The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • Self-serving amendments

    Self-serving amendments

    The Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendment has concluded its work on the amendment of the 1999 Constitution and has presented its recommendations. The major issue that has dominated the discussions on the constitution is that it is a military-imposed document which has rubbished the principle of federalism and the federal structure that was the foundation of Nigeria at independence.It is on this score that right-thinking citizens have always insisted that the 1999 Constitution cannot be adequately amended and that what it seriously needs is a complete overhaul. Furthermore, in order for such a complete reworking to be carried out, there has to be the involvement of all stakeholders, including all the geo-political zones, and the nationality groups. The central political debate in the last fourteen years has been over this issue.

    The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has been the ruling party in the centre since the beginning of the Third Republic and it has ensured that the idea of a national conference does not see the light of day. In addition, the party has insisted that there is no urgent need for a constitutional overhaul and it has settled for piece-meal amendments to the extent that such efforts do not jeopardise its political dominance, especially at the centre. It is in this context that the amendments just submitted by the Senate committee must be understood. They are self-serving amendments. To make this point, I will highlight two related areas from media reports.

    “No rotational presidency” is the title of a report in The Nation of Thursday, June 6, 2013. And in its own report, The Nigerian Tribune also of Thursday, June 6, 2013 highlighted another aspect of the amendment: “Senate Committee Amendment Recommendations: Successors can’t vie for dead President’s, Gov.’s offices.”

    The reason that the Senate Committee advanced for the rejection of rotational presidency is that “the Constitution should not make Nigerian leadership subject to ethnic or regional considerations” according to The Nation’s report. Rather the committee submitted that such issues should be a matter for consideration among the various political parties.

    There have been echoes of these incoherent and self-serving recommendations for constitutional provisions in the recent past. During the 2005 Political Reform Conference, the Northern position was a rejection of the concept of rotational presidency among geo-political zones because, “it is subject to manipulation and abuse by unpatriotic Nigerians. It is neither in our constitution nor in our electoral laws.”

    Yet, the North did not find it inconsistent when in the same submission, it recommended that the “Presidency should rotate between the North and the South.” It in fact went on to demand that it was the turn of the North to occupy the position of the president. In addition, the North suggested “that constitutional provision needs to be made for rotation within the states to provide opportunity to the various minority groups have (sic) access to the position of governorship within the States and to give them a sense of belonging.”

    Now, the Senate Committee wants us to believe that, with its recommendation, the concept of rotational presidency would be laid to rest. This is far from the case. The reason has to do with the other provision in the Senate Committee recommendation, namely that “a vice president or deputy governor who completed the tenure of office of a president or governor who died in office would not be eligible to seek election to the office in any subsequent future elections.” The amendment, as reported in The Nigerian Tribune is a new Section 136 (2) which is now to read: Where a vice-president-elect or vice president succeeds the president-elect or president, in accordance with Subsection (1) of this section, he (sic) shall not be eligible to contest for the office of the president in any subsequent elections.” There is a similar provision for the deputy governor.

    What is interesting about these new provisions is that they effectively reinstate what the provision on rotational presidency is supposed to take away. It is understood clearly by every politically conscious citizen that we operate a political system in which ethnicity and religion play active roles and ticket balancing is the rule. Dr. Jonathan would not be president today if he wasn’t vice president to Malam Yar’Adua. The president comes from the north; the vice comes from the south. And when Jonathan took over, it was expected that the vice president would come from the north, hence the emergence of Sambo. The new amendment effectively preserves this arrangement and thus, the concept of rotational presidency and rotational governorship.

    Let us assume for the purpose of argument that the next president comes from the North. We can be sure that his or her vice will come from somewhere in the South. Let us assume further that something happens and the president vacates office and his or vice takes over. This means that the new president is from the south. What the amendment says is that this new president must only complete the term of the former president and cannot present him or herself for any subsequent election to the presidency.

    We know what motivated this amendment. It was the controversy generated by Jonathan’s presenting himself as a candidate after he completed the term of Yar’Adua and the North insisted that since Yar’Adua was elected as a Northern candidate and since he was entitled to two terms, the North was being robbed of its chance. It was an argument that failed because it was considered an unfair and untenable demand in a democratic setting. Since there was no constitutional provision for rotational presidency, the North cannot lay claim to the Yar’Adua presidency as its own.

    Imagine now what this new amendment effectively means. Were it to be operative when the Jonathan candidacy was being challenged by the North, he would not have a chance and a new candidate would emerge. Can such a new candidate emerge from the South in the face of the Northern position? This amendment only solidifies the position and demand of the North for respect for rotational presidency between the North and the South despite the absence of and the deliberativeness of the provision against rotational presidency. Therefore there is crass incoherence between the two amendments that I have chosen to highlight here.

    I do not need to go into the challenge to democratic tenets of the new amendment that prevents any individual, whether vice president or deputy governor, from contesting any elections. That it has been offered as a constitutional provision—as a foundational principle of state—by a committee of the upper legislative body speaks volumes about our democracy and its trustees.

  • State of the economy

    State of the economy

    After nearly 30 years of economic reform and financial orthodoxy, the economy is growing. But a new economic strategy is now needed to create more jobs.

    The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, is upbeat about the state of the economy. In her report last week on the economy she reeled out figures showing that the economy is doing quite well. Current growth rate is 6.5%, the highest in recent years. Inflation is down to 9.5%, the lowest for nearly 30 years. Foreign reserves have increased significantly to nearly US$48 billion. There is greater stability in the exchange rate though the naira is gradually weakening against the US dollar. Non-oil exports are doing quite well. Earnings from this sector have increased to 30% of total export earnings, up from 10% for decades. Despite the grave security situation in the country, FDI has recorded its highest growth in recent years. The economic fundamentals appear quite strong and impressive. The economic reform programme and a large dose of financial orthodoxy in recent years have paid off. Altogether, there is macroeconomic stability and this should prime the economy for faster and higher growth in the short to medium term. All the multilateral financial institutions, including the WB and the IMF, have endorsed the favourable reports on the state and efficient management of the economy. And all this was achieved during a global recession and its negative consequences for the world’s economy. It has ravaged many of the rich and industrialised countries.

    But there is a flip side to these impressive economic figures that the Finance Minister is upbeat about. First, the impressive economic growth rate has not translated into more jobs for the vast number of the unemployed graduates from our tertiary institutions. The unemployment rate is still far too high for an economy that appears to be growing. The lag between economic growth and job creation has taken far too long. Second, there is very little evidence of the trickle down effect on incomes and the improvement in the general quality of life that economic growth should bring about. Average per capita income may have improved slightly, but the existing income inequality is widening. The rich are getting richer and the poor poorer. The nation is economically and socially increasingly polarised. In fact, very few people believe these impressive economic figures when all they see around them is seemingly greater poverty. Poverty levels in our country remain unacceptably high with devastating social consequences for our nation. This remains the Achilles heel of the economy. Average income levels remain lower than in many other African countries. There are still far too many unemployed youths in the country to justify the optimism of the Finance Minister on economic strategy and management. New jobs will come from more local and foreign investments in the economy.

    Job creation should remain the top priority of a sound rate structure with the huge arbitrage between savings and borrowing does not encourage lending for productive investments. The two rates will need to be better realigned to reduce the gap between them. The current interest rate structure is a disincentive to local investment in the economy.

    What is responsible for this slack in job creation despite the impressive economic growth rate and macroeconomic stability? Why do we have such a vast number of unemployed youths when the economy seems to be growing so impressively?Apart from the existing massive public corruption which constrains growth, the obvious reason is that current private sector investments are directed more towards capital intensive rather than labour intensive projects. In addition to an imperfect market the domestic economy has to contend with a wasteful and imperfect government as well. Of course, it would be wrong and counterproductive for the government to intervene directly in this regard by forcing private sector investors to invest more in labour intensive projects. This will turn them away. But this objective can be realised in two ways. First, the government can improve on the existing incentive structure by granting investments in labour intensive projects, such as agriculture, better incentives, including better access to loans. Labour is quite cheap and readily available in Nigeria. The future economic growth and prosperity of the nation depend on our ability to take advantage of these comparatively low labour costs particularly in manufacturing. This will make our domestic economy more competitive globally. This was how the NICS, such as China, India, South Korea, and Brazil achieved their impressive economic growth rates. Nigeria should learn from these countries’ hugely successful economic strategies by concentrating more on labour intensive projects for job creation and exports. The vagaries of the oil market make this strategy imperative. Already oil incomes are falling.

    Second, in view of huge resource constraints, public sector expenditure should focus more on sectors that have a direct impact on employment. Here, I am thinking of our woeful social and physical infrastructure which calls for massive investment. There is some ongoing attempt to reduce the budget deficits by cutting public expenditure. There is no objection to this as persistent budget deficits will impact negatively on inflation and this could undermine stability in the macro economy and future economic growth rate.

    But a dash of Keynesian economics through a modestly expansionary budget will, if appropriately utilised and directed towards the more productive sectors of the domestic economy, create more jobs and an even higher economic growth rate in the domestic economy. The financial orthodoxy, which we have practiced in our economic management for some decades now, with good effect, should be reviewed now and a new growth and exported oriented strategy involving higher public expenditure, particularly on the physical infrastructure, should be introduced. The economy will grow even faster and more jobs will be created if we invest more in developing public transportation, the roads, electricity, public housing, the ports, and other public utilities. But plans to start another national airline should be abandoned. It is wasteful. At the micro level it is this strategy of massive public construction that the Lagos State Government under Governor Fashola has pursued with astonishing success in terms of job creation. There is no reason why this strategy cannot be replicated by the Federal Government. A lot of financial resources are needed to upgrade these infrastructures. Some of these can be done through public-private-participation (PPP) to reduce the pressure on public spending. Whatever the attractions of a fiscal balance might be, it is vastly more important to keep the domestic economy running at an optimal level so as to create more jobs and overall prosperity in the nation.

    Despite our healthy foreign reserves, the Federal Government is resorting increasingly to foreign borrowing to finance infrastructure. The current debt stock is over US$15billion. At the same time it has created a US1billion SWF for foreign lending ostensibly to cushion the negative impact of a possible future decline in our oil income. But it hardly makes any economic sense for us to borrow abroad at a rate higher than what our SWF can earn in terms of interest rates. Why should we create a SWF when there is a crying and desperate need for more investments at home to modernise our woeful infrastructure? There is no reason why some of our healthy foreign reserves cannot be spent now in upgrading our infrastructure.

    The opposition parties are right in criticising the PDP Federal Government for the various contradictions in its economic strategy, particularly over the lack of job creation and the consequent deepening of mass poverty in our nation. But they should go beyond that and develop a credible alternative economic strategy that will remove some of the major constraints on job creation in the economy. At the moment it does not seem that the various opposition parties have alternative and coherent economic strategies that they can turn into an electoral advantage over the ruling PDP federal government. The failure of the Federal Government to create more jobs and the woeful infrastructure should be the central issues in the campaign for the 2015 elections.

  • May 29 fraud and carnival of men of all seasons

    Except for the PDP stalwarts and the chorus ‘men of all seasons’, who gathered in Abuja to celebrate both the 14 years of PDP brand of democracy that holds in disdain democratic principles of ‘liberty, justice and common decency’, and President Jonathan’s claimed two years of superlative performance, we all know all is not well with our nation.

    What May 29, the fraud PDP christened “democracy day’ called for was sober reflection about how our nation has finally descended into a state of nature where the law of the jungle reigns supreme; where elections become ‘do or die affairs’, where losers resort to self help; where a justice of the Appeal court for being loyal to the nation, is in chains while those indicted for rigging elections move to Abuja to preside over our affairs as senators or party executives where they use the desecrated judicial process to intimidate their victims; and a jungle where those who have access to power share our national patrimony, using proceeds therein to buy private jets and armoured cars for self protection.

    It was a day that called for a sober reflection on how the tragedy of our nation started with the arbitrariness of Babangida who cancelled the most credible election in our nation’s history; how MKO Abiola, the winner of that election died protecting the mandate given to him by Nigerians; how the scourge called Abacha later taken care of by God came upon the nation; how Babangida and other soldiers of fortune of ‘Nigerian Army of anything is possible’ along with self-serving politicians imposed Obasanjo; how Obasanjo lacked the grace to give honour to those who watered the current democracy with their blood; and how in turn, all he built in eight years, he destroyed with his own hands. Yar’Adua reversed his policies; Jonathan squandered the foreign reserves he built up.

    Even Orji Uzor Kalu, Abia State former governor, a man not known for moderation and a stakeholder in PDP family business that has yielded him as it did for other PDP buccaneers, dividends in hundred folds, it is time for sober reflection. For him, “Going by all that has happened in the 14-year history of our current democracy… Nigeria is a sick nation, suffering and bleeding under the weight of corruption, ethnicity, nepotism, crimes and religious fundamentalism.”

    But PDP men and their contractors, who are the main beneficiaries of the current anarchy, resplendent in their flowing agbadas and babarigas, gathered in Abuja last week. Without restraint, Okonjo-Iweala, the minister for finance celebrated government transformation agenda and growth in the country economy when in fact two weeks earlier, both the president and his CBN governor had lamented about growth without development which left in its trails a sea of unemployed youths and an impoverished society.

    A day later, there was to be further assault on Nigerians as PDP members along with others they had ‘invited to come and chop’ gathered at the banquet hall of the presidential palace for “PDP family dinner.” There men of ‘all seasons’ who believe in nothing, and doing what they know how to do best- reassuring Jonathan that he has no opposition for the 2015 race. Just as they had urged Babangida, ‘the prince of the Niger’ to hold on to power, just as they had earnestly urged Abacha to hold on to power with swag song ‘Abacha today, Abacha tomorrow and Abacha for ever’; and just as they raised billions to support Obasanjo’s failed third term agenda, one after the other, PDP leaders and the tribe of ‘any government in power’ like Tony Anenih, Ebenezer Babatope, Iwuanyanwu, Jerry Gana tried to persuade an apparent reluctant Jonathan.

    The Political Adviser to the President, Ahmed Gulak set the ball rolling: “As long as the people who are gathered at the banquet hall of the presidential Villa were alive, we will not let governance slip out of our hand in our life time. The foot soldiers are ready to work for you”. Concluding, he urged the president to ignore the allegations of the opposition because “Nigerians are satisfied with his performance”.

    As for Tony Anenih, who says ‘PDP will do what it knows how to do best when it is time for election’, his proposal is for an automatic second term ticket for incumbent president and governors who perform well in office. To Mr. ‘Fixer’, it counts for little that the former vice-president had said that ‘the rulings of the courts stated that the policy was alien to the PDP and the Nigerian constitutions’.

    Ebenezer Babatope, who claim ‘for politicians, two plus two could be four and could be 40 thousand, speaking for the South-west said, “My own leader Papa Obafemi Awolowo exactly 31 years after predicting in Bonny during a campaign tour that an Ijaw man would one day become president of Nigeria, Jonathan is now president. He combines all the heroes of our country into himself. We voted for you last time, we will repeat it again because you have been a very very good president”.

    I am sure Awo’s body would be protesting in his grave to see how an apostate is doing a great damage to his memory. Awo stood for justice, fairness, competence, and democracy. If Awo had made such a prediction, he didn’t make it as a prophet but as an avowed federalist. He wanted the Ijaw as well as other minority nationalities to be partakers in the Nigerian project. He was during the 1959 constitutional debate in London, the only man among our founding fathers, left standing for the minority’s right to self determination within the greater Nigerian nation.

    Speaking for the South-east, Chief Iwuanyanwu said: “We gave the highest vote to President Jonathan last time, we are very happy, we are not disappointed, and Jonathan is doing very well. He has given us our own share”. Iwuanyanwu might be right. ‘Getting our own share’ ideology of the Igbo elite seems to have been the bane of Igbo quest for the presidency. But now, PDP heavy investor like Uzor Kalu, currently a non partaker in the Igbo share, is presenting himself as a more authentic Igbo presidential candidate than Jonathan whose only claim to Igbo is his Azikiwe middle name and his marriage to Dame Patience Jonathan.

    Other hurrah men at the carnival that are worth not much attention include Professor Jerry Gana, who has been part of all governments since Babangida era. He, on behalf of North-central zone, told the president “I … salute you for the restoration of democracy and its sustenance for 14 years .The problem with Gana is not just that he is deficit in credibility, it is that the more credible Arewa Consultative Forum has accused the same President Jonathan of redefining democracy by his endorsement of Jonah Jang who lost the NGF chairmanship election.

    Ambassador Aminu Wali, who spoke on behalf of the North-west wanted the president to go for 2015 because of the attraction of unprecedented volume of direct foreign investment from China even after the president had said growth arising from such foreign investment had not positively impacted on the lives of Nigerians. In summary, all the hurrah men and women including Hajia Zeinab Maina, who spoke for the North-east and Senator Stella Omu who spoke for the South-south, the president must proceed in earnest to seek and another term.

    But there is an assurance we are all not suffering from delusion. The consensus of Mohammed Kudu Abubakar’s NTA panel of experts consisting of Basil Odilim , Lanre Adebayo and Abu Hamisu was that the midterm report was not only a sham but that the current route being traversed by government economic team cannot lead to economic salvation.

  • A judge’s parting shot

    At a time like this, it is easy to overlook certain issues in the polity. This may not be deliberate though; it may be caused by the importance attached to the unfolding events. In the past few weeks, things have been happening at a frenetic pace, especially on the political scene. The biggest political event so far is the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) election and its fall-out. Since that May 24 election, the NGF has not been the same.

    Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi was returned as chairman of the Forum, but his Plateau State counterpart Da Jonah Jang is contesting that. As a father, which his prefix, Da, stands for, Jang does not seem to be fatherly in his disposition on this matter. As one of the elderly governors in the Forum, Jang should be seen promoting peace and good conduct and not what can divide the Forum. He has the right to be the chairman of NGF, but the question he should answer honestly and truthfully is did win the May 24 election?

    Although, he claimed to have won, but the figures say otherwise. According to the poll, Amaechi won by 19 votes to Jang’s 16. It is quite disturbing that an election among 35 governors, who were at the May 24 meeting, would become this messy. It is more worrisome that those who should be the embodiment of democracy are the ones working against the outcome of a free and fair election. What example are they trying to set? From the look of things, the parties are not ready to sheathe their swords. Another domineering political event was the Obasanjo stinker on the capability of President Goodluck Jonathan to run the country. On the social plane, we have the ongoing military onslaught against Boko Haram; the series of kidnapping and robbery.

    When events happen at dizzying pace like this, it is possible to miss out on some of the actions and one of such events was the parting shot of a former judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Okechukwu Okeke. Justice Okeke bowed out of the Bench last month on attaining the retirement age of 65. About 13 days to his retirement on May 19, he got a letter from the National Judicial Council (NJC), reprimanding him for alleged misconduct. He was ‘’seriously warned’’ because he was on his way out of service. If he was not about to retire, chances are that he might have been suspended or recommended for retirement for ‘no just reason’ as we have now been made to know by Justice Okeke.

    When the NJC took its decision, Justice Okeke could not talk because he was still in service eventhough he was not happy with the action. He burned with rage in silence because of the ‘injustice’ done him. Justice Okeke felt the NJC was not fair to him, but he could not go to court to seek justice because he is a judge, which must bear whatever is thrown at him, whether true or false in silence. Let’s face it, many of us do or say things against judges which are not true and get away with it because by virtue of their jobs they are to be seen and not to be heard. By so doing, we tend to forget that these judges are human. All we need do is to put ourselves in their position and see how it feels when people malign us at will and we are unable to fight back.

    With their hands tied by the nature of their jobs, many judges suffer in silence for things they didn’t do.If we the unlearned, and I used that word advisedly, can make wild allegations against ‘’learned judges’’, what do we say when learned brother – judges make such allegations against each other. Dogs, we are told, don’t eat dogs, but in some cases, judges have been known to sacrifice their learned fellow judges where such judges refuse to do their bidding. In most cases, such bidding is to pervert justice. A judge, no matter his relationship with parties in a matter before him, is expected to uphold the scale of justice.

    The scale of justice is a blindfolded lady wielding a sword within a dangling pendulum. What this means is that a judge must be blind to the parties before him to be able to do justice with the sword. The sword will be applied on the offending party no matter how powerful; influential or connected he may be. A judge is expected to be blind to a fellow judge if that judge has a case before his learned brother in order to be fair to the other party. But in our society where anything goes, our judges seem to find it difficult to uphold justice without fear or favour; affection or illwill as demanded by their oath. Why? Because of extraneous matters.

    The truth is a judge who cannot look his own wife or son in the eye and do justice is not fit to be on the Bench. If a judge’s wife or son commits a crime and she or he is brought before His Lordship, the best he can do is to recuse(excuse) himself from the matter rather than break his oath for his family’s sake. If judges are not expected to break their oath for their families, can they do so for their fellow judges, whether senior or junior to them? The answer is no. If that be the case, why then did former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Alloysius Katsina-Alu allegedly ask suspended Court of Appeal President Justice Ayo Salami to influence the judgment on the Sokoto State Governorship Election Petition Appeal case? Justice Salami refused.

    Justice Katsina-Alu as then NJC chairman used his privileged position to get Justice Salami suspended and the learned justice is suffering from that injustice till today. Justice Okeke may have met with the same fate if he was not due to retire last month. He got away with a warning, but the decision irked him because he felt he didn’t do anything to warrant it. This made him to spill the beans at the valedictory session for him in Lagos on May 27. Justice Okeke claimed that he got into trouble because of his handling of a case involving the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) and former Oceanic Bank Managing Director Mrs Cecilia Ibru. An order he granted in the case affected a daughter of Supreme Court Justice Clara Bata-Ogunbiyi.

    He claimed he was informed

    by the Chief Judge of the

    Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim Auta, that Justice Bata-Ogunbiyi was not happy with him over the order. The justice later sent her daughter to see him over the matter, he said, adding that he informed her to file the necessary papers if she was not satisfied with the ruling which led to her ejection from her Ikoyi, Lagos home. This, he claimed, informed one of the petitions against him before the NJC. He said he responded to the petition and challenged the NJC to publish his reaction. The NJC has not taken up Justice Okeke’s challenge. Rather the Council is behaving as if all is well. All is not well at all.

    The NJC owes it a duty to clear the air over this matter. Did Justice Bata-Ogunbiyi try to influence Justice Okeke to pervert justice as he alleged? Was Justice Bata-Ogunbiyi invited by the NJC to react to Justice Okeke’s allegations? Was she investigated by the NJC in order to verify Justice Okeke’s claim? If she wasn’t, why did NJC overlook the matter? Is it that Justice Bata-Ogunbiyi is above the law? Can Justice Okeke’s response be made public for all to see? If CJN Mariam Muktar Aloma is serious about her ongoing reform of the judiciary, this should be a test case for her. Justice Okeke is willing and ready to talk (or is it testify?) on the matter because he believes he has been wronged. He wants justice and the only way he can get that is to reopen this case and let the parties appear before the NJC. Anything short of this will amount to sweeping the matter under the matter.

    As for what the Supreme Court Chief Registrar Sunday Olorundahunsi said in response to Justice Okeke’s allegations, the man should know that this does not involve the apex court per se. It is an issue between two individuals, Her Ladyship and Justice Okeke, so he should let them sort things out on their own terms. When the court is attacked, Olorundahunsi can speak for it. But in Okeke versus Her Ladyship, he cannot speak for the justice except if she hires him as her lawyer. I rest my case.

  • London’s broad daylight murder

    When the BBC and CNN reported that a 25 year old British soldier had been killed in Woolwich, South of London, by Muslim fanatics, my mind immediately went to Arabs or Pakistanis as possible culprits. When the photographs of two blacks were shown without their names being mentioned, I immediately felt they must have been West Indians who converted to Islam. I came to this conclusion because as a graduate student in London, I sometimes witnessed violent eruptions from West Indian young men. Then when the news report said these two young men were of African descent, I could not in my wild imaginations guess that they would be Nigerians. Eventually, when they were said to be people of Nigerian descent and with the Abdulmutalab experience in mind, I immediately felt they may be my compatriots from the north. This is a story of prejudice because that is what it is, and it is unpardonable. Eventually, the truth came home and the two of them were Nigerians of Yoruba Muslim descent. Even this last statement would not be correct because the two of them were born into Christian middle-class background and both were named after the Angel Michael.

    The story is that they converted to Islam in London in 2008 and that both of them came under the same tutelage of a violent Muslim cleric as was the case of Mohammad Umaru Mutalab. This case is very embarrassing. The Nigerian community in London and presumably our High Commission, rightly issued statements that Messrs Michael Adebowale and Michael Adebolajo were born of Nigerian parentage in London and that they have never visited Nigeria before and that they are British and that Nigerians should not be tarred with the brush of terrorism as demonstrated by these two madmen. Their statement included several names of people of Nigerian parentage who are British and who had been representing Great Britain in European and Olympic competitions. These are celebrated British heroes and heroines. They argued that the British should then accept the wheat with the shaft and that Nigeria and Nigerians should not be blamed for the errant behaviour of these two murderers.

    One cannot but agree with this statement, and it is noteworthy that our government has remained correctly speechless, even though embarrassed by this crime. This is a case of premeditated murder. Michael Adebolajo a few years ago visited Kenya with the sole aim of enlisting in a jihad against western interest led by the murderous terrorists Somali Al-Shabab. He was apprehended and handed over to the British High Commission which arranged for his deportation to London. The behaviour after the murderous act in London of these criminals was totally unheard of. Instead of running away from the scene of crime, they waited to be photographed while haranguing the British passersby and shouting that they committed murder because their Muslim brethren were being killed everywhere in the world. When the police finally arrived, instead of surrendering and facing the music of British justice, they crazily rushed at the Police who of course brought them down in a hail of bullets. The British police then took them to the hospital where they received apparently first class treatments that saved their lives. They are now going to be taken to the Old Bailey to face justice. I wish the death penalty were still in the English Law book, so that these two pit bulls can be put down.

    It is going to be hard for Nigerians or people of Nigerian descent to be treated gentlemanly in England as from now on. One only hopes that British sense of justice would prevail at all times so that people do not suffer unnecessarily for other peoples’ crimes and that no one should be made a victim because of similarity of names. Nigerians and people of Nigerian descent all over the world have been thoroughly embarrassed by this murderous and criminal behaviour of these two young men. The British press has not been very helpful in this particular case. They have tried very hard to create the impression of Nigeria as a violent country by linking these young men’s behaviour with the Boko Haram terrorist group, whereas there is no connection whatsoever. The behaviour of these two people is due to the over liberal tendencies in the western world where violent people are treated with kid gloves.

    I did part of my undergraduate studies in Queen Mary’s College in East London and whenever I am in England which is quite often, I tend to go on a trip of nostalgia by visiting the old school and I am often amazed on how the whole area seems to have been taken over by Bangladeshis and Pakistanis. Not only that, at the tube stations along the way, you sometimes hear young radicals talking about declaring the Sharia in England and making every person subject to it. These young people are never cautioned and those of them who publicly embrace Al-Qaeda are allowed to roam the streets without any challenge. I am of course in agreement with the British Law of Freedom of Speech, but sometimes, this can often be taken for license. It is this kind of licentious environment that allows young people to be brainwashed to the extent of playing revolutionaries on the streets of London. In his recent broadcast to the American people on the use of drones to the take out Al-Qaeda leadership, President Obama said that the challenges posed to security in the world is going to come not from foreigners, but from home grown terrorism. What he said would also apply to Great Britain. While foreign terrorists should continue to be monitored and prevented from creating havoc, those born in Western countries and who as a result of this enjoy basic freedoms, should be equally watched in order to prevent a repetition of this terrible incident.

  • Mamman Kontagora (April 20,1944-May 29, 2013)

    Mamman Kontagora (April 20,1944-May 29, 2013)

    His friends affectionately called him Doki (Hausa for horse), in apparent acknowledgement of his reputation for hard work. A more appropriate epithet would have been Dokin Karfe, a Hausa metaphour for integrity. For Major-General Mamman Kontagora who died at 69 last Wednesday May 29, lived a truly modest lifestyle in spite of retiring as a well-connected senior military officer and occupying some of the most “lucrative” public offices in the land.

    Anyone who had worked with the man would agree that he was a personification of hard work. In all the high public offices he held, the most important of which were twice as a minister of the Federal Republic, he was almost always the first to arrive office and the last to leave. In between he went about his duties with an attitude that detested eye-service and discouraged sloth and shoddiness.

    However, great as his reputation for hard work was, his reputation for honesty was even greater. Two episodes, by no means apocryphal, bear testimony to this reputation. First, when former military head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, pencilled him down as his minister of the “lucrative” Federal Capital Territory, a senior traditional ruler from his local government, Kontagora, objected. Asked why he should object in spite of his subject’s reputation for hard work and honesty, the respected traditional ruler said he had no problem with either, only that the man was too inflexible to overlook the bending of rules necessary for the occasional patronage to kith and kin which greased governance all over the world. Needless to say, General Abubakar went ahead to offer the man the job.

    His performance in the job was by no means stellar, but unlike many ministers before and after him, he did not leave it any richer than before he took it.

    Second, in an earlier episode, his home state, Niger, gave him a job as an army engineer, to identify the proper boundary between his own local government and Bida in an area which had become volatile and even a source of altercations between the late Etsu Nupe, Alhaji Umaru Sanda Ndayako, and the Sarkin Sudan of Kontagora, Alhaji Sa’idu Namaska. It was a reflection of the faith both sides had in the man’s integrity that neither objected to his choice. In the end he did not disappoint, at least not from the Bida point of view; he ruled in her favour against his own local government.

    Predictably some of his fellow Bakontagores who could not understand how anyone would find against his own people said he did so because his mother was Nupe! Apparently it did not matter to these critics that he loved his paternal side so much he used the name of the local government it came from as his surname.

    General Kontagora, like his friend, General Abubakar, was as apolitical a soldier as any could be; throughout his career, he never participated in any coup planning although many of those who did were his friends, even confidants; presumably they didn’t think the man was flexible enough to succeed at military politics.

    Yet once their coup succeeded he was among those they turned to to get things done professionally and honestly. Thus in addition to serving as the Minister of Federal Capital Territory under General Abubakar, he also served in the vast and “lucrative” ministry of works and housing between 1993 and 1995.

    In September 1995 he was offered the thankless job of auditing Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, his alma mater (Class of 1972), one of Nigeria’s oldest and Africa’s largest, by the regime of General Sani Abacha, also a friend. This followed a serious financial and administrative crisis in the university that disrupted studies in the premier institution. In early November Abacha went on to assign him the job as sole administrator to clear the mess he had identified, a highly unusual job since universities are supposed to be the epitome of academic freedom and free speech.

    Not surprisingly, mixed reactions trailed his appointment and his tenure. Yet not even his worst critics could question the integrity he brought to bear on his assignment which he completed in July 1998. At any rate those who took over from him were happy enough with his performance they named its convocation square after him.

    Following the return of politics in 1999, the man, like several of his military compatriots, tried to transform into a politician. He was, it seemed, too perpendicular and too austere to make much of a success of his transformation in Nigeria’s shark infested political waters where only the shark repelling rich and their godsons – and goddaughters – dared swim; in his first stab at an elected high office in 2003 he lost the primaries for the senatorial candidature of his party, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), for Abuja to an obscure candidate, Isa Maina, himself a military officer but even more junior.

    Undeterred the general went on to seek for the presidential ticket of his party in 2007. Few Nigerians thought he had the connections and the financial resources to be taken seriously. He proved them right when he could not form a credible campaign team, never mind mounting even the most rudimentary campaign to win over fellow party members. In the end his bid for the party’s ticket was, for all practical purposes, a no-show.

    Following this dismal performance the man retired to his modest farm in Kontagora and into politics at the local level even though he maintained his home in Abuja. It was from this semi-retirement from politics and from public life that he was appointed the deputy chair of Subsidy Re-Investment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) Committee (SURE-P), a poor imitation of the Petroleum Task Force chaired by General Muhammadu Buhari under General Sani Abacha as head of state.

    General Kontagora did not properly assume office after the inauguration of the committee last year before he succumbed to the illness that has proved fatal. His death is a great loss to a nation in dire need of leaders like him who are hardworking, competent and, above all, honest.

    May Allah make aljanna firdaus his final resting place. May He also grant the dear ones he’s left behind the fortitude to bear his loss.

     

    GEJ, NGF and 2015

    Still talking about the shortage of honest leadership in the country, it’s hard to find anything more dishonest than the stand of the presidency of Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan on the contrived crisis of chairmanship of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum. His spokesman, Dr Reuben Abati, has averred that his principal has no interest in who chairs the forum. Yet everything the presidency has done to the contrary since the crisis started last year has spoken much louder than the words coming out of there.

    From forcing a postponement of the election several months ago because it was clear the Presidency could not force its preferred candidate on the governors, through creating and force-feeding a divisive PDP Governors’ Forum on those so elected on the party’s forum, and now to the shameful rejection of the outcome of last month’s election of the NGF chair which its candidate lost in spite of all means, more foul than fair, that were used to stop Rotimi Amaechi, the Rivers State Governor who has since become a persona non grata in the Presidency, from retaining the chair, it should now be obvious to even the most enthusiastic supporters of the President that he does not truly believe his mantra about every vote counting in an election.

    The question is, if the Presidency would reject the outcome of as transparent an election as that of a numerically insignificant electorate as that of 36 governors, what guarantee is there that he will allow 60 million voters cast their ballot papers freely in 2015? And if he does, how do we know that he will honestly practice what he has preached about every vote counting?

    It is truly frightening to think that what happened a fortnight ago is a mere dress rehearsal of what will happen two years hence.

     

     

  • Freedom; Chimamanda’s Americanah; CBN’s MPR and the rest of us

    Thank God for the successful efforts to secure the release of the Rhodes Vivours. We must thank God even as we pray earnestly for the release of all other kidnap victims and a final full stop to this evil method of extortion.

    The wars against the Boko Haram, indigenes in Plateau and farmers on the North-South cattle route go on even as the rest of Nigeria goes on. I read Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah. It is a long good read, covering a wide range of incidents and sites. I was on the Third Mainland Bridge when it came up in the book. Perhaps you will find yourself ‘live action’ in places and scenes mentioned including Obalende, my old haunt. The book discusses race, confirming it is a non-issue in Nigeria, and love- that worldwide problem engaging every reader in one scenario or another. You will find a lot of ‘been-there-done-that’ as my daughter taught me to say.

    It is amazing in love the same action can be so contrastingly cruel and kind, common and individual and cause so much gain and pain, but we all know that anyway. That is not a reason not to read the book. It is nice knowing you are not alone in your gains and pains from love. And you will learn a lot about women’s hair, beautiful and otherwise. In my clinic I tell my patients that small cysts seen on ultrasound are normal signs of womanhood and that without those cysts the women would be men. They immediately cheer-up. Not one of them has wanted to be a man in spite of the dedicated hours regularly spent weave-on-ing. Amazing. This book answers the unasked question ‘why weave-on?’ and many more ‘whys’.

    Meanwhile the inter-bank interest rate MPR, has been kept by the award winning CBN at 12% making bank loans 21-25% to ‘fight inflation’. What inflation? The one in the pockets of millions of Nigerians or the banks statistics caused by corruption? The commercial banks could cut their own additional 10-15% interest even if CBN insists on 12% but they will not –greed. Meanwhile they make billions! How? Who are they doing business with? They screw us out of our money with COT, cheque, ATM and a myriad of other financial burdens invented in the boardrooms by financial wiz kids seeking bonuses. What do Nigerian banks pay as bankers bonuses? The trouble with being a Nigerian when so many are stealing so much is that the average person suffers so much to service the bankers’ greed. In spite of our oil, Nigerians have the highest interest rates loans in the world and the highest energy costs from generators and fuel from imports while government demonstrated a pathological failure to fix refineries –Corruption, Incompetence, Negligence and Selfishness-CINS.

    Most middle class Nigerians could have afforded to buy a new car annually from what they are forced to spend on power substitution at home and in the office during the last 25 years. So the prohibitive cost of doing business through loans, supplying power and corruption are key problems facing every business and entrepreneur. Today we face political whirlwinds among governors seeking dominance at the Governors’ Forum. Who does not know that 19 is democratically more than 16? We face Presidential pronouncements on incumbency and lack of vacancies in Aso Rock made by proxy through political attack dogs and self-appointed ‘Ministers for Presidential Defence’. We face ex-presidents who for many observers were mega-failures in areas of job creation infrastructure like power, road and rail networks, bringing interest rates down, improving the naira value and in human rights particularly during elections and odiously in Odi. Why did the naira fall further even after the dark days of Buhari, Babangida Abacha when it ended at N88 to $1 under Abacha? These pontificating ex-presidents, including ‘civilian/military’ presidents like Obasanjo with eight years of failed hope and disappointing prosperity under their agbadas, are talking boldly of the failings of an incumbent president who appears to be struggling through a multiple minefield laid by the same past governments’ failures in power, political and electric and economic and social responsibility.

    Why did they, our ‘Failed Past Presidents’, not improve education to make Nigerian students them fully employable with easy access to business advice and normal worldwide acceptable interest rates on loans? The problems today were problems created deliberately, ignorantly or negligently for years.  The Nigerian adult now knows that there was money to service education but it was government policy to starve education –exposed by an unappreciated ASUU.  Parents and students preferred a ‘Let My Children Go Ignorantly Into The Future’ policy to supporting ASUU’s fight for better conditions. For years government has manipulated the education situation to make it appear that ASUU was the cause of the poor education situation, when ASUU was fighting for quality-a losing battle against ‘Acada-hating politicians in power’. Ask Jubril Aminu’s opinion. Has he published his memoirs of ‘A Minister of Education in an Ignorant State’ yet?

    On Sunday we followed Pope Francis’s request to all 1+billion Catholics to join him at 5pm to pray among other things for the poor. A person born poor is at an unfair disadvantage but has ignored rights to make demands on government to cross the poverty line- $1 or $2 a day. Government has a failed responsibility to rescue the poor who are getting wiser and more violent.

  • Al-Makura vs. Ombatse’s Chief Priest

    It is apparent that the dust raised by the recent, senseless deployment of security officers to their untimely death in Alakyo, Nasarawa State, has refused to settle. The unfortunate incident claimed the lives of no fewer than 75 policemen, including a dozen operatives of the State Security Service, SSS. The Police and the SSS had put the number of their dead or missing officials at 56. They comprised 46 police officers and 10 SSS operatives.

    It was gathered that no member of the Mobile Police Force, PMF 38 Squadron in nearby Akwanga, Nasarawa State, also known as “Tiger Squadron”, who were dispatched to dislodge the Ombatse militia group, survived the raid. A top police officer recently said that apart from the 61 MOPOL officers that were deployed from Akwanga, the Police is yet to see many others mobilised from the MOPOL base in Lafia, including the men of the State CID. So the claim that only 56 policemen died cannot be true.

    Abayomi Akeremale, the Commissioner of Police who ordered the deployment ‘at midnight’, has since been replaced with Umar Shehu, who has resumed. But news emanating from the state has continued to paint a gory and grisly picture of what must have actually transpired. It was also learnt that Mohammed Abubakar, the Inspector-General of Police, had summoned the officer in charge of the base to the Force Headquarters. The Police High Command was also said to have begun an investigation into allegation that the Nasarawa State Government paid a huge amount of money to the state police command to influence the massive deployment of its officers for the ill-fated operation against the militia group. Findings indicated that the 2015 race for governorship position in the state informed the operation against the militia group.

    Never in the history of barbarism in Nigeria has a large contingent of security officers been driven to their ‘cheap death’ such as this. The issue of money changing hands between police commanders and state governors has been a source of irritation to the public and also a great embarrassment to the force itself. But whenever this ugly episode rears its head, the hierarchy of the police has always been quick to cover up the misdeeds of their men with ridiculous explanations, distortions and half-truths.

    As for the issue of 2015 being at the centre of the whole crisis, those who alluded to this, and they are many, including my humble self, believe that it is not far from the truth. This argument is more germane when the revelation that has so far come from the major ‘dramatis personae’ in the crisis is pieced together. They are Al-Makura, the governor of the state, and Alla Agu, the chief priest of the Ombatse cult in Lakyo, Nasarawa South Local Government Area of Nasarawa State.

    The chief priest recently said that security men that invaded the community were ordered by the state governor to kill him. Seventy-six-year-old Agu, popularly called Baba Lakyo, spoke through an interpreter when Solomon Ewuga, the Senator representing Nasarawa North Senatorial District in the Senate, visited him. Agu said the security operatives did not come to arrest him, but to kill him “and cut off my head and take it to the governor”.  According to him, “it is the governor that asked the people (police officers) to come here, arrest me and cut my head… When they came, because they were themselves drunk, my god did not allow them to come to me and they died on the way. The question I asked is, ‘Has the governor ever invited me and I refused to go?’ If I’m invited, I will go. But he sent people to kill me and to destroy Lakyo as a whole. That is just what it is.”

    Contrary to reports that the police invaded the village after he shunned their invitation, the chief priest has pooh-poled the governor’s claim by saying that he had never been invited by any of the security agencies. Although Lakyo is now peaceful, besides the carcasses of burnt vehicles used by the security men, Baba Alakyo said he was unhappy with what happened and was apprehensive of the fate that might befall him afterwards. He also denied ever forcing people to join the group through any initiation or drinking of concoction. He also said that he was in a nearby village when the incident took place.

    Asked whether the incident had anything to do with the politics of the state, Baba Alakyo said, “If you are talking about politics, it does not bother me. I don’t even understand Hausa language. Politics is not for me because I am not a politician. Politics is for politicians but I hear that the time for politicking has not even come.”  He said that Ombatse was an association of Lakyo boys into which nobody was forced to belong. According to him, it is even more saddening that he is being linked to the incident, especially when he knew nothing about what happened to the policemen.

    The governor, however, dismissed Baba Alakyo’s claim that he was never invited for any meeting. The governor, who spoke through Iliya Aliu, his chief press secretary, said it was on record that the head of the cult group did not honour several invitations extended to him. He said, “The Police and the SSS invited him before this incident but he refused to honour any of them. It was after he refused to answer all of these invitations that the State Security Council met and decided that he should be arrested. Even their name, Ombatse, means it is our turn, their turn for what?”

    On his own part, Chris Mamman, the President of the Eggon Cultural Development Association, the umbrella body for Ombatse, said the only way to get to the root of what happened at Alakyo was for the Federal Government to set up a judicial commission of inquiry.

    I totally agree with Mamman that only a high-powered judicial commission of inquiry can unravel the hidden truth of this case. Such committee should get to the root of this heinous crime that has now become an issue to be tossed around by Al-Makura and Baba Alakyo. It is obvious that the issue involved here is between the governor and Baba Alakyo as well as the mad race for 2015 election or re-election. It is all a pointer that the 2015 race will be as deadly as ever if the fever has really caught up the polity this way like hurricane in harmattan.

    Now that it is very clear that the governor might have been economical with the truth, especially with the large number of security operatives involved in the midnight raid as well as the issue of money changing hands. These are weighty allegations strong enough to keep the judiciary commission of enquiry on their toes to unmask the culprits. Even whether Akeremale has retired or not, he must also be made to face the music if he is found guilty or complicity in the entire horrible saga. All those directly or remotely connected should face the law at the levels of their involvement. This is not the time to sweep matters of national shame under the carpet. The cops cannot die in vain.

    However, we should take cognizance of the fact that the governor belongs to one of the opposition parties and so the government at the centre should not see this as an opportunity to witch-hunt him in order to shove him out of office. Also, if the claim of the chief priest is true but I strongly doubt this, the government can enlist the assistance of his ‘god’ to root out the Boko Haram insurgents ravaging the northern part of the country. At least, if Baba Alakyo’s god can wipe out such a frightening number of security agents within a twinkle of an eye, he should be able to engage Boko Haram insurgents in a matter of minutes or hours.

     

     

  • Jang and his gang

    Jang and his gang

    Almost two weeks after 35 of Nigeria’s 36 state governors met in Abuja to elect a new set of leaders for their association, the Nigeria Governors Forum, and we are nowhere near knowing who actually got the nod of the governors to be their chairman.

    Though a winner (Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State) was announced at the end of voting, the loser’s camp led by Governor David Jang of Plateau State is claiming victory.

    But while the result declared by the returning officer showed that Amaechi got 19 votes as against 16 for Jang, no other result has been produced, so far, to show that Jang and not Amaechi was duly elected.

    So, apart from the usual noise of rigging that we often hear from losers after every election in Nigeria, no concrete evidence has been put in the public domain by Jang and co to back their claim. The allegation of rigging has not been proven either. And his response to a video recording of the event now on YouTube was a tame condemnation that it was immoral for whoever made that recording to do so; the facts contained in the video he could not fault.

    And in the face of all this, Jang went ahead to open an office for his faction of the NGF which he says is authentic and even had the gut to lead his gang to the presidential villa in Abuja to pay homage to President Goodluck Jonathan who not only received them but met with them behind closed doors, an action that could only mean his official endorsement. So in the eyes of the president 16 is higher than 19 and the candidate with the least number of votes can actually be declared the winner as long as it helps his own cause. That sadly appears to be President Jonathan’s understanding of democracy.

    The implication of this for our democracy is quite obvious, but for those who chose not to see it, giving victory to the loser in an election without recourse to the court or going through due process of challenging the outcome can only mean one thing for our democracy, disaster. What becomes of the time tested dictum that the majority carries the vote?

    Next week will mark the 20th anniversary of the June 12 election, when Nigerians voted in a presidential election but their votes were not allowed to count.

    With the majority clearly in favor of a particular candidate that the ruling military junta was not comfortable with, the powers that be then would rather annul that election than allow the majority to carry the day. And so the election of Bashorun MKO Abiola as president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on June 12, 1993 was annulled by military fiat and with it went the 3rd Republic. The will of the majority was subverted and Nigeria went into crisis. You know the rest of the story.

    It does appear that we have learnt nothing from that experience. No matter how imperfect an election was the outcome must be respected as long as that was the wish of the majority. If the military had allowed Abiola to assume his mandate, it was possible Nigeria could have fumbled and wobbled then (but definitely not crumble, as the anti June 12 forces then wanted us to believe) if he didn’t perform well, but the people would only have blamed themselves for that choice and would have changed him at the next election. We lost that opportunity and it took us a long time to get it back in 1999 and now we are toying with it again.

    The NGF election might look small and may be insignificant in the context of the larger politics, but the message we are sending by this long drawn dispute over who won the chairmanship portends danger for our democracy. If in an election involving only 35 electors and we are still alleging rigging then what happens when there are 70 to 80 million voters? An election among state governors who are supposedly members of the political elites and yet we are still disputing the outcome?

    All the state governors have been a let down in this matter and they should be ashamed of themselves. What are they teaching the rest of us ordinary mortals? But the greatest let down here is President Goodluck Jonathan. His denials notwithstanding, the whole furore over the NGF election is all about his second term bid. He feels that a Rotimi Amaechi led NGF would be injurious to his ambition to return to office in 2015. How he arrived at his conclusion is still baffling. What can Gov. Amaechi do if Nigerians believe Jonathan deserves another term in 2015? But does the President deserve another term? Has he done enough to earn our votes again in 2015?

    I think Jonathan is just a failed president looking for someone to blame for his failure. Trying to cast Amaechi as the stumbling block to his second term chance, if he has any chance at all, is simple escapism. Jonathan should ask himself this basic question. Are Nigerians better off now than they were when I took over? If he answers in the affirmative, then he should ignore the NGF, both Amaechi’s and Jang’s factions and throw his hat into the ring for the 2015 presidential election and wait for the people to decide. If he deceives himself by saying yes when he knows that he has not measured up to expectation, he will definitely fail at the polls. Nigerians would reject him and nothing will happen, the threats of Asari Dokubo and his fellow thugs notwithstanding.

    But before we get to that election the president and his group have to be very careful about what they say and what they do. Lest they plunge this nation into further crisis. Parading Jang and his gang as the real NGF and threatening any PDP governor that refused to fall in line is not the right way to go. If truly Jonathan is the leader of the country, instead of meeting with a faction of the NGF, he should call a meeting of all the 36 state governors and sit down with them to resolve the crisis in the Forum. This will serve not just his interest but the larger Nigerian interest.

    For Governor Jang much more is expected of him as an elderly person and he should apply the wisdom of an old man and not lent himself to being used to cause the downfall of this democracy. He should not be a tool in the hands of Jonathan and wife to fight their ‘enemy’ real or imagined. He should let Jonathan carry his cross, fight his battle. If the NGF goes down, Nigerians will neither forget nor forgive Jang. If truly Jang won as he insists, then he should provide the evidence, if not he should keep quiet and not heat up the polity unnecessarily. As for the rest of his gang, particularly Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State, I reserve my comments. Those who know him well say he is just behaving true to type. They say he is a serial betrayal; a man of low or no principle; a fair weather politician. What can one say other than to watch, hoping he doesn’t end up destroying himself politically. Yoruba can forgive anything, everything and anybody, but not betrayals. He should ask the Akintolas. Yoruba don’t forget, and the time would come one day when questions would be asked about his conduct in this present dispensation. That time is near. And as we say here, a three year old pounded yam can still burn the finger.

    The Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi would also do well by reaching out to the other 16 governors who for one reason or the other did not vote for him. I am sure the founders of the NGF adopted the consensus option in choosing the chairman of the forum in the past to avoid this kind of division that an election, especially among a group of equals could bring. Now we have seen the wisdom in that and can appreciate it better. But that is not to say that electing the chairman was a bad idea, after all we are in a democracy, but governors are expected to be mature enough to rise above the kind of pettiness that often accompany election disputes in Nigeria. We expect a lot better from them and Amaechi should show that he is or can be better by extending a hand of friendship to the other camp, including the President’s and prove that the trust of the majority of his colleagues who preferred him to Jang and indeed that of millions of Nigerians are not misplaced.

    The NGF must rally together and remember what brought them together; fighting for the interest of their people. Anything less will only bring the forum public scorn and hatred, irrespective of who the chairman is.

     

  • Echoes of June 12, portents of 2015

    Echoes of June 12, portents of 2015

    The May 24 Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) election, lost (by President Goodluck Jonathan and his storm-troopers) and won (by Rivers Governor Chibuike Amaechi and his coalition underdogs) has sent dangerous ripples through the polity: echoes from a reckless past; portents of a dire future.

    The usual culprits? Cavalier injustice and brazen impunity. Add Governor Amaechi’s suspension from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), after routing the presidential forces, and you view, in full Technicolor, the face of avowed non-democrats running Nigeria’s pitiable democracy!

    For bringing the name of God into clear fraud, mimic NGF ‘chair’, Plateau Governor, Jonah Jang, evinces the Biblical Jonah, snoring in the belly of the whale. But the whale of this Jonah, a former Air force general, would appear his military past, from where he pathetically jangles. Despite his high gubernatorial office, he becomes an embarrassment to everyone with his phantom NGF chair.

    Wake up, Jonah! It is democracy, not military imposition! And in democracies, election winners assume office while losers stand down! Even as bad as June 12 presidential annulment crisis was, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida did not brandish loser Bashir Tofa as winner, after annulling MKO Abiola’s win. Yet, that is the phony throne Jang jangles about, invoking God’s munificence, in His very temple! Indeed, the Christian God is longsuffering!

    What ails Akwa Ibom’s Godswill Akpabio, for proudly leading the gambit to turn winner into loser, and loser into winner? Gubernatorial megalomania powered by presidential impunity? The telling irony is clearly lost on the governor: a God’s will purporting to subvert the will of God for that of mere man. Is the voice of the people not that of God?

    To purport to cancel an election the PDP Governors’ Forum chair and his gang lost was the height of impunity. To purport to install the loser in place of the winner was the height of insanity, bordering on absolute contempt for the mental health of other Nigerians. And to resort to empty bluff, brandishing a pre-poll signed list that rippled with fraud and forgery, was the height of power delusion. Why, even gubernatorial buffoonery should be made of saner stuff!

    Of course, Ondo’s Olusegun Mimiko completes the triad. But then, when two or three are gathered; and the discourse is political intrigue, be sure Iroko would be there! His friends call the Iroko game real-politik: no friend, no foe, just permanent interest; and the end, to echo Prof. Wole Soyinka, must justify the meanness! But his foes counter it is nothing but seasoned perfidy.

    With Mimiko, a losing NGF vice-chairman hilariously pronounced one by outgoing vice, Anambra Governor, Peter Obi; not on the strength of the election result but on the whim of bad losers, the real Iroko political persona storms out of the shadows.

    Governor Obi himself is a tragic symbol on more fronts than one. But the irony is also clearly lost on him: how can a grand beneficiary of justice to reclaim his stolen governorship be such a proud votary of swaggering injustice in this NGF case?

    But of course! If Mr. Obi could organise a nocturnal convention of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to thwart an anticipated negative court ruling, it can be legitimately argued that his latest NGF posturing reflects the man’s true political essence.

    But Governor Obi presents an even more troubling essence, both as déjà vu and as political symbolism. In raising Dr. Mimiko’s hands as the new NGF vice chair, sans election, Mr. Obi prattled about South East governors working together. That was no crime, except that the present “working together” for injustice echoed a dire past one.

    During the June 12 crisis in 1993, South East governors, with the exception of Chukwuemeka Ezeife, the then Anambra governor, worked together to subvert democracy for clear infamy. Dr. Ezeife belonged to the victorious Social Democratic Party (SDP), while the others belonged to the defeated National Republican Convention (NRC). Indeed, so boisterous was Okwesilieze Nwodo, then Enugu governor, that he swore he would commit suicide should Abiola be installed president!

    Twenty years after June 12, all South East governors, except Imo’s Rochas Okorocha, are proud and preening members of the united column of brazen injustice, purporting to deny Amaechi of his NGF win, on no less infamy. Why, even as the original June 12 gladiators manufactured post-election fibs about Abiola, this column of bad losers are manufacturing post-election fibs against Amaechi! Indeed, history is repeating itself as farce!

    The South East provided some of the finest and most committed defenders of June 12: Eastern Mandate Union, EMU’s Arthur Nwankwo, former Lagos Administrator, Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu, Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, and the late Chima Ubani of the Campaign for Democracy (CD), to mention a few.

    Still, as it was with June 12, it is now with NGF: all the South East governors, except one, have jumped, without thinking, into defending brazen injustice. Why do a section of the South East political elite give the impression that, when the chips are down, they would rather go with expediency than side with equity and justice? And how does that penchant strengthen their hands to earn justice for their people, one of the most traumatised, in the hellish Nigerian state?

    Reuben Abati, ex-Guardian and chief presidential spokesman, has claimed President Goodluck Jonathan had no hand in the NGF imbroglio. He can tell that to the marines! But even the marines must be interested in how Abati, the thundering Guardian columnist would have reacted to the claim of Abati, the thundering presidential spokesman! Still, Abati the presidential oracle has spoken. Who can say no?

    But some questions: who was paranoid about Amaechi seeking NGF second term? Jonathan. On whose behalf did Godsday Orubebe fire the first shot? Jonathan. Who staked his presidential prestige on stopping Amaechi at all cost? Jonathan. Who told PDP governors he could no longer work with Amaechi as NGF chair? Jonathan. Under whose perceived charter is Akpabio, emergency viceroy to smash Amaechi, as emergency PDP Governors Forum chair? Jonathan. Who told the Kalabari to warn Amaechi to shun NGF second term? Jonathan. And who bosses the Police, so pathetically partisan in the Rivers PDP crisis? Jonathan!

    A final question: is the NGF routing of the Jonathan troops a pointer to what will happen in 2015, if Jonathan is worsted in the presidential poll? Would the commander-in-chief, ala Kenya’s Mwai Kibaki, order the electoral chief to announce him willy-nilly, just as Akpabio and co are purporting to install Jang as winner of an election he soundly lost, even as the PDP threatens Amaechi, the winner, with impeachment or worse?

    More darkly, would Nigeria split on account of Jonathan’s loss, as NGF has now split on account of the loss of Jang, Jonathan’s poodle?

    These are troubling questions. But for a country of “anything goes” as Gen. Saliu Ibrahim a Babangida-era chief of Army staff described the army of his day, they are not illegitimate ones.

    Everyone had better start girding their loins for the seemingly impossible!