The Nation Newspaper

Category: Monday

  • Re: Deji, Afenifere and Ndigbo Akure

    My last week’s article which came under the above title attracted a deluge of reactions. Issues raised have been diverse. But one thing that stands out from these views is that, all the facts to the Akure controversy have not been availed to the public. I said that much in the article under reference and my views have been reinforced by some of the contributions. Perhaps, lack of full disclosure accounted for the prominence which disrespect to the culture and tradition of the Akure people assumed on the matter.

    It is neither my intention to re-open issues nor to answer some of the questions that have been posed. But suffice it to say that at the centre of disagreement seems to be leadership and sundry fees at the Mojere market. The alleged disrespect is a fall-out of this misunderstanding. I have devoted this column today for some of the views of my readers. Please read on!

    You are entitled to your opinion. Have you forgotten the era of Jonathan when it was said that Lagos is no man’s land during the election period. Then, the Oba of Lagos was provoked. Which other tribe can try that in Igbo states? Ndigbo must stop it now. Nobody has monopoly of rascality. Don’t take Yoruba for a ride again. It will be resisted at all costs. 08094763002.

    I am surprised that you did not add in your write-up that Akure and indeed Ondo is no man’s land, the traditional refrain of the Igbo with which they insult their host communities wherever they go. But I want to remind you that other tribes in Nigeria live in Ondo peacefully without rancour. Why can’t the Igbo call themselves to order? Instead you are helping them to stoke the embers of disharmony to further provoke hostility with your pedestrian narrative. Very disappointing of you as a platform writer! From Dele Ogundele –Lagos

    You confirmed you do not have the details of the genesis of the disagreement between the Igbo and Deji, yet you went ahead to insinuate unfair treatment of the Igbo. The fact is that no one can expel any one from anywhere but everyone should conform to the rules and regulations of where one finds himself. If Eze Ndigbo is unable to control his people, he should be removed and replaced. 08033001942.

    In as much as your write-up is close to being objective, what the Igbo are doing in other clime can never be tolerated in Igbo land. The title of Eze Ndigbo outside Igbo land is an aberration. It should be dropped and condemned by all right thinking individuals devoid of ethnic consideration. 09036991185.

    There is nothing absolutely wrong with the Igbo having Eze outside Igbo land. The Igbo people should have (Ezes) outside Igbo land. Why should one million Igbo outside Igbo land not have an Eze? Who mandated the sending of the 10-man committee to Lagos? Were the Igbo asked about it? If those Eze at home really care about Igbo people, they would not have engaged in the dance of shame. From Reginald Ekeanyanwu.

    The last sentence of the second to-the-last paragraph cannot be right. We still read about persons in the Igbo speaking states who were banished from their own villages/communities for running foul of their culture and tradition. The Yoruba revere their Oba. Yes you are free to live anywhere in Nigeria. However, it behoves on us to recognize the original settlers/indigenes of those areas-their culture and tradition so as to promote peaceful co-existence. As visitors and migrants, we should not ride roughshod over issues people hold dear. Nation building and integration have remained a mirage if not, why do we take our notable dead back home for burial? 08034726625.

    What is your take on the Eze Ndigbo title holder telling the Deji that he cannot prostrate to greet him because he too is a king? He disrespected our king. From Seyi A. 08106140234.

    Your write-up is punchy, direct and well balanced. May this country never know civil war again! From Charles Emmanuel, Lagos.

    The simple answer to your argument is to ask you to name any Yoruba crown Oba in the eastern or northern part of this country. All you can get is the chairman/president of Yoruba residing in those places. It is an indisputable fact that out of the three major tribes in the so-called unity in diversity, the Yoruba is the most liberal and accommodating and this is the cause of her ordeal in the hands of others. If it is true that we are one entity, let us all imbibe the principle of do unto others as you would expect others to do unto you. From B I. Aguda Iloro-Ekiti.

    Good article but wrong conclusion. Why is it that the Igbo are the only people in Nigeria who feel that they are foreigners in their own country? Nigeria has been more than fair to the Igbo. Igbo should learn how to show respect to their hosts. Igbo should learn how to respect our culture in Yoruba land. They should learn to behave like Romans when they are in Rome. From Tola Mayomi.

    I think you got it all wrong. He issue is about culture and not that of indigene/foreigner. I lived in the East for 18 years and as a Yoruba man I dared not break kola nut while in the midst of Igbo elders even though I am an elder. It is the culture of the people and I respected that. The Igbo do not have a culture of kingship, we Yoruba people do. Why then should they come to Yoruba land with a strong kinship? What an insult and what an abomination? That is the issue. 07036869868.

    Check and cross check your facts before publication. There was never a time we were threatened with expulsion from Akure. Can a Sarikin Hause in Onitsha, Enugu or Umuahia put on beaded crown in any of those towns? Please advise the so-called Eze Ndigbo to adhere to the directive of the Ohaneze by adopting the title of Onyendu Ndigbo. In any case, the various president generals of Ndigbo in the various states outside Igbo land are enough as paramount Igbo leaders. From Dike

    I would start by commending your attempt at disabusing the minds of the people on the baseless allegation of disrespect and insubordination to the Deji of Akure land by the Eze Ndigbo, Gregory Iloehika and the abuse of Yoruba culture and tradition by the Igbo in Akure. I marvel at your sense of judgment because even though you did not and still do not have detailed facts on what actually happened, you have been able to at least, use your common sense in arriving at your opinion on the issue. If I may ask, how do we justify the decision of the Deji that only Akure indigenes will occupy the post of chairman in the Mojere spare parts market irrespective of the preferences of the traders? How does the rejection by the Igbo traders of the demand for the payment of N50,000 fee for any new apprentice mean disrespect to the tradition and culture of the Akure people? From Secretary Igbo community.

    The new Oba should not hide under other excuses to show his hatred for the Igbo. What offence did the Igbo commit for their leaders to be beaten up and disgraced in his palace under his eyes? The Ezeigbo was crowned in the same palace for the Igbo by the former Deji of Akure. Why the actions of the new Deji if not personal hatred for the Igbo?  Please let us call him to order. From Engr. Maduka, Igbo Political Union, Warri. .

    You are as guilty as the Deji. Which resources do you have in Igbo land that is not in Akure? 08033227983.

  • Lame

    Lame

    Among his many acts of notoriety in recent memory, Nyesom Wike’s more memorable absurdity concerned the judiciary. Not the recent shellacking from the tribunal at the weekend. Of course, it was a major one as it signals the beginning of the end of an infamy.

    The story concerns a visit to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He was not an august visitor, and very curiously he kept it a secret that he was not welcome into that majestic vault of justice. But as things sometimes happen in the comic flow of Nigerian politics, it burst into the open air.

    His excuse? That he wanted to pay a visit to the supreme man of law in the country without any form of notification. This column lashed out at him, and noted that he lacked the wisdom, savoir-faire and temperament to be governor.

    He knew he had a case in court. His so-called election as governor was under adjudication by officers under the control of the man. Yet he tried to sneak a visit on him.

    A man who did not understand the obstacle of conflict of interest in such high office as governor was a small foot in a large shoe. But how could we blame him? Under his former boss and President Goodluck Jonathan, he wrote the script of recklessness. He was in cahoots with Mama Peace to turn the state into a classic swath of anarchy, undermining the governor, supporting gangsters, whipping up tribal antipathy and stoking the flames of blood and death.

    When April 11 came, this column knew that it was going to be a difficult proposition to witness an election. A nightmarish parody of it alone stood tall in the imagination of expectation.

    Barely four hours into the polls, I placed calls to persons I knew lived in town, some journalists and others conscientious observers. “This is not an election,” said one of them in horror. “It is war.” “I have never seen anything like this in my life,” said another. “How did Nigeria turn this way?” asked a third.

    The facts were confirmed by many news reports. Yet, when the Independent National Electoral Commission amassed its data, it affirmed Wike as governor. That was the tragedy of it. The law, as we know it, allowed Attahiru Jega to declare as legitimate what was palpably evil. The devil wore the toga of saint and the heavens said amen.

    For all his heroics and defiance of the Jonathan crowd, Jega actually presided over a flawed system. It is a pity that he appended his signature to the bloodstained victories. He pled helplessness. He could not contradict the resident electoral officers or their subordinates.

    But as a moral being, I expect him to have raised a righteous voice over the permissiveness of our law. He should have told us that the law has made many saints devil and vice versa. He should have explained his constraints. He should have come out as an exemplar of complaint about a law that sanctified the wrong while the right sulked in silence. He had often said the right thing was to go to tribunals. We experienced this during the Anambra State governorship poll. If he kept mute in office, he should have screamed out of it.

    It left all those who know the truth to wonder aloud in a parody of Shylock in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, “Is that the law?”

    It took the court, not the electoral process, to tell the truth about Wike and his false victory. Meanwhile Wike had taken over office and inaugurated a regime of revanchism. He wanted Amaechi’s head. He had to dig up something, set up a committee, rile his predecessor with whom he was friend and partner, and on whose back he rose and the same back he stabbed.

    Knowing that Amaechi no longer had immunity, Wike launched an attack of impunity with a view to unearthing impurity. Whose impurity? Wike’s or Amaechi’s? The goal was to anoint himself and send Amaechi to hell. Hell also meant he would not be minister. Well, he has stumbled twice. Within a week, he has failed to win in legislature and judiciary. Amaechi’s ministerial screening is going well in the Senate and Wike just lost his gubernatorial dreams in the court. That means he may be kicked out of the executive soon. Montesquieu’s theory of separation of powers seems to be on song. The three branches seem to be working in partnership to decouple Wike and his wiles from the seat of power.

    A few fireworks rang through the media waves in the wake of the tribunal verdict. Wike is appealing, and he would fight the battle to the end. So he now knows the value of rule of law. He should have asked his supporters to do so on April 11, and the result, whichever way it went, would have been clear to all. “To obey is better than sacrifice,” said the good book. We have gone through a lot of sacrifice to get here. Many have died, confidence in our system shaken, lots of resources splurged that should go to somewhere else.

    It seemed victory is about to repeat itself. In the case of Amaechi, one Owu chief said his case had K-leg. I think citizens with knocked knee are good looking and they should have caviled at the man for a slur about their physical condition. Any way, justice and law loved the lineament of K-leg and it won the beauty contest. Hence Amaechi became governor.

    Peterside Dakaku, the APC candidate, may well be the second coming of the beauty contest. He has won round won. Once the bikini contest is over, we shall know that both contestants have nothing to hide from the crowns of their heads to the soles of their feet. And the winner will waltz gracefully to the crown.

    It may then be a sort of invocation of the title of one of the great works of short fiction by Flannery O’connor: “The lame shall enter first.” First can be defined in two ways. It could mean the lame shall enter first before the whole enters. Which means the moral lameness of Wike enters first, so a whole Dakuku’s whole enters later. The first, as Christ said, shall be the last. The second interpretation may be the lame shall enter first, meaning the top position. The lame here could stand for the oppressed in the same the way OBJ described Amaechi’s K-leg. In either case, it’s Dakuku’s hope. So will Wike cope?

  • Deji, Afenifere and Ndigbo Akure

    Igbo traders in Akure, Ondo State capital shut their shops a couple of days ago to protest alleged moves by the Deji of Akure, Oba Aladetoyinbo Aladelusi to dethrone the Eze Ndigbo of Akure, Sir Gregory Iloehika.  They were also piqued by alleged threats from the Oba to expel them from the ancient city.

    Reports had it that Iloehika had gone to the Oba’s palace with some of his chiefs to honour his (Oba’s invitation) only to be attacked on arrival by some youths who removed his crown, tore his dress and were about to manhandle him further but for the intervention of policemen.

    Initial reports were hazy on the cause of the disagreement. But there were insinuations that the Oba had accused the Eze Ndigbo of insubordination and disrespect to the tradition and culture of the land.

    However, the Oba came out days later through the Asamo of Akure land, Rotimi Olusanya to provide some insight into the episode. He accused the Igbo of violating the tradition and culture of the land; insubordination and disrespect to him.

    He further alleged that Igbo traders at the Moferere market recently contravened the rules guiding the market and that the Eze Ndigbo refused to carry out his order to eject illegal traders from the market. He equally made reference to the embarrassment the Eze Ndigbo caused him and his cabinet during his last visit.  But the clarification did not provide the needed evidence of what constituted the acts of embarrassment by his invitees especially given their allegation that their leader was attacked and disgraced at the palace.

    We needed to know what really happened when the Eze Ndigbo and some of his chiefs arrived at the palace. Given the issues that have been canvassed, the Oba ought to have come public with details of aspects of their conduct that constituted disrespect and insubordination to his throne? The inability to give a comprehensive account of all there is to the issue did not help matters especially in view of its sensitivity.

    For now, it is difficult to fathom any concrete evidence of insubordination and disrespect for the culture and tradition of the Akure people as alleged. The only discernable clue may be found in the refusal of the Eze Ndigbo to expel illegal traders (whatever that means) from the Moferere market. How that would warrant all the incendiary allegations, threat to dethrone and sack Igbo residents in Akure remains largely curious.

    It would appear the controversy is an administrative matter undeserving of the threats and bad blood it has generated. It concerns the source of livelihood of some people. Even as the details of the alleged illegality of the traders remain cloudy, its handling would ordinarily require some caution. It is an issue all those concerned should sit down and trash out taking into account the peculiarity of the situation.

    The Igbo people in Akure have said they respect the culture and tradition of their hosts and there is for now, no evidence to controvert that. There is also no reason why they should not obey the culture and tradition of their hosts. Neither the alleged existence of illegal traders at the Moferere market nor the refusal or inability of the Eze Ndigbo to eject them would suffice as blatant evidence of insubordination and disrespect for the culture and tradition of the Akure people.

    Again, even if there were actions or lack of it on the part of Iloehika that offended the Oba, it was unfair to lump all Igbo residents together and accuse them of blanket malfeasance with threats of expulsion. Good a thing, Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko has waded into the matter with a view to resolving it amicably.

    But the intervention of Mimiko and a statement from the Afenifere Renewal Group seem to have opened the lid to the crux of the disagreement. The conditions given by the Oba for the resolution of the matter which required Iloehika to drop the title of Eze Ndigbo in addition to not wearing the crown appear to be the main issue.

    The Afenifere corroborated this when it denounced what it called an “unrelenting desecration of Yoruba culture by Igbo communities’ obsession with having a crown king in Yoruba domain”. They consider it an expansionist agenda that connotes territorial influence and ownership. The group alleged that in Akure, the Eze Ndigbo believes that he has powers to invest people with chieftaincy titles that are traditional to Yoruba kingship system.

    Perhaps, these are some of the issues that have not gone down well with the Oba. If that is the connotation the Eze Ndigbo title conveys within Yoruba land, their worries can be understood. But such conclusion is faulted by the position of the South-East Council of Traditional Rulers on the matter.

    Not long ago, a 10-man delegation of the council led by its chairman, Eze Cletus Ilomuanya visited Oba Rilwan Akiolu of Lagos and urged him and the state government to disregard those who parade themselves as Eze Ndigbo because it is an abuse of the culture and tradition of the Igbo people. They made it clear that the “Eze Ndigbo title was a corruption of the Eze-ship system in Igboland” and those parading themselves as so outside Igboland are “unknown by the Igbo in the locality they reside and not chosen and recognized by anybody”.

    Given the above, Afenifere’s interpretation of the import and connotation of the Eze Ndigbo title was highly exaggerated and therefore guilty of the fallacy of hasty generalization. Those so addressed were at no time enthroned by an assemblage of the Igbo in the localities they reside. So the issue of territorial expansionism and ownership do not have any foundation. Not even when the council of traditional rulers has been having a running battle with those who parade such titles.

    Those that accord them recognition for some expediency should share vicarious responsibility in the matter. Igbo people know their leaders outside their ancestral homes. And such leaders have nothing to do with the Eze Ndigbo title. It is therefore wrong to conclude that those who go by that title do so at the behest of the Igbo for influence and expansion. Ironically, such warped profiling accounts for the quick resort to hold all Igbo residents liable for errors of omission or commission by the so-called Eze Ndigbo title holders.

    The Akure incident brings to the fore all that is wrong with the Nigerian state. Threats to expels non-indigenes at every slight disagreement, is at the root of the subsisting difficulties in nation-building. The impression that those living outside their ancestral homes are being done a favour by their hosts is a patently misplaced one. They live there as a matter of right and not at the whims and caprices of the natives. They are bona fide members of this unity in diversity that appropriates resources from one part of the country to develop others.

    If those from whose backyard much of the resources for the development of the less advantaged parts of the country are fetched, have not claimed exclusive rights, why should the rights of citizens to reside in any part of the country be an issue? It is wrong to seek to abridge or threaten that right under any guise including such issues as disobedience to culture, tradition and insubordination.

    Of course, there are laws, rules and regulations guiding organized conduct to which all are expected to abide. But recurring reminders to citizens that they are foreigners in their own country, will for a long time continue to impair efforts at nation-building and integration. It may turn out the greatest undoing of this country.

  • A dishonour to Crowther at home

    It is two years since the Bishop Ajayi Crowther Diocese in Iseyin, Oyo State, organised a fundraiser on October 26, 2013, for the completion of a new church building for the Bishop Ajayi Crowther Memorial Anglican Church in Osoogun, the birthplace of the illustrious 19th century cleric who in 1864 was ordained as the first African bishop of the Anglican Church at a ceremony in England. It is a testimony to Crowther’s quality that in the same year he was also given a Doctorate of Divinity by the prestigious University of Oxford.

    It was in Osoogun, in present-day Iseyin Local Government, Oyo State, that his life began as well as the story of his life.  It was in his village, Osoogun, that Fulani slave raiders seized him in 1821. He was eventually sold to Portuguese slave traders at the age of 12. The young Ajayi of Yoruba ancestry was rescued by the British navy and taken to Freetown, Sierra Leone.

    Crowther later described his initial enslavement as “the unhappy, but which I am now taught in other respects to call blessed day, which I shall never forget in my life.” In his progression to priestly prominence, he took an unlikely path carved by unlikely destiny helpers. For him, slavery turned out to be a springboard to celebrity.

    In Osoogun, there stands a storied tree. It is said that Crowther and other captives were tied to this tree before they were sold into slavery.  Nearby, there are ruins of a place said to be Crowther’s home, where he was enslaved. There is no architecture in the ruins. A signpost said to have been erected by the Iseyin L. G. to indicate touristic intentions, has no visible inscription.  Crowther’s statue stands in an open space at the centre of the village. Approaching Osoogun, the sight and state of a secondary school named Bishop Ajayi Crowther Memorial High School, signified official neglect.

    Osoogun looked abandoned on October 3, when I attended a Thanksgiving/Holy Communion Service in the village to mark Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther Day Celebration 2015. In particular, the new church building, which was started in 1992, and the reason for the October 2013 fundraiser, looked like an abandoned project.

    The special service took place at the church, which is still under construction more than two decades after construction commenced. To paint a picture of the unpicturesque church building, or more specifically, the church building in progress, or in the process of progress, it is sufficient to say that the structure is a dishonour to Crowther.  The building lacked a roof, doors and windows; and palm fronds were used to cover areas of congregational presence. It was unbelievable that building a decent new church to honour Crowther could be so difficult. The old church, built between 1958 and 1960, is in a dishonourable state.

    The 2013 fundraiser had a target of N10 million, which may be inadequate today. Whatever is adequate for completing the new Bishop Ajayi Crowther Memorial Anglican Church, Osoogun, can be conveniently provided by, for instance, the Oyo State Government, the Iseyin L. G., telecom players MTN and Airtel whose giant masts tower above the village, and the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, which has declared October 3 as an annual Crowther Remembrance Day. For how much longer will the special day be celebrated in such undignified circumstances right in Crowther’s hometown?

    Crowther’s stature was strikingly defined by a  June 30 ‘thanksgiving and repentance service’ in England, where none other than the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, publicly expressed remorse for the sin against him.   Welby is the most important leader of the Church of England and the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion. His apology on behalf of the Anglican Church was a testimony to institutional regret.

    The Church of England demonstrated a capacity for self-examination and re-examination that deserves attention. The historic admission of guilt highlighted the long history of racism and the scope of racially inspired but misguided chauvinism. It was also a lesson in injustice of a colonial colour.

    Welby’s words concerning Crowther, who is regarded as the father of Anglicanism in Nigeria: “We in the Church of England need to say sorry that someone was properly and rightly consecrated Bishop and then betrayed and let down and undermined. It was wrong.”  He also said in his sermon: “In spite of immense hardship and despite the racism of many whites, he evangelised so effectively that he was eventually ordained Bishop, over much protest. He led his missionary diocese brilliantly, but was in the end falsely accused and had to resign, not long before his death.” It is relevant to observe that Crowther died of a stroke in Lagos in 1891, which was possibly connected with his desolation.

    It is noteworthy that Welby said: “We are sorry for his suffering at the hands of Anglicans in this country. Learning from their foolishness and from his heroism, we seek to be a church that does not again exclude those whom God is calling. We seek new apostles, and the grace to recognise them when they come.”

    Crowther, described as “extraordinary”, played an undeniably effective role in evangelism in the early days of Christianity in Nigeria. “Today, well over 70 million Christians in Nigeria are his spiritual heirs,” Welby said in tribute to his pioneering efforts.

    Crowther’s achievements are remarkable, considering his unremarkable beginnings. Following his conversion to Christianity and his baptism in 1825, he adopted the name of a visible British clergyman of the Anglican Church Missionary Society (CMS). He studied in England and attended the Fourah Bay College, Sierra Leone, where he advanced his exceptional interest in languages, which became of immense use in evangelism.  Crowther made history when he was ordained as the first African bishop of the Anglican Church.

    To his credit, Crowther’s language skills produced the first Yoruba translation of the Bible, which was completed in the 1880s, and a Yoruba version of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. These projects illustrate how seriously Crowther took his Christianity. He also produced primers for the Igbo language and the Nupe language.

    Something should be done without delay by those who have power and resources to ensure the completion of the monument to Crowther in Osoogun. It is good for Crowther’s name.

  • Haba Papa!

    Haba Papa!

    He was the chief of chiefs. He was the father of the president, the maritime titan. Many called him leader. His mouth was fiery, his clothes colourful, his frown sometimes an earthquake, his presence imperial. He preened in his octogenarian noon.

    Legend had it that if Edwin Kiagbodo Clark could not open an access for you to former President Goodluck Jonathan, then good luck to you. The Ijaw adored him. Among Southsouth politicians, he was not just first among equals, he personified the roost. He almost rose to the deck of deity among his adorers. Once I wrote an unflattering column on him and condemned those who called him elder. A prominent Nigerian called to caution me for insulting their elder. I replied that E.K. Clark was not my elder. That ended the conversation.

    I wonder what kind of elder they would call him today. He came out in true colours barely a week ago. He came down on Jonathan. He said he was too weak, could not fight corruption, and his menial staff had waxed rich. They now live in mansions.

    Haba Papa! It means he had been lying to Nigerians. He had been a man without a sense of consistency. An elder of pirouettes, a volte-face father. He spoke without shame. He was a parody of an elder. He is a perfect example of how not to be an elder.

    We have known elders in history. They tend to carry themselves as moral exemplars. Nelson Mandela grew to become an elder. He died in a flush of awe. Nyerere was another. He has soared into myth today among Tanzanians. We had Awo here in Nigeria. He patented the genius of governance. He has many sons without blood ties. Recently Gamaliel Onosode died. He was called Mr. Integrity for his moral grandeur. We have some elders around. One of them is Chief Emeka Anyaoku, former Commonwealth boss. Clark cannot drink from the same moral cup as these men.

    When Goodluck Jonathan’s name was advanced by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, haba Papa! Clark was front and centre with his voice of dissent. Ango Abdullahi referred to it in an advertorial. He wondered why Jonathan rallied behind the Otuoke mouse. Was he not the person who roared that Jonathan could not make the first 11 of the Niger Delta? And he was right then. Why did Haba Papa! Clark not stick to his convictions then? Maybe he was not convinced, and that accounted for cocking his gun in defence of the man he once spat out like an uncooked yam in the village.

    He found his latent Ijaw and Niger Delta voice once the late President Yar’adua fell into the shadow of death. He became a tribal warrior and defender of the minority rights. Suddenly Haba Papa! followed his spouse to the labour room and, voila, a child was born. Or shall I say, a son was given. He became a new father; not just that. He became the father of the king. “My son,” he bellowed with gusto in reference to the new president. Phony as it sounded, all Jonathan votaries did not raise any sense of objection.

    The rise of Jonathan was a phony moment of our history. Many were dazed into following him. They knew little about him. They loved him when he conned all with his supine look. He beguiled Christians with meekness and entrapped ethnic warlords with his appeal to his place of birth and nurture.

    Haba Papa! Clark saw his role. He grabbed it like vice. Jonathan embraced him. He displaced the Owu chief. Jonathan the snake knew the man did not love him. But politics is not about love. He needed him. They needed each other like pigs in a sty. Henry David Thoreau, the American essayist, once wrote that he was not a joiner. “Joiners are like pigs who come together in a sty in order to feel warm,” he said. So Jonathan and Haba Papa! Clark were not birds of a feather, but they came from the same tree.

    “My son” became “my lie.” But before the lie, he festooned himself in public. He was the leader of the Southern minority politicians because of Jonathan. Many Southsouth and Southeast leaders grovelled before him because of Jonathan. He became a baiter of the North because of Jonathan. He became a major force beyond Delta State politics because of Jonathan.

    He appeared on television at that time more than any time in his ‘illustrious’ life during Jonathan’s era. Liars called him statesman.

    Now Jonathan has receded into yesterday’s man, he no longer calls him son. German man of letters Friedrich von Schiller once wrote: “It is not flesh and blood, but the heart that makes us father and son.” It was not heart but politics that made Jonathan the son of Haba Papa! Clark.

    He knew he was weak, why did he not say so then? In his recent statement, he did not even say that he advised him. He is now wise after the fact, or after defeat. He knew many people filled their nests with ill-gotten wealth, what did he tell Jonathan then? After glowing in the man’s sunshine, he now stands tiptoe at dusk over his ruins. This is nothing but harlotry. It is no model of leadership or example of fatherhood.

    Fathers pass blessings to their sons in old age, or curse. We know the story of Jacob and Esau. Clark is turning Jonathan into his Esau after eating his meal. The meal here refers to the privilege as an insider in his government, his trust. We can’t compare him with the story of Elijah and the 42 children who laughed at an elder man with bald head. Jonathan did not curse Clark. He respected the old man, so why has he unleashed the bears at the Otuoke son?

    They had good times once. Jonathan gave a lot to him in respect and privilege. He gave back then by supporting him as a father would. “When a father gives to his son, both laugh,” wrote Shakespeare. “When a son gives to his father, both cry.” Both cry because the father is gaining from his sweat. It is a cry of joy. I am sure today’s is a cry of regret from Jonathan. Haba Papa Clark used him and left him for the dogs.

    It is a lesson in politics. You cannot trust the young or the old. Politics is about betrayal. Not even the hoary can be saints. He has disavowed PDP. He knows no one will give any influence in APC, so he says he has retired. If Buhari were young like Jonathan, he would call him his son again. A father with fertility for sons. Maybe very soon, he will call him my younger brother up North. But he won’t. The joke will be on him.

  • And the nurse died!

    I was in the office of one of the mobile telephone providers last Tuesday to recharge my modem when the phone of the officer attending to me rang. When she picked the call, I noticed a quick change in her countenance. Then I heard her exclaim – Fourth Avenue and bank robbery. From her responses, it became obvious that something sinister had happened. I then began to figure out which part of Lagos is numbered in the form of second, third and fourth avenues etc. Before I could reach a conclusion, she had ended the conversation.

    Then looking at those seated before her, she said a very serious robbery involving two banks had just taken place within the FESTAC area. Surprisingly, the customer seated next to me corroborated the story with his own chilling account of the escapades of the daring armed robbers.  He said scores of heavily armed robbers dressed in both military and police uniforms invaded the banks and were about to attack the third one when they aborted the plan apparently after receiving some signals.

    He said the robbers shot sporadically in all directions and operated for more than one hour without challenge from the law enforcement agencies. But he was quick to add that there was not much the police could do in the circumstance given the numerical strength of the robbers and their sophistication in arms. To this, one then quipped that there are other strategies open to the law enforcement agencies if they discovered they could not confront the robbers head on for one reason or the other. All seemed to have agreed on this point. We shall return to it shortly.

    When we enquired whether there were casualties, the responses we got were not certain. However, before we left that office, there seemed to have been a consensus that these dare-devil robberies are getting out of control and something urgent and radical has to be done before they reduce Lagos to the Hobbesian state of nature- where life will at once become nasty, short and brutish.

    Throughout the rest of the day, there were varying accounts of the incident with much of the blame heaped at the doorsteps of the police for their seeming helplessness while the attack lasted. But full details of the encounter which were carried by the media did not differ substantially. Part of those details was the killing of a nurse Mrs. Jane Ndirika, and her 14-month old daughter, Mmesoma.

    Reports had it that Jane and her daughter were in their apartment in an adjoining building when bullets fired by the bandits in a staccato fashion hit them. The woman was said to have taken cover in her apartment when the shooting became very unbearable but had to rise on her feet when her daughter in the room began to wail apparently because of the menacing sounds of the robbers’ gun power.

    As she collected her daughter and made for the parlour, she was hit by bullets which eventually killed both of them. There were other unconfirmed reports of casualties but the brutal murder of the Ndirika’s right inside their house was the most chilling and devastating. Their situation was worsened when help did not come on time. Those who dared to venture, kept off for fear of being killed by the robbers who were in action for a very long time. By the time they concluded their evil mission, the woman had lost so much blood and died before help could come. What a pity!

    We have since learnt from the police that they confronted the bandits and recovered N27 million which the robbers abandoned while fleeing. The police said without their intervention, the casualty figure would have been higher, apparently to correct the impression that they did nothing while the broad day robbery lasted. They have also promised to adopt eclectic strategies to apprehend the bandits.

    There are other constructs by the police as to their efforts to confront the robbers. We have heard that they contacted both the Air Force and the Navy without getting assistance for one excuse or the other. Neither of the two agencies has joined issues with the police.

    They are entitled to their views. But the value of their intervention was mortally diminished by the long period the bandits operated without any visible challenge. It raises issues as to the options they should have availed while the operation lasted irrespective of the numerical strength and sophistication in armament of the robbers.

    One had thought the first response of the police would have been to cordon off all escape routes and wait to confront the bandits after the operation. Nothing of sort appeared to have happened. The fact that they came through a canal does not reduce the potency of this strategy. Even then, it speaks a lot to the intelligence gathering capacity of our security architecture that as much as 40 people dressed in both police and military uniforms could alight from the canal on boats in broad daylight, without information filtering to the relevant law enforcement operatives.

    No doubt, our law enforcement agencies must have been rattled by the relative ease and impunity with which the robbers operated leaving in their trail, the snuffing out prematurely, of the lives of Nurse Ndirika and her daughter. They have promised to fish the criminals out. We have heard of forensic and other approaches to apprehend the robbers. These could as well be.

    But as we await the outcome of these promises, it may be pertinent to ask why the police never deemed it expedient to activate its helicopters in serious emergencies as this. What of the armoured personnel carriers that are stationed in strategic locations within the city? Why was no effort made to call them into action in a very critical moment the attack represented? This is more so given the emerging trend in armed robbery operations in the city in the last couple of months.

    Before the latest incident, there have been three instances of robbers and kidnappers attacking their victims and escaping through the canals. In three of these instances, banks were their victims. It happened in Lekki, Ikorodu and now FESTAC. Before the latest incident, a senior editor’s home was attacked and his wife abducted by the criminals within the Amuwo-Odofin area. The bandits also came from the canal and when it pleased them to release their captive they dropped her off through the same channel.

    There is therefore an emerging trend in armed robbery in Lagos which our law enforcement agencies must urgently study and evolve counter strategies for. Robbers’ preference for canals or waterways may be an indication of the level of success reached in crime-fighting by our law enforcement agencies on land.

    But a very effective and proactive force would have by now, taken copious notice of the shift in strategy after the three other incidents. This did not seem to have happened as events in the latest robbery clearly indicate. It is not just enough for the police to promise that the culprits will be captured. Since they have admitted that the last attack bore the imprints of similar ones before it, they should put on their thinking caps and evolve counter strategies to make future attacks a very risky enterprise.

    They could as well anticipate and prepare for air confrontation as the robbers may take resort to the air when their success ratio through canals and waterways would have been considerably diminished. In all, we must prepare for the rising sophistication in violent crimes in this country. This way, innocent citizens will be saved the unfortunate fate of Jane and her daughter. May their souls rest in peace!

  • Uncultured power corrupts culture

    By his intense intervention in the controversy relating to control of the Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding (CBCIU), Osogbo, the Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, demonstrated cultural progressivism, distinct from but connected with his political role.

    Through an October 11 statement that reportedly bore his personal signature, Aregbesola communicated cultural intelligence that was both correct and corrective. It was an official response to Nobelist Wole Soyinka who had announced his resignation as Chairman of the CBCIU’s Board of Trustees. It also mirrored Aregbesola’s interior.

    Aregbsola said: “In the interest of the public and the culture of our race to which Soyinka is passionately committed, he must continue in his capacity as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Centre. Yes, Wole Soyinka has resigned but he himself has conceded the fact that the governor must accept it. We cannot accept the resignation even though we hold him in high esteem, because of the responsibilities attached to his chairmanship of CBCIU, which is beyond him and even beyond us.”

    He stressed: “It has to do with the culture and tradition of our race which we believe that the CBCIU is meant to preserve and promote…We call on all people of goodwill to prevail on Prof Wole Soyinka to kindly reconsider his position and avail us his world acclaimed knowledge, intellect, international network and commitment to black culture and civilisation,”

    There is no question about Soyinka’s exceptional creative capacity and cultural quality. In a specific and striking instance of his inspirational importance, when Boko Haram terrorists seized over 200 schoolgirls at the Girls Senior Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, on April 15 last year, the evil coincided with a timely three-day academic conference inspired by Soyinka.  The All-Comers Colloquium on Fundamental Imperatives of Cohabitation: Faith and Secularism, organised by the Soyinka-led CBCIU, in collaboration with The State Government of Osun, took place at the centre’s Auditorium, Abere, Osogbo in Osun State.

    The conveners said the colloquium was “organised against the background of perceived religious war by Boko Haram and tension in some states, for example Osun, where religious differences are being exploited to cause trouble.”  Soyinka, however, emphasised that the event should not be seen as just a direct reaction to the Boko Haram terror campaign which has escalated in the northeastern part of the country since 2009.  “The conference has been conceived in many minds for decades in the face of rising problems,” he said.  In his opening day speech, Soyinka had pointed out that “we cannot underestimate the religious inspiration”, suggesting that religious adherents could go to unimaginable lengths to further their cause.  Soyinka was proved right following the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls by the Islamist terrorists.

    This background has relevance to the current dispute over control of CBCIU, particularly because of Soyinka’s observation in another context at the colloquium. Focused on faith-based extremism, perhaps with his eyes on extremities in general, he noted: “The mind is where it started and ultimately the mind is where this disease will be cured.”

    To appreciate how a disease of the mind, or a diseased mind, might be a factor in the CBCIU drama, it is useful to reflect on an informative narrative by a former governor of Osun State, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, who has gone to court to seek validation of his claim to the position of CBCIU’s board chairman.

    A revealing report of a press conference organised by Oyinlola, in Okuku, Osun State, said: “According to Mr. Oyinlola, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization in 2007 took a decision to establish a Category Two Institute (on culture) in Africa, which, it noted, would be the first of its kind on the continent. “A number of countries in Africa showed interest. Nigeria was one of them,” Mr. Oyinlola said.  “To strengthen Nigeria’s bid for the institute, the presidency decided to acquire archival materials of renowned culture icon, Prof Ulli Beier and sent then minister of culture, Professor Babalola Borishade, to Sydney, Australia, to seal a deal with him on the matter. However, Beier gave two conditions which he said must be met before he would grant the request of Nigeria. These two conditions are, one, the institute must be sited in Osogbo where he lived and around where majority of the materials were gathered over the decades he was here.”

    Oyinlola continued: “The second condition was on who would preside over the board of trustees of the centre. Beier told the Federal Government delegation that he did not know the minister who visited, the same with the president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, but that he knew Oba Moses Oyinlola, the father of the then governor of Osun State, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola. He then demanded that an agreement must be reached that Oyinlola would be the chairman of the board of the centre in his personal capacity ostensibly to ensure the protection of his vision on the archival materials. The Federal Government agreed to the two terms and signed an agreement with Ulli and Georgina Beier on May 10, 2007. It was after this that the Federal Government contacted and informed me of the agreement.”

    The following sequence of events speaks volumes about the power of the mind and the exercise the mind in power: In 2008, as governor of Osun State, Oyinlola signed into law the CBCIU Act which stipulated that he would be the Chairman of the Board for life. Four years later, with Aregbesola in the saddle as governor, the Osun State House of Assembly amended the law to state that the Chairman of the Board shall be “the Governor or anyone appointed by him for that purpose.”  Governor Aregbesola appointed Soyinka as Chairman of the Board in August 2012.

    In the first place, what was on Oyinlola’s gubernatorial mind when he endorsed a law that would make him a permanent chairman of a public institution, considering the impermanence of public office?  In the second place, what was on Oyinlola’s mind when he took the matter to court, considering the competence of the House of Assembly to effect legislative amendments?

    When cultural thinking is informed by uncultured thoughts, or when cultured thoughts don’t inform cultural thinking, it is easy for the powerful to fall into error based on confusion.  According to Aregbesola in his statement, “The issue here is not difficult at all.” He is probably correct.  All it requires is the conjuncture of cultural thinking and cultured thinking.

  • Gentlemen can’t conquer corruption

    When official corruption becomes fashionable, that is a corruption of fashion. It is a fashion that should be made unfashionable. Corruption-related news here and there not only illustrates the fashion of corruption but also the failure of containment.

    Understandably, the corruption-related spotlight on former Petroleum Resources Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke, which was activated in London, caused a sensation that is continuing sensationally. Yesterday’s powerful woman remains free, but her freedom is chained. Against the backdrop of ongoing investigation of her corruption status, she reportedly cannot leave the UK based on judicial restriction.

    Perhaps also understandable is a defensive familial statement, on October 8, by Oscar M. Onwudiwe, on behalf of the Agama and Madueke families. The statement said: “It is worth emphasising that Mrs. Alison-Madueke was never arrested or detained and her passport was never seized. She was merely invited, and she honoured it promptly.”  Of course, euphemism is allowed in such a defensive situation, even when the euphemistic is not euphonistic.

    The statement’s apparent clarification of Alison-Madueke’s health status is not just of particular interest; it is of public interest. It said: “Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke has been receiving treatment for cancer in the UK which started while she was in office. The health crisis has unfortunately exacerbated in recent times. She completed months of chemotherapy just last week and she is scheduled to undergo surgery next week in London.”

    This information should silence those who alleged that the poor woman was on the run, and had run away to the UK to escape a probe at home. But her cancer status must not arrest investigation of her corruption status.

    Cancer seems a penetrating metaphor for the operation of official corruption in Nigeria’s corridors of power.  The devastating potency of the disease and its destructive metastasis make it a vivid image of the power of corruption among the powerful. Literally and figuratively speaking, if corruption doesn’t kill the corrupt and the corrupted, they are unlikely to kill corruption.

    The idea that corruption can be seen as a cancer spreading among the country’s power elite is perhaps reinforced by a publicised 88-page petition to the Senate against a high-profile ministerial nominee, former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi.  The petition, aimed at rubbishing Amaechi’s nomination and stopping his confirmation, came from a Non-Governmental Organisation, “The Integrity Group,” based in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

    It is striking that the petition’s title is corruption-related: “Petition against ministerial nominee: Chibuke Rotimi Amaechi: Demand to withdraw and reject his nomination and appointment on grounds of corruption, criminal breach of trust, unlawful enrichment and conversion of over N70 billion Rivers peoples’ monies by the former governor of Rivers State.”

    On the surface, this move to discredit Amaechi may be politically inspired, considering the continuing conflict between the All Progressives Congress (APC), his party, and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the state’s ruling party. But beneath the surface, and beyond the surface, there may be dirt. In other words, the anti-Amaechi petition may not necessarily be anti-corruption, but that is not to say it is merely a tool to corrupt Amaechi’s screening for ministerial office.

    Essentially, these narratives concerning Alison-Madueke and Amaechi, irrespective of their innocence or guilt, show that the possibility of corruption transcends political complexion.

    How President Muhammadu Buhari will confront corruption is critical to the future of corruption. There is no question that a confrontational spearhead is compulsory for the conquest of corruption. Interestingly, a corroboration of this necessity came from an unlikely figure when Ijaw leader Chief Edwin Clark hosted the Think Nigeria First Initiative Group at his Asokoro home in Abuja. Clark spoke about the anti-corruption failure of former President Goodluck Jonathan, whose leadership he had supported unapologetically. Clark reportedly said: “Jonathan is a gentleman. He is too gentle. Drivers under his administration are now living in palatial buildings. In advanced countries, when you are living above your means, people will query you. This is not so in Nigeria…Jonathan meant well for this country, but the willpower to fight corruption was not there…Being a gentleman is not enough to govern this country.”

    For the avoidance of distraction, Clark’s message deserves public attention more than the confusion of the messenger. It is unclear whether Clark’s revealing portraiture is a revelation he has just had. It is also unclear whether Clark’s clarity is connected with the new period of political change and the fierce anti-corruption position of the Buhari administration.

    However, it is clear enough that the country has been corrupted by a chain of corruption-friendly governments and sponsors of corruption-friendly governance. Some months before Jonathan was dumped by the electorate in March, he identified what he described as “two main problems confronting us as a nation.”  It was at a special New Year service at the Dunamis International Gospel Centre, Abuja. According to Jonathan, “There are two main problems confronting us as a nation: The issue of insecurity in the North where we have the Boko Haram terrorists and in the South where we have commercial kidnapping. The next thing that people worry about after security is the issue of corruption.”

    Jonathan had boasted: “We are coming out with programmes and plans to clean up.” He was quoted as saying: “These are things you just don’t use a magical wand to wave off; otherwise even before I became President, there wouldn’t have been corruption in Nigeria.”

    It would appear that the country, contrary to Jonathan’s reasoning, is in dire need of a magic wand that is magical enough to correct the corrupt condition of corruption. Perhaps even more than a magic wand, the country deserves a magician of wonders. The mentality of a magician is absolutely necessary because a magic wand without a magician with a solid determination to use it to achieve magical results is ultimately of no use.

  • The alpha city

    The alpha city

    The soldiers came; the hoodlums retreated. Okada riders and keke napep shrank their geography of commerce. This happened in Ikorodu a few days ago, and it emphasises the unease by both residents and the Lagos State governor over the serial reports of daredevilry in the city.

    But the military intervention in Ikorodu came only a week after Governor Akinwunmi Ambode told some editors how he dared one night into an abandoned building in the Falomo area and found many city never-do-wells within its cosy walls. They had turned the place to a cell to lay eggs of mischief and lay their heads. The miscreants infested the hideouts with assortment of weapons, drugs, etc.

    Ikorodu and Falomo inhabit antipodal universes. Falomo lies in the Ikoyi heartland where the well-heeled plume. Ikorodu, for most part, belongs to the low rung of the social ladder.

    Yet, the criminals have managed to find peace and fertility in both places, indicating they are like the wind. They are everywhere.

    On security, there is also the startling statistic in Lagos. The government will use 30,000 policemen to watch over the lives and safety of 20 million people.

    Hence in more muted tones, the governor had had to speak about partnership with Abuja.

    But this is not a matter of safety alone. Traffic chaos riled the city dwellers and paralysed activities. It compelled the governor to experiment with the rule to keep the trailers out of sight in daylight. The trailers, unhinged and menacing, had tipped over quite a few times, crushing cars and lapping off lives.  But the Apapa-Oshodi gridlock that spills over to other parts of the city has been a hobgoblin government after government has had to contend with.

    What this tells us is that the status of Lagos as Nigeria’s special city ought to go beyond rhetoric.

    The use of soldiers has revealed the inadequacy of the police as a force to tackle Lagos. It means we have to recruit more of them. But more importantly, it reactivates the debate about state police. If the constitution empowers states to form their own police, Governor Ambode will not look to Abuja for soldiers since it does not have enough to go round. The deployment of soldiers also reflects a nationwide emergency on security.

    Today, soldiers operate in the Northeast to mow down Boko Haram; in the Niger Delta as counterpoise to militants; in the Southeast over kidnapping, among others. Now, they are going to be in Lagos for a while.

    Lagos is Nigeria’s special city because it hosts its bread and butter. The young and restless come here. The business opportunities whirl in its bosom. It is so partly because of the general failure of the democratic experiment so far to provide what many call the dividends of democracy: Food, shelter, healthcare, security, jobs. Philosophers call it the good life. Only few states give its residents what Lagos gives Lagosians.

    So, Lagos is not just a city, it is the cot of its citizens. Here everyone wants to grow up and then graduate into a room with a view in the mansion.  Former Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) often noted that people came to Lagos everyday to live. Governor Ambode told editors that recent reports show that more people have thronged the city never to return in the past few months than any time in its history.

    It mounts pressure on infrastructure, health care and, of course, security.

    In every developed country, the major city is a treasure. Not more in this regard than New York or London. Like Lagos, New York sprang from a humble coastal town. Like Lagos, New York is babel of many languages and ethnic backgrounds. Like Lagos, New York has battled with the paradox of infrastructure and population density. That explains why it is regarded as the immigration hub of the country. It is often the nest of crime, machine politics and social inequality. In his book, The Affluent Society, John Kenneth Galbraith lamented a city where skyscrapers looked down over potholes. It is the sort of inequality that informed the writing of about the greatest book on the subject by the French economist Thomas Piketty titled, Capital in the 21st Century.  Unlike other states in the United States, New York has a special tax relationship with the centre. It keeps 83 cents from every dollar it makes. It enjoys that privilege because it has the top two richest districts in the country and political donors bloom its suburbs.

    President Buhari’s approval of soldiers to help douse crime in the city must be commended. But the traffic snarl must also be treated with urgency. Traffic chaos fuels deviant havens. When traffic flows, the hoodlums lose opportunities. The Oshodi-Apapa gridlock arises from infrastructure deficit, and it is because a road connecting the place to the trailer parks remains undone. Once that is out of the way, the conversation will begin. We can then visit the larger issue of rail transportation that gives something close to a silver bullet.

  • Kalu for FIFA president!

    Kalu for FIFA president!

    I have always tried to restrain from writing on Orji Kalu, a former Abia State governor. But who can ignore his laughable new ambition. He wants to be FIFA boss. I laugh even as I pen these words. What struck me first was a conversation he had with editors when somebody asked him about his educational qualifications.  “We are talking about forwarding Abia to all forwardness,” he said with a flourish, “and you are talking about cerfiticate (sic).” Is this the sort of literacy you want for Nigeria? Nada. In local parlance, we should say he has committed foul, or “fa-fa-fa foul!!”

    Not long ago, he embarked on a nationwide trip from state to state, visiting governors. It was more of ego trip. He was jobless and bored, although boorish. He was, however, not boring because of his disastrous elocution and capacity to amuse after he had left the scene of his performance. Never mind that he writes a column. I would want him to write that column in public, so we can know if he is capable of the literacy he poses.

    Only a Kalu could have encouraged a headline last Saturday saying that Asiwaju Tinubu was under surveillance for a plot against Buhari. Publishers like him make editors look unprofessional. The story did not pass Journalism 101 test. If there was surveillance, what was the nature? The man was not even around? Two, if there was a plot, what was the nature of the plot, to overthrow him as President – which is treason; or to unseat him in APC? When a man does not know the difference between verb and noun, how can he become a good boss of world football? How can he distinguish score as verb and as noun? No one will vote him boss of Southeast soccer. It is enough that Ochendo has made him a mouse in Abia State, so he dreams to be an elephant of world football. What megalomania!