The Nation Newspaper

Category: Monday

  • Campaign rhetoric

    Campaign rhetoric

    The veil on political campaigns got lifted last Wednesday in keeping with the timeline set by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. This has seen political parties oiling their campaign technology for full-blown public outings.

    One of the major parties has hit the ground with some activities following the inauguration of its presidential campaign council while others are at various stages of constituting their campaign teams in readiness for the unfolding political agenda marketing.

    The political atmosphere will soon be inundated with a flurry of activities as various political parties go around selling their programmes to the electorate. Given the very nature of politics on these shores, there have been genuine fears on the readiness of the political parties to abide by the rules of decent electioneering campaigns.

    Attacks and disruption of political engagements is some states by armed gunmen even before the seal on campaigns was lifted are clear signals of how rancorous and deadly political campaigns can turn out. It is not clear who the masterminds of those attacks are and their motive. Whatever the prompting, such attacks are a sad harbinger of the perilous times ahead given the unceasing wave of insecurity across the country.

    Section 92 of the Electoral Act 2022, “forbids any political campaigns or slogan tinted with abusive language directly or indirectly or one likely to injure religious, ethnic or sectional feelings”. The law is also against the deployment of intemperate and vile language capable of provoking violent reactions or emotions even as it forbids the use of armed security organizations by politicians during campaigns.

    There are also varying sanctions for flagrant infringement on aspects of this law. In effect, our laws duly recognize the incalculable harm that unguarded statements and vile language could wrought on smooth electioneering campaigns and have provided for sanctions. That is the way it should be.

    It is in furtherance of this peace building process that the Abdulsalami Abubakar National Peace Committee usually commits the leadership of the political parties to a peace accord to maintain the peace during and after the elections. The committee was quick to bring together the presidential candidates of the parties a day after campaigns kicked off to sign the peace pact. It is a worthy move.

    The mood of the nation makes it even more compelling that everything is done to ensure peace prevails during the campaigns. The country’s entanglement in a complex web of debilitating insecurity is such that could be easily exploited by evil men to levy mayhem on opponents and hamper smooth electioneering campaigns.

    With non-state actors looming large in some parts of the country, political parties may find it difficult to sell their messages in those areas. There is also the concomitant fear that elections may not even hold in enclaves under the control of sundry criminals nursing one grievance or the other. All these may inject complications to the congenial atmosphere required for campaigns to proceed unhindered.

    Security agencies have a serious burden to discharge in ensuring adequate security across the country as the parties go about soliciting for the mandate of the electorate. This task is no doubt daunting but not entirely insurmountable.

    Good a thing, there have been copious assurances from the highest security echelon on their capacity to secure the country for the campaign and subsequent elections to proceed peacefully. These assurances will definitely come to test as the political parties carry their campaigns to the nooks and crannies of the country.

    With adequate security and sanctions against infringement on the electoral laws, politicians may work to guarantee peaceful electioneering campaigns, free fair and credible polls. If that happens, some incremental progress would have been recorded in our electoral process.

    But, it is one thing to make laws and provide for copious sanctions against infractions and another kettle of fish for political actors to abide by the rules of engagement. Ours is a system where malfeasance of all hue has hitherto been a sad feature of electioneering campaigns. Campaigns and elections proper have overtime been marred by high level of violence and all manner of malpractices.

    These have continued to raise questions not only on the value of the peace accords by the leadership of the political parties but more importantly on the continued relevance of elections as a true reflection of the collective will of the electorate. Signals do not seem to give hope that things will go differently.

    Reactions by political supporters and sundry interest groups to emerging events portray an uncomfortable recline to divisive predilection. The emergence of presidential candidates from the three major ethnic groups in the country seem to have provided the tonic for all manner of people to haul around, all manner of false narratives, insults and abuses that are already heating up the political atmosphere. No thanks to the ubiquitous social media that warehouses opinions of all manner of people-the educated, well-educated and the semi-illiterate.

    A cursory perusal of these comments when issues of common concern are thrown up exposes how divided, parochial and fragmented opinions could be. One can clearly discern a dangerous descent to base sentiments and parochial loyalty. Curiously, the leading political parties are national in outlook with issues to the campaigns transcending narrow confines.

    Issues to this election are fundamental and revolve around the future of the country. Assailed by all manner of debilitating challenges, there is a new momentum that we cannot continue doing old things the same way and expect different results. But politicians can only rein in their supporters from abuses and intemperate language when they focus on ideas and issue-based campaigns.

    The way contending candidates respond to this national sentiment will determine the swing of the tide. But one thing remains clear; whoever emerges the president of the country must be fully prepared to assuage the burning sentiments for fundamental changes in statecraft. The country is at a defining trajectory. he veil on political campaigns got lifted last Wednesday in keeping with the timeline set by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. This has seen political parties oiling their campaign technology for full-blown public outings.

    One of the major parties has hit the ground with some activities following the inauguration of its presidential campaign council while others are at various stages of constituting their campaign teams in readiness for the unfolding political agenda marketing.

    The political atmosphere will soon be inundated with a flurry of activities as various political parties go around selling their programmes to the electorate. Given the very nature of politics on these shores, there have been genuine fears on the readiness of the political parties to abide by the rules of decent electioneering campaigns.

    Attacks and disruption of political engagements is some states by armed gunmen even before the seal on campaigns was lifted are clear signals of how rancorous and deadly political campaigns can turn out. It is not clear who the masterminds of those attacks are and their motive. Whatever the prompting, such attacks are a sad harbinger of the perilous times ahead given the unceasing wave of insecurity across the country.

    Section 92 of the Electoral Act 2022, “forbids any political campaigns or slogan tinted with abusive language directly or indirectly or one likely to injure religious, ethnic or sectional feelings”. The law is also against the deployment of intemperate and vile language capable of provoking violent reactions or emotions even as it forbids the use of armed security organizations by politicians during campaigns.

    There are also varying sanctions for flagrant infringement on aspects of this law. In effect, our laws duly recognize the incalculable harm that unguarded statements and vile language could wrought on smooth electioneering campaigns and have provided for sanctions. That is the way it should be.

    It is in furtherance of this peace building process that the Abdulsalami Abubakar National Peace Committee usually commits the leadership of the political parties to a peace accord to maintain the peace during and after the elections. The committee was quick to bring together the presidential candidates of the parties a day after campaigns kicked off to sign the peace pact. It is a worthy move.

    The mood of the nation makes it even more compelling that everything is done to ensure peace prevails during the campaigns. The country’s entanglement in a complex web of debilitating insecurity is such that could be easily exploited by evil men to levy mayhem on opponents and hamper smooth electioneering campaigns.

    With non-state actors looming large in some parts of the country, political parties may find it difficult to sell their messages in those areas. There is also the concomitant fear that elections may not even hold in enclaves under the control of sundry criminals nursing one grievance or the other. All these may inject complications to the congenial atmosphere required for campaigns to proceed unhindered.

    Security agencies have a serious burden to discharge in ensuring adequate security across the country as the parties go about soliciting for the mandate of the electorate. This task is no doubt daunting but not entirely insurmountable.

    Good a thing, there have been copious assurances from the highest security echelon on their capacity to secure the country for the campaign and subsequent elections to proceed peacefully. These assurances will definitely come to test as the political parties carry their campaigns to the nooks and crannies of the country.

    With adequate security and sanctions against infringement on the electoral laws, politicians may work to guarantee peaceful electioneering campaigns, free fair and credible polls. If that happens, some incremental progress would have been recorded in our electoral process.

    But, it is one thing to make laws and provide for copious sanctions against infractions and another kettle of fish for political actors to abide by the rules of engagement. Ours is a system where malfeasance of all hue has hitherto been a sad feature of electioneering campaigns. Campaigns and elections proper have overtime been marred by high level of violence and all manner of malpractices.

    These have continued to raise questions not only on the value of the peace accords by the leadership of the political parties but more importantly on the continued relevance of elections as a true reflection of the collective will of the electorate. Signals do not seem to give hope that things will go differently.

    Reactions by political supporters and sundry interest groups to emerging events portray an uncomfortable recline to divisive predilection. The emergence of presidential candidates from the three major ethnic groups in the country seem to have provided the tonic for all manner of people to haul around, all manner of false narratives, insults and abuses that are already heating up the political atmosphere. No thanks to the ubiquitous social media that warehouses opinions of all manner of people-the educated, well-educated and the semi-illiterate.

    A cursory perusal of these comments when issues of common concern are thrown up exposes how divided, parochial and fragmented opinions could be. One can clearly discern a dangerous descent to base sentiments and parochial loyalty. Curiously, the leading political parties are national in outlook with issues to the campaigns transcending narrow confines.

    Issues to this election are fundamental and revolve around the future of the country. Assailed by all manner of debilitating challenges, there is a new momentum that we cannot continue doing old things the same way and expect different results. But politicians can only rein in their supporters from abuses and intemperate language when they focus on ideas and issue-based campaigns.

    The way contending candidates respond to this national sentiment will determine the swing of the tide. But one thing remains clear; whoever emerges the president of the country must be fully prepared to assuage the burning sentiments for fundamental changes in statecraft. The country is at a defining trajectory.

  • Resume vs “presum-e”

    Resume vs “presum-e”

    History, as a course of study, haunts every day. We witness this awful theatre when a leader goofs, when the county hurtles to a fiery point, when a governor fumbles, when a political party stumbles. It mocks and weeps every moment. But even history mocks us when we look at it and do not see. It is the big, bright blindness, like walking into a galaxy and unable to pick out an object with our eyes.

    I also celebrate the Lagos State Governor, the BOS, Babajide Sanwo-Olu for bringing back history studies in Lagos.

    I therefore dedicate today, as a graduate of history at Ife, to all my history teachers, beginning from high school. Although I remember one Mr. Faturoti at Methodist Primary School, Ibadan, who first gave us a poignant hint about the study of the past, about the imperial absurdity of Mungo Park, who claimed to discover River Niger while all the local fishermen and travellers, from generation to generation, did not know they had a river they fished from and a canoe that splashed on its waves from place to place.

    I recall three history teachers at Government College, Ughelli, who immersed us in the cunning, comedy and tragedy of the past. The first was Emeka Anyaoku, no relation of the Commonwealth leader. I recall him, wielding our history book, authored by Ifeka and Stride, and striding from side to side, speaking rhythmically about the Old Oyo and Kanem Borno empires, and spicing it with humour, wit and anecdotes, including a dose here and there of pidgin English. His foray into pidgin emphasised his insistence on flawless writing. Kudos to him. Two prepared us for WASCE. The first was Eshareturi, a smallish, charismatic man whose elocution seemed bred in Buckingham Palace. He taught us 18th and 19th century West Africa History, and loved the dissections, play of heroes and villains, the chemistry of forces, the climaxes. I recall when he spoke about the formation of Sierra Leone and Liberia. He then distilled a point, rose from his desk and said, “Let us call it the humanitarian factor.” He wrote it on the blackboard in his cursive style. It was from him we first learned of Lord Mansfield and his judgment of 1772 that put paid to slavery on English soil. I doff my hat.

    Teacher Edenya was our last teacher. Short and spry, he never sat down until our last class session answering our questions before the exam. He and Eshareturi marked WAEC exams. He apparently smoked and ate quite a few kola nuts. His right hand was shaped like one wielding a cigarette and his lips always smacked as though simultaneously enjoying and getting rid of the last taste of the fruit. His poppysmic became a mainstay of his rhetoric. Edenya was a master of the past. I can hear him now swaying from window to window, reeling out story after story. I recall especially his narrative of the Niger Delta city states, Dappa Pepple House, the drama of the boy king, the impudence of trade and colonial seed. I recall his story about the anarchy and nation building of the Yoruba Wars, the so-called Benin Massacre, his clarification of Islam being the “official majority” of the Sokoto Caliphate. Those who did not insert the word official in their essays were penalised. While Dan Fodio prevailed, the vast majority of the people were still not Muslim. I bow to him!

    Next stop Ife: how many can I recall. First was Femi Omosini, dashing with a rhetorical fluidity. The Cambridge graduate did not hold notes, but he dictated for a full hour about the social and intellectual history of Europe. It was a mellifluous feast. Hear him: “By the 16th century therefore, feudalism had declined, and the philosophy of monarchical centralisation started to give way to that of feudal local independence.” Enjoy again: “The pope had become extremely worldly. He wined and dined with secular authorities and he bargained openly for the expansion of papal territories.” And again, “The Holy Roman Empire became neither holy nor Roman.” All of this without a note pad in his hands. I salute you sir.

    The next was Olomola, a fiery teacher with lots of quotes in his head. He would for instance tell us of the Jukun kingdom, and he said historian Margery Perham, who had heard of the exploits of the Kwororofa, expected to see the magnificence of an empire. But when she visited it, she found goats walking beside huts under a hot sun, and “she said, quote, an exaggerated glory. End quote.” He prefaced every quote by saying ‘quote’ and ended every quote by saying ‘end quote.’ I feel blessed to quote you.

    Of course, I cannot forget A.A. Akinjogbin, a paternal figure in class, who loved to teach history as though telling it to his children.  We read him in secondary school with Adu Boahen. He had a soft voice and paid attention to detail as he broke open the era of slavery in African society and urged us not to over-glorify our past while holding the west’s feet to the fire. But black slaves had rights, he always emphasised. He showed how Africa and Europe were at a certain time on the same level technologically and economically. So, enamoured of him was I that I sponsored essay competitions in his memory at Ife. May your glory flower on.

    I quoted B. Oloruntimehin last week. Always in his French suit, he taught with a sort of sardonic flourish, and we learned not only history but historiography from him. He freed us from received narratives. For instance, why do we call the British rule indirect when they were responsible for the major disruption in the societies. Just because they placed rulers in charge was not indirect since they took orders from the British. It is like saying the CEO of a company rules the company indirectly because he has sales and personnel managers. I was to read later in life that the English had imposed it on the Irish during the reign of James I.  It is the rhetoric of deceit. It is such turn of mind that made him tell us that “The abolition of slave trade was an act of enlightened self-interest by the Europeans to give the Africans a new role in the international economic system.” Bouquets on your casket.

    Read Also: Illegal bunkering resumes in Imo community months after explosion

    Professor Richard Olaniyan opened America to me, and it was such a marvel to attend his class. He spoke with such energy unveiling the dynamics of the Americas, the majesty, flaws and humanism of its founding fathers. Such names as Jefferson, Washington, Patrick Henry, Madison, Adams, et al, came alive, and made me fan of its history. Eternal gratitude, sir.

    I end these tributes with Professor Anjorin, who unveiled 20th century world history. The world wars, Hitler, Franco, Mussolini, the savagery of a century and its embalmed heroes enchanted his class. He was such an avuncular fellow, if even fatherly. Once I challenged him on a point and my fellow students whispered that “Sam is trying to challenge Baba.” My naivety paid off. He appreciated my petulance of a curiosity. He did me no harm. His harm was exaggerated by his students. He was a gentleman.

    We should learn from the past. It teaches us to bring memory to the salvation of the moment. We are seeing its deficiency today. When Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike said Atiku turned his back on Jonathan because he said it was the north’s turn, it was only recent memory. Yet few remember. So some of us also are reminding peripatetic Atiku how pathetic that his party corralled it for the north in 2019, and no southern candidate ran for it. Now, he acts as though it never happened. If we recalled history, Ayu would not even run for any party office since all his resume is about how he was fired from office to office. Now, he is facing another firing. He seems in love with it, especially if we add the charge that he got N1 billion  largesse for doing nothing. The firing hanging over his head has not put him in the frame of mind to rebut the allegation from the scratchy voice of the Rivers man. He needs to clear the air. If not, EFCC should let us know if it was in pounds or dollars, so we know how our currency is going downhill.

    It is this lack of history that made some to forget that a certain candidate was a governor for eight years with nothing to show. They forget that the one that has something to show they want to deny. Hence, Shakespeare in his play The Tempest, mocked such people who “make a sinner of memory to credit a lie.” We need to salvage our memory. If we cannot remember what happened just five years ago, or 20 years ago, how can we know when “the rain started to beat us?” And how to get dry?  It is the jolt of the past. It is the same thing that led some of us to forget that our wealth made the British crown a marvel. The marvel was our forebears who the British cudgelled to death. In the queen, we hailed our tyrants. Like the character, also in The Tempest, who says, “How fine my master is.”

    It is because of our lack of history that we ask people what they want to do instead what they have done as election guide. Rather than resume, we stress “presum-e.” Presumption must not derive from assumptions but from facts. Contempt for facts is driving PDP into factions. Few recall that while history is repeating itself in PDP, it is denying another history. The New PDP arose in a similar storm that reinforced APC. What we have is an N-PDP without a split, a faction without dismemberment.

    As the campaign starts, we should embrace history. Not to follow those revisionists who exposed a hypocrite yesterday but have now espoused him and banded together only because they hail from the same tent. It is about resume first before “presum-e.”

  • Tourism troubles

    Tourism troubles

    Tomorrow is World Tourism Day 2022. It has been celebrated on September 27 each year since 1980.  The theme of the celebration this year is “Rethinking Tourism.”

    It is a thought-provoking theme, particularly for Nigeria, which continues to pay lip service to the development of the tourism sector and faces serious challenges that impede the growth of tourism.

    This year’s theme, according to the United Nations (UN), “aims to inspire the debate around rethinking tourism for development.” It said: “World Tourism Day will be celebrated as the shift towards tourism is being recognised as a crucial pillar for development.”  Significantly, the United Nations General Assembly, in May, for the first time held a special debate on tourism, illustrating the relevance and importance of the sector.

    It is noteworthy that the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) defines tourism as “Activities of persons travelling to, and staying in places outside their usual environment; not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business, and other purposes.” This shows that tourism involves travel, and consumption of goods and services.

    So, tourism suffers when a security crisis makes travelling problematic, and an economic crisis complicates consumption of goods and services.   Indeed, Nigeria’s tourism troubles are compounded by insecurity and inflation. Poor infrastructure remains a huge challenge, but the issue has been overshadowed by more potent problems.

    Many parts of the country have become increasingly unsafe. The 2022 Global Terrorism Index ranks Nigeria third among countries most impacted by terrorism in sub-Saharan Africa, and sixth most impacted country in the world.

    Figures from SBM intelligence show that 2,371 people were kidnapped in the first six months of 2021 (2020: 2,860) while 10,366 people were killed in the same year (2020: 7,063).

    This year, at least 7,222 people have been killed and 3,823 abducted. There have been 2, 840 incidents related to insecurity in the country from January to July.

    Also, data from the Nigeria Security Incidents Tracker show that no fewer than 1,499 people were injured in various attacks in 505 local government areas in the country.

    None of the country’s six geopolitical zones is outside the orbit of insecurity.  The Northeast recorded 777 incidents in which 2,052 people were killed and 344 kidnapped. In the Northwest, 519 incidents occurred, leading to the death of 2,229 people while 1,989 were abducted. In the North-central, there were 494 incidents in which 1,748 people lost their lives and 950 were kidnapped.

    The Southwest recorded 420 incidents, which led to the death of 386 people, and 195 were abducted.  At least 310 incidents occurred in the Southeast; 420 people were killed and 157 kidnapped. In the South- south, 278 incidents have so far been recorded; 386 individuals were killed and 195 kidnapped.

    Against this backdrop, not surprisingly, many Nigerians are unwilling, even afraid, to travel within the country for touristic purposes. So, domestic tourism suffers. If domestic tourists are scared, it is predictable that international tourists would be even more so.

    Read Also: Healthcare investments will curb medical tourism, says monarch

    Inflation helps insecurity, and they both act against the country’s tourism sector. There is no doubt that the relentless rise in the prices of goods and services in the country discourages domestic tourism in particular. According to Trading Economics, based on information from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria, “The annual inflation rate in Nigeria accelerated to 20.52 percent in August of 2022 from 19.64 percent in the previous month, above market expectations of 20.25 percent and remaining at the highest since September 2005.”

    The source added: “Food inflation quickened to 23.12 percent from 22.02 percent in July amidst higher prices for staples including rice and bread. Also, a weakening naira continued to pressure the cost of imports up. On a monthly basis, consumer prices rose 1.77 percent, following a 1.82 percent increase in July.”

    Though the naira is weak and poor, this does not necessarily encourage international tourists who will benefit from having stronger currencies to spend. This is because of the spectre of insecurity.

    Nigeria is blessed with tourist attractions. The Sukur Cultural Landscape in Adamawa State and the Osun-Osogbo Grove in Osun State are United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Sites.

    Nigerian sites on UNESCO’s tentative list include Benin Iya/ Sungbo’s Eredo, Old Oyo, Kwiambana and/or Ningi, Oban Hills/Korup, Niger Delta Mangroves, Gashaki-Gumpti National Park, Oke Idanre (Idanre Hill), Arochukwu Long Juju Slave Route (Cave Temple Complex).

    Others are: Ancient Kano City Walls and Associated Sites, Surame Cultural Landscape, Alok Ikom Stone Monoliths, Ogbunike Caves, Cross River – Korup – Takamanda (CRIKOT) National Parks, Lake Chad Cultural Landscape.

    In addition, the Director General of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), Folorunsho Coker, recently listed “five spots being considered as World Islamic Heritage Sites in Nigeria.” According to him, these include ”Hubbaren Shehu, which is Sheikh Usman Danfodio’s house in Sokoto State (an outstanding example of Islamic traditional architecture). There is also the Gobarau Minaret in Katsina (a unique structure of its kind), the Sheikh Alimi Mosque complex in Ilorin, the Mbormi Battle Ground in Gombe and Fanisau Palace Mosque Kano.” He said these sites had been proposed to the World Islamic Heritage Committee for official recognition

    But what is the use of having tourist attractions that cannot attract tourists because of poor infrastructure, insecurity and inflation, among other factors?

    Ironically, Nigeria is billed to host the UNWTO  2022 conference scheduled to hold in Lagos from November 14 to 16. Delegates from 166 countries are expected to participate in the event. Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed said “This will mark the fifth time that Nigeria will be hosting member states of the UNWTO.’’

    The minister also said the country would use the event to “market and highlight its diverse and unique assets in the areas of tourism, culture and the creative industry.” He added: “It is our collective and individual responsibility as Nigerians to ensure that we host a world class event in a safe and secure environment.”

    This may be regarded as a subtle reference to the country’s security crisis. Indeed, that may well explain the choice of Lagos as the venue of the conference, given the state’s relative safety.

    Ultimately, hosting the UNWTO conference looks like image laundering. It may help to make the country look good, but it doesn’t change the ugly realities.

  • 2023 polls’ contradiction

    2023 polls’ contradiction

    The 2023 elections are enmeshed in dialectics of sorts. If this dialectical situation involving thesis and antithesis gives rise to a positive outcome (synthesis), our democracy may be better for it. But it could result in negative outcomes.

    Contradiction is evident from the actions, inactions and decisions of the major political parties; the utterances of key party personages and efforts to defend decisions by their various party organs.

    The basis for this disagreement was evident before the primaries of political parties but was given added impetus by events of the presidential primaries. It is all rooted in the clamour by the southern part of the country for power rotation.

    The demand got fillip when 17 southern governors cutting across party lines issued a communiqué after their meeting in Lagos, reiterating their “commitment to the politics of equity, fairness and unanimously agreed that the presidency of Nigeria be rotated between the southern and northern Nigeria”.

    The import of that given extant power matrix is for the major political parties to choose their presidential candidates from the south for the electorate to shop from just as it happened in 2019.

    Ironically, the parties were not forthcoming on this as their primaries inched closer. The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, after much reluctance, threw open its ticket to all contenders citing the exigencies of time. But the party reaffirmed commitment to the rotation principle enshrined in its constitution, whatever that was meant to achieve.

    Though the party pleaded time constraints, it was clear political expedience weighed very heavily in influencing that decision. The emergence of former vice president, Atiku Abubakar as the presidential candidate of the party is now history. But the ripples of that and its distortions on power rotation have continued to present the greatest contradiction for the party.

    Though Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike leads the revolt on account of his misfortunes in the party, it will be naive to interpret the disagreement solely along the confines of Wike’s failed interest. PDP is entangled in the contradiction of its inability to stick to its constitutional power rotation principle.

    Demands for the resignation of its party’s national chairman, Iyorchia Ayu stemming from the incongruity of having both the presidential candidate and the national chairman come from the same northern geo-political divide, highlights this contradiction. Those in the vanguard of the agitation for balance are not enthused by what the party constitution says on the mode of removal of the national chairman.

    Having shoved aside the same constitution in the presidential primaries, the party does not stand on sound moral ground to resist the agitation to take the position of the national chairman to the south by the same considerations.

    Read Also: Tinubu will win 2023 presidency, fix Nigeria – South West Arewa community

    The PDP is a victim of its own contradiction. It is a victim of permutations on the expediency of capturing political power. All the argument about time constraints are nothing but a subterfuge to hide the underlying belief that a northern presidential candidate is the best bet to capture northern votes touted as the deciding factor for electoral success.

    They are entitled to their calculations. But they have to contend with the contradiction thrown up by that decision. That is the force and momentum of dialectics.

    The same dialectics is playing out for the All Progressives Congress APC but slightly in a different direction. Though the party was slow in coming clear on its position on power rotation resulting to the emergence of northern presidential aspirants, tension was diffused when northern governors threw their weight behind former Lagos State governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

    Tinubu won overwhelmingly at the primaries to emerge the presidential candidate of the party. His emergence satisfied the demand for the party to pick its presidential candidate from the south. So the party had everything going for it as far as satisfying the yearnings for power rotation to the south. The fact of the APC being the ruling party was a further boost to its electoral chances.

    But the party did not escape the force of its own contradictions. Dialectics was to set in at the level of the choice of the vice presidential candidate. The adoption of the same faith ticket did not go down well with a section of its members who felt left out in the political calculations.

    Key party leaders, amongst them governors have sought to reassure the aggrieved that the decision is not to slight them but a strategy to win elections.  But that calculation brought its own contradiction. The aggrieved are piqued by the underlying insinuation that they are of limited electoral value in that part of the country and are determined to prove wrong that profiling. That is the force of contradiction.

    The other contradiction comes from the entrance into the race by the Labour Party, LP presidential candidate, Peter Obi and Rabiu KwanKwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party NNPP. Obi and Kwankwaso opted for their new parties apparently sensing the likely outcome of the primaries of their previous parties.

    Before now, politics had largely coalesced along a two party platform, following efforts by the military to institute a two-party system. The 1993 elections were fought along that line. In the last eight years, national elections have predominantly been fought along two party platforms.

    That balance has been substantially altered by emerging political developments. We are now contending with the contradiction of having the three major ethnic groups fielding candidates for the elections. Given the fault lines of this country, the language of political discourse has begun to assume parochial coloration. The evidence is palpable.

    Nobody would want to admit this profiling. But all the actors stand to take advantage of it one way or the other. How the countervailing forces of these contradictions will play out?

  • Whited Sepulchre

    Whited Sepulchre

    The was not just a woman, but high-born. Above that, she was a royal. Not just a royal but a blue-blood on a peacock throne. More than that, she was the queen of England. And being that, she was the first queen of the world.

    But since Queen Elizabeth II passed on, so many other hearts have stopped. Low and high in society from beggar to chief. So many tears and eulogies that only their families, locals and hospitals shed and hear. They are, however, puny tragedies tucked inside the sackcloth for the queen. Even in death, Queen Elizabeth II flogs the commoner. As Shakespeare wrote, “When beggars die, there are no comets seen. The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.”

    The whole world is paying what many call respects. When the mourners say it, their faces tremble and their voices swoon, and it comes across more like veneration. If you look at the pilgrimages, the long queues, solemn and patient, it is not just respect, not just veneration, but adoration. It is her worshipful majesty. They are not just there to say good night to their queen. It is as though it is a religious rite, not a moment for obsequies, but a time to bow and mumble words, private like a prayer. Even reporters are calling it vigil, as though an evocation of the women waiting for the Lord Jesus to reawaken.

    When was the last time anyone gathered like that for a god, or for a spirit from on high?  In the words of Russian poet Mayakovsky “There is no one more alive” today than the queen. The Russian poet penned those lines for Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, when the whole of Russia quaked over the passing of their revolutionary.

    When I saw the Elizabethan pilgrimages, Mayakovsky’s poem came vaguely to mind. I had last read it in 1989 when I was a reporter with the African Concord. I read only an extract quoted at the end of a big tome of a biography on the Russian avatar. I quickly searched for it in my library. No dice. Someone again must have filched it away. Google rescued it.

    Read Also: Queen Elizabeth, Prof Anya and Peter Obi

    The poet objected to deifying his hero. Just like this essayist does today even as her last journey begins from the blush of dawn.

    In Africa, we have made gods out of men and women. In Yorubaland, we know of the fiery Ogun and Sango, of Yemoja, et al. They live as legends but die as gods. People saw Awo in the moon. In Europe though, legends cannot transform into deities. They are too materialist for that, even if they follow celebrities like worshippers without the mystical. They secularise the sacred like in Achebe’s Arrow of God. As Mayakovsky writes, “no sagas, no epics, no myths/ all extinct.”

    Yet, the West still elevates the woman and want to deprive us of the chance to humanise her.  They want to defang her of all sins. It is like a scene in Aristophanes play, The Acharnians when a pacifist takes all the parphenalia of Euripides’ tragic plays, including the rags. So the playwright is no longer a man of tragedy. He is free of all sins. But  we remember though that Queen Elizabeth was of the Windsor stock, that she was the second Elizabeth on the throne, that she rode on a carriage of gold that can cure poverty, if liquidated, in parts of the world, that her family made us die or scream as slaves in their plantation, that she mounted a handsome wealth based on black blood and treasure. Our red blood rarefied her blue.

    She never apologised for her forbears and our forbearance. Nor do we want apologies. She loved the Commonwealth, especially the games. It was the classic mea culpa of England, a tranquiliser to dull us to the tyrannies of colonialism. We play together, win medals together and even cherish the illusion of beating their athletes. What a revenge, eh? There is a well in Badagry that local chiefs made for the whites so our ancestors drank from it before their journey of no return. Any slaves who slaked a thirst with the water forgot their pain and forswore any protest against the white man’s savagery. Anyone can visit it today. The BOS of Lagos, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has remodelled the whole museum, an awakening that we should take our history seriously. The Badagry well of meekness is like the Commonwealth, a lie of an institution to salve the white conscience, like Mary Slessor teaching us love our twins after her folks exploited Christ to subvert our harmonies.

    Count me out of the obsequies. She was a nice woman, but not nice enough for me. She was stately, polished and exuded grandeur. Our ancestors guaranteed her a life of the debonair. She presided over enough wealth to be nice. She might have asked the kingdom to give them back, in substantial amount into a trust but not to the thieving African governments. The Commonwealth could turn the trust to build roads, schools, scholarships, hospitals and create business opportunities. That is the only pardon we want. Not the meretricious glory of an obsequy. Not the pageant of dignitaries she received every other day to soothe her conscience. This soothing of conscience has been here for long. My teacher of blessed memory, Professor B. O. Oloruntimehin stated that, “the abolition of slave trade was an act of enlightened self-interest by the Europeans to give the Africans a new role in the international economic system.” They didn’t abolish it as penance but as a cynical overhaul of international commerce. We now gave them raw materials for their industrial magnificence. After all, they sent the missionaries to help them continue slavery with a godly face, so as to soften the negroes to conform. Joseph Conrad called them “messengers of the might within the land, bearers of the spark from the sacred fire…” in his fraught classic Heart of Darkness.

    Their writers did same their own mea culpa, including the elegant Jane Austen in her novels Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion. In fact, Mansfield Park was a tribute to the Chief Justice Mansfield, who ruled in 1772 against continuing slavery on English soil. Charlotte Bronte also haunts us with the slave woman’s cry from the attic in her novel Jane Eyre, a visceral decibel that inspired another novel, Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys.

    They can celebrate Elizabeth but they should remember M.K.O. Abiola,  who saw through the haughty mist and called for reparations. The royals have money they can never spend. Royal ethics forbids any conspicuous consumption or the owambe vanity. They just watch their money grow, while the source of their abundance suffers. No excuse for our bad leadership over the years. But what is our is ours. Barclays Bank apologised. The Church of England has apologised for encouraging the rape and rapine of slavery by saying blacks had no soul. Yet, they encouraged missionaries like Slessor to teach the gospel. To win souls that didn’t exist? What hypocrisy.

    So, while what Mayakovsky describes as “the honeyed incense of homage and publicity” goes on, they should not blind us to her essential humanity and the whited sepulchre of the monarchy.

  • Atiku’s agenda and the Lagos example

    Atiku’s agenda and the Lagos example

    Atiku Abubakar wanted to divert attention from the turmoil within by gathering some media men and business interests in Lagos. Agenda: his manifesto. I thought he had something sudden, something disruptive to offer. The most amusing was his pledge to unify Nigeria. Of course, the nation has turned into a camp of many tents. “To your tents Oh tribes” is a refrain that rends our souls. But who to do that? Atiku? A man who cannot bring his party together? A physician that cannot heal himself? His candidacy has thrown the party into a chaos of cards. In his visit to Oyo State governor Seyi Makinde, he brandished the party law as more important than the removal of Ayu as chairman. He did not know there was a party law when he collapsed zoning for his personal ambition before the primaries. The nomadic politician is playing Pharisee conveniently and the bravado of guilt. He is now a man of law and not of men. What a performance. Any way, it seems peace is an illusion now. Wike and his party, no pun intended, will cohabit with Atiku in a bed of thorns.

    His pledge for MSMEs sounds sound but it is neither original nor grounded in rigour. What are the monetarist and/or fiscal underpinnings to this policy? What philosophy other than to just dole out money? His federalism idea he aped from his days with the progressives. He wants to be the imitator who wants to claim the original. Not so fast.

    Read Also: Bode George: why Atiku may lose next year’s poll

    The difference between men like him and his labouring friend is that they want to sell themselves based on what they want to do. The APC candidate is a double barrel. He is selling his candidacy on what he has done as a testimonial for what he can do. Worlds apart from his peers.

    Hence some could not fault a recent documentary on Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. Rather they screamed, ululated, and howled like the night owl over fantasies of his personality. Did he revolutionise Lagos financing, did he change the security architecture, did he make the Eko Atlantic into a modern city out of a looming environmental disaster, Does the Eko Atlantic alone not make more wealth that many states put together including Adamawa and Anambra, did he clean up the environment, did he create LAMATA, BRT, LASTMA, did he set the agenda for the trains that are about to cruise through the city, thanks to Gov. Sanwo-Olu, did he make men, etc.? As a prophet in the Bible said, if you don’t have anything to controvert what you have heard, hold your peace.

     

  • Mamu’s matter: Double standards

    Mamu’s matter: Double standards

    It’s thought-provoking that Tukur Mamu is now alleged to be a co-conspirator and terrorism enabler. He had been known as a negotiator working for the release of multiple train passengers abducted by terrorists on the Abuja-Kaduna route on March 28.

    The Department of State Services (DSS) claimed that Mamu “was intercepted by Nigeria’s foreign partners on his way to Saudi Arabia for a clandestine meeting with commanders and top leaders of terrorist organisations across the globe.” The security agency added that his home and office in Kaduna State were searched following his repatriation to Nigeria, and “various exhibits and items to establish his complicity with terrorists were recovered.”  It also accused him of being a logistics supplier, aiding and abetting acts of terrorism, as well as terrorism financing.

    Mamu, who is the publisher of Desert Herald, was said to have “used the cover of his profession as a journalist to aid both local and international terrorist groups.” The DSS alleged that he had supplied information to bandits and terrorists that escalated terrorism in the country, leading to the deaths of several security personnel in Northcentral and Northeast parts of Nigeria.  His activities, the agency said, constitute a potent threat to unity and peace in the country.

    According to the DSS, investigation of his activities is ongoing. So, the agency, on September 12, obtained permission from the Federal High Court (FHC) in Abuja to further detain him for 60 days, in the first instance, pending the conclusion of the investigation. He was arrested by foreign security agents on September 6, in Cairo, Egypt, with his two wives, en route to Saudi Arabia for Umrah (lesser Hajj).  The DSS contradicted the said purpose of the trip.  They were deported, and arrested by security operatives on arrival in Kano.  Mamu was caged, but his wives were released.

    It is striking that DSS spokesman Peter Afunaya had, in a statement, described the “outcomes” of the agency’s investigation as “mindboggling.” The story of Mamu’s arrest in Egypt and Nigeria, the accusations against him, and his detention, is still developing, and it remains to be seen how it would end.

    There are 23 people still being held by the terrorists who attacked the Kaduna-bound train. They have spent about six months in captivity.   Predictably, their families are more troubled because of Mamu’s detention. In his role as a negotiator, he had helped to get abductees released. Some of the captives were freed after payment of ransom to their captors.

    His intervention, it must be noted, was prompted by the inaction of the authorities. It is uncertain what will happen to the remaining captives now that the negotiator has been caged, and the federal government is still inactive.

    Speaking for the concerned families, Aminu Uthman was quoted as saying to a reporter: “You are aware of what happened to the person who is in charge of the negotiations. So, nobody even knows what is happening.”

    A notable incident in June, three months after the train attack, highlighted Mamu’s concern about the federal government’s inaction. There was bad news that one of the abductees, identified as Mohammed Al’Amin, was shot and injured. Mamu had explained that the shooting occurred during “friendly exchanges of fire at the forest between the abductors that are guarding the victims and preventing them from possible escape.” However, he added, “it could also be intentional from them for the purpose of sending a message.”

    He also said: “Killing of their victims is something we know they can do. They have threatened to do that before. This is why the authorities must take action to ensure that none of the captives is killed. The government has the power to bring this to an end within three to four days…Cases of emergency such as this do not require unnecessary bureaucracy.”

    He didn’t sound like a collaborator, which is how the DSS has now painted him. How did he get involved in negotiating with the train attackers and abductors in the first place? Why did the federal government allow him to play the role of a private negotiator, which resulted in the release of some of the hostages? When did the authorities become suspicious of him?

    Lamentably, the federal government’s inaction continues to give the impression that it is unable to rescue the kidnapees and unwilling to negotiate their release. This is why Mamu’s role was useful.

    Interestingly, the DSS, in a statement on reactions to Mamu’s arrest, said the public should “desist from making unguarded utterances and await the court proceedings.” That’s all well and good, but how long will the public have to wait?

    There’s something curious about the treatment of Mamu’s matter, especially when compared with the treatment of the 400 alleged Boko Haram sponsors that the federal government announced it had arrested in April 2021. At the time, the said arrests suggested a new level of seriousness in the fight against terrorism.

    The arrested alleged financiers of the Islamic terrorist group were said to be businessmen, including bureau de change operators. They were arrested in Kano, Borno, Lagos, Sokoto, Adamawa, Kaduna and Zamfara states, and Abuja.

    The arrests were said to have been carried out following investigations involving the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), the Department of State Services (DSS), Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The suspects were expected to be prosecuted without delay.

    More than a year after the said arrests, the public is still expecting the trial of the unnamed suspects. It is unclear why they have not been prosecuted, and whether they will eventually face trial.

    Mamu’s identity is not hidden, possibly because his activities as a negotiator were not hidden. But the federal government has not revealed the identities of the arrested 400 alleged sponsors of terrorism in the country.  Also, the authorities seem determined to prosecute Mamu.  But they have not shown any determination to arraign the 400 suspects.

    The Terrorism (Prohibition and Prevention) bill, 2022 signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari, stipulates a range of sanctions, including life imprisonment and death sentence, for anyone convicted of terrorism-related activity. The legislation, which comes after previous ones in 2011 and 2013, seeks to “provide for an effective, unified and comprehensive legal, regulatory and institutional framework for the detection, prevention, prohibition, prosecution and punishment of acts of terrorism, terrorism financing, proliferation and financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in Nigeria; and for related matters.”

    Boosting the anti-terrorism effort may require legislation, but it also demands prosecution of arrested suspects based on extant law, without which stipulated sanctions cannot be applied.

    The public awaits Mamu’s trial. He should not be detained without trial, and should be tried without delay.  The public had awaited the trial of the 400 suspects, which has not happened. It is unclear if they are still in detention after more than a year since their arrest.

    It amounts to double standards that the authorities are playing up Mamu’s matter, and downplaying the issue of the arrested 400 alleged terrorism enablers.   

     

     

  • Echoes of state police

    Echoes of state police

    Agitation for the establishment of state police reverberated last week, albeit from an unusual quarters.

    But for the angle it emanated, one would have been led to dismiss the call given the way previous ones were disdainfully treated by the current regime. Even then, the reality that the country is about to enter the thick of electioneering campaigns also suggests some difficulty in seeing through the type of constitutional re-engineering that will usher in such changes.

    That was the initial difficulty when the news filtered of a communiqué by the Northern Governors Forum (NGF) and the Northern Traditional Rulers Council (NTRC) calling for the amendment of the 1999 constitution to give legal backing for the establishment of state police.

    But these reservations did not in any way diminish the weight and symbolism of the advocacy. It was the first time since state police came to the front burner that both northern governors and traditional rulers sat together to lend their voices to it. They were united that state police was the best way out of the myriads of security challenges holding the region and the rest of the country to the ground.

    It is good a thing the northern leadership has found its voice on this crucial matter even belatedly.  Since the complex wave of unceasing insecurity swept across the country, there have been strident calls for state police to fill the yawning gap created by the glaring inability of the central police to adequately respond to their statutory functions. It has been canvassed with varying degrees of persuasion that Nigeria’s citizen-police ratio which is far below the minimum world standards cannot make for effective police performance given the centrality of the federal police command.

    Curiously, despite the weight of evidence in support of state police, the idea did not quire resonate with President Buhari.  He had severally opposed that idea. In an interview, he had said: “state police is not an option… find out the relationship between local governments and governors. Is the third arm of the government getting what they are supposed to get constitutionally?”

    Buhari did not only utterly dismiss the idea of state police but drew comparison with the management of local government funds by state governors to underscore the likely fate of state police if it comes on board. Yet, the existing structure of the police that leaves state governors as glorified chief security officers without powers of control over the police has remained largely unhelpful.

    Since nature abhors vacuum, states have had to respond to this yawning gap variously. There are vigilante group across the country set up by state governors with powers for limited security functions. And in the face of the escalating and existential security infractions that had pushed the country on edge, there emerged regional security outfits such as Amotekun in the southwest and Ebubeagu in the southeast.

    There is a multiplicity of other groups across the country with cloudy roles that sometimes throw up complications into the security architecture. Yet, all these cannot take the place of state police in a federal setting.

    Decentralization of policing is a cardinal feature of all federations. The United States of America which model of democracy we copied maintains federal, state, municipal and local police. Canada has federal, provincial and municipal police even as it has a unique arrangement in which some provinces, municipalities and aboriginal communities voluntarily contract policing to the federal police.

    So it is not the issue of state police being abused by state governors. Neither does it suffice to cite whatever lapses that exist in the management of local government funds to fault the compelling imperative of state police. If such morbid fear was to have a serious place, this country has no reason continuing with the presidential system of government given the serial abuses and assault it had been subjected to by leaders, including the current one.

    The system of government in place since the return of democracy in I999 is nothing but democracy in its most aberrant form. The same goes for the unitary system of government that disguises as a federal order, no thanks to the defective and anti-people constitution bequeathed to us by the military.

    The same mind-set that accounts for opposition against state police has been the greatest undoing of all efforts by real patriots to have the imperfections of our federal order addressed through a national conference. So it is good a thing the northern leadership is rising to the reality of state police as an essential ingredient of a functional federal system of government.

    Before now, much of the agitation had come from the south as if that region has any peculiar gain from it. But it does appear not much can be achieved now as we enter serious electioneering campaigns shortly.

    Not with the rubberstamp National Assembly, it’s skewed and lazy leadership that seems more concerned with regime protection over and above the collective interests of their constituents. Nothing of such can come from that legislature in the remaining months notwithstanding recent tepid threat to impeach the president over lingering insecurity.

    Perhaps, issues relating to state police and other contentious features of our federal order are best left to the incoming administration that will presumably emerge from free, fair and credible elections next year. Until then, we expect to see the presidential candidates of the political parties addressing the country on how they intend to respond such national questions as fiscal federalism, state police and restructuring both of the polity and the economy.

    We expect the presidential candidates to show clear roadmap on how they intend to unite the disparate and variegated interests that have been torn apart by segregated and nepotistic policies that left Nigerians more divided and fragmented than ever in our history. These are issues of immediate concern than the distractive diatribe polluting the political space.

  • Boy child

    Boy child

    Boy meets destiny. Boy flinches. Before that, he knows the girl cringes in his shadows. He is prime in all things. Father, with even mother, is pregnant. He wants a boy first. If the boy comes first and four girls follow, he bewails his fortune. His wife has won over. In-laws look askance. He questions his barrel-chested prowess. Fate and sperms have feminised him. He wants another boy, desperately. The Bible pronounces only the male pronoun. The leaders are all testosterone-built. They bawl, wear suits and ties or agbada or babaringa, wife beater. They are army generals. They are CEOs. Older girls will bow to younger brother who turns king. They control the leather ball on turfs of play. Females swoon, lesser men envy. Wife bears husband’s name.

    The boy has it all. And that, perhaps, is the problem. Does the male have it all, or he stews in a grandeur he does not own?

    Have we not made a big mistake to erect policy sanctuaries for the girl child? Look at our foibles. The kidnapper is male. The store thief is male. Ditto at the big corporation. The embezzler of billions, in the language of the Bible, is he that pisses on a wall. The bandit, the Rambo-loose murderer, the waster of public goodwill, the oath breaker, are they not the ones strapped with muscles, biceps and throats that swat a fly to death?

    We cannot forget the 344 Kankara boys, trekking barefoot, foodless and gorging on desperate vegetables. A parody of the great walks from Moses wilderness to Second World War.

    Yet we say it is girl child that needs fixing. It is official denial. The male makes the policy as apology, too. Apology for his Mephistophelian disdain for the female species. But apology is no penance. As Jesus says, we must show proof of repentance. To fix the female, first fix the male. In fact, to fix the male, first fix the male. We have to save the boy child to save the girl child. The fact is coming from an unusual quarter: Lagos. Not a hotbed for kidnaps or bandit. Yet Lagos has its fair share of the wayward male, the red-blooded version known as the area boy.  Soyinka parodies it in his satirical play, The Beatification of the Area Boy, in which the area boy advances the imprimatur of the military psyche.

    So, the first lady of Lagos State, Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu tackles it, and it is her pet project. The boy needs to go to school, cultivate courtesy, respect the rule of law, shun drugs, debauchery and other forms of dissipation, pursue the unity of play and study, imbibe civic challenges. Those are the fulcrum of Mrs. Sanwo-Olu’s programme.

    We did not see such a programme up north or north east, where the Al-majiri becomes grounds to recruit for politics and sectarian militancy, or the south-south where they grow into pipeline vandals and fronts as political vanguards, or in the south east where a few young men gospelise in blood the virtues of another way.

    Mrs Sanwo-Olu’s zest is at once as wake-up call and a satire on the lack of gender propriety in our governments. But just as her case blossoms, a similar programme for the vulnerable young has run into a rut in the north. It began years ago when Bishop Kukah and former Kano Emir Sanusi met with the head of Telefonica in Rome. The man had about one billion dollars to give. Rev Kukah convinced him to take on the issue of out-of-school kids in the north, and the man came over to Nigeria and agreed to sign an MOU led by then Governor of Borno State and now vice presidential candidate of the APC, Kashim Shettima. The focus was digital education. And the programme roared into progress, with up to 120 schools already humming with kids enjoying it. Some parents even said their children were coming home late because they had absorbed its fancies. The idea was to bring 10 million al-majiri children into its miracle. The governors were at it until an unlikely voice threw a spanner in the works. The head of Muslim Rights Concern, Prof. Ishaq Akintola said it would convert the kids to the Christian faith. Shettima railed back at him saying that the programme had no Christian content and he was bringing its benefits to the children of Borno State.

    But somehow, the states across the north, according to Rev Kukah, have run cold. He lamented it at his appearance on the TVC Breakfast show. The project, known as ProFuturo, stands for future progress and is already soaring in Latin American and some African countries, including Kenya. It is not dead here, but paralysed because the governors have now turned their eyes away, perhaps because of the fear of a charge of apostacy, that they may seem to be upending their faith. But it is easy. All they need to do is monitor the programmes and ensure they don’t throw the al-majiri babies with the bathwater of knowledge. They should not yield to a bigoted professor. Digital knowledge knows neither Islam or Christianity. It’s about algorithms. It is like the debate over Sukuk loans. Christians who balked at it are now riding Sukkuk-funded roads even on their way to scream hallelujah.

    This essayist does not condemn the girl-child policy. But we should prioritise the boychild, so they grow to enrich a culture where they can elevate the girl child to their own level. If the male child is not free, the girl child will remain in bondage. The boy is thought from childhood to embody the culture and tradition, to uphold the conscience of the age. He will decide whether the girl will go to school, study what ennobles her, marry who she loves, work where she wants, travel or stay at home, train the boy who is the man’s son, etc. If the male is the approving authority, then improve him to approve right. We don’t want lads to grow up like William Golding’s scarecrow boys in Lord of the Flies. Or like Oscar, the boy arsonist who screams for glasses to shatter like Nazi youths, in Gunter Grass’ novel Tin Drum. Or the sullen monster who is a perennial house guest in Harold Pinter’s Birthday Party but he is treated like a son. Whether it’s Hitler Youth, or the KKK, or Plato’s scenario for the boy child enshrined in Sparta, the result is a society that places hubris over decency. In her sociological classic, Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American male, Susan Faludi delineates how the American boy is trained to be a macho model and corporate success but not how to be happy and human. He conforms but the society and the male lose fulfilment, just like Babbitt in Sinclair Lewis’ novel of that name.

    Mrs. Sanwo-Olu holds the torch, let others follow as Bishop Kukah’s project beckons.

  • PDP’s social contract

    PDP’s social contract

    PDP held its NEC last week, and everything was right about it except that they went around it. They wanted to follow rules but couldn’t.  They had committed the original sin at their convention?

    It’s not their fault. So, rather than only NEC members, it opened for all comers for a party that is calling for restructuring. Personal assistants, media men, even ADCs, were present at the vote when yes rang for Ayu’s a vote of confidence. They might have not heard of Douglas Bader the WWII pilot who said, “Rules are for the guidance of wise men and obedience of fools.”

    No wise men there. No obedience. A full house there only that so few south governors came. Bode George regretted. They said Tambuwal and BOT chair Jibrin stepped down. The party is so wise it waited for Wike’s harangues to cede northern posts like a man caught naked with the neighbour’s wife. But then Tambuwal denies stepping down. Makinde can’t become governors’ forum chair. What would happen to his buddy Dr. Ikpeazu, the next in line? how could he materialise in Abia to commission projects?

    Read Also: PDP crisis: Wike hits Ayu again as Makinde slams Atiku

    So, blame not Ayu, Tambuwal, Jibrin. But Atiku’s ambition. He pooh-poohed a southern presidency. It’s the original sin. The executive formed in hope of southern president. If Ayu quits, it means all exco members must quit because the whole pack of office cards will have to reshuffle. Gen secretary, treasurer, spokesman, et al. It means a new convention, a new zoning formula, a new PDP. But the nomadic Atiku stays put as a father haunting his own home.

    Wike is the unlikely conscience, its John the Baptist, yelling with his scratchy voice in the PDP wilderness. Playing deaf, Atiku is trying to patch things. But he is no tailor, just a traitor and a contractor messing with PDP’s social contract.