The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • Wetin ministers dey do sef?

    Last week we had said that 39 and not nine ministers should have been fired by President Goodluck Jonathan. I had held that barely half a dozen so-called ministers know why they sat on their exalted seats while picking at random, both the sacked and retained public officials for a quick performance review in the last two years. Many readers reacted insisting that my list was not comprehensive enough while pointing out some woeful non-performers I seemingly spared.

    Diezani Alison-Madueke , minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources seems the most detested and disagreeable to readers. How could you have missed her out, many queried? I quite agree with them that she has been the least stellar and disappointing of all the Jonathan’s men. Ironically, she holds the most important job in the land after the president of course. Her failure is an entire story that would probably require a serial when the time ripens but suffice to say that surprisingly, she brought nothing to her office for one who had played in the oil sector most of her life.

    She simply picked up the decadent template that had been operational in that office for about five decades and even debased it further. In other words, she just collects rent and fritters it with such frenzy. She has not brought a penny value to the industry that is supposed to drive Nigeria’s growth and development. If she is sacked today, she would have been remarkable for three things, a flurry of corruption allegations trailing her tenure like flies; the multi-trillion naira subsidy scandal that passed under her nose yet she feigned ignorance; and third, we will all remember the PIB (whatever that is) and how she has wasted our time singing PIB, PIB, PIB! May be we would have been better off with a beautiful parrot as oil minister. We just teach the bird to sing PIB and it would probably make a better job of it.

    She promised to build what she calls the Greenfield refineries after the January 2012 fuel subsidy protests but everything promised in the wake of that upheaval has turned out to be lies. She insists that refineries and petrochemical complexes cannot be developed unless the so-called subsidies are removed but even countries like South Africa that has no crude deposit have numerous large and viable refining complexes functioning. The same international oil companies that would not develop or add value to our crude oil are developing and running huge modern refining and petrochemical complexes in Asia, Europe and America. Mrs. Alison-Madueke has turned out the worst in the long list of incapacious and visionless oil ministers. What a crying pity.

    Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, minister for Finance and the Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy (CME), also came up for mentioning as among the failed ones requiring to be expended. Yes the CME has not been able to pull her weight considering the enormous powers conferred on her. Life has turned out worse for the average Nigerian regardless of the meaningless positive ratings from abroad. The budget, her primary task and a key driver of the economy has remained mired at all its crucial stages of preparation, appropriation and implementation. It has become certain that Mrs Okonji-Iweala does not have the grit and aplomb to pull this economy from the brinks.

    Other ministers that drew an especial ire of the readers are agriculture minister, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina and Olusegun Aganga of the ministry of Trade and Investment. These two are said to be adept at playing to the gallery and making so much sound and fury with little significance. Someone pointed out that Aganga has sign over a dozen phoney MoUs with so much fanfare with hardly any progressing further from the signing ceremony. One such example is the $2.55 billion biofuels project which MoU was signed by Aganga late 2011. The pilot project ought to have been completed December last year. We are not aware of any such ‘giant’ project anywhere; there are several other examples.

    When Aganga is not signing phantom MoUs, he is regaling us with some chimerical huge Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) flowing into Nigeria like Ogunpa river flood. But many Nigerians can only watch in bemusement as the little, little Western Union change from their long-suffering ‘exiles’ abroad is being co-opted into Aganga’s pool of achievements in office. But we know better to understand that when government claims Nigeria’s FDI inflow is the largest in Africa, its all lies and deceit.

    Dr. Adesina on the other hand was early this year, embroiled in the Nigerian wonder of delivering 10 million GSM telephones to rural farmers as if phones were major implements for farming. He has become clever at telling us how much we spend annually to import rice, palm oil, wheat, fish, vegetable oil and other items we can easily produce but he has not been able to devise a means to transform our agriculture.

    Rice farming presents the greatest opportunity were the minister serious and capable. Nigeria is perhaps the second largest importer of rice globally, giving away over $1 billion annually. But there are key stakeholders in rice production in Nigeria and there is a Rice Fund which has become a sink hole of corruption. The minister has not driven local rice production beyond the level he met it two years ago and the huge fund is still sunk somewhere used more as slush fund than for local rice development.

    These are the visible ministers, most others are so docile and inactive we do not eve know them two years on and that is so very convenient for them to live in obscurity, to hide in the shadows while enjoying the perks of office and giving nothing back. Wetin ministers dey do sef? Ministers such as Abba Moro, (Internal Affairs), Sarah Ochekpe, (Water Resources), Tanimu Turaki (Special Duties), Chukwuemeka Wogu (Labour and productivity), among others. What really do they do? By the way, do we really need ministers?

    FEED BACK: Re: 9 ministers sacked, should have been 39

    Brilliant piece, however Jonathan should axe himself too in addition to the 39 ministers suggested. He is just too clueless and wasteful. Motunrayo, Ibadan, 08067564858

    I have just finished reading your piece… you miss the point on the Agric. Minister. If you ask a peasant farmer in northern Nigeria, he is like a god to him thank you. From Abdullahi Mohammed, 08095592257

    Steve you wrote well but did not say anything about the girl with the protruding beautiful eyes who frittered away 2 billion bucks on private jets. Isn’t it incredible that while others are being booted out, she is loved and left alone? 07025885993

    Thanks Steve for that clinical assessment of GEJ’s ministers but don’t you think that the failure of about 39 students in a class of about 43 is a failure of the teacher himself? Now can you point to a singular achievement of the emperor himself? From F.T. odugbemi, State of Osun, 08033565813

    Steve that was mean but if truth must be told, GEJ and his cabinet leaves a sour taste in the mouth. Thanks for that stringent x-ray of executive inertia. 08037910012

    Steve I have criticized your articles in the past but concerning the sacked ministers, I score you a hundred and one per cent. Well done. 07058534745

  • Letter to EFCC

    Letter to EFCC

    The Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC),

    This is a formal petition to your Commission against the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), a Federal Government agency responsible for traffic and safety of roads in Nigeria. The petition is being written on behalf of the overwhelming majority of Nigerians who have been rendered voiceless by the power that be.

    It is quite unusual for a letter of this type to be an open one. But since its subject matter is an open wound which, only the truth can heal, making it an open document becomes a sine qua non especially due to the prevailing expediency. Besides, this is the only easy means of reaching your Commission without any delay or foul play. Perhaps you will recall that a unit of your Commission, (the Special Control Unit on Money Laundering) paid a courtesy visit to the Nigerian Supreme Council (NSCIA) at its headquarters in Abuja last Friday. The purpose of the visit, according to the Head of the Unit, was to sensitize the Nigerian Muslim Ummah under the umbrella of NSCIA, on the need to cooperate with the unit on matters relating to money laundering and other related offences. Whether the same sensitization campaign was extended to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is another matter.

    Encounter with an EFCC representative

    Yours sincerely was one of those who played host to that unit. After an elaborate explanation on corruption generally and money laundering in particular, the leader of the team called for comments, questions and observation. As a journalist, my own comment came in form of question. And the question went thus:

    1. Is the duty of EFCC only to run after government officials who have left office and are suspected of stealing public funds? If the answer is no, why is EFCC not running after the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC)? The reason for this question is this: the same FRSC which designed and introduced a new driver’s license to Nigerians a few years ago came round in 2011 to introduce another with 100% tariff and reduced the three year tenor of that license to two years. Yet, the license is said not to be available after making people to pay for it. If that is not fraud what is it? And now, basking in the euphoria of its success on license matter, the same FRSC has gone ahead to design a new number plate to replace the old one without minding the rule of contract guided its transaction between the Commission and the public. Should the EFCC fold its arms and watch idly while a government agency is ripping off the public in such an audacious manner?

    2. What informs the idea of plea bargain that you adopted as a measure of performance? Should recovery of money from a daring thief be enough as punishment for stealing public funds? Isn’t that an encouragement for further theft especially by the younger generations?

    In response to my questions, the head of the EFCC delegation that paid visit to NSCIA admitted that he had been following the debates and controversy trailing the number plate saga but, according to him, nobody had formally petitioned his Commission on the matter. He therefore advised me to write a petition to EFCC if I felt strongly about the way the number plate was being handled in the country vis a vis the populace. I therefore gladly grabbed the advice and took it for a challenge because I really felt not only strongly but also terribly bad about it.

    The matter quickly reminded me of Margaret Thatcher’s impression of Nigerians, as relayed in this column two weeks ago, which enabled the Iron Lady to dream of coming back into this world as a Nigerian ruler after her death. It is unimaginable that any such open day robbery as that of number plate would be committed in any sane country by government officials in the name of generating funds for the government and get away with it. Constitutionally, generating funds is not part of the duties of FRSC but the idea was motivated by the urge to make money using the government as alibi.

    Breach of contract

    The concern here is not about the new number plate per se but about the manner in which it is being used to extort money from gullible Nigerians. For God’s sake, how can anybody breach a contract so audaciously and claim to be acting according to law? What law permits a government agent to dupe the public by any means and insist on enforcing such fraud? Besides asking me to petition his Commission on the matter, the EFCC man neither stated categorically that EFCC would invite FRSC nor express personal opinion on the matter.

    In his answer to my second question about plea bargain, the head of the visiting EFCC unit said that plea bargain is a contemporary global norm aimed at minimizing the extent of loss on stolen money. He went ahead to justify it as a rational way of punishing a thief which he described as better than mere imprisonment that could not fetch the defrauded person or institution anything.

    The facts

    Nigeria was using a particular kind of number plates before the creation of FRSC. Soon after its creation, the new road safety corps introduced a new number plate. After a few years, the newly introduced number plate was changed but the populace was not forced to acquire the new one except for new vehicles. Now, nobody is quarreling with FRSC on the introduction of a new number plate. The bone of contention is the contract on the old one. If the FRSC decided to change the number plate again without consulting anybody, why must the populace be forced to acquire it? The only reasonable way of going about it is to replace the old number plate free of charge since there was never an agreement between the agency and the populace on it. If FRSC chooses to force people to acquire the new number plate at (an outrageous) fee what then happens to the money they had paid for the old number plate especially when that old number plate will be collected from the vehicle owner who paid for it?

    VIO’s denial

    The argument here is that the new number plate should be meant for new vehicles while the old plate should remain with the old vehicle. And that is the main gist of this petition. In my quest for the whole truth about the controversial number plate, I visited a Vehicle Inspection Office (VIO) to make inquiry and my findings were shocking. An official in that office who spoke with me on condition of anonymity said the whole exercise was about ‘chop make I chop’ (i.e. a fraud). He said everybody already knew Nigerian flag which was on the old number and queried the rational for placing Nigerian map on number plates of vehicles only to ask vehicle owners to pay exorbitantly for it. He also confirmed that the only difference between the old number plate and the new one is the transfer of the local government number to the beginning from the end an action which he described as a mere gimmick to dupe the public. He then denied any involvement of VIO in the ‘dirty’ exercise and pointed out that the gimmick was between the FRSC and the Nigerian Police saying it all had to do with money.

    Asked to name the exact amount for acquiring a new number plate, the gentle man said it is N25000. And when I pointed out to him that the FRSC announced N10000 for replacement of the old number and N15000 for a new plate he said by replacing an old number a vehicle owner must automatically replace other documents like vehicle license and vehicle insurance documents. All these plus the number plate, according to him, will cost about N25000. Now, this is the question that concerns the EFCC: If the tenor of my vehicle particulars has not expired should I be forced to change them willy-nilly?

    The fraud called driver’s licence

    As for the driver’s licence, no fraud can be more daringly committed. The FRSC introduced a new driver’s licence in 2011 without much ado. It imposed a fee on it and unilaterally reduced its tenure. These were not contested by gullible Nigerians. But now, even after paying the stipulated fee, most Nigerians cannot obtain the license for which they have paid. Instead, they are given what is called a temporary licence which lasts only two months after the expiration of which you can be questioned and fined on the road either by the same FRSC or the Police. Is this not enough as an assignment for EFCC? Is FRSC above the law and immune to investigation?

    Terrorism angle

    The case of number plate as currently being handled by the FRSC is far beyond ordinary fraud. It actually amounts to terrorism by all means which is capable of igniting a keg of gunpowder if not altered. Terrorism, as mentioned in this column last week, is not just about killing and maiming innocent people by aggrieved renegades. What is going on currently about number plate in Nigeria is nothing but terrorism the fight of which falls within the EFCC’s jurisdiction. Some respondents to this column have either called for the boycott of the controversial number plate or rolling out of all vehicles in the country and then abandon them on the roads for the bullying FRSC and its Police counterpart to tow to their stations.

    Why open letter?

    I chose to write this open letter to you as the watchdog of corruption in the country with the intention of making copies available to all Nigerians so that in the near future you will not feign ignorance of information about this type of fraud. We are all Nigerians. If this kind of treatment is given to Nigerians in Diaspora what will be your role as the nation’s watchdog on corruption? With this open letter to you, the trust reposed in you by Nigerians in respect of taming the monster called corruption is being tested. And your success or failure in this case will determine the hope or despair of the citizenry in the national assignment given to you. Through the imposed number plates and the deadline given by FRSC Nigerians are being defrauded and you are generally perceived as a major rescuer.

    Warning

    In journalism, it is no news to report that a dog bites a man. What is news is a report that a man bites a dog. To avoid the latter situation as far as the issue of number plate is concerned your Commission must step in now and stop what may soon become a keg of gunpowder. Nigerians must not be taken for granted perpetually. The nation already has enough problems to grapple with. People’s revolt must not be added. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

  • Redeemer’s University’s 5th Convocation

    There are no strikes by students or by staff and this is what makes Redeemers University attractive apart from the Christian environment that prevails there. It is hoped that when the university grows to its optimal level of about 10,000 students or more and have full complement of colleges and staff, the sky would be the limit for what is possible. The Proprietor, Pastor Adejare Adeboye wants the university to be one of the best in the world. He also wants the products to be job creators and not job seekers. With trust in God, all things are possible.

    Redeemer’s University has been very lucky in the choice of its foundation Vice-Chancellor, Professor Oyewale Tomori, a distinguished Virologist and currently President Nigerian Academy of Sciences. He was an efficient, strict and disciplined Vice-Chancellor who did everything to demystify the office of the Vice-Chancellor and saw himself as primus inter pares among other professors. He related to the students like a father and I always remember him breaking down and shedding tears sometimes when he felt he had to take the difficult decision of sending a student away. He was also a very lucky Vice-Chancellor who had experienced people to work with. He has now been succeeded by Professor Debo Adeyewa, who until he came to Redeemer’s University was one of the Deputy Vice-Chancellors in the Federal University of Technology, Akure. He is a distinguished Meteorologist and Atmospheric Physicist who has brought into the university his passion for hard work and his love for God. He is a much younger person than Tomori and his approach to administration is quite different but no less effective. His obsession is to move the university to Ede as rapidly as possible and also to continue to build on the excellent academic tradition which happily exists in the university. The good fortune of Redeemer’s University has also been in the steady hands of Professor Fola Aboaba who has just retired as Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council and who was, so to say, present at its creation. The university is also lucky to have as its Chancellor, the distinguished historian and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Professor T.N Tamuno, who brings to his office his well known solidity of character and profundity of thought. And at the top of the hierarchy of the university is Dr. Enoch Adejare Adeboye, the Visitor, who had to be prevailed upon to accept the office of Visitor and who has never interfered in the internal running of the university and who in self-denial has been making huge personal financial contribution to the university and his example has been followed by his wife who has also made personal financial contributions to the university and has been a regular mobiliser of funds for several projects in the university.

    On a personal note, I have had tremendous fulfilment by working in this university and I know a little bit about university system and administration having taught in Canada, the USA, and in the West Indies and many universities in Nigeria, particularly in my alma mater, Ibadan and University of Lagos where I spent most of my academic career, I can say without any equivocation or fear of contradiction that Redeemer’s University is one of a kind. This is because we pay attention to the career development and academic growth of our students, we know them and we know their parents, we know whatever peculiar problem each student has, and we try to help in whatever way we can and this young people reciprocate by seeing us as friends, fathers, grand-fathers and this makes for a good community of students and scholars, which is what Redeemer’s University is all about.

    The university was the ninth private university to be licensed by the Federal Government. But in terms of ranking today, it would rank among the best if not the best. The major setback has been the non-movement to the permanent site in Ede, but this is being taken care of through the generous investment in the development of the permanent site of billions of naira by its proprietor. All being well, within the next one year, the university should be operating on its permanent site and hopefully commencing the development of its professional colleges of Law, Engineering and Medicine. If the period of the last eight years is something to go by, the future of the university is assured.

    In terms of value for money, I think parents and guardians should be satisfied with what they are getting when compared with the astronomical fees payable in other private universities in Nigeria. The icing on the cake is that students in Redeemer’s university are not only taught and educated by a crop of experienced teachers and younger people operating with the same spirit of service to God and man.

    On graduation, the students also get special blessing and prayers by the man of God its Proprietor. The university is of course not perfect. No institution created by man can be perfect. Whatever lacuna exists would be bridged and taken care of through the committee system by which most universities operate. The university must ensure that its Vice-Chancellor continues to operate as primus inter pares among a conclave of Professors. One of the things that has damaged and is damaging public universities in Nigeria, is that the position of Vice-Chancellors have suffered a disconnect from company of other professors in the university. Vice-Chancellors in public universities sometimes operate as if they were governors of their universities and go around with a retinue of security guards and even sirens and sometimes administration of public universities are done almost exactly like the state and the Federal Government with retinue of Intelligence Officers and other secret operatives. In such places, there are no debates and Vice-Chancellors operate like Poobah rather than academic leaders. Our various governments have encouraged this development by paying university vice-chancellors double what their professorial colleagues earn and by making the positions political rather than academic. This is why as soon as their terms are over, they rush to the National Universities Commission, NUC to become errand boys of the executive secretary and shamelessly help to send directives and decrees to their various colleagues still left in the system. This is one of the things that are killing the Nigerian public universities and it is our hope and prayer that this ungodly development would not spread to privat e universities. Although signs that these may happen are there especially when proprietors of some of these private universities give orders to vice-chancellors, who are reduced to the status of running dogs. Happily, this is not the situation in Redeemer’s University where the vice-chancellor and his colleagues, both academic and administrative operate as a united family.

  • Executive lawlessness

    Every citizen of Nigeria is entitled to move

    freely throughout Nigeria and to reside in any

    part thereof, and no citizen of Nigeria shall be

    expelled from Nigeria or refused entry thereto

    or exit therefrom.

    – Section 41 (1) of the Constitution

    The Constitution lists out the fundamental rights of the citizens and in line with the principle of social contract those in authority, must as a matter of course, uphold those rights. They are charged with the protection of these rights, which the citizens must enjoy without any encumbrance, except where they break the law. These rights are, however, not absolute as they come with responsibilities. It is the responsibility of the citizens to ensure that in enjoying these rights, they do not do anything contrary to the law, which may lead to the abridgement of their rights.

    These rights are enjoyed by everybody, whether king or serf, president or pauper. The king is not expected to use his position to deprive the serf of his right nor is the president allowed to use his exalted post to oppress and deny the pauper or other members of the society their rights because of political disagreement. The lowly too are not expected to abuse the rights of those in power by denigrating them in any form whatever.

    In essence, the mighty and the lowly should learn to live together and accommodate one another’s idiosyncracies. The powerful are not expected to take the law into their hands because they have what it takes to punish the poor. It is always the powerful versus the poor, but once in a while, we see the powerful taking on the powerful. When these two elephants take on themselves, it is usually not on equal terms, as we saw in some instances in the past.

    A few years ago, the late Dim Emeka Odumegwu – Ojukwu took on the then military government in Lagos State over his father’s property in Ikoyi. The government of the day brought state might to bear on the case, despite the high and appeal courts’ verdicts that the property belonged to Ojukwu. Annoyed by the government’s disposition, the Supreme Court described the military junta’s action as ‘’executive rascality’’.

    Governments, whether a dictatorship or a democracy, are expected to obey the law. This is why the sage once said: ‘’Even in the midst of guns, the laws are not silent’’. Yes, the laws are never silent, but we the people are the ones that are silent in the face of tyranny. We keep silent when others are being maltreated because of fear of what the late legendary musician, Fela Anikulpo – Kuti, called: I no want die, papa dey for house, mama dey for house…’’

    We forget that when we keep silent when others are being oppressed, there may be nobody to speak up for us too when we find ourselves in a similar situation because by then, they may all have died or be in jail. This is why Wole Soyinka said in his book : The Man Died, ‘’that the man dies in him who keeps silent in the face of tyranny’’. It is tyrannical for the powerful to oppress the poor and more so when the highly powerful takes on the less powerful.

    The Constitution, which grants every Nigerian the right to freedom of movement, states the condition under which that right can be curtailed. According to Section 41 (2): Nothing in subsection (1) of this section shall invalidate any law that is reasonably justifiable in a democratic setting –

    (a): imposing restrictions on the residence or movement of any person who has committed or is reasonably suspected to have committed a criminal offence in order to prevent him from leaving Nigeria.

    Last Thursday in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, without respect for this constitutional provision, Governor Rotimi Amaechi was prevented from entering his residence at the Government House by the police that were as usual ‘’acting on orders from above’’. Amaechi and his entourage were returning from an outing when they tried to access the Government House through Forces Avenue in Port Harcourt GRA, which is said to be a shorter route. They ran into the police blockade.

    The blockade of road by the police is not new in our country. They do it at will under the guise of looking for a criminal. At other times, they may cordon off a street when they seal off a newspaper house. We have seen all these before, but to block a road leading to the Government House? That is the height of impunity. Being a governor comes with certain privileges. These privileges include unhindered access to anywhere the governor chooses to go on legitimate business. So, to stop Amaechi from entering his own abode under any pretext is farcical.

    If Amaechi were to be a common man, it would have been understandable. We would have said that is how they treat us. But Amaechi is a governor for God’s sake; his office and person deserve respect. Who is a Commissioner of Police (CP) by the way, to stop a governor from accessing his quarters from any point he likes? Is there any law which says that the governor must come in or go out through a point chosen for him by the police? Who is the CP to direct Amaechi to take another route? Did he do that to show that he can make things tough for Amaechi? According to a Yoruba adage, no matter how mad a dog is, it is expected to respect its owner.

    The police should not forget that they are public servants. They are funded by tax payers’ money and as such, they should be beholden to the people and not to those who are in power temporarily and who will quit when their time is up. What would it have cost the police to move their vans to enable Amaechi enter his house last Thursday, if they had no ulterior motive? When the governor alighted from his vehicle, they should have listened to him out of respect and allowed him to pass, if they had no other agenda. They didn’t because they wanted to humiliate him.

    It wasn’t Amaechi that was

    humiliated but those who

    think that they can use their positions to play god. Why is the governor being harassed all over the place? In one breathe, they are talking peace, in another, they are still using agents of state to fight the poor guy. What did he do wrong to warrant being treated as if he is a commoner? By the grace of God, Amaechi is today a governor and there is nothing anybody can do about that, whether they have the police at their beck and call or not.

    Besides, constitutionally, he is also the chief security officer of his state. So, the police must learn to respect him, no matter the brief they may have to make things difficult for him. I pity the policeman, who reportedly told Amaechi that he ‘’does not take instructions from civilians’’. He is emboldened by the support he is enjoying from those using him now. He will soon realise the folly of his action when they dump him. But I pray, will they let Amaechi be?

     

    What a man can do…

    Before the National Assembly resumed from its seven weeks break on Tuesday, the crisis threatening to tear the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) apart had reached the place. Some lawmakers had pledged loyalty to the Abubakar Baraje – led breakaway faction. No fewer than 20 senators were said to have pledged allegiance to the New PDP. An equally large number of members of the House of Representatives is also with the group. This was the setting when the faction visited the House on Tuesday hours after it rose from its first sitting after its vacation.

    The meeting with the lawmakers was rowdy. Those opposed to the group came with a set mind to disrupt the meeting. The other side will not allow that. The highlight of the battle was the superlative performance of Binta Masi Garba, an ex – member, who torn the agbada of Hon Afeez Adelowo to shreds. Were you surprised at the woman’s performance? I was not. Isn’t it said that what a man can do, a woman can do, even better? Ride on, my sister; show those lazy men, the stuff some women are made of!

     

  • Chance meetings

    Chance meetings

    THEY were no friends. They had a cat-and-mouse relationship. Turbulent. One was the President; the other was a governor whose state’s monthly allocation had been seized- in a strange show of power that shredded all democratic credentials and mocked the laws on which institutions are built.

    Then, the two of them found themselves on a flight. A row broke out on politics and other issues. The former President threatened to push the former governor off the helicopter. A former Commonwealth chief stepped in to stop a potential disaster. Dear reader, sorry; no prize for guessing who the former president and the former governor are.

    The duo may have been frank about the thoughts they harboured about each other. I doubt if others are this blunt. Many see politics as a game of lies, intrigues and treachery – all in a bid to get power, power as an end in itself and not a vehicle to service that will bring joy to all.

    The other day at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, President Goodluck Jonathan was addressing the congregation at the chapel. He placed one hand on former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s shoulder and held the microphone with the other as he spoke nicely about him. Obasanjo was chuckling. What was on his mind? Was the President being frank? Or was it a case of “Pikin Deceive Papa”?

    After the post-Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) mini convention thanksgiving service, the duo strolled indoors, chatting and smiling , like a bride and her groom walking down the aisle. What were they discussing? What went on behind those glossy doors? Some home truth? I doubt it.

    The next day, a pro-Jonathan group condemned Obasanjo’s moves to lead the settlement of the PDP crises, saying he was, in fact, the architect of the ‘civil war’ that has turned the largest party in Africa – all size no sense? – into a laughing stock. It said Obasanjo, who was not at the rancorous convention, was recently in Jigawa eulogising Governor Sule Lamido, one of the seven governors pushing for sanity in the PDP. Besides, Obasanjo has been lashing the Jonathan administration on its response to Boko Haram and unemployment, among other issues.

    Why do our politicians lack the boldness to speak the truth when they meet one another? Is it simply out of their character to so do? Are they afraid that an encounter could result in violence? Let’s consider some chance meetings.

    When former State Delta Governor Chief James Onanefe Ibori finishes serving term in Britain, he will surely return home. He could run into Obasanjo at Heathrow. Will they shake hands? Obasanjo’s face will suddenly wear a frown, a grin and a scowl. He will chuckle and mutter: “If anybody dey vex, dat na im toro. I no send anybody any message.”

    Will the Ogidigboigbo just walk past? I doubt it. This being a family newspaper, I won’t like to bother you with the expletives that are likely to follow. Will they come to blows? I won’t guess.

    I do not know if Dr Chris Ngige, the charismatic former governor of Anambra State – he is in the November 16 race – has met Chief Chris Uba, the self-acclaimed godfather of Anambra politics since the 2005 incident in which the then governor was kidnapped and held incommunicado for hours. Ngige claimed that Uba asked him to surrender the treasury keys, but he refused. He had to pay the price. Ngige survived it all and ran a purposeful administration, which achieved so much. Should Ngige and Uba meet today, will they be all smiles? Uba’s brother, Andy, is in the desperate battle to secure the PDP ticket for the November race.

    Or consider a chance meeting between Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi and his former Chief of Staff, Nyesom Wike, the Minister of State for Education. Wike is said to be interested in succeeding Amaechi. The governor says this will not be right as both of them are from the same ethnic group; others should be given a chance. Ever since, Wike has been pouring invectives on Amaechi whose camp has also been attacking Wike. Nobody wishes to witness their supporters’ show of strength as it once happened at the Port Harcourt airport. But should Amaechi and Wike, who are said to be highly temperamental, meet, what will happen? Handshake? Pleasantries? Blows?

    Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi may some day run into his predecessor, the exuberant Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala who has been trying to forge an alliance with Accord chieftain Rashidi Ladoja, the former governor who was elbowed off his seat by lawmakers loyal to the late Lamidi Adedibu. Ajimobi has transformed Ibadan, the capital city that suffered so much neglect in the Akala-Ladoja years. Other parts of the state are feeling the Ajimobi touch, but his opponents are doing their all to revile his efforts. Will methodical Ajimobi smile when he sees ebullient Alao-Akala? Will he be cheerful on seeing Ladoja to whom he gave so much space in his administration but got regular abuses in return? Will they embrace or settle it all once-and-for-all? Remember, street fighting, it is said, is Ibadan’s ailment (Ija igboro larun Ibadan).

    PDP chair Bamanga Tukur has been having it rough managing the rebellion in the party. One of his adversaries is Murtala Nyako, his state governor who has joined forces with six others to insist that Tukur should be removed. Tukur’s son is said to be interested in succeeding Nyako, who is against such thoughts. To pave the way for the young Tukur’s emergence, it is said, Nyako had to lose control of the party. Ever since, he has remained bitter against Tukur, with President Jonathan suffering some collateral damage. Just imagine Tukur and Nyako meeting at the Villa?

    Will former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Chairman Farida Waziri smile and bend her knees if she runs into Obasanjo at a social event. Obasanjo believes Ibori got Mrs Waziri the EFCC job. The woman said she never met Ibori before getting the job. Angry, she said: “I will like to warn that those who live in glass houses don’t throw stones and, as such, Obasanjo should not allow me open up on him. Respectable elder statesmen act and speak with decorum.” Besides, she listed her academic achievements and doubted if Obasanjo could match them. Since then, the former President has held his fire.

    I do not want to guess what may happen should Obasanjo and Mrs Waziri- dark goggles and all- meet.

    In the run-up to the 2011 election, Senator John James Akpanudoedehe was set to give incumbent Governor Godswill Akpabio a run for his money. The senator, who was Akpabio’s campaign chief in the 2007 election, was popular, confident and bold. Akpabio saw the danger quite early. He unleashed the massive state machinery on Akpanudoedehe. He spared nothing in fighting the battle. Many heads were smashed and properties worth a fortune were razed. The senator was exhausted. I do not know if they have ever met since then.

    When Taraba State Governor Danbaba Suntai suddenly returned from a 10-month medical trip, frail and enervated, he moved swiftly to get his grip back on power. He wrote the Assembly that he was back at work, disbanded the executive council and appointed another Chief of Staff and Secretary to the State Government. But, his deputy, Alhaji Garuba Umar, reversed the actions, insisting that his boss could not have done all that were ascribed to him.

    There was confusion. Then the PDP stepped in to announce a strange plan under which Umar will continue to run the show, even as he consults Suntai. Has Umar seen Suntai since then? How will Suntai receive his deputy who some see as being power hungry and duplicitous?

    When will politicians and public servants be truthful to themselves – and to the rest of us?

     

    That show in the House

    OUR lawmakers returned to work on Tuesday in a sensational manner. When the Kawu Baraje faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) addressed the caucus in the House of Representatives, some members loyal to the Bamanga Tukur faction got angry. They heckled Baraje. A former member of the House, Binta Masi Garba, the Baraje faction’s woman leader, thought that was not decent. She descended on the heckler-in-chief, Afees Adelowo (PDP, Oyo), tore his dress and attempted to rain blows on him. Ms Garba deserves a prize for her show of martial skills. Women activists, where are you?

    Many were screaming, pushing and shoving. Pandemonium. Thankfully, there were no casualties. But, I was well entertained; I bet you were. If this is all our lawmakers can do to enliven the polity, they should do it more often, rather than heat up the system. After all, the dividends of democracy we often talk about can come in any form, including watching on television VIPs exchanging blows. Exciting. Isn’t it?

  • FRSC’s double taxation on vehicle owners

    Neglected by government, betrayed by a self-serving National Assembly and spurned by the judiciary whose leading lights have taken side with economic and political fraudsters with access to enough state funds to buy justice, ordinary Nigerians, have long come to terms with the absence of government in their lives. They provide their own water, generate their own electricity, and dispose off their refuse and those who can afford it, avoid government schools and hospitals.

    They are only remembered by government on those occasions when needed to make additional sacrifices such as during the president’s fuel pump price increase, or in recent times when called upon to appeal to striking university teachers whose earned allowances government claimed it has no funds to pay; and finally when needed as sporadic participants to give legitimacy to every four years’ rituals called elections where their votes hardly count. Nigerians have long given up the illusion of having anyone protecting their interest. PDP shameless elders only intervene to preside over how the party buccaneers settle quarrels over sharing of money and offices. Our internet services are the slowest yet the most expensive in the world. Our telephone service providers are declaring outrageous profits that will make their counterparts in Europe green with envy in spite of their shoddy services and PHCN charges consumers N50, 000 and above for meters they don’t own and on which they pay monthly service charges which are discountenanced when such metres require repair or replacement.

    ‘Suffering and smiling’ (apology to Fela Anikulapo-Kuti) ordinary Nigerians have carried on their burden with philosophical strength of mind and will. In the last one year, many have engaged in daily rituals of going to queue up at the FRSC Ojudu headquarters to use the only available ‘capturing machine’  in an effort to obey without questioning, FRSC’s illegal imposition of double taxation  in the guise of registration of new plate numbers and securing the new drivers license.

    Interviewed on a Channel Television programme last week, Osita Chidoka, the Corps Marshall, was all in his elements as he laboured with little success trying to justify the new number plate and drivers licence scheme which he said was introduced “to harmonise, standardise and unify all modes of licensing of drivers and vehicles so as to involve a better road culture and efficient data management”.

    For the above stated objective, overburdened Nigerians with existing vehicle plate numbers are being called upon to part with about N15,000. If a man paid the prevailing  rate to register a plate number for his vehicle five years back, the least expected of any agency that has the interest of the people at heart is to replace the old number plate with the new one at no cost  to the citizen.

    If a car owner decides to sell his car, the Corps Marshal says such a person loses his old plate number to government without refund while the new buyer will now register a new plate number. Why not just change the ownership of the plate number at no cost to the new owner instead of rendering it useless to both the old and the new owner of the vehicle?

    Chidoka says there will be a linkage between the new car plate number and drivers licence and that we can use the new licence to validate national ID card. How about those who don’t have cars or those who don’t know the number of cars in their garages? Is it not a common knowledge that the last three attempts by PDP government to tackle the ID card issue were marred by corruption and scandals that led to the jailing of a minister? It appears Corps Marshal would hold on

    to any straw to justify a callous imposition of double taxation on helpless Nigerians.

    The Corps Marshal has other ambitions. The new license and vehicle plate registration, he said will help custom to improve on its revenue drive and prevent smuggled vehicles from being registered.  But it is common knowledge even if the Corps Marshal pretends not to know, that vehicles are smuggled in daily through our porous borders manned by the same custom he set out to aid. And we all know that for every smuggled car, there are forged custom papers purportedly emanating

    from Apapa /Tin Can Ports, duly signed and stamped, accompanied with stamped police report, all in one day, an exercise that would ordinarily take over a week. In his desperate bid to generate revenue, he forgot to tell us how this double taxation of Nigerians will checkmate this practice involving customs, police and sometimes road safety officials.

    There is also something in the scheme for the insurance firms. He now wants human beings who own the vehicles to be insured as against the current practice which is the other way round. His preference he says is comprehensive insurance. But he was silent on how he intends to ensure insurance firms fulfil their obligations to their clients which was what in the first place drove people to opt for a Third Party or simply put their fate in God. Many who are unable to afford cost of comprehensive insurance especially among the Pentecostals simply cover their cars with blood of Jesus, other Christians and their Muslim brothers, the rosary and tesbiu while the traditionalists wade off evil forces with ‘African juju’. If a man buys a N400, 000 used car and decides to do a Third Party insurance because that is what he could afford, why must it be the business of FRSC to direct otherwise? Whose interest is the Corps Marshal protecting, Nigerians or insurance firms?

    Chidoka, who has not told Nigerians how to bring down the 1,375 casualty figure recorded between February and September this year, who has not addressed the unwholesome activities of some of his men, including those involved in issuance of fake driving licenses in the past, hiding at obscured corners on Lagos roads to intimidate and negotiate  with motorists with minor offences, but who has

    demonstrated his passionate commitment to raising revenue profile of government through customs and insurance firms, says he is not engaged in revenue drive. But what other name do we assign to a scheme that is extracting about N15, 000 from millions of Nigerians who have existing registered plate numbers?

    If we assume Lagos with an estimated population of 16 million has five million registered vehicles, at an average of 15,000, the FRSC is set to extract about N75billion from Lagos vehicle owners who never bargained for double taxation. Even if FRSC turns out to be better than other government revenue generating agencies the Senate had accused of failing to transfer collected revenues to the federation account, or FRSC agrees to subject itself to auditing unlike the 194 MDAs the Auditor-General accused of not subjecting themselves to auditing last year, we will still not be able to guarantee judicious use of proceeds of this blood money. After all, ours is a nation where no one knows the specific projects the foreign loans taken on our behalf and which our children will have to pay back are used to execute.

    It is therefore difficult to fault the argument of cynical Nigerians who see FRSC’s cruel imposition of an illegal double taxation on helpless Nigerians, despite the initial misgivings expressed by a National Assembly known to give only a lip service to issues that concern the well-being of our people, as part of the MDAs’ desperate efforts to raise funds for the 2015 election, in the same manner phantom fuel subsidy was used to finance the 2011 election. The very ‘creative’ PDP ruling party and its spin doctors see nothing abnormal in reaping where they did not sow, or immoral in living and surviving on the sweat and blood of the poor and helpless.

  • Ten years of the 13th Etsu Nupe

    Ten years of the 13th Etsu Nupe

    It seems like only yesterday when Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar, CFR, was sworn in as the 13th Etsu Nupe on September 11th, 2003, barely a day shy of his 51st birthday. As a birthday gift of sorts, the then colonel in the country’s armoured corps – he was promoted brigadier-general in arrears after becoming emir – couldn’t have wished for better.

    When his highly experienced and widely respected maternal uncle, Alhaji Umaru Sanda Ndayako, died on September 1, 2003 as the 12th Etsu Nupe, Alhaji Yahaya was not initially in serious contention as a possible successor even though it was the turn of Usman Zaki ruling house to which he belonged to produce the next Etsu.

    The last time it was the house’s turn to do so in 1962 when Alhaji Muhammadu Ndayako who had ruled for 27 years, died, the rotational sequence among the emirate’s three ruling houses – Usman Zaki, Muhammadu Masaba and Umaru Majigi in that order – was disrupted when Alhaji Yahaya’s father, Nakordi Abubakar, lost the struggle for the throne to Alhaji Usman Sarki, then the country’s minister of Internal Affairs and a member of Masaba. Zaki, Masaba and Majigi were sons of Malam Dendo, the leading flag bearer of Shehu Usman bin Fodio in Nupeland during the latter’s late 19th century jihad.

    Ten years ago it looked like History was going to repeat itself once more following the death of Alhaji Umaru Sanda after he’d ruled for 28 years, a year longer than his father; for a brief while it looked like the succession would be a free for all among interested candidates from all the three ruling houses. However, a piece of paper which confirmed that with Etsu Umaru Sanda the rotation among the three houses had come full circle with the houses producing four Etsus each and therefore the rotation should start all over again in the event of his death saved the day for the Usman Zaki ruling house.

    Even then Alhaji Yahaya was initially not the unanimous choice of his ruling house, especially as he had spent most of his adult life as a soldier away from home. But then with the support of his uncle and titular head of the house, Alhaji Halilu Kafa, one time company secretary of the New Nigerian Development Company in its heydays, he became the nominee of the House of Usman Zaki. The Niger State governor at the time, Engineer Abdulkadir Kure, accepted the nomination without hesitation and discountenanced the candidates from the other houses.

    And so on September 11, 2003 Alhaji Yahaya received his staff of office from Governor Kure as the 13th Etsu Nupe. For the man, the day must’ve been possibly the happiest in his life and the clearest manifestation of the fact that in the end God alone gives and withholds power. This seemed pretty obvious from his choice of Chapter 3, Verse 26 of the Holy Qur’an as the opening remarks of his coronation speech.

    “Say: O Allah, Master of the Kingdom!” he quoted from the Qur’an in Arabic. “Though gives the kingdom to whomsoever Thou pleases and takes away the kingdom from whomsoever Thou pleases, and Thou exalts whom Thou pleases and abases whom Thou pleases; in Your hand is the good; surely Thou hast power over all things.”

    The kingdom that God gave Alhaji Yahaya that beautiful Thursday morning ten years ago has had a very proud History. A measure of its historical importance lies in the position of the Etsu in the order of protocol of the emirs and chiefs in the North. According to the authoritative 2006 book, Emirs and Politicians: Reform, Reaction and Recrimination in Northern Nigeria, 1950-1966 by Professor Alhaji Mahmood Yakubu, erstwhile Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), there were 119 gazetted emirs and chiefs in the North by the end of the First Republic in 1966.

    Sixteen of these were first class, 31 second, another 31 third, seven fourth, an odd one fifth and 33 ungraded. The Etsu Nupe was the ninth among the first class emirs after the Sultan of Sokoto, the Shehu of Borno, the Emirs of Gwandu, Kano and Bauchi, the Lamido of Adamawa and the Emirs of Katsina and Zaria, in that order.

    Today, the Etsu Nupe is the permanent chairman of the Niger State council of traditional rulers. And in the Gwandu western half of the historical Sokoto Caliphate, he has been second only to the Emir of Gwandu, ahead of the Emir of Ilorin and the Etsus of Agai’e, Lapai, Lafiagi, Tsonga and Tsaragi, not necessarily in that order.

    Historically, the kingdom Alhaji Yahaya’s great grandfathers and grand uncles presided over first from Rabah- not the Sokoto Rabah – and finally from Bida served as an important bridge between the Sokoto Caliphate and Yorubaland and Benin Kingdom. This has led to many similarities between Nupe and Yoruba languages and cultures, itself a subject matter all of its own.

    Alhaji Yahaya has good reason to celebrate his ten years on the throne of his forefathers. First, of the five Etsus from his ruling house he has ruled longest. Second, his initiation three years ago of an annual Nupe Day for the celebration of the unity, culture and the political-economy of the Nupe at home and in the Diaspora on June 26 of every year has a potential for restoring Nupeland to its old glory of being one of the most important political entities in the West African sub-region. June 26, 1896 was the day the Bida army under Makun Muhammadu defeated the Royal Niger Company Constabulary at Ogidi, in the outlaying Yoruba regions of the then vast Nupe Kingdom, when the British commenced their attempt at replacing Nupe hegemony in those areas with their own hegemony.

    Bida eventually fell to the British on January 27, 1897, but not before giving the British a bloody nose for months. However, once Bida fell the collapse of the rest of the caliphate all the way to Sokoto proved more or less a piece of cake for the British.

    Beyond sustaining the rich and proud legacy of his forebears, Alhaji Yahaya has served as an effective chairman of the National Mosque, Abuja, in maintaining and sustaining it as an architectural landmark and a leading centre of religious and intellectual activities in the country’s federal capital.

    Ten years is just about one third the number of years his maternal uncle who he succeeded served as Etsu with distinction. In those ten years Alhaji Yahaya has achieved a lot but being only human he has also made his mistakes. Many of his subjects including this reporter, for example, believe he has been too liberal in awarding his emirate’s traditional titles to those he believes are deserving of those titles. At any rate many of these titles lack historical and cultural basis.

    Again, as with so many traditional rulers in the country, those in the North in particular, there was popular anger that he became too close to the political authorities at the state and federal levels in the run-up to the 2011 elections.

    Baagandozhi! May you reign for long and may your achievements surpass those of your illustrious forebears.

     

    Feedback

    SIR, Your piece, “Between Senator Anyim and Hon. Bala” last week, places me in a confusing scenario. While all you said are verifiable and may to a large extent be factual, I still do not believe that you are just waking up to the reality that the entire Nigerian project is a bitter contest for the control of resources especially among the major tribes of Nigeria. Although your bitterness cannot be said to be misplaced, it is too skewed to a section to make the desired impact. We all know that the ‘turn by turn’ syndrome which we all consciously instituted and inflicted on ourselves through zoning, federal character, power sharing etc have turned the country into a fertile ground for crass nepotism and tribalism which you are now bitter about. But the North which you feel so grossly short changed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation has itself in recent times been unmindful of its diversity and especially the need for cohesion being a region with a multiplicity of ethnic tribes and

    religion. Ask the minorities of the North and you will understand how painful it can be to be marginalized. Little wonder, some sections of the North are trying to redefine the concept of Northern Nigeria rightly or wrongly as clearly reflected in the unending ethnic and sectarian clashes. Before we can overcome issues like the ones you raised, charity must begin at home and we must accept that diversity is strength especially when we all understand what we commonly stand for and that an injustice to one is an injustice to all. While it is proper for any individual to blow the whistle when injustice is perceived, this must always be done irrespective of who is involved otherwise it will end up as a nice story badly told. As the saying goes, a truth told with a bad intent is worst than a lie. However, we must keep talking until we get to a point of common understanding.

     

    Emmanuel – 08050813181

     

     

  • Lagos-Ibadan is a failed road; Dead Police; Air Force Museum; UNESCO Education; CBN

    Lagos-Ibadan is a failed road; Dead Police; Air Force Museum; UNESCO Education; CBN

    After five and half hours trying to get from Ibadan to Lagos on Saturday September 14, I can declare on behalf of travelling Nigerians that the LAGOS IBADAN ROAD IS A FAILED ROAD and deserves EMERGENCY ONE WEEK REHABILITATION. Even though most Presidency bigwigs and National Assembly (NASS) members use helicopters and planes, the millions of fellow citizens who use the Lagos-Ibadan road daily demand emergency repairs to their cars and the road. A powerful, good government can cause Julius Berger and RCC to employ thousands of unemployed Nigerians to fill the potholes on the road in one or two weeks if they have any love for Nigerians and sense of national pride and urgency. October 1, Nigeria@53 is around the corner. Government should make this an EMERGENCY GIFT to Nigeria. The Lagos-Ibadan former expressway is to be fully refurbished in 24-30 months with an Infrastructure Bank loan of N167b for the 127km road. Still too long, too slow.

    Intelligent advisers should advise the President that accolades come from opening the completed road. The President should further reduce this contract to six or 12 months to be completed in his present term to attract political kudos and paparazzi. After all, who knows tomorrow or 2015? Even politicians do not live forever and must act positively when they hold power. Already Governor Segun Agagu has sadly gone, may he Rest In Peace; who next? The President should care about the millions of citizens and 100,000 vehicles suffering on the former expressway daily?

    The celebrated release of human rights lawyer, Mike Ozekhome and the explanations of the motivation of the captors do not justify the execution of FOUR living souls from worth but not rich families, the police men! The released lawyer should attend the funerals of each dead policeman. He should then fight for better pay and conditions for police and better compensation for victims’ families. We, SAN lawyer and policemen are all equal in the sight of God.

    Life is serious. Twenty-three killed in bridge disaster. Who will investigate the contractor and the ministry to exonerate them of corruption and incompetence in design and planning for flooding –it is, after all, a bridge? Which body will pay compensation to the victims? Folajomo Agunbiade, a student of Adekunle Ajasin University was shot in the head, for praying to God in tongues during an armed robbery that was not being resisted in her family home in Ibadan.  Her mother is abroad trying to cater for her children. God knows that Folajomo is in heaven now but will that explanation comfort the family? A five-year old Nigerian had a limb amputated abroad because of bone cancer. I saw two children with sightless eyes from beatings in school and home.  Another 10 killed this week in the ongoing Plateau Tiv and Berom farm-Fulani herder war, and we all still eat cow meat. Meanwhile politics seems more important. Shame!

    The proposed Air Force museum is better late than never, good. Ditto for museums for all other areas e.g. transport, and academic subjects. What happened to the Army museum? We know about the Yar’Adua Museum.  Where is the Aviation Museum which we begged for as the aviation authorities destroyed old planes for teaspoons and petty cash instead of giving them to the top technology universities and polytechnics and to science and aeronautical support for education, people’s museums and exhibitions? The Air Force should involve ministries of education, technology and the sciences.

    So we need UNESCO and Gordon Brown to repeat what ASUU and all Education NGOs and unions and student bodies have been saying for 40 years, before government will listen at all levels? Gordon Brown offers more money to empower wayward corrupt governments; the same governments happily divert to corruption or other projects considered more important than children’s welfare and education. Again foreign money, like DFID’s, will help bail out corrupt Nigerian leadership. The less aid we get, the more Nigerian money will be spent correctly. Aid should be in the form of software, short stay, 1-3month scholarships and equipment.

    Another 23 killed at a collapsed bridge in Katsina. No different from the thousands killed in the North this year by cow-farm violence, ‘no western book’ violence, kidnap and vehicle violence etc. Sorry, as you grieve, but look at the picture of the bridge disaster. Increasingly in the North, when we see pictures of collapsed roads, railways and bridges we see red laterite earth sometimes 20 feet deep but we see no stones, boulders, cement or iron rods supporting the laterite road. So once again the contractor, the supervising engineers, the ministries of works and finance must answer questions of culpability in these and other deaths. Rains sweep away weak, un-reinforced infrastructure. Who under-planned, under-budgeted, under-built the bridge and under-built the coupling to the immediate access structures which were dislocated from the bridge? Who has the names on the signatures on the documents? The COREN and the Nigerian Society of Civil Engineers and NGO civil rights groups need to do evaluation and soil checks just as forensic investigation is done with an air crash. Was the bridge poorly constructed for the expected rainfall?

    CBN boasts that Nigeria has the second highest African reserves. This is being economical with the truth or using creative financial accounting procedures. Did he tell you the population to funds ratio in the other countries ahead of Nigeria? Nigerians are being slapped and punched repeatedly.

  • Here, there, and yonder

    Here, there, and yonder

    What a difference an umbrella makes – any umbrella, but the Umbrella of the PDP especially.

    If you are standing under it, you are protected against the law and the Constitution, to say nothing of the ordinary annoyances and vagaries of life in Nigeria. In fact, I m almost prepared to insist that you are the law and the Constitution.

    Step outside it voluntarily or involuntarily, and you instantly become a prime illustration of the instability of human greatness, bereft of any rights that the law and the Constitution are obliged to respect or protect.

    When he was comfortably ensconced under the protective canopy of the PDP Umbrella first as unelected governor of the State of Osun, retired Brigadier-General (Prince) Olagunsoye Oyinlola was for all practicaly purposes the law. His every utterance was an edict. He could make and unmake, without having to answer to anyone. He had his way on practically every issue.

    Continuing a practice he had inaugurated as military administrator of Lagos State, he turned Okuku Day into one of the most prominent signposts on the nation’s calendar. On that day, grateful contractors, desperate supplicants, plain hustlers, and all manner of influence-peddlers assembled in his place of birth and tried to outdo one another in contrived gestures of solidarity and philanthropy,

    Perhaps they still observe Okuku Day but, like Ibogun Day which brought national and international attention to former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s birthplace when he was in office, it is no longer what it used to be.

    All those ingrates! If invited, hardly any person who used to flock to Ibogun and Okuku will show up today, much less make pledges that they have no intention of redeeming. But while the applause lasted, those towns occupied the spotlight as never before – nor since.

    In his latter career as national secretary of the PDP, Oyinlola also wielded enormous powers that only the wishes and desires of those who belong in the upper echelons of the party could countermand. If you did not belong in that group, you learned not to mess with him.

    Then, Oyinlola found himself, along with other dissidents, outside the Umbrella, in circumstances not entirely of his own making, and a different reality set in.

    Men who once had the power to deploy the police to break up any assembly, however lawful, and did not hesitate to exercise it, found themselves obliged to tell a lie to keep the police from breaking up their perfectly lawful assembly.

    According to Oyinlola, the breakaway faction of the PDP, which calls itself the New PDP, could assemble at the Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja and elect its officers only because they had given the authorities to understand that the facility was going to be used for a wedding reception.

    They should not exult yet. For all I know, in the on-going war of attrition between those standing under the Umbrella and those operating outside it, Oyinlola and company may yet be charged with gaining entry into a restricted facility under false pretences.

    Next time they meet, they should announce to the world that the purpose is to generate ideas to help Her Excellency the Lady of the Rock realise her agenda of women empowerment and peace building. Heaven help the police officer or government official who would be temerarious enough to question the motives of those assembled for such a purpose.

    I was also going to suggest that if, for their next meeting, the New PDP could put it out that they were gathering to offer prayers for peace, stability and prosperity in Nigeria, with General Yakubu Gowon billed to deliver the invocation, the forces of law and order would keep a respectful distance from the event.

    But a certain diffidence supervened when I was reminded of what happened to a group in Swaziland which had fashioned such a pretext for staging a political meeting, something that the king of the Swazis categorically forbids. The purpose, they said, was to offer prayers for peace and prosperity in the land.

    The Swazi authorities were not fooled.

    The police swooped on the scene and disbanded the group on the perfectly sensible grounds that, first, there was no turmoil in the land, no conflict, no street protests to warrant such public supplication, and second, that offering payers for the nation’s prosperity carried the dark and impermissible imputation that the economy was not being run adroitly.

    Go back to your homes and say your prayers there as fervently and for as long as you wish, the police admonished them sternly.

    Since news travels so fast these days and bad practices travel even faster, the authorities in Abuja may well have heard of this incident and foreclosed a resort to such tactics by those who had taken themselves outside the protective canopy of the biggest Umbrella in Africa.

    Even if they should now say that their secretariat building the police prevented them from commissioning the other day is in fact designed to mobilise support for the PDP’s transformation agenda to ensure a landslide victory in the 2015 general elections, it is doubtful whether they will be allowed to proceed. The authorities are taking no chances.

    And after what happened to him last week, the beleaguered governor of Rivers State, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, must know that he has lost the protection of the big Umbrella irretrievably, and that nothing will avail him a place under it again.

    The police would not even let his convoy take the usual route to his official residence. A public relations officer for the Force, obviously seeking to distance the police from the act, ended up actually deepening the confusion. No blockade took place, she said. And no order for a blockade was given by the state commissioner of police, according to the officer, DSP Angela Agabe.

    Now, if the Commissioner, Mbu Joseph Mbu, Abuja’s point man in Rivers State and Governor Amaechi’s sworn adversary, did not order the blockade, who did? Who is in charge?

    Adding to the confusion, another account quoted the police on the scene as saying that Amaechi’s convoy would be allowed to move on only if Mbu gave an order to that effect. But it he had not ordered a blockade in the first place, why would they require his approval to lift it?

    The police order, it now seems in retrospect, was designed to block access to Amaechi’s former campaign headquarters, lately converted to the state secretariat of the New PDP. As the authorities might well argue, Amaechi suffered nothing worse than collateral damage, and was, in any case still able to get to his residence through another route; so, where was the so-called blockade?

    Collateral damage is also what some of the former ministers whom President Goodluck Jonathan dropped curtly from his Cabinet last week suffered, especially those of them who owed their positions to persons no longer entitled to the protection of the Big Umbrella. Some among them were no doubt casualties of the Administration’s preference for loyalty over competence.

    According to a leaked account, one of the ex-ministers badgered parastatals reporting to him or her into contributing N17 million to buy an SUV for his or her personal use.

    Don’t count on Dr Jonathan to refer the matter to the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission for further investigation and thus turn it into a teachable moment. He is busy transforming the PDP, with the consolation that if he cannot transform Nigeria, he can at least transform the political party in whose name he governs the country.

     

     

     

     

  • What does Obasanjo really want?

    If we go by Nigeria’s political precedents, there is considerable reason to doubt that former President Obasanjo will go against the re-election of President Jonathan if he chooses to contest in 2015. However, two weeks ago, Obasanjo had a private one-on-one discussion with Alhaji Rashidi Ladoja in Ibadan. Shortly after, a split occurred in the PDP at a convention that was not attended by Obasanjo, who is now sponsoring Ladoja as a new secretary for PDP. These two events suggest some linkages.

    If this information is true, it suggests some pre-meditated actions on the part of Obasanjo and strengthens the claims in some quarters that he started the fires that currently engulfs the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and should therefore be responsible for putting it out. But what does Obasanjo really want and how does the current disarray in the party characterize the political ideology that may be ascribed to Obasanjo?

    To begin to answer this question, it must first be pointed out that the travails currently buffeting the political ship of the PDP, under the leadership of President Goodluck Jonathan is not new. Obasanjo should actually be the last person to start or stoke such a fire because just before his re-election in 2003, many swore that he would never be allowed to run for re-election.

    To support the resistance to Obasanjo’s re-election bid in 2003, the then Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim, now Secretary to the Federal Government (SGF) brought in to replace the late Chuba Okadigbo as Senate President stated that the PDP zoning scheme did not call for a second term for the President. This was a reinforcement of an earlier report credited to Chief Sonny Okogwu, where the latter contended that there was a deal after Obasanjo’s nomination in Jos in 1999, in which he was supposed to be a one-term president. Compare this with the recent claims by Governor Aliyu of Niger state.

    Moreover, the robust resistance of the so called G-5 governors to Goodluck Jonathan today can also be compared to the antagonism of some governors like Achike Udenwa of Imo State to Obasanjo’s re-election. In the same way, Governor Bafarawa, then governor of Sokoto State, speaking on behalf of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) stated that the north would not back Obasanjo for re-election. Similarly, Governor Orji Kalu swore that Obasanjo would never be allowed to go for re-election at the expense of a candidate from the South-east. All these occurred before the presidential nomination of the PDP in 2003.

    So, the resistance to President Jonathan is almost conventional within the PDP, except that it has now been calibrated with higher intensity, leading to a split in the party, led by Atiku Abubakar, former vice-president, a veteran of several failed presidential bids. But what may come as a shock to many is the role of former President Obasanjo in the whole affair.

    At some point, he is seen dissociating himself from the activities of the present government, and aligning with perceived competitors of the president for the presidential nomination of the party. In several instances, he has made scurrilous remarks on the performance of the party in government, whereas it is well known that if he intended to convey such as advice to government, he could easily do so, through a phone call or through private discussions. At other times, he is forecasting an imminent of ‘’Arab spring’’ in Nigeria due to high levels of unemployment arising from job opportunities that he could not provide while he was in office.

    It is difficult to understand what Obasanjo really wants from Jonathan. It has been pointed out that the current SGF Pius Anyim, came to national political relevance when Obasanjo ousted the late Okadigbo the then senate president for criticisms that were less caustic than Obasanjo is currently dishing out to President Jonathan. So, it may be safe to hazard a guess that Anyim’s appointment may have been partly to appease Obasanjo. Many would even assert that the South-west appears not to have much representation in the federal cabinet because of the type of nominations made by Obasanjo. With the exception of the Agriculture Minister Akinwunmi Adesina who has performed exceedingly well, other ministers from that zone have been mostly below par in performance.

    During his first term, Obasanjo never brooked any dissent, nor heeded any advice from any quarters. He it was who relegated some of the principal founders of the party and their political structures to the sidelines. When he became president, he immediately unseated the party executive and brought in Barnabas Gemade and Okwesilieze Nwodo as chairman and secretary of the party respectively. Today he is prodding Jonathan to shred his own trusted structure and install one that will do his bidding. While it appears as if the G-5 is representing the north, some prominent politicians in the north who understand what Obasanjo can do if the party structures are under his control are uncomfortable and suspicious of his motivations as he prods the G-5 into splitting the PDP.

    For instance, Ango Abdullahi a well-known critic of Jonathan, his bitterness being merely over the claim that the North should exclusively produce a presidential candidate instead of President Jonathan, has this to say about former President Obasanjo; “….we thought erroneously, that his government’s performance between 1976 and 1979 was his own. But as it turned out to be, we could see that it wasn’t his……how would Nigerians rank Obasanjo from 1999 to when he left office as president? Every record shows that there has never been as much corruption in this country as during that period…” President Goodluck Jonathan may only just be finding out that Ango Abdullahi and he, may just have something they agree on: that Obasanjo cannot be trusted politically.

    Can this explain why very few people of note in the South-west ever agree with Obasanjo? Can it also explain the discord within his PDP followers in his home state of Ogun, which led to the political defeat of the party in the last general election in most local elections? Nonetheless, those who are currently being used by Obasanjo to stoke the embers of discord in the PDP may not know this yet. But, it is still early and there is still enough time for rapprochement or they may find themselves in political limbo, after Obasanjo gets what he wants, like others who have been previously used for this type of agenda.

    • Eneoche, a Development Analyst writes from Abuja