The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • Unending battle for soul of NGF

    Unending battle for soul of NGF

    The Jonathan presidency is obviously in no haste to accelerate the tempo of governance and up the ante of its performance. This is certainly no surprise for an administration that awarded itself a superlative mid term performance report card based on a self-designed ‘marking scheme’ even if the quality of life of the vast majority of Nigerians bespeaks an embarrassingly mediocre Federal Government. Even as the country drifts dangerously further on the stormy waters of poverty, graft and insecurity on a daily basis, the Jonathan presidency is content with dissipating time and energy on a petty, needless ego war for the control of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF). All this is, of course, motivated by the perceived higher political ambition of the Chairman of the forum, Governor Rotimi Amaechi in 2015, and the need to de-fang him at all costs and by all means before then. So far, the attempt to prevent Amaechi from being re-elected for a second term as NGF Chairman, has backfired badly and become a veritable public relations disaster for both the presidency and the 16 minority governors who cast their lot, unsuccessfully, with Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State.

    But then the Presidency is unrelenting. It creates the impression that the world will come to an end if Amaechi is not removed as NGF Chairman at all costs. In the process, the legitimate, democratically elected government of Rivers State has been deliberately sabotaged and undermined. The state House of Assembly has been emasculated and incapacitated for the flimsiest and untenable of reasons. The Rivers State chapter of the PDP has been split through curious judicial processes emanating from Abuja. Militants and other ruffians have been encouraged to demonstrate on the streets of Port Harcourt against Amaechi thus eroding the normalcy and peace that had been restored to Port Harcourt under the governor. The ebullient and irrepressible First Lady, Dame Patience, was recently in Port Harcourt for nearly a week where she illegally and immorally flaunted federal might, made inciting public statements against the Governor and generally carried on in a very unruly and rather unladylike-like manner.

    Having failed to prevent the democratic re-election of Amaechi as NGF Chairman, the presidency has been active in striving to keep the body divided and preventing Amaechi from functioning. The latest antic of an apparently idle presidency was to invite governors for a meaningless and needless presidential dinner at Aso Rock Villa for the same day and time that Amaechi had convened a meting of the forum. Despite all the harassment and relentless pressure, the 19 pro- Amaechi governors have refused to be intimidated. They have insisted that his mandate in a free, fair and open election in which 35 governors participated remains sacrosanct and inviolate. So far, the 16 dissenting governors have been unable to conjure the figures to magically transform their minority into a majority.

    In deference to the office of the President, the 19 majority governors under Amaechi’s leadership decided to honour Aso Rock’s dinner invitation. But what reportedly happened at the event was unbelievable. Presidential body guards prevented Amaechi from paying his respects to Jonathan in the hall saying it was a breach of protocol. The presidency was thus perceived as descending to new depths of pettiness, meanness and vindictiveness. In the same way, the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mr Mbu Joseph Mbu, had been encouraged and emboldened to cast aspersions on and disparage the office of the Governor. There was no reprimand of the unruly police commissioner from any higher authority. State institutions that should be relatively autonomous of partisan politics are thus directly or indirectly given official cover to undermine legitimate authority.

    The entire NGF saga has hurt the Jonathan presidency badly. Hardly anyone believes the futile effort by presidency officials to distance Jonathan from the attempt to divide and, if possible, destroy the forum. Surely, this does not appear like the man who once claimed he did not want to be a Goliath, Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar. No, this is not the same man who would readily kneel before men of God exuding humility and deep spirituality. In the wake of the unfolding NGF drama, the President has come across as vindictive, unforgiving and lacking in grace and large heartedness. The impression has been created that he will readily utilize the immense powers and influence of his office to achieve his desires even if this leads to the violation of due process and institutional integrity.

    President Jonathan’s position has been made even more untenable by the comic and laughable posturing of the 16 minority governors. With each passing day it becomes more obvious that they are only bad and losers unwilling to abide by democratic tenets. There is the irrefutable video evidence of the voting process that has gone viral on the social media. The very argument that Jang had been endorsed in a preceding consensus arrangement undertaken in secret implies that he lost the actual open and transparent election. Furthermore, governors like Sule Lamido of Jigawa State, Rabiu Kwankwanso of Kano State and Babangida Aliyu of Niger State have openly named the PDP governors that voted for Amaechi thus making nonsense of claims of a bloc vote for Jang by northern governors.

    Even worse than the charge of being undemocratic is the impression that the 16 governors are perpetrating a deliberate falsehood by claiming that a loser won an election among 35 presumably honourable men. Surely, somebody is lying. So can President Jonathan continue to lend the weight of his office, directly or indirectly, to the charade of the minority governors. I believe this would do incalculable, almost irreversible, harm to his already seriously eroded moral integrity and ethical authority.

    Yet, the President and his strategists seem to have boxed themselves into a tight corner. They have antagonized Amaechi too openly, too vehemently and too bitterly to beat a honourable retreat now. Yet, it is unlikely that they can ever get majority of the governors to back a candidate who will be seen as a stooge of the presidency. At the end of the day, the outcome most likely to salvage and even boost President Jonathan’s image is one that portrays him as placing fidelity to democratic principles above partisan considerations. If he shows a willingness to respect the autonomy of the NGF and the right of the governors to democratically choose their Chairman, many of them may be willing to give him a face saving way out of the log jam. But then, the forces backing genuine autonomy for the NGF and thus Amaechi’s Chairmanship may be as strategically interested in the permutations for 2015 as the pro-Jonathan forces so obviously are. In which case, the ongoing battle for the soul of the NGF may continue right up to the next general elections.

  • Again, Cameron hits Nigeria

    Again, Cameron hits Nigeria

    British Prime Minister David Cameron has hit Nigeria again. He was reported saying Nigerians entering the United Kingdom would deposit £3,000 (about N750,000) before they are let in. The money, it was said, would be returned if the immigrant did not stay longer than his visa stipulated. The report has had Nigerians fuming, from the Presidency to the National Assembly to the streets. Some have called for a retaliatory response, judging that Cameron’s planned move is unfair, uncalled-for, punitive and disrespectful. In other words, it is a hit below the belt.

    I share Nigerians’ sense of collective offence caused by the UK PM’s disposition. But not our apparent eagerness to draw out the 47-year-old British leader for battle beginning with a well-aimed counter-punch. Cameron hardly speaks for himself. He conveys the mood of his people, and that mood is generally not pro-Nigeria or Africa, whose citizens die to live in the white man’s country. Britain does not pretend to respect Nigeria from which it gets only raw materials, not finished products. Our old colonial and neo-colonial lords do not see us as equals when our people do everything to settle in their land to struggle for space and facilities with them. And even cause them grief.

    After the killing in London of officer Drummer Lee Rigby on May 22 and the arrest of two men, Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, both of Nigerian descent, some British people started a campaign to restrict the entry of our people into their country.

    The planned £3,000 visa bond did not surprise me. It was a blow, alright, but Cameron has since developed a fondness for blowing us. In November, 2011, he tried to bully us on gay and lesbian relationships. Back then, I wrote an article entitled “Don’t blame Cameron”.

    I reprint some of that article here:

    “Meeting with former colonies of imperial Great Britain in Australia, Cameron told the world that African nations that were not gay-friendly would not get any aids from his country. In other words, if your country’s laws are not favourable to people in same sex relationships, then you get nothing from Britain. If your country does not allow homosexuals to marry one another, British aid is not for you. No gays, no aids. That, in a nutshell, is Cameron’s law.

    You probably sensed the Prime Minister’s imperial confidence. But can you blame him? At 45, he is the youngest PM Britain would have in two years short of two centuries. He is well educated, coming away with a first class from Oxford. The fact that he presides over the affairs of a country which once reigned over a good portion of the world looks like something to crow about.

    So why shouldn’t Cameron be cocky? Why shouldn’t he strut around with a swagger?

    But, really, was that why he demanded that African countries must embrace gays and same sex union in order to get any assistance? No!

    Was that why he practically insisted that we must swallow what we spat out? Was that why the British PM wanted age-old taboos and abominations to become present-day delicacies? No! Cameron could not have slighted Africans simply because he heads the great Great Britain of colonial fame. No. Britain’s imperial profile is not necessarily a bullying tool. The United States and Canada, for instance, were once British colonies but I cannot imagine Britain slighting them over aids the way Cameron did Africa. I cannot imagine him or anyone else asking Americans or Canadians to embrace the very things they abhor as a people or change the things that sum them up as distinct nations simply because they need help.

    God detests sodomy, and wiped out the biblical city that gave the word to the world because of that satanic indulgence. African communities also detest it, and do not approve of gay marriage of any gender.

    Should we now embrace sodomy and allow men to marry their kind, and women to tie the nuptial knots with women just because we want British aid? By what strand of logic should that be allowed to stand? Even in Britain an anti-gay pastor of Nigerian parentage has just been voted the most inspirational African, beating Obama and Mandela.

    The reason Cameron is harassing us with his curious advocacy is because we are a very poor, borrower continent. It is because we have failed to grow up and fend for ourselves. Africa is a notorious receptacle of other people’s products of all types. We are a deficit continent, importing almost everything under the sun. What we manage to export is in crude form, and is often shipped back to us at prohibitive costs. It robs us of economic power. Take Nigeria’s crude oil as an example. Then take Ivory Coast’s cocoa, too. The world’s biggest supply of cocoa comes from that West African country where it is produced so crudely and so cheaply, sometimes by child labour. But cocoa feeds the chocolate factories of Europe and boosts their economies. Even in colonial times, our raw products were shipped overseas to grow their economies while we remained impoverished.

    Nothing has changed. We are still impoverished. We beg and borrow, beg and borrow again. Our creditors know this. Cameron knows this, too. My folks in Delta State say your barber reserves the right to twist your neck. So when we want to look good, we turn to our barbers in the West and, trust them, they sure know how to twist our necks. Beggarly people beget donor insult. That is what Cameron has done with the gay insult. We should not blame him.

  • Globalisation and the politics of ideas

    Globalisation and the politics of ideas

    When a state governor in Port Harcourt dares the State Police Commissioner to shoot him when he leads a

    demonstration that the Commissioner has refused to approve for security reasons then a real crisis of confidence and security is imminent. Yet that is what happened between Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State and the State Police boss over the week and it was carried all over the world. In the US, before coming to Africa on tour, President Barak Obama sent a message to some same sex couples congratulating them on the slim decision of the US Supreme Court to cancel a US law that excluded gay couples from certain property rights on the grounds that they are not man and woman. That in Obama’s view is a victory for freedom, a stance echoed by Amnesty International which at about the same time asked African nations and governments to desist from the practice of homophobia which is hatred of homosexuals.

    In Qatar the unimaginable happened when the Emir of Qatar aged 61 suddenly handed power to his son aged 33 in a nation or area that kings reigned forever or were forcibly removed from office as the abdicating Emir did to his own father when he seized the Qatar royal throne in the nineties. On security matters and the law, the US received a lecture on legal process from Hong Kong over the extradition application the US put in over the arrest of Intelligence whistle blower Edward Snowden who the Hong Kong Authorities allowed to travel because he had not violated Hong Kong’s law which Hong Kong claim is the superior authority on Hong Kong territory. To rub salt into US injured ego on this, the whistle blower proceeded via Moscow which turned a blind eye ostensibly enroute to Ecuador whose Foreign Affairs Minister gave another homily on freedom and human rights to the US as the fugitive whistle blower was in transit to Ecuador whose London Embassy is housing another famous whistle blower the Wiki Leak editor Assange. Strange events and happenings you may call all these global news, but thanks to globalization and information technology, one can keep abreast of the new ideas and perceptions they generate and acknowledge that nothing is sacrosant in the world anymore.

    From the unthinkable squabble between the Governor and the Police Commissioner in PH, to Obama’s happiness at gay marriages, to the unexpected abdication in modern Arabia and the evolution of Ecuador as the new global sanctuary for whistle blowers tormenting the US, it is apparent that the world is moving on in terms of ideas like the fast bullet trains in China and France which race with time to deliver passengers to their destinations in the twinkle of an eye .But then let us pause awhile to digest the nitty gritty of these strange events which are like a clash of titans and even civilizations but which certainly strongly challenge the status quo as we know it today.

    First Governor Amaechi’s ‘shooting’ challenge to the PC is a sure sign of a breakdown in communication and confidence between the executive and security arm of government in the state. So the state is on the verge of anarchy and the PC should just have asked for a new posting or assignment from his bossesas the Governor is the elected Chief Executive Officer of the State in charge of Security in the Presidential System of government in our constitution. The Governor had earlier reportedly accused the PC of whistle blowing on matters discussed at the State Security Council Meeting in which he is a key member. The fact that in spite of this the PC is staying put and the Governor has issued the ‘shoot’challenge is bad for democracy not only in Nigeria but in any part of the world. If the state governor feels threatened by his chief security officer in the state, then the rule of law is in jeopardy in the state and security is none existent. Which means that the common man is on his own or should just flee the state and that is a real pity. Yet a solution has to be found before the situation degenerates further.

    President Obama’s happiness at the rights of gay couples is distinctly American happiness which most Africans definitely find distasteful given their own cultural and religious background and history – and the US leader had better understand that on his African tour. In S Africa he will be on safer ground as that nation recognizes gay rights but he should not broach the topic in Tanzania and Senegal a very Islamic nation. Indeed at a news conference in Senegal Obama asked for respect for different laws while the President of Senegal retorted that Senegal was not ready to change its laws and that does not make it homophobic as the Amnesty International was saying of such African nations. In addition it is not the duty of Amnesty International to tell the legislatures of African nations what laws to enact to govern their people. Warning them on Homophobia is therefore an extravagant and insensitive preoccupation and is a violation of their sovereign rights to make laws as expected in a democracy founded on human rights that Amnesty International is expected to defend and promote instead of heckling them on gay rights which in some places is just a taboo from time immemorial .

    The abdication in Qatar is a sign of the changing times especially in the Arab world. According to the IMF, Qatar has the highest GDP in the world and is very much involved in the conflict in Syria on the side of the opposition. In Qatar itself where the royal family holds sway, the Arab Spring street revolutions in North Africa has rattled royal nerves on tenacity of office and that may have propelled the abdication. Similarly the abdicating Emir may not want to present himself as another coup target for his son as he did to his father, hence the move to step aside in good time. What this shows again is that life Emirship may become an anachronism and perhaps that too may translate into more power sharing and diffuse political participation by more people in Qatar’s closed, and very wealthy monarchy. Surely for the monarchy in Qatar, the fear of an uprising similar to that in the Arab Spring revolutions in S Africa and neighboring Bahrain is the beginning of wisdom in modern governance and political survival .

    Fleeing whistle blower Edward Snowden has provided ample opportunity for some nations to poke fun at the US human rights record. The President of Russia Vladmir Putin confirmed that Snowden is in the transit lounge at a Russian Airport but is a free citizen to go anywhere outside Russia. The US has accused Russia of treating its request for Snowden’s extradition with levity undeserved by a UN Security Member like the US. But the Russians are not moved. Similarly the Chinese Communist Party’s newspaper laughed at the Americans for hypocrisy for condemning human rights violation elsewhere while gathering private information on individuals and institutions at home, which is what Snowden has exposed. Really Snowden is charged by the US government with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defence information and communications of classified communications intelligence.

    Let us look at the Snowden saga again. Morally what Snowden has done is a breach of confidence and he has betrayed his nation. But he told some people that as a computer expert he could not stand gathering information on people and institutions without their consent which he thinks is a violation of human rights and he is certainly right on this. Obviously he has hit a raw spot in America’s foreign policy by divulging such information and must be ready for the consequences. Even if he gets refuge in Ecuador he will be a refuge ever on the run as he will have problems once the present President of Ecuador who is anti America completes his second and final term and a new president well disposed to the US comes to power. For now, the US is feeling the heat and power of globalization which it set in motion years ago. The powerful US cannot catch one man just because the whole world is watching how the US plays by its own rules on international law, human rights and the sanctity of human life. That is a very exhilarating and educative spectacle indeed.

  • Keshi sack Amokachi now

    Keshi sack Amokachi now

    Stephen Keshi deserves to be praised. We

    had written off the Super Eagles until the

    Big Boss turned things around for the better. But, Keshi got intoxicated and wanted to run the race all by himself. Such ambitious moves are permitted, except that football is a team sport.

    Wherever Keshi is today, he would realise the difference between being a winner and a loser. Keshi changed his lines, which were usually jammed after the Cup of Nations. He evaded calls – not because he didn’t want to answer them; he needed rest after guiding Nigeria to lift the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa.

    Now Keshi’s phones aren’t that busy. Don’t worry, Nigerians are like that. They like winners. Who doesn’t, anyway? What happened to the Eagles in Brazil was expected, given the pedigree of some of the four countries that qualified for the Confederations Cup semi-final. Yet I felt that Nigeria would have upset the apple cart had we not totally destroyed the Eagles side that lifted the Africa Cup of Nations on February 10.

    Ideally, that winning squad ought to have formed the nucleus of the squad to Brazil. Keshi thought otherwise. I won’t blame him. He wanted to avert the setting where some players would think that they are indispensable. I have no quarrel with such instructive changes, provided they are not done on the altar of using indiscipline to eliminate players who don’t bow to the coach.

    Keshi should subject his list to the scrutiny of the technical committee. He needs to explain why he picked players for assignments. They may not agree with some of his reasons. They could also provide solutions which he could tacitly accept by subjecting those new additions to his programmes in camp, because without the technical committee members, he has no job. When Keshi was employed, he subjected himself to the committee’s scrutiny and we saw the results.

    He denied himself of holidays while rebuilding the squad. Today, he doesn’t work with those people. He picks his squad without consultation. This has brought plenty of problems, given the replacements he has made. They are not better than the 2013 heroes. If you must make changes, they must be worth it and task the 2013 heroes in a competitive environment.

    To correct this mistake, Keshi must accept to work with the technical committee because his right hand man, Daniel Amokachi, has failed. Amokachi should teach the strikers how to convert chances. He doesn’t. He cajoles Keshi to drop players who don’t kowtow to his dictates, forgetting that they are adults who make their decisions.

    I recall asking Keshi why he opted for Amokachi. What I went home with was that Da Bull was picked to satisfy the geopolitical zones in Nigeria. Keshi’s body language, while we talked on the subject showed that he would have preferred the Togolese Valarie.

    Amokachi was a prolific striker with the Eagles, easily one of our best. It is a different setting now as a coach. Amokachi should be left to do his television commentaries with Supersports weekly programmes instead of being a cog in the Eagles’ wheel.

    Eagles have problems with their attack because Amokachi has failed to identify the right strikers for Keshi. Nigeria is blessed with strikers. I’m not surprised that Amokachi doesn’t know what to do. He is a loudmouthed braggart who feels he knows it all not to ask the relevant questions from the domestic league coaches. Keshi needs to move on without Amokachi. No paddy paddy for jungle, Big Boss; a word is enough for the wise.

    I’m sure that if Fernando Torres was a Nigerian, he would have been dropped from the Confederations Cup squad based on his club form. The Spanish coach stuck to Torres because of his records with the national team. This is the first lesson Keshi should learn from his unfulfilled mission to Brazil.

    It is a travesty that Ikechukwu Uche has been dumped from the Eagles simply because he was poor at the Africa Cup of Nations. He is the country’s highest goal scorer behind the legendary Rashidi Yekini. He didn’t have a good outing in South Africa, but he is a better player than those Keshi paraded in Brazil. Ike Uche’s poor show wasn’t surprising after a long lay-off from football due to an injury he sustained while playing for Nigeria. It isn’t also fair to drop Ike Uche on spurious claims that he and two other players canvassed for Keshi’s sack with a certain top shot at the National Sports Commission (NSC). Do you not have a contract to know that players cannot sack you? I’m sure too that if Balotelli were a Nigerian, Keshi would have banned him for his conduct. The Italians haven’t done that. They have stuck with Balotelli because of his talent which transcends his “negative” attitudes. Keshi, please show me a perfect being; are you one? I dey laugh o!

    It is about time Keshi reached out to Shola Ameobi. He dumped Nigeria at the Cup of Nations due to contract clauses with Newcastle, not because he doesn’t want to play for Nigeria. I don’t know why Keshi always insists on players showing commitment to Nigeria before he picks them. Do these players not have reasons why they are reluctant to play for Nigeria? In any case, there are two sides.

    Therefore, Keshi must head to England to sort out things with Victor Anichebe. Anichebe is indifferent to playing for Nigeria because each time he sustains an injury he is neglected until when he is fit. The good thing is that this trend didn’t happen in Keshi’s tenure. Instead of demanding commitment from Anichebe, given his reason, Keshi should go to England. He does not need to call. His presence will convince Anichebe that things would change.

    Suarez won’t be in Brazil with Keshi’s hard line rule. The Uruguayans took him. His impact was awesome until they were eliminated in the semi-finals by Brazil on Wednesday night. The lesson again is that good players are brats. Keshi needs to manage players’ idiosyncrasies. He should pick what he wants in them and get the results. A coach is as good as his last result and Keshi’s in Brazil, I dare say, is nothing to cheer. Osaze Odemwingie’s comments have been terrible. He can be forgiven if he apologises. He can still play for the Eagles. Obinna Nsofor has a place in the Eagles, only if Keshi wants him. Nsofor ranks among the few players who give everything playing for Nigeria. He is clearly better than those Keshi paraded in Brazil. Eagles’ camp should not be a rehabilitation centre. It also shouldn’t be the platform to expose players for mercantile purposes.

    Those who didn’t see anything wrong in Keshi placing skipper Joseph Yobo in limbo must ask why the Uruguayans ensured that Diego Forlan hit the landmark 100 caps for his country. Unlike Yobo, Forlan was stripped of his captain’s band, yet the coaches fielded the Uruguayan. Of course, he capped his 100th game with a blistering goal, as if to remind Keshi that it takes nothing out of any coach to help his captain attain glory. Yobo should return now that a void has been created in the defence.

    I don’t know what was going on in Keshi’s mind for refusing to replace injured Ogenyi Onazi. Onazi promised to rejoin the team, according to the doctors. Was that enough to convince Keshi? He must be ruing his folly because Oduamadi’s injury further reduced the Eagles’ depth-in-strength, ahead of Sunday’s outing against Spain.

    Keshi should carefully look at Brazil’s coaching crew. It has Pererrira on the bench as one of the assistants. He won the 2002 World Cup for Brazil. He is there to help Scolari expose the weak points of the team. He also reads the games for Scolari.

    I don’t know if Keshi has ever called Adegboye Onigbinde for advice? The Big Boss must emulate what happens elsewhere. He doesn’t know how to read matches. His substitutions are awful, leaving those watching the Eagles’ games asking if he understands his team.

    If Keshi is reluctant in sacking Amokachi, can’t the NFF help him out? This is the time for Keshi to mend fences with his former players. He needs them; 2014 is barely 12 months away. The rebuilding of the Eagles must stop, if we hope to make any impact next year.

  • Our moral triumph over Brazil’s sex workers

    Our moral triumph over Brazil’s sex workers

     Depleted by injuries, and against the expectations of many, the senior national football team, the Super Eagles, managed to give a good account of themselves at the ongoing FIFA Confederations Cup. Fears that the team would not do well at the competition, which also featured other continental champions like Spain, Brazil, Italy, Mexico, Uruguay and Japan, had heightened with the blows that injuries dealt on influential members of the team like Emmanuel Emenike, Victor Moses, Onazi Ogenyi and Nnamdi Oduamadi. But like they did during the African Cup of Nations competition in January, the national team rose to the occasion, flying like the eagle and spinning like the bee.

    After their emphatic 6-1 victory over Oceania champions, Tahiti, they lost their two other group matches with Uruguay and world champions, Spain. But it was not with heads bowed as soccer analysts have observed. Against Uruguay, they lost by 1-2, but were superior to their opponents in terms of ball possession. They also lost to star-studded Spain by 0-3, but even the coach of the Spanish national team, Vicente del Bosque, admitted that the Super Eagles had posed the greatest threat to his team in recent years. With crisp and sharp passes, the African champions almost played at par with the masters of tiki-taka. They created chances at will, and would have scored some good goals, if the likes of Moses and Amunike were on parade.

    But while Nigerians and football analysts across the world have taken turns to hail the exploits of the Super Eagles on the pitch, I am particularly impressed with their ability to avoid the trap Brazilian prostitutes had set before their arrival in the Latin American country. A stone had dropped from my heart to my belly when the media reported the top-gear preparations the women of easy virtue were making to ensure adequate patronage from members of the Nigerian football team and their supporters during their stay in Brazil. A particular report indicated that in order to facilitate their ability to win our players’ patronage and succeed where Allen girls in Lagos have failed, Brazil’s Association of Prostitutes had hired experienced teachers to take the sex workers through some English classes. By the beginning of May, about six weeks to the commencement of the tournament, no fewer than 300 prostitutes were reported to have signed up for the training.

    “We teach basic expressions but also have demonstrations with erotic paraphernalia so they can learn the names, how to use them and propose them,” a volunteer named Igor Fuchs was quoted as saying, while the president of the Association of Prostitutes, Cida Vieira, said the lessons were meant to provide the prostitutes with communication skills to keep clients who don’t speak Portuguese (Brazil’s official language) happy during the competition and beyond. “We deal with gringos (foreign men) daily on the streets and in discos. We want to train the girls so they can better serve them,” Vieira added.

    Belo Horizonte, the Brazilian city where Nigeria thrashed Tahiti 6-1, is reputed to have no fewer than 80,000 sex workers, but there was no report of any desperate harlot getting as close as a radius of 50 metres to a Nigerian player or supporter. This, no doubt, is commendable, particularly when it is considered that no special arrangement was made by the Nigerian football authorities to fend off the prostitutes in spite of their open threats. It would seem, therefore, that whatever the players had lost in terms of tactical discipline, as observed by Sunday Oliseh, former captain of the team and now a football pundit, they gained in moral discipline.

    Those who think our sea of churches and mosques are only out to fleece unsuspecting members of the public must have realized by now how much impact they have made on our moral lives. Without the moral discipline that these religious institutions have instilled in our players, many of them could have fallen prey to the advances of Brazil’s prostitutes and the antics of their sponsors. That, certainly, would have constituted a major distraction to our campaign like it happened during one of our African Cup of Nations (AFCON) outings. After a dismal performance at the said AFCON tournament, it was discovered that some of our players had smuggled prostitutes into the hotel where they were accommodated and were busy sleeping with them while the competition lasted.

    The foregoing considered, I am beginning to think that contrary to the calls in some quarters that government should make churches to pay tax, it should begin to weigh the possibility of allocating funds to churches in the annual budget.

    But the threat is by no means over. To use the words of Shakespeare, we have only scorched the snake; not killed it. Brazil’s Association of Prostitutes would not invest so heavily in their members without expecting something in return. The days the Nigerian team spent in Brazil for the Confederations Cup competition might have been too few for the prostitutes to make headway in their pursuit of the Super Eagles players and their Nigerian supporters, but the situation will be different if we eventually qualify for the World Cup next year. With the prospect of going all the way in next year’s global football fiesta, our players will be more vulnerable than they were in the just-concluded contest. Given the foregoing, it will not be out of place to hire some reverend fathers who would go with the Eagles to the World Cup competition next year. The clergymen will camp with the players and continuously tell them to remember the sons of whom they are.

    There will never be an end to the devil’s antics. Brazil’s sex workers are laying ambush for our players at a time we are battling with the bid by Britain and other so-called advanced countries to drag us into the league of nations that glorify same-sex marriage. But strengthened by God and guided by our clergies, our delegation to the 2014 World Cup will return undefiled; just like they did at the just-concluded Confederations Cup.

  • Niggers with attitude (3)

    (Portrait of the Nigerian as a ‘black’ ant) 

    Life as a freeman is simply unthinkable for a Nigerian nigger. It’s a dream come true and yet an overwhelming reality which bodes too devastatingly for his kind, our kind. We who are ‘free’ do not know how to be free. To our former colonial masters, letting go of the yokes by which they enslaved us renders them open to a culture shock; rapists who were used to predatory living and being waited upon suddenly have to be responsible for their own lives. It’s like a mad experiment pitting medieval apes in the cockpit of 21st century modernism; the effect is awful and redolent of duplicity and base humanity.

    But the fault is never with the colonialist; Nigeria has no business blaming Britain for the pitiful husk our fatherland is fast becoming. Neither should we blame America, Asia or the rest of Europe for whatever misfortune becomes our lot.

    It’s getting too old now. It’s undeniably tiresome too; that entitlement to victimhood and loser mentality we have learnt to project. Decades after we attained freedom or at least, a semblance of it from Britain, we remain disposable gourds for alien trolls to sip from. What happened to the popular saw about being exploitable to the extent of the customary fool’s willingness to be exploited?

    The British Prime Minister (PM) recently threatened to withdraw so-called aids (which are in actuality, chains) from Nigeria if the country refuses to repeal its anti-gay law that stipulates 14 years imprisonment for anyone found engaging in homosexual liaisons. Canada and United States lent their voices to the disgraceful clamour and desperate bid to legitimize psycho-sexual perversions on the Nigerian people. Even more worrisome is Britain’s recent decision to impose a £3, 000 (about N750, 000) visa bond requirement on Nigerians seeking to travel to Britain. They will forfeit the money if they overstay in Britain after their visa has expired.

    I do not blame Britain for its decision since the country has every right to determine what laws or criteria facilitates or hampers its immigration system and foreign relations. I blame Nigeria for putting herself in a position that empowers every depraved lecher to defile her from behind and ‘missionary’ style in the full glare of the whole wide world.

    Shall we take this too smilingly? Already, the Nigerian leadership has responded in its characteristic fashion threatening to ‘retaliate’ in kind if Britain fails to rescind its contemptuous decision. But even Britain knows that Nigeria’s response is likable to the habitual drunk’s vengeful fart to every callous romp he witnesses of his wife and the bachelor next door.

    If Nigeria were to be serious, she would respond by demanding that every British tourist, businessman or expatriate seeking to travel to Nigeria post a bond of £300, 000 before being allowed into Nigeria as a precondition that they would customarily seek not to evade tax, abuse their domestic staff and employees and further, must accept to be paid their salaries only in Naira and into Nigerian banks. But this would be deemed preposterous by Britain and hordes of Nigerians desperately trying to be more British than the Brit.

    The Nigerian government should be able to pull this off knowing we do not need Britain but Britain desperately needs us – just as the whole of Europe needs Africa to survive. Should every continent shut its doors to the other and look inwardly to chart its path to the prosperous future of its dreams, the African continent would stand in greater advantage, with the right attitude, conscientious leadership and citizenship but this is a discuss well suited for another day and another forum.

    Today, let’s deal with Nigeria’s constant humiliation in the hands of Britain and the rest of the world. We are to blame for every humiliation we are forced to endure at home and abroad. And this is because we have failed to evolve. Many have argued that it is only fair that Nigeria experiences such humiliation given the quality of local and global citizenship of the average Nigerian. Unemployment, pervasive poverty and terrorism at home force many Nigerians to scramble for safe havens abroad but how really safe are the safe heavens abroad? What if the so-called ‘lands of greener pasture’ decide to repatriate every Nigerian immigrant in future?

    A few eggheads have recommended practicable solutions to Nigeria’s recurrent malaise of bad leadership but more often than not, their wonderful and highfaluting solutions and theories of progressive change, reverberate as blandishments to Caucasian wisdom – which further establishes the fact that many a self-styled intellectual revolutionary and paper tiger is substantially a colonial apologist still smitten by the vaunted wisdom and altruism of the so-called ‘first world.’

    The crises in modern Europe and America: financial meltdown, unemployment, mediocre youths, sexual perversions, state-sponsored terrorism, the elevation of might above morals and simple human decencies and racism among other things, reveals their ordinariness and punctures farfetched arguments of their invincibility, impeccable humanity and wisdom. Hence there is no point elevating the Caucasians above every vile or ill that makes the Nigerian spite and wish the worst on his fatherland.

    The task before us is clear enough. Let us seek to be good. Without the beaming brightness of the simple decencies and morality that makes a rustic village tower higher than Elysium, Nigeria will continue to set adrift. Good people produce good leaders. Bad people produce and ennoble bad leadership. The attitude of the Nigerian mind towards citizenship, democracy and other political measures of self-determination should be divested of the prevalent conceptions of government.

    Some of our greatest problems in this country, besides corruption, are racism and greed. We need not be handicapped by these. The future of Nigeria lies in our hands. Sovereign National Conference or not, no solution will work under the leadership and citizenship of unrepentant racists and self-aggrandizing characters like you and me.

    It is time to heal. It is time for the Nigerian youth to take his rightful place in the scheme of things. In order to heal, the Nigerian youth need to create and unite under a socio-political platform immune to and jealously guarded against the madness of materialism, racism and intractable wile characteristic of the current ruling class.

    We need to identify the demons that drive the ruling class and dispossess our minds of every vanity that makes us habitable to similar fiends. The tragedy of our generation subsists in our seemingly uncontainable prospects and our desperation to be lorded over and contained, at a price. If we are indeed more endowed in intellect and humanity than the current ruling class, let us stop being disposable pawns in its politics of bitterness and plunder.

    The Nigerian youth, irrespective of personal politics and tribe, should learn to live and strive, united in common effort, in pursuit of a common government, sensitive to mutual thought and feeling, yet subtly and silently separate in matters of politics and individuality.

    The choice is ours to make; we either choose to remain a bunch of fools and clueless agitators forever, or we could choose to leave the current leadership to the madness it perpetuates while we chart fresh paths to the future of our dreams.

    • To be continued…

  • POT-POURRI: Governor Jonathan and other stories

    POT-POURRI: Governor Jonathan and other stories

    Most Nigerians must be pretty sick of and wearied down by President Goodluck Jonathan and his obsession with the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF). The impression hitting us out here is that the president suffers multiple nightmares over NGF and Governor Rotimi Amaechi. In between shuttling out to attend some piddle-diddle foreign meetings (better left for the foreign minister or vice president) and taking on NGF-Amaechi, there seems to be nothing else happening.

    It just makes one wonder whether the president would rather be a governor, which explains the above title. Two years gone in the life of the Jonathan Presidency and nothing to report (thanks that all the anniversary noise has died down and one can really attempt an assessment). The two critical questions to ask any leader in a tenured position are: are the people you lead happier with you today than when you started? Would you win an election if held today? If you want an honest answer Mr. President, it is no, no. The truth is that Nigerians are disappointed and disillusioned and there are hardly achievements (concrete or symbolic) to point to. Without sounding apologetic, one says that not to malign but on the contrary, to offer some help.

    In two years, the Jonathan presidency seems to have only done well in alienating Nigerians, impoverishing them or both. The presidency ought to be troubled that east, west, north or south, we cannot find true, core supporters rooting for the president; not young, not old, not male, not female. That is indeed worrisome. Yes, he has faced enormous security challenges since inception but he would earn no plaudits for managing the problem well in the face of the enormous funds thrown at it. And this brings us to the issue of today; it is as if the security distractions are not enough and the president creates invidious palaver of his own, helping to bug his self down and drag the presidency to the bog.

    The feud with Governor Amaechi of Rivers State who is the chairman of the NGF came to a head last month when Amaechi trounced the president’s candidate in a re-election. Yet there is no let up, instead a subterfuge faction of the losers was installed and the ensuing tussle has continued to take its toll on the entire country with our president not too far removed from the commotion. Last Wednesday, the authentic version was to meet and the presidency climbed down from its kilimanjaroic heights to torpedo that meeting by fixing a Presidential dinner the same day, the same hour. But Gov. Amaechi showed more grace by aborting the NGF meeting to honour the president. That is statesmanship.

    How much lower can it get? Presidential handlers should be depressed that each time they try to cut down Amaechi he grows even taller. The Goliath illogic teaches that he should never engage David in combat because win or lose, Goliath loses anyway. The presidency at its regal and majestic summit should never be in desperate contention with any body or group for any prize because the president’s loss is our collective loss; a president’s hiccup is a national hiccup which is why he/she must stay aloof, removed and detached.

    It has been canvassed in this column earlier that the right approach would be for the president to decidedly ignore the NGF. The simply reason being that the much desired second term (which we all know is the bone of contention) does not ultimately depend on whether he has the NGF in his pocket or under his armpit. Rather, it would depend on how much work he delivers to the people. The lesson again, a Goliath will never win a David.

    STATE OF THE NATION BILL: Jonathan won’t talk to us. It is strange that President Goodluck Jonathan has shot down the State of the nation Bill which would have given him a platform to address his people once a year. The National Assembly has passed the bill but number one thinks differently. It is the practice in many parts of the world for president/heads of state to give an elaborate speech detailing the activities of government in the course of the year. Smart leaders make a world of this opportunity: they set the stage as they would and pick their roles to the delight of their people. In the U.S. for instance, the State of the Nation Address is a cause célèbre. Why President Jonathan would shy away from it is unfathomable.

    DAVID MARK: death for oil thieves, death for corrupt politicians to. Senate president, David Mark recently advocated death sentence for oil thieves in Nigeria. Perhaps alarmed by the reports from the Nigerian national Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that we may have lost about N7 trillion to oil thieves in 2012, Mark thinks imposing death penalty would be the antidote. One is surprised that Mark seeks to eradicate ringworm while leprosy ravages the land. Can he not see the direct and indirect links between official corruption and oil thievery? Can’t he see it is a bazaar, a feeding frenzy of corruption? The Ogas at the top are neck-deep into it and everybody else helps his self. What is good for Jonah is good for Marc and for Tom, Dick and Harry. There is so much President Mark can do to kill the monster sitting right there in his chambers; so much.

    OSUN N10BILLION ISLAMIC BOND: ouch Aregbe. Our comrade governor, Rauf Aregbesola is fast growing into an unmanageable enigma. Today he blazes a trail to the right and tomorrow he counters it with a blast to the left. We thought the first lesson in leadership is to leave religion out of government. But our dear gov would not only embrace it, he does not faint to poke it in the eye. Yesterday it was about hijab and Muslim holiday, now it is about OSUN ISLAMIC BOND. Surely the state can raise bond without the distraction of starting a holy war. All these religious wahala he is invoking will not add an iota of good to his work as a governor and worse, he messes with an otherwise good legacy. Some of these seeds he sows today will grow into ‘evil’ trees 20 years hence. How would he love that for legacy?

    SUNTAI PHOTO SHOW: why doesn’t he just resign? No week passes without we seeing the photo of Taraba State’s ailing governor, Mr. Danbaba Suntai in newspapers straining to show that he is well, that he can stand erect, that he can stand. We sympathize with Suntai who was involved in an unfortunate plane crash, we feel for his household. But the wise action to take now is to resign as governor and allow the state to move on. Running a state is onerous enough for the fully fit. We think that in the interest of the people of Taraba and for his sake too, he should take a graceful bow. That would be most honorable.

    EXPRESSO IS TWO: long live Expresso. July 1st is second anniversary of the debut of Expresso. A long, wearisome and obdurate road it has been but the beat must go on. I raise my glass to all the ardent readers, they are the mainstay of this column.

  • Planned 3,000 pounds British visa indemnity

    It is the sovereign right of every country to control immigration into its territory. The British are not an exception. I personally have sympathy for the British because of the exploitation of the social welfare state in the UK by unscrupulous people from all over the world. Enoch Powell, the Conservative Minister of Health, from 1960 to 1963 and Shadow Defence Minister, 1965-1968 issued the statement referred to as the ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech sometimes in 1968, when he foresaw what unlimited immigration could do to Great Britain in terms of racial conflict.

    Powell was a former Professor of Classics and a one-time war hero with a bright political future in front of him, but he lost all these because of his intemperate language against immigration, although not necessarily against immigrants. Powell was branded a racist by his opponents and Edward Heath, the then leader of the Conservative Party had to get rid of him as Shadow Minister of Defence and this brought to an end, a glittering political career of an effective conservative minister.

    When the young English soldier was killed in broad daylight by two people of Nigerian ancestry, some people may have suggested that the prophecy of Powell is coming true. There has also been race riot in places like Bradford and Wolverhampton and the violence that sometimes happens in areas inhabited by visible minorities in the greater London area is sometimes caused by racial resentment. This is unfortunately seen as the inevitable result of non-white immigration into England.

    At the height of British power, its empire spread all over the world and among a multitude of different races. At the end of the British Empire, some of these people have followed the British home. Of course the British themselves have left their physical imprints on virtually all the continents of the world, from Australia, to New Zealand, to Canada, to the United States, to South Africa, to the Falkland islands and even to places where the British did not directly rule such as Brazil, Argentina, and several other Latin American countries to which the British have contributed immigrants. The British are therefore not a people who should be running away from their history and one of the positive contributions of the British people towards civilization is their tolerance of other peoples. Of course this has not always been so, because as an empire builder, the British have always imposed themselves on others by brutal force, but that was in the past. And the future of Britain lies in its multi-racial approach to life. As the most senior member of the Multi-racial Commonwealth, the British cannot walk away from their legacy. And as a trading nation, they cannot afford to damage their relations with other countries because of a discriminatory immigration policy.

    We have not seen the details of the new law, but a law that would target certain countries such as Nigeria, India, Bangladesh, Ghana, and Pakistan, which may make sense because perhaps these are the countries from where illegal immigrants flock into the UK, but it is likely to be misunderstood by the nationals of these countries that the policy is racially motivated. This policy to me is an advertisement of the failure of British Immigration policy. Is there no other way that the policy can be made to work without asking people to deposit three thousand pounds before being granted a tourist visa that expires after six months? How would the money be returned to the owner? Would this money be paid into the coffers of the various British High Commissions and Embassies all over the world, and then collected from them whenever the visitor returns to his own country of origin? Will interest be paid on the three thousand pounds deposited for six months? And what would happen to somebody who just wants to spend a week or less in the UK? What would also happen to people who have been visiting the UK for years without overstaying their welcome and whose track records are known? There are so many questions begging for answers. As an Anglophile, I would not want anything that would damage our relations with Great Britain to be done. Yes, these are difficult times economically for the whole world and particularly for Europe, but these difficult times would pass. We should be very careful in beginning a process which may lead to ill-feeling and reciprocity by other countries affected; because after all, reciprocity is the kernel of diplomatic relations.

    Some of us who are old still remember with fondness and nostalgia those days when our passports said we were Nigerian citizens as well as commonwealth citizens. I remember my student days in England and in Canada without having to get a visa. That is a long time ago. The world is definitely more complicated than before and things are changing rapidly, not necessarily for the better, but also not necessarily for the worse. We should try and manage our relations in order not to do incalculable damage to existing friendly relations among nations. I remember trying to get a visa to Germany some years ago and the humiliation I went through before being granted a one entry visa to Germany for a duration of two weeks, not even six months or a year; and this is a country where I was an ambassador for five years. Since the visa was a Shengen visa, I took the Euro train from London to Paris return and then try to go to Germany by air from London, and after having been checked in and was about to board the flight, my passport was checked and I was told that I had used my one entry visa to Germany to another Shengen country, France and that my visa was no longer valid for entry into Germany. This was after my luggage had been checked into the plane and I had gone through immigration. I now had to be returned to London, and my luggage removed from the plane. This is a story that I hate to tell and on my return to Nigeria, I told my German friends in Abuja and they were very apologetic about what was done to me in Lagos. Since that time, I have never tried to travel to Germany and I have no intention of ever going there, even though I had beautiful memories of my stay there. First as a research student and later as Ambassador Extraordinary and plenipotentiary and I still remember Germany’s role when the Abacha government detained me because the German Embassy protested about my detention. This should make me remain a friend to Germany forever. I believe that the love between me and that country is not lost. I remember mentioning my treatment in the hands of the German embassy to my brother and friend, Professor Jubril Aminu, former Ambassador to the United States and then Chairman, Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, who jokingly said, “Jide, we should stay in our own country and stop going to other people’s countries”; this to me was a good advice which I think most of us should keep. But for some of us who have children abroad, what do we do?

    It is a pity that in a globalised world, we are having to face this kind of problems of discrimination essentially based on how one looks and the pigmentation of one’s skin. This does not augur well for global peace which we spend a lot of time and energy in building. As somebody who for a long time has been involved in the foreign policy formation of my country, I would hate to advice on policies based on race in our relations with the outside world. Let us hope things don’t deteriorate to that level. The world is too fractured already with religious conflict and incipient clash of civilisations. It would not be wise to add racial divide into this complex situation.

  • Let’s watch the amber lights

    Let’s watch the amber lights

    That was a show we should all be glad that many missed. Some of the few who saw it – those who can still find a way to power their television sets – may not have thought of its import. Others may just have shaken their heads and hissed in a typical show of peaceful resentment that is uniquely Nigerian.

    I speak of the award handed Dr Goodluck Jonathan at the Villa the other day. A seemingly forced smile playing on his lips, his hands stretched out in some slow, reluctant motion to receive a plaque from his loquacious Minister of Agriculture, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, the President showed no excitement about the matter at hand. Wasn’t the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) prize worth it?

    According to Adesina, the award was for Nigeria’s reduction of hunger under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). He told the President: “You’re feeding Nigeria and the international community recognises your efforts and leadership in feeding Nigeria. The FAO of the United Nations (UN) has just given a special recognition to Nigeria for the achievement of reducing the number of people suffering from chronic hunger and for making notable progress in guaranteeing food security for our citizens.”

    He went on: “Your Excellency, according to FAO, the number of Nigerians suffering from hunger reduced from 19.31million in 1990 and 1992 to 13.38 in 2010 to 2012.”

    Now, shouldn’t such hyperbolic obfuscations have their limits even in a country where deception is a big feature on the menu at every meal? How many homes did FAO officials visit in compiling these amazing figures? Isn’t this a clash of figures and reality? Or mere humbuggery?

    But, Adesina wasn’t done. All smiles, he said: “The prevalent of undernourishment in our country declined from 19.3 per cent in 1990/1991 to 8.5 per cent by 2010/2012. This is below the MDG target of 9.7 per cent, which was set for 2015. Therefore, Nigeria has been recognised for achieving the MDG1 for hunger two years ahead of schedule. We are proud of the achievement, Mr President, because of your passion and leadership in pushing for food security in the country.”

    Are we talking about Nigerians’culinary propensity in such superlatives? Many are struggling to fill up their stomachs and now the FAO is talking about nourishment. Bread prices have gone up several times. Forget about the superficial cassava loaf road show. Many kids have refused to stop begging for food in the North, with some governments finding excuses for this obscenity in the almajeri system. How many Nigerians eat well, the kind of meals nutritionists call balanced diet? How many eat three times daily? Beans is threatening to quit the menu list in some homes – no thanks to the Boko Haram madness that has sent farmers fleeing their trade in the Northeast.

    There is so much hunger – and anger – in the land. Such duplicitous figures, no matter how credible the organisation churning them out, will not help. They will only fuel the resentment that is pervasive in the country where factories are closing down, where many jobs have been lost and electricity to power machines and run basic appliances of comfort is not available, where some states, such as Ekiti and Oyo, have started feeding their indigent citizens.

    If the world has chosen to deceive us, must we deceive ourselves? Even our professional sycophants, servile flatterers and palace jesters are yet to see an opportunity in the award. No congratulatory advertorials on national television and in newspapers. No billboards in major cities proclaiming the rare feat. No delegations visiting the Villa. No medals for the phantom farmers who may have made this possible. This must be a rather strange award indeed.

    The poor are getting more desperate even as the rich and powerful get more ravenous in their despicable assault on the common till. The pension fraud is as alarming as the brigandage in banking before the reforms. But, does anything still shock Nigerians? What has become of the Maina matter? The Senate issued a warrant for his arrest but the police claimed that they could not find the man who had an army of police guards around him. Many pensioners – part of those whose chronic hunger has been reduced, presumably – are dying of frustration after queuing up endlessly for their due.

    A few weeks ago in Port Harcourt, road traffic officials arrested a motorist and insisted on towing his vehicle, his only source of livelihood, to their office where he would pay a fine. The poor motorist begged the officials to spare him. They refused. As they got set to tow the car away, the motorist fell under it and started shouting that he would rather be crushed than see his car towed away. Stalemate. The officials, thankfully, realised that they would not win the battle; they let go. Such is the desperation of many Nigerians, who have lost hope in the system.

    I do not have the figures but stories of people committing suicide because they have lost the battle against poverty are common in the newspapers. When hunger lashes the stomach, depression sets in and, if help fails to come, suicide seems an attractive alternative.

    The Arab Spring story is still fresh in our memory. Tarek al-Tayeb Mohammed Bouazizi was an unknown Tunisian street vendor who set himself on fire when a policewoman seized his wares on December 17, 2010. His self-immolation sparked wide protests that eventually forced then President Zine El Abdine Ben Ali to abdicate his office, which he had held for 23 years. He fled. The protests spread like wild fire in the harmattan, hitting other Arab countries.

    I remember Prof Wole Soyinka warning that no matter how much benevolent a dictatorship is, it is no alternative to the people’s right to choose and freedom of expression. The Nobel laureate was delivering the African Development Bank’s Eminent Speaker’s Lecture in Tunis. That was in October 2010. The riots broke out in January 2011. How prescient.

    The other day in Lagos, a friend of mine watched as a council official grabbed a motorcyclist and snatched him off his bike. He accused the commercial motorcyclist of plying an unauthorised route. He insisted on taking the okada away, but the motorcyclist was begging frantically for mercy. The mean council official called for reinforcement. Two others stormed the scene. They overpowered the motorcyclist and took away his bike. Frustrated, the poor man sprang up and flung himself on the ground, crying, kicking and screaming. His bike – most likely his only source of income – was gone. Gone for good.

    Who would have thought that soccer would ever be a source of acrimony in Brazil? The carnival, the samba and the scantily kitted belles swinging their waists. For ages, soccer created a veneer of Eldorado for Brazilians. Everyday was like Christmas. Now, there is a popular revolt against the god of soccer – to the consternation of the world. Crowds have gathered for about two weeks, railing against the system, their protest sparked by a bus fare hike. Coincidentally, the Confederations Cup – a dress rehearsal for the 2014 World Cup – is on. Now, the people are saying enough of soccer stadia; give us jobs, food and better education.

    In Turkey, the government’s seemingly innocuous plan to redesign a park in the beautiful city of Istanbul has caused a nationwide protest. The protesters complained of lack of consultations. The government replied with an iron fist, unleashing the full might of the police on them. Now, the action has engulfed most of the major cities. The government has apologised, but the fire rages on as the protesters demand more freedom of speech, right to assembly and resignation of the Erdogan government.

    It is as clear as a sunny day that the park matter was only a springboard to launch a massive attack on a system that many consider not good enough. The anger had been there for long, even in a country where the economy is doing fine. The global economic downturn did not hurt Turkey; trade is growing and the prospects of joining the European Union (EU) looked great – until the protests.

    Tunisia, Turkey and Brazil are a few exhibitions of the limits of human patience and ability to endure pains, physical and psychological pains inflicted by the very people who swore to make life easy for the ordinary man by implementing policies that promote justice and better living conditions for all.

    The government is overwhelmed by domestic problems –some of them self-inflicted. Boko Haram continues to ravage some parts of the North, despite the state of emergency. Armed robbers and their cousins, the kidnappers, are on the rampage – the ill-equipped and poorly motivated police are fighting with their bare hands even as the Federal Government would brood no idea of a state police – and diseases are killing many who would have survived in better places.

    Amid the rot, the government is embroiled in running battles over 2015 . Like a novice, it mixes politics with governance. The ruling Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) is like a demonic mother hen killing its own chicks. Rivers. Adamawa. Sokoto. And others.

    Caution. Caution. The amber lights are on. Will the government notice this?

  • Travails of a war hero

    His name conjures fear. When many hear the name Benjamin Adekunle, they look behind their shoulders to see if he is coming. As the legend goes, Brig – Gen Benjamin Maja Adekunle aka Black Scorpion was a brave and ruthless soldier. Many heard the tales of his exploits during the 1967-70 civil war. Gen Adekunle’s fame grew during the war. As small as some of us were then, we heard how he handled the enemy and treated his soldiers who fell out of line.

    There was a myth surrounding Gen Adekunle. It was said that he could disappear and reappear to wreak havoc on enemy territory. Of course, many of the stories were embellished, but the people chose to believe them because they suited those times. People believed anything thrown at them so far the Nigerian side was winning the war. The Adekunle myth grew as he was said to be a soldier that the enemy could not touch because he wielded certain powers.

    The Adekunle myth followed him home after the war. Many wonder till today if he actually did all that people said he did during the war. The man is tough no doubt and he showed early in life that he is going to be a non-conformist. For a boy to run away from home at the age of nine to fend for himself is enough evidence that he will not allow people to trample upon him anyhow when he becomes an adult. This rebellious streak in him stalked him all the way. At military training schools in the United Kingdom (UK) and India; in the Nigerian Army; as aide-de- camp (ADC) to the former Eastern Region Premier, the late Sir Akanu Ibiam and at the war front, Gen Adekunle played by his own rules.

    But he could not be ignored by his bosses because, according to those who should know, he was a damn good soldier. The Black Scorpion fought the war as if his life depended on it. Those in his command remember him as a commander’s commander. Hear one of them, Brig – Gen Alabi Isama, who was Adekunle’s chief of staff during the war : ‘’What did these people (Adekunle and others) do wrong to the society? They went to the war and came back alive. But what did they get out of it? Nothing! Today, Adekunle is forgotten by the country. That is the hero of the civil war. He won all the battles…’’ Yes, as Gen Isama said, the Black Scorpion ‘’won all the battles but not the war’’.

    By that statement, Gen Isama was referring to the parlous condition of Gen. Adekunle, who is lying critically ill at home. Should a person in such a condition be kept at home? The answer is no, but the Black Scorpion is being treated at home because an air ambulance is not readily available to fly him to Ghana. When I read his story in last Saturday’s edition of this paper, I shook my head in belief that a thing like this is happening to someone of Adekunle’s calibre. No matter what some may consider as his eccentricities then, Gen Adekunle does not deserve to be treated as a nobody in this country.

    Our country owes a lot to people like him for fighting to ‘’keep Nigeria one’’. If they did not make that sacrifice, we may not be where we are today. The war in which he played a leading role ended 43 years ago, but it seems some people are still holding that against him. What could he have done to warrant being treated like this at the old, ripe age of 77. He was 77 yesterday. Happy birthday sir. But the best birthday gift we can give him as a country is to assist his family in getting him to Ghana fast for further treatment. All the family needs to do that is an air ambulance. The family says it has written to the army to assist in that regard without success. The army worldwide does not abandon its own. It rallies round its operatives and does everything to protect them.

    Where they are ill or wounded in battle, the army ensures that they get the best of treatment. And here, we are talking of Adekunle. Does he have to beg before he gets his right? This is the tragedy of our country. We treat our heroes with contempt and give looters of the treasury red carpet treatment, thereby sending a wrong signal to those coming behind. The Adekunle family seems to be at it’s wit’s end in its bid to get the authorities to help in flying its patriarch out of the country. Hear Abiodun, son of Gen. Adekunle : ‘’He is very weak and not in control of his memory. It is more of memory problem. He is not able to recognise people around him or anything. But, at some other times, he recognises people. So, it is an on and off thing. I have tried very hard to get the Nigerian Army to come to his aid without luck. Here is a man who spent his youth fighting a war to keep the country one. In other organised societies, he would be treated as a hero. But unfortunately, here in Nigeria, he has been forgotten by all’’.

    Let those in authority listen, whatever is done for the Black Scorpion today cannot be too much. As they say, he has paid his dues. Many, if not all in Service today, are his juniors. Will they watch and allow their superior to die all because of his family’s inability to get an air ambulance to fly him to Ghana? It is Gen Adekunle that we are talking about today, we don’t know what may happen tomorrow to those still in office. God forbid, if they become seriously ill after leaving office and help is not forthcoming as in the case of Gen Adekunle, how will they feel about their country? In Gen Adekunle’s present position, he cannot be happy that a country he fought to preserve seems to have abandoned him at his hour of utmost need.

    To those in authority, I com

    mend, Gen Isama’s re

    marks in this paper last Saturday. He said: ‘’Everybody is aware that he (Adekunle) is battling to stay alive. But, should we wait until he dies and then roll out the drums, shouting that he was a hero and start marching round the town? Every January 15, the whole country gathers to remember our fallen heroes. What about our living heroes?…As the Commander of the Third Marine Commando, he captured Calabar…he sent me to capture the whole place. We captured the whole of what is today known as Cross River State…So, Adekunle was our leader. But, unfortunately for him, he was not a thief like many of them. If he were a thief like many, his condition would not have been like this today. Can’t you see the others? Don’t you see where they live? Adekunle’s house was renovated by Ogbomoso people…Let this country rise and help this man to live a little longer in comfort because he has denied himself such comfort while fighting in the war. There was no commander of the Nigerian Army that is better than Adekunle. Why should he be the worse off today?’’

    Indeed, Adekunle or any other retired officer for that matter should not beg for bread. They should not be made to see their service to the country as a curse after retirement otherwise we may start breeding officers, who will be more interested in making money rather than serving the country.

    There is still room to make amends in Adekunle’s case; it is not too late to do that. The country awaits the Chief of Army Staff’s prompt response to this matter. Whatever he does, he should remember, he will be doing for a senior colleague and only God repays such a kind gesture.