The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • Mimiko and South-west economic integration

    Prof Jide Osuntokun’s admonition to Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, governor of Ondo State to eschew from the politics of the South-west Regional Economic Integration (SREI) and join his colleagues in jointly developing the region’s economy through SREI in his Thursday, August 1, column shows how concerned the respected educationist must be about the well-being of this great idea. In the column titled “Appeal to Mimiko on S/West Economic Integration” the former ambassador, who is a repository of the nation’s history, told the governor, in case he was not aware, and those of us who have no idea, that the South-west regional economic integration has a long history. Professor Osuntokun said that “…stretching from Ilupeju, Mushin to some parts of Bayelsa, and including the present five states controlled by the ACN, Ondo State…Edo state…and Delta…, it enjoyed planned development arising from the tremendous agricultural resources and the vibrancy of its people…,” among other things.

    Professor Osuntokun was apparently worried, and rightly so, and as any discerning person of Yoruba extraction should be, that the South-west regional economic integration is being threatened by what appears to be a deliberate exclusion of Ondo State by its chief of state. The regional economic integration is probably the single most important, most effective economic initiative capable of rapidly transforming the socio-economic wel-lbeing of the people and leap frog the region into modernity as we know it. It is an initiative whose time is well overdue especially in light of the current global economic trend in which the much bandied mantra of the world as one global village is only in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and not much on trade.

    As ICT is forcefully opening and expanding the business space among nations, these nations, especially the developed ones, paradoxically, are also ganging up and closing their markets against those they consider outsiders for more competitive advantage. And this is why we have clusters of nations in relative close proximity with each other with such names as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the European Union (EU); BRICS comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) even though the latter do more talking than trading as there’s hardly anything to trade with among these underdeveloped countries.

    Although Mimiko said on several occasions in the run up to his re-election that he doesn’t have to be in the same political party with his brother governors to embrace the region’s economic integration, which in theory, may be right. The opposition political parties even sort of agreed with him then. But I disagree. Aside from the fierce and bitter electoral battle which may have dampened his enthusiasm for the regional economic integration agenda, as a brutally calculating, Machiavellian political operative, the personal political road Mimiko has chosen to travel and his intended political destination makes it counter-intuitive, if not counterproductive for him to embrace the economic integration agenda. Mimiko’s political rivals in the region will be better served if they listen to what he is NOT saying rather than what he says.

    Mimiko’s political predilection has no room for regional economic integration agenda, it seems to me. He cares nothing about the progressive political party, even though “progressivism” is his self-described political ideology. Neither does he care that much for the conservative political philosophy that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) represents. The real political interest of the Ondo chief of state is to grow and nurture his Labour Party to where it can have some traction in some states in the federation, most especially in the South-west, where this party can be leveraged with whoever happens to be in control at the centre in order to advance his personal political relevance and opportunity. The other leg of this mid- to long-term goal is for his Labour Party to act as a bulwark against the progressives in the South-west, which ultimately will lead to the first end goal of gaining more political relevance and opportunity, and for his party to be seen, at least in the South-west as the alternative ‘progressive’ party just in case the progressives drop the ball. In an environment where political parties are built around personality and/or a handful of people because the country’s politicians are still largely at the very rudimentary stage of political, if not human evolution, it should be clear why Mimiko should prevaricate on the economic integration agenda.

    Mimiko must also dilly-dally on this all-important regional economic initiative because a coterie of his current political associates and bedfellows would be absolutely hell-bent against this idea, not because it lacks merit, but because of the collective political vendetta they have against a former National Leader of the party that controls the South-west except Ondo, who, they believe, will take the credit for the success of the economic integration when they’re currently too busy trying to cut him down to size. He cannot afford to invite the ire of these people and that of Jonathan Gullible whose bidding in the South-west he now must do.

    There is no doubt that the road to the regional economic integration destination would be bumpier and therefore more strenuous if any of the component part of the South-west region is not on board the integration boat, most particularly Ondo State because of its unique place in this integration matrix. Ondo is relatively more strategically positioned because of its contiguity to all the South-west states except Oyo. It shares boundaries with Edo and Kogi states to the east and north respectively. Its coastline is almost a stone throw to Lagos, the economic nerve centre of the nation, a coastline that also extends to the South-south geo-political region. More importantly, the state is the second richest after Lagos in the South-west. Its financial wherewithal can be brought to bear and effectively utilized in bankrolling some projects that are very critical to the economic integration agenda, which must of necessity, be situated in the state for the overall benefit of the South-west region and its people.

    Rather than the South-west governors and Dipo Famakinwa’s commission, which is saddled with actualizing the regional economic integration agenda waiting for the Ondo State governor to change his mind and embrace this important initiative, they should just march on and set aside the state’s own piece of the puzzle for now until, hopefully, the Supreme Court decides in their favour in the on-going electoral litigation to reclaim Akeredolu’s mandate. What is even more important is for the progressives to keep the South-west under their political control into the foreseeable future. An initiative of this magnitude would need about a couple of decades of uninterrupted political control to grow into full maturity otherwise it would be quickly jettisoned if another party takes control of the region. The only way Ondo can participate in this initiative is for the progressives to gain political control of the state, otherwise, sitting around and waiting for Mimiko to do the needful for posterity by embracing this agenda would be like Waiting for Godot.

     

    • Odere is a media practitioner. He can be reached at femiodere@gmail.com.

     

  • The other Omelezes in the Nigeria Police

    A friend sometime ago narrated this story to me. It was a personal experience. It happened a long time ago when he was still a bachelor.

    He had a girl friend who loved to party a lot which was in sharp contrast to his own quiet social life and this often strained their relationship. At one of such parties which as usual he was opposed to, she ran into a problem with a group of hoodlums who attempted to rape her. The matter eventually ended up at Oko Oba police station in Lagos.

    Her friend who attended the same party with her ran home to inform him of what had just happened and together they headed to the police station. He introduced himself to the desk officer as the lady’s lover and demanded to know what actually happened. The officer told him she was arrested and brought to the station for disturbing public peace (fighting) and causing destruction to property at the venue of the party. The owner of the event centre where the party took place had lodged the complaint against her that necessitated her arrest.

    My friend said he was confused as to what to do, but he sought the assistance of the officer to secure a bail for the lady. The officer not only obliged to help him, albeit at a fee, but handed over the statement of the original complainant in the case to him to go through and use the information to write his own statement accusing the first complainant of assault and such other similar offence(s) that some policemen have the capacity to cook up in an attempt to nail somebody.

    Upon payment of the agreed fee, the statement of the original complainant was destroyed and my friend’s statement admitted as a complaint against the owners of the damaged property. So, the complainant suddenly became the accused and the lady was released. The rest is history.

    I am sure this kind of story is not new in the Nigeria Police and not a few Nigerians will have similar stories to tell in their previous encounters with officers and men of the Nigeria Police. I am not saying this is the norm in the police but the recent case of one Sergeant Chris Omoleze who was caught on camera demanding a bribe of N25, 000 from a motorist over an alleged traffic offence has once again raised to the fore the issue of corruption and other vices in the Nigeria Police.

    With the video of the event released to the public via YouTube, the Inspector General of Police Mohammed Abubakar acted swiftly by ordering the Lagos State Police Command to put the Sergeant on Orderly Room trial, which the Commissioner Umar Manko did, and within an hour or so, it was over. Sergeant Omoleze was dismissed and thus ended his 21 years in service, in disgrace. He also stands to be prosecuted for the offence by the police.

    Good. It was about time the Police high command began to act and decisively too on some of its officers and men who have brought shame to the force as well as the nation. The IGP has promised that there would no longer be room for corruption and such vices in the police again. Bad behaviours he said would no longer be tolerated. Good also. But does he have the will to see through any house cleansing exercise that this his promise could entail? Yes, he does and can, according to those who know him well.

    Ummmm, that’s good. May be he should go the whole hog and kick out the other Sergeant Omolezes still left in the police. And he could do this by beaming his searchlight on not just those at the lower rung of the ladder, but also on some of his commanders who are more than an embarrassment to the Nigeria Police. One of such is Mbu Joseph Mbu, the incumbent commissioner of Police, Rivers State Police command.

    The story of Mbu Joseph Mbu we all know. But perhaps what is still baffling is why the man is still at the saddle in Port Harcourt as CP of the state police command, in spite of overwhelming public call for his removal. Not even the Senate or the House of Representatives is left in doubt about the need to relieve him of his appointment as Rivers state police boss. Yet the powers that be at the top are saying no, including the IGP.

    No matter the professional competence of Mbu Joseph Mbu as a police officer as his friends would want us to believe, his integrity as a public officer has been called to question and in the public interest and for the sake of peace he should be removed as CP Rivers state.

    I understand this was to be the case recently, but the ‘madam at the top’, who allegedly masterminded his posting to Rivers state command from Oyo State command in would have none of this. CP Mbu, sources say was to be redeployed on the orders of the President and Commander-In-Chief. In fact, he was billed to be redeployed to neighbouring Imo state as the Police boss while the man in Owerri was to cross the border to Port Harcourt and take over as CP. The ‘Oga patapata’ at the top was said to have given his orders to the IGP to do this and the man in Imo had been briefed. But somehow, the Imo state governor got wind of this and he allegedly protested.

    As CP Mbu had seemingly turned toxic, no state governor wanted him in his domain and Governor Okorocha allegedly made his move to stop Mbu from coming to Owerri. The embattled CP got wind of his transfer as well and ran to Madam at the top in Abuja seeking cover. But since the order for the move seemingly came from above, the story had it that Mbu was to be taken to a lucrative beat as a form of soft landing and the Port Police Command was to be his next port of call.

    The police hierarchy sources said kicked against this, the argument being that if Mbu is to be removed, those who sent him to Port Harcourt should remove him and once he is removed, he should be kicked out of the police and not redeployed.

    But who sent him to Port Harcourt you might want to ask? It is a long story. As I heard, our First Lady had a hand in it. She felt strongly that the former CP was working for the state Governor Rotimi Amaechi and she wanted her own person as CP in her home state, so Mbu who had barely spent three months as CP in Oyo state was found ‘suitable’ for the task, and you’ll agree with me he has been doing a ‘good’ for Madam at the top. You know the rest of the story.

    If this is exactly what is happening then IGP Abubakar must stand up and act truly as the Inspector General of Police. The rot, mess, corruption and all the other bad things happening in the Nigeria Police cannot and will not end until all the Sergeant Omolezes in the police including the likes of CP Mbu and other politicians in uniform are booted out. Not a few Nigerians have faith in IGP Abubakar; he should not disappoint the nation.

     

     

  • History, civil war and our haunted house

    History, civil war and our haunted house

    I cannot remember their first names, but they captured my young fancy. Short, articulate with gesticulatory agility, they raised the tempo of their classes to the theatre experience. Since in my teen years I knew little about thespian ecstasy, the two history teachers gave us something close. They were Eshareture and Edeyan. I recall Eshareture’s dissection of the Yoruba Wars and the birth of Liberia. I cannot forget Edeyan’s ability to conjure back the tumble and heroics of the Niger Delta city states. In those days, the greed of England eyed our liquids – not below the earth and not black. They were red and white, and the juice of trees.

    After my days in Government College, Ughelli, I knew I wanted to study history and become a professor in that romantic inquest into the past. Not even my fascination with tales and language enlivened by the classes of Mr. Money and Demas Akpore, former deputy governor of Bendel State, took away the rapture of the past.

    At Ife, two major teachers, Professors Femi Omosini and Tunji Oloruntimehin, heightened my love affair with the subject. Oluruntimehin handled with irony and understated zest West African people’s treacherous tango with freedom and tyranny under colonial thralldom. Omosini, with wit and dramatics, engaged a feudal Europe simultaneously in love with God and mammon. After my certificated years, I have followed history year after year, reading histories all around the world and across epochs.

    Recently, when General Alabi-Isama published his civil war account, The Tragedy of History, I observed an irony. Most secondary schools in the country are doing away with the study of history, and the universities are diluting it, making history major study a lost cause. Now, it has to be history and international relations.

    The Alabi-Isama book, apart from its onslaught on the Obasanjo claims, was an invitation to the past. As the historian E.H. Carr asserts in his classic, What Is History?, it is “an unending dialogue with the past.” What struck me when the Alabi-Isama book came out was how the events of today look so much like the days before the civil war. Secondly, I discovered that our young, even the very bright ones, know little about that period. It is not their fault. Who taught them or guided them into that vault of our souls?

    As much Nigerian history as I know, much of our history is still unknown. How many know the details, for instance, of the most turbulent era of our history? Major Iluyomade narrated in detail, his command of the Ore confrontations during the civil war. Much of this has not been documented until this paper unveiled it. The Ore battle is the most mythologised of all the civil war encounters, but how much of this has been taught or documented in books or studies? So much of the war is wrapped in clouds. The Murtala Muhammed’s blood-laden command of the Niger bridge, the revenge pogrom against Hausa-Fulani in Asaba, the Abagana combustion, the capture of the Central Bank in Benin, the Midwest role, the battles for Owerri, life in Lagos, the minorities in the old Eastern region, the Yoruba relations with the Hausa before the war, etc.

    We have not had also in detail books about Ojukwu as a general, or his handling of the so-called saboteurs from the Midwest, or Gowon either as a weak or necessary commander in chief, Awolowo as the finance mainstay and dynamic of starvation or the stories of the three divisions, their challenges or exploits or limitations. All of these would form major studies in postgraduate schools and provide simplified materials for primary and secondary and undergraduate studies. Studies on most of these are perfunctory at best. I generated discontent in some quarters in a recent article on Alabi-Isama’s book, especially my assertions of Gowon as a weak commander in chief. Gowon was a nice man. Commander in chiefs are not supposed to be gentlemen alone, but officers and gentlemen. Gowon became too much of a gentleman to become an officer. If he became supreme commander as a compromise, he took it too lamely. He was a Christian to douse the southern suspicions of Hausa-Fulani hegemony, and he was a northerner to restrain northern hubris. He would not rein in Shuwa or Muhammed because he feared for his survival. Frankly, if he was rash with the two men, they might have ousted him and complicated the ethnic and political fragility of the country. But both men were killing Nigerians and Biafrans in avoidable bloodbaths. Gowon did not have cunning and statecraft like Lincoln, and he sacrificed his survival for a prolonged war. Murtala was on a tear pillaging his own men. Shuwa did not know the difference between strategy and tactics, and moved from village to village as Igbo ran away from their villages, fuelling the charge of pogrom, which was hard to deny. What of the last days of the war? Achuzia claimed he never went to Akinrinade to surrender. I would want to know if he went to him in the thick of night for a picnic. And why did Ojukwu run away? Or was Effiong then a traitor? Even a book on Air Raid will be a good document of that era. Madiebo said he lied about being at the Abagana massacre.

    A century after the conflicts, books roll out each year on the United States civil war. Abraham Lincoln’s role inspires books every year. The First and Second World Wars enjoy the chronicles of historians, novelists, memoirists, and they visit various parts, whether it is Operation Barbaroosa, or the Battle of the Bulge, or the battle of Britain, or the detention at Auschwitz or Sobribo or Hitler or Churchill, or the French resistance and General de Gaulle, or Musolini also known as the Sawdust Caesar, etc.

    If our young know history, they know their country. Tragically, the old, including our leaders, know little about our past, except the ones they experienced. If they know our history, they would know that some things happening today hark back to our past. The Rivers State crisis reechoes the rumbles of the Western region crisis. The killings of the North reverberate with the scatological details of the pogrom of the 1960s. The forming of the APC as a party harks back to NNA versus UPGA in the First Republic, PPA versus NPN in Second Republic and, under IBB, SDP versus NRC. Hence philosopher Nietzsche wrote about the theory of eternal return. The past makes us tenants of a haunted house.

    A few topics have engaged writers like the coup led by Nzeogwu and the countercoup. Even at that, the accounts come less from detached writers than memoirists whose stories stand on personal prejudice. The reason for this is the failure and decline of our education, and the philistinism of a society that would not read. Where are the equivalents of Alan Bullock’s Hitler: A study in tyranny, AJP Taylor’s The Second World War, or Albert Carrie’s enquiry into the same subject, or William Shirer’s tome, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, or E.H Carr’s engagement with Bolsheviks Revolution?

    History is what we should honour and mourn, to paraphrase the classic Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. To honour the heroes by telling their story, and mourn what we lost with a view to pursuing paradise anew. History is never boring, it is our engagement for renewal. The other day, I asked a student who Bukar Dimka was? He didn’t know. He was in his last year in the university.

    When we study history, we engage the present. We look at then to see now. A new movie, The Great Gatsby, is now running in theatres around the world, lashes at wealth from false values. It is based on a novel of the same title. Many critics say the revisit of the film is inspired by the recent economic crash just like the one that happened at the time Scott F. Fitzgerald wrote. They were right, but that book prophesied the power of history with the following lines: “So we beat on, boats against the current borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

  • And father beheads son

    It is increasingly getting clearer by the day that Nigeria is home to all manner of crimes considered taboos in our traditional African societies. Hardly does any day pass by without reports of sundry blood-chilling crimes in parts of the country. Even societies that ordinarily should be expected to maintain some level of moral decorum are turning out the worst culprits.

    Or how do we explain the recent report of the beheading of a five-year-old boy in Adamawa State by his father for money? The man identified by the police simply as Bappah allegedly beheaded his son Buba Bappah with the intent of selling the head to a ritualist just for N1million. Having struck a deal with a ritualist, the man lured his son out to the farm ostensibly as a helping hand. While in the farm, he beheaded the poor boy and returned home having concealed his decapitated head.

    The grand father of the boy, worried by the inability of Bappah to return with him inquired on his whereabouts. He was told that the boy was still at the farm. Suspecting something amiss, he raised a search team to the farm which discovered to their astonishment the beheaded boy lying in a pool of his blood. Subsequently the grandfather reported the matter to the police which led to the arrest of the suspect.

    On interrogation, he confessed he intended to sell the head for N1million and use the money to buy cattle and take care of his aged parents. Ironically, it is the same parents that handed him over to the police. The above incident underscores very clearly, the degenerate level our society has sunk. As despicable, callous and inhuman as the action is, it has more than anything else shown the extent people can go to make quick money.

    Or how do we explain a 24-year old man beheading his own son with the sole aim of raising money to buy cattle and take ‘care of his aged parents’. If his confessions are anything to repose hope on, the life of his son is not worth that of cattle. For this, the boy had to die in the cruelest manner so that his father can buy cattle.

    Yet, we all know that the human being is the greatest gift God gave to the earth. He is undoubtedly the greatest asset on earth and the key to all productive activities. All these were lost on this obviously morally depraved man. Nothing can be more asinine than this. Even his other alibi of using the proceeds from his demented action to take care of his aged parents is not only puerile but very laughable.

    Though the lives of his aged parents are equally important, it is an abomination to kill anybody not to talk of ones own son just to make money. The urge to buy cattle or take care of one’s own parents cannot be a ground for this bestial and very reprehensible conduct. Children are considered very great assets to their parents. That is why parents toil day and night in order to cater for their children who will in turn take care of them at old age. It is not envisaged that a man will kill his son under any guise how much less on the grounds confessed by the suspect. The fact that it is the same parents he claimed he will use part of the money to take care of that handed him over to the police, shows the abnormality of his inhuman action.

    Sociologist and criminologists have extensively identified the various reasons and factors that can lead people to crime. But the willful beheading of a son by his father just for monetary reward will obviously strike them as a big puzzle especially in a society as ours where morals still occupy a prime position in people’s daily conduct.

    It is true that urbanization and sophistication in life activities have brought with them a variety of crimes that were hitherto considered alien on these shores. But in most of those criminal engagements, those who indulge in them do so mainly to take care of themselves and their immediate families.

    And in the consideration of this immediate family, ones children, wife or husband come into prime focus.

    It therefore runs contrary to the normal course of events for a man to kill his son for the purpose of raising money to take care of aged parents. Children are the greatest assets any parent can boast of. All parents treasure their children and expect that with them, their families will not be cut off the face of the earth. They also envision that at death, it is their children that will ensure they are given a befitting burial. In most parts of the country, it is considered an abnormality for a child to die before his parents. In some of those cultures, parents are not even allowed to see the corpses of their children.

    The point here is that we attach so much value on our children that it is neigh inconceivable for a father to harm his son. And this man had the courage to lure out and behead his son just for money to buy cattle and cater for his old parents who may be nearing their graves on account of age. If a man could kill his son for money, then such a person is a great danger to the society. He has no value for human life and therefore ought not to live.

    The law enforcement agencies should thoroughly investigate this man further. It is possible this is not the first time he is getting involved in this devilish act. A man, who kills his own son just for that amount, is a very potent danger to the society. Who knows the number of those who have fallen prey to his craze for money before he opted for the life of his own son?

    After investigations to ascertain whether he has been on ritual business before now, he should be promptly arraigned at a court of competent jurisdiction together with the person who offered money for the boy’s head. They should be made to account for their misdeeds. Perhaps, had the man not offered to buy the head, Bappah would not have been tempted to kill his son.

    It is to be imagined the type of scenario that played out as this man lifted his knife to kill the poor boy. I can see the boy confused at the first instance wondering whether it was a play. I can also see the poor boy holding his father and begging him to spare his life. But despite all cries and entreaties the devil that was Bappah refused to be moved and had to cut off the head of the poor boy. What an extreme act of callousness! Nothing can be more blood chilling than this.

    But beyond this, the law enforcement agencies must investigate the veracity of the claim that people use human heads and vital organs of the body for ritual purposes. The common belief here is that human parts are used by native doctors and sundry occultist persons to make money or gain power. The ever rising rate of murders involving the severance of vital organs of victims that dot the entire gamut of the country are attributed to the thriving mill of ritual activities. It is high time we got at the root of these senseless killings and utter disregard for the sanctity of the human life.

  • Impeachment without quorum

    Impeachment without quorum

    Legislators involved in the Rivers Assembly fracas should face sanctions too

    Many journalists readily agree, in defining the concept ‘news’, that when dog bites man, it is no news; but when man bites dog, then that is news. Of course, this makes sense because, what they are trying to say in essence is that ‘news’ properly so-called is usually about the bad and the ugly. Bad news is therefore good news. It is common to see dogs bite man but it is unusual for man to bite dog. Here, we are not talking about the Ondo people who see ‘lokili’ (dog) as a delicacy and the Calabar people who also enjoy its meat that they fondly call ‘404’. To eat something is not necessarily the same as biting it.

    This analogy came about in view of what is happening in Rivers State. That state has not known peace in the last few months and it is not likely to know it anytime soon. One of the major actors in the crisis has only recently boasted that he would make the governor uncomfortable, and perhaps the state, ungovernable. That tells us the extent that people can go when seeking political power in the country. In sane environments, the man would have been invited by the security agencies because his statement is self-explanatory. I have said it often, and it bears repeating, that this country would have been a far better place if those seeking public offices put in half of the energy they put into the struggle for the offices into governance when they eventually get into those offices.

    Imagine all the resources that have been wasted in the efforts to ‘overthrow’ the Rivers State governor just because of the personal ambitions of a few persons. A serving minister of state for education, Nyesom Wike, who should be overseeing the crucial sector is rather busy doing unimaginable things while thousands of our youths in the universities are on the streets when they should be in the lecture rooms, due to strike by their lecturers. Their colleagues in the polytechnics went on strike for weeks while Mr. Wike was in the forefront of the battle to remove the state governor by hook or crook. I wonder why it has not occurred to those who appointed Wike that something is bound to suffer when a man in such a crucial sector abandons his beat to lead a campaign just because he wants to become governor. In saner climes, it is only people who performed creditably in lower capacities that get promoted in government. This is a minister without any clear achievements already eyeing a higher office, putting his hopes on some benevolent cleavages. Again, in countries where the government is serious, it would have seen such a person as a liability rather than an asset and promptly shown him the door.

    But this is not where I am going today, it is nonetheless useful though in bringing into perspective the unfortunate developments in Rivers State.

    Chinua Achebe says in his celebrated Things Fall Apart that “if a man comes into my hut and defecates on the floor, what do I do? Shut my eyes and pretend not to see him?” He says that cannot be; he will rather carry a stick and break his head! Well, I may not necessarily be talking about physical retaliation. But, Achebe’s novels, as is the Igbo culture generally, are replete with proverbs which are like oil with which yam is eaten (again, apologies to Achebe).

    What happened in the Rivers State House of Assembly on Tuesday July 9 falls into the category of the defecation that I have in mind. But I must stress that I am also not talking about someone in whose house another man has defecated carrying a physical stick (as it were) to break the intruder’s head. But the man who has been wronged deserves some pacification. Now, when only five of a 32-member House of Assembly attempted to impeach the speaker, Otelemaba Amachree, whereas the constitution stipulates that at least two-thirds of the members is required for such to be legal, what did they expect? Did they expect to be pecked or kissed and warmly embraced by their colleagues who are in the majority?

    Certainly not. But the five must have been that audacious because of the ubiquitous ‘federal might’ that they thought they had behind them. With the police merely playing the role of observers, they had thought they would just carry out their illegality while Nigerians would make the usual noise over a period and the result of the illegality of impeachment without the requisite two-thirds majority would have stood, until a time when the courts will declare the action illegal and order a return to status quo ante. And, in Nigeria, that could take as long as the usurpers want and that is understandable; they have nothing to lose; it is only the person that has been cheated out of the office that has everything to lose. And, as we all know, justice travels at a snail speed in the country. Injustice travels faster!

    However, the miscalculation of the misguided five legislators led to (probably) unanticipated violence and now, we are talking about one of those involved in the illegal impeachment saga, Michael Chinda, lying critically injured in hospital. Interestingly, the same police that have been partial since the crisis started promptly ensured that the majority leader in the state house of assembly, Mr. Chidi Lloyd, was promptly arraigned for attempted murder.

    This is the kind of thing that happens in a country where might determines right. If legislators who did what the ‘Rivers Five’ attempted in the past had been made to face the full wrath of the law, it would have served as a deterrent to others. Unfortunately, they did not pay for it because the then President Olusegun Obasanjo was solidly behind them. This was despite the fact that fortunately, the judiciary in that era reversed almost all the illegalities, in Oyo, Anambra, Plateau where the governors were said to have been impeached without the required quorum in the houses of assembly.

    Perhaps it was because the ‘Rivers 27’ in the house of assembly did not want to take any chances that things went awry on July 9. This underscores the need for people to respect the sanctity of the law and due process. I am not opposed to justice for the injured legislator but I am also strongly of the view that something triggered the violence in the house. In my view, this too should be of concern to us. In the light of this, someone should also test the judicial waters to see if any case can be established; that is, if under any circumstance people can try what the ‘Rivers Five’ did without facing judicial sanctions. If we saw such in the Obasanjo era, it does not make it right.

    Whoever goes to equity must go with clean hands, remains the usual refrain. When someone causes rain to fall, it doesn’t seem right to me for that person to complain if the rain is eventually accompanied with thunderstorm. If sustaining of injury during an illegal legislative process is newsy, then, getting justice for those cheated by the illegality should be newsier. If five legislators decided to impeach a governor when between 20 and 21 members are legally required, they should know that whoever their godfather is, that action is illegal. I therefore see nothing wrong in their paying for it through the judicial process. It is high time Nigerians challenged such illegalities in court.

  • Meeting 2015 breakup prediction with presidential chutzpah

    Even if by his actions he manages to consistently undermine his own public optimism for a great society, President Goodluck Jonathan must still rank as one of the most sanguine leaders the world has ever known. While speaking with Muslim leaders who paid him the traditional Sallah homage last Thursday, Dr Jonathan as usual made a few memorable statements. He couldn’t imagine a Nigeria without Christians and Muslims, he said wistfully, as if the religious polarisation of the country conferred special advantages on all of us, and almost as if we should become inured to the pains they have caused us and even begin to enjoy them. If we were retrogressing, he suggested implausibly, it was because we failed to exploit the possibilities of our religious diversity. Once we found a way to harness the diversities, the country would enjoy peace and development. Never mind that in his nearly four years in office, his presidency never issued even one tested idea as to how that elixir would be brewed.

    Moving away from his strange theology, the president revealed he had observed the Ramadan like any other Muslim. His waist had trimmed down, he announced joyously, and he would perhaps in the short term need new pairs of trousers. If his visitors thought he would explain why he felt compelled to fast, or prove the relevance of his fasting to national development and policy purity, they were mistaken, for he wasn’t forthcoming at all.

    But perhaps the most memorable statement he made was in connection with the ballyhooed prediction of Nigeria’s breakup in 2015, a prediction authored by some United States military analysts many years ago. Those who made the prediction, said the president in reference not to the original authors but to Nigerians parroting it, would be disappointed. We must not assume that the president has not read the details of the prediction, or that when it was made, the intense religious, ethnic and social conflicts wracking the body politic had not even assumed dangerous dimensions. If he read the prediction, he should have seized the opportunity of speaking with his visitors to address two or three major factors raised by the analysts, and of course debunk them. Instead, the president met the prediction with his usual presidential bravado. It won’t happen, he thundered, and that was all.

    If structural problems anywhere, whether in a country or organisation, had shown a tendency to respond well to positive thinking, countries and enterprises would be easy to govern. Given the president’s logic, the more chutzpah you summon against a problem, the more likely your triumph. What is Dr Jonathan’s appreciation of the social revolt undermining the Northeast? It hardly matters; for the problem to him is one of law and order. What does he think of the great heist stymying oil exports in the Niger Delta? Just pay thieves to watch over the oil. What does he think about the collapse of education? Why, agreements, to him, are neither worth keeping, nor the huge education bill worth the trouble of addressing. What of unemployment? He has passed on that nuisance to the Minister of Finance and to the centenary committee.

    And what about the most important question of all – democracy? Its problem, he deadpans like the workaholic but yet cavalier Obasanjo, is that the opposition is too troublesome and unpatriotic. If everybody would cooperate with him, and critics practiced their sorcery softly, and the media were less sanctimonious, and on and on to getting God to be less fussy and rigid about principles and moral standards, Nigeria would be a great, united, peaceful and developed country. Perhaps, someday, we would pin the president down to telling us what he thinks of the complex problems besetting the country, and what bright ideas can be coerced from his vast kitchen midden, which he passes off as personal philosophy from a complex mind.

  • Wars without end… Victims without end…

    Nothing succeeds like good governance, fairness and justice. A good mixture of those elements can give us a world without wars

    What is with men and wars, I’ll never know, but records show that over ninety per cent of wars in this world have been initiated and executed by men. No, no, I am not starting an argument, just stating a fact. Just think, in the lifetime of any given male, the chances that he would initiate or help to execute a war is close to fifty per cent. Imagine that! I know that when they were little, my children initiated many wars against each other, mostly over nothing, but that doesn’t even count. The fighting gene nevertheless appears to run true and deep in all men.

    Most worrisome, however, is the fact that somehow, the fighting genes running loose in men are now being transfused into women and other things. Women, knowing no better and no different, proudly don the togas of war, supposedly for love and country and head out, leaving behind tearful babies, crying children and baffled husbands. Tch, tch. If those women only knew the truth – that they have been infected by the blood running in men’s veins – they would know better where to direct their heaving chests of indignation. All together, mankind has become like a couple of pigeons which seems to do nothing but flap their wings in real antagonism towards each other three mornings a week behind my fence. What the bone of contention is exactly, no one can tell, but all we seem to get from them are their emotions all flapped up.

    Actually, nothing excuses mankind’s behaviour which seems to stem from the belief that only the fisticuffs can settle any and all matters. This is why we now have community, civil, international, cyber, psychological and, most worrisome of all, domestic wars. And with the match of science, those simple fisticuffs have been translated into the rat-ta-tat-at-tat of machine guns or the booms of cannons aimed at other human beings just like them. I don’t know about you but anytime I have stumbled across TV programmes depicting war scenes, I have been struck by one question: to what purpose?

    Just recently, I read the story of a soldier who was shot at the war front but instead of falling and dying quickly, he got caught on the barbed wire that separated the two sides in the war. The war continued around him however with shots from the guns but now punctuated by his own groans of pain as he slowly bled. His own friends could not come to his rescue for fear of being hit. Finally, a soldier from the side which had hit him in the first place could stand the groans no longer so he put down his gun and ran towards the dying man. Both sides, seeming to realise what he was going to do, ceased firing at each other and watched him in disbelief as he gently disentangled the wounded man and carried him across to the enemy line and gave him to his friends. As he turned to go back to his side of the war, he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was the commanding officer of the enemy troop who removed a bravery medal from his own uniform and pinned it on the rescuer and saluted. Both sides then waited for him to run back to his side before they resumed their insane game.

    Today, the world remembers the millions and millions of victims of the World War 2 Holocaust but we are expanding it here to include all victims of the insane thing called war all over the world. Sources say that presently, there are one hundred and forty-six wars being fought and from these, over one thousand people are dying yearly. This gives us a very frightening picture indeed considering that it shows a considerable build-up of victims of war who are mostly women, children and the aged. The worst part is that these victims, and the wounded and dead soldiers, have no clear understanding of what caused the war in the first place.

    So, who declares a war and why? As a member of the human race, and a national of a country located somewhere on this planet, I think I have the right to know. Who the deuce feels he is obliged to declare a war where he does not often go to fight but only the young and able-bodied men (and now women) are obliged to go and be killed? I ask this because our lives, planet, children, and whether or not we wake up tomorrow depend on the answer. I believe that, and you can check this out, whoever declares a war must have a very little brain indeed, even tinier than mine, and he would be the kind of person that cannot even get along with his neighbour. Just watch out, next time someone declares a war around you, first interview his neighbour.

    There is a line that says that ‘Love has no religion, only God’. I don’t know exactly what that means but I can extrapolate that humans can choose the Christian, Muslim, Animist, Atheist, or the Love religion. Clearly, most people have not been choosing the Love religion because all wars in history have been started by someone from the other religions. This is quite different from the poster that reads ‘Make Love, not War.’ Again, I don’t know what that means either but I would guess that it still borders on what choices we make.

    I honestly don’t know what war-mongers are really after: plunder, fame or power. Whatever it is, I think we should all accept right now that none of that stays if built on the sacrificed blood of innocent men and women. One can get better plunder by raiding a rat’s hide-out. They are the only creatures I know who gather what they don’t need. Fame can come from a variety of other activities. Try calling the press to witness as you jump down from a ten-story building unto a bed of hot coals and sharp nails. I tell you, you will be toasted at every gathering in the country for years without end. And power? Why, have you tried to imagine a king testing his power by standing without his aides in the path of a herd of rampaging elephants? Again, should that king survive, he will be toasted for ever as a very powerful man indeed. That takes me to a second line I found: ‘We should realise that we have not been put here to rule the world – God does’. Anyone who feels compelled to test that theory is free to because my third line has the answer for them: ‘Those who thought they did had to leave it’.

    Most people agree that wars have never solved any problem; they are only indulgences for old men looking for their manhood. They do not consider that wars without end only create victims without end. They also do not consider that the only things that wars leave behind are victims who do not even understand why they are being called on to be victims. They are helpless against the insatiate appetites of men to seek and create drama everywhere. This column commiserates with all victims of war today; they are the ones who have to deal with, and pick up pieces of lives shattered by, the insanity of war.

    The long and short of it is that wars are not good; let us stop them. Only God himself can put out the flame of domestic wars, but we can try our best with the rest. Those do nothing but point to the failure of human intelligence. Nothing succeeds as much as good governance, fairness and justice. A good mixture of those elements can give us a world without wars, Amen.

     

    – This piece was first published on 27 January, 2013

     

  • Zuriel, Nigeria’s wonder kid

    Zuriel, Nigeria’s wonder kid

    Monday, August 12 is Daniel, my last child’s tenth birthday. He is indeed a special child for my family in many ways among which is the fact that he is what some people call the ‘extra or bonus’ child – the unexpected child when you think you are through with having babies.

    He was born seven years after my third born. His coming-however, caused some panic as I was barely managing to survive with my family. No thanks to my failed attempts to be self, employed, I didn’t have enough to pay my bills.

    I had disposed of my problematic car and the future was really bleak. However I had a revelation to name the expected child, Korede, which in Yoruba means bring fortune,.

    Thankfully, the young man that turns ten tomorrow true to his name, fortune,. I miraculously bought a car shortly before he was born. I later got a top editorial job I was not expecting, moved to a better accommodation and the story of my family has been from one level of glory to glory.

    So much for Korede, who is really not the focus of this piece. My real focus is another ten year-old; a Nigerian girl, Zuriel Oduwole who last week made history as the youngest person ever to be interviewed in Forbes, the global iconic magazine title, in its almost hundred years of publication.

    Zuriel the award winning documentary film maker, conference speaker and writer who featured in the August 2013 edition of Forbes Africa is touted by some as the next Larry King, considering her record of interviewing leading African business, political, and sports personalities, including eight  current African Presidents, Africa’s richest person, Aliko Dangote, and Tennis super stars – Venus  and  Serena Williams.

    Zuriel is committed to Rebrand Africa by showing the positive things about the continent, and making the case for education the girl -child in Africa and Emerging Markets.

    For her age and notwithstanding that she lives in America, Zuriel’s story sounds like a fairy tale but it is true. She is not only a whizkid but a rare gem that has proved that accomplishment in life is not about how far but how well.

    Her responses to my questions during an online interview I had with her which will be published on Tuesday confirms her incredible understanding of issues many of her age cannot comprehend and boldness not expected of a ten -year- old.

    She recalled that during her interview with President Goodluck Jonathan, she asked him how much goodluck his name has brought to Nigeria. All the heads of states she interviewed must have been expecting some ‘childlike’ questions from her, but she shocked them with her very articulate questions.

    Though as a girl-child living in the comfort of America she could have chosen not to be bothered about the plight of the African girl-child, but Zuriel’s campaign is commendable and deserves all the support she can get to get her message through to all who need to hear and do something about it.

    Africa must have many other Zuriels waiting to be discovered and encouraged to fulfill their visions. The challenge is that we need to provide an enabling environment for them to thrive and accomplish their goals in record time.

    Zuriel should be an inspiration to all, not only kids of her age, including my Korede, but all youths who desire to impact on the present and coming generation.

  • 12 hours to get a driver’s licence

    Some weeks back the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) played a fast one on Nigerians. In a perfectly simulated photo operation, former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s application for the so-called new driver’s licence was processed and he was issued one within minutes as shown on television. The Corps Marshal, Osita Chidoka, was the perfect host on that day, beaming with smiles and the pictures of the drama splashed on newspaper pages the second day.

    If, however, you believe that show, I feel for you, as my experience on Friday, August 2, at the Ojodu, Lagos office of the FRSC confirmed that it was a drama. Truly we’ve been conned and still being deceived. It took me just 12 hours, yes 12 hours, to be “captured”, pardon the bad grammar as though one was an escapee from a maximum security prison. I went through the painful and macabre show simply because of my decision to go through the normal route and refusal to use any backdoor arrangement as I have enough contacts and friends made over the years as a journalist who are high in the FRSC hierarchy. But I wanted to see what ordinary Nigerians with nobody to smoothen their ways go through in the hands of state agents.

    My horrific journey began on February 26 this year when I commenced the application process for the renewal of my driver’s licence which was about to expire. Go online and pay the required money, the numerous adverts and leaflets proclaimed with gusto. As a law abiding citizen, I followed the steps meticulously, paid the stipulated charges, and went through the tests. Thereafter, I took all the documents to the FRSC unit at Ojodu and that was where I knew it was not going to be an easy application. In the wisdom of the officials, they gave me a date that was six good months away, August 2, stamped “Valid & Physical Capture Date, Ojodu Processing Station”.

    It was comical and all my pleas for a new date fell on deaf ears, but since I had a paper which shows that my application was being processed I was not bothered and as long as I can drive without being waylaid or molested by FRSC officials or policemen, all is well. Surprisingly, no law enforcement agent stopped me to ask for my driver’s licence during the period. An officer was kind enough to give me his number and I kept on calling just to be in touch with the process, he continually reassured me that nothing will shift my “capture” date.

    I returned to Lagos on the evening of Thursday, August 1, so as to be able to partake in the exercise the next day. Friends and family members who have been “captured” told me that the 7am time for the exercise is sacrosanct and so I should not miss it for anything. One actually told me that I stand the risk of being asked to come back in three months’ time if I did not get to Ojodu by 7am. And so I joined the bankers and Lagos Island workers’ train of early commuters and fortunately got to Ojodu at 7:05 am. Morning shows the day, the English say. My first shock was the sheer number of people I met at the office at that early period so much that someone was already arguing with a FRSC man at the gate in order to be allowed to park inside the compound and not outside.

    Sensibly, I drove ahead and turned back to pack at the bus stop directly in front of the office but I was not comfortable with the place I parked. As I kept thinking about this, another car parked behind me. Perhaps the driver saw my discomfort at where I parked and as he locked his car after his wife and a child disembarked, he said to me, “Nobody will tow your car away from this place, just relax.” We went in together and there we were met by a crowd that reminds one of the January 2012 fuel subsidy protests. Confusion and bedlam were the hallmarks of the gathering with no signs or direction to point those of us who were there for the exercise to where we should go.

    Questions, questions, and more questions led us to a hall where a woman FRSC officer was addressing applicants. Unsurprisingly, there was no electric supply, meaning no amplifier and so we all strained our ears to hear her properly. Time was 7:30am and the odour emanating from the hall reminds one of putrefying bacteria feasting on a decomposing corpse. As I stood at the entrance, I surveyed the crowd, I saw women with their kids, husbands and wives, young and old all waiting to be “captured.” We all clutched our application documents tightly like refugees waiting to hear if their application for asylum will be granted by the host countries.

    “Move back, move back, you are suffocating us,” the woman whose name tag reads Babasanya intoned. Pleading with the applicants, she threatened to stop the process if we kept pressing against her and the three other FRSC officers sitting down. Trust Nigerians, “Why don’t you move back too,” they asked as if they did not know why people had to press closer. Babasanya done, a gentleman started reading out the names of those of us scheduled for that day. Nothing suggested that he was a FRSC personnel as he was in mufti, he called people asking us to answer “present” just the same way teachers taught us in elementary schools.

    Things got rowdy at this point as many could not hear their names, but somehow the process continued. I thought it was not going to be my turn until I heard my name, “you’re 228″, the class teacher told me. I memorised it as Officer Babasanya wrote the number and signed on my application. I stepped outside to catch my breath; time was 8:45 am. An hour after, we were summoned into the hall again where those of us from number 120 upwards were asked to come back by 1pm. Meanwhile, all pregnant women and parents with children were given preference of being attended to first and everyone agreed.

    That was when I discovered that my case could be classified as neither good nor bad. Not good because some started the process in May and some in June. Bad because some were there for the second or third time having missed earlier appointments due to lateness or inability to respond when their names were called on those days. There were people from Sango Ota, a border town in Ogun State, Agbara, Badagry, Ijanikin, and other far-flung places. Some have been victims of the system having patronised touts who gave them fake licence culminating in their arrest. Further, we saw some waltzing in and being attended to before those of us whose names were called in the morning.

    On my return in the afternoon, the process was moving slowly that less than 60 people have been attended to. Another officer with name tag Aduloju, was the courier walking the distance from the data room to the hall. “Number 60 to 70,” he summoned as I arrived. By 3pm, tempers have risen that there was apprehension if the 300 people whose names were called will be “captured”. By the way, those who came late or missed their names were given March 2014 as the next appointment. Optometrists were around to conduct eye tests and some applicants were turned back due to bad eyesight. It was shocking that some were teaching them how to beat the system next time. “But they cannot see, how will they drive?” I asked. My opinion was an unpopular one and I wisely walked away.

    Fortunately, the generator started working and with the population reducing, the hall became more habitable. Forces of demand and supply took over with sellers providing drinks for people to quench their thirst. At 5:30 pm, I was called to be “captured” and led to a canopy in front of the data centre where we waited again. Thirty minutes later, four of us entered the powerful room where only two computers were working and the two officers, a man and woman, thoroughly overworked, were slaving away. Officers Babasanya and Aduloju, however, deserve accolades for doing a great job under the kind of suffocating conditions they work.

    Two machines for 300 people! My fingerprints were taken and photo too, “Go to room 28 to pick it up,” we were told. Room 28 was in darkness as there was no bulb, it was 6:30pm and our names were entered into another log book. Time now 7pm, a temporary driver’s licence was given to me after parting with N100 for lamination without a receipt. I stepped out of the premises at 7:12 pm.

    Mr. Osita Chidoka, this system is not working, please dismantle it.

     

     

    Mr. Fatade is a Lagos-based journalist

  • Some PDP’s frailties that should leapfrog APC to power

    Some PDP’s frailties that should leapfrog APC to power

    Billions, no longer millions at which eyes used to pop and for which a distinguished FEDECO Chairman said he would have collapsed, now reads like pennies in PDP’s corruption odyssey.

    Corruption in Nigeria diverts financial resources from building roads, and bridges, curtailing the development of infrastructure that is needed to make Nigeria more competitive. It drains the federal treasury of funds that could do wonders in expanding and improving the education provided to millions of Nigerian children which, in turn, would enhance Nigeria’s economic future. Corruption forestalls additional spending on medical clinics and preventive health-care spending that countless studies have shown reap long-term economic rewards for a country when properly implemented. In short, corruption is a scourge that undermines virtually everything that could move Nigeria towards a brighter economic future.’ – Jeffrey Hawkins -U.S Consul-General

    For its frailties, which I define as inherent moral turpitude leading to inability to resist evil, top of which is corruption, of both material and the entire Nigerian governmental apparatus, the Peoples Democratic Party ought to have been dead a thousand times and more. That the party, consisting of an amalgam of those elder statesman Tunji Braithwaite described as ‘rats and cockroaches’ during the Second Republic, is still alive and kicking is due, not to the patronage and racketeers which cohere it, but the in-explainable inability of the opposition political parties to have massed against it when that was the earnest wishes of a majority of Nigerians.

    One thing that needs be emphasised from the very beginning is that this has little or nothing to do with the person of President Jonathan, a decent gentleman, as corruption is ingrained in the party’s DNA. Nobody within PDP today can tame it. It currently has very experienced octogenarians at its policy-making levels which should ordinarily translate to a more nuanced party management but what do we have? As the Yoruba would say:’kaka ki ewe agbon de, lile lo nle si’, meaning that, rather than the coconut leaf getting softer, it’s getting tougher by the day. Corruption has become the party’s raison d’etre and this manifests in every segment of our national life.

    The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), under the lead of a very forthright Nigerian attorney, Ledum Mitee who, but for God’s mercy, would have long been consumed by the forebears of these roaches, has again presented its Audit Reports in compliance with the requirement of the global Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) covering the period 2009-2011.

    It reeks of nothing but corruption. And as is usual, the culpable government agencies, NNPC and PPRA, the latter in particular, have been fighting to the death to salvage what remains of their integrity coming on the heels of the massive oil subsidy scam in which scions of PDP leaders turned out the major culprits. Meanwhile, as has become the norm, both the EFCC and the judiciary are playing poker over that serious matter such that by the time they came up with their slaps on the wrist, Nigerians, weighed down by their daily gruelling toils, would have forgotten all about it.

    The report covered physical and process issues that characterise business activities in the industry with a view to establishing if companies actually paid what they were expected to pay and if government indeed received what it ought to receive. The report recommends that the NNPC should: ·’settle domestic crude liability of N842.7 billion adhere to due process in accessing subsidy deductions out of crude oil proceeds;. carry out a comprehensive documentation system of the records and reconciliation of volumes and value of PSCs and Carry transactions; design a system that suitably controls gas income to the Federation; confirm remittance of $3.789billion (dividends from NLNG) to the Federation Account; strengthen controls over product importation and distribution and specify a unique methodology for managing crude sales during a Trial Marketing Period’.

    It should be noted that some of the above, where they are not direct thefts, are wonky systems put in place to facilitate stealing from the national treasury. PPRA is to remit N4.423 billion to the Federation Account for the period in review; a report which Reginald Ibe, its Executive Secretary, as should be expected, has disputed as if Nigerians do not know that agency enough.

    As is now well known, the PDP, for purposes of 2015, will never have the political will to deal appropriately with these well documented acts of non-transparency. As with the pension fund and the humongous oil subsidy fraud, so shall it be with the NEITI Audited Report.

    Nor is corruption the only issue APC should leverage on to send PDP to where it rightly belongs in historical infamy.

    The other day I laughed my heart out at the spectacle of our dear President at the wheel of a Land Rover besotted by a swooning array of well decorated PDP women in a scene so reminiscent of Mr Bode George’s court days. A few questions immediately crossed my mind about this ‘Sagamu road-show’, as my brother, and colleague columnist, Dr Jide Oluwajuyitan, has described it: Don’t these otherwise innocent women know that their zone of the party has long been forgotten by the powers that be in Abuja? I also wondered what became of then President Obasanjo’s no less imaginative ‘road show’ as he flagged off the Ibadan-Ilorin road as Baba Adedibu held court in Ibadan and elsewhere? Is the road now completed a decade after? Then I remembered the delectable and hard-working Mrs. Deizani Alison-Madueke then of the Works Ministry who, overcome by her lachrymal glands, cried like a baby whose milk was snatched, bemoaning the sorry state of the Ore-Benin Road post N300Bllion.

    Honestly, in ‘Mummy land’ – apologies music impresario Lagbaja, I think our ‘mumu e don do.’

    Worse though is the fact that nothing suggests,given PDP’s track record, that the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way project will ever be competed even if it rules for its chimerical 60 years. I quote Oluwajuyitan, again,to buttress this view point. Wrote Jide in his column in The Nation of Thursday , August 8: ‘The Presidential Projects Assessment Committee (PPAC), set up in March 2011 to look into cases of abandoned federal government projects claimed that there were 11,886 abandoned projects that will cost an estimated N778 trillion to complete…’ More interesting is the fact that many of these abandoned projects are located within the really favoured territories of the PDP , namely: the 400 metre long Utor bridge along Asaba-Ebu-Uromi road awarded in 2006, the 36 kilometre Bodo-Bonny road in Rivers state, awarded in 2002, the abandoned 285 NNDC projects not to mention the never- never East-West road which has not only pitted the Rivers State governor against the Niger Delta Affairs Minister but has ensured that foot soldiers have already been conscripted in Burutu, Warri, Ughelli, Ozoro and Asaba, in what should be the mother of all wars between respected Chief Edwin Clark and his son,the wannabe governor, Godsday Orubebe, two unmatchable supporters of Mr President.

    If all these are happening in the President’s geo-political zone, I do not think the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway stands a ghost of a chance of completion. After all,morning, they say, shows the day, and we already saw enough ruckus on that road. What that expansive ceremony and project would most probably achieve will be easy campaign funds, nor would that be the first time.

    If the above are material and measurable damages to our common wealth, the PDP had also ensured they damaged Nigeria so morally that an international pariah like Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean owner, could, with a wave of the hand, reject the African Union’s appointment of PDP’s one-time Chairman, Board of Trustees, and Nigeria’s, unarguably, most remarkable living statesman -Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, to lead its observer team to that country’s recent election. Mugabe did not have to think twice – no thanks to PDP’s record of ignominious election charades.

    The above are obviously only a small fraction of the multitude of PDP’s infractions which the new party should adroitly exploit in getting rid of PDP; a party which inner peace has long deserted as there is no moral authority within it any longer. Billions, no longer millions at which eyes used to pop and for which a distinguished FEDECO Chairman said he would have collapsed, now reads like pennies in PDP’s corruption odyssey.

    APC leaders, officials, members and Nigerians in general, must rise up like one man/woman, as has been elegantly canvassed by Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila,leader of opposition in the House of Representatives, and take ownership of this party which is destined to re brand Nigeria.