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  • Marwa: Quintessential leader at 60

    Marwa: Quintessential leader at 60

    In September, 1996, the rumour mill in Lagos had just manufactured a bumper one. Scores of people at Agege in Lagos State had suddenly given up the ghost after a meal of beans. For days the news thrived and nearly every home started bidding  farewell to any food made of beans. Moinmoin ( a mashed beans laced with fish and eggs, wrapped in green leaves) , akara (bean cake), gbegiri (beans soup) wanke (a delicacy of beans for Northern Nigerians) ewa oloyin (honey beans) and any other food made of beans in a jiffy became personnae non gratia in Lagos. Like an uncurtailed wild fire, the conflagration spread to many other parts in Nigeria. Those who had stored beans at home before the rumour, began singing nunc dimitis to this source of protein, savouring whatever remained in bits as if they would never eat this food again in their life. The price of beans dropped drasticaly as there were no buyers again. Insects started feeding fat on this delicacy usually ferried to markets in giant sacks. People started talking of dead bodies of fellow homo sapiens who died of food poisoning without anyone seeing their corpses. Yet Lagosians were scared to their marrows.

    The man at the helm of affairs in Lagos State, then Colonel Mohamed Buba Marwa (now a retired Brigadier-General) was troubled. This handsmome master’s degree holder in International Relations and Public Administration from Harvard and Pittsburgh universities in the United States of America respectively could not imagine his fellow Lagosians losing their robust figures for kwashiokor, as beans is the major proteinous  food that unites the commoners with the silver spoons. He sent his officials to the National Food and Drugs Agency (NAFDAC) to find out from the laboratories if indeed we had poisoned beans in town. They returned with the negative verdict. This was published as news, but it was a water poured into the basket. While on an assignment in Lagos one day,  Tuesday, September 24, 1996, to be precise, Marwa’s convoy passed the popular Ketu bus stop. His vehicle suddenly halted, making a reverse. The armoured corp officer jumped down. No one knew his mission. Nevertheless, everyone in the convoy came down and raced to catch up with him. To their shock, the man headed straight to an akara seller by the roadside and asked the petty trader to sell a ball of akara for him. Pronto, he posted this delicacy into his mouth and started chewing, to the delight of the Lagos crowd that have swarmed around their charismatic leader. He told the akara seller that he will pay for all the fried akara balls and invited everyone to join him. Hesitantly two or three officials (including this writer joined him) and before you could say Jack, Lagosians bombarded the rest of the akara, munching the free breakfast with delight. Marwa had taken the bull by the horns. The print and television media made a feast of the front page stuff, especially the photographs. On the next day, the beans scare became a hoax and everyone resumed duty with beans without any tinge of fear. Leadership by example!

    On Wednesday, July 7, 1998, Marwa was at Abuja for the Federal Executive Council meeting at Aso Rock, Abuja. Suddenly there was a breaking news. The symbol of democracy in Nigeria, Basorun Moshood Abiola, had dropped dead in the course of a meeting. This was big trouble, especially in the nation’s commercial nerve centre, Lagos. Fighting erupted, especially at Alapere, Ketu, Agege, Ojuelegba and Idi-Araba areas of Lagos. General Abubakar Abdulsalam (rtd), then Head of State, had to dispatch this former Aide-de-Camp to Lt-General Theophilus Danjuma (rtd) to Lagos, assisting him with a presidential aircraft as it was an emergency. When we alighted at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, we had to navigate through a lot of unusual routes  to avoid boiling spots of bonfire. This was not a day for siren. When we eventually got to the Lagos House, Marina, Marwa held a short meeting with a few members of his team. He, thereafter, sent for highly respected Muslim and Christian leaders to go and break the news to the Abiola family at Ikeja, Lagos that night. At 8am the next day, he made a state broadcast on the sad news, extolling the virtues of Abiola. He mourned him and directed that all schools in Lagos State to be shut for the rest of the week as a mark of respect. In the evening, he paid a condolence visit to the Abiola family at home. This visit was the greatest risk and gamble, combined together during this period when the military was not in the good books of Nigerians. Passing through thousands of people, Marwa who trekked quite a distance was the only one in his entourage allowed entry through the gate manned by seemingly militant and angry youths. They assured him that he was safe with them, as he was their man, blocking his security details and taking their positions. A few of Marwa’s security details, not in army uniform, myself and my own chief cameraman, Elder Titus Fapohunda, scaled the fence to enter. When Marwa was through with the visit a batallion of Lagosians escorted his convoy back to his Alausa, Ikeja office, singing thus: “Marwa o, o se wo ni, awa o je gba soja laye, Marwa o, o se wo ni “ (But for you Marwa, we would not have given any soldier a chance).

    The next day, Marwa was on his way to office when his convoy ran into a procession of the University of Lagos students on their way to Abiola’s house. He came down from his vehicle and commiserated with them. He advised them to be peaceful throughout. He then ordered Major Abayomi Opeolu (rtd), the then Task Force Commander on Envinromental Sanitation and his team to serve as their escort and ensure their safety. In the afternoon, he was on a peace mission to some volatile areas in Lagos. At Idi – Araba, he had to walk on broken bottles to quench the rage of what could have turned into an ethnic war.

    Was it not Marwa that brought the armed robbers to their knees  throughout his nearly three-year administration in Lagos State through a re-invigorated Operation Sweep to the point that armed robbers wrote and placed in his mail box (made available to all Lagosians for passing of information, free of charge) that he should allow them just one week to operate, so that they could have a merry Christmas? Was it not this former Military Governor of Borno State that constructed and rehabilitated over 700 roads in Lagos State through the Direct Labour Agency headed by Engineer Kehinde Osikoya? This agency constructed the dualisation of the Ikorodu Road in Lagos.

    This former Nigeria’s Defence Adviser at the Nigerian Permanent Mission, United Nations Headquarters in New York established the Lagos State College of Medicine (LASUCOM) and provided added infrastructural facilities to convert General Hospital, Ikeja into the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH). He completed the housing estates initiated by his predecessors, Sir Michael Otedola and Brigadier-General Raji Rasaki (rtd) and named the estates after them. He built the massive estate named Marwa Garden, the Howson Wright Medium Income Estate and Owutu Low Income Estate, among others.

    He introduced the tricycle called Keke Marwa. He engaged area boys and girls in different ventures, teaching them new skills and paying their salaries. They turned good boys and girls during his tenure, becoming bakers, painters, horticulturists, road construction workers and so on. To his credit, the Eko Tourist Resort Centre, Akodo came into being.

    Throughout his stay in Lagos State, he never wore the mien of a militant person, yet with brilliance, determination, vision, milk of human kindness and fear of God won many battles without raising a stick. When the United Action for Democracy and a pro-General Sani Abacha group were spoiling for a showdown on a rally, same day in Lagos, Marwa drew a line on the  sand and  dared anyone to cross it.

    The vibrant Nigerian media fell in love with him for his outstanding performance. In his Cross Roads column in The Guardian of Sunday, May 17, 1998, Reuben Abati (now President Goodluck Jonathan’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity) asked the then Head of State, Sani Abacha, to learn from his surbodinate, Marwa. He said and I quote: “Marwa is this administration’s most popular, most celebrated  officer. I am not one of his fans. I consider the man too much of a performer and a popularizer. His politics is rather syrupy. But in Lagos State, where the man is Military Administrator, he stands out. Serving in an administration and under a boss, that is constantly criticised, why does Marwa stand apart from the crowd? What makes him the saint in Abacha’s tainted administration? It is a contradiction that requires examination to provide us an insight into how one style can help condition and mediate public perception.”

    In the Nigerian Diet of Wednesday, September 3, 1997, a highly respected human rights crusader and legal luminary, Femi Falana (SAN), was reported to have said that Marwa was deliberately brought to Lagos State to make a point that in the military, there were good administrators. It is a ploy to sell General Abacha through Marwa to Lagosians. That is why the administrator has been going round to tacitly campaign for the Head of State.”

    Though he missed death by whiskers as the bomb placed near Sheraton Hotel failed to meeet its target (Marwa), this did not dampen his enthusiasm. Through Adekanola and Associates, a consortium of chatered accountants, he raised the Internaly Generated Revenue (IGR) to an appreciable level in Lagos State, so as to accomplish his projects without relying on federal allocations.Though a devout Muslim, his administration provided funds for the building of a mosque and a church at Alausa Secretariat.

    When he handed over to his successor, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, on May 29, 1999 and a few months later, he was retired from the army, he and some of his foreign friends formed Albarka Airline. As the Chairman of Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) at Kaduna, he ensured that guns used in the military were manufactured locally. As an Ambassador of Nigeria in South Africa, his era witnessed a robust relationship with dignity and respect accorded to Nigerians who were hitherto treated with disdain. Though the scheming in the political turf did not allow his presidential ambition to materialise and his governorship ambition in Adamawa State is yet to succeed, Marwa, a chieftain of the newly registered All Progressives Congress (APC), who clocks 60 on Monday, is not a personality to be written off. One day, he will, by the grace of God and the goodwill of Nigerians, be able to re – enact what he did in Lagos State for Nigeria.

    •Ogunbambo was Chief Press Secretary to Marwa when he was Military Administrator of Lagos State from August 22, 1996 to May 29, 1999

  • Under fire on Taraba

    Under fire on Taraba

    My column last week on Taraba State and the aftermath of Governor Danbaba Suntai’s return (“Is there no more decorum in Taraba?”) earned me intense fire from our readers. Bile was a distinct component of some of the responses, as were barefaced disrespect and outright insult. I intend to publish those responses, giving ample space to the most venomous of them, even as I will also print a few which dared to hail my exertions.

    But it bears restating the object of that article since it seems clear that my responders, for some reason, missed its letter and spirit. Some of them thought I had lost my mind. One nearly swore I was a Suntai supporter. Another claimed my Christian background got the best of me and that the governor is “your Christian brother”. There were several wilder allegations, most of which you will see in full presently. Before then, however, I will say that I have no link, direct or indirect, to Suntai or to any of his representatives anywhere in any capacity whatsoever. Nor did I need any such link to write that article. Contrary to another responder’s allegation, no one commissioned me to put that piece together. It came off my conviction that there are better, civil and decent ways of sorting out the Suntai matter which has done nothing to flatter Taraba people or Nigerians as a whole. If the state stakeholders sense that their governor is still not fit to run the state, and that he is not forthcoming in admitting it, surely, they can devise a means of establishing his health status and present it to the relevant authorities for appropriate action. It pays no dividends to engage him in a fight or to order him out of town before due process is followed and exhausted.

    Well, before I launch into another full piece, here are the readers’s responses:

    •It is very obvious that you are a good supporter of Suntai but people can see beyond the ordinary… +2348178794280

    •The piece on Taraba is awesome. God bless you, Sir. Isaac, +2348162364333

    •Ikeje, you are a misfit in media profession. You are not morally, mentally, medically, constitutionally and politically enlightened, with the rubbish you fed the enlightened readers with in your kindergarten piece on Taraba. Did you read and listen to yourself? You need medical check. I am not from Taraba and don’t care who governs but your piece irritates one. Give the piece to your wife and ask her to comment. She will hiss on you. Will you as a student agree to sit in a class and take lecture from today the way you see him? Spade this issue and call it a spade. Don’t bring Christianity issue into this open fact. Garba is not disputing your Christian brother as governor, just that he is presently unfit to rule. Be reasonable, boy. +2348036333016

    •I read your article a lot but this one is completely written out of misconception. You are not a doctor neither a psychologist (please correct me if I am wrong). How then do you figure someone’s state of health by his look alone? As a journalist you should investigate a case properly before you pick up your pen. I am highly disappointed by this your write-up. What else do you need to know that the governor is still ill and is being smuggled in to be used as an instrument to deep hands in government’s coffer (sic) by some greedy politicians in Taraba State. Mr writer, can’t you read between the lines? Why are crying more than the bereaved? I am sure you are part of the criminals and you are disappointed for not sharing in the loot if they had succeeded.

    MJ, Abuja +2348187953058

    •They have learnt nothing and forgotten all. Because we tend to behave like pitiful citizens otherwise no one needed telling Suntai to throw in the towel. Where he failed doing so, he should be impeached rather than administering unfittedly (sic). Taraba elders should wake up from slumber.

    Lanre Oseni, 2358023023745

    •A good opportunity to resolve the Taraba circus is here. His Excellency Governor Suntai should lead Taraba State delegates to the PDP special convention in Abuja. He should pilot the plane that will bring the delegates.

    Col. Idris Danjuma (Rtd), Abuja, 2348054377696

    •A brilliant write-up. It takes greatness of character and good depth of intellect not to follow the bandwagon. I will forward to you the comment I sent to your back page colleague, Segun Ayobolu on his write-up today on the Suntai saga. +2348188884775

    •I share your sentiments concerning the Suntai saga. However, what we have presently are just those sentiments and nothing more. There is neither scientific nor legal basis to say the man should not resume and continue as governor of Taraba State and the reason is simple: there is no valid medical report declaring him unfit for office, and the letter to the Speaker of the House of Assembly which he is required to send as a condition precedent to the resumption of office has been transmitted to the Speaker. The furore is uncalled for and shouldn’t have arisen. The man should resume (has indeed resumed) and can subsequently be removed from office by the House where it becomes clear that he is not or is incapable of discharging his office and/or is empirically established that he is medically unfit for office. The Deputy Governor and Speaker erred badly. +2348188884775

    •You are wide off the mark

    +2347036619333

    •You article is a disgrace to your personality. You should always try to be investigative and objective while writing. +2348025444443

    •Your article is unfortunate. If you are a journalist I advise you to embark on serious research on what you intend to write on before you begin to use your pen. If you continue to write in this manner your readers will think you are one of those journalists that are commissioned to write on serious national issues for money. I am sorry if you fee offended but as an indigene of Taraba State, your write-up portrayed you as insensitive. Do you love Nigeria? A.B.M, +2348096526580

    •I find your write up on this topic very amusing. The only conclusion I could draw was that perhaps you intentionally argued the way you did in order to agitate a large number of readers enough to respond. If that was your intention, well… you succeeded in my case.

    Please, the ambitions of the Acting Governor and Speaker are not relevant here at all. Everybody has got ambitions…including your goodself. What is also irrelevant is our individual feeling about the misfortune that has befallen Suntai. What is relevant is the question of Suntai’s fitness to steer the affairs of Taraba state. If I know politicians very well, were he truly fit, he wouldn’t leave anyone in doubt. Remember Sullivan Chime? The Lawmakers met with him and concluded publicly that he is unfit. Unless something is indeed very wrong with him, you shouldnt be the one holding brief for him. Let him resume work in his office at the Secretariat to convince us and prove that his deputy and the Lawmakers are bloody ambitious conniving liars! Don’t you find it strange that the Presidency summoned only his wife and the Acting Governor to Abuja in respect of this crisis whilst he didn’t get such an invite? And you think he is fit? I don’t think so. Let Suntai and his wife spare us this needless crisis.

    And please, if your write up indeed represents your true position on this issue, respectfully, I must say that you do yourself a great dis-service…you have put your analytical prowess to question.

    •Michael Orisabiyi, Orisabiyi@rtbriscoe.com

  • Endless agonies over FRSC and NERC

    Restraining from writing this piece for quite sometime now has in itself amounted to enduring a niggling pain. For over two months, I had deliberately held down the urge to bare my mind on the troubling misgivings one has about these two federal agencies. One held back ‘fire’ perhaps in sympathy for the young, ebullient compatriots heading them who need encouragement to succeed instead of barbs of criticism. But the more one shied away from doing it, the more one is tormented by the need to render this apparent public service.

    The Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC and the National Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC both have their jobs well-defined and cut out for them. They are however imbued with a particular good fortune in the sense that aspects of their schedules have direct and immediate impact on the populace nationwide but even better still is the fact that these activities are monstrously revenue churning.

    First FRSC: apart from devising means of ensuring safety on federal highways, it has a much more lucrative task of issuing driver’s licences and number plates. These services which enjoy a sitting-duck customer base of no fewer than 70 million are in a torrid mess right now. There are few processing centres and even those are pock-marked by touting and racketeering mainly insider-induced. People pay for many months without being issued documents or getting service. The stories emanating from licensing offices are long and ugly but this bit will suffice.

    NERC on the other hand and as the name suggests ought to regulate electricity distribution, metering as well as oversight the new private operators. NERC is better known to Nigerians today as a ‘crazy’ government agency that only specializes in increasing electricity tariff especially at a time of blinding ‘blackout’ and near zero power supply. But if people could live down the ‘thrombosis’ of tariff increase in a time of ‘darkness’, how are Nigerians supposed to swallow the fact that they paid for meters for years and they never get them. Just like FRSC, NERC is so fortunate to have over 100 million Nigerian households begging to pay just any price for these meters that ought to be free in the first place. My personal experience is that a close friend paid about N50,000 and it took nearly four years to get the one-phase meter.

    At times like this, one remembers forlornly, a Dora Akunyili, Ifueko Omoigui and even Stella Oduah in this era of stupefying inertia. What the trio have in common is that they proved most convincingly that with the right leadership and drive, even government agencies will work in Nigeria. They showed us that you could cut through the fat of bureaucracy to get the results you want. No excuses. I want to wager that an Akunyili would have delivered meters house-to-house starting from Bonny Island upwards through katsina right up to the outer fringes of Chad and the Niger Republics. An Omoigui would have devised a 48-hour home delivery method for anyone who concluded his vehicle documentation process. Service, service, service; no excuses.

    The pity is that the two helmsmen (Osita Chidoka, FRSC and Dr. Sam Mbah, NERC) are young, vibrant and well-regarded young people; how they succumbed so supinely to inertia and put Nigerians through such untold agonies is difficult to tell? (Perhaps they have insights the rest of us cannot fathom whereupon this space will be availed them for any article that would shed light on the issues raised above).

     

    Readers speak

    Below are a few of the SMS reactions to last week’s article: Kwankwaso, Haruna, Odimegwu and fictional censuses, published on this space:

    Ha Mr. Osuji, why did you write with such anger today? The truth is that we are all guilty of self preservation when the issues affect our tribes. See how ‘Baba Clark’ and Asari Dokubo gyrate over any criticism of President Jonathan. You have also ‘defended’ Igbo nationals when criticized e.g. minster of Aviation, among others. What of the recent accusations and counter accusations over Fani-Kayode’s article which was precipitated by an Igbo man’s claim that Lagos is no-man’s? In my view, these are all natural reactions because we belong to our tribes FIRST before we are Nigerians.. – 08034726625

    Most of the time, I find your comments disgusting. Your are not different from Haruna Mohammed in fanning the embers of tribal hatred. Odimegwu has spoken, let it be. – 07026802510

    God bless you my brother! Igbos are everywhere in this country giving credence to our false unity. Igbos should withdraw to the east like the Yourbas and Hausas have done and Nigeria will cease to exist. From Obinna, Aba, 08072175614

    You are an irritating pollutant, a disgusting opinionist whose mind is possessed by tribal misconceptions. The earlier you are shown the way out, the better for our dear newspaper. Don’t kill yourself while trying hard to tell and defend a tribal lie. Come to the north and take a census of at least one household and your tribal infection may be healed. – 08085536615

    Oga Osuji, thanks immensely for being very sensitive to national issues. Some people out there just think others are ‘mumu united’. That others don’t talk of the fraud called national census doesn’t mean they are fools and those committing the fraud will always have a field day. Thanks for calling Malam Haruna to order in his subjective feature. From Monday – 08033691236

    Dear Mr. Steve Osuji, your piece is a masterpiece, God bless you. – 08164483725

    I read your piece and I think your conclusions are wrong and mere sentiments. All indices supporting high population such as early/child marriage, polygamy and poverty are more prevalent in the north. That high figures are cooked up for the north as you insinuated cannot be correct. From A. Ojo, Lagos. – 08023535890

    Thank you Steve for your work on Odimegwu, Kwankwaso, etc. – 0803541017

    Opara-ukwu Igbo! That is what you are Steve Osuji. Thanks for your exceptional disquisition in EXPRESSO, 30.8.13. Your bold refreshing candor is re-enlivening to countless Ndigbo. Iwu akataka! From Ogbuehi M. – 08034868081.

    Honestly sir I am very much proud of you and I am happy to know that there is someone who can think and stand by the truth. I just want to encourage you to do more. – 08069265966

    I have just read the charade you submitted on Kwankwaso and Odimegwu your kinsman. For irrationally chasing Igbo sentiments and churning out the rubbish that the Igbo is better than every other human on earth, you are a disgrace and a curse to your pen profession and your so-called race. Shame on you and the tabloid that gave you the platform. Nigeria does not need your arrogance. From Salau@LKJ -08036001282

    For just firing a bullet into the air, those who are benefitting from the falsehood are developing heart attack. The only advise I have for Odimegwu is: let your strategies be coded before those beneficiaries of falsehood ambush you. From Effiong, Calabar – 08072003205

    Well done Steve! The judgment from the Census Tribunal which invalidated 2006 census results from 14 LGAs in Lagos (see Sun, Vanguard of 31.8.13) has validated your piece if it needed any. There will always be crisis in a country built on injustice, for instance Kano is touted to be in the same population bracket with Lagos yet old Kano had 44 LGAs. When Jigawa State was created from this same Kano, it was allotted 27 LGAs making old Kano to have 71 LGAs while Lagos remains at 20 LGAs. Can anyone quantify this singular injustice in terms of federal revenue allocation?! Please keep it up Steve, change will come someday, somehow. From Amaku, – 08151529021

  • Governance Islamica

    “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 Israelite of yore, Nigerians have become gypsies wandering aimlessly in the wilderness of despair and wallowing helplessly in abject poverty even in the midst of abundance. What else do we expect from Allah beyond the invaluable bounties with which He has blessed us? What is Nigeria not blessed with?

    Our resources

    We have land in abundance, not in terms of size alone but also in terms of agrarian soil, rich vegetation and exceptionally clement weather. At least over 77 million hectares of land is said to be arable in Nigeria. Out of this, only about 34 million was reportedly cultivated for various agricultural activities some years ago. This has now dwindled to less than 25 million square hectares as more and more youths are migrating to cities and towns in search of imaginary but unavailable greener pastures only to further aggravate the frightening insecurity in the land.

    We are blessed with rainfalls that water our crops from the sky and graze our animals to satisfaction. We are blessed with sunshine that photosynthesises our plants and balances our weather. We are endowed with a variety of nourishing foods that are enough to feed us from generation to generation without necessarily importing anything from anywhere. No country is more fitting to chapter 80 of the Qur’anic testimony to this than Nigeria: “Let man reflect on the food he eats; how ‘We’ pour down the rain in torrents and cleave the earth asunder; how ‘We’ bring forth the corn, the grapes, the fresh vegetation, the olive, the palm, the thickets, the fruit-trees and the green pasture for you and for your cattle to delight in…”. Allah’s favour is constant and manifest. We cannot deny it.

    Dedicated workforce

    In addition to the aforementioned, we have energetic and dedicated work force that is married to the farm land, plants and husbandry in Nigeria. We also have intellectual brains that are permanently engaged in research work to ensure Nigeria’s economic improvement especially in the agricultural sector. Yet, hunger, poverty and squalor are the profits of these endowments.

    Nigeria is not lacking in forest and 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 we lack is a competent, responsible government that can manage all these resources with sincerity to the benefits of the citizenry and care about Nigeria’s foremost economic heritage which is agriculture. That food is becoming a luxury rather than necessity in Nigeria today after 53 years of independence is a misfortune successively engendered by the naivety and short-sightedness of those who claim to be in government especially at the federal level. Capitalising on the docility of Nigerians, the Federal Government keeps squeezing the citizenry in the Machiavellian belief that peoples’ impoverishment is a major instrument of perpetual rule over them by those in government.

     

    Margaret Thatcher’s wish

    A former Prime Minister of Britain, Margaret Thatcher, alluded to Nigeria’s precarious situation in a press interview some years back when she was celebrating her 80th birthday. She was casually asked by journalists to indicate where she would want to live if she had opportunity of coming back to this world. In her response to that question she said she would like to come back into the world as a Nigerian ruler an answer that threw the interviewers into sarcastic laughter. And when asked to explain what she actually meant the Iron Lady said: “Nigeria is the only country in the world where people can be pushed to the wall and they would rather enter the wall than turn back to confront their rulers”. Thatcher’s statement here may sound like an impetus to a parochial government, but any reasonable person will know that elasticity has limit.

     

    Parable of governance

    Governance in Islam is like pregnancy in the womb of a woman. Its duration is naturally defined barring any anomaly or aberration. Its delivery depends on the safety of its carrier and the circumstances of her well being. And, after delivery, the baby is claimed, not by the pregnancy carrier but by the impregnator.

    There is no pregnancy without semen firmly planted in the womb of a woman. And the semen planter is a man who will eventually be called the father. For this reason, children bear the names of their fathers rather than those of their mothers as surnames.

    By analogy, one can compare the government to a pregnant woman who could not have become pregnant without an impregnator. The impregnator in this case is the populace that gave those in government the mandate to rule them. And just as the product of the womb (the child) belongs to the impregnator as a matter of legitimacy so should dividend of governance be the property of the populace. A child who bears his mother’s name as surname is nothing but a bastard.

    After life, security, law and justice, nothing else is held more sacrosanct in Islam than governance which can be compared to a magnificent umbrella under which the people are supposed to take cover during torrential rains or burning sun. In a democratic setting, such umbrella is owned by the citizenry. Its bearer is just a servant holding it in trust for the people. Perhaps that was why the late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua called himself a servant leader on his assumption of office in May 2007.

    Advising the Federal Government to learn from the experience of countries like Saudi Arabia and Japan may be quite irrelevant here since such advice has no meaning to those in government. After all, the same advice had been given severally in the past without any sensible response. You can’t give what you do not have.

     

    The Saudi example

    In Saudi Arabia, education is totally free from primary school to the University. Everything including tuition, hostel accommodation, books, feeding and transportation is provided free by the government. In addition, all students are paid monthly stipends to solve personal problems that can divert their attention from studies. And, in summer, all foreign students on scholarship are issued free tickets to travel to their home countries on holidays.

    What it takes to enjoy all these is to be qualified for admission and every other thing follows automatically. Yours sincerely knows this much because I was a beneficiary. My first degree was obtained from King’s University, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. And if I was not fortunate to benefit from that great opportunity I, probably, would not have had the opportunity of university education because of my modest background to which Nigerian government was indifferent despite the obvious talent in me and many other Nigerians in my shoes. If all these could be done for students in that country, research facilities for lecturers can be taken for granted.

    Today, Saudi Arabia has taken her wealth beyond oil and other mineral resources. The two gigantic industrial cities of Yambu’ and Jubail alone with more than four thousand industries including petrochemicals which she established in the early 1980s are enough to see her through the future in the absence of oil. And what is more, that country does not depend on oil for survival anymore despite her position as number one oil exporter in the world.

    Besides, there is no aspect of human development and material investment eluding Saudi Arabian attention in all parts of the world today, including agriculture, shipping aviation, textile and electronics. And most of these are public owned without any dubious deregulation and deceptive ‘blind trust’ privatisation.

     

    Japan’s experience

    Japan, on the other hand, is an exclusive island delicately resting on a vast array of waters. Her natural farm land is very limited. Yet, she shares that water with some neighbouring countries in accordance with international law of water boundaries.

    To manage her national economy therefore, Japan had identified human brain as her strongest economic resource. She knew that without human resources there could be no effective economic management hence her concentration on human training. And, today, the result is manifest. Contrarily, at the commencement of every new regime in Nigeria, a newly sworn in President would deceptively promise manna and salwa knowing very well that such promise is a mere deception just to attract momentary applause. The greatest misfortune confronting this so-called giant of Africa is in entrusting the management of the country to mere mediocre who see governance as a sheer opportunity to amass wealth and wield political power against opponents.

    Managing a national economy is neither by wishful thinking nor by chanting slogans. It is rather a serious business that cannot be left in the hands of charlatans.

     

    Why USSR failed

    In her vainglorious days, the defunct Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) had indulged is similar self-deception by toying with all sorts of meaningless economic theories jumping from socialism to communism only to finally collapse upon her own face like a pack of cards after about 74 years of catastrophic experiments.

    Today, the greatest bane of Nigerian economy is not just the elimination of the middle class but also the extremely high cost of running the government by the greedy self-centered elements at the helm of national affairs. This fact has been emphasized many times privately and through the media in the past but the lotus eaters will rather die eating the intoxicating lotus than heed the voice of reason. And, unless this situation is changed positively, Nigeria may continue to wander aimlessly, in economic wilderness, for many, many years to come. We hope that the current seeming ‘undertakers’ will not pilot Nigeria to Siberia.

     

    Nigeria’s federal might

    Shortly after the Nigerian Southwest governors assumed office in 1999, yours sincerely wrote an open letter to them, which was published in Vanguard where I was then the Deputy Chairman of the Editorial Board. In the letter, I suggested three major areas of economic success with which they could sustain the pace-setting of that region.

    First was a regional power generating center with which to permanently stabilize electricity supply. With this, I argued that not only would industrialization take a sound footing but also that most unemployed young men and women would become self-employed to the greatest relief of those governments.

    Second was a regional railway system that could serve not just as a mass transit for the commuters but also as a cargo courier for all the goods in the region. With such a regional railway in place, the region would have become the doyen of commerce in the country and every able hand would have been effectively engaged without bothering the governments.

    Third was the establishment of a common refinery that could fill the vacuum created by constant non-availability of oil products and incessant arbitrary increase of their prices. Each of these projects could be jointly put in place by the six South-West states since they were all on the concurrent list.

    If the then Southwest governors had not been prevented from implementing those suggestions by the then vicious government at the centre, perhaps the situation in the region would have been different today and the other regions would have followed suit in a new progressive economic competition. That was the kind of competition that put the Asian tiger states (Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore) ahead of Africa. An inept federal government in Nigeria can only hold the rein of power for the purpose of self-enrichment and never for the benefit of growth and development. The experience of Lagos State’s innovative investment in electricity which was thwarted by the federal government can still be vividly recalled.

     

    The missing link

    In modern economic management, there can be no place for the middle class in the absence of such infrastructures as mentioned above. And without the middle class which is conspicuously missing in Nigeria, no economy can thrive to the benefit of the populace. That is why the multinational companies in Nigeria are leaving the country in droves for some other African countries.

    The current lopsided situation which deliberately puts over 97 per cent of the national wealth in the hands of about three percent of the idle populace is not only ungodly but also prone to unpredictable future consequences. We have begun to see such traces. It is therefore, not in the interest of those who are now basking in the euphoria of being in power to continue to drag the dead body of this country towards political murky water.

     

    Oil as lotus

    If it takes less than 10 dollars to produce one barrel of oil and the same one barrel of oil is sold for well over 100 dollars in the international market, what prevents a responsible government from building and maintaining functional refineries to the comfort of all and sundry? As the sixth largest oil producer, should Nigeria, an OPEC country, be exporting crude oil only to import refined one for domestic consumption? And yet, the populace is being forced to pay for the ineptitude of a tendentious clique holding tenaciously to the power at the centre with nothing to show for it. After 53 years of independence in this age of high technology, should any country without electricity, refineries, functional rail system, befitting industries and effective shipping and airlines that could create mass employment for the youth claim to be in existence? Yet, here in Nigeria where this situation prevails some people are still shamelessly claiming to be in government and in power. Isn’t that insane?

     

    Forced Diaspora

    Today, Nigerians are not only subjugated internally, they are also humiliated status wise internationally as they are forced to prefer living in other countries to theirs. Days and nights, Nigerians are found at the entrance gates of foreign embassies seeking to obtain visa and coping with stringent conditions of those embassies willy nilly even as our very best brains are the forces behind the development of other countries. If there is anything that has not been privatized in this country it is governance.

    Never has the government come out to tell Nigerians how much it costs to produce a barrel of oil. What we have always been told is that the government subsidizes the local consumption price of every litre of oil. That was the callous theory in which the obnoxious pioneer regime of this republic regaled for eight agonizing years. And that has now been inherited as a political culture. The question now is this: who actually owns the oil; the government or the people? And even if there is any subsidy at all, as often claimed by our rulers, shouldn’t Nigerians, who are supposed to own the oil by constitutional right, be entitled to such subsidy? The posture of owner and seller of petroleum products assumed locally by the federal government is not only criminal but also a flagrant betrayal of people’s trust.

    As a matter of fact, the populace has lost total confidence in the federal government following years of deception and inhuman policies which continue to keep people in abject and perpetual poverty. Those are the same policies that engendered ethnic conflicts and religious dichotomy which led to the emergence of youth restiveness in various parts of the country.

     

    Candid advice

    Now, rather than celebrating mediocrity in the name of democracy as often done on the 29th of May every year since year 2000, what the current administration should spend its remaining two years doing is true and sincere reformation which should henceforth take the front burner of governance if only to restore the missing confidence in the people and reassure that Nigeria can still become a nation after all despite years of economic devastation. If those in government are not ashamed of ruling a country in perpetual cycle of despair, some of us, the ruled are.

    Celebrating anything called democracy in this situation is not just a sham but also an additional injury to the bleeding hearts of the citizenry. While the intra-party rancour surges ahead, it is necessary to hint here again that only a forthright economic clemency can serve as a panacea for Nigeria’s chronic ailment called ‘the government’. God heal Nigeria.

     

     

     

  • The demons within

    No one could teach humanity to our callous clan. Nobody could teach reality to a land that dies of dreams of plunder. Who could teach direction to a people that thrive on monstrosity and misdirection?

    As we approach 2015, we enthuse about the possibility of rebirth. Our talk is of a new dawn but if we look closely enough, we shall find that there is no light in the skies yet. Last sunrise – at the beginning of the current dispensation – the sun betrayed a hint of tiredness. It seemed to have withdrawn into some new distance – like the North Star that suddenly discovers the unworthiness of our pirate ship for its guiding light. We are still that great ship with no certain commitment to compass and outlast our course’s most hideous storms.

    As we approach 2015, every moment uncoils as that in which we return to sup on yesterday’s vomit, like starved greyhounds. We are recycling the same old faces, same old politics, same old hurt. Every minute passes like that in which seedlings and crop shoots fear the late and early rainstorms. Our young expects too little, still; and our old still indulge in pleasurable reminiscences even as they discover no logic to justify that which they had forsaken and squandered.

    Come 2015, we expect that things will change for the better. But nothing will change for the better because we have appointed career undertakers to midwife our new dawn, again. Come 2015, more promises will be broken and fear’s moonflower will spread and attain full blossom, till our proverbial dawn illumines as familiar dusk of compromise. And that is because we have refused to change.

    An in-depth scrutiny into our psyches would reveal the depth of our affinity to leadership we have. Our thoughts, politics and actions, while lacking in philosophy and conviction betrays on one hand, wanton inclinations to aid and abet our current leadership, and on the flipside, an excessive confidence in our personal judgment and contempt for the advice and criticism of others.

    Our pains are of substandard education, mass unemployment, sky-rocketing inflation, pervasive poverty, insecurity, crime, high infant and maternal mortality, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) epidemic, cyber –fraud, institutional fraud, etc. To these, we have proffered countless solutions.

    We have suggested population control. We have suggested greater government support and presence in the Niger Delta claiming that since it is Nigeria’s only reliable source of national income, the federal government ought to devote greater time, money and other resources to the region.

    We have suggested that we paid more attention to our ailing agricultural sector. We claim it would do us great good if we could revivify our dying cocoa industry, collapsed groundnut pyramids and struggling oil palm sector. Not to forget our persistent rant about our abject neglect of our tourist attractions. It’s amusing to see us mount the soap-box in fickle fits of contempt – in our liquor and rant-activated pubs, living-rooms, courtyards and pages of our sensational newsprints. We have perfected the art of lamentation, bandying angst and pitiful punch lines to bemoan our rudderless politics.

    What’s your poison? Nigeria’s leadership problem? Pervasive poverty? Endemic corruption? Religious upheavals cum perversion of faith? What is it that causes riotous incense to course through your brain? The abject rot of the Onyeama Coal Mine? The collapse of Ajaokuta Steel as well as other appendages to Nigeria’s steel sector? Our underperforming oil refineries and Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN)? What excites your grief? Our conduit-built and corruption-activated ministries?

    Nigeria ruins and stagnates like cocoyam sodden in a mud field and we continue to articulate textbook remedies to problems that are best resolved by truth, honesty and impeccable character. Today, we suggest a sovereign national conference or referendum to provide the forum by which we could redress the state of the union. What manner of redress do we seek? Many have suggested that we break-up. They claim we shall do better if we go our separate ways.

    Now picture the dissolution of our 53-year old union; what plenitude could it bring? What manner of peace, justice and stability could we derive from a relapse to humanity’s often wildest and best-forgotten enterprise?

    What would be our role in the new order? Shall we reinvent the millipede by calling it, ‘snake?’ Shall the lion cub become tomcat simply because it is kept as a house pet? We could reinvent ourselves as much as we like; we could secede by our terms as many times as we like; we could quote Nietzsche, Plato, Disreali et al and re-echo the idiosyncrasies of our favourite columnists for as long as it gets us to justify our cynicism and grief; nothing will change.

    Our lives shan’t get better. Nigeria won’t become the land of honey and milk we wish it would become until we change.

    It’s a fundamental nature of our society that we accept abnormality and debauchery as incontestable parts of our nature. Yet if we did not indulge in such abject perversions and pitiable evasions as our principle of moral agnosticism which imbues us to be tolerant of anything and everything, we could have matured enough in intellect and psyche to know how and why not to compromise between truth and falsehood, reason and irrationality.

    We could have attained such maturity that would enable us to understand that the values we project become the essence of our socio-politics and being – whether we like it or not. Every utterance we make, as our most humane and inhumane actions and reactions, intensify the simplicity or degeneracy of our individual perceptions, as well as the rationality and otherwise of politics we choose to scorn or celebrate.

    It needn’t be so hard to be good. But it is – simply because despite our touted morality, wisdom and predilection to evolve a quintessential civilization, we have lost direction. Knowingly, we scorn both our glaring and latent abilities to discern that proverbial path to the realization of the essence and undeniable benefits of being good. Consequently, our culture and our lives disintegrate for our lack of character.

    When we ennoble double-speak and refrain from praising men’s virtues and condemning their vices, our fraudulence declares and we foster the corruption of our larger society. No practicable and highfaluting panacea could resolve our most hideous realities until we attain the essence of goodness without being self-righteous.

    Simply put, there can be no compromise, however exquisitely couched, between us and the depravity we tolerate. Aiding and abetting corruption in the spirit of socio-economic and political expediency is hardly a compromise but a cowardly surrender to the elements that disintegrates and make bleak.

    Whether we like it or not, there can be no compromise or wanton sophistry acceptable on basic principles and fundamental issues. It’s time we desist from every conscious quest to improve the status quo from the deceitful springboard of compromise. The change we seek subsists in random and premeditated acts of goodness that we have learnt to forsake: like a citizen’s resoluteness to respect the traffic light and a local government chairman’s immutable passion to improve life at the grassroots – particularly when the world isn’t looking.

  • Of love, power and politics

    Of love, power and politics

    FIRST, a confession. I did not read the article that sparked the row between Femi Fani-Kayode, a chief, lawyer, former minister and public affairs analyst and Mrs. Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu. But, I have been following the altercation, which has fuelled a bigger disputation in restrooms, classrooms and newsrooms.

    A recapitulation: Fani-Kayode wrote an article in defence of the widely misconstrued –misconceived, some insist – “deportation” of some Anambra State indigenes from Lagos. He got a truckload of responses, some of them charging him with ethnic jingoism and others mincing no word in describing him as a tribalist. Not one to lose an argument so cheaply, the chief fired back. He said if he was a tribalist, he would not have had an “intimate relationship” with Mrs. Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Nigeria’s ambassador to Spain and pearl of the revered Eze Ndigbo Gburugburu and Ikemba Nnewi, Chief Emeka Odumegwu- Ojukwu – of exciting memories.

    Rather than resolve the matter, Fani-Kayode’s clarification was like adding salt to injury. Mrs. Odumegwu-Ojukwu, an ex-beauty queen, briefed her lawyers. They should sue Fani-Kayode for suggesting that they were lovers, a report said. The chief has taken up the gauntlet, setting the stage for a sensational legal battle.

    Trust Nigerians. They have refused to let the courts set the ball rolling. There are arguments everywhere on what “intimate relationship” means. Does it suggest a sexual affair? Platonic? Is it right for a man to claim to have had a “long standing and intimate relationship” with a woman who is married? Will saying so amount to lowering her esteem and damaging her reputation? Does anybody have the right to ask a man to explain what he means? What, in social parlance, does intimacy mean? Does it mean being in love? And what is love? Mere affection?

    When the matter eventually comes before the court, will Bianca be in the dock for cross-examination? What kind of questions will Fani-Kayode’s lawyers be asking her? Will she be beaming with those magical smiles that swept the great Ikemba off his feet? What will her lawyers be asking Fani-Kayode; to explain what he meant by “intimate relationship”? What is he likely to tell them? Will the court define this innocent, but sensitive phrase for the parties?

    Accused of having an affair with an intern, Monica Lewinsky, former United States President Bill Clinton hired the best lawyers money could fetch and mounted a moving defence to save his presidency. He said: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.”

    Clinton also said: “There is not a sexual relationship, an improper sexual relationship or any other kind of improper relationship.” The lurid and erotic details of the scandal are so incredible that a respected family newspaper as The Nation would find it inappropriate to bother the reader about them. The main charge of perjury was spiced with legal definitions of sex to establish if an offence had been committed. For days, the salacious show went on and on before a grand jury. It was the biggest show on television.

    On August 17, 1998, Clinton admitted that he had an “improper physical relationship” with Lewinsky. He faced charges of obstruction of justice and perjury in the Congress. He was acquitted. He kept his job.

    Clinton was humbled. He was sober. It is worthy of note that all through the trauma, his wife, Hillary, stood by him. She saw the whole “political sex scandal” as a “vast right-wing conspiracy”. The power of love or – if you like – the love of power. Or both.

    Now a flashback. When the late President Umaru Yar’Adua was flown into Abuja in the dead of the night from Saudi Arabia where doctors were battling to save his life, so many questions were raised. Was it Hajia Turai’s show of love for a darling husband or a desperate attempt to grab power and use it by subterfuge? The latter turned out to be the case, following attempts to stop then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan from taking over power.

    All efforts to enforce the Constitution were resisted by a cabal headed by the Hajia. There was no doubt that she was in charge. Yar’Adua was not allowed to see people. People were not allowed to see him. The Villa propaganda machinery hit the overdrive. We were regaled with phantom stories of his fast recovery, how he was jogging for 30 minutes daily and how the doctors would soon certify him fit as a fiddle and he would be back at work. Then fate supervened. Yar’Adua died.

    Again, questions. Could he have made it if he was allowed to remain in the hospital and not hauled onto a plane and shipped home to retain his job? Who was running the show while His Excellency remained bedridden? Who signed the budget the late Yar’Adua was said to have signed? Who played what role in the Yar’Adua odyssey? We may never know.

    But that was a foreshadow of the Taraba situation. The story of how Governor Danbaba Suntai flew a plane that crashed on October 25, last year, got injured and was flown overseas where he spent 10months is well known. What is not clear is the state of His Excellency’s health. When he arrived to a tumultuous welcome the other day in Abuja, Suntai could only manage to raise his hand in a failed attempt to wave. He was helped off the plane. He spoke no word to anxious reporters. At the VIP Lounge with him was former minister Jerry Gana, beaming and chatting with Suntai who seemed to be paying no attention, just looking into empty space. Jet lag?

    Suntai got to Taraba and suddenly became active. He sent a letter to the House of Assembly, informing the lawmakers that he was back at work. He sacked the Executive Council, named a new Secretary to the State Government (SSG) and a new Chief of Staff (CoS). The governor remained holed up in the Government House where his wife, Hajia Hauwa, took charge.

    A video tape in which Suntai thanked the people for their support was released to the NTA. His voice was muffled as if he spoke with pains. When Adamawa Governor Murtala Nyako visited Suntai, he came out of the living room dejected. He was all tears. All attempts by lawmakers to see him were blocked, until it became obvious that the Hajia could no longer stop them. They said Suntai was not in a good shape. Deputy Governor Garba Umar announced that he was still in charge and that his boss could not have taken all the actions ascribed to him. Anarchy.

    Then, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stepped in. It summoned all the parties to the crisis to Abuja. Suntai was not there. Hajia Huawa was there. Eventually, the matter was settled on Tuesday. Umar will keep running the state but he must consult Suntai, the PDP peacemakers said. Where is the Constitution in all of this? What was at play – Hajia Hauwa’s love for her man or her love of power? We may never understand.

    In fact, it is this lack of understanding – ignorance, actually – that may have spurred some mischief makers, armchair critics and busybodies who will never mind their business because they think everybody’s business is theirs to attack the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, for demonstrating her love for the President.

    They have accused the amiable woman of fuelling the Rivers State crisis. It all began as a simple reprimand of Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi- the one the First Lady calls her son – who planned to demolish some structures in Okrika to pave the way for beautiful schools. She reportedly snatched the microphone and warned the governor to stop using the word demonnis, demonnis. Politicians latched onto that harmless scene and unleashed trouble on the state. A new commissioner of police was drafted in and, ever since, the state has had little peace.

    Those layabouts, aforementioned, have recently stepped up their game. They said the Abuja Peace Rally that was hailed at home and abroad as one of the potent weapons against terrorism was nothing but a campaign to boost President Goodluck Jonathan’s 2015 ambition. They ask: “Didn’t the President say he would brood no distraction as he vigorously pursues his transformation agenda?” “Is this love for the First Citizen or mere passion for power?”

    Unfortunately, the drafters of the much pilloried 1999 Constitution forgot –it may have been deliberate, anyway – to make provision for the role of love in power. Otherwise, all these arguments would never have been necessary.

    See why we need a new constitution?

    PDP and the Offa vote heist

    LAST Saturday’s rerun election in Offa Local Government of Kwara State was peaceful. The results were signed by the presiding officers and security agents. Of the 12 wards, the All Progressives Congress (APC) won 11 with 11,337 votes. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) got 4,710 votes.

    Instead of announcing the winner, the Returning Officer vanished. He resurfaced in Ilorin where a radio station proclaimed the PDP candidate winner. Apparently troubled by his conscience, one of the would-be councillors, who was awarded the phantom victory, Mr Afolabi Jimoh, told a press conference that he never won.

    Again, the PDP has shamelessly turned winners into losers and losers into winners. Abracadabra. There have been protests over this brigandage, lack of shame and disrespect for decency that have turned the PDP into a mother hen that kills her chicks and a house of crises. Unfortunately, the party is trying to drag Nigeria down with it.

    The state government should emulate Jimoh, surrender the stolen mandate, instal the real winner and apologise to the people. It is not too late.

  • The Peter Obe I knew

    Long before I joined the Daily Times in October, 1990, I had become familiar with the name Peter Obe. Who wouldn’t then? Peter Obe was a household name. Obe’s fame derived from his work as a press cameraman. He took worldclass pictures, which stood him out among his peers. Obe’s reputation made him famous. This is why people like me knew him long before we became reporters.

    By the time I joined the Daily Times, he was no longer in the now defunct conglomerate; but he was still active in the field. Obe was an all – rounder. He took political, social and sport photographs. Name the event, Peter Obe was there. Many, at least the older generation, will still remember seeing a man in shorts and sweat shirt and a hat, with several cameras dangling around his neck, running around the National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos, those days taking photographs during football matches.

    He was everywhere something big was happening. Whether an accident scene, whether a molue (the once – upon – a – time popular commercial bus in Lagos) plunged into the river, whether robbers were being shot at the Lagos Bar Beach, whether a political gathering of note, whether the Supreme Court was delivering judgment on a big case, whether there was a riot or fire, Peter Obe was there. People wondered whether he was a spirit because he was always on the spot where news was breaking.

    There was no event Peter Obe did not cover during his illustrious career. How did I know considering the wide gap in our ages? We will get to that story shortly. Obe took his work with all seriousness. He never allowed anything to come between him and his job. Even after his retirement from the Daily Times he still worked for the paper as if his life depended on the job. That was Peter Obe for you. Wherever he went, he went with his cameras and he had many.

    I knew him from afar in my early days at the Daily Times, but later became close to him. It was some seven or eight years after I joined the Daily Times that I became close to him. I had known him all along as Peter Obe, but at the Daily Times I got to know of his appellation, Exclusive. The appellation derived from the fact that he only took exclusive photographs. The photographs he took those days cannot be found in other papers except in the Daily Times.

    Exclusive took much pride in his job and this I could discern when I became close to him between 1997 and 2002. People of my generation called him Exclu Baba whenever he walked into the newsroom at the Daily Times corporate office on Agidingbi Road, Ikeja. Whenever he came, he came with pictures on the back on which were written the legend : ‘’Exclusive’’. Peter Obe took me under his wings as his son during our relationship.

    As News Editor and later Deputy Editor of the Daily Times, he made it a duty to see me in the office whenever he was around. Some of my colleagues became envious of me. Whenever they saw him parking his car, they will rush down to the newsroom, shouting, ‘’Lawi, baba e tide o’’, meaning ‘’Lawi, your father is here’’. Then Exclusive will bound in, in you guess right, his trade mark shorts, sweat shirt and a pair of canvass. He never came empty handed. Besides pictures for the paper, he would also bring me gifts. Usually, he branched at the Daily Times on his way back from his Igbara Oke hometown in Ondo State.

    During those visits, we will chat and chat. We talked about virtually everything under the sun. I was lucky to have people like him to guide me then. Exclusive, the famous artist/cartoonist, Mr Jossy Ajiboye and the late Akinlolu Aje, a moving encyclopaedia if there ever was one, and a contributor to Headlines, the historical journal in the Daily Times stable, were my Godsent guardians. I listened with rapt attention to the words of wisdom that poured forth from their mouths. In those difficult days in the Daily Times, they advised me to exercise patience, saying things will not continue like that. They believed that the paper will not die, but unfortunately the government killed the Daily Times.

    This is not the story of the Daily Times, but of Peter Obe. But there is no way we can divorce the story of Peter Obe from the story of the Daily Times, a paper, which he served diligently in good and bad times. So did Jossy Ajiboye and the late Aje. These men were totally loyal and committed to the Daily Times. It was not for want of something to do, but because I sense, they were sentimentally attached to that great institution. Obe was a rare breed. He didn’t look at the age difference between us in dealing with me. I consider myself lucky to have been close to him, Jossy Ajiboye and the late Aje.

    Those days whenever the trio gathered in my office, Peter Obe will say to me ‘’Lawi’’, he called me that too, ‘’ma fun Jossy ati Aje ni orogbo ati awon meat pie ti mo ko wa fun e’’, meaning ‘’don’t give Jossy Ajiboye and Aje out of the bitter kola and pastries I brought for you’’, and we will burst into laughter. Yes, whenever Exclu Baba was coming to the Daily Times, he always came with a load of bitter kola and pastries of all kinds for me. At a point, my office became where people came to look for bitter kola because they knew I will always have some in stock, courtesy of my father.

    When I spoke with Peter Obe on phone a few months ago, I felt bad after our discussion because I could barely hear him. His voice was hoarse, but I didn’t know that the end will come so soon. Peter Obe died on Sunday at 81. His death has robbed journalism of one of its greatest photographers ever. The history of the Nigerian media will be incomplete without the role played by Exclusive in the development of what is today known as photo – journalism.

    On Tuesday when I informed Jossy Ajiboye of Peter Obe’s death, he could only moan ‘’ah, Peter, ah Peter, ki olorun ko forun ke’’, meaning ‘’ah Peter, ah Peter, may his soul rest in peace’’. After making his own enquiries, he called back to ask: ‘’Nibo lo ku si, ilu e tabi eko?’’ I replied that Exclusive died in Lagos. Exclusive was among the best if not even the best in his trade.They don’t come better than he did. This is a big loss to the Daily Times family, journalism and the nation, which civil war years (1967 – 70) he captured in graphic details in his book: Civil War Pictures from Nigeria : A Decade of Crisis in Pictures. May he rest in the bosom of the Lord.

    Death so cruel

    Life is cruel and so is death. Last Sunday, a longstanding friend and colleague, Adebowale Adegoke, died in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, after many years of struggle. Debo died on the same day with Peter Obe. When the late Debo and people like us started out on this job, we began the hard way. We didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into then. We just considered ourselves lucky to have got a job then. It all began in The Punch, the lively paper for lively minds. We were young, vibrant men determined to make a career in journalism. Thank God we had masters like Dapo Aderinola (Baba Africa), Najim Jimoh and Demola Osinubi to mentor us. Things were difficult but we soldiered on with the belief that the future is bright.

    In our search for greener pastures, we moved to other papers. Like me, he also found his way to the Daily Times. He rose to Deputy Editor of the Sunday Times. Last Sunday, he died in Abeokuta, which became his home after years of working there. What a sad end to a life of struggle. Since our oga, Tunde Ipinmisho, broke the news of Debo’s death to me on Monday through a text, I have not ceased wondering how cruel life and death can be. My heart goes out to his wife, Yemisi and children. May God give them the fortitude to bear the loss. Adieu, Debo, till we meet to part no more.

     

  • N600 billion census budget outrageous

    The chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), Festus Odimegwu said recently that he would need N600 billion to conduct the next census. This is at a time when the Federal Government through its act of omission or commission has shut down all state and federal universities in the country because it cannot find N87 billion being demanded by the teachers. It would not surprise me if this same Federal Government finds N600 billion to give to the census body when you cannot ride on any Nigerian road without running into huge craters and gutters. At the end of each census, we come up with spurious numbers that are not believed by anybody or believable at all. What is apparent in Nigeria is not always real, it is the case of the more you see, the less it counts. At election times, small states produce more votes than states that are much bigger and much more populous if only to get their preferred candidate elected.

    Apart from the census of 1956 which put Nigeria’s population at 32 million, all other censuses have been marred by forgeries. During enumeration of people, it is not uncommon for villages to contribute money to give to enumerators in order to boost their population figures and yet we call this a census. Enumeration of any kind in Nigeria is totally without integrity. When states are asked to come up with the number of school aged children, the figures given sometimes outstrip the population of the entire state. Any exercise requiring figures in Nigeria is usually manipulated because of the financial implications of figures in Nigeria. Would it not be better to save N600 billion and just get statisticians to give us projected population of Nigeria based on a baseline of 1952 and rate of increase at 3% per year or something of that sort rather than the spurious figures bandied around dishonestly by NPC?

    Nobody can swear on the figures of Nigeria’s population. Today, we are told that we are about 170 million but I do not believe it. I personally do not believe that Nigeria is more than 100 million; the remaining 70 million are ghosts as far as I am concerned. The idea of population count every 10 years should be jettisoned and replaced by population count every two decades. The money saved should be used for development of infrastructure of the country. Imagine what N600 billion can do in the development of Nigeria. Odimegwu and his NPC should be asked to go on holidays and come back 20 years after the last census and give us the chance to use the money saved to develop the country. Census is about people and about development. Arbitrary figures are of no importance whatsoever to the development of Nigeria and if we need to take the next census, we should do it scientifically by calling in experts from the UN to do area mapping of Nigeria and to point out the centres of concentration of people through settlement pattern and then project the overall population of our country. This can be done through area photography without the arduous, primitive enumeration and money guzzling system Nigeria revels in.

    We know that elections are around the corner and people are looking for money for election, but we can’t be fooled all the time. The figure of N600 billion for counting Nigerians, many of whom are poor, despairing and despondent such that they would take the money rather than being counted, if given the option is outrageous. There are so many outlandish things going on at the centre in Abuja; recently, the Nigerian Space Authority or something of that sort says it is planning to send Nigerian astronauts into space by 2020. When I read this in the paper, I just laughed that what a country! And I asked myself – how is that important to the ordinary men and even to men who are not ordinary? What direct benefit will sending an astronaut into space bring to Nigeria? Are we going to reinvent the wheel?

    Countries that are sending people into space are already developed and have the basic requirement of decent living for their people. Why would a country whose people still defecate in the bushes or in open space and whose people have no potable water to drink or electricity to light their homes and power their businesses, decent educational and health facilities, efficient transportation system be planning to engage in the expensive venture of space exploration when the Russians and the Americans, the two leading nations in this area are deemphasising state participation while encouraging the private sector to take over these expensive ventures?

    We make fools of ourselves by pretending to be a big power when in fact we are not. We should cut our coat according to our cloth and face the reality of underdevelopment and try to overcome it. This is the challenge we face, the challenge of husbanding our resources and embarking on rapid development, transformation and industrialising our country while we still have the resources accruing from hydro-carbon exploitation. Our mono-cultural economy cannot be sustained forever and in fact cannot be sustained for too long, we have only about 30 years to transform this economy or die. Future generations of Nigeria will not forgive us if we do not embark on the process of transformation right now. Unfortunately, there is too much politicking in the land, too much talk about election in 2015 when in fact nobody knows who would be around tomorrow. We need to do the first thing first, let those who are in government right now discharge their responsibilities to the electorate, fulfil the promises on which they were elected and let the future take care of itself. Nigerians are a long-suffering people and I admire them for that and there is even wisdom in being long-suffering because revolutions do not always pan out. It is better to be long-suffering and to hope for evolutionary changes rather than wish or engineer sudden changes. But sometimes herd instincts and mob mentality can push a people to the edge of a precipice when they feel that the situation is hopeless. We are getting to this point in Nigeria where the more we spend on power generation, the less power we get. For the past 14 years, power generation in Nigeria has not increased past 4000 megawatts and yet, billions of dollars have been spent on this sector without any appreciable change in our power generation situation. Electricity generation is not rocket science, other third world countries and indeed other African countries like our neighbour Ghana have managed to stabilise their power sector to the extent that generators are not as everywhere in Ghana as they are in Nigeria. Would it not be wonderful if the present regime can tell us categorically when every home in Nigeria will have power 24 hours every day? This is something that is taken for granted in most countries of the world even in countries where the frigid weather should militate against this. If we have a government that can guarantee regular supply of water and electricity, then we would know that we are gradually coming out of the stone-age in which we have been consigned by previous administrations. The needs of Nigerians are not many and not outrageous or outlandish. What we require are basic needs for decent human living and we hope and pray that one day, a government would come that would be able to deliver on this simple needs rather than giving us outrageous budgetary figures on space exploration and demographic enumeration.

  • Power without responsibility

    The on-going macabre dance in Taraba State is symptomatic of all that is wrong with our constitution and its operators. It is no more a secret that Governor Danbaba Suntai was aided by two hefty men to disembark the plane that ferried him from the US after 10 months of intensive medical treatment following serious injuries he suffered when he crashed his personal jet near Yola in October last year. It is also public knowledge that he was not strong enough to acknowledge cheers or speak to his enthusiastic supporters and well-wishers that were on hand at the airport to welcome him. Even if the scenario had been different, one will still be tempted to ask what informed Suntai’s desperate bid to take over the reins of government even before he had time to take inventory of what transpired in his absence. But since the governor has not appeared in public or address his state House of Assembly close to two weeks after his arrival, one can hazard a guess – the lure and nostalgic craving for a governor’s pervasive power without responsibility.

    This perhaps explains why the race for the governor’s seat, from nomination to election is often a fierce battle. It is a war viciously fought by desperate men. It is, as ex-President Obasanjo appropriately described it a ‘do or die battle’. It is not a race for the faint-hearted.  Besides brute force which has left us with unresolved cases of assassinated governorship aspirants, it sometimes requires a resort to perfidy and high level of intrigue accompanied with non conventional rules. For instance during ex-President Obasanjo’s failed attempt at railroading the South-west into the ‘mainstream’, an era marked by massive rigging of governorship elections, his point-man in Ibadan, Alhaji Adedibu, the man designated as ‘garrison commander’ by PDP, reportedly took a close look at a governorship aspirant and coldly asked, “Can you without hesitation remove your dress and like a hooligan engage in a public brawl? Can you swear publicly with the Holy Koran on what you know was evidently untrue”?

    And for those who want to be governors by all means, it is a zero-sum game and the end justifies the means.  In 2007 race to Ekiti governor’s lodge, Fayemi outwitted about a dozen of his highly cultured soul mates – journalists, human right activists, intellectuals all sharing the same ideological orientation. But the crave for the governorship seat drove some of them to the embrace of PDP. They blatantly rigged elections and turned the land to a battle ground for about four years. A few months to the next election, the battle line is once again drawn between the governor and Opeyemi Bamidele both of APC. An earlier attempt by PDP to pick its candidate ended in a shoot out. Ekiti state by the way is a poor state whose federal allocation is second to the last on the list of 36 states.

    In  Oyo, Uyo, and Awka as in Port Harcourt where Nyesom Wike, the minister of education (state)  has said he was ready to sacrifice his ministerial position  to fight the battle for the Rivers government lodge by ensuring  Amaechi the incumbent governor of the state does not ‘sleep with his two eyes closed’, the story is the same. The lure of the office of governor is such that all manners of men find it irresistible- those in their 60s, 70s, ex military governors and administrators, serving senators , successful professionals and business men we all describe as  ‘men of great accomplishments’.

    For instance, Chukwuma Soludo, a celebrated intellectual, former CBN governor who for five years pursued PDP monetary policies with passion, cross-carpeted to APGA following his failed attempt at entering Awka government house through PDP. Last week his new party disqualified him from its primaries. Most Nigerians, except the aspirants who understand what it means to be a governor in Nigeria, would ask what on earth Soludo is looking for in Awka after conquering Nigeria and the world.

    The same question can be asked of Dora Akunyili, who as minister of information was the most visible of Yar’Adua ministers. She pursued PDP ‘branding policy’ fraud with passion. The lure of governor’s office however drove her from PDP to APGA. The race for the Awka government house can get no more comical than with the presence of Andy Uba, a former governor for two weeks and a serving senator. He is presently locked horns with Tony Nwoye, a man said to be his protégé. Similarly, the uninitiated is bound to wonder why Senator Chris Ngige would not be discouraged by the ignominy he suffered as a governor when  he was kidnapped in a broad daylight, locked up like a common criminal and asked to write an undertaking renouncing his office as governor. Rather than get discouraged, he is now set for a battle against all comers, including his erstwhile godfather and tormentor, Chris Uba.

    At the last count, besides ministers and captains of industry jostling for government houses in the 36 states of the federation, there are about 40 senators and members of the Lower house set for the battle. They include senators Ifeanyi Okowa, Enyinnaya Abaribe, Hope Uzodinma, Chris Anyanwu, Ike Ekweremadu, Ayogu Eze, Annie Okonkwo, Ayo Arise, Gbenga Aluko, Kabiru Gaya, Olufemi Lanlehin. Others are Representatives, Abdulrahaman Kawu Sumaila,  Emeka Ihedioha, Uche Ekwunife and  Opeyemi Bamidele among many others.

    The desperate bid to be a governor is perhaps because governors have immeasurable powers. They are the lords of the manor in their states. As leaders of their parties, they alone determine who is nominated to contest election as councillors and chairmen, if and when they decide to have local council elections. In most cases they run the councils as local administrations through their appointees. Members of state

    assemblies also need their endorsement before they can contest election. Most state assemblies are therefore extensions of the governor’s office. Attempt to assert their independence will most often lead to Ogun experience under ex-Governor Gbenga Daniel who locked up his state house of assembly and chased the lawmakers out of town.

    We also know governors can through their power of patronage create millionaires overnight. They don’t account for their monthly security votes. In the Niger Delta and North-east, we have seen how governors deployed security funds to sponsor terror gangs that metamorphosed into Niger Delta militants and Boko Haram insurgency. In Oyo State, Adedibu, the garrison commander and leader of the thugs demanded and got 20% of the security vote which he said was needed to mobilize his gangs. That was after getting Abuja’s support to illegally remove a governor that turned down his request.

    The power of the governor is so pervasive. Yet it is often power without responsibility. They are accountable to none but themselves. Perhaps with the exception of Nuhu Ribadu who recently challenged the 19 northern governors to justify the over N16 trillion they collected from the federation account in the last 14 years, we have ignored the governors and LGA that spend over 30 per cent of the budget. We have failed to subject to scrutiny the activities of governors who dish out patronage and gifts to shut up the mouth of the local opinion leaders, including the Obas, the Obis and the emirs.

  • Daniel, the ‘Hollywood’ boy

    Daniel, the ‘Hollywood’ boy

    There are adventures and there are adventures. It all depends on the mindset and conception. Perhaps, for Daniel Ricky Ohikhena, who was recently arrested at the Lagos Airport after flying in the tyre hole of an Arik plane from Benin to Lagos, it was a risky, costly and suicidal adventure. The initial report of the incident said the boy told his interrogators that he was being maltreated and tried to escape from his parents. He thought the plane was on its way to the United States of America. He was wrong. Instead, the plane landed in Lagos and he was promptly handed over to security agents for investigation.

    Since then, the blame game had been on full throttle. Yakubu Dati, the General Manager, Corporate Communications, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, said the aviation security personnel of the agency had no option than to hand over the young voyager to the men of the State Security Service, SSS, for extensive investigation. Dati said the nature and circumstances surrounding the crime informed the agency’s decision, adding that the agency had, “in the meantime, adopted risk amelioration processes to safeguard flight operations and ensure that a similar incident does not occur.”

    However, FAAN has continued to trade blame with Arik Air over the incident. Dati said FAAN was “unfairly indicted” while the airline took no responsibility whatsoever for such a “serious security breach.” Giving the accounts of its preliminary findings, FAAN said, “Our investigations reveal that a passenger on board the flight called the attention of the cabin crew while the aircraft was waiting to take off at the threshold of the runway to the effect that they had seen a young boy walk under the aircraft and had not seen him re-appear on the other side. The cabin crew in turn informed the pilots in the cockpit about this. The pilots called the control tower and asked it to request FAAN to do a sweep of the area after their departure, opting to carry on with their flight despite the report. Upon the arrival of the aircraft in Lagos, we were informed that there had been a stowaway found alive alighting from the wheel well of the aircraft.

    In its own reaction, Arik blamed FAAN for the huge breach in security, noting that the incessant cases of security breaches at the nation’s airport had become a major source of concern to the airline. The airline wondered how the teenager beat the aviation security personnel at the Benin Airport to get to the runway. It said its pilot had reported to the control tower the presence of a strange boy in the bush about 200 – 300 metres at the end of the runway before leaving the airport. The captain was said to have been informed that the situation was under control and that he had been cleared for take-off.

    While the controversy raged, Evelyn, the mother of the boy, appeared on the scene. She said her son was a nice boy who never displayed any tendency for such a dangerous venture. The embattled mother said Daniel was a nice boy who did not mingle with bad friends. She said she was on a visit to her elder sister who had just put to bed when the incident happened. It was when she got home the following day that she could not find the boy. The only answer she got upon her enquiries on his whereabouts was that the daughter told her that they quarrelled in the night because Daniel woke up at midnight to watch movies. Daniel eventually slept in the sitting room. One of his younger brothers also said he saw Daniel remove all his school books from his bag. Her neighbours then told her that, at around 5 to 6 am of the fateful day, they heard sounds that somebody was opening the gate but never thought it was Daniel. The mother maintained that Daniel doesn’t go out. “What I know is that he is always watching films in the house but he doesn’t have friends. He is always at home; I have never seen anybody come to look for him and he doesn’t have friends.”

    Now let us look at the whole tragic-comedy this way. In these days of insurgency and bomb blasts all over the place, if that boy was carrying a bomb, it means he would have succeeded in blowing up the plane and all the passengers on board, including himself. Or if he had carefully dropped the lethal ware in the tyre hole and walked away, he would have caused an explosion of a catastrophic proportion. The question now is: how can somebody be in an aircraft without being detected? This shows that we have a serious security problem.

    For a teenager like Daniel, gaining access to the airport at all from a bush path was a fait accompli. Although he thought that the plane was headed for the US, he ‘boarded’ effortlessly and came out of it successfully, unscarred. Others before him were not so lucky. In 2010, Emeka Okechukwu Okeke, a desperate young Nigerian, who tried to smuggle himself to the United States, died in the tyre compartment of a Delta Airlines aircraft. His corpse was discovered on arrival in New York. Okeke sneaked into the place at Lagos airport. That was not all. In 2012, the dead body of a young, male Nigerian was also discovered in the wheel well, the undercarriage compartment of a domestic airline, after it returned from South Africa.

    It is needless for both Arik and FAAN to continue to trade blames over the incident. What about the plethora of other security agents at that airport? I mean the SSS, the Police, the Air Force and the rest of them. Where were their personnel during the boy’s daring stroll into a tyre hole?

    One disturbing thing is that, watching all manners of movies has become a major pastime of youths today. The other is playing games on television. The other day, I had a running battle with my son, a Senior Secondary School 3 student who was completely engrossed in playing some Nintendo games even at the heat of his final exams. Thank God that he came out well in the exams but it shows the depth of distraction that parents nowadays have to cope with in order to bring their children into line.

    Daniel may have been good at watching Hollywood movies. Hollywood is where you come across that type of derring-do. There is no doubt that Daniel is a talented young lad. But his adventure may be predicated on the discomfort which abject poverty has thrown the family into. It is doubtful if in that environment, he could realise his dreams. The young boy wants to go to America where he believes everything flows. Yes, there are opportunities in America. But as a black man, although Barack Obama rose to become the President of the most powerful nation in the world, how many black presidents will come after him? How and when? If you are hard-working, America provides you with all you need to reach the top. But many are there too who are barely existing on credit cards and other government largess. So, the likes of Daniel should not think that to make it in life, all you need is to package yourself in a tyre hole and dash to America. There is more to the Eldorado in America. You pay dearly for it.

    I will suggest that the relevant government agencies, and public-spirited organisations and individuals should see to the plight of Daniel and his family. He took the risk for a better tomorrow. That tomorrow should be made possible for him. The mother said she was so passionate about her children’s education. Now we have not heard any word from the father. I guess he is away in ‘Siberia’, ‘missing in action’, or marooned somewhere. The bottom line is that Daniel needs help. So also is the family, while the security agents on duty in Benin that day should face the music. It is one security breach too many!