The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

On the whining plain

So, with presidential alacrity, some detained Nigerians with strong links to the Boko Haram sect have been set free and handed over to various state chief executives? That is okay. But inasmuch as we cannot question the so-called ‘presidential magnanimity’ in the furious rush to ensure peace in troubled parts of the northern region, I guess we reserve the right to make some observations as regards the freedom granted these suspects, including women and children. We just hope that the authorities are truly convinced of the willingness of these persons to steer clear of suicidal tendencies and live the kind of normal lives which every law abiding citizens crave. Do we take it that the freed suspects now know that their freedom to exhale does not necessarily mean that they must force the rest of us to conform to whatever they believe in? In the simplest of words, do they know that we don’t need to die for them to live? That there is nothing salutary in turning the land into a killing field just because they perceive other Muslims, Christians and people of different shades of religious persuasions as mere unbelievers, worthy only of being bombed or having their throats slit.

As a matter of fact, freedom or presidential pardon is one thing, showing remorse is another. Is there any guarantee that these mothers, suspects, wives and children have shown enough remorse for the deadly sins their husbands, nephews, uncles and relatives inflicted on the state? What kind indoctrination or radicalisation did they go through at the Boko Haram camps? And is this presidential pardon well thought out? Or is it just another jerky political gimmick aimed at consolidating towards 2015? Don’t get it twisted. This does not in any way suggest a radical position against playing politics with human face regardless of how scary some smiling faces can be. What should worry us is the hurried nature of the directive and the promptness with which it was carried out.

Question is: how much of justice is this government willing to sacrifice on the altar of peace? In Martin Luther King’s words, peace is not the absence of war but the presence of justice. It is commendable that Jonathan has seriously taken exception to the plight of these persons after the raids on their camps and has swiftly moved to ‘rehabilitate’ them through the state governors. But, while at it, can he also spare a thought for the widows whose husbands were callously slaughtered by members of the sect; children who now have to grapple with the harsh realities of precarious living as their parents had become victims of a mindless carnage by the sect. There are countless widowers whose wives were bombed into layers of shredded meat at worship places and such other persons who have deadly imprimatur of terror etched on their psyche for ever? These persons also need the attention of the state as the quest for lasting peace continues at the war front.

Knucklehead, still in the whining mood, read somewhere that respected Ijaw chieftain and President Goodluck Jonathan’s unrepentant apologist, Chief Edwin Clark, has posted a ‘No Vacancy’ sign on the gate of Aso Rock. Well, that is also okay too. It is jolly well that the 85-year-old has a good accomplice in another wily old fox and Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih, who once made such a proclamation some two years into Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo’s first tenure as a democratically-elected president. Now that the two forces have coalesced to work for Madam Patience’ husband, we can only urge them to exercise some patience in ensuring that their ‘son’ continues in that seat after the conduct of a free, fair and credible election in 2015.

Like the Catholic Bishops put it, those beating the war drums and threatening the final breakup of this fragile nationhood if their kinsman is not foisted on the rest of us for another four years should understand that the only way to avoid a cataclysm of bloodletting is the institution of an electoral process that is free of the shenanigans of the past. For Pa Clark and ex-policeman Anenih, did it not occur to them that the reality of oncoming general elections is indicative of a wide range of vacancies in government houses, including the one presently occupied by Jonathan? What we cannot quarrel with is the right of Jonathan to re-contest, subject to the people’s power. Surely, 2015 cannot be a Jonathan sole candidacy rant, neither is it that of any other candidate. One thing is clear: fragmented, callously raped and thoroughly battered as it is, Nigeria is just too big to be placed under the permutation of cavorting spin doctors. I whine!

The other day, I stumbled on a news report quoting the spokesman of the Nigeria Police Force, DSP Frank Mba, as saying that “those making inciting statements about 2015 could only be arrested when they had carried out their threats.” The statement, I assume, was meant to hit the final nail on the declaration by the Director of Navy Information, Commodore Kabiru Aliyu, who recently explained away the security forces’ impotence at shutting up those threatening war over a Jonathan presidency thus: “We are in a democracy and so it is not easy to gag members of the public. If we do so, the media and the human rights community will complain about infringing on the fundamental rights of the citizenry. We must not be seen to be gagging members of the public.”

So, Oga Mba and Aliyu, does it mean that any Nigerian, be it a knucklehead, dunderhead or even a yam head, can say anything for and against the system and walk free on our streets? You know, when these top security chiefs talk glibly about citizens’ rights, democracy and freedom of speech, I can’t help but giggle. Can Mba assure us that nothing, absolutely nothing, would be done to anybody that stands in front of Louis Edet House, shouting “I must bomb this police Headquarters someday. I must set this place ablaze!” Will the heavily armed police personnel ignore his rant and presume that since he had not carried out the threat, he should be allowed to ‘carry go?’ Or would the men of the Navy, SSS, Army, Air Force or even Civil Defence extend the same hand of fellowship to anyone making such potentially combustible comments at their gates in the name of democracy and free speech? Is it just a question of conforming to the ethos of democracy or kowtowing to the whim of those speaking in favour of the real Oga at the top for now? Yet, I whine.

The Yoruba have a saying that crying is no excuse to claim that one’s vision has been thoroughly impeded (“Bi a ba n sunkun, ko ni k’a ma riran”). Even in this private musing, I can see through their deceit. We know those who can sit atop Mt. Aso Rock and beat the war drums. We know those who have the effrontery to speak proudly about a negotiated presidential pardon as if they were doing the state a huge favour by accepting the gesture. And, like the Catholic Bishops noted, we ought to know when amnesty is being offered to repentant militants and when the state is surreptitiously appeasing criminals and their sponsors. We know when the rules are criminally trampled on to please some sacred fat cows. And we couldn’t have missed the message that there is a limit to this buzz about freedom of speech with the way and manner federal forces have been swooning on one Mr. Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi for daring to speak so ‘negatively’ on how the nation is sinking into the valley of a misbegotten governance. Why didn’t they wait for him to declare his intention to run in 2015 before asking that his head be made available on Oga’s menu? Or is the gander no longer qualified to take the sauce meant for the goose?

June 1, 2013
The conspiracy of the theory

The unprecedented, horrific events of the Woolwich killings of a British soldier, James Rigby, in broad daylight on a London street last week forced a massive shock, not only in Britain but the rest of the world. The straw that broke the camel’s back (if you will) is the fact that both the suspects are of Nigerian descent and the dimension of the revelation further revealed that they are Nigerians from the southern part of the country. The fact that they are not Muslims from the northern part of Nigeria gives a more complex perspective to a phenomenon that would otherwise have been labeled by Nigerians especially as a Boko Haram terrorist activity. The overzealous and fascinatingly diverse conspiracy theories spun by Nigerians in the media, especially of southern descent, on dissipating the forensic evidence on the scene of the crime have been gigantean in nature. This is not the first of such unfortunate activity on an international platform of which a Nigerian has been involved. But in the first of such case, the media, especially those of southern descent, never expressed or entertained the possibility that the first case, which involved a northerner, could also lend itself to a conspiracy theory.

Similarly, the recent preposterous outburst by the ridiculous Asari Dokubo, where he threatened fire and brimstone primarily targeting northerners drew anger from a wide spectrum of Northern leaders. While it goes without saying that Dokubo is nothing better than an ignorant and mad bumbling fool, who has directed his personal frustrations towards bigotry, the outrage of many northerners to the utterances of the ‘rabid dog’ has been as revealing as the complacency southerners treated his onslaught. But the truth is, even though the manner and approach adopted by Dokubo was, to say the least, crass and uncouth, several northerners have, in the not so distant past, made statements not so dissimilar to Dokubo’s. But when they did, northerners didn’t see fault in it and didn’t articulate outrage in the same way southerners haven’t reacted to Dokubo’s statements. The theory of this behavior, in each instance is that there is a conspiracy where all regions adopt the posture of victims whose existence and well being is threatened by some tribal covert grand design. And that in itself makes a conspiracy of the theory.

The reactions to the Woolwich killings and Dokubos statements may not seem connected, but they are; in the most crucial manner. Assessing these diverse events and the reactions that have followed them, one can’t help but conclude the navigation of ethnic sensibilities. When such conspiracy theories came into the fold in Nigeria, one can bet that there is an assessment of tribe and our natural denial of anything that reflects negativity of anyone that comes from the same tribe as us. Instead of universally labeling inciting statements of both northerners and southerners wrong, instead of accepting that murdering extremists are nothing less than murdering extremists, we make excuses when our tribes are concerned; use conspiracy theories to rationalize bad behavior.

When it comes to conspiracy theories, we here in Nigeria are the sharers out of nations. So dependent we are on story telling for our survival, especially in connection with tribal issues, we have lost the codes of rational reasoning and to properly and reasonably articulate our outrage.

Don Delera, one of the most outstanding contemporary American writers, once said of conspiracy theories, “If we are on the outside, we assume a conspiracy is the perfect working of a scheme; silent nameless men with unadorned hearts. A conspiracy is everything that ordinary life is not. It’s the inside game, cold, sure, undistracted, forever closed off to us. We are the flawed ones, the innocents, trying to make some rough sense of the daily jostle. Conspirators have logic and a daring beyond our reach. All conspiracies are the same taut story of men who find coherence in some criminal act.”

We do this to an art form in Nigeria. So easy is it to take refuge in the shadowy world of maybe or maybe nots. To blame all our failings on bogey men, on the ‘other’ tribes, on anyone except ourselves. It saves us the trouble of confronting reality. It saves us the trouble of having to take responsibility, of conserving our identity and our country; which we destroy so quickly and so shamelessly. It saves us from taking accountability for our actions and decisions and in the long run, we assassinate the potential of our young Nigeria in the span of one short lifetime. And it saves us from demanding better from our feckless rulers and depriving them of their overbearing and overwhelming power over us, especially when those rulers are the same tribe as us.

It is becoming harder and harder to escape the sense that the narrow-minded idiosyncrasy we apply to the issue of tribe is the core threat to our development and existence. Being unable to assess issues objectively without giving it a tribal and ethnic dimension is disturbing and a further reinforcement that what we have got in Nigeria is a most disunited and leery order. As a people, our way of reasoning requires a stronger focus on inconvenient truths which are much too often swept under the carpet in exchange for an optical illusion that exonerates what we consider to be ‘our own kind.’

It honestly is a woeful decree in the assessment of Nigeria that, a century since our formation; we are still unable to shed the garb of suspicion, intolerance and disparity. Still, unable to see beyond ethnicity, religion and regional origin. We; the black race, the people of Africa, Nigerians far and wide want to be accepted and seen as equals by the Europeans, the Americans, by the Caucasians all over the world. We complain when the Westerners make documentaries depicting our nations decline. We curse and cry bias when they refuse to grant us visas to their countries and when fellow Africans label us parasites, criminals and 419ers. Who are we to accuse anybody else of prejudice against us? We have no right to claim discrimination when we fail to exhibit the equality and understanding that we yearn from outsiders to our own people and in our own home. Through actions and words, all ethnic and religious groups in Nigeria are equally as guilty as each other of promoting the disharmony that is now drowning us.

The downfall of any multi ethnic country is usually enhanced through the flaw of reasoning, social dogma or ignorance. Unless we are able to overcome our flaw in reasoning and ignorance that accentuates our ethnic distinctions, then we will remain unable to address our troubles, because even though we clearly see the truth, as Don Delera says, it will “forever be closed off to us since we can only see ourselves as the innocents trying to find coherence in some criminal act.” Let’s wake up and recognize that; “the real theory of the conspiracies lies in the conspiracy of the theory,” and it has nothing to do with a real rationale but everything to do with our prejudiced tribal sensibilities and denials.

So as we come to terms with the emergence of a converted Muslim extremist of southern descent, as we enrage about comparable inciting tribal statements from northern personalities and Niger-delta militants alike, we might just need to take a minute and look for fault from within, give the conspiracies a break, put tribal sensibilities aside and lay blame where blame is due…, even if it is on our doorstep. Then and only then will there be no conspiracy in our theories!

June 1, 2013
What Jonathan must do—NOW

The nation is in crisis and it is not the security crisis that is obvious to all. It is the moral crisis of leadership. It has been simmering for as long as we have the republic but it has now reached its zenith of absurdity with the widely publicized demonstration of pettiness by a section of our political leaders. As the moral compass of the nation continues to drift without direction, it is incumbent on the president, as the de jure conscience of the nation, to rise above the fray, speak truth to power and start writing his personal epitaph in gold.

In offering this plea, I make a number of assumptions. First, I assume that the President is not in any shape or form behind the crisis in his party and in the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF). Following from this first assumption, I assume that there are individuals in the leadership of the party hierarchy who pledge loyalty to the president and would do anything, including the grossly immoral, to seek his favour but who are actually hurting him, and these are the forces behind the various crises. Finally, however, I assume that even if he has a hand in the crisis directly or indirectly, as a conscientious person eyeing a legacy that is scandal-free, the President is able to free himself of any such entanglements and call his associates to order.

Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan entered the national scene as a humble man with a background that many of us shared and so we were able to relate to him as one of us. The story of a boy who walked to school without shoes is so familiar to the majority of Nigerians that it was difficult not to identify with the one who epitomised it with such dignity. Across the land, he was embraced as the symbol of our dreams. He would transform our political landscape and inspire us to rally round the highest ideals. He would make us whole again. It was a refreshing thought, the exciting hope of a new era of civility and robust development.

When roadblocks were put in the way of then Vice President Jonathan to serve as Acting President in the absence of the president, the whole nation (not the Ijaw nation or the Southsouth) demanded that the National Assembly do the right thing. The Save Nigeria Group (SNG) led that effort of national redemption. The effort succeeded and subsequent to the sad demise of President Yar’Adua, Jonathan was sworn in as President and Commander-in-Chief.

In his campaign for his full term as substantive president, Jonathan tapped into the aspirations of the young and old from North to South and received the support of the majority. There were the usual electoral anomalies, but the tribunals and the highest court decided in his favour. Under the circumstance, he had the mandate to lead.

With an emphasis on transformational leadership and transformational agenda, the new president rallied the nation to a cause that was supposedly larger than himself or any individual. We all imagined the birthing of a new nation—a national rebirth—in which the old divisions of ethnicity, religion, and sectarianism are superseded. In short, our new president was going to lead us to take our country back.

Let us concede that some progress has been made in some areas, especially in the matter of economic development where the indices have been favourable. The President and his team cannot deny that there is still much work to do in the matter of infrastructure, including roads, bridges, and utilities like power generation and distribution and water resources development. Security is, of course, a top priority.

The sordid dimension of the Jonathan presidency, which threatens the legacy of this self-defined transformationist, is the festering sore of a self-inflicted wound, the noxious odour of which is suffocating the polity. It is ironic but, given its make-up and member motivation, it is not a surprise that the president’s party and a segment of his kinsmen, have presented themselves as the willing tool to derail his agenda and mar his legacy.

According to the Yoruba, alatise nii matise ara re—one is the architect of one’s fortune. But in the matter of providing strong leadership even within his own party, the President’s performance has been less than inspiring. Here then is an occasion for Dr. Jonathan to show his mettle and demonstrate his strength of character.

The NGF video is damning in many respects. It is an embarrassment to the governors as leaders of their states and character witnesses of Nigerians. Imagine this. A Nigerian is accused in the court of public morality in another land and he has to present a person of dignity to vouch for him. Is it too much to present a state governor? But the accusers are familiar with Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola’s quick thinking and have watched the video. How can any of those caught in such a kindergarten-like behaviour effectively defend the moral uprightness of an accused?

Second, apart from its damning verdict in the matter of decorum, the video also demonstrated to the whole world the deficit of democratic norms in the polity. They were the first citizens of their states; individuals that the young would normally look up to for guidance but who have succeeded in undermining the very notion of democracy and confusing the youth. Surf the Internet and browse the various comments on the NGF stories and you will feel sorry for the country and its future. The concept of political morality has become an oxymoron with the action of a few whose purpose in politics is to acquire power to service the self. If you thought that there would be unanimity of moral outrage over the infantile behavior of a large number of state governors, you would be dead wrong. A significant number of our fellow citizens saw nothing to condemn. That is how depraved the political landscape has become.

Third, and still on substance, some of the explanations the governors gave for their position are so illogical and mind-boggling that we are all implicated in the shameless drama. At an earlier meeting, a majority of PDP members had resolved to back one candidate, they informed us. Therefore, they argued, that candidate ought to win the election conducted at a later time and in a different forum! This is an argument from our governors? An earlier resolution must trump an election conducted later and one in which everyone participated without force or duress, and the ballots counted in broad daylight?

If President Jonathan still has the moral fire in his belly; if he still yearns for a lasting legacy, this is the time for him to come off the shell of indecisive leadership and rein in impunity in high places, including his kitchen cabinet. He must redeem himself and the nation.

Even if all my assumptions were wrong, and he was deeply involved in the unwholesome conspiracy against decency, President Jonathan can still do himself a great favour by mounting the podium of integrity and telling the whole nation that his associates were off the mark. He must congratulate Governor Amaechi and support the coming back together of the NGF. This doesn’t mean that he would be friends with the governor of Rivers State. It only means that he is a leader who understands the meaning of servant leadership. And in case he’s so determined to get even with Amaechi, there’s always going to be another opportunity. But truth be told, this one stinks terribly. Assume that he wants the second term so badly that his associates are willing to do anything for him to get it, Jonathan must excuse himself from the road to moral oblivion—NOW.

May 31, 2013
Jonathan’s war against democracy

The portentous cloud of absolutism hanging over the country should arouse serious concerns of men of valour. Such men are expected to stand up and challenge the budding cabal of exploitation that is sprouting in Abuja before they gain enough stability that could send most of us back to the trenches. The activists must wake up from their sleep: All writers of conscience must gather more ink and get their thoughts ready for the battle with one sole aim: To rescue democracy from the fistic grip of men that failed to learn from history. We all need to talk, agitate and possibly kick, if only to let the slaves of power realise that today is not forever.

Edmund Burke, that Anglo-Irish statesman and philosopher that served for many years in the British House of Commons as a member of the Whig party once rebelled against King George III and Great Britain during their taxation-induced disputes with the American colonies. The face-off eventually culminated in the American Revolution that brought an end to British colonial rule over the United States’ territory. The English thinker and parliamentarian of repute remarkably observed in that turbulent period that ‘All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.’ This noteworthy statement was made to rouse patriotic activism against the despotism of that epoch. Nigeria needs such arousal from true mentors of conscience in our midst.

Nigeria under President Goodluck Jonathan is currently building up a culture of tyranny that has made dissenting voices its prime target. Most reasonable Nigerians are bothered not because the nation has not passed through this path before but because history is replete with examples of leaders that clamp down on Nigerians long after they begin to enjoy too much power and freedom only to fall later into ignominy. Will Jonathan learn from recent history of despots like Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha, that all left power in disgrace?

The Nigerian Governors’ Forum’s (NGF’s) election that held recently bears eloquent testimony to Jonathan’s feeble historical memory about how not to use power. The NGF in that election got its incumbent chairman, Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers state re-elected. Thirty-five votes from equal number of governors present were cast. One governor abstained. Governor Amaechi in the transparently conducted election where the ballots were counted openly scored 19 votes to Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State, his main challenger’s 16.

Since the election result was announced, the centre could no longer hold as it became apparent that the presidency felt slighted by the outcome of the election. Foot soldiers of President Jonathan including Governors Godswill Akpabio, Seriake Dickson and Segun Mimiko of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa and Ondo states respectively have been inexorably challenging the result that was against Jonah Jang, their mentor’s obvious preferred choice. The president can say to the marines that he had no preferred candidate in the NGF election contest – certainly not to discernible Nigerians!

But one thing is clear to keenly observant public, there is no love lost between the president and the Rivers state governor. Amaechi has so far stood up to the Abuja power drunken inclination. Rivers State’s reported two million votes is strategic to Jonathan’s 2015 re-election ambition in the South-South and he has shown through his open secret fight with Amaechi that he cannot stand an enemy of his ambition to be in charge in that state. But Amaechi is a student of activism. The pursuit of crusades has taken him thus far in life. He battled and crushed all enemies on his path of becoming the governor of that state. So, he is back in his familiar terrain of justified confrontation. To further complicate the president’s woes in Rivers is Amaechi’s reported wonderful performance in the delivery of democratic dividend to the people.

The PDP has suspended Amaechi from its fold for celebrating his NGF election victory considered by hawks in the party to be an embarrassment to President Jonathan. The body language of the president has goaded the plot to cause further incensed political rumpus in that state. The PDP has never been a party with any sense of etiquette and whatever act of dishonour coming from it should not be a disappointment to anybody. What should bother us more is the fact that the party is trying to introduce its do-or-die politics into the affairs of an NGF with governor-membership that cut across different major political parties in the country.

Equally more frightening is the fact that a body of governors that are individually acknowledged to be leaders of their various states could be so vulnerable to anti-democratic inclination. How else can one describe the effrontery of Jang in proclaiming himself a winner in an election that he openly lost? Why should he set up a parallel NGF secretariat when a de jure chairman is in place? Is this not an invitation to anarchy? Could it then be concluded that entrusting our present and future in the hands of democratically dishonourable men like Jang and cohorts is injurious to the political stability of this nation? With what has happened during the last NGF election, should Nigerians expect to see anything different in the coming 2015 elections to be anchored by these mostly democratically challenged governors?

Where is President Jonathan leading the country to? The country is not getting it right under the current dispensation and it would not be wrong to say that this democracy because of the president’s ambition in 2015 is not steeped in realistic footing. Under Jonathan, like we had under previous PDP leadership, we have two democracies: One for the rich and the other for the poor. The PDP government since the advent of this democracy teaches the people by its feral democratic example not to believe in the Nigerian system. And the danger in this is that if the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law and it is indirectly inviting every man to become a law unto himself. And anarchy is the end result.

With the way things are going, anarchy is looming ahead due to the daily injustices suffered by the people not only in Port-Harcourt but across the country. Nigeria needs a new political orientation and; an army of sincere and unrelenting advocates for the poor. This is because except there is a new state of mind, the country lies on the rim of precipice because tyranny and anarchy are twin brothers. Let us all say a word or do something symbolic to show our utmost disdain for the way of political perdition that Jonathan and his team of jesters are leading this country. This is very important so as to nip in the bud early, the injurious war against democracy by our president. Speaking out and acting at the right time has positively helped in other nations where people like Edmund Burke once lived.

May 31, 2013
Islam’s charter with Christianity

In this column last week, I promised to recall an article consisting the charter which Prophet Muhammad (SAW) led the Muslims to sign with the Christian leadership in 628 CE. Promise is a debt which a gentleman must fulfil. Please, read on:

“In the introduction to his autobiography entitled ‘My Odyssey’, Nigeria’s first democratic President, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe wrote:

“Man comes into the world and while he lives, he embarks upon a series of activities absorbing experience which enables him to formulate a philosophy of life and to chart his courses of action. But then, he dies. Nevertheless, his biography remains a guide to those of the living who may need guidance either as a warning on the vanity of human wishes or as encouragement or both”.

The above philosophical quote serves as a reminder of what the divinely appointed Apostles of God represented in the lives of their followers. Those Apostles were men who came into the world as Ambassadors of one and the only God. Yes, they came at different times, from different lands and with different tongues nevertheless, their message was only one and the same. That message is like a nation’s diplomatic mission abroad. Any qualified person could be appointed as an Ambassador to manage the mission. And from time to time the Ambassador could be changed but the mission remains the same as much as the nation which they represent remains a nation. Some of those Ambassadors could though be empowered as plenipotentiary it is unimaginable that any of them would deviate from the diplomatic policy that makes him an Ambassador for his country.

Thus, from Adam, the great ancestor of man to Prophet Muhammad (SAW), the last of all Apostles of God, the message of God was one and the same because those Apostles were all sent by only one and the same God. If any difference is perceived in their mission, it could only be attributable to human ignorance through interpretations or misinterpretations in time and space.

Each time I hear of killing, maiming or resorting to terrorism in the name of religion I feel scandalised. This is not just because I belong to a religion and I am involved in its propagation but also because I know the value of life and the vice in terminating it extra-judicially. Personally, I see those who kill people of other religions for the simple reason of difference in faith as brutal vandal waging war not just against humanity but also against God. Anybody who kills or maims or indulges in terrorism may claim to be an adherent of a religion but cannot genuinely claim to be acting for that religion. No divine religion prescribes killing or maiming as an act of worship. Religion may be used surreptitiously as a cover for such heinous acts but the real motive is far from religion.

Conversation

In a fortuitous casual conversation sometime ago over Nigeria’s disturbing political situation, a top Christian cleric enthusiastically told this columnist that Nigerians were the most religious people in the world. Yours sincerely did not agree with his assertion but to avoid any argument relating to religion I decided to keep mute. However, not comfortable with my silence, my interlocutor asked for my reaction to his statement. And when I asked him for the evidence of his alleged religiousness in Nigerians, he cited the ubiquity of Churches and Mosques as well as the length of time people spend worshiping in those sanctuaries as evidence. He added that even Muslims worship on Sundays nowadays citing examples of NASFAT, FATH QUAREEB and other ‘Assalatu’ groups.

In response, I grinned amusedly and shook my head in disagreement. I then told him that in Islam, worshiping does not necessarily take any lengthy time as the number of times to worship per day is divinely specified and no daily Salat takes more than ten minutes on the maximum. I said as for the ubiquity of Churches and Mosques in Nigeria, it is not only an evidence of disunity among the so-called worshippers but also an indication of deification of ‘MONEY’. And while insisting that religion is the biggest business in Nigeria’s private sector today, I concluded that most Nigerians would rather sweat for the purpose of money than for the love of God citing the shameless preaching of prosperity and atrocious style of accumulating wealth by the so-called religious leaders as examples.

I then challenged the Reverend gentleman to imagine removing money from Churches and Mosques in Nigeria today and see what would remain of them. I also went further to correct his misconception that Muslims now worship on Sundays by pointing out to him that Muslims only resorted to congregating on Sundays for prayers when Thursdays and Fridays which served as their cultural weekend days before Nigeria’s colonisation were forcefully turned into Saturdays and Sundays for them by the colonialists. After a long time of silence the Clergy man nodded in agreement with my analytical observation and confessed that until then he never gave any thought to the atrocious role which money plays in Nigeria’s religious activities.

Evidence of Ignorance

What most Nigerian leaders of Islamic and Christian religions do not seem to know is that the refusal of the adherents of both religions to study and understand the doctrines which guide those religions is the main cause of religious disharmony in the country today. This is however, not peculiar to Nigeria. It is global. Both Christians and Muslims jointly constitute more than half of the world’s population. And, it is from their common pond that the spiritual ripples which consistently make the world restive emanate. If the adherents of both religions had endeavoured to mutually study and understand the doctrines that guide their ways in life, the world would not have come under religious spell as we have today.

How many Christian or Muslim leaders know, for instance, that in recognition of Jesus Christ as his predecessor and fellow Apostle, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) signed a charter with some Christian leaders in the year 628 CE and the charter remains valid till today? In that year (628 CE), a Christian delegation from St. Catherine’s Monastery went to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) to seek the protection of the Islamic government under his command. The objective was to elicit the support of the Islamic government in ensuring their security against the aggression of the Persian Empire. (St. Catherine’s Monastery is the world’s oldest Monastery located at the foot of Mt. Sinai which has a huge collection of Christian manuscripts second only to those of the Vatican and is known as a world heritage site). Prior to that event, many verses of the Qur’an had been revealed to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) acknowledging the divine mission of all the Prophets preceding him (Muhammad (SAW) including that of Jesus Christ. And because of those revelations, no Muslim can claim to be a true believer in Islam without accepting Jesus the son of Mary as a Prophet of God. One of those revelations states as follows:

“The Apostle of Allah (Muhammad SAW) believes in what was revealed to him and so do the entire Muslim faithful. Every one of them believes in Allah, His Angels, His Books and His Apostles. We do not discriminate against any of His Apostles. They say “we hear and obey (the laws brought by those Apostles). Grant us your forgiveness Oh Lord! To you we shall all return….” (Q. 2: 285).

Another verse of the Qur’an states: “There is no compulsion in religion. True guidance has become distinct from stray. Whoever renounces evil and believes fully in God has grasped the most reliable chord that never breaks. God is all-hearing, all knowing” (Q. 2: 256).

The Charter

In response to the request of the Christian representatives cited above, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) granted them a written charter of rights as follows: “This is a message from Muhammad the son of Abdullah serving as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far that we (Muslims) are with them. Verily, I and all the servants of God, as well as the helpers of Islam hereby make promise to defend Christians because they are my citizens and by God! I hold out against anything that displeases them. No compulsion is to be on them (concerning their way of worship). Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries. No one should destroy a house of their religion or damage it or loot it. Whoever violates this has breached God’s charter and disobeyed His Apostle. Verily, Christians are my allies and have my secure charter against all they hate. No one should force them to fight for a course in which they have no belief or compel them to migrate against their wish. Neither is the sacredness of their covenant to be violated nor their Churches to be disrespected. And if any damage should happen to their Churches, they must not be prevented from repairing them. No Muslim should disobey this covenant till the Last Day (end of the world)”. For details, see www.aljazeera.com and check Aljazeera Magazine under Middle East Online. By this charter, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) asserted that Muslims and Christians were brethren in faith and no one of them should fight against the other on the basis of religion. And by validating the charter till the great Day of Judgment, the Prophet had precluded any future attempt to revoke the privileges contained in that charter by any nation, group or individuals. By implication, those privileges are inalienable. Besides, one remarkable aspect of the charter is that it did not stipulate any condition for Christians to enjoy the privileges.

Reciprocation

Believing that being followers of Jesus Christ was enough a condition to enjoy those privileges, the Prophet assumed that the Christians, would be civilised enough to reciprocate that unprecedented gesture wherever they coexist with Muslims not only by tolerating the latter’s mode of worship and way of life but also by refraining from any naked or avowed act of provocation against them which could precipitate a religious rancour. Another noticeable aspect of the charter is the Prophet’s silence on any payment by the protectorate Christians which was the general practice among nations in those days. Thus, that ‘Charter of Rights’ was a free gift. And from it the reason becomes clear why the Islamic State under the command of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) or any of his rightly guided disciples who became Caliphs never crossed swords with any Christian group or nation throughout their regimes. If any wars like those of the crusades ever broke out subsequently between Christians and Muslims it was centuries after the demise of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and the Caliphs and that could not be attributed to Islam as a religion. Such could have happened due to a deliberate breach by either or both sides on the basis of human whim.

And in upholding that charter, the second Caliph, Umar Bn Khattab, refused to observe Salat inside the Church of Jerusalem when he visited the area following the liberation of that region by the Islamic State from the Persian Empire in which Zoroastrianism (worshiping of fire) was the religion. The Church of Jerusalem had been cleared by Muslim soldiers for the observance of Salat which Umar, as Head of State, was to lead. But when he was invited to lead the Salat, he simply ordered the soldiers to find another place for Salat and keep the Church intact for the Christians saying he would not do that which the Prophet prohibited. He then warned the Muslims who accompanied him never to convert Churches into Mosques for that would amount to bad precedent capable of breaching the Prophet’s charter with Christians.

Prior to the Prophet’s migration from Makkah to Madinah, a prophetic revelation came into the Qur’an in 616 CE which confirmed the brotherhood of Islam and Christianity. That revelation which formed a whole chapter in the Qur’an was entitled ‘The Chapter of Rome ’. It started thus: “Rome, (the nation of the Christian Greeks) has been defeated in a neighbouring land. But after their defeat, they shall (themselves) gain victory within a few years. Allah is the Supreme Commander before and after. On that day (when they become victorious), the believers (Muslims and Christians) will rejoice in Allah’s help. Allah gives victory to whoever He wills. He is the Mighty One, the Merciful. That is Allah’s promise; He never reneges on His promise” (Q. 30: 1-5).

And true to that prophecy, the Roman Empire surprisingly defeated the Persian Empire to the ecstasy of the Muslims just nine years after that revelation and thereby paved way for Christianity to be off the manacle of the pagan Persian Empire and to thrive once again side by side with Islam. Besides, the name of Jesus Christ is mentioned about 37 times in the Glorious Qur’an giving more details about his birth and disappearance than can be found even in the Bible. Also a whole chapter of the Qur’an is dedicated to Mary the mother of Jesus confirming her chastity and the miracle of the birth of Jesus. That chapter is called ‘The Chapter of Maryam (Mary).

Orientalists’ Antics

However, despite all the indisputable facts mentioned above, the Western Orientalists and others who seek to foster discord between Christianity and Islam continue to focus and disseminate the differences between both religions with the intent of causing permanent conflict among their adherents. Those are the people who want the world to believe that this same Prophet Muhammad (SAW) held the Qur’an in one hand and the sword in another forcing people to accept Islam or be ready to die. The depth of their ignorance does not even reflect the illogicality of such blatant lie as the Qur’an was not compiled into a book when the Prophet was alive. And if one man had such a power to intimidate multitude enemies would he be forced to migrate?

Conclusion

The doctrine of one God one mission purportedly shared in the world today by three religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) cannot be from the same perception. Each of these religions has its own revealed Book and the adherents practice their faiths according to the doctrines contained in those Books. It will therefore be wrong of adherents of one particular religion to adjudge those of others as deviants or infidels who must be exterminated.

Religion is like an examination. Those who sit down to write it using blue ink pen must not turn themselves into examiners using red ink pen to mark it. Paradise is Allah’s own domain. He admits whoever He wishes into it. And this is done not necessarily by sheer mortal’s recommendation. Only the Almighty Allah who chose our parents for us without our knowledge before we came into this world and who knows where each of us would finally be buried has the final say on everybody’s destination.

If the truth must be told, the real cause of religious conflicts in Nigeria is not intolerance as often hypocritically claimed by some people but provocation under the guise of religion. Nigerian press is particularly guilty of this by fueling such provocation. It is wrong to expect tolerance to thrive in a society where provocation and injustice refuse to abate. Propagating a religion by denigrating another is an act of provocation. And those who want peace to prevail in Nigeria must desist from such intolerable act.

Nigerian Church and Mosque leaders must refrain from negative sentiments and hypocrisy by dissuading their followers from interpreting the misbehaviour of some miscreants to mean the prescription of the religion they proclaim.

May 31, 2013
NSCIA: Tasks before Oloyede

The emergence of the immediate past Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Prof. Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede, as the new Secretary-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) did not come as a surprise to many keen watchers of the erudite scholar and versatile administrator vis-à-vis his activities as a cosmopolitan and pan-Nigerian Muslim activist. His antecedents speak volumes of his suitability for the position. Indeed, his appointment on May 7, 2013, during the National Executive Council meeting of the NSCIA in Kaduna is akin to putting a round peg in a round hole.

The former President of the Association of African Universities (AAU) is very familiar with the issues that define the raison d’être of the foremost Islamic organisation, having been involved, at a very tender age, in the mobilisation and conscientisation of Muslim youths during his undergraduate days when he was the National President of the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria (MSSN). Apart from this, Prof. Oloyede has been a member of the National Executive Council of the NSCIA since 2002 when he became its assistant secretary-general.

Above all, his position as Co-Secretary/National Coordinator of the Nigerian Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) has put him in a vantage position as the right person to champion and cement the much-needed peaceful co-existence among practitioners of the two major religions in the country. No doubt, Prof. Oloyede is a respected voice in the country today and very well admired by many eminent Nigerians and even the international community.

However, as well suited as he is for the position, Prof. Oloyede should realise that he has a big task ahead of him, especially as he is taking over the seat from a veteran and pre-eminent Muslim leader, the late Dr. Abdul-Lateef Adegbite, who tried his best to nurture the Islamic body and made it an organisation to reckon with in the country. But much still need to be done.

Prof. Oloyede must therefore be prepared to build on and even surpass Dr. Adegbite’s legacies. The new NSCIA scribe should immediately set to work on how to further bridge the gap between Northern and Southern Muslims. This should not be a difficult task for the former vice-chancellor, being a Southern Muslim with pan-Nigerian world view, and having a lot of friends and associates across the country.

As a first step, the new head of the NSCIA secretariat should set in motion modality for erasing the manifesting dichotomy between Northern and southern Muslims in the discordant timing of the commencement and termination of the yearly Ramadan fast. Every Nigerian Muslim was happy over the national concurrence in the timing of the last Ramadan timing, the first in recent history.

The new NSCIA Secretary-General should also use his national exposure to begin a more serious search for inter-faith harmony in the country. He should initiate a constructively engaging inter-faith dialogue between Muslim and Christian leaders with the ultimate aim of bringing religious leaders from both divides together for a sustainable harmonious co-existence. There is no gainsaying that fact that most religious crises the country has witnessed so far were instigated by the incendiary statements of some religious leaders. So, if the leaders could be made to see reason why they should preach what both religions teach to their congregation – the bottom-line of which are human brotherhood, peace and harmony – fewer adherents of any of these two faiths would want to carry arms against the other.

With Prof. Oloyede at the head of NSCIA Secretariat, it is expected that the Islamic body would take on a more pro-active role in national politics, a role that is expected of religion as the conscience of society. He is expected to lead the NSCIA in championing a programme of national revival and ethical reorientation, with emphasis on the role of religious leaders in rescuing the nation from the precipice which politicians are currently pushing it. There is no denying the fact that many Muslims occupying leadership positions in the country today are not living up to their calling. So, there is an urgent need to initiate a national programme to monitor such Muslims and ensure that they serve as good examples to their non-Muslim counterparts. This will not only help in positively projecting the image of Islam, it could also be the dawn of a new era of accountable leadership and ultimately national development.

With his pedigree of a Nigerian in a hurry to make his mark in every position he finds himself, it will not be out of place to say with certainty that Prof. Oloyede will make a difference in his new assignment and the Muslim community and Nigeria at large will be the better for it.

A shrewd manager of men and resources, Prof. Oloyede has become a reference point in university administration not only in Nigeria but in Africa as a whole. A stickler for undiluted academic excellence and uncompromising discipline, he left an indelible mark at the University of Ilorin where he was Vice-Chancellor until October last year. Acknowledged nationally and internationally, he was instrumental to most of the feats achieved by the university in recent times. The tenure of Prof. Oloyede as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin (2007 – 2012) witnessed an unprecedented transformation of the 35 year-old second generation university. Not only is the academic calendar now predictably stable unlike what obtains in many other Nigerian universities, the quality of graduates produced by the university has significantly imporved.

Prof. Oloyede’s sustained association with the President-General of the NSCIA, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Mohammad Sa’ad Abubakar is another pointer to the fact that the organisation’s headship would be a great study in harmonious team spirit. And this will positively enhance consensus building for the benefit of the Nigerian Muslim community. With God’s continued guidance, the former university administrator is expected to bring his wealth of experience to bear on his new assignment.

• Akogun is the Deputy Director, Corporate Affairs, University of Ilorin.

May 31, 2013
Useful idiots (4)

We are a cliché. The want of bread disturbs our peace, but in pursuit of bread, we gun for gold and perverse glamour. Modesty succumbs to vile, honesty deserts our hearts and the beaming brightness of good forsakes our bothersome neighbourhoods. The injustice and tyranny we claim to seek an end to have only just begun. More than an end, we perfect their beginnings.

The demolition of Nigeria is ongoing. And it is being perfected by the most useful agents of hope or destruction; the Nigerian youth. But as Nigeria ruins, we ruin too. Our overtly cherished and over-celebrated lives fall apart and the promise of our generation manifests as a pathetic lie we inherited from our fathers and forefathers. Today, we tell it to each other in the thick of despair for false hope and cheap comfort.

The history of our generation will be one continuous disaster from one timeline to the next, if we do not change. But change is what dream of it. It is what we make it out to be. Change is what we make of will. Have we such will that ignites dying embers to scorching hearths of hope and unquenchable ardor?

We blame the ruling class and the”wasted generation” for the coldness in our hearts and their insensitivity to our plight. We claim they do not give a hoot what becomes of Nigeria or what becomes of us. But are we not deserving of evilness they visit on us? Do we really care what becomes of Nigeria? What do we care about? What excites the passion of the Nigerian youth? What would we die for? What do we die for?

We who value craftiness above sweat and continually die to get money at all cost, wish for peace and everlasting prosperity. We shan’t get what we seek but we shall get what we deserve. And we do get what we deserve, like endemic poverty and a predatory ruling class. Today, we deserve the scourge of religious extremism and the affliction of currency-activated racists and warmongers. Today, we deserve to dwell in squalor and extinguishment of our heartfelt dreams. Today, we deserve to live like paupers in our land overflowing with riches that even the so-called developed nations could never boast of.

We get what we deserve. That is why President Goodluck Jonathan and company epitomize the perfect leadership for our kind. Were we deserving of a better ruling class, we would elect better leadership at election time. But leadership we have now is a mirror of the Nigerian psyche. It is the best we could produce, to our ‘pleasure’ and the amusement of our malicious and covetous neighbours.

In the face of such daunting reality, I choose to believe in the Nigerian youth. I choose to believe in the immeasurable benefits of the ballot box. Bullets may serve the means and ends of revolutionary savages for a while but at the end, its electoral votes that count. Tyrannies will fall and despots will die; no degree of savagery outlasts the passion and strength of a people speaking with one voice, stoically, and quite peacefully, by their votes.

Yet it is sad to note that despite the ills we suffer and are forced to endure under the incumbent ruling class, Nigerian youths are determined to keep them in power. As you read, professional activists, racists and self-acclaimed youth leaders amongst us are repositioning themselves and strategizing to pitch their tents with our usual candidates with power of incumbency or deep pockets, come 2015 general elections.

Many are spoiling for war and secession. Some are merely mounting the soapbox to incite and talk the talk, but a great deal more are threatening to speak with bullets, machete and meat cleavers. They are vowing to go all out to realize their dreams of genocide and violent secession. The permutations are rife in the scariest elements and details of discord: Boko Haram is on the run and the Joint Task Force (JTF) struggles to uproot its tentacles of violence and destruction even as some slapstick comedian from the south promises to unleash more terror on Nigeria if President Jonathan does not retain his seat come 2015.

“Nigeria will break by 2015,” many of us shamelessly croon like deranged parakeets. We echo ill-will and predictions of doom mischievously bandied to us as thorough “security report,”by our perverted neighbours from the “developed world.” We are past such conditioning and “covert psychological operations,” today, we are at the threshold of combining arrant madness to malicious predictions. But the fault is never our perverted neighbours’ nor is it our predatory ruling class’. You and I are to blame for every ill that befalls us. We are to blame for violence and bloodshed we continually perpetrate in the name of politics, tribe and religion.

At the centre, a wasteful cabinet of dubious necessity grinds on while scarier candidates with hustle in the wings to take over power from our incumbent government of brutes and dunderheads. Racism consumes our souls and thousands die by the whims of malevolent politicians and godfathers. Corporate plunderers grab an ever-growing share of profits while workers’ salaries dwindle. The price of oil skyrockets, and we shamelessly import the oil we have in overabundance in our backyard. More youths are beginning to learn that a commoner’s dream is an extravagant enterprise. They have learnt to bury their hopes for a secure future.

Yeah, bad news is in the air. We worry and gripe about it. Bloggers rant about it. We have even learnt to joke about it. But it’s time we do something about it. We should endeavour to rescue our world. It takes so much effort to be cynical and vengeful, let us channel such efforts into more profitable enterprise, like visionary politics, honest labour and reorientation.

It’s about time we projected more progressive views of our world. Let us begin to seek the upright amongst us. They aren’t so hard to find. They are the paltry few we love to haze and deride for being too “conservative,” “stupid” and “pretentious.” They believe in justice, equality and the rule of law. They are pious without being self-righteous, they are responsible, tolerant, and in many ways, more evolved.

I propose an agenda for our generation, a blueprint of things to be done that serve our common need for conscientious leadership, sustainable jobs, peace, security to mention a few. We need a practicable and all-inclusive plan; a proposal of shared targets and intentions with broad based support and the moral and political will to implement its mechanisms and ends.

Pamela Braide, Babatunde Olusegun (Mode 9), Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri, Tolu Ogunlesi and company, it’s time to breathe life into familiar gripe and protestations. We have the common need of a future worth anticipating and living.

Majority of our founding fathers were only in their 20s and 30s at the time they put Nigeria positively on the world map. There was no magic to their strivings; they simply towed the slow, steady path of honesty, perseverance, irrepressible pride and nationalism. They never sought hand-outs on a platter of lies and loser mentality. They simply chose to become their own heroes.

May 31, 2013
If it requires emergency…

It is trite now isn’t it to interrogate the necessity of the emergency proclamation on a vast chunk of Nigeria’s northeast region? A Presidential announcement had gone out over two weeks ago and the National Assembly has also cast the stamp of law on it giving us: The Emergency Proclamation Act, 2013. Declaring ‘war’ on insurgents who have been terrorizing the state of Nigeria since 2009 is perhaps, President Goodluck Jonathan’s boldest step in two years of his administration. It is no doubt his smartest move so far earning him loud applause by the populace. Why it took so long in coming having claimed the lives of no fewer that 3000 Nigerians, is indeed, the question many are asking?

By way of background, the large swathe of land covering the three states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe has the longest border areas northeast of Nigeria covering the stretch of Cameroon, Chad and Niger republics. These are largely unmanned territories; more like ‘no-man’s land’. Over the years, a motley coalition of marabouts, marauders, religious fanatics, shamans, trans-border gangs and fleeing Al qaeda elements have found home in this virtual waste land. Over the years, they have become overlords of this stark mountainous vast land and unchallenged, they continued to get emboldened and grow in influence. These people living in the extreme fringes found more accommodation when they were recruited as political tugs and enforcers. Over time, they began to show the locals some form of leadership mixed with religious fervor, a duty governments in the area had long abdicated. This of course won them followership of the teeming masses of the citizenry. The ‘Islamist’ sects were therefore, only tried to fill a vacuum created by government over the years.

Sending a mass of troops, tanks and air-power to Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States while laudable, is really the easy part and certainly not the solution. It is at best, a palliative and at worst the beginning of a protracted terrorist war to be prosecuted in tricky desert-cum hill country terrains. What we have embraced rather too enthusiastically is unfortunately, not a shooting expedition; it is a thinking engagement, an intelligence excursion. It is an economic war and most important, a challenge to leadership. While emergency proclamation is good in so far as it wins us some respite from incessant suicide bombings and stems the slaughter of innocent citizens, it is quality leadership that will win the ‘war’, sustain peace and usher progress for a new Nigeria.

Unfortunately, we are in a clime where government deigns to solve social problems without a thorough understanding of the cause. I wager that this government has not rigorously diagnosed the root cause of the Boko Haram insurgency, the violent crimes and extreme social malaise plaguing every corner of our country today. It is troubling to hear the puerile and common conclusions that poverty and underdevelopment are at the root of our current woes. And one is doubly troubled to see government’s facile response to the problem with such policies as Almajiri Schools, road construction and other ad-hoc measures. We also shudder when we hear the president speak of glittering successes in the fight against terror.

Sorry, the problem is deep, very deep. What we suffer today is five decades of mis-governance and the trouble is that we still don’t get it; we still have not diagnosed the cancer, the ailment continues to fester. We are today, harvesting the evil weeds planted wittingly and unwittingly by the successive governments of Yakubu Gowon, Murtala Mohammed, Shehu Shagari, Mohammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, Sani Abacha, Abdulsalam Abubakar, Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua and now, Goodluck Jonathan. It must be said without equivocation that none of our past helmsmen was an outstanding leader. They all seem to have emanated from the same umbilical cord and therefore, have used the same reactionary template to approach Nigeria’s governance.

We are saying that governance is not rocket science. It does not require any act of genius to deliver a modicum of good governance any where; all that is required is to keep faith with the system. For instance if the federal and state governments in Nigeria keep faith with their annual budgets for the next two years, half of all our trouble will abate.

In fact, it’s the budget, stupid. It is the lack of keeping faith with the annual budgets at all levels that has impoverished the people; that damaged all the institutions and social systems. The police college that became no better than a pig’s sty before our eyes and before the eyes of all the successive governments listed above is budget failure. The entire police establishment which over the years was reduced to a hollow shell bereft sense, essence or intelligence, is a budget issue. The BOKO Haram insurgents, the hardened youthful kidnapper, the child-trafficker and baby merchant are all largely results of impaired budgeting over five decades. If funds trickled down to all the nooks and cranny of the country, to every facet of live of the people as designed in annual budgets, half of these problems would have been attenuated.

The other half would be tinkering with our geographical configuration and fiscal structures with the aim of unbundling the polity for better performance. For instance, why is the federal government keeping over 50% of the nation’s revenues most of which goes to running a lumbersome and parasitic bureaucracy? Does President Jonathan have the vision and drive to wrought fundamental changes in the polity that will emancipate the country and give her fresh impetus? These are the emergencies we need.

What we are suggesting here therefore, is that we just might require emergency proclamation in the nature, tenor and character of our leadership lest we would not have moved one step forward six months down the road. We ask that emergency should be the beginning of a rethink of the current mode of governance; a time to look at the template we have used over the years and make critical amends. If it requires emergency…

LAST MUG: Indecorous Obasanjo

Ouch! That is terribly in bad taste and tends towards an unbecoming meanness of mind. How on earth could Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, former president, statesman and member of the National Council of State (NCS) choose to attend Jigawa State function over a Presidential Democracy Day ceremony? Obasanjo did not only hang out with Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State last Wednesday, May 29, he openly put down President Goodluck Jonathan and lame-ducked him to no end.

That is in very bad taste, crude and un-presidential; we expect more restraint from elders especially of Obasanjo’s status in times of national crisis and not to throw petrol at the fire. In trying to hit at the incumbent, he is unwittingly desecrating our Presidency and that sacred stool. To think that Obasanjo brought us all to this sorry pass; that he also failed woefully in his eight years rule not being able to deliver any critical infrastructure. Yes we may be disappointed with Jonathan’s presidency but we are even more pissed off with Obasanjo’s restlessness and infantile grandstanding. What makes him think he has the divine right to choose and foist presidential candidates on Nigerians? We have learnt our lessons, which I believe includes shunning anybody supported by Obasanjo when next we vote.

May 31, 2013
Governors without character

Precisely because President Jonathan fights with might and means and because PDP is notorious for undermining the spirit of our laws including its own constitution, I predicted a few weeks back that Governor Rotimi Amaechi, despite his acclaimed superlative performance in office, the goodwill of his people and the support of the opposition was not likely going to survive the combined forces of an unforgiving president and a party that loathe the democratic process. That came to pass this Monday when Amaechi, an elected governor, was suspended by his party. This was coming shortly after the suspension of elected members of his state legislature.

PDP and its elected or selected governors despise the democratic process in spite of their professed commitment to democratic rule. Their reaction to Amaechi’s victory in the NGF election and his subsequent suspension from the party has only but confirmed this lack of faith in the democratic process. Beyond this, the PDP governors have by their irresponsible outbursts, infantile lies and unnecessary heating up of the polity just to please the president, demonstrated their weakness of character.

The story was that election for the position of chairmanship of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), was held in which 35 governors participated. The communiqué after the election by the NGF Director-General, Asishana Okauru, confirmed that “The governors of the 36 states of the federation at the sixth meeting of the year elected … for the next two years: chairman, Rt Hon Rotimi Amaechi, governor of Rivers State; and vice chairman, Alhaji Abullaziz Yari, governor of Zamfara State. All the governors present participated in the election except the governor of Yobe State who was not present”, Okauru concluded.” He later told journalists that Governor Amaechi won the election with 19 votes as against 16 votes scored by Governor Jang. He also stated that Governor of Zamfara State Abudlaziz Yari was elected vice-chairman of the forum after Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko stepped down for him.

But without invalidating Okauru’s claims, PDP governors who as we have always said, behave like gangsters, told journalists that 17 governors had chosen Governor Jang as chairman of the NGF while Mimiko would serve as the vice chairman. Their crooked logic was that before the election, Jang had been endorsed by the 19 northern governor’s forum. These bad losers cannot even see the parallel in the triumph of Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, the current speaker of the Lower House over the South-west PDP endorsed candidate for the position, ably supported by ex- President Obasanjo and President Jonathan.

Tragically, the battle to discredit an election in which they actively participated was led by Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, the governor of Ondo State who himself has credibility problem. Critics of the very resourceful governor elected on the platform of Labour Party but now openly wears the cloak of PDP, speaks of his serial betrayal having dumped his benefactor, Adefarati, played Brutus on Dr Olusegun Agagu and used Tinubu to retrieve his PDP stolen mandate, only to cross over to President Jonathan, the highest bidder who was in a position to deploy the IG, an army battalion and a contingent of police to Ondo to ensure his victory during his re-election bid last year.

He caught a pathetic picture as he tried to justify the perfidy of desperate PDP men trying to play on the intelligence of Nigerians. According to Mimiko, “Amaechi did not step down as chairman before the election in which he was a candidate; he produced some papers that he called ballot papers, there was no way we could trace the source, we don’t know whether they were pre-marked or whatever”.

Mimiko’s attempt at misleading Nigerians is not in the character of forthright and proud people of Ondo he leads and who are known for calling a spade by its name. But more damaging to Mimiko’s testament is the testimony of his good friend, Dr Kayode Fayemi of Ektit who confirmed the election as free and fair, describing, with his usual grace and depth the outcome as ‘a vote for democracy’ and not as an endorsement of Amaechi or a vote against the president. Nigerians are more likely to believe Fayemi’s account of events than that of those the Yoruba call ’ko se eku, ko se eiye’ (neither rodent nor bird). Above all, the voting process during the NGF election, as shown by some television stations did further damage to the credibility of Mimiko and his PDP forum of bad losers.

The graceless outing of Jonah Jang of Plateau also probably explains why he has for about eight years supervised bloodletting in his state. He knew he lost ‘fair and square’, yet demonstrating ecstasy after being declared winner by 17 governors on Saturday, he told journalists on arrival to Jos his state capital that “As far as I’m concerned I have been given an assignment and by the grace of God I will do my best to unite the forum and make sure the forum provides the right leadership for the people of Nigeria…”.

But charity begins at home. Jang, who was not graceful enough to accept defeat, is obviously also deficit in tolerance and compromise, the two most important ingredients of democracy. He needs these attributes to stop the bloodletting between the Fulani and their chief hosts, the Berom. The Fulani have nowhere else to go. Asking them to go back to the Futa Jallon area where their great forbearers migrated from over 200 years ago is like asking the Jews and Arabs to go back to Ur in Iraq, where Abraham their great grandfather was given a vision of a land flowing with milk and honey. Even when in God’s mysterious ways, the land turned out to be hilly desert full of craters and valleys of death, rather than abandon the land to the Philistines its owners, they have turned it to a land flowing with blood of their children. What Plateau need to avoid such fate is compromise and Jang by his actions has proved he is deficit in honour.

As for the chairman South-east Governors Forum, Peter Obi, “we in the South-east have always worked together as governors… the South-east together supported the candidacy of Jang.” Of course the position of the leadership of the South-east is well known to Nigerians. Their leaders often worked for themselves, feathering their own nests while shouting from the roof top about marginalization of the Igbos after trading off the presidency.

The Chairman of the South–south Governors Forum, Governor Liyel Imoke said: “As chairman of the South-south Governors Forum, we also participated in the process that led to the emergence of Governor Jonah Jang. “Of course” the South–south has always stood behind this administration…” Imoke ‘s freudstian slip confirmed what everyone knows-that the PDP governors attempt to turn the truth on its head is all about president Jonathan 2015 ambition.

The vice chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Governor Gabriel Suswam, also confirmed the adoption of “a new leadership led by Jang and supported by Governor Mimiko, the Iroko” during a meeting of northern governors. But Suswam did not make mention of the earlier election in which he participated.

Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State said: “we were contestants but stepped down for Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State to be our consensus candidate of the 19 Northern Governors Forum.” But except under feudalism, such an act cannot automatically transform Jang to NGF chairman.

The chairman of the PDP governor’s forum, Governor Godswill Akpabio said: “Yesterday (Friday, it was agreed the chairmanship of the NGF be zoned to the PDP which is the party with the largest number of governors in the forum.” Since Amaechi won the election as a PDP governor, his suspension three days later, meant the script was written well in advance. And finally, if we stretch Akpabio’s logic, what then qualified Mimiko, the only Labour governor, as vice chairman when there are parties with higher number of elected governors?

May 30, 2013
Ife – Benin – Bida – Idah complex of relations: A reflection – 1

The Yoruba, Edo (Bini) Nupe and Igalla people of West Africa (there are Yorubas outside Nigeria) are related peoples historically linguistically and culturally. The relationships are sometimes easily recognized by common words in their languages. In any case they all speak the KWA sub group of the Niger-Congo broad linguistic group. They share common myths of origins particularly of their rulers and not necessarily the people as is the case of Ife, Oyo and Bini dynasties.

There is also a myth among the Nupe that they and the Yoruba are related. The Oyo king Sango is said to have been born by a Nupe woman and the place of this king in the religion and cosmology of the Yoruba is very formidable. The cultural remains of terra cotta, wooden carvings, bronze and brass among the Yoruba, Nupe, Igalla and Bini point to a common origin. Instead of putting emphasis on what unites them than what divided them, some of their people for political correctness and contemporary advantages of belonging to politically dominant groups prefer to deny their historical ties. But this serves no useful purpose.

In the autobiography of the Oba of Benin Oba Erediauwa he claims that an expelled prince of Benin of the Ogiso period named Ekalederhan who after wandering for months or years in the bush surfaced in Ife and that it was him the Ife people called Oduduwa. It was this same Oduduwa/Ekalederhan who later after a generation sent his youngest son Oranmiyan to Benin to found the Oduduwa dynasty there. How convenient! What is certain is that the dynasties in Ife and Benin have a common origin.

The myths of the world being created in Benin and Ife are like most creation stories including that of the Jews, myths that have no proofs but can only be believed by those who wish to believe them. The idea of some Eastern origin of these dynasties is not restricted to the Yoruba and Edo, but is common to most West African dynasties, be it those of the Yoruba, Hausa, Kanuri and other peoples of this area. For example among the Hausa, Bayajidda is said to have come from the East to Daura and killed the snake called Sarki before marrying the Queen of Daura and fathered the founders of the Hausa Bakwai states (seven original Hausa kingdoms).

It is well known by students of world civilization that Ife and Benin were centres of African civilization before contact with the outside world. It has been suggested by historians that ancient Ife was established around 8th Century A.D. and flourished remarkably around the 12th Century A.D. when the famous Ife terracotta and bronze heads and other artefacts were produced. The (lost wax process) or cire perdu through which these famous artefacts were produced were only found in ancient Greece and ancient Ife which led some European explorers like Leo Africanus during the 19th Century to suggest that perhaps the ancient Ife civilization was produced by a lost and wandering Caucasian group, a theory which was prevalent at this time and called the Hamitic theory of African civilization. This period in Ife history is associated with the Oduduwa myth of origin. Oduduwa in some account came from the Middle East and was followed by supporters of a losing battle for the throne to found a new kingdom in what is now Nigeria. There is of course the other myth of Ife being the place of the origin of man and Oduduwa coming from heaven to establish Ife. This last story can be dismissed as some clever persons’ imagination. In any case survival of the previous potentates such as Obalufon survives in the political nomenclature of Ife till today.

In African history there is confusion between the origins of people and origins of kingdoms and dynasties, this should not be so. Immigration and emigration are characteristic phenomenon not unique to African history alone but to the history of mankind. It is generally known by historians, archaeologists and physical anthropologists that man evolved in Africa from where it migrated to other parts of the world. Before the founding of the Oduduwa dynasty in Ife there were definitely autochthonous people there. This myth of Eastern origin and the so-called Kisra legend is found among several African peoples.

Some historians such as the late Professors Ade Obayemi and even A.F.C. Ryder have suggested that Ife of antiquity may have existed in several locations, seven of which have been identified, before finally settling in the present location. Alan Ryder suggests original Ife may have been near the Niger – Benue confluence after analyzing oral traditions from Benin and from Idah and Bida. One thing is clear to most historians, this is that the manifestation of Ife cultural excellence and ascendancy predated that of Benin by some centuries. It has even been suggested that the art of bronze casting in Benin diffused from Ife. Sometimes the name of the purveyor of this diffusion is mentioned.

May 30, 2013