The Nation Newspaper

Category: Monday

  • A pastor and a president

    A pastor and a president

    Ted Haggard was a colourful cleric in the United States. He presided over The New Life Church in Colorado Springs, and he spoke with vehemence against what he saw as the depredation of the liberal politicians, including gay marriage, abortion and the foul air of addiction.

    He hobnobbed with the Republican politicians. So influential was he that he rose to become the head of the evangelicals in the United States. George W. Bush was president then and he frequented the White House. President Bush was a star among the evangelicals because he projected himself as a born again, and pointed out Jesus Christ as his personal hero.

    Haggard, like Bush, looked with contempt at those who did not belong to their world of sanctity. The liberal intellectuals fumed at Bush’s pious contentment, and growled impotently at his swagger and increasing popularity.

    Haggard visited Nigeria a few times and Nigerian evangelicals, including the teeming adherents who purred at the dynamic sermons of the gifted American. They knew he was anointed. Everyone in the spirit saw it with their eyes of understanding. Fire and brimstone flared against sin from his lips. The oil of gladness soothed the righteous from on high at the hour of blessings and miracles. Who did not know that Haggard was a significant part of the divine nature enunciated by Apostle Peter?

    Well, while the peacock spiritual preened, the scandal broke, and Haggard admitted that he was homosexual as well as a drug addict. It was an earthquake as devastating as the earlier ones that rocked Christendom in the same country. But those ones did not carry the whiff of drugs or walk with the gait of gays. Those were adulteries with women, including the secretary.

    But there was humility about Haggard’s confession. He did not play holy or untouchable. He stepped down from his high horse as the chieftain of the holy nation as well as The New Life Church. His fellow pastors and followers prayed for him, but they distanced themselves immediately from him. They knew that God and the church rode a high plane. Every pastor, however successful or anointed, was a speck in the large garment of the church.

    Not long after, the magisterial control of President Bush also waned. His approval rating cascaded. The Bush of Jesus Christ who plumed himself in holy confidence was now a liar. He had corralled innocent Americans to a war based on a false premise. He was no longer the anointed king just as Haggard no longer reigned as anointed servant.

    They had taken advantage of God, church and their faithful to project a false morality about themselves. They had profited profusely while many suffered, including those who slaved for them. Worse was not their servile condition, but their servile belief. They sacrificed their minds for them.

    I reflected on this narrative in respect of the scandal over the unaccounted trip to South Africa of an aircraft belonging to Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, the president of the Christian Association of Nigeria. No Christian would joy to that story.

    We must admit that the narrative is not cut and dried. We have no evidence that the pastor knew about the money. We could however say that he ought to know. He leased it to a company that leased it to another. Technically, as the owner of the jet he ought to know what it was billed to convey, especially if it concerned such a large sum of money. And the $9.3 million belonged to the Federal Government.

    If the purpose was to buy arms to fight the enemy, Boko Haram, it was a sensitive transaction. He was also a frequenter of Aso Rock, and he worked with the president in the fight against the bigoted vermin.

    So how can he explain how he did not know about this trip given these facts?

    When he acquired the aircraft, he did not use the opaque language about having a residual interest in the aircraft. It was his and he needed it as the chariot of the Lord. He would win souls with it. Never mind it is luxury in the air with all the bells and whistles. The souls will soar to God on the wings of the anointed word.

    But once the scandal broke, he receded into residual ownership. But what was worse was that he has not employed a language of remorse or rhetoric of regret in this scandal. He just defended himself as though Nigerians cannot add up the facts.

    He has used the high elegance of CAN to defend the government of the day. He has abused it and wrecked its cathedral beauty. CAN under him has lost its holy majesty and its appeal to the grandeur of God. Oritsejafor acts like a false steward. He is not like Prophet Samuel in the Bible who finished his task and laid it bare to his flock that his slate was clean. He is not like Paul who crooned that he had finished his task and awaited the crown of righteousness.

    He is soaring in the flesh. Yet, our evangelicals, the pastors and bishops, do not seem to know that they should ask him to step down as an act of honour. Such scandals are not good for the church. Whether he knew of it or not, for the sanctity of that position, he should not parade himself as the leader of the evangelicals. Just as Haggard did, he should bow out.

    But it means our evangelicals do not care or know the implication of the scandal to the meaning of Christianity if they cannot raise their voices against what he has done. If Pastor Oritsejafor was too busy to know what his aircraft conveyed, it means he was careless. He should pay for it. In law, it is called indirect responsibility. The aircraft was not acquired to harvest cash but souls. The Bible warns not just against evil but “an appearance of evil”. If he is innocent, he does not appear to be.

    As for President Goodluck Jonathan, it is clear he does not feel any public regret. Until his government proves the South African government wrong, the story will go down as a connivance of corruption between his government and a pastor. Two sacrosanct institutions, the presidency and the church have fallen into scandal. We should not forget that this is the president paraded as representing Christ in Aso Rock. Is this what Christians do in authority? The South Africans deny any arms deal. Who buys weapons or anything internationally these days by hauling cash? One of the achievements of this administration is the cashless policy. The violator is the initiator. What irony.

    Both the president and Pastor Oritsejafor have many people who sacrifice their lives, respect and talent for them. When they fail as role models, they destroy the lives. Like Uncle Vanyaof Anton Chekhov, Russian writer’s play, everybody who worked for the big man woke up to discover they had wasted their lives because they misplaced their faith in one man. The same happened to Haggard and Bush.

    President Jonathan and Pastor Oritsejafor should know that what is at stake is not their little egos. It is the souls of Nigerian people.

     

    Enter the Mutawallen Sokoto

    The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, was bedecked with a stellar traditional title on Saturday. He is now turbaned for his accomplishments as a citizen. He is perhaps the most level-headed politician of his generation. His quiet but visionary hand has held the often tempestuous House on an even keel.

    This is the same House of riot and broken chairs in the past. He has never attracted scandal to himself. He is equable in temper and felicitous in language. He has secured the House and it does not play slave to the executive, and he has defended his legislative turf. He does not play the games of tribal and religious fidelity in the way that injures the commonwealth of citizens. He does not carry an air of the superior personage. That explains why all the rumoured plots of presidential-inspired impeachment did not fly. He knows how to hold his own without vanity or flamboyance. He is humble without servility, effective without showiness, brilliant without bullying.

    That perhaps accounts for why the Sultan of Sokoto, another icon of honour, is giving the honour to another deserving, unobtrusive stalwart of the Nigerian polity. Congratulations, the Mutawallen.

  • Presidential choreography

    Beyond President Goodluck Jonathan’s unprecedented exclusive endorsement for re-election by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) state governors, Board of Trustees and National Executive Committee, which has practically foreclosed the conventional Presidential Primary to choose a candidate, his choreographic skill and promotional ability were perhaps more strikingly exhibited  in the matter of the reported N10, 000 donated in support of his campaign by a certain Ezemagu Sunday Nnamadi, a member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

    Intriguingly, the portrait of this newsmaking donor described as “a young Nigerian” was unhelpfully indistinct. He appeared to belong to a shadowy world, without concrete details of his background. For instance, it would be interesting to know where he was schooled and what he studied, even where he was posted for his NYSC year.

    The presidency must have considered such clarifying pieces of information needless, not to say useless. All that mattered should be the celebrated donation, not the circumstances of the donor, the president’s communication handlers must have reasoned. This would explain why the statement on the gift issued by Jonathan’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati,  reportedly focused on his gratitude. Jonathan’s letter of thanks, according to Abati, said: “Your gracious gesture is particularly gratifying, coming as it does from one of our nation’s vibrant and gifted youth who are our successor generation and for whom our administration is unequivocally committed to providing the requisite environment to optimally realise their tremendous creative and productive potential.”

    The letter continued:” As I carry on with the task of positively transforming our country for its God-ordained greatness and prosperity, I will continue to count on the goodwill as well as the practical and prayerful support of patriots like you.”

    Realistically, the said donation, if not a publicity stunt, was a publicity opportunity that ought to be exploited maximally, but the issue is that it seemed suspiciously simulated, a possibility that speaks volumes about the capacity for creative orchestration in the presidential corridor. Is Jonathan projecting the idea that he does not have an intimidating war chest?  It is noteworthy how the letter of appreciation dripped with self-glorification. In particular, the suggestion of continuity was attractively dressed, or to put it in another fashion, the intention of extension was charmingly undressed.

    From the look of things, Jonathan could be dreaming of a day when the entire country would rise as one and crown him without opposition.  That dream is a grandiose delusion. But it would be unsurprising if the next episode in the long-running entertainment show featured enthusiastic sycophants begging him to agree to be the PDP presidential candidate in the 2015 general elections. Not that such a development would be entirely new, only that this time it may likely involve people kneeling before him and prostrating themselves before him in unbelievable submission.

    Add to this picture the reinforcing activities of the obsessive self-defined non-governmental organisation known as Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) which insists on an   incomprehensible objective: “the continuation of transformation by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ).”  What the group makes of the concept of “transformational government” remains a puzzle because the Jonathan administration has been anything but that. However, TAN’s promotional train is on course and its region-by-region approach is expected to climax in the federal capital, Abuja, on September 30.

    Also in the picture is the screening and evaluation of the various Jonathan support groups for the battle ahead. Instructively, Jonathan’s Political Adviser, Prof. Rufai Alkali, who coordinated the activities, said:  “As 2015 approaches, we note that the circumstances and fundamentals facing us are somewhat different. The opposition is different; the political landscape is different; the players are different and the issues are different.”   Alkali continued: “To address these issues, the reorganisation of the Goodluck Support Group (GSG) has become imperative. I have, therefore, decided to set up a special GSG reorganisation committee to study all issues concerning the organisation and propose a reorganisation structure that will allow us position for 2015.”

    Considering the scale of the preparation indicated by these developments, it is both puzzling and laughable that the character whose interest is being promoted by these actions continues to pretend that he may not be interested in a second term as president after all. In the light of all that is visible, Jonathan’s attitude is nothing short of self-deception, if he thinks that the people are in the dark. There is a certain reptilian sneakiness to his conduct.  What is he waiting for, particularly given all the signs that continue to betray his aspiration?

    But Jonathan would want observers to believe that this background, as persuasive as it is, may not be enough to make him interested in re-election. He seems determined not to be seen as desperate for a second term in office, which may be a reasonable projection; but it is impossible to hide his ambition. Indeed, in a telling irony, the harder he struggles to mask his aspiration, the more he gives himself away.

    Strikingly, when he appeared at his party’s September 20 “Southwest sensitisation rally,” he could not resist wearing that familiar mask of deception. In his speech on the occasion, he referred to the various endorsements and introduced a suspicious complication. He said: “I also have the right of refusal and I thank the party for giving me the opportunity.”

    The question is: Would he exercise this right and refuse?  Jonathan, perhaps unwittingly, but more likely not innocently, supplied the answer, albeit in a coded communication. He boasted about the establishment of a Presidential Jobs Board which would “create three million jobs in the next one year.” He reasoned:  “That means in a few years, we would solve the problem of unemployment.”  Then he added: “We continue to promise to transform Nigeria; make changes and never go back. We need all Nigerians to work with us. In the next few years, unemployment will continue to drop. We are totally committed to changing all sectors of the Nigerian economy.”

    Read between the lines. Does he sound like a man who would say “No”?  He must be self- deluded to imagine that his game of laboured suspense is beyond public comprehension. On the contrary, whatever game he is playing appears so cheap and degrading, not to say nauseating.

    Jonathan has proved to be a master choreographer, perhaps contradicting the view of his antagonists that he is clueless. When it comes to stage-managing for political success at any cost, he may be the ultimate power-hungry schemer.

  • Death at the synagogue

    Apart from the festering insurgency, two other recent events have combined to constantly keep the nation in the prying eyes of the international community. These are the outbreak of the Ebola disease and collapse of a five-storey building at the Synagogue church in Lagos. Though not essentially related, both have had the net effect of taking heavy tolls on human lives and will continue to dominate public discourse for quite sometime.

    This is more so as those who lost their lives in the two incidents were both Nigerians and foreigners.

    Not unexpectedly, world attention has for the greater part of the last two months been primed within our shores. And for a country that has not been rated high in managing crisis situations, it is to be imagined the avalanche of negative reportage these would have generated.

    Surprisingly however, our leaders were able to effectively and efficiently manage the first such that no less a body than the World Health Organization (WHO) came out to score us very high.

    Though the Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer who imported the deadly virus into the country concealed information on his lethal ailment thus exposing others to mortal danger, our health professionals moved in quickly to arrest further spread. The efficiency with which they worked, posted positive results through minimal deaths such that today, the country has been adjudged free of the virus. This is something to cheer.

    But if the handling of the Ebola outbreak was an instant success, that of the collapse of a five-storey building at the premises of the Synagogue Church of All Nations in Lagos, left much to be desired. Ironically, the synagogue was the first place of worship visited by a medical team from both the Lagos State, the federal government and the WHO to solicit the cooperation of its general overseer, Prophet T.B. Joshua not to admit Ebola patients into his premises. They had then politely told him that the virus spreads very fast and is not one of such ailments that could succumb to faith healing.

    Joshua promised to work with the team to ensure that the virus does not spread by not admitting people from the affected countries and suspending some of his healing programmes. So he was part of the story that turned out as the successful management of the Ebola outbreak in this country.

    Ironically, the same church was to turn out the theatre of a monumental calamity some weeks after through the collapse of one of its buildings. Reports had it that the building collapsed while many visitors, mainly foreigners were having their lunch. Initial reports on the suspected cause of the collapse were sketchy, but there was some convergence that the building went down while construction workers were busy adding additional structures on it.

    While many were said to have been trapped at the various floors, rescue work could not commence early as the church officials and worshippers were alleged to have prevented rescuers access to the place. Even those who would have been saved had quick response arrived, lost their lives through delays arising from the inexplicable hostility of the church officials and worshippers.

    The church was to come out some days later to allege that the collapse was as a result of terror attack by the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents. In a video clip it showed to the public, Joshua claimed a plane had hovered around the building before it finally went down. Both Lagos State and the federal governments are investigating the incident. But Lagos has had to suspend action or further comments on the incident to avoid jeopardizing the inquisition of the federal authorities.

    Before now however, the state government had made it clear that the ill-fated building was originally approved as a two-storey building. It also said it had no records that approval was given for the additional three floors which were being added when the calamity occurred.

    From all indications, the Lagos State government has clear ideas of the issue at stake being the approving authority. Without prejudice to whatever the federal government panel is doing, it is certain that its job will be incomplete without the cooperation of the host government. It is not clear how that panel intends to work. But much of the information it requires to determine the cause of the collapse are with the Lagos State government.

    It would therefore have been more rewarding to build a synergy with the host government on the matter. The way things stand, the state government does not feel it should continue with its own inquisition to avoid conflict of interests. That is why it has suspended all activities on the matter. But that is where the problem arises. At what point will the state government come into the matter again? Or will it come out with its findings after the federal panel would have unveiled its results? These are some of the posers that seem to suggest there should have been collaboration between the two levels of government.

    The type of synergy that was called into action to curtail the immediate spread of the Ebola virus ought to have formed the plank for the investigations. With such collaborative efforts, all issues relating to the unfortunate incident would be fully examined and recommendations to forestall future occurrences made.

    It is still not late for the federal authorities to expand the panel to include relevant authorities of the Lagos State government. A situation in which the state government has now been forced to stall action on the matter awaiting the federal panel is not the best approach to it.

    The issue is of immense public interest and it will be counter productive if the two governments come out with different versions.  The right thing therefore is for both parties to work together, harmonize positions and come out with a common position.

    Joshua had introduced the terrorism theory. It should be investigated. But even before its outcome is known, it would appear such a theory will definitely lack in scientific validity. This writer will stand to be proved wrong.

    Beyond these, the nation must have been heavily embarrassed that as we were still giving out the casualty figure as 44, the South African President, Jacob Zuma went public to announce that 67 of their citizens had died in the incident. That really opened up public eyes that if one single country could lose 67 people, the fatality would have been much higher. And it came to pass. That country alone lost 84 citizens.

    The blame has been placed at the door steps of the church for its hostility to rescuers. The panel must get at the root of it. Those found culpable should be made to face the full weight of the law. The South African people are so piqued by this singular incident that their youths have vowed not to allow Joshua into their country until he has accounted for their dead compatriots. They also vowed to sue him. That is a measure of the outrage the incident has generated. The world is awaiting the outcome of the findings. We must demonstrate very unambiguously that the law is no respecter of persons through appropriate punishment to identifiable culprits.

  • Naming the nameable

    Although it sounded like incremental repetition, it added little to the state of things and ultimately proved to be effectively unuseful.  If the ambition of Nobelist Wole Soyinka was to concretely reinforce the allegations by Australian Stephen Davis concerning certain perceived local pillars of the rampaging Islamist guerilla force Boko Haram, his intervention did not match his purpose.

    It was disappointing that the tigrish public intellectual apparently fell below his own standards as his lent his influential voice to the urgent project of unveiling those who nourish the terrorists. In his publicised statement on the characters named by Davis, titled “The wages of impunity,” Soyinka unbelievably chose the path of harmless assault. In particular, his mention of Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, a former governor of Borno State, merely followed the beaten track.

    Intriguingly, the literary champion failed to supply the missing letters that would have defined the identity of the unnamed senior official of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) fingered by Davis. This lost opportunity to provide additional information of a radical nature, which the moment represented, may never be regained.

    It is apt to wonder whether similar reasons informed the conscious silence of the two men, and what those grounds could be. Between Davis, the foreign “negotiator”, and Soyinka, the native mediator, was a common ground of mystifying unspecificity. In the case of the famed writer, his pauses were especially perturbing because of his dramatised conviction. He said: “Finally, Stephen Davis also mentions a Boko Haram financier within the Nigerian Central Bank. Independently, we are able to give backing to that claim, even to the extent of naming the individual. In the process of our enquiries, we solicited the help of a foreign embassy whose government, we learnt, was actually on the same trail, thanks to its independent investigation into some money laundering that involved the Central Bank.”

    Having gone so far in building a base for his insight, Soyinka was expected to carry the architecture of truth to a logical conclusion. But he acted against his own construction. The same man said in the statement: “Truth – in all available detail – is in the interest, not only of Nigeria, the sub-region and the continent, but of the international community whose aid we so belatedly moved to seek.” Or perhaps it was a different mind that promoted unrestrained truthfulness in the context of the socially tormenting terror war.

    The truth is that an anti-climactic treatment of the idea of full disclosure, such as Soyinka demonstrated, cannot be in the country’s interest, both in local and international terms; and it is puzzling that the master of fiction, which is known as  “the truthful lie”, did not pursue non-fictional truth to its fullest extent.

    In what was tantamount to ridiculous buck passing, Soyinka said: “That name, we confidently learnt, has also been passed on to President Jonathan. When he is ready to abandon his accommodating policy towards the implicated, even the criminalized, an attitude that owes so much to his re-election desperation, when he moves from a passive “letting the law to take its course” to galvanizing the law to take its course, we shall gladly supply that name.”

    The theatre of war created by Boko Haram is so gravely threatening that the kind of dramatic suspense employed by Soyinka is not only dangerous and unacceptable; it raises the serious suspicion that the script may be a travesty of truth. If, truly, the pluralistic entity Soyinka credited with possession of the truth knows these things, why wait for Jonathan to act on the same information that has allegedly been passed on to him? Does Jonathan actually have this information?

    In a profound sense, by keeping his cards close to his chest on such a burning issue, Soyinka can be reasonably criticised for adopting an “accommodating” approach towards the inculpated, the same accusation he made against Jonathan.  Evidently, this is a case in which illumination is accompanied by opacity; for it would appear that Soyinka does not see the concealment of identity as suggestive of subtle complicity. It is a tragic unawareness for a critic who reasoned that “The unleashing of a viperous cult like Boko Haram on peaceful citizens qualifies as a crime against humanity.”

    Armed with a claimed knowledge of the friends of terrorisers in high places, particularly those who fund terroristic activities, which is invaluable information that can assist in the resolution of the crisis, it is untenable to conveniently accuse someone else of alleged lethargy, or even an abandonment of responsibility. It may not be far-fetched to qualify such attitude as vicariously guilty of a crime against humanity.  By supplying “that name”, it is possible to galvanize the law from the outside, without necessarily attributing such responsibility exclusively to Jonathan. Assuming that the information is available to Jonathan, what if he eventually ignored it for whatever reason?  How long will others in possession of the same detail wait to reveal it?

    It mirrors a clear contradiction for Soyinka to express intense unease about the situation, yet indirectly contribute to its perpetuation by this deafening quiet. Should he be taken seriously then, and his observation, “we twiddle our thumbs, wondering when and how this nightmare will end, and time rapidly runs out”?

    Naming the mysterious individual shouldn’t be such a big deal, unless there is perhaps something else Soyinka knows which makes him tongue-tied; the same reflection applies to Davis. If the individual is not nameless, and therefore nameable, what is the import of this performance of silence? To expect the presidency, and possibly the CBN, to react to nothingness, which the unspecificness represents, when they could be more stingingly pricked by a direct, detailed and explicit picture, amounts to a denial of personal responsibility, which is distinct from institutional responsibility; and it is also a ludicrous trivialisation of the confrontation with evil.

    There is no doubt about Soyinka’s tigerishness and dazzling track record as a conscientious opposer of evil, but at 80 years of age it is probable that his claws are blunted and only an impotent rage is left. If a personality of his stature will not name names when it is socially redemptive to do so, then the society is in abysmal trouble.

  • Of lions and leopards

    The newly promoted Assistant Inspector-General of police (AIG), Joseph Mbu seemed to have opened the Pandora’s box when last week, he made allusions to his tenure as Rivers State police commissioner. In a handover speech to the new commissioner of police for the Federal Capital Territory FCT, Wilson Inalegwu, he had sought to guide him with his own experiences so as to achieve better results.  He spoke of the qualities which Inalegwu should embrace to make a success of his new assignment citing himself as the similitude of a lion who tamed the leopard.

    Hear him, “I advise you (CP) to carry the senior offices along in your administration. It is only a lion that can tame a leopard. I tamed the leopard in Port Harcourt; each time he remembers my face, he would remember how I tamed him”.

    Mbu’s statement had drawn a loud laughter from the audience as a clear affirmation that the subject of his allusion was clearly understood by those present. It was not in doubt that the allusion referred to Mbu’s controversial relationship with the Rivers State governor, Chibuike Amaechi when he held sway as the police commissioner there.

    Expectedly, the Rivers State government has reacted to Mbu’s boasting. In a statement by the governor’s media aide, Amaechi scoffed Mbu’s claim to be a lion. “Indeed it is very sad, pathetic, however ironic that Mbu called himself a lion. Which lion? This character called Mbu Joseph Mbu completely lacks the courage, steel and strength of character of a lion”, the statement contended. It further asked: “how can a man who has no strength of character to be a man and stand up to a woman, a man who willingly submits himself to serve as a puppet of a woman call himself a lion?” For them, Mbu epitomizes everything that is wrong with the Nigerian Police.

    Characteristically, the lion is renowned for its strength, power and ferocity. Its closest relatives are other species as the tiger, the jaguar and the leopard. Lions are capable of killing other predators such as leopards, cheetahs and hyenas. The lion is euphemistically referred to as the “king of the jungle”.

    The leopard on the other hand, owes its success in the wild in part, to its opportunistic hunting behaviour, ability to run at speeds approximating 58 kilometres per hour, unequalled ability to climb trees even when carrying heavy carcasses. It is an agile and notorious predator with dexterity for stealth.

    These characterizations have been brought in focus to aid understanding of the comparison which Mbu sought to draw when he referred to himself as a lion and Amaechi, the leopard. And since the two personages do not operate in the jungle as do the lion and the leopard, these character traits will help highlight the appropriateness or lack of it of the context in which the comparison was made.

    For one, neither Mbu nor Amaechi can be classified as a predator. They do not also operate in the wild. They are humans guided by rules of engagement. More so in a democratic setting that holds the rule of law very sacrosanct. So it is not to be expected that the comparison should be viewed from the prism of the atavism of the jungle. It is a metaphorical statement.

    However, the metaphor of the lion taming the leopard negates all that is embodied in the rules guiding the conduct of a democratic government. It at once, evokes the impression of arbitrariness, show of raw strength and brute force. Those are the images the comparison throws up. The lion can only tame the leopard by subduing it through brute force. It has nothing to do with fairness, justice or the strict application of the law. If that is what Mbu did while in Port Harcourt, then there is nothing to learn from him. It is a bad example of the pristine attributes of a modern police force Inalegwu should imbibe.

    He is entitled to his views no matter how absurd they may appear. He is also very free to deploy metaphors to drive his message home.

    But this is one allegory many will find difficult to swallow. For, it not only overrates the powers that should ordinarily be at the disposal of a state police commissioner, but casts him in the mould of a behemoth. If a state police commissioner can wield such powers that will enable him bully an elected chief executive of a state, then our democracy is greatly imperilled. This is more so when it is recognized that a police commissioner is only an integral part of the entire security architecture of a state. How do we then categorize the powers of the military commanding officer and other security outfits that don the states?

    If the issue is the deployment of superior force of power, then the military is in a better stead to even tame the lion denoted by the outfit Mbu represents. That is the incongruity in such comparisons. But the issue is not just about force, power or the deployment of it. It is all about the subordination of all the coercive structures of the state to civil institutions and practices. It is this contradiction that reinforces the demand for state police.

    If Mbu was properly guided by this relationship, he would not have dabbled into ascribing such awesome powers to himself that have now given him away as one that handled his job in an unprofessional manner. The absurdity of the comparison is further underscored when it is realized that the powers of a police commissioner are highly circumscribed. Above him, are other senior police officers from whom he takes instructions. If he could tame a governor as he would make us to believe, then the president of this country could as well be at the mercy of the Inspector-General of Police. The situation would become more scaring when we thing of the awesome powers, temperament and disposition of the military.

    If the issue is all about the deployment of superior power, force and the coercive instruments of state, then we would have relapsed to the arbitrariness and despotism of military rule. Those were the years of the locust when very ambitious and adventurous soldiers took turn to sack democratically elected governments. But those days are gone for good as they have been consigned to the dust bin of history. The fad now is for the military and similar institutions to be subordinated to their statutory duties.

    Apparently, Mbu must have been lacking in the right choice of words to appropriately capture whatever challenges he faced in Port Harcourt to guide his successor. He was within his calling when he advised his successor to be firm and avoid soiling his name. He also raised an issue fundamental to the efficient running of the police institution when he advised against posting policemen to special duties at the detriment of their obligations to the public.

    Mbu definitely went beyond his mandate when he boasted he so tamed Amaechi that he should be frightened when he remembers his face. Such a statement mocks the police force which he represents and he should be made to retract it.

  • The sheriff meets the don

    The sheriff meets the don

    There was no comedy of errors, even if it almost pillaged your ribs. On the surface, you thought it was a comedy. If it was, it amounted to a sour and dark drama. Never mind that the one whose name was sheriff was supposed to be the don. The real sheriff acted as though he was neither don nor sheriff.

    But then there were no errors. We had what might have been a great and historic mistake. If it was a mistake, it cost his country dear in terms of prestige and moral respect.

    So it was that the sheriff, the real commander of the troops and the custodian of safety in the land soared on his aircraft out of town and out of country.

    The land broiled in pious carnage. He meant to do something about it and traveled to his counterpart in a neighbouring land where a sort of solution might be brokered. He had been under the gun as a weak and bumbling sheriff. Recently a white man with a clergy’s bona fides had accused a certain man of stocky build and defiant visage. His name was sheriff and he was fingered as one of the dons behind the carnage of dubious believers. Of course the clergy accused one of the real sheriff’s own chiefs. His own former chief under the gun for gun running had denied as well as the man whose name was sheriff.

    Now, many have said he did not know how to run anything except sit idle in office, sign juicy contracts and enjoy the sweet languor of high office. Maybe he wanted to prove everyone wrong. But the story of his meeting turned more a drama than solution, if ever there was one.

    Picture did not lie. Not this time. The sheriff of safety sat with the man named sheriff who should be named don, according to accusations. Neither betrayed an air of discomfort at the other’s company. In between them sat the host. So, what happened? Was the sheriff supping with the enemy? That was the question. The media and the civil society quaked with questions.

    The answer was as puny as the logic of the picture. The sheriff of safety did not anticipate the presence of the sheriff who was don. They merely met at the airport lounge. The counterfeit sheriff did not take part in the real dialogue.

    If this was no comedy, if it was no error, the best it can be was a mistake. And what a mistake it was. But was it that the sheriff of safety and his team, after a normal full term in office, did not know the implication of a photo op with the enemy? As a writer once said, could he not have told the don not to appear with him, or even his host that this protocol presaged disaster back home?

    But speaking of protocol, did the sheriff of safety not have an advance party that certified the coast was clear, and the big boss would be safe in limb and name. Well, he was safe in limb. But more important than limb, his name was soiled. He visited because many of his subjects had lost limbs and name because the sheriff as don stood accused.

    Even while on the aircraft after landing, they could have told the host to ask the sheriff of accusation to leave. If that did not happen, what else could we believe? That both sheriff the real and sheriff the false were false together in the right to fight against terror?

    It is in tradition that sometimes a leader can work with an enemy as leverage to defeat the enemy. In crime, it is standard practice. Even that is not done in the incriminating flare of the public camera. It is brokered out of sight, like in a studio’s dark room. After victory, the picture blooms to public gratitude. Even the sheriff and his team deny this. So what can we make of this than that a man who is accused of burning the country is a friend of the man charged to defend it. The friend of our enemy is our leader. What paradox.Why had the sheriff of safety not punished anyone for not alerting him? Does it not show that he was comfortable with this don as sheriff?

    The case is not helped by the story that the same sheriff was allowed to play don in his home town when about 200 troops guarded him from airport to his home. This was a few days after the so-called chance meeting.

    So who gave him the soldiers? Does it show that the man has been legitimated by sheriff the leader? No one gets so many troops on his command without authority, an authority as high as the former chief who was under the gun for gun running.

    So were people right then to say that the border blurs between the sheriff’s government and the carnage engine going on in the northeastern territory in the guise of a god. Are we witnessing a conspiracy of silence or a naivety of conspiracy? Somebody needs to explain to the people of the land. Anxiety chokes the residents as days dovetail into weeks with blood and death.

    In this war, residents are yet even to get an answer where an aircraft belonging to the head of clergies is caught with enough money to train a thousand poor kids into geniuses of true transformation. But the sheriff of safety is in league with the heavenly messenger. They say it was meant to get arms to tackle the carnage demons. What happened to e-finance championed by sheriff’s government? But some said the aircraft story was not a mammon against demons, as they claim. It was a case of demons stealing mammon in the name of God and country. The clergy who had heralded his entry into the aircraft league had announced it as a chariot of evangelism. Now, how did it become a carrier of filthy lucre?

    It might be that the sheriff of safety does not know much about how to keep his people safe, and that would be a grave allegation. But that will be a trifle charge compared to when we say he knows how to do the job, but he does not want to do it but undo it.

     

    Mbu the lion versus Amaechi the leopard

    Recently, the former police commissioner said he was a lion that caged a leopard. He was referring to his tour of duty in Rivers State where he made a travesty of the calling of a police officer. He referred to Governor Rotimi Amaechi as a leopard. It was good comedy, except the former CP just confessed he was the slave of Dame Jonathan and that as CP, he was playing politics. It is a pity that after that shameless effusion he gets nods instead of knocks from his bosses. But what concerns me is his abuse of the metaphor of the animal kingdom. The lion, as we know, guards its territory. Others scurry away when it marches, roars and bares its savage incisors. In Mbu’s violation, it is the lion that vacates the territory for the leopard. What kind of lion shrinks away from a leopard if not an empty and counterfeit one?

  • Angel Ameyo

    Wat does it mean to be characterised as angelic? Illumination came at the solemn Night of Tributes and Service of Songs organised to say a formal and final farewell to the departed Dr. Ameyo Stella Adadevoh who patriotically and heroically gave her life to save the country from a possible viral catastrophe.

    It was perhaps fitting that a team of ladies screened people with gadgets at the entrance and supplied sanitisers for use as the venue filled up gradually, which were obvious precautionary measures in the face of the ongoing battle with a killer virus.  By 6pm on September 11, Harbour Point, Victoria Island, Lagos, was ready for a review of the life and times of the doctor who succumbed to the deadly Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) which she had contracted in the course of treating the country’s first case of the bug, Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian-American who died of EVD on July 25. Tragically, Adadevoh herself passed away on August 19, less than one month after her life-threatening encounter with Sawyer.

    Adadevoh gazed at the population in the expansive space. She was frozen on a canvass framed with a garland of white, cream and green flowers; she wore a doctor’s white overcoat and a stethoscope was around her neck. Her striking portrait formed the background on the stage which had a table and chairs for three white-robed priests and a green-robed one. An orchestra of violinists and hornsmen performed impressively on the side and a choir in a colour-mix of blue, red and white completed the musical ensemble.

    Two large screens presented pictorial highlights of Adadevoh’s earthly journey, which were greeted by a gripping contemplative silence from the crowd. Her childhood years, growing up, her graduation from medical school in red gown and cap with scroll in hand, her wedding, motherhood, family life and social life, rolled out in photos before attentive and sorrowful eyes.

    “There is no doubt that her death is hurtful and painful,” said the priest who delivered the homily.

    “She sacrificed her life,” he stressed, “and saved the country from an uncontrollable disaster”; but, he added, “she was not an accidental heroine.” He pointed out: “Sacrifice was her second nature and character.”  In his view, she had “a glorious exit” in the truest sense of the phrase, different from the clichéd use of the expression.

    The tribute session was revealing. Dr. Bode Karunwi, her mate in primary school and medical college, spoke about their 50-year friendship and called her “a faithful friend” in addition to being “a first-class physician.” It was Dr. Efunbo Dosekun who provided a penetrating glimpse of her final moments as she struggled with EVD while quarantined. Dosekun described their last interaction “before she slipped into coma.” In a moving narration, she painted a picture of how she had to speak to Adadevoh through the window because of quarantine regulations. She said Adadavoh had told Sawyer: “I won’t let you go because you would spread this virus far and wide.” Significantly, a Havard University medical professor whose tribute was read on the occasion touchingly said he hoped “Nigeria will one day reflect on her heroism and sacrifice in containing a deadly epidemic.”  So far, figures released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) indicate that eight people have died of EVD out of 21 cases.

    Adadevoh’s death was especially pathetic because she was, ironically, a victim of her professionalism, dedication to work and concern for the sick. A family member was quoted as saying, “She was not on duty on the day Mr. Sawyer was brought to the hospital, but she responded to the emergency. She left what she was doing to save a life.”

    Her commendably rare demonstration of respect for the Hippocratic Oath of her profession was noted by the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris. Following her death, he said of her role: “She it was who took the initiative to intimate the ministry concerning the index case; and substantially to her credit, the moderate containment achieved we owe to her and her colleagues.” Speaking of containment efforts, it was reported that Adadevoh had to “physically restrain” the infected patient from escaping from the hospital after he had been diagnosed with EVD.

    It is impossible to build scenarios or to imagine the scale of the public health crisis that would most likely have developed in the country in the absence of the thorough diagnostic efforts and a firm application of safety measures and standards, without a huge sense of gratitude to Adadevoh and others who worked with her in the management of Sawyer’s case.  There is no doubt that the professional intervention of Adadevoh and other health workers greatly reduced the  high possibility of a wide-spread dispersal of the virus, which  causes a haemorrhagic fever that can kill infected people in a week, although patients reportedly begin to show symptoms within three weeks of infection.

    “Our tribute to her is our school song,” said an old girl of Queen’s School, Ede/Ibadan, Adadevoh’s alma mater, and the alumnae gave an enthusiastic rendition of the school song to end the chain of tributes. “Pass on the Torch”, they sang, in reference to the school motto.

    It is heartwarming that Adadevoh’s torch will be kept burning by a newly founded organisation, the Dr. Ameyo Stella Adadevoh Health Trust, which has been set up in honour of “her life of service to profession, community and humanity.” The source of the information announced that   “it will be a professionally run charity” dedicated to her ideals; and there was an approving applause at Harbour Point. He gave a contact email address: drasatrust@gmail .com.

    Before her death, Adadevoh, 57, had worked for 21 years at First Consultants Medical Centre, Obalende, Lagos, and became the Lead Consultant Physician and Endocrinologist. Interestingly, that evening at Habour Point, those who spoke called her Ameyo, which is a Ewe name for girls meaning “Girl born on Saturday.” Also, some of them called her an angel, which suggests a guardian angel.

    In particular, the representative of the association of endocrinologists said, “Our society will pursue national recognition which she so deserves”; and the people clapped.  It is noteworthy that a new petition on Change.org is asking the government to “honour the memory of Adadevoh with a National Posthumous Award”.  However, such consideration should apply not only to her. A nurse at the same hospital also died from EVD. Those who paid the ultimate price while carrying out their duties and saved many lives from Ebola even without having contact with them deserve credit.  A grateful country should reward their heroic self-sacrifice.

  • US marshal’s syringe attack

    It is difficult to ignore the widely publicized story on the alleged attack on a United States of America (US) federal air marshal at the Murtala Muhammed International airport Lagos. Not with the dangerous insinuations that have come with it especially in the foreign media.

    Reports had it that a US federal air marshal was screened and quarantined for Ebola virus in Houston, Texas US after he was injected with a syringe full of unknown substance in an insecure area of the airport. Though the assailant could not be apprehended as he was said to have vanished into the thin air, but other air marshals traveling with the victim were able to secure the needle and bring it on the flight for testing in the US.

    US law enforcement officers were said to have been alarmed by the bizarre and unprovoked attack because the assailant was able to inject the unknown substance into the back of one of the air marshals who was traveling under cover.

    The US federal air marshal service is a law enforcement agency under the supervision of the Transportation Security Administration.

    Sequel to the incident, the US Embassy in Lagos, at its request, met with the airport joint security team and viewed footages of the movements of the said marshal captured in the airports CCTV cameras.

    “Preliminary observation from the CCTV footages did not show evidence of such occurrence. Relevant security agencies have since commenced investigations into the matter”, the Federal Airport Authority said in a statement denying the alleged attack. The statement further reassured all travelers of the commitment of the authorities of the airport to their safety and security.

    The alleged attack, as worrisome as it is, raises many questions that hinge on its credibility. Good enough, the airport authorities that viewed footages of the movements of the said air marshal in the presence of the US officials have come out to say no such a thing was evident from the recordings of the CCTV. They have however promised further investigations just as the US authorities are investigating and testing the needle said to have been secured by other air marshals on the traveling team.

    Without prejudice to whatever may turn out as the final outcome of the inquiry, it is rather curious that such an attack could take place within the vicinity of the airport without the victim or any of his colleagues raising serious alarm. The overall impression that comes to mind from the way the matter has been presented, is that all the air marshals did was to secure the needle only to board their flight and report the matter on arrival at their home country.

    That does not seem to tally with the high efficiency for which US security operatives are well known. There is also no evidence that the matter was reported either to the airports’ array of security personnel or the police. Matters are not helped by the revelation of the airport police command that the duty officer in charge on the day of the alleged incident did not record any such report.

    This casts a very big slur on the entire story. This is more so with the expert knowledge, skills and training of the marshals in security matters. The least expectation from such a very knowledgeable group is that they would have raised alarm to alert the airport security and all those within that vicinity. Had they done that, there could have ensured some hot pursuit for the assailant not only from the law enforcement agencies but other sympathizers within that vicinity. Nigerians are good at showing sympathy in such circumstances.

    Beyond that, the scramble that would have ensued would have left no one in doubt in the CCTV footage that such an attack took place. It takes some time to administer an injection with a syringe. For, apart from piercing the tissue, the liquid substance will have to be administered into the body. How possible is it to accomplish these without being caught?

    Again, the information we got was that the other marshals were able to secure the needle. So what happened to the syringe? Or was the assailant also able to unlock the syringe before fleeing?  If that was the case, then he must have spent some time with his victim such that the chances of his arrest were quite high.

    The point being raised by these posers is that there is more to the story than ordinarily meets the eyes. These are the issues to ponder as investigations into the matter progress. The way they are resolved will take us closer to untying the riddle presented by the incident.

    But we must get out of stereotyping and profiling if we are to get at the veracity or lack of it of the alleged attack. Two speculated motives that have featured in the matter are terrorism and the intent to spread the deadly Ebola virus. The US law enforcement officers feared the injection could contain the Ebola virus. For Jon Adler, national president of the federation law enforcement officers association, it is a “reminder that international cowards will attempt to take sneaky lethal shots at our honorable men and women abroad”.

    Even as no evidence has been adduced to show that the attack was real, such profiling will do the investigations no good because it gives the miserable impression of a people working from a predetermined end. But for the Boko Haram insurgency which is a relatively new development within the Nigerian shores, it would have been an exercise in hasty generalization to feature terrorism as a prime motive for the alleged attack.

    Perhaps, with the exception of the bomb attack at the United Nations building in Abuja, insurgency targets in the country have largely been confined to our local people. Records of attacks on foreigners especially US citizens have been rare if not completely non-existent.

    Moreover, since the air marshals were traveling under cover, it would have been nigh impossible to detect their citizenship. It would have been safer to suspect that the alleged attack was based on skin pigment. The theory that the attack was targeted at US citizens seems a remote possibility unless the assailant has a working knowledge of the activities and movements of the air marshals.

    The other scaring dimension is the suspicion that the substance injected on the air marshal contained the Ebola virus. It is true that Nigeria has in the last two months been battling to contain the spread of the Ebola virus. Before then, little or nothing was known of the scourge in the country. Could we have progressed from coming to terms with the reality of the Ebola virus to perfecting the lethal technology for exporting it to other countries through unwholesome means? Or has this profiling got to do with the recurring references to Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer as the sole source of all identified cases of the virus in Nigeria? These are the issues to ponder.

  • Once upon a soldier

    Once upon a soldier

    He was one of the most misunderstood persons who ever lived. Throughout his life, he was human, a spirit, a bigot, a murderer, a conqueror, a hero, a pariah, a wretch, a myth, a thief, a buccaneer, an inspiration, a conspirator, a soldier as liberator, a soldier as mercenary, a soldier of destiny.

    When he died, many shed tears. Many who shed tears were his colleagues who saw the tempest of battle with him. But his plight many years before his death should have drawn tears from the same colleagues now shedding tears. The tears of the big-jawed reptile with intimidating scales. But they scoffed at him. He was poor, lacking meat and succour. But they would not help him. They would not visit him. They would not make a case for him. They waited for the extravagance of death. When death stalked, they balked. At last it came as it must, and it came in its sad plenitude. His colleagues poured out the outrageous liberality of their encomiums. They gave him in death what he wanted in life. Old age does not abide poverty. In Tennessee William’s play about how capitalism destroys family bonds titled Cat on a hot tin roof, a character says one can be young without money but you should not be old without money. That is why Western economies guard social welfare programmes. It informed Governor Kayode Fayemi’s now underappreciated programme.

    He was a great general, a special talent, a commander of men, they are saying. Not that he had no fault of his own. But he fought that this country may be one.

    He was in charge of the 3rd Marine Commando, a special name he coined for his division. He was one of the triumvirates that fought the civil war on the Nigerian side. General Murtala Muhammed handled the second division, while Shuwa held the first. It is an irony that the man most vilified by the Igbos of the three was this man who just died. He is thought to be the pre-eminent hater’s hater. He could not stand an Igbo man. He was killing them in droves, the civilians and soldiers. His heart was steeped in ice.

    Is that not why they called him black scorpion? He preyed on Igbo blood for his breath of life. Yet if you read your history well, you know that this man never fought in Igbo land. He never, in all the 30 months of battle, stepped on Igboland. He launched his battle in the epic Bonny landing, and his division took clan after clan, town after town, creek after creek, city after city, culminating in the fall of Port Harcourt. Irony still, Colonel Benjamin Adekunle spent much of the time in Lagos, seeking men and materiel. When he was in the Niger Delta, he was hardly in the theatre of war.

    Yet he is more demonised than Muhammed and Shuwa, whose divisions made mincemeat of human dignity in the senseless slaughter of Igbos. Shuwa and Muhammed competed for infamy. Shuwa had no strategy of war. He roamed Biafra like a roaring lion, sacking towns instead of soldiers, his men killed and raped civilians at will. Muhammed’s division conducted rapine and slaughter, not only of Igbos but subjected his own soldiers to savage risks on the River Niger Bridge. The Asaba massacre of Igbos, a veritable war crime, took place on Muhammed’s watch. Shuwa unnecessarily created panic and refugees in Igboland.

    Adekunle, working with astute men like Alabi Isama and Akinrinade, carried surgical operations. But it was not as if he did not have his flaws. His rhetoric during the war did not help the Black Scorpion. He voiced contemptible language that he would not spare the Igbos, etc. It is the kind of rhetoric called trash talk in American sports. But it was inappropriate in war. One of the paradoxes of modern warfare is that we have instituted urban etiquette in the midst of barbarism. All war is barbarous, yet we force some courtesies on ourselves. Civility in barbarism, the Geneva Convention. Adekunle’s lips loosed themselves in filth when he boasted he would deliver OAU to Gowon ahead of the OAU (Organisation of African Unity) summit. The OAU he wanted to deliver were three key Biafran towns. O stood for Owerri, A for Aba and U for Umuahia. Gowon fired him before he ever stepped his boots on Igboland. Yet he should have used civilised language about his intentions. It is on record though that 3rd Marine Commando did not maltreat the Biafrans they captured. From Alabi Isama’s book, The Tragedy of Victory, backed by pictures and documents, we know that captured Igbos were either allowed to return to Igbo land or were absorbed and retrained by the 3rd Marine Commando. So Adekunle was engaged in vaporous rhetoric. His bark sinned against him. It made him a primitive biter.

    Yet, we know that his successes got into his head. War commanders suffer such vanities. President Truman recalled MacArthur when he would not subject himself to civilian authority. Hitler also dislodged Rommel from the North African front for defiance. He was mistaking himself for the war.

    According to Isama’s book and authenticated by Akinrinade, the black Scorpion plotted an ambush to kill both men near Port Harcourt. Adekunle thought the profiles of both men were getting too big for him.

    Yet, without a doubt, he was the best leader in the civil war. He fought in the most difficult theatre. And it was his division that ultimately secured the surrender, although Obasanjo took the credit.

    Yet this man lived most of his life after he left the army in distress. The only time I met him was in the late 1980’s. He still lived in relative comfort. He said good things about Babangida, so I presumed that IBB’s regime was good to him. But subsequently, stories about him showed he suffered, and suffered abjectly. It became worse in the last few years when he needed medical care.

    In his book launched last year, Isama cried for him, asked for attention to come to him. He never enjoyed it. His fellow officers, some of them who still live in great affluence, distanced themselves from him.

    He became a pariah. He fought because he was called to service. He was a human who became a fierce man of battle. He was just carrying out his duty as a soldier. When Americans protested against the Vietnam War, the civilians sometimes misdirected their anger at the soldiers who were caught in duty. In their book, We Were Soldiers Once…and Young, Hal Moore and Joe Galloway wrote about their risks and near death experiences in North Vietnam. But he lamented he did not do it because he hated the Vietnamese. He was doing it because he had to as a soldier. It was like the poem of W. B. Yeats, in which a soldier laments that “those that I fight I do not hate/ those that I guard I do not love”.

    Soldiery by definition has no innocence. Sainthood belongs elsewhere. Maybe Adekunle’s sin was that he was a good soldier. If he was, he was also human. In my childhood days, I heard tales of him making disappearing acts, waving away bullets aimed at him, fighting without a gun, etc. When I presented these tales to him, he laughed and dismissed them. People fill voids with mythologies. That is how many gods are born.

    Adekunle’s tragedy is that many people failed to see him as human. Yet he died the most human death. The foible of history is that, now that he is dead, he may never be human again.

    More poignant for me is that this man fought to keep Nigeria one. Today with MEND, BOKO HARAM, OPC, MASSOB, did he fritter away his goodwill, youth and life on a hopeless project? I hope not.

  • Do we remember?

    Do we remember?

    She is regal in a self-effacing way. But she is audacious in a plebian way. She lived the glorious contradiction well when Oby Ezekwesili paid a visit to The Nation last week.

    Her royalty is unofficial, but it is borne not from being a mainstay on some eastern throne. It is out of her personal idiosyncrasy: her carriage, suavity, diction, the sublime simplicity of her sartorial being, a sort of intangible air of audacity that emanates from one accustomed to standing in the high places of the world. Her biography in international finance and the vault of government affirm this fact.

    But her plebian bona fides come from her ability to stoop, to take on causes often associated with what we can call “radical,” an anti-establishment persona that sees her taking on the Jonathan government with as much vigour as she exercised when she stunned an APC gathering with a piece of her mind. And when she is at work, her big, bold eyes convey a daring that can shoot down an elite quarry. It can also soften in the lofty way of the same corridor of power.

    So that was what I observed in close quarters during her visit. She came with a train of the Bringbackthegirls devotees. Her case was clear. We should not forget the over 200 girls that some miscreants whisked away in the name of God. With some of my colleagues like Soji Omotunde, Tunji Adegboyega, Lekan Otunfodunrin, Dele Adeosun present, Ezekwesili took us through the story of the kidnap and all the drama that we have witnessed since. She spoke with deep feeling. But what came out of the meeting was that she and her group felt the media had moved to other things. The story of the helpless girls has retreated into a footnote with occasional flashes. Revealing her plebian side, she wondered if the government would be so nonchalant if one of the girls was a daughter from the tony class.

    It was a good meeting, and I had to do some personal reflections myself, and I could not but agree that we in the media have not been fair enough to the girls. Stephen Davis, the Australian political geographer, as part of his earthquake ‘revelations’ about Boko Haram, said that the girls are subjected to molestation, and that they are raped at will. I think Davis is in a position to know. He is a negotiator on behalf of the federal government. The Jonathan government, in spite of its volubility, has not unveiled any statement on Davis as yet, except the lickspittle comments from Marilyn Ogar of the DSS.

    Do we remember the girls whose crime was that they became boarding students in a school in Chibok to write an exam? Do we remember that these girls were surrounded and the kidnappers took all of them in buses on roads that ran through Borno State where a state of emergency was reportedly in place? Do we remember that the spokespersons of the military gleefully flattered our relief when they said they had rescued them? Later it turned to be an apocryphal effusion, and that the only girls who ran to safety did it on their own heroism?

    No one should forget that the president, in his ritual media chat, virtually denied that the girls were missing, and asked the parents to provide proof with the list? There was also an inversion of culture when the first lady, the dame and mistress of the English Language, asked the mourners to visit her. We know that the bereaved stay at home, and condolences pour in from high and low. They were asked to come from faraway to visit the mistress of English who wanted to know if “na only you waka come?” Do we remember the cry to heaven that “there is God o,” and those who kignap  should not embarrass her husband’s government? She was particular about those “sharing blood.”

    We also remember that the commander-in-chief left the Chibok people to their calamity when he cut off a visit to the place and up till now, he has not visited Borno State, in spite of calls for the commander-in-chief to take command.

    Shall we forget that Shekau appeared on a video and mocked our government? No one will forget that Hilary Clinton and John McCain made contemptuous remarks about our government.

    The story of the Chibok girls is a metaphor of the collapse of the war on terror. BH is running rampant about the Northeast. The Jonathan administration has spent a trillion naira a year on defence. Yet, as Borno Governor Kashim Shettima noted, they have superior firepower over the Nigerian army.

    The first job of a government is security. If that government fails on that score it has failed everywhere else. What the Jonathan government is feeding on is a cynical psychology. His government believes that it is a victim. His supporters are hyping this morose psyche by saying the northerners want Jonathan to fail. Who in the North, I sometimes wonder!

    Is it the emirs, who are under attack? Is it the top politicians who have been victims? Is it their economy that is going to shreds? Is it the mosques or their top clerics who are hiding? If these people are really behind it, then they must be really suicidal and cynical as well.

    Some elements in the North say the Jonathan administration is allowing it in order to achieve a goal: keep the Northeast paralysed and consequently deadlocked for 2015 election. That view is being bandied about. But we have no proof of that.

    Yet what is clear is that the Jonathan administration has proved itself incapable of fighting down the insurgents.

    Our soldiers are good men. They cannot, however, do beyond their training, command and equipment. We have not seen the evidence of the huge money expended on them. Is it corruption? If it is, why has the president not asked his men, the ministers and the contractors, to account for what happened to the money? If he has, why is the situation still dire in the North?

    If the Jonathan administration does not handle the insurgency, it has no right or moral ground to parade the clowns of TAN who want him to impose another four years of imbecility on us.

    The other point I noted with Ezekwesili is the failure of Nigerian youths. In my days at Ife, the universities of the country would be shut down indefinitely until the girls are brought back. Rather some moral impostors in the name of NANS gave the president an award. Not long ago, they also gave Bode George. Our youths are a failure. My generation is no better. At least we began well. They are a group of never-do-wells who spoil the few good youths around doing good things. But as a generation, it is tragic. However, I was glad to see a few of them with Ezekwesili in their visit to The Nation. It is a thing of cheer. –