The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • Asari-Dokubo’s Benin adventures

    Mujahid Asari Dokubo is a man of mystery. The one-time leader of the defunct Niger Delta Volunteer Forces – one of the groups that led a violent uprising against the Federal Government in the riverine creeks – doesn’t like to be called a militant – and for good reason, too.

    These days he’s more of a wheeler-dealer who takes time once in a while to unleash verbal political missiles. When he’s not threatening to break up Nigeria if Goodluck Jonathan is not reelected in 2015, he’s cosying-up to the likes of Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) founder, Dr. Frederick Fasehun, Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Ralph Uwazurike and former Chief Security Officer to late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha (rtd).

    For some reason that has not been made public, Dokubo found himself behind bars in the neighbouring Benin Republic where he stays on and off this past week. What many find mystifying is that the activist is not just some ordinary tourist but a major investor in that tiny country. He is said to own businesses and even a university.

    No doubt the man fancies himself as something of a pan-Africanist. But wouldn’t it be interesting to know whether he maintains this same impressive business profile in the region which economic conditions he once agitated over.

  • Global politics, agriculture and  transportation

    Aside  the  realignment of political forces on the Nigerian political terrain inherent in the defection of five governors from the ruling PDP into the nascent APC,  two  issues on  the Lagos state style of governance engaged my attention and time this last week. The first was the way  the state  under its Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola  is handling  the issue  of achieving its set  goal of  food security through the strategies and plans of its Ministry  of Agriculture and Cooperatives. The second was  the focussed determination  of the Governor  to keep traffic flowing  in the Lagos  Metropolis  for the comfort of its citizenry.  In  stark terms and clear words  the  State Governor told a gathering of  Lagos State Traffic Management Authority – LASTMA  personnel, executives and stakeholders that if they have to choose between booking a traffic offender  and obstructing the flow of traffic, they should let the offender go and let the Lagos traffic  flow  like water at all times.

    Given  the merger of APC  and  PDP  mentioned earlier,  an immediate  media analysis of the political  spread, strength  and national power of the  two  major  political parties in Nigeria has 18 states for the ruling PDP, 16  for  the APC, one  for APGA in Anambra and one for the Labor  Party in    Ondo  State.  If  you do a mental arithmetic  that the governors  of Jigawa  and Niger State did not append their signature to the APC  merger  because they would rather wait till the new year,  together with the EFCC investigations   or  harassment of the Jigawa governor’s sons for  money laundering, you may safely add  two states  to APC’S 16  to  get 18. In addition,  if  you  recall that Ondo’s Labor Party  is closer to APC and  is indeed in its catchment area, then you  can give APC 19 states  out of 36  nationwide.  That  is really  over 50 per cent of the states in Nigeria and that is before the 2015 elections. Indeed the PDP  scribe in reacting to the merger of the New PDP  and APC seemed to  be accepting defeat before the elections when he said that the defectors would come back to the party after the 2015 elections and the PDP  would welcome them with open arms.Which  means that the PDP  has given up  on its defectors while acknowledging their strength and its loss in electoral  and voting prospects  in these  governors’ states.

    However  it  is with regard to the Anambra State elections on which a supplementary election is slated  for today that I want to make some observations. After  this I will  go  back  to  how  Lagos State  is tackling agriculture  and transportation  with focussed  innovation and commitment.

    Almost  all parties  that took part in the Anambra State  elections last Saturday  admitted that it was  and shoddily  organised and that  INEC  officials performed below expectations in terms of availability of materials on time and  on integrity. Post  election, however Anambra State outgoing Governor Peter Obi,  whose party APGA  won the elections said that his government only prevented the other  parties that wanted to rig from doing so and that if the elections were held ten times over APGA  would still win. Which  is not surprising given the fact that no less a person than the President of the Republic came to Anambra to campagn  surprisingly  not for the PDP  but for the return of Obi’s APGA  successor. The President even announced that he was not going to Commonwealth Heads  of Governments Meeting –  CHOGM –  in Sri LANKA    because  of the Anambra state guber elections. Since this was after the President’s pilgrimage to Jerusalem during which he was very much in the company  of the sole APGA  governor in Nigeria,  it is not difficult to guess  why personal loyalty has taken pre eminence over party loyalty. This is because even as the PDP,  the President’s  party  was announcing  that it will take part in the supplementary elections  today,  its candidate at the elections who could not find his name and that of members of his family on the ballot last  Saturday,  was  calling for fresh elections like the other parties that contested last Saturday’s Anambra  state  guber polls. Which  shows that the Anambra state elections has just  jump  the usual  and expected post election razzmatazz and rig marole peculiar  to Nigeria’s elections. These invariably end up in legal gymnastics at the law courts where lawyers and judges determine who wins  elections in a blantant usurpation of the rights of voters who in a free and fair election  in a genuine democracy should choose the winner  the ballot box as at last Saturday in Anambra State.

    As  elections in Anambra  State  were  making a mockery  of democracy in Nigeria, the two events I attended  in Lagos State this week provided a silver lining in the cloudy  horizon of Nigeria’s murky electoral politics, first in agriculture and secondly in transportation. An  army,  it was often  famously said  in ancient times, marches  on its belly. In  modern times however, so also do states, and nation -states, and no state in Nigeria knows and aims at achieving  this more than  the present BRF Administration through its Ministry of Agriculture under the leadership  of its permanent Secretary  Dr  Bashorun.

    I  got  a rare  insight  of  the lagos State food security strategy when  I attended  a retreat organised by the Favorites Club of Lagos under its flamboyant president and the State Commissioner  for Home Affairs,  Prince Oyin Danmole in Badagry last weekend.  The  theme of the retreat was – ‘Social Clubs and Economic Empowerment‘. The State  Ministry  of Agriculture’s  Permanent Secretary-PS-led a team of the Ministry’s Directors  on a presemtation on Agriculture in Lagos State  but it was the PS himself who  was the high priest  and

    high pitch salesman  of the State’s people oriented  approach  to agriculture.  This  strategy  has  the  sole aim of making Lagos State feed its awesomely large population from within the state in all aspects of food  availabilty, production  and sufficiency. More importatntly the state is asking anyone who cares to come and have a stake in the ‘food basket’ project as investors because it knows it cannot go it alone. Which is like asking Lagosians to  come and get wealth and prosperity on a platter of gold by investing in Agriculture with the state providing the infrastructure and helping out with the needed credit and facilities for potential investors and stake holders. To  me that was unbelievable and almost un Nigerian but then, when we  went to the Songhai farm project and I ate an harvested sweet corn,  uncooked  and so delicious, I  knew  something great was happening in Lagos state.  When  I saw Nigerian youths on  training on the farm on the YES- Youth Empowerment Scheme – then  I conceded that there is still hope for Nigeria  in    terms  of meaningful economic planning and development,  starting with the way  Lagos State    government is tackling  food security  pragmatically  and heads on  for positive, socio  economic  transformation of society and the environment in Lagos State.

    The  state’s  transportation strategy has been no less proactive than that in agriculture. I was at a ceremony at which the state governor inducted volunteers from a certain social niche like social clubs and professional bodies as Special Traffic Mayors -STMs.  More importantly the State government made  sure that LASTMA  personnel and officials were present  at  the ceremony. Before  that day my opinion of Lastma  and its officials  was that of  overzealous and crooked street and highway officials bent on ruinning the business land scape of Lagos through daily extortion of road users and business vehicles for one traffic violation or the other. Such  bad eggs in LASTMA – including  the one caught  on video soliciting for bribe mentioned by the governor who said his dismissal was  a fait accompli even though he was still on the run-will certainly sit up knowing that STWs  are on  the prowl and can identify them  if they are involved in corrupt practices . The  way the governor showed his commitment to flowing traffic  left no one in doubt that he knows the importance of transportation to the growth of trade and commerce and political stability of Lagos state and the entire Nigerian nation.

    It  is necessary to look  again  at what Lagos state has done,  from an historical and global  perspective. In  Egypt  where  the government is clamping down on  protests on the streets and in the universities because it deposedthe  elected government of President Mohammed Morsi, a  government  had  been brought down before by food riots in Cairo  and the major cities in Egypt. This was the regime of Anwar Sadat  who brokered peace with Israel.  Sadat  himself was assassinated by a soldier who was a member of the Islamic Brotherhood which resurfaced    recently to win Egypt’s first  free  elections in history. Before  Sadat  was assassinated his regime was unpopular because of the high prices  of bread,  the staple food of Egyptians.

    Since Sadat was a dictator he repressed the food riots until an assassin caught up with him. That clearly  illustrates the importance and relevance  of  food security to political stability in any political system.

    Similarly  in Brazil  during the  last  FIFA  organised Confederation  Cup  won by Brazil  there were riots in  many cities in that nation  as the competition approached  and during its duration. The  protesters were agitating that even though they love soccer their  standard  of living did not reflect that of  citizens of a nation hosting the  Confederation Cup  not to talk  of the World Cup which Brazil  is hosting next year and the Olympics  which it is hosting in 2016. Which  meant  all  the hard work Brazil’s former President Lula da Silva did to  secure hosting rights for Brazil would have come to nought because the Brazilian government did not carry its people along while gunning for  the highly  prestigious  sports

    hosting rights for their pleasure while they suffer in the midst of plenty. Really  what  did the protesters ask for? They complained of long hours – about 4hours- in commuting to work daily to and  fro, high food prices, poor infrastructure and high education costs. The Brazilian government has reacted favourably and has committed  a certain percentage of its new oil revenues to education and infrastructure especially transportation.  But really the Brazilian government  not need to wait for street riots before looking after the welfare of  its people by carrying them along  government  plans to  entertain  them  as  well as look after their welfare.  May  be the  Brazilians  need  to borrow  a leaf  from the Lagos State  book on agriculture and transportation  that I narrated before    Perhaps Lagos State can offer  a helping hand  to  our Brazilian brothers especially as they  and our Governor have a mutual love of the lovely game  of soccer . That will certainly be  a pleasure and  yet another people  and export-  oriented  approach following on the clear  success in agriculture and transportation  in Lagos State, here in  Obodo  Nigeria.

  • Health Minister, revolution and leadership

    Health Minister, revolution and leadership

    On Monday, in Abuja, Health Minister Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu cut a miserable picture. He sounded frustrated, not just with himself but also with the entire country and the way things seem to be going. He called for a revolution.

    Chukwu was speaking at the inauguration of councils and boards of health regulatory bodies, but as he seemed to contemplate what lay ahead of the new council and board members in the sector, he could not help but ponder the fact that the ministry of which he is chief is almost in tatters. Less than two months ago, doctors called off an industrial action which lasted over two months. As the new boards and councils were being inaugurated, three fresh threats of strike were issued by professionals in the sector and in fact lay on the minister’s table. Chukwu sounded overwhelmed and unhappy.

    The health sector is losing respect, he growled, before declaring that the sector has indeed lost respect. Only a revolution would salvage the situation, he concluded, managing, for effects, to throw in the ongoing university teachers’ strike.

    The ‘r’ word is not new in these parts. Lots of people mouth it, saying it is what the country needs to find its feet again in almost all aspects of its existence, not least integrity.

    So why does Chukwu’s revolution call matter? It is because leaders like him rarely call for a revolution, which is why the idea of sovereign national conference, for instance, irritates Nigeria’s presidents. It is also because Chukwu is hired and paid very handsomely to fix the problems which now seem to choke him.

    I believe that, bad as things may be in the country, there is nothing to suggest Nigeria’s challenges are insurmountable. I have made this point fairly frequently, convinced that the reason things seem to work in other places, and do not here, is largely because of leadership failure. My position has always been that we often fail to plan, and when we do, fail to enforce the rules. There are potential thieves everywhere, but they thrive where they are allowed to, where they are given a slap on the wrist or completely ignored.

    Chukwu wondered why government employees always fought with their employers even though government pays “twice” what the private sector pays. When he graduated as a doctor, he said, “the private sector was paying two to four times what we earned in government.”

    The minister conveniently glossed over the dwindling standards, choking existential challenges, unfriendly condition of service, incompetence of government officials, unflattering atmosphere in today’s workplace and unfulfilled promises, among other factors. Why are his colleagues leaving the country in droves? Chukwu has demonstrated that when leaders are bereft of ideas, they shift the blame. He has also joined government officials who believe that governing this country is tougher than rocket science.

    Indeed, the Chukwu revolution call inspired a flashback to a piece I wrote previously. The article entitled “Is Nigeria too difficult to govern?” is now reprinted:

    “Our leaders do not like to admit it, but it is clear all the same. They are finding the business of running this country too tough. You can tell from what they say, and how they say it. You can glean it from even what they fail to say. But above all, we can tell from the body of evidence that stares us in the face.

    Let’s start from the most basic of things. The impossible roads have humbled everybody including the leaders; the roads have had the better of our cars and our motorcycles. The loss of life and property on them leaves everyone in torment. And so does the unremitting destruction brought on vehicles. Perhaps, the only ones smiling in this are the auto mechanics whose industry has since been elevated to a vibrant money-making enterprise, no longer a fringe job for school dropouts. The very fact that their workshops are crammed with broken-down or badly battered vehicles leaves them in good cash and better spirits. Things have been looking up for Nigerian mechanics.

    We have also found it impossible to convert our plentiful water into usable household commodity. And this has thrown up all manner of water industrialists and merchants, wholesome and unscrupulous, all extracting handsome profits from the poor consumer.

    In the same way, generating and distributing electric power has become a mystery no one can crack. And as in the case of water, a whole new alternative but very expensive power industry has emerged. Almost every home, no matter how small or economically challenged, has a power generator whose maintenance and running costs far outstrip the meager resources of the breadwinners.

    Security of life is an eternal challenge. Increasing population and joblessness seem to be breeding more outlaws than the police can handle. But beyond that, even the high turnover of the police leadership and the circumstances surrounding their retirement do little to allay our worst security concerns. Almost every Inspector-General of Police leaves office in a cloud of one scandal or another. It is unclear yet how Mr Hafis Ringim, the incumbent, will ride the storm gathering over him since the terrorist attack on the police headquarters penultimate week.

    Now consider the anguish of Nigerians over kerosene and petrol. In the days of President Olusegun Obasanjo, no effort was spared in trying to ram fuel subsidy removal down Nigerians’ throats. At every opportunity, the President’s foot soldiers reeled out statistics and charts to convince Nigerians that sustaining the subsidy was inimical to the country’s resources. They also went on to tempt us with the idea that the billions of naira that would be saved from the subsidy removal would be used to resuscitate our comatose infrastructure. Obasanjo’s men often fell into a chant. Hospitals would be built or rebuilt, they sang. Drugs would be available in the hospitals. The insufferable roads would be fixed.

    Without shame they told us why ought to pay more for what God gives freely and in such awesome abundance. Even in the pre-Obasanjo era, the argument has been running. They used to ask in the late 80s why a bottle of soft drink should cost more than a litre of petrol. We have been paying more ever since, and still suffering.

    The latest round of suffering is experienced right from the kitchen to the filling station. Cooking stoves empty, lamps dry, women and children, and sometimes men, have mounted a sustained search for kerosene. Failing to find it in the neighbourhood where it has gone for anything between N250 a litre and 600 for two and a half, the searchers have often ended up at filling stations. There, a waiting queue curls round the facility or even outside it, cutting a picture comparable only to fuel lines and traffic gridlocks. A man narrated how he went from one filling station to another, keg in hand, searching for precious kerosene. His search covered a few miles before he located the cooking fuel, he told me. Then he walked all the way back. When these terrible things happen, it is always the poor that suffer.

    Why has it been impossible to build just one refinery in the country, or make the existing ones work? Perhaps, there is no end to the incongruities of Nigeria. Otherwise, why should a country be so blessed with such resources and yet remain so cursed and afflicted? Why should so much money be sunk into so many projects (electricity, roads, refineries, etc) and yet nothing works? What is the logic or wisdom of extracting crude with foreign expertise, only to export it for refinement and then import it into the country?

    Perhaps, running the country is truly tougher than some of us imagine.”

    •First published on June 26, 2011

  • Mercantile coaches

    Are we a cursed nation? I don’t think so, even though some charlatans portray us as such with their devious acts. Some of us have this penchant for seeing every avenue as a money spinner. We hide under the cloak of being business-minded people, especially when we are in vantage positions.

    We bend the rules to suit ourselves, not minding how this affects other parties. We are blinded by greed, which prevents us from looking at things objectively. This attitude won’t stop because the guilty ones always get a slap on the wrist.

    The first enemies of our football are the two Golden Eaglets’ coaches who ‘kidnapped’ Kelechi Iheanacho from his parents for three days. It took Iheanacho’s father’s outcry about his missing son before one of the shameless coaches linked the son with his father. What a country!

    In truth, Iheanacho is a minor because of his football age as an Under-17 boy. It means that he has between three and four years to play in the junior cadre of big European clubs to be groomed for the bigger task ahead.

    Such long-term project should involve Iheanacho’s parents and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), not the coaches; except such coaches want to link the boy with their former clubs, in this case, the renowned Barcelona FC of Spain.

    If the story is that one of the coaches was using his contacts to secure Iheanacho’s future through Barcelona, not a few Nigerians would have been pleased.

    I’m sure that Iheanacho’s father would have loved such a move that might offer his son a big opportunity to play alongside Lionel Messi. He would also learn a lot at Barcelona.

    Even then, Iheanacho’s parents ought to have been briefed about the move. Such uncivilised way of doing things is only informed by greed and the usual Shylock agreements that some of our coaches and clubs have with European scouts. This is why we couldn’t track the Under-17 kids that the late Yemi Tella used to win the trophy for Nigeria in 2007.

    What this disgraceful conduct shows is that the coaches were only exploiting the route of short-changing Iheanacho. In other climes, the template for transfers is known. No coach can trade a player without discussing with the country’s FA chiefs. Such discussions will help the FA know where the player is being taken to. They also would ask key questions about the programmes in the place for him and the arrangement made for his welfare since he is an underage player. Need I add that the FA chiefs will want to ask the player’s parents if they are comfortable with the plans made for their son? Such attention to welfare issues will, undoubtedly, do a long way in ensuring that the boy has a life after playing the beautiful game.

    What is clear about this needless mercantile morass is that the NFF don’t have a plan for the Eaglets. If there was any positive arrangement for the stars among them, it would not have been possible for the coaches and their Shylock agents to ‘kidnap’ Iheanacho. We do not know how far this rot has gone. We are privy to this one because Iheanacho’s father cried out. We won’t be shocked if no one knows the whereabouts of Isaac Success. Those fingered in this Iheanacho saga must never be allowed to have anything to do with the team. If they want to be agents, they should drop their coaching jobs and take the necessary examinations. They can’t be both coaches and agents.

    It is sinful for agents to be coaches, for such coaches are unlikely to be fair in their selection of players. They will probably always pick their candidates first. Coaches who are agents of big clubs do so through proxies, of course, to avoid the flaks from botched deals and to keep their integrity intact.

    Many sneered when the story broke that some of the disqualified Eaglets that featured in the Africa championship came from one of the coaches’ academy. No problems with players coming from the coach’s academy if he isn’t the owner. But where he is, the NFF ought to have investigated the matter and taken stern action. If they did, we won’t be struggling to get the coach off the back of the Ihenachos.

    It is this impunity exhibited by most of coaches that has scuttled the process of getting age-grade players to graduate to the Super Eagles. This new set of Eaglets won’t be any different, given what we have on our hands.

    It is instructive to note that Iheanacho won the MVP in UAE, just as Ronaldinho did in 1997 in the same competition in Egypt. Messi won it at the U-20 level in 2005 in Holland. Need I waste space to enumerate what Ronaldinho achieved and what Messi has achieved? It is about time a Nigerian followed this developmental path, and I feel strongly that Iheanacho could even become the World Footballer of the year someday. Did I hear you say “Amen, Amen”?

    I still weep over the way we have buried the late Yemi Tella’s efforts with the 2007 Eaglets. Tella’s boys were U-17 World Cup champions, yet the majority of them have not graduated into the Super Eagles team for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

    In 1999, Spain came with their U-20 side to Nigeria for the World Cup tournament hosted here with Casillas, Xavi and a few others. They lifted the trophy by beating Japan, under the tutelage of Phillipe Troussier, 2-0 in Lagos. Members of that youthful squad constitute the current World Cup and European Cup champions. We need to emulate this type of growth.

    The lesson from the Iheanacho saga is for the NFF to immediately place a caveat emptor on all the Eaglets, warning clubs not to do transfer business with either the players or agents, except the NFF. The important aspect to this warning is that the players are underage and wouldn’t be ready for club football until after two to four years.

    In addition, NFF must reorganise its international department- the body that deals with inter-club and intra-club transfers of Nigerian players. This department should be the NFF’s revenue base, if effectively managed.

    Personnel in the international department should not constitute themselves into travel agents, visa racketeers and bureau de change operators. They should be knowledgeable people who at the touch of a button in their office will tell us the location of any Nigerian player who left for Europe, Asia, the Americas or the Diaspora.

    Nigerian kids leave this country in droves, many sadly with forged documents, making it extremely difficult to track them. Of course, shockingly too, Nigerian kids who are taken away from their parents in their pursuit of bigger cash most times have several Nigerian passports. Remember the story of a boy known to everyone in the domestic league as John Akhimen, who became Richard Eromoigbe and played for the Eaglets with no one bothering to ask questions about the change of identity? I digress.

    The NFF chiefs must interface with the parents of the current Eaglets’ squad in deciding their future. Together, all the parties must ensure that these talented lads don’t go the way of others before them. In doing so, these parties must encourage the brilliant ones to combine education with playing football. This arrangement guarantees their future, given that the life span of any athlete is short, barring injuries.

    Aminu Maigari must put the machinery in place to identify the football academies, standardise their programmes by ensuring that the right personnel work in such academies before registering them and then monitor how their players grow in their professional careers.

    The implication of this exercise is that the documents taken from these academies serve as data bases for the future. This way, a boy (Ade Ojeikere, for instance), who was registered in Government College, Ughelli, in 1990 as 11 years old, cannot emerge as Emokpaire Ojeikere in Hussey College, Warri, in 2013 as a 16-year-old footballer, simply on account of his small stature and baby face. Such a person would easily be detected through his biometric taken in 1990. However, such infallibility, of course, would depend on the integrity of the process because some corrupt people in the system could tamper with the data.

    There is no doubt that Maigari has excelled in the task of changing the face of our soccer. Our national teams’ feats under his regime have been unbelievable. But he needs to reinvent the structures within the NFF by organising training courses where they can update their knowledge. Facilities in the NFF must also be modernised to be in sync with what obtains in other climes.

  • An implosion

    An implosion just occurred. The largest party in Africa has collapsed under the weight of its hubris-infested lead4ership. Before their very eyes, in the twilight of their ascendancy, the impregnable suddenly lost grip of the power to fix and it is music to the ears of the people, the true source of democratic power.

    The announcement on Tuesday, November 26, 2013, of the merger of New PDP with APC was the culmination of series of events, miscued by the leadership of the original PDP as simply a nuisance that was going to evaporate. Well, it didn’t, and that is enough evidence of an underlying ailment that continues to afflict our political class. The elite takes the people for granted, and in the process takes its kind for granted. We saw, in the case of the old PDP, a power struggle that has bedeviled the party since its inception.

    Power struggle is an intrinsic element of the political process and is not unique to the old PDP. However, there is something unique and damaging to the brand that PDP represents and portrays. As the party that controls the central government and the largest number of state governments, the old PDP sees itself as unbeatable and its will to dominate and to pervert as unbendable.

    The will to dominate is geared towards external victims and is, therefore, tolerable and indeed admirable to the internal brigade. The will to pervert is, however, an equal opportunity victimiser. It affects and impacts both external and internal victims. And that is the undoing of the brand. It was the final storm that shredded the open umbrella.

    As an organisation, the PDP considers itself unique in political party formation in Nigeria in the sense that it has no individual founder, just as the NPN before it bragged about not having a Baba, an indirect jab at the then UPN. However, this self-description is only partially true, and its partial falsity is demonstrated by fact that the collapse of the party is due to the appropriationby a few of the power of a non-existent founder. In other words, though there is no single founder with enormous powers, there are multiple innermost centres of power, which call the shot and dare those perceived as external others to leave.

    If there were no real founders, and every member came into the fold on his or her own, that is a good reason for the elected leaders to see themselves not as tin gods but as servant leaders. In the history of the PDP, that was never the case. In a party without a Baba, one was invented between 1999 and 2007. And a Mr. Fix-it has always lurked around Aso Rock to ensure that any viable competition for a position occupied by an incumbent is frustrated, even when the incumbent is a non-performer and an embarrassment to the party. On hindsight, it now appears that progressives were right back in 1998.

    Daring the unhappy folks to leave has worked well principally because of the potency of its will to pervert. With the party in the driving seat of the political economy of the country in the last fourteen years, the potency of its will to pervert the system is crystal clear: subsidy scandal, crude oil theft, Oduahgate, comatose refineries, and generalised corruption, despite EFCC. The will to pervert is consistent with the reluctance to flush out culprits of corruption from its rank. If you join the party with the motive of perverting the system to get the most for yourself, then your motive is not in conflict with the environment that the party sustains. Why would you want to leave? Even if you were outsmarted once, you would probably take the chance and wait for another day.

    Of course, overgeneralisation is an unforgiveable sin of logic. There are individuals in the rank and file and even at the leadership cadre of the old PDP who have suffered the pang of conscience silently and waited patiently over the years for a change in the direction of the party. And there comes a time when suffering and waiting is no longer an option. For some of the new PDP members, that time appears to have arrived. At least, that is my reading of their decision to escape from a sinking ship.It cannot be long before the veracity of my reading of the implosion of PDP is determined. And we just have to see.

    Meanwhile that implosion has spawned an explosion in the advance of APC. The leadership of this new party has not concealed its intentions and has in fact made it a foremost task to attract the G-7 Governors and the New PDP into its fold. Its hard work and persistence has finally paid off. There is something to be said for the strategic genius of its leadership and the feat it has accomplished in the last six months. First, it was the fight over registration, which was not going to be, precisely because of the fear in some quarters regarding what has just occurred. Then there comes this exponential increase in numbers. And if politics is in the final analysis a craft that relies on numbers, there’s good reason for excitement.

    It is also true, however, that prior to a final analysis, there is an intermediate one, and a preliminary one as well. While numbers matter in the final analysis, there are factors without which numbers don’t really count and may be counter-productive. First, there is the harmony of ideological orientation, especially among the leadership. One expects that this would have been at the top of the preliminary discussions and negotiations. For without a common agreement on the ideological focus of the party, there is no guarantee that the addition of the new numbers to the old will make a positive difference.

    Second, APC has its agenda based on its consultations with the rank and file of its members cutting across the original political parties and the various regional and local constituencies. This progressive agenda is based on certain fundament values and principles shared by all Nigerians: that all Nigerians are creatures of a good God who endows them with inherent dignity and respect; that progressive principles and practices are essential to good governance and the protection and promotion of the dignity and respect of Nigerians; and that congresses and communities of peoples with diverse backgrounds can and will embrace a common unity of purpose for the promotion of their common interests if and when an appropriate and desirable structure is put in place for the pursuit of those interests.

    Third, fidelity to those fundamental principles determines the method of approach of the party to governance, the evidence of which abounds in those states where APC has had the opportunity to govern. Education, employment and security are vital to the promotion of dignity and respect and APC governments at state level have made these three the centerpiece of their undertaking. It is the expectation of those who look up to the party that these will be its focus at the federal level.

    Fourth, it is true, however, that a true federal arrangement that devolves power adequately to the constituent units is key to good governance and prompt and excellent delivery of services to Nigerians. An APC central government must pursue with vigor and deliver a true federal structural arrangement through constitutional provisions.

    Finally, infrastructural development, including road, power generation and distribution, is an indispensable tool for the unleashing of the ingenuity and resourcefulness of Nigerians in all areas of the economy. APC must tackle with the concerted energy of all willing Nigerians the challenges of infrastructure that appear to have overwhelmed the present administration and those before it. Nigerians are resourceful people and their talents must be put to good use and they will once again command the respect of the world.

    It is hoped that these ideas and ideals are shared by the leadership and members, including the new arrivals into the fold. If so, it is time to get to work.

  • Echoes from Vienna

    Echoes from Vienna

    Turmoil, in any place and at any time, has a way of calming itself down. Religious turmoil is not an exception in this case. The global frequency of interfaith dialogues these days is an evident attestation to this assertion. Yours sincerely has been participating in series of such dialogues in recent times two of which took place in Abuja within the last two weeks alone. At such events, it became vividly noticeable that ignorance is, after all, the modern day bastion of religious disharmony. And, with meaningful dialogues, the possibility became clear that the world could return to its habitual habitat of peace in which it once sojourned with comfort.

    This new trend is rapidly spreading across the world and is amazingly rekindling humanity’s hope for the seemingly lost harmony. Last week Wednesday, a global interfaith conference began in Vienna, Austria, with over 600 religious leaders from all parts of the world in attendance. Yours sincerely was a participant in it. The conference which was sponsored by the Saudi Arabian King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Interfaith Dialogue Foundation was the 9th in series. ‘Religions for Peace’ was established in 1970 as a means of harmonizing the common traits of all religions and understanding the differences in global religions. Leading the Nigerian delegation to that extraordinary conference were His Eminence, Dr. Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto, and His Eminence, John Cardinal Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, the Archbishop of Abuja, both of whom were elected as Presidents of the World Assembly of ‘Religions for Peace’. The duo had been jointly engaged in series of interfaith dialogues in recent times in Africa as well as the rest of the world.

    Coming closely on the heels of the Vienna conference was another of its type in London. The latter which commenced on 23rd November was organised by ‘Muslim Public Affairs Centre (MPAC) a well known Muslim organisation with strong base in London. The Nigerian delegation to the London conference was also led by His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto who moved to London from Vienna to further champion the course of global peace.

    These unprecedented peace initiatives of the Sultan are a sharp reminder of a historic lecture he delivered in Harvard University on October 3, 2011. Some excerpts of that famous lecture were published in this column two years ago. But because of the ever relevance of the lecture, those excerpts are hereby brought again for the benefit of peace-loving readers of ‘The Message’.

    A Voice from Harvard

    On Monday, October 3, 2011, a voice echoed from the United States of America and reverberated throughout the intellectual spheres of many other countries across the world’s continents. The voice was that of His Eminence, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA). He was the guest lecturer at Harvard University where he delivered ‘The Samuel L. and Elizabeth Jodidi annual Lecture at Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. He was invited by the authorities of that University. The theme of the lecture was: “ISLAM AND PEACE BUILDING IN WEST AFRICA”.

    In the preamble to the lecture, His Eminence briefly took a look into the various indices of contemporary religious developments and analyzed the merits and demerits of such developments vis-a-vis human cultural values. He started as follows:

    “Today, more than ever before, we stand on the threshold of great opportunities. Developments in various fields of human endeavor have made it easy to accumulate vast knowledge on peoples and cultures and to communicate this knowledge in ways never imagined before, with the real promise of bringing better understanding between us all. Scientific breakthroughs have also made it possible to achieve human development at an unprecedented scale and to enhance the welfare and wellbeing of each and every one of us…”

    “But these opportunities also come with great dangers – and these dangers have already begun to manifest themselves in ways that leave us with much to worry about. Bigotry and hatred are being elevated to a new pedestal and spread with relish and impunity. Protracted conflicts, threats of war and the rise of extremism and militancy, from all sides of the socio-religious divide, have become the reality of our daily lives in many parts of the world. Regrettably, a significant portion of the world’s population still wallows in abject poverty and neglect, thereby fuelling the vicious cycles of conflict, violence and instability that we are now all too familiar with”.

    Experience

    “As a military officer and diplomatic representative, I have seen the devastation of war, not only in West Africa, but in Afghanistan, Iraq and other parts of the world. I have witnessed the desperate cries of widows and orphans and the exasperation of bewildered families desperately struggling to pick up the shattered pieces of their lives. As the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs; as well as the Co-Chair of the Nigerian Inter-Religious Council [NIREC], I have also seen the pain and suffering which ethnic polarization and religious misunderstanding could bring to a nation and its people; how ego and bigotry could conspire to deprive people of their rationality and good judgment and how religious leaders could set aside the teachings of their scriptures to lend a helping hand to these sectarian crises”.

    A world of difference

    “But during all these, I have also seen how people of goodwill could make a world of difference; how the right word at the appropriate time could heal an old wound; how a little help to those in distress could rekindle hope in our common humanity and how people of virtue, courage and determination could set aside their fears and misgivings to work together to re-establish and strengthen the bases of mutual co-existence within their diverse communities….It is in the context of these challenges and opportunities that I wish to talk to you on the issues of peace and religious harmony tonight. Since many people have talked and written about Religion and Conflict in our part of the world, it is only appropriate for me to address you on Islam and Peace-Building in West Africa, and particularly in my home country, Nigeria, with the real hope that in our individual and collective efforts, we can contribute our little quota towards the realization of the Jodidi vision of promoting “tolerance, understanding and goodwill among nations and the peace of the world…”

    Dan Fodio for instance

    Alluding to Sokoto Caliphate founded by Shaykh Uthman Dan Fodio in the early 19th century as a cultural and intellectual yardstick for measuring value in a meaningful society, His Eminence said: “The emergence of the Sokoto Caliphate in the early years of the nineteenth century, led by the erudite scholar, Shaykh Uthman Ibn Fodio, brought a drastic transformation of the Islamic scene in West Africa. The Sokoto Caliphate was a political as well as an intellectual revolution. Politically, it initiated an extensive process of state formation which spanned across several states in Western and Central Africa. Intellectually, the Caliphate also succeeded in putting scholars at the helm of public affairs. As true intellectuals, they had to argue their way through almost every major decision they took and had the time and foresight to record their thoughts, ideas and the justification of their actions for posterity. The Sokoto Triumvirate, namely Shaykh Uthman Ibn Fodio, Shaykh Abdullahi Ibn Fodio and Shaykh Muhammad Bello, authored over 300 books and pamphlets. Other Caliphate leaders were also prolific writers. Nana Asma’u alone wrote over 70 poems and tracts.

    Category of values

    But despite these impressive achievements, probably one of the Caliphate’s most enduring legacies had been in the area of values. Classifying value into five categories and justifying each by quoting relevant authorities, His Eminence ascertained as follows:

    The first category of values raised by the Sokoto Caliphate leaders was one associated with knowledge as the basis for effective leadership. Ignorance has no business with leadership and ignorant people should have no business in governance. In the emphatic words of Shaykh Uthman Ibn Fodio:

    “A man without learning is like a country without inhabitants. The finest [qualities] in a leader in particular and in people in general, are the love of learning, the desire to listen to it and holding the bearer of knowledge in great respect….. If a leader is devoid of learning, he follows his whims and leads his subjects astray, like a riding beast with no halter, wandering off the path and perhaps spoiling what it passes over…. [Bayan Wujub al-Hijra]

    “The second category of values which I wish to bring to your attention is the primacy of Justice as the basis of good governance. Shaykh Uthman Ibn Fodio, the leader of the Sokoto Caliphate, had always believed that “seeing to the welfare of the people is more effective than the use of force.” According to Shaykh Uthman, “the crown of the leader is his integrity, his strong-hold is his impartiality and his wealth is [the prosperity] of his people.” Shaykh Uthman Ibn Fodio was equally emphatic on how injustice compromises the integrity of governance and ultimately destroys the state”. He said:

    “One of the swiftest ways of destroying a state is to give preference to one particular group over another or to show favour to one group of people rather than another and draw near those who should be kept away and keep away those who should be drawn near…. Other practices destructive to sovereignty are arrogance and conceit which take away virtues. There are six qualities which cannot be tolerated in a leader: lying, envy, breach of promise, sharpness of temper, miserliness and cowardice. Another is the seclusion of the leader from his people, because when the oppressor is sure that the oppressed person will not have access to the ruler, he becomes more oppressive… A state can endure with unbelief but it cannot endure with injustice.” [Bayan Wujub al-Hijra]

    “The third category of values is that dealing with the fight against corruption especially in the management of public affairs. Shaykh Abdullahi Ibn Fodio puts the Caliphate’s position in clear and unambiguous terms:

    “A ruler is forbidden to touch property acquired unjustly, such as through bribes obtained for appointing a judge or any other officer. The use of such property is unanimously regarded as illegal. It corrupts the Religion and opens the door wide to abuses and oppression of the poor. For the officials may feel that since money was obtained from them as a reward for appointing them to office, they in turn must recover it from the common people….” [Diya’al-Hukkam]

    It is also the view of the Sokoto Caliphate leaders that those charged with authority must strive to shun corrupt practices and lead by example. In the words of Sultan Muhammad Bello:

    “Leaders are like a spring of water and officials are like water-wheels. If the spring is pure, the filth of the water-wheels cannot harm it. If, on the other hand, the spring is polluted, the purity of the water-wheel will have little effect [on the purity of the water].” [Usul al-Siyasa]

    The fourth category of values relates to the dignity of labor and indeed the responsibility of government to provide the enabling environment that would allow people to make a decent living. In the words of Sultan Muhammad Bello:

    “……Guard yourself against poverty by lawful earning, because every poor man is afflicted by three defects: religious weakness, feeble mindedness and loss of honor. Worse than this is the contempt in which he is held by people….There are two assets which, as long as you safeguard them, you will remain alright: Your earnings for your livelihood and your religion for your hereafter…..The recommendable earning is better than supererogatory worship, the benefit of which is confined to the worshipper alone, whereas the benefit of the recommended earnings extend to others.”[Ahkam al-Makasib]

    “The fifth and final category of values… is the uplifting of the status of women, especially through Education. The Sokoto Caliphate leaders, as erudite scholars, lived by the percepts they preached and ensured that their wives and daughters and all others associated with them were educated to the highest standards the society could offer. Many of these women, including Nana Asma’u, became leaders in their own right and played an active role in the political arena. Equally and importantly, Shaykh Uthman Ibn Fodio’s pronouncements, made in the very early part of the nineteenth century, could not be more categorical:

    “One of the great calamities which have afflicted Hausaland is the practice of many of its scholars in abandoning their wives, daughters and servants in a state of ignorance. They are left like animals without any effort to teach them….. This is a grave mistake and a prohibited innovation. They treat them like utensils which they put to use, but when broken, get thrown into the dustbin. What a strange behavior! How could they leave their wives, daughters and servants in the darkness of ignorance and astray, while educating their students morning and evening. This is just for their selfish interest and for show and ostentation….”

    Challenges of insecurity

    The Sultan who had earlier delivered similar lectures in Cambridge and Oxford did not stop there. He went further to trace and analyze the challenges of insecurity as well as causes of violence and terrorism in Nigeria and suggested some solutions to those societal vices. These analyses will be brought up in this column along with the report of Vienna Conference when I arrive in the country next week in sha’a Llah.

    Meanwhile, the details of what transpired at the Vienna conference; a brief history of ‘Religions for Peace’, how the Sultan and John Cardinal Onaiyekan emerged as world Presidents of that world’s largest international religious body; the declaration made at the end of that conference and the future expectations from the decisions taken at the conference will be published in this column next Friday in sha’Allah.

  • Another class story (1)

    We do strange things. Like crickets gone nuts, we chirp in riotous indignation at the whirlpool of tragedy that has become the Nigerian dream. But we will do nothing about it. Thus when opportunity beckons for us to gird our loins and change our stars, we swallow discontent like a sweet pill and entrust our destinies to familiar undertakers committed to devastation and plunder.

    Back when we aspired to be adults, we attempted to do such stuff that higher animals are made of; like democracy and bloodless revolutions – even in the face of abject truism that there could never be a revolution without bloodbath.

    The democracy we declared has recoiled into a spent shadow. Fourteen years on in the grip of blood-drenched mascots, it pilfers our sweetest fantasies like the proverbial slut making a surreptitious exit with her drunken lover’s wallet.

    With a little more deliberation in our choice of character, we could essentially become something more than shriveled capillaries for familiar vermin to suck from. But we have not yet gotten a hang of the process of choosing an outlook and creditable character – which serves to reinforce that sincere and passionate belief that somewhere between men and cattle, God created a tertium quid and called it ‘Nigerian.’ Sincere apology to God.

    Nigerian – a clownish, simple creature, at times even enchanting within its limitations but ultimately foredoomed to fulfill a prophecy of folly, blind pride and insatiable lust. It is never my wish to subject our kind to such reckless deprecation but even as you read, the average Nigerian, working class and enfant terrible elite alike, are perfecting innumerable plots to self-destruct; by the second.

    As usual, behind those suicidal plots lurks a postscript; and predictably, regret – emotive shingles that constitute our second nature. And so do we stand ignorant and confused, half-conscious mutter of men that we have become; craving the essence of humanity and freedom only to forsake it for a token, a sentiment or fleeting vanity at election time. Just like we did last April.

    We have become such recipients of freedom that are yet unsure of their right to enjoy it. This is the tangle of witlessness and resignation that requires us all to become better patriots and rejuvenators of the Nigerian dream. If we look carefully inwards, we will find that beneath our passiveness and utter cowardice agitates a quest for self-preservation and gruesome airs – which further perpetuates our fate as a stalwart labour force foredoomed to specious dreams and profitless endeavours.

    Time and over again, a few critics and self-styled leaders of thought have decried our unabashed idiocy, fraudulence and lack of guts; such curious kinks of the Nigerian mind and society unfortunately do exist at a grievous price, and must be reckoned with. Yet these shameful twists to our psyches make us even more vulnerable as fair game to Nigeria’s gangs of vicious, ruling elite.

    The Nigerian ruling class, despite their brutishness cannot be wished away or successfully weeded out by violence or bloodshed even if we tried. And yet they must not be allowed continual access to leadership and power. It’s about time we accepted them as the grotesque manifestations of the Nigerian factor; monstrosities standing in the way of civilization, progress and common decency.

    They can only be confronted and eliminated by an expansion in breadth of human reason, catholicity of will and culture. The native aspiration of such men to loot our coffers and feed their greed must not be encouraged any further. Nor should we persist with our pitiful complacency and eagerness to acquiesce to their boorish enterprises, for the love of a token.

    It’s about time we dealt decisively with such degenerate elite that we sheepishly endure as Nigeria’s ruling class. But how? How can we stage a peaceful but decisive revolt without bloodletting? Is the current crop of youth identifiable as Nigeria’s working class and future leaders capable of such challenging and fundamentally noble exploit?

    No. But we could be soon. The Nigerian working class indeed personifies some ponderous metaphor: to stimulate our wildly weak and untamed minds is to ignite a ravenous and uncontrollable fire; and to persistently impede our rudderless enterprises is to incite our volatile minds to a harvest of violence and bloodletting.

    To these bothersome questions and contradictory tributaries of thought, the potent and yet inadequately explored panacea of Education towers above all others. We live in dire need of such human training that will awaken our minds to the timeless knowledge inherent in the ideal and the practical, the realistic and the fantastic, the permanent and the contingent, in a workable equilibrium.

    The Nigerian working class as we have now comprises of two fractions of inconsequential beings: the cantankerous, irrational illiterate and innately savage kind constituted by menial workers, police officers, petty traders, street urchins and appallingly, students among others.

    The other fraction consists of the so-called articulate, cultured and progressive breed comprising young, upwardly mobile professional doctors, engineers, journalists, lawyers, and teachers to mention a few. Members of both divides constituting the nation’s working class are appallingly invested with bitter cynicism, jadedness and despondency.

    They exhibit as much bestiality, irresponsibility and irrationality as the much despised ruling elite particularly in instances demanding inviolable tact, sensitivity and maturity. Fans’ reaction to national team performances in the highly competitive game of soccer for instance presents a worthy yardstick by which the degree of humanity and maturity of the Nigerian working class may be judged.

    Not too long ago, Nigerian soccer fans launched a violent attack against the national team over perceived irresponsibility and lackluster performance of the team which cost the country a place at an African Cup of Nations tournament. That wasn’t the first time Nigerian soccer fans conducted themselves as lower brutes, for the love of football. And it wasn’t the first time either that Nigerian journalists and the high and mighty intellectual court of public opinion would excuse such behavior – thus applauding it – as some form of “highly emotional” and worthy response to the national team’s plodding and disappointing performance.

    Yet we fail to mete out similar treatment to the country’s ruling class even as they rob the nation blind and foredoom us all to everlasting poverty and decline. It is no doubt obvious that we are incapable of certain vital rational, cognitive and affective sensitivities. A secondly, hourly and daily appraisal of Nigerians chosen randomly across both classes for instance, “revealed glaring abnormalities in their psychological constitution” according to recent sociological finding by a team of university researchers.

    How could such vitally impaired characters be trusted to conduct their affairs appropriately and judiciously? This brings us back to the significance of an ingenuous process of human training in the struggle to build a progressive and formidable movement of the people for the people and by the people.

    Democracy is simply never enough. Nigeria will never become that model nation of our dreams until we learn to evolve a social process that enables sufficient nurturing and guidance of thought and fundamentally adroit coordination of deeds – prime sureties to the path to true freedom, peace, equality, justice and national progress.

    This brings us back again to the issue of quality education.

    •To be continued…

  • PDP- APC 2015 slugfest

    This is a season for seers, witch doctors and prophets (a friend pronounces it pro-fits). It is also an expansive time for pundits, pseudo-strategists and musclemen. Wow, o set tie le, the stage is set, to put it in the Igbo street parlance. What a large stage for intrigues, shenanigans, subterfuge and long knives? Mark my word, from now up until 2015, Nigeria will become one large, simmering cauldron of politics and bitter battles for the soul of the presidency and by extension, Nigeria. Everything else may have to wait: the budget, the economy, infrastructure, social welfare, nothing else but politics will matter; yet nobody will be able to fathom how it will play out – where are the futurologists?

    THE NEW APC CHALLENGE: The fledgling All Progressives Congress, APC, the result of a merger of a few parties in Nigeria had what may be described as a breakthrough last Tuesday when five rebel state governors from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP decamped to join APC thereby giving it an almost equal numerical strength with the PDP. Though the move seemed to have been long in coming, the reality of it carries an impetus that most pundits had not calculated. The import is that first, two major political parties (the one progressive and the other conservative, so to speak) have become a reality in Nigeria today; two, depending on the groundswell of activities leading to the 2015 elections, the two parties have 50-50 chances of winning the number one spot (the presidency) in that election; three, this new development has the potential make Nigeria’s democracy for good (and even Nigeria the country) or mar it and of course, both the negative and positive consequences of this new development will be at a grand scale.

    To elaborate on the last point, if for instance the two parties are guided by democratic ethos and they agree to play by the rules; if they play politics of principles and purpose, politics without rancor and bitterness and allow the people choose their leaders at the poll, Nigeria would have found the path to growth, development and modernity. If on the other hand, they engage in bitter and rancorous politicking which may eventually lead to crisis and implosion, perhaps there may no longer be an entity known as Nigeria post 2015. These two possibilities are real and latent.

    PDP PROGNOSIS: How would PDP handle its current diminution and seeming unraveling? Since it came to power in 1999, it had never tire to boast that it was the biggest party in black Africa and after its last electoral victory in 2011, the refrain from not a few members was that it would be in power for another 60 years. How they worked out the arithmetic is a mystery but their cockiness was infectious especially among their members. But no action of members of this behemoth suggested that they were at work on their talk. Telltale signs to buttress this fact are numerous. PDP cannot complete its headquarters and in fact, the abandoned, half-built crudity is today a sorry site somewhere in the heart of the capital city. It stands as a metaphor to the soulless giant that is PDP.

    PDP’s internal crisis is legendary as it is historical. Its first president, Olusegun Obasanjo, a former general turned politician had little understanding of democratic ethos. As president, he was a megalomaniac who coveted power as much as he abused it. In just a few months, he routed the party that brought him to power rendering the founding fathers impotent and inconsequential. Deploying his enormous presidential powers he eventually put the party under his acrid armpit; creating the nebulous position of president as party leader and party chairman and subordinate and indeed an ‘appointee’ of the president. He effectively damaged the possible emergence of a Nigerian mega-party in the mould of an Africa National Congress (ANC).

    It could be argued that Obasanjo’s shortsightedness and power-mongering nature ruined PDP. For the eight years of his reign he was content to have the party in his leash, arresting its development, allowing it no quality administrative structure, no proper office and worse no institutional memory. By the time Obasanjo left office, PDP was no better than a department in the Presidency with him as the leader-deity. In his narrow-mindedness, he even changed the rules of the party to pave way for him to become the chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) shortly after his tenure as president. He resigned in a huff recently when it dawned on him he could not eat his cake and have it. He forgot he ceded the position to the presidency once upon a time.

    This long prognosis is to make the point that PDP today is Goodluck Jonathan and vice-versa. Members defer to the president to think for the party and to direct the party. They read his lips and watch his body language. Much of what happened in the last three years and what might happen in the years leading to 2015 will depend on the capacity of Jonathan to drive the party. That is a tough call.

    THE 2015 INCUBUS: But because he already has a mindset to get a second term in office in 2015, nothing else will matter but 2015 presidency. It will be the same mindset with everyone else who claims to be a PDP member. It will be a zero sum game: second term or nothing. Nobody would think about the party or strategy or long-term; indeed as far as they are concerned: no presidency, no PDP. And it is a point to note that if PDP loses power at the centre, it is sure to become disarrayed and perhaps die. But since its object is to return to power in 2015, it will fight and fight dirty to hold power. Yet even if it wins 2015, it is still only a question of time… PDP is a mere contraption, an unsustainable entity at best, never an institution: a victim of its historical contradictions.

    THE APC CONUNDRUM: The APC (still-in-formation) is actually a tougher political proposition than the PDP except that it has the peculiar opportunity of hindsight. If they think strategic and beyond 2015 (without necessarily giving up on 2015) they will have a better date with history but do they have the requisite competences and the patience of a marathoner. Let say APC is yet a running story…

    LAST MUG: the drivers’ licence miasma

    It is failure, a blundering failure of a monumental scale. Why have the simple tasks of issuing drivers licences and number plates become some kind of space science in Lagos? The combined team of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and the Lagos State Government (LASG) have been bungling through these chores and making life difficult for Lagosians for nearly two years now yet there is no end in sight. People pay all sorts of fees yet they do not get the documents for months. To rub salt on the injury, Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO) and FRSC officials waylay people and extort them. Who will rescue us from our governments?

  • Needful hangover from above

    Needful hangover from above

    WHAT will President Goodluck Jonathan do to please Nigerians?

    Even a brief illness – a routine for millions of Nigerians who throng the hospitals when our easily provoked doctors are not on strike – has become a subject of scurrilous attacks on his integrity.

    Dr Jonathan fell ill the other day in London. In the spirit of the openness and transparency that have characterised his highly successful but much maligned Transformation Agenda (T.A.), his spokesman Dr Reuben Abati issued a statement, saying his principal was “ indisposed” and had sought “precautionary” medical attention.

    That was all the President’s traducers needed. They pounced on him with the ferocity of a hungry lion. They said Jonathan was not ill, but battling a big hangover after hitting the bottle so hard on his birthday, which coincided with the London trip. Hangover? How? All attempts by Abati to ram it into the heads of the purveyors of this treasonable rumour that his boss is a teetotaller failed.

    What kind of drink can induce a presidential hangover – if any has ever occurred anywhere in the world? Johnnie Walker? Bicardi Rum? Scorpion Vodka? Scotch Whisky on ice? English Whisky? Cognac on the rock? Brandy with soda or plain Brandy?

    The debate on the etymology of “hangover”, its politics and social impact has been raging in boardrooms, newsrooms and varsity staff rooms where idle teachers-beer glasses in their hands – have been coming up with strange and scary effects of alcoholism. Teachers have so much idle time now – no thanks to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike – to propound esoteric theories, some of which could actually be treasonable but for the characteristic magnanimity of the Jonathan administration.

    When is a man (or a woman) said to be having a hangover? Does a hangover indicate a state of recovery from bingeing? Can’t a hangover result from the stress of office? Or a six-hour flight? Do presidents have hangovers? Is a hangover a medical condition? When should a man visit the doctor as a “precautionary” measure?

    Unknown to his traducers, Dr. Jonathan was already fit as a fiddle after a few hours rest – as prescribed by his doctors. He then went on to attend the Honourary International Investors Council (HIIC) meeting, the opening of which he missed. They, those idle fellows apparelled in critics’ garbs, then launched into another round of wicked speculations. If it was no hangover, how come he recovered so fast? What was the nature of his illness? Waving the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, they demanded to know Jonathan’s health status.

    Even when he returned to Abuja and told reporters that he actually had some health “challenge”, the questions did not cease. Wetin be challenge? Tell us if na hangover or no be hangover; chikenah, some said scornfully.

    Thus, “hangover”, an ordinarily harmless word that is commonly used among beer parlour patrons, pepper soup joints clients, night clubbers and excited street revellers, has found its way into national reckoning as part of our presidential lexicon.

    But, dear reader, today’s column is not about “hangover” and its complex theories. It is all about those words and phrases that have been etched indelibly in our minds this year because of how they have been deployed by some key personalties.

    By now, those civil servants of old must be ruing the way officialese has been battered by the very people who should be its custodians, all because the civil servant has been relegated to the background by the political appointee. The other day in Abuja, a minister told of how she got a memo for the purchase of two bullet proof cars. In the memo, there was nothing like this: “ I have been directed to inform you that after a careful deliberation and in consideration of the fact that there are security challenges in the country, it has been well advised and it has been so accepted that the ministry should buy two armoured vehicles for the Honourable Minister… . Please, accept the assurances of my esteemed highest regards. Your obedient servant… .”

    Not anymore. We are in the age of Short Message Service (SMS). The minister – no prize for guessing who she is, dear reader – simply replied: “Do the needful.” You can imagine what the reply would have been in those days.

    Until the Dependent –sorry, a slip there – Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deployed it to break the tragic news that was the Anambra State governorship election, nobody really cared about the word “inconclusive”. It had no place in our political lexicon. It barged in on us like “annul” did in 1993 when the military regime of the self-styled president, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, halted the announcement of that year’s presidential election – Nigeria’s fairest and freest ever – which frontline businessman Chief Moshood Abiola was set to win.

    INEC agreed that the Anambra election was rendered inconclusive by a cocktail of irregularities – late arrival of materials and officials, voter register confusion (many names were missing), thuggery and sheer sabotage (as in the case of Idemili North) – but refused to cancel the exercise. Why? Any logic here?

    There is no need for INEC to hang on to its unpopular decision, like a Premier League referee. If it insists that the inconclusive election will stand, does it not imply that the exercise had been compromised ab initio?

    INEC chair Prof Attahiru Jega is a man of integrity, but this Anambra show has failed all tests of integrity. He need not be scared to do the needful. He should apologise to the electorate for letting them down, pull the brakes on the planned supplementary election – you can’t supplement a doomed venture – and get set for a fresh poll. No need for grandstanding. No need for arrogance. No need for deceit.

    They called themselves the Group of Seven (G7, for short) but the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) labelled them “rebels”. The seven governors said they were fighting for reforms in the party, threatening that should they not have their way, they would leave. Five of them quit on Tuesday.

    The PDP leadership thought it was all a joke. Why label them rebels; to bring back memories of the war? Will PDP keep Nigeria at war perpetually? Now, the PDP’s rebels are heroes of the All Progressives Party (APC), which is fighting to save our democracy from the brink to which the PDP has recklessly taken it.

    As the PDP battled to rein in its “rebel” governors, it got support from the Presidency and the police. The police, following “orders from above”, smashed a ceremony at which new teachers were to be presented letters of appointment in Port Harcourt. The New PDP’s offices in Abuja and Port Harcourt were sealed off after the police got “orders from above”. A meeting of governors at the Kano Governor’s Lodge in Abuja was invaded; the police had “orders from above”. The police should not be deceived; Nigerians know that finding among them a spiritual giant who may be getting heavenly instructions is like finding a needle in a hay sack. Many Nigerians will readily proclaim that “above” is the Villa. Can’t the police be more creative?

    There are so many other fascinating words and phrases, thanks to the inventiveness of our talented politicians. If they build a public toilet and give youths motorcycles, they call in television stations to beam to us all their “giant strides”. And when it is time for elections, they buy cutlasses and axes for youths–all in the name of “youth empowerment”.Whatever they do, they say it is to “move the nation forward”, even as they, by their actions, engage the reverse gear.

    No matter what you say about the Nigerian politician, you can’t accuse him of not being creative, most of the time in the negative sense. He knows how to choose his words and use them to the fullest effect.

    A bloody nose for PDP

    Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chair Bamanga Tukur says he is “shocked”– I hope his doctors are on the alert for any eventuality– that five of its governors have fled like rats from a sinking ship. The party should, by now, be ruing the day it decided to enthrone impunity over justice and division over unity, setting one group against another and mixing personal interest with party interests, even as it paid little attention to governance. Its loss of five governors –more to follow – to the All Progressives Party (APC) will surely hurt its foolish dream of ruling Nigeria for 60 years.

    The APC has been called a party of strange bedfellows. But its leading lights have said that the guiding principle is to save Nigeria’s democracy from the political barracudas in the PDP, which has made a mess of almost all the sectors –economy, education, security and more. The government has been fighting corruption with all its might, but corruption keeps growing. It has been crying rule of law, vowing to respect the constitution, yet impunity rules. It has been sloganeering about free and fair elections, yet ballots get battered.

    There is no need to cry for the PDP. It has all the opportunities to make life comfortable for us all, but it lacks the tools – leadership and character. Isn’t that what politics is all about?

  • Politics in Ekiti in 2014

    In the last three years, unlike before, Ekiti has experienced stability in governance and politics. This was something that we never had before and it is my hope and the hope of all our people that this would remain the same in 2014. We have been lucky to have a governor and legislature that are performing as expected by the people. We are of course in a democracy and no one is perfect and democracy is based on competition of ideas and personalities. But in any democracy that is worth its name, there is no need for changing a winning team. In the last three years, Ekiti has witnessed tremendous transformation in its infrastructure. Where there were no roads, roads have been built. Where roads were not completed as in my hometown of Okemessi, they have now been completed.

    The capital city of Ado-Ekiti has also witnessed a transformation that was beyond normal expectation. Secondary school students are being trained in the use of computers and are being given laptops to assist them in their education. The social welfare sector has witnessed changes for the better. Hospitals are being revamped and new ones built. The water sector is also receiving attention. All these things are things that we all can see. We would of course want our state to be put on the pedestal of the most developed state in the country inspite of our limited resources. Ekiti has not reached that level yet, but if we maintain stability and peace as has been the case in the last three years, we would get there.

    Under Governor Kayode Fayemi, the tertiary education sector, has witnessed great strides in its march towards excellence. A visit to Ekiti State University and the College of Education in Ikere would show the tremendous physical transformation that has taken place in the tertiary education sector. More can still be done in every aspect of our life in Ekiti, but it would be unkind for anybody to dismiss what has been achieved. Visitors from outside the state always marvel at the excellent network of roads linking our various towns and villages. I myself saw this in a new road between Ikogosi and Efon Alaaye which was hardly traversed by many vehicles, but which also demonstrates that the current administration is well and alive to its responsibilities.

    There can be no development in an atmosphere of chaos and instability. This is why any attempt to disturb the peace of Ekitiland should be decried and resisted by all right thinking people. While political competition should be welcomed, we should never allow bloodletting and thuggery to prevail in our state. I’m not a politician but I can see with my eyes and hear with my ears and I know for sure that Ekiti people are favourably disposed to the current administration of John Kayode Fayemi. Our people have a saying that ‘when your masquerade dances very well in the public, one’s head is bound to swell with pride’. This present governor is dancing well and representing Ekiti in the outside world of Nigeria and abroad, creditably. We are known for our academic prowess and intellectual erudition and Fayemi represents all these in human physical form. It is always a matter of pride for me to listen to him make presentations or to read what he has written or to hear the comments of even his fellow governors about how lucky we are to have a scholar governor. A prophet is without honour but in his own country. We are now living under grace and our prophet should have honour in their own countries. This man Kayode Fayemi should have honour in his own state of Ekiti.

    This brings me to the next election in 2014. The struggle is between the main opposition PDP which nationally is in disarray and doesn’t seem to pose much challenge to the incumbent administration in Ekiti. Opeyemi Bamidele, technically an APC member of the House of Representative who says he wants to contest for governor in spite of the fact that his party has endorsed the incumbent, poses no risk to the government in power and I believe he knows it. There is no need for violence. The sky is wide enough for a thousand birds to fly and as Chairman Mao said “let a thousand flowers bloom.” Opeyemi Bamidele’s entry into the gubernatorial contest should be welcomed without any acrimony. It is unfortunate that some people driven more by enthusiasm than wisdom have been arrested for being involved in murder of an opponent. We pray that this would not happen again and our elders should speak out that this is not the way of Ekiti people. We are known for our honesty and forthrightness and truth and courage. We should let all these attributes guide our action. Violence is against all we stand for in our state and anybody involved in violence should be sanctioned.

    Inflammatory statements should be avoided especially for people in the opposition because no government would want to unleash violence on his people. The onus is on the opposition and those who are being manipulated from outside and from Abuja to cause violence in Ekiti with the hope of unleashing violence and might of the federal government on our progressive state. Politics is not war and all things foul and fair should not be permitted in politics. Deceit and lies and promises that cannot be met should be deprecated. One should avoid throwing stones into one’s own father’s house. A man who wants to be governor can only be governor over a peaceful state. And we should not throw away the peaceful achievement of the last three years which outsiders have always envied us for as the most peaceful state in the country. Any young man who has ambition of being governor should wait for his time, but it is not likely that Ekiti Central Senatorial zone that has produced two civilian governors since 1999 would produce another one in 2014, no matter the resources available to him from a neighbouring oil-producing state. Ekiti people may be poor individually, but we are not for sale.