The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • Men like Mandela

    Men like Mandela

    How does one pay tribute to a man for all seasons like former President Nelson Mandela who died last Thursday at 95?

    He was indeed not only the greatest son of South Africa, like President Jacob Zuma put it while announcing the passing away of Madiba, he was one of the greatest men that has lived in our times.

    That not only South Africa is mourning his death is a confirmation of his being a global icon of what a true leader should be.

    I have been reading the tributes to Mandela and can only pray that in our mourning moments the virtues that stood him out are not lost on us.

    The world and Africa particularly need more men like Mandela and I am reminded of the famous poem of Josiah Gilbert Holland titled GOD, give us men!

    A time like this demands

    Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands;

    Men whom the lust of office does not kill;

    Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;

    Men who possess opinions and a will;

    Men who have honour; men who will not lie;

    Men who can stand before a demagogue

    And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking!

    Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog

    In public duty, and in private thinking;

    For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds,

    Their large professions and their little deeds,

    Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps,

    Wrong rules the land and waiting Justice sleeps.

    In Mandela God answered Holland’s prayers and He can still do.

    Mandela and some other African National Congress leaders refused to be cowed by the apartheid regime and confronted the demagogue of oppression when many would have given up.

    For 27 years, he was jailed but he never wavered on his commitment to the struggle to free his people from white-dominated rule and was ready to pay the supreme sacrifice to free his people.

    “During my lifetime, I have dedicated my life to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and to see realised. But, My Lord, if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die,” Mandela stated in1964 from the dock of the Pretoria courtroom after being in jail two years already.

    I remember visiting the very isolated Roben Island prison years ago and can imagine the extent the apartheid leaders went to break Mandela’s and other freedom fighters’ spirit.

    Mandela was ready to pay the supreme sacrifice, but thankfully he didn’t and lived to emerge as the first black South African president.

    Unlike many other African leaders who would have seen his election as president as an opportunity to entrench himself in office and serve as many terms as possible and even get the Constitution amended, Mandela served only a term and gave his country a firm democratic foundation.

    Mandela’s death calls for celebration of a life lived for others. What counts in life, as Mandela noted, is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others.

    Bye Bye Mandela. Rest in peace.

  • No Junaid Mohammed, no

    No Junaid Mohammed, no

    Jonathan can run again; what we should insist  on is free and fair election

    Even many people who do not like the Goodluck Jonathan administration will not agree with Dr Junaid Mohammed’s threat that blood will flow on the streets of Nigeria should President Jonathan insist on running for president in 2015. Although I share Dr Mohammed’s views about the Jonathan presidency, I would have been satisfied if he had stopped at his statement that “… if there is going to be a free and credible election, I don’t mind if Jonathan runs, because I know he would be roundly rejected by Nigerians”. But to say blood will flow on account of the president running again is to me superfluous.

    The truth, though, is that Nigerian leaders have a way of speaking in tongues when the issue is staying put in office. President Jonathan’s godfather said he was waiting on God for direction when asked if he was going for second term or not. This was a man who was born again only in the upper part of the body! The essential area is however still steeped in iniquity. Now, according to Dr. Mohammed, President Jonathan has said he is under pressure to run; and that that, so far, is the only clue we have as to whether the President wants to run again or not.

    Like Governor Rotimi Amaechi, Dr Mohammed may not be a good body language reader, so, at least for now, we should rely on his claim that the president is ‘under pressure’ to run again; a thing that does not go down well with the medical doctor: “Quote me, if Jonathan insists on running, there will be bloodshed and those who feel short-changed may take the warpath and the country may not be the same again. His running will amount to taking about 85 million northerners for a ride and that is half of the country’s total population”. I have issues with some of these claims, but that is not important today.

    The 1999 Constitution stipulates conditions for people who aspire to our presidency. President Jonathan has more than the minimum requirements. If he hadn’t, he would not have been president in the first place. For me, therefore, the next question to ask is whether the president has done well to merit reelection. Permit me to refer to Mohammed’s criteria:

    “…On the three criteria globally used to measure preference for a leader, this man (Jonathan) has got none of them. They are competence, integrity and acceptability. On competence, you journalists know this better. President Jonathan is incompetent. He has got no integrity … On acceptability, apart from his few ethnic and tribal advisers, who are urging him to contest, Jonathan today (please note my emphasis on TODAY) is not acceptable to the generality of Nigerians. So on all these three counts he is nowhere, so on what basis is he going to run again?”

    This is a pertinent question. But on what basis has the president’s party been winning some of the elections it claimed to have won in the past? I agree with Dr Mohammed that the Jonathan administration is an administrative fiasco. I may not know of the president personally, but I agree too that his government is corrupt. These being the case, the answer to the third question (that of acceptability by voters), is already settled. So, if it is indeed true that some people are putting pressure on President Jonathan to run again, this must be the handiwork of ethnic advisers as Dr Mohammed said. And, if I may add, those other people whose bread is being buttered for every minute that President Jonathan is in office.

    But this should not surprise anyone because it has always been like that; Nigeria has never been in short supply of such characters. These sycophants are sans borders, it has nothing to do with the part of the country the leader comes from. They were there in the Second Republic and they did not leave the Shehu Shagari government until the president had the knock of soldiers on the door, telling him the game was up. They were also there in the Gen. Sani Abacha years when they told the general (who was disliked at home and distrusted abroad) that Nigeria would collapse if Abacha did not transmute to civilian president. They eventually saw Abacha to his grave.

    These are the people who are now preventing President Jonathan from knowing that things have changed since the 2011 elections and that if free and fair elections are held today, the president will perhaps lose his deposit. This reminds me of a question I asked President Jonathan’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe, when he visited this newspaper sometime ago: “since when did the Jonathan administration begin to be loathed by Nigerians? Was it not the same Nigerians that gave the president an overwhelming support during the 2011 presidential election”? Okupe replied that it was probably since the fuel subsidy withdrawal issue. That could jolly well be true; but what effort has the Jonathan presidency made to reverse the trend? The government has only gone progressively worse on all indices of good governance.

    I am not sure any other government since the Babangida era caressed corruption the way the Jonathan administration is doing. And what this does is to reinforce the impression by not a few persons that the president does not give a damn about his legacy but only sees his time as the turn of the Niger Delta region to rule Nigeria. People from other geo-political zones have done it before and they had second term. So, it is immaterial if he too does it well or not; the Niger Delta is entitled to two terms and other Nigerians must understand and accept this notorious fact, and return him (Jonathan) possibly unopposed.

    Perhaps another reason that many people have been silent on concerning their frustration with the Jonathan government is that this is the first time Nigeria is having graduates not just as Number One citizen but also as Number Two. All the while we have been lamenting that while the country is blessed with numerous erudite scholars, it had not been privileged to have a graduate as president. Now that both the president and his deputy are graduates, with the president having a PhD, there is still no difference. Isn’t this enough reason to be aggrieved, when great expectations turn to great frustrations?

    By 2015, President Jonathan would have been in power for five years (his four years plus one year he inherited from the late President Umaru Yar’Adua); this is only two years short of the seven-year tenure he has championed for president and governors. What value is the president going to add to governance that he could not have added in five years? If morning shows the day, we can see clearly there is none.

    All said, what we should be fighting for now is not that President Jonathan should not run again, because he has the backing of the constitution to run. Rather, we should be preparing ourselves for free and fair elections. That should be the sing-song of the opposition parties to their supporters. Now, perhaps more than ever before, it is becoming clearer that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has completely outlived its usefulness. The party has ruled for over 14 years and, going by its fantasy, it wants to rule for 60. When an ant sends its apologies about its inability to attend a social function, saying it has been having diarrhea in the last three days to that function, the natural question to ask is: whether there would be any trace of such an ant after three days of continual running of the stomach? What is the size of the ant even while enjoying good health?

    If the sorry pass that our country has become today is what the PDP could post after 14 out of their projected 60 years in power, then Nigeria would become history if that party stays in power longer than necessary.

  • Mandates, strikes and negotiations

    THE Federal government’s threat to sack striking members of ASUU and the digging in , of members of the union , in distributing food stuffs to its members in anticipation of government sack, are two sides of the same coin to me. Both are extreme actions just as alarming as the Boko Haram invasion of Maiduguri that had the Governor of the state wailing that no matter what, Boko Haram will not succeed in driving the people of Borno out of their land. It is my candid opinion that both the Federal government and ASUU want Nigerians to lament like the Borno state governor, before they realise that they are not at war, but are expected to oversee and manage university education in Nigeria, no matter the odds in their way in making a success of that assignment. The FGN and ASUU have no mandate to close down the University system in Nigeria for what ever reason .It follows therefore that Government’s insistence that it had deposited 200bn naira for ASUU in the CBN and ASUU’s food distribution to its members as if in anticipation of a long drought in Nigeria cannot hold water. Why I think along this line is what I intend to say here today, no matter whose horse is gored. I start with a conceptual analysis of mandates , strikes and negotiations with regard to both government and ASUU and proceed to draw conclusions in the light of the performance of both in the Nigerian context. Let me state that I have assumed that both antagonists have lost sight of the clear and ordinary meaning of these terms, or else they would not have reached the present unbelievable impasse and socially debilitating imbroglio. This is inspite of the ivory tower erudition, knowledge and expertise available to ASUU on one side, and the huge resources and experience in terms of helicopter view and huge responsibility expected of government in ensuring that the future of Nigerian youths and education are not derailed by any group of people in Nigeria. On mandates , the responsibilities of both parties are clear. The Federal government has the political mandate to rule Nigeria according to its rules and regulations, as stated in the Nigerian constitution. It is the FGN’s mandate to maintain stability and law and order and to prepare an enabling environment for all institutions to thrive and achieve the objectives for which they were set up. It is the contention of ASUU that the FGN has failed in its mandate to provide the enabling environment for members of ASUU to teach in the universities. But then what is the mandate of ASUU? The mandate of ASUU, as with that of any industrial union , is to look after the interests and welfare of its members . The union went on strike because it accused the FGN of not living up to its mandate of providing infrastructure for the lecturers to teach in a conducive environment in the universities. But then a conducive environment is relative and while certain provisions and conditions are basic, the enabling environment depends on the resources available to government as expected of any employer. No where in the world will employees dictate the type and quality of facilities the employer must provide for them to perform their functions. Similarly if employees see that their employer has the means to provide the wherewithal for them to function optimally, but is indulgent on wasteful spending on other non productive ventures, they can proceed to call the employer to order through a strike as ASUU has done to the FGN. Yet a strike is an instrument of negotiation to call employers to order within a given period. When a strike is ad infinitum then it becomes a weapon of war of attrition, as it is being used by ASUU for now. In European history it was Attila the Hun on invading the ancient Roman Empire who famously said that – ‘ there where I have passed, the grass will not grow again’. I hope this is not the motto of ASUU on university education in Nigeria given their fight to finish approach to their demands on the Federal government and the insistence to be paid arrears before resuming. Similarly I hope the FGN is not being advised by modern Attilas who do not give a dime about university education in Nigeria as they got their appointments in Nigeria because they went to the best universities overseas. Such government advisers should be reminded that ASUU has better qualified products in its ranks who went to ivy league universities overseas and there was no need for the apparent contempt and arrogance with which these government officials have handled negotiations with ASUU on the present impasse. It is my candid opinion that both government and ASUU should always leave opportunities for negotiations open and unending. This is to allow for new ways at looking at issues and reolving them instead of issuing deadlines and ultimatums which lead to confrontations , and recriminations. This is especially necessary as ASUU is fighting for the future of our youths which is entwined in such youths getting the best education in our universities here in Nigeria rather than overseas. The FGN too has to be seen as living up to its mandate and willing to fund education. A nation whose legislators are about the highest paid in the world becomes a laughing stock of the international community when its universities are shut for years, because those teaching there are on strike because they dont have facilities to teach their students. That really is a massive shame on all Nigerians and not only the FGN. Perhaps a story on an ancient feud can still move either the government and ASUU to resume negotiations and open the universities for teaching of students as expected. It is the story of Sultan Saladin the Muslim ruler of the Middle East during the Middle Ages who resisted European Christian warriors and Kings sent by the Pope during the Crusades to capture the Holy sites in the bible in the area . Richard the Lion Heart was a prominent English king who had several battles with Saladin and both grew to respect each other’s fighting skills and prowess. According to the story, Richard had an illness peculiar to the area and could not lead his men against Saladin who asked captured soldiers of Richard where their leader was. On being told he was sick Saladin sent medicine to his foe who took it in good faith, in spite of the forebodings of his aides, and was healed and the two leaders continued their gallant battles, now the legend of history . Both government and ASUU leaders have a lesson to learn from this story in terms of trust and mutual respect. These are the basic basis of negotiations both ancient and modern . In addition, the leaders of Boko Haram should be reminded of the gallantry and heroism of Saladin who cured a Christian king with whom he was at war. Boko Haram’s burning of churches and mosques and the slaughtering of human beings is against every thing, especially the peace that Islam stands for, and should be condemned by all right thinking people all over the world. More importantly it is necessary to remind actors on the industrial relations divide of this ASUU strike that no nation enjoys stability while it youths are idle and unemployed because of crisis in its teaching or education sector. The US, UK and Western Europe from where our present crop of leaders got their glittering array of degrees that have landed them their plomb jobs placed a premium on education and devoted a massive chunk of their state financial resources to develop their universities. That is why we have today the high technologies and communications facilities that have improved the lot of mankind globally today. These nations did not cut corners to give edication to their youths and they never had the sort of money Nigerian leaders are managing and mismanaging today at the expense of the larger Nigerian society especially our youths who are willy nilly the future of this great nation. Without mincing words the way out is for the FGN to review the sack order in the interest of the Nigerian students and undergraduates. For ASUU it should pull back from the brink and ask its members to resume work while it negotiates the payment of arrears. Industrial relations is always work in progress and gains should be gradual and beneficial to all parties and not treated like a once and for all bounty of war. Anything short of this is like saying like the French– apres moi la deluge –which is, after me, destruction- to which I say – God forbid As this piece was ending the news of the death of the great Nelson Mandela broke and old as he was at 95 the news broke the heart of millions all over the world and not only in S.Africa. We mourn Mandela but we shall find time later to pay homage to the global symbol of freedom, dignity and accomodation. For now we urge the FGN and ASUU to pay tribute to Mandela’s memory and Nigeria’s immense contribution against apartheid which led to Mandela’s freedom from Robben Island after 27 years of incarceration. Mandela suffered in prison but came out of it unembitterd. He drew his enemies to himself in reconciliation and did not keep his friends far behind. His life and leadership was a lesson in perpetual negotiation and accommodation that created the beautiful rainbow nation that has survived him. ASUU and the FGN can raise their act to a higher positive level by borrowing a leaf from the book of the departed icon of human dignity and accommodation. It is not too much of an act to follow. Even in Nigeria. Amen

  • Ekiti 2014 : Between jkf and mob

    Ekiti 2014 : Between jkf and mob

    I believe strongly that MOB remains essentially progressive and humane at heart. However, he has embarked on a political trajectory that may force him to collaborate with the same forces of retrogressionthat he has opposed all his life 

    The die is cast. The Rubicon is crossed. The line has been drawn and there seems to be no going back. Opeyemi Bamidele, former students’ union leader, pro-democracy activist, lawyer, commissioner in Lagos State and now member of the House of Representatives has obviously taken the decisive plunge to contest for the governorship of Ekiti State next year. Would he or would he not? That had been the question in many minds for some time now. Would Michael Opeyemi Bamidele defy the collective wisdom of his party, the promptings of his political mentors and the admonition of his ideological soul mates to contest against Dr John Kayode Fayemi in the next governorship election in Ekiti? Would he jettison the political tendency and platform he has identified with all his life in pursuit of his ambition? The answer to these questions no longer lies in the realm of conjecture. Opeyemi Bamidele spoke and acted decisively last week. He dumped the APC. He declared for the Labour Party. All things being equal, he will be a major contender against Fayemi next year.

    Until he took his apparently irreversible decision last week, I was firmly of the view that Bamidele would in the final analysis subordinate his personal ambition to the strategic collective interest of the progressive movement. For one, he had consistently stressed over the years that he is a product not necessarily of individual brilliance but of collective struggle. When he clocked 45, Bamidele launched a book titled ‘Errands of Progress’. In it he reiterated the position that he was a product of collective struggle. Reading through the book once again, Opeyemi came across as one individual whose personal interests and ambitions matter far less to him than his commitment to the struggle by progressive forces to liberate Nigeria from the stranglehold of underdevelopment.

    Again, I am of the view that there is really not much of a difference between Michael Opeyemi Bamidele (MOB) and Dr. John Kayode Fayemi (JKF), the incumbent Governor of Ekiti State. Both men are cerebral. They are accomplished professionals. They have both devoted their lives and paid their dues in the struggle for progressive change in Nigeria. Either man would make outstanding governors of Ekiti or any other state in Nigeria. Yes, Bamidele is more of a populist in the likeness of an Engineer Raufu Aregbesola. Fayemi is more reticent and reflective in the mould of a Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN). But both men are invaluable assets to the progressive movement. Much more importantly either man has achieved success in their respective spheres of endeavour irrespective of whether or not they govern any state. I thus did not believe that governing Ekiti State should be a matter of life and death particularly for Bamidele since it has pleased God that Fayemi should occupy the coveted position at least for now.

    Of course there are those who have insisted all along that MOB is an active participant in a script not just to oust Fayemi from power but to undermine the progressive forces in Yoruba land and Nigeria as a whole. They contend that he is nothing but a traitorous quisling bent on collaborating with the same nefarious and venal forces he has fought all his life all because of an inordinate ambition for power. I believe strongly that MOB remains essentially progressive and humane at heart. However, he has embarked on a political trajectory that may force him to collaborate with the same forces of retrogressionthat he has opposed all his life. That would be extremely tragic. For, there are too many examples of those who have chosen this path only to become no better than the living dead- veritable living corpses.

    There are at least three issues raised by MOB in his defection to the Labour Party which are worth commenting on. First, he claimed that his move was informed by the lack of internal democracy in his former party. This perception is no doubt informed by the decision of the APC leadership to endorse Fayemi for a second term based on his record of performance. It would appear to me that by his defection, Bamidele has made it impossible to prove whether or not the APC adheres to internal democracy at least in Ekiti State. Yes, the leadership has endorsed Fayemi but they have not precluded any interested member from participating in primaries.

    We will recall, for instance, that in the second republic, the Chief Obafemi Awolowo-led leadership of the UPN endorsed all the five governors of the party for an automatic second term. Yet, the incumbent governors faced stiff challenges in the primaries particularly in the old Ondo and Oyo states. Of course, the question is: with the endorsement of Fayemi for a second term by the party leadership, could Bamidele have a chance of triumphing in the primaries? It is highly unlikely. The Ekitis are very proud, principled and stubborn people. They worship no human being and their conscience is never for sale. If they are truly supporting Bamidele’s ambition, no force on earth would stop them from voicing their opinion.

    Despite Awolowo’s personal charisma and influence, for instance, the Ekitis even within the UPN staunchly stood by Omoboriowo until his politically fatal decision to defect to the NPN. Members of the UPN at all levels including members of Chief Michael Ajasin’s cabinet openly supported Omoboriowo despite Awolowo’s preference for Ajasin. In the case of MOB, I am unaware of any declaration of support from his ambition right from the ward through the local governments to the state level of the party. Not even a single member of the Ekiti caucus of the House of Representatives which he led has expressed support for his aspiration. Bamidele’s winning the party primaries will certainly be easier than a Camel passing through the eye of a needle. But then, will we have internal democracy only if Bamidele is guaranteed to emerge as governorship candidate?

    Again, MOB claims that his ambition is driven by a desire to extricate Ekiti from the clutches of poverty. This is an indirect insinuation that Fayemi has not performed. But is that an intellectually honest position to take? I think not. From easily verifiable indications, Fayemi has fundamentally elevated the paradigm of governance in Ekiti State. Just as Aregbesola has done in Osun, no more is the horizon of aspiration in Ekiti limited by the state’s paltry allocation from the Federation Account. Fayemi has blazed a trail in social security by paying a monthly allowance to aged citizens above 65. The efforts of his administration in the provision of infrastructure are there for all to see. For me, the most eloquent evidence of his performance is the open identification of the highly respected Chief Afe Babalola with the Fayemi administration. Ideologically and politically, Chief Babalola is conservative. Despite his personal closeness to Chief Obasanjo, Afe Babalola never appeared on a political platform with the Owu chief. He has openly supported Fayemi’s second term. It is unlikely he would do that for a non-performing governor particularly of the APC.

    Lastly and most sadly, MOB claims that the Labour Party is a genuine progressive platform for national emancipation. Nothing could be further from the truth. Nigeria still awaits a truly ideologically driven Labour Party; one that will rigorously articulate the case for a new social order that will be beneficial to the working class and peasantry. The truth is that there is absolutely no difference today between the so called Labour Party and the PDP. Yes, both the PDP and the APC are essentially bourgeois parties but, with all its faults, a genuine Labour Party should be more in tune with the opposition than a self- styled largest party in Africa that has plunged Nigeria deeper into underdevelopment in the last 14 years.

    This column takes serious exception to MOB’s latest antics. But equally objectionable is the harsh language with which the Ekiti APC has denounced him. Nothing must be done to make it impossible at the end of the day for Bamidele to return to his true political family lending his considerable talents to the struggle for the liberation of Nigeria.

  • Don’t kick out Keshi

    Don’t kick out Keshi

    The storm is over for Stephen Keshi. He must be in Brazil for the 2014 World Cup, shouting out instructions as the Super Eagles gaffer. The World Cup appearance jinx has been broken, even though unholy whispers which suggest the need for technical assistance for the team is dead on arrival. We are NOT interested! It is the universal call and the Big Boss is relieved.

    The talk everywhere has been that the Eagles have not been convincing in their displays. A few people feel that the results earned by the team have been lucky breaks. I don’t think so. It takes more than luck to win matches. The point is that any country pitched against Nigeria on the continent gives its best, hence the Eagles’ hard fought victories.

    Again, it must be said that Keshi is still rebuilding the side, even though many feel that it is about time this house was built. What no one can take away from Keshi is that the Eagles are back to winning ways. No more “Super Chicken.” It is on this plank that this writer feels that the Big Boss shouldn’t be sacked after the 2014 World Cup.

    Will the World Cup in Brazil be a learning curve for Keshi or will we sacrifice the Big Boss on grounds of lacking the required tactical savvy to compete with the best? Have we factored into our plans for the 2014 show Keshi’s future after the World Cup? No country wins the Mundial on a two-year plan. Will Keshi be sensible enough to demand for afresh contract now that his word is law on Eagles’ matters? Does Keshi deserve another stay with the Eagles, irrespective of our results at the Mundial?

    Did I hear you say Ade is back with his controversies again? The choice is yours, but my fear is that decorum will be thrown out of the window whenever the Eagles exit from the competition. If it happens, we would be back to the proverbial drawing board. Will this drawing board have Keshi’s inputs? I see us returning to the chaos of the past. The fragile peace now in the system will erupt into tales of the unexpected which will consume everyone. Let’s not forget that after the Mundial are the NFF elections. As we stand, nothing will stop the current board from returning, the first in recent times. But will this winning trend continue? Will this board be allowed to remain in office, if things go awry in Brazil? We have suffered a lot from throwing away the child with the bath water after every World Cup.

    Will Nigeria be like France, whose players revolted and caused major embarrassing scenes in their camps before, during and after the Mundial? Will we wait until this scenario plays out before addressing the issues?

    We won the Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa and we couldn’t celebrate because Keshi resigned his appointment in a radio station interview, even with the Sports Minister still in South Africa. It was laughable, more so when the minister heard of Keshi’s resignation from his driver, a South African, who listened to it on radio.

    One has read a lot of reassuring words from the federation’s chiefs. But those are familiar refrains, reminiscent of what transpired before the South Africa 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, until the cookies crumbled with Keshi’s resignation.

    Keshi doesn’t look a happy man. His body language suggests so. Watching him from a distance, he paints the picture of a man with pent up anger. He always wants to call his time with the Eagles. No one will blame him if he does. Would we be wise people if he goes the South Africa way?

    Truly, we need to negotiate Keshi’s future with him. And such discussions must be done with the hierarchy of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF). The outcome of this meeting must be made public with Keshi and NFF men telling Nigerians what was agreed. This parley must be done before the 2014 World Cup.

    I’m not a prophet of doom. Being a nosy reporter, I know a lot of what happens behind the scene. I feel it is only fair that I stir this discussion. Many will see me as an alarmist, but I must say that our football would be back in the doldrums if we fail to reap from the benefits of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Such benefits should start with the retention of the technical crew. They should be sent on refresher courses and made to immediately prepare for our defence of the Africa Cup of Nations title in 2015.

    Football is unpredictable, yet we shouldn’t use the outcome of the World Cup games in Brazil to stop a rebuilding process that we all can see is bringing results.

    When the Eagles struggled with smaller football nations with slim 1-0 wins and lack-lustre drawn matches, I joined issues with Keshi. Now that the team is playing better, I will root for him. No apologies for this shift in position. If the Eagles fumble in Brazil, I will say so and Keshi won’t be surprised.

    One is glad that the code of conduct for players, officials and NFF men has been given to the football federation to implement. Sincerely speaking, there is no big deal in the code. It simply spells out everyone’s duties. And our players have this code in their European clubs.

    I don’t expect any player or officials to be undisciplined during the competition, knowing its importance. Yet, the biggest challenge for the Eagles will be match bonuses and allowances. The NFF insisted on paying $5,000 for the qualification games. I expect the amount to be doubled. But the question would be, how much are the other countries being paid, especially the African nations? The players expect that as African champions, they should be paid the highest. No problem with that.

    If the NFF settles for $10,000, can our government officials allow the players earn what they negotiated by ensuring strict compliance. What we have seen in the past is government officials arbitrarily increasing the bonuses, especially if the team is tottering in its matches. It gets worse when the team hits crucial stages of the competition, with men in high places storming the venues to peddle political influence as if they were not in the country before the team departed.

    Such intervention leads to a crisis. It also belittles the NFF men, just as it ties their hands in executing other assignments since such needless increases is often deducted from their fiscal budget. Government officials must learn how to be team players.

    Thank God that the Sports Minister is not thinking of constituting any Presidential Task Force (PTF). Such bodies don’t help to galvanise the Eagles. In no time, members of such committees print cards which they flaunt about. They see themselves as the NFF and invariably sideline the federation people. This setting precipitates a feud. It also divides the players, with some disgruntled few in the NFF aligning with them.

    Rather, one aligns with the minister’s thinking of organising a Presidential Dinner with the President where the deep pockets and business moguls would donate to the country’s quest to lift the trophy in Brazil next year.

    Monies realised from the dinner can be disbursed by a three-man committee whose function would be to dish out cash for projects approved by the federation. Money from the dinner shouldn’t be used to search for a foreign coach. It is meant to prepare the team for competition and reassure the players that their countrymen appreciate what they are doing.

    Warning to CAF

    The time is already ticking fast ahead of the 2012/2013 Confederation of African Football (CAF) Player of the Year Award.

    With the show barely a month away, the expectation cannot be any higher. Players on the shortlist are looking ahead to the momentous occasion billed for January 9, 2014, in Lagos.

    The shortlist of the ten top players includes four Nigerians: Mikel Obi of Chelsea, Emmanuel Emenike of Fernabache, Vincent Enyeama of Lille and Ahmed Musa of CSKA, Moscow. Others include reigning African Footballer of the Year and Manchester City star Yaya Toure of Cote d’Ivoire. Didier Drogba also of Cote d’Ivoire and Galatasaray, Asamoah Gyan of Al-Ain (UAE) and Ghana, Jonathan Pitroipa of Stade Rennes and Burkina Faso, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Borussia Dortmund and Gabon; and Mohamed Aboutreika of Al Ahly of Egypt.

    While we do not question the expansiveness of the list, we make bold to urge for caution on the side of transparency so that the ghost and robbery of the past do not come back to haunt us.

    In some of the previous awards, we saw how Francophone sentiment was deployed to deny deserving Anglophone players the award.

    We also want to remind CAF and would-be voters, in case they have forgotten the parameters for the conferment of the award. These include a player’s feats at both club and country.

    This is where Mikel, Musa and Emenike feature prominently. Mikel had more than a stellar performance at the African Cup of Nations in South Africa, culminating in the Super Eagles of Nigeria wining the coveted diadem. This is not to forget his astounding showing at the Confederation Cup in Brazil. His heroics with his Chelsea of England club and the resultant Europa Cup victory are a loud testimony.

    It is on this strength that denying Mikel the CAF award would be tantamount to daylight robbery. The award is for the players’ exploits during the 2012/2013 season and the current season. This is where CAF needs to be reminded that it does not matter what any player, including Yaya Toure, may be playing and their goals harvest now; these exploits count for nothing as the award is not for the ongoing season. CAF and Francophone countries cannot continue to make a mockery of the award by baselessly swinging it for one of their own, including Yaya Toure.

    Even the blind and the deaf know that the January 9, 2014 award is Mikel’s for the taking. We will accept no magomago or jagajaga or thievery this time around. No.

  • A more urgent summit

    A more urgent summit

    The proposal for a national summit on the future of Nigeria has generated so much political heat, thanks to the nature of our politics and the bad blood that it has created over the years, especially since the current dispensation began. One might argue that it is the nature of politics and only an idealised version that bears no resemblance to reality may have a different take on the matter. It is also true, however, that this latest iteration of the craziness of our body politic is self-inflicted by the most visible actors in the drama that it is.

    The President announced the inauguration of a committee to work out the logistics for the conference after so much vacillation. And just soon after, he introduced an unnecessary complication as if the committee’s work has not been complex enough. Apparently unperturbed by the expressed desire, indeed, demand of supporters of a national conference for one that is truly anchored in the people and birthed by the people, the President suggested that the outcome of the conference would be useful as raw material for the National Assembly’s constitutional amendment functions.

    The President’s idea of a national conference is thus ages away from the demand of the people. And there is no better evidence for this than the position of the Chairman of his Advisory Committee who insists that the Committee approaches its work as if there is no constitution, which means it expects the conference to produce a new constitution.

    Recently, however, it is becoming clear how the President and the National Assembly envision what would have been a defining feature of their domestic agenda. Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu has been widely reported as claiming that “the National Assembly has the power to discuss the report of the proposed National Conference”, to quote from The Nation’s version of the reports. Since Senator Ekweremadu is not only the Deputy Senate President but also wears a second hat as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Constitution Amendment, his comments have to be taken seriously, and they are to say the least, disturbing.

    According to the Distinguished Senator, “there is going to be a debate over the outcome of the planned dialogue at the National Assembly. It is going to be subjected to a critical debate. It has to go through legislative processes.” This is partly because, NASS has to “make sure that everything is right and Nigerians agree on it.”

    The logic of this declaration is mind-boggling. How can it ever be that Nigerians might not agree on what they endorse in a national conference where every nationality and interest group is represented? To defend an argument for subjecting the will of the people to a parliamentary debate is simply a deceptive way of trivialising the will of the people. It is to suggest that the representatives of the people are wiser (“they are experts in legislative processes”) and therefore more important than the people.

    As if that condescending attitude isn’t grave enough, the Senate’s true intention, as revealed by the Chairman, is to pull a rabbit of a seven-year single term from the hat of national dialogue. This must be the “something fundamental that can be discovered” as Ekweremadu puts it. Though Senators rejected the idea of a seven-year term for the President and Governors, the Constitution Review Committee is hoping to propose it as an amendment item. And the reason is that in the judgment of the committee, “single term tenure would resolve the crisis arising from the competition for federal power.”

    There is no doubt that there is across the board, a cut-throat competition for power and perhaps single-term tenure might help resolve that unhealthy competition. But zeroing in on this issue as if it is all there is to the national conference simply reveals the deceptive politics behind the proposal. Recall that the Senate Deputy Leader also suggests that if the amendment is passed, then the incumbent President may have two more years until 2017 and the general election postponed till then. For those who dismissed the idea of a seven year single-term as another Third Term agenda, this proposal is a non-starter. And it now appears that the opponents of the proposed national dialogue have a case.

    Since I believe that there is a lot to achieve from a well-conceived national dialogue, I wish that the proposal on national conference that was vigorously canvassed and much-awaited has been presented with an honest and sincere intention.

    There is, however, a much needed and more urgent summit.National Conference is for a determination of where the country is heading politically and economically. It is about how the various nationalities and interest groups relate to the centre. But assume that we get a handle on this important mode of governance and relationship, and we have a perfect federalism. Is anyone under the illusion that our national problem is solved and we are thereafter on the path of glory?

    There are numerous afflictions that are internal to the various nationalities that only they can resolve. And I am not here concerned so much with the issue of internal unity within the nationalities. For instance, I have never thought that there will be ever a Yoruba unity because there has never been any such thing. But in spite of the obvious concerning disunity among the Yoruba, as among other nationalities, there was a time when certain values were commonly endorsed and enforced. That is no longer the case. The fundamental concept of hard work was a prevailing ideal. Now it’s a loafer’s philosophy that is entertained. And education and training in the traditional or modern forms have always been the centre piece of our cultures. Now we are praise singers of ignorance.

    Every culture or nationality has an anomalous mode of life—kidnapping, begging, fundamentalism and fanaticism, idleness—that has emerged in the last thirty years, embraced by a significant portion of its members, especially the youth, and which have been responsible for some of the more egregious aspects of our political life, including corruption in all its aspects. And no nationality can or should be proud of its internal malaise. But what is being done? When one reads about baby factories, one wonders, where is the traditional family? Stories of young students even in rural areas skipping school and doing drugs raise concern about parental responsibility. Doing something is crucial and cannot wait till or tied up with a national dialogue or conference. There is an urgent need for every nationality group to look inwards and dialogue with itself so it does not fall into oblivion.

  • Another class story (2)

    There is a patience of the wild that holds motionless for endless hours the motorist at the police checkpoint, the kidnapper in his lair, the assassin in his ambuscade and the public officer in his perch – this patience belongs primarily to the predator while it hunts its prey.

    Oftentimes, it manifests in uncontrollable spasms that have seen us bury our best and elevate our worst in abject negation of the cycle of the universe and morality. But who needs morals in a nation where fair is foul and foul remains fair?

    A great majority of Nigerians of commonplace roots live through each day without ever contemplating or criticizing their living conditions. They find themselves born into dehumanizing squalor or somewhat indecent circumstances and they accept such sordidness as their fate – thus they exhibit no conscious effort to better their lot beyond what their immediate circumstances dictate.

    Almost as impulsively as the beasts of the wild, they seek the satisfaction of the needs of the moment, without much forethought and consideration that by sufficient endeavor, they just might improve their living conditions.

    However, a certain percentage – constituted by men and women of higher status among the nation’s working class – guided by personal ambition, consciously strive in thought and will to attain more privileged status that remains the exclusive preserve of more fortunate members of the society; but very few among these are concerned enough to secure for all, the advantages which they seek for themselves. This explains the number of self-centred and treacherous human rights activists, women’s rights activists, journalists and columnists parading our streets.

    Very few men are indeed capable of that kind of love that drives martyrs to persistently rebel against glaring social evils in the interest of less fortunate members of the society. But there exists a few however, that are truly bothered by the impoverishment of their fellow citizens occupying the lower rung of the societal ladder regardless of any risk or discomfort it might attract to them personally.

    These few, driven by compassion tirelessly seek, first in thought and then in action, for some way of escape; some new system of society by which life may become richer, more joyful and devoid of avertable evils that mars the present. But surprisingly, such men oftentimes, fail to curry the support of the very victims of the injustices they wish to remedy.

    More unfortunate sections of the Nigerian population are hopelessly ignorant, apathetic from excess of toil and disillusionment, apprehensive through the imminent danger of instantaneous chastisement by the holders of power, and morally defective owing to the loss of self-respect resulting from their degradation. To excite among such classes any conscious, deliberate effort in pursuit of general improvement of the status quo proves basically a hopeless task, as antecedents of such efforts have proven.

    Thus despite our claims to modernity, higher education, sophistication and relative rise in the standard of comfort among wage-earners in the country, the Nigerian society or working class to be precise, have failed woefully to achieve better living conditions and a better society even in the throes of rising demand for more radical intervention and reconstruction of the social order.

    It is no surprise however that the Nigerian working class has persistently proved a dismal failure. And the reasons are hardly far-fetched: Nigerians have a problem with differentiating between appropriate and inappropriate political behavior. That is why the nation’s democratic experiment like any other system of governance practicable by us was doomed from the start.

    What exactly has democracy offered? A 4-1-9 progressive plan that booms circumspectly like it had been doctored as part of a cold-war era propagandist scheme? But despite our self-righteousness and persistent cynicism with the current order, we really cannot explore a more worthy alternative than what we have now. The average Nigerian can’t bear to be led by a truly honest, visionary and accountable leadership. That explains why we opted for the incumbent leadership.

    It’s the way we are programmed to live. I’d say we possess an overwhelming and oft-convincing inclination to self-destruct, thus our lack of a coherent and defensible political ideology essential to the evolution of a progressive leadership and state.

    The average Nigerian is no more electable than the leadership he endures yet he loves to speak truth to power even as he functions simultaneously to smother his own voice in the riotous gabble of his exultation of the same ruling class whose end he claims to pursue. No matter who is elected, the demographic and economic realities of Nigeria will persist, and there is a very limited range of politically-viable solutions for dealing with them.

    No man; be he a distinguished columnist, lawyer, soldier, or public officer in any office can command the tides of history. The few that appear to have done so–the Napoleon’s, Caesar’s, Hitler’s–were really nothing more than the most capable at making it appear that they command the tides, when in fact they were simply skimming along with them.

    Thus the need for the Nigerian working class to consciously evolve in thought and will in pursuit of a more balanced social order. Such conscious evolution could only be achieved by a re-orientation in scholarship and purification of thought and action.

    The foundations of scholarship and knowledge must tirelessly reconstructed to guarantee more progressive responses to internal problems of social advance — problems of work and wages, of families and homes, of morals and the true value of life; and all these and other inevitable problems of civilization must be resolvable largely by an average member of the working class by reason of his exposure and constitution. This informs a greater need for study and thought and an appeal to the rich experience of past and current mistakes in the journey towards the avoidance and reduction to the barest minimum of future foibles.

    The answer to Nigeria’s widening income and social gap – which has so far manifested in preventable crises and persistent state of insecurity – is to found an educational process geared to steer successfully, the commonplace trains of thought away from the dilettante and the fool stereotype.

    It’s about time poor, struggling members of the nation’s working class learned to scorn the maxim that holds that if their stomachs be full, it matters little about their brains; the paths to stable peace and security winds between honest toil and dignified manhood. That proverbial better society that we seek calls for the guidance of skilled thinkers, the loving, reverent comradeship between the low income earners and ambitious middle class emancipated by training and culture.

    Such human elements would no doubt be conscious of the fact that not even the sustenance of oil subsidy, higher wages and a fairer economic system could protect its members from the usual handicaps and monstrosity constituted by the incumbent and predatory ruling class.

    Hence they would be able to understand that such social enterprise and gesture towards change must be mooted and achieved by the working class itself in further substantiation of the working class’ capacities to assimilate the culture and common sense of modern civilization, and to pass it on, to some extent at least, to posterity.

     

  • Junaid Mohammed and other cowards

    Cowardice, unbeknownst to many is a deceptive pathological condition. A coward always wears the camouflage of bravery and courage yet he is merely a weasel. Like a bully, he is imbued with the inexplicable urge to hurt and torment others but he cannot stand a prick of the pin. He will rouse a murderous mob but will tunnel into the ground when blood begins to flow. Such is the state of mind of some Nigerians who have made it a pastime lately to beat the drums of war and destruction over the 2015 presidential election.

    One such person is Dr. Junaid Mohammed, a Russian-trained physician and a veteran politician who made his mark as an acolyte of the great Malam Aminu Kano. Once upon a time, Mohammed was one of the most personable, well-spoken and well loved-politicians across even ethnic zones of the land. He was considered a ‘radical’ politician with progressive and people-oriented ideas. He was supposed to have drunk from the fount of that apostle of talakawa politics and perhaps ought to have been the touch-bearer of that ideological school, inheriting Aminu Kano. But Junaid Mohammed like a storm-tossed ship has not been able to find any political relevance since the demise of his mentor. He has moved from one party to another, from one ideological extreme to another and aligning with some strange bedfellows or another all in search relevance and even gravy.

    Our most beloved Junaid Mohammed, that eloquent young man in the House of Representatives of the 80s has in his old age ironically, grown into an ethnic jingoist and rabble-rouser. In an interview in last Sunday Sun, he simply broke the bounds of decency and decorum expected of someone who ought to be an elder statesman and nationalist. Asked whether President Goodluck Jonathan should run for a second term in 2015, he had this to say: “He is humble enough to know the consequences of his action, should he insist on running. But let me warn that he should not do anything that would plunge the country into avoidable anarchy.”

    He spoke further: “Quote me, if Jonathan insists on running, there will be bloodshed and those who feel short-changed may take the warpath and the country may not be the same again. His running will amount to taking about 85 million northerners for a ride and that is half the country’s total population. So, there will be bloodshed. We don’t pray to get to that level before his ethnic and tribal advisers pull him back.”

    Apparently, Mohammed has joined the bandwagon of the North-for-president-in-2015-or-no Nigeria campaign. In his obvious anger he was unguarded and uncontrolled in his utterances. He even rained abuses on the president: “We now have this nincompoop as president.” We may not like Jonathan but he remains the president of Nigeria and he occupies our sacred stool. We can correct and even upbraid without lapsing into naked and personal abuse. Our elders especially must set that example of civility in political discourse for the younger ones.

    One is particularly nonplussed by Mohammed’s invocation of violence and mayhem upon his fatherland should he and his part of the country fail to grab power once again in 2015. It is quite a puerile and infantile notion to think that any part of the country can be intimidated into surrendering power to another by mere threat of violence or even actual acts of bloodshed. It never happens that way. Second, statements like this do the North no good and it triggers that annoying sense of birthright and entitlement to the throne. That is not on and it is never acceptable. The North has held the number one spot longer than any other part of the country and unless it is telling the rest of us that it is indeed a birthright, others are equally entitled to it as well.

    Need we also remind that no president relinquishes power on account of threats of bloodshed and prospect of violence; not when he is constitutionally entitled to contest for another term in office? Power is gained through strategic thinking, building of consensus and pushing of laudable policies to the people, the ultimate beneficiaries.

    Lastly, whose blood is Dr Mohammed bringing to the altar for sacrifice? Of course not his children’s or his family members’ and surely not his own or his close friends’? It brings us back to the logic of the coward: he is often quick to pledge the blood of others in exchange for his selfish ends. But call for his own head and he dies before you unsheathe your sword. Have you seen our Mujahideen Asari Dokubo recently, the one who wears permanent scowl just to scare the rest of us? A few hours’ arrest recently in the Republic of Benin rattled him so much that he sings like a troubled canary about enemies of President Jonathan’s second term who pursued him across the border. Jonathan must have a second term even if the heavens fall, he declared extending that weird logic. The same manner our octogenarian Papa Edwin Clark finds every opportunity to say to us, woe betide you all if Jonathan does not return.

    But these are old tricks deployed by cowards when they sense an imminent defeat and loss. In 2015, what will be, will be – as has been ordained!

    LAST MUG: Gov. Amosun’s tower and aspects of S.W. integration

    I was waiting for the right moment to comment on the laudable South West integration agenda when I learnt about Gov. Ibikunle Amosun’s tallest building in Africa project. While one would return to the emerging flaws of the integration soon, Expresso humbly appeals to the Ogun governor to shelf the idea of a tower (of Babel?) which is a mere ego trip and holds no economic good whatsoever. All over the world, governments hardly build skyscrapers; they are economic propositions of individuals. Is the Cocoa House for instance fully occupied? Is it yielding revenues? Is it well maintained?

    We feel insulted when our governors tell us they travel abroad to seek investors; such anachronism really need to be jettisoned. And the Malaysians partnering Ogun to build a white elephant will do well for us developing our agro-industrial estates based on oil palm, cocoa, maize and cassava instead of building us a tower of wastage.

    It is the same ego-tripping that governs the rash of airports in Ekiti and Osogbo when the ones in Ibadan, Akure and Benin grossly under-utilized. Why not modern light rail lines that link major cities of the Southwest? Or are these airports and towers what the integration document ordered?

     

  • A tribute to Sir Michael Oladele Fafowora (1928-2013)

    I do not normally write public tributes, particularly to my own relations. I find doing so very painful, and I like to keep my private grief to myself. But I was shocked and saddened by the sudden and unexpected death on Sunday, September 1, in Maryland, USA, of Sir Michael Oladele Fafowora. He was my beloved paternal uncle, the youngest brother of my late father, Chief Olagunju Asaolu Fafowora. He was a man of the world, a well travelled and successful businessman. I had called and spoken to him in Maryland, in the USA, where he was on vacation, the day before he died. He seemed hail and hearty and told me two of his daughters, Jumoke and Tolu, a medical doctor, were getting married in the US, and that he was returning home soon, before Christmas, for their marriage engagements here in Ilesa. He died the next day. There was no inkling of his imminent death. Although he was 85, he had generally good health, and I believed he had many more useful years ahead of him. He will be buried at Ilesa on Saturday, December 14, after a funeral service at the Cathedral of the African Church.

    Uncle Dele, as he was fondly called in the family, was born on 31st March, 1928, in Ilesa, the youngest of the six sons of his father, my own grandfather, Pa Asaolu Fafowora, and the only son of his mother, Madam Dorcas Olateju Fafowora. He had an older sister, Mama Dokun, now deceased, and a younger sister, Auntie Lape, Mrs. Latinwo, who survives him. Of his siblings, she was the closest to him and was in Maryland with him when Uncle Dele passed on. Among his surviving cousins are Pa Adebayo Fafowora, an Architect and, at nearly 90, the head of the Fafowora family, Mr. Kayode Fafowora, a lawyer and former deputy Director General of the Nigerian Customs Services, Mr. Akinloye Fafowora, a Chartered Accountant, Mr. Suji Fafowora, a retired head of the FAO operations in the old Western Region of Nigeria, Mr. Sanya Fafowora, an Accountant, and Mr. Akinlolu Fafowora, a former Accountant in the Nigerian Foreign Service. His nephews and nieces include Mr. Gabriel Adesoji, a Chartered Accountant, Chief (Mrs.) Dupe Fafowora-Oseghale, a former Chairman of the Isolo Council, Hon. Folarin Fafowora, a member of the Osun State House of Assembly, and Femi Fafowora, a prominent lawyer in Ilesa. All of them held him in high esteem.

    Uncle Dele had a very good parental pedigree of which he was immensely proud. His father, late Pa Samuel Asaolu Fafowora, was a highly successful and wealthy business man in Ilesa in his time. In the 1920s, he already had a fleet of six lorries plying the Lagos, Ibadan, Benin route. His mother, Madam Dorcas Olateju Fafowora, hailed from the well known Ajayi Oromu family of Ilesa. Uncle Dele had a very privileged and happy childhood. Being the youngest and last son of his father, everyone in the family loved and doted on him. He lacked nothing. He grew up to be an independent, proud and immensely confident man. As a young lad, he had access to his father’s cars and stable of horses which he rode all over Ilesa to the admiration of every one in town. He was one of the finest horse riders that I knew and admired. Whenever I visited Ilesa from Lagos where I lived with my parents, he would place me on the horse and give me a ride all over Ilesa. I was thrilled and it was an experience I never forgot. Until recently, I had a photograph of the two of us on his father’s horse. That was how he and I first bonded.

    After his primary school education in Ilesa, he entered the Ilesa Grammar School where he completed his secondary school education in 1952. Thereafter, he worked as a clerk at the Ilesa Town Council. It was from there that in 1961 he proceeded to the Bolton Institute of Technology in England to study automobile engineering, which he successfully completed in 1966, on the sponsorship of the old Western Region government. It was from London that he was recruited into the Nigeria Police Force as a Vehicle Inspection Officer (VIO). In that capacity, he served all over the old Western Region and became well known. In 1977, after 10 years, he decided to retire from the Nigeria Police Force. He had become disenchanted with the Police and decided to go into business in which he was quite successful. He started by importing the British car, Chevy, for which he had a franchise, into Nigeria. He had inherited his father’s knack for business. His car business, Osue Motors, flourished and he diverted into other businesses in which he was equally successful.

    Uncle Dele was a good family man. He was blessed with many children and loved them dearly. He always wanted the best for his children who, in turn, requited his love and care for them. His expectations of them, particularly, Niyi, his eldest son, were quite high. He had many friends in Ilesa all of whom held him in high esteem. His maternal cousins include Justice Oluborode, former Chief Judge of Osun State, Chief Tunde Ibironke, now deceased, a former Director General of the Nigerian Law School, and late Mr. Ogun Ogundipe, a Permanent Secretary in Osun State. He was immensely focused in life and had no time for frivolities of any kind. He was taciturn, reticent, and deeply private man and never meddled in the affairs of others. He respected their privacy and usually kept his counsel to himself.

    He was a self-effacing man and disliked any kind of personal publicity, or humbug. I was surprised later when I discovered that he had been marginally engaged in politics. He was generally well informed about public affairs, and had been Senator Moji Akinfenwa’s deputy in the AD in Ilesa. He made an immense financial contribution to the Party in Ilesa, but he never sought an elective office, preferring to stay in the background instead. Chief Bisi Akande, the former AD Governor of Osun State, once told me of my uncle’s immense financial support for the AD in Osun State. Many crucial political meetings were held at his sprawling Ilesa GRA residence. Chief Bisi Akande told me he spent many nights in my uncle’s house usually after their late night meetings. He actually tried to get me involved in politics for a while, and almost succeeded.

    In later years, as he grew older, he became more devoted to his church, the African Cathedral Church, in Ilesa, where his own father, Asaolu, was converted to Christianity, and baptised in November, 1917, with his entire family. He made a lot of financial and moral contribution to the Church, in recognition of which he was knighted. For many years he donated one of his houses at Ilesa to the Bishop of the African Church there as his official residence. His brother, late Pa Olagunju Idowu Fafowora, my own father, was for nearly twenty years the Baba Ijo of the Church. Uncle Dele was very proud of the Fafowora family and had a prominent place in it. He has, by his death, left a big and yawning gap that will be difficult to fill. He was the bridge between the older generation in the family and the younger generation. He has left a good and inspiring legacy to his children and family of which we are all proud.

    Adieu, Uncle Dele. Sleep well in the bosom of God.

  • On the national conference

    The calling for a national conference by the President in his recent independence broadcast has generated a lot of comments. Some have wondered why the sudden conversion of the President and the president of Senate to the idea of a national conference when for the past three years he has resisted the idea. Critics of the President have suggested that this is a political move on his part to manipulate the politics of Nigeria towards his re-election in 2015. Some even see some sinister move on his part to grant resource control through the conference to the oil-producing South-south where he comes from. On the other hand, some have hailed the action of the President on the grounds that it is never too late to change. After all, Saul who was a persecutor of Christians later became Paul the Apostle. Those who have called for conference for many years to decide and determine the future of Nigeria have also hailed the President for acceding to their request. The situation unfortunately, has now been complicated by the APC’s decision to boycott the conference. I’m totally against this call for boycott. It is better to discuss our affairs and to try and find ways and solutions to complex political situations than bury our heads in the sand and think that the problems would go away. This may not be the intended purpose of the boycott but the result will tend to validate that intention.

    I personally believe that we must explore and exploit all ways and avenues to force the hands of government to change course in this country or we would all be consumed by the Fire Next Time. I believe a conference can develop its own internal dynamics just like any revolution and those with secret agenda would not be able to contain it. This should be the tactic all those who want something concrete from the conference should adopt. Of course, critics are right to say that whatever is decided should not go to the National Assembly whose members were largely rigged in, but that it should be subject to a national referendum and that whatever “we the people” decide should become the supreme law. The question of two sovereigns at the same time should not arise. Once the referendum has passed, the President through a presidential proclamation would bring the resolution into law and call for new elections into the various organs that the conference would have decided upon. If the APC sticks to its guns that it would not participate, what we would then have is a document produced not by the first eleven, but by people on the reserve seats. This would not be in the interest of the country. I think the APC should think all over it again and go to the conference determined to take control of the discussion rather than standing outside the conference and expecting things to go wrong.

    Beatrice and Sydney Webb of the famous Fabian school believed that “it is better for revolutionaries to permeate political bodies from within rather than to stand outside them shouting at the deaf”. I have always been guided by the Fabian theory and practice and I think all political animals should be guided by them. Our country can be a great country. The economic fundamentals of this country are solid. We’ve got the resources and the people. What is lacking is leadership and determination on the part of leadership to force our nation to realise its full potentialities. We should not wait until this house of Nigeria has fallen before we begin to salvage it. We now have an opportunity in the national conference and I believe we should seize the moment.

    Events in other parts of the world should show us that there is no point sitting on the fences. We should look at countries like Greece, Egypt, Pakistan, which are collapsing into irrelevance and chaos. We are just too many, 170 million of us for experimentation, because if our country were to collapse, where would 170 million people go as refugees? Prevention is better than cure. We have an opportunity to prevent sure political debacle and economic disintegration through this conference and deciding to take necessary precaution to avoid tragic end to the Nigerian project. This is not the time to play politics; it is the time for statesmanship. All Nigerians should support discussion at the national conference and taking positive decisions to change the course of our national development. If after we would have given our support, the political leaders in government today decides to subvert the wishes of the people, then the consequences and the blood of our people would be on their heads.

    Choosing those who would represent the people may be problematic, but I think we should use the current population to decide the representation of the states. Critical stakeholders like labour, universities, and even students should be represented by their leaders. Government in its wisdom may also want to select some leaders of the two main monotheistic religions of Christianity and Islam to represent special interest. This idea of people representing ethnic and tribal entities is totally unnecessary because after all whatever ethnic or tribal groups that Nigeria may have are already represented at state levels.

    One of the issues that this conference should be seized with would be the whole question of revenue allocation, fiscal federalism or resource control as it is popularly known. There should be discussion on consumption and value-added taxation. There should also be discussion on the system of government itself. It has become obvious to many Nigerians that the present presidential system of Nigeria is too expensive and concentrates too much power in the hands of government executives at local, state and federal levels. We should also raise the issue of devolution of power and resources from the federal to the states and local governments. We must also settle forever that it is the states coming together to form the federal government and not the federal government creating states. In other words, there can be no room for federal intervention in local government creation and financing. That should belong to the states’ jurisdiction. So the talk of three-tier system of government is an aberration. We can only have states and the federal government relating in a mutually beneficial way. We should also be discussing whether to go back to parliamentary system of government and cabinet government of collective responsibility and where members of the cabinet would also be members of the house and the President or Prime Minister would be the leader of the majority party in the house and would be subjected to routine questions and enquiry about reasons for government action by a virile opposition in the house. This is of course a cheaper system of government, and the disconnect which currently exists between the executives and the legislatures would be done away with.

    The present concentration of power on a presidential Poobah, which makes our president the most powerful of all presidents in the world would undergo radical transformation. The jurisdiction of each level of government would also be discussed and agreed upon to eliminate the anomaly of a federal Ministry of Agriculture when the federal government has no land of its own apart from Abuja. The starting point of the discussion should be the independence constitution of 1960 which was the only constitution that our political leaders agreed upon without guns pointing to their heads. These are the issues which must be discussed and agreed upon so that the energies of our people can be released for positive development of the sciences and the arts and so that we can stop talking about constitutions while other countries of the so called developing world are already sending probes to Mars.