The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

Newswatch vs. Jimoh Ibrahim

Recourse to memory will show it is not often you see Nigerian editors running a newspaper/magazine as a successful commercial enterprise. Newswatch and its editors therefore deserve some credit for running their newsmagazine as an ongoing successful business concern for an unbroken 28 years until they were finally outwitted by Jimoh Ibrahim, a veteran of Nigeria brand of crude capitalism.

This feat is unmatched in the history of newspaper and magazine publication in Nigeria, The trend has always been either the collapse of editor-managed publications because of incompetence as business managers or as often the case, being outwitted by their more business savvy and ruthless partners.

And when the end finally came on May 5, 2011 for Newswatch, started in 1984 by the late Dele Giwa and the trio of Ray Ekpu, Dan Agbese, and Yakubu Mohammed, it was as a victim of two factors: incompetence as business managers and the editors over-reliance on idealism as against pragmatism of their adversary whose sole objective as a ruthless capitalist is reducing the weak to servitude that the strong can continue to flourish.

Jimoh Ibrahim in fact claimed during the signing of memorandum of understanding that based on the reports submitted by members of his acquisition team, “the principal problem of the magazine was that of finance and therefore his new team would concentrate on the managerial aspect of the company”. Under the new arrangement, the backlog of seven months staff salary owed by the old out-going management will be paid by the new management while all debts being owed by the old management will also be paid by the new owner.

But Ibrahim failed to pay salaries as promised. He also did not show interest in expansion such as building of a new headquarters as recently claimed by Mohammed during the last court proceeding. But Ibrahim dared the ex-editors and rested the news magazine insisting it was “due for corporate surgery”.

But the truth is as told by Jimoh Ibrahim who now has all the aces it is no more in dispute that he offered N1billion for the control of 52% of Newswatch. It is a fact the ex-Newswatch editors/directors resigned after collecting mouth watering severance packages. Ray Ekpu has at least admitted collecting N79m with an outstanding of N30m Jimoh Ibrahim still held on to.

The law also seems to side with Jimoh Ibrahim. As Justice Okon Abang who dismissed the case of the Newswatch minority share holders has argued, “since the defendants who had resigned as directors are still claiming to have the right to declare a trade dispute, this is likely to affect the right of majority shareholders, and that gives the majority shareholders locus standi to bring the suit”.

But besides Ibrahim’s moral and judicial victories, I think it is fruitless fighting against a man that is always ready to fight with might and means and sometimes in public when anything impinges on his rights.

The other day when Sanusi, the CBN governor lumped his name together with those he claimed contributed to the collapse of many banks as a result of their non-performing’ loans, it would be recalled, Jimoh Ibrahim spent several millions of naira, close to the amount credited against his name on advertorial pages to tell the public that he was not indebted to Oceanic Bank or any bank for that matter.

When the senate made uncomplimentary remarks about airline operators after the crash of DANA Airline that killed 153, Ibrahim alone hit back at senators he claimed “know next to nothing about aviation but chose to pontificate”. “Just because we elected them”, he thundered, “does not mean they can just talk any how…Let them come to the industry and see if they can successfully manage one aircraft”.

I also expect my friend Ray Ekpu and his ex-editors to be wary of an adversary who admitted when he started secondary school, he was always the second last in his class. “There used to be 24 pupils in a class. I always got the 23rd position”, he recently told a reporter. Ibrahim today describes himself as a “corporate surgeon specializing in buying sick corporations”. But the available records indicate Ibrahim instead of surgery has often performed autopsy.

Ray Ekpu also seems to have ignored Ibrahim’s subtle threat who upon being criticized for closing down the Newswatch said: “When God got angry with the Israelites, he unleashed fire on them. I should be praised not criticized. …. I’m not unleashing fire but simply suspending the magazine.” Surely there must be a more subtle way for Ray Ekpu to collect his outstanding N30m without inviting the wrath of Ibrahim.

I cannot imagine how Ray Ekpu and his colleagues who were dazed by Jimoh Ibrahim’s N1billion will now see themselves as a match to a man who said “I am bigger than Richard Branson”, or who told the governor of his state after an encounter at the airport that “visiting a private aircraft without invitation, when he is not an airport official, is a security risk and amounts to conduct unbecoming of a governor.”

Above all, Ibrahim has little to lose in terms of reputation in spite scurrilous attack by his political, business and now media adversaries. For doing exactly what he knows how to do best – buy distressed companies that “are assets rich, which he then uses as collateral to borrow more money from banks”, he has been described as “the proverbial business pirate who destroys and kills any business he gets his hands on, while enriching himself”.

He has been libelled by enemies who alleged he diverted N35b aviation fund meant to support his now dead airlines to NICON Investment Limited claimed to be jointly owned 100% with his wife.

Jimoh Ibrahim’s envious enemies are not done; they wickedly alleged he converted N10 billion paid by the Accountant-General of the Federation to NICON Insurance Plc for the payment of pensioners to buy himself a Bombardier Challenger 625 private jet.

Ray Ekpu must note that with all the assaults from different directions, Ibrahim has continued to wax stronger.

The Newswatch editors have nothing to be ashamed of. They have done well for themselves when one remembers that after being out-witted by British and Nigerian business men that owned the Daily Times, Ernest Ikoli, the editor that gave the paper a character, died in a hotel room with no severance package or a roof over his head. We cannot say the same of Newswatch multi-millionaire former editors.

Uncle Sam Amuka Pemu aka ‘Sad Sam’ did not get much when he was outmanoeuvred out of The Punch by late business mogul- Aboderin after giving the paper a character. Dr Stanley Macebuh, my boss at The Guardian, gave the newspaper its character but got no severance package after late Alex Ibru, the paper’s financial backbone pushed him out accusing him of divided interest for allegedly selling sugar. Lade Bonuola, his successor did not fare any better; I’m aware he has no mansion in any of Lagos GRAs or anywhere in the country for that matter.

The ex-editors were given a bloody nose by a veteran operator in Nigeria economic jungle where there are no rules, where those who contributed to the collapse of government owned thriving business concerns such as airlines, hotels, banks’ turned-around, under government’s fraudulent privatization and commercialization programme. They took control with state money, and where, to quote Professor Bolaji Akinyemi my teacher, most Nigerian billionaires cannot account for the source of their wealth.

March 14, 2013
Centenary of Ibadan Grammar School

Soon, Ibadan Grammar School will be celebrating its centenary. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since Ibadan Grammar School came into existence. The school started as a community effort predominantly by the Anglican Christian community. In this regard, the man who became the first Ibadan-born Bishop of the Anglican community Bishop Akinyele played a significant if not overwhelming role in the establishment of the Grammar School. Over time, Ibadan Grammar School became a solidly Anglican Grammar School and the first Anglican Grammar School in the entire Ibadan division. Sister schools such as St Anne’s partly Anglican and Methodist and Yejide Girls Grammar School. solely Anglican came after the establishment of Ibadan Grammar School. The school was patterned after the older CMS Grammar School in Lagos which was founded in 1858 through the instrumentality of Mr. Macaulay a son-in-law of Bishop Ajayi Crowther.

Ibadan Grammar School was first domiciled at Oke Are before moving to its present location across the bridge on Kudeti River in an Anglican environment harboring St Luke’s Teachers College and Ibadan Grammar School itself. This was supposed to have been in a virgin forest where for many years farmlands surrounded the school. Today the city has caught up with Ibadan Grammar School and the school is now almost in the middle of the town in Molete. Unfortunately, the road linking the town with Molete has witnessed a lot of degradation and for some years the bridges over river Kudeti were swept off by the rampaging floods that afflicted Ibadan some years ago.

Ibadan Grammar School belongs to the “AOINIAN” schools. A confederation of schools of the Anglican Communion in some parts of the old western region including Egbado College Ilaro, Oduduwa College Ife, Abeokuta Grammar School, Ijebu Ode Grammar School, Ondo Boys High School, Imade College Owo and so on. These schools competed with each other in games and athletics every year and champions in these games were highly applauded. The school attracted people from near and far including students from Eastern Nigeria and the Mid-west which we know today as Edo and Delta. Because of this, the school usually had a formidable soccer team. The school was largely a boarding school but there were sprinklings of day students among the students population. The most famous of the headmaster of the school was the legendary Arch Deacon Emmanuel Alayande who was a son-in-law to the founding Principal of the school, Bishop Akinyele. Alayande was a prominent member of the National Union of Teachers and he used his influence with the Western Nigeria Government to secure the license to recruit the best of teachers including men and women from abroad. Because of this, the school was very popular in the old western region and outside it.

When I was a student in the school in 1961 and 1962, the only son of Sir Francis Ibiam who was the Governor of Eastern Nigeria was a student there. During my time, names of students read like names of who was who in the old Western Region and Lagos. Arch Deacon Alayande was not only a great teacher but he was also a great man. He treated every student as if they were his children and as a professional teacher, he did not spare the rod. He was a very influential man in Nigeria at that time and he carried the honorific title of chaplain to the Action Group, the party in power in western Nigeria. Arch Deacon Alayande was also on the board of West African Examination Council (WAEC) and was therefore in the position to determine the course and curriculum of secondary school education in Nigeria.

Of course Ibadan Grammar School was not a government college. It did not have the kind of facilities government colleges in Ibadan, Benin and Ugheli had; nevertheless its students never felt inferior to their counterparts in Government College, Ibadan except when the girls of the three famous girls schools, St Anne, Yejide and St Theresa favoured the boys from Government College over them as boyfriends! The school was a training ground for leadership because of its cosmopolitan nature. Every student had to learn fast in order to survive in an atmosphere dominated by boys from Lagos who were exposed to the cut throat competition of Lagos life. It is therefore not surprising that some of the products of the school have done really well in the corporate life of Nigeria. People like Chief Bayo Akinnola an industrialist and Lisa of Ondo, the Ibru brothers – Alex and Goddy, Mike Adenuga and Patrick Dele Cole to mention a few.

Ibadan Grammar School has been a victim of vicissitude and tragedy that have afflicted education in the country. During the administration of the UPN government of Chief Bola Ige who incidentally was an old boy and a senior prefect, all the schools in the old Western region were taken over in a leveling process by which all schools were opened to all and sundry. This affected standards and since school fees were abolished, the school went into a total decline. This ideologically driven programme of free education at all levels was a disaster in the whole western region. Ibadan Grammar School is no longer what it used to be. The road leading to the school has been washed away by rain and it remains practically un-tarred. Roofs of most of the building have been blown off by howling wind and it seems to me that the boarding houses are no longer in operation because most of the boarding houses appear to be totally deserted. The classrooms are in shambles. I used to be the school librarian while I was there but I am sure there is no library there at the moment. To put it biblically, God has departed from the house of Israel.

The story of decline in Ibadan Grammar School is also replicated in Government College Ibadan. The school I understand has been returned to the Anglican Communion but the level of its collapse is so great that it will require wholesale rehabilitation to put it right. This is where the government of Oyo state and the old boys and girls of the school would have to do something. With the calibre of some of the old boys, it should be possible for them to use some of their tax deductible income to fix the school. Ibadan Grammar School shall rise again. A 100years old school, with a great tradition must not be allowed to die.

The tragedy of Ibadan Grammar School epitomizes in a glaring way the decline of everything that was good while I was growing up. Thank God for my alma mater Christ’s School Ado Ekiti which has somehow managed to survive the buffeting of time and political and policy somersault in educational planning and development in Nigeria. Christ’s School owes its survival to the engaging interest of its alumni and alumnae who over the years have paid unusual attention and interest in the affairs of the school. Without being immodest, the set of 1956-1960 to which I belong blazed the trail by donating a block of classrooms to the school several years ago. Others have since emulated us. Ibadan Grammar School should borrow a leaf from Christ’s School which is after all, a sister Anglican School.

March 14, 2013
Aftermath of the 1914 Amalgamation

Lord Lugard arrived in Lagos in 1912 as the first Governor General of the British colony of Nigeria. He introduced the so-called amalgamation of the colonial territory in 1914, and left the country finally in 1918. In effect, he had only four years to give effect to the amalgamation and introduce a central administration which was claimed to be the central objective of the amalgamation. He failed dismally in this respect. He had limited time for the task. But he also had some preconceived and erroneous ideas about how the ethnically diverse people of the territory were to be ruled. This undermined the basic objective of his administration.

First, he did very little to bring the territory under a single central administration. The territory continued to be governed separately as the colony of Lagos, and the Northern and Southern Protectorates. There was no serious attempt to bring the huge territory under a single central administration. Lugard did not have the financial and human resources he needed for this purpose. In addition, the First World War that started in 1914 diverted attention from British colonies in Africa. And then in 1939, another world war broke out. It was not until after the Second World War that Britain began to turn its attention to its African colonies, particularly Nigeria, the largest. From amalgamation in 1914 until 1946, there was no political or administrative interaction among the various peoples of Nigeria. The three colonial territories continued to be governed separately as if they were three countries. It was only in 1946, under the Richards’ Constitution, that a feeble attempt was made to bring representatives of the various administrative units together at an assembly in Lagos.

But then the new Constitution also created regional councils for the three provinces in colonial Nigeria. Richards justified his regionalism on the ground that the North wanted little or nothing to do with the South. So no Northern members were elected to sit in the Legislative Council in Lagos. This moved Margery Perham, the Oxford don and friend of Lord Lugard, to complain that ‘British colonial officials had become more northern than the northerners, fostering the local sense of difference, even of superiority towards the South’. The Lagos meeting was a disaster and broke up with all sides protesting British administrative style in Nigeria. It was at this meeting that the Northern leader, Ahmadu Bello, protested that ‘the mistake of 1914 has come to light”. His sentiments regarding the amalgamation were shared by his Southern colleagues, including the Lagos educated elite, once dismissed contemptuously by Lugard as ‘the trousered natives’. In those 32 years after amalgamation the various territories had diverged a lot making any form of political unity more difficult.

Secondly, Lugard had extended to the entire territory his obnoxious system of indirect rule, which was strongly opposed in the Southern Protectorate. The situation he met in the North was considerably different from that which he had left in 1906 as Governor of the Northern Protectorate. Under the decentralising influence of his successors in the North, the British Residents had become autocratic within their semi-autonomous Emirates. There had grown in Whitehall a mistaken feeling that the classical pattern of native administration in Africa had been discovered; a sort of magic formula outlining an organic relationship between indirect rule and semi-feudal African political institutions. But the circumstances associated with the foundation of the Southern Protectorate and its problems were far different from those of the North. The South had been penetrated gradually, not by conquest as in the North, but by treaties, most of which were actually obtained under duress and false promises. With its proximity to the coast, the South had for long been subjected to Western influences. Even before the acquisition of Lagos in 1861, there were already educated natives there. Christian missionary schools had been established in the South for well over fifty years before amalgamation. Southern Moslems had free access to these missionary schools. The CMS Grammar School, Nigeria’s oldest secondary grammar school, had been founded in 1859 by the Anglican missionaries. The products of this missionary education disliked the extension of indirect rule to the South. There was no unifying religion in the South, such as Islam, which could transcend tribal loyalties. The powers of the Chiefs and Obas in the South differed profoundly from those of their Northern counterparts. In certain cases, particularly in the Southeast, society was lacking in a strong, highly centralised political organisation. As Lugard saw it, in this respect, ‘the first step is to find a man of influence as Chief, and then group under him as many villages or districts as possible”. This is the origin of the ‘warrant chiefs’ in the Southeast. It was to prove an administrative disaster, the consequences of which are still with us today.

Lugard considered the Yoruba Obas as overlords of centrally organised Kingdoms like the Northern Emirates, ideally suitable for his indirect rule system. Furthermore, since indirect rule had developed in the North among the despotic Emirs, he concluded that a powerful chief was indispensable to the system. There was thus a tendency to create chiefs when they could not be found, or to exalt them where they did not seem sufficiently powerful. In effect Lugard and some of his successors as Governors General committed the folly of seeking to make, as it were, a crown or a king at the top and then try to find something underneath on which it might appropriately be placed. This was a monumental error as it was to lead to semi-autocratic rule and lack of accountability by post-colonial governments in Nigeria. For instance, Abeokuta had in 1893 established a semi-independent state by treaty with the British. Lugard was opposed to this. Determined to remove this anomaly, Lugard took advantage of disturbances in 1914 over direct taxation in Egbaland to abrogate the 1893 treaty with the Alake who had requested for British colonial troops. In the East, the introduction of direct taxation under the system of indirect rule led to a rebellion which Lugard put down brutally with the death of some 500 protesters.

Before British colonialism in Nigeria, neither the Obas nor the Emirs enjoyed such autocratic powers as they did later under British colonial rule. There were checks and balances in both before colonial rule, after which they were elevated to the status of semi-gods. Of course, colonial rule was itself autocratic. It was not based on checks and balances. The essence of indirect rule, through the Emirs and Obas, was that loyalty to a tribal chief must be given unhindered and be free from outside interference. This practice led to the creation of feudal monarchies that actually had no place in pre-colonial Nigeria. This was what our current political leaders inherited, and it explains their lack of commitment to the rule of law and public accountability. In effect, the 1914 amalgamation in Nigeria destroyed an indigenous political and administrative system that was far more democratic and accountable, and replaced it with a colonial system of government that was wholly undemocratic and lacked any kind of accountability. It laid the foundation for autocratic government in Nigeria, virtually without any checks and balances in the system. While in traditional society there were means of checking and curbing abuses by the Emirs and Obas, indirect rule tended to encourage illiterate, conservative, and often autocratic Emirs and Obas. One critic of the system observed that ‘the Emirs today are maintained by British bayonets, so that there are men holding these positions who would not last one week once these bayonets were to cease’ Dr. Miller, the noted Christian missionary in Zaria, condemned British colonial rule in Nigeria for its failure to use the system of indirect rule as an instrument of progress in the North. Lord Lugard’s administration was hostile to the Christian missions and schools in the North for fear that their ‘revolutionary’ ideas might create a body of opinion to challenge British colonial rule and the authority of the Emirs. This is the source of the existing wide gap in education between the North and the South in Nigeria with profound political and economic implications for the country. Boko Haram is a direct consequence of this lapse.

In the long run, the question we should ask is where amalgamation and the consequent system of indirect rule were supposed to lead. Lord Lugard and British colonial rule in Nigeria gave little or no thought to this question. As a means of leading the people of Nigeria to self-rule, the system was a total failure. Feudal chieftaincies created by the system were not compatible with a modern progressive state. In her study of British colonial rule in Nigeria, titled ‘The Colonial Reckoning”, Dame Margery Perham, the distinguished colonial historian and Oxford don, came to the conclusion that British colonial rule did some good in Nigeria, but that it did some harm too, not least of which was its failure to adequately prepare Nigeria for future development as a united, democratic and progressive modern state. This is why I think we should mark the 1914 amalgamation and not spend a whole year celebrating it. It was, at best, a partial success. The indirect rule system that followed amalgamation remains the major source of ethnic and tribal politics in Nigeria today.

March 14, 2013
A senator’s lying with statistics

I do not know whether Senator Solomon Ita Enang was being Machiavellian or he simply intended to tell a “noble lie” when he claimed on the floor of the Senate last Wednesday in the course of his contribution to the debate on the controversial Petroleum Industry Bill, that Northerners controlled 83% of the oil wells in the Niger Delta.

Whatever his purpose, his claim, I am sure, would be hard to beat as the crudest attempt yet by any Nigerian politician to lie with statistics. This, I must say, makes the way the Nigerian media has reported and commented on his claim as if it was the truth and nothing but the gospel truth, even worse.

Among the elementary rules of reporting are balance, fairness and verification of all claims and allegations. But even without crosschecking the facts, simple logic alone would’ve exposed the senator’s claim as untenable; everyone knows that all sectors of the oil business in Nigeria are dominated through and through by the oil majors, all of them foreign.

Of course facts sometimes defy logic. However, the oil business is not one of those exceptions that confirm the rule.

In its edition of September 23, 1991, the rested Citizen newsmagazine I managed did a prize winning cover story on the move by the Federal Military Government under General Ibrahim Babangida to facilitate the indigenization of the upstream sector of the oil business.

The 14 companies whose bids succeeded were owned by a judicious mix of the wealthy from all sections of the country, including Alfred James owned by the Ooni clan, Moncroief owned by Esama of Benin, Summit Oil owned by Chief M.K.O. Abiola and Queens Petroleum owned by the Ibru clan.

Even more importantly in the light of Senator Enang’s claim, most of the oil blocks owed by Northerners were, as pointed out by Toyin Akinosho, the publisher of the well-regarded Africa Oil and Gas Report, in an article on Premium Times online newspaper of March 7, unproductive – and have remained so to date. Anyone interested in the truth about the ownership of Nigeria’s oil industry should search for and read the article.

If the senator’s manipulation of statistics is worrisome, worse can be said of the media. In apparently swallowing the senator’s story hook, line and sinker, we failed the elementary test of verification, balance and fairness.

March 13, 2013
Feedback

RE: OBJ at 76

Sir,

As usual, I have read your offering today and by now, I guess you must be tired of hearing how brilliant it is. But there is an error of fact which is rather strange with your column so I think you need to correct it. Mr John Dara did not, and so could not have said, he “managed the improbable success of Chief Otedola in beating Alhaji Lateef Jakande in the Lagos governorship elections conducted under General Babangida’s transition programme.” Because that is not true.

If I recollect very well, it was actually Jakande who helped Sir Michael Otedola to power and this what how it happened: In the course of the 1991 governorship elections, Otedola was the candidate of the National Republican Convention (NRC), having defeated Mrs Oluremi Adikwu by a narrow margin at their primaries. But the Social Democratic Party (SDP) could not produce a candidate after an acrimonious primaries between Chief Dapo Sarumi (then heavily backed by the late Major General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua) and the late Prof. Dapo Agbalajobi, (sponsored by Jakande). At the end, the duo were disqualified by the Prof Humphrey Nwosu-led National Electoral Commission (NEC). In the new primaries that followed, Mr Yomi Edu, another protégé of the late Yar’Adua, won the SDP ticket.

So the gubernatorial contest in Lagos State was then between Otedola of NRC and Edu of SDP. But following this development, Jakande called on his supporters to vote for Otedola against his party’s candidate and even though the NRC had only two members while SDP had 38 members in the State House of Assembly, Otedola won the election on the strength of support from Jakande. That was what happened.

While I know Mr John Dara played a major role in Otedola’s campaign, especially with regards to the NRC primaries, as far as the election proper was concerned, I think it is necessary to set the record straight that Jakande actually helped to put Otedola in power.

Olusegun Adeniyi

Sir,

My late father warned me never to open my mouth too wide when talking with journalists, but the urge to share some of my behind-the-scene political maneuvers sometimes make me forget this fatherly counsel.

I’d sent you an SMS in reaction to your March 6, 2013 write-up on “OBJ at 76”, pointing out minor inaccuracies about my relationship with the late Dr. Saraki and the role of Alhaji Jakande in the election of Sir Michael Otedola in the 1991 Lagos State governorship elections. I now have to elaborate on the text message in reaction to the comments of Segun Adeniyi which you shared with me.

I’m uncomfortable with the ‘thorn in the flesh of Saraki’ bit because it’s not relevant to the Obasanjo story. My conflict with the late Dr. Saraki started in 2002 when I ran for the office of the governor of Kwara State. I reconciled with the old man after the 2005 National Political Reform Conference in which we both played key roles not only as delegates, but especially as bridge builders between the northern and the Niger Delta delegates, proposing compromises and reaching out to elders and leaders to avoid stalemates. Although I politely turned down his subsequent invitation to become a Sarakite, I developed more respect and admiration for him and for his political acumen. We maintained a good personal relationship till his death.

Segun’s comments on the Otedola-Jakande part of your write-up, which you shared with me, is essentially in agreement with my earlier text message to you in which I said Otedola won that election “ with the clandestine help of Jakande”. However, Segun’s impressive recollection of the events of that period inadvertently exaggerated the role of Jakande and demeaned the remarkable role of John Dara and the then Michael Otedola Campaign Organisation (MOCO).

I have managed several political campaigns over the years, and as a Fellow of the Certified Institute of Marketing Communications in Nigeria, I consider the Otedola Campaign as one of the most daring and well-managed political campaigns in Nigeria’s political history. Many analysts had superficially explained Sir Otedola’s unusual victory as being a product of luck or the ‘mystic’ in his name (Otedola literarily means ‘conflicts and intrigues turn to wealth’).

I was privileged to be the Director General of the Campaign Organisation. I wrote a formal Campaign Plan with a detailed Situation Analysis. We anticipated the crisis in Lagos SDP which was a localisation of the PSP vs. PF rivalry in SDP nationwide. We built on the ‘strength’ of Otedola as a ‘Christian from rural Lagos’. We ran an in-depth campaign in rural Lagos. We had a ward-by-ward, polling booth-by-polling booth, church-by-church and mosque-by-mosque campaign network. There was a great campaign theme “That Lagos May Now Excel”(which later earned Lagos the ‘State of Excellence’ appellation). The theme was backed with bold and colourful visuals.

We also did a formal Influence Channel Analysis. We identified the then out-going Military Administration of Governor Raji Rasaki, the Church, the Press and any disgruntled faction of SDP(among others) as critical success factors. When Agbalajobi was initially declared winner, we were already having partnership discussions with Sarumi. When subsequently, Yomi Edu became SDP candidate, we mobilised MOCO members to join Agbalajobi ‘s supporters to protest the ‘injustice’ and to widen the schism in SDP. We kept to our script and offered to partner with the aggrieved Jakande group. John Dara and Sen. Tony Adefuye initiated the dialogue that resulted in the deal. The intricate negotiations took place at the V/I residence of the late Prince Dapo Sijuade.

There were many heroes of the Otedola Campaign and victory: Late Chief Baruwa (Olori Eleyo) of NRC, Late Alh. Baruwa (then Chairman of SDP), Late Chief Babs Akerele, Dr. Charles Fadipe, Dr. Segun Ogundimu, Late Dr. Segun Oyefule, Alh. Umaru Shinkafi (who gave money and facilitated police support), church leaders who moved out the votes, pressmen like Sina Ogunbambo, Yetunde Arebi, Kunle Oyatomi and all MOCO members who saw the future with me. It was a well coordinated teamwork.

We remain grateful to Alh. Lateef Jakande for his (mutually beneficial) assistance, and to Gen. Raji Rasaki who was arguably more critical to our success than anyone else (he nominated Otedola’s running-mate, blocked the SDP last-ditch rigging effort in the expansive Ojo LGA, and helped in several other ways. Above all, God made it happen.

I’m not ready yet to write my memoirs, may be it will be titled “The Contributions of a small role player in Nigeria’s political development”. It will feature stories that may moderate public perception of some important political developments and players. For now, let’s wait, ‘make I reach where I dey go’. And by the way, Mohammed, leave me and my Baba alone o.

John Dara

March 13, 2013
Who owns Nigeria: North or South?- The key amalgamation question?

Are Rivers Niger and Benue sinking down the waist of Nigeria towards the Bight of Benin/Atlantic Ocean? Soon there will be no South. The map of Nigeria on NTA demonstrates ‘Sinking or Moving River Disease’. This is a political disease of criminally-minded officials bent on distorting the truth. If it is NTA policy it is punishable as mental terrorism for ‘altering the geographical internal borders of Nigeria’. I checked ‘Nigeria Map’ on Google. You should too! The Rivers Niger and Benue are not quite half way up Nigeria. It seems our lekedi or belt is falsely falling. Nigerians require our own ethnic cartographers to check maps, text and exercise books and almanacs for distortion. It was not so long ago that Europeans could not bear the thought that Africa was bigger than Europe and adjusted the world map to make Africa smaller. The Americans revealed all from the moon in JF Kennedy’s era. Check your map against Google map or Niga SAT2 and complain politically to prevent the South shrinking further or North being made falsely bigger. In 2013, a year from 2014, some say ‘Amalgamation Memorial Day’ not ‘Centenary Day ‘, we cheat each other as if cheating is OK?

Who owns Nigeria in 2014: North or South or Nigerians? This is ‘The Key Amalgamation Question’. From the manipulated census figures, federal character, true federalism, fiscal federalism, distorted LGA numbers between Lagos, 20, and Kano+ Jigawa States, 77, resource control, oil windfall, choice appointments, the South continues to be screwed under national unity’. ‘National unity’ does not mean ‘Sectional idiocy’ or unilateral emasculation. It should mean mutual respect, equity, justice and transparency.

How are Nigerians supposed to react to Boko Haram claiming poverty as motivation for mass murder and seeking amnesty and also to react to the fact that the North operated initially nearly 100% of Niger Delta oil blocks down to 82% which translates into multi-billion dollars/annum not used for development? The Forbes billionaires list does not include those with stupendous undeserved civil service and military wealth. They have no right to begrudge the Niger Delta citizens of just 10%.

ZZZZZZZZZZZOOOOOOOWWAABIA is Nigeria and ZZZOOOOOOOOOOO are the undisputed kings with the controlling share, the leadership position, the master manipulator but failing the true leadership progressive role so desperately needed–a cumulative disappointment for Nigeria. Ask anyone in a marginalised tribe not ZZZZZZZZZZZOOOOOOWABIA. It is true feeling of oppression. As pointed out by Ita Enang all oil well licences could be cancelled and renegotiated with Federal character- a suggestion not popular with those making billions daily merely for possession of an oil block. Commonwealth ownership is only good if it affects someone else’s property. ‘What is yours is mine and what is mine is mine also’ is the secret code which does not bode well for the survival of any country seeking nationhood. We may well stay together but is it a union of the heart and mind or a union of fear and ‘by force’? The fact is that those, Northerners and Southerners, who have with little or no respect for others, have held Nigeria to political and financial ransom, kidnapped, for 50 years must have a change of their own heart. We are not the enemy, slaves won at a high stakes game of power and oil roulette. We must first be set free within the borders of Nigeria and then be allowed to feel fully Nigerian, not slaves. How are we set free? Easy. Constitutional review, true federalism, devolution of more powers to the states, derivation formula, review and reduction of the ‘Federal Excusive List‘. Nigeria has remained almost in the stone age in transport and education. Hurry! Nigerians have suffered a lifetime of suffering in this country so rich in billionaires with God’s gifts of arable land and underground black gold which paradoxically makes billionaires of some and poisons millions in abject poverty. These are the prize and the price of false federalism which has failed to move Nigeria forward. We are where we are today because of those military rulers and their cohorts from all ethnic groups. They were ‘The Occupying Power’ of a conquered Nigeria. What is the role of the CBN past and present in the naira and federal Nigeria? And then came Obasanjo with Odi and Expressway failure and dismantling of some political power bases nationwide.

I really weep over the Jos crisis having spent a peaceful newly-married NYSC in Jos, Bukuru, Lafia General Hospital Lafia as my very busy base. That so-called ‘peace’ came from those who decided not to, or could not react to provocation and warped policy initiation due to fear or bribery or saw their citizens cheated at Supreme Military Council and Federal Executive Council Meetings. Nigeria has been at war for years before the Civil War and the war continues, with ‘mis-allocation’ of the spoils of war, read ‘sp-oil’, only abating slightly when Obasanjo became President. ‘All Is Not Quiet on Any Front in Nigeria’. Time for ‘An Amalgamation National Conference’?

Those who owned power –electric, generator and political-, the oil blocks, the customs, the NPA, the armed forces, Abuja for years and the unseen faces behind the cell phone and internet companies should not shy away from their responsibility in the failure of Nigeria. It is time Nigerians, all Nigerians owned Nigeria. This is not a monarchy or a slave state, though it appears to be so.

March 13, 2013
This amnesty gambit

Nigeria is indeed a troubled country. That is why the talk about amnesty has always taken centre stage in our public discourse over the years. The first time it came up, though in a different garb, was in 1970. Remember, the then Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon’s three Rs – Rehabilitation, Reintegration and Reconstruction – after 30 months of a grueling civil war – May 1967 to January 12, 1970.

The word came up again 37 years after. This time, it was not masked in any form of rhetoric. On assumption of office in 2007, the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, in his wisdom, knew that the festering Niger Delta problem needed a solution. He came up with the amnesty programme. This brought some semblance of relief to the region. Today, the Yar’Adua amnesty programme remains a sort of magic wand that doused the tension and acrimony in the Niger Delta region, even though the neglect of the region is still there and the situation is far from normal. At least, successive governments can build on that foundation.

The ‘instant success’ recorded by the Yar’Adua amnesty in the Niger Delta must have encouraged the highly revered Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammed Abubakar III, to come out with such a proposal to end the senseless killings in some parts of the country. With his military background and his preeminent status, I am sure the Sultan actually knew what he was talking about. But since last week when he gave the ‘advise’, it has generated heated debates all over the country. Though this was not the first time such a proposal was being championed by influential people in the North, particularly in Borno State, the intensity of the debate has far removed from the issue at stake- finding a lasting peace in the North.

Without mincing words, there is obvious lack of sincerity in the approach to find peace to the brigandage that is going on in certain parts of the North. In my honest and candid view, we are all guilty: the federal government, the northern elders and the rest of us.

It would appear that President Goodluck Jonathan’s recent showing in Maiduguri was the first time he had spoken as “President and Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”. He pointedly told his audience that his government cannot declare “amnesty for ghosts”. This is an obvious reference to the Boko Haram sect which has donned a toga of secrecy while killing and maiming innocent people all over the place.

Our sensibilities have continued to be assaulted with such ridiculous stories that the insurgents are unknown. Yet, several times, the security agencies have stumbled on so many leads which could have been explored to unmask those behind this façade of a jihad, without anything coming out of them. The perpetrators of these heinous crimes are on the internet every now and then, but what we hear all the time is that they are faceless.

The other day, a group of masked men came out to address a press conference but they are still classified as unknown people. Some of them also came out to hold meetings with the Monsignor Hassan Kukah-led panel at the Government House in Maiduguri, yet they are still passed on as faceless. This is why I say that the whole episode bears some tinge of insincerity.

Assuming that the security agencies do not know those behind this wanton destruction of lives and property, what about those at the receiving end? I mean the elders and leaders of the affected areas. Is there anything wrong if these people could be patriotic enough to provide useful information that could assist the security agencies to unmask these evil people in their midst?

As for the security agencies, their big bosses in air-conditioned offices in Abuja and elsewhere may be complacent because it is ‘the boys’ who are facing the heat at the trouble-zone. Who knows what is actually happening to the allowances meant for the boys? We all know what happened to the stipends of the boys who went for peacekeeping in some West African countries in the recent past. They were short-changed. And when they ventured to show their resentment through protest, they were summarily carted to jail.

What I am saying here is that I don’t want to believe the story that the security agencies have not been able to unmask the brains behind this Boko Haram insurgency. The President actually admitted sometimes ago that the sect members had infiltrated the security agencies and even his government. Are we to believe that non-Boko Haram security agents or top government officials do not know their colleagues who have sympathy for the satanic sect? Are we saying that the Army cannot unmask those who gave away the movement of troops who were recently attacked in Kogi State on their way to Mali?

A former governor of Borno State who presided over the state when Boko Haram notoriety hit newspaper headlines in 2009 has been carrying on as if he does not have any idea whatsoever about the leaders of this murderous group. Is that former governor still denying the fact that he does not have any idea of who the sponsors of Boko Haram are? What about the lawmaker whose call logs contained calls made to known Boko Haram agents? And what about the man in whose house one of the wanted commanders of the sect was allegedly apprehended? Are we all still claiming that the people are ghosts?

Since three years ago, when the activities of the sect peaked to a frightening proportion in Maiduguri and environs, some leaders and elders of Borno State have not changed their tunes. All they have been saying is: dialogue with the people; withdraw the soldiers; and now, amnesty. I am sure that the relentlessness of the Northern leaders and elders on their calls for dialogue and or amnesty for the Boko Haram insurgents is a deliberate attempt to hoodwink the government of the day to achieve what violence has not been able to achieve. Why are they so particular about dialogue and amnesty? Would it be out of place, if they equally encourage these ‘ghosts’ to show up, renounce violence and then ask for amnesty for their members?

Boko Haram or whichever name the splinter groups now go about is an offshoot of the Maitasine sect that shook some parts of the north during the second republic. The late Muhammed Marwa, who founded the Maitasine sect at that time, had a stronghold in Maiduguri, precisely at Bulumkutu Quarters. They were later dislodged, only for them to regroup in Kano. It was in Kano that they confronted the government of former President, Alhaji Shehu Shagari in the early 80s. Shagari took the bull by the horns and quickly called in the Army. Within a few days, the soldiers succeeded in neutralising the sect and their leaders. It was a combined military offensive involving the army, navy and air force.

I am quite sure that if Mr. President had not listened to those who initially encouraged him to be soft on the sect members three years ago when their nonsense escalated, by now, we would have been spared the orgy of violence that has crippled a substantial section of the country.

The leaders and elders of the North will do us some good if they can truly unmask those among them who are the source of oxygen for the insurgents. It is not enough to tell us that it is the duty of the government to bring perpetrators of evil to book. That is true. But no government or security agency can go it alone if those who should know and show the way are not ready to do so. They are guilty of a conspiracy of silence. That is why the talk of amnesty cannot hold water, at least, for now. Period!

March 13, 2013
Matters miscellaneous

Matters miscellaneous,” as devoted followers of this page know, is the rubric under which I try to catch up on the glut of occurrences big and small with broad strokes and in short takes, lest the men and women who make news feel ignored.

To begin on a proper note, President Goodluck Jonathan finally paid a visit to the troubled northeastern states of Borno and Yobe, hard on the heels of nine state governors from the newly-minted All Progressives Congress who had the previous week converged on Maiduguri in an exemplary act of leadership and resolve to express solidarity with the people of the beleaguered city and its environs.

The visit should have happened long ago, long after the President was warned by his Advisory Council that a Somalia-type situation was developing in the North-east and would get out of hand unless the Federal Government moved with all deliberate speed to engage the residents of the area.

Better a late visit than no visit at all. Those forced to live in daily terror of the nihilistic organisation that calls itself Boko Haram now have the assurance of federal concern, beside the Joint Task Force garrisons. For the most part, Dr Jonathan said the right things. Without peace and stability, there could be no progress in the area. Nor could the people partake of the fruits of the Transformation.

But employing what seems to be a mixed metaphor, he said ghosts could not be granted an amnesty.

Boko Haram is of course nothing if not elusive. But even in a metaphorical sense, is it made up of ghosts? Do ghosts bear arms? Can ghosts kill and maim time and again, in the grisly fashion of Boko Haram? If that body is made of ghosts, how has the JTF been able to engage them and inflict on them the “heavy casualties” it periodically reports? If BH is indeed peopled by ghosts, why not try exorcism?

Also, when the Commander-in-Chief warned the elders and traditional authorities in the area that they would have to live its depredations unless they reined in Boko Haram, he seemed to be assigning them a responsibility they are ill equipped to discharge.

If they had that kind of power or influence, would they have been looking on helplessly as Boko Haram tried to take out one traditional ruler after another? Would so many among them who were forever pivoting as custodians of the “the Northern interest” be hiding in Abuja and Kaduna and Lagos?

In whatever case, one visit does not an engagement make. Rather, Dr Jonathan’s visit should be seen as the beginning of a period of constructive engagement, with the goal of getting the “ghosts” to take on corporeal form so that they can be amnestied and rehabilitated, like the former insurgents of the Delta.

Now that the President has made his move, his wife Dame Patience can now make hers, under the aegis of the African First Ladies Mission.

According to a knowledgeable source who does not wish to be identified, Dame Patience would have led a deputation of her peers on a mission of peace to Damaturu and Maiduguri during their last summit in Abuja, but did not want to be seen to be upstaging her husband, especially in matters of national security.

She is now set, I gather, to convene an extra-ordinary summit of her peers in Abuja, after which its members, under her dynamic leadership — a leadership now infused with the energy of her recent resurrection — will embark on peace missions to Borno and Yobe.

My sources tell me that an Africa Union military contingent modeled on the type ECOWAS countries dispatched to Mali to flush out those pesky Touaregs, is being assembled to protect the African First Ladies on the mission.

Meanwhile, the President is yet to be accorded the high praise he deserves for the equanimity with which he conducted himself during the period his wife said she was dead. Any other man would have freaked out.

Not Dr Jonathan. He kept his head and went about his duties as if nothing was amiss. He missed not a single appointment. He even went to address the United Nations, and to reach out again to those elusive foreign investors. He did not strike out in anger against those in the family circle who, believing that Dame Patience was truly dead, began auctioning off her property. Throughout, he carried himself with dignity and calm self-possession.

“Grace under pressure” doesn’t even begin to do justice to his conduct under those trying circumstances.

With the return of Cross River State Govenor Liyel Imoke to base the other week after an absence of some three months, Governor Danbaba Suntai is the only state governor still receiving medical treatment on foreign soil. Sadly, he is not expected to return anytime soon.

Before Imoke, Enugu State Governor Sullivan Chime had made a wordless return to base after 140 days of vacation-cum-medical treatment in the UK as he asserts, or in India and the UK and points between, as his adversaries still insist.

Chime did not deign to address the “mammoth” crowd that had converged at Enugu airport to welcome him with dance and song or just out of curiosity to see what prolonged illness might have done to his fine, athletic gait.

If he was overawed by the size of the crowd, the tumult he saw all around him, he could at least have made a broadcast the day after his arrival to thank the people for their prayers and good wishes. But at least he flew into Enugu in broad daylight.

Not so Imoke, who flew into Calabar airport in the dead of night, unheralded, after being away for some three months. He made his first public appearance the following day at a soccer match in the Sports Stadium. He deigned to thank the people for their prayers and good wishes but only through his press secretary, not in a direct, personal way.

Chime and Imoke, both lawyers, it has to be said, showed scant regard for their constituents in this regard, the people in whose name they govern. Even at the height of his dictatorial rule, military president General Ibrahim Babangida showed greater respect than that for the people of Nigeria.

Finally, a word about the photograph of the quartet of Chime, Akwa Ibom State Governor Godswill Akpabio and Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam and Rivers State Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi that was doing the rounds when Chime went missing. It showed all four bundled up, taking in the snowscape in the middle of nowhere, like tourists who had exhausted their itinerary.

Chime’s supporters offered the picture as proof that the other three governors had visited him in the UK and found him in excellent health, contrary to the vile rumours in circulation. His opponents dismissed it as a Photoshop job that anyone who can work a mouse on a computer could have fabricated.

Apparently without realising it, and probably without intending it, Chime gave the game away during his press conference with a select group of reporters the day after his return.

He and the other state governors in the picture were visiting Germany to study its federal system at the behest of the Governors Forum when intimations of the cancer that ultimately led him to seek treatment in the UK surfaced, he had volunteered.

That was the only occasion, as far as my research revealed, that all four of them in the picture were abroad in the same location at the same time.

So, the picture was in all probability taken somewhere in Germany.

But did Their Excellencies have to travel to Germany to study its federal system? One hour on the Internet would probably have taught them as much as they learned on the visit, and at no cost to the exchequer.

March 12, 2013
Aregbesola’s American visit

As someone who very well knows that exaggeration diminishes credibility, I give it a wide berth in claiming that the vocal governor of the State of Osun in South-west Nigeria, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, is doubtlessly a focused, clear-headed, and innovative political leader. It is doubtful whether I could so describe him prior to my encounter with him at Cambridge when he visited a few weeks back. To be sure, before that day, I had heard and read many things about him, particularly the avalanche of controversies which defined his person and administration since he became governor.

When on Tuesday February 19, I heard that he was in Cambridge, close by Boston where I am resident, to attend the town hall meeting with Harvard African Caucus made up of black students, I did not hang fire – actually more out of curiosity – in getting myself there. The taste of the pudding is in the eating. And there he was in his charming unassuming disposition, beaming with the trademark smile I am accustomed to through still pictures. The centrepiece of his address to the august audience was the innovations he has brought to governance since he came into office as governor.

He spoke eloquently about the unprecedented reforms that his state’s educational, agricultural, and health sectors had successfully undergone under his watch. He zestfully primed his audience of how his administration through its carefully designed policies – he actually said Six-Point-Integral-Action Plan – has made a huge dent on the monster of youth unemployment, cured the state of its financial ailment, and impacted the lives of the citizens who are mostly farmers. All of these and more he said, exuding affecting confidence, coruscating brilliance, and unpretentious calmness. But his most impactful presentation was the computer tablet he called Opon Imo, which indeed is an innovation. According to him, the tablet which will be distributed to all the senior students in the state’s public secondary schools, contains all recommended textbooks, past questions on certificate and matriculation examinations and moral instructions. This I am sure is going to help parents who cannot afford to buy books for their wards and also help the students to focus on reading. More importantly, it will introduce them to computer at an early age. I must admit that even in the United States, this is a novel thinking. This idea has never occurred to anyone to the best of my knowledge.

I was really impressed by his clinical deployment of non-convoluted details. By creditably giving a good report of himself in his smooth delivery, this springy politician unequivocally made it manifest that he is political leader of uncommon dedication, discipline and character.

Deservedly, the attentive audience expressed their appreciation of his memorable delivery through thunderous ovation lasting for a while. Of course, I needed no prodding to attend the lecture he delivered the next day at the Weatherhead Center. He whetted my appetite for his depth and insights.

As I listened to his lecture, it dawned on me that, as the Americans would say, I ain’t seen nothing yet. Governor Aregbesola’s lecture at the monthly seminar of the Weatherhead Centre for International Studies, Harvard University, centred on the multifarious and overwhelming development challenges assailing Nigeria. Though the challenges are ubiquitous and form the subject of public discourse, both at national and international forums, the governor’s analyses was thorough and seminal. I must admit that his analytical exposition added depth to my perspective on the socio-economic and political setbacks the most populous black nation is inured in. Nigeria’s development calamities are of Byzantine complexity, he enlightened. For him, blinding ethnicity, defective federalism, rapine military system, adulterated religious practices, clueless leadership, among many other horrifying human-inspired debacles, are the foxes pitilessly destroying the rich vineyard of the Nigerian state.

A courageous leader, he warmed the cockles of my heart when he flintily noted that it would amount to weak reasoning to carp that “outsiders” are responsible for the present condition of the country. The wisdom in this is that when the nation continues to bellyache that the foundation of its underdevelopment can be located in its colonial experience, it will lose the sense to think of the way out of the woods. Yet, colonialism is not exclusive to Nigeria. Other peoples who were even more ruthlessly colonised have since pulled off the burden and are today havens of unexampled human and material developments. The right leadership that can champion this cause and make things happen, he reasoned knowledgeably, is what the country must inexorably find.

Governor Aregbesola’s report on the achievements of his administration revealed to me a leader who knows what is amiss and works squarely to fix it. The kind of leadership he longs to see his country possess is exactly what he selflessly provides in Osun. Within two years, he has achieved notable reforms in the educational and agricultural sectors of his state. Government is closer, more than ever before, to the people. Youth employment is aggressively pursued and public infrastructure is springing up – all in a state that could barely breathe owing to the suffocating debt it was burdened with by past selfish administration. With the zeal of an empathic leader, he is effectively rescuing majority of the citizens who had been hitherto suspended on the scaffold of penury, hunger, joblessness and insecurity.

Indeed, the “elephant” of Aregbesola merits more description than “I catch a glimpse of something”. When we see a performing and responsible political leader, we must be honest enough to admit that we have seen Governor Abdulrauf Adesoji Aregbesola! Much more, with that revealing lecture, Aregbesola has demonstrated the fact that, warts and all, the story of Nigeria is not all about a jinxed country, nay, a land held in the throes of avoidable misfortunes. It is a relief to know that Nigeria has some thinking and responsible political leaders. I encourage the governor and those in his circle to hold the fort; they must not give up until a Nigeria of our desire is founded.

• Morgan lives in Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.

March 12, 2013
Jonathan and Borno elders

Whoever advised on the visit by President Goodluck Jonathan to the troubled North-east states of Yobe and Borno last week ought to have realised by now that the visit did neither the administration nor the states any good. Merely on account of its advertised objectives, the visit was an unmitigated disaster – a public relations fiasco for the visitor as much as for the hosts.

Whereas no one expected that the chasm between the federal government and the stakeholders in the two states would be bridged on mere account of a presidential visit; it was certainly not expected that disagreements would blow open as it did both in Damaturu and Maiduguri. In both places, the two sides not only blew the chance to advance the cause of peace, the outcome lent little optimism to any prospects of peace in the foreseeable future.

Of course, it is disappointing that the visiting leader had nothing of soothing words for the people. For the hapless throng that have endured the affliction of the Boko Haram, the president neither saw need to offer his words of comfort nor did he find it necessary to express solidarity.

His hosts on the other hand seemed utterly ill-prepared for what was supposed to be a long anticipated visit. As it turned out, neither side offered practical suggestions or roadmaps on the way forward. Representatives of stakeholders in the two states in fact stopped short of declaring the insurgency as more tolerable than the operations of the military Joint Task Force (JTF), recycling as it were, their age-long request for the JTF to be removed from the streets without telling the government what plans they had in place to secure the peace – a demand the President wisely rejected.

As it is, there will be no shortage of finger-pointing as to who to hold responsible for the bungled visit. The natural tendency for most Nigerians is to revert to their default settings in heaping all the blames on the federal government. However, the event of the past week has not only borne out my contention that the leaders in the region have not been entirely helpful, the signs are that they are no less complicit in the crime of abdication than the federal government that they are wont to accuse.

Let’s look at what the leaders suggested as the way forward out of the crisis. Like the militants in the Niger Delta, the leaders want amnesty for the terrorists. Now, I must say here that I’m open to the debate on the shape of amnesty to be granted to mass murderers. The debate might as well begin, even now. However, my questions are – suppose the government proclaims amnesty, how about the fundamentalist ideology which feeds the insurgency? Would it also be the responsibility of the federal government to extirpate it?

Now to another equally contentious issue – the demand for the withdrawal of the JTF. I recognise the deliberate misplacement of ‘effect’ for ‘cause’, an elite problem designed to obfuscate issues. So the JTF is the problem because a handful of service personnel violate the rules of engagement? And that to constitute the ground to demand for the withdrawal of the personnel on internal security duties? What happens after? Turn out the vast territories to the Boko Haram or their cousins the AQIM?

It is hard to imagine that the elders actually believe that the JTF is the problem. No doubt, internal security operations are by their nature, fraught with unique challenges. While these are not deniable, the challenge is for the elders to highlight them so that they could be dealt with. What should not be missed is the larger picture: these men were drafted in to deal with a problem that went out of control. I shudder to imagine what the situation will be without the men of the JTF. Or would the elders have preferred that Boko Haram overrun the region with the federal government left to negotiate the status of the region after?

Finally, on this point, has anyone bothered to ask the primary targets of those terror attacks what they think of the JTF? I mean the churches and other so-called symbols of western civilisation which the sect finds to offensive? Are these institutions not entitled to the protection of the law also?

Here is a word for those who look up to Abuja for solution to the problem. Abuja is a wrong place to look for solutions. First, the fat cats in the territory have no ideas to give; not with so much security funds to gobble! Secondly, the problems are by their very nature, local!

At best, what Abuja can do is give federal muscle to local initiatives. No matter what anyone thinks, Abuja is in the least position to take on the fundamentalist ideology driving the insurgency. Community and opinion leaders will do a far better job of that. The same is true of the search for peace; it cannot be imposed from Abuja. The people have to be willing to assist security agencies to do their job. Ditto for development. The people just have to be willing to give it a shot.

Last week, I heard Borno Governor Kashim Shettima talk about a Marshall Plan for the North-east. That is at least good thinking. I hope he’s not referring to a plan crafted in Abuja for the people of Borno – a plan that can only help feed the fat boys in Abuja. He should get to work to produce a roadmap for development for his dear state. When all is said and done, he will find that good ideas have a way of attracting cash. Ask the people of Niger Delta where cash seems to be looking for good ideas. Dare to ask if the people have seen development with trillions of federal money poured into the region post amnesty. I assume of course that the North-east would not succumb to the template of appeasement made for the Niger Delta.

Now, what do I think of the role of the revered elders? Simple: they need to get back to the drawing board. Asking Jonathan to impose peace on their region is tantamount to abdication – worse than death. The same way that their request on the President to surrender the law enforcement option is unhelpful and counterproductive. Surely, some things must be better than politics. Beyond politics, what the leaders need at this time are courage and openness. After all, the fire is right at their door-steps.

March 12, 2013