The Nation Newspaper

Category: Monday

  • My childhood friend, my brother!

    A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and allows you to grow”-William Shakespeare.

    Perhaps, the above captures very succinctly the relationship between my childhood friend and brother, Dr Christian Ngozi Umeh (Gallant Pieces) and I. Umeh was snatched away in his prime, by the cold hands of death three weeks ago.

    I don’t really know how and where to begin. I lack words. Yet, I should be in position to write a book on the life and times of my childhood friend, Ngozi Gallant Christian, Pieces Umeh (NGCPU) as he fondly abbreviated his initials.

    My predicament stems from inability to come to terms with the sad reality that Gallant can disappear from my sight just like that. That the company and affection we shared through the years have been truncated by the wicked hands of death. And a relationship that has been the admiration of many, crashed when its fruits were beginning to fully mature.

    All those who knew Gallant well either from childhood or later in life can attest that we are two of a rare pair. Not many know the genesis of our relationship or how long it has lasted. Two of us may not even fully account for how it all started given our age at that time.

    This is because the friendship is as old as our ages minus our age the day we enrolled at St Jude’s primary School Ikpa-Eluama Osina in the present Imo State. That was the period you were required to place your right hand across your head to touch your left ear as a criterion for admission into the first class in the primary school.

    If your right hand touched your left ear, then you are qualified for admission and vice versa. So we found ourselves in that preparatory class together with other mates. I cannot recall how we started as friends so early in life or the incident that brought us close. But my guess is that our performances in that rural primary school class could have been the bond. He was very eager to learn and highly elated each time he performed excellently well. I still recall the exclamation he made the day our teacher announced he scored 80 per cent in one of the subjects. The whole class burst into deep laughter when he exclaimed: uwa a a a…( the world….) as the teacher called his name and announced his score. He was enthusiastic to learn; very hungry for knowledge, always trying to show his peers that he has something more to offer.

    Even at that tender age, he had learnt some French language from one of his cousins COC Umeh who was then in a secondary school. It was from him that for the first time, I learnt bonjour monsieur was a French equivalent for good morning sir. He pronounced monsieur badly as I came to realize when I started French years after in my secondary school. So he was above his peers in such innovative issues and somehow, we got attracted to each other due to competition to excel.

    St Jude then prepared pupils for admission into St Mary’s primary school which was the senior arm of the Catholic primary school. I had thought two of us completed two years at St Jude before proceeding to St Mary’s until his cousin Jasper Umeh who was also with us( but in a different class) told me a fortnight ago he left briefly to Alaogidi primary school Uhualla due to some political pressure.

    However, we rejoined in primary four at St Mary’s after the transition from standard to primary in the school calendar system and were together until we took the First School Leaving Certificate. My younger sister, Chinwe used to remind me of how he usually escorted me to my Aunty’s house- the Ebosie’s in Uzii after school each time my father sent me on errand there. The distance is not less than 10 kilometres to and fro. Chinwe lived with my Aunty after our mother’s death very early in our lives. She reminds me of how we usually sneaked to the backyard to pluck some pear as we left.

    While in primary six, we took common entrance examinations. He was later to attend Earnest Gems Grammar school Akokwa while I attended Holy Ghost Juniorate, Ihiala. Our friendship continued throughout our secondary school period especially during holidays. On completion of his secondary career, he enrolled at the famous Christ the King College, Onitsha (CKC) for his Higher School. We met again at the University of Ibadan when he was admitted to read Geography in the same faculty of Social Sciences. There, the comradeship continued. At Ibadan, we had other friends like Dr Chika Ohia and late Dr Linus Dim.  We worked together and shared common vision regarding the progress of our town, Osina.

    In liaison with other friends in other universities: Bernard Nnagha and JO Eze both at the University of Ife then, Christian Maduekwe and Lambert Eze, UNN, we built a formidable relationship that changed the course of history in the community for the better. Issues relating to this are for another occasion.

    Suffice it to say we all enjoyed our relationship. We trusted each other and enjoyed the confidence of each other. Between two of us, the confidence was much stronger because of our childhood experiences. We were with each other after our national service and when we secured our initial appointments. We spent our initial salaries savouring and oiling our relationship. Such was the story until responsibility set in after we started marrying one after the other.

    For some reason, two of us were among the last in the group that married. And when it came to choosing his marriage sponsors, my wife and I were his choice. He was also the Godfather of my first son at baptism. We understand the chemistry of each other and have never had cause for serious disagreement even with our personality differences. He was quiet, non controversial and largely apolitical. Yet, we found common grounds to cohere.

    He taught for some years at Abbot Girls’ Secondary School Ihiala, in Anambra State before securing appointment as a teaching assistant at the Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Owerri. While at Alvan and in very quick succession, he enrolled for his post graduate diploma certificate in education and Masters Degree at Imo State University, Owerri. On successful completion of the two programmes, he went for his doctorate degree which he successfully obtained within record time.

    He rose fast to the rank of Reader/Chief lecturer at Alvan. Dr. Umeh also held so many positions in the college: Head of Department of Geography and Environmental Science, chairman School of Social Sciences Teaching Practice Committee and departmental project coordinator among others. He has many publications.

    Umeh exudes a lot of wits and very famous for inventing interesting and sharp remarks, many of which his circle of friends cannot forget in a hurry. Those witty sayings still dominate our discussion till date. The frontiers of his knowledge are wide covering the sciences, medicine, engineering and architecture.

    A versatile and humorous person, Gallant will be highly missed by his numerous friends. He showed considerable determination to live even in the face of the odds. He displayed an uncommon resilience and doggedness as he battled health challenges in the last couple of months. It is sad he eventually succumbed to the wicked hands of death. Gallant will be missed by his family, his friends and all those who came into contact with him.

    May the God almighty grant his soul eternal rest in His bosom and the family, the fortitude to bear the sad loss! May I end this tribute by quoting from Lisa Whelchel: “There’s something about childhood friends you just can’t replace”. Gallant, I miss you and will continue to miss you until we meet to part no more. It was indeed a sweet friendship that refreshed the soul-proverbs 27:9.

  • Jonathan the sexagenarian

    Forget appearances, it was not a happy 60th birthday for former President Goodluck Jonathan on November 20. By his own account, he has had bad nights since his defeat in the 2015 presidential election that swept the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) out of power.  When Jonathan received a PPD chairmanship aspirant, Chief Olabode George, at his country home in Otuoke, Bayelsa State, he said: “Whether I like it or not, I must take responsibility for the defeat because I led the party to the election. The only thing that will make me sleep well is to ensure that PDP comes back to power.”

    Jonathan’s night terrors happen not just because he lost a presidential election, but more because he shouldn’t have lost if he hadn’t lost his sense of reality.  He underrated the response of the electorate to bad governance. The wave of change under the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has exposed mind-boggling corruption that corrupted the Jonathan administration.

    It was symbolic that close to Jonathan’s birthday, he was prompted to defend himself in connection with allegations of corruption.  His media adviser, Ikechukwu Eze,  reacted to a claim  credited to  the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami , who reportedly told a Senate ad-hoc committee that an “ex-president was taking N5bn monthly from the Pension Fund.” Eze called the claim “a blatant lie,” adding,  “We believe that the story was concocted as part of the unfolding grand design (by the Buhari administration) to always dodge responsibility and blame every evil act taking place in the present dispensation on the past (Jonathan) administration.”

    Earlier, ex-chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Farida Waziri was quoted as saying in reaction to allegations of a climate of corruption under Jonathan: “I’m only glad that those things didn’t happen under my watch as the EFCC Chairman because it would have been too traumatic for me. And that is why if I see President Jonathan today, I will kneel down to thank him for the honour done me by removing me as the EFCC Chairman at the time he did.”  She added:  “My first strong premonition of what was ahead was when I began the probe of the monumental oil subsidy fraud going on then. I came to Lagos on a vital intelligence on the subsidy scam and as soon as I arrested a key culprit, I got a call from the Presidential Villa asking me to release the suspect, because, in their words, ‘he is our person’, but I refused to let him off and days after, I was removed from office.”

    But reacting on his Twitter handle, Jonathan said:” If Farida is not telling lies she should mention the person or company she was investigating and she was stopped, let the @officialEFCC investigate. Crime has no statute bar. If she can’t then she was simply hired to attack me.”

    It must be tormenting for Jonathan that he has to continually defend himself on the question of corruption. There is no doubt he has a lot of explaining to do about the mountainous corruption associated with his administration.  He is paying the price for leadership failure.

    Obviously for political reasons, the presidency congratulated Jonathan the sexagenarian in a statement, saying, “President Buhari joins members of the Peoples Democratic Party, professional colleagues, associates of Dr. Jonathan, and his family in celebrating the unique history of the Nigerian leader, who within a short period rose from being a deputy governor, governor, vice-president to becoming Nigeria’s President for six years.” The country is still stunned by the consequences of Jonathan’s presidential years, and it will take some time to recover.

    Jonathan also received politically motivated congratulations from former Vice President Atiku Abubakar who described him as the “face of democracy in Africa,” a reference to his trouble-free acceptance of electoral defeat. Early this month, Jonathan was reported as saying in an interview that Atiku should seek the support of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo in the pursuit of his ambition to be president: “If Atiku gets our party ticket, he would compete well. But he would have to reach out to our boss, Baba OBJ, the boss of all bosses. We’ve all learnt at different times that you ignore OBJ at your peril. OBJ has the magic wand. He is respected at home and abroad.”

    Jonathan’s advice to Atiku, who left the APC soon after, indicated he had learned his lesson.  It is a political lesson he will never forget. When on January 20 Jonathan paid “a private visit” to Obasanjo in Ibogun, Ogun State, it was as puzzling as it was illuminating. In the beginning, Obasanjo, in the dying days of his second-term administration in 2007, discovered Jonathan who was at the time seeking a continuation as Governor of Bayelsa State. Jonathan had served as governor for less than two years, following the removal of Diepreye Alaimeyeseigha under whom he was deputy governor for six years.

    The picture changed and Jonathan moved to a bigger stage as vice presidential nominee, with Umaru Musa Yar’Adua as PDP presidential candidate. Jonathan became Vice President in May 2007, and became President following Yar’ Adua’s death two years after. Jonathan won the 2011 election but was defeated in 2015 when he pursued a second term.

    Interestingly, Obasanjo played an ironic role in Jonathan’s electoral loss. The godfather became the chief antagonist in a fiery power struggle that saw Obasanjo dramatically tearing his PDP membership card and publicly campaigning against Jonathan’s campaign for re-election.  Indeed, the kingmaker became the king killer.  Jonathan’s publicised visit to Obasanjo nearly two years after his electoral failure suggested he had a rethink and was perhaps remorseful.

    At 60, with the benefit of hindsight, Jonathan should appreciate the difference between political success and political failure.  His words to Atiku show him playing the role of an experienced political adviser, but that does not mean he has become politically wiser. His birthday was a time to think about the power of performance and the powerlessness of non-performance.  In the final analysis, democratic leaders are expected to pass or fail based on performance and the evaluation of the electorate.

  • Another Judas kiss

    Another Judas kiss

    When last week, Atiku Abubakar announced he was leaving APC, few were surprised. It was not whether but when. We anticipated it. As Poet Samuel Coleridge wrote, “anticipation is more potent than surprise.”

    Atiku did not stun anyone by walking out of the APC tent because he was a tenant. The landlords branded him a pariah. To be clear, Atiku could not abort it, so he let the pregnancy grow, and accepted the baby. He graced the naming but no one made him godfather. He neither named the child though he contributed a thing or two during the ante natal days of anxiety. He wanted to be a father or uncle in the conception hour. He got neither. He merely feasted as a faraway grandee in the naming ceremony. He, however enjoyed the privilege of holding the baby in the generous hour of delivery.

    The baby probably screamed and punched Atiku’s bosom, just as in Charles Dickens’ novel Dombey and Son when Dombey’s son screams and kicks and punches as protest for being brought into the world so suddenly. Atiku was not fazed nor was he grouchy. He is not a gauche politician. He never voices a brutish sentiment nor deploys unpolished diction. He may not be debonair but he does not raise his hands ominously in public nor threatens brimstone from heaven. He keeps himself within himself.

    So, in the early days of the Buhari administration, he tried to associate with and hug the baby. He once called President Buhari “the father of the nation.” The baby grew but Atiku never was let in during the rites of childhood: the teething moments, the suckling frenzy as the child slurped and slobbered, the crawls and stumbles before he found his feet, the ta-ta-ta of his tongue in search of the first word.

    So, we could understand since early this year when the voice of the Adamawa patriarch grew progressively radiant in rage against the system. He was at his loftiest in the restructuring debate. His potency and mellifluous rendering were less a signature of his conviction as salvos of revenge to Aso Rock and its wheel horses.

    Atiku was ambitious. Apart from Buhari, no one in Nigeria has eyed the supreme post as the Adamawa titan. He was naïve to expect Buhari and his clan to clasp him to their bosoms. As Winston Churchill’s friend, Lord Beaverbrook, once said, “a man with a will to power can’t make friends.” He was a vice president and sniffed the majestic aroma of the top chair. He wants it and wants it now. Buhari was in the top chair before, even if by impunity, and he wanted it back even with democratic effluvia. But he flunked three times. Buhari knows how it is to want it badly, and so understands why Atiku is quietly growling. So, both cannot be good friends.

    Especially when Atiku in the early days partnered with Oloye Eleyinmi to undermine him for a coup in the Senate. He also wanted to be chair of the board of trustees. He fluffed. He saw the bathwater, not the cot or baby. His rent as tenant expired. No wanting to be an exile at home, he exited the tent.

    His power quest reminds one of Awo, who never had the opportunity, and whom Dan Agbese first described before his death as “the best president Nigeria never had.” But Atiku has none of Awo’s charisma, mystique, moral heft, political infrastructure, intellectual might or visionary appeal.

    His ambition reminds me of the opening lines of Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” Atiku has possessed so much wealth he is in want of power; in this case, presidency.

    That was the story of Moshood Abiola and his fabulous nest. These guys have so much money they become unhappy without power. But Atiku craves power like Hobson’s choice. His has become a metaphor for the major ailment of Nigerian politics: the lack of ideology or principle. Atiku is now the signpost of the Nigerian whore in politics. He has had his own machine known as the PDM, which he also inherited from his mentor General Musa Yar’adua, who died in search of power in prison. Yar’adua transferred the gene to Atiku. Yar’adua never wanted to back anyone who was not Yar’adua. He never associated with the power blocs up north, he never associated with progressives, he distanced himself from Abiola, and never joined the battle for June 12. When he was picked up, no one fought for him.

    Atiku joined PDP, became vice president, fought the Owu chief, joined ACN, returned to PDP, defected to APC. He is expected to announce his return to PDP. Hence, I once called him the peripatetic harlot of Nigerian politics. He is not alone in this. The APC, for all its self-congratulations, is a hodgepodge of quite a few harlots. That’s why Atiku thought he could fit in so well. He failed there not because APC was a better brothel but because even whoring brothers disagree. Atiku was the wrong whore for the APC.

    No politician will judge Atiku for sleeping with the enemy. They will scoff him for his Judas kiss. But he does not need to get any amount of silver from anyone. Even the lashing of his firms cannot upturn his robust nest. His ambition is his life work. It does not matter if he is like Sisyphus of the Greek myth who pushes a rock up hill and, when near the summit, the rock falls down, and he goes up and down again forever without taking the rock to the top. In Homer’s classic The Odyssey, Odysseus visits the land of the dead and sees Sisyphus still at it.

    Maybe Atiku is contented simply to pursue the dream without getting there. French philosopher Albert Camus argues in his The Rebel that Sisyphus was happy. Maybe Atiku will find happiness in the toil of ambition even if he does not reach the summit.

     

     

    El-Rufai vs Teachers

     The diminutive governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, got in the eye of the storm over tests and presumable firing of teachers who could not pass primary four tests. What bothered me most in this furore is the Nigerian Union of Teachers who did not like the tests and the decision to separate the teachers from the job. I agree with the Kaduna State governor. We cannot have anyone feed our children with ignorance. There is no way they should teach anyone. Such teachers are an infection. In the north, we worry about insurgency and Boko Haram, which say western education is sin. Then teachers sin against the same education. El-Rufai may consider any palliatives for the sacked teachers. But the teachers deserve no pity for deliberately imposing the poison on their minds on innocents. We want more information on how they got hired. Corruption is key here, but whatever the suffering the teachers will undergo when removed cannot compare to the thousands of unbaked venomous minds they spew out as students into the world. I will visit this topic fully another day, but suffice it to say that El-Rufai should be congratulated for his ruthless decision. Education is too important a matter to be left in the hands of ignoramuses.

     

    Obituary

    For Peter Obi, the soft-spoken former governor, it is Obituary in Anambra State politics. Willie Obiano’s victory is Obi’s political death knell. He installed Obiano, but now Obiano is presiding over his funeral. Obi, a decent man though, is now a statesman without a state. He is in a state of what Buddhists call Bardo, or Catholics  call limbo. Will he look like the characters in the Booker-winning novel, Lincoln in The Bardo by George Saunders, where Abraham Lincoln meets with his son in the Afterlife? Obi’s candidate could not even flatter him with a second position. Obiano buried him in a landslide. Adieu, the girl-voiced warrior.

  • The dark gentleman

    The dark gentleman

    When the Greek philosopher Pliny the Elder opined that “there is always something new out of Africa,” was he not referring to the quiet storm of Zimbabwe?

    The unfolding scenario in that country has no precedent in history. Where else do soldiers “remove” a despot and say it is no coup? Robert Mugabe cannot issue an army command, but he still claims to be president? Where is the power when the “coupists” negotiate with the “ousted” fellow? Some unimginables have happened: photo ops handshake and smiles with him. Under house arrest he struts out of confinement to a university graduation. His nine-decades feet still crisp, his slight stoop packing an authoritarian halo.

    The nonagenarian is defiant, his removers seem complaisant. He puffs, the soldiers doff their fatigues. Everyone seems fatigued by it all, but Mugabe farts on the power transition. It is comical, but no one is laughing. He is abandoned by his wife Grace, which calls to mind the femme fatales of political intrigues: Cleopatra, Medea, Lady Macbeth, Yaa Asantewa, Livia. Grace was the heir apparent until her hair had no royal apparel.

     

    Yet reports have it that when he breaks down in tears, it is not Grace, the 52-year-old scheming termagant she craves. She calls his dead wife from the days when he was still hailed a hero. The world swooned and pined for him to shepherd the country to the shores of justice. But we learn a lesson from him: If power changes with hurrahs, they don’t always usher in heroes. He was a hero before he became a horror.

    Horror for the economy that grovelled for food, investments and jobs. He is not only megalomaniac, he is blood thirsty. He has taken advantage of the three great sources of human mobilisation: Faith, tribe and ideal. Faith was a little simple. It was faith in the motherland. He converted it into faith in Mugabe. He became the god of democracy, the one constant in the life of the people. Only the God in heaven could claim that. He could not be removed, pummelled opposition and doubt, and turned the nation’s currency into at once a pariah and plaything. It was faith in the motherland that turned him against the economic mainstay of its agrarian bulwark: the white farmers. He took their land and handed them to “his people.” It was black against white. He turned the concept of racism upside down. He pauperised his people but won many to his side. He looked coy when he was cunning.

    Tribe of course was important. His Shona tribe took upper hand over the Ndebele rivals. It is a story of persecution, sometimes pogrom marked by mass killings, mass burials and a sense of false righteousness. Tribe also came in the guise of part loyalty.  His ZANU PF warred against Joshua Nkomo’s Zanu PF. He always routed them, with fire, blood and money.

    During the last annual LABAAF/CORA, a book festival held in Lagos, Nigeria’s poet laureate Niyi Osundare mused on the rise of tribalism that births such grandiloquent misfits as TRUMP and wave of right-wing populism across Europe and Asia. In my comment, I said we need to save democracy from itself. If we gripe at Mugabe who managed to fatten in power forever, we should not forget he was not the first. Even Hitler, Francisco Franco, the sawdust Caesar Mussolini rose to power on the wave of the vote. Trump was voted in. Duterte, the happy brute of the Philippines, is popular despite senseless killings. Vladimir Putin has become president, prime minister and president and a de fact Russian leader for life on the life of the vote. Mugabe never claimed not to be a democrat. They rig elections using the political machine. We saw it recently in Kenya. We see it all the time in Nigeria. Democracy may be the best form, it wears a false toga. We accept it even if we don’t believe it.

    Men like Mugabe never believe they are tyrants. Neither do their faithful. So, a sense of justice drives them like their opponents. Hence, they have no compunction when they kill and destroy. They are not like the Satan in Paradise Lost who says, “All good to me is lost, Evil be thou my Good.” Poet John Milton shows that as the subconscious voice while the self is not conscious of this depravity. Mugabe is reported to have gone on hunger strike. Only the just do that. The last great leader who did it was Mahatma Ghandhi and he deployed it to change the country’s mood from bellicose to cosy. Mugabe is suffering from delusion of grandeur, which comes from a false sense of good. But he is no Ghandhi.

    I kept thinking of Shakespeare’s King Lear, the tyrant who loved those who flattered him over the daughter who told him the truth. He died a mad man though thinking himself a saint. Nothing sums up Shakespeare’s best play better than the line: “The prince of darkness is a gentleman.” Mugabe still thinks himself a gentleman.

  • Will Kanu reappear?

    With the Federal High Court in Abuja scheduled to decide on December 13 whether the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen Tukur Buratai, should be asked to account for the whereabouts of separatist Nnamdi Kanu, the drama of disappearance is not about to end.

    Since Kanu disappeared while on bail, his sureties have been asked to account for his whereabouts, but they seem not to know. The controversial leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) was granted bail by a Federal High Court on April 25, after many sympathetic voices had called for his release from prolonged detention for separatist activities.  Kanu is facing trial for “alleged offences of conspiracy to commit acts of treasonable felony and other related offences.”

    Kanu’s lawyers argue that Buratai should be made to produce him because he allegedly disappeared during an operation by soldiers, which they described as “a murderous raid, where live and mortar bullets were fired on unarmed and defenceless people, leaving 28 persons dead.”  They said in their motion: “The invading soldiers who had direct contact with the applicant on this fateful day (September 14, 2017) should be in a position to produce the applicant before the court. It is either the respondent’s rampaging soldiers abducted the applicant during this raid or killed him in the process.”

    It is unclear whether this is an opportunistic claim, following “Operation Python Dance,” a military exercise in the Southeast during which “rampaging soldiers” allegedly invaded Kanu’s house in Afara-Ukwu Ibeku, Umuahia, Abia State.

    After Kanu’s mysterious disappearance, a former governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu, supplied information about his whereabouts: “Kanu was not taken away by the military. Kanu went to Malaysia from where he travelled to the United Kingdom. Nnamdi Kanu is in London right now as we speak. He was not arrested by anybody. He left the country on his own. One of his relations has spoken to me and explained everything because I wanted to see him and talk to him wherever he was and see how I could meet some Federal Government officials on his issue. I also wanted to see ways of talking to the President about him, and find common ground but his family told me that he has left the country, unless they are lying to me. I believe, whether he had left the country or not, he is not with the military because I asked the Commander of the 14 Brigade, Brig.-Gen. A.K Ibrahim, who is a very fine and good soldier, well educated and dedicated, and he told me that they don’t know his whereabouts and I am sure, the Department of State Services have the same information. I also visited the commissioner of police and he said he didn’t know his whereabouts and that they are also looking for him.” This information was rubbished by Kanu’s group and his lawyers.

    This was followed by news of an announcement that “Mazi Nnamdi Nwanekaenyi Kanu, the former Director of Radio Biafra is hereby dismissed and removed as Director of Radio Biafra following extensive and intensive consultations.” The announcer named one “Mazi Ezenwachukwu Sampson Okwudili as Kanu’s replacement.” Kanu was accused of: “Personalisation of the Biafran struggle and derailing from the core objectives of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as a grassroots movement.”

    There were other accusations against Kanu: “Kanu’s actions and his decisions to incite members of IPOB towards violence leading to the death of many innocent young people in Onitsha, Aba and Umuahia are totally unacceptable and grossly irresponsible. Kanu privately collected £14 million and another $22 million to purchase landed properties abroad in his name and that of his father, Igwe Israel Kanu, in a clear case of ‘monkey dey work baboon dey chop.’ He was also accused of failing to “drum up support for the release of his colleagues and co-detainees such as Chidiebere Onwudiwe, Benjamin Madubugwu and David Nwawuisi.”

    IPOB rubbished the reported announcement in a statement by its media and publicity secretary, Emma Powerful: “For anyone to believe that faceless hitherto unheard of individuals can wake up one evening and announce the replacement of a man that commands 50 million people with presence in over 100 countries of the world, making him only second to Pope Francis as the personality with the largest cult following on earth, is plain stupid.” This characterisation of Kanu is striking for its hyperbolism.  Who is expected to believe this picture of Kanu’s alleged global stature?

    The proscribed group then dropped a bombshell: “We have all become accustomed to the crude antics of this shameless Nigerian Government and her security agencies that are so desperate to create confusion and pandemonium within the hierarchy of IPOB. That they came up with this ludicrous propaganda of the replacement of the irreplaceable IPOB leader is confirmation of their desperation.” Could it be true that the news was fabricated and planted by the federal government?

    The sequence of events has not answered the question about Kanu’s whereabouts because Kanu has not reappeared.  His disappearance needs to be demystified. It should not be a mystery. How long will this drama of disappearance last? Will Kanu resurface someday?  How will that happen? What will he have to say when he reappears?

    Before he disappeared, Kanu was characteristically rebellious when he addressed a crowd on August 27 at the Boys Technical College (BTC) on Faulks Road in Aba North Local Government Area of Abia State. According to a report, “He used the forum to reiterate that there would not be election in Anambra in November or any part of “Biafra Land” even in 2019, unless the group’s clamour for referendum got the blessings of government.”  He was quoted as saying: “I’m a Biafran and we are going to crumble the zoo. Some idiots who are not educated said that they’ll arrest me, and I ask them to come. I’m in Biafra land. If any of them leaves Biafra land alive, know that this is not IPOB.”

    Without him, days to the governorship election in Anambra State on November 18, IPOB was still flexing its muscles. Members of the separatist group marched around with a death threat in Onitsha, Anambra State, on November 3. They were quoted as saying: “If you vote you will die. Don’t go out, stay in your house. If you vote on November 18, you will die…There will be no election. We will not participate, we will not vote.”

    The Anambra State governorship election has been lost and won, and Kanu is still nowhere to be found. What will happen next?

  • Benue blackmail

    Benue State has been in the storm since Governor Samuel Ortom assented to a bill by the state House of Assembly banning open grazing in the state. Titled: Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Bill, the law prohibits open grazing, provides protection for both farmers and breeders with stiff punishment against infraction.

    Soon after the bill was signed into law, Ortom raised a serious alarm to the effect that a faction of the breeders association – Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore was about to launch armed attack against the people of the state in protest. He alleged they were already amassing at neighbouring states and Cameroon to attack the people of Benue.

    The governor, vowing to implement the law to the letters said he had reported the matter to the president and awaiting the arrest of its masterminds. Ortom’s outcry came few days after the association addressed a press conference threatening to challenge the law in court claiming that Fulani people were the first settlers of the Benue Valley and as such original owners of the state.

    But the group was quick to deny the allegation even as they have not hidden their opposition to the law on the grounds that it is discriminatory as it will deny them their means of livelihood. They have therefore called on the federal government, the international community and the National Assembly for intervention. They claim the law was implemented without consultation with herdsmen in the state; their members were not educated on modern methods of rearing cattle and sufficient time was not provided before the implementation of ranching.

    But the state government disagreed contending that it consulted widely and held public hearing before the law was finally approved. Coming from the chief security officer of the state, the alarm by the governor must be taken very seriously. This is more so, as the governor has taken up the matter with the president. The fact that the planners of that onslaught have not made good their devious intention may have been as a result of the pre-emptive alarm. But that does not in any way, whittle down the prospects of the trademark murderous invasion of the herdsmen. It is therefore vital that urgent steps are taken by relevant agencies to diminish the capacity of the herdsmen for such attacks.

    But even as the state is contending with the prospects of armed invasion, a report credited to one Garus Gololo, a member of the Miyetti Allah cattle breeders association, claimed that a Fulani herdsman, Mohammed Abdulkadire, committed suicide by jumping into the River Benue in the Logo Local Government area after he lost 200 of his cows to hunger and lack of water.  He claimed that since the commencement of the anti-open grazing law, Fulani herdsmen had lost 600 cows due to poor feeding and inaccessibility to water.

    According to him, Abdulkadire who had 22 children cried and jumped into the river out of frustration when he discovered that 200 out of his 500 flock had died where they were camped as he searched for means to relocate them.

    Apparently sensing danger in the report, the state government was quick to react, describing it the height of falsehood in the series of organized blackmail and propaganda against it. It said contacts with the state police command and other security agencies produced no evidence either of the alleged suicide or loss of cows. The state government placed the burden of proof at the doorsteps of the man at the centre of the allegation.

    Since the government denied any of such happened, the expectation was that Gololo would come public to substantiate his claim. He should have come public with Abdulkadire’s family members including some of his 22 children to show why he should be taken serious. But nothing of such has happened leaving us with the inescapable conclusion that the story was merely contrived to blackmail the anti-open grazing law.

    But, it is a very dangerous allegation capable of inciting the herdsmen into the kind of invasion the governor complained of. Since the said Gololo is known to the authorities, he should since have been arrested for false information that could precipitate the breakdown of law and order. That he still moves around without the full weight of the law brought against him, is a discredit to the proficiency of law enforcement agencies.

    It shows the base level people could degenerate all in an effort to discredit a law which has assumed popularity in the face of the mindless killings that trail the activities of the herdsmen. Before now, the Ekiti State government had implemented its version of the law and it has largely reduced confrontation associated with the itinerant activities of the herdsmen. Taraba State has also passed a similar law which its governor, Darius Isiaku said will take effect from January next year.

    It is clear from the positions of these governments that nomadic cattle’s rearing is living on borrowed time. Not with the mindless killings and despoliation of communities, a regular feature of the activities of the herdsmen. It is true that the laws will, in the interim, impose some challenges on the herdsmen. It is equally no less correct that they are not accustomed to modern methods of animal husbandry. But that is not sufficient reason to continue with the old practice even when it has proved a great liability to peace, security of lives and property. So the fate of the herdsmen is their own making. They should take responsibility for compelling the state governments into these legislations to protect their citizens.

    The rush to enact the anti-open grazing law was a desperate attempt to save their indigenes from the marauding activities of the herdsmen who move with sophisticated weapons in the open, attacking and maiming their hosts at the slightest incident of infraction or no provocation at all. In the face of all these, the federal government has at best, remained tepid in addressing the manifest threat to peace and security which the activities of the herdsmen have come to represent.

    They operate with murderous ease and have been rated the world’s third most deadly group after ISIS and Boko Haram. Definitely no government worth its salt can afford to sit by while its people are moved down by those who have more regard for cows than human life. The anti-open grazing laws are a child of necessity. And that is where we are now.

    Ortom said that Benue between 2012 and 2016 lost more than N95 billion worth of goods and property to the attacks by herdsmen in the state. This excludes thousands of men, women and children who were killed with some burnt alive during the clashes. Many other states have gory tales to relieve. Even states in the south have increasingly come under the gun fire of the herdsmen who operate with relative invincibility.

    A former Inspector-General of the Police shocked the nation when he claimed that Fulani herdsmen responsible for the mindless killings were foreigners from neighbouring countries. He said the inability to rein them in was as a result of ECOWAS protocols that guaranteed free movement of people of member countries. And we seemed to have accepted the base rationalization. It is sad we swallowed line hook and sinker the convoluted excuse that the said protocol should be the basis to allow foreign criminals to make mince meat of our citizens.

    It is this kind of warped excuse that has overtime, been exploited by the herdsmen – foreign and local –to levy war on innocent citizens. The fact that some of them are foreigners is the more reason they should be mercilessly dealt with. The resort to anti-open grazing laws indicates very vividly, general frustration and dissatisfaction with the activities of the herdsmen. Having stretched the patience of victims to its elastic limits, the law is simply saying we are done with that nonsense.

    That is where the situation has now left us. It is important herdsmen cooperate with the law rather than seek unwholesome means to sabotage it. Open grazing has turned out an unmitigated liability to the society and can only continue at a great risk to peace and national security.

  • Borno diaries (2)

    Borno diaries (2)

    As I travelled in and around Maiduguri, I could not but ponder on a new book about civilisation. The book, titled The Future is History, abolishes tomorrow. The author, Masha Gessen, does not say Monday will not lead to Tuesday, but that Tuesday will not improve on Monday.

    It brings us the German philosopher Hannah Arendt and, more potently, Friedreich Nietzsche who developed the theory of eternal return. Whatever we do, however fertile our efforts or audacious our innovation or noble our raison d’etre, no progress flashes on the horizon. For all the airplanes, internet, cars, or soft beds or the eternal chug of the electric grid, we shall wake up to have a Trump or a Putin, or an ISIS rampaging a region, or a Boko Haram in a storm of slaughter. We shine, but we are still savages.

    So, as the Northeast tries to wake itself out of a night of bloodshed and ruin, are we sure the future is not the past, the past of hordes raging with new-fangled weapons with plunder, rape and rapine. Or do we see progress that tracks only to the future and does not echo the Biblical, Solomonic line: there is nothing new under the sun?

    I thought about it more as we left a primary school set for commission at a place called Bulunkutu Talakawa. Governor Shettima of Borno was driving, and some young men flocked desperately to the front of the vehicle as security men tried to disperse them. One of the boys, a teenager, tall and athletic, bowed and put his hand in his stomach, signifying hunger.

    As he drove off, he said, “If we don’t take care of these people today, they will take care of us tomorrow.” He had said he planned to abolish the al majiri system, a practice that dates back over a century and started innocuously as a school for Islamic scholars.

    “The condition is not ripe to stop it. That is why I am focusing on education and infrastructure,” he said.

    Not far away, we had seen the Maiduguri Sheraton Hotel. It predated the settlement of the poor and Bulunkutu talakawa. It came into being in the pre-violence Maiduguri when it was an osmosis of investments and social joy. Now, it is in magnificent decay, the building standing high, bruised, discoloured, desolate and a monument to a balmy past. Boko Haram stormed and plundered and left it to the elements.

    But how do you create such dreams without resources? Hence, Gov. Shettima has triggered the beginnings of an industrial park that spans vast acres to tackle the agricultural and manufacturing aspirations of the region and the country at large. An impressive greenhouse complete with power, borehole, ventilation, solar panels, light control is in its advanced stages. Maiduguri had been the conduit for commerce with other parts of Africa, and the Lake Chad water shimmered for profits. I learned that Dangote’s business had lost some of its traction because of Boko Haram activities that shut the to and fro with other countries on the continent from Chad to Niger to even Sudan.

    The green house will revive not only the tomato cultivation and storage but will extend the value chain to the making of purees. Other crops will also open up. Over five thousand persons will find work there. There will also be plastic factory and solar panel plant, etc.

    “Most of the equipment for this park are already on ground,” said Ibrahim Ali, who is in charge of the park. In a testament to foresight, Gov. Shettima bought the equipment long ago because he knew the naira would crash. He never waited for the naira to cascaded from N165 to the depth of 300s to a dollar.

    I could not escape the sight of Bola Tinubu Court named after former Governor of Lagos and Jagaban Borgu. It is a secure, well-furnished 78-apartment affair and it takes care of doctors. It is one of the graces of the Shettima era, as he also pivots to healthcare. I saw a similar example in a proposed nursing quarters converted to NYSC apartments for youth corps doctors and nurses. The place is under armed protection and the youth corps doctors are the best paid in the country, receiving an extra N100,000 and the nurses N50,000. They all looked cheerful when we visited and the governor ascertained that they had all the facilities, including generators, working.

    Most of the major arteries in town are lighted at night, and roads are undergoing renewal and repairs. The story is told of the work of Bishop Hassan Kukah who had secured a philanthropic work for schools in the country from Jorge Alvarez, the founder of mobile carrier Telefonica. Bishop Kukah met with him in Rome after the telecom giant had asked the Pope to point out areas where he could pour his largesse as he had too much money. Kukah took him on and he travelled to Nigeria and offered to help build, in partnership with the Kukah Foundation, 40 primary schools. Ten of such schools are underway in Borno. I thought this was a great example of people who give back to others about whom they know nothing.

    Many of our well-heeled would rather build mansions, many of which rooms will crack from lack of human chatter or shuffling feet. They will find places to hide their money that cannot survive paradise, and wed their wards in hotels of outsized luxury. They die sung but ignoble. Alvarez disinvited himself to that party.

    As Gov Shettima notes, the IDPs on record do not tell the full picture. Many are too proud to live in camps. It means more resources are needed to lift that place, for Borno and for all of us. There are many young who did not join Boko Haram. We have to help them not to. Or, as Gov. Shettima warned, “we either help them or run out of the place.”

  • LABAF: Dino’s book missing

    Two questions and two answers got me thinking deeply about books and people who write books in a week that the 19th Lagos Book and Art Festival (LABAF) 2017 celebrated books with a big buzz.

    On the eve of the book festival, Leke Baiyewu’s interview with Senator Dino Melaye appeared in Sunday Punch, November 5. The embattled federal lawmaker who represents Kogi West Senatorial District answered two questions on his book, which was launched in Abuja on May 15.

    A picture of the book presentation: “The event which took place at the Yar’adua Centre, Abuja had in attendance, the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremmadu, Speaker House of Representative, Yakubu Dogara, former First Lady, Patience Jonathan, Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Bello Mohammed, his Labour and Productivity counterpart, Dr. Chris Ngige and former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Dr. Anyim Pius Anyim.” A report said: “over N27 million was realised…the representative of Aliko Dangote launched the book with the sum of N10 million.”

    Melaye’s book, titled Antidotes for Corruption: The Nigerian Story, has an interesting story.  Some days after, a report said the book was ”yet to grace the shelves of any bookstore, 11 days after its introduction to the public on May 15. At the launch, the author had announced that the book, whose cover price is N50, 000, would be available in Abuja bookstores that same week.”

    Other events overtook the book launch, particularly Melaye’s struggle to save his seat in the Senate in the face of a determined move by his constituents to recall him. Then the book came up in an interview.

    Bayeiwu asked: “You recently authored and published a book on corruption. Why did you venture into writing?” Melaye answered: ”You cannot cure a disease if you don’t diagnose it. You cannot fight corruption without educating people on corruption. Because of my passion to fight corruption, I decided to go into research and put together my experience as an anti-corruption crusader in form of a book that I called ‘Antidotes for Corruption’ so that Nigerians can understand the level of corruption. I mentioned names and characters in that book. You cannot ‘restitute’, ameliorate, palliate or correct without exposition.”

     Next question: “How acceptable is the book in terms of sale?”  Answer: “As I speak to you, I have sold over 100,000 copies. I travelled recently to Germany and I took 500 copies along with me. I have been called that the copies have been exhausted. I went to Russia with 100 copies. As I speak to you, they’ve all been sold. I sent 1,000 copies to the United Kingdom; they’ve been completely sold. I sent 2,500 copies to five states in (the United States of) America and they are still demanding more. I want to believe that it has been properly received. Within the country here, I have also made huge sales. I am laughing all the way to the bank.”

    There may well be something to laugh about, and it may well be Melaye’s fantastic account of his book’s success. Also, the writing process that produced this book is something to wonder about.  This is how a report presented the writing process: “The Secretary Planning Committee of the book launch, Mr. Babatunde Faniyan in his welcome speech said when Dino first made it clear to him that he wanted to write a book of up to 800 pages he shrugged off the idea thinking it was a mere wishful thought. He said: “In fact I was right there with him when he started from scratch. Basically he put his thoughts into words and spoke into a tape recorder which was subsequently transcribed, typed out and edited.” According to him, sometimes Dino would go quiet for months. He said: “At a time, we would not communicate for a while and other matters of life would take precedence. Then suddenly we would be back to the business of this book.”

    It is said that the book “is divided into 14 chapters with 600 pages.” The publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, was quoted as saying:  “We have been looking for that book in bookstores in Abuja; it has not been made available because we can’t afford it. It is N50, 000 — just to buy cut and paste of newspaper articles.”

    During stimulating LABAF sessions at Freedom Park, Lagos, I wondered why the organisers did not feature Melaye and his book.  There is no doubt that he would have attracted greater public attention to the book festival.

    LABAF 2017, November 6 – 12, was dedicated to Niyi Osundare, the internationally recognised multiple award-winning poet and social critic.  According to the organisers, “It is conceived and designed as a campaign for Literacy and Human Capital Development through such interactive events as reading sessions, conversations (around books and ideas in the context of national and global polity), exhibitions of books (and other publications), art and craft, Children/Students/ Youths creative workshops and mentoring; live music, drama, dance and poetry performances.”  The focus this year was “Eruptions: Global Fractures and our common Humanity.”

    Was Melaye aware of LABAF?  Why was his book not there? A book about a cure for corruption, which has been described as a killer disease that could kill Nigeria, should be made available and affordable.

    The information provided by the author that he had sold over 100,000 copies, including a high number abroad, should encourage local writers who need evidence that writing can bring big money. As a publicity stunt, Melaye could travel across the country with his book, and hold mentoring sessions on how to write a book that sells well.

    Melaye is a lucky writer who is blessed with friends in high positions and high-profile connections. He got people who probably won’t read his book to buy it at a high price, which is what happened at the book launch. As for the copies he claims to have sold in other countries, the figures are thought-provoking.   Given the claimed success of this book, it should not be surprising if Melaye is thinking of writing another one, possibly about his experiences in the ongoing drama to recall him.  Something Melaye should think about: He needs to take advantage of book events, and should consider participating in the next LABAF, hopefully with a new book.

  • 2018 budget proposals

    Given the delay in implementing the 2017 budget, it was good a thing President Buhari last week presented his 2018 Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly. The early presentation is to allow reasonable time for the legislature to do its work and ensure timely approval.

    As usual, Nigerians were treated to the annual ritual of jaw-breaking figures of government’s projected revenue accruals and expenditure within that time frame. Tagged Budget of Consolidation because it is envisaged to consolidate on the gains of previous budgets, its overall outlay was N8.6trillion, representing an increase of 16 per cent from the 2017 budget estimate.

    The president took considerable time to remind the nation of the gains his administration has so far recorded even as he raised hopes of a prosperous future. He talked of the managerial dexterity of his economic team that culminated in the exit of the country from economic recession and measures in place to avert a relapse. It sounded as a budget of hope in view of the numerous promises to make life more bearable for the citizenry.

    But as he read out his programme for the coming year, what must have struck the citizenry is the future the high sounding financial figures hold for the teeming army of the toiling and suffering people. This is more so given the inability of the 2017 budget to impact positively on the overall living standards of the people.

    And for a people under severe hardship occasioned by biting inflation, debilitating level of unemployment and intolerable poverty in the face of massive official corruption, the main concern is how the trillions and billions will put food on their family tables. That is their parameter for assessing the success or otherwise of every budget. Else the trillions and billions would seem the similitude of a tale; full of sound and fury but practically signifying nothing.

    With a capital budget performance of less than 30 per cent in the 2017 budget year, there are fears that if the current proposals go the same way, the conditions of our people may be worse off.  In fact, President Buhari himself captured this dilemma very succinctly when he promised in the current budget speech that he envisages that by December, disbursement of the 2017 budget would have peaked by 50 per cent. That in itself is a tacit admission that the previous budget had a less than average performance. December is a few weeks away. And one begins to wonder the kind of difference that will be made in so short a time.

    So what gains are we really consolidating with such low level implementation of previous year’s budget? Expectedly, there has been apprehension regarding the capacity of the government to implement this year’s budget approvals to the letter even as indications are that some of the capital projects for the previous year will be rolled over to the current year.

    Perhaps, the biggest innovation in the current appropriation bill is that out of the total revenue projections, N4.165 trillion is expected to be generated from non-oil and other revenue sources while N2.442 trillion will come from oil and gas. That sounds ambitious and a sharp departure from previous experiences given that oil and gas had been the major source of foreign exchange earnings for the funding of our development projects. Ironically, our budget implementation had suffered the vicissitudes of oil price fluctuations in the international market.

    By the new policy thrust, the government seeks to demonstrate its commitment to diversify the revenue base away from the mono-cultural economy. It seeks to make the point that we can go beyond mouthing the imperative of diversification by taking practical steps to give effect to it. That is the way to go. However, it is not clear the projections that gave the government the comfort of mind that non-oil revenue will play such significant role in the funding of the 2018 budget.

    The president is banking on the agricultural sector where he said a lot of progress has been made in many states. The solid mineral development sector is another area especially given on-going work in Ondo State to fully exploit bitumen resources to meet the nation’s domestic need of 600,000 MTS of asphalt import.

    With the full exploitation of our domestic production of asphalt, monies hitherto expended in the importation of the commodity will be deployed to fund the budget. That sounds very promising. Whether this is achievable within the budget time frame either in part or whole is another kettle of fish.

    Since we have no idea of our current local capacity for bitumen, projections that all of our domestic needs would come from the engagement in Ondo next year would appear a tall order. If we had the privilege of the percentage contribution of locally sourced bitumen to our domestic needs presently, it would have formed the basis for hope of self-sufficiency in it next year.

    The other area the government places much premium on in its non-oil revenue drive is taxes. It intends to step up efforts to ensure that all taxable Nigerians declare their incomes from all sources and remit due taxes to the appropriate authorities. Other taxes from which the government intends to fund the budget include Company Income Tax, Value Added Tax and Customs and Excise receipts among others.

    But the overall burden of funding the budget projections will fall back on the people who bear the brunt of these taxes. So the year under focus is bound to witness more aggressive tax drive in a milieu where a majority of the citizens, including the wealthy deliberately evade tax payment. With an efficient tax collection system in place, the government is bound to make more revenue. But it will impact very adversely on the ordinarily people who will ultimately shoulder the burden as it will eventually translate into higher prices for goods and services.

    When this is paired with the directive by the government banning all forms of employment in government ministries, departments and agencies the gloom picture becomes more glaring. For a country buffeted by debilitating unemployment especially among the youths, it is curious the government intends to shut down every window to give direct job to the unemployed. It claims the policy is designed to cut down personnel overhead which is already considered high. That may well be. But government as a social contract; has a bounden duty to provide job for its citizens. Whatever policies and innovations it espouses, whatever future Eldorado it intends to build, must factor in the overall survival of the people for it to make a success. After all, these policies are for the living and not the dead. So the people must as a matter of necessity live before they can savour the benefits of such policies.

    The real issue is not as much with the number of those in government employ as with the mismanagement of our collective patrimony. If the trillions and billions that are wrongly in private hands (courtesy of the festering corruption), are available to a visionary leadership, we would have by now invested heavily in social infrastructure such that would have had a major leap on employment generation. But that has failed to happen and the masses are being made to suffer the serial failures of governments’ overtime.

    Even then, with regular incidence of ghost workers in governments, subsisting statistics on total personnel outlay may not be fool-proof. We are privy to disclosures of huge amounts of government monies (federal and states) paid to the so-called ghost workers. If the government further scrutinizes its payroll, it may discover to its chagrin that it may have been misled by fictitious staff data into shutting down all employment windows.

    Overall, the effectiveness of a budget hinges on its capacity to improve the general wellbeing of the people. President Buhari must give a human face to implementation of the 2018 budget. Banning employment in the face of spiralling and suffocating youth unemployment and poor infrastructure for job creation is anti-people and an invitation chaos.

  • NDDC: A senator’s ignorance

    NDDC: A senator’s ignorance

    A senator should not commit an irony of ignorance before the law. That was the unholy example of Senator Emmanuel Paulker. Wrapped up with the politics of succession, he did not understand the meaning of cessation. Hence, he called for the Federal Government to dissolve the NDDC board on the grounds that it was a continuation of the Henshaw era.

    The law, as the attorney general explained it, shows that continuation can continue only on the grounds of bankruptcy, suspension, conviction, unsound mind, misconduct and resignation. None of these infect the new board with Ndoma Egba and Nsima Ekere.

    In his controversial novel, Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie started with the lines: “To be born again, first you have to die.” So true. Senator Paulker thought the Ndoma Egba and Nsima Ekere board was born again, and a continuation of a former life. Hence, he has failed to distinguish between succession and cessation. When a board is constituted, according to the NDDC Act, it has fresh blood, fresh persons and fresh tenure, as it is now. Attorney General Malami got it right when he noted that, “there has to be fresh composition of the board for a fresh term of four years.” That is what it is with the new board, and Senator Paulker can only be urged to exercise patience until the next tenure. It is what we call a fait accompli.

    The good Lord said, “except a corn of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it abides alone. When it dies, it brings forth much fruit.” The present board is a corn that abides alone because it is not time for it to fall. When its four years run their course, the corn can fall and yield another tenure that Senator Paulker is pining for. Patience, brother Paulker. And knowledge to understand that to succeed and to cease have to be well-defined. Senator Paulker, can we now have a cessation of hostilities?