The Nation Newspaper

Category: Monday

  • Tukur’s APC phobia

    Tukur’s APC phobia

    Even with the hurried congratulatory message by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), it is becoming clearer by the day that the PDP is very uncomfortable with the unprecedented and surprising fusion of these political parties. Though a shred of this discomfort was latent from its caution on the APC not to heat up the polity, there is now, every thing to indicate that the leadership of the ruling party is jittery at the success of the new party. Perhaps, this phobia stems from the disbelief that these parties could possibly agree to dissolve into one, more so with all of them commanding credible regional influences. It must have therefore taken the PDP by the storm to have woken up one morning only to learn that a new mega party is born.

    Or how else can we rationalize the indecent haste with which sundry PDP chieftains and characters have been predicting doom for the new party just a few days of its birth?

    Its national publicity secretary, Olisa Metu, former Oyo state governor Adebayo Alao-Akala and sundry leaders of the party have overnight turned into doomsday prophets. They are either predicting a collapse of the new party, asserting that the PDP will still win the 2015 elections or simulating imminent rancour in its leadership when it comes to the sharing of offices.

    But by far the most curious of these jittery statements was the one by Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, PDP national chairman. He had said last week that the APC is a collection of individuals driven by selfish ambition and not national interest and they will be torn apart when elections come.

    Asserting that the PDP is a national party that can hold the nation together, Tukur threw a challenge “Let the APC tell Nigerians their stand on issues of national unity. What is APC stand on the unity of the country? What is the manifesto of the APC on issues that bind us together?

    And that is where he runs into trouble. By raising these posers, the impression is being conveyed that the APC’s commitment to the unity of this country is cloudy. If he had no doubt on the commitment of the new party to this irreducible decimal of our federal order, his question would then have been absolutely unnecessary. Asking clarifications on this, presupposes that there might be some other things he knows of the new party that is not yet available to the public. And for someone of his stature, he would have done the nation well if he avails us the information that led him into this doubt. If he has none, then he must be a very big disappointment not only to the party he leads but the entire nation. We say so because it is inconceivable that a party seeking to lead the country is being taken to task on an issue of this nature. Moreover, all the parties to the amalgamation have been around for quite sometime now. There has been nothing either in their conduct or activities to suggest that they are against the unity of the country unless there is something Tukur knows that is not available to us.

    As a matter of fact, sacrificing their differences and unconditional resolve to float a mega party is a testament to their commitment to rescue this country from the rudderless drift into which it has been steered by the PDP. If any party should be taken to task on this singular issue, it is definitely the ruling PDP. Leaders of the APC have said time without number that their goal in collapsing into one party is to rescue the country from inevitable slide to the precipice. By this, they have in mind the worsening corruption that has reduced our citizens to hewers of wood and drawers of water in spite of the enormous resources available to this country. They have in mind the worsening security situation that has threatened the very foundation of this country. Ironically, the heightened insecurity that has raised parochial and centrifugal tendencies to an all time high has been linked to the last presidential primaries of Tukur’s PDP.

    If there is therefore any party that should be taken to task on the matter, it is definitely the PDP. Where is the evidence of the claim and pontification that PDP is the only party that can guarantee the unity of the country? Today, the PDP is largely, a fragmented party. This division derives in the main, from the anticipated ambition of President Jonathan come 2015 and those of other vested interests in that party.

    It is no longer a hidden matter that should Jonathan run in the 2015 elections, that party will be further polarized. This would have dire repercussions for the same unity which Tukur wants the APC to state its position on. The coming together of the parties under the canopy of APC is therefore to provide an alternative source of hope and choice for our people to take their common destiny in their hands. Nothing can be more nationalistic than this sacrifice.

    The question Tukur wants APC to answer is redundant given that that principle has been the driving force for the merger. They have said time without number that the merger is not about individuals, not about ambitions but the overall interest of the nation. That is why all discussions have been without any precondition from the coalescing leaders. That to me is a very big sacrifice that ought to attract the commendation of any well meaning Nigerian. It is an effort to deepen democracy in this country given the dangerous slide to a one-party state in the face of the festering culture of impunity, rigging and falsification of results that have before now, eroded people’s confidence in the ballot process. Those who wish this country well must be pleased by the enormous sacrifice that has been made by the parties in the merger. What they need at this time is encouragement not unnecessary scepticisms as to whether they will quarrel in the sharing of offices or when the elections draw nearer. Such negativism gives out PDP’s discomfort in seeing a credible opposition emerge in the nation’s political chess board.

    But then, these worries about the APC are even misplaced given that Tukur himself had a few months ago, predicted the emergence of a credible opposition if PDP fails to put its house in order. Inaugurating an eight-member reconciliation committee, he had raised alarm over what he called the depletion in the ranks of their members across the country. He then warned that “if members fail to resolve their differences across the country, it will lead to an onslaught of the opposition parties in 2015”.

    As I write, the differences in the PDP have taken a dangerous dimension with no prospects of abating. Is it not a self-fulfilling prophesy that APC emerged at this point in time? So those signs Tukur saw a couple of months back which led him into this visionary prediction have come to pass. Who says Tukur is not a political prophet? So, he has no cause grumbling since he saw it coming. Since he saw it coming and could not avert the looming danger, he should lick his wounds.

  • A god and our folly

    A god and our folly

    They crouched down to their bended knees and treated the subject with papal awe. It was not a place for pious worship, and neither was any god involved. But it was a case of white worshipping black, an irony for history.

    It was at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of the prestigious Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC. It is good once in a while when one is on vacation to leaven the languor with some intellectual spice. So that was how I got invited to the place in the world’s most powerful capital, more especially when the issue at stake epitomised the Nigerian story: oil and the Niger Delta.

    The person at the centre of the gathering was the Governor of Delta State, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, and the audience, which filled the venue to overflowing, spanned the wide gamut of academics, diplomats, representatives of the United States State Department, students interested in Nigeria, human rights votaries and a sprinkling of potential investors.

    But what struck me was their subject of worship: Oil. You did not sense this veneration while the Governor unveiled his doings in Delta State from his security agenda, his Delta Beyond Oil programme, his work on building and rebuilding schools and infrastructure, the revenue allocation controversy, due process, environment and transportation.

    The question-and-answer session provided the excitement, and the audience had more questions than the time allotted. The moderator, Professor Peter Lewis, who heads the African programme, had to consolidate questions for Governor Uduaghan.

    Most of their questions revolved around militancy, revenue allocation, job creation in the Niger Delta, the law suits against oil firms, the issue of oil tax and how to redeem the environment after decades of devastation.

    I was amazed by how much these people knew about my country and the level of curiosity and concern over the fragility of the Nigerian state. For instance, on the issue of militancy, they knew that the programme has a sunset date, and when it expired the evil day may not redound to joy for Nigeria. What will happen when the token trainings stop, when the Federal Government’s funding retreats to other urgencies of development? It went back, as Governor Uduaghan noted, to addressing the fundamental questions of poverty and alienation, which meant that the government had to provide the enabling environment for work and self-fulfillment.

    Will the evil camps revive with the growls of resource control and the hooded goons with ominous guns? Is the region ready for another era of militant yelps, a phase of youth rage? It will precede a crash of our crude oil exports with the consequences for plummeting levels of revenue streams.

    This matter segued into revenue allocation, and that was where Governor Uduaghan, in spite of his tranquil mien, showed anger, however suppressed. Some listeners could not grasp how, in a federal state, justice did not accompany the allocation of resources, especially when oil took from the local communities more than it gave. Professor Lewis injected humour by saying that, “let it be noted that Governor Uduaghan is angry,” and a gale of laughter rippled through the venue.

    He also argued that the Niger Delta states did not get more revenue than some of the states at war over the lopsidedness of revenue. He explained that the local government revenues gave some states, especially in the north, an aggregate edge over the cumulative takings of their Niger Delta states.

    Concerns about the environment peaked when the governor gave an anecdote about his childhood days when the rivers and streams revealed like mirror its habitués: fish, prawns, crayfish, etc. Those were the days of nature’s innocence when oil, tenanted peacefully in the earthly bowels, did not violate territories. The wealth of trees, palm produce, cassava, and sundry cash and other products cohabited with black gold. That predated the coming of the big firms and things fell apart.

    “In those days,” recalled Governor Uduaghan, “you could dip your hands in the water and pick your fish.” Dinner was assured. Not today when marine life chokes under a smothering sea of oil. Oil has disenfranchised the owners and immiserated their generation.

    This led to a question on the recent judgment from a European court against Shell. The irony that concerned the woman was about the absence of local justice. This was not only a sort of vaudevillian lament over the absence of justice on that matter. For me, it was an indictment of our judiciary. Why was it that we had to travel several miles to ask a judge from a foreign land to give the justice we all know should be given to us at home?

    The courts and their judges in Europe understood the importance of sacred environment. Environment is destiny, and beauty is not only the colour of the sky in its orange glory but also the purity of running streams, the chirp of birds, the statuesque pride of the iroko tree unthreatened by oil. It is this truth that reinforces beauty, and that was what the poet John Keats meant.

    It goes deep into the fragile hope of the region, and the lingering sense of inequity. But that was what all the Americans in the audience meant. They came to worship oil, but it was not a god of equality, but a sleek potentate with hints of Armageddon – a god bearing mammon in its wings. So they were critical of the domicile of the god, and whether man had not woken the god from its resting place to torment us for seeking the bounty in its loins.

    The West has harnessed that bounty for their good, with evidence of prosperity in the United States and Europe today. But we have done worse who host the god. Shall we blame the exploiter or us who allowed the god to punish our follies? We could not make the god in our image.

    Governor Uduaghan says the answer begins when we address the issue as to whether those who host the oil should decide who own it. It is where fiscal federalism meets justice – at home.

  • Ihejirika’s burden

    Ihejirika’s burden

    The Nigerian Army was in the news last week for some curious reasons. Unidentified persons circulated documents accusing the Chief of Army Staff, General Azubuike Ihejirika of favoritism in the recent promotions and recruitment into the army.

    They claimed that recent promotions and recruitment were done in utter disregard of such pristine principles as balance, merit and seniority. Bandying statistics of the population of some states, they argued that the South-east zone where Ihejirika comes from benefited disproportionately from the recruitment exercise.

    According to them, in the recruitment at the Nigerian Army Depot, Zaria, Abia State with a population of 2.8 million had 450 recruits while Ebonyi with a population of 2.2 million had 377 recruits. Kano, Kaduna and Lagos states with populations of 9.3 million, 9 million and 9 million respectively had only 258, 382 and 255 recruits. For them, these represent part of the plan to ‘Igbonise’ the Nigerian Army.

    Perhaps, either because the army would not want to dignify these allegations or due to their sensitivity to the overall unity and cohesion in the army, they did not react to the issues raised. But a group of concerned Nigerians under the banner of Information for Democracy and Development IDD reacted sharply, accusing the petitioners of nursing a hidden agenda of blackmailing and distracting the army from the fight against terrorism.

    Its coordinator, Joshua Yahaya described those behind the attack as “fifth columnists of Boko Haram who are feeling the heat of the war on them by the army and so feel the only way out is to create disaffection within the army”.

    Given the silence of the army, there is the temptation not to attach much value to the allegations. But the issues raised are weighty and have become a matter of public interest especially given the allegations and counter allegations that have been bandied. Having been brought to the court of public opinion in a society still battling destabilizing centrifugal tendencies, it will be a risky endeavor to dismiss the matter with a wave of the hand. This is more so, with the attempt to smuggle ethnic agenda into this singular recruitment and promotion exercise. Since the ethnic dimension has been dangerously canvassed, it is only proper that it either faces the test of empirical examination or be dismissed as an exercise in hasty generalization. On the face value, a comparison of the recruitment figures of Abia, Ebonyi, Kano, Kaduna and Lagos states vis-à-vis their population, would raise the question of criteria for the exercise. That point has to be admitted. If that was the issue the petitioners are raising, one could understand their point. But it is an entirely different ball-game to proceed from there to arrive at the very sweeping conclusion that it is all that is required to enter a case of ‘Igbonisation’ of the army. It is a very ridiculous and uncharitable conclusion that cannot fly without a total picture of the entire staff disposition of the army.

    If the petitioners were motivated by altruistic or nationalistic goals, they should have provided the entire standing of the Igbo or the South-east in the Nigerian Army. Even then, that would not suffice for the real picture until the total staff disposition of all the zones in the Nigerian Armed Forces has been analyzed.

    This point is unassailable given events of our recent past. It is trite that the South-east has been very vocal on their disadvantaged position within the federation. Such words as alienation and marginalization have come to symbolize the perception of their lot since after the civil war and these issues are not strange to any well-meaning Nigerian. Just last week, former President Olusegun Obasanjo had while reacting to accusations of marginalization by Chinua Achebe in his recent book, told the New African magazine that when he was president, “an Igbo lady was Minister of Finance; an Igbo man was the Governor of the Central Bank, an Igbo man was one of the Service Chiefs”. We may add that Jonathan has improved on that by appointing an Igbo man the Chief of Army staff. These are no doubt very positive developments. But one salient point they have exposed is that they are only very recent steps to correct deliberate scheming out of the South-east from the commanding heights of key national offices and security institutions.

    To have transformed overnight from alienation and marginalization to dominating the rest in the army, is the most uncharitable and wicked accusation anybody can levy against the South-east at this point in time. It will only take a miracle for that to happen even as Ihejirika is not known to be a miracle worker. It is true he is the first south-easterner to become the Chief of Army Staff since the end of the civil war. It is therefore to be expected that some vested interests may not be favorably disposed to his appointment.

    Even without hindsight of the entire staff disposition of the army and the armed forces, one can say without fear of contradiction that the South-east is still the most disadvantaged. The very fact that they were not part of the armed forces the three years the civil war lasted says it all.

    What has played out in the recent recruitment and promotions might be an attempt to redress perceived imbalances in the organization. After all, the transformation agenda of the Jonathan administration ought to permeate such critical sectors so that we can build national institutions rather than ones that serve sectional, ethnic or religious tendencies.

    There are also problems in using population to the exclusion of quota, equality of states and merit to assess the promotions and recruitment. If it is discovered that the South-east has been largely disadvantaged by previous recruitment exercises, Ihejirika has a moral burden to redress that. It will amount to inverted tribalism or reversed discrimination if he allows the injustice to persist because he is an Igbo man and for fear of what those who profit from it may say.

    Events during Lt. Gen. Abdulraman Bello Dambazzau’s tenure as the Chief of Army Staff come in handy at this point. Insider Weekly magazine had in its June, 2009 edition reported that soldiers were grumbling over “parochial unbalanced deployment” in the army wondering whether “he is building a Nigerian Army, a Kano army or a northern army”. The magazine alleged that out of the 32 key appointments, Dambazzau gave the north 27, the South-east three, two to the South-west and none to the South-south. It is not unlikely that what is playing out is an attempt to redress years of imbalance as reflected by the skewed leadership of the army since after the civil war.

    The use of population is also not fool-proof given that populations of states do not give the entire picture of the various groups that make it up. We have not been told the ratio of the Igbo or other ethnic groups that were counted as indigenes of states with high population even when they are discriminated against because of the unresolved issue of residency. It does seem therefore that there is more to these accusations than ordinarily meets the eyes. It is hard to ignore the point by the IDD that it is likely the handiwork of sympathizers of Boko Haram intent at creating disaffection and anarchy within the army that is at play. With the current security challenges, it is only proper that the commanding heights of the military and key security organizations are diluted so that no section of the country will have absolute control over them. It is in our national interest to do that now.

  • Ode to teachers

    Ode to teachers

    Whoso neglects learning in his youth, loses the past and is dead forever.” Euripides

    We cannot avoid our past, and what fires our memories are incidents of childhood and adolescence. Those were the formative years when energies abounded and rippled with raw activities, minds were malleable, idealism gaped with errors. We had imagination without judgment and strength unseasoned with guile. It calls to mind the Chinese proverb, “when I was young I never had the ex perience; when I was old I never had the strength.”

    We recast the world in the miniatures of our daily dreams. The world was about the scent of the next meal, the classroom hectoring bully, and the football game yesterday when we scored or fluffed a penalty shot, or the coruscating Sunday suit. It was also the love of mother that haunted sometimes like rebuke and the overarching shadow of father that chastened like love.

    Home intertwined with school, but in the last analysis, we were men and women in the mould of what parents and teachers imparted. This article is paean to teachers, and it is inspired by a recent inquiry about Ekiti State education. I discovered that many of the teachers who have kicked against the teacher test launched by Governor Kayode Fayemi paid to have their wards in private schools.

    With their own pockets and parental powers, they have vetoed out the public school. It is a vote of no confidence in themselves. It is a surrender to institutional decay. It is a cynical rejection of progress for the collective but triumph for individual greed. It is the ultimate tribute to primitive capitalism in an ironic bulwark against talent.

    Above all, they gave a verdict of failure to themselves even without taking the tests. The tests came to public attention first in Kwara State when former Governor Bukola Saraki’s move exposed teachers who should have surrendered to tutorials from their students. Some students turned out to be better than their teachers, an absurdist echo of Fela’s teacher don’t teach me nonsense. Other states have done same, one of which is Yuguda’s Bauchi State.

    Teachers are important. So also are parents. Education researches identify two critical factors in education. One is parental background. The other one is teachers. The parent plays a critical role because parents spend more time in a child’s life, especially from age zero to eight, according to the findings of Sigmund Freud. The parents show example by way of either stressing the importance of reading, or value of success through schools.

    Parents can, by irony, also make children good at school. Some children have been drawn to education by the stark poverty of their parents or lack of finesse or sophistication by comparison to what they see around them.

    My father, Moses, always told his children that education was the only thing he owed them. He told me stories about how his power of sight diminished. It was, as he narrated, because his stepmothers denied him access to lamps and his father seemed impotent about that injustice. He hid in the kitchen when all had slept and read by the faint illuminations of expiring pieces of firewood.

    He was his own hero and his own prophet. As a hero, he triumphed with little resources. As a prophet, he saw that education provided his only escape out of the poverty that loomed ahead. He often related to vignettes from Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s autobiography, My Early Life, because it reminded him of his own struggles. Some parents have gone into debts to pay for their children’s schooling. No regrets about that.

    Governments do not have as much power to influence parental attitudes and pressures as they have in schools. Other than give the tools, the suitable classrooms and all the necessary infrastructure, the focus is inevitably on teacher quality. Why have some Nigerian students, with apparently inferior tools and classroom conditions, gone ahead to best their fellow students in Europe and North America? Much credit must go to their teachers, beginning from their primary schools.

    If you had the kind of primary school teacher I had in Methodist School, Oke Ado, Ibadan, you won’t have problems with your tenses. Mrs. Sonoiki’s voice still rings in my ears today. Stern, thorough and a disciplinarian, Mrs. Sonoiki reeled out the tenses, what was acceptable and what was forbidden. And we understood the principle. In Government College, Ughelli, how can I forget the charismatic Principal Demas Akpore and how he taught poetry? His class was on Leopold Senghor’s poems that still dance in my head today. It was only once he taught my class and it seemed he taught me forever.

    Mr. Esareture and Mr. Adeyan brought history to life in the way they dramatised the lives and heroics of dead men. I can see Esareture even today as he summarised in a few sentences the history of Sierra-Leone. I see Adeyan dab across the blackboard gesticulating about the Niger Delta city states. These two men made me study history as my major at Ife.

    My epiphany about literature was lit on a television screen by Professor Theo Vincent. In those days, he reviewed books every Sunday afternoon for about ten minutes. His covered a wide sweep from African to European to American books. It was from him I understood the whys and hows of literature. He provided me with the background to understand literature that was expanded by the classes I took at Ife under able teachers like Biodun Jeyifo, Tess Onwueme, Ropo Sekoni, Adebayo Williams and Chima Anyadike.

    We had a small television set then, only a little bigger than a transistor radio. But my father knew that all was to be quiet at home every Sunday for my ritual date with the bearded literary apparition on television. My insight into history was enriched by two men: Professor Femi Omosini and Professor B.O Oloruntimehin. Omosini, in his shirt and trouser, bearing no notes, taught European history as though he was dictating. We went to his class as to a concert. He was a model of the teacher who entertained rather than an entertainer who taught. Professor Oloruntimehin, more sombre, broke history down with gusto. It was as though he was solving riddles. Each sentence enlightened and his insights haunted us.

    Without these teachers I would not have met the enriching atmosphere of the Newswatch magazine of old under the trio of Ray Ekpu, Dan Agbese and Yakubu Mohammed. From Ray I learned how to bring imagination to journalism, generating stories and excavating perspectives. From Dan, I learned how to turn dreary sentences into journalistic beauty. From Yakubu, I learned how to pay attention to details.

    Governor Fayemi understands all these and that is why he sometimes echoes the point that his Christ School, Ado Ekiti, which stood shoulder high with the best in the country now lags behind because its teacher content has depleted.

    We learn every day, but when we first learn helps us unlearn a lot of distortion. My great journalistic hero today is Roger Rosenblatt, whose style and breadth I have taken after. But without the background of those who taught me, I don’t think I would have met Rosenblatt, or written this essay today.

    Babatope at 70

    For those of us who knew Ebenezer Babatope in his hey days as Ebino Topsy, we did not envisage that this is what he would be at 70. For me, it was not Ebino Topsy who turned 70 recently, it was Ebenezer Babatope. Ebino Topsy was the devoted Awoist, feisty with ideological clarity, planted on the left, unsparing in his barb at Awo’s opponents, a stout progressive. But it is an irony that Ebino Topsy was dumped by Ebenezer Babatope. To paraphrase Poet Wordsworth, the child is the father of the man. Babatope is the apostate, Ebino Topsy the faithful and son. Ebino Topsy could not be a PDP chieftain weeping publicly. Awo must also have wept in his grave over this show of capital apostasy. Happy birthday!

  • Boko Haram’s olive branch

    It is not surprising that general reaction to the sudden declaration of cease fire by a faction of Boko Haram has been largely characterized by studied caution. This is not necessarily because such declarations in the past were observed in their breach. The tone for this doubt was at once, set by the leader of the group while announcing the purported temporary cessation of hostilities.

    Sheikh Abu Mohammed Abdulazeez Ibn Idris who claimed to be the zonal commander in charge of Borno north and south did not leave anyone in doubt that he was not speaking for the entire group even as he claimed to have the authority of their leader Abubakar Shekau.

    He had also admitted that there are factions in the sect and that some criminal elements may have been committing sundry crimes in their name. Idris did not help matters when he averred that the cease fire followed negotiations between his group and the Borno State government.

    The immediate deduction from all this is that the cease fire is limited to Borno State where Idris claims he holds sway. But Boko Haram is not all about Borno State neither is its activities limited to that state.

    Admittedly, Borno could pass for the headquarters of the sect being home to its late leader Mohammed Yusuf. It is also one state that has suffered immeasurable devastation from the orgy of violence that has trailed the activities of the sect. In a way therefore, Borno could be aptly tagged the unofficial capital of the sect.

    But it would amount to an over-simplification of issues to give the impression that Boko Haram is all about Borno State or once there is cease fire in that state, the activities of the sect in the country will automatically come to a halt. Facts on the ground do not support such a hasty and very risky conclusion. Not even the record of those so far arrested by the JTF gives such a comfort of mind. Before now, we have been told of the arrest of some other sector commanders whose areas of command fall outside Borno State.

    Apart from Borno, Yobe, Kano, Kaduna, Niger and Plateau states have suffered seriously from the Boko Haram insurgency that has left in its trail the destruction of lives and property of inestimable value. Abuja the federal capital territory has also had its dose of the killings and suicide bombings. We also saw how the mastermind of the Christmas day bombing at St Theresa’s Catholic Church Madalla in Niger state was arrested and rearrested after his escape from police custody. The point here is that Boko Haram has so many commanders that it will be foolhardy for anybody to repose any modicum of confidence in an unsolicited cease fire announced by one of its commanders without hearing from their overall leader, Shekau. Mallam Shehu Sani who maintains close contact with the group equally underscored this point when he said he doubted the sincerity of the ceasefire. He had also said that the only cease fire he will recognise is the “one that will be announced by Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the group himself”. Sani also faulted the move arguing that the grouse of the sect is not with the Borno State government but the federal government and its security agencies. If that is so, the choice of the Borno State government for such negotiations may have been borne out of the fact that Idris’ command post is limited to that state. This perhaps goes further to show the limited nature of the ceasefire agreement. It is also not known that the Borno State government had the confidence of the federal government in entering into such negotiations. Nobody has yet told us that. Neither is there anything in the reaction of the government and its agencies that point to that direction.

    Rather, caution and disbelief have been the official disposition of the presidency and the military to the offer.

    But then, if that faction is able to secure some ceasefire in Borno State alone, some progress would have been made. It would then mean as someone has pointed out, the Idris group maybe representing someone.

    The snag however, is in the three conditions the group gave under which the cease fire can be sustained. They want all their arrested members to be released, damaged mosques re-built and compensation paid to their members. So, even if we resolve the issue of credibility, there are bound to be serious hurdles on the way to sustaining the ceasefire in view of difficulty in implementing these conditions.

    The first problem is with the unconditional release of those arrested for sundry crimes while prosecuting the agenda of the sect. It is unlikely such a proposal will fly. There are also serious issues in the demand that mosques destroyed during the period should be re-built by the federal government. Such a demand is bound to raise emotions in the face of the fact that churches also suffered immeasurable destruction in the hands of the sect. If there are people to demand that their places of worship should be re-built by the government, Christians should be the ones. It is the churches that have been at the mercy of the unprovoked attacks by the sect in prosecuting their self assigned role of Islamizing the country.

    It will therefore ruffle public sensibilities for the same group that took delight in killing Christians and destroying their places of worship to turn around and be demanding compensation for their members and places of worship. So they have now come to terms with the sacredness of places of worship and sanctity of human life?

    What these point to is that the so-called ease fire was ab initio destined for stillbirth. It was not meant to survive and cannot survive. There are so many difficulties on its way that no serious government will embark on the risk of giving serious thought to them.

    Yet, the Arewa Consultative Forum ACF and the Sultan of Sokoto Sa’ad Abubakar have urged the federal government to welcome the development and embrace constructive engagement. It is not that anyone is averse to dialogue. The federal government has said time without number it is disposed to it. What has remained foggy is how to go about it in the face of the secrecy that has shrouded the identity of its leaders.

    The faction is not asking for negotiations as it has done so with the Borno State government. It is clear on what it wants for there to be peace. But it appears they cannot go far until Shekau, the acclaimed leader of the sect has spoken. For now, the most we can take home is that a faction has spoken. And since there are known to be many factions including criminals hiding under their name, it will be too cheap to repose any confidence in the so called ceasefire. It could also be a ploy to deceive the security agencies as a prelude to unleashing lethal violence of unprecedented magnitude on our innocent people. At a time events in Mali are said to be having serious security implications for Nigeria, those entrusted with securing lives and property must not fall easy prey to the antics of some faceless persons waving questionable olive branch.

  • Amaechi and Orubebe feud

    Amaechi and Orubebe feud

    Recent altercations between Rivers state governor, Chibuike Amaechi and Minister of Niger Delta, Godson Orubebe, may after all, stand out for their dialectical value. The issue is not that some quarrel erupted between the two brothers. Quarrels or contradictions have long been recognized as integral part of the human society. It is therefore not enough that some argument ensured. What serves the society better is that at the end of such arguments, the society is able to move better through the lessons they throw up.

    The goal of society is better served when such inquisitions come with some heuristic value. If there are lessons for society in the diatribe between the two kinsmen, then we are better for it. And I think there are.

    What are the issues? Amaechi had criticized the Niger Delta ministry for its inability to re-build the East-West road notorious for frequent accidents. He had also boasted that the nine Niger Delta governors would take up the reconstruction of the road to underscore the failure of the ministry.

    Apparently irked by these uncomplimentary remarks, Orubebe took up Amaechi accusing him of inability to address the developmental challenges of his state in spite of the enormous resources at his disposal. He said it was ridiculous for Amaechi to be pontificating on the East-West road when Port Harcourt is a ghost of its former self with many roads crying for urgent attention. Besides, he berated him for his disrespect for President Jonathan because (he) Amaechi is nursing a vice presidential ambition in 2015. According to him, it is sad that Amaechi sees himself as bigger than the president and uses the resources of Rivers State to bribe the people of Nigeria for whatever purpose. Orubebe was further piqued that if there are any set of people that should work against the interest of President Jonathan it should not be governors from the South-south as Amaechi has lent himself to.

    But in a swift reaction laden with intemperate language unbefitting of the office of the governor, Amaechi gave it back to Orubebe. He refuted allegations of non performance citing what he considered the remarkable development projects that stand out his administration. He argued through his spokesman that he gave the president the highest votes by any single state in the last presidential election and this to him, underscores his love and respect for the president. Accusing him of diverting attention from his inability to perform, Amaechi challenged Orubebe to show him any single project that has been completed in the Niger Delta by his ministry.

    On face value, there is nothing inherently wrong in the two key public functionaries constructively engaging themselves in the court of public opinion. If the motivation is to serve the overall public good, then the exercise is worth the trouble. After all, those in public offices have it as a bounden duty to regularly give account of their stewardship to the people to whom real power belongs. The need for regular accountability by public functionaries is further reinforced in our clime that has been notorious for corruption and official cover up of sundry misdeeds by public functionaries.

    It was therefore good a development reading the duo engaging themselves in what they ought to do to enhance public confidence in their capacity to deliver public goods and services. If such open confrontations especially from members of the same ruling party have been part of our political culture, the festering culture of sleaze among public officers would have waned very considerably. But that has not happened. What has played out over the years has been the mindless looting of our collective patrimony by sundry buccaneers who circulate power amongst themselves and their cronies; doing all sorts of things to protect selves from facing public scrutiny.

    That is why till date, no former governor has been successfully prosecuted and jailed by the EFCC in spite of the drama that usually trail such arrests and subsequent arraignment. With such a background, it will be hard to convince any one that Amaechi’s unsolicited inquisition into the activities of the Niger Delta ministry is guided by altruistic considerations. Nobody will buy that. And as Orubebe argued, there are many projects in Rivers State requiring his attention than this self-assigned senior prefect role in the Niger Delta ministry. If this is true, then there must be more to it than we are being made to believe. By lampooning the Niger Delta ministry, Amaechi is vicariously accusing President Jonathan of inefficiency because the buck stops on his table.

    The inevitable impression the development conjures is that it may have to do with Amaechi’s speculated ambition to run for the vice presidential slot with a northern candidate in 2015. And there are other events that lend credence to this. A couple of months back, the same Amaechi was said to be the brain behind the protests by some traditional rulers from his state accusing Jonathan of ceding some of the oil fields in Rivers state to Bayelsa. The dust of that is yet to settle. Only last week, Amaechi again told Rivers State indigenes in the United States of America USA that the federal government was working against the interest of their state. According to him, waivers sought by that state from the federal government on the purchase of security helicopters and agricultural equipment are being frustrated by the same authorities. All these are clear indications that Amaechi is not getting on well with his brothers in Aso Rock. In the face of this glaring inability to have some of his ideas sail through official quarters, he has opted for the court of public opinion as events have clearly shown. He is entitled to whatever option he consider appropriate for his crusade. But in them can be gleaned some form of desperation and frustration. More so coming from a high ranking governor from the Niger Delta region that is now enjoying the comfort of the highest political office in the land. What could be the matter except he is seen to be working against the interest of the presidency which mother luck gave them?

    Jonathan is said to be interested in the 2015 race. Amaechi by the same account is eying the vice presidential seat within the same time frame. Assuming it is possible for Jonathan to be voted for a second term, does it make any sense for any Niger Delta person to be talking of a vice presidential seat when one of theirs could comfortably win the presidency? This is the contradiction that has been brought to the front burner by the issues in contention. Jonathan was vice president under Yar’Adua for two years. By 2015 he would have been president for four years. If he has not been able to transform the region in his current capacity, what is there to repose hope that a ‘spare tire’ would perform any magic. Is it possible for a vice president in the person of Amaechi to serve the interest of the Niger Delta better than a sitting president who even has the prospects of securing another term?

    It is clear that the Niger Delta has been trapped in a complex web of contradictions that will do it no good. The same forces that held the region down these past years are at it again. Even the idea of the region retaining the vice presidential slot after Jonathan is funny in a multi-ethnic and plural society like ours.

  • Photocracy

    Photocracy

    We all love pictures, and we all resent them. We are not indifferent to that piece of technology that can record in still accuracy what we do not want seen for the ignominy it broadcasts, or what we want to keep as evidence of glory.

    The word accuracy was celebrated in the early days of photography. It announced the concept of the picture as the sacrosanct reporter. The phrase, “a picture cannot lie” became part of the lore of story telling. The picture canonised journalism, vindicated and defamed witnesses, convicted felons in court, exonerated the noble, froze for posterity earthquakes, floods, a war hero’s soldiery, a coward’s perfidy, a traitor’s kiss, a cuckold’s evidence, a son’s fidelity.

    It comes in evidence in a family tiff as it erupts for salvation in a political quarrel. We just had it in the past week over governors who propounded evidence of pictures to assure us of their health status. The two men are Governor Danbaba Suntai of Taraba State and Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State.

    Before the pictures came to light, speculations filled the air. Suntai, who was away at a hospital in Europe, had apparently survived a plane crash that he piloted into a crisis. Stories flooded the media about plots to succeed him as some of his foes believed he could not return with mental acuity and his active limbs.

    Then he jolted us with pictures. One of them was about him sitting upright with his twins and wife. The other one was with another governor, Jonah Jang of Plateau State. He stood full length with his colleague. The family photo preceded that picture. He looked better relaxed in the picture with his colleague as though family asphyxiated his ability to project an expansive mood.

    Last week, Chime also reinforced the trend. He appeared in full length with three governors, Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State and Gabriel Suswan of Benue State. All four were apparently in a chat not unaware of the camera click, not unaware that it could travel to the front pages of newspapers. Their outfits and background reflected a car park in a wintry Europe.

    But the pictures have failed to answer some questions for those who believe that still photography, as definitive evidence, is passé. The naysayers say both governors are not saying the truth with the pictures. Some have said the Enugu State Governor’s publicists sandwiched a photo of pre-illness Chime between the governors. Some other cynics have argued that Chime took the picture sometime ago with the governors when they were in Europe.

    The same tirades of doubt came from Suntai’s critics. They say the family photo betrayed a sick man propped up for a credulous public.

    One thing is clear: the picture has lost its innocence. In the post-modern age of Facebook, Twitter, blog, Photoshop, television, films, and what technologists call media convergence, it is difficult to vouch for the integrity of any medium.

    The governors did not err by sending us their pictures, but the issue of transparency is not about pictures alone. It is about transparency. When the late President Umar Yar’Adua’s illness hid inside a fog, his publicists sent us a voice tape, and it did not answer many questions.

    Part of the problem is that the governors have failed to understand that transparency is about faithful updates from the beginning. When they fell ill, they should have told us. When they undertook tests, the publicists should have sent a press release. Before they travelled, they should have unveiled the state of diagnoses and why they had to travel abroad. Then they ought to have told us what hospital and in what country.

    While in the hospital, we ought to know step by step how the treatments went. Were they making progress? The doctor would tell us and also report the prognosis. If there were complications, we ought to know.

    If they followed these steps, no one would be speculating as to what kind of illness they suffered or whether they were dead or alive. They leaped over those stages by sending the pictures. Expecting many Nigerians to believe the pictures was therefore a leap of faith.

    Last week, a source told me that Chime was operated successfully for cancer around the nose area. Before that, speculations were rife about the man dying from leukemia. Some speculated AIDS.

    When the governors’ men came out with the pictures, they expected Nigerians to believe them instanta.

    The pictures were clear but they befogged the mind. If they had followed these steps, they would have fulfilled the fundamental feature of modern democracy: communication between the governed and the elected. A chasm gaped between them and that is why the pictures did not settle the matter. They eased the general frenzy in some circles, but doubts still linger. The absence of evidence gave them away to critics as evidence of absenteeism. What is at stake is not the governors or their health, but the integrity of the rule of law and due process but above all, decency and honour. There are hospitals to improve, roads to build, schools to upgrade, and lives to elevate.

    It is an irony that our military leaders understood this more than some of our modern democrats. When military president, Ibrahim Babangida, had leg injury known as radiculopathy, no Nigerian ached with doubt. Before he left the country, we knew about it. A picture of him squinting with pain at the offending leg revealed him. He travelled abroad and we knew the hospital, his progress and he returned in the full view of television. The Guardian ace reporter Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo counted for posterity the number of steps he took on the tarmac.

    When General Domkat Bali took ill, he told us. Even in this democracy, Senate President David Mark, a former soldier, also was transparent about his situation. We have some redeeming evidence when Abubakar Atiku was ill as vice president and when Governor Bola Tinubu went abroad to treat his distracting leg.

    We don’t have such transparency today.

    We live in a world of technology, and technology trumps technology. But what we needed in this matter was an old and thriving technology: the written word.

    For the governors to follow the steps of communication, all they needed was to convey them in words couched in press releases. They were sure to subvert the photo.

    If pictures are worth a thousand words, it is not the case in this instance. Words would have created the right pictures as novelists, poets, dramatists and, of course, reporters would. Words did it in the case of President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Hilary Clinton of the United States and Viktor Yushchenko of the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine. When the words are credible, the pictures come alive. Or if the pictures come out early when the illness begins, its truth will inspire sympathy like the story of Tancredo Neves of Brazil whose infirmity drew tears and group prayer sessions across the country.

    Up till the time of writing, the governors have not told us anything other than still photography. But what we want is not just pictures but facts.

  • The Emir of Kano attack

    The Emir of Kano attack

    Then Sambo Dasuki was appointed the national security adviser, his first mission was to visit and solicit the support of the emirs and royal fathers of the North over the surge of militancy. In my column titled: A Prince and the Pauper, I mused that the problem went beyond the royal fathers since class inspired the crisis. The underclass militants looked askance at the northern traditional elite, and the emirs are also targets of their rage. They had no solution to the problem.

    So I thought Sambo’s pick and approach did not address the matter. The unfortunate attack at such a lofty and apparently impregnable position of the Emir of Kano only puts my column in perspective. If the Emir of Kano is vulnerable, then we must understand that the royal fathers of the North also cannot offer the kind of intelligence that Sambo or any other top flyer of Jonathan’s regime needs to stop the problem.

  • PDP and 2015 albatross

    PDP and 2015 albatross

    It is axiomatic the current crises of confidence in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is deeply rooted in the 2015 elections.

    Not surprisingly, the dramatis personae in this ugly battle are former President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Goodluck Jonathan.

    At stake is the soul of the party, especially given the non-democratic antecedents of the party in matters of party primaries. The struggle is further accentuated by feelers that Jonathan has an eye on another term even as Obasanjo wants power to revert to the north. He had even been reported to have preferred the pair of governors Sule Lamido and Chibuike Amaechi of Jigawa and Rivers states respectively.

    Why Obasanjo wants to ditch Jonathan now even with the pivotal role he played in his emergence as the president in the face of protests from the north remains a matter of conjecture. There are two possible scenarios. The first is that he may not have been satisfied with Jonathan’s performance rating and therefore wants him out by all means. But his conduct and utterances on the Jonathan-led regime do not seem to lend much credence to this line of thought. Even then, the virulent opposition he is leading against the president less than two years in his current tenure is a big distraction and sufficient disincentive to performance. It is a remote possibility that unsatisfactory performance could be the issue.

    The second putative reason is that Obasanjo wants Jonathan out in order to make amends for his mortal mistake in subverting the zoning arrangement of his party at its last presidential primaries. He was a key figure among those who invented warped logic to support the retention of power in the south when the first term of Yar’Adua expired at his death. Like Obasanjo, many southerners supported that position especially given their aversion to the domination of that office by the north in the past and the arrogance of power that went with it. Ironically, PDP governors from the north sold out for reasons best known to them. But the northern oligarchy has since not hidden its anger and frustrations on the issue.

    It is trite to posit that the escalation of violence in the country took a very dangerous dimension after the emergence of Jonathan at the presidential primaries. It is for the same reason that northern leaders have since taken up arms against some of the settled issues of our federation such as derivation and the onshore/offshore dichotomy among other issues they see as conferring some advantage to the south. That is also why they have now realized that poverty is the source of the insecurity in the north and must be redressed through federal action by negotiating with the insurgents.

    There is therefore the feeling that the desperation of Obasanjo to get Jonathan out and have the presidency return to the north, is part of the overall calculations to appease that section of the country and stem the tide of insecurity. This scenario appears more plausible.

    It was the same mindset that manifested in Obasanjo’s contradictory statements on Jonathan’s approach to the fight against the Boko Haram scourge

    At first, he was for brute force but later reversed himself with the carrot and stick approach. This revisionism fits into the character of a well crafted script to pander to the sensibilities of the north as atonement for that error. That is why Obasanjo has abandoned the man he forced unto the highest office in the land irrespective of his suitability for the job. What has happened between the time he erected all manner of subterfuge to get Jonathan elected and now to warrant the devious scheme to whittle down his powers?

    Nothing except perhaps, Jonathan’s touted 2015 ambition stands against his desire to have power return to the north as a recompense for his sin. Obasanjo wants to be the lynchpin of political power in this country. He wants to call the shots and control everything in and out of office. Yet, the same man would not tolerate what he is now doing to Jonathan during his regime without his challenger suffering direly for it. Maybe Jonathan has no big stick to wield.

    Beyond lust for power and the desire to have power return to the north through the PDP, are contradictions that have been thrown up by the indecent manner Obasanjo is going about the entire affair. The tinge of desperation that goes with his action, gives the feeling of a man in a haste to remedy a bad situation. In it also, is the feeling that a colossal error has been made and everything must be done to redress it else things get out of hands. It is a veiled admission that the current insecurity in the country is largely political and can only be stemmed by redressing the political grievances that gave rise to it. The impression we get is that returning power to the north in 2015 will bring an end to the senseless destruction of lives and property by insurgents.

    There are serious issues bound to be thrown up by this line of thought and pacifist disposition. The first is that the insecurity that has held this nation down in the last two years was politically motivated. Being a child of politics, once we address the source of that grievance (power balance) peace will be restored. This raises another serious contradiction on the propriety of returning power to those who almost destroyed the country because power temporarily eluded them. Questions are bound to be raised as to the end those people intend to deploy power especially with the indecent desperation they sabotaged our collective interests just for the sake of it.

    If power is sought for public good, why destroy the same people for whose benefit it is purportedly sought? Why sow insurrection and decapitate the same country you want to lead just because of a singular act of indiscretion by your political party? What guarantee is there that this category of people will not embark on vengeance once they get hold of power and further heat up the polity? These are the foreboding posers.

    One irreducible fact here is that the PDP has already burnt its hands by not playing according to its own rules. Whatever hurried effort Obasanjo now makes to redress this self-inflicted act of indiscretion is bound to create more monsters. There is nothing on earth barring the north from holding on to power when once they grab it because a wrong precedent has been laid. This is more so as the impression is being conveyed that armed tactics by insurgents is all it takes to succumb. And when they refuse to rotate power, no body will have the moral courage to challenge them because a monster had already been created.

    In all, the PDP has failed this country. It seems obvious we can no longer have peace through it either now or even when there is a change of guards amongst its members. It has lost the moral right to inspire confidence and wield the people together for their collective good. Its continued rule has become an albatross incapable of guaranteeing the peace and general wellbeing of our toiling people.

  • Shut up, Orubebe!

    Shut up, Orubebe!

    The exchange of brickbats between Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi and the Niger Delta Minister Godsday Orubebe reflects the larger picture of the implosion in the Peoples Democratic Party.

    We can see it clearly as a contest between two tendencies within the party. Orubebe, who loves to be called elder, represents what the Yoruba call the agbaya tendency of the party. Agbaya stands for the elder who does not appreciate the wisdom of age but only the rascality. So such an elder torpedoes the wise counsel. Governor Amaechi, the younger, has evinced a brilliance that baffles the elder. So the elder resorts to the impunity of accusation that takes away attention from his superlative bumbling.

    So, while Amaechi, a working chief executive with something to show for his performance, is the target of an Orubebe whose colossal ineptitude is responsible for the terrible image we have of the Niger Delta. He is one of the reasons it is a region of waste without guilt, ineptitude with bravado, plenty submerged by scarcity.

    While Amaechi speaks from the platform of performance in office, Orubebe rants from the frivolity of politics. We can bring this up to the larger centre of PDP politics where the forces on Jonathan’s side are at loggerheads with the governors over party leadership, Jonathan is jousting Obasanjo over the leader of the board of trustees and, in Adamawa State, two dinosaur politicians want to initiate dynasties by imposing their sons on their state.

    In all the imbroglio in the PDP, no one has brandished the idea of performance or values. It is a Hobbesian battle today when Jonathan wants to impose Tukur on all the party faithful. The next day, it is a Machiavellian fest when an Oyinlola, no hero by any account, is ousted as party scribe.

    It is in that context you can locate the exchange between Amaechi and Orubebe. Orubebe lashed out on the ground that Amaechi, and the head of the Governors Forum, was eyeing the presidency and therefore undermining the boss of all, Goodluck Jonathan. He charged that Amaechi “feel(s) that he is bigger than the president.” He waxed spiritual as an elder and attributed the elevation of Amaechi as governor to the grace of God. “He has forgotten so soon. He has arrogated to himself powers that he does not have. It is God that has powers,” sniped the elder.

    I should say to the elder, “smile while you say that.” What does he know about the grace of God? Orubebe only understands the grace of man. No one was sure that Amaechi would become governor because the all-powerful, all-knowing Olusegun Obasanjo had inflicted a K-leg on him and he was at the mercy of the judiciary which, as a man out of power, he was not in a position to influence. So, if Amaechi got it, it was because, as Orubebe said, by the grace of God and the integrity and erudition of the judges. But on whose grace does Orubebe rely? That of man, and the man is Goodluck Jonathan. The elder can also say that he relies on good luck, not divine grace.

    If it was by grace and by competence, Orubebe should not be minister. That is why he is taking on Amaechi. He has nothing concrete to go on as minister but the politics of sycophancy. He is not a performing minister. He is a grovelling cheerleader and a Rottweiler on an errand. Amaechi responded by saying that he has performed, but let the elder tell us what he has done. He has been challenged to deliver on the East-West road. That road is the eyesore of the Niger Delta. We have had many dead, fire tankers exploded, billions of Naira incinerated. But the elder knows that not much has been done on that road. One of the reasons, perhaps that a helicopter crashed with the fatalities of the former Kaduna State Governor and the former National Security Adviser, was that many dignitaries did not want to ply the road between Port Harcourt and Yenagoa, with its ominous craters and snaky traps. He has not performed.

    Rather the elder has turned himself into a culvert minister, inspecting projects of dubious significance.

    That is why I say the jousting between Amaechi and Orubebe represents, in its micro punches, the fight between a minority of doers like Amaechi and the majority of crafty never-do-well politicians with eyes for the spoils.

    For instance, the Nyako versus Tukur battle in Adamawa has not raised any issue of significance to the ordinary voter. It has not even raised the question of morality in that Tukur’s son, who is now in the furnace of subsidy allegations, has the bravado to want public office. Should he not clear himself first? Even the same Bamanga Tukur who, in the past, dissociated himself from his son’s business entanglements easily entangles him in his dream to become the Saraki of Adamawa. Nyako cannot even recoil with shame that the only quality he sees in his son is that his boy’s blood flows ruddier than his but from his. In none of this conversation do we hear about how Adamawa will advance from poverty, from its suffocating lack of health services, from infrastructural nadir and educational sewers.

    We see the same thing in the politics of Jonathan and 2015. As for the omniscient and omnipotent Obasanjo, we know that the man is fighting for relevance in his hoary years. He does not want to live idly in his Ota retreat. He abounds with energy for a septuagenarian but no useful work for it. Since Jonathan does not pick his calls and he could not flex his brawn of old, he quit the BOT position so as to fight from outside with looser limbs and surer punches. So far, no one is bleeding. Jonathan is having the upper hand. It still remains dicey whether the Southwest PDP can coalesce with the core North PDP to asphyxiate Jonathan out of the party ticket.

    The Presidency shies away from Jonathan’s performance. They know they cannot win on that. Only last Friday, Jonathan paid a shock visit to the Police College in Lagos in the aftermath of the Channels Television expose. The president, after seeing the mess, was only interested in the image of his government. He showed himself the snake again. He pretended he was visiting out of interest. He wanted to know how the television crew penetrated the place. The word “penetrated” struck me. It had a sneaky quality to it, the sort you associate with snakes. He did not get any answers. So he concluded an insider organised it to embarrass the image of his government.

    I beg you, readers. What image does Jonathan’s government have? Of non-performance. So how does the wreck of a police college change anything? He only wanted to see whether the Channels expose was a lie so as to attack the station for exaggeration. Now that he had nothing to prove that scheme, he decided to come out in true colours out of frustration with conspiracy charge.

    That is the PDP to which Orubebe belongs. He loathes performance but luxuriates in witch-hunting. His master, Jonathan, is not performing, so a man like Amaechi, who is doing well, becomes a pariah. If Orubebe wants some respect, he should perform, or shut up.