The Nation Newspaper

Category: Monday

A sense of legacy

Not long ago, the nation witnessed a case of self-accounting. Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi sought the permission of the state House of Assembly to draw on the state’s savings. The state had reeled in the past year. The Federal Government had cut its monthly allocation by several billions, and its oil-rich fable had faded away.

Civil servants, teachers, and ambitious projects creaked desperately from neglect. He had to do something. Banks no longer obliged, so the road was shut to loans. Even the Federal Government had given a directive that banks should clear any state loans with the finance minister. The banks, run by timid souls, know the directive as illegal but they bow. They know it defiles banking independence and federalist principles, but they bow.

Amaechi’s vision had, however, bought his independence. He did not need to go to Jonathan with a beggar’s bowl. He did not need to cajole the cowardly consciences of the bank chief executives. When he became governor, the state rustled with money. He admitted that palmy days were not forever. He had a balmy thought – to prepare for the rainy day. He did not expect misery to howl in the now, in his era as governor. He looked at a generation away. In his lens, he saw an era looming with empty oil wells and emaciated purses, when oil would no longer be the queen of resources.

He had enough to work with, and so he chastened the spendthrift temptation of the day and kept at least a billion a month in the bank.

Well, the rainy day came sooner than anticipated. His vision marked the difference between he who sees and he who looks. Amaechi saw, even when the Federal Government had turned the nation’s reserve into a bleeding mule, thinning from $68 billion to $37 billion. Rivers State can chew its cud while others cuddle with anxiety.

What Governor Amaechi has done is the difference between a great leader and the routine man in the saddle. The Amaechi story is important because he is the chief shepherd of Rivers State, and that state is one of the pivotal entities in our federation. It is the beacon of the East, while Lagos holds the West and Kano the North. For a nation that relies on oil, Port Harcourt is the capital of oil. So, Rivers State is one of the states in the federation to watch as the present governor takes a back seat and a new one emerges.

We need a governor with the same – if not better – sort of energy and organisational acumen as well as vision to pilot the state.

Much has happened under the watch of the man who was once deprived of his right to the saddle. The Owu chief had a lifetime ago described with scorn his claim to the governor chair. He said his case had “K leg.” The cripple now walks with swagger. But the Rivers State he took over comes to memory, among others, as a state no one wanted to visit. I remember walking the street once and everyone in Port Harcourt had to raise their hands to indicate they had no guns. The air bristled with martial portent. Expatriates no longer loved the Garden City. Oil money became crude because safety was better.

Amaechi became governor without access even to the rudiment of a governor’s safety. He reached to his colleague, the ebullient Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State, to help him with security vehicles. Yet, it was Amaechi that drove the militants out of town and anyone can walk the entrails of the Garden City with hands in the pocket.

The job of any government is to eliminate poverty. In this society, the urban centres reflect the ugliness of class divide. The rich mock the poor with their extravagant decadence of cars, palaces, parties, private jets and boats. To bring the society into a place of fairness, we have often wanted governments to take infrastructure development and education seriously.

None of our literary lights has in the picturesque skill of the realist painted the Nigerian poverty. Not Achebe, not Soyinka, not Clark. When Dickens wrote his Bleak House, David Copperfield, especially Oliver Twist, the Prime Minister was worried and asked him if his characters really lived in London. The graphic tales of inequality permeate the narratives of Jane Austen, and Balzac told tales of the depredations of the post-Napoleon and the new industrial societies on the ordinary folks. No one can forget Balzac’s Old Goriot. We have not seen the tragi-comic spectacle of the disabled embarking on a parade known as the feast of fools as graphically set in Victor Hugo’s The Hunch Back of Notre Dame.

If our literature focuses generally on post-colonial anomie, it is probably time to tell specific stories of beggary and inequality. Right now it is newspaper reporters who bear that heroic task. But a great novel or play can immortalise this chasm between rich and poor. Festus Iyayi’s stories work as themes but not as artifice.

Rivers State is one of such states where the governor has made efforts to address the inequalities. We know that governance is a continuum. His education programme, for instance, in which secondary schools look like some of our universities in ambience, facilities, teachers and architecture, require sustenance. It is not enough to have them. It is important to see them as a way of life, not privilege for a time. My former teacher, Prof. Biodun Jeyifo, wrote in his column how he visited the model schools and one of the teachers made a darkly funny observation. She said although the children in the schools were from poor parents, their parents were not interested in their education.

An oil-rich state with so much inequality where the lazy and criminal live in plenty while industrious persons beg from them. The result is cynicism about education, which is a slow grind to light. Why wait for a nine-month pregnancy if you can induce the baby in nine days? That is the warped logic of oil in today’s Nigeria.

So while Amaechi has built a solid foundation in education and infrastructure and health care, the state ought not be allowed to fall into the wrong hands. If his successor does not understand the dynamics of governance and only eyes the opportunity to be a fat-cat chief executive presiding over thin and miserable citizens, it will be tragic. It is very easy to reverse the work of a visionary. As they say, a good success depends on a good successor.

It is going to be a slugfest between the urbane Peterside Dakuku and the PDP nominee to be decided Monday. Rivers State voters must guard jealously the legacy of Amaechi. If they vote the wrong person, they will see before their eyes the loss of what they have taken for granted. Rivers State is not only important to the people of Rivers State, just as Lagos State is not only important to Lagosians. Whoever takes charge of Lagos, Rivers or Kano holds a huge chunk of our patrimony in trust. But it begins with the people and their votes.

December 8, 2014
Again on State of Emergency

When President Jonathan declared a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states in May last year, he had justified that decision on the overriding need to decisively quell the rebellion of the insurgents. Security agencies involved in the operations were ordered to “take all necessary action, within the ambit of their rules of engagement to put an end to the impunity of the insurgents and terrorists”.

Jonathan said the actions of the insurgents amounted to a declaration of war and a deliberate attempt to undermine the authority of the Nigerian state and threaten its territorial integrity.

Then, many of those who had been fed up with the recalcitrance and murderous impunity of the insurgents had wanted full-scale state of emergency such that would involve the dissolution of all democratic structures in the three states. For such category of people, the measure fell short of actions needed to bring the insurgency to a conclusive end.

Apparently, Jonathan had avoided that option to stave off the obvious political motive that was bound to be ascribed to it. Many had hoped that the measure would decisively tame the monster and return peace to the three troubled states in no distant time.

But this has not been quick in coming as many intervening variables brought in a lot of complications into the battle. Matters were not helped by the renewed escapades and sophistication in the operations of the insurgents such that have questioned the value and continued relevance of the state of emergency measure. With the complications in the activities of the insurgents and the inability of our security agencies to end the rebellion, the president has had to approach the national assembly twice for a further extension of the measure. Though the second request was very contentions as it was debated by the National Assembly, it was eventually approved.

The second extension expired last month and not much has changed. Jonathan has approached the assembly for the third time for a further extension. This time around, the request has run into troubled waters. Those opposed to further extension contend that if previous ones failed to achieve the desired objective, it is needless approving another one. They further argue that there are enough provisions in the constitution for the deployment of troops to troubled areas which the president should take advantage of to deal with the situation. These views cannot be discounted.

For now, the House of Representatives has spurned the request. But the Senate acted differently by inviting security chiefs to brief it on the desirability and continued relevance of a further extension. After grilling the security chiefs for about eight hours, the senate through its committee chairman on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe said security heads insisted further extension was necessary for a quick resolution of the insurgency in the affected states. He said the interactions were frank and detailed as they looked into the constraints of the military in dealing with the insurgency and also their budgetary provisions.

Abaribe said the senate was “very impressed with the response from the military and the military has shown itself to be capable of dealing with the insurgency”. The senate also found out there were some problems which had to do with troop levels and the level of equipment as well as other ancillary problems of fighting an asymmetrical warfare as opposed to a conventional one.

It is clear from the impressions of the senators that they are very sympathetic to the case of the security heads. Abaribe gave this conclusion out when he said the senate will do all within its powers to support the Nigerian military bring this insurgency to a quick resolution. It is not expected to do less. But he was quick to add that the question of state of emergency was not tabled at that meeting.

The senate acted very responsibly by engaging the security heads on this very sensitive matter. The security of a nation especially one faced with the onslaught of religious insurgents must be considered with utmost sense of responsibility. This is more so with the daring moves of the insurgents to take over as many villages as possible in the affected states.

It is true the government has not been very decisive in confronting this uprising. It is also no less correct that fighting an asymmetrical war can be that difficult. There are equally challenges arising from the fact that this is the first time our military are coming to terms with fighting terrorism. There are therefore bound to be some teething problems. These can be admitted.

It would appear mistakes were made in handling the phenomenon at its initial stages. Jonathan was not properly guided by allowing the matter fester and degenerate. Obasanjo made this point then when he recommended his draconian approach to the killing of policemen in Odi, Bayelsa State to Jonathan though he later prevaricated on the matter. But his message was clear. Events seem to have borne it out.

If Jonathan had decisively crushed that rebellion then, he would have saved himself and the nation the trouble of these endless requests for state of emergency extension. But we have gone beyond these now. The issue is what to make of the request before the National Assembly for a further extension. The military heads who interfaced with the senate said they needed the extension to bring a quick resolution to the insurgency. Fine! But what do they really mean by a quick resolution within that time frame? Does it mean within the period, they would definitely conclude the war against the insurgents? If that is the case, what is there that has changed between now and the time the previous approval subsisted that makes them feel this way?

We may not have answers to these posers as they are serious security issues the public cannot be let into. But they should serve as serious challenge to the military if and when the National Assembly approves the request for further extension.

The poser is whether the National Assembly should approve the request or not given the issues that have been canvassed? There are two options: approve or disapprove. Decision theorists are concerned with the rational choice open to the National Assembly especially now the military heads said they need the extension to conclude the war. If the extension is granted, chances are the military could conclude the war within the time frame. If on the other hand they are denied approval, there is every thing to suggest that the war may have no end.

Rational calculations demand that the choice available to the National Assembly is to approve the request for further extension despite whatever reservations there are. It also instructs we minimize our losses in the event of the worst outcome. The nation will lose nothing by further extension. But it stands to lose immeasurably if extension is denied and the war degenerates. It is in the overriding national interest that the military should be given all the powers they need to protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country. Anything less, is an obvious invitation to anarchy.

December 1, 2014
A president and hunter

The one is a dame of power, rides a private jet, looks silky and satiny, has bold and imperious eyes, defies the National Assembly, presides over the nation’s pot, speaks in public with bored and superior look, craves accolades and pooh-poohs the critic, rose steeply from a mocked minister to an Amazon of influence. Some despise her, some others fear her, some others adore her, but most admire her without liking her. Recently, she became a president and popped champagne.

The other has rural air. She is not a dame but she wields a Dane gun. She hunts rabbits and antelopes. She is charming without the effluvia of glamour. She cannot speak good English. She knows no fear, is indifferent to her influence, owns neither car nor jet, craves no air-conditioners or the glitz of accolades. She probably does not pop champagne, which might be a bibulous appetite and impious. But she pops guns. Recently, she – and her peers – shot Boko Haram out of town.

The one is our Oil Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, who recently gained world attention as the first female President of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries known as OPEC. The other gives her name simply as Ladi, and she was one of the few female hunters who wove a heroic skein when they shot Boko Haram out of some northeastern towns. The routed Islamists had turned the places, including Mubi, into redoubts.

Both are women, both are doing significant things, but one is heroic and the other is living a life of dubious glamour.

Few Nigerians are paying great attention to the stories of the young women like Ladi who are fighting for the survival of this country. Rather the front-page stories are bedecking the exploits of an oil minister who becomes a president and the first female one at that. She deserves the post not from personal distinction but from the accidental distinction that Nigeria is a major oil-producing country. Never mind that her ways are turning Nigeria gradually into a beggar nation and straightened agonies.

But Ladi bests Allison-Madueke. Ladi has put her life on the line. In a lucid report of the New Telegraph of Sunday November 23 by correspondent Ibrahim Abdul, the young woman of about 20 years of age defies the insurgents. She says: “Boko Haram’s days are numbered… we are ready to fight them.”

She flashes her Dane gun, unfazed by the tanks and modernity of Boko Haram’s armoury. “We know they are using sophisticated weapons but that will not deter us from facing them squarely,” she intoned. She dares the insurgents unlike our fleeing soldiers. She is evidence of the lines of poet and novelist Alyxandra Harvey who wrote, “If we act like a prey, they’ll act like predators.” She knows she is no prey.

While Ladi does exploits, some young women are doing harm. A picture of a female bomber ran viral on the Internet recently. She destroyed herself and others in a recent explosion in Niger State. Her face was beatific, but beneath the quiet repose dangled raw and charred remains of her full body. She believed, but killed. Ladi believes in the integrity of Nigeria. She flays the Federal Government for not doing enough to mow down the goons of faith.

Ladi, like other volunteers like the Civilian JTF, has mobilised the young against the spirit of surrender in Abuja. The civilian JTF exposed female partisans of Boko Haram who disguised as regular women in purdah.

But Madueke rides higher praise from an undiscerning nation. She is presiding over the best and worst times in Nigerian history. On her watch, oil price soared to over $110 per barrel. But our OPEC princess has reigned over an opaque accounting. Though awash in money, all economic indices turned upside down. Unemployment has jumped, and this is creating a ticking youth time bomb. A central bank boss charged that about $50 billion was missing. The outcry matched the outrage, but not the response from government. Her colleague, the finance minister, said it was far less – about $10 billion. For over six months since the scandal broke, no clear public accounting for the about $10 billion the government admits is missing.

The nation’s reserve has dropped from over $68 billion to about $37 billion on her watch as minister. The Federal Government cannot pay the states their share of revenue each month, driving them to stop many government projects and default on financial commitments, including to their civil servants. The finance minister says the nation is not broke, but the nation keeps borrowing. Now, the price of oil has fallen steeply to less than $80 dollars per barrel. The naira, which stood quaveringly at about N140 per dollar a few years ago, is about N180 today. Madueke claims that theft has depleted our oil but she and her government cannot hold to account the militants they paid billions to guard the oil pipelines.

The NNPC that supervises oil in the country has acted above the law, thanks to her. When the legislators summon her, she recoils with patrician disdain and does not show up. She even shunned the House of Representatives when she was summoned to answer questions on why she spent about N2 billion on private jet travels. Nigerians do not know how much we earn from oil, and when they give us a figure, we do the math and it does not add up to what we get in real terms. When the price of oil was over $110 and the budget benchmark was $78, we still could not pay our bills. Madueke has not accounted why NNPC cannot pay in spite of all we sell.

For all these, she becomes president of OPEC, and we congratulate her for what? For ruining our oil industry and economy? She and her Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, who covers for her and never holds her to account as the bread winner.

We should celebrate Ladi instead. She is a warrior and a patriot, in the same tradition of female warriors in African history like Aminatu of Zazzau, who conquered territories. Or Oya, Sango’s consort, whose eminence struck fear to the extent that legend said she created hurricanes and tornadoes. Have we not heard of Yaa Asentawaa who fought the war of the golden stool? In ancient Dahomey Kingdom, female warriors known as Ahosi or king’s wives made mincemeat of its neighbours. There are great women and there are femme fatales. The great women cannot be ignored. We know of the imperious infamy of Jezebel, or the manipulative cruelties of Cleopatra. But who could beat the savage subtleties Livia’s genius. She was the wife of Emperor Augustus and, from the shadows, dictated the lives and deaths, the rising and falling of many in Rome. Few writers have documented Livia’s tyrannies like novelist Robert Graves in his book, I Claudius.

But of course we had the moral beacons of Margaret Ekpo, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, Joan of Arc, The Egyptian Nefertiti and a host of others.

Ladi and her fellow hunters may not rise to the high horses of these mythical women, but they can aspire, even if they are not literate enough to know about them. Oya did not go school.

The likes of Ladi beat the militants with a hunter’s arms and heart. Her style is a recipe for Nigeria’s success: No frills, no corruption, fiery patriotism, faith in fellow hunters, heroics without seeking monetary rewards. She was not a beneficiary of the oil money that fueled the one trillion-Naira-a-year defence budget in the past three years. Yet we cannot give our soldiers sophisticated firepower to tame the insurgents. But Ladi wins with Dane guns. Her triumphal soldiery mocks our fabled trillions and the false swagger of our first female OPEC president.

December 1, 2014
Beyond the cancer ward

For Nobelist Wole Soyinka, who turned 80 on July 13, it would appear that the best birthday gift of all came three months later on October 28 when, according to him, he finished taking treatment for prostate cancer, which was diagnosed in December last year, some six months to the elaborate celebration of the milestone. What could be greater than the gift of life? It is noteworthy and ironic that at the time of the grand ceremonies that marked his 80th birthday, the colossus of letters was actually benefiting from medical intervention to keep him alive and possibly prolong his life, which may not necessarily mean the same thing.

Interestingly, the dramatic dimension was unmistakable when Soyinka took the stage on November 24 in a rare publicisation of his private life. The June 12 Cultural Centre, Kuto, Abeokuta, Ogun State, where he spoke at a press conference, became not only a platform for communication but also a place for clarification. At the forum suggestively tagged “Beyond Ebola and Beyond reign of the Silent Killer,” Soyinka said: “Let me emphasise this, like many of you know, I am a very private person, I believe there are certain territories of individuals that should be private to them and their families. It is only when it is public interest that you probe into people’s health.”

This background set the stage for Soyinka’s public-interest move, which is what his self-disclosure ultimately represented. He said with an arresting candour: “For me, it is not a decision that I am happy with, but I felt I have an obligation being a member of the Africa Cancer Centre and also having donated during the festival of fundraising for cancer. I felt I owe people an obligation to make it known and also to demystify cancer. Many people feel it is a death sentence. Family, friends and colleagues begin to look at you as if you were a ghost, just because you have cancer.” Soyinka continued: “No, cancer is not a death sentence. It is curable and I have undergone treatment and I am able to tell you that I even have a medal to show for it.”

Undoubtedly, Soyinka’s impressive celebrity status as an illustrious Nigerian playwright and poet, and the first black African Nobel Laureate in Literature, gave his message of hope an enduring appeal. He deserves an ovation for sacrificing his deeply felt need for privacy in order to satisfy an equally intense appreciation of the public need for cancer awareness and enlightenment. He said: “Everything is fine and I want to use myself to encourage others to take whatever test available to you in our little circumstances here, but more importantly, to encourage those who are in charge of health matters to take seriously the cancer menace, which many and I call the silent killer.”

In a profound sense, by speaking out in this context Soyinka effectively introduced another angle to his well-known and widely acknowledged activism. Indeed, his performance could be interpreted as another far-reaching instance of his courageous interventions in the country’s trajectory. In particular, it is a testimony to his fighting instinct and his progressive voice that he seized the opportunity to characteristically speak truth to power. It is thought-provoking that Soyinka said:”The important thing is that I am convinced that we have enough funds in this nation to build cancer centres, including research that this country requires.” It could be argued, without any fear of contradiction, that Soyinka was speaking the mind of many of his compatriots.

It is instructive that, to buttress his point, he added: “One of the major reasons why I have decided to make this appeal is that I happen to know that money was budgeted and approved for the cancer centre in 2011. I want to make a personal appeal that this money should be released. Not all of us can gallivant everywhere where we can stop over and have the necessary treatment. But we should have diagnostic centres everywhere where elementary treatment can be given to patients.”

Tragically, Soyinka’s observation and appeal further highlighted the country’s poverty of leadership and its regrettably disastrous implications. The country’s oil wealth, which should be a blessing, is being sadly and unpardonably exploited by a self-centred corrupt circle in the corridor of power for the enrichment of the pockets of its members and to the detriment of the people.

If any proof was needed that nauseatingly visionless and obscenely crooked leadership is a major factor responsible for the country’s arrested development, it was strikingly supplied by Prof. Olufemi Williams, the chief promoter of the Africa Cancer Centre, who reportedly said, “We have been at it since 2005.” The picture he painted of the forces of backwardness that have held up the realisation of the project is worthy of contemplation. Williams said: “It took two years to design, and another two years to get the then Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, to have him to sign it. I know they have tried to set up a centre, which never worked. That is why I took the advocacy to the Senate. But at the end, Chukwu said because he was not carried along, he would not release the money under his ministry.”

He continued the story of unbelievable abuse of power: “That is why I will say that our democracy has not matured; a democracy in which elected people approved a budget, following my presentation at the Senate. It has never happened before. You know what it is like to get into the Senate and present an individual budget. I did and elected people put it in the budget and the president signed it into law and yet, a minister, who was selected by the president, decided to withhold it. And I tried everything, even went to him. And he said ‘Why don’t you go and sit down and send younger people to me.’ That is the situation we have in Nigeria.” Wow!

Against this background, Soyinka’s plea for the release of the N400 million allegedly approved and budgeted as seed fund for the cancer centre project may fall on deaf ears, which would be a further confirmation of unconscionably bad governance.

December 1, 2014
Between Jonathan and Fayose

If one reads from outside the country the escapades of the Nigerian president and governor of Ekiti State, it would be tempting to say both men did not go to school. They have not heard of the word democracy, or were not instructed about the phrase the rule of law. That would mean they are illiterates.

But if one were illiterate and learned that these persons could speak English, one may conclude that they were not raised in environments that respected decency of the simple folks. In Niger Delta where the President hails from, the word decency is commonplace. The fisherman did not poison the pond for his fellow, neither did the farmer sully the soil for his neighbour who lived by subduing the earth. By being custodians of the earth, we are engineers of the community’s soul.

In Yorubaland where Fayose has lived and moved and had his being all his life, the familiar word is omoluabi. That word is a counterfoil to the human tendency to indecency, hubris and savagery. Both words imply a sense of civic decorum.

Tragically both men went to school, and both men have certificates to flaunt their scholarships. So if they are not illiterates, the real illiterates would wonder whether they grew up in the ambience of the African virtue.

They did not show this last week. In Ekiti, seven lacked the Yoruba etiquette of omoluabi when they, in kangaroo-style, took over the House of Assembly with the stolid backing of the police, to dislodge the Speaker and install one of them. This incident was taking place while in Abuja, the police were barring the Speaker from gaining access to the premises of the National Assembly. In both cases, the police were the barbarian at the gate.

We can say both men are stark illiterates but they are educated illiterates. Novelist Tolstoy made a distinction between those who went to school and who benefitted. He mounted the campaign to educate the educated. That refers to Jonathan and Fayose. They are leaders in desperate need of enlightenment. They are at the head of a barbarian horde in the name of democracy.

But what sort of brute is our President turning into? He flexes muscles where there is no fight. He shrinks at the sound and smoke of gunpowder. When Tompolo and his men threatened him in Delta State, he winced and meowed like a new-born cat. After boasting at Eagle Square his intent to declare open the Export Processing Zone in Itsekiriland in Ogidigben, he froze in Aso Rock where he said, in his serpentine way, that he had nothing against the Itsekiri. Boko Haram was pounding our soldiers out of territories and hunters fighting back to victories. But he was cutting a flimsy birthday cake among his fawning followers. It was like Nero fiddling while Rome burned, or Gowon’s lavish wedding while his soldiers died in Biafra.

That was not enough when he unleashed the secret service with soldiers on the opposition party, the APC, in Lagos, vandalising computers, molesting the workers and arresting them. All without any warrant.

This was the President who, a few years ago, lamented that Nigerians wanted him to be a Pharaoh. Well, he is no longer the meek President that his quiet deception of mien portrayed. He is the meek serpent. Blessed are the meek for they shall destroy the democracy. I still want to know if Fayose and Jonathan agreed, or it is the barbarian impulse of the tyrant in both men to act on the same day. I will not say it is a PDP thing because I know there are decent persons in that party.

When the President shed tears over the Pharaoh allegation, he said he wanted to build institutions. How do you build institutions by ordering your security operatives to unleash terror? If the President and his advisers do not know this, institutions are not built by angels that fall down from heaven. Humans do it, and they do it with a sense of fairness and integrity.

All the successful countries in the world rely on selfless personages to build institutions. An example is that of the Roman general known as Cincinnatus. He was asked to lead with absolute powers when barbarians invaded the empire. He led his country to victory, and within two weeks, he relinquished his post. He retired to his farm. We thought we could have the same when the military relinquished power on its own in 1979. But the civilians who took over turned themselves under Shehu Shagari into a sort of military with the backing of the army. They failed to build institutions. Rather they started to hound the opposition. This compelled Chief Obafemi Awolowo to make a lone cry in the wilderness. He warned that the Shagari-led NPN was taking the country to the democratic despotism of the early 1960’s when opponents were hounded and pounded. They even buoyed the barbarities with a law known as the preventive detention act. It allowed them to harass and arrest opponents with impunity. That republic fell not long after. The Jonathan case is even worse. He is doing his without any law, no matter how primitive. This President said, wearing a colourful agbada on his birthday that he did not believe in the politics of do-or- die. Really? What did his men do in Lagos, Ekiti and Abuja? Let him stop deceiving Nigerians that he is meek. We have a dictator in our hands, who wants to win the elections next year even if it means by undemocratic means. We are already seeing this. He is not interested in building any institutions. The Roman leader Cincinnatus was the model for the first President of the United States, George Washington. He led the army to independence. After victory, he relinquished control and allowed the other statesmen to hold congresses on how to run the new nation. When the electors picked him as the first President, he was reluctant. Even at that, he worked against moves to make him a monarch or life President. He is often called a modern Cincinnatus, and the city of Cincinnati in Ohio was named in his honour and the Roman general’s. Selfless acts like that of Washington helped to build American institutions because the man built a template for selfless service. When a Fayose would subvert maths and make minority into majority and Jonathan subvert decency and stop the Speaker access to chamber to discus his own bill, we know we have the frontal abuse of democracy. The bill was to discuss the emergency, yet it was used as a ploy to play politics. It means politics of personal grudge is more important to Dr. Jonathan than the lives of Nigerians in peril in northern Nigerian. Jonathan may be the President but the presidency is not Jonathan’s. He is President but not presidential. He will be one when he decides not to install his ego but build systems, beginning with the rule of law.

Soyinka, Lagos Ibadan Expressway, et al

I was in Abeokuta last Saturday to attend the Ake Arts and Books Festival, and had two observations. One, I took the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, and I missed a good part of the event because of the interminable traffic jam. I told myself, this is an expressway but cars are moving like snails. I wonder what Jonathan and his men are doing on that road. Somebody was to deliver an item to me from Ibadan last week, and he was stuck in traffic for hours. This is unacceptable in Nigeria’s busiest route.
My other observation was at the event itself. Soyinka fielded questions from a variety of youths who filled the hall at the refurbished Cultural Centre in Abeokuta. The youths impressed with their knowledge not only of Soyinka the man, activist and writer, but contemporary Nigeria. Soyinka of course answered the questions with characteristic verve, depth and cutting humour. I am glad I was educated by the sense that this is not a generation lost to Yahoo shenanigans. It vitiated my frustration that even though I was about the first to raise my hand to ask the Nobel laureate a question, they preferred youngsters. Not to worry. It was a great outing.

November 24, 2014
‘Do you want to go back to the old ways?’

Two days to the November 26 date for “Screening and Appeals” in connection with presidential hopefuls in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it is beyond question that the scheduled exercise would be a non-event. Predictably, it may well be a day for further merriment among the stage managers, in celebration of a programmed outcome.

Such a conclusion reasonably follows from the reality that President Goodluck Jonathan is, by the look of things, the party’s recognised sole presidential aspirant and its arrowhead in the 2015 general elections. Indeed, perhaps it is unrealistic to refer to Jonathan as just an aspirant in the sense of someone seeking endorsement by his party, because he already enjoys the image of a chosen election candidate on account of the accepted exclusivity.

For the purpose of clarity, it is worth mentioning that Jonathan’s aspiration has enjoyed institutional protection and promotion to the disadvantage of any other person who might have been nursing a presidential dream on the party’s platform. He acknowledged this possibly unfair advantage in his November 11 Declaration Speech at the Eagle Square in Abuja. Jonathan said: “I am overwhelmed by the trust, confidence and support of the various organs of our party, the Board of Trustees, the National Caucus, the National Executive Committee, the National Working Committee, the PDP Governors Forum, members of the PDP Caucuses of the National Assembly, and others.” Interestingly, this suspiciously choreographed backing not only effectively foreclosed the conventional presidential primary to choose a candidate; it also makes nonsense of the publicised screening date.

Upon reflection, Jonathan’s stunning stage management may qualify as arguably the most systematically planned and methodically controlled pursuit of power in the country’s history of democratic politics, which should not necessarily be seen in constructive terms. He apparently got carried away when he said at the declaration ceremony: “So many things have inspired me in the journey to this moment. I want to appreciate ordinary Nigerians, especially young people, for the solidarity shown to me by contributing their meagre resources to enable me arrive at this point. I appreciate the kind gesture of the Cattle Breeders Union, Miyetti Allah, and the Market Women Association, who encouraged me by coming together to contribute to the purchase of my Nomination form. In the same vein, I am touched by the National Association of Widows who also encouraged me with their widow’s mite.” It is a testimony to his script writing skill that his party’s November 15 date for “Return of Forms” by presidential aspirants was exclusively for him because everyone else was denied access to the relevant form. Against this background, it is food for thought that, by fixing a date for a so-called presidential screening, the party is trying to give the wrong impression that it had not already approved Jonathan’s candidacy. Now, why would the party apparently consider it important to project an appearance of propriety when it has all along been a model of subversion?

To think the unthinkable, is it possible that Jonathan could fail at this screening stage? Doesn’t having the prior backing of the party’s most influential organs and decision makers suggest that the advertised screening may be nothing but a smokescreen? In the event that Jonathan is unsuccessful at the screening show, he has a chance to appeal on the same date. What if the appeal fails? Of course, this is an unlikely scenario, not to say an impossible one. Remember, Jonathan is the one and only aspirant.

Who would be surprised if, at the party’s December 10-11 “National Convention” where its presidential candidate is expected to formally emerge, Jonathan is officially given the ticket as if he had not always had it? Who is fooling whom? This is an inevitable question for both the puppeteer and the puppets. It would be intriguing to hear Jonathan’s speech at his party’s national convention, after the perfection of the execution of the mind-blowing plot. It would be equally interesting to observe the response by party members to his address.

Birds of a feather flock together, they say; and this should largely explain Jonathan’s strikingly stage-managed emergence as PDP’s presidential candidate in the coming elections. It is a tale that has further exposed not only the party’s fundamentally flawed character but also its flawless darkness.

It is worth mentioning that Jonathan said he “accepted to re-present” himself for re-election as president “after seeking the face of God, in quiet reflection with my family and having listened to the call of our people nationwide to run.” The speech itself had a theatrical quality, quite distinct from the dramatic aspects of the delivery. In particular, Jonathan’s adoption of striking performance techniques, specifically, repetition and refrain, deserves serious reflection.

At some point in his speech, Jonathan repetitively employed a rhetorical question: “Do you want to go back to the old ways?” This was a tellingly appropriate question, and its import was apparently lost on Jonathan himself. Ironically and amusingly, he may not appreciate that he represents “the old ways”, meaning that to re-elect him would amount to a perpetuation of the same condemnable old ways. It is worrying that this truth possibly eluded him; it is even more unsettling that perhaps he simply ignored the unmistakable and undeniable reality.

Thankfully, Jonathan also introduced a refrain that provided an answer. “We cannot go back to the old ways!” he repeated a number of times. Similarly, it would appear that he missed the significance of his own line. In a profound sense, it could be interpreted as an unwitting admission of the failure of his administration and a suggestion of removal.

Probably for effect, Jonathan added: “We have to move forward! Only forward!! My dear people, Forward!!!” The people should be thankful not only for his rare realisation of the way to go, but also for its public verbalisation. Could this mean that Jonathan has finally seen the light and recognised that he is standing in the dark? Does he grasp the fundamental implication that in order “to move forward’, the people would need to dump him?

November 24, 2014
Okonjo-Iweala’s austerity measures

Fiscal policies to cut down spending on wastages, luxury goods and conspicuous consumption are not entirely new to this country. They were very familiar slogans when the military held sway in our politics. In the early 80s or thereabout, the word ‘austerity’ was such a household name that even the illiterate had to add their own accent to it. That was the time all manner of goods including the ones we had comparative advantage to produce flooded the shores of the country.

It became a regular feature of every national budget then to either ban or impose high tariffs on these goods to discourage the unbridled thirst for things that are foreign and encourage domestic production. This was the period tooth picks and all manner of materials with local substitutes were dumped on the country.

The adoption of some form of autarky as a model for economic development has before now, been realized in this country. What has been lacking is policy consistency in this regard. Overtime, the country has vacillated from one policy direction to the other. From import restrictions and bans, we are now left with trade liberalization as a result of the globalization of the world economy. Ironically, this is a country where economic principles have oftentimes not been able to follow predictable patterns ether on account of pervading corruption or the ‘Nigerian factor’.

When last week therefore, minister of finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala rolled out measures to stave off the effects of the falling oil price, she was only re-enacting the very familiar era of austerity measures. According to her, the measures were a response to events in the international oil market because of the importance of the commodity to the country’s economy.

They among others included, the freezing of foreign travels for civil servants, slashing of the budget oil benchmark and drop in capital projects financing. She said the decline had given additional impetus to the federal government to focus on non-oil revenue generation. “This economy has to stop talking about oil”, she said. The collection target for the Federal Inland Revenue Service FIRS has therefore been upped from its current N75 billion this year to N160 billion in 2015.

Investment in infrastructure, job creation and security will not change, but there will be prioritized investment in those with significant economic impact such as the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, Second Niger Bridge and rail projects. Okonjo-Iweala said she was not sure the direction to take with taxes but a key initiative on the revenue side is a surcharge on luxury items.

There will be surcharges on such luxury goods as champagne, private jets and yachts so that the wealthy can contribute more to the national treasury.

Ordinarily, the new measures announced by the minister would have qualified as a veritable step in a right direction. But they cannot be so ascribed. This is so for the simple fact that the reasons adduced to support their introduction at this point in time, are nothing new. Neither are the issues raised entirely novel. That we can no longer afford to solely depend on oil revenue for our national survival is a trite statement. So also is the realization of the need to diversify our national revenue base.

When therefore the minister came out to rehearse these well known facts, not many a Nigerian heard anything anew. Rather, it was more of self indictment since the impression conveyed was that the minister was either coming to terms with that reality so belatedly or failed to address the matter until the current decline in oil price compelled her. Did we really have to wait for the current fall in oil price before realizing the imperative of the measures? That is the moot issue that has arisen from the pontification of Okonjo-Iweala on the matter of cutting spending on luxury goods and exploring alternative sources of revenue generation.

Moreover, it is obvious from the panicky measures that there have been lapses and tardiness in plugging some of the drain pipes in our national revenue drive. Must it take the decline in oil price to detect some of unwholesome practices that go on within the civil service in the name of foreign training and sundry foreign travels? I do not think it should be so. Neither can it be reasonably argued that it is the fall in price that opened the eyes of the government to the abuse such travels has been subjected to overtime. There could be more of such abuses within the public service which the government should identify and plug without waiting for another slide in the price of oil.

It is still heart-refreshing that our government is seriously concerned about the danger posed to the nation’s economy by our sole dependence on oil revenue. Much of the current political problems facing the nation have their roots in the unbridled quest to control this sole revenue source for the purposes of what erudite scholar, Richard Joseph called prebendalism. The desire to stave off the omnipotence of the central authority in revenue control and diversify its base has been the strongest case for devolution of powers and fiscal autonomy for the states.

It is good a thing that government is now worried at the yawning gap between the rich and the poor through its decision to impose higher taxes on goods and services consumed by the former. Ironically, many of those flaunting their wealth through the acquisition of private jets and yachts came about their current positions through the inefficiencies in the management of our oil wealth. We cannot forget in a hurry, the monumental fraud that had gone on in the system in the name of payments for oil subsidy when no fuel was supplied by sundry unscrupulous persons and contactors. It is a credit to this administration that some level of sanity has been restored to the subsidy payment regime. There are more of such leakages that have to be plugged if this country is to make real progress.

The stupendous wealth paraded by some Nigerians in the face of want by a majority of the people has become a big scandal that cannot be allowed to continue. Ironically, the glaring inefficiencies in our tax system have left many of such people paying little or no taxes at all. Ways have to be devised to ensure that this category of people pay taxes commensurate with the wealth they parade aside from the taxes on private jets, champagne and yachts.

However, the decision to increase internal revenue generation from N75 billion in the current year to N160 billion in 2015 is too ambitious. It is only hoped that the poor will not be worse for it through the imposition of a multiplicity of taxes and rates by the various levels of government. Good a thing, the cut in capital projects will not affect investments in infrastructure, job creation, the second Niger Bridge and the construction of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

The government is worried about the nation’s sole reliance on oil revenue for its development projects. Ironically, our leaders’ financial conduct has failed to take into account the fact that this commodity is exhaustible. The current slide in oil price should serve a sufficient signal that the days of oil boom are fast running out. The choice is either to deploy our current earnings to lift the country in the development matrix or live in penury for ever when oil is gone.

November 24, 2014
Of imposition and impostors

It was a victory party that turned into a funeral pyre.

Son of former Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa had his followers waltz to the PDP secretariat in Abuja. Dressed in colourful outfit, they pulsed with songs and dance. The man, Abudul-Jhalil Tafawa Balewa, swaggered into the office to pick his presidential nomination form. While the fiesta flared on, he slouched out of the office, his shoulder sagged and his buoyant face dropped to a scowl. He infected the crowd of followers with his dour look.

The party said there was no form. The man brandished his receipt. He had paid for it. It was a breach of contract. But the only form available, we learnt later, was for one Goodluck Jonathan who had been endorsed as the automatic candidate of the party. That was how the victory song dropped many decibels to a dirge. It was a comic resemblance to the play by Spanish writer Federico Garcia Lorca, titled Blood Wedding, where a wedding turns into a dreary lamentation and mourning,

Never mind that later, after President Jonathan had picked his ticket, some form of arrangement was made for Tafawa Balewa to pick his. Everybody knows that the son of the former prime minister is no great shakes in the party. He is a mere ant in the sweepstakes. When the Jonathan wind comes, no one would even see the ant go. It will vanish inside the dust bowl.

Tafawa Balewa’s complaint is the sort of tear we see in this season. The word in town now is imposition. Some might have asked Balewa how he acquired the so-called bona fides to run for an office. Was his father not imposed on the Northern People’s Congress by the Sardauna of Sokoto? It is the irony of the day that imposition has become the excuse among politicians of both parties to justify rebellion when the ticket goes elsewhere.

When the ticket is theirs, or falls in the hands of their cronies, it is democracy, or consensus. When it does not, it is an autocratic folly. Welcome to presidential system. Some have said it is the curse of the system we borrowed from the Americans. Yet we know that even when the parliamentary system thrived in this country, we still had complaints of imposition. The battle between Awolowo and Akintola arose from the crisis of imposition. We should not wake up today and start throwing accusation of which we are all guilty.

Some have attributed it to the hangover from the military era. I have trafficked in this belief in the past. But I think it oversimplifies it. The military thrived in this part in part because we were beholden to a system of command and control embedded with centuries-old reign of monarchy. The king syndrome has overwhelmed us. It is feudalism writ large. It is politics of kings and chiefs.

It permeates every part of culture. It is not only because of our monarchical roots. It percolates family with its extended system. So we have to crave patriarchs. There has to be a strong family person. We carry it into the offices, into the farm system, into the village group system. How do we expect the political party to be immune just because we call it democracy? We have become a society of the big man because we have not shed the monarchical baggage.

We decided to adopt democracy as a system, but we did not know that it came as a cover of our ancient penchant for control. Hence the First Republic collapsed. The idea of democracy is progress, but are we biting off more than we can chew?

When the Americans gave themselves the presidential system, they did not start with universal suffrage. Even the woman and poor did not vote. Their first President George Washington was not a product of popular election. He was selected by what we call consensus today. In fact, a good percentage of the founding fathers wanted him to have royal powers, like King George. They, like Nigeria, looked back to Europe, which was just beginning to shed the yoke of the divine rights of kings. They based their system on a culture that was evolving piecemeal. We have swallowed the whole bottle of beer in one swig.

That was at play when the senators of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) cried foul. They saw that the governors did not want them to return. In other words, they wanted to be imposed once again. They cried foul that governors had taken over the system and structure and they had no prayers. Hence, in a burst of the reckless, they abandoned their duty posts to the Nigerian people – not that they did much when they were working.

This trend is also all over the All Progressives Congress (APC) where some elements are crying over imposition. Presidentialism thrives on two things: money and influence. Influence is what we sometimes call party structure. Money, the mother’s milk of politics, plays a big role in it.

Those who recommended the presidential system for us thought it would be better than the parliamentary that gave us chaos, wetie and the civil war. Well, presidentialism has not fared better. The politicians who claim they expect it to fare better are hypocrites. They know the rules of the game going in. They know it is about who owns money and who exerts influence. It is a sort of Hobbesian mess.

So, when in Delta, Lagos, Akwa Ibom, etc, some of the candidates are shouting down a candidate, it is not because they want fairness. It is because it is not fair if they are not the anointed one. We are seeing it in both parties from the local government to senator to governor. It is clearly at play in the presidential sweepstakes in both parties. We also see it in the balance of forces, whether ethnic, dialectal, religious, geographic, in states. It is a numbers game in money count, delegates count, etc.

What we have is a sort of declaration of independence late in the day. Candidates are showing the streaks of princes who are fighting for the crown. They claim they belong to the right family and others are impostors. If I am anointed, I am not imposed but others are impostors. If I am excluded, the system has been subverted.

Even in the first Democratic Party primaries that Obama won, Hilary Clinton complained that the caucus system in states like Colorado gave the black man advantage. It cost money and endorsements. The recent off-year elections cost about $4 billion. Anywhere we cannot stop powerful people from exerting influence unless the system mounts a buffer against them. Ours does not. The richest founding father, John Hancock, wanted to be the first US president. His money failed him because money was not enough. Was he a threat? Yes.

Many people have said corruption is Nigeria’s problem. They are half right. The root problem is a culture in which we have to depend on somebody up there for things and direction, including money. It was fair in the past. Why are we complaining now when we have not changed the system?

We still run a feudal society in the guise of republicanism. Our federal system gives all the power to the centre. Even in states, all the power is in one man, as it is in a family. We fought a civil war because Ironsi gave us a unitary system. Since the war ended, we have not changed it. That is the only society we know. Unless we learn to change gradually into a system that all see to be fair, our politicians should stop complaining when it does not favour them. Hypocrisy is now the season.

Amuta writes the wrong

Columnist and literary critic Chidi Amuta unveils his collected journalism this week. Since he waded out of his professorial slough into the toga of a journalist, Amuta has written quite a few controversial pieces, especially as an avowed advocate of one of Nigeria’s flinty dictators, Ibrahim Babangida. He has received quite some flak for fuelling such a shameful flame. He never apologised for it. But other than that, his pieces have been quite progressive. He writes with clarity, insight and elegance of a man accustomed to the rigour of classroom debate and the concerns of the street. The book, Writing the Wrong, is welcome to the beehive of public debate.

November 17, 2014
Schools as terror targets

It has since been recognized that the driving force for terrorists in their selection of targets is the desire to achieve maximum impact and instill fear in the society. The objective is to swell public anger and disenchantment with the government for its inability to live up to its primary function of securing lives and property.

That accounted for the selective suicide bomb attacks on churches and other places of worship during the early days of the Boko Haram insurgency. The attack on the United Nations building in Abuja had similar motivation.

The objective then was to precipitate a state of panic among Christians and the international community by instilling fear on them. And with their weird avowal to install an Islamic state in the north, the simmering fear was further reinforced.

The thirst of the media for the absurd also came handy in guaranteeing such events easy and generous mention. With such generous mention in both local and foreign media, their sponsors coast home happily that they are achieving their objective. That has been the pattern.

But with the stringent security measures mounted by churches and other vulnerable institutions, it became difficult for these agents of shock and awe to continue with their dastardly acts in places of worship.

They now came up with a change in tactics with schools as targets. That was how the secondary school in Buni Ladi was razed down burning to death and massacring about 60 innocent school children. As if that was not enough to ruffle public sensibilities and precipitate public anger against the government of the day, they now hatched out the very devious and confounding plan of abducting over 200 secondary school girls in Chibok, Borno state.

The circumstances of that abduction, the heat and wide attention it generated and its unresolved nature still remain a sore point in the fight against terrorism. Apparently unhappy that the wide attention generated by the Chibok girls’ abduction was dying down, the terrorists were at it again last week. This time around, they wired a young suicide bomber disguised in school uniform with lethal explosives and directed him to mingle with school children during early morning assembly for the bombs to detonate. And it came to pass sending over 50 school children to their early graves and scores of others seriously wounded. As should be expected, the latest attack has attracted ire against the federal government. Coming a day before the advertised programme of President Jonathan to make a public declaration of his intention to run for a second term, the opposition has sought to castigate him for going ahead with the declaration even with the killings of the previous day. They see the declaration as callous and insensitive. Some other groups have equally picked holes with the declaration in the face of the devastations wrought by the suicide bomb attack.

The feelings of those who pick holes with the president’s declaration given events of the previous day can be understood especially given the intractable nature of the Boko Haram insurgency. But that is where there is no partisanship in such views or rather where they are not propelled by the desire to score political points.

The impression that comes from all these criticisms is that once such killings (which at any rate have become very common) take place, the president must put off any scheduled programme. We saw such views when Jonathan went to Kano state during the sensitization rallies of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP. He was heavily lampooned for daring visit that state when scores of innocent people were killed by suicide bombers at Nyanya near Abuja. He was also heavily berated for not visiting Chibok and the parents of the abducted girls.

He is our president and must take responsibility for the inability of the government to protect lives and property of the ordinary citizens. That is embodied in the nature of the social contract he has with the people. Again, he has come under heavy fire for going ahead to declare his intention to run for another term when school children were moved down in their prime the previous day. All the sentiments on the deaths can be understood.

But the coincidence of these killings with key scheduled events involving the president cannot continue to pass unnoticed. It is becoming a pattern for these suicide attacks to occur each time Jonathan has a key political engagement. And when this happens, what you get is the trading of blames on Jonathan for going ahead with the scheduled event.

It may well be a coincidence. But their recurring frequency is now suggestive that there is more to them than ordinarily meets the eyes. Matters are not remedied by the frequency of criticisms that follow such events. Ironically, as these criticisms are freely traded, the impression they conjure is that the attacks were planned to prevent those events from going on.

Not unexpectedly, such coincidences have tended to reinforce the notion that the current spate of insurgency in the country is politically deterministic. Not long ago, leaders from the north under the aegis of Northern Elders Forum (NEF) went bizarre when they demanded that Jonathan should not present himself for another term until he has resolved the insurgency in the country and freed the abducted Chibok school girls.

When this kind of posturing is weighed against the recurring bomb attacks each time the president is about to undertake a major political activity and the avalanche of criticisms that follow, the value of such criticisms cannot but be heavily diminished.

The inevitable impression one gets each time these bomb attacks occur before Jonathan’s scheduled engagement is that they are primed to discredit him. It also conveys the feeling that some people are afraid of Jonathan running the election and are prepared to throw up all manner of subterfuge to stop him. That is my reading of the demand by northern elders that he should forget his 2015 ambition if he fails to stop Boko Haram and free the Chibok girls at the end of last month.

October has come and gone. Boko Haram is still with us and nothing positive has been heard of the abducted girls. But Jonathan has gone ahead to make good his intention to run for that office. So of what value is such ultimatum and criticisms that are solely directed at stopping him from going on with his ambition? That is the issue here.

Instead of dissipating valuable energy trying to stop Jonathan, those opposed to him should direct their attention on how to win him at the polls. Bad as the security situation in the north-east is, it has not stopped politicians of different political parties from positioning for advantage to win the coming elections.

The uncanny irony thrown up by this was brought to the fore last week when Christian leaders in Adamawa state issued a communiqué urging all political parties to suspend all political activities until the heightened insecurity in the state has been brought down. The message of the clerics is clear. Its import is also not in doubt. If insecurity should debar anyone from running for the coming elections, then the entire process can as well wait. But there is no cogent reason for that now.

November 17, 2014
LAGOS as unique selling point

More than just a publicity stunt, the projection of the political vision of Lagos State governorship hopeful Akinwunmi Ambode through an inventive acronym, LAGOS, bespeaks thoughtfulness. At the well-attended October 24 ceremony at the Onikan Stadium, Lagos, where he formally expressed his desire to govern the state, Ambode of the All Progressives Congress (APC) declared: “Our message is LAGOS. LAGOS is Leadership, LAGOS is Accountability, LAGOS is Good Governance, LAGOS is Opportunities and LAGOS is Service. This is what I stand for.”

It is interesting, and a demonstration of impressive originality, that he has been able to package his guiding principles in a capsule named after the state he seeks to govern. More importantly, his antecedents indicate that he is a man who can walk the talk. His credentials in leadership, accountability and service are showcased and reinforced by the well-publicised letter of commendation he received from Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola following his voluntary retirement from the state civil service after a 27-year career that he ended as the Accountant-General from 2006 to 2012.

At the risk of repetitiveness, the well-quoted letter simply cannot be ignored or downplayed in considering Ambode’s suitability for the office of governor. Fashola reportedly wrote, in what stands as a glowing testimony to Ambode’s observed and undeniable quality: “I write on behalf of the people of Lagos to commend your high sense of dedication, selflessness and integrity which you brought to bear on the civil service. I wish to specifically remark that working closely with you has been of tremendous mutual benefit, particularly in the present administration.” He continued: “You have displayed high sense of professionalism and have been a good team player, guided by the philosophy of a true public officer, who must place himself last while rendering service to the public. We are convinced that your brilliance and zeal will make you excel in your future endeavours.” It is beyond question that Fashola knew what he was talking about, and that his striking song of praise for Ambode was firmly rooted in reality.

It is unsurprising that Ambode, 51, the Chief Executive Officer of Brandsmiths Consulting, made a passing reference to the characterisation at his May 15 book launch at the Civic Centre, Lagos. The presentation of two books, Public Sector Accounting by Ambode, and his biography, The Art of Selfless Service by Marina Osoba, provided a fitting forum for him to bask in the glory of his recognition. “The letter of commendation by Fashola is my gold medal for public service,” Ambode said at the event.

Perhaps the most credible governorship hopeful in Lagos State today, irrespective of whether the other aspirants belong to his party or are members of rival parties, Ambode represents a positive mix of knowledge-driven vision and experience of the workings of the administrative system, qualities which Lagos would require of its next political helmsman to build on the acknowledged achievements of the Fashola era. It is instructive to note that Ambode himself has signified his intention to pursue “continuity of excellence.”

It is probable that such pursuit would require a reimagined governmental approach to cope with the increasing challenges of a megacity with a population of over 10 million, which may soon become a metacity with at least a population of 20 million. Indeed, an individual with Ambode’s broad perspective, reinforced by post-retirement training in top international business and leadership institutions, may be in a better position to manage the diversity of the populace for the social good.

This is certainly not the time, or more precisely, the time is past when governorship aspirants, especially in Lagos, with its urban sophistication, would expect that all it takes is mouthing populist slogans without manifest competence in what may be considered essential to modern governance, namely, a solid developmental visualisation informed by a practical blueprint. In this regard, Ambode’s concrete history recommends him.

In particular, Ambode’s critical role in the creation of the State Treasury Office (STO) should be of special significance in rating him as a governorship aspirant. The STO has been acknowledged as a ground-breaking development which has fundamentally improved how the state’s funds are raised, budgeted, managed and spent. It goes without saying that Ambode’s demonstrated authoritative grasp of treasury issues would most likely be an advantage. ”If we take the concept of resource generation, allocation and distribution into cognisance and apply the principles of good governance, we will achieve economic growth and development,” Ambode said while presenting a paper titled “Public Finance: Probity and Accountability” at a workshop organised in August by the Lagos State Government and the Lagos Business School.

Also important is Ambode’s work experience at the local government level, given that the so-called third tier is regarded as the closest to the people. Ambode himself observed: “If you work successfully at Local Government level and you are able to make a difference, there is nowhere else you cannot work successfully.”

It is noteworthy that, beyond his respected financial wizardry and managerial mastery, Ambode’s claim to selfless service, which is also recognised, is another plus. This aspect may be considered fundamental because a leader without a correct sense of service is ultimately negative. Service to the people, in the purest sense of the concept, is apparently not alien to Ambode. According to him, “A true leader sees his work as selfless service towards a higher purpose. A true leader should be judged by what he has not – ego, arrogance and self interest.”

Demonstrable commitment to good governance and ability to deliver what the people yearn for should rank among the uppermost qualifications for the type of progressive leadership that would benefit the state at this point in time. As Fashola prepares to leave the stage, the state deserves an exemplary successor who will be focused on excellence in office informed by a mastery of wealth creation and a humanitarian orientation.

In a newspaper interview, Ambode shed light on his understanding of good governance, which is an essential aspect of his vision. He said: “In essence, the elected government is like a caretaker for the rest of the people, overseeing their resources on their behalf. The citizens remain the landlord while the elected officials are only caretakers.” He further said: “Arising from this, good government can only thrive where the resources of the people are judiciously distributed to various sectors/needs in the society in a just and equitable manner that makes life easier for every person.”

Ambode’s positioning with LAGOS, in the countdown to the APC governorship primary election in the state, and indeed next year’s general elections, deserves serious attention from the electorate, considering his profile and the unassailable evidence of its genuineness.

November 17, 2014