, The Platform, even the lawyers are not listening to themselves. Some of them claim the job of CJN is exclusive to a profession. But so is the office of the attorney general. Would they say the attorney general would go to the NJC? The lawyers, led again by Wole Olanipekun and the 88 other supine faithful, lined up as though they owned the constitution and the society. They remind me of the words of the playwright George Bernard Shaw: “the vocations are a conspiracy against the laity.”

    Such attitudes led another playwright Shakespeare to proclaim. “The first thing we do, let’s kill the lawyers.” I have no such morbid imagination about lawyers. Thankfully, they are not wise enough to fool the rest of us or even other lawyers.

    They are quick to turn on the big courts to defend the rich like them, especially the SANs. Yet, I have no record of an instance where this gang of knowledgeable men have felt a stir in their hearts for the poor. When did they go to court to defend a yam seller who was unfairly charged to court? We have so many people in jail because no one pled their cases, either for stealing N20 or for taking a bribe. They were easy on their own consciences to line up for the klieg lights of vanity to defend somebody who already said he did wrong.

    The man said he forgot about $3 million. Even Bill Gates would not forget such a sum of money. The question is, if he could forget that amount, how much more has his lordship’s memory forgotten? If a man forgets N1, he must have so much that N1 is not worth the burden of his remembrance.

    I still don’t understand why the man who says he is guilty wants Nigeria to do for him? To allow him continue as the preeminent judge in the land? Who can defend that? The lawyers argue that it is about process first, and substance later. The real substance is that the man is putting the nation through a meaningless circus and rigmarole by not resigning. Once he resigns, which he will eventually do, the case will go under the radar and we can go on as a nation.

    The lawyers also wondered why it was so quick to take the matter to court between the submission of the petition and prosecution. These are the same lawyers that have perfected the art of turning a case that should take six days to six years. They are so used to dilly-dallying and shilly-shallying  that they are dazed that a case could cruise in court.

    The Onnoghen case is also an example of how the lawyer can be out of sync with the society. When the history of the judiciary is written, today will go on record as a watershed of an era when a section of our top lawyers burned the book of justice because one of them broke the law. They are acting in cahoots with a self-indulgent class. People sometimes forget that the SANs are not about justice, but about the law. “The law,” as Henry Thoreau noted, “has not made anyone a whit more just.” They want law for law’s sake.

    Was it not Onnoghen, who presided over the case against the Senate president? His ruling was not only wrong but curious. Bukola ‘Eleyinmi’ Saraki had filled a form that he owned a property before he owned it. He became a prophet of his own prosperity. If Onnoghen forgot that he had the money, Eleyinmi remembered his own before he had the property. Perhaps Onnoghen exonerated him because of the solidarity of remembrance between them. They have written their own version of Milan Kundera classic titled: A Book of Laughter and Forgetting.

    Except that no one is laughing, and laughing in the East European writer’s novel was also a mockery of the laugh. It is what Nobel laureate Samuel Becket called risus purus, a laugh laughing at itself. Onnoghen and Eleyinmi are kindred spirits in forgetting the present. Eleyinmi was a man of faith. He claimed a property before it came, and it came. Onnoghen endorsed Eleyinmi’s spirit that moved the cement and paints and blocks. His spirit moved mountains.

    Laws are a product of society. The law was made for us and not the other way round. We cannot accept a cabal of lawyers who run away in a riot of tendentious opinions and want to impose them on us. They sometimes think the so-called laity is not literate. The best lawyers are not those who just stick to the letters but the spirit. As Paul says in the Bible, the letter of the law kills, but the spirit gives life. Thankfully we have others who stand firm. They are the avenging angels of technicality.

    Some have asserted that the Buhari administration wanted to nail Onnoghen. Granted it is true, it was not Buhari, who tweaked Onnoghen’s memory, or imposed amnesia on the fellow. He should take responsibility and not pass it on to others. Others have argued about timing. I wonder myself and ask, when is the right time for justice? Is there a time for justice and another for injustice?

    If the security agencies did not unveil this illegality during his screening, that is egregious folly. But that is also trying to excuse a man who has done wrong. If his screening was so contentious, that was a stronger reason why filling the form should have been conscientious.

    I have often quoted Shakespeare here that if correction lies in the hand that committed wrong, to whom shall we complain? We cannot trust Onnoghen with the law and justice anymore. He is the last stop of justice. After his seat, it is God. We don’t run a theocracy. Even theocracies are run by men, in what is called the divine rights of kings. Since we don’t want to bring God into this, Onnoghen, now irretrievably tainted, should do the right thing. The SANs should stop grandstanding and return to their billion naira cases and leave the rest of us alone.

    The man should resign and save the nation a circus.

  • Ten years of terror

    Boko Haram’s reign of terror isn’t over. The Islamic terrorist group’s bloody insurgency, now 10 years old, continues to torment the Nigerian government and Nigerian people.

    In a January 18 statement, the United States of America said: “ISIS West Africa and Boko Haram have both stated they plan to disrupt the upcoming 2019 presidential elections by conducting attacks on Nigerian security and infrastructure as well as places of gathering such as markets, hotels and malls.”

    Recent reported attacks happened on December 1, December 3 and December 4, 2018.  The November 18, 2018 Boko Haram attack on troops at Metele village, Guzamala Local Government Area, Borno State, which claimed many lives, is still fresh. Since July 2018, according to AFP reports, there have been at least 22 attacks on military bases and positions in Borno and Yobe.  The Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) faction of Boko Haram claimed responsibility for most of them.

    Indeed, the Nigerian military needs to demonstrate that it can win the war on terror. There have been too many terror attacks and too many casualties. The repeated terror attacks on military targets cast doubt on the military’s grip on security; the attacks also raise questions about the military’s counter-insurgency capacity.

    It is sad that an estimated 27,000 lives have been lost since the insurgency started in 2009. Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states are the most affected. The destructive activities of the terrorist group have made about 1.8 million people homeless and caused a humanitarian crisis. The United Nations recently lamented the upsurge in Boko Haram attacks in the Northeast, and its effect on the civilian population: “It is heart-wrenching to see so many of these people living in congested camps, or sleeping outside with no shelter.” The rising number of military and civilian casualties is unacceptable.

    Boko Haram’s evil abduction of over 100 schoolgirls from the Government Girls’ Science and Technical College (GGSTC), Dapchi, Yobe State, in February 2018, further demonstrated the group’s lack of repentance. The Dapchi abduction compounded the still unresolved mass kidnapping of schoolgirls in Chibok, Borno State, in April 2014.  Many of the Chibok captives are still in captivity.

    The Dapchi attack happened after Chief of Army Staff Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai restated his order to troops to capture Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau dead or alive.  It is noteworthy that in 2017 the army chief gave his men a 40-day ultimatum to capture Shekau, and the army later offered a N3 million reward for information on the elusive Shekau.

    The factionalisation of Boko Haram has complicated the war on terror. A faction of the group led by Abu Musab Al-Barnawi claimed responsibility for the Dapchi abduction. The Chibok kidnapping was attributed to a faction led by Shekau.

    Buratai was quoted as saying when he visited troops at Camp Zairo in the Sambisa Forest, which had served as headquarters of the terrorists before the military seized the camp in December 2016: “Let me say congratulations. But we must move across to wherever this criminal, Shekau, is and catch him…I want you to get him…You all know these criminals are still on the run; these guys are on the run, you must make sure that you get them wherever they are around this area…You must not allow them to escape. Every day, you must go on patrol, lay ambush for them and you go on raids.”

     Abubakar Shekau was among the “The World’s Most Influential People” listed by TIME in 2015. The identified influencers in the 2015 TIME 100 were diverse enough to include the anti-hero. The TIME portrait said:  ”The citizens of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, know Abubakar Shekau all too well: he is the most violent killer their country has ever seen.”  Shekau’s terrifying profile was worsened by his group’s outrageous seizure of more than 200 Chibok schoolgirls. Shekau has been reported dead, or more specifically, reported killed, on at least two occasions; and there is speculation that Shekau may have become “a brand name” for whoever is the leader of Boko Haram.

    Before the TIME ranking, an international think tank, the Project for the Study of the 21st Century, said the Boko Haram insurgency was the fourth deadliest conflict in the world in 2014 and was responsible for 11, 529 deaths. The think tank added that the figure of fatalities could be underestimated.

    Al-Barnawi, reportedly in his twenties, is the first son of the late founder of Boko Haram, Mohammed Yusuf, who died in police custody in 2009 following a military operation against the group in Borno State, which further radicalised it. In August 2016, the extremist militant group, ISIS,   appointed Al-Barnawi as the head of Boko Haram, a recognition which was rejected by Shekau.

    A revealing profile of the actor at the centre of the Dapchi abduction says: “Little is known about Abu Mus’ab al-Barnawi, who appeared in a Boko Haram video in January 2015 as the group’s spokesman…He wore a turban and his face was blurred out and it was filmed as a sit-down studio interview… Barnawi pulled no punches, warning that towns which resisted Boko Haram in its mission to create an Islamic state would be flattened… He also spoke of being against democracy and foreign education.”

    Ten years after the Boko Haram insurgency started, it is tragic that the war on terror is looking like a war without end. Ironically, Army boss Buratai unwittingly suggested the possibility of an endless war in his response to reporters in Maiduguri, Borno State, in December 2018: “They keep changing their names like we have Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) now. I want to tell you that, even if we finish with ISWAP, those people behind these things will snowball to another name and they will go on and on.”

    The Nigerian government under former President Goodluck Jonathan failed to defeat Boko Haram. The President Muhammadu Buhari government says it has “degraded” Boko Haram.  As Boko Haram marks the 10th anniversary of its insurgency, it is clear that the insurgents are still dangerously active.  The objective of the war on terror should be to make the insurgents inactive.

  • Susanne Wenger: 10 years after

    When I asked Susanne Wenger how she wished to be remembered, her response was completely unexpected. “You can forget me,” she answered. “I cannot advise you what you want to remember about me.”

    Ten years after her death, Wenger remains unforgettable.  Wenger’s exit on January 12, 2009, at the age of 93, was as newsy as her life. She had arrived in Nigeria in 1950 and died in the country nearly 60 years later. Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, in a tribute, described her as “a questing stranger who came, saw and was conquered.” What conquered Wenger?

    The first of my memorable interviews with Wenger started dramatically. “You’ve come from Lagos to tell me that I will die? What nonsense!” That was Wenger’s rattling reaction when I observed that she was at a transitional stage, suggesting she was close to her end.

    My last conversation with Wenger took place in her artistic house in Osogbo, Osun State. When I asked her a question about the Susanne Wenger Foundation, Krems, Austria, she told me: “I have agreed with Krems. They have collected all they can get hold of, what I did and what is said about me. They have better reasons to be interested than our people here. Our people here have nothing against me, but they have no reason why they should back what I do, what I say.” Imagine my shock!

    Wenger was Austrian. It was incredible that despite her self-described “complete immersion” in Yoruba religion and culture, and having lived in Nigeria for almost 60 years, she was still an outsider of sorts. While it may be heart-warming that Wenger’s spiritual sculptures can still be seen in the Osun-Osogbo Grove, the disappearance of her important paintings and batiks is sobering. Her range of artistic expression was fundamentally influenced by Yoruba cultural context and traditional worldview, and she made enduring contributions to the local culture.

    Despite her Austrian roots, there is a profound sense in which she could be regarded as having been culturally defined by her Yoruba experience. In the end, it is tragic that her movable body of work and her essence were better appreciated by foreigners than the local people whose culture and tradition largely informed her creative vitality, and who provided the ambience for her spiritual expression. The loss of her works has negative implications for cultural tourism in Nigeria.

    Long before it became correct to be environment-friendly, Wenger had championed a crusade for the conservation of nature in the Osun-Osogbo Grove, albeit based on a religious premise and her conviction that deities dwelled there. It is to her credit that after her long battle with various interest groups that failed to see the need to guard the grove, the political authorities in Nigeria eventually saw her point and stepped in to protect it; and then, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) followed.

    The Osun-Osogbo Grove is the site of Nigeria’s star tourist attraction, the Osun-Osogbo Festival, possibly the country’s pre-eminent traditional religious festival, which draws yearly a high number of visitors from within Nigeria as well as from the wider Yoruba Diaspora and beyond.

    I became a pilgrim to the mystical grove right from my first visit as a journalist over two decades ago to see the spectacular festival. I had eagerly looked out for Wenger in the grove but didn’t see her. It was, therefore, a magical moment for me when I eventually came face to face with her in her Osogbo home on a different occasion while trying to get her to grant me an interview.

    I found out, during my research for the interview, that there was no book on her written by a Nigerian, although she was a cultural celebrity and had at the time lived in Nigeria for nearly 50 years.  It was unbelievable! This was when the idea struck me to do a book on her.

    At the time I informed Wenger of my plan to write a book on her, she responded positively, saying, “I bless your work and your good intentions.” She was an engaging personality well known for her remarkable devotion to Yoruba traditional gods (which earned her the Yoruba name Adunni Olorisa as a mark of her acceptance in the traditional society).

    She was also famous for her innovative New Sacred Art group and for her selfless dedication to the preservation of the sacred Osun-Osogbo Grove, listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO shortly after her 90th birthday in 2005- this was an interesting coincidence and the icing on the cake for Wenger.

    Despite Wenger’s exit, the book project remained on course. This unique well- researched Wenger portrait offers a fresh experience of her; it consists of an extensive up-to-date close-up profile of her, and exclusive interviews that I had with her, which not only explored her extraordinary life but also yielded further insights into her thoughts and ideas on Yoruba culture and tradition at the advanced stage of her life.

    What I set out to do is unprecedented. In concept and execution, this new book on Susanne Wenger is unparalleled. For the first time, the captivating story of the phenomenal Austrian artist who became an unapologetic populariser of Yoruba traditional religion and attracted global attention to Osogbo is presented from a Nigerian perspective and with a Nigerian flavour.

    The book is enriched with expressive pictures of Wenger and some of her eye-catching sculptures in the grove; and other important images related to her gripping story. It is a tribute to a loyal vessel of Yoruba divinities; her legacy is undeniable. The book also beams the spotlight on the Osun-Osogbo Grove and the Osun-Osogbo Festival.

    As much as possible in this book, Wenger is made to tell her intriguing story in her own inimitable style. This approach was made possible by various sources, which I gratefully acknowledge. However, the beauty of this book lies particularly in its liberal use of narratives by Nigerian journalists to paint a picture of this enigmatic celebrity known for her self-effacing modesty. It represents, therefore, a very Nigerian treatment of the subject.

    Furthermore, this is the most up-to-date book on the life and times of Susanne Wenger; it includes material on the celebration of her 100th birth anniversary in 2015 as well as the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Osun-Osogbo Grove as a World Heritage Site in the same year.   I welcome culture-friendly support towards the release of my book to mark the 10th anniversary of Susanne Wenger’s death.

  • A newspaper’s travail

    Outrage over the shutting down of the operational headquarters of the Daily Trust newspaper and its Maiduguri office by operatives of the Nigerian Army is to be expected. It is perhaps, the first time since the return of democracy in 1999 that the army has engaged in the Gestapo action of invading a newspaper house; shutting it down, carting away computer equipments and hauling some of the editors into detention.

    It immediately struck as a throwback to the sad experiences of the military era when it was a fad for the army and other security agencies to invade and shut down media houses under very flimsy allegations. With the return of democracy and the presumed subsuming of all institutions to the norms of civil governance, the expectation was that all that had become history.

    Alas, that optimism was severely jolted as the army took laws in their hands and re-enacted those ugly experiences that our people had since thrown to the dustbin of history. Those who have criticized the invasion are by no means implying that the newspaper house cannot infringe on the laws of the land. No! But where there is suspected infringement on the law, due process should be followed in resolving whatever issue in dispute. The resort to self-help accounts for the criticisms that trailed the invasion.

    The army has alleged that it took the said action because the newspaper house revealed military plans of an impending onslaught on the Boko Haram insurgents. In a statement by its spokesman, Brigadier General Sani Usman, Nigerian Army said the action followed the publication of a lead story in penultimate Sunday’s edition which undermined national security. It said the story “disclosed details of planned military operations against Boko Haram terrorists”.

    The said publication they further claimed, afforded the Boko Haram terrorists prior notice of military plans, giving them early warning to prepare against the Nigerian military and it amounted to sabotaging the planned operations and putting the lives of the troops in imminent and clear danger. The army may be within its rights in these claims. The attempt here is not to dispute the propriety or otherwise of the claim that the publication undermined national security. It is also not to absolve the newspaper house from the weighty allegations. Not when the minister of information, Lai Mohammed acquiesced with the claims of the army when at a media briefing he posed two rhetorical questions: What is so compelling in publishing a report that compromises national security? What is so compelling in publishing a report that puts our troops in harm’s way?

    Implicit in the two questions is the fact that Mohammed agrees that the publication carries the same effect with the reasons the army adduced for their action. But all that still remain the opinion of the establishment. At best, they are allegations only the courts of competent jurisdiction can determine in a democratic setting.

    Mohammed appeared to have inched closer to the contradiction thrown up by the matter when he said the media must strike a balance between the constitutionally guaranteed freedom to receive and impart information and national security. We cannot agree any less on the last assertion. But where conflict arises, due process should be followed in its resolution. That appears to be the point of departure.

    Beyond this, the substantive issues surrounding the publication of the story and the subsequent invasion have yet to be addressed by the action of the army. How come the newspaper got to know the critical details of the plan by the military to attack the Boko Haram insurgents? Who gave the reporters such details that amounted to divulging secret plans of the army thus forewarning the insurgent to prepare for the attack thereby exposing our soldiers to grave risk? And what was the intention in divulging such classified information to news hunters if not for publication?

    These posers seek urgent answers. And the way they are resolved may well aid our understanding of the real issues to the publication. The puzzle is why the newspaper house went ahead to publish a story that allegedly compromised national security if the editor of the publication read such meaning into it? But the latter poser cannot be meaningfully resolved without establishing the source and motive for the leakage of the story.

    Given that the army has seemingly confirmed the authenticity of the report, it is only reasonable to expect that the story must have emanated from those involved in the planning of military attacks within the hierarchy of the command waging the war against the Boko Haram insurgency. For, all that can be discerned from what the army said was a confirmation that the story contained vital information on the planned attack. The source of the leakage is the key issue for the army to unravel.

    Or is it a case of moles within the military as has been severally alleged in the past? Whatever it is, it has become imperative that the army must re-examine itself in this very difficult asymmetric warfare. It must take a closer look at its officers and men to find out if there are moles working at cross purpose with the task of getting rid of the insurgents. It is also time to re-examine whether there are vested interests who have sworn to see the insurgency continue unabated.

    With the worsening security situation in the northeast, it will be a grave risk not to unravel the source of the oxygen that reactivated the Boko Haram insurgency to such deadly feats that have rattled the military. It is also becoming clearer that the military is increasingly getting very sensitive and impatient with the progress of the war.

    This impatience first manifested in their reactions to the observations of Amnesty International (AI) on human rights abuses in the prosecution of the war. The army had called for the closure of the offices of AI in Nigeria alleging that it has credible information that the organization is working hard to destabilize the country through the fabrication of fictitious allegations of human rights abuses against the security forces.

    Before then, it had also announced the sacking of UNICEF from the war theatres in the northeast. It alleged UNICEF was engaged in the training of selected persons for clandestine activities to sabotage the counter terrorism efforts of the troops through spurious and unconfirmed allegations bothering on alleged human right violation by the military. Curiously, they were quick to reverse themselves within 24 hours citing appeals from well meaning people and stakeholders.

    A common denominator in these three incidents is the issue of sabotage. The newspaper house allegedly sabotaged a planned military attack by exposing military plans and strategy thereby forewarning the insurgents to prepare for the attacks. Both AI and UNICEF were also entangled in the sabotage claims for bandying allegations bothering on human rights abuses by the Nigerian military.

    The sequence of these events seems to suggest that the military is getting increasingly impatient and sensitive with activities of groups and individuals as they relate to the prosecution of the war on insurgency. The reason for this is not hard to fathom. With renewed daring escapades of the Boko Haram insurgents resulting in high casualties and the displacement of locals, those who have borne the brunt of the war these past years, are bound to be worried.

    This is especially so given that earlier narratives on the state of that war are fast being contradicted by the resurging lethality of the insurgents. In such a circumstance, it will not be a surprise if the military high command is somewhat impatient and nervous with actions or inactions that appear to stultify the overall progress of the war.  Even then, they must guard against overreacting and fighting imaginary enemies as is apparent from their recent posturing.

  • The fog of war

    It did not seem to belong here. Not in a democracy, where President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to be penitent and born again. He had pulled off the soldier’s slough and replaced it with the flamboyant sobriety of the babaringa.

    I recalled the famous world press conference and the martial flourish of his fury: “The press? I will tamper with it.” His face, screwed into a scowl, promised coals of fire.

    It brought my mind to the nervous days of the soldiers`         .  The Daily Trust of all newspapers was shut down. I scurried to read the news item that triggered the episode. I didn’t see anything and I know enough of this business to detect what harms national security and what endangers the army in the maelstrom of war. The report contained nothing sudden, nothing surprising. It did not endanger the soldiers.

    I learnt the top brass of the army had met with some editors and provided them perhaps classified information about an impending sortie. If that counterattack involved a massive troop deployment on land and in the air, and its intention was to retake Baga and a slew of territories Boko Haram had corralled in the past weeks, I don’t see anything classified about it. It did not speak of operational details like time of each ground attack, routes, names of officers, types of weaponry, etc. most of the story is familiar, and a backgrounding flavoured by the reporting of the past weeks.

    Eventually, the army did attack, and took back some of the territories including Baga. Journalism often has to be wary not to play the tortoise that knows too much and sets its own house on fire. Journalists also understand that they need a country to survive in order to perform their duties.

    But the tendency in this profession is for those who think they know more than the professionals to tutor us on the limits of liberty. Boko haram had unleashed a gale of attacks resulting in the outpouring of Nigerians onto the main towns, especially Maiduguri. A state of bloody augury had engulfed the state, and the army had been caught off again. An Mi35 fighter jet had fallen, soldiers eviscerated, army posts sacked. Nigerians were on edge again with images of the slaughter and rapine of the Jonathan era. A sense of our military collapse terrified those who had thought we were past these moments of anxiety. “Something startled where we thought we were safest,” wrote novelist George Lamming. Safety had given way to waves of ragtag butchery again.

    In these circumstances, did we not expect the army to launch counterattack, and had the military not assured Nigerians they would regain the lands, and was that a massive attack what should follow? Was that not what Daily Trust did?

    Those who defend the army in one breath for rage over the publication should understand that the Daily Trust story did not endanger anyone, including our military. It only reported a coming offensive, without reports of details and strategy. Even well-known armies, including the United States, have been known to even announce strategies ahead of war. For instance, Collin Powell as the chairman of Joint chiefs of staff, belched out ahead of the Iraqi war under the late George H. W. Bush: “Our strategy for defeating the Iraqis is very simple: First we are going to cut them off, then we are going to kill them.” The details were a different kettle of fish.

    Now Buhari ordered the army to lift its siege to Daily Trust. From the presidency’s reaction, it was obvious the army acted without consulting the commander-in-chief. He may be a repentant soldier, but his lieutenants need to follow Buhari’s credo when he was a GOC in Jos. Then he defied his boss in Lagos and asked soldiers to start reading the Constitution of Nigeria. His officers need to read the Constitution. The officers didn’t on the Daily Trust matter and they should have known that this is a democracy, and press freedom is tenet. The army was trying to divert attention of its failures on an innocuous news report. They focused on the hoodlums and sacked them, and that is great news, and it shows that we need discipline from the army, not punishment of editors.

    What is more worrisome is that this lack of operational or strategic discipline is creating two contrary trends in Borno State. One, is the massive work of Governor Kashim Shettima’s infrastructural repair and renewal, the educational rebirth, and a new mushrooming of housing projects going on in the state, especially since the Buhari administration took charge and won a breath of victory that prompted an earlier infantile boast that Boko Haram had been defeated.  Is it the roads and highways that had been done?

    What is more worrisome is that this lack of operational or strategic discipline is creating two contrary trends in Borno State. One, is the massive work of Governor Kashim Shettima’s infrastructural repair and renewal…

    The schools like Yerwa Girls Secondary School with ecstatic young pupils in an ambience of new, air-conditioned classrooms, and tiled floors and walls shimmering with new paints? Or is it a school also in Maiduguri that Governor  Shettima wants to name after either Angela Merkel or Michelle Obama? A school of hostels, quadrangles, bullet-proof doors, dining blocks, kitchen, air-conditioners and fans, high walls that would make a Chibok girls redux a suicide attempt.  Schools like these are all over the state. What of the housing projects that have been all over the state to absorb the many displaced citizens of the past years of depredations.

    This explains why Shettima spoke with liquid eyes to President Buhari on the Boko Haram torments and the fear that all the billions of Naira, imagination, physical exertions of the past few years may dissolve with onslaughts of the zealots. Shettima’s likely successor Umara-Zulum has been in the trenches as the commissioner in charge of reconstruction and must be aghast at the omen of war flushing out all that he has risked life and limb to achieve.

    On network television, Shettima noted that the urgency of handling the war on terror. We recall he once said in the Jonathan era that our soldiers were outmanoeuvred, and outrun by the enemies. Today, with huge resources deployed, many analysts want to know what happened. It is still a conundrum to many.

    The war on terror cannot be won by just arms alone, even if we need a lot of it. It cannot be won by soldiers alone, although we have too few of them. We must look at whether accountability of money and men is taking place. Are some people not seeing the war as cash cow?

    Knowledge is a principal weapon of war. We need to have our intelligence to work. The attacks have come because they surprise us, a la Metele. So, we don’t want the riotous rhythm of gains and losses. Today they come and conquer. Tomorrow, we ache and take back. It is the sort of thing that philosopher Friederich Nietzsche has described as “eternal return.” We have been through this before and we may go there again. That is not the way of progress.

  • Gbemiga Ogunleye at 60

    There is no doubt that the print media is threatened by digital developments. Print media managers need to reimagine and rethink the business in order to survive. But this is easier said than done.

    Gbemiga Ogunleye, the Provost of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ), who celebrated his 60th birthday on January 5, turned the celebration into a cerebration. A timely lecture by Victor Ifijeh, MD/Editor-in-Chief, The Nation, highlighted the problems of the print media in a digital age. Ifijeh also offered solutions. He delivered a thinking lecture that was also a thought-provoking lecture. The title of the lecture: “Survival of the print media in the digital age.”

    Ifijeh presented statistics to show how migration of readers from print to online has shrunk print media revenue not only in Nigeria but worldwide. “The free fall is attributed to the rise of the internet,” he said. “Advertisers are migrating online to meet the readers who are also migrating.”

    But he drew attention to an interesting exception. India produces cheap newspapers because the country produces all the materials needed for newspaper production.  This was food for thought. “All put together, is circulation today up to 250,000?” he asked. In a country with an estimated population of nearly 200 million, the print media circulation figures are laughable. Interestingly, the circulation figures are speculative. “We need an ABC,” Ifijeh stressed. “We are too secretive,” he added, and called for “transparency and accountability.”

    “What is the way out for print?” Ifijeh asked.  The guest lecturer argued that “the attitude of media managers must change…we must consciously develop online…newspapers can earn enough from online and there must be a conscious effort to do so.” He named The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times as successful examples.

    He emphasised content development and rebranding.  He also emphasised human capacity building, saying the print media is busy investing in machines for “simultaneous printing.”  “What percentage of what is printed today is sold,” Ifijeh asked. The Nation on Sunday was printing 80 pages in 2006, he said, but that would be unreasonable and suicidal today.

    Ifijeh called for “a change in the business model of newspapers.”  ”There is too much credit,” he argued, saying the method of consumption before payment, which favours distribution agents and advertisers, would lead to a slow death.  A system that creates “high collectables” that may not be collected eventually, is not sustainable, he reasoned.

    The print media would benefit from “multiple streams” of income, the media chief observed. He suggested, for instance, collaborations with business bodies, and “well-researched publications that are not advert driven.”

    Ifijeh also suggested “acquisition and merger,” which would be an earth-shaking development, considering the narrow-mindedness of media owners in the country.  Then the issue of “corporate governance structure,” which Ifijeh said needed to be improved in the “fierce contest” between the print media and online news platforms.

    It was interesting listening to Ifijeh, who has been a print media chief for long enough to appreciate the challenges and reflect on possible responses. Ogunleye, the celebrator who made it possible, deserves applause for choosing the topic to further publicise a front-burner issue. Ifijeh called Ogunleye “a passionate journalist.”

    The event reflected Ogunleye’s passion for journalism. In addition to organising the lecture, Ogunleye launched his book, The Editor’s Front-Row Views, a collection of his columns in newspapers 1995 -2005.  ”In publishing this book, what I seek to do is to ask us to learn from the history of our recent past,” Ogunleye, a former editor of The Punch, wrote in the preface.

    There was a reading from the book by Gbenga Adefaye, GM/Editor-in-Chief, Vanguard. He read “They did not speak out,” published in The Pucnh, May 12, 1998.  The column was about the tyrannical times that followed the unjust annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election won by Chief M.K.O. Abiola.  The first paragraph: “They first came for M.K.O., they did not speak out because they must be seen to be opposed to the revalidation of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election…”

    Another paragraph: “Then they came for the media, yet they did not speak out. In one fell swoop, they shut the doors of the country’s vibrant press. Not satisfied, they rolled out decrees, proscribing The Punch, The Guardian and the National Concord.”

    In my space in the NIJ hall at Ogba, Lagos, I thought about terms of employment in the print media. I recalled a striking December 2017 report.  When the State House Press Corps invited Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to a seminar with the theme, “Journalists and Retirement Plans,” there was probably no way he could have avoided speaking about journalists and pre-retirement. Well, he didn’t mince words during the event at the old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

    A report said: “The Vice President recalled his brief encounters working with media houses as legal adviser, and how in all the months he worked he was not paid despite the irregular hours he put in.” He reached a conclusion based on this discouraging experience.  He was quoted as saying: “I realised first of all that this is not a profession from which one could make a decent living in the first place unless you find a really good way of doing so.”

    It was a depressing assessment of journalism and journalists. Here was an outsider and observer telling it like it is. What did the insiders think of his directness?  Osinbajo went on to say why things are the way they are.  According to him, “There are a few reasons in my view why remuneration is poor. The first is that it is just simply cheating.  There are owners of media that are just cheats. They just want to get something for nothing and that is not uncommon, it is a general malaise, it is not necessarily restricted to the media.”

    Osinbajo lamented that professional associations formed to protect the interest of journalists don’t do enough to tackle media organisations that don’t pay journalists enough or not at all.

    This recollection was a dampener. I left the event thinking about yesterday, today and tomorrow.

  • Herdsman innocence

    Suddenly the villages fall silent. The old tale has been overturned. The long nights of plunder.  The raffia-roofed, mud-walled houses on fire. Old men and women lumbering lazily in tragic mockery of fleeing. The air sultry with the smell of death.

    By first light the next morning, body counts recount the tale of the night. Corpses of children, mothers and fathers lie in bushes, in homes, on the streets. The houses, roofs gone, walls down, lie prostrate puffing out wisps of smoke in envy of chain smokers.

    That was routine for about two years in the loin of the country, that is the Middle Belt. For about half a year, not much of these acts of murder rend the ear. What happened to the herdsmen-farmers conflict? How did it move from a crisis that would never end to the one that we are about to forget? Why is no one addressing this salutary trend? Why is even the presidency mute over the development?

    The fear ended without a conference. There was no conference where both parties met, and no sort of armistice led to putting the arms at ease.  Is it a case of a coward who is happy that his tormentor disappeared and would not even probe whether the demon died or just discovered a new victim?

    We called it Fulani herdsmen/ farmers crisis, and it became a vexed nomenclature when the northern governors objected to the inclusion of Fulani. Then it was herdsmen’s crisis, or herdsmen/ farmers clash. But after a while, even the Miyetti Allah called the herdsmen Fulani, and it was no longer in doubt the identity of the culprits.

    But we had other narratives. The Agatu incident with its heart-rending number of casualties became a marker with the Miyetti Allah wrapping itself in defence of its kinsmen. Then those who shied away from the Fulani word, including cautious and polite commentators, felt free to call them Fulani herdsmen. We have also known of the IDPs, the waves of Nigerians in Benue and Plateau and Taraba and Nassarawa huddled into camps in dread of the shadows of death.

    When the Benue leaders visited the President, he replied in cynically unpresidential language asking them to accommodate their neighbour. Then it was the cool defiance of the Inspector General of police who would not station himself in Benue as the President ordered or, shall we say, begged. It is not as if the presence of a top officer makes a significant difference. It is the quality of discipline in the Force and charisma of the leader that drive efficiency, not necessarily his location.

    We cannot forget also the defence minister who condemned modernity for building houses and highways to occlude the routine tranquillity of the cattle’s canter and gallops. Then of course the agriculture minister who yelled in subservient gusto that the federal government had done something for the farmers but nothing for the herdsmen.

    At one stage, even the Emir of Kano joined the fray, and his language carried the fiery zeal of an ethnic partisan, reeling out numbers of Fulani victims that no one has been able to prove, since the onus lay on him. Then the confusion suffused the story as to whether they were Nigerian Fulani herdsmen or herdsmen from outside the country. The president even chipped in to hint they may not be Nigerian herdsmen, even if they were Fulani, a perspective that apparently tended to expiate the guilt of locals.

    While this storm of recriminations endured, the killings flared on. One of the high moments was the mass burial undertaken in Benue where it was not clear whether the politicians were more interested in trading politics with the funeral or showing sympathy with the beloved. But tears and coffins abounded to dwarf any sympathy for the government at the centre.

    In many instances, the story was that the people could not return when sacked by the bandits. Pressure fell on state governors with neither resources nor power to rebuild the fallen villages. The story even trended that the bandits had taken over the sacked villages, turning the churches into homes and fattening on sumptuous feasts of their farms and kitchens. In order words, they became armies of occupations.

    Yet a good thing happened, when an imam, Abubakar Abdullahi risked his life to save hundreds of Christians in the rocky retreats of Yelwa Gindi Akwati in Plateau State.

    What all of this show is that we are a scandalously uninvestigated country. We need to have evidence of who the real killers are. Was it a case of a herdsman penitence? A lot has been attributed to the Russian fighter aircraft Mi35, and that could have significantly deterred the killers. But what killers? Were the killers herdsmen or just bandits taking advantage of the blood spill between herders and farmers and making an imbroglio of it.

    The herders did not go into hiding. We see them every day, and never with guns or AK47. Even the herders are not seen as insiders of the Fulani clan. They are second class citizens in the north and I would like to see their lots addressed with the same verve deployed to defend him. It seems it is the conflict that has revealed the hypocrisy of the northern elite in its treatment of the herdsmen in the same way the al majiri is consigned to the bottom of the totem pole. Nomadic education as a solution came only half-heartedly, and it seems a century ago when Jibril Aminu pushed it to the front burner.

    Is the herder more sinned against than sinning? We have heard the clash with farmers for years. How did it escalate to a remorseless bloodbath? To what extent was it a case of cattle rustling triggering vengeance? The Fulani have said if you kill one, they kill a hundred in revenge? But was the rustling the only reason for the deaths, especially in communities where nothing of the sort happened like in Yelwa Gindi Akwati?

    In my television show on TV Continental, late president of Northern People’s Congress, Bala Takaya insisted that the killers were not the regular herdsmen and that they came from outside the country. When they herded, they used the animals as cover. The killers, he insisted, were not herdsmen but shadowy impostors.

    In Yelwa, for instance, they came only for Christians. It is important to not only quietly enjoy the burst of peace, but to reach the bottom. Bishop Kukah once said that we never solve any of our problems. We just move on, although ironically he wanted us to move on to other things on the Jonathan corruption saga. But he has a point. We should examine it. Where are the hoodlums gone? I suspect, without evidence, that they morphed into robbers and kidnappers. Such crimes are easier than razing down villages. They can strafed by Mi35 as they make away on foot or motorbikes.

    If the killers are mainly bandits, does it mean the herds were innocent of most killings and deserve our apologies? Were they like the animals in J.P. Clark’s  Fulani Cattle “so mute and fierce and wan/…not demurring nor kicking.”

    If we don’t get to the bottom, we stand the risk of meeting them elsewhere. Or is it why Katsina and Zamfara are now escalating into emergencies?

     

    READER’S RESPONSE

    Thanks for your courage to cover a man of courage, Imam Abdullahi Abubakar. It is not for nothing that they gave the top honors as Hon. Fellow, Nigerian Academy of Letters. Congratulations.

    Samuel Adeniran, Lagos.

     

    Agbaje the monopolist

    IN a recent television interview, Jimi Agbaje says no PDP youth is qualified to be governor of Lagos. Or more charitably, he didn’t see any young man or woman. That explains why he is the one who should run. Agbaje, the PDP candidate for Lagos State governor, should listen to himself. He is the one who accuses his opponents of overtaking Lagos. Yet, in his own language, he is a monopolist of power in Lagos PDP. Secondly, for a man who says he wants an inclusive government, he is dividing the society along generational lines.

    The last time, he pitched the contest as an ethnic one, pushing his party and candidature as an Igbo versus indigenes affair. Now it is not only ethnic but also generational. He is fighting his ethnic group in an unblushing hint of a quisling and divider. Now, he is setting himself as contemptuous of youth.

    Agbaje has not always known how to verbalise language in a campaign. Sometimes, he comes across as juvenile and, at least, unreflective in his diction. To be sure, Agbaje once used to look youthful, and of course handsome. Maybe he does not know that times move and once ruddy young men turn hoary. He may just learn that when he accuses others, people are listening.

    He should not trade in hypocrisy and hope that a gullible electorate will buy in.