The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

Paul to Saul: all in his master’s service

The Bible tells the story of Saul turning into Paul on the way to Damascus, after encountering God. Could there be an evolving Nigerian story of a Paul turning Saul, somewhere between Owo and Ife, after an encounter with mammon? I just wonder!

This musing came after reading “South-West: Lest we forget regional integration”, a piece by Bola Bolawole, in his “Turning Point” column on the back page of the Wednesday May 22 issue of Daily Newswatch.

Normally, it is trite in logic that leaving the message to attack the messenger is bad writing and bad thinking culture. Indeed, that fallacy is called ad hominem. In this case however, engaging the writer, in the context of his writing, is both logical and legitimate, since he ab initio, smuggled himself into the write-up in a most supine, abject and illogical manner, that suggests his readers must be fools.

Wrote he: “In Osun State, I wish Governor Rauf Aregbesola would not be returned for second term but that PDP would take over the state in next year’s election.”

To start with, that was absolutely presumptuous and without rigour. As far as I know, democratic choices are past the realm of wishes. If wishes were horses, goes the saying, every fool would ride – and perhaps break his neck! Democratic elections are made of more rigorous stuff – at least they should be, since man is supposed to be a rational and pain-avoiding animal. So, on what account might Governor Aregbesola lose the next election, when in two years he has done more than Olagunsoye Oyinlola and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) power scavengers did in almost eight years?

Not so long ago, Bolawole had in his column in the Nigerian Tribune, rubbed in the sand the nose of Iyiola Omisore – he of the sinister scowl, violent politics and push-and-mug mentality. He claimed Omisore had so many questions to answer and that he would have nothing to do with him.

Barely months after, however, he was inviting fellow journalists, particularly seasoned columnists whose voice have influence, to come have close tete-a-tete with Omisore who claimed he had acquired some PhD on some newfangled area – and needed right thinking members of the society to help validate his claim. Bolawole probably succeeded with some. But he gloriously failed with not a few; and for his and continuing impiety, his principal remains a pariah to decent and respectable society.

So, why might an Owo native that Bolawole is, be so obsessed with a governor from a neighbouring state losing an election; and a PDP, that had, beyond any reasonable doubt, proved its incompetence and uselessness, win? Apparently between Owo and Ife, a former Paul of the Nigerian media, bristling with propriety, decency and justice, had turned to a Saul, in the service of the pig-and-muck manor of Omisore, the decency-challenged enforcer nursing the delusion of being governor.

Well, Bolawole has a right to pick his camp. He also has the right to ally with God or with mammon. But he does not have the right to unleash blatant presumption on readers, hiding behind South West integration, and making outlandish claims against Governor Aregbesola who, by the dint of focus, commitment and hard work, would continue to be the nemesis of Omisore and his Osun PDP freeloaders, even with their illicit and so-called federal might.

Bolawole opened his piece with a fallacy: because Labour Party won the Ondo gubernatorial election, the battle for the soul of the South West was lost and won! That might be fine logic in the Omisore rigour-challenged political pepper soup joints. But it is clearly asinine in cultivated circles.

To follow the Omisore tradition of extreme contempt for readers, Bolawole went on to inflict another blatant lie: since the loss of Ondo election in which the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) made South West integration a campaign issue, and of which Aregbesola was prime driver, nothing had been heard of the project again.

Yet, at a four-day South West Expo: Grassroots Business and Investment Forum 2013, from February 6 to 9, an event to practicalise South West integration organised by The Nation newspaper and Ceedee consultants, and hosted by the State of Osun in Osogbo, newspapers widely reported Aregbesola’s personal invitation to Governor Olusegun Mimiko to join his brother governors on the South West integration project. He added that since election was over, it was time to join hands to develop the region. Prince Bola Ajibola and Dr. Omololu Olunloyo and other distinguished guests from this clime graciously attended the event.

Besides, participants after the event agreed on a 17-point resolution, Number 4 of which declared: “Ondo State should, as of right, take its place in South West integration programmes and activities.” Indeed, Dipo Famakinwa, director-general of the DAWN Commission, the policy implementing arm of South West integration, with its headquarters at Cocoa House, Ibadan, was even one of the resource persons who delivered papers at that event.

So, where comes Bolawole’s yarn that nothing had been heard of the project since the Ondo election; or that Aregbesola, in Bolawole’s view, “the acclaimed coordinator of regional integration for ACN … has not said a word about regional integration since his party lost in Ondo”? It is of course the empty gas that comes from the Omisore sinister house of push-and-shove politics.

That brings the matter to Bolawole’s reasons for his “wish” that Aregbesola lose the coming election: that the governor played politics with everything – religion, education and regional integration.

From this piece so far, it is clear that Aregbesola playing politics with regional integration is a fiction of the jaundiced imagination of those whose stock-in-trade is emotive blackmail, not reasoned discourse. As for playing politics on education, if scaling up educational infrastructure in terms of new school buildings, Opon Imo, the computer tablet for senior secondary school pupils, free school uniforms that also provides jobs for local tailors and designer, and free meals for junior pupils are politics, I think the Osun people would have been glad Omisore and his exuberant party played such politics when they were in power for almost eight years of stolen mandate!

As for Bolawole’s charge on politicking with religion, it is a classic example of giving a dog a bad name to hang it. But any right-thinking person knows that Aregbesola’s religious policy is based on equal access, equal opportunity and fairness. Even the Hijab issue epitomises just that; and the access to traditional believers even more epitomises this equal access and equal opportunity policy, which is however beyond the ken of irrational rabble rousers, whose forte is stark ignorance.

The good thing though is that our people have left that Egypt of ignorance and are cruising toward the Promised Land of development and prosperity under the charge of Aregbesola. Not a billion Omisores and his misguided chorus singers and court jesters can stop that.

May 30, 2013
When governors go gaga

THEY were in an unusually foul mood. Puffy faces. Red eyes. Lips firmly wedged together in a desperate bid to block the anger threatening to tear through their stomachs and the dam of tears battling to burst through their eyes.

Why would governors be in such a mournful mood, like kids whose lollipops have been snatched by a discourteous elder? One of them was facing a battery of reporters, blubbing, blabbing and swearing that their man had been rigged out of the Governors’ Forum election. The others surrounded him. They were like an overrated school soccer team that had just lost a crucial match, lining up behind their captain to get some whacking from a distraught headmaster. Humbled. Hobbled. Humiliated. The governors were outfoxed by their own foxy indiscretion in a simple exercise that required the spirit of sportsmanship and not a do-or-die affair as advocated by their elders.

For this set of governors, it was indeed a time to mourn. But they were not short of ideas. They suborned Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang, a honourable man, to humbug the public by insisting that he won the election in which the incumbent, Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi, carried the day.

The script was clear. There was to be no election to prevent Amaechi from retaining the seat. But Akwa Ibom Governor Godswill Akpabio, another honourable man, the engine room of the massive anti-Amaechi scheme that turned awry, in his stark naivety, assured the Presidency that all would be well. He was armed with a list of 19 governors whom he said had voted for Jang – sorry, His Excellency Jang. It turned out that the list had been compiled in April when governors were summoned to the Villa to extract from them a commitment to back the President’s candidate. Now, there are claims of forgery to which Akpabio and his gang are yet to reply. A governor who was absent was said to have been part of the process. How? Even if indeed 19 had put pen to that paper, was it in anyway an indication of how they voted?

Like flood victims desperate to salvage their belongings, the losers, with bold faces, presented Jang to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leadership as the chair of the Governors’ Forum, the winner of the much coveted prize. If you thought the comical road show would tail off, you were wrong, damn wrong. Jang returned home to Jos with his questionable prize, waving excitedly to a small crowd of people who had come to welcome him. He spoke of a national assignment – to use the Governors’ Forum for the benefit of all, and stormed a church to thank God, with the congregation singing high praises for what He had done. Merciful God!

Shouldn’t comedy have its limits and limitations even in a country that has been a long running theatre of the bizarre, where reality is often blurred by the inanities of its leaders? Anyway, not so here. The Amaechi camp warned the “dissenters” to take it easy or face the ignominy of having the election shown on television. Apparently hooked on their mission to self-destruct, they kept fuelling the charade.

And there it was on Tuesday, the counting of the ballots and the announcement of the winner, Amaechi, right on television. It was exciting. Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi had hinted of the contents of the video, saying Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan – please, feel free to add the prefix His Excellency – was the Returning Officer. Uduaghan, a doctor and a honourable man, denied that he played such a lowly role. It turned out – thanks to the revealing video – that His Excellency was right. He was no Returning Officer. He was the Supervisory Officer. Or better still, the Presiding Officer. His Excellency stood by the Returning Officer, Asissama Okauru, while the counting and sorting of ballots were on. When it was all over, he walked away dejectedly. Poor guy.

Ondo State Governor Segun Mimiko – sorry, I keep forgetting the prefix, His Excellency; you may wish to put it before the name too – and Jang’s running mate let us all into the world of governors running a 36-man election. He said the tension was so high that only providence averted a fisticuff. Oh no; c’mon gents; that’s not good enough; you should have gone all the way. Isn’t it all part of the system? Ever seen a Nigerian election without blood, blows and bullets? Aren’t they the badges of a great election, which you all proudly wear?

That was a great disservice to Nollywood. Imagine an Akpabio – bulgy tummy, cheeks and all – facing an athletic Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, a physical exercise freak, in a no-holds-barred session, with all the other Excellencies by the ring side. Imagine. That would have been an instant box office hit, premiered on Democracy Day. I was told that Akpabio objected to Aregbesola filming the show, but the Osun governor, as inventive as ever, told Akpabio to stay off his camera and found a way of bringing what has been a huge success on YouTube and the local television stations.

The Presidency, apparently seeing that it had backed a misbegotten mission, washed its hands of it, saying President Goodluck Jonathan had no interest whatsoever in the matter. Haba! They can say that a million times, but who will believe them? Who?

Now when governors pray at their meetings, will they find it easy closing their eyes and not feeling that somebody will draw a dagger?

The Villa made no pretence about its objection to Amaechi’s vision for the forum. He insisted on true federalism and fiscal responsibility as well as strict adherence to the rule of law – a much abused concept on which this administration anchored its image, but which has become an irritant sloganeering – and became a thorn in the flesh. He was persecuted. His state’s aircraft has been grounded on questionable excuses. Some Rivers oil wells have gone to Bayelsa on grounds that are still being contested. The PDP leadership in the state has been changed in rancorous circumstances. The House of Assembly has suspended a local government’s officials for alleged fraud, but the PDP has blamed the action on Amaechi. He has been suspended. Is he the Assembly?

It is all part of the growing fratricidal war in the PDP in the run-up to the 2015 election. The self-acclaimed biggest party in Africa is obviously jittery that many of its leading lights may have seen the light and would not want to be on the wrong side of history. So, they are jumping ship to the fledgling All Progressives Congress (APC).

For the PDP, the cycle seems to be closing. Most of the 36 governors belong to the party. They have just shown the world how they have been winning elections, but even the best of magicians, tricksters and pranksters know that no show can last forever. The PDP, by overheating the polity and confusing governance with politics in a country that is so desirous of great leadership, is writing its own obituary.

Nigeria, a country that seems to be perpetually at war – Boko Haram, corruption, hunger, disease and decaying infrastructure, among other ailments – deserves a better leadership, considering its situation.

Many have questioned the rationale behind the formation of a Governors’ Forum. They say it has no constitutional backing and nobody should lose sleep over its leadership. In official circles, it has been derided as a mere trade union, like the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW). Whichever way we look at it, the crisis has elevated it to a big prize, a smashing beauty desperately desired by the Presidency, yet so far from its long reach.

To some, it is all part of the huge joke that our leaders are turning Nigeria into. Consider this sent to me by a friend: “New movie premiere. How three PDP governors ‘ported’ Akpabio. Now showing at Nigeria Governors’ Forum. Action-packed. Don’t miss it. Tickets free, courtesy of Aso Wreck Inc.”

I do not believe the governors should apologise for causing so much embarrassment to us all. Where is our sense of humour? After all, was it not all in the spirit of Children’s Day?

May 30, 2013
The Amaechi saga

In the last one week, the country has been on edge over a minor election. Yes minor, in the sense that it involved a few people. Just 35 persons went to the polls and all hell was let loose over the outcome some minutes later. The row, which is yet to subside, led to the suspension of Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) four days ago. The countdown to the election was as interesting as what happened during and after the exercise.

Amaechi was the man to beat in the election and everything was done by the powers that be to incapacitate him before the race.

Long before his tenure as chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) lapsed on May 24, there were moves to ensure that he did not return to the post. Before now, the governors conducted the Forum’s affairs without let or hindrance from the Presidency. The Forum served as a club for the governors where they could gather not only to discuss the problems of their states but also of the country. After all, they are also Nigerians.

In their meetings, it is possible that they might have also broached other issues, such as the Excess Crude Account (ECA) and Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF), which the central government may not be comfortable with. With the PDP also having the highest number of governors in the NGF, the party leadership would have wondered why the Forum is giving its government a hard time. To the PDP, the NGF should be a rubberstamp body, which should take anything that the Federal Government throws at it hook, line and sinker.

The party does not believe that the NGF should be independent. What independence are we talking about when we are in power? the party may have wondered, forgetting that the Forum is a club of equals, with the chairman as the first among equals. This does not, however, make him superior to his colleagues. As the head, the chairman should tread a bit gingerly so that he is not seen as using his position to promote his party’s ideals and programmes. He occupies a delicate position and he must be able to strike a balance between his job and his party’s expectations.

Most importantly, he must not be perceived by his colleagues as treating them as second fiddle, all because they made him their chairman. Yes, they made him chairman and can remove him if they think he is using his office to pursue selfish interest. Amaechi is not the first NGF chairman, but he is the first to come under this kind of fire all because some people suspect that he is using his position to promote his political ambition. These people believe that he is interested in the 2015 presidential election.

As I have argued in this space in the past, I don’t see anything wrong if he has such ambition. But the man has consistently denied nursing such ambition, yet they do not believe him. Amaechi’s travails began almost a year ago, if not even earlier. Before those with plans to do him in started planting his posters and those of his Jigawa State counterpart, Sule Lamido, on the streets of Abuja and some other states in the North, Amaechi had a run in with the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, an Okrika, over the demolition of the Port Harcourt waterfront, said to be populated by her kinsmen.

The waterfront is not being demolished for the fun of it. The governor says his intention is to create the Greater Port Harcourt City from the rubbles of the water front. Must we play politics with development? The answer should be no, but those in Abuja do not see it as such. Months later, the real reason why the First Lady took on Amaechi emerged when Niger Delta Affairs Minister Godsday Orubebe accused him of using his position as NGF chair to attack Jonathan. What Orubebe saw as Amaechi’s attack on the president was the governor’s principled stand on the Forum’s opposition to the ECA and SWF. To people like Orubebe, Amaechi is using the Forum to feather his political nest and so must be stopped, at all cost, from getting a second term.

Indeed, everything was done to stop Amaechi from returning as NGF’s chair last Friday. The Presidency, which is today denying having any interest in who becomes NGF chair, was involved in the stop – Amaechi – plot when PDP governors were invited to a meeting at the Villa in March. At that meeting, the president made it clear that he could no longer work with Amaechi as NGF chair. He directed the governors to pick another person among them to lead the group. It was at that meeting that the PDP Governors Forum was born. Its mandate, among others, was to search for a ‘suitable’ candidate for the NGF chair.

The president was said to have settled for Governor Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State. Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State later joined the race, barely 36 hours to the election, indicating that the anti-Amaechi group still had a lot of homework to do. It became glaring that the group had not got its act together when Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang entered the race, four hours to the election. How can a man win an election that he stood for some hours to voting? What magic did Jang think he could perform in four hours to defeat Amaechi, who had prepared well and long for the race? Except, of course, if he was relying on other means of winning.

What is happening in NGF

today is not good for our

fledgling democracy and it is sad that those who should grow it are the ones working against its growth. What is it about being NGF chair that our leaders want to turn the country upside down for? Why have we turned the issue to a matter of life and death? There is no point in overheating the polity over an election as minor as this when we have the major one coming up in two years. How prepared are we for that election when we cannot conduct a simple election among 36 governors just to pick their chairman?

If governors cannot hold free and fair election among themselves, how are we sure that those entitled to a second term among them will ensure transparency of the process in 2015? It is sad that our governors are behaving like this; what lesson are they imparting to their followers? Telling them to go and rig in 2015, come what may? Let this shenanigan stop now because no man locks horns with a man whose name, Amaechi means ‘’who knows tomorrow?’’ and wins.

NG, one year after

How time flies. It is one year since we lost Ngozi Agbo, our former Campus Life editor. NG was down to earth and always wore a smile, even when annoyed. She was such a lovely and pleasant person. Hardly will you know that she was in the newsroom whenever she was around because she concentrated on her work. She sat at her corner quietly working on the stories of her mentees (the budding journalists) in our various higher institutions, who are the contributors to Campus Life. Campus Life was NG’s baby and she treated all the student-contributors as her children. She called them “my boys and girls”. She was a mother hen who took her brood under her protective feathers. My dear sister, you did a good job. When I look at Wale Ajetunmobi, who now coordinates Campus Life, and Hannah Ojo, I see the marvellous job you did in grooming them. I almost wept when I read their pieces on you (see the Campus Life section). Your husband, Agbo, is keeping the flag flying, running the column which you stopped writing on May 28, last year. And your boy too is doing wonderfully well. I saw his picture on his dad’s phone the other day. NG, continue to rest in the Lord’s bosom.

May 30, 2013
Our Father…Deliver us from ‘K-evil’; Racism, sports violence fines?

We hoped the kidnapping ordeal of friends the Rhodes –Vivours would be over if never forgotten by now. A kidnapping is a particularly malignant form of invasion of privacy. A week is a long time in article writing and often matters such as this are settled within one or two days and comments are rapidly made out of date. But it is three weeks already. This was why I did not comment earlier. Another reason is that one should not give the criminals any opportunity to gloat or appear successful at their despicable performance as they probably have access to the print media and scour it for articles on themselves just to torment their victims -an innocent mother and daughter just going about their typical ‘Nigerian responsibility’ activities- attending a wedding in a far off place at great inconvenience and price and at huge personal sacrifice because ‘apology will not be acceptable’.

Let us all, readers, families and listeners to you, follow Our Lord Jesus Christ’s advice when we pray and today say a loud and complete ‘Our Father who art in Heaven…. Deliver us [the Rhodes-Vivours and all kidnapped victims] from ‘K-evil’. Amen’. K-evil = Kidnap-Evil. O God Please Make us ‘Invisible to the Enemy’. Amen. We pray that the power of joint prayer complemented by the efforts of the police will bring them and all kidnap victims home, safe and unharmed, Amen.

Once more Nigeria features prominently in an ugly side of violence. After the rich kid, fully Nigerian but trained abroad Abdulmutallab incident, which, remember, could easily have killed the over 200 airline passengers aboard, we now have the Woolwich affair in which two Nigerians, including one called Michael Adeboloja, a Nigerian by descent who has never been to Nigeria, who ran over and then barbarically killed a white British soldier Drummer Rigby, leaving blood on their hands for social media worldwide. What possessed them? The media gives the impression that their Nigerian ancestry is to blame. They disgrace their ancestors, Africa and Nigeria. Successful children are claimed by the father, ‘My child has passed’. Failing ones are blamed on the mother, ‘Your child has failed’.Successful athletes of Nigerian descent are claimed by foreign powers like Britain. Nothing wrong with that, as they used the facilities. But bad ones are blamed on Nigeria-something wrong with that! What is it that makes a young man of Nigerian ancestry kill in a foreign land, even if he was born in that land? Drugs, religion, brainwashing, publicity, protection, paradise, bullion or what? Was it murderous madness or malicious murder? He sounded sane when distinguishing between women who could and men who could not approach the dying victim. One or two women were so spectacularly bold they should be in the Queen’s Honours List.

This frightening event reminds us of Nigeria’s Plateau State ‘Civil War’ with murderous violence inflicted by Hausa Fulani herdsmen settlers on indigenous farmers apparently systematically killing 8-10 farmers per day or the regular bloody border clashes in Nigeria or the killing of ‘other’ personnel during kidnappings. The murderers of Drummer Lee Rigby have succeeded in questioning the achievements and friendship of millions of Fellow Nigerians and Africans worldwide and replacing trust with fear. There will be a new debate which will not only involve Moslems but also Christians as one of the killers started as ‘Michael’. The net of mistrust is now wider. We Africans, and particularly Nigerians, are all ‘suspect’,questionable and worth avoiding during ‘choose your friends carefully’sessions. The murderers have truly managed to ‘murder sleep’ for millions of non-Nigerians moving closer to Nigerians and Africans in need or for love and friendship. The clock has been turned back. Many will cross to the other side of the road when an on-coming person is black and Nigerian.

The international football organisations are taking racism and physical attacks on officials like referees and linesmen a little more seriously. Other sports including golf should follow quickly. Punishment should be meted out for verbal and violent ‘V&V’offences on and off the field of play. It is well known that snide remarks are the bedrock of even formerly staid ‘games’ like cricket where insults are part of psychological warfare to destabilise opponents. Fines for sports‘V&V’ offences should be larger. Closure of stadia for sports ‘V&V’offences only costs the clubs money in lost income which goes to nobody. Every punishment must also compensate the victims of the racist chants, slurs, whispers and offensive gestures. Closure also results in the good being punished along with the bad by denying all the enjoyment of the game. Personal bans sound good also but may not cost the perpetrator anything as he has a contract not a daily paid job. Such bans could amount to a pre-planned holiday if the player insults someone only to get banned and thus have time off to attend a friend’s wedding. However, what happens to the fines? Government and sport governing bodies must not be the sole beneficiary. If we settled for higher fines with most, or all, of the fines going directly to enriching the offended player or victim, things will quickly correct themselves and make targeted players very rich from compensation. Racists do not want to make their victims rich. Such transfer of fine fee funds from violator to victim will solve the racist problem immediately.

May 29, 2013
GEJ, his military chiefs, Asari-Dokubo and 2015

In the second part of my two-part piece on President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s offer of amnesty for the Boko Haram insurgents published on these pages on April 17, I was cautiously optimistic that the President will hold out firmly against the wishes of the more gung-ho of his military and security chiefs who apparently believe counter-violence was the main, if not the only, solution to the sect’s insurgency. With the President’s recent declaration of a qualified state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, it is now obvious that my optimism was misplaced.

In retrospect, it seems even in my caution I was not cautious enough. First, in his initial rejection of the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Abubakar’s, earlier call for amnesty for members of the sect, the President had repeated an article of faith of his administration that it couldn’t and wouldn’t dialogue with a group whose leadership was faceless, even though it is not true that the sect’s leadership is faceless. If indeed its leaders were faceless, how did the security forces get the identities of those on its wanted list of the sect’s top leaders?

Second, when the President inaugurated the somewhat unwieldy – in itself perhaps a statement about the strength of his faith in amnesty as a solution to the problem – committee he set up under his Minister for Special Duties, Alhaji Kabiru Turaki, to identify the grounds and possible strategies for amnesty, he said he expected it to perform a “miracle.” That was not the language of someone who sincerely believed dialogue had much of a chance in the resolution of the Boko Haram problem.

Having, however, set up the Turaki panel, I, for one, expected the President to give it even the ghost of a chance to succeed. He didn’t. Instead, he found an excuse – albeit a good excuse – in the horrible massacre of nearly a hundred policemen by a hitherto little-heard-of vicious ethnic militia in Nasarawa State, and the earlier but even more devastating destruction of lives and property in Baga, a fishing town on the shores of Lake Chad in Borno State, to declare his state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.

It all reminds one of a similar situation about forty seven years ago when the country’s first military head of state, Major-General J.T.U. Aguiyi-Ironsi, constituted a panel under Chief F.R.A (Timi-the-Law) Williams to draft a new constitution for the country as part of his yet indeterminate programme for return to civilian rule. Before the panel could begin sitting, the general enacted his ill-advised Unification Decree which was to trigger the tragic events that eventually led to our three-year civil war which ended in 1970.

The general’s anticipation of the outcome of Chief William’s panel was clearly at the behest of the more hawkish civilian advisers he had surrounded himself with whose triumphalism in their new status as the country’s new kids on the block seemed to know no bounds. Obviously this power hungry lot did not give a damn about the predictable consequence of, in effect, imposing a unitary constitution on a country as varied and as plural as Nigeria.

Of course, 2013 is not 1966. Neither is President Jonathan’s state of emergency the same as General Aguiyi-Ironsi’s unification decree in its gravity for the integrity of our political-economy. However, unless the president, as commander-in-chief, can put a tight leash on his armed forces as they battle Boko Haram, his amnesty may inexorably lead to the fulfilment of the American prophesy of several years ago that Nigeria could become a failed state in a couple of years. Unfortunately, if the record of his control over his military and security chiefs is anything to go by, the omens do not look too good.

Indeed the omens look even worse when you consider the hard-to-deny fact that the president’s men, if not the man himself, seem too obsessed with his remaining in power beyond 2015; a fact attested to by the “No President Jonathan in 2015, No Nigeria” mantra chanted by the likes of Mujahid Asari-Dokubo who apparently not only have the president’s ears but have behaved as his un-salaried attack dogs.

Unfortunately for Asari-Dokubo and his ilk, but happily for Nigeria, they speak only for themselves and the charmed little circle of those who have profited immensely from the President’s amnesty for the ex-Niger Delta militants, clearly at the great expense of the ordinary people of that oil rich but pauperised region.

The fact is that there are others from the same region who do not share the same enthusiasm for a Jonathan presidency beyond 2015, precisely because they believe the man, as the first president from the region, has made little or no difference to its terrible lot. The Guardian of March 3 carried interviews with four such South-Southerners, none of whom can be regarded as anti-Jonathan just for the hell of it.

All four, Ms Ann Kio Briggs, an Ijaw activist and indeed an unapologetic Jonathan supporter; Chief Frank Kokori, who needs no introduction as a veteran trade unionist; Mr. Okpobari, national coordinator of Ogoni Solidarity Front; and Aniyakwee Nsirimovu, former chairman of the disarmament, demobilisation and rehabilitation sub-committee of the Technical Committee on Niger Delta, were agreed that their region has been the worse off for all the president has done – or more accurately, not done – to end its pauperisation.

Yes, they all agreed, the man has poured tonnes of money into the region but then there has been little or nothing to show for all his efforts. The most obvious symbol of this failure, they said, has been the terrible state of the notorious East-West highway linking the region with much of the rest of the country. In spite of the huge sums voted for the construction of the road year in year out since the presidency of General Olusegun Obasanjo, Ms Briggs said in her own interview, the road “is now worse.” Anyone familiar with media reports of the state of the highway would consider her lamentation a gross understatement.

Amnesty for Niger Delta, they all said, was not just about giving money to those who carried guns. Rather it was more, much more, about removing the region’s infrastructural deficit and ending its people’s abject poverty-in-oil-wealth. In these objectives, they all agreed, the Jonathan presidency has been a signal failure.

However, of the four none seem to have captured the frustration of Nigerians with the Jonathan presidency, especially in the face of the expectations it raised among Nigerians with his “Transformation Agenda,” than Nsirimovu. In what was as much a parody of President Jonathan’s now famous 2011 presidential campaign sound bite about growing up without shoes as it was a repudiation of the threat from the likes of Asari-Dokubo that their principal must remain president beyond 2015 regardless of his performance and whether Nigerians like it or not, Nsirimovu said, “For somebody who had no shoes… he has done poorly to relieve others who have no shoes. He has gotten shoes and does not want others to have shoes.”

Nsirimovu’s words may seem terribly unkind but it is the bitter truth. However, it is a truth that the President can still do something about if, as he has often said, he does not wish to go down in History as the last president of Nigeria.

It may be too late for the man to fulfil all his campaign promises, much of which was unrealistic, anyway. But if he can improve the terrible state of insecurity in the land by prevailing on his military chiefs to stop their terrible abuse of the human rights of civilians in their war against Boko Haram insurgency, and if he can also give Nigerians more electricity than he had given them so far and, not least of all, if he can begin to show by example more than by mere words that 2015 is for him not a do-or-die affair, he would have justified his undeclared but obvious wish to seek re-election in 2015, without, of course, prejudice to the constitutionality of his wish which is being tested in the courts.

May 29, 2013
NGF election, ministers’ failure

The Nigerian Governors’ Forum, NGF, took off as a mere association of governors of the 36 states of the federation. At that time, many people thought they were just like any other association bonded by the desire to create a forum to discuss mutual issues concerning them personally and the states they govern. Yet there were many who thought the governors were only creating a forum for themselves for a different kind of jamboree different from the usual rollicking and frolicking that have been the characteristics of men of means and power. I belong to the last school of thought.

However, events of the last five years or so, beginning with the election of the crown prince of Kwara politics, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, former two-term governor of Kwara State, as chairman of NGF, have proved cynics wrong. It was Saraki, the scion of the Saraki Dynasty of Ilorin, now a senator, who introduced glamour and candour into the group when he was chairman between 2007 and 2011.

Saraki’s exit in 2011 paved the way for the emergence of Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi as chairman of the forum. The constitution of the NGF provides for a vice-chairman though both Saraki and Amaechi have, through their deft political moves, overshadowed that office and made the occupants more or less lame duck vice-chairmen whose voices are hardly heard anywhere beyond the day they are elected or handpicked. Amaechi upped the ante but has so far failed to display the political diplomacy and maturity of Saraki. Several times, the forum under the leadership of Amaechi has come into headlong collision with the Presidency on various national issues, including the issue of the creation of Sovereign Wealth Fund, which has seen the forum and the Presidency in various legal tussles in the courts, among other litigations. It is also under Amaechi as chairman of the NGF that Rivers State, the state he presides over as governor, took Bayelsa State, a sister state, on over the ownership of some disputed oil wells. The neighbouring Bayelsa State was carved out of Rivers State in 1995.

Perhaps, the greatest issue that is causing Amaechi headache at the moment is the forthcoming 2015 elections. Amaechi is speculated to be having a vice presidential ambition after his second and last term as governor of Rivers State in 2015. Ahead of the NGF’s election that took place last Friday, Rivers State has been engulfed in multiple political crises which many people believe are man-made problems designed to distract Amaechi and possibly stop him from pursing his agenda to return as second-term chairman of the NGF. Another issue is the grounding of Amaechi’s Bombardier aircraft by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, which has dominated the airwaves and engendered national discourse for some time now. Another matter that has attracted national attention is the sweeping-off of the PDP state executive in Rivers State and its replacement with the Felix Obuah-led group. Obuah was allegedly shot in the groins a few years ago by suspected assassins. Amaechi loyalists said it took the grace of God and Amaechi, who flew him out of the country for treatment in South Africa, before his health stabilized. Now the same Obuah has turned round to stab his benefactor in the back through his imposition as Rivers PDP party’s chairman by a surprise court ruling.

Amaechi has also been under the threat of impeachment for some time now. This impeachment moves are thought to be the handiwork of his foes, mainly some politicians in Abuja. The arrowhead of the sinister plots is said to be Nyesom Wike, the sitting minister of state for education, who is an indigene of Rivers State in the federal cabinet. Before that Godsday Orubebe, the minister of Niger Delta Affairs had traded volatile words extensively with Amaechi on the East-West Road project. Both Amaechi and Wike have since been embroiled in a titanic struggle for political power in Rivers State.

The road to last Friday’s NGF election was long and tortuous. The entire nation was gripped with tension as the two camps in the contest – Amaechi and some PDP governors – made last-minute desperate attempts to ensure victory for their candidates. But Amaechi knew that it was one fight for his political life. The NGF election was postponed last March when it was earlier scheduled to take place. When the forum later met in April, the issue of election or no election never came up for discussion. Amaechi would have completed his term as NGF chairman last Monday, May 27.

Apparently, it was in the desperate bid by the PDP to stop Amaechi’s candidacy that the ‘Abuja politicians’, led by Wike, have continued to mount political pressure on him by instigating the crisis that is currently rocking Rivers State politics. The aim is to pressure him out of contention for the NGF’s chief helmsman’s job. After two major futile attempts by Bamanga Tukur, the PDP chairman, to stop Amaechi, Tukur and his clique flew a kite: it floated the PDP Governors’ Forum and made Godswill Akpabio chairman of the forum. The PDP has 26 out of the existing 36 governors in the country. The main reason for taking this road is that Tukur believes he is facing stiff opposition to his position as chairman of the party from the NGF. He has, therefore, been surreptitiously doing everything to be a cog in NGF’s wheel of progress. Tukur believes that doing just that will whittle down the powers and influence of the NGF, take the shine of it and thereby cut whoever emerges as chairman to size. All these machinations didn’t work either. When this failed, PDP drafted Ibrahim Shema, the governor of Katsina State, instead of the charismatic and much-favoured Isa Yuguda, governor of Bauchi State, into the race.

At the last minute on Friday, all other contenders were persuaded to step aside and David Jonah Jang, the second-term governor of Plateau State, was put forward as the PDP candidate. Jang then approached Olusegun Mimiko, the governor of Ondo State, to be his deputy. Before the contest, Mimiko was reportedly caught in-between the two groups, which had both nominated him vice-chairman. That election ended in near deadlock with the two camps laying claim to victory. That was not the end of the matter. The seeming failure of the PDP to wield its influence at the election and swing victory to his side is largely believed to have been caused by the lacklustre performance of some ministers as PDP representatives in the states. It is true that 10 of the states are controlled by the opposition, but if the 26 states under PDP, except perhaps Rivers State, where Amaechi calls the shots, had defaulted, what happened in the other 25 states? By the last count, only 17 PDP governors have lined up behind Jang to divide NGF into two equal haves.

Many of the ministers, especially those who could not deliver their states to PDP last Friday, are believed to be out of tune with the political reality on the ground in their respective states as they regard the party as the only body they owe allegiance to and, therefore, their constituencies, which are their states back home, do not matter to them. Some are also in perpetual loggerheads with their governors because their obedience starts and ends with the PDP chairman, around whom they run rings and cringe. To those in this category, their people back home, especially their governors, do not matter. So instead of going to their respective states to consolidate and mend broken fences, at least for the NGF chairmanship election, they sat back in Abuja.

Therefore, the outcome of last Friday’s NGF election portends a dangerous signal for 2015, and may sound the death knell of NGF except tact and caution are applied. Not the courts can be of any help!

May 29, 2013
Menace of rice smuggling

Rice , the staple food of Nigerians, occupies an important place. According to government statistics, yearly consumption of rice is about 5.5 million tonnes of which local production accounts for about 1.8 million tonnes, thus necessitating the need for importation to bridge the gap. Unfortunately, 50 percent of these imports are smuggled into the country.

It is a fact that the porous nature of Nigeria’s borders is taking its toll on farmers who invest in rice farming, as smuggling of rice into Nigeria through the land borders continue unabated.

The truth is that the unscrupulous persons behind this unwholesome business are not only unrelenting, but are daily intensifying and refining their activities thereby undermining government’s policies and programmes directed at boosting local food production. It is disheartening to note that these persons connive with some bad elements in our security services to perpetrate their illicit acts.

Rice stakeholders, including farmers, want the federal government to review its trade liberalisation agreement among West African states in the face of continued smuggling activities from neighbours.

According to the survey, the country is loosing a whooping sum of N9.7 billion monthly as an estimated 80,000 metric tonnes of rice is smuggled into the country from Benin Republic alone. The potentials of the rice sector are being daily put at risk by the activities of these smugglers and their collaborators.

The truth is that the unscrupulous persons behind this unwholesome business are not only unrelenting, but are daily intensifying and refining their activities thereby undermining government’s policies and programmes directed at boosting local food production. It is disheartening to note that these persons connive with some bad elements in the security services to perpetrate their illicit acts.

The problem of smuggling is much more serious than many people appreciate; it is something which is greatly affecting the food security plans of the federal government as well as the economic agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan. By their actions, these smugglers also threaten the means of livelihood of genuine investors in the rice business, denying the government of tax due them. Smugglers, of course, do not pay tax, so they milk the genuine processors and millers the same way they exploit the government and the economy.

Whilst the government is trying to encourage local production of rice, thereby creating employment, income and value chain, some other people are rubbishing these noble efforts by smuggling the product into the country.

For the federal government’s rice revolution to be successful, stakeholders have said that the issue of massive smuggling of rice into the country needs to be tackled headlong.

According to a group of local growers under the aegis of Patriotic Rice Association of Nigeria, (PRAN), smuggling of rice into Nigeria has thrown the rice industry into turmoil with severe consequences for government revenues, the economy and future plans for rice self-sufficiency. A recent statement jointly signed by the goup’s chairman Alhaji Habibu Maishinkafa, and secretary, Martins Okereke said given the free reign enjoyed by rice smugglers, the future lies bleak for local rice growers and traders legitimately involved in rice trade.

They said the Nigerian rice industry seems to have been thrown into turmoil since the import tariffs were increased exponentially effective January 2013. Matters got complicated further with the reported inability of Nigeria Customs Service to control smuggling of rice across the country’s borders with Benin.

In July 2012, the federal government introduced 20 percent and 25 percent increased levies on imported polished rice and husked brown rice, respectively, with the aim of encouraging home-grown rice and discouraging importation. The government also placed a complete ban on the importation of rice through land borders. This was to ensure that the expected gains from the increase in levy and the subsequent investment in the development of Nigerian grown rice are not eroded by the activities of land border importers (smugglers).

The quantum of rice being smuggled through land from the Republic of Benin is increasing daily. An estimated 30,000 metric tonnes of rice is being smuggled on a monthly basis into Nigeria.

When Rice Millers, Importers and Distributors Association of Nigeria, RIMIDAN, raised these issues with the authorities, they alerted them that over 140,000 metric tonnes of parboiled rice was scheduled to arrive at the ports of the neighboring country.

The implication of this is that huge amounts of money invested in rice production by genuine entrepreneurs would go down the drain and investment in the sector will become uninteresting because there are no measures to protect investors’ interest. In addition, the intention of the federal government regarding empowerment of local producers will be in jeopardy. No economy grows with this kind of counter-productive action by unscrupulous elements.

There is therefore need for the federal government to strengthen its mechanisms for policing the land borders, especially the Seme Border flank, as well as other related areas, where much of these acts are being perpetrated. Countries faced with this kind of challenge go all out to increase land borders’ monitoring so as to curb the activities of smugglers.

President Jonathan and his lieutenants no doubt have a good heart concerning growing the economy through the empowerment of its key components. But their efforts are regularly being threatened by a selfish few, including the rice smugglers who are entrenched in the system. They may be sophisticated and determined, but certainly they cannot match the willpower of the federal government.

May 29, 2013
Doing what they know how to do best

At the end of a visit the other day with former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Ota, Ogun State, in continuation of meetings with leaders of the party across Nigeria to resolve a raft of internal issues, the chairman of the PDP’s Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih, debunked suggestions that the PDP could lose the next general elections.

‘When the time comes,” he declared, “I will assure you we will do what we know how to do best.”

The elections are not due until 2015, but the biggest vote-harvesting machine in Africa showed this past week that, despite the conflicts rocking it, doing what it knows how to do best, namely, turning winners into losers and losers into winners, is still its standard operational procedure, its trademark.

And the fingerprints of the Arch Fixer himself, Tony Anenih, are stamped all over the deed.

I am referring to last week’s election for the chair of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), an extra-constitutional body that has grown influential to the point of making President Goodluck Jonathan panicky and insecure, despite the awesome powers of his office. As a consequence, he has had to invest his prestige, as well as enormous public resources, to ensure that the incumbent chair, Rivers State Governor Chibuike Amaechi, would not win reelection.

Since it was bruited several months ago that Amaechi would serve as running mate to Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido in the 2015 presidential race, with Obasanjo’s blessing, it was clear that Amaechi’s days as chair of the NGF were numbered, and that his relationship with President Jonathan, who has given every indication of entering the race except formally declaring, as well as his political future, were in grave jeopardy.

Amaechi has been a marked man since then.

The NGF election planned for February was rescheduled for May, apparently in the hope that, by then, the assets needed to defenestrate Amaechi would have been fully deployed. The contrived kerfuffle over his official plane, operations permit and all that, was part of the grand strategy.

Meanwhile, the alleged waywardness of the NGF under Amaechi’s leadership, it has been said, was more than sufficient to make Aso Rock engineer the creation of a complaisant faction, the PDP Governors Forum, with Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom as chair.

As if to put Amaechi on notice that his number was well and truly up, Anenih, reportedly echoing the “oga” at the very top, complained at a meeting of state governors, federal legislators and state chairpersons of the PDP in Asaba, Delta State, that the NGF had become “a formidable group of power wielders seeking to control governments at all levels.”

Translation: The NGF had become a subversive organisation.

The body, he said, had been “hijacked by “opposition” Governors and was no longer promoting the interests of the PDP.”

Just why governors elected on five different party platforms expressly for “providing a common platform for synergy, collaboration among interests” and serving as a lobby group to foster, promote and sustain democratic ethos, good governance in Nigeria, Africa and beyond” should promote the interests of the PDP, Anenih did not deign to explain.

But thus was the stage set for last week’s NGF showdown election to put Amaechi in his place.

In that dubious quest, Dr Jonathan and Anenih seem to have been worsted.

Of the 35 governors present and voting, Amaechi won the backing of 19, according to the returning officer for the election and director-general of the NGF, Ashishana Okauru, who described the poll as fair and transparent.

Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang, who had been dragooned into the race at the last minute when neither Jonathan’s favoured candidate, Katsina Governor Ibrahim Shema nor Bauchi Governor Isa Yuguda who also had his eye on the job would step down for the other, garnered 16 votes.

In the normal run of things, that should have settled it. But nobody has ever accused the PDP of subscribing to normality. And so, no sooner had Amaechi finished delivering his acceptance speech than the PDP launched its desperate bid to turn Amaechi’s victory into defeat and Jang’s defeat onto victory.

The election, they claimed, was “rigged.” An election with just 35 candidates rigged? Consider what could happen in 2015, when the stakes would be much higher. Shifting gears, they claimed that the ballot papers had not been unnumbered serially. But why didn’t they point this out before voting began? Amaechi should have stepped down so that a neutral person could conduct the poll. Again. Why was no objection raised at the outset?

Were they severally and jointly anaesthetised?

Leaving nothing to chance, a conclave of 18 governors hastily organised another poll and proclaimed Jang the winner and new chair of the NGF. There is nothing curious here: this in-your-face brazenness is the modus operandi of Africa’s biggest vote-snatching machine. They don’t do subtlety at Wadata Plaza.

Even by Nigeria’s standard in matters political, Jang’s speech at a special service ahead of “Democracy Day” at the Faith-way Chapel Church in Jos, the Plateau State capital, seems rather exorbitant.

His “emergence” as chairman of the NGF, he asserted without fear and without irony, was “the will of God” because he had gone to Abuja merely an as an elector, only to be chosen by his colleagues to lead the organisation.

As if anticipating those who might question why the divine should be insinuated into a project that bears all the marks of the profane, he declaimed: “God is a democrat, does not support rigging but if you rig and succeed, that means God approves of it.”

So, there you have it.

Even with his “suspension” from the PDP for allegedly defying the “directive” of the Rivers State Executive Council – of which he is chairman, by the way – to reinstate the executive council of a local government he had dissolved, and with his declaration of unswerving loyalty to President Jonathan and the party and all its grandees, Amaechi must entertain no illusions that his travails are ended.

Soon, they will charge him with engaging in “anti-party activities” and expel him.

But in whatever guise or disguise it functions henceforth, the NGF will be yet another symbol, and a constant reminder, of all that is wrong with the formation that calls itself the biggest political party in Africa.

I verily believe with his spokespersons that President Jonathan had absolutely nothing to do with these developments.

After all, he was away in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, availing a sub-Committee of the Africa Union of his globally recognised expertise on infrastructure, a subject so dear to his heart, and in the development of which he has achieved such transformative results at home, that he passed up his turn to address the full Summit.

May 28, 2013
Praise Chinua! Bury Chinua!

Cheer and jeer greeted ‘There was a Chinua’, the Achebe obituary published on this page last week: cheer for perceived comeuppance and jeer for bitter pains over the alleged disrespect to the memory of a departed icon. But the message was clear: everyone would be judged by his own professed standards – so be fair to all. It’s a hot war out there. Don’t be caught by zipping bullets!

Excellent piece, in your accustomed depth, thoughtfulness, grasp of the subject matter and lucidity. I can’t resist saying excellent indeed. Well done and thank you. – +2348034004252.

Achebe started well, capturing the minds of all literate country men and women with the classic novel, Things Fall Apart. But he started faltering with the tribal-induced The Trouble with Nigeria; and destroyed whatever remains of the respect other ethnic nationalities, other than his Igbo tribesmen, had for him. He died a dyed-in-the-wool hater of the Yoruba and Hausa-Fulani nations. To Achebe, only his tribesmen deserve to dominate and others must not complain.

His is a good lesson to all our so-called elders. If they cannot add nationalistic value to the Nigerian state before their departure from this planet, they should hold their peace. There was indeed a Chinua! There goes another tribalist and an Igbo irredentist. – Adeniyi Olasunmade, Lagos.

Your article, ‘There was a Chinua’ was apt, blunt and educative. Thanks. – Chief T. A. Odofin, Ofada, Ogun State, +2348103113512

I am an avid reader of The Nation just to keep abreast of the Yoruba opinion on every issue under the sky. Your column today did not disappoint. – +2348055105774.

All of you are living to hate Achebe because he documented the truth to the world about the sins of Awo. You can only heal your conscience by stating your facts to contradict his own. ‘There was a Chinua’ you said and I ask: would there ever be an Olakunle? – Amadi Ibeleme, +2348066516467

It makes no sense for an Achebe to claim ignorance of events he witnessed. My father told us stories of how Hausas slaughtered his Igbo friends in Zaria in 1966 – same story Achebe told [in There was a Country]. I have read the remarks he made of our dear sage, Pa Awo. But Achebe wrote with conviction. He didn’t spare Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, neither did he spare Ojukwu. – +2348132634663.

I just finished reading your piece, ‘There was a Chinua’. I do not, with due respect, really understand what you want to portray or achieve with it. To me, you have done what you accused others of – tribalism. Let’s learn to write positively about our fallen compatriots. – Kelvin, The Polytechnic, Ibadan +2348033660174.

Your piece on Achebe this week was excellent! – Wale Adebanwi.

Your piece on Achebe registers on the superlative scale. Salute! – Tade Ipadeola, +2348038023412.

Truth is always bitter but it must be told. Achebe was a statesman. No amount of calumny can prevent it. – +2348038762465.

The tribute given by Labaran Maku, the Information minister, on behalf of President Goodluck Jonathan, that Prof. Achebe was a nationalist to emulate by Nigerians must be a product of a brainless intellectual. Achebe was a literary genius worldwide. But he was also a chronic tribalist. His writings are good attestations. – Larry Adebisi, Lagos, +2348060227434.

‘There was a Chinua’ – that piece today was great. – Jimo Akeran, +2348023096362.

Just read your ripples on Achebe – my sentiments exactly. Your conclusion is on point – insightful. But what to do to avoid that Nigerian harm? Sovereign national conference. – +2348023157882.

How sad that you too are a victim of Yoruba tribalism. Why are you so bitter with a dead man for chronicling an event that he witnessed, the way he saw it? Though you tried rather fruitlessly to balance your write-up as all professional writers should, you failed to disguise your hatred for Achebe and the Igbo tribe. You stopped short of openly mocking Achebe at death. The title of your article was even cheeky, the comparison between your tribesman, Soyinka and Achebe gratuitous and, at this mourning period of the fall of a great Nigerian, very indiscreet and insensitive. I got off with the impression that you had a score to settle with Achebe; and his death offered the opportunity to do it. – +2347030398497.

‘There was an Achebe’ is vintage your provenance. But one could read the complex driving your striving, as your views therein are not necessary. In fact, they are uncalled for on this solemn occasion. I am looking forward to the day your Yoruba compatriots would rise above certain innate instincts. – Peter, +2348093912933.

I am ashamed to know that you are very illogical in your war against Achebe. As a Yoruba, I have read There was a Country and believe Achebe spoke against injustice to all. There was nothing wrong in the way he defended his people, after all, they have suffered the most in Nigeria, against their wish. Please have some respect for the late icon. – Sarah Isijola, +2348132634663.

You truly have come to bury Chinua, not to praise him. Thanks for a thoughtful piece. Never mind that it didn’t sufficiently explore the psychology of Igbo chauvinism and ‘victimhood’. – Femi Macaulay, +2348020339050.

That was a wonderful piece on Achebe. You have called a spade a spade. You should not be deterred by some reactionaries over such a factual presentation. Kudos. – Niyi, Lagos, +2348023377135.

Genius and gerontocrats have one thing in common: set minds. You hardly can convince them or make them see reason from a different perspective. So it was with Achebe. I think the Federal Government and those who want a posthumous recognition for him should let him be. Otherwise, he will turn in his grave. Achebe had defined his part as an Igbo irredentist – a truly Igbo of Nigerian extraction. – Olumide, Kaduna, +2348057277770.

Your article, ‘There was a Chinua’ was good but deficient. I want you to bear in mind that other Nigerians see the late Awo’s politics as insecure, insensitive and rancorous. – +2348033334562.

Your ‘There was a Chinua’ is thought provoking. It has set me on a spiral of thoughts and wonder about our national figures. How many are nationalists? When shall we place Nigeria as a collective over and above our tribes? Until we see ourselves first as Nigerian before our tribal sentiments, all efforts towards nationalism will keep raising local champions, rather than Nigerian nationalists. – +2348071023711.

I couldn’t have agreed with you more – ‘There was a Chinua’ – Achebe died a frustrated and bitter man, as well as a jingoist. – Wale Osoba, +2348023264597.

Achebe’s book, ‘There was a Country’ is a hard and bitter pill to swallow. It takes a strong will and courage of a lion to damn the consequences of saying the truth. Achebe did the best thing by telling his people the truth of the Civil War. If Awo was a god to the Yoruba, that had nothing to do with the right of the Igbo man to say exactly how he perceived him. – Barrister Orji, Port Harcourt, +2348030961855.

I wish I can write like you. You are too good and very familiar with national issues, thus helping people like me to know. Please keep up the excellent work. – Ogoo, Abuja, +2348054727240.

May 28, 2013
Reflections on the crisis of education sector

The recent release of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results by the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB) continues to elicit both negate and positive debates among students and stakeholders. In fact, this year’s UTME has become starkly controversial than any other period in recent history, simply because of the intricacies that surrounded the exam from start to finish. Many had expected positive outcome from the exercise but alas, the exercise appeared as one in futility, if the results and statistics coming from the exam body are anything to go by.

According to JAMB, the number of prospective candidates who bought forms and sat for the exam totalled 1, 644, 110. Out of the 1, 644, 110 candidates, 1, 629, 102 applied to sit for the Paper Pencil Test (PPT), while just a paltry number of 15, 008 decided to go for the Dual Based Test (DBT). With this staggering number unprecedented in the history of the exam body, one would have thought quite a handful would easily have passed or made at least a good grade to proceed for the post-tertiary exams in their chosen university. Reverse was, however, the case. Of this huge number, according to JAMB Registrar, Prof Dibu Ojerinde, only 10 out of the 1, 644, 110 candidates who sat for the examination scored 300 and above, with 628 other candidates scoring between 270 and 299. Furthermore, a total of 12,110 candidates’ results

were being withheld for examination malpractices, while the results of another 68,309 candidates from various centres were undergoing further screening to ascertain their capability. A total of 40,692 candidates’ results were invalid “due to multiple shading or no shading at all”, while 47, 974 candidates remained absent.

With these appalling and shocking results, there is no denying the fact that something fundamental is wrong with the Nigerian education system. Since the results were released, accusations and counter-accusations from JAMB, parents and students on the conduct of the exam have been flying around. Just like the year before, this year’s UTME was fraught with series of anomalies and problems. Cases where candidates could not find their names on the examination day, wrong combination of subjects assigned to candidates or even the failure of the so called biometric system as a result of laptops running out of battery power, became rampant all over the country. As if that was not enough, the high level of cheating unprecedented in the history of the UTME reared its ugly head with parents, students, teachers, invigilators, mercenaries, security personnel and JAMB officials, all colluding to give candidates a field day.

Prof. Ojerinde claimed that students were no longer serious about their studies and accused most of them of failing to read the two novels recommended by JAMB from which questions were set in a particular subject. He went further to absolve JAMB of any misconduct; expressing confidence in the board’s marking process, even as parents and candidates continue to fret at the shocking and heart-breaking scores.

What bothers this writer is how long this educational malfeasance will continue at a time when viable education in saner climes is evolving dramatically by the day. Is it that many Nigerians are not ready to embrace the innovative skills JAMB has put in place for a good conduct of its yearly exam or JAMB itself does not understand the psyche of the average candidates to whom they are setting exams for? What exactly is wrong with the system that things continues to get worse annually without a long term solution? Are we that unintelligent to understand where we are getting it wrong, or how come it is always a clash of two titans—JAMB and prospective candidates—with neither admitting fault? For how long would we continue to lament and watch this fragile sector as education go down the gutters of malfunction?

This writer is of the belief that what is happening is a result of contemporary systemic failure where education, right from the home to both the primary and secondary schools, have failed to raise a critically conscious generation with moral values. At the end, we breed children who are only interested in having quick success without hard work. For the simple fact that many of these candidates have not had the pre-requisite upbringing from childhood which is a tool for success after hard work, desperation sets in. Many wish to pass at all costs and in a bid to do that engage in so many acts inimical and detrimental to self and society.

For as long as we neglect these simple values, we should expect the worst in the following years. Since those who are meant to regulate the educational system have failed to do their jobs efficiently, that very stage of child upbringing suddenly develops series of flaws. When we look around us, hundreds of mushroom schools spring up every day with little or no regulations to guide their activities. Even the ones which are government owned lack facilities to assist the students in educational development. A student who has not seen chemical elements like acid and ammonia or has not been taught how to dissect common rabbit in his biology class or does not have in his agriculture laboratory common seeds like cotton seed, cowpea etc., would have nothing to offer during school, state or national exams.

Our schools are replete with stagnant, weary and redundant teachers who have no iota of passion in them for teaching. Most of them lack teaching skills hence teach nonsense. It is these set of students, having been taught by these drop-outs, who eventually, in a bid to be part of the few available spaces in the tertiary institutions resort to desperate measures to pass. At the end, when the results emerge, they blame the system, even as the system is heavily to be blamed.

Until we go back to entrench and instil moral value in our education system, things will surely continue to get worse. Since it is a reality this year that not even 300, 000 will be admitted to study their course of choice owing to the abysmal results, all stakeholders, especially the government, must begin a process of re-organisation, re-orientation and re-awakening to ensure that this appalling failure does not repeat itself. If we think this problem is one of those usual ones to shove aside, then we must be ready to bear the consequences, a situation which will be dire.

If the National Youth Service Corp, NYSC had once discovered two of its prospective corps members could not write their names, soonest, we shall have doctors prescribing pain killers for rashes. It is gradually happening in our midst, therefore, we must not wait else, a time bomb should explode right before our faces.

• Oluwafunminiyi writes from Lagos

May 28, 2013