The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • The politics of security, change and culture

    In China recently the authorities organized earthquake drills to educate citizens on how to react to real earth quakes and escape or save lives in what is a dangerous natural disaster that has claimed many lives and property and is more common in that part of the world than others. In the UK a great debate ensued in Parliament recently on the gay rights Marriage bill that polarized the Conservative party, the senior partner in the ruling coalition just as two men shouting religious slogan killed a British soldier in Woolwich in a terrorist act that saw the PM cutting short an official trip to denounce the terrorist act while stressing that Britain will never succumb to terror or terrorism. In Kenya the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission -TJRC – which investigated various political crimes and assassinations in Kenya from independence till the 2007 post election violence, found the newly elected President and Vice President in the March 2013 elections culpable, but did not recommend sanctions as the two leaders have similar charges pending against them on the matter at the International Criminal Court at the Hague. In Nigeria the newspapers were replete with pictures of the Chief Priest of a cult whose members killed over 20 men recently with the Chief Priest asserting that his god protected him against the policemen who he said had been given orders to bring him to the state capital dead or alive, but got killed instead as they were drunk on their way to destroy him.

    From preparing against a natural disaster, to making laws that change the face and nature of marriage, to having financiers and executors of thuggery and violence in positions of power in a democratic dispensation or allowing a security risk to market the prowess of his clan god or deity on a national and global scene, the contention I am making today is that a cultural and religious sea change is abroad in the world as we know it today and this has great and far reaching import for the peace and security of the world as we know for now.

    Let me start on a happy note even though the issue is a natural tragedy like an earthquake but it is its planned management and the foresight involved, that creates a good lesson on crisis management. The new Chinese leadership in China has identified corruptionas a target for zero tolerance and elimination in China under its new mandate. But natural disasters have no calling cards and do not give notice of appearance. China’s earthquake drill is therefore a pragmatic and innovative effort to protect lives and give people courage when such disasters happen so that people, as far as is possible under the circumstances, know what to do to keep alive or even to save lives in the process. Coincidentally a recent survey on the global perception or sovereign reputation of key nations of the world put Germany as No 1 dethroning Japan which obviously lost its enviable position because of the way it handled it nuclear plant radiation explosion in recent times . It is instructive that Germany closed its own nuclear plants after the Japanese nuclear disaster at great economic costs but in deference to German public opinion. Iran was rated the worst nation in terms of global perception not unlikely because of its quest for nuclear power on the pretence of getting electricity for which it is facing UN sanctions. In addition Iran has been reluctant to ask for expert aid during outbreak of natural disasters in which it has had more than its fair share in recent times.

    My fascination with the Chinese Earthquake drill stems from the socio economic and cultural problems of armed robbery and now terrorism facing some nations especially Nigeria. People flee here at the sight of armed robbers whereas if drills can be organized the robbers would know that people in the environment have some knowledge and information on how to react to them rather than just fear and that they can thwart their criminal activity successfully. This itself can be a formidable deterrence against the current high incidence of armed robbery or rampant terrorism or even kidnapping. In the Woolwich terror killing in the UK, a lady reportedly boldly told the terrorist who was saying that terrorists would wage war on London that they will fail and the lady even asked him to turn in the bloodied knife he was wielding after killing the British soldier. Really I think drills and mass orientation campaigns to resist armed robbers and terrorists will go a long way in reducing their menace and in making our environment safer than hitherto.

    On the gay marriage bill debate in London, my view is that the world is turning upside down in that part of the world and a culture shock is afloat. But the government seems hell bent on getting the bill through with the active support of the leadership of even the opposition labor party. Which really is to be expected as leftist parties have such inclinations towards gay rights and marriage just as the Democratic party of President Obama is trying to bulldoze its way through in Congress and the US Supreme Court. This is in spite of the fact that the public is getting annoyed at the redefinition of marriage by a go British government that got to power in a hung parliament and does not have a mandate for the policy it is rushing through in the UK. Indeed those opposed to the great gay marriage drive have complained that no party in Britain put this in its manifesto in the last elections and it is unfair to create such a cultural and religious change without the requisite democratic mandate. This is also unlike the situation in France where the socialists made it clear in their campaign manifesto and are fulfilling their promise although most French citizens have now woken up from their slumber and are now frowning at the development.

    The situation in Kenya however is a clear case of locking the stables doors after the horses have bolted. The two leaders indicted in the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Committee Report are now the newly elected and sworn in President and Vice President of Kenya even though they were on different sides when they commited the post election violence five years ago. Now, who in Kenya will bell the cat for their prosecution? Also given their new alliance and their running successfully on the presidential ticket in Kenya, who can say that violence and thuggery do not pay, at least in the politics of Kenya? Even though the 2013 Kenyan Presidential elections were said to be free and fair there is something suspect in a legitimacy or authority gained in an atmosphere of violence as choice is a prerequisite for true democratic power and legitimacy. This surely is sorely lacking in Kenya’s two leading politicians for now given the TJRC Report just published in Kenya.

    Lastly the picture of the aged Chief Priest of the Ombatse Cult Alla Agu was on the front pages of some newspapers this week as he reportedly spoke through an interpreter when a senator from the area visited him with some pressmen in Lakyo, Nasarawa state this week. Obviously the man whose cult members reportedly killed 20 policemen had no regrets on the incident. Instead he seized the opportunity to glorify the god of his sect. Reportedly he said ‘It is the governor that asked the police officers to come here and arrest me, cut my head and take my head to him. When they came because they were themselves drunk, my god did not allow them to come to me and they died on the way.’ As reported, the Ombatse Chief Priest spoke in the presence of Senator Solomon Ewuga of the Federal Republic of Nigeria during a visit to him in his Lakyo community. Really, I wonder what the Inspector General of Police will make of this, given the high death toll of the Police in the hands of the Ombatse cult members as reported by the governor of the state. To me it is unbelievable that a man like the Ombatse chief priest is not yet in police custody at least for his own protection not to talk of the image of the police in providing security for all Nigerians including policemen. In addition, the interview has helped in marketing unwittingly the ‘protective capabilities’ of the Ombatse Cult god and this is bound to open lucrative opportunities for the cult with people looking for protection from all sorts of attacks and assaults on both sides of the law in our society. I find it thoroughly amazing that the police have not been able to find their way to Lakyo to see the Chief Priest at least to take a statement on what happened. Surely that speaks volumes on the security of all of us who greatly sympathise with the police on the loss of so many men in the incredible case involving the Ombatse Cult of Lakyo in Nasarawa state in Nigeria.

  • 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?

  • The torture called driver’s licence renewal

    I don’t discriminate when it comes to good music. But if I ever prefer a genre, it would be reggae, particularly the roots rocks type for which the likes of Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, Peter Tosh and Eric Donaldson are reputed. I love these reggae artistes not just for the rhythm of their music, but also for their thought-provoking messages. These were also the qualities that endeared me to Johnny Nash’s songs, particularly the one that says “if I follow my mind, I will never do wrong.”

    The message of Nash’s song hit me hard on May 10. That was the day I fell into the trap of vehicle inspection officers (VIOs) at the Abule Egba section of the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway. There, I was arrested by the men in black and white over my driver’s licence which had expired by about one month.

    Ironically, about one week to the expiry date on the licence, I had made an attempt to renew it at the Ojodu, Lagos office of the Federal Roads Safety Commission (FRSC) co-habited by the VIO, but I was turned back at the gates by a road safety official who insisted that there was no more parking space in the expansive compound. My plea that the road safety official should allow me to park somewhere beside the gates was like a sword driven into his heart. He flared up and hauled abuses at me, unmindful of the fact that I would be his very senior boss, if I had chosen a career in the commission. Perturbed, embarrassed and humiliated, I was left with no choice but to turn and drive away, particularly because my stay at the spot was already causing a traffic chaos.

    I had left in the hope that I would return the following week to process the renewal. Unfortunately, I was attacked in broad daylight by gunmen who did not only rob me of money, phones and other valuables, but also went away with the key to the car. Scared by the ugly experience, I abandoned the car and shut my mind to driving. As fate would have it, it was the very day I decided to drive again that VIO officials accosted me and impounded my car.

    I had underestimated the trouble I had fallen into when an official of the VIO waved me down and demanded for my papers. Of course, the vehicle licence, insurance, road worthiness and all other particulars were in good order. But the moment he sighted my driver’s licence and discovered that it had expired by about one month, he beckoned to his superior and told him that I had no driver’s licence (not that it had expired). All my pleas fell on deaf ears. So also were the efforts I made to explain the circumstances and the frustration I had suffered in the bid to renew the licence. They drove my car straight to their yard and issued me a fine ticket.

    I had always appreciated the zeal with which VIO men carried out their duties and wished that other public servants would exhibit the same degree of commitment. But I was awfully disappointed to find that their zeal was clouded by certain ulterior motives. Their motivation, I later realised, could have come mainly from other unofficial fines they make offenders to pay, including the N1,000 an offender pays as demurrage for each day the car sleeps in their yard and N200 he pays for inflating each of his car tyres which are deflated as soon as his car gets into the yard. In my own case, for instance, I was arrested late on a Friday when it was no longer possible for me to pay the fine at a designated bank and retrieve my car. By the time I got there the following Monday after I had paid the fine in the bank, I was made to pay N3,000 as demurrage and N200 for each tyre inflated by their vulcanizer.

    I was alarmed when I demanded a receipt from the lady who collected the demurrage and she said she had none left. She gave all manner of excuses, but I insisted that I would not leave until a receipt was issued for the N3,000 I paid. In the end, she reached for her drawer and grudgingly gave me one. But for the money I paid to the standby vulcanizer, there was no receipt of any kind.

    However, the foregoing is not the real reason for this piece. My concern is the rigour I had to pass through just to have my driver’s licence renewed. I had endured the same rigour when I renewed my licecnce at the same Ojodu offices of the VIO and FRSC three years. There, they had captured my image and took my signature, thumbprint and other data. The impression I had then was that the rigorous exercise I underwent then was meant to make subsequent renewal of the licence very easy. So, as I headed for the Ojodu office of the FRSC about two weeks ago to renew my licence, I thought that all they would do would be to check their computer for the data they collected three years ago, ask a few questions to see if any of the pieces of information I gave had changed, take the expired licence and issued me a new one. How wrong!

    The moment I walked into the premises, I was confronted by the sight of aggrieved licence seekers, some of whom said they had paraded the place for weeks in fruitless effort to obtain new licences. Surprisingly, many of them had their data taken like mine three years ago on the basis of which they were issued their expired licences. Now they have to go through the entire process of downloading a fresh application form from the Internet, supplying new passport photographs, going to the bank to pay the sum of N6,350 and then move endlessly from one office of the VIO and FRSC to the other. In short, the process of licence renewal is so cumbersome and tedious that it seems a more dreadful punishment than being sent to a Boko Haram enclave in Borno State. Of what use are the data the FRSC collects year in and year out when one has to go through the present rigours of licence renewal? That is the question everyone is asking.

  • Summit for peace

    Summit for peace

    In every moment of frenzy there must be a pacific indication of tranquility. Such indication came to the fore twice in the past one week in Nigeria. One took place in Abuja on Thursday, May 16, 2013. The other surfaced in Ibadan on Sunday, May 19, 2013. Yours sincerely was a witness to both. At Abuja, an international conference was organised to further the course of peace by an international Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) called Global Peace Foundation (GPF). The objective was to douse any prevalent religious tension in Nigeria by ventilating conducive atmosphere for peaceful coexistence of all and sundry. Thus, the leadership of the two Nigerian prominent religions (Islam and Christianity) were invited as the horse’s mouth from which the multitude Nigerian adherent of both religions could hear the sacred rhyme of interfaith.

    Among the prominent personalities invited to the conference were His Eminence, Dr. Muhammad Sa‘ad Abubakar III, who is the President General of Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) as well as the Sultan of Sokoto and the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor. Both are co-Chairmen of Nigerian Inter-religious Council (NIREC). The facilitator was Bishop Sunday Onuoha. Some other important personalities present at the occasion include the first Governor of Rivers State(1967-1975), King Alfred Diete Spiff, the Amanyanabo of Twon Brass; a one-time Governor of Imo State, Major-General Ike Umaru Sanda Nwachukwu; the Prelate of Methodist Church, Bishop Olu Makinde; the former Chairman of EFCC, Alhaji Nuhu Ribadu; a former Minister of State for Education, Hajia Aisha Duku; the former Director of Nigerian Arabic Village, Professor Tijani Almiskeen, a frontline member of the Nigerian Council of Ulamai, Barrister Muzammil Hanga; a onetime Editor of New Nigeria newspaper, Hajia Bilkisu Yusuf and a host of others including yours sincerely. The venue of the consultative summit was Abuja Sheraton Hotel.

    His Eminence, the Sultan, could not personally attend but was ably represented by a brilliant and very articulate traditional ruler, His Royal Highness the Andoma of Ndoma, Nasarawa State, who captivated the audience with his unsurpassed eloquence while marshalling facts with figures. His submission was greeted with a very thunderous applause and overwhelming ovation. The opening remark he gave on behalf of His Eminence the Sultan became the main axis around which other speeches were weaved. Each of the speakers emphasised the need to de-politicise religion and tribal differences especially in Nigeria.

    Global Peace Foundation (GPF) is an international non-profit making organisation intended to promote world peace and cooperation with the motto “One Family under God.” Established in 2007 by Hyun Jin Preston Moon, a son of the South Korean founder of Unification Church, Sun Myung Moon, the Foundation was originally called the Global Peace Festival and later changed to Global Peace Festival Foundation before it finally assumed the name Global Peace Foundation (GPF). The International President of the Foundation is Mr. James P. Flynn who, in his welcome address, called the attention of the audience to the modern technological advancement which he said has turned the entire world into a global village but is unfortunately helpless in promoting global peace and tranquility among races of mankind.

    While admitting that the current challenges of insecurity are not peculiar to Nigeria, Mr. Flynn asserted that Nigeria could however surmount those challenges if such vices as corruption, drug and human trafficking as well as tribal and religious conflicts could be effectively curbed through the utilisation of the modern technology for peace building. According to him, no nation can correctly claim to be educated and civilised through political or economic means to the detriment of peace building and he concluded that only identification and respect for individual uniqueness can facilitate an identity of common humanity with one family under God.

    The summit was a vivid reminder of a historic pact which Prophet Muhammad (SAW) signed on behalf of Islam with Christian leaders from St. Catherine’s Monastery in 628 CE to facilitate peaceful coexistence of adherents of the two religions. The details of that pact were published in this column on March 12, 2010. But since they still remain very relevant the article may be recalled very soon.

     

    New exco for Oyo Muslim community

    In Ibadan, Oyo State, all roads led to the multibillion naira residence of Alhaji Abdul Azeez Arisekola Alao, the Aare Musulumi of Yoruba land last Sunday. Leaders of Islamic faith consisting of men, women and youth trooped into Aare’s residence from all parts of the state for a unique meeting at which a new foundation was laid for rebuilding the state’s Muslim Community. Present at the occasion were the Chief Imam of Ibadan land, Sheikh Busari Shuara Haruna III; the Chairman of Ibadan Muslim Community who is also the Chairman of Central Council of Ibadan Indigines (CCII), Alhaji (Chief) Mustapha Adebayo Oyero; the Iya Adini of Yoruba land, Alhaja Sekinat Aderoju Adekola; the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) who is also the outgoing Chairman of Oyo State Muslim Community, Alhaji Abdul Waheed Akin Olajide; the Ibadan Imamate in Council; the National Council of Muslim Youth Organisations (NACOMYO); the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria (MSSN), the Federation of Muslim Women Associations of Nigeria (FOMWAN) the collective body of Muslim Professionals; and a galaxy of other invitees from Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti and Lagos states.

    The occasion was meant for the inauguration of a new Executive Council for Oyo State Muslim Community. Prior to that occasion, an electoral college (Majlisu Shura) headed by Dr. Daud Amoo (Alaga) was appointed to elect a new Executive Council following the completion of the tenure of the former Executive Council led by Alhaji Akin Olajide. The new Executive Council as announced by the Chairman of Majlisu Shura is being led by Alhaji Ishaq Kunle Sanni the erstwhile National President of NACOMYO while the new Secretary is Alhaji Murziq Bidemi Siyanbade who replaces the outgoing Secretary, Alhaji Abdul Wahab Gbadeyanka.

    The occasion was unique not only because of the seeming vibrancy in the formidable leadership of the new Council but also because of the Ummah’s great expectations from it. Alhaji Kunle Sanni is nationally known for his relentless Islamic activities and his unflinching dedication to the course of Islam innately and outwardly. He is the first national President of NACOMYO which he had jointly nourished to the national level with some other brothers and sisters in Oyo State. NACOMYO started locally as Council of Muslim Youth Organisation of COMYO which he (Kunle Sanni) lifted to the national level. He has since been in the frontline of Islamic activism both at the regional and national levels.

    Today, as the Chairman of Muslim Community of Oyo State, Kunle has assumed a new posture that may create a new hope and engender new and higher expectations in the State’s Muslim Ummah. And he seems to be very much aware of this and he showed preparedness for it in his acceptance speech. In that speech, he remembered the occasion which brought Abubakr Siddiq to the Caliphate after his election by a shura following the demise of Prophet Muhammad (SAW). He therefore started his acceptance speech using the same words that Caliph Abubakar used in accepting his choice as the new Chairman thus: “My dear people, you have made me your leader though I am not the best of you; If you find me doing well, please, support and encourage me; But I make mistake do not hesitate in correcting me for I am neither perfect nor infallible….”. He then went ahead to make certain promises with which to allay the fear of the Ummah by stating that with the new Executive Council, a revolution was in the making for the administration of the Community during his tenure. “I can assure you with the support of our fathers, the Imams and the Muslim elders in the State that in sha’Allah this tenure will be a success story. We shall use our Mosques effectively as it is being done in other parts of the world Madrasah, Hospitals and Marriage Counselling and settlement of communal or interpersonal rifts within the Community”. The new Chairman of the called for the cooperation of Muslim professionals and thanked all and sundry particularly Aare Arisekola Alao whose incessant support has become a permanent pillar of reliability.

    The new secretary is also like the new Chairman in dedication and commitment to service. His nomination, like that of the Chairman did not meet any opposition. The duo have thus become like a pair of scissors sometimes dwelling differently but firmly tied together naturally to jointly operate effectively. More than ever before, this is the time that the Muslim Community of Oyo State needs every one’s cooperation to remain afloat.

    The Message wishes the new Executive Council of Oyo State Muslim Community a very successful tenure and spiritual strength to carry out the assignment ahead of it with Allah’s guidance and support.

     

    Nature’s voice

     

    An adage in Yoruba language becomes axiomatic when the above narrations about peace conference in Abuja and inauguration of a new Executive Council for Oyo State Muslim Community are compared to the natural disaster last Monday in the United States. That adage states that though vulture and the monkey dwell in the same forest, their ailments are dissimilar and their cure remain dissimilar. While the vulture is bald on the head, the monkey is bald in the bottom.

    It was another thunderous day of rage last Monday in Oklahoma, United States. A terrible tornado jumped onto the stage of human existence and launched a devastating protest that put technology to shame. Residential houses, office buildings, factories, school buildings, animals, vehicles and even human beings were forcefully squeezed together into sheer rubbles thereby leaving human civilization in tartars. It was a disaster of no comparison. No one knew what the tornado was protesting against. But the frequency of its protest at that particular area of the country is an indication that nature is speaking a language which man is yet to understand or able to interpret correctly.

    Moore, a suburban town of about 56,000 inhabitants in the vicinity of Oklahma city felt the effect of the rage most. The first memorable time a tornado of that magnitude voiced out nature’s anger was in 1925 when over 600 people weathered the storm with their lives. It has since repeated itself almost in like manners. But the most recent ones before last Monday were those of 1999 and 2003 both of which forced the governments of the area to begin again. The voice of last Monday’s tornado might not be loud enough to heard in all parts of the world but the impact of its 45 minutes action in Oklahoma area alone was louder than the combined noise that all European and American atomic and nuclear arsenal could make at once. With the occurrences of tornado, hurricane, typhoon, cyclone, earthquake and tsunami in different parts of the world, man is being frequently reminded that without serenity of nature mankind is incapable of causing or quelling any trouble.

    At a Press Conference last Tuesday in Oklahoma, the Governor of the State, Mary Fallin said it was one of the “most horrific storms and disasters that this state has ever faced.” Based on the medical report available at that time, she put the casualty figure at about 24 but added that the figure could rise as over 230 people were said to be injured while about 100 others were safely rescued from the rubbles. But at the point of sending this article last Wednesday, the casualty figure had risen to 92 while many hundreds of people were still missing. No technology could stop the horrifying tornado from travelling at a speed of 320 kilometres per hour while covering an area of about two miles in its merciless surge. It is a confirmation that nature also has a way of putting man in check and re-shaping his destiny in a way.

    For African countries like Nigeria which have no such experience, there is a lesson to learn. If God endows you with the kind of clement weather you enjoy, why must you subject yourselves to the wicked artificial deaths you are inflict on others through terrorism and other vices? Can clemency be compared to disaster? Life, even to nature, is sacred. For nature, taking it by any means is only a matter of inevitability. Whoever claims to be killing fellow human being in the name of Islam without passing through a legal means is surely an agent of Satan who must be condemned by all genuine Muslims. The true picture of Islam was demonstrated in the pact which Prophet Muhammad (SAW) signed with the leadership of Christianity in 628 CE. Please, read that fully in this column next Friday.

  • Like Mali, like Nigeria

    Like Mali, like Nigeria

    How that the Presidency has eventually acted by facing the security challenges bedeviling the country eyeball-to-eyeball, I rerun this piece published here on Friday March 29, 2013. Declaring emergency andembarking on a shooting war is the easy part, the main WORK is to DECLARE GOOD GOVERNACE across the entire country. Please read carefully:

    When reality struck me smack in the face, I could not cry; I actually laughed out loud as if to say, Nigeria, “I dey laugh o!” To think that Nigeria, a crumbling entity actually sent troops to Mali to quell insurgency! On a second thought, it occurred to me that our presence in Mali is not altogether altruistic; it is largely because there is some dollars to share. I will not discuss here, the number of military trucks, armoured personnel carriers and assault rifles Nigeria to make her fit to embark on a foreign peace mission. The question today is that is Nigeria truly more stable than Mali? Is it more secure, is it better governed and better led?

    Reality check

    Not that one didn’t have an inkling of the dire situation the polity in enmeshed in especially under President Goodluck Jonathan’s watch, but reality dealt me a dirtier slap when I read a report of a terrorist attack in Yobe state last Monday. Let me present the report verbatim as carried by National Mirror newspaper (Tuesday, March 26, 2013, page47):

    “Gunmen yesterday morning attacked the Bara Divisional Police Station in Yobe State killing one police man.

    “Bara is the headquarters of Gulani Local Government Area of the state.

    “Sources said that the attack began at about 1:00 am and lasted for about two and half hours.

    “The attackers burnt the police station and went away with the three cars parked in the premises.

    “The Yobe State Commissioner of Police, Mr Sanusi Rufai who confirmed the incident to journalists in Damaturu, the state capital, said though the police station was burnt with rocket propelled launcher and explosive devices, the attack was repelled by security operatives .

    “He also said that the police man killed was a corporal, adding that the slain victim was slaughtered by the gunmen in his residence at about 5:00 am after the attack on the police station.

    “The attackers, according to the police boss, also destroyed MTN and Glo telecoms masts.

    “The gunmen also carted away three local government vehicles.

    “The commissioner, however, said no arrests had been made in connection with the attack and no individual or group had claimed responsibility.”

    This attack comes exactly one week after the massive devastation of the New Luxury Bus Park in Sabon Gari, Kano, also in the Northwest of Nigeria. Yobe is a vast swath of border state. So are Borno, Adamawa, Taraba, Jigawa, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kebbi, Niger, kwara and even Oyo and Ogun. These states deserve special security attention, to say the least. From the account of the attacks in Yobe, it is obvious any notion of security in Nigeria is merely a ruse; we seem to be living by sheer Grace. For such a sensitive state where attacks have been rampant in the last two years, security is still virtually non-existent. This explains why a gang of hoodlums would operate for four hours (1pm to 5am), sacking police station, LGA office, damaging telecoms facilities and driving away with about six vehicles without a trace; they could have had breakfast if they wanted.

    Stories like Yobe’s are happening everyday across Nigeria. Last Friday, in Ganye town which is the headquarters of Ganye LGA in Adamawa State, gunmen stormed the Ganye Prisons, overpowered a combined team of Mobile Police, soldiers and other armed forces to free about 127 prisoners. About 25 people lay dead after the attack including the deputy comptroller in charge of the prison, Mallam Baba Musa. In Benue, the Tivs and the Nomadic Fulani are engaged in a killing spree; kwara, Ebonyi, Cross River, are theatres of communal wars with security agent over-powered and in retreat. Plateau State’s matter is a full-fledged debacle where perhaps, more Nigerians have been slaughtered than cattle in the last 10 years. Just last Tuesday, 28 people were killed and several villages razed in an overnight raid in Ryom Local Council. As has always been the case, Ryom could have been a jungle or the centre of the Kalahari Desert for there was no sign of government or security presence as the blood fest went on. In the south-south and south-east parts of the country, kidnappers and ritualists reign as security agencies wish they would be left alone.

     

    Where there is no government

    The reality that should be poking sticks into our eyes is that this entity has buckled terribly. Henry Okah, master-mind of the Abuja the bomber was tried and jailed in South Africa last Tuesday; James Ibori, was jailed in London recently but hardly any high profile criminal can be convicted or jailed in today’s Nigeria because our leaders have been castrated by corruption and our institutions suborned. The reality that most of us are wont to deny is that all else has failed in Nigeria except the stream of oil revenues that our leaders steal and fritter away as soon as they are earned.

    Our reality, which we tend deny, is that there is hardly any governance going on in Nigeria today. Yes, we see some governors and ministers deigning to do some work but they are not governing; they are merely executing odd, oft ill-conceived projects. Governance by a simple definition is working the institution, not working the helmsman. Therefore, while there are a few projects going on in some towns and city centres, a vast swath of space is overlooked along with larger population. Most of the 774 LGAs across the land are untouched, ungoverned and famished. Hardly any socio-economic activities go on there as the state governors hijack and squander the funds meant for this tier.

    Again, our unspoken reality is that our hinterlands are so withered and wasted that any band of boys with as many as six assault rifles could seize a chunk of the country and have the police, army, airforce running helter-skelter in their usual reactionary mode. Such is our reality and our predicament. Our naked reality is that Nigeria is no better than Mali today and if we knew any better, the UN should be considering a standby troop for Nigeria before the last few cords snap. Our REAL reality is that the current leadership lacks the capacity to pull the chestnuts out of the fire. Our leaders are only single-minded about holding power; what a pity, blind people desperate to rule a dead country.

    FEED BACK: Kalu’s Njiko Igbo and a tear for Ndigbo

    Happy Sunday Steve read your article in The Nation (May 17). What is the meaning of Njiko? Before you answer me I would like to console you. As a northerner I honestly admire such Igbo politicians like Ken Nnamani, former Senate president. The Igbo should rally round him for he might be their saving grace. To that extent, no need to weep for Ndigbo. Have a nice day – 08051571477

    Mr. Osuji I like the way you always tackle Igbo causes, but you were criminally silent when Gov. T.A. Orji sacked Igbos from other states while retaining non-Igbos – 08037649389

    Brother Osuji people like you who are still able to talk to our people should continue to do so. I returned to Igboland to find a weak and divided people. I had thought my people were strong. Rather they find so much pleasure in inflicting pain on their people. We run to outsiders to give us political power instead of looking at ourselves and bonding together.- 07063315222

    I love your write ups in The Nation. Please keep it up. – 07037999888

    It appears to me that the unique thing that makes the Igbo man prosper in business is the very thing that is his Achilles heel when it comes to politice. What that unique thing is can only be defined by the Igbo themselves – 07042325266

     

  • Readers’parliament 22

    Readers’parliament 22

    Your analysis is correct. Some parents are boastful of their ability to purchase seats for their wards to cheat at JAMB and SSCE centres. It is sad to see what our country has degenerated to. God will help us. 08023137600.

    Haba Tunji. This your piece was too harsh to Nigerians. I am sure you are not residing in Nigeria. 08033754830.

    Olatunji, I agree with you totally that, ‘We are very bad people.’ If Mr. ‘Integrity’Lawan Farouk could fall the way he did, then hope is not in sight for this society of ours. Look at the appointment of Dame Patience as Permanent Secretary. Very absurd. 08034053328.

    Remain blessed for saying the truth. All men need to be forcefully castrated, so that we can stop breeding baboons and then let the country return to stone age.08037967898.

    I wish you continue with this line of write-up. You strike a definite chord in our psychology and sociology with the message. I wake everyday with these foreboding realities of the basic Nigerian psyche. I fear for the future of this race and generation…I totally agree with your thesis. 08054967602.

    Excellent piece of writing. I agree with you 100 per cent. We need to change ourselves because we are indeed very bad people. 08079890367.

    “It is good to be bad and bad to be good in contemporary Nigeria,” truer words I have never read in Nigerian newspapers. Brilliant article today, Mr. Ololade! Please keep up the good work. And the truth shall set us all free. 08178675967.

    Thanks a lot dear. You did very well in your piece. May God bless you with more knowledge and wisdom. Amen. 08063675643.

    May Almighty God bless you for telling the truth the way it is, ‘We are very bad people.’ 08037036487.

    Olatunji, what you are saying cannot be disputed. What has eluded us is the way out of the quagmire. From Cyril Chinweike Eze. 08037907122.

    And Patience Jonathan is now a permanent secretary. Only in Nigeira can such happen. We are very bad people indeed. 07035347838.

    I have never read a more honest description of you and me. We are very horrible people. From Ehimare Ehoho. 08081322995.

    May God bless you for telling us the truth. Please keep it up. From Luka Jos. 08081767426.

    Of course, we are very people Olatunji. In Port Harcourt where I live, it’s really the picture you painted. Success through hard work is no longer the way of life. What of teachers known b ydear patience, they are now the vampires that devour their wards. Thanks. Good piece. From Ray Port Harcourt.08056666484.

    You said it all. We are indeed very bad people. None could be worse. From Barrister Obi Anierobi. 08031157593.

    Olatunji, I like your write-up. Let us be accountable for all our actions, let us stop blaming our leaders. An average Nigerian man is a criminal. From Zuby Port Harcourt. 08051603828.

    Your article is a very good one. Unfortunately you are talking to people who have long chosen the path of amorality. The assertion that the followership is as bad as the leadership is true. But in all climes, it is the leadership that sets the pace either for moral degeneracy or righteous living. The theory of the vital few cannot be wished away. The elites, opinion moulders and policy formulators who develop the framework for policy implementation and are supposed to enforce compliance are the first culprits. No society has only good people; what deters people from wrongdoing is the arm of the law which is supposed to be enforced by the leaders. That’s why foreigners come to Nigeria and beat traffic lights. Let’s get good leaders and things will fall in place. From Etokowoh Owoh Uyo. AKS. 08037975031.

    Your ability to put reality in pure perspective is outstanding. Until Nigerians move away from pretence, egoism, deceit, avarice, hate, etc, I wonder where our religious disposition will take us. From Paul Vingil. Abuja. 08035880838.

    I honestly agree with you and I pray that God endow you with wisdom, knowledge and blessedness to tell the nation the root of our problem. God bless you bro. From Wellington Sango, Ogun State. 08060244044.

    Mr. Olatunji Ololade, your write up, ‘We are very bad people (1),’ I must confess, is the best write-up ever in this morally bankrupt and unholy entity called Nigeria. More of it, please, my brother. They will surely meet the people’s justice in 2015. May God keep more of your type for the battle ahead. From Henry Oputa esq, Port Harcourt. 08033125515.

    Nice piece Olatunji. We need more of your type. Self tendencies have destroyed us all. I think that Nigeria can only be better when Nigerians think better. Indeed, we are very bad people. 08036851612.

    Your write-up captured the sad reality of the contraption called Nigeria. You mirrored the true state of the inhabitants of this country and as sad and fearful the truth is, we are all culpable in the mess our dear country is in. More ink to your pen. From Tapshak Armstrong. Jos. 08166032757.

    We are very bad people 1 says it all. Keep telling the truth. You are superb. From Kehinde Olalemi. 07063504030.

    Tunji my brother, I totally agree with you. I fully understand your angst. Our society is largely populated by monkeys and baboons in human garb, primitive in thinking and bestial in deeds. I have never seen or heard of a society so depraved as ours. Until we, as a people, embrace those things that are truly important in life and jettison the mindless and blind accumulation of vanities, we are eternally doomed as a people spiritually and naturally. From Gerard Ifeanyichukwu Okonkwo. Onitsha. 08023656124.

    What do you have to say about the south-east of the country where people are kidnapping fellow human beings including new born babies in the name of money? And all of us claim to be Christians. 08160149957.

    In fact, you have said it all and I totally agree with you. What can we do now to stop this menace and attitude of ours because each time? From Shakiru. 08030699828.

    Olatunji Ololade, since I was born in this feeble but very wicked and perverse country that is called Nigeria in 1953, I have never discerned anybody’s heart like I’ve just did yours…having gone through your humble and earnest dispositional topic, I thought I were you but of course, I’m not. This is to erase the unscrupulous position of the doubting Thomases that will oppose your write-up in anyway because Nigeria is just simply negative to the core. I’m in this position because some agents of negativity will want to counter the message of good people to this. They will want to smother this great message by which you teach all of us about how bad and wicked we are in this hopeless and worthless country we live in that is called Nigeria…A people that hails criminality are very bad people. A people that condones wicked preachers that pray for government officials who steal public money are very bad people. A people who allow their previous leaders to walk the streets with their loots, even after these leaders have lost immunity are very bad people. A people that have made their generation a thieving one are very bad people. 08036925729.

     

  • Re-thinking the northern quagmire

    Re-thinking the northern quagmire

    Indubitably, Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of Kano State loves his kith and kin in the northern part of Nigeria – a region that is currently embroiled in self-inflicted turmoil through the subversive inclinations of the malevolent Boko Haram insurgents. But he has most probably and suddenly realised that frank talk with his kinsmen remains the only panacea to the catastrophic activities of insurgents that are threatening the region with imminent annihilation.

    Kwankwaso dared to say publicly what most northern elite know, but had been shying away from, for selfish reasons and indeed, lack of valour. In apparent allusion to the upsurge in rebellious activities, especially in the north during a courtesy visit by members of the Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of security challenges in the north, he said: “We have a situation in this part of the country where parents give birth to 20 to 30 children, chose only two of them and send the rest away to God-knows where. Children are sent to places that they don’t know. They are left to fend for themselves. We have a situation where you go round the city and find garrison of children, able-bodied youths begging. These children were abandoned by their parents and they were sent away and brought into the state. They grow up to hate themselves, hate their parents, hate the leaders, hate the government and the society. They feel they were deprived, they feel injustice and they become enemies of the state and constituted authorities. They thereby become vulnerable to crime and violence.”

    No northerner, dead or living, has been more apposite in precisely depicting the northern quagmire that is gradually assuming national and international dimensions. Yet, previous and present leaderships of the region, despite their education and exposure, continue to promote a feudal cum political system that forcibly makes the greatest number of their people to remain perpetually poor and subservient to them. The Boko Haram is surely the creation of the northern political and feudal class that overtime, takes delight in breeding a largely uneducated society of almajiris in their region. Among these hoi polloi in the north, poverty, illiteracy, feudal and religious fundamentalism, and indeed, irrationality, have become a culture. This fact informs why these almajiris have become easy tool for fomenting hubbub in the hands of northern feudal/political elite, even when this elitist class keeps its own well-groomed and educated Hausa/Fulani children far away from such flashpoint areas. These almajiris and not the exposed kids of the northern leadership class, constitute a substantial chunk of Boko Haram followership now working assiduously to destabilise the country.

    Kwankwaso puts the blame of insurgency befuddling the region on;“ parents, the communities, the local government authorities, state governments and the Federal Government” but failed to tell bewildered Nigerians about steps that he has taken so far as governor of Kano state to remove the plague of almajiris and by extension that of Boko Haram from Kano. As parents, how far has he and other northern elites cum oligarchy gone in ensuring restoration of family cum societal values in the youth and the community at large; and as governor, how far has he with other governors, past and present in that region, gone to ensure that that region do not stray into anarchy? What efforts have been taken by Kwankwaso and others in his class to change the stereotype against western civilization, even when the northern leadership is an ardent admirer and beneficiary of western education? He wants parents to take responsibility of their families, yet, poverty still reigns unabatedly not only in Kano but other northern states. The administrations of northern states have done very little to impress it on their people to place high premium on western and not Islamic/Arabic education. The latter has given impetus to the creation of more almajiris by the system.

    Let us ask Kwankwaso and the entire northern elite to tell Nigerians how many wives and children most of them have? And how do they fund them; could it be through allocated resources that ought to have been used to develop their entire people and infrastructure or through immoral exploitation of the archaic system in place? Do northern governors at any time bother to put in place any social security or safety net that can dissuade abandonment of children or begging on the streets by northerners in the country? The streets of most states across the federation, especially Lagos, have been taken over by northern states’ indigenes that also double as emergency commercial okada drivers – mostly becoming harbingers of death on roads in the Centre of Excellence. Since the religion of Islam which the northerners have unfortunately turned into a culture permits marriage to more than one wife, inevitably leading to rearing of several children; and in view of the debilitating underdevelopment of the region, provision of safety net/social security by any sincere government in that region should be a necessity. But northern leaders including Kwankwaso seem not to be giving such beneficial policy any useful thought. Whatever is rampant in the north in the past and even today is that what is meant for the people as democracy dividends are cornered by the few and the oligarchy that are ruling the region.

    However, this deliberate oversight and invidious greed of the northern feudal/political/oligarchy have put the entire country in this Boko Haramic mess. And one agrees with Kwankwaso that ‘what started in Yobe and Borno is now everywhere in the north. It may eventually engulf the country – if we don’t check it now.’ It is a national issue that must be addressed. This statement should be the raison d’etre, and motivating bulwark that should goad on all northerners wherever they might be to give intelligence and inspirational support to the country’s military of Joint Task Force (JTF) comprising troops deployed to quell the Boko Haram insurrection. Boko Haram must be checked now and everybody, whether in the north or anywhere, with useful intelligence hints about this evil group, must come forward and give such to security agencies.

    The Boko Haram cankerworm should not be seen from the prism of being problem of our non-performing and inept President Goodluck Jonathan alone- Boko Haram was largely seen ab initio as a northern problem; but it has since become a Nigerian/international problem that must be destroyed – if only to prevent a re-enactment of what happened in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cote D’voire and of recent, Mali, in the country. The truth as it is now is that this northern nightmare – whether almajiri syndrome or Boko Haram – needs a rethink!

  • APC: A merger here to stay

    Politics concerns everything in life and it is usually a very serious affair. In Nigeria, the major political story dominating the airwaves is that of a newly formed political party – the All Progressive Congress (APC), born from a merger of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). As the seconds click towards the 2015 general elections, the polity is heating up. And at the centre of the heat is the APC, famed potentially to be the biggest opposition party to arise in the country.

    Faced with hurdles, even before the APC started flying, the party’s christening generated controversy when two other political parties claimed to have submitted application bearing the same acronyms. But, considering that the first goal of the APC is to unseat the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), that issued can easily be resolved.

    Since the coming of the fourth republic in Nigeria, the PDP has held sway both at the federal government level and in many other states too. But, today, that popularity is waning, even among erstwhile supporters. Suddenly, there seems to be a yawning need for change in Nigeria shared by many people. To them, the PDP as a party is just not capable of delivering the democracy dividends anymore. This perhaps account for the overwhelming support which the APC has been receiving in states under ACN, CPC, ANPP, and APGA rule.

    A week after the formation of the party, Lagos State governor Babatunde Fashola, likened APC to a marriage. But, from indications, this is not a marriage of convenience. And it seems for once, the PDP stranglehold is really threatened. I consider that a relief. Joining Fashola on this cause include the governors of Ekiti, Kayode Fayemi; Ogun, Ibikunle Amosun; Oyo, Abiola Ajimobi; and that of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. Others are Adams Oshiomhole of Edo; Rochas Okorocha of Imo; Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara; Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa; and Kashim Shettima of Borno State. And state after state, directed by governors of those states, the APC chant is growing louder.

    Watching events since the party was formed by a coalition of four political parties in February, I’ve seen people after people embrace what the APC stands for; change. This change is not just about change of power, rather it is a change for a better life. Already, APC has stated that its priority programmes include agricultural development, job creation, free education, affordable healthcare, infrastructural development, adequate power supply, eradication of poverty and corruption and rapid technological advancement and industrialisation. No doubt, this is what we need at this moment.

    And, I’m particularly happy that Fashola is in the forefront of the APC cause because in Lagos, Fashola has succeeded in shoring up development from where his predecessor left off. The little frustrations the Lagos State government has suffered in its developmental strides has come largely from an obstinate PDP-led federal government that would rather gloat on triumphing over political opponents than seeing overall progress put in place.

    However, now that the APC, a true opposition party, has come home to roost, the fight to wrestle power and consequently a better future for Nigeria and Nigerians must not be left solely in the hands of politicians alone. In this guise, religious, ethnic, and professional groups must also come on-board to stop the mortgage of the country’s future. This PDP tyranny must be fought. Already, some mischievous pundits are saying APC is full of strange bedfellows. Recently, referring to cracks in the APGA, Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, had said that only few people stayed away from joining the new party. Okorocha said, “As far as I know, the real members of APGA are with APC and Nigerians are aware of that.”

    The truth is that, as it is, proponents of APC believe in the party’s unity.

    In a letter to the editor which was published in The Nation newspaper of Monday, May 20, governor Fashola agreed “that all previous merger attempts have been unsuccessful.” But, advising personnel of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Fashola said the body should leave the choice of whether the APC be or not to be left to Nigerians to decide.

    “The most important thing that this merger will achieve, is that it gives the people of Nigeria a real choice as to who to trust with their affairs,” Fashola wrote.

    “This is instructive because a choice between the PDP and the PDP is not a choice.”

    Before the advent of APC, no other party could have been so ambitious to position itself as a formidable option. Likening the opposition to an ‘automobile workshop without basic tools,’ Fashola decried the opposition’s inability to fund power projects, fund security agencies, or fund anything.

    “When we create that choice and the people of Nigeria decide that they want to stay with the party that has brought us this far then they will have made their choice – A real choice.”

    If this real choice was absent in previous mergers, the PDP must be realising now that this time, the merger is for real. And it is potent too.

     

    • Akinmosa wrote from Agege, Lagos.

     

  • What we owe each other

    What we owe each other

    The pathetic picture of a young woman baring her breasts in public on a Lagos street in a desperate attempt to call attention to her miserable condition has gone viral on the web, with a wide range of comments by Nigerians. The significance of the incident should not be lost on right thinking people, who still appreciate the rationale for having a political community.

    Many commentators have called attention to the importance of individual responsibility, and that is a good point. Having too many children without adequate planning is a bane of our society. Children having children, and men acting as bullies and controlling the lives and future of women with impunity has been an undeniable part of our tragic history. The story of the young woman bears out this important observation. Yet it is also important to note that there are helpless victims of societal neglect and for them, our collective obligation is undeniable and the government, as our representative, has a huge responsibility.

    While security of the individual is one component of the rationale for government; the other component is the promotion of the welfare of the individual. In other climes, government serves as benefactor of the poor, the needy, and the sick. We know that poverty is a reality. We also know that it is pervasive in our society. Where this is the case, it is not possible for our people to be their brothers and sisters keeper the way they used to be because they are all mostly poor. The system of charity that prevails in advanced countries is not replicated here because of this prevalent and generalised poverty. In the circumstance, government has to care for those who through no fault of theirs find themselves on the wrong side of the economic divide. This is why poverty alleviation programs are important when they are not politicised.

    Government must be the insurer of last resort of citizens against the uncertainties of social life. People pay for insurance not to prevent disaster but to limit its negative impact on their resources. Diseases, disability, loss of employment, and unanticipated changes could be devastating. While some have the capacity to overcome such adversities on their own, the majority of our people are unable due to inherent disabilities. Esther Odozi is only one representative of that silent majority. As a community, we failed them.

    Despite the tremendous wealth of natural and human resources with which we are endowed, Nigeria is ranked as one of the poorest countries because of the number of poor people. There is no use going over why this paradox has been our lot. It is clear to all that we have not utilised our resources for the benefit of our people. We also know that in the last three decades, Nigeria has spent a better percentage of her resources battling poverty. Yet on the eve of President Obasanjo’s second coming in 1999, the World Bank’s report revealed that the Human Development Index (HDI) of Nigeria was on 0.416 and 70 per cent of the population was living below poverty level. So how can anyone justify the amount of resources purportedly invested in poverty alleviation with such a dismal result? This is the fundamental question.

    Since the beginning of the Third Republic, the Federal Government has used Poverty Alleviation programme as one of the instruments to combat the scourge of poverty. We can tell how effective this programme has been in light of the incidence of poverty in our midst. Whether we focus on the Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES) or the Rural Infrastructure Development Scheme (RIDS) or the Social Welfare Services Scheme (SOWESS) or yet still the Natural Resources Development and Conservation Schemes (NRDCS), the failure of the programmes is visible to the blind. The poor are still very much around.

    Our poverty alleviation programme is politically motivated with little to no sincerity about its effective outcome. A national programme, administered as a centralised federal programme can hardly be expected to effectively reach the poor who live in the states and in the local government areas. These are the first responders to the afflictions of the poor. It is therefore going to be difficult for the Federal Government to operate poverty alleviation programmes which it wants the states to be an appendage to. It could have been more effective for the Federal Government to issue broad policy goals and targets which it expects states and local governments to meet, and then give poverty alleviation grants to these local authorities to implement.

    It doesn’t help that we have an aggravated competition system of politics in which the Federal Government is controlled by a political party that is in some cases different from those controlling the states and local governments, and in which there is a lack of mature relationship between the actors. In such a situation, the necessary cooperation in implementing such a programme is lacking. And where you have an arrogant leadership at the centre, the problem is compounded. The National Poverty Alleviation Programme (NAPEP) was a victim of such condition which mandated the implementation the programme in the states through the Federal Government Controller of Works in each state, thus marginalising the states and local government authorities. And an investment of more than N10 billion went down the drain. 200,000 jobs were to be created in a country of 140 million people with unemployment at more than 40%. Instead, emergency millionaires were created in the hierarchy of the ruling party. The poor remain poor.

    Nigeria needs leaders with an adequate knowledge of the requirements of effective leadership. In addition, however, such a leadership must also have the endowment of a heart that feels the pain of the downtrodden and helpless citizens of our great country. But a leadership does not fall from the sky. It will have to come from among the citizens and be accredited and mandated by them. Therefore citizens also have to have the heart that recognises the obligations that we owe to each other. In our pre-governmental relationships, in our various communities, we are each other’s keepers. The coming of the state does not negate that relationship. It is expected to enhance it. This is why we cannot be satisfied with mere sloganising about the greatness of the country. A landmass is not great in itself; it is the commitment of patriotic citizens that make a nation great. But that commitment is not forthcoming without a realisation on the part of citizens that the political leaders place the highest priority on the interests and welfare of citizens. If what is apparent to citizens is the cut-throat competition to acquire the most for self and family on the part of leaders, then the vicious cycle of poverty and alienation is not going to cease.

    In the matter of promoting the welfare of our people and confronting the scourge of poverty, we must strengthen our educational system to give the necessary tools to our youths to make them productive citizens. Through them, we can raise the productive capacity of our economy, and provide for the needs of our mounting populations. Consider this. A well-educated citizenry is in a better position to solve the myriad problems of technological development, be it in the area of power, agriculture, including food technology, or transportation. In addition, gainful employment that is made possible when education is extended to a majority of the population reduces the potential of insecurity caused by unemployment. If only a minority makes it big while the majority suffers in silence, it’s a short step to anarchy and chaos, the kind that has characterised our democracy in the last fifty years. Esther Odozi is a national wake-up call!

  • State at war with itself

    The primary responsibilities of a state include security of life and properties of its citizens, protection of their rights and reconciliation of differences that naturally exist between groups. The task of the state is made relatively easy because of its monopoly of coercive use of force. But the Nigerian state has in the last 14 years been hijacked by PDP war lords, and their militias including the Niger Delta militants, Boko Haram, state sponsored assassins and ‘kidnappers for rituals and kidnappers for ransom’. The state which is today at war with itself because PDP and its gangs thrive more under anarchy, has lost its invincibility.

    We spent about a billion dollars a day on security. But it is with grief and deep sense of shame we watch 12 ill-equipped police officers allegedly deployed by the state to provide security for a repentant militant gang leader burying his mother in the creeks of the Niger Delta, brutally murdered, bodies burnt and remains buried in shallow grave by a rival gang. Several days later, no arrest has been made.

    In Bama, Borno State, Boko Haram militants freely moved around setting police stations on fire, and liberating jailed criminals from prisons. From there they moved unchallenged into a military barracks where they were finally repelled but not without a harvest of 55 deaths.

    Barely 24 hours later, the scene shifted to Elakyo, near Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital. An ill-conceived mission to “arrest members of Ombatse, cult including their priest, Baba Alakyo, reputed to have “ mysterious powers which could make him vanish into thin air within seconds” left over 60 ill-trained and ill-equipped police officers packed like sardines in nine vehicles murdered. We have not been told anyone has been arrested.

    Before these latest national embarrassments, Boko Haram had bombed the Abuja United Nations building, the Abuja police headquarters, churches, mosques, markets, motor parks, police stations and military college in Zaria killing scores of highly trained military officers. The president himself had relocated all his official public activities from the Abuja national stadium to the presidential palace. The harvest of deaths arising from Boko Haram’s mindless indiscriminate killings is put at about 3,000.

    The truth is that Nigeria is at war with itself. It is now an open secret that the ex- Niger Delta governors gave political, economic and intellectual backing to the Niger Delta militants. It is also on record that the Obasanjo administration funded and armed a faction of the Niger Delta militant groups. His successor, the late president Yar’Adua granted amnesty and gave huge state resources in form of bribe to known enemies of the state

     

    We now also know, courtesy the Financial Times of London how President Jonathan has been empowering PDP sponsored enemies of the state with state money. Leading members of the groups were awarded multi-billion dollar contracts to secure of our water ways and protect oil pipelines while the navy remained under-funded and ill-equipped. And as for Boko Haram insurgency, we also have it on the authority of late General Owoye Azazi, former National Security Adviser to President Jonathan that Boko Haram was a product of PDP’s gang war.

    By sponsoring and sustaining lawless armed gangs, PDP undermines the role of the state as a neutral arbiter that guarantees ordered society through laws and rules. This is perhaps because PDP buccaneers thrive more under anarchy. The president himself became a PDP candidate by subverting his party’s zoning policy as enshrined in their constitution. He overcame resistance from political rivals from his geo-political zone such as Timipre Sylva, the former governor of Bayelsa and Rotimi Amaechi, the embattled governor of Rivers by abusing the spirit of the laws.

    We have seen manifestation of an abuse of the spirit of the law by the persecution of Justice Isa Salami for ruling against PDP’s serial election riggers, government’s handling with kid gloves, the children of PDP big-wigs who should be in jail for allegedly stealing billions from the state, the non-prosecution of criminals indicted by various probes but who instead of returning the loot they took from the state, are now scrambling to buy private jets and armoured cars. We can add the indicted PDP chieftains who have gone ahead to become senators or have been granted state pardons to give them an opportunity to contest for election into the senate in 2015. These are all manifestations of a state of anarchy.

    Other manifestations of PDP conspiracy against the state finds expression even in the policy thrust of successive PDP governments. The minister of finance for instance is an influential member of a government that awarded multi-billion dollar contract to sworn enemies of the state-repentant militants, to secure our water ways and guard our oil pipe lines.

    But two weeks back, the minister told the international community in far away New York that Nigeria was losing about 400,000 barrels of fuel to bunkerers in the Delta creeks resulting in the loss of about N1trillion, a quarter of our annual budget.

    Lamido Sanusi the CBN governor and chief executor of government monetary policies that have contributed to loss of job in the banking sector was lamenting about loss of jobs in spite of noticeable growth in the economy. The president on whose table the buck ends echoed the same sentiments a few days later.

    Granted the problem of unemployment which economists predicted when we swallowed the IMF pill under Babangida was not Jonathan’s making, but his reluctance to bring to book those indicted for the derailment of the privatization and commercialization IMF inspired policy that failed to generate the projected seven million jobs make him culpable.

    While some of those involved in this assault on Nigerians are either part of government as advisers, ministers, contractors or lawmakers, government has maintained a criminal silence on the recommendations that some of the companies be returned to the state.

    The President and PDP decide who the enemies of the state are. By actions of the party and the body language of the president, they don’t seem to include those who allegedly stole privately raised funds in aid of a better equipped police, those who derailed the multi-billion naira ID card project twice and are now awarding another set of contracts; and those who colluded with a Chinese firm to rip Nigerians of billions from ill-executed Abuja and Lagos CCTV multi-billion naira project.

    On the other hand, people like Nuhu Ribadu who put Tafa Balogun, the former IG in chains, forced him to regurgitate the billions of police equipment and welfare funds he stole; made him account for his sins against his people after rejecting his $15million bribe is enemy of the state. Consequently, the late President Yar’Adua, Jonathan and Okiro, the then IG demoted Ribadu, retired him and chased him out of the country. But Okiro has been compensated for being a friend of the state by being recycled back as the new chairman of the Police Service Commission. The president and PDP action is a bizarre demonstration of a state against itself.