The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • The Malabu malfeasance

    MOUTH-WATERING OIL BLOCK: It is a 15-year-old story showcasing Nigeria’s oil sector at it messiest, successive Nigerian governments at their puerile best, multinational oil companies at their shadiest and why Nigeria remains among the poorest countries in the world despite huge oil resources. It has gone on for so long in the hushed manner of Nigeria’s oil business until The Economist of London removed a bit of the veil on it last week (June 15, 2013 edition). It is a story of greed, brigandage and the grand-scale pillaging of a country as probably has never been witnessed in modern history. The sordid story concerns a mouth-watering oil block, OPL 245 awarded to a fictitious firm, Malabu Oil and Gas which had no records, assets or staff.

    According to the report, Malabu was ‘established’ only a few days before it was handed this oil block estimated to have a possible 9 billion barrels of oil! A certain fellow called Dan Etete who was Nigeria’s Petroleum minister in 1998 must have awarded the oil block to himself and of course fronting for fellow rogues in government then including members of the Abacha clan. The dictatator, General Sani Abacha was Nigeria’s head of state then. This matter has dragged for so long because in the conclave of thieves, there is no speaking in low tones over a big loot; and this one is humongous. Therefore, the fight over it has been protracted between Etete and his gang, Shell/ENI and NNPC/the presidency. The news today is that Shell/ENI after plodding through the murky tunnels of OPL245, finally shelled out the sum of $1.3 billion, verisimilitude of a bribe if not the real thing, to pay off all petty thieves, fraudsters and government officials who have cottoned on to this deal for 15 years.

    SHELL-SHOCKED AND UNASHAMED: Though Shell pretends to have dealt with the government of the day and also pretended that it paid out such huge sum to the Nigerian government but the oil giant was well aware that it was dishing out slush fund into a “black hole”. It was a ‘pay’ brokered by (don’t be surprised) Mohammed Bello Adoke, the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice. Shell’s bounty according to The Economist, may have been “round-tripped” back to bank accounts controlled by public officials. The magazine says further: “Of the $1.1 billion, $800 million was paid in two tranches to Malabu accounts. This was then transferred to five Nigerian companies that appear to be shells. One of these, Rocky Top Resources, received $336.5m some of which seem to have been passed to unknown “various persons”, according to the EFCC’s reports. Some $60m went to an account controlled by Mr. Etete who has said that he received $250m in total for his role in the deal…”

    Global Witness, the NGO that trails official corruption across the world sees the OPL 245 affair as “a lesson in corruption.” If ever one had any doubt as to the ethical status of Shell, this singularly desperate deal has exposed it for what it has always been, a roguish multi-national. Shell remains the detestable British Empire still trading in Nigeria only by another name. It is a Luggardian behemoth that is divisive, corrosive, corrupt and corrupting. Over the years, Shell has been leveraging on Nigeria’s weak government and lack of institutions to get away with mass murder, so to speak. Its home government seems to be hand-in-glove with her trading outfit making no efforts to rein it in. Unlike what obtains in the U.S. lately where multinationals are bound by corporate governance rules and laws of the U.S. (which is why many officials of multinationals operating especially in Nigeria have been convicted and jailed), it does not seem to be so in Britain and many E.U. countries.

    Shell which for more than 50 years, has controlled over 60 per cent of Nigeria’s oil wealth was reprobate even in its dealings with the Niger-Delta environment in which it operates. After so many years, the region remains desolate, retarded and damaged. In cahoots with Nigeria’s renegade governments, Shell never made any comprehensive effort to lift and develop even its immediate vicinity of operation. It is acute deprivation that led to the restiveness and militancy which erupted in the last decade. Unfortunately, Shell is deeply engrained in the Nigerian morass that there seems to be no stopping it or changing its mindset – well, perhaps until the oil is drained.

    ETETE, NIGERIAN ELITE, NNPC AND A COUNTRY WITHOUT GOVERNMENT: The Economist report avers that Nigeria is “arguably the most complex environment of all,” to transact business. Please read the most corrupt environment of all. Nowhere else would a serving minister of petroleum award itself a juicy oil block using a ‘nonexistent’ company yet he is allowed to benefit immensely from such crass corruption helped by the country’s chief law officer, the attorney-general. Ratty Mr. Etete, typical Nigerian elite, had been convicted of money laundering in France; the huge sums being the bribe money from foreign investors while he was in office. In a serious society, Etete ought to have been arrested, prosecuted and jailed, instead, he was allowed to profit hugely from a grand fraud he hatched and executed as a public official.

    Why has Nigeria grown into a banana republic? Because it ranks among the most corrupt countries of the world having maintained its position in the top five of the most corrupt table in the last decade. In the Malabu affair, those who ought to sanction the culprit became the chief beneficiaries; top government functionaries scrambled to get a share of the loot. Consider the list of Nigerians mentioned in this deal aside Dan Etete, there is notoriously corrupt Diepriye Alamieyeseigha who is the acclaimed boss of our sitting president. There is the Abacha family, Abubakar Aliyu and Adoke. Nigeria’s oil industry has become an elaborate fraud where serving government officials including heads of government scramble for and award oil blocks to themselves through proxies. Nigeria’s chief resources which ought to be developed for the good of all are handed to a few who become stupendously rich to the detriment of the populace.

    For a long while, Nigeria has lacked patriotic and purposeful leaders thus the country has been running literally on auto-pilot; without governments. This explains why the country has become so imperiled with a mass of jobless youths threatening to upend the ship of state. Sadly, those at the helm even now are so enamoured of immediate gains they are blind to the imminent danger. They seem to have lost any sense of right and wrong too. In other countries, this Malabu affair that has brought us so much international odium would have elicited judicial enquiries that would shake up the entire nation. Not so here, it has long been swept under the carpet because everybody is involved. Everybody, what a shame!

  • Echoes of Babel

    Echoes of Babel

    The nation’s narrative, unambiguously disseminated to the whole world, in the last fourteen years, through the medium of the central administration that has been under the control of the largest party in Africa, has been nothing but depressing for the masses. Unemployment has shot through the roofs. Security is an unrealisable dream. Missed targets of set goals for power generation have been as predictable as the daily occurrence of incessant power failure itself. Poverty is on the rise just as a few continues to swim in undeserved opulence, no thanks to the unjust system of fraudulent reward.

    In the face of all the tales of woe that our people have had to deal with in the last decade and a half, the party in power has continued to claim victory in national elections, no thanks to the coalition of forces and the solidarity of agencies, including INEC, that have been responsible for those “victories.” We also know that the egoistic tendencies in human nature have kept even some of the more conscience-minded individuals in the fold. They have moved out and gone back in because of the belief that the PDP is the only party through which their ambitions can be realised.

    Times have changed. No, we still have a depressed society in material and spiritual terms, and then some more. In 1999, we didn’t have to deal with Boko Haram terrorist network. Now, the fear of Boko Haram is the beginning of wisdom across the North.

    Times have changed for the supposed supremacy of the largest party in Africa. The chickens of greed and crass egoism bereft of self-discipline are coming home to roost and there are loud echoes of Babel in the house of cards that has endured quite a bunch of self-created political storms. These times remind us that a house of cards does not last long.

    A political party that is built solely on individual member’s interests in self-promotion and individual success, and is not bound by a common interest in a political ideal that places the interest of the nation above self-interests, is one that is built on sand. It is a house of cards. The reason is simple. Without a common interest is something that is bigger than the self, what is left are conflicting interests. The interest of each individual to make as much as possible for him or herself must run into conflict with that of his fellow member. There has to be a third-party interest—that is what a common ideal is, and that is what is lacking in the PDP. They pay lip service to the party as supreme. But it is gibberish; each individual knows that the reason the party was established was to serve as a means to the satisfaction of individual interests. For its members, there is no moral in politics.

    For the exponent of politics without morals, the idea that it is for the purpose of managing the affairs of the state for the benefit of its citizens does not make much sense because they either do not acknowledge that there are other citizens whose interests are worthy of promotion, or because they see themselves are best suited to identify the interests that need to be promoted and how. In both cases, politicians with this mindset put themselves above all other citizens, and justify to themselves any action or policy even if it makes no sense to the other citizens.

    Recent happenings within the ruling party demonstrate the mentality of its membership. The national leadership of the party is completely determined to return President Jonathan to power in 2015. As far as it is concerned, other political parties don’t have the means to challenge its dominance at the centre, not even the emerging APC. Therefore its calculation is to secure the President’s nomination by the PDP. And anything that obstructs the movement of the elephant in the forest is sure to be vigorously attacked and cleared off the path.

    So Amaechi has to go, and so in the new mathematics approved by the PDP, 19 is less than 16. Of course, they knew this all along. But they insisted that if 19 of their governors endorsed Governor Jang for the position, they all were expected to vote for him. Therefore, even if they did not vote for him, the earlier endorsement subsists. It is an argument that makes sense with the psychology of egoism where there is no recognised neutral arbitrator to resolve conflicts of interests.

    Sometimes, however, conscience manages to prevail and individuals are lifted above and beyond considerations of self-interest. So Governor Lamido can no longer keep silent and he felt the need to let the struggling cat out the bag of moral pollution. Nine PDP governors voted for Amaechi, he pronounced. The house of cards is collapsing fast and echoes of Babel can be heard loud and clear. What has been the motivation for Lamido’s coming out with such a revelation? Not a mind-reader myself, I can only speculate. It could be conscience, as I surmised above. But it could also be self-interest, and from just one act of whistleblowing, one cannot conclude that our politicians are redeemed or redeemable.

    There is more. Governor Wamakko of Sokoto State was suspended from the party. It was clear from the beginning that this was one action that Tukur’s NWC would regret as the Northern governors were up in arms against the decision. Tukur caved in and Wamakko’s suspension was lifted. Has Wamakko suddenly showed remorse and has he become loyal to the party hierarchy? Don’t count on it, given human nature. The mass resignation of NWC members and the impending sack of the National Chairman is ominous for the party.

    And there is more. In the Southwest, the fortune of the party at the polls has been sealed by two factors. First is the outstanding performance of the ACN governors in the five states they control. Even the worst critics of these governors attest to the incredible development projects in education, road construction and health and welfare interventions. And this is a region where voters reward achievement and are not asking for anything more.

    Second, and more to the point of my topic today, is that the PDP house of cards is also collapsing in the region even faster than in the nation at large. For one thing, the access to the promise of patronage is now disastrously limited and those whose idea of party membership and political activism is influenced by such considerations have no real motivation. For another, the generalissimo of Southwest PDP, former President Obasanjo is himself no longer in reckoning in the national leadership of the party. That was after he has effectively contributed to the collapse of the party in Ogun and Oyo states.

    And now in Oyo State, strange fellows and coming to share a bed with the rumoured romance between former Governor Alao Akala and his former boss and nemesis, former Governor Ladoja. What this romance means for the PDP in Oyo state is unpredictable for now. But something significant caught my attention from a recent interview granted by Chief Alao-Akala on the relationship between the two and his own ambitions. In reference to Oke-Ogun state and the question whether he would present himself as a Senate candidate against the incumbent Senator Hosea Agboola, who was his former Commissioner for Local Government, Akala not only dismissed his former commissioner’s credentials, but he was also dismissive of the entire Oke-Ogun electorate. In his political calculation of electoral politics, he only needed Ibadan and Ogbomosho, which influences his idea of partnership with Ladoja.

    Politicians calculate all the time. But it is usually done discretely and with some finesse. If you boastfully discount a swath of land and its population, you have alienated them and cannot therefore count on their support. What this would mean for the PDP in Oke-Ogun in particular, and Oyo State in general, is anybody’s guess. It is true, however, that a divided house cannot withstand the united competition of its opponents. These echoes of Babel are truly instructive.

  • The Guantanamo irony

    The Guantanamo irony

    History is a well known phenomenal teacher. It teaches the old and the young alike. It examines its students from time to time and gives them examination results. Its lessons are generational across races and cultures. But then, it faces a fundamental problem. That problem is not in repeating itself perpetually but in getting mankind to understand its teachings and heed its warning.

    In virtually all celestial religions, history plays such a prominent role that gives it the permanent identity of a teacher. And from its beneficial teachings, human beings build experiences with which they keep life going. In both the Bible and the Qur’an, we are told of arch enemies of God’s message who dramatically turned round to become voluntary Ambassadors of the same message to which they had been antagonistic. One of such enemies was Saul, an avowed anti-Christ who dramatically accepted the message of Jesus after the latter’s ascension and adopted Paul for a name. The other is Umar Bn Khattab who had plotted the murder of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) but dramatically accepted Islam on the day he was to carry out his plot and eventually became a Caliph of Islam.

    Jesus had wished that Saul, a well educated person, accepted his message but that wish did not materialize until after Jesus had left the stage. If Saul had not accepted Christianity when he did, perhaps the situation of that religion would have been different today. In the case of Umar Bn Khattab, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) had prayed to Allah to enable one of the two famous persons bearing Umar in Makkah accept Islam. Although his mind was on the other Umar, it however turned out that Umar Bn Khattab was the one favoured by Allah. And Umar Bn Khattab’s acceptance of Islam became so remarkable that the Prophet said of as follows: “Were there to be another Prophet after me, Umar would have been”.

    Now, a similar fin of history has reached the United States of America where a morbid hater of Islam and torture agent of that country, dramatically embraced Islam recently. It is an indicator of a future shock for which the West must be prepared. Why was it that after the conversion of Saul, the Greek Empire and subsequently the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as an official religion? Why was it that after Umar Bn Khattab embraced Islam, the whole of Arabia formally accepted that Divine Faith as state religion? And by analogy, shouldn’t America be getting ready for a similar eventuality? The coded bile of history is ordinarily bitter but when it becomes a part of the body system, survival without it becomes impossible. It sounded odd when speculations began that Rome could adopt Christianity as state religion. It sounded unbelievable that Arabia could adopt Islam as official religion. But reality eventually prevailed and today, the rest remains a property of history. In the same token, I, far from prophesying, foresee a day when America will become the home base of Islam to give the genuine Divine religion an impeccable reality of life. As it happened in the past, the doubting Thomases may commence their repugnant arguments from here.

    Who is Terry Holdbrooks Jr.?

    He is an American and native of Huntsville in Alabama, United States. He grew up a troubled kid with junkie parents that dumped him at age 7 on his ex-hippy grandparents to be raised. By 18, he’d completed both high school and trade school which is suggestive of brilliance on his part. He indulged in drugs, illegal sex, rock-and-roll and tattoos through which his ink would eventually cover his arms from shoulder to wrist. His earlobes were stretched to a plug that a thumb could pass through.

    Thus, when he walked into an Army recruiter’s office in Arizona a year after 9/11 saying he wanted to join the Army, to be able to kill people and get paid for it, the recruiter looked up briefly and turned back to his computer saying “No, thank you”.

    It was only during his fourth visit to the recruitment office that he was allowed to take the military’s aptitude test (ASFAB) and the recruiter realised the potential in him. Then, Holdbrooks signed up for military police because it offered a bonus. And when his unit was transferred to Guantanamo, the sergeant detoured through New York to take them to Ground Zero where he told them to “remember what Muslims did to us and who you are supposed to protect”.

    So, Holdbrooks arrived at the hot, seared base expecting hulking killers in every cell. What he found were doctors, taxi drivers, professors. One scary “terrorist” was 12. Another was in his 70s and dying of tuberculosis. Holdbrooks identifies himself as antagonistic, questioning, independent person. He is naturally suspicious – and found his suspicions turning in a surprising direction.

    How Islam beckons

    The 29 year old Terry Holdbrooks Jr., enrolled in American Army in 2003/2004 and was posted to Guantanamo Bay (which is a detention camp for people pronounced as criminals) as a military Police officer. Part of his duties was not just to prevent those detainees from escaping but also to escort them to interrogation rooms and then return them to their cells. He knew the kind of stresses and tortures those detainees were undergoing in repeated questionings. He had dodged their thrown poop when anger ripped down the row of mesh wire cages. When detainees were punished with the “frequent flier program,” he’d moved men from one cell to another, every two hours, round the clock.

    All along, his perception and understanding of Islam was not dissimilar from those of his military colleagues in Iraq, Afghanistan or even Guantanamo Bay. However, the thought of accepting Islam as a rightfully guiding religion crossed his mind after several months of conversation with the Muslim detainees in that camp.

    Holdbrooks has since published a 164 page book on the episode of his journey to Islam but he verbally told the story especially his observations about the controversial detention camp to a congregation of 80 people at the Huntsville Islamic Centre in Huntsville on Saturday, May 25, 2013 in which he revealed that “most of those detainees have lost hope in life. They’ve decided it’s better to die as one of them is down to 70 pounds.”

    Before he became a Muslim, Holdbrooks was wearing the beard of a bald Amish guy, the tattoos of a punk kid and the twitchy alertness of a military policeman. Take him to a restaurant, and he’ll choose the chair with its back against the wall. Take his photograph and he’ll prefer to look away from the camera.

    Now, he is travelling around America with Khalil Meek, a co-founder and executive director of the Texas-based Muslim Legal Fund of America. They are raising money for that non-profit civil rights organisation, which helps pay legal fees to free American Muslims who have been accused of vague crimes or placed on no-fly lists and other restrictions under the increasingly broad “anti-terrorism” provisions.

    Even beyond raising money for legal defence, Holdbrooks said he wants to stir Americans to action through his book which is available for sale online at www.GtmoBook.com.

    To hear from the horse’s mouth here is what he said about the book: “I tell this story and I wrote the book so idiot-simple that anyone could read and understand that the existence of Guantanamo is something to be ashamed of. I just want to share information with people in depth and then let them make up their minds.”

    Constructive rumination

    At Guantanamo, Holdbrooks mulled over the information which the Army instructors had taught him along with others about Islam after watching the so-called terrorists, days after days. What he’d been told wasn’t lining up with what he observed. He noticed that the detainees read their Qur‘an. They kept their daily schedule of prayers and remained undiscouraged under horrendous pressure.

    “How can you wake up in Guantanamo and smile? How can you believe there’s a God who cares about you?” Holdbrooks asked amazingly. He quoted one of the Muslim detainees as saying: “I am happy to have spent time in Guantanamo. Allah was testing my ‘deen’ (faith). When else would I have had five years away from all responsibilities, when the only thing I had was my Quran, and I could read it and learn Arabic and mental discipline from it”.

    “Fortunately for us,” Holdbrooks said. “Most of them are bigger men than some of us would be.” As he got to know the detainees, and learned their stories during his long night shifts, he came to see them as individuals many of whom enjoyed talking about the same things he does: Ethics, philosophy, history and religion. Many others had let him know what they thought of the 9/11 attacks which they believed to have violated the teachings of Islam.

    In appreciating their endurance, patience and courage, Holdbrooks said: “Here, I had all the freedom in the world, and I was miserable while they had nothing, and they were happy. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that something’s going on.”

    During the time he had off from his escort and cleaning duties at the prison, Holdbrooks began to read more about Islam online. One prisoner he engaged in discussions most of the time, a former chef from England, gave him his own copy of the Quran.

    “You’ve got to realise the significance of that,” Holdbrooks said, his tough bravado breaking for a moment. “He’s been in this cage for 23 and a-half hours every day. If you lose your Qur‘an, you’re out of luck. That’s it. You’ve lost everything.”

    It took him three nights to read Glorious Book. As a restless seeker in his teens, he had studied Christianity, Buddhism and Judaism but never saw much sense in them. In the Quran, for the first time, he found a religious text that meets his logical criteria. And after reading it satisfactorily, he said; “It made sense from the beginning to the end. It doesn’t contradict itself. There’s no magic in it. It’s just a simple instruction manual for living.”

    And after three months of intensive study and conversation, Holdbrooks told the Muslim detainees one night that he wanted to become a Muslim. And in response, the detainees explained the implication of that to him. They said: “Converting to Islam means you would have to change your life style including your diet. You will quit drugs, drinking, profanity and tattoos. Then, be prepared for good relationship with everybody – wife, neighbours, the Army and the government”. Thus, little by little, Holdbrooks made the changes as he found a measure of health, discipline, family and peace of mind which he never had before.

    Return to happiness

    By the end of 2008, he had found himself wondering with the question: “When last was I happy?” And the answer, he realized, surprised him: When he was in Guantanamo – because there he was being a good Muslim.

    Holdbrooks has been clean-minded since 2009 – a victory he credits to following Muslim dietary codes, including daytime fasting several days every week, not just during Ramadan. Last fall, he returned to a decent family life by marrying a nurse he met at his Mosque. They had spent a year of careful acquaintance in accordance with Muslim guidelines and he has just finished a bachelor’s degree in sociology. Nowadays, he spends most weekends travelling with the Muslim Legal Fund of America to tell his story. Holdbrooks is, today, a part of a small, but growing, number of former Gitmo guards who are speaking out about conditions at the torture camp and are calling for the camp’s closure. Besides, he has a message for fellow Muslims thus:

    “If Prophet Muhammad (SAW) were to come back to Earth today, people would find the best examples of Islam in the United States. American Muslims have a responsibility to live their faith so that others can see a true example, not the perversions of the terrorists or the tyranny of corrupt governments. He concluded that: “For every little step I took toward Islam, Islam was taking more steps toward me”. Thus, the man who was employed to quench the glow of Islam became a propagator of Islam in America.

    Watch out for Ramadan guide

    In a few weeks time, Ramadan, the king of all months will be here again, In sha’Allah. What does it take to meet it? How can one thrive effectively in it? What are the activities therein? What are the preparations for it? What does it hold for couples? What becomes of one after it? These and many other relevant questions will be answered through RAMADAN GUIDE to be published daily as usual throughout the scared month. Watch out for it!

  • Fire on, Fayemi – 2

    Fire on, Fayemi – 2

    The governor has an eight-point agenda which all dovetails into the overall development of the state. I do not intend to go into the details. All I can say is that agricultural development is a major plank of his agenda. Ekiti State by and large is an agricultural state, but it must not remain like this forever. We must begin to add value to our agricultural produce. We must also begin to think about how we can use our granite that is all over the place for industrial purposes such as tiling and flooring of houses and building generally. Our premier secondary school in Ekiti, Christ School has remained standing for such a long time because of the use of stones in building the old hostels and the quadrangle in the school. We can learn a little bit from the past and use some of these stones for major construction.

    The work of government would not be done in one administration or even in one generation, but it is a continuous process. We would need the expertise and drive of Fayemi not only in this administration, but in the one to come, unless he is drafted to a higher office at the centre which is quite possible and that is if he makes himself available. But there is no doubt that Ekiti needs him more than any other level of government. This is why a spontaneous and unprogrammed show of love and affection for him after the Supreme Court’s decision was a matter of great joy for all observers and I was not surprised at all. This is because Ekiti people are straight forward people and are not used to hiding their feelings. A story was told in 1999 during the election for the Presidency that some farmers in Ekiti were going to their farms during the election and when they were asked to go back home and vote, their leader retorted that he thought election for the Presidency had died with Obafemi Awolowo and that he did not think anybody else was fit to be president. When Ekiti people love a leader, they love him or her totally, unquestioningly, unabashedly and without any equivocation. So I believe it is with Kayode Fayemi.

    This is why I find it difficult to understand that a member of Fayemi’s party, the ACN from the central senatorial zone that has produced two governors in the state in the persons of Adeniyi Adebayo and Ayo Fayose should be taking advertisements in newspapers claiming he was going to challenge Fayemi for the nomination of the ACN. I dare say this would be an exercise in futility. Even in good old England – the home of democracy, parties are allowed to nominate candidates for elections by acclamation. It is not undemocratic for parties to acclaim an incumbent as a candidate for election. Challenging Fayemi on the grounds of internal democracy is not going to be a strong argument. Whatever the case may be, if challenged, Fayemi will be able to win convincingly. Democracy is not about elections alone, important as this may be, but it is the performance and fulfilling the manifesto on which one was elected that counts. This would be the strong point for the forthcoming elections next year. It should be a shoo-in for Governor Fayemi even though nothing can be taken for granted. But when the time comes, those who feel this governor has done very well will come out to attest to his performance.

    I remember the election of 1956 in the old Western region which brings happy memories to me. This was after five years of Awolowo’s first administration; my own brother, Chief Oduola Osuntokun was a member of that cabinet as from 1954 onwards when he was appointed minister of works and housing. The Action Group government’s stellar performance was so evident that the 1956 election was almost a referendum. The party went into the election with achievements in education, works and housing, agriculture, education and finance etc. It was during that regime that free universal primary education was launched in 1955 in Western Nigeria. The construction of Bodija housing estate was ongoing and farm settlements to absorb products of primary schools who could not find their way into colleges began. Liberty stadium in Ibadan and the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation (WNBS/WNTV) were under construction. So when the election was called inspite of the vigorous opposition of the NCNC, the Action group came back in a landslide.

    Yoruba people are the most sophisticated electorate in Nigeria and it is difficult to fool them. Fayemi will go into the elections next year with a record that is palpable and therefore unbeatable. He has a precedence to follow and he will follow that precedence with the same result. It would be our task as part of the intelligentsia and illuminati to remind our people where we were some three years ago and where we are now. Service they say deserves its rewards and so shall it be in Ekiti state next year.

    Of course, it is not possible to say that all that needs to be achieved has been achieved. Fayemi is not perfect, indeed no one is perfect. Our Lord Jesus Christ, when He was called “good master” turned this adulation down because He said no one is perfect except God. The task of governance is a continuous one and as J.F. Kennedy said this cannot be completed in one administration or even in our lifetime. One generation builds on the foundation of another and one leader stands on the shoulders of previous ones. What is important in the life of a politician and a leader is that he/she must leave a legacy on which to build. But the task of the Fayemi administration is yet to be completed and the consolidation of his achievements will not be done until the end of the next administration when it will be possible for him to leave legacies that would endure eternally. It is in our interest not to deny him and ourselves this opportunity.

    I say again service deserves its reward. The only way for our country to achieve greatness is if we reward our leaders with gratitude and appreciation when called upon to pass judgment at the appropriate time. A prophet is without honour in his own country, said our Lord Jesus Christ, but that was then. In our country where non-performers and incompetent leaders are imposed on us, we must now begin to honour those of our leaders who discharge their responsibilities to us with courage, honour, integrity and the fear of God. Fayemi is not only internationally recognised as an intelligent and a capable leader. To be so described by the London Economist magazine is the highest accolade which a leader in any country developed or developing can get. Not only did the Economist eulogise Fayemi as a sign of progress in Africa, it called on others to emulate him. I join his admirers to tell him that he has made us proud and even if we don’t have oil and gas, we have a leader with the abundance of grey matter that we can exploit for our state’s development. We cannot allow this opportunity to slip from our hands. This is why I say Fayemi Fire On.

  • Will democracy in Nigeria hold?

    Will democracy in Nigeria hold?

    General elections are not due in Nigeria until 2015, two years from now, and they are eagerly awaited with mixed expectations, even some concerns that they will not be free and fair. If they are not free and fair, the results will gravely impair Nigeria’s fledgling democracy, re-enacted after many fits and falls only since 1999. That was the year the Nigerian military withdrew from power after the longest period of military rule in Nigeria.

    Two weeks ago, Nigeria officially marked “Democracy Day” on May 29, the day in 1999 that President Obasanjo was sworn in by the departing military junta. But the South Western states where the ACN is in power marked the event on June 12, instead, the date in 1993 in which Chief MKO Abiola won the general elections, later annulled by the military government. The dispute over the right date is not really important. What is important is the peaceful transition from military to civilian democratic rule in Nigeria. It was a protracted and often violent struggle for power between the military and civil society during which many pro-democracy leaders suffered terribly in the hands of the military, with many being forced into exile in very difficult circumstances. After all this, the question now is whether our new democracy will survive after all the sacrifices made to remove the military from power. What then are the prospects?

    Despite current strains and stress in the political environment, I believe the future prospects for the survival of democracy in Nigeria are quite good, definitely better than ever before. First, it is unlikely that the military will seek to return to power again. But this is not simply because military rule in Nigeria stands discredited. The fact is that the conditions that made military rule possible have ceased to exist. The most important of these was the lack of consensus among the political class in support of civilian democratic rule. Some politicians, in their bid for power at different levels, actually courted and supported military rule in Nigeria. They were a powerful minority that clandestinely encouraged military intervention in Nigerian politics in the expectation that they will profit from it. The situation today is vastly different. The politicians have built up a consensus in support of civilian democratic rule in Nigeria that the military will have considerable difficulty in breaking.

    Secondly, there is increasing dislike of military rule in Africa and the rest of the world. Most African countries are now under democratic rule, fully backed by the African Union, and the international community. In fact, this development is a global phenomemon as more and more states are moving away from authoritarian rule to majority rule. In fact, today, only Cuba and China, for historical reasons, are still under one party Communist rule. But even in those two countries, considerable political and economic liberalisation has taken place. Despite a lot of strains the successor states of the former Soviet Union are now practicing variants of democracy. So, democracy is an idea whose time may be said to have come.

    The third reason why I think democracy will survive in Nigeria is that despite ethnic divisions, the people of Nigeria are broadly in support of a democratic way of life with all the benefits it can confer on the people. The Nigerian public is now more politically aware and is extremely unlikely to support any form of undemocratic rule. The political consequences of the “Arab Spring”, still sweeping the Arab world and the Middle East, are a sufficient deterrent to any form of maximum rule all over the world, including Nigeria. Due to growing economic prosperity, the middle class is beginning to emerge in Nigeria again after decades of reverses it suffered under military rule. Middle class values will make any form of absolute rule difficult in Nigeria. The Press which has always been in the forefront of the struggle against military rule will not easily give up its newly won freedom. The Press is far freer today than ever before. It will be difficult for any government in Nigeria to seek a confrontation with the Nigerian media today. Most of it is privately owned and politically independent to some extent.

    However, it has to be admitted that our democracy is facing severe strains at the moment from several sources. First, there is the pervading sense of insecurity in the nation from Boko Haram and other violent extremist religious and ethnic groups. Nigeria is still largely a weak state where, despite its best efforts, the government is unable to secure the lives and properties of its people. These violent extremist groups do have the potential of undermining democracy in Nigeria. As more and more centrifugal forces are unleashed on the nation, this will threaten its democracy and even corporate existence as a nation. The only way to counter this possible scenario is for the governments, at all levels, to create better economic conditions in the country.

    It must be admitted that there is a lot of political alienation in the country today, and that this could easily undermine our march to a full-fledged democratic society. Many graduates cannot find jobs and are increasingly being alienated from the society. Service delivery in the country is generally poor and it is affecting economic activities. At the moment, the poor energy delivery is hurting many businesses. Increasingly, people have to rely on their own resources to provide services that the state is expected to provide. Even the poor now struggle to send their children to private schools, including Universities, and hospitals because of the virtual collapse of state run institutions and services. This trend is not healthy for a commitment to a democratic way of life. Social and economic injustice tends to undermine a commitment to democracy as the rewards and benefits of such commitment are not so evident.

    The Nigerian economy may be growing but so are economic inequalities. These internal contradictions have to be vigorously tackled by the state to create conditions conducive to the flourishing of a democratic way of life in our country. Many of the Western powers are apprehensive about the future of democracy in Nigeria. In fact, many western intelligence agencies fear the country will simply crumble. Some fear the crunch will come in the 2015 general elections. But Nigeria will survive if the elections are free and fair and if the electoral commission shows a determination to run a free and fair election. It should stop its current prevarications over the registration of the APC, the new opposition party that is seeking to challenge the ruling party, the PDP, in the 2015 general elections. The political space must be opened up by INEC to ensure transparency in the elections. As the current disputes in the PDP have shown the political parties lack internal democracy, a basic condition for democratic rule in the country.

  • Is it still a numbers’ game?

    In politics, you must be popular to get people to your side. Politics is all about people. It is people that play politics; it is also people that vote in elections. Without people, there is no politics and without politics, there may be no government. In essence, democracy is a derivative of politics.

    This is why democracy is defined as government of the people by the people for the people. So people, politics and democracy are inseparable. The way we play politics in our country is a matter of concern because it goes against the grain of what is obtained elsewhere. In our own democracy, we do things upside down in order to win elections at all costs. Our politicians hate to lose an election. To them, they must win every contest come what may.

    Now, election is a contest of numbers. The winner is usually the person with the highest number of votes. In every democracy, that is the norm. The reverse is the case here. The winners of our elections are not those with the highest number of votes, but those with the lowest score. Did I hear you sigh heavily? Don’t be shocked. What else can one say about our politicians’ attitude to elections, which they treat as do – or – die? They go into every election with a mindset that they must win and in case they lose, they do everything to reverse the outcome or get it annulled if they don’t have their way.

    In the present dispensation, certain persons should be the leading lights of democracy, but what do we have? They are the opposite of the special status their positions confer on them. I am talking of some of our governors who want to bring the country down simply because of who leads them. The governors, for the first time in the history of their 14 – year old Forum, went to the poll last month to elect a chairman. In the past, it was done by consensus and whoever was picked, the others simply followed him as their leader.

    But like everything Nigerian, highwire politics crept into the simple matter of who becomes the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) chairman after the expiration of the first term of Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi last month. Why did this become an issue, you may want to ask? It became an issue because the Presidency thought Amaechi was nursing presidential ambition. Now, if you ask me, that is not a sin. But to the supporters of President Goodluck Jonathan, it is a mortal sin. To them, anybody nursing presidential ambition apart from Jonathan, should be crucified. This is what they want to do to Amaechi.

    They went all out to stop him from returning as NGF chair, but the governors stood their ground that Amaechi remains their man. In an apparent move to stop him from retaining the job, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), with the largest number of members in the group, formed the PDP Governors Forum (PDPGF). The party’s calculation was that with its 23 governors in the Forum, it could easily have its way on any issue, including who becomes the chairman, once the caucus, which is what the PDPGF is, so decides. Its calculations failed because it didn’t reckon with its governors’ resolve to swim or sink with Amaechi.

    The party thought that through the Presidency, it could browbeat the governors to dump Amaechi and create an easy passage for the anointed Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang to become NGF chair. A month before the election, they were made to sign a document backing Jang for NGF chair. Nineteen of them signed that document, but last month when the election took place, only 16 voted for Jang. The 19 ‘votes’ that were prerecorded for Jang became the number of votes that did the magic for Amaechi. Do you see how Providence works? The election was held on May 24, but since then, the nation has known no peace and the Presidency is not helping matters.

    Rather than weigh in on the matter on the side of justice, the Presidency is bent on dealing with Amaechi. The governors, as it were, have spoken with one voice that Amaechi is their chairman, but the Presidency does not agree with them. Despite its initial denials, it is now obvious that the Presidency wants to kill the NGF all because of its ‘’problem’’ with Amaechi. When on May 25 the papers reported that Amaechi floored Jonathan in the NGF election, the Presidency did not take kindly to the report. It issued a statement that since Jonathan did not contest the election, there was no way Amaechi could have defeated him. Yes, Jonathan did not contest the election in person, but he did so through his proxy, Jang.

    Latter day events showed

    where the president’s heart

    lies in this matter. At a Family Dinner he hosted to mark Democracy Day in Abuja on May 29, Jonathan, in his introductory remarks, recognised Jang as NGF chair. The president referred to Jang as ‘’the chairman of the NGF’’. That was all Jang needed to dig deeper as ‘chairman’ of the Forum, knowing full well that he did not win the May 24 election. From his attitude, the president is up to something, but he should be careful not to bring the country down in his desperate bid to cling to power beyond 2015.

    I am not against his seeking reelection if he so wishes as he has the constitutional right to do so, but what I detest is the sly manner he is going about it. He told us he wanted to face governance, but is he doing that today with all these problems staring us in the face right, left and centre? There is crisis in his party, all because of his 2015 ambition; the governors are at war, all because of him and we have security challenge, all because the man at the helm does not seem to know what to do.

    Come to think of it, is Jonathan really the man we need in 2015? With his performance so far, he should go home and rest after 2015. I don’t see him doing that though because of the many political jobbers who are pressing him to seek reelection. Well, let him try his luck again, after all his name is Goodluck, but he should let the election be free and fair just like last month’s NGF election. And that is my fear, will he not reject the result as his anointed candidate Jang is doing after losing the NGF election?

    When Dame came to town

    I still remember. Those days when former Head of State Gen Yakubu Gowon and his wife, Victoria, were passing by, we used to line the streets to joyfully wave at them and they, in turn, acknowledged our greetings with smiles. These days, it is not so. When President Goodluck Jonathan or his wife, Dame Patience is coming to town, the people always panic. You know why? Because the whole place will be, to use the popular American phrase, locked down. There will be no vehicular or human movement because the president or his wife is around. If we understand that of the president, what can we say of his wife? Must the airspace or road be closed because of the First Lady’s movement? The people do not think so, but our leaders will not accept that. About two months ago, Dame was in Lagos and the metropolis was shut down as people were held in traffic for hours. Some even spent virtually the whole day sweating and cursing in traffic.

    Last week, Port Harcourt in Rivers State went through the same thing because Dame came for a wedding in her home state. Both ends of the street where her house is were blocked. Residents went through hell accessing their homes. Motorists could not drive past easily as heavily armed policemen stood menacingly on the road. Governor Rotimi Amaechi, who she took to the cleaners on Saturday at the wedding reception, also could not go out. Just imagine, a governor being treated like a commoner! If that is not a show of power, please tell me what it is. But what kind of power show is this, that brings nothing but suffering to the people? that is my fear, will he not reject the result as his anointed Jang is doing after losing the NGF election?How long will we continue to suffer like this? How long? We see how presidents and their wives move in other countries without treating their compatriots like nonentities.

  • PDP, corruption and betrayal of democracy

    Father in heaven, you always provide for all your creatures so that all may live as you willed. You have blessed our country Nigeria with rich human and natural resources to be used to your honour and glory and for the well being of every Nigerian. We are deeply sorry for the wrong use of these your gifts and blessings through acts of injustice, bribery and corruption, as a result of which many of our people are hungry, sick, ignorant and defenceless. Father, you alone can heal us and our nation of this sickness… We beg you; touch our lives and the lives of our leaders and people, so that we may realize the evil of bribery and corruption and work hard to eliminate it. Raise up for us God-fearing people and leaders who care for us and who will lead us in the path of peace, prosperity and progress….”

    The above is the Catholic Prayer against bribery and corruption in Nigeria. We have dutifully recited the above every Sunday in the last 16 years counting from around 1997 when Abacha the maximum ruler literarily took custody of the key to CBN fault. But while stealing was a secret act perpetrated by Abacha and some of his ministers, today, corruption appeared to have been legitimized by successive PDP administrations who since 1999 presided over the sharing of our national patrimony among their members. Contracts are awarded by the executive and even by the National Assembly to phantom companies and contractors are paid in advance. We saw this practice in Osun State in the dying days of Oyinlola’s illegal administration. When the Alaafin of Oyo complained about sharing of Oyo State choice properties among privileged members of government, Adebayo Alao-Akala, the then outgoing governor justified it by claiming senior civil servants presided over the sales to civil servants. Children of PDP stalwarts allegedly forged papers to fraudulently steal billions from government. Government itself is now seen by many Nigerians as an accomplice in the rape of Nigeria.

    Only last week, ‘Madam Due Process’ Obiageli Ezekwesili, a co founder of Transparency International and former minister of solid minerals and later education, all in Obasanjo’s PDP administration, wanted the National Assembly to ask the president why it has suddenly become his duty and that of the Federal Executive Council to hold meeting over award of contracts when there are statutory bodies responsible for such duties.

    Whilst urging us to keep on reciting our weekly prayer against corruption, the Catholic Bishop of Ekiti Diocese, Most Rev. Felix Ajakaiye, last week said ‘corruption among Nigerian leaders has become a source of embarrassment to Nigerians living outside the country’.

    For maximum effect, it was at the Ekiti Government House Chapel during a special thanksgiving service to mark the 50th birthday of the wife of State Governor. The Bishop probably expected Fayemi, an acknowledged decent governor to pass the message to them in Abuja.

    Perhaps the Bishop should have added that even friends of Nigeria are equally embarrassed by the hypocrisy of our leaders over their lip service towards fighting corruption.

    Donald Cameron, Prime Minister of Britain where many celebrated Nigerian felons have had encounters with the British judicial system had late last year, tongue in cheek, asked our leaders to account for over 10 billion pound sterling, an amount he said was more than all the aid to sub Saharan Africa, which they squandered in the last two decades.

    Corruption is the major reason the name of Nigeria, the giant of Africa was not listed among countries to be visited during President Obama’s oncoming African tour.

    But what do our leaders ask of God when they pray in Abuja church where they sometimes justify their actions, inactions and even sometimes make policy statements amidst presidential palace church congregation? Or is it that the jet flying prosperity prophets, regular visitors to the presidential palace only beseech God to rain thunder and fire on the perceived enemies of the president’s 2015 yet to be announced ambition? Do the people in Abuja and their pastors really give a damn about fighting corruption?

    Our second reading last Sunday is from the second book of Samuel where Nathan gave God ‘s message to David “I anointed you king over Israel, and I deliver you out of the hand of Saul, and I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your bosom, and gave you the land of Israel and Judea, and if this were little, I would add to you as much more…you have struck down Uriah the Hittite with sword and have taken his wife to be your wife…”

    Our presiding priest, Father Ogunniyi reminded us that God was speaking to all of us including him. That the message is that sin is ugly. And that is why we often try to cover them up by committing more sins just as David did. But my mind kept straying to Abuja. Do the professional praise singers and prosperity prophets allow our president to remember he was a shoeless boy who became deputy governor, governor, vice president and president with little or no personal input as others fought his battles for him? Did they allow him to remember we all voted for him because he told us he understood our pains? How come there was no Nathan among the jet flying prosperity prophets in Abuja to remind him that those who expended massive funds on his election, only wanted to cover the massive theft of about N1.7triilion by forcing him to declare war on Nigerians through imposition of fuel tax?

    The second reading was about Jesus Christ, the teacher from Nazareth’s encounter with a very sinful woman in the house of Simon the Pharisee. If he were a true prophet, Simon thought, he would have known the woman was a sinful woman. But the Teacher from Nazareth told the woman of the world that her sins were forgiven.

    Father Ogunniyi once again told us, the great teacher from Nazareth was addressing all of us. Jesus was only asking of what value is our much touted virtue if we are unable to forgive others. It is only through love and acceptance that we can win people to our side.

    Once again, why there was no doubt we are all guilty, my mind drifted to Abuja. How come there are so many disharmonies among PDP family members? In Ekiti, Oyo, Osun, Ogun and Lagos, and elsewhere in the country, prominent PDP members have lost their lives trough assassinations. Timipre Sylva, Rotimi Amaechi and Wamako are beleaguered members of PDP riotous family. But do they really pray in Abuja? Is it possible for those at war with their family members to love outsiders?

    As I left the church last Sunday, I could not but reflect on Edmund Burke, the 18th century British parliamentarian, political thinker and philosopher founder of modern conservatism’s scepticism about democracy where ‘wishes, opinions, business’ of electorate should ordinarily take priority over the ‘repose, pleasure and satisfaction’, of the elected representative. But precisely because democracy also allows ordinary people with limited knowledge to be elected, ‘their dangerous passion often lead to violence and the confiscation of property’ of others. In place of ‘order, justice and freedom’, democracy promises, our nation has fallen into Burke’s “antagonist world of madness, discord, vice, confusion and unavailing sorrow”.

  • A presidency steeped in self-denial

    A presidency steeped in self-denial

    Like godfather like godson; President Goodluck Jonathan, it seems, likes to live in political self-denial, just like his presently estranged godfather and erstwhile benefactor, former president, General Olusegun Obasanjo. We are all too familiar, aren’t we, with the incredible denial by the former president that he ever even contemplated a third term agenda, much less want one. God, he has repeatedly said, has never denied him whatever he wanted. So if he had wanted a third term God, presumably, would’ve had no choice but give it to him. Therefore all those who had accused him of wanting to carry on beyond 2007, he has said to everyone who cared to listen, were nothing but malicious mischief makers.

    Like his estranged godfather, President Jonathan has been accusing anyone who says he has since made up his mind to contest the 2015 presidential election as a malicious mischief maker, possibly worse. He is too busy fulfilling the peoples’ mandate, he says, to have time to think of any re-election. Yet anyone with half an eye, indeed even someone with no eyes at all, must have the most credulous mind not to see through the president’s denial as so much hogwash.

    Proofs that our president not only wants a second term – some would say a third, because he has already been sworn in twice as president – but does so desperately are ten a kobo. However the two most glaring are the absurd drama that has surrounded the recent election of the chairmanship of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum and the authoritative lead story in the penultimate Monday’s edition of Thisday (June 10) about moves by the presidency to kill the Senate’s constitutional proposal for a six-year, single-term limit for the president and governors in place of the current four-year, two term limit.

    Actually it’s a misnomer to refer to the proposal as Senate’s, simple reason being it originated from the Presidency itself. It’s hard, if not impossible, to find a more classic case than this one of the curse, arguably of Chinese origin, that one should be careful what one wishes for lest it comes true.

    First, when the Presidency set up its constitutional amendment committee last year under former Chief Justice of the country, Justice Alfa Modibbo Belgore, members agreed that the committee should not waste time revisiting a number of issues that had been settled by a similar committee under President Obasanjo. Top of these was the issue of the four-year, two-term executive term limit. A minority, reportedly with the backing of the Presidency, tried forcefully to change the provision to five- or six-year single term. It failed.

    Undeterred, the Presidency sent an executive bill to the National Assembly still proposing same. This was in spite of the fact that during the nation-wide tour by the National Assembly committee on constitutional amendment to gauge public opinion, the idea was roundly rejected in all the six geo-political zones in the country, including the President’s Southsouth. The change was necessary, it had argued, because it would concentrate the minds of incumbents on the job at hand and save the country the corruption, sweat, tears and blood that has characterised elections under the status quo. Seemingly sensible arguments at first glance, but so much nonsense when you look again. (But this is a matter for possibly another day).

    It is this executive bill the Presidency, according to Thisday, has now made a volte-face about. Obviously, the Presidency was not careful enough in making this wish; apparently it did not think that it was possible to get its wish in a form it would not like. Which was exactly what happened; the Senate granted its wish, alright. But then it exempted the president and first term governors from being beneficiaries.

    Clearly the Senate’s caveat has exposed the motive of the Presidency’s attempt to force the issue since last year as purely selfish. It has also helped in no small way to expose the Presidency’s repeated denial that the incumbent wants to stay put beyond 2015 as untenable.

    What is true of the Presidency’s attempt to kill its own bill is perhaps even truer of the absurd drama that has surrounded the recent election of the chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum. Few arguments, if any, can be more ridiculous than those offered by the governors who have rejected the election last month of Governor Rotimi Amaechi as the forum’s chairman.

    The rejectionist camp of 16 governors led by the factional chairman, Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau, says the election of Amaechi by 19 votes against Jang’s 16 was in violation of the forum’s tradition of choosing its chair by consensus rather than through election. The camp also says by an understanding, the chair was supposed to have rotated back to the North after Amaechi had served two years. It also says the score-line did not reflect an earlier unanimous endorsement of Jang by the 19 Northern governors.

    The one simple answer to the first two arguments is, if the rejectionists knew all these, why did they participate in the election at all? Why, in the first place, did they not reject it outright the first time it was proposed last year and instead merely postponed it twice? Was it not because they were not sure they would make the numbers back then? Is it then not a mark of poor sportsmanship to reject the result simply because they calculated wrongly that this time they had the numbers?

    As for the last argument about the immorality of breaching agreements, where were they when the president and his erstwhile benefactor repudiated a written agreement written in black and white about rotation and power shift between the North and the South which both of them had signed? Chickens, it seems, have this nasty habit of always coming home to roost!

    The leading rejectionist, it would appear, is Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State. So strong was his feeling about what he said was the immorality of some of his colleagues going back on their endorsement of Jang that he announced he was resigning from the Northern States Governors’ Forum for the remaining two years of his office. “By my own culture, background and religion,” he said, “I believed that whatever is agreed upon, we must stand by it unless it is illegal.”

    Coming from someone who won his office on one party platform only to abandon it for another so soon after his election and without any consultations with those who voted for him, this is indeed very rich.

    Untenable and ridiculous as the rejection of the election of Amaechi as chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum is it does not begin to compare in its hilarity to the Presidency’s claim through its spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati, that it had no interest whatsoever in who got elected. If the Presidency had no interest in the matter why was it quick, too quick, to receive Jang in the Presidential Villa as the new chair? And, except for a Presidency that thrives in self-denial, who does not know that it lost the contest essentially because in its desperation to replace Amaechi at all costs it could not even make up its mind who to substitute him with?

    The Presidency should stop pretending that good governance rather than the 2015 elections remains its priority – that is, if it ever was.

     

    Feedback

    Re: Mamman Kontagora

    Sir,

    I have read your tribute to late Mamman Kontagora who was a blessing to this country during his life time. May his soul rest in peace. However, the PTF of Gen Abacha’s regime you mentioned in the tribute was Petroleum Trust Fund not Petroleum Task Force as you said.

    Adewuyi Adegbite, Ogbomoso, Oyo State. +2347013065440.

     

    Sir,

    Reference your tribute to the late Maj-Gen Mamman Kontagora. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that he was Minister of Works between 1987 & 1993 not 1993 & 1995 as you said. Ahmed, Abuja. +2348020756861.

     

    Sir,

    I’m a son-in-law to late Gen Kontagora, married to Ramatu, one of his daughters. May Allah (SWT) forgive him. Contrary to what you said, his mother was Hausa while his father was Nupe.

    Muhammad Shuaibu Umar. +2348079975555.

     

     

    Correction

     

    In my piece last week on my thoughts from Amman, I gave the population of Jordan of which the city is the capital as over two million. The figure was wrong. Jordan’s population, according to the World Bank’s The Little Data Book was 5.7 million in2009. With a population growth rate of 3.2% annually it is probably 6.4 million today.

     

     

     

  • Fayemi’s final triumph (2)

    Fayemi’s final triumph (2)

    I was with General Adetunji Olurin from October 2006 till March 2007 as media consultant, when he was in charge in Ekiti State as the Administrator. This was sequel to the political crisis that engulfed the state after the dramatic impeachment of Ayodele Fayose, erstwhile governor of the state. A member of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Fayose was impeached by the PDP-controlled state House of Assembly in highly controversial circumstances. This led to the war of succession as two members of the ruling party – Friday Aderemi and Biodun Olujimi – laid claim to the seat of power. Aderemi was the Speaker of the House of Assembly who presided over the impeachment of Fayose, while Olujimi was the deputy governor at the time of impeachment. Both Fayose and Olujimi were swept off in the political volcano that swept the man of power away from his ‘throne’. At that time, Fayose had almost converted the governorship position to an imperial majesty dishing out orders which the highly enlightened people of Ekiti found not only distasteful but undignifying of a people with practically one of the largest colony of professors and academics.

    Olujimi did not take kindly to the blanket removal of herself and her principal. That resentment soon snowballed into a near major conflagration as she took on Aderemi, who had immediately pronounced himself governor in line with the constitution. It was in the hullabaloo that ensued that the then maximum President (note the use of the word ‘maximum’), Olusegun Okikiola Aremu Obasanjo, slammed a six-month emergency rule on the state. Although the emergency rule declaration on October 17, 2006 almost stirred another ‘okiki’ (hue and cry) as certain members of the House of Representatives vehemently kicked against the move.

    By the provisions of the Constitution, the House of Representatives automatically assumes the duty of legislation for any state placed under emergency rule. The implication of this was that from then on, the duties of the state House of Assembly, which had been suspended, fell on the House of Representatives. The argument then was that Obasanjo ought to have consulted the House before making the declaration and subsequent appointment of a retired General to take over the running of affairs. Some of the members of the House, especially some principal officers, then seized the opportunity to extort money from the Presidency in order to dance to the President’s tune.

    One other salient issue that came up in the House of Reps over the emergency rule was the dissolution of the local government councils. This was buoyed by internal wrangling in the political landscape of Ekiti itself, especially the fresh bid by those who wanted to succeed Olurin after the expiration of his six-month duty tour as Administrator within the PDP-dominated House of Assembly that was billed to resume sitting immediately the emergency period was over.

    It was really a testing time for Ekiti politics but through prayers, divine intervention and perhaps sophistication of the people of Ekiti, no violence of the minutest magnitude was witnessed during the period. The rest is history. It was a sharp departure from the prevailing political atmosphere in the country today characterised by arson, killings and brigandage of unimaginable proportion which have completely taken over the landscape. This is probably the type of lawlessness and jungle justice a person like Segun Oni might have wished for in order to enable him to actualize his weird and myopic ambition to rule or misrule Ekiti once more since he cannot get his way through in the courts.

    Unfortunately, and surprisingly too, after the latest defeat at the Supreme Court, Oni has now conceded defeat and said that he could not question God. But the reality is that elections will still hold in this country, and dissatisfied parties will still run to the courts and pursue appeals, even beyond the final point as it now appears. But should the electoral process always be compromised and made questionable? Should politicians always question the will of the people? And shall we then not question the decisions of the judiciary?

    Should people or a person like Oni continue to weep and gnash their teeth over spilled milk, when in actual fact, it is glaringly clear to all that Fayemi possesses more administrative, management and human relations acumen to lead his people than the lacklustre administration or style of governance which completely alienated Oni and his government from the people? See the tumultuous crowd that heralded the news of the recent Supreme Court verdict on the Oni-Fayemi challenge. It is apparent that, that same large number or even twice or thrice that could have taken to the streets in protests if Oni had mistakenly been returned to the Government House. Perhaps, he could have thought about the option of ruling from his hometown of Ifaki Ekiti, if he had been returned to government. And, that is, if his people would not reject him outright.

    Oni and others in his clique are no match for Fayemi whose sense of reasoning and scholarly adventurism are enough to send the Onis of this world scampering for cover. Who dare mention a Lilliputian in the gathering of giants? It is an abnormality, a complete misnomer.

    Having said all these, it is instructive to sound a note of warning to the electorate in Ekiti State that 2014 is almost here when elections will be keenly contested in the state. Fayemi and his lieutenants in the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, now re-christened All Progressive Congress, APC, will be standing proudly with the flag of the party soaring higher and higher, Ekiti people should shine their eyes. Do not allow these never-do-well politicians who are clothed like normal human beings confuse you. Vote for Fayemi and his lieutenants and shame the devil. Apart from Fayemi and his henchmen in the APC, no other politician in Ekiti today has anything to offer or that is better to offer the people. They are only after the lean finances of the government, the public till which they are only interested in plundering and plunging the populace into endless poverty, misery and want. You can take their money because it is your money, take their rice and other perquisites but reject them at the final polls. They are not deserving of your votes. Any vote for them is a vote for hunger, deprivation and mass slaughter through non-provision of the essentials of a meaningful living like Fayemi and his people have been doing for the people in the past three years.

    I am not an indigene of Ekiti but I have lived in Ekiti, I have enjoyed the warmth and hospitality of the people, I have observed them from both afar and within. Ekitis are a hardworking lot. With good leaders, they can be the food basket of Nigeria. They have hectares of uncultivated, arable lands scattered all over the state. They are a proud people because they believe in what they can do with either their brains or their hands. I do not see any other society in Nigeria or Africa that parades such a contingent of professors and other academics. It is only in Ekiti that every family has at least one professor or more. They dot the whole landscape, every town, every village, every hamlet. They are just ubiquitous.

    I think Oni should go and look for something more profitable for him to do at the moment. His brand of politics has since become extinct with the coming into the arena by Fayemi and his group. Politics is not the best for Oni. As a water engineer, he can retire to his village in one of the hinterlands and devote his talents to agriculture, especially irrigation farming, channelization and all that. Let him leave politics for the Fayemis of this world!

    Ends.

  • Cheapness of student life! ‘Wetin you carry’ by FRSC and Police again!

    The death of five students of NANS and the numerous deaths of students across Nigeria and particularly in the last month are truthfully mostly preventable tragedies and demonstrate the cheapness of life in Nigeria. They are not what parents expect when they borrow save up money to pay for students to go to university or for National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). No parent expects a coffin, an unbelievable burden. Such tragedies remind me of the discussions I often have with enthusiastic students of higher institutions about their reason for them visiting off campus businesses and professionals. These visits are all in efforts to raise sometimes ridiculously outrageously high sums of money, from N300,000 to N3,000,000 recently, as ‘donations’ for student activities like Annual Faculty Weeks etc. The female students often unintentionally expose themselves to moral impropriety all to raise money while their parents have paid good money and offered many prayers for their studies and think they are at lectures or revision. Instead, they are out begging for ‘stupid’ money.

    Nigeria is dangerous enough for us all but students endanger their lives unnecessarily out of bravado, carelessness, needless travel, speeding and an ‘I will live forever’ attitude. Just last week a group of students overtook my car at high speed on the murderous and mislabelled Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

    Why cannot higher institution students be taught to keep students activities ‘within realistic student budgets’ and not mimic adult budgets and quality and expect money to fall from heaven without any of their own money being involved. In our days in University of Ibadan in the late 60s and early 70s, we as students, funded our own activities with our money. Institutions must actively support student activities more in kind if not in cash and provide venues and infrastructure free as a strategic ‘anti-cultism’ measure to assist good or moral student activities. The patrons of these student bodies fail to advise them to make student budgets realistic and more affordable for the targeted long-suffering donors harassed by numerous unrealistic financial demands. And this happens year in, year out.

    Students should learn, and be taught during induction month, to plan and execute their plans as students, at student level, with student funds. That is why they are students. Instead of using printers, as students, they should write out their placards and posters. We participated and recruited 50 students to write 500 posters in one or two hours, cheaper than using professional printing. Students are students. They should act like students. Students should not act beyond their station and mimic National Assembly members who have millions to spend on trivia like congratulatory and obituary adverts and brochures and buntings.

    Buntings are an adult extravagance that students can design themselves if they have to instead of paying high end costs. Talking of buntings, most venues are fine as they are and do not need buntings. The buntingmania in Nigeria must be curbed. What country’s citizens will be so irresponsible as to cover designer chairs, polished wood panelling, Italian marble, imported artwork and high imposing ceilings with yards of cheap ribbon material crisscrossing the ceiling and obstructing the view of even churches. We cover N1-5000 chairs in N300 rags called chair-covers and cover millions naira walls with N100/yard ribbons of reused material.

    The Lagos-Ibadan road, mislabelled expressway, appears demonised or at least jinxed, as it seems to be getting worse. Will it ever get better? The initially ‘heroic’ efforts of Berger and RCC have petered out as presumable government has failed its own end of the bargain which was not a ‘bargain’ but a lucrative contract. No money, no performance! But it is only in Nigeria that a serving government with billions of naira earned daily would be so callous as to expose millions of its citizens to the easily patchable hazards of the road – deep and wide potholes, narrowing to one lane and lethal road edges. Add to that left hand driving by slow vehicles and uncontrolled speeding particularly by commercial vehicles and you have the deadly mix of road deaths that characterise that road and defy solutions, making contractors and FRSC look like incompetents.

    The police are back on the streets with a vengeance. It seems that police checkpoints are creeping back into several states ‘through the back door’ including Oyo State as Zonal and state commissioners relax the order from the IGP. The police onslaught against tinted windows has been surreptitiously extended to reintroduce ‘wetin you carry ‘. The IGP needs to keep the police service on the straight and narrow. We said ‘No’ to checkpoints and it remains ‘No’. The need for widespread and comforting ‘Police Presence’ is necessary as a deterrent. That need can be fulfilled by static and mobile teams without resorting to checkpoints except in specific crime fighting incidents. The IGP introduced the police to modern police tactics. He should weed out those who are there for retrogression and checkpoint corruption. The harassment of the public, families with small children even on their way to and from church on Sundays and of danfos full of tired passengers by overzealous and unsupervised Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and the police should be curbed. Nigerian citizens have rights and FRSC and police harassment is wrong. Of course police and FRSC do some good work but that work is spoilt by these strong-arm, heavy handed roadside roughing up tactics.