The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • Journey to Ethiopia

    Journey to Ethiopia

    Flying with the Super Eagles to Ethiopia offered plenty of prospects. The first objective was to clinch the three points at stake in Sunday’s World Cup qualifier between Nigeria and the Walya Ibex, even if the team didn’t play well.

    Little emphasis was placed on any likely encounter with the team’s chief coach Stephen Keshi. Our seeming grounds of differences have been in the course of doing our jobs. So it didn’t matter if we avoided each other. We both stood our grounds even when he walked ahead of me as we alighted from the aircraft on Monday morning in Abuja.

    Inside the aircraft on Saturday morning at 2.45am, the discussion shifted from the fear of the type of aircraft that NFF chiefs had secured. Wow was the general talk when we entered the aircraft. It was the latest, a Dream-liner, an 800 series jet. The passengers’ initial fears disappeared, but there were hisses from concerned Nigerians who were miffed that Nigeria doesn’t have her own fleet. No curse was spared our leaders over the killer status that our aviation industry had attained.

    The four hours five minutes flight was like a cruise in heaven. Even with the patches of clouds in the course of the trip, there was no panic as the Dream-liner pierced through them like hot knife through butter.

    As the aircraft taxied towards a halt on the tarmac, concerned Nigerians were startled at the number of such Dream-liners with Ethiopian Airline insignia on them. We counted seven of such aircraft and a lot more bigger aircraft, one of which took us back home on Monday morning at 2.20 am at the Addis Ababa International Airport. Many thought the NFF must have spent a fortune to charter the aircraft.

    Whilst our aircraft taxied to a halt, some spotted the presidential jet and another round of discussions ensued. Entering the airport, we were marvelled at the modern facilities in place. Everything worked. The environment was neat. Everyone did his job. No overzealous officials and immigration checks were smooth.

    Outside the airport, we were greeted with the rustic parts of Addis Ababa, beginning with the rickety buses assigned to the delegation. Well, in warfare, all is fare; so you could ‘excuse’ the Ethiopians for offering cockroaches infested buses for the best team in Africa- the Super Eagles of Nigeria.

    The rustic parts of Ethiopia offered us the opportunity of seeing antique vehicles, such as Lada, Morris Mariner, Volkswagen Beatles etc. What a comic relief.

    The Ethiopians were friendly. They showed that they watch the European leagues with the way they struggled to take photographs and get autographs of Chelsea’s John Mikel Obi, Liverpool’s Victor Moses and Newcastle’s Shola Ameobi.

    They told us pointedly that they would beat the Eagles – as was expected- although some of the fans expressed reservations about their ability to stop the Eagles.

    Saturday evening went as planned for the players and coaches. President Goodluck Jonathan, who had been in Ethiopia, a day earlier, visited the team in training. Jonathan’s visit and wise counselling raised the players’ morale and compelled them to give their best knowing that the country’s number citizen and indeed millions of Nigerians would be rooting for their success over the Walya Ibex.

    The rustic part of Addis Ababa melted into modernity when we were checked into three-star hotels surrounded by slums. But for the two days that we stayed, there was no blackout. Everything worked in the hotel. The attendants were courteous. We were shocked to find out that 1,800 Birr exchanged for $100, as against the Naira which is N16,000 to $100. Did this transaction translate to the state of the two countries’ economies? Another round of arguments (from none economists) in the Nigerian delegation began, with The rustic part of Addis Ababa melted into modernity when we were checked into three-star hotels surrounded by slums. But for the two days that we stayed, there was no blackout. Everything worked in the hotel. The attendants were courteous. We were shocked to find out that 1,800 Birr exchanged for $100, as against the Naira which is N16,000 to $100. Did this transaction translate to the state of the two countries’ economies? Another round of arguments (from none economists) in the Nigerian delegation began, with many insisting that it was wrong to judge Ethiopia from the capital city Addis Ababa. Again, this position raised another controversy when the question was asked about a particular city in Nigeria that can boast of uninterrupted power supply for two days? This debate divided us sharply, until we dispersed on Saturday night to sleep.

    Indeed, the task of changing the dollar to Birr was done in the hotel and at the airport. There were no currency traffickers. What, however, stunned us as we began the journey back was the difficulty in getting the hoteliers to change the Ethiopian Birr to the US Dollar as we were told that those collected from us had been registered and taken to their apex bank. We were impressed, although equally stunned, that some duty-free shops also rejected the conversion from Birr to the US dollar or as a medium of exchange for their goods and services.

    Match day was quiet. Many looked forward to the game, with great expectations; although some cautioned against a far-fetched upset.

    At noon when the movement towards the Eagles’ hotel began, it dawned on the Nigerian delegation that Ethiopia was not all about marathoners. They had imbibed the football culture to such an extent that a first-timer to the country on that Sunday didn’t need any prompting to know that the people were preparing for a soccer ‘war.’

    Women, including the expectant mothers, kindergarten kids, boys, girls, couples and the aged thronged the streets dressed in the country’s green-red and yellow jerseys. They raised their hands to indicate the number of goals that the Walya Ibex would score against the Eagles. As the Nigerian delegation drove through the streets, the unanimous talk inside the buses was that we were being taught a lesson in patriotism.

    Indeed, this writer gathered that those Ethiopians who saw the game live had flooded the stadium as early as 8am. By noon, when the stadium was filled to capacity, others were told to head for the viewing centres. Can this happen in Nigeria? Not possible because we would have printed more than the number of tickets needed. Besides, black market operators would have bought up all the tickets and hoarded them to create panic at the gates and inflate the prices for desperate fans. Around the stadium, security operatives were firm.

    Some of us had a hectic time entering the stadium and that was expected for visitors, especially in countries with language difficulties, such as in Ethiopia. The impact of what we saw enroute the stadium was an intimidating presence of fans rooting for their own. The Nigeria Football and Other Sports Supporters Club’s members stood besides the state box, their voices submerged in the wild and coordinated shouts of the Ethiopians.

    Soon the game began. We realised how ambitious our hosts were. A ding-dong game, with the Eagles showing why they are champions albeit through their experienced handling of the ethiopians’ spirited attacking onslaught.

    Then the disputed goal that brought out the rage and bile of the hosts. That gave an inkling of what to expect if they lost. Water bottles, all manner of objects were thrown towards the field, the Nigerian bench and the supporters.

    Pleas through the public address system from their football chiefs calmed the situation a bit, until they scored the first goal which Vincent Enyeama insists didn’t cross the line. The deafening noise from the over 25,000 Ethiopians was the impetus that the Eagles needed to prove their mettle.

    A goal not envisaged by Emmanuel Emenike and a calmly taken but deserved penalty kick ensured that the Eagles had a foot in Brazil, ahead of the second leg in Calabar on November 16.

    The return trip to Nigeria was pleasant with many recalling those tense moments and the ungentlemanly conduct of the Ethiopian fans who pelted the Eagles’ bus with stones and cudgels. Igiebor’s palm was cut. Nigeria Embassy officials, who handled the delegation’s passage in-and-out of Addis Ababa, were wonderful.

    Inside the aircraft, the Ethiopian Airlines staff did their jobs excellently. They interacted with everyone and congratulated the Eagles for their victory. The air hostesses took photographs with their preferred stars. The coaches were not left out, with chief coach Stephen Keshi getting the most attention. He had to. He was the man of the moment. Congratulations Big Boss. All hail the Super Eagles. And I pray that the November 16 clash in Calabar will be a stroll in the park.

  • Confab confusion

    Confab confusion

    The euphoria that greeted the President’s surprise decision to allow Nigerians to talk about the terms of their coexistence, following decades of incessant demands for a Sovereign National Conference hasn’t subsided when steely monkey wrenches were lobbed into the wheels, raising questions about the clarity of the president’s vision and the Advisory Committee’s sense of its assignment. Clarification is essential now before it is too late in the game.

    First, what is the assignment and mandate of the Advisory committee? From its terms of reference, the committee is to draw up a feasible agenda for the proposed national dialogue/conference; it is to make recommendations on structure and modalities, and on the determination of group representation; it is to advise on a timeframe, on a legal framework, and most significantly, the committee is to “advise government on legal procedures and options for integrating decisions and outcomes of the national dialogue/conference into the constitution and laws of the nation.”This last piece in the list of the committee’s terms of reference should raise concern about the ultimate outcome of the national conference, and it is unclear if the committee itself has paid adequate attention to this issue.

    The suggestion in that item of the committee’s term of reference implies that the national dialogue is another avenue in the process of amending the 1999 constitution, a task which the National Assembly has taken up without break and without end since 1999. If this is the President’s idea, then it is clearly incongruous with the proposals for a national conference that predated the 1999 constitution. The agitation for sovereign national conference has not focused on the anomalies of the 1999 constitution, plenty as these are.

    Rather, pre-1999 constitution advocates of a sovereign national conference have always focused on the structure of our federation and its inadequacies especially since 1966. The 1999 constitution, is one of the symptoms of an underlying disease caused by years of military- imposed constitutions. It follows then that the 1999 constitution is itself anomalous on dual levels: a military imposition, and a grossly outlandish one as such. It cannot therefore be a justifiable goal of the national conference to rescue the 1999 constitution by way of amendments.

    It appears that Dr. Femi Okurounmu, Chair of the Advisory Committee, shares this view about the 1999 Constitution and therefore appears to have a different understanding of the committee’s task vis-à-vis the President and the National Assembly.

    In an interview that he granted to a national newspaper, Dr. Okurounmu had the following comments in response to a question about the relationship between his committee and the National Assembly: “The National Assembly is starting from a “given”, that is, given the 1999 Constitution, what amendmentswe want to make to it? That is their starting platform. We are starting from the basis that we have no constitution at all. And depending on what the people want, what kind of constitution do the people want? We are starting from the basis that nothing is “given” and everything is subject to examination and review.”

    There is no doubt that Dr. Okurounmu speaks the mind of a super majority of Nigerians who have been persistent in their advocacy for a national conference. However, his position appears to be at odds with that of the President and members of the National Assembly. As reported widely in the media, the president used the occasion of Salah celebration to make a policy pronouncement on the national conference, stating that the recommendations of the conference are to be enshrined in the 1999 constitution.

    The President put his point thus: “So we need to come up with some bills in those areas we have agreed and we’ll push them to the National Assembly. Of course, some of those bills have not come out from the National Assembly, but we believe that even in the constitutional amendment that is going on, some will be useful.” Continuing, President Jonathan remarked: And this national dialogue is even critical and is coming at the right time because the National Assembly is thinking about how they will amend the constitution. So, the results of the discussion, of course, will be passed to the National Assembly.”

    If the National Assembly is busy compiling offending provisions of the 1999 Constitution for amendment purposes and the decisions of the National Conference are to be passed on to the National Assembly as recommendations, and these may end up jettisoned by the powerful forces in that body, then the effort would have come to naught. Is the odour here that of deception or naivety? It really doesn’t matter as long as it is a foul odour. Yet, if we go back to the item of the terms of reference underlined above, the President was clear about what he proposed.

    On its part, the National Assembly, which has been reluctant to support the convocation of a sovereign national conference on the grounds that there cannot be two sovereigns, apparently came to accept the idea of a national conference on the understanding that it would still have the last say. This is presumably the reason for the volte-face on the part of the Senate President. As far as he and his colleagues are concerned, the nation should be happy because it gets to dialogue but NASS is satisfied because it gets to decide. Is this what it comes to?

    If Senator Okurounmu is right about the starting point of the Advisory Committee (and I have no doubt that he speaks the mind of millions of Nigerians), then the assumption is that “we have no constitution at all” and the task of the national conference is to fashion out a people’s constitution, which boldly and proudly proclaims the preamble “we the people” truly and sincerely. And if the constitution thus drafted will be subjected to a referendum by the people as the Chairman also averred, then the sovereignty of the people is affirmed. The National Assembly normally has no responsibility for making a new constitution; it only has the power to amend an existing constitution.

    The confusion is a fundamental one and it seriously begs for clarification:

    First, does the President envision the national conference as a talk-shop, the purpose of which is to propose amendments to the 1999 constitution to be passed on to the National Assembly for enactment? If so, why do we need such a talk-shop when the National Assembly is already working on amending the constitution?

    Second, does the President envision the national conference as a forum for representatives of Nigerian nationalities and interest groups to discuss the fundamental issues of their national existence and experience and come up with a new constitutional framework that is subject to a referendum by the people? If so, why do we need the National Assembly to ratify what the sovereign people have approved?And even if we do place the new constitution before the National Assembly, must it be as amendment to rather than as replacement of the existing constitution?

    Are the Advisory Committee and the President really on the same page? If not, are the enthusiastic embracers of the President’s offer hopelessly condemned to Asiwaju Tinubu’s “I told you so”? It won’t be strange. He has always had the instinctive gift to smell rat.

  • The way music dies (2)

    No apologies, but besides Benson Idonije, Victor Akande, Ayo Animashaun, Damola Awoyokun, Femi Akintunde Johnson (FAJ) and a few good intellects, music journalism suffers a dearth of competent critics, writers and intellectuals. This makes the idea of a progressive, unfettered, cross-fertilization of ideas and opinions manifest like fading vignettes of a utopian wet dream.

    Sadly, the reality of the internet, despite its palpable benefits, presents a malignant tumour of sort to music journalism. No thanks to the social media, we are afflicted with a parade of dimwits impatiently hustling to broadcast their ignorance, bigoted ripostes and uninformed judgment to the pleasure and appreciation of equally dim folk.

    Consequently, local music asphyxiates in the sickly babble of bloggers and self-acclaimed music critics tirelessly propagating their middling and formulaic opinions, riddled with errors and inadequate music knowledge. For a lot of these music bloggers, music didn’t start before Remedies, DBanj, P-Square, Inyanya, America’s Rihanna and Beyonce Knowles. So shallow is the trough from which they cull that their much hyped reviews often resonate like the dying shrill of a vanishing storm.

    No one is born with music history or artistry ingrained in his psyche, but a little research and dedication wouldn’t hurt anyone. The few good artistes we have around are blogged to death and are yet to make a kobo from it. Many music bloggers are too busy chasing adverts and perpetuating music streaming that they no longer encourage their readers to buy albums. Eventually, the artistes are deprived of due income and in this culture of mediocrity and entitlement that the internet fosters, the listener and music enthusiast loses out on quality, a sense of ownership and loyalty to the artiste.

    Music streaming is no doubt a wonderful thing; according to a blogger, it is akin to trying on an outfit before purchase, or dating someone before wedlock, but in their quest to spread music as widely and thinly as possible, music buzz bloggers are actually reducing the depth of people’s love for music.

    An opinion expressed on tweeter possesses less depth, it’s all about pushing sales; but a well written album review or music feature, isn’t just about generating hits, its more about creating that ideal amphitheatre where the impetus of an album chugs away like a locomotive as it constantly gravitates towards a new sound or improve upon a previous one.

    Good old music journalism is all about projecting good music and giving it the care and attention it deserves, while maintaining a spirit of questioning curiosity that constantly explores why a particular album is good, and how artistes can continue to push boundaries. It’s this interchange between artiste, journalist and music lover that gives rise to fertile discourse and creative experimentation, rather than pathetic trend-chasing.

    Taste has become a big issue in contemporary music; talent too. Then there is the most crucial aspect, which is the dearth of tastemakers: that is, competent music journalists cum critics. It is not my intention to incite the politics of delineation between a music journalist and a critic – to function as a music journalist; you need to possess the capacities of a good critic and vice versa.

    Where are the insights that cannot be gleaned from reading a few press releases? Where are the opinions from anyone other than the conceited publicists desperate to shove crass mediocrity and idiocies of artistes they serve down the throat and subconscious of music lovers? Where is the balance in the din of ingratiating endorsements?

    Nigerian music dies because the music journalist forgets how sacred his relationship with his readers should be; he is too star struck and covetous of the success of confused music stars he helps create; he believes that success subsists in crafting captions for pathetic artistes’ drivel and heavily photo-shopped portraits.

    True; hatchet pieces could be fun to write, but you aren’t spending much time with songs and art as you are conjuring stock phrases and currency-activated analogies. The few discerning readers and music enthusiasts that are still around know this; that is why they skim through contemporary music reviews like distressing poetry. They find that more writers are desperately justifying bad music and getting ‘flava’ rather than examine sonic chemistries or the lack thereof.

    Many music writers are casualties of a broken system; pitiful pawns perpetually engaged in disgraceful surrender to the forces that determine the sound of music. They do not put up a good fight anymore thus the lack of discernible Zeitgeist in Nigerian music.

    The internet may have expanded our breadth, but little has guided the Nigerian music journalist to piece it all together or put it into some kind of historical or social perspective other than what he has been paid to publicize and our ears can piece together, regretfully.

    The commitment and depth of the music journalist goes a long way in enriching or diminishing the music; a competent music journalist will be well-versed in the minutiae of his most dreaded sound as the eternal harmonies of his preferred “hit.” There is no greater sin in music journalism than to sound like you have no idea what you are talking about.

    Wrongly appreciated songs, ill-prescribed genres, and cliché evocations are hardly the stock of music journalism as we would love to read it. And is it not thoughtless that those who judge professionally desperately seek not to be judged in kind? The alternative to such naivety is that bland specialty wherein the music journalist remains wedded to a genre, becomes baffled by outside forces reigning in on such genre, or wrongly accuses all other music aficionados of “trespassing.”

    More disturbing, is the premise that an authentic reaction to music shouldn’t involve our minds—only our hearts and groins; that is ridiculous, isn’t it? Forget Beethoven, Johnny Coltrane, Frank Sinatra, Billy Paul, The Manhattans, Tupac Shakur, Marshall Bruce Mathers III (Eminem), the best of our melodies from Highlife to Apala, Juju, Fuji and Afro Hip hop touches us everywhere at once but hardly anyone gets to really feel it today.

    The best music journalism should set the standards for the industry and regulate it. It should be more than an attempt to wrap writers around the fingers of every artiste, record label and corporate sponsor with a “flava” plan. It uses the language of everyday musicality but too much of Nigerian music journalism lacks such passion and artistry.

    That is why we are inundated by crappy music. That is why Nigeria currently fields no artiste worthy of global acclaim save Bukola Elemide (Asa), Tuface Idibia, Irikefe Obareki (Kefee), Babatunde Olusegun (Mode 9), Jude Abaga (M.I) Abolore Akande (9ice) and budding and misguided rap whiz, Olamide, to mention a few.

    Every album contains a bit of truth, true lies or fantasy; it is the job of the music journalist to justify the album’s existence and the need to write about it in the first place. It’s not that I, who write this, succeed in doing a better job but it’s about time we understood that much as we desperately depend on music art, among others, for pleasure, livelihood and escape; we depend on professionals, like the music journalist to guarantee us the transcendence of such pass.

  • Festival without festivities

    Festival without festivities

    Were it possible for the dead to wake at will, Prophet Yusuf (Joseph), the great son of Prophet Ya‘qub (Jacob), would have resurrected in Nigeria at the request of wretched Nigerians. And his mission would have been the interpretation of a dream like that of a Pharaoh of centuries ago which saved Egypt of yore from the scourge of a looming hunger.

    But alas! The absence of a dreaming Yusuf has rendered the situation in this country hopeless. Despite unlimited human and material resources available in this so called ‘Giant of Africa’ Nigeria continues to wallow helplessly under a jaundiced economy like a centipede drowning in a   poisoned brook.

    Last Tuesday, October 15th, 2013, Muslims all over the world celebrated ‘Idul Adha subsequent to Arafah day which came up the day before. But unlike their brothers and sisters in other parts of the world, overwhelming majority of Nigerian Muslims celebrated that festival without any festivity. At the instance of injustice based on avarice and aggrandisement on the part of the ruling class, the ingredients of festivityhad long been banished in this country. Thus, many worshippers spent the festival season in hunger.

    This iron period in which the government is at once promising to emancipate the masses from the scourge of  hunger, starvation and abject poverty, while at the same time threatening to guillotine the same masses through the instrumentality of oil, is an indicator of indefinite despair.

    Nostalgia

    Generally, there is nostalgia in the land, not only for the days of oil boom when life was relatively comfortable for all and sundry but also for the era of abundant farm crops when the thought of feeding was not much of a concern to most citizens. Nigerian Muslims and non-Muslims alike are today yearning for the return of those days when wives could confidently ask their husbands for festival gifts and children could demand for new dresses, shoes and wrist watches from their parents. Those were the days when festival seasons were really festive and the graph of marriage carried some indices of value. Those were the days of friendliness among neighbours, good wishes among colleagues, mutual confidence among spouses as well as general peace and tranquillity in the society.

    Now, those days are gone. And they seem to have gone forever. Today, we have found ourselves in a situation against which we had long been warned in a couplet rendered by an Arab poet quoting two disciples of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) i. e. Ubayyi Bn Ka’b and Abdullah Bn Mas’ud. It goes thus:

    ”This is the period in which truth is rejected in its totality while falsehood, corruption and betrayal of trust are held aloft; should this period linger with its woes and tribulations, the world, may soon assume a situation where no one will rejoice over the birth of a new baby or grieve over the demise of a dear relative”.

    Sensible Queestions

    Nigeria is fast becoming a dramatic entity mysteriously coded in parables. It will take an unprecedented revolution to decode it and dislodge the insensitive actors who are monopolising the stage with boredom. In ordinary circumstances, a forward-looking country should encourage her citizenry to ask some probing questions such as: Who are we? Where are we coming from? And where are we going from here? Those are some of the questions which all rational human beings should ask themselves constantly.

    But such questions have been rendered irrelevant in Nigeria because the circumstances of life here have changed the priorities of ordinary citizens. The only question now in vogue, which everybody in government seems to be answering tacitly, is this: ‘what am I getting from being in this office?

    That very question is the real drama that permanently engages the attention of Nigerian civil servants. It is the question that robes Nigerian Police in a garment of shamelessness with a banished conscience. It is the question that crowns money as a demigod which forbids human feeling. It is the question that fosters greed andfetters Nigeria to the stake of endemic corruption. It is the question that presents mirage to Nigerians as the only substance worthy of pursuit.

    What can we say of a man who fixes his eyes on the sun but does not see it? Instead, he sees a chorus of flaming seraphim announcing a paroxysm of despair. That is the parable of the country called Nigeria. Like the Israelis of Moses’ time, Nigerians have become gypsies wandering aimlessly and wallowing in abject poverty in the midst of abundance. What else do we expect from Allah beyond the invaluable bounties with which He has blessed us?

    Nigeria is not lacking in forest and arable savannah. She is rich in rivers and mountains all of which are great resources for people who are seeking reasonable comfort and are not self-deceptive. What she lacks is a responsible and patriotic government that can sincerely highlight its priorities according to the yearnings of the ordinary people. That food is becoming a threat to Nigerians today is an irony emanating from naivety and massive corruption in our government quarters especially since 1999 when the current democracy first beamed a ray of hope to the people.

    Cost of governance

    In Nigeria today, the cost of running the government alone is enough to render the country bankrupt. The retinue of federal ministers and a galaxy of Presidential Advisers are major causes of poverty in ghe coungry today. Even America with her huge economic resources, large population and financial wherewithal has only ten ministers? Why must we have separate ministers for agriculture and water resources? Where is the federal government’s farm to justify this? Why must we retain an obnoxious immunity clause in our constitution which facilitates monumental corruption for the serving Governors who are hypocritically chased around but never caught for trial on the allegation of embezzlement after they might have left office?

    Besides, what informs the idea of the so-called constituency allowances for legislators, which run into billions of naira without anything to show for it at a time when innocent women and children are crying for food? No one would have thought in 1999 that artificial hunger could be added to the abysmal level of poverty in Nigeria despite the unprecedented rise in price of oil in the international market. The ubiquity of beggars and lunatics in our cities and towns is a confirmation of this assertion.

    Governance in Nigeria has become an artful trick adopted by a cabal to bamboozle the populace into blind submission. The propaganda in the 1980s was almost hypnotizing: ‘food and shelter for all in year 2000!’ That slogan was changed in the 1990s to: ‘Vision 2010!’ And when year 2010 began to approach, the slogan again changed to: ‘Vision 202020!’

    Self-deception

    Now, without roads, without electricity, without functional rail transportation system, without jobs for majority of the able-bodied citizens and even without food on our tables, we are still being cajoled into believing that Nigeria, a country without coins, would become one of the 20 biggest economies in the world in year 2020. Isn’t that a deliberate and audacious deception? No country in history has ever been known to have achieved economic vibrancy by magic. Nigeria cannot be an exception.

    In an FAO report in 2008, about 300 Nigerians were said to be dying of hunger daily in their own country.

    The government needs to be told that no miracle can yield any success based on the ramshackle foundation laid down by one man (from the prison) who, as President, could hardly reason beyond the siege mentality of a prisoner. A fire brigade approach to food crisis in a country like Nigeria is a shameful reaction to an avoidable melancholy.

    Egyptian Experience

    Yusuf (Joseph), the son of Ya’qub (Jacob), did not know that he could have any solution to a fundamental problem of a country other than his own. Neither did his brothers who sold him into slavery know that he could be a solution to a major problem in another land. But the accident of history never ceases to play itself out. Without Yusuf, only Allah knows what the history of Egypt would have been today. And without a Pharaoh’s dream of drought, the story of Yusuf would have been totally different from what we now know it to be.

    If Egypt had any major plight when Yusuf was in prison in that country, it was Pharaoh’s dream. It turned out that Yusuf’s imprisonment in Egypt was a blessing, not only for Egypt but also for Yusuf and his family. What could have been a repeat of that episode here in Nigeria, turned out to be a regrettable bizarre. The rest is left to history.

    I was a student in Egypt in the 1970s when the hostility between that country and Israel was fierce. Egypt was then an ally of the (now defunct) Soviet Union while Israel was virtually a satellite of the United States. Not only did Egypt suffer isolation from NATO member countries of Europe and America but the Soviet Union which was supposed to be her main ally was also not forthcoming with any meaningful assistance beyond the supply of scanty weapons. Thus, the Egyptian government had to take its destiny in its own hand by buckling up firmly in other to fend for its people at that critical time.

    Realizing the importance of food supply especially in a war situation, Egypt mobilized all her agricultural resources around River Nile and forgot about any food importation. The result was tremendous and thus, the fear of food insecurity was averted.

    In the mid 1990s, Uganda, a sub-Sahara African country, found herself in the position of ancient Egypt. A colossal drought broke out in that country killing thousands of people and virtually wiping out the entire cattle in the country. No Pharaoh had any dreamed premonition and no Yusuf was in a prison to translate any dream into a solution.

    Ugandan Experience

    What the Ugandans did to find a solution was to reset the country’s agricultural focus. Rather than concentrating on tilling the land and rearing the cattle, which drought had eroded, a new focus was brought to bear. Uganda took to ‘bee farming’ as a relieving alternative. The seriousness which the government of that country paid to the new focus was such that Uganda today is a country to reckon with in the production and supply of honey and other bee products to the European communities. A substantial amount of honey consumed in Europe is currently supplied   by Uganda as well as Kenya and Tanzania. And those products have become the second biggest foreign exchange earner for Uganda after coffee.

    Today, Nigeria is not afflicted by drought or famine. Neither is she engaged in a war. Yet, the Nigerian government has learnt no lesson from any of the above named countries simply because there is oil in large deposit. Now, the general fear in the land is that of hunger even in times of festivals.

    How Nigeria arrived at such a deadly scourge is irrelevant for now. What is relevant is how to get out of it. Like Egypt of yore, Nigeria will need a Yusuf to unravel the mystery surrounding the dream that brought this scourge about.

    Irony

    It is ironic that people who live by the river bank can’t get water to drink when those living in the desert can find a reliable oasis to combat any drought. Given all the resources with which we are endowed, Nigerians should have no business with poverty let alone food crisis.

    Capitalism, which was once an economic ideology propelling mercantilism, has moved a step ahead, especially in Nigeria where official theft has become a profession. Capitalism is now a religion through which its adherents worship money. To such adherents, accountability is a mere riddle which only the poor may wish to unravel.

    It is only in the interest of those in government, especially those in the executive and legislative arms who are most active in sharing public funds, to let the national wealth spread across board legitimately if only to avoid the current Nigerian elite situation where every house has become a prison in which the occupants are voluntarily jailed. To ignore the rule of law and shun justice in a land blessed with milk and honey is to cultivate trouble with insecurity in all its ramifications.

  • Agric minister’s rice conundrum

    Agric minister’s rice conundrum

    He is handsome, suave, always well turned out and highly articulate; not unlike a revolver. When he speaks, his audience listens, they get carried away and often he works them up to a standing ovation. Of course we refer to our Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Ishola. In the last two years he has turned out to be the ultimate mesmerizer holding Nigerians in awe of his presence and the presidency spellbound by his vacuous speeches and postulations. But it is all a ruse, this column has found. Adesina has sat on one of the most important sectors of the economy through these years without an iota of idea how to move it forward.

    One example we will showcase here shortly is what we call the rice conundrum, a miasma that has become a national calamity and a token of Adesina’s noisome tenure and stark inefficiency. Before we get to that, it is rather disturbing that anywhere we turn we hear what has become the raucous sound of Adesina and his agric exploits across the country but ask critical questions, look beneath the surface and it is all empty talk.

    Speaking at the Agribusiness Forum in Brussels recently, he said, “We have developed staple crops processing zones, which are to set up food manufacturing plants, a cluster of infrastructure, to close the missing link between agriculture and industry…we decided to turn comparative advantage in food production into competitive advantage by adding value through processing.”

    He said so many things like adding value to low-value crops like cassava ans sorghum, putting billions in the hands of farmers and creating millions of jobs for the youths in the sector. Taken in by Adesina’s empty loquacity, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala blindly sings Adesina’s chorus. According to Okonjo-Iweala, “Now in agriculture, where we are seeing strong results, over 2.5 million seasonal and full time jobs have been created, for instance, 450,000 jobs created are in dry season rice.”

    With due respect, these are all lies, damned lies and cooked up government statistics. As you read this, legitimate rice importers and local farmers are on the verge of being put out of business by organized and well-known smugglers in Nigeria. Mrs. Esther Olufunmilayo is the president of Rice Distributors Association of Nigeria. In a recent interview Vanguard newspaper, she explained that most of the rice his members have sold this year is smuggled rice. She noted that government increased the tariff and levy on rice import from 35 to 1010 percent while the tariff in neighbouring Cotonuo ports is still 30 percent. The tragedy therefore is that Nigerian importers are out of business because it is starkly unprofitable to import through Nigeria’s ports; government loses millions of dollars in tariffs to Benin Republic and our modest efforts at local rice cultivation withers.

    Another group of stakeholders, the Rice Millers, Importers and distributors Association of Nigeria (RiMIDAN), has also cried out over the multiple jeopardy that is rice business in Nigeria today. RiMIDAN through its secretary, Shaibu Mohammed, warns that the federal government would lose about $1 billion in duties this year as a result of massive and unprecedented rice smuggling currently going on. But apart from government’s loss of revenue and local importers being put out of business, more injurious to Mohammed is that the huge investment by their members in local rice farming and processing will come to naught soon because their product cannot compete with the smuggled rice.

    We bet that our Agric Minister, Adesina is not aware of this perilous state of affair in Nigeria’s number one staple food. In all his talking and doing, the minister is not in tune with the critical stakeholders in the rice value chain – from the levels of paddy production, processing, marketing, importations and distribution of rice. While he goes about postulating about banning rice importation in two years’ time, absolutely nothing is being done to work towards that objective apart from announcing it in the media.

    A notorious and most damning example is the National Rice Development Fund (NRDF) which levy was increase to about 100 percent in January; there is no record, no trace of this Fund anywhere. No known committee, no panel or body managing this huge fund for the development of the Nigerian rice sector towards an eventual banning of importation. The NRDF has been kept under the radar for too long; Dr. Adesina is duty-bound to tell Nigerian the status of this fund if he wants to be taken serious about his activities during his tenure. Unless otherwise proven, the Rice fund is perhaps the biggest fraud in the Agric Ministry today.

    As if to corroborate the fact that Nigerian government and Dr. Adesina are merely pulling wool over our eyes, the African Agric and Foreign Ministers’ side-bar during the recent World Bank-IMF meeting in Washington noted that Nigeria lags behind most other African countries in agric financing. Already, countries Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Malawi, Mali, Niger and Senegal have met or exceeded the 10 percent annual budgetary funding target for agriculture. And since 2003, 32 countries have created national agric investment plans that lay out priorities for meeting funding goals. Nigeria is not part of all this.

    The summit deliberated extensively on how to sustain the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) which was launched in 2003. But Nigeria is nowhere to be found on the CAADP benchmark as her agric sector had thrive on shambolic, haphazard hits and misses in the past one decade. The real tragedy however is that the agric sector is so crucial that unless we show more seriousness, the current staggering youth unemployment will remain with us and eventually do us in.

    There is an urgent need to change our paradigm and unleash the enormous potentials in the sector through large-scale integrated mechanized farming in every part of the country. This technology has been perfected centuries ago and we only need to adopt and adapt it. The Ministry’s duty is to catalyse the process. The presidency must urgently find an agric minister who understands this process, who has the hands-on and presence of mind to get real work done quickly and not a talkative who is more at home in five-star hotels and seminar environments. Dr. Adesina will not get us any results even if he stayed on for 20 years.

  • Nigeria: The unavoidable realities

    Many Nigerians underrate the differences between the various nationalities that make up Nigeria. They think that those differences as fragile and can easily be eliminated to build a “united Nigeria”.

    Such people mean well, but they are wrong – very wrong. How seriously wrong they are can be shown from three perspectives: the virtually permanent differences in nations’ cultures; the permanence of each nation in its own homeland, and the certainty that each nation will someday choose a status for itself in the world.

    Countries made up of different nations are many in our world. Nigeria is one. Each Nigerian nation had lived in its own homeland for thousands of years before the British came and included all of us together as Nigeria. Let us take two examples of such countries in Europe. Britain, (the United Kingdom) has contained four different nations, each living in its own homeland, for about 500 years. The four are the English nation of England, the Scottish nation of Scotland, the Irish nation of Ireland, and the Welsh nation of Wales. Because all these nations have been living in one country, under one government, their citizens have been mixing and intermixing for centuries. Yet, today, their different cultures are still different and distinct. The same is true of the cultures of the Spaniards, Basques and Catalonians of Spain who have lived together in Spain for about 600 years. It is true in every old country that contains different nations. What this means for Nigeria is that, even if Nigeria is lucky to live for the next hundreds of years, there will still be distinctly a Yoruba people with their own culture, an Igbo people with their own culture, a Hausa people with their own culture, etc. Anybody who thinks that these peoples and cultures will melt away or melt together in Nigeria is not reading the history of the world correctly.

    The reason behind this is that each people and culture have taken thousands of years to evolve their own particular characteristics. As a result, the differences are not superficial, they are very deep. And each culture determines how its people respond to situations. For instance, politically, the Yoruba people, living in kingdoms and towns, evolved a political culture in which the ordinary people took part in the selection of their kings and chiefs, and had a lot of say in the affairs of their towns. That is why the Yoruba are so freedom-loving, so confident, and so hostile to election rigging, dictatorial or arbitrary leadership, and corruption, today. Throughout their history, also, they have been used to respecting the religious right of everybody, and that is why they are the most religiously tolerant and accommodating people in Nigeria today. On the surface, one might say that the Yoruba and the Hausa lived under kings (Obas in one case and Emirs in the other). But the Obas were selected by their subjects, could only rule through councils of chiefs, and must respect the families, priests and various organizations, whereas the Emirs, being leaders of a foreign conquering people, ruled at a level far above their Hausa subjects. The differences that these facts created in the political behavior of these two peoples are not likely to disappear in hundreds of years. And the Hausa and Yoruba are very different from the Igbo who, for the most part, never developed states and rulers but lived mostly in rudimentary village and clan settings. The Igbo are proud of the fact that they never lived under rulers, and they are entitled to their pride. However, making these different peoples, with these different cultures, to live in one country is proving very problematic indeed.

    In spite of the mixing and intermixing of peoples in Nigeria also, the various homelands will always be distinct. Yorubaland will always be Yorubaland, Igboland, Igboland, Hausaland, Hausaland, and even small Biromland will be Biromland, etc. In Britain, the English, Scotts, Irish and Welsh have for centuries been intensely intermixing, and yet their homelands remain distinct. Because England experienced the heaviest industrialization in recent centuries, people came in enormous numbers from Scotland, Ireland and Wales to work and settle in England; even so, England is still England, the homeland of the English people. The homeland of even the smallest nation, the Welsh, remains distinct also. Whoever thinks that anything different from this picture will happen in Nigeria is deceiving himself. Nothing different is happening in any country consisting of different nations. Because Yorubaland is the most developed, most prosperous, and most free of inter-ethnic and religious conflicts in Nigeria, large numbers of Igbo, Hausa, and other Nigerian nationals are streaming into Yorubaland today. But, in spite of that, Yorubaland will always be the homeland of the Yoruba nation, even if Nigeria is lucky to exist for much longer. The differences between the various homelands of the various nations of Nigeria are very real indeed, and are virtually impossible to eliminate.

    Finally, nobody can dictate what each of today’s nations of Nigeria will ultimately choose to become in the world. How long will they remain together as one country? And how soon will some become separate countries in the world? One thing seems certain – that some parting of ways will come, one way or other, sooner or later. Worldwide, most nations that are parts of larger countries are breaking off today and becoming separate countries. In Britain, the Irish, Welsh, and Scotts began to agitate for separate countries of their own many decades ago. The Irish were allowed to go and create their own Republic of Ireland. Scotland is planning to hold a referendum in 2014 to become the separate Republic of Scotland. And the Welsh are following close behind the Scotts. That is the trend in the world in our times. The trend has resulted in the breaking up of the Soviet Union into 15 countries, Yugoslavia into five countries, Czechoslovakia into two, India into three soon after independence, Indonesia into three (with more on the way), Sudan into two, etc. It is threatening to break Spain into three, Belgium into two, Sri Lanka into two, Canada into two, etc. The United States, though comprising many nationalities, is different: none of its immigrant nationalities is settled in a separate homeland in the country. The United Nations has bowed to reality and passed a resolution affirming the right of every nation, large or small, to determine its own status in the world. The African Union has done the same.

    Some people think that it is because Nigeria is poorly governed and poverty-ridden that it may break into separate countries. But that is not so. Poor governance and poverty may speed up the break; orderly governance and prosperity may delay it for some time but cannot prevent it. Countries like Britain, Spain or Canada that are breaking up are not poorly governed or poor. It is just that breaking up seems to be, in our times, the destiny of countries that are made up of different nations with different homelands. Nigeria cannot avoid it. The only question is: how, and how soon, will it come to Nigeria? However, while we are still together, we Nigerians should strive to make our country a land of harmony and opportunity.

     

  • A nation under siege

    Nigeria is not at war, but it is at war with itself Why do I say this? In the past three years, internal security has been stretched beyond its limit while trying to curtail the activities of those who have declared war on the country. With no corresponding response from the security agencies to their murderous acts, these renegades have made the country virtually ungovernable.

    Yet, we have a government and a thing like this is happening. It is the job of government to secure the country and ensure the safety of lives and properties; but doing this has become an Herculean task for the present administration. These days, all sorts of characters with guns strike at will, killing, maiming and looting.

    If Boko Haram is not doing its own, bandits are busy terrorising the people. No part of the country is safe now from the grip of these bad boys. Perhaps, if it had been Boko Haram alone, the public would have known the direction to face to seek divine solution to this gargantuan problem. As things are, the people are between the devil and deep blue sea.

    Who do we run to or who do we run from between Boko Haram elements and your run-of-the-mill bandit? None, I say, because there is no difference between them; it is like six and half a dozen. They are only different in name, but similar in evil deeds. As if to see who will outdo the other, these renegades have been unleashing terror on the country in a relay race like manner. As soon as one finishes a lap, it hands over the baton to the other and vice versa.

    Between Sunday and now, the nation has known no rest from these animals in human skin, apologies to the late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. And I tell you, they, especially Boko Haram, are not selective in those they attack. They attack civilians, military and para-military personnel. So, if the military and the police can be attacked, who then is safe from Boko Haram and those we commonly refer to as die-hard rogues?

    Although, Boko Haram has a history of attacking military and police formations, it has never done so in quick succession as it did on Sunday and Monday. On Sunday, it hit the elite Command and Staff College, Jaji, Kaduna State, and on Monday, it took its destructive campaign to the Force Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) Headquarters in Abuja. That same Monday, gunmen struck in the polytechnic town of Auchi in Edo State, looting and killing.

    In Jaji, 15 were officially confirmed dead. The figure is believed to be higher than that unofficially; two reportedly died in the SARS attack. Fifteen persons, among them three soldiers, were said to have died in Auchi. Chances are that the casualty figures are likely to be than these by the time we take proper stock of what happened. I will be putting it mildly to say I’m not shocked by the attacks on the military and police formations considering what they went through in Boko Haram’s hand not too long ago.

    The attack on the 244 Recce Brigade also in Kaduna a few months ago prompted the army to devise means of stopping the Islamic group’s suicide bombers from hitting home easily. The metallic security device, we were told, can stop any bomber who runs into it at the entrance of any building, particularly a church, where it is placed. Were there no security device at the entrance to the church in Jaji last Sunday when Boko Haram struck? Or is it a matter of complacency by the army? Could it have relied only on its name-army- to scare away the fundamentalists?

    What about the police? With the havoc Boko Haram wreaked on the Force Headquarters not too long ago, should the police have gone to sleep so quickly in taking steps to tame the group? Does it not speak volume about our police that Boko Haram could successfully hit another of their facility and get away? The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), it was reported, has ordered that security be beefed up in all police and public buildings, is that to say, there were no such security measures in place before now?

    Boko Haram and hoodlums will always be a step ahead of our security agencies if they are only quick at taking fire brigade measures. With the way Boko Haram has been terrorising some parts of the country, these agencies don’t need to be told that they have to be pro-active and not reactive to curtail the group’s activities. If they continue like this, it will only amount to shutting the stable when the horse has bolted away.

    But for how long will the people continue to live in fear of Boko Haram and hoodlums? The fear of these people is the beginning of wisdom for many Nigerians now. We live in fortresses, yet, we are not safe. Billions of Naira are voted for security and defence, but we don’t know how the money is spent because neither us nor our properties are safe. We-the leaders and the led- are at the mercy of renegades, who have become law unto themselves. Will we ever know peace?

    Yes, we can, if the government can get its act together and use its might to do what should be done in matters like this. Should a government keep quiet in the face of serious challenge to its authority by renegades? The answer is no. I pray that the government will summon courage to act before things get out of hand (as if they haven’t) because it will be too late to cry when the head is off. No renegade can be bigger or mightier than government, except a government which does not know the enormity of its power.

  • Nigeria’s cultural tapestry and development– 1

    Culture and Development are two of the most difficult concepts to define as there are probably as many definitions as the number of writers on the subjects. It has been suggested, for example, that there are “at least four contested definitions of culture.” (Nurse, 2006:35). These are:

    • a developed state of mind (when we say, for example, “s/he is a cultured person”)

    • the processes of this development (with reference to “cultural interests” or “cultural activities”; or, Wallerstein’s distinction between “production cultures” and “consumption cultures” – Nurse, 2006: 38)

    • the means of these processes (“the arts” or “humane intellectual works”)

    • “a whole way of life” or “a signifying system” which provides a lens through which society or a social order is reproduced, experienced, communicated or explored (Nurse, 2006: 35, citing Williams, 1981: 11-13)

    “Development,” too, is open to diverse definitions, and it is better described than defined. According to Said (2004:9):

    development is a historical process through which human beings choose and create their future within the context of their environment to achieve a humanist and creative society. It is concerned with the dignity of the individual that level of self-esteem and self-awareness that is secure and self-accepting and the restructuring of the institutions and culture of society to support such ends.

    Generally, development encompasses the physical, material and spiritual changes in society which produced consistent improvements in the wellbeing of the people. But while the steady and consistent growth of the economy, improvements in lifestyle, educational standards and technology are quantifiable and measurable, intangible things such as emotional well-being, cannot be quantified. Hence, development is relative, contextual and non-linear.

    What is of immediate importance is the relationship between the two. Informed opinion holds that culture and development are interwoven. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO):

    Development interventions that are responsive to the cultural context and the peculiarities of a place and community, and advance a human-centred approach to development are most effective, and likely to yield sustainable, inclusive and equitable outcomes. (UNESCO, 2012: 5)

    Hence, since January 2012, culture has been included in 70 per cent of the UN Development Assistance Frameworks. (UNESCO, 2012: 3, note 2)

    In general, culture may be said to be key to development in the following areas. First, as a contributor to the global economy, tourism is one of the fastest growing business sectors. Cultural tourism accounts for 40 per cent of total world tourism revenues. Second, investment in culture-related activities has revitalised the economies of major cities, which utilize cultural heritage and cultural events to improve their image, attract investment and visitors amd stimulate urban development. Third, culture-led development has also facilitated greater social inclusiveness and rootedness, innovation, creativity and small-scale business enterprises. Fourth, culture has also been critical to sustainable development. Indeed, it has been described as the fourth pillar of sustainable development. (Nurse, 2006) Fifth, sound knowledge and application of local culture has built trust between development agencies and local end users, and ensured a proper insertion of new technologies and ideas into local contexts. Sixth, culture aids development by the acknowledgement of the virtues of cultural diversity and respect for individual human rights, and the promotion of sustainable environmental management practices. Finally, inter-cultural dialogue has also prevented or/and mitigated conflicts, and protected the rights of marginal and minority groups. (Akinyele, 2013)

    Culture and Development: Diversity as Recipe for Disaster?

    “Diversity” as a rubric covers disparities in cultural values, gender, ethnicity, age and religious beliefs, among others. A dominant narrative in scholarly and popular discourse is that diversity is necessarily conflict-ridden, that it is in/of itself a recipe for friction and disharmony. History is replete with struggles by various nation-states to manage their problematic cultural or ethnic pluralism, which has generally hobbled national development. A notable exception has been Penang, the most ethnically (that is, racially) diverse State in Malaysia, where “ethnic solidarities and inter-ethnic connections rather than conflict, have created stability over long periods of time.” (Evers, 2012) “High and increasing diversity,” with the arrival of more immigrants to Penang, it has been noted, “poses a challenge for good governance, but also provides the basis for the upcoming innovative knowledge-based economy and society.” (Evers, 2012)

    The negative valuation of diversity in politics contrasts sharply with its utility in management theory, which makes it a positive force in business. Hence, “diversity management” serves a positive role as an attribute in business. Big organizations deliberately create diverse teams to harness the potential of their pool of multi-national or multi-racial operatives for innovation and creativity. Such practices have generally engendered competitiveness and improved performance. (Evers, 2012)

    Returning to the political scene, the general consensus is that ethnic diversity is problematic and constitutes a drag on development. “There seems to be a general consensus, based on both cross-country regressions and individual country studies,” notes the leading economist Gustav Ranis, “that ethnic diversity, especially in the Sub-Saharan African context, is one of the causal factors behind relatively poor economic performance.” (Ranis, 2011:3)

    This is buttressed by numerous studies on the connection between diversity on the one hand, and conflict and economic crises on the other.(Goren, 2013) However, there is a debate over which of ethnic polarisation or ethnolinguistic fractionalisation (ELF) inflicts greater damage on economic development. In a well-cited article (Collier and Gunning, 1999), it was claimed that ELF alone accounts for 35% of growth deficit in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and for 45% when taken together with some policy issues. However, Montalvo and Renal-Querol (2005), in another well-cited article, also established the connection between ethnic diversity and economic underdevelopment but attributed this to ethnic polarisation instead of ELF. Their argument was that: “Where there are social cleavages, there are frictions among social groups. When the society is divided by religious, ethnolinguistic, or race differences, tensions emerge along these divisions.” (Montalvo and Renal-Querol, 2005: 308) They pointed out that resources that should have been invested in generating economic growth were diverted into nonproductive inter-group competition. Where tension between competing groups bred instability and uncertainty, these would reduce investment. Their extensive statistically-backed analysis led them to the conclusion that: “an increase in social polarization has a negative effect on growth because it reduces the rate of investment and increases public consumption and the incidence of civil wars.” (Montalvo and Renal-Querol, 2005: 318) Other authors, such as Easterly and Levine (1997), also contend that ethno-linguistic polarisation delays or prevents quick resolutions leading to positive public policies and that it promotes rent-seeking activities, undermines trust, raises transaction costs and has an adverse effect on development. (Ranis, 2011)

    In terms of nation-building and governance, a popular solution to diversity (where ethnic groups live together in a defined geographical space, such as a nation-state) has been the adoption of the federal system of government, which has many variants. However, federalism or unity in diversity, has never been universally popular. Indeed, it has been debunked as aggravating, rather than ameliorating, the knotty situation. There is the school of thought that parlays the myth of Africa’s precolonial cultural unity and peaceful co-existence, and advances a narrative that it was colonialism that made diversity a veritable avenue to political instability, so pronounced in most post-independence African countries. Colonialism or, more generally, imperialism has been fingered as the critical culprit in the underdevelopment of Africa, exploiting the fault-lines of ethnic diversity.

    • Professor Olukoju, FNAL delivered this paper at the Nigerian Academy of Letters 2013 Convocation Lecture

  • President’s admission and new challenges

    Speaking off the cuff during a pre-centenary national praise and thanksgiving service at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa in Abuja  last Sunday, President Jonathan chose to part ways with some of his combative advisers and ministers who are also known to be confirmed government contractors. The tendency up to last Sunday was for the president and his advisers to blame everyone else except government for the state of insecurity in our nation and the inability of government with its awesome security apparatus which gobbles about N1trillion, a quarter of our annual budget, to crush the Boko Haram insurgency. Displaying an uncharacteristic deep sense of remorse, the president for the first time admitted our security forces were not just ill-prepared but merely idling away prior to the outbreak of hostilities. But for the challenge the insurgency poses, the nation’s security apparatus would have remained ‘obsolete and its security agents idle and static’. The internal insurrection according to him has exposed our lack of preparedness to contain external aggression. But now “Everyday, security chiefs now think of how to continue to improve on capacity building’ while his administration has been compelled ‘to boost the capacity and infrastructure of the security agencies, especially by enhancing adequate training of security operatives’.

    For the first time, the president in my view spoke like a statesman not through the jaundiced lenses of PDP. By his carriage and sober mien, he has demonstrated his deep commitment to the ongoing crusade to face our challenges which he said may be daunting but not insurmountable. And I also think by that single stroke, the president has succeeded in separating himself from PDP dirty politics of blaming others for their continued sabotage of the aspirations of Nigerians.

    But I think the new strategy of appealing to the resilience of Nigerians to overcome her challenges as distinct from a president with an image of buck passing through unpresidential utterances such as “I did not create all the problems bedevilling Nigeria’, ‘I am not Pharaoh, General or Nebuchadnezzar’, was a further admission that the president critics are no less committed to the well-being of Nigerians as himself.  It is therefore hoped this will encourage the president to also critically assess what is going on in other areas of our national life where we are currently facing serious challenges.

    He can start with the Ministry of Works where successive ministers  have shown more commitment to awarding new road contracts that were never implemented after mobilization had been paid, while paying scant attention to maintenance culture which is today responsible for the virtual collapse of the whole network of our road infrastructure, our embattled aviation sector  where our ill-equipped minister whose major selling point is said to be her capacity to raise presidential campaign funds  attribute frequent plane crashes to ‘an act of God’ and of course the agricultural  sector whose failure poses more danger to our survival than  Boko Haram insurgency or PDP  intra-party gang wars over sharing of our resources.

    Dr. Tony Marinho like many concerned Nigerians has continued to point to our lack of maintenance culture as the bane of our roads. He has in the last one year constituted himself into a one-man crusade to persuade government to mend pot holes infested federal roads spread across the country. Only last week he alerted Nigerians about the danger posed by what he described as ‘‘the imminent collapse and closure of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway with 15 kilometres of traffic five lane wide, 10,000 vehicles long with one million people, daily desperately struggling down that obstacle course… Nigerians are suffering maximally, stranded for seven hours daily in 2013 while RCC and Julius Berger warm up’. Marinho’s lamentation about the travails of motorists on Lagos-Ibadan collapsed express road can be said of other federal high ways all over the country.

    A few government interventions here and there were carried out in the typical PDP manner. A little over a year back, following incessant cries of agony of motorists who were spending hours because of the pot-holes located almost directly opposite the Redeemed Church, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) intervened. As at two weeks ago when I passed through that corridor of the express road, motorist were still subjected to about five hours of agony crawling through the same spot to Lagos. We can say the same of the perennial trouble spot opposite OPIC building on your way out of Lagos where many illustrious Nigerians including Dr. Ajayi of the famous Ajayi Memorial Hospital Apapa road, Ebute Metta and Rufus Giwa, a former Managing Director of Levers Brothers at different periods in the past

    lost their lives.  That big pot hole had been mended about three times this year with each attempt enduring for less than two weeks. Of course the bad portion out of Murtala Mohammed International Airport has been a source of nightmare to Nigerians motorists and a source of embarrassment to Nigerians and visiting foreign dignitaries since 1999 in spite of seasonal mending by National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA}.

    The president should also be interested in what goes on in the aviation sector. Beside her lost war against international airlines, her much criticised jamboree abroad ostensibly to woo investors, the borrowing of $500m to build new airports while existing ones are poorly maintained and underutilized, the minister has been accused of being more interested in revenue generation rather than safety of the nation’s airspace.

    And lastly, the president in spite of the agriculture minister‘s flawless English can subject the sector to the same security sector’s treatment because as the minister has himself averred, “a nation that does not feed itself becomes a threat to its own sovereign existence”.

    The public for instance  need to know the specific irrigations sites we were told consumed  N62 billion of the World Bank’s N139 billion loan, and the specific infrastructure staple crop processing zones in the country supported with the N77,5 billion African Development Bank (AfDB) loan, and possibly the gestation period.

    Besides, in spite of rosy pictures of the agricultural sector painted by the minister, non-government experts are raising vital questions that require answers.  For instance it has been said that the minister now often refer to by his critics as ‘minister for fertilizer and cassava’ has not adequately addressed the situation where the whole of Nigeria can boast of not more than 34 functional tractors, where Bombay, in Punjab, India that is not up to Zaria or Kaduna, has got 34,000 functional tractors’. That government still gives waivers to their cronies to import rice from Taiwan and Cambodia where agriculture is heavily subsidized resulting in Nigerian spending N4billion every day on importation of rice.

    And as Shedrack Madlion  of Kaduna-based Admiral Environmental Care Limited, asked : Did the minister’s farm census  of farmers  gulping billions cover  farmers from such places like  ‘Saminaka, in Kaduna, where 29,000 metric tons of maize are grown’ or  Giroro, Sokoto, where 37,000 metric tons of onion are grown and 60 percent do not get to the market place’ or  producers of Ose Nsukka,  the sweetest peppers in the world located  between Opi, Ihealumona and Udi ?

  • A thought for our women

    A thought for our women

    LET’S just move away from it all for a while. The killings and kidnappings. Clashes and crashes; bombings and bumbling -the telltale signs of a huge asylum (never mind the hyperbole).

    It’s true we can’t just feign ignorance of the calamities that have shaken our claim to civilisation. But, amid the bedlam of bombs and bullets, it is fit to spare a thought for our women, their pains and gains, particularly in the last few days.

    My heart goes out to the Youth Corps girl who claimed to have been raped by a certain Oba Adebukola Alli, the Alowa of Ilowa-Ijesa in Osun State. The court said the 23-year old girl did not prove her case beyond reasonable doubt. The bed sheet was not produced. There was no medical report that the “victim” was forced and her underwear was not tendered. This being a family newspaper, dear reader, I will spare you further details of the verdict, including the fact that the victim did not show her private part to prove that she suffered injuries in the process of being raped.

    The beastly act of rape is hard to prove in court. The victims end up crying, nursing their physical and psychological injuries in secret. Many carry the pains for life and the accused gloat over their savagery. Dominique Strauss-Khan, the disgraced former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief accused of raping a New York hotel maid, has since moved on, becoming an economic adviser to the Serbian government.

    I am surprised that our women activists are yet to speak on the Osun court judgment, which has the potential of fuelling such reckless abuses against women by many champions of the jungle posing as human beings. Imagine the humiliation of being put in the dock, underpants and a doctor’s report held aloft, to answer questions on the invasion of one’s privacy in such a gory manner. Will His Lordship believe in just any doctor’s report? Can’t any of the other garments be evidence of the violence the victim may have suffered? Must the bruises be only on her private part? The law is the law, but isn’t it so protective of the accused to the disadvantage of the victim? But then, are all victims genuine? Complexities.

    Justice Oyejide Falola scolded Oba Alli, who claimed that Miss Helen Okpara had been his sexual partner long before the allegation, for sleeping with a Youth Corps member posted to his community. Wrong, my Lord; such acts of concupiscence have no respect for age or status. Take away the crowns, the beads and the horsetails, how are monarchs different from the rest of us? In fact, how many remember in their lasciviousness that even in the bedroom, there are rules of engagement?

    If women’s rights activists are not marching, swearing and cursing over the verdict, which is not just Ms Okpara’s personal loss but a collective assault on their psyche and wellbeing, not so with Ms Stella Oduah, the tempestuous Minister of Aviation. As the nation mourned the loss of lives in the Associated Aviation plane crash in Lagos, wondering why somebody couldn’t just ensure that aircraft are fit to fly our tempestuous airspace, Oduah was seized by a strange fit of anger. She launched into a rage that saw her calling critics of the aviation sector “drunk” and “drug addicts” who are ignorant of how the system works.

    Hold it, madam. Some decorum, please. A ministerial platform should never be a pulpit for infelicities and such motor park fulmination. No. Those who have questioned the propriety of spending billions on knocking down airport terminals that are taking years to rebuild are right. Aviation is not all about sparkling terminals and taxes. Then, when an accident occurs, we are told accidents are inevitable – in such a fatalistic manner that yields no space to skills and competence. Haba!

    Do we have all the safety equipment that we require? How dutiful are those who certify aircraft to fly? How foolproof are our preventive measures? How strong is our airports’ security? These are some of the questions that should be addressed in a sober manner; not with diatribes that portray the government as an intolerant headmaster whose actions must never be questioned.

    In Lagos, a driver’s wife has been delivered of a set of quadruplets. At first, her doctor told her she had fibroids, she said, adding that she was surprised to discover later that she was carrying four babies. “When I first learnt that I was carrying four babies, I became sad but my husband said we can’t question God,” the poor woman said at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH).

    Mrs Grace Tijani was thought to have had an In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF). “I didn’t even know what IVF was, until I got to the hospital,” she said. Now, the Tijanis are worried; they do not know how they will cope with nursing the babies. The couple, who live in a one-room apartment in Ajangbadi on the outskirts of Lagos, had three kids. And now these. The wonders of nature in a world where many, rich and powerful, will give their all to have just one. Strange, indeed, are the ways of nature.

    And talking about strange pregnancies and such related matters; a probe is on in the prisons. This time, it is not about poor rations or indecent sanitary conditions. Nor are warders grumbling over their pay and the exertion of reining in VIP inmates who insist on having special diets and using mobile phones. Besides, there is no jail break; isn’t that becoming a routine? The Prisons Service is probing the rising incidence of pregnancy among inmates, according to a newspaper report.

    NPS spokesman Ope Fatinikun has denied that warders are putting women in the family way, saying male officials do not have access to the women section of the prisons. Besides, he explains that a pregnancy test is compulsory for new inmates within 24 hours of being admitted into a prison and cites some cases of women being delivered of babies. He says the women had been pregnant before coming into the prison in Owerri, Imo State. Interesting.

    Are more expectant mothers committing crime? Should expectant women be admitted into prisons, irrespective of the age of their pregnancies? When a woman is delivered of a baby in the prison, is the child to be raised there in confinement? What future for a kid raised in prison?

    When Joy Emordi lost her job as presidential adviser on National Assembly Matters, it was in circumstances that were hazy but surely unpleasant. She was said to have contributed to the failure of intelligence that culminated in the Kawu Baraje faction of the troubled ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), visiting the Assembly to address lawmakers – an action that infuriated the Presidency as if it had been stung by a swarm of bees. Another report said Mrs Emordi was asked to reach out–Sorry, prize for guessing what that means, dear reader–to the lawmakers in the PDP’s special way to prevent the high risk visit that could complicate the mess into which the largest party in Africa has plunged itself.

    The matter is neither here nor there. But where were the vocal backers of the affirmative action? I hope the lady will someday tell her story, which will surely be a prized companion of anybody willing to take up such risky jobs.

    It was not, however, all pains for our women. Mrs Folorunsho Alakija was named Africa’s wealthiest woman by Ventures Africa and African Business. The oil tycoon is said to be worth $7.3billion. Talk about beauty, brain and cash – all rolled into one.

    Even in far away South Korea, fortune smiled on our women – courtesy of the First Lady, Dame Patience Fakabelemi Jonathan. She won – sorry, a little mistake there – she was awarded a honorary doctorate degree in Social Welfare and Administration by Hansel University, Seoul. The recognition dazed her critics who have been so close, yet so undiscerning of her talents. A case of the prophetess not being without honour except in her own town? The other day when Her Excellency was awarded a permanent secretaryship in Bayelsa State, those arm-chair critics, the dem say dem say people against whom a law has been enacted in that state, scorned her for days on end. What will they say now?