The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • New Pope, new hopes and expectations

    Argentina  in recent times has been widely known for the Falklands War   with  Britain and before that  for the debt default crisis of 2001 that almost collapsed the global financial system. On  a happier note  though Argentina is  respected   widely as the nation that gave the world soccer happiness – as the country that produced first Diego Maradona  and  now  Lionel Messi   of Barcelona.   Just last week the magic of Lionel Messi  put paid to   Italy‘s  AC Milan’s dream at the UEFA Champions League with a masterful display by the magical Argentine, Messi. Yet,   the  biggest  global news this last week  was the election of an Argentine by the Conclave of Cardinals  in  Rome  as the    new Pope  Francis and successor  to Benedict XVI, the first  Pope Emeritus in 600  years.

    However,  it was not only in Rome that an historic change  of guard or a unique event was taking place. Similar events in terms of magnitude and importance took place in China where  the Chinese Communist Party confirmed the new  President   Xi Jinping  as  president of the biggest nation on earth in terms of population; and in Kenya where  a new president Uhuru  Kenyatta was elected in spite of a case pending against   him  before the International Criminal Court at  the Hague.  Also  in Afghanistan President Hamid  Karzai rattled American nerves by lumping both ally and enemy together when he accused both the US military and the Taliban  of exacerbating the state of insecurity in his  nation on the eve of the departure  of US troops from Afghanistan next year .Similarly in Nigeria the Nigerian president gave  a State Pardon to his former  boss  who was jailed for embezzlement of public funds  and dashed  all  hopes of successfully fighting corruption in Africa’s biggest  black nation.    In essence then, from the speedy   and fruitful   Conclave in Rome, to the murder and mayhem on  the streets  of Kabul,  to the smooth transition in Beijing   and Nairobi; as well as the horror  created in Abuja, change  and transition underpin  the events and personalities on display in my analysis this week .I  will illustrate  my  observations in this regard with deductions which I think will be apparent to the discerning eye in all these situations.

    Again,  let us go back to Rome for the election of  Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario  Bergoglio   of Bueno Aires aged 76 as the new Pope  Francis. To  me this is a very  smooth  transition as some say  the  new Pope was second to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger at the last Conclave in 2005  that saw the emergence  of Ratzinger  as the next Pope  Benedict XVI. Which simply means that the Conclave decided that the no 2  should take over where the no 1 has stepped down. Which really should be expected  of a College  of Cardinals which is no more that a gathering of conservative minds,  very suspicious of any drastic change especially after the rude awakening from the fact that it is possible for a pope  to resign, something that  had not happened for a long time.

    However, it is in the choice of an Argentine that I want to dilate on,  in the light  of what Argentina represents in the comity of nations – in essence its sovereign reputation. First,   in global finance Argentina represents  something of  a way ward child,  and most finance houses hold their breath doing business with that nation because of the threat of debt default. Indeed  an Argentine ship was seized in Ghana  of recent on account of the debt default saga   that  happened  at  the start  of the millennium. In  politics  however  Argentina  is a  highly  legalistic nation in that it has brought to book all past military  leaders who staged coups and toppled   democratically elected governments to gain power.

    These  included past military generals like Viola  and  Videla  as well as Galtieri  who was jailed for taking Argentina to the Falklands war without proper preparation leading to a disgraceful defeat by Margaret Thatcher’s Britain. So  Pope Francis ascension to the papacy in Rome is a  boon and a great boost to the ego and pride of Argentina  as a Latino nation and to Argentines generally. I wonder  how Britain or Britons will  feel about the emergence of an Argentine  Pope given  the two nations well known truculence  over the  tiny Falklands  Islands. I  also cannot resist  chuckling at what Argentina’s former colonial lord, Spain,  now in austerity chaos  and distress that has caused Spaniards to take to the streets in riot, do  now that they have to pray to an Argentine Pope at mass. Really,   the emergence of a Pope  from the slums and dirty streets of Buenos Aires, after the highly intellectual Benedict XVI  shows  God is not sleeping after  all;  and that even the poor masses of the world have  their hope in high places  as their champion and  past traveler in the bitter  experience of  crass poverty now occupies the high and exalted seat of St Peter in the Basilica  in Rome.

    Similarly  in Beijing  the Chinese leadership  gave the western world a  lesson in orderly transfer of power from one generation to the other albeit in  a 10 – yearly mode. This is in spite of the fact of the skepticism of those in the west who call  the Chinese leaders despots with scant regard  for human rights. Yet  the Chinese are the largest creditors of the US in that they hold the largest chunk of US treasuries  in the world. The situation has been compared to cold war ideological war between the US  and the former US SR when  mutual deterrence or  annihilation  was the name of the game. Only  that this time the game between China and the US  has been called  the financial mutual deterrence or  annihilation war because one can not do without the other in terms of trade and global business and as such they must cultivate themselves in the interest  of   global peace  and  stability. Instead  of scoffing at the democratic credentials of Chinese leaders,  the west is better advised learn something from the slow but sure progress and order in China under their leadership.

    Kenya’s  successful  election has shown that democracy is maturing in that part of the world as the people spoke and showed that democracy in local display can be immune to international pressure and clamoring. Uhuru Kenyatta has been elected and there has been no violence as happened last time around. Although Rahoula Odinga has threatened to go to court he should let sleeping dogs lie  and allow peace in Kenya. This is because Kenya’s CJ is known to be close to Odinga and his verdict will not be respected or acceptable if he overturns the voters verdict. A  word is enough for the wise.

    President Hamid  Karzai’s outburst against both the US forces in Afghanistan and  his enemy the Taliban as birds of the same  feather, also is a fine example  of ingratitude in high places. But for the Americans Karzai  would  have been  ousted out  of power   long ago  in Afghanistan  by the Taliban. Now  for him to say that  both his enemy and ally are  prolonging the war is extremely strange  and nasty. Anyway  that seems to be the fashion that US allies  in the region reward the Americans after taking their money to help snuff out terrorists in the region. Just last week the President of Pakistan an ally of the US met with the President of Iran to sign agreement on the building of an oil  pipeline between the two nations. This is after the US has spent millions on Pakistan to fight terrorists that all parties in the region know are funded by Iran, an implacable enemy of the US.

    Lastly  in giving state  pardon to former  Governor Alamieyesiagha, to whom he was a deputy governor President Goodluck Jonathan  carried cronyism and impunity to  new heights in the fight against corruption  in Nigeria . Undoubtedly the cancer of corruption is a major hiatus  facing the Nigerian nation state . But  at least the government can avoid embarrassing itself  by not bringing opprobrium on itself in enacting a pardon which after all is just an act of mercy. It  leaves a bitter taste in the mouth to discuss  this pardon  which  is an  avoidable embarrassment to Nigerians  not only at home but in the diaspora. We  know that it is within the president’s power and that of the Council of State to do what has been done. We  also know that the saying is true that to whom much is given much is expected. This was one pardon too many and is a real pity for Nigeria’s  sovereign reputation.

  • Siasia shine your eyes

    Samson Siasia is in the news again. This time he is not talking about dragging his employers to court or joining issues with his bosses over unpaid entitlements. Rather, Siaone is being tempted with another coaching job by people who threw him into the unemployment market for failing to take Nigeria to the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations.

    The posers, for Siasia, following this unenviable task of drinking from a seeming poisoned chalice should be: Can I trust these people again, given my previous experience? Should I swallow my vomit and accept the job on the altar of being patriotic?

    Shouldn’t I politely reject the offer and concentrate on my soccer academy? Would anyone listen to me, if I complain about my employer’s shortcomings again? Are these people not discreetly setting me up for a showdown with Stephen Keshi, in the event that the Dream Team VI wins the gold medal at the Brazil 2016 Olympic Games? Are there still talents at the grassroots to assemble a winning side?

    What did I forget in Nigeria’s soccer teams that I want to pick up? Can’t I look elsewhere for my coaching future? Have I complained to anyone that I desperately need a job?

    Siasia’s mind, no doubt, is full of these mind-boggling posers. Yet he must understand that most of his problems with his employers arose from youthful exuberance. He also didn’t have the capacity to manage the success associated with coaching the country’s U-20 and U-23 sides.

    He needs to improve on his temperament. He needs to see the essence of being a coach, like a teacher, who must learn to tolerate his students’ (players’) egos and idiosyncrasies. He should also imbibe the culture of respecting constituted authorities in matters of disputes.

    Siasia needs to look at his previous contract papers and get a knowledgeable lawyer to draft a fresh document that will adequately protect his rights against some of the pitfalls in the previous document. The new contract must spell out in clear terms the dos and don’ts. This fresh deal should have clauses which should checkmate breaches by either party. And such breaches must be binding on the offending party. This thuggish style of holding employers hostage whenever there is a breach of any contract puts a lie to actual contents of such documents.

    Our coaches resort to this arm-twisting method because they lobby to get such deals and do not pay attention to the details meant to protect their rights.

    Most times, our coaches pick up jobs to shake off years of joblessness. They get desperate and sign any document for as long as it ensures that they are not idle- no matter the dubious circumstances surrounding the offer.

    Luckily, Siasia cannot be said to be unemployed. He has been busy with his soccer academy, fishing out talents from the grassroots. So, he comes into this new association with the NFF armed with a “plan B.” He should insist on making the contents of his contract public, should there be a breach.

    The oath of confidentiality that Nigerian coaches seal with their employers is laughable because the public gets to know what they earn, when entitlements are not paid. Who doesn’t know that the Eagles chief coach earns N5m monthly? Who doesn’t know the story of how the NFF president raised the coach’s wages from N3 million monthly to N5 million and all the brouhaha that went with the decision by his board members?

    If this new move is being initiated by the NFF, which I doubt, then Siasia must insist on being paid upfront like we have seen with our former European coaches. Since 2016 is still quite a distance, Siasia can demand that all his entitlements are handed to him before he resumes work or no deal.

    Any business deal not witnessed by a legal expert with the seal of the court is a really big joke – I challenge any Nigerian coach, past or present, – to come forward with his contract. What they call contracts are loose sheets, which are at variance with what their employers have. This is why they resort to clandestine tactics meant to whip up sentiments from the public.

    As Siasia ponders over this new romance- if it is true- he must avoid the pitfalls of the past. It won’t be a bad idea if he accepts the job. It would underscore the need for him to be a specialist in grooming age-grade players for Nigeria.

    Like Ekigho, like Mba

    Not many people will remember Ehiosun Ekigho. He emerged from the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme to hit the limelight as a Warri Wolves player. He scored goals with aplomb and Siasia used him effectively in our matches.

    Having gained national prominence, he was pounced on by our shylock scouts. He was locked in controversies such that not many people know how such a talented young man found himself playing for an obscure club in Ukraine. Ekigho is lost. Keshi may not even know that such a talent showed much promise 13 months ago. He used his left foot superbly. Ekigho reminded me of Prince Afejukwu (aka Shuwa) of the defunct Bendel Insurance. I ask; where is Prince Afejukwu? I last saw him in Benin City. Take a bow sir.

    This script is about playing itself out again with Sunday Mba. If proper steps are not taken to fix Mba’s future according to the rule book, he would toe Ekigho’s path and it would be rather sad.

    Perhaps, the Mba saga should agitate the minds of NFF and NPFL eggheads to set the template where players’ inter and intra transfers are regimentally documented.

    An independent body should be charged with processing, confirming and releasing players for inter or intra club transfers. That way, it would be easier to locate our budding talents and also monitor their progress anywhere they are.

    It is instructive to state here too that clubs in other climes use cash from inter and intra club transfers to generate revenues for themselves. The supervisory bodies also get percentage of the cash involved as another means of generating revenue.

    Clubs globally are judged by what they earn from transfers, among other sources of revenue.

    NFF and NPFL must ensure that all sharp practices by players are detected and perpetrators punished. This idea of players relocating to new clubs without proper documentation must stop.

    What Mba did by parking his car in Enugu Rangers’ camp before going for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations is worse than what Osaze Odemwingie did, when he drove his car to London and remained at the gate of Queens Park Rangers’ camp on deadline day of the January 2012/2013 transfer window.

    Of course, QPR’s management and indeed the club’s security operatives knew the implication of allowing Odemwingie into the premises. It is, therefore, sickening to hear Mba trying to justify why he parked his car in Rangers’ premises. In Nigeria, anything goes. This must stop.

    NSC Bill

    I thought I was dreaming when I saw the report in my mail box on Monday evening. Reading through the report, especially the calibre of people who contributed to the debate, I was excited.

    For once, something good is in the offing for Nigeria’s sports. As we await the National Sports Commission (NSC) Bill, kudos for the Sports Minister Bolaji Abdullahi for having the guts to present this bill to the National Assembly without playing politics like those before him.

    The NSC Bill, from what I gathered, will professionalise the commission and ensure that only technocrats are in charge. Good.

    I do not know if the NSC Bill will still have NFF under its control, like Decree 101. I would wish that NFF is removed from the NSC’s apron string so that technocrats can concentrate on making sports what it is elsewhere- a business venture. There is hardly any sport that is not a money spinner- cricket, tennis, boxing, gymnastics, cycling etc. Why not in Nigeria?

    That giant leap would be made the day the NSC Bill is passed into law and the right people employed to promote the industry from its rustic past. Well done, Bolaji Abdullahi and indeed the lawmakers.

    I dey laugh o!

    Those celebrating the emergence of new stars in the Eagles should read this. A certain player, said to be in one of the Francophone countries is 21 years, according to his international passport.

    He is married with two children between ages 10 and seven. I didn’t say kids. What will our players not do to gain relevance? Please, don’t ask me if the player is still in the Eagles.

    Who invited Efe Ambrose?

    Those rooting for 100 per cent autonomy for our national team coaches must ask the Super Eagles chief coach, who invited Efe Ambrose for the Kenya tie in Calabar?

    Ambrose is banned from the game because of accumulation of yellow cards? So, why didn’t the coaches detect this flaw?

    We are just lucky that an alert NFF staff spotted the mistake. Otherwise, we would have lost the game, if the Kenyans protested and other stiffer penalties would have followed.

    The point being here is that no one is an island. Our coaches must be magnanimous to subject their lists to the technical committee for scrutiny. The mistake would have been spotted during the vetting session.

    Again, it shows the quality of our coaching crew. Maybe, the choice of players is a one-man show. How was it possible that no coach remembered that Ambrose was ineligible?

  • Letter to Malam Umar Musa Yar’adua

    Dear Malam Umar Musa Yar’adua,

    Your Excellency Sir, Nigeria has undergone systematic transformation since you departed from us. Most of these are not good; hence it is not my intention to take you through all the calamities. However, I will crave your indulgence on some present political happenings and our expectations come 2015. You took over in 2007 from a leadership that was dictatorial and corrupt; what you inherited was an inept administration, a deteriorating polity and a functionless civil service.

    Those who know you and what you stood for were happy that, once again, God has done something great by honouring us with a focused, independent-minded and honest leader. You promptly displayed your independence on all national issues: you were steadfast in reviving decayed infrastructure; sanity was already returning in all arms of government, courtesy of your due-process attitude. You were patriotic, revolutionary, exhibited inbuilt concern for Nigeria and Nigerians. The fruit of what you stood for was maturing, in some instances getting ripe, when you answered the call of Allah.

    Before your funeral in the ancient city of Katsina and at the famous Danmarna Cemetery — oh sorry, even when you were lying sick, months before your departure — the country was already drifting to your predecessor’s era. They started by squandering the foreign reserves you painfully saved, and then racketeering of the nation’s Bonny Light. Before you left, government agencies had compromised their ethics and pledge to serve Nigeria diligently, with truth and honesty. These unfortunate trends continue. The effect is so devastating that it has affected all strata of the society.

    Nigerians are now being challenged with a leadership that lacks capacity: provision of even the lowest form of basic infrastructure is still a mirage. Needless to say, even in the Federal Capital city, inhabitants resort to patronising the ‘mai-ruwa’ for their water needs. These new occupants have made corruption a way of governance: there is stealing in the energy, transport and pension sectors of the economy. Their vandalism has also swallowed the nation’s foreign reserves; we are now indebted to the tune of $7 billion and N8 trillion foreign and domestic debt respectively.

    Security-wise, the English man is short of words to describe the present situation, but surely it is safer to live in the jungle of Animal Farm in faraway Russia than the Nigeria territory in this century. Killings are a daily occurrence; nobody is safe, with prime target mostly primary school pupils, females and sometimes the aged. Recently, this issue necessitated an amnesty call which the government rejected, arguing that if JTF wiped out communities somewhere, mere killings and breeding of orphans should not be reciprocated with an amnesty.

    Sir, you’ve tested leadership; you knew about the total control of the nation’s purse; you have worked with praise singers that believed a leader should be worshiped, and, of course, the unnecessary and lofty protocol associated with the office. For these reasons, they are bent on elongating their tenure by all means. This is made clear by their desperate moves to pocket the party so as to give way for a single candidate at the primaries. Even if a promise is a promise – so what? After all, he was a signatory to a two-term zoning agreement which he dumped in the dustbin and Nigerians still call him ‘Excellency’. So what’s the big deal being un-honourable? Their members are optimistic that government apparatus would be employed to make sure our votes do not count.

    The Obasanjo group that promoted your candidature is on the political field. They felt alienated by all the regimes and so needed some relevance again. After all, the PDP is theirs, hence newcomers should stay clear. They have one of the governors as their only sucker. Governors Muazu, Lamido, Shema and possibily Kwankwaso are already in line for this adventure.

    Another interesting group jostling to occupy Aso Rock come 2015 is that of the governors. They have made it a tradition that only one of them should be there for corruption to continue. Their ways include cornering of delegates, intimidation and rigging of votes, which you knew very well. These governors are already in secret alliance with OBJ, since their supreme criteria is to have one of them in Aso Rock; Baba’s choice is therefore perfect; but, as expected there will be political gimmicks before the primaries while a shameless concession and unification is intended minutes to the elections, of course, to the astonishment of the government group.

    I know you will be wondering why I did not mention that previously powerful IBB group. They are in agony for being the architects of the ship but now completely lost out of the power game. If you remember, they were uncared-for passengers in OBJ’s regime; you did not harbour them because of your independence. They are not on the Jonathan train and now not part of the so-called elongation. Their only option is either to surrender or engage in anti-party activities. We believed the general was still combatant. From the above analysis, coupled with governors’ influence at the PDP primaries taken into consideration, PDP merger with the NNPC, Pension Fund, etc, and INEC’s professorial ability to rig election, the Katsina governor may be gradually ascending to the exalted seat.

    I am sure you know about the progressive merger and the formation of the All Progressive Congress (APC). Already, this milestone is causing sleepless nights to all the PDP groups. We are confident you would have been in this team, were you to be alive today and not in position of leadership. Your memories and radical contributions during our good old days in the PRP, PDM and lately the SDP are still fresh with us. Comrade , Sir, ALUTA CONTINUA, VICTORIA ACERTA.

    We are proud of you, you are a role model; you served sincerely and with all your strength. You left us without anything worldly but an enviable legacy of empirical honesty, humility and commitment to serve.

    The APC is now positioned to provide the required challenge to the ruling party. Already, the progressives have a crack team — solidly aggressive and with a termite-like unity. You know united we stand, divided we fall. The vote-protection techniques used in previous elections is now improved to actions from the polling units to the supreme courts if need be. Our flag-bearers are already in shape – vibrant, blunt, mobile and with the courage, commitment and foresight of the like of the late Hugo Chavez.

    Your excellency, please permit me to use this medium to appeal to the founders of APC to, as a matter of urgency, include the office of a vote protector in the executive offices of this new party at all levels. The occupant should be next only to the secretary of the party in hierarchy — fearless, aggressively wise and also unable to use all known and unknown means to protect votes and at all cost. I repeat: at all cost.

    No stupid errand boy will dare tamper with progressive votes when the like of the Oshiomholes, Al-Makuras, el-Rufais or even the combatant and the no-nonsense Sam Nda-Isaiah is occupying the office of national vote protector. If you are not comfortable with my harsh language, I’m not sorry and no apology: this time round, it’s victory or nothing else.

    The Nigerian masses have pledged to elect candidates based on their integrity, track records and sincere commitment to serve their cause, while the APC leadership is on hand to provide an all-encompassing flat form for institutionalising genuine democracy devoid of vices for the interest of the common man.

    Finally, Sir, our consolation is further strengthened by our total conviction that leadership at whatever level is beyond human power, the control of the nation’s purse, command of the armed forces and INEC notwithstanding. No government succeeds with injustice; whoever doubts that is surely not among the wise and the enlightened.

    May I conclude, Your Excellency, by saying, ‘O Allah, forgive Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and elevate his station among those who are guided. Send him along the path of those who come before and forgive us and him. O Lord of the worlds, enlarge for him his grave and shed light upon him in it.

    Yours sincerely, Garba Dankani

  • Between Jonathan and Borno elders

    The highlight of the just concluded presi dential visit to Yobe and Borno states was the open altercation between the august visitor and elder statesmen of Borno State at a town hall meeting in Maiduguri. Of course, it was obvious from his grave mien and unsmiling visage that, if he had his way, President Goodluck Jonathan would keep a good distance from the two embattled states in the North-East zone of the country. Only the naïve would believe the assertion by the Special Adviser to the President on public affairs, Dr.Doyin Okupe, that Jonathan had long planned to visit the heartland of Boko Haram’s activities and was only pre-empted by the governors of the emergent All Progressives Congress (APC). With characteristic bellicosity, Okupe described the governors as ‘power mongers’ and their visit a mere circus show. Well, rave as much as he likes, Okupe’s vituperations could not obliterate the fact that his principal, Jonathan, was spurred into action to visit Borno and Yobe by the initiative of the governors. The presidency was no doubt riled by Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s affirmation that for a patriotic and courageous leadership, no part of the country should be a no-go area. Before the initiative of the ten opposition governors, President Gooodluck Jonathan had exhibited an inexplicable paralysis of the will as far as the Boko Haram insurgency was concerned. For two consecutive years, he had presided over the national day parade within the safe confines of Aso Villa rather than the Eagle Square in Abuja as had always been the practice. For President Jonathan, the fear of Boko Haram appeared to be the beginning of wisdom. It was this image of cowardice and timidity that he tried to shake off through his visit to Yobe and Borno states.

    Of course, there was a qualitative difference between the visit of the governors and that of the President to the troubled North-East. The visit of the governors was spontaneous and hence more natural. They not only held their private meeting behind closed doors but went ahead to walk through the biggest and busiest market in Maiduguri as well as visiting a secondary school. Their action sent a positive signal to the world that the situation in Maiduguri is not as grim as being depicted and that life is indeed going on normally in most parts of the state capital. President Jonathan’s visit was another kettle of fish altogether. The two states were practically shut down during the duration of his visit. Public holidays were declared so that people could remain indoors. An armada of security personnel including 3000 policemen led by the Inspector General of Police himself was deployed to ensure the President’s safety. After the symbolic gesture of commissioning a few projects, the President then held town hall meetings with elder statesmen of the two states at the respective government houses. The Maiduguri Town Hall meeting turned out to be quite dramatic with the open disagreement between the President and the elders. This in itself is an indication that the visit was not thoroughly and meticulously planned as Okupe would want us to believe. In a carefully choreographed visit, grievances would have been ventilated and addressed privately while the main event would simply have been a public relations show for the benefit of the public.

    The major point of disagreement between President Jonathan and Borno State elders centres around the activities of the military Joint Task Force (JTF) sent to combat the Boko Haram menace in the state. The elders complained about the human rights atrocities being committed by members of the JTF stressing the arbitrary mass retaliatory killings that always accompanied the killing of even one soldier by the Boko Haram insurgents. They complained about the virtual militarization of Borno State with sand bags mounted on practically every street of the state capital as in a theatre of war. Did President Jonathan have any words of comfort for them? No, his reaction was rash and brash. According to the President “We are not happy to be spending so much money keeping the JTF in Borno State and other places. Definitely, we are not. In fact, if the elders agree now to come and sign agreement with me that I should move out all the JTF, but if anybody dies in Borno State, I will hold them responsible…If somebody dies, yes, I will take you. I am going to remove the JTF, but come and sign and I will remove the JTF and you guarantee the safety of life and property of individuals.” In the first place, it is strange in African tradition for elders to be addressed the way the President spoke in Maiduguri. Again, the President seemed to be abdicating his constitutional responsibility of protecting lives and property and seeking to place such responsibility on the shoulders of the elders. Do the elders control the police, army, navy, air force, secret service and other coercive instruments available to the President? Is the President suggesting that the JTF cannot do its job effectively without violating the rights and dignity of ordinary citizens? Would it have been out of place for the President to summon the leadership of the JTF and in the presence of the elders warn that he would not tolerate any continued violation of the rights of innocent citizens; that he is as concerned about the lives of ordinary citizens as he is about members of the JTF?

    It seems to me that in both Yobe and Borno states, President Jonathan wanted to sound tough and uncompromising to make up for his belated visit to the two states and also disprove the contention that he is a weak leader. It is my view that he could have spoken with greater wisdom and compassion without compromising the need to be bold and firm. However, despite their public altercation, the Borno elders and Jonathan share essentially the same philosophy and world view about the structure of the Nigerian federation. They both believe in the current excessively centralized structure that has become so obviously dysfunctional in meeting contemporary challenges. For instance, Jonathan and the broader Northern political elite do not see anything wrong in the prevalent centralized policing system that has failed so abysmally. They continue to live in denial of the need to completely overhaul the country’s security apparatus, particularly the need for some form of state police. Yet, it as a result of the failings of the police as currently constituted that military Joint Task Forces are operating in several parts of the country today. Not only are soldiers being drafted to undertake tasks they are not professionally trained for, their participation in peace keeping operations outside the barracks, makes them susceptible to unhealthy partisan political influences. If Borno and Yobe had state police formations of their own made up of personnel drawn from the local environment, the Boko Haram menace would most probably have been better contained. It is time to begin thinking outside the box and seek radical solutions to our deep-seated problems in a rapidly changing world.

  • 2015 and the making of Jonathan’s army

    President Goodluck Jonathan took his defence of corruption a step further on Tuesday with the pardon he granted former Bayelsa State Governor, Diepriye Alamieyeseigha. To be sure, Alamieyeseigha was not the only Nigerian on the list of ex-convicts that got presidential pardon. There were others like former Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, the late Maj-Gen. Shehu Musa Yar’Adua and some military officers implicated in the 1995 and 1997 coups against the late military Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha. They included former Chief of General Staff, Lt-Gen Oladipo Diya; a former Minister of Communications, Maj-Gen Tajudeen Olanrewaju; and a former Minister of Works, the late Gen. Abdulkareem Adisa. There were also others like a former Managing Director of the defunct Bank of the North, Alhaji Shettima Bulama, and Dr. Chiichii Ashwe.

    For obvious reasons, however, there has been public uproar against the gesture dispensed to Alamieyeseigha and perceived by many as shocking and scandalous. While Yar’Adua, Diya, Olanrewaju and others were jailed for political reasons, Alamieyeseigha was convicted for using his office as the Bayelsa State Governor to pilfer the exchequer. This was after he had brought the nation to international disrepute by jumping bail in London where he was arrested by the Metropolitan Police for money laundering.

    Upon his nocturnal return to Nigeria, the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, prodded by the then President, Olusegun Obasanjo, initiated impeachment moves that culminated in his removal and replacement with his then deputy, Dr. Jonathan. But like a dog that would never forget his benefactor, Jonathan’s loyalty to Alamieyeseigha remained steadfast. He was a direct beneficiary of Alamieyeseigha’s gesture and misadventure, without which he would probably be ebbing away as an obscure teacher in an obscure school in the backwaters of Bayelsa. While Obasanjo would be credited with making Jonathan the governor of Bayelsa State and later the nation’s vice president , it was Alamieyeseigha’s intervention that actually rescued him from the misery of growing up without shoes.. It is unlikely that Obasanjo would notice Jonathan if Alamieyeseigha had not made him his running mate in the first place.

    Jonathan believed the least he could do for Alamieyeseigha as the nation’s president was to grant him state pardon and remove from him the shame and stigma of an ex-convict. Happily, his prayers were granted at the National Council of State meeting held in Abuja on Tuesday. We all have to pretend now that Alamieyeseigha never stole, even though he admitted doing so in court. We must pretend that he never went to jail and that he has become as free as a bird to aspire to any office in the land, including that of the President. It would amount to an offence now to call him an ex-convict. Those who must view his person from the prism of prison will more appropriately address him now as a former ex-convict.

    For heavens’ sake, I would not be drawn into explaining the difference between an ex-convict and a former ex-convict. What is important now is that our President has emerged a happier man. He has succeeded in using deserving Nigerians as a smokescreen to remove the garb of shame that clung to his political mentor like a cloak. How desperately he needed to do it is explained by the fact that he had to grant the late Gen Musa Yar’Adua another pardon after the one granted by his predecessor, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, on the strength of which Obasanjo contested the presidential election in 1999.

    Behind all this, however, is the bigger picture that no one needs a crystal ball to see. The battle for 2015 has become so fierce now that the President needs as many Obasanjo’s foes as he can muster to join his camp. About 72 hours before Tuesday’s announcement, I had told a neighbour that I suspected plans by the Jonathan government to grant presidential pardon to Chief Olabode Gerorge, a former National Vice President of the PDP and former Chairman of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), who was jailed for two years in 2009 for contract splitting and inflation. That much was clear from the body language of the President and the utterances of many of his foot soldiers lately. The campaign against George’s ex-convict status had begun with numerous interviews he himself granted the media complaining that he should not have been tried by a Lagos High Court when the money he stole belonged to the Federal Government.

    Jonathan himself had subtly begun his rehabilitation in January with his appointment into a panel to re-organise the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a move seriously criticised by legal practitioners and civil rights groups. Then there were media reports quoting the Acting Director of Public Prosecution of the Federal Government, Mr. O.T Olatigbe, as claiming that the fiat upon which George’s trial was based did not emanate from his office. This, as reported, was in response to a memo from the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke, requesting for the fiat.

    With Obasanjo out of the fold of Jonathan’s supporters, the President and his loyalists in the party are in desperate need of a figure that could act as a rallying point in the South West for his second term ambition. No party member seems to fit the bill better than George who, unfortunately, is smeared with the tag of ex-convict.

    Like Alamieyeseigha, a presidential pardon for George would be in perfect sync with the drafting of Obasanjo’s real and perceived enemies into Jonathan’s army for the 2015 battle. All a politician needs to do now to be counted among Jonathan’s loyalists is to openly antagonise Obasanjo or advertise himself as a sworn enemy of the ex-President. The trend proceeds upon the logic that an Obasanjo’s enemy is necessarily a friend of Jonathan. As would be expected in a land that brims with favour seekers, smart politicians are exploiting the trend for their own share of the national cake.

    That was the case with Dr. Doyin Okupe, a former Obasanjo spokesman who now champions virulent verbal attacks on the ex-President. The schism between Okupe and his erstwhile boss had grown into a chasm in the heat of the crisis that rocked the Ogun State chapter of the PDP in February last year. Addressing journalists at the venue of a meeting held by the Kashamu Buruji faction of the PDP in Ijebu-Ode, Okupe turned his fangs against his erstwhile boss, declaring him a liability on the PDP. For his temerity, Jonathan rewarded him with an appointment as the Senior Special Assistant to Jonthan on Public Affairs five months later.

    It is no accident that the closest politicians to Jonathan today were trusted associates of Obasanjo who became his sworn enemies. The list grows longer by the day, featuring names like Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Chief Tony Anenih, Dr. Bukola Saraki and Chief Jim Nwobodo, to mention but few.

  • NEXT ELECTION: Like Anambra, like Nigeria

    NEXT ELECTION: Like Anambra, like Nigeria

    As the Anambra governorship election looms ominously later ahead, I must say I do not envy Governor Peter Obi of Anambra state; not in the least. One of the saner governors in Nigeria today in this sad, sad time of leadership kwashiorkor; I have been growing grey hair on his behalf day and night trying to script the Anambra theatre but each time I end up without a viable resolution or denouement. How will Obi untangle this jig-saw puzzle; is there a solution to this seeming stalemated chess game? But then, he can take solace in the fact that this state of utter confusion is not unlike what is going on, albeit, on a larger scale on the Nigerian stage.

    Consider the crazy scenarios: his party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has been rent in two. Derisively called APGA-PDP and APGA-APC, it obviously cannot win an election as it is. Even before APGA’s current morass, the party had been mortally troubled and wind-tossed in the last two years no thanks to the Imo State governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, aka Hurricane Rochas. If APGA stood with the aid of crutches, Okorocha came along and instead of helping the fledgling Igbo party to stand on its feet, he yanked away a crutch leaving the party on a mortal limp.

    Now, Ndigbo who needed a platform to call their own have no where to anchor. Majority of Igbo voters who would cast their lot with APGA are now orphans, they are destitutes, to be picked up by some benevolent stranger. Now Igbo land is in disarray like never before. The so-called Ohaneze and so-called Igbo elite have been firmly tethered in Aso Rock to enjoy its lush green grass and get fattened in readiness for 2015 election. APGA has been damaged beyond repairs; whatever Igbo agenda there was has been compromised and handed to Aso Rock. Yes, Ndigbo has been signed, sealed and delivered four years ahead.

    What Obi can do now He was never your wily Nigerian politician; he his probably a bit ahead of his time. Nothing, absolutely nothing takes its normal course in Nigeria’s politics of today. Everything is manipulated, choreographed and orchestrated as the situation requires. Obi is not the average stone-hearted Nigerian politician of today otherwise he would have cleared the entire forest of Anambra if need be to push through his succession game plan. But we cannot see anyone in the horizon. He must forget about zoning now; he must forget about pushing an ‘anointed’ candidate to further his work for he may not be able to push him/her to electoral victory, he must forget about party too; he must look for the most workable candidate among the front-runners and work out a strategic alliance with him or her in the best interest of the people of Anambra and for the sake of his legacy.

    In my opinion, the front-runners (in no particular order) are: Chris Ngige, Andy Ubah, Dora Akunyili, Chukwuma Soludo and perhaps Ifeanyi Uba. The pragmatic move may be to seek the best of these options. November is here, there is no time, Governor Obi must act fast to avoid a calamitous exit from power. He has said he would never seek another elective office. That is a courageous decision and he will do well to keep his word. He is building a ladder to statesmanship; a position that has almost become extinct in Igbo land today. And he has been a fairly good governor too; one Ndigbo are proud of, but what about post- Obi Anambra and Igbo land? Who succeeds him will speak so much about his legacy and his place in Anambra, Ndigbo and Nigeria’s history in the years to come. While a critical review of his long tenure will wait till later, we must leave him to play his end game now!

    Readers’ reaction

    ON NNPC’S $1.5 B DEBT…

    God bless you for your column last Friday. Every time I read you, it’s always a reflection of the mind of the people who have no opportunity to voice it out. With these revelations about NNPC, I hope Nigerians will be challenged to act. More focal breakthrough to your glasses sir – Akan, 08067080317

    I very much like your straight talk and writing…NNPC’s $1.5 billion caper – A.T. Mozie, UNN, 07055035265

    Please never tire to tell NNPC and its collaborators the home truth. NNPC is house of sin but be assured that they will give account one day; yes one and all. The lord of the harvest is his own auditor-general and not one kobo misses his notice. Ebere, 08099190019

    ON DR. ORJI UZOR KALU SANS B.SC…

    I agree with the piece that OUK should go back to school and acquire degrees since money and education are worlds apart. The problem is that the neo-colonial state protects the imperialist at the expense of the people – Amos Ejiimkonye, Kaduna, 08039727512

    Who says Orji Kalu lacks sound university education? Who writes that beautiful column in the Sun every Saturday? Sorry this man hoodwinked Abians and showed the state the road to hell with his mother-wife for 8 years. Having succeeded in that deceit he thought everyday is Christmas. He wants to go to federal not knowing that we are in 2013 – 07030981551

    Thank you my brother for your forthrightness. OUK represents the worst face of Nigeria’s elite today – leadership without principle. How I wish he would harken to your advice. Innocent, 08033151662

    Thanks Steve, what invaluable advice to OUK, the type his aides would not dare suggest. An education ‘exile’ to Tahiti or Christmas Island for 5 years will do him so much good. He should pay you for this wonderful idea, Dandy Offor, Aba, 07051155762

    Mr. Osuji what is your problem with our dear OUK? Whether you like it or not, he is a great man, a great Igbo son whose sandals you cannot lace, Emenike from Aba, 08055601981

    ON ABC AT 20

    Steve well done on your quality intervention every Friday. But let us give more attention to developments like the story on ABC Transport at 20. One paragraph is not enough. I have not seen any columnist write about that great Nigerian success story. We must moderate our undue attention to Nigeria’s fruitless politics and focus on those truly great achievers like Frank Nneji. Ugo Maduagwu, Owerri, 08033261517

  • Riddles of Nigerian sphinx

    Beware of a calamity that may not spare the innocent ones amongst you when it descends; and know that Allah’s retribution can be very severe”. Q. 8: 24

     The world of humans is predominantly governed by a phenomenon called politics. No individual or family can escape the web of that pervasive phenomenon. Either overtly or covertly, politics is a virus cruising ceaselessly in the nerves of every man or woman. It is one phenomenon that permeates all aspects of human life directly or indirectly and showers it with a dew of acid. In Nigeria, there is as much politics in religion as there is even in football.

    An altercation between President Goodluck Jonathan and some elders of the Northeast last week over the official handling of Boko Haram insurgents is a confirmation of the above assertion. Following Mr. President’s visit to the region, the latter called for official amnesty for the insurgents as a way of ventilating the atmosphere for peace and harmony in the country. But labelling the call a political shroud, Mr. President bluntly rebuffed it saying he would not grant any amnesty to ‘FACELESS TERRORISTS’. Judging by the venomous politics embedded in that altercation at this precarious time, one can imagine the extent to which politicians can go with politics at the expense of the country they are supposed to govern.

    Ordinarily, with the precedent laid down by the late President Umar Yar’Adua in 2009 when he granted unconditional Presidential amnesty to the Southsouth economic pirates, no one would have expected President Jonathan to wait for such an altercation. After all, the late President Yar’Adua did not seek to know the faces of those pirates before he acted in that exemplary manner. And it was that laudable policy which no one opposed at the time that brought respite to the polity in the country. The danger in politicising only one of the three legs of insecurity in the land at this crucial time may transcend any short term imagination.

    Besides, claiming facelessness as a reason for not wanting to grant amnesty for the purpose of peace may be quite illogical where hundreds of people are being detained without trial for being members of Boko Haram. Is it possible to detain faceless people? And we have been told many times of the killing of some members of Boko Haram by the Joint Task Force (JTF). Can those being continually killed in the various crossfire operations for being members of Boko Haram be said to be faceless?

    More than 90% of people killed by the combined forces of Boko Haram and JTF in the North since the commencement of insurgency in that region are innocent women and children. Should such people continue to be murdered in cold blood just for being residents of the areas of insurgency? It is obvious that for every one member of Boko Haram said to be killed at least 10 innocent civilians are murdered in what may qualify for ethnic cleansing. This is the reason why some foresighted elders in the region are calling for Presidential amnesty as a way of calming the vexed nerves in order to bring back peace to Nigeria. It should be recalled that even the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, (Dr.) Muhammad Sa‘ad Abubakar III had earlier made a similar call based on instinct and foresight. The question now is this: for how long will the government forces run after the ‘faceless’ suicide bombers who are ready to die and care not about other people’s lives?

    It is difficult to give politics its befitting definition without dabbling into controversy in Nigeria. While the partisan politicians will describe politics as a means of governing through the legislature, the judiciary and the executive arms, others will call it a means of exploiting the majority by the minority. From whatever angle it is viewed, however, politics, particularly in Nigeria, is a cankerworm eating deeply into the fabrics of human lives often with the exhibition of negative rather than positive effects. Perhaps, no nomenclature is more fitting to politics in Nigeria than SPHINX.

    Nigerians who are well familiar with European literature must now be reminded of the riddles of a sphinx in Thebes (a capital city of ancient Greece). In a tragic drama entitled ‘Oedipus Rex’ and produced in 411 BC by Sophocles, a Greek dramatist who lived between 496 and 406 BC, we are told of a curse which once befell the land of Thebes. As a result of the curse, not only were citizens afflicted by mysterious sicknesses and dying in droves but the cattle and herds too were also gripped by an epidemic of reindeer-pest even as the crops in the farms were blighted.

    At that time, Oedipus was the king who earned his people’s trust in resolving the crisis. This was because as an adolescent, he had saved Thebes from a similar calamity wrought by a monstrous sphinx which mysteriously took its permanent seat on a rock by the roadside that divided the city into two. That sphinx had a riddle which she put to every passerby. And if the accosted person failed to solve the riddle she promptly devoured him.

    Thus, for a long time, the city of Thebes remained under the plague of the monstrous sphinx which was feeding fat on the flesh and blood of the citizens. The entailed sadness and hopelessness turned Thebes into a mourning city of passive inhabitants. In such a situation, when the population of the city was decreasing at an increasing rate, how could any thought of mating for the purpose of reproduction ever cross the mind of anybody? A citizen could only be sure of the moment in which he was without any hope for a minute later. Many people went on hunger strike. Many committed suicide while many more embarked on endless seclusion.

    That was the situation in Thebes until the young Oedipus emerged as the hero of his time by finding a final solution to the riddle of the sphinx while the latter leaped, in despair, from the rock and dashed out into permanent oblivion. Thus, the veil of curse was lifted on the city of Thebes and Oedipus became the king even as he was immortalised as the saviour of the Thebesians.

    Today, Nigeria, like Thebes of yore, is passing through an experience of a similar spell in terms of insecurity. The difference, however, is not only that Nigeria’s case is taking a tripod formula, there is also no obvious presence of an Oedipus here who can handle the problem in such a way as to bring succour to Nigerians and thereby become a hero.

    Rather than one sphinx encountered by the Thebesians, Nigeria is encountering three at the same time. There is the vivid presence of Boko Haram vandals in the North; there are the economic pirates called militants in the Southsouth and there are the devilish human kidnappers in the Southeast all of whom have jointly hijacked the governance of the country albeit tacitly. The only part of the country that is seemingly less restive for now is the Southwest. And, incidentally, that is the place from where the Nigerian water stream is being clandestinely polluted for all and sundry through the media. Today, Nigeria has become an unsafe haven in which dangerous tribal and sectarian species are operating with unbridled audacity under various guises.

    It was all like a comic drama in 1987 when a frontline Nigerian journalist (Dele Giwa) was blown up with a letter bomb in his living room in Ikeja, Lagos. That criminal act was followed by public lamentations and condemnations. But the politics of the time never allowed it to go beyond that level as no reports of the inquiries into the matter saw the light of the day. With that, an evil precedent was laid in a country where imitation of evil practices has become a fundamental norm.

    On October 1, 2010, the first public bomb blast in Nigeria occurred at the Eagles Square in Abuja while the country’s 50th anniversary of independence was being celebrated. The bomb killed several people and injured many more others. But rather than nipping it in the bud, the incident provided the politicians another opportunity to trade politics as usual at the expense of peace and tranquility in the country. And today Nigeria is grappling with more insuperable problems of insecurity than ever before.

    The real essence of history is for human beings to learn from its lessons. Without such lessons, history would have served no purpose in the life of man. Governance is like driving in which no one can claim to know all or see all. The essence of having people around you as a leader is to seek and utilise their constructive advice so that if any failure occurs you will not bear the brunt all alone. No human being has monopoly of wisdom and nothing in governance destroys more than sheer whim.

    The late President Yar’Adua did not act alone when he declared unconditional amnesty for the Southsouth pirates. He must have surely done it in consultation with some people. And no section of the country raised any objection to it. Perhaps without that singular policy, more than 30,000 former Southsouth pirates who are currently enjoying the Nigerian amnesty programme in various forms would have remained in the jungle killing and maiming innocent people as the Boko Haram terrorists are now doing and vandalising oil pipelines as well as other economic installations.

    Tracing the history of amnesty in Nigeria recently, the Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Niger Delta Affairs, Kingsley Kuku recalled with delight that when the late President Yar’Adua proclaimed unconditional amnesty for the Southsouth militants on June 25, 2009, on condition of willingness and readiness to surrender their arms, a total of 20,192 former agitators gave up their arms and ammunitions. “In return, the FG under Yar’Adua administration pledged its commitment to institute certain programmes to assist the disarmament, demobilisation, rehabilitation and reintegration of the former agitators”.

    Kuku continued by saying that: “pursuant to the letter and spirit of the Amnesty Proclamation, the Federal Government instituted a Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) package for those who accepted the offer of amnesty on or before the expiration date of October 20, 2010. But “another batch of 6,166 was added in November 2010 to constitute a second phase of the programme, bringing the number of persons enlisted in the Presidential Amnesty Programme to 26,358’’. He further said that the Federal Government also approved the inclusion of yet another batch of 3,642 former militants, bringing the total to 30,000 in October, 2012. Kuku said the PAO was committed to funding the disarmament process of 3,642 former militants newly enrolled for the third phase of the amnesty programme.

    This, according to him, was aimed at reconciling the disarmament records of the former agitators, who had surrendered their arms to military formations and security agencies, in the third phase of the amnesty programme and concluded that out of the 30,000 former agitators, more than 11,525 had been placed in skills acquisition/training centres, as well as in formal education within the country and offshore. “Of this number, 4,929 are being trained offshore, while the balance of 6,382 have either been returned to formal education or placed in skill acquisition centres within the country”.

    Similarly, Kuku said that “6,067 transformed ex-agitators are currently being processed for deployment to reintegration centres (both within the country and offshore) in the fiscal year 2012’’. The presidential aide added that 113 former militants had been assisted in securing employment in maritime, welding and fabrication companies at home and abroad.

    He also disclosed that Proclad Group of Companies in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, (UAE), offered employment to 30 of the 150 ex-militants, who were trained by the Proclad Academy because of their exceptional conduct and performance.

    “The Presidential Amnesty Office, in collaboration with the International Centre for Non-violence and Peace Development (ICNPD) secured the employment through a partnership with Proclad Academy”. He did not stop there but went further to say that he also facilitated the immediate employment of 40 maritime trainees by the Century Energy Group in Nigeria’’ adding that his office also offered employment to another 24 maritime trainees consisting of “four welding and fabrication trainees who had been employed in Nigeria by Plants and Processing Service Company, while five were offered jobs in South Africa by Ashland Investment Services in addition to “ten who were offered employment by Learning Resources in Ghana’’.

    Looking at all these facts and figures from an official who should know, one cannot but ask some vital questions: are we all Nigerians? Should some Nigerians be enjoying the above mentioned facilities while others are being chased about with guns despite committing the same offence in different ways? What else is piracy or kidnapping if not terrorism? Why should there be different strokes for the same offence in the same country?

    One fact must be made clearer here. No one is calling for amnesty in sympathy for terrorism. Evil is evil, no matter what colour it wears. And no sane person will ever condone evil. The point here is that if the late President Yar’Adua, a northerner, could go so far to do what he did for some recalcitrant southerners in order to bring about peace to the land, what stops President Jonathan a southerner from doing same for some northern miscreants for the purpose of peace and harmony? Terrorism may have different colours, tastes and flavours but the bottom-line is one and the same: POVERTY engendered by joblessness. The former US President Bill Clinton emphasised this much recently here in Nigeria and he is not a Nigerian. If more than 60 million youths are jobless in an OPEC member country, the government must re-examine itself. A stitch in time saves ten. This, and not later is the time to save Nigeria.

  • The state as family writ large

    The state as family writ large

    The Presidency has spoken and the nation ought to listen and obey. The state is the family writ large, the President is the patriarch, and the citizens are the children. As the father of the nation, the President knows best what is good for the nation. As such, it is impudent of citizens, his children, to query his judgment. Where did we hear this before?

    The idea that the state is comparable to the family is as old as political philosophy. The structure of the state has been explained in terms of the structure of the family and Aristotle viewed the family developing into the state. Interestingly, in The People’s Republic, Chief Obafemi Awolowo also explored the analogy with approval, viewing the paterfamilias as the benevolent patriarch who, on the basis of his knowledge of the interests of his children, negotiated with other families for the purpose of becoming a state. And Confucius celebrated the harmony that characterises the model of the state as family, a harmony that is ensured by the naturalness of the obedience that flows from bottom to the top: from citizens to the sovereign. A number of modern states exemplify this model with the attendant stability.

    Too bad for the Presidency, Nigeria opted for a different model of the state. Before independence, the founding fathers, Awolowo included, knew that in view of our history and culture, and the experience of colonial rule, we would fare much better with a republican model of governance. This model is antithetical to the family model because it doesn’t treat citizens as children or subjects and it doesn’t credit the president or governor with a superior intellect, or a superlative moral sense. Indeed, in this model, the citizens know best their interests, and the purpose of elections is to register those interests. Political parties sponsor candidates with like minds and interests, and the party that emerges gets the nod to rule on behalf of all the citizens.

    Of course, each model has its advantages and disadvantages. The first treats citizens as eternal children who can never grow. After all, even our various traditions acknowledge the progression from infancy to adulthood and respect the decisions of adult children of the family to find their own voice and make their own plans. That the family model of the state doesn’t give due recognition to citizens’ rights to question the judgment and actions of the government is one of its most egregious limitations and whatever advantage it garners in terms of the stability it provides is incapable of making up for this anomaly.

    What some may find offensive about the republican state is its raucous character, occasioned by sometimes riotous debate and debilitating factionalisation which could slow down decision-making. Since every interest has the right to be placed on the marketplace of political ideas for acceptance, republican governance doesn’t favour one person or a group, no matter how well-placed, to impose a position on citizens. If this happens, the right to complain cannot be taken away from them.

    In the matter of the power of the President to grant pardon to convicted felons, no one denies the constitutional privilege. The complaint, which the President as a reasonable and intelligent citizen also recognises and presumably appreciates, is that that power and the right come with huge responsibility and precaution against abuse. And when citizens sense a breach of the responsibility, they have the right to register their disapproval without being seen as ungrateful kids.

    Take a quick look at the sensitivity that another privileged individual in the President’s position displayed recently in the matter of presidential responsibility. Former aide to the Vice President of the United States, Lewis Scooter Libby, was convicted for his involvement in the disclosure of the identity of a CIA agent, Ms. Valerie Plame Wilson. On March 6, 2007, Libby was found guilty by a Federal Court. On June 5, 2007, he was sentenced to 30 months in prison. President Bush used his Presidential power and commuted the sentence on July 2, so that Libby did not serve the jail time. However, the fine of $250,000 and the felony conviction remained till today. Libby is still a convicted felon. Bush’s refusal to grant full pardon was born out of his conviction concerning the gravity of the felony committed by Libby. By this decision, he received a full measure of the fury of his party and especially his Vice President. While Bush was rightly chastised by the public on other weighty issues, many believed that he acted right in the matter of Libby, though many liberals wished he didn’t also commute the sentence.

    What can we say about the action of Mr. President, which has been the subject of vibrant media discourse the whole week? The President pardoned individuals who had had a brush with the law at one time or the other. They belonged to different categories. There were the Abacha phantom coup plotters who were believed to have been framed up and wrongly convicted by a phantom court. No one complains against the pardon of those in this category. Indeed, former President Obasanjo, himself, a victim of a wrongful conviction who also received state pardon should have done the right thing during his two terms in office. Jonathan must be applauded for pardoning General Diya and his group.

    There is the other category of individuals convicted of corruption, among which is former Governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alameyeseigha. There are two issues involved. First is the nature of the felony committed by the former governor. It is now too depressing to recount the details of the embarrassment that his arrest in London, his escape and jumping of bail caused Nigerians in general, and Balyesians in particular. Without any remorse, the former governor went back to his gubernatorial palace, praised God for his dramatic escape and life continued. That was until former President Obasanjo bared his fang and the EFCC went after Alam. To the relief of Nigerians, the former governor was arrested, prosecuted, and convicted. So he paid the price. As explained above, so did Scooter Libby.

    Second, there is the issue of the relationship of Mr. President to former Governor Alameyeseigha who was the former boss of the president. A Presidential spokesperson alluded to this relationship which according to him, everyone knows about. It’s as if, we shouldn’t have expected anything less, given the nature of that relationship. As someone who worked well with the President, given him the opportunity to be his deputy, which later translated to his becoming the governor and now the President, he owes Alam the proverbial one. This sad aspect of this reasoning is that it has been the bane of our social and political history. We feel enslaved by primordial instincts and we see our obligations to the country from the blinkers of those instincts. The President acted in good faith with his boss but in bad faith with Nigerians.

    I just claimed that the President acted in bad faith with Nigerians in this matter. This is because they look up to him to lead the struggle against corrupt practices with vigour. Pardoning the epitome of the wrong side of that struggle looks to Nigerians as a sell-out. It isn’t that Alams had not paid the price; it’s simply that pardoning him sets a precedence which cannot be ignored. What about others convicted of felony corruption since Alam? What prevents a new President granting them pardon in ten years? If this becomes a trend, where is the deterrent effect of prosecution and conviction if you know that with good rapport with the President you can receive state pardon? These are the issues which Mr. President and the National Council of State ought to weigh more heavily in their minds.

  • Celebrity trash, trashy journalism and everyone (2)

    This minute, conversation degenerates into mere gossip and heartfelt dreams manifest as perfections of perversity, everywhere. Everybody is a sucker for “high-society.” Like heat-maddened farm rats, ordinary people are persistently yearning for the madness of “high-society.”

    It’s the little packets of madness that we need to fear. How unforgivably foolish the society becomes in its lust for celebrity gossip. The news we read, for the most part, is too paltry for the human genius. I do not know why our news should be so trivial.

    It is the stalest repetition. Yet we madden and lust for celebrity humdrum to the point that one is tempted to wonder why too much passion is squandered in pursuit of too little substance. We live for idle amusement and thus the nature of our daily news.

    Our facts appear to spiral in the atmosphere, insignificant as the spores of the toadstool, and yet impinging on the surface of our mind, poisoning it, till it becomes not much in expression and thought. Superfluities meet superfluities; when our life ceases to be inward and absorbed, interaction degenerates into mere tittle-tattle and humanity relapses into the filthiest of averages.

    No thanks to celebrity journalism and an innately perverted public, the Nigerian mind has become a public arena, where the shenanigans of the rich and the idiocy of “high-society” are passionately celebrated.

    Every celebrity is a media creation; I repeat. While some may be deserving of the exaltation liberally accorded them, not a few celebrities are undeserving of the hero worship they receive and so desperately seek. It is hardly the fault of the celebrity however, that the press and the society in general have chosen to accord them immeasurable hero worship despite their glaring idiocy and deficiencies.

    It takes more than newsworthiness to create a celebrity. The vast, interlocking web of resources and institutions involved in creating and maintaining a single celebrity is astounding. From media outlets to fan clubs and agents, from media products to gossip columnists, a star is never solitary, but often the result of hundreds of backstage orchestrations and player deals.

    It is even all the more disturbing to watch our fascination with celebrity gossip slide into precisely the kind of ruthless pursuit of its subject to which we claim to be ostensibly opposed; it is disheartening to observe the infringement of morals and humaneness at the heart of our inquest. Yet despite the evils of our maddening lust for celebrity tittle-tattle, not a few tattlers gladly explain their obsessions away as some kind of virtuous curiosity.

    There is no such thing as virtuous curiosity. In respect of the subject matter, our curiosity oftentimes does violence to its object. On the flipside, it leaves the society stuck in a revolving cycle of spectatorship that believes in its own virtue even as it corrupts itself – a perfect representation of Jacqueline Rose’s the “perverting of curiosity in motion.”

    And even our so-called superstars have learnt to profit albeit fraudulently from the society’s perverse curiosities about their affairs. From Chaucer’s early poem, “The House of Fame,” whose hero-poet wrestles with the fame bestowed on him by society to Martin Scorcese’s film, King of Comedy, in which an amateur comedian jokes to a national television audience that it is “better to be king for a night, than schmuck for a lifetime!” celebrity worship continues to fester.

    Not to forget Nigerian actress, Genevieve Nnaji’s illuminating response to a CNN interviewer’s poser about her celebrity status, “Oh yeah, I don’t even need to wake up. Just sitting down sometimes, I’m like (sighs), sometimes I hate my life, but I can’t complain” — these celebrities and their works speak to us, even give voice to our own desires, as they reflect back to us the realities and illusions of today’s celebrity culture.

    Celebrities who insist, often with apparent desperation, that they do not court publicity, who try to hide from the public gaze on which they are totally dependent, are either naive or unapologetically fraudulent. With respect to Nigerian celebrities, being fraudulent and then, infantile, comes easy. Not only are most unable to discern that this is the balancing-act they are required to perform, they believe –erroneously so – that by virtue of their claim to stardom, they should have both the press and the public subjected to their whims.

    Therefore, the juveniles that they are at heart fail to realize that they are never functioning quite appropriately as befits their status; never perpetuating so perfectly the drama and duplicity on which celebrity thrives, as in the moments when they make that exasperating and utterly deceptive claim.

    If truly they do not crave media and public attention, let them desist from making their affairs known to the public. Let them desist from scorning such attention only to divulge news of their purported “best kept secrets” to the media surreptitiously. Celebrities who do that while making a show of their distaste for the limelight embody the worst form of infantilism and narcissistic tendencies.

    The vanity of their renunciation contains its own disavowal. It is a blatant hypocrisy that they perpetrate claiming that they do not want to be seen or become the subject of public attention; it simply says very much about their impoverishment in character and worth.

    It is even more disturbing to watch the society’s curiosity translate into precisely the kind of ruthless pursuit of subjects perpetrated by celebrity journalism. It is about time Nigerian journalists learned to focus on the issues that truly matter. How is news of the “high-octane” wedding of a telecommunication company proprietor’s daughter’s wedding, a Reality Show contestant’s current boyfriend, a professional hip-hop dancer’s pregnancy – outside wedlock – and the likely father of the child more beneficial to the youth and the society than a report about the dwindling culture of scholarship on the nation’s campuses and outside them? How is such news more beneficial to the public than the lack of functional local government authorities at the grassroots and the deplorable state of vocational and public primary schools across the country?

    It should be the media’s job not to give equal time, not to give 12 inches in a newspaper story to the idiocy and eccentricities of Nigeria’s middling rich trash and their spoilt kids. It is apparent that a passion for celebrity gossip has become the next illogical evolutionary step of journalism and readership in the country.

    Basically, it is in the media’s best financial interest to pervert its principal role as “Status-Conferrer” according to the public’s yearnings. This bespeaks a deeper perversion of the journalism ethic particularly, its “Agenda-Setter” function.

    But the fault is hardly the media’s alone. Now that it has been confirmed that the Nigerian press is fundamentally a trash can cum sounding board for the psychosis and perversions of celebrity trash and their families, the public’s role in their perpetuation of such depravity is undeniable.

    Given the public’s fascination with celebrity trash and their world, everyone remains complicit in the societal perversion. In essence, the Nigerian society is being ruled by base desires and voyeuristic inclinations for accounts of celebrities’ lives. This has led us to the point where we are not getting the journalism we need but rather the journalism we deserve.

    • To be continued…

  • Where is the Jonathan one-term pact?

    The 2015 presidential race has begun. Those interested in the election and their backers have launched a battle for the diadem. The presidency is a coveted job. As the highest office in the land, it requires those who believe in themselves to step forward for the plum job. It goes without saying, therefore, that only one person can occupy the office at a time. But in a society riven by religious and ethnic strife, whatever we do is always determined by where we come from and the faith that we profess. It is even worse in the matter of who becomes president.

    The battle for the presidency is usually a do-or- die between the North and the South. For years, the North colonised the presidency. The region held the reins of power for years, leaving the South with what its people believed to be sinecure positions. The South complained for years about a power structure, which seemed to have turned its people to second class citizens in their own country, but its cry went unheard.

    To keep the South perpetually away from presidential power, the North resorted to chicanery and if you like, bribery. During an election, rather than back its own, the South (or should I say some people from the region) is always ready to go with the North once the price is right. And what is this price? It could be either juicy political posts; contracts or cash.

    This is the trick the North has deployed for years to keep the South on the lower rungs of the political ladder. But since there is a time for everything, the tide turned in the South’s favour in 1993. Despite running on a Muslim-Muslim ticket, the late newspaper mogul Moshood Abiola won the June 12, 1993 presidential election, but the Gen Ibrahim Babangida (read as the North) regime annulled the poll, throwing the country into turmoil for years.

    Long after his exit from power in August of that same year, Nigeria remained in crisis until June 1998 when former Head of State Gen Sani Abacha died in his fortress in Aso Rock. Unfortunately, Abiola died the following month in detention.

    Abiola fought to reclaim his mandate but the late Abacha got him arrested and kept him in solitary confinement for years. Rather than back Abiola, his kinsman, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who later benefited from the late business man’s travails, said the deceased was not the messiah that Nigeria needed. That is the South for you. Obasanjo never told us, but I believe he later saw himself as that messiah when he became president in 1999. The current problem between the North and the South over the 2015 presidency can be located in the 1999 arrangement that brought Obasanjo to office.

    The North, it was said, backed him then on the condition that he would serve one term; he did two and was even ready for a third term if the National Assembly had not scuttled his ambition with the rejection of his tenure elongation bid which wars disguised as a Constitution Amendment Bill. Today, President Goodluck Jonathan is toeing that path by purportedly reneging on an agreement to do only one term. Did the president enter into such agreement? Was it a verbal or written pact? Those who should know say that it was written. If this is so, where is the agreement? Who are the signatories? Those who have the document will be doing us a world of good if they can release it for public consumption. The release of the document will lay to rest all this hue and cry over an issue which does not warrant the drawing out of our swords.

    Anyway, why will

    someone like Niger

    State Governor Babangida Aliyu say that there is such a pact if none exists? Why will a senior citizen like Chief Edwin Clark deny the existence of such a pact if really there is one? Why can’t the presidency come clean with us on the matter by telling us if the president signed such a pact or not? The answer to the issue is not to dismiss it offhandedly by saying that the talk of a pact is to distract the president. What is distracting in that? The question needs a simple yes or no answer. Yes, I signed the pact; or no, I didn’t sign the pact. Chikena

    Alleging that there is a pact in a radio interview, Aliyu said: “I recall that at the time he (Jonathan) was going to declare for the 2011 election, all the PDP governors were brought together to ensure that we were all in the same frame of mind. And I recall that some of us said given the circumstances of the death of President Umaru Yar’ Adua and given the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) zoning arrangement, it was expected that the North was to produce the president for a number of years. I recall at that discussion, it was agreed that Jonathan would serve only one term of four years and we all signed the agreement. Even when Jonathan went to Kampala in Uganda, he also said he was going to serve a single term’’

    In denying the existence of such a pact, Clark, who accused Aliyu of lying, said: ‘’It is unfortunate and disappointing that you could engage in such bare-faced lies and false propaganda simply because of your inordinate ambition to seek election as president come 2015, and the only qualification you think you have over the incumbent is that you are a Northerner who must rule at all times. As a rebuttal to your statement, I wish to repeat that there was no agreement between the governors of the 19 Northern states and President Jonathan. You are a very well educated person, but it appears you do not understand the correct meaning of agreement”

    But a Northern leader, Dr Junaid Muhammed, insists that the pact exists. He claimed to have “sighted” a copy of the agreement with a friend. Can he do the nation a favour by getting us this copy from his friend so that we can end this drama of a pact or no pact? Many will be willing to part with millions of naira to get this ‘pact’ and many will also be willing to double that to ensure the ‘pact’ remains hidden. Dr Muhammed seems to have the ace. Will he get the pact for us?