The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

NGF Chair: Nigeria becomes the butt of jokes as presidency settles for weakest link

That those who wanted governor Amaechi out by all means could settle for governor Jang must be eloquent testimony to their desperation,

Those who get to power by false or fraudulent means curse themselves and are cursed by the people. Those who collaborate with evil systems and tyranny cursed themselves, and are cursed by the people’ -Uncle Bola Ige in IS NIGERIA CURSED? 21 April, 1996.

I can no longer remember how many times I have had this feeling that Plateau State has no governor, properly so called. Governor Jang’s tenure has proved so lacklustre that hardly does a week pass by without reports of ethno-religious killings; you are bound to think it is only in that state you have Hausa/Fulani living alongside indigenous peoples in the country. At first I thought he was the victim and that people like my good friend, Antony Sanni, the A C F Publicity Secretary, who thoroughly understands the terrain, were being unkind when they accused him of always complicating simple issues and turning them to the leitmotif for horrendous bloodletting. I actually pointedly accused Tony of tormenting the governor until he assured me that on the contrary, he has every reason to wish for a peaceful Plateau State to which he is related by marriage. It was at that point that I decided to pay closer attention to the Jang persona and I have come to the conclusion that by his election as governor, it would appear he has been promoted over and above his ken. The only thing I can unreservedly credit Mr. Jang with is his unremitting stubbornness which, for instance, led him to neglect warnings from the federal authorities not to conduct the ruinous local government election which subsequently resulted in the death of many.

That those who wanted Governor Amaechi out by all means could settle for governor Jang must be eloquent testimony to their desperation, especially after they were reported to have earlier-on zero-ed in on the Bauchi State governor. The Katsina State governor is alleged to have said on a BBC Hausa radio programme that the President personally told him to go and replace Governor Amaechi as chairman so all these denials will not sell as Nigerians are no fools. Increasingly, presidential spokespersons are presenting the President as being totally in the dark, all in the ridiculous attempt to present him as innocent. Yuguda, one must say, has never hidden his presidential ambition since the Yar ‘Adua era on whose demise he most probably considered himself the prime northern candidate to step in to complete the late President’s two terms. If Governor Akpabio is as smart as he is often regarded, he should have stood by Yuguda who would do just about anything to become the NGF Chairman, hoping that by that mere fact he could edge out the incumbent Vice President come 2015.

The ways of the PDP is truly bewildering. But what led them to Jang this time around? I can hazard only two reasons: first, Mr President apparently cannot stand a powerful northern governor as chairman of the forum. As Nigerians know only too well, both he and the coordinating minister need unfettered freedom to operate both the Excess Crude Account and the Sovereign Wealth Fund, among other things. Second, they know that being isolated, Governor Jang will need the elixir, even though as chairman, the President will consult him the least amongst northern PDP governors.

The video recording of an election which some governors claimed did not hold has since gone viral on the internet and Nigerians are now waiting for the nay-sayers to also claim that the recording is fake. Apparently these governors are least concerned about the embarrassment to the country and I was not in the least surprised to learn that Nigeria was the butt of jokes at the 50th anniversary celebrations of the African Union. That is what happens when a resource-rich country, the size of Nigeria, demonstrates puny leadership traits and prefers to play, not in the big league, but at the peripheries of civilisation.

Why has the NGF suddenly become this important, a beautiful bride of sorts? In my opinion, that flows directly from the president’s new ambition to be master of all he surveys. Every segment of society and any person, or institution against that single-minded determination must be crushed or subsumed one way or the other. But this is not new in our clime.

IBB did not stop until he had run literally every institution out of town: labour unions, the Nigerian Medical Association inclusive, and for the really tough ones like the Nigerian Bar Association, he merely plucked from their leadership by recruiting almost every succeeding president to his cabinet thereby giving the association enough problem to occupy a life time. What appears to be trending now is that for President Jonathan’s 2015 ambition, just about anybody or anything is dispensable. And that is why today’s cheer- leaders must beware because revolutions do consume its own children: a mis- spoken word, an unintended act there etc, could spell doom. So if today, the President’s ‘soldiers’ are coming for the Russians, the Poles and the Jews do not remonstrate, there may be nobody to talk tomorrow when it is the turn of the Jews to be herded into the ‘Auchwitz concentration camp gas chambers.’

People of very short memories that we Nigerians are, I have heard and read many blaming the pro-Amaechi governors of edging him on in confronting his party. But nothing can be further from the truth as they have so easily forgotten that President Jonathan road was smoothened by these very persons, acting in unison with the National Assembly. Or can anybody show Nigerians the PDP membership cards of the likes of Professor Wole Soyinka, Pastor Tunde Bakare, Femi Falana, Festus Keyamo, to mention only a few of those who risked limbs and lives so Jonathan could become acting President?

It is in this regard that I feel rather uncomfortable with the views of my very good friend, Sen. Seye Ogunlewe when, on television, he alleged that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is behind the crisis. Without a doubt, I know that the Southwest PDP people see Tinubu in their dreams. Also, having been brutally maginalised in a PDP they did the most to bring about, and nurtured, albeit, through outright chicanery, they are eager to be in the good books of Abuja. For this reason, they must make ‘politically correct’ statements lest Abuja forgets them. Add to that, the fact that Seye has just recently been begged to return fully to the party. He therefore has a duty to prove that he is still a loyal party man. Otherwise, what is Tinubu’s own in PDP’s all-year-round hallucinations and dirty politics in which might is right; where you can suspend a whole governor without as much as allowing him a right of hearing and where, having participated fully in an election, you can, after losing miserably, turn round like school children to say elections were not held or were rigged? I must, however, not forget to congratulate the Jagaban for having the power and the influence to make PDP governors disobey, if not disregard, their party leader, Mr. President. What remains for these people who are forever afraid of Tinubu is to lift their nemesis into the pantheon of the gods.

Finally, the role of the Akwa Ibom governor, Godswill Akpabio, especially his no-holds barred exuberance in carrying out his instructions, is very analogous to that of Senator Ibrahim Mantu’s in the aborted Third Term Project of former President Obasanjo. Mantu was the generalissimo and threw his entire weight (no puns intended) into it. But he was smart. Once they were routed, he calmly returned to base, and ate the humble pie. I think rather than all these sabre rattling in which Governor Jang is being paraded on television, Governor Akpabio and his pro-Jang governors should take the only decent option here. The video of that election, with gubernatorial banters here and there and which, by now, must have been watched by millions in every corner of the world, has done them in irretrievably. If they love Nigeria as they never cease to claim from the roof tops, they should stop their bellicosity, quietly apologise to Amaechi and his supporters, embrace their returned chairman and try their damn best to restore Nigeria’s integrity.

June 2, 2013
Whenever the truth hurts

Nigerians at home and abroad need to accept that the truth can liberate while it can also hurt.

One popular lesson learned from Christian scriptures is that the truth shall set people free. In other words, the truth shall liberate people troubled or otherwise from their inhibitions and put them on the road to salvation or redemption. This has not happened in the case of truth that Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale shot and chopped Drummer Lee Rigby a British soldier in Woolwich, north-east London last week. The fact that the young men are British citizens of Nigerian descent had caused ripples in the country in which the crime was committed and where the parents of the two young men were born. This tragic and barbaric act has left so many lessons to be learnt in different parts of the world.

The truth about the parentage of the two latest members of the world’s newest international terrorists has raised the adrenalin of Nigerians in diaspora in the United Kingdom and in the birthplace of the parents of the two Michaels. Those in the United Kingdom who perceive themselves as possible or potential targets of vengeful looks and deliberate profiling from people in their host community have cried foul about the characterisation of the two Michaels as Nigerian, stressing that by any stretch of imagination, Adebolajo and Adebowale are British one-hundred per cent.

The truth has been hurting Nigerians in Britain noticeably. Living in a country where, apart from regular racism-institutional and inter-personal, subtle and overt–Nigeria had acquired too many stigmas: Advanced fee fraud (alias 419), drug pushing, credit card crime, identity theft, undocumented stay, etc. it is understandable if no one chooses to blame Nigerians for denying the two Michaels the opportunity to be defined in relation to their ancestry? It is perfectly within human character to invoke a popular Yoruba proverb: B’ina baa jo ni jo omo eni, taraeni laa ko gbon danu (if a person and his or her child becomes victim of fire attack, the person is obliged to first ensure his or her own safety before attending to the child). This principle is even emphasised planes where passengers are advised to first put on their oxygen mask before attending to their children.

Here in the ancestral home of the two Michaels, feelings are clearly mixed. Many opinion leaders, especially Yoruba pundits who have written extensively on the issue of the Yoruba being the most religiously plural and tolerant in the world are covering their faces with their hands, as if their own children had killed Lee Rigsby. Others are quick to conclude that of any attempt to attach the origin of the parents of the two alleged terrorists to their identities is overt racism. In other words, people in Nigeria are unhappy that the two young men are being connected to Nigeria, a land with too many dark spots that are visible to the international community. Many of such people prefer to be in denial about this barbaric act in a country that is 3,000 miles away from Nigeria.

Major politicians in the two countries linked by the shame of the moment have spoken effusively. President Jonathan has spoken in the tone of a sociologists: “Each environment presents its own unique challenges and peculiarities and actions taken by affected nations may differ, yet the resolve to confront and defeat this threat should never be in doubt.” Nigeria’s President has spoken bluntly like a person who is suffering a fate similar to Cameron’s at the hands of Boko Haram, but clearly as a politician dealing with the problem of insecurity, a major threat to stability of political power. On the other hand, Britain’s Prime Minister, David Cameron, has stressed: “This was not just an attack on Britain and on the British way of life; it was also a betrayal of Islam and of the Muslim communities who give so much to our country….” Cameron has spoken frankly like a politician who is preoccupied with search for economic security that requires regular import of petroleum and capital from oil-rich Islamic countries.

But close to the scene of the crime that had turned the two British citizens of Nigerian parentage into new protagonists of terrorism a few years after the case of Muttalab, the failed under-pant bomber, there are many British citizens who are eager to think beyond domestic and international politics and economics by stressing factors that predispose young men to Islamic radicalisation. One of such persons is a Labour parliamentarian, David Lammy. Lammy hasexplained susceptibility to extreme Islamism thus: “If you have not got a major father-figure in your life, if your parents are first-generation immigrants and there is a sense of detachment for you as a second generation immigrant, if you are unemployed, if you are looking for some sense of belonging and then you are potentially seduced by all forms of extremism and possibilities that are criminal or dangerous in intent.” In other words, there is a need to recognize the possibility of a victim morphing into a viper.

Some lessons are being overlooked by those who are preoccupied with face saving on both sides of the Atlantic. If Adebolajo and Adebowale had won the Nobel Prize for physics or medicine, it is certain that Nigerians abroad and at home would have claimed them as their own. No one would have accused the British media of stereotyping with the intention of adding to the stigma attached to Nigerians. It is also conceivable that the British media could have been silent on the parentage of the two men if they had won a prestigious international award. Similarly, Nigerian media pundits would have accused the British of subtle racism for not mentioning the Nigerian ancestry of Adebolajo and Adebowale were the two slated to receive Nobel Prize. No denialism can fly on this matter: the two young terrorists are partly Nigerians; they in fact qualify under our constitution to obtain Nigerian passports. It is re-assuring that the two men had chosen to stick with just British passport, a choice that makes it easy for Nigeria to share the shame of the week with the United Kingdom. The two ‘mujahids’ have also made it easy for the Yoruba of Nigeria to share with the English of Great Britain the shame the two friends have engendered with their murder of an innocent British soldier.

The ignoble act of the two young Nigerian-British murderers of Lee Rigsby has thrown up several questions. One of such questions is what would make persons of Yoruba descent, wherever they may be resident, to kill fellow human beings in the name of God? It is necessary to unpack the socialisation that the parents of the two friends must have given them. Isn’t it curious that the parents of the two partners in crime migrated from a Yoruba world that adores religious plurality and says unequivocally that God (believed in all religions to be omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient) does not (and should not) require any human being to fight for him or her. Is the reality of postmodern multiculturalism, particularly the practice of absorptive and additive assimilation of immigrants now taking its toll on Yoruba culture? The signs are already there that intolerance of religious plurality, best prevented from damaging social relations through the principle of political secularity, is gaining ground even in the Yoruba homeland in Nigeria. Politicians, school administrators, and parents of diverse religious persuasions are engaged in media war on the subject of wearing religious costumes to public schools, an institution that results from sociality that joins individuals together, rather than from religiosity or spirituality that connects individuals to their gods. Nigerians at home and abroad need to accept that the truth can liberate while it can also hurt.

June 2, 2013
The “Arewa” North and our parasitic federalism and kwashiorkor democracy (1)

[Being an open letter to Professor Itse Sagay]

All the big guns of Arewa North were resolutely committed to this project – Malam Adamu Ciroma, Professor Ango Abdullahi, Alhaji Lawal Kaita, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, Malam Tanko Yakasai, etc. In addition to these gentlemen, the Northern Governors and virtually all the political elite of the Arewa North believe that only one of themselves is entitled to be the president of Nigeria, based on where they come from, and as a group representative, regardless of merit, quality, qualification or track record. [My emphasis]

Professor Itse Sagay, “The Appropriation of Nigeria by Northern Irredentists”, The Nation, Sunday, May 26, 2013

Dear Itse:

I don’t know if you have ever heard of a wisecrack that used to be told at the expense of Professor Ango Abdullahi, one of those you identified as the core group of Northern irredentists that you subjected to a blistering critique in your article in The Nation on Sunday, May 26 2013. That devastating critique is of course what prompted this open letter to you. The wisecrack I am alluding to here concerns a satirical nickname by which Ango Abdullahi was known by many of the radical lecturers and students of Ahmadu Bello University when he was the Vice Chancellor of that institution. The nickname was “VC-without-CV”. The nickname arose from the rather very well known fact that Abdullahi became a professor and later Vice Chancellor with a curriculum vitae (CV) that was so mediocre that, but for his connection to powerful conservative forces in the North, he could not have become a Senior Lecturer, let alone a Professor and Vice Chancellor with that kind of “CV”.

Our tertiary educational system has fallen on bad days and North and South, East and West, many academics with poor or grossly inflated CV’s have become professors and vice chancellors, at least since the early 1980’s. Indeed, the crises of quality and relevance in our tertiary educational system is so bad, so acute that it is nothing short of miraculous that we still have professors and some Vice Chancellors that are of world class stature, that are indeed a match for their counterparts in other parts of the world – the world in general and the world of academia in particular. I make this observation so as to let you and my other readers know that it is not my intention in this open letter to you to make a singular or exceptional case of Ango Abdullahi as the infamous “VC-without-CV”. Far from singling out Abdullahi, I start this letter with his case only in order to draw your attention to a very crucial fact of our national political history that was almost completely absent from your article. This is the fact that Ango Abdullahi and the other scions and kingpins of the Northern irredentist or conservative establishment that your article so scathingly and mostly justifiably pilloried, were fiercely opposed in the North itself. This is not the only issue that I wish to take up in response to your article, but it is a central issue, one on which, in my opinion, hangs many of the other issues that I wish to raise in this two-part series. For this reason, permit me to dwell for a little while on this Ango Abdullahi case and the special circumstances that made me become aware of it. As we shall see, these circumstances as a matter of fact constituted a vital part of the activist lives that you and I and other colleagues lived when we were colleagues at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife in the early to mid-1980s.

Dear Itse, you perhaps sense that I am adverting here to ASUU in which we were all very active in that period, so much so that that organisation was the linchpin of the progressive and radical struggles that we waged within the universities and beyond the walls of academia in the struggles for the political and ideological soul of our country. But what you may not immediately recall but would hopefully accept as a true account is the fact that whatever we achieved, whatever valuable lessons we learned came from the fact that we managed to forge powerful, almost unbreakable links, North and South and East and West of the country. And we managed to forge those links in spite of the extremely vigorous efforts of the powers that be within and outside the universities to keep us from forging those links by playing upon and manipulating differences of region, ethnicity, religion, ideology, and culture.

I speak here with the authority and special experience of having been the National President of ASUU from 1980 to 1982; Immediate Past President and member of ASUU’s National Executive Council from 1983 to 1986; and Representative of ASUU on the Central Working Committee (CWC) of the Nigerian Labour Congress from 1984 to 1987. Absolutely everything conceivable and practicable was used to divide and keep apart radicals and progressives from the North and the South. Ango Abdullahi, as Vice Chancellor of ABU (one of the major first generation universities in the country) and a core member of what you call Northern irredentists in your article was one of the resolute opponents of ASUU radicals and progressives. I must add that here that as an opponent, Abdullahi was also urbane and articulate. But his opposition to radicals and progressives of the North and the South working together in unity and common purpose was unwavering. Thus, ASUU in particular and the country in general were extremely fortunate that in ABU radical and progressive activists, Abdullahi met his match: He was vigorously opposed within ABU itself; and his attempts on behalf of conservatives and irredentists of the North to prevent a link up with radical and progressive activist lecturers and professors from the South were soundly defeated. Moreover, this is still true of ASUU today as it was true of ASUU 30 years ago when you and I and other colleagues at Ife were stalwarts of the organisation.

Dear Itse, with the profile of ASUU then and now that I have sketched in this discussion, you can understand why, as I read your engrossing article with many of its valid and original ideas and suggestions for justice, progress, peace, and development in our country, I kept asking myself why you almost completely left out this dimension of our political history in which irredentists and conservatives of the North have always been opposed within the North itself and more generally in the country by an alliance of progressives and radicals of the South and the North. I was in particular worried by the implicit notion in your article that the only opponents that Northern irredentists have historically had to contend with consist of only two formations: Southern irredentists and conservatives on the one hand; and on the other hand democratic fiscal federalists like yourself. In your article, Is’haq Modibo Kawu, a columnist of the Vanguard Newspaper stood for Northern irredentists and conservatives while Kingsley Kuku, President Jonathan’s Adviser on the Niger Delta stood for their Southern counterparts. [By the way, you might be interested to learn that as an undergraduate, Kawu was a dedicated insider within the countrywide movement of radical and progressive university students in our country]

For those reading this piece that did not read your article that prompted this open letter, I find it necessary to emphasise the fact that even though your main quarrel is with “Arewa” or Northern conservative supremacists, you made it absolutely clear that you are no less opposed, no less wary of the malign politics of Southern irredentists in general and their diehard Niger Delta fellow travelers in particular. What I particularly found uplifting in your article was the clarity with which you linked both Northern and Southern irredentism to the destructive brinksmanship of the do-or-die, all-or-nothing struggle for control of the bloated, infinitely corrupt and wasteful Nigerian Presidency that is at the heart of the parasitic federalism and kwashiorkor democracy that currently has our country and its teeming masses in their iron grip. In my opinion, every democrat and progressive in our country should take to heart what you say in the following cautionary words from your article: “The bloated, corrupt and inefficient federal government (has become) the centre of titanic and destructive struggle for control. States’ indolence and parasitic tendencies follow, resulting in an unproductive and underdeveloped country. This destructive template must be reversed”.

Needless to say, these observations show that I found much to admire and endorse in your article under review in this series. And this is consistent with much that I have read of your views and positions on the political, constitutional and social crises bedeviling our country at the present time. In my review of these views and positions of yours, I can say quite candidly that I consider you one of the most productive thinkers on democratic federalism in our country at the present time, with special emphasis on where federal jurisdiction and spheres of authority and control stop and states’ rights, obligations and responsibilities take over. I do not agree with every single one of your views and positions, but in general, I find that like many other progressive scholars and public intellectuals from every part of the country, you are driven by a passionate disdain for our political elites and their corruption, their narrowness of vision and their lack of the imagination and the will to do what is right and in the interest of the country and its masses of the disenfranchised, the looted and the marginalised. But I do have one big caveat and it is this: You seem to place all your hopes for the future of our country in one factor, one factor alone above all others and this is – fiscal federalism (that you also often call resource control). Indeed, perhaps it is useful in the present context to quote what you actually say regarding this particular article of faith of yours in your article of May 26, 2013:

“Clearly, instability, tension and crisis will continue to bedevil Nigerian politics as long as the Federal Government continues to control and disburse states’ resources. Introduce fiscal federalism and allow states to retain their resources in return for payment of taxes for the operation of the Federal Government and immediate peace will descend on the country and everyone will head for his state for the generation of revenue and for the promotion of development. All will be quiet on the federal front and the desperate do-or-die battle to have the Presidency will abate”. [Page 22]

One does not have to be an opponent of fiscal federalism (as many Northern conservatives are) or even its lukewarm supporters (as many Southwestern and Southeastern conservatives and centrists are) to know that by itself alone, fiscal federalism will never even remotely come near a just, honorable and productive resolution of many of our most serious crises. In other words, ours is not a crisis of nationhood and community in which we can say seek ye first fiscal federalism and all else shall ne added to you. Yes, fiscal federalism is necessary, and vitally so, but it is a beginning, not an end, a point of departure, not a port of arrival. In next week’s continuation of this series, we shall expatiate considerably on this observation, with special emphasis on the issue with which I began this piece: the links as well as the discontinuities between radicals and progressives of the North and the South in their confrontations with local and national formations of conservatives and irredentists.

Biodun Jeyifo

bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

June 2, 2013
NGF’s show of shame

There must be something about the Nigeria Governors’ Forum that other Nigerians don’t know about apart from the governors. If not, it is difficult to understand why the battle for the chairmanship of unconstitutional forum has become so fierce that the two factions of the body are literarily dancing naked, not minding the damage being done to their image and the implication for the nation’s polity.

It was bad enough that 36 governors who are supposed to showcase what it takes to conduct a free and fair and rancor -free election could not and there have been claims and counter claims about what happened during the election.

Not even when the video of the election has been released and the truth of the proceedings is now public knowledge, Governor Jonah Jang who was defeated by Governor Rotimi Amaehi with 19 votes to 16 has insisted on being the winner of the election.

While the Amaechi group is hoping that reasons will prevail considering the public outcry that has greeted the show of shame which the NGF election has become, the Jang faction has carried on as if what is in contention is the chairmanship of a motor park association.

Not only has Jang attributed his ‘victory to God’, he has gotten his supporters to place newspaper adverts congratulating him and last Thursday, he inaugurated his own secretariat in Abuja with the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP , Bamangar Tukur, and 15 other governors in attendance.

Given the present acrimony, it is unlikely that the two factions will be able to resolve their differences and have one chairman. It is indeed a shame that the governors have chosen to wash their dirty linens in public and proved that some of them are not as honourable as they are supposed to be.

From the build up to the election day, it was clear that there were many forces at play but one was hoping that the crisis would have been managed and whoever emerged as the winner would have been acceptable to all.

Considering that the NGF is a voluntary association of the governors, there should have been no need for the hullabaloo over the election result. Those not pleased could have stayed away from the activities of the group instead of the embarrassing power tussle they are now engaged in.

But for personal aggrandizement, I don’t know why it is a big deal to be the Chairman of NGF. The decisions of the forum is not binding on the members and for whatever it is worth, it could best serve as a platform for peer review and collaborative efforts on issues of joint interest.

Governors don’t need to be members of NGF to give Nigerians the good governance they are yearning for.

At a time when the President and the governors should be working together to address the myriads of problems facing Nigerians, they have allowed narrow political interests to divide them.

Instead of being distracted by the battle for the leadership of the forum, the governors should call themselves to order and face the primary task for which they were elected.

June 2, 2013
Awada Kerikeri in Abuja

Oh boy, oh boy, whilst we are still on the subject of political drama, has anybody watched the travelling video of the elections conducted by the Nigerian Governors Forum to elect its own leadership? This is what happens when the people infiltrate one of their own authentic leaders, Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola, into a forum of feral carpetbaggers who do not care a hoot about democratic decorum.

Snooper has watched the video several times and feels very sorry for Nigeria. It is an unworthy political melodrama. Their Excellencies behaved like cads and political bounders. They should not be proud of themselves. People should keep that video for posterity in case democracy unravels once again. The shame of it all has led Tunde Fashola, the cultured and civilised governor of Lagos State, to tender an apology on behalf of his errant colleagues. This will not prevent Snooper from wielding the heavy lash

It was Raymond Williams, the famous British literary critic of proud Welsh extraction, who noted that one should not bother about what goes on in a church if you are not a member. Snooper has never hidden his distaste and contempt for the Governors’ Forum. It is an anti-democratic cartel of strange bedfellows. It has offered a platform for some of its past leaders to talk down on Nigerians with fatuous pomposity. It has supported many anti-people measures such as the removal of the phantom fuel subsidy. It parades and has paraded many undesirable elements that should be in jail rather then preening and strutting about the gubernatorial mansions.

But fair is fair. When such an ethically challenged forum cannot obey its own rules or the basic tenets of democratic conduct all for reasons of political expediency, then democracy is on a life support. These monkey marionettes and their master puppeteer in the background will be held responsible if anything untoward happens to democracy in Nigeria.

There can be no doubt that Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi won the election fair and square. The whole process was clean and transparent. The federal authorities should be embarrassed that the video recording has gone viral and they ought to have done something to halt the post-election charade, if they are not behind it in the first instance.

The resort to a larcenous fabrication of a phantom majority after an election has been won and lost must rank as a new low even by the infamous standards of electoral banditry in Nigeria. No matter what happens next, it is a win win situation for Rotimi Amaechi. He has shown true grit and courage in the face of state persecution. Nigerians will surely hear from the fellow again long after his assailants have returned to penal obscurity.

If there is a clear winner in this matter, there are also clear losers. It was sad to watch the elderly Governor Jonah Jang defending the indefensible even as his strange and convoluted logic descended into arrant blasphemy. Jang, a former Commodore of the Air Force, a presumed gentleman and a man with the mien of a pious priest suffering from ethnic persecution complex, has obviously struck a deal with the devil.

But for this column, the greatest loser is Governor Olusegun Rahman Mimiko of Ondo State. Is Iroko beginning to politically unravel? He appeared nervous, fidgety, uncomfortable and ill at ease among the hard people of the PDP. Snooper’s good friend and former comrade in arms in the students’ struggle against early military despotism in Nigeria should know that his people, the Yoruba, detest injustice in any form and manner. They are watching and taking note.

For some time now, Snooper has been observing Mimiko flip and flap about like a huge fish that has thrown itself out of water. In the run up to the Ondo gubernatorial election, this column had argued that even if Mimiko won, he would have exhausted his historical and political possibilities by not aligning himself with the current mood and dominant political tendency of his people. Every passing day confirms the potency of that political prophecy, and every critical misstep of Mimiko points at a political tragedy in the making.

June 2, 2013
Kenyans will see fire

God truly loves Nigeria. News filtering in from Nairobi indicates that the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) President Issa Hayatou will be watching the game between Kenya and Nigeria on June 5, at the behest of the Kenyan president. We are told that they are friends.

We can start to celebrate because the Kenyans would not be as viscous as they were the last time Nigeria beat them in 2009. This writer cannot but celebrate. It would be a level playing field and I dare the referees to play their usual pranks for home teams.

Yes, the smiles are back on the faces of the custodians of our football. The Kenyans, I dare say, are in trouble on June 5 at the Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi

Super Eagles players, coaches and, indeed, eggheads of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) are heading to Nairobi with one target- beat the Kenyans silly in front of their home fans, no matter their antics.

The synergy struck by the three blocs culminating in Nigeria’s surprise emergence as the best football playing nation in Africa on February 10 in South Africa, is back.

One of the combatants called this writer on Monday, boasting that the Kenyans would be shattered. I asked if he had forgotten his earlier vow to scuttle our 2014 World Cup quest, he replied: “The chicken has come home to roost.” I was impressed. I was excited and moved to watch the game in Nairobi, irrespective of my earlier vow not to. I declined earlier because of the bitter experience I had when Nigeria beat Kenya 3-2 in Nairobi to snatch the 2010 FIFA World Cup ticket.

We were pelted with all manner of objects by the fans. We ran from our seats onto the tracks at some point in the game, with the fans alleging that we influenced the referee, even though the Kenyans scored first in that game.

It was a very difficult game. The Kasarani Stadium pitch was a pigsty. Undulating, almost bald, the pitch was a potential career wrecker for any player who didn’t play with caution. So, it was understandable that our players were cautious, with the Kenyans shining because they knew the turf. Obafemi Martins’ poaching instinct gave us the game. I can still figure Segun Odegbami’s stunned face, hands akimbo, swinging his head, apparently wondering how the beautiful game was being turned into a battle. Odegbami has seen it all. He definitely hadn’t seen this madness with the way he looked. He was part of the Presidential Task Force, who saw the game.

Nigerians living in Nairobi, who came for the game, hurriedly left for their homes, especially those who came with their kids. It was a horrible experience. We escaped the mayhem because of the ingenuity of the Nigeria High Commissioner to Kenya. He led the soldiers who fought the urchins who had laid siege to the stadium, awaiting the Nigerian delegation outside.

For once, I appreciated the essence of having an ambassador in a foreign land. This one was awesome. At some point, I thought he was an ex-military man. But looking at his name, he didn’t carry any military appellation. In fact, I walked up to shake his hands when we got to the hotel. I digress.

Going to Nairobi will be full of challenges, but a united house of players, coaches and the NFF officials is the battle axe that we need to crush the Kenyans’ resistance on the pitch.

We will miss Victor Moses’ deft touches and dribbling runs, yet we have the men who will spring surprises. If you ask me, Moses’ absence is good. The Kenyans would have kicked the hell out of his feet. They would have flung their elbows at Emmanuel Emenike, if he was there too. The few who didn’t play in the first leg game in Calabar will keep their traps shut at dusk in Nairobi.

It is heartwarming to note that John Mikel Obi will be in Kenya. Mikel will be looking out for the rocky part of the descent into Nairobi. I can bet you, it is a scary but bumpy experience for first timers into Kenya. We were told that Mikel vomited inside the chartered aircraft.

In fact, he opted out of the return journey, preferring to fly British Airways out of the country to England. No joke, it is really a horrible experience if you had gone by air to the East African country, for those who don’t sleep inside the aircraft.

Each time Mikel wants to play for the Eagles, he makes the difference. If you ask me, Mikel gave Nigeria the trophy in South Africa. Recall the last minute safe he made by clearing the ball off the feet of one Ivorien in the quarter finals game. I thought the goal

had been scored, watching the Ivorien lift his leg high and backwards to blast the ball home. Mikel stole in from behind and kicked the ball through the Ivorien’s legs. He was shocked. He thought he had scored. Such is the commitment of Mikel when he comes to a game ready to play. I won’t blame him, not after over 64 matches for his club, Chelsea, across the busy European league season. Take a bow, brave guy.
If Mikel plays to his capacity in Kenya, the hosts will fall. But we need to remind goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama to concentrate fully during the game. He had a few bad outings against minnows, such as Kenya and Liberia, in the past. Many explained his poor showing to his being on the bench at Lille FC in France. Now that he had decent runs with his Israeli club, one hopes that he remains alert all through the match. If he had positioned himself properly in the first leg game, the Kenyans wouldn’t have scored a goal.
Between Mikel and Enyeama, lie our hopes of beating the Kenyans. The goals will come from set plays but these two men must talk to others on how to control the game without incurring the wrath of the fans through unnecessary delays. We could kill off the game with three first half goals. If that happens, the Kenyans would be forced to applaud good possession football since they would be watching the current African champions live, for most of them, for the first time.
Going to the FIFA World Cup subsequently should be our birthright, given our players’ exploits in Europe and the Diaspora. As much as 23 Nigerians won medals for England at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Need I mention Nigerians who play football for other countries? We must be at all World Cups, like Brazil; it is not an impossible task.

Wanted: psychologist for Super Eagles
I have kept my distance on matters concerning the Super Eagles, with particular reference to the change of guards. It is true that funding the team costs so much.
I have chosen to comment on it because the NFF has recalled the media officer. It means that they want to be told the truth. No team goes to a football war without a psychologist. Such a man must be tested. Robinson Okosun was in the Eagles squad that lifted the Africa Cup of Nations. The psychologist is as important as the doctor, nurse and masseur. They are the ones who condition the players (athletes) for sporting activities after the coaches have done their jobs. It is a symbiotic chain that works.
In the first two games where the Eagles wobbled through their matches, it was said that Okosun played a significant role in psyching up the boys to better their performance.
The evening before the game against Cote d’ Ivoire, I was on the practice pitch to watch the team. Okosun and the players understood themselves. Okosun, the players said, went round each one’s room before the game to psyche them up. They spoke glowingly about Okosun’s competence. One was, therefore, shocked when he and the media officer were dropped.
Now that NFF chiefs are fortifying the squad, it won’t be out of place if the team’s psychologist returns. We don’t need any campaign before the NFF knows the importance of having a psychologist in the Eagles.
I don’t know if the chief coach made any complaints about Okosun’s competence. I doubt it. With a Doctor of Philosophy degree (PHD) in psychology, with cognate experience in the sporting aspect of it as a player and athlete, I wonder why he is still at home, while the Eagles are in Germany. It is instructive to add that Okosun’s first and second degrees are in Physical and Health Education. So what other criteria does he need to keep the job?
Okosun may not be indispensable, but why don’t we learn to sustain a working formula?

June 1, 2013
Chopras: Fix immigration ‘slippery ladder’

When we came to U.S., we were able to grab onto a high rung. Not so for today’s newcomers.

Despite the heated differences over immigration reform, everyone can agree on one thing: Nobody comes to America to get poorer.

The two of us speak from experience. During medical school back in India, our gaze was fixed firmly on America. The era was the early 1970s. The Vietnam War had created a serious doctor shortage. With unusual swiftness after we passed an easy exam, we entered the country, first Deepak and then Sanjiv. An overnight flight landed us in the same community hospital in Plainfield, N.J. We were off and running in the land of opportunity.

Our reception, though, was lukewarm at best. Immigrants grab on to the ladder of success at different rungs. We grabbed a high rung, no doubt. We arrived with a medical degree and had spoken fluent English our whole lives. But native-born doctors looked down on foreign-born ones. As graduates of rigorous U.S. medical schools, they had their suspicions about our training in India, which happened to be excellent.

The prejudice against us wasn’t severe, but it was there. We knew that Boston medicine was legendary, so that’s where we set our sights. But there was scarce chance back then that a South Asian physician could get affiliated with one of Harvard’s prestigious hospitals. Both of us wound up at the Veterans Administration hospital and worked with determination and ambition.

Changing opportunities

Looking back, we were climbing a slippery ladder to success. For every three steps we took up, we’d slip two steps down. But at least the rungs weren’t pulled out from under us.

Today, the sad truth is that opportunities for immigrants have changed. As the gap between rich and poor has drastically widened, and as illegal immigration has created so much hostility, a lot of rungs have broken on the ladder or don’t exist anymore.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist David Autor has coined a phrase for it: the “polarization of job opportunities.” White-collar jobs for the college-educated exist at one extreme. Service jobs for the less educated, including the invisible immigrant workers who do the jobs no one else wants to do, exist at the opposite end.

This polarization has been exacerbated by major job losses in the middle due to the recession and technology. This is not just a problem for immigrants, of course. The long-term unemployed (particularly anyone older than 50), laid-off factory workers and recent college graduates are forced to seek work for which they are overqualified.

America needs to repair the ladder to success, putting everyone on more solid footing no matter what rung they grab first. To grasp how urgent this need is, a fellow Indian immigrant, Fareed Zakaria, on his CNN program, GPS, assailed the myth of upward mobility in this country. Among his key points, Zakaria included studies over the past two decades that showed economic mobility has decreased in America. We now lag behind many European countries and Canada. Rags-to-riches stories are becoming the exception. A Pew Research report on upward mobility shows that few poor people rise into the upper middle class. A lot of factors are responsible, including education, the neighborhood you live in, and the stability of your family structure.

Big economic impact

The extended economic downturn has put a squeeze on every rung, but immigrants get pushed down especially hard. Laws against hiring undocumented workers are tightening on employers, especially in the construction and agricultural sector. Deportations have sharply increased under the Obama administration.

On the upper rungs, students who come to America to take advantage of our world-class colleges and universities are forced to return to their home countries before applying to be readmitted and find work here. Thus the law forces a brain drain that helps our foreign competitors and frustrates high-tech employers where thousands of jobs go begging.

All these trends need to be reversed with a clear-eyed understanding that immigration is economically, culturally and spiritually enriching for America. Members of Congress and each of us, native born or immigrant, must actively counter any anxiety or suspicion that immigration is a threat. The answer isn’t special treatment for immigrants. It’s equal opportunity for all.

Deepak Chopra is the founder of The Chopra Foundation. Sanjiv Chopra is professor of medicine and faculty dean for Continuing Medical Education at Harvard. Their dual memoir, Brotherhood: Dharma, Destiny and the American Dream was released this month.

June 1, 2013
Again, the Akpabio jinx manifests

The nation was served a yellow card by the Jonah Jang faction of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) penultimate Friday after the re-election of Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State as the forum’s chairman. In a move considered by many political observers as an ominous sign for the 2015 general elections, the governors loyal to Jang turned the rule of democracy on its head, declaring that the election in which Amaechi polled 19 votes and Jang polled 16 was won by the latter.

Not surprisingly, the rebellion against Amaechi was led by Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State who has earned himself a reputation as the chief motivator for the second term ambition of President Goodluck Jonathan. Of course, many would wonder at the desperation with which Akpabio has been pursuing the Jonathan’s re-election bid in the face of the President’s growing unpopularity. Considering that he only last year predicted that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would remain in power for another 50 years, Akpabio’s reputation is by emerging political realities.

Besides, the Akwa Ibom State governor is fighting an emotional battle. In the build-up to President Jonathan’s presidential campaign about three years ago, I had done a piece as a columnist with Punch newspaper, in which I chronicled the numerous instances where campaigns championed by the governor had ended in fiasco. In the said piece, I had prayed that the campaign train of Jonathan would not suffer derailment with the overzealous involvement of Akpabio. The said piece drew the ire of some Akpabio supporters who bought spaces in the media to hauled abuses at me.

Of course, they felt a sense of triumph as Jonathan eventually won the election. Lost on them was the fact that the massive goodwill Jonathan enjoyed in the build-up to the election would have dwarfed even the ill luck of Jabesh. Unfortunately, the situation is now different as evident in the loss suffered by the Akpabio camp in the just-concluded chairmanship election of the NGF. The once brimming bucket of the President’s goodwill has drained so much that he cannot even muster enough support from PDP governors to make his favoured candidate win the election.

Expectedly, many political observers believe the result of the NGF chairmanship election is a microcosm of the fate that awaits Jonathan and his supporters in 2015. There lies the plight of Governor Akpabio whose record of jinxed supports was worsened by last week’s election.

An abridged version of the piece is reproduced below for the records:

Nigerians with progressive bent are upbeat about the prospects of Jonathan’s emergence as the winner of the presidential race next year; a development many believe is guaranteed to change the political equation in which the presidency is literally the birthright of the major ethnic groups while the minority groups, including those of the Niger Delta on which the nation depends for survival would only enjoy the right to vote.

With the voice against zoning getting louder by the day from the most unlikely quarters, such as the North and other parts of the country where Jonathan’s candidacy would have suffered vehement opposition, the coast is getting clearer and clearer for Jonathan to transmute from the providential president he is now to one elected by popular will. Of course, fairness demands nothing less.

But my worries stem from the prominece Governor Godswill Akpabio is already enjoying among Jonathan’s supporters. The governor seems to have been having a running battle with ill luck. So much so that many people now tend to believe that enlisting his support in a mega venture like presidential campaign could amount to taking a risk.

Two years ago, the blossoming career of Nigeria’s former WBC heavyweight champion, Samuel Peter crumbled in the face of the mega support Akpabio mounted for him in far away Germany. As Peter’s title defence date with Ukranian boxer, Vitalis Klitchsko on October 11, 1998 drew near, the governor was at his vocal best, telling anyone who cared to listen that Peter was about to tap from his training, perseverance and determination to make the nation proud.

In the months ahead of Peter’s clash with Klitchsko, the governor threatened to lead a delegation to Germany to witness the fight. “I will be by the ring side in Berlin. When you see Don King (Peter’s promoter) by the ringside in Berlin, the next person you will see is me,” he said. Of course, Akpabio made good his vow to storm Germany. But what happened? Peter was battered by Klitchsko so much that he could not answer the bell in the ninth round. Klitchsko dethroned him as the world heavyweight champion!

The Akpabio government had a hectic time denying a story to the effect that the governor offered one of the state’s elder statesmen, Obong Donald Etiebet, the sum of $200,000 to embark on a trip overseas for medical treatment. The gesture later turned into a nightmare for the elder statesman as bandits stormed his house and carted the money away.

The day the Nigerian team played its opening match against Argentina in the World Cup soccer competition held in South Africa in 2010,Akpabio reportedly stormed the venue with a lorry load of cash he promised to dole out to the players if they won. But ill luck connived with ill fate to rob him the chance to celebrate with the Super Eagles as the South American team defeated them and the Nigerian team eventually crashed out of the competition at the group stage.

The lesson was, however, lost on some Nigerian journalists who converged on Uyo for a conference. According to the then chairman of the Lagos Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Mr Wahab Oba, the governor demonstrated his support for the journalists by giving them a million naira “in fulfilment of his promise to assist us for a project we are doing in Lagos.” But as the media men headed back to Lagos, they were kidnapped by gunmen who kept them for one week before they were set free by policemen.

With Akpabio now at the frontline of the Jonathan-for-President campaign, will the story be different?

June 1, 2013
Terrorism, poverty and the democracy agenda

In Addis Ababa this week the Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegh and current Head of the African Union accused the International Criminal Court of Justice of racial bias in the prosecution of errant world leaders and pointedly stated that the AU is not well disposed to the prosecution of the current president of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta and the Vice President for the post election violence in the 2007 presidential elections in that nation. In Accra Ghana the president of the country noted that Islamic militancy will soon overcome the whole of West Africa if care is not taken and that he is saying this even though Ghana does not have such insurgency on its hand right now. As Nigeria celebrated the government’s Democracy day on May 29 and key former presidents shunned the invitation of incumbent Nigerian president to the occasion, it turned out that the UN Secretary – General Ban Ki Moon was celebrating the UN Peace Keepers Day   on the same day and was commending fallen Nigeria’s soldiers as ten percent of the Nigerian UN Peace Keepers have died in 2012 in the UN peace keeping role and the UN published their names on that day.

At another global forum the   Jim Yong Kim,   the Group MD of the World Bank was audacious enough to announce that the World body was planning to eradicate global poverty by 2030 by making access to health facilities affordable globally in pursuit of the goal of global poverty alleviation .At the other end in Syria however   Bashar Assad the president of that nation boasted that the balance of power is with the Syrian army in its war with those he called terrorists and he accused some nations namely Saudi Arabia and Turkey of financing the rebellion in his nation while acknowledging that Hizbollah, the Party of God in Lebanon is fighting alongside the Syrian army in the war to preserve what he called the territorial integrity of Syria.

It is my contention today that world leaders on occasions behave like the proverbial ostrich with its head buried in the sand while the body is there for all to see . Secondly while some cling to power by all or any means because they cannot contemplate life out of office, there are still some who believe that to serve humanity is still a possible task in spite of manmade challenges and obstacles both locally and abroad. Thirdly in the name of democracy, security and political stability,   politicians and world leaders mostly indulge in promoting their whims and caprices and in muscling their opponents to submission if not annihilation in pursuit of their   so called political agenda   and objectives. Let me now hook these observations to the news items I have highlighted today.

Starting with Kenya, let me state categorically that the accusation by the AU Chairman that the ICC is racially prejudiced against African Leaders is a false alarm and is indeed a dangerous case of jaundice   and prejudice. It cannot survive any moral scrutiny either in Addis Ababa or Nairobi. This is a fact the current president and Vice president of Kenya will be the first to admit as they were not on the same side during the 2007 elections or the post election violence. They later buried the hatchet and contested on the same ticket in 2013 knowing that the charges at the Hague were hanging on their neck like the proverbial sword of Damocles . That their ticket clinched the Kenyan presidency in spite of the ICC charges is a victory for democracy and the dictum that a people deserve the leaders they have. That however does not absolve them of culpability in the murder and mayhem of the 2007 post election   violence in Kenya. The charge that 90% of those being prosecuted by ICC are Africans is sheer persecution complex and a product of colonial mentality. The world is a global village and such sentiments belong to the past. That is why the Arab Spring revolution got rid of leaders like Housni Mubarak and Muammar Gaddafi. If the AU wants, it can   negotiate a reprieve or pardon or even a stay of prosecution for the Kenyan leaders. It should not however insult the intelligence of Africans by talking of racial bias towards African leaders by the ICC. That is an anachronism and a dubious charge indeed that cannot hold water.

On the charge by the Ghanaian President John Mahama that Islamic Militancy will destabilize West Africa if care is not taken , I cannot agree more. He gave the example of the French Military intervention in Mali and the need for the AU to form a standing intervention force to counter regional insurgency and I cannot agree more. What I think is lacking is the moral capacity and commitment on    the part of both political and religious leaders in the region to tackle the problem of militancy head on, on a once and for all basis , instead of the present half- hearted approach of thinking that the problem will go away as rapidly as it has surfaced. In addition the issue of negotiating or succumbing to blackmail while keeping trained armed forces at bay is counterproductive as it gives the militants a   false sense of strength and importance as such vacillations and dithering     give them ample time to select their next target for terror with maximum impact.

Next, according to UN reports, Nigeria made the largest contribution to world peace in 2012 . This is according to the UN Report that 17 Nigerians were killed last year on peacekeeping duties and this was announced on Nigeria’s Democracy Day May 29 which also is the UN Peace Keeping Day. The UN Secretary General   Ban Ki Moon therefore commended the Nigerian Peace Keeping Contingent for making the greatest human sacrifice for world peace in 2012. Which to me is a source of pride as a Nigerian and I seize this opportunity to commiserate with the families of the gallant soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice in the service of their nation. Incidentally May 29 was picked by the Obasanjo Administration as Democracy Day when it was elected into office in 1999. This year however Obasanjo shunned the Democracy Day in Abuja and was instead in Dutse, Jigawa State where he was showering praises on the state Governor Sule Lamido at the First Jigawa State Investment Forum. In Abuja President Goodluck Jonathan was busy, lamentably and apologetically pleading with Nigerians bent on judging his two years in office, to have a marking scheme before doing that –whatever that means.

At the World Health Assembly – WHA in Geneva, Switzerland the World Bank Group MD Jim Yong Kim, an American and a medical doctor spoke on the theme – Poverty, Health and the Human Future- and noted that to end poverty and boost shared prosperity, the nations of the world need to drive global growth by investing in human capital, health education and social protection for all their citizens. He made the revealing news that out of pocket health expenses force about 100m people into poverty every year. Heidentified three areas that health delivery can enhance economic growth and national planned efforts to make universal health delivery achievable through access, quality and affordability. Yong Kim seems to be saying what one has always known that a sound mind needs a sound body. Coming from a global financial institution noted for infrastructure development and finance, the pursuit of poverty alleviation by 2030 by this unique American head of the World Bank, is a   most welcome welfarist   approach to global growth and economic   development. This is because democracy at the end of the day is about the welfare of the citizenry and a better life for those who elected those who now tyrannise them globally .Surely the World Bank’s   Group MD poverty alleviation approach to economic growth and prosperity through access to quality and affordable health facilities by 2030 is highly commendable – and is a huge, innovative step in the right direction. We wish him well.

Lastly the war in Syria has shown clearly that democracy in that nation will not come on platter of gold. Rather than be frightened by the prospect of becoming a Housni Mubarak being driven to court in a cage or a Gaddafi beaten to death by a mob, Bashar Assad has dug in in Damascus and there is no sign of him giving up as the west is betting on . Better still for him, his Russian supporters have given him about 300 anti aircraft equipment in case of any creation of a no fly zone like the one that crippled Gaddafi’s well armed forces . So,   it is not always the case that nations fall like dominoes in the face of insurgency as happened in N Africa two years. In fighting insurgency to a stand still and still retaining the loyalty of his army in the wake of international isolation, somehow the blood letting leader in Damascus   has my grudging admiration. Perhaps the Russians have seen something opaque to the rest of us in siding with the son of an old ally Haffez Assad. Time, surely, will tell.

June 1, 2013
Fetish of baby factories

Of all the atrocities of baby factories in the country, the scariest is the fact that no one is seeing the abominable crime in the trade, let alone hunting down the criminals and keeping them out of business.

In Abia State, Governor Theodore Orji’s wife Odorchi has reportedly pledged to “flush out baby factory in the state”. And to demonstrate the state government’s similar disposition, Lady Odorchi promptly adopted a baby whose father was incapacitated by a ghastly accident.

In neighbouring Imo, Governor Rochas Okorocha has reportedly donated some millions for the upkeep of expectant teenage mothers and babies rescued from a baby factory in the state. He has also gone on to say that all orphanages will henceforth report to his office or perhaps that of the “first lady”.

All that may be a good thing but neither from Abia nor Imo has come any firm assurances that the crime in this blatant baby factory assault will be punished. In one instance, we hear, two employees of one “factory”, an elderly security guard and a 23-year-old man, both fathers of the factory babies, have been arrested. The owner of the “factory”, a woman known only as Madam One Thousand, has melted into the proverbial thin air. I fear that when things quiet down and we have exhausted our initial misgivings and horror, Madam One Thousand will stroll back to her beat to take off where she left off with new recruits and hirelings.

Who are the patrons of baby factories which have been discovered not just in the Southeast but also in Lagos? How long have they been in operation? How far spread is the menace? To what use are the babies put?

Some argue that baby factories thrive in Nigeria because childless couples will rather have a baby through such factories than live with the apparent societal stigma. It is also said that our adoption laws are not streamlined, leaving couples having conception challenges with little or no choice but to acquire a child by hook or crook.

Such arguments do not move me. Ours has since become a fetish society, with desperate people who are willing to, and really do, anything to make money and push up their profile and society rating. People are killed and their bodies quartered for money rituals. These crimes are reported frequently. What is not often reported is the punishment of the criminals and that may because the rogues are never apprehended or prosecuted. Beneath the baby factories lie some atrocious crimes our leaders somehow gloss over.

A typical baby factory drips with crime, from its roof to the foundations. A closeup report on the recent one in Imo was instructive. Madam One Thousand’s “factory” is conceived to deceive. A sachet water facility is in front shielding visitors from what lies behind. An elderly man is the guard. Who will suspect anything? Apparently, there is a sophisticated ring beyond its gates. According to one report, medical doctors do refer teenage girls with unwanted pregnancies to such a “factory” where they could have their babies quietly and move on with their lives. On getting to the “safe haven” they discover an entirely bizarre, new world from which they cannot escape. They are crammed into too few rooms with only mats for beddings. They are scarcely fed. They are probably not paid. The guard walks in to sleep with them and impregnate them in turns. A 23-year-old comes in also to sleep with the girls and ensure that the mission is accomplished. Again and again, the girls are delivered of babies whose destinations their mothers know not.

One of the rescued girls said she was told that rather than have an unwanted child she could give it to someone who wanted it. But it is not clear what they will do with the child.

By virtue of their age, some of the girls are minors but that fact does not dissuade operators of illicit facilities. It makes no difference to them if some of the girls’ parents have no knowledge of their children’s whereabouts, wellbeing or safety.

Those who blame this crime on poor adoption laws and unfriendly African disposition to childlessness prefer to forget that the same African society abhors fraudulent acquisition of children. It is also implausible that minors and teenagers are so woefully dehumanised and exploited just to make childless couples happy. It is unacceptable that girls as young as 14 are beaten up when they try to escape just because operators of such inhuman facilities want to help other people.

All there in this is nothing but atrocious, fetish crime against teenagers, against their parents, against the newborns, against the Nigerian and African society, against the laws of the land, against humanity. The state and federal governments and their agencies are obliged to investigate this sordid crime and, for once, make the criminals pay.

June 1, 2013