The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • The PIB can of worms

    The PIB can of worms

    One of the arguments that Northern politicians have deployed for so long to frustrate passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), is that it gives too much to the Niger Delta – the region which for over half a century has hosted the exploitation of Nigeria’s crude oil with all attendant devastation.

    A typical argument was made on the floor of the Senate last Tuesday, by Senator Ahmed Lawan of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). He said the Niger Delta states did not deserve additional funds, having received N11 trillion from derivation, the Ecological Fund and other sources since 1999.

    Waxing eloquent, he claimed that various state governments in the oil-producing belt that had been receiving 13 per cent derivation had virtually nothing to show for the cash inflows. Putting the extra burden of more money on the people was unacceptable he argued.

    Positions similar to that advanced by Lawan have been canvassed in the past by the likes of Governors Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano and Babangida Aliyu of Niger. In fact, the governors did make the point that what one or two of the Niger Delta states receive from the federal purse dwarfed what accrued to the entire North.

    Each time those arguments were made they not only came across as insensitive, but also irrational. Now, in the light of the recent revelations about the ownership of oil blocs in the country, they have been exposed as fraudulent and hypocritical.

    In the face of boisterous Northern opposition to the PIB, Chairman, Senate Committee on Business and Rules, Ita Enang (Akwa Ibom North-West), changed the tenor of the debate at last Wednesday’s plenary when he accused influential northerners of being owners of 83 per cent of the entire oil wells in the Niger Delta!

    For those who may have missed the report, I reproduce here Enang’s list. Those to be found there include Alhaji Mai Deribe, Borno State, who owns Cavendish Petroleum – operator of OML 110 with an average revenue of N4billion monthly.

    Seplat/Platform Petroleum, operators of the ASUOKPU/UMUTU Marginal Field has Mallam (Prince) Sanusi Lamido of Kano, as major shareholder and director. This Sanusi is not the same person as the Central Bank Governor.

    Another well-known name is General T. Y. Danjuma of Taraba State. He established South Atlantic Petroleum Limited (SAPETRO). He is also chairman of Eni Nigeria Limited. SAPETRO partnered with Total Upstream Nigeria Limited (TUPNI) and Brasoil Oil Services Company Nigeria Limited to become operators of the OPL 246.

    AMNI International Petroleum and Development Company is owned by Alhaji (Colonel) Sani Bello of Kontangora , Niger State – another ubiquitous player in corporate Nigeria. They operate OML 112 and OML 117.

    According to Enang, former Petroleum Minister and former OPEC Chairman, Rilwanu Lukman, manages AMNI oil blocks “with very key interest in the NNPC/Vitol trading deal.”

    Among other disclosures are that Oriental Energy Resources Limited, a company owned by Maiduguri-based multimillionaire, Alhaji Mohammed Indimi, runs three oil blocs – OML 115, the Oldwok field and the Ebok field.

    Alhaji Aminu Dantata’s Express Petroleum and Gas Limited, operates OML 108. OML 113 allocated to Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum Limited is owned by Alhaji W.I. Folawiyo. Alhaji Saleh Mohammed Gambo, North East Petroleum Limited, is the holder of the OPL 215 Licence.

    North East Petroleum was awarded blocs OPL 276 and OPL 283 and sealed a Joint Venture Agreement with Centrica Resources Nigeria Limited and CCC Oil and Gas.

    INTEL is owned by former Vice President Abubakar Atiku, the late Gen. Shehu Musa Yar’Adua and Emir of Kano, Ado Bayero. It is believed to own substantial stakes in the oil exploration industry in Nigeria as well as Sao Tome and Principe.

    Among the few Southern-owned business interests on the list are Mike Adenuga’s Conoil – the oldest indigenous oil exploration company with six blocks. OPL 291 was awarded to Starcrest Energy Nigeria Limited, owned by Emeka Offor and later sold to Addax Petroleum.

    Without question these revelations must have caused considerable disquiet and embarrassment in certain circles. The lopsidedness of the distribution tells the story of Nigeria in the last 52 years. Clearly, the pattern of distribution of the blocs is down to the fact that for the bulk of our years as an independent nation the North has produced leaders at the center whether under military regimes or in civil dispensations.

    Knowing what we now know we can return to the central point of Senator Lawan’s argument which is that the Niger Delta states have received too much money – over N11 trillion from various sources since 1999 to use his figures. We may not even make an issue over how much is too much. But perhaps Lawan may wish to enlighten us about how much accrued to northern states in the same period so we can have a reasonable discussion.

    He also makes the moot point that the states have not been able to manage – such that they have very little to show. Nigeria’s reality, however, is that governments whether at federal or state level have not been able to manage Nigeria’s resources in a way that would have transformed our fortunes. No region – not the north or even Lawan’s home state – can claim to have done better.

    If such performance were the basis for revenue allocation, I dare say many states and regions will receive zero allocation.

    Now we have a situation where these influential Northerners who own 80% of Nigeria’s oil blocs are receiving more revenue than the entire region from which they come. We have no information as to how long they have owned these assets. The question we should ask is how these billions have benefitted the North?

    The whole plank on which Northern opposition to the PIB has rested for so long is equity. What is equitable in a situation where a section of the elite corner these oil blocs and not a single name from the Niger Delta appears on that list? It goes beyond being inequitable; it is downright embarrassing for this country.

    Of course, there’s no guarantee that if the door of the elite oil bloc owners association is opened a crack to let in one or two persons from the Niger Delta it will change much for the poverty-stricken masses in the creeks. Still, this distorted ownership structure cannot be allowed to remain.

    The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has called on the government to investigate Enang’s claim. I absolutely align myself with that suggestion. We should establish how these blocs got into the hands of those who own them. We must then revoke all licences and establish a more equitable way of distributing them to ensure better balance – east, west, north and south.

    The PIB is not perfect and those who argue that too much power is concentrated in the hands of the President and Petroleum Minister may have their point.

    But all those who are still nitpicking over 10% of oil company profits going to host communities need to balance their greed and envy with an understanding of the uncommon ecological damage that these communities have suffered, and continue to suffer. Perhaps, one month of legislative oversight in the creeks – under the shadow of a gas flare – will change the perspective of the Abuja bunch.

  • The joy of the birds, bees and flowers (2)

    The joy of the birds, bees and flowers (2)

    When social, political and domestic violence congregate to batter the woman, the strength of the nation is weakened and severely compromised.

    Last week, dear reader, we tried to draw attention to the fact that women too are entitled to a life well lived. This means not only that women should become free of the abnormal burden of carrying the home, children, husband and societies’ responsibilities, but that they should even be helped to see so much joy in existence they will refrain from having headaches. Did the men take any notice of this whining? No sir, not so much as a grunt. Nevertheless, we must plod on, for just last Friday, March 8, the world celebrated this year’s International Women’s Day. Ah ha!

    According to the website page on the celebration, it is a day to honour the work of suffragettes, celebrate women’s successes and remind us of what inequalities to redress. This year, the theme is ‘Time for action to end Violence against Women.’ And I thought, how very appropriate, this. For, sometimes, it does appear to me that the world has taken violence against women so much for granted it has become part of the (ab)normal run of things.

    Take the streets for instance. Just check: close to seventy per cent of the population of beggars in Nigeria are women who are often dragging along their children. Those toddlers make up close to half of the remaining percentage. Of course, on the streets, the women are open to all kinds of abuses – from men, sun, rain, stars, and all. The men rape them; the sun beats down on them; the rain drenches them; and the stars … Oh yes, the stars can contribute to their plight too. Just try moving around by the light of the stars.

    On the more serious note, the violence that women suffer during war times is a shameful slap against the faces of men. Indeed, this war weapon is so dreadful that I believe it sinks the war leader who sanctions it below the mud that is beneath his soldiers’ boots. But that is not all. The society that throws its women into the teeth of war is done, all done.

    Then, there is the all-time great, domestic violence. This is such a constant in so many women’s lives that it just does not bear mentioning. To begin with, one great violence against womanhood is managing the home on little or no funds at all. But, don’t get me wrong. In many cases, the fault is with the men who probably do not realise that depriving the home of sufficient funds is some kind of violence. I blame them because with such men, their cars, motorcycles and bicycles are more important.

    In many other cases, there are men who do try their best and give as much as they can. They have little and they give little. No problem there as long as they give it in love, peace and harmony. Truly, they are not to blame. Rather, in such cases, I poke my stubby little digits in the eyes of the government leaders who are not creating the enabling environment for people to do honest work for honest pay. I have always said that if the focus of any governance is not directed at the betterment of the average home which does not consist of little greedy mouths and fingers, then that government is lost. If governance does not begin the day’s business with the price list of the country’s foodstuff perpetually behind its decisions, then I make bold to say that that is not governance, to use the famous cliché. So, yes, insufficient funds in the home can be serious violence against women.

    Ah, yes, there is also physical abuse. Now, that is a difficult one to track, for physical violence against anyone or thing is simply the loss of governance of the central controls of one’s corporate being. Seriously, raising one’s hands against anyone or anything should be a serious call for help, not by the victim but by the assailant. It is the assailant who is really crying, ‘Help me, I can no longer govern my senses. I deserve to be put on the funny farm.’ Unfortunately, the level at which this kind of abuse goes on in this country (oh yes, and the world too) is incredibly high, and sadly, with no governmental interference around here. This is why women are getting beheaded (as happened recently somewhere in a south western state over an argument) or simply killed. Yeah, well, what’s the difference?!

    Really, these gory conclusions are exactly that, conclusions to acts that often begin with what you would tag ‘ordinary beating’. I have heard a woman tell another woman to take heart; all that her husband did to her was just to beat her. In other words, he has not yet killed her. Oh people! Where are the laws against domestic abuse? When can a woman in Nigeria walk up to a police station and report that her husband beat her and the police would not bend down behind the counter and laugh their heads off but would march up indignantly to the said batterer, jab at his chest with some hefty fingers and ask him to try them (the police) for size? When, eh, when? Meanwhile, the women continue to suffer violence, like the kingdom of God.

    People, these episodes of sufferance call for definitive action, on everyone’s part. Let us start with the government. When a nation’s focus is forever turned on asking, praying and even craving for even mildly tolerable leadership, no worthwhile achievements can be made. Social structures suffer, the very atmosphere is puddled, and the homes bear the brunt. When we say home, we mean women. The burden of the absence of good governance in Nigeria, I tell you, is being borne by women. It is the women who stand between the children and starvation; between the children and insane activities such as playing with guns and killing each other in the home (as happened recently too somewhere in the southeast) and between God and men. Oh yes, it’s the women preventing God from punishing men for what they have done to this country.

    Anyway, the government has got to take governance a little more seriously. Everyone knows that the strength of a nation is in the health of the family. The strength of the family in turn rests in the health of the home and the home is a good woman’s focus. Therefore, the strength of the nation is in the well-being of her women. However, when social, political and domestic violence congregate to batter the woman, the strength of the nation is weakened and severely compromised. Good governance must be ensured by all means to end violence against, and strengthen, the women.

    I think the time has come to strengthen the legal actions made against domestic violence. Obviously, women are not made of the same physically stern stuff as the men are, so why kit them out in the same boxing gloves? When a woman is regularly battered, it is natural that she would either grow a thick skin against it or don gloves. I know, you and I have seen women boxers on the screen, but I tell you, they look downright ugly there. Those gloves look most unnatural on them. The women are putting their bodies to unnatural uses and I intend to tell the World Boxing Federation, just as soon as I am done here. Besides, they provide nothing but merriment for the men. In clearer words, they make the men laugh. No, bring sterner laws against domestic violence and you’ll see changes. Headaches will disappear, peace and respect will come in, and the joy of the birds, bees and flowers will follow. Happy Women’s Day once again!

  • Jonathan infuriates Northeast the more

    Jonathan infuriates Northeast the more

    Given the central position the Northeast occupies in Nigeria’s insecurity map, it was expected that once the crown settled over his ears, President Goodluck Jonathan would dash to the region unsettled by Boko Haram insurgency to pacify it, or at least meet minds with stakeholders to devise a way out of the seething cauldron. He did nothing of such, preferring apparently to live in denial of the problem and its horrendous effects. He had wearied himself sending condolences to the dead and dying, and issuing ‘strongly-worded statements’ promising to ‘bring to book’ those instigating the killings in the affected states. It got to a point that even words seemed to fail. Then, finally, he appeared to resign himself only to ruminative contemplation of the scale and scope of the killings, waiting for the day in which both the killers and the killed in the Boko Haram states would exhaust themselves and foreswear both violence and victimhood.

    But just when living in denial seemed the perfect strategy for the president to engage the Northeast drama, out came nine ‘meddlesome’ and ‘politicking’ All Progressives Congress (APC) governors embarking on a daring and timely visit to the hot spots of the Boko Haram insurgency. The visit, which came amidst bomb explosions, was conducted with some defiant pageantry. The governors strolled through Maiduguri’s main square and market, waved to crowds of beleaguered north easterners who thought the rest of the country had forgotten about them, and issued mocking statements deploring presidential paralysis in the face of crippling insecurity. Cut to the quick, the presidency replied with unexampled insolence, equally denouncing the governors it claimed had specialised in enunciating policies and actions that were nothing but caviar to the general. It was clear that for the presidency, and given the intensity of the fight in the Northeast, discretion was the better part of valour.

    And so, after almost two years of issuing boring press releases and tepid, repetitive condolences, the president finally stirred himself and visited Borno and Yobe States, the epicentres of the Boko Haram insurgency. The APC governors had, according to a columnist with this newspaper, stolen the president’s thunder, but not to visit the region at all would have been even more provocative and indefensible than the poor judgement of visiting after the nine governors prompted a rethink of presidential tactics. For two days last week, therefore, the president shuffled around the two states, promising nothing and getting no commitments in return. If his recent manoeuvres within the ruling party, which led to the enthronement of dinosaurs like Chief Tony Anenih, presaged his interest in 2015, his utterances during his Northeast visit all but indicated he had given up on that entire region. The region had given him the worst headache, such that some of his aides and Niger Delta supporters believed an ethnic conspiracy was afoot to deny him the ‘enjoyment’ of his presidency. If the headache graduated from secret plots to open loathing, the president probably reasoned, it was merely a reflection of the region’s violent character.

    Jonathan’s visit was expected to trump the visit of the nine APC governors in financial and material succour, soothing words, empathy, and peace initiatives. He needed to speak peaceably with them. Instead, perhaps because of the said sour relationship between the president and the region, Jonathan unapologetically exchanged diatribe with the zone’s elders. There were no peace initiatives, and there was scant empathy. Indeed, he left the region so infuriated by his brusque remarks and dismissive, if not sardonic, characterisation of their requests that the states’ elders would have preferred he didn’t come. On the real reason the Borno Elders asked for the withdrawal of the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) from Borno and Yobe streets, which is connected with the alleged indiscriminate reprisal killings by soldiers, the president feigned ignorance. All the president deigned to say (See Box) was this: “Let me be very frank, because the analogy that oh, when one soldier is killed the soldiers come and kill scores of people, we have always been admonishing that. We always tell the soldiers to conduct themselves because they are doing internal security job that ordinarily soldiers are supposed not to be involved in.” What about promising investigation into the actions of soldiers who breached the rules of engagement? Nothing. How about sparing a thought and a modicum of human feeling for those extra-judicially murdered? Also, nothing. Sadly – and the president should know better – he seemed to have given the JTF carte blanche to rewrite the rules of engagement. He gave the impression that he felt more for soldiers who died in combat than civilians caught in the crossfire, as if one was any less a Nigerian than the other. Worse, he appallingly and scornfully downplayed the allegation that JTF carried out unlawful killings.

    More humiliating to the elders was the president’s direct response to the request for JTF’s withdrawal from Borno State. He incredulously wanted the elders to indemnify him against any loss of life once the JTF was withdrawn. The president puts it very inelegantly in his convoluted lexical fashion: “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. I will sign and I will move, and I will do it. 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. When you do that today, as I am going, the JTF will start moving to their barracks. But you must guarantee, if anything happens to anybody, that you must be held responsible.” Not only did the president imply that the elders had the power to guarantee peace, he also gave the impression that he could cavalierly withdraw security agents from Borno simply because a few elders gave their word. Were this the way the world fought crime and governed their people, anarchy would have since taken over.

    Perhaps the most ominous statement the president made was his reaction to the killing of security agents. Why and how he thought anybody believed he celebrated the death of a security agent by showing restraint is hard to fathom. This is what he had to say on the subject: “I have given the directive to security services, I don’t want to hear that one soldier is killed in the Niger Delta; I don’t want to hear that one security officer is killed in the South East kidnapping; I don’t want to hear that one soldier is killed in Borno State or any part of this country. I cannot preside over this country as a president and my security officers are killed. This people leave their families, stay on the roads and the bush so that we will sleep and I will not want to hear that one of them is killed. We will not allow it and I will not celebrate death of one security officer anywhere in this country…We will not, and I repeat, will not accommodate it.”

    Now, Borno Elders probably understand why the president delayed his visit. He was obviously too angry to visit before now; and the visit when it finally came was to read the riot act, not only to the Boko Haram states, but to any other state where security agents are killed. His priority is, by implication, to guarantee the lives of security agents. So, now, will the president begin applying the Odi method perfected by Chief Olusgeun Obasanjo, and which he himself condemned as ineffective? If anyone still holds out hope that Jonathan has the depth and judgement to rule a complex nation, especially one facing dire ethnic and religious challenges, I offer to the optimist the president’s view on the consequences of killing security agents. And if anyone thinks we are not in even deeper trouble than we imagine, I offer the same presidential remark as an example. Let every community in the country beware; even their deviants cannot afford to bite a soldier, protest against police tyranny, or fight a security official to the death.

    After the president’s visit, Borno and other states oppressed by Boko Haram terror now know where they stand. They stand alone; and the peace overtures they faintly hoped the president would bring, consequent upon the salutary visit of the APC governors, has become a chimera. Dr Jonathan has all but abdicated his responsibility as a president. He thinks that that responsibility lies with the people and leaders of the states groaning under Boko Haram terror. He probably believes that if the elders tell the fundamentalists to sheathe their swords, the militants would instantly do so. Nigeria would be a paradise the day a few elders had such sweeping moral and political force to command obedience from the populace. What is indeed clear from the president’s visit is that he has absolutely no idea left on how to solve the Boko Haram menace. Worse, he has served notice that state application of terror as a response to fundamentalist terror would henceforth serve as effective deterrence. God help Nigeria as Jonathan embraces Lord Lugard’s Indirect Rule and prepares the ground for fascism.

    Considering all these troubling things, it is tempting to ask who the president’s advisers are, and what kind of advice they give him. In fact, more appropriately, we should ask who Jonathan really is; what his mind is made of; and whether in 2011 we didn’t after all buy a pig in a poke.

     

  • Kalu can try again

    Kalu can try again

    The former governor should not lose hope in his quest for a degree 

    People who have university degrees may not value them until they see other people far better than them struggling to have the same degrees that they have taken for granted. Those familiar with the major news headlines in the past week must have known where I am going. It’s the issue of the degree awarded the former Governor of Abia State, Uzor Orji Kalu by the Abia State University (ABSU), Uturu, in the state, which the university has now revoked. Kalu, as governor, did not require any degree to become governor in Nigeria. Those who drafted our constitution noted our peculiar circumstances as a country, hence their bringing the qualification for our high offices to such rock-bottom level. Don’t ask me to expatiate because I won’t, for the same peculiar circumstances. No thanks to those who made our constitution, all that is required for governors and even the president is a School Certificate or its equivalent (whatever that means, and I guess that is also there due to our peculiar circumstances). So, possession of a degree is only an added advantage. And, maybe in the light of our experience, an added disadvantage!

    Kalu had already become a governor the time he sought admission into the university to pursue a Bachelor’s in Government and Public Administration. Apparently, the former governor still felt something was missing in him without the degree, having crashed out of the University of Maiduguri, and he thought of a way to make up for this and found ABSU the best place to meet that aspiration. Before we knew what was happening, the then governor had been offered admission into the same university in which he was the Visitor. Whoever advised Kalu along that line obviously did not reckon with the backlash, which, trust Nigerians, came in torrents. I remember vividly then that there was uproar about the immorality in what the governor had done. Not a few wondered how he intended to cope with his tight schedule as governor and that of a full time student of ABSU. But Kalu, like many other public figures in Nigeria did not care a hoot about the criticisms. What mattered to him then was that Kalu had gone back to school and would soon become a graduate.

    If Kalu’s intention was to upgrade his credential, it is something that is perfectly okay by me. What I find objectionable was his choice of university to realise that ambition. If he had followed due process and met all the criteria set for admission and graduation, and, above all, if he had not attended the university at a time he was its Visitor, that could have been good public relations for the institution. It could have enhanced its image.

    The university, no doubt, has to share in the blame. There are questions to ask. First, was there no senate in ABSU when Kalu applied to be a student there? Did the senate also not see that Kalu did not meet the criteria for the award of the degree then? I hate to ask the third question because it might be absolutely unnecessary. And that is why it took the university this long to realise these alleged irregularities. The answer to that is simple; the university, like any other institution, can revoke a degree anytime it is discovered that it was improperly awarded. In other words, it is not time bound. Concerning the issue of whether the university authorities at the time the former governor was admitted into the university did not see these lapses, we must be frank with ourselves, there are only a few academics who can look a sitting governor in the face and tell him that he cannot be admitted into a university because he has not met the criteria for admission. It seems the days of such rascally dons are over. Or that the sitting governor cannot graduate, for the same reason. Chances are such academics who do not know how to blend wisdom with courage would be shoved aside; not only by Kalu but by many of our governors who rule as if they are some imperial majesties. As a matter of fact, some of such lecturer’s colleagues would have been struggling for his place before the ink which the governor would have used in authorising his sack dried up. It is that bad. The point I am stressing is that our institutions are too weak. Where they are strong, Kalu himself would not have got the temerity to seek admission into that university at that time. That is why I would want to caution that we do not overstretch this aspect for obvious reasons.

    But if we insist that the university should be punished for taking Kalu and awarding him its degree in spite of these shortcomings, no problem. But we have to, as they say in my place, first drive away the thief before telling the owner of the stolen property that he too did not secure his property well. It is therefore to Kalu that we should turn and ensure that he stops parading himself as a graduate of ABSU, at least for now, since the university has acknowledged that the degree was improperly awarded.

    The former governor has threatened that his lawyers will reply at the appropriate time. But while Kalu’s lawyers are still perusing the books and statutes to know which to nail ABSU with in order to get back their client’s degree, I know as a layman that no court can force a university to award a degree that the beneficiary is not due for. The best that can be done in this matter is for the court to declare the process leading to the decision to revoke the certificate faulty because the university did not give Kalu the benefit of fair hearing; at least that is the impression one got from the story.

    I am not oblivious of the fact that it is possible Kalu is now a victim of political victimisation, probably by the same person he assisted to be governor. But that is the way most of them behave; we cannot tell how many people Kalu himself might have done that to as governor. So, it is a case of what goes around comes around. That is why I do not think we should overstretch this aspect too. We should rather look at the larger picture of whether the former governor is guilty as charged by the university authorities. The integrity of the degrees and certificates issued by that institution should be our main concern as against whether someone is being victimised. If the ‘victimisation’ is just, that is, if it is not without basis, so be it.

    If Kalu still wants to be a graduate, he should return to school properly and do it right, now that he is no longer governor. This time, he should ensure that his transcript carries the letter-head of the University of Maiduguri from where he dropped out; he should ensure too that he meets the admission requirements as well as the requirements of attendance of classes.He should also ensure that he matriculates with his fellow ‘Jambites’. His case with ABSU is almost a lost cause because all the gods in Okija Shrine swearing that he did not influence (as a sitting governor) his admission into ABSU, or the award of his degree, will impress no one. The best option for him is to return to school to prove his detractors wrong. ‘Kalu goes to school again’! How about that?

  • The destructive triad of mediocrity-corruption-inequality in Nigeria: reflections (2)

    The destructive triad of mediocrity-corruption-inequality in Nigeria: reflections (2)

    Edumare to da Rabi olobi lo da Rabi alaso [God that created Rabi, the poor seller of kola nuts, is the same deity that created Rabi, the rich cloth merchant] A Yoruba adage on the “natural” or divine basis of earthly inequality

    There is perhaps no better point on which to start this concluding part of this series on the intimate, determining links between mediocrity, corruption and inequality in our country than the statistical fact that the median age for Nigeria is now generally regarded to be 19. From this we can deduce the fact that by an overwhelming majority, the current population profile of the country is dominated by young people. In my own projection from these facts, I estimate that close to 70% of Nigerians are below the age of 30. From this observation I wish to extrapolate two important observations to start the discussion in this concluding piece. The first observation concerns what the older generations are telling the youthful generations while the second observation concerns what the older folks are not telling their younger compatriots on the following historically regressive fact: how merit and excellence existed in the past, only to be ultimately overcome by a relentless and seemingly unending descent into the pervasive mediocrity of the present period. As I hope to show, these two observations each of which seems so different, so contradictory to the other, are in reality two sides of the same coin.

    First, then, let us examine the first observation, expressed in an emphatic assertion that might seem only too obvious to most Nigerians over the age of fifty, but is probably somewhat mythical to the generality of Nigerians under the age of forty: This country once had secondary schools and universities that were excellent institutions of learning; it had high standards of public sanitation in the large towns and cities; and it had Public Works Departments (PWDs) that built and maintained roads and highways of quality and durability. Up to this very moment of writing this article, the old Ibadan-Ijebu Ode road still stands as a monument to the kind of sturdy roadworthiness in road construction and maintenance that we once knew and enjoyed in this country. I say this with the authority of one who himself sometimes participates, at every opportune moment, in ritual expressions of nostalgia and sentimentality about the Kings, Queens and Government Colleges and Schools of the past; the UCI and UI of the past; the levels and standards of competence in learning that was commonplace in the past by the time you had gone through secondary school.

    In the past – so goes the standard narrative – there were first, second and third tier institutions of learning, the first tier setting the tone, the standards of merit and distinction for the second and third tiers. Now there is a single tier or, even worse, there are no tiers at all as all distinction and distinctiveness have vanished and if you want a sound education for your children, you must send them outside the country, “outside” here including neighboring African countries. A vast expansion of education at all levels to reach as many of our children as possible has historically taken place in the last few decades and all things considered, this was a good thing, as much for the country as for the children involved and their families. However – and this is the big caveat for the voices of nostalgia and sentimentality among the older generation of Nigerians for the lost golden age of the past – it was not inevitable that all merit and distinction should have been wiped out; what could or should have taken place is that merit and distinction should have been kept in sight and protected as a benchmark for emulation by the hundreds of thousands of new schools that had to relax their standards to take in as many of our children as possible.

    Though it reeks a lot of mawkish sentimentality and elitist paternalism, this narrative is not without some merits. For it is a historical fact that in many regions and nations of the world, the two seemingly parallel lines of, on the one hand, sustaining high standards of instruction and learning and, on the other hand, democratizing education to reach the children of the poor and the economically and socially marginalized, have been successfully pursued. We can cite a few examples of such regions and nations: Britain and the Scandinavian countries in Western Europe; Cuba and Brazil in the Americas. But this does not happen automatically; and it is not achieved easily, without social, cultural and political struggles to simultaneously pursue democratization and maintain high standards of merit and excellence. This is what is routinely left unmentioned and unexamined by those among my generation of Nigerians who pine for the lost glories of the past in our country when, even as a developing country in the global South, we had excellent institutions of learning, high standards of public sanitation and competent management of our public utilities and facilities.

    This point leads me to the observation I made earlier in the present discussion to the effect that in what is both said and left unsaid about the rise of a pervasive, galloping mediocrity in our country, we have not two contradictory observations but two sides of the same coin. Metaphorically speaking, this is the coin of an individual and collective elitism that has been remarkably and unconscionably blind to the past, present and changing sources and nature of its elitism in our country. For the last time in this column, I wish to make an allusion to Achebe’s new book, There Was A Country, in order to illustrate this contention by making symbolic use of Achebe’s anecdotes and references in the book to his car, a Jaguar.

    Now, Odia Ofeimun’s commentary on Achebe’s new book has, like the book itself, been much-discussed. It is a very angry, very bitter commentary. [By the way, I should add that strictly on the political aspects of Achebe’s book, it is also a very perspicacious commentary] One little detail in Ofeimun’s commentary that has been ignored is the deliberately wicked and withering references that the poet and essayist makes to Achebe’s Jaguar. Here was a man, Ofeimun says, who not only had a Jaguar while the masses of ordinary people in Biafra had nothing but their “footwagen”, but he also apparently had regular supply of fuel for his very upscale car. Ofeimun’s point in this is that Achebe in war-torn Biafra was a privileged member of the ruling class that did not remotely suffer as much as the masses of ordinary people did in the young secessionist republic. This point is incontrovertible, but this is not what I wish to emphasize here. In Biafra, Achebe belonged to the inner caucus of the political and ideological leadership responsible for the war effort, responsible in effect for winning the war. Throughout history members of such an inner caucus in the context of war have always enjoyed privileges that the general population sorely lack. This is both an evident fact of history and a complex issue of political morality. But it is not my main point in this discussion. Rather, the larger comment I wish to make is that for me, Achebe’s Jaguar symbolizes the general and widespread presumptions of an elite – in Nigeria and Biafra – that completely took its privileges for granted, so much so that it was totally complacent about those privileges. What does this mean?

    The general profile, the commonplace worldview was that if you went to one of the best schools and did well, you had a right to the kind of life symbolized in the possession of a car like the Jaguar: an automatically available good job; a house maintained at public or company expense; paid annual leaves that could be parlayed for handsome bonuses on top of your good salary; and excellent future prospects for your children. Up to the time that I went to Ibadan in the late 60s, this worldview and the good life that both perpetuated and justified it were still considered the inalienable components of an entitlement, indeed a birthright that the nation, the world owed us. But this has disappeared completely from the social calibrations of elite identity in our country and with it has gone the meritocratic values on which it was based.

    Meritocracy has always coexisted extremely uneasily with genuine democratization, the extension of educational, economic, cultural and social rights and amenities enjoyed by the few to the rest of the population. And throughout modern history, members of the elite have always been very wary, very suspicious of the masses rising to overthrow systems and practices of excellence. Where and when social capital like education and the provision of good health services, clean, potable water and good facilities for recreation and leisure have been extended to the poor and the marginalized, there has always been an outcry of disastrous fall in standards all around. Those who want to see how deep this sentiment goes in the minds and psyches of the elites of the West and other parts of the world might want to take a look at the classic book on the subject, this being The Revolt of the Masses published in 1930 by the Spanish liberal philosopher, Jose Ortega y Gasset.

    In conclusion, I offer a few summative reflections. First, the “democratization” of educational opportunities and cultural and social amenities to the masses of Nigerians that oil wealth made possible is not the main or real culprit in the collapse of merit and excellence in the public affairs of our country. Rather than this, what we should begin to explore is the historic fact that meritocracy, whether of the liberal and benign kind or the conservative and reactionary variety, never stood the slightest chance of survival in our country once merit and excellence ceased to carry any weight in who was rich, powerful, and influential in Nigeria and who was not. My favorite illustration for this claim is the incontrovertible fact that not a single one of all the governments in our country, federal, state or local, needs to actually produce or generate the revenue on which it depends. When you don’t have to produce what you spend, value ceases to have any real significance in what you do or don’t do.

    Secondly, while the sharing of oil revenues is supposed to take care of everything, it is in actuality the principal mechanism for the creation and perpetuation of the vast chasm that separates our elites from the talakawa, the masses. Thirdly, the “democratization” that has been going on since oil wealth replaced surplus extraction from export crops as the motive force of our national political economy is a completely sham and fraudulent democratization. Everyone, every Nigerian ultimately suffers from the reign of mediocrity, but the poor and the marginalized far more than the rich and the powerful. In other words, social inequality of the colossal kind that exists in our country at the present time is a rich breeding ground for mediocrity. Please compatriots, never speak about how poor, how inferior and how mediocre things are in virtually all areas of our public affairs without linking this valid complaint, this national pastime in lamentation for the lost glorious past with the struggle for equality and justice in our country.

    Biodun Jeyifo

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

  • Yoruba marginalisation: To what effect? (4)

    Yoruba marginalisation: To what effect? (4)

    Eight years of Obasanjo was long enough to fix the Lagos-Ibadan highway and to de-regulate establishment of railway.

    The conclusion of last week’s piece asserts that Jonathan is largely a product of primitive geopolitical pressure or ethnic rivalry that pits the North against the South or the Southsouth/Southeast against the Southwest. It adds that the appropriation of the nation’s resources by the federal government and the geopolitical pressure by leaders of large or small ethnic groups with federal executive power on ethnic groups with small legislative strength have to be addressed by patriotic citizens and organisations, if Nigeria is to achieve its potential as Africa’s most populous state.

    President Jonathan’s marginalisation of the Yoruba region is, as we said in the first piece on this topic, a continuation and exaggeration of a political culture that has been in the country since the reign of military dictators. What is unique about Jonathan’s brand is that he combines both direct and indirect exclusion of the Yoruba region in a dare-devil manner that even military regimes found too risky to practice. Military regimes chose to marginalise the southern regions in a subtle way that justified such disempowerment on the basis of national unity that is driven by the policy of even development. Apparently, the government of Jonathan vengefully neglects the Yoruba region for voting for him in 2011, while voting for a more progressive party in state executive and legislative elections, an enigmatic show of the region’s political plurality and a sign of undependability for believers in one-party rule.

    What is important to know for those who truly believe in building a modern multiethnic nation that is committed to national development is that Jonathan may not be the last president that will continue a political tradition started by the military. Unless some super-human politicians or extraordinary individuals emerge with the commitment to modernise the entire country, the average politician is not likely to be any better than Jonathan in terms of using access to federal power to improve the lot of his own nationality or region and to erect obstacles in the path of other regions.

    It is in the character of a unitary constitution and mode of governance in a multinational state for those in charge of central power to use it to bring advantages to the section of wielders of central power, more so when such government is managed by persons of average emotional intelligence. It is not fortuitous that it was under successions of military government superintended by generals from the North that the country’s federal constitution was distorted; the revenue allocation formula was abolished and replaced by donation of resources of regions to the federal government for re-distribution to states and local governments created largely for the purpose of revenue mobilization and allocation. Revenue from petroleum and gas and all manners of sales tax are collected into a central pool and distributed to states and local governments from the centre, leaving most of the resources under the control of those managing the federal government.

    In a way, President Jonathan, ruling under the aegis of a party created and nurtured by past military rulers, is continuing a tradition initiated by military rulers, a tradition that was also practiced during Obasanjo’s presidency. Eight years of Obasanjo was long enough to fix the Lagos-Ibadan highway and to de-regulate establishment of railway. None of these may happen under Jonathan or any other PDP government, unless the PDP changes its ideology from the sharing of national cake to the baking of cakes, or from parasitic to productive economy.

    Yoruba leaders and organisations that are justifiably depressed by neglect of their region may be running on an empty tank if they throw their energy in the direction of appealing to President Jonathan to stop his government from creating and reinforcing policies that disempower the Yoruba. What is required is a commitment on the part of Yoruba cultural leaders and organisations to the cause of re-federalisation of Nigeria.

    It is instructive to know that in the few years that there was federalism in the country, no region complained about marginalisation. Leaders from the North focused on the region’s comparative advantage to develop the region. So did the East use its own regional resources to create an enabling environment for its own residents to compete effectively with the Southwest, which in those days was the most endowed in terms of natural and human resources. This is why the Yoruba region was able to sustain its development projects without having to whine because someone in charge of the federal government had chosen to keep resources away from it.

    How many of the states in the Yoruba region today can do without manna coming to it from revenues appropriated from the Niger Delta into the central purse in Abuja? Marginalisation did not start with Jonathan. It started from a fiscal policy that collects revenue from the states into a central purse to be allocated to states by political parties and government leaders in charge of the central purse. Marginalisation of the Yoruba region is not only about SURE-P’s isolation of three Yoruba states from projected rail lines that are to cover the rest of the country; it includes having a constitution that prevents the Yoruba region or any other region that so wishes to establish rail transportation for its citizens.

    Political and cultural leaders that are unhappy about Yoruba exclusion under President Jonathan should not derail their argument by getting involved in puerile political thinking. Merger of political parties has nothing to do with a political structure and system that is designed to give political and economic advantage to some sections of the country at the expense of others. If anything, a political situation that pits APC against PDP may be able to move the country out of the culture of sectional dominance than can be readily imagined. A merger of parties that have expressed preference for functional federalism is more likely to avoid neglect of sections of the country than a party that prides itself as the only party committed to the present political structure that promotes direct and indirect marginalisation of the Yoruba region.

    Similarly, bemoaning the absence of good leadership rather than the absence of good structure is capable of prolonging the struggle against marginalisation. In the period between 1954 and 1966, the leaders of the three regions had different personalities. But the existence of freedom of each region to develop according to its preferred values and in its own pace resulted in a competitive federal system that brought the best out of the three regions and increased the country’s productivity. The bold and right action against marginalisation of the Yoruba is for leaders of thought in the region to separate their partisan political interests from the larger interest of Yoruba civilisation by agreeing to join cultural and economic forces to struggle for restoration of federalism in the country. It is important for the Yoruba region or any other region to know that whether it is APC or PDP that is in power in a truly federal Nigeria, no section of the country will be pushed to become a cry-baby, such as the Yoruba is fast becoming during the era of President Jonathan.

  • Why Kwara police commissioner’s killing matters

    Since our soil has become used to receiving so many souls cut down so violently, why should the killing last week of a police commissioner Chinwike Asadu matter? 

    Asadu, until that Saturday, Kwara State Commissioner of Police, was visiting his home state Enugu. He had just dropped off a lawyer friend and was driving into his personal house when four gunmen fatally shot him, according to reports. His orderly and another policeman said to have been directed to give him further protection, were critically wounded in the attack, though they are reported to be responding to treatment in hospital.

    From this point, everything about the incident has been predictable. Police authorities in Abuja said the police commissioner’s killers have “murdered sleep” and will not find rest. That Shakespearean expression is a little fresh in these parts even though it is only another way to tell us what we usually hear when violent crimes are committed. Police traditionally say they are “on top of the situation” and that they will “leave no stone unturned” until they have found and dealt with the perpetrators of the “dastardly act”. That is what we are always told.

    In Enugu where the dastardly act took place, the command has assured the public that arrests have been made, though they will neither say how many suspects are held nor reveal their identities in order “not to jeopardise investigations”.

    Kwara State is reportedly mourning. The 82 Division of the Nigerian Army in Enugu has promised to help in catching Asadu’s killers. Amidst tears, the late CP’s widow, Oby, has resigned to fate, praying God to, in His own way and probably in His own time, deal with those who murdered her husband.

    Her clear pessimism typifies the larger Nigerian disposition in such circumstances. Over the years, we have seen the profile of violent crimes worsen so alarmingly and rarely have the criminals been brought to book, to borrow another favourite police phrase. Here, we are not just talking about robberies, however bloody they may be; we are also talking about carefully plotted assassinations and outright killing sprees. We are talking about the bloody and violent transformation of once serene and adorable Nigerian towns and cities, Jos being a classic example. We are talking about sudden bursts of gunfire and explosion silencing a large number of people and damaging property of inestimable value. And we are talking about the perpetrators vanishing into the proverbial thin air. It is needless here to recall unsolved high-profile murders or neglected reports of sundry investigations into large-scale killings in our communities. But in January, to mention a not-too-distant case, a community in Anambra State suddenly found no fewer than 19 corpses of young men floating on their river. In spite of the best efforts of the state government, the police have yet to explain how those bodies ended up on the river.

    Pessimism and aloofness are therefore justifiable. Gradually, the Asadu murder is being forgotten. It should not. The murder of a policeman is a serious matter. Whatever we have against the police, whatever their shortcomings, the killing of cop is a serious issue anywhere in the world. And for obvious reasons.

    The police carry with them the authority of the country. They are on national assignment and are orientated to keep the nation and it’s people safe. How they interpret their brief is a different matter.

    I did and still criticise Odi invasion not because the killing of the policemen there by youths did not matter but because the federal reaction was ill-advised and because a whole community paid for the crime of a few misguided youths.

    Asadu was not just a policeman. He was the number one law officer in Kwara before his murder. The state government and the people turned to him for answers to their security challenges. He moved around with armed security details of his own. If he had any safety worries, you did not expect them to be personal. He should worry about logistics and support to solve crimes, not to fear for his own safety. Even when he travelled out of Kwara, where he held a command position, he did not have to fear the worst.

    January 2 was a sad day not just for the Asadu family but also for the entire nation. The police should find his killers. No nation should get used to its police commissioners being cut down so violently.

  • Naked lies won’t help, Okupe

    Naked lies won’t help, Okupe

    Although he trained as a medical doctor, presidential spokesman, Doyin Okupe, would probably not recognise a syringe now if he sees one. He has found fulfilment in working as the mouthpiece of the nation’s presidents, and many think it is just as well that he decided to shun his professional calling. Given his penchant for concealing the truth, Okupe could constitute a liability to his patients. What if he sees cancer patients and tells them they have jaundice? Or he sees a victim of malaria and tells him he has a cold?

    Such fears were legitimised by his conscious efforts in the last few days to subject the entire populace into collective idiocy in his bid to deny the 10 opposition governors that visited Maiduguri last week the credit for treading the killing field of the Boko Haram sect which President Goodluck Jonathan had avoided for 21 months! While well-meaning Nigerians, including sincere chieftains of the People’s Democratic Party(PDP) like Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State took turns to salute the courage and thoughtfulness of the opposition governors for making the move within weeks of coming together under the umbrella of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Okupe chose to accuse them of stealing the idea from the President.

    At a news conference in Abuja on Tuesday, Okupe said Jonathan had long been scheduled to visit Borno State, but the opposition governors got wind of the plan and hurriedly packaged the widely acclaimed visit just to preempt the President’s plan. He said: “The APC governors’ visit was hurriedly packaged to preempt the visit of Mr. President which had been planned and scheduled several weeks ago. This is surely an act of crass opportunism and political desperation on the part of these governors and the party they represent.

    “We regard that visit as a media circus, stunt and photo-ops by these governors who were apparently in Maiduguri to feather their political nests. If I may ask, where were these governors in the last 18 months that they had been in office? It is obvious that it is part of their mobilization drive that took them to Borno State rather than any patriotic call to duty. These are desperate power mongers who flock together in spite of their obvious conflicting political philosophies and inordinate ambitions”.

    His utterances reminded me of an old classmate. Each time our teacher of English asked to contribute to a debate, he would tell the teacher that someone else had just made the point he wanted to make. His folly was exposed when the teacher hit on the idea of asking him to make his contribution before anyone else. Those who are conversant with Okupe’s ways and the circumstances in which he became the Senior Special Assistant to President Jonathan on Public Affairs would not be disappointed at his condemnation of the governors’ visit. The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to Obasanjo between 1999 and 2003 was hired in July last year to act as Jonathan’s attack dog when it became obvious that Dr. Reuben Abati, the President’s spokesman, was too refined for the assignment.

    With his background as one of the finest flowers of journalism in Nigeria before he abandoned his office at the Rutam House and headed for the Aso Rock for his own share of the Holy Grail, Abati became a stammerer on each occasion he had to defend the indefensible. That was the point at which it occurred to Jonathan and his men that they needed a man in the mould of Okupe who would point at charcoal and argue that it is as white as a hound’s tooth.

    Yet there are occasions like the one in question when Okupe would be better off to keep quiet than soil his reputation with tendentious arguments meant to serve no other purpose than massage his principal’s devastated ego. Considering the hell the nation has become on account of the destructive activities of the Boko Haram sect in the last two years, one cannot but wonder what other matters would occupy the mind of the President so much that he had to shelve his planned visit to Maiduguri, the hotbed of the crisis, for close to two years.

    Jonathan was simply too scared to visit the vortex of Boko Haram bombings. After all, he had told whoever cared to listen after the sect struck in Abuja in August 2011 that it would eliminate him if it had its way. Hence, the President would not venture into Borno and Yobe, even after his predecessor, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, had visited the area and even held talks with some people he felt could facilitate negotiation with the sect to surrender their guns and bombs. Those were the days before Obasanjo openly criticized Jonathan’s timid handling of the crisis and the friendly relationship between them collapsed like a pack of cards.

    While courage is a basic attribute of a good leader, Jonathan lacked enough of it to visit Borno before the opposition governors seized the initiative. Rather than beat about the bush in a bid to cover up the failure of the President and his security advisers in this regard, Okupe should have called a spade by its name, particularly because the truth is obvious even to a toddler. One needs no further evidence of the fear that had kept him away from Borno and Yobe states than the fact that the Inspector General of Police had to lead as many as 3,000 policemen for the President’s belated visit to the trouble states.

  • Chavez, socialism and security

    I learnt of the death of Venezuela’s ailing President Hugo Chavez about the same time that I read about the appeal of the Sultan of Sokoto to the Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan to give a general amnesty to Boko Haram, just after its leader had reportedly threatened to unleash more terror in the North. At the same time, I was pondering over what I had just read in the book Financialism co authored by Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu and Brian Browne on the Nigeria military’s several incursion into politics. The book noted rather wryly that the Nigerian military adopted the central control pattern of political administration inherent in socialism in governing Nigeria, without any thought or intention of using that to bridge social inequalities which is the goal of socialism as an ideology.

    Also along the way, I was monitoring a story about a book launch on former President Obasanjo’s term in office in a two- volume book by 20 scholars whose editorship was coordinated by a professor of medicine Professor Oladipo Akinkugbe in which it was said that former Secretary to the Obasanjo Government Alhaji Yayale and present National Coordinator on the Economy Dr Ngozi Nweala, Obasanjo’s Finance Minister were the two people that scuttled the reforms planned and executed by the Obasanjo Administration from 1999 to 2007. These events, the issues and personalities involved form the nucleus of my discussion today.

    Venezuelans have trooped to the streets to mourn their fallen leader Hugo Chavez who fought cancer and death, as if both devils were part of his military command and at his behest and call. Of course he lost his life and the battle, but he never lost the love of his countrymen because of the way he used his adopted version of socialism to take care of their welfare and reduce social inequalities in Venezuela. Hence his adoration by his people, both on his death bed and his final passing. Hugo Chavez was not a saint but he was a very clever soldier – politician who at the age of 21 as a young military officer decided he would be a leftist in life and alleviate the poverty of his people and he succeeded to a large extent.

    He planned a coup and was imprisoned. When released the military were still suspicious of him and did not give him a combat job but asked him to handle training but he used the opportunity to recruit bright officers for his ambition of ruling Venezuela which he achieved by winning the presidential elections and ruling his nation for 14 years till he died this week. Chavez used Venezuela’s oil wealth to reduce poverty in his nation and to promote socialism amongst his neighbors hence reducing social inequalities in the region . His foreign policy was anti American just as it was pro Cuba and helped Cuba immensely to battle the crippling sanctions imposed on it by the USA.

    To rub salt on US wound and discomfiture on this, Chavez even created diplomatic rapport with the Iranians who are sworn enemies of the US because of that nation’s one – sided support for Israel over the Palestinian issue .In effect then, Chavez created a niche for his nation in the comity of nations as an effective and independent voice of socialism, fearless of the US, and not in any way beholden to its global financial agent , the IMF. Yet Chavez started out as a soldier before dropping military uniform for the politician’s attire and making a success of leadership on both fronts.

    It is in this light that I want to compare Chavez’s leadership role in Venezuela with the viewpoint of the co authors of Financialism on the role of the military alongside socialism in Nigeria during military rule. Ironically a staunch ally of Asiwaju Tinubu, the governor of Oshun state, Ogbeni Aregbesola noted at the book launch last Thursday that Asiwaju is more of a socialist in his concern for and actions on poverty alleviation than the capitalist he claims to be. But it is the assertion in the book that the military adopted the state control posture of socialism without any respect for poverty bridging ideals of socialism that I want to comment upon. This is because the military had the same opportunity that Chavez had in Venezuela but blew it literally as each military regime left the nation poorer than it met it. At the end of the day the Nigerian masses became literally fed up with military regimes and loathed their memories intensely. Indeed when the late General Abacha died people celebrated all over the nation, just as Venezuelans mourned the departure of their leader with deep sorrow this week.

    Again the admitted failure of the Obasanjo Reforms in his two terms and the identification of the culprits raise serious questions on leadership in Nigeria and again begs for comparison with Hugo Chavez’s record in Venezuela. This is because Chavez and Obasanjo had similar opportunities to change events in their nations. Chavez staged an unsuccessful coup before being elected president whereas Obasanjo did not stage a coup but was the beneficiary of a failed coup that made him the head of the military after the assassination of Murtala Muhammed. In addition Obasanjo was the first Nigerian military ruler that handed power over to a civilian regime; a feat that made his leadership stature to grow till today in diplomatic circles. Twenty years after this Obasanjo was elected a civilian head of state and served for two terms of four years only to end up with this damning report that two of his appointees sabotaged his reform program. Which really bothers me as I do not see the import of this information which is like crying over spilt milk which all the forces in the universe can not bring together. Or closing the stables door after the horses have bolted. Worse still I am surprised that the Obasanjo government did not expect the role played by the two identified culprits. I will explain.

    With regard to his Head of Service then, the information will definitely make him a hero amongst the Administrative Class in the civil service, both past and present. This is because he protected his fellow bureaucrats against the record of Obasanjo and the military against the leadership of the civil service. The 1975 purge of the civil service, when the late Murtala Muhammed daily announced that ‘this administration will not tolerate indiscipline, this administration will not condone abuse of office ‘ was all what Yayale was trying to prevent happening ever again, on his watch. This purge though popular then, decapitated the leadership of the civil service and Obasanjo was very much part of it first ,as the Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, and later as Head of State and Commander In Chief . Unknown to Obasanjo, espirit de corps was and still is a guiding leadership principle for the leadership class of the Nigerian bureaucracy just as it has always been for the officer cadre of the army, in and out of office , or uniform till today.

    In addition the second culprit could not have performed otherwise given the fact that she was brought from the World Bank and her brief was for an IMF reform like the ones causing riots in Portugal, Spain and Greece of recent. The Obasanjo book noted that she curiously and suddenly resigned but it is no secret that she went back to her job and got promoted too for her effort as Obasanjo’s Finance Minister. Anyway she is back in the same job and should be able to speak for herself on her role in the Obasanjo Administration between 1999 and 2007.

    Lastly, I understand the concern of the Sultan of Sokoto on amnesty for the Boko Haram terrorists but I do not think he is right in making such a call. Boko Haram terrorists have killed and bombed Churches and attacked Northern leaders including the Emir of Kano and an amnesty will not stop them. Instead it will be mistaken as a sign of weakness on the part of the Nigerian state. Terrorism is a form of blackmail and this is no different. If amnesty is granted it will be like paying a ransom and once that is started there is no end to it. The cost of settling for amnesty in this case far outweighs the benefits or the insurance of security for the Nigerian nation in this avoidable and smoldering debacle that is fast consuming our national psyche and threatening our corporate existence so direly.

  • Looking beyond Kenya

    Football is a cruel game. It respects no one. It can be a leveler, especially for the side that approaches its game with the pride of the peacock. Indeed, it is such an unpredictable game that has humbled many a pundit.

    Soccer is the game for determined sides driven by the desire to upset the old order, hence its shocking results. Minnows thrive on re-writing the books. They are the ones who throw up new stars, making the game what it is- an intriguing enterprise.

    For the Super Eagles, only unrepentant supporters expected them to be African champions. Some of them may not admit it, but with the first two games, a few would have had their doubts; they kept fate in the elements of surprise associated with the Eagles whenever they are written off.

    Today, Eagles are Africa’s champions. The team others must beat. Every game will be like the finals, yet the beauty of the new team is that the coaches say that they are rebuilding. But can we believe them, given previous experiences? Many will nod in the affirmative. They are likely going to look at the 24-man home-based squad and perhaps the exclusion of Ejike Ezoenye, the little Enugu Rangers left winger who is on trial in France. But would that be a reason for dropping him? Or is it the coaches’ style of telling him to wait for his turn?

    We have passed this road before. Building new teams and destroying them because of seeming fixations with, the coaches saying that they would not change a winning side.

    True, no coach changes a winning side. But, in this winning team were flaws that need to be corrected to achieve the balanced side that will rule the world in Brazil in 2014; talking about the Eagles of our dream.

    Ezoenye’s exclusion was deserved. He did well in the early stages but melted away like ice cream in the sun in subsequent games. One would have thought that the other home-grown players who didn’t wear a shirt ought to have been excluded. The hindsight is that their experience would be handy now that the coaches are faced with the task of coupling a local league side that would confront Cote d’Ivoire in a two-legged qualifier, with Nigeria playing at home first.

    What the coaches must guide against is to stop managing injury-hit players. Coaches have a right to decide who plays, stays or drops from the squad, but they must understand that keeping half-fit players in the team robs better and fitter players of a place to contribute to the team’s fortunes. Besides, it robs Nigeria of the chance to introduce new players to the potential clubs seeking their services.

    This writer feels strongly that the inclusion of Gabriel Rueben and Ekwueke was a big disservice to the team no matter how talented they are when fit. It will be a travesty if Rueben and Ekwueke remain in the squad without playing.

    Goalkeepers Austin Ejide and Chigozie Agbim sat through the Eagles’ matches at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations. But they were our best, even though Ejide had a slight knock in the friendly against Cape Verde.

    In South Africa, the right back was one of the team’s weak positions, until Ambrose Efe fitted in perfectly. Sadly, Ambrose’s club form with Celtic in Scotland has been awful, although many have argued that his manager ought to have left him out of the squad following the hectic Africa Cup of Nations campaign with Nigeria. One only hopes that the coaches can comb the country for younger boys from the age grade teams, given what Kenneth Omeruo did when he was drafted to play in the central defence in place of recuperating Joseph Yobo. Omeruo was drafted in from the Flying Eagles to plug the weak spots in the team. Omeruo has been exposed and dropped from the Flying Eagles to give way for another talent. That is the way forward, NFF. Thumbs up for the NFF chiefs who insisted that Omeruo, Onazi and Sunday Mba must be included after the Eagles were tottering in the first two matches. Did these three gladiators not justify their inclusion? Why all the fuzz about NFF’s interference in the team’s selection? Yes, Mikel Obi justified his position. So did Vincent Enyeama, Victor Moses, Emmanuel Emenike and Oboabona, not forgetting Echeijile and Brown Ideye.

    Looking at the team’s left back position, Echiejile did well. His composure during difficult times was infectious. His surge upfront to strengthen the attack gave the Eagles added impetus, little wonder he scored the opening goal in Nigeria’s 4-1whiplash of Mali.

    Echiejile, like Ambrose, needs good substitutes. I feel strongly that the search should first be to draft the Flying Eagles stars who man those positions into the Eagles. That is how it is done in other climes. But, in the short term, the coaches should ask the domestic league coaches to give them the league’s best three. Juwon Oshinawa certainly isn’t the right choice for the left back position, I dare say.

    Godfrey Oboabona and Omeruo have made the fight for the cenral defence a titanic one. They shone like a million stars at the Africa Cup of Nations, even though the coaches drafted in Joseph Yobo for tactical reasons at critical moments in the semi-final and final games. Yobo did well, even if the minutes that he played were less than 12 in each game.

    What the coaches must not do is to dispense with Yobo on the altar of the Turkey-based star’s form at the Cup of Nations. It was obvious to everyone that he had issues with his knee and was indeed recuperating. We must learn how to stand by our heroes and not hound them out of the squad. This idea of using and dumping our stars should stop. Stephen Keshi found himself in Yobo’s situation and he knew how Clemens Westerhof handled his matter until his voluntary retirement.

    This writer must commend Keshi for dropping his characteristic two-man midfield for the quartet of Mikel Obi, Onazi, Mba and Victor Moses, even though he drifted round in the course of the matches- the hallmark of a creative player. It is instructive to note that Joel Obi would give the quartet the fight of their lives when he returns to the team. Don’t ask me where Rueben will play in this midfield arrangement. Or would anyone waste time pleading for the inclusion of those who fumbled in that position at the Africa Cup of Nations? This writer would rather the coaches give other untested Nigerians a chance to see if they would displace the Nations Cup quartet.

    It is cheery news that Everton Victor Anichebe is playing again. He comes and goes with injuries. Anichebe’s recurring injuries have to do with his rugged style. He certainly is a better option for Ike Uche who was unimpressive in South Africa.

    One was bowled over by Keshi’s comments that he could still invite Shola Ameobi. An Eagles’ squad with Ameobi, Anichebe, Emenike and Ideye would be awesome. I wish that they stay injury-free during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. I cannot wait for this wish to be actualised.

    FROM MY MAIL BOX

    Dear Ade,

    I salute your thorough knowledge of Nigeria’s football, particularly the stars, and administrators. No sports writer can match your understanding and analysis of the problems assailing our national game and past time.

    My only problem with you is your apparent over-rating of the skills and commitment of Mikel the Chelsea star. Recent events must have helped you to assess the player appropriately. The issue really is that Mikel lacks passion, shies away from the vital area of the opponents, his balls and kicks are so tame, devoid of strength and power-making it easy for defenders and goalkeepers to handle him. It would take a thoroughly non – calculating and obtuse keeper to let in Mikel’s free kick or spot-kick. Where then lies his stardom?

    Now, the object of this letter is not Mikel but our common friend Stephen Keshi. His acrobatics in South-Africa and thereafter are in tune with the man. As we progressed into the competition, I knew he would throw some bombshell soonest. That he let it be known that he would resign, via a relation of his was characteristic of the man. Having won the acclaim of most Nigerians, including this writer, he attempted to make Nigerian fans (we are over One Hundred and Sixty Million, I am told) fight officials of the NFF. Remember some years ago when our players once attempted to refuse to play except some debts were settled by the football body? He probably knew about that threat. Did you know some of the antics of players when our man was Chief coach in some other African Countries? Find out.

    Now Big Boss is complaining that some people wanted him to stand up and scream and shout at the players when things were going critical. What was wrong in this? Imagine the electrifying atmosphere during the last 5 to ten minutes of play and our boys were ‘playing with the ball’ instead of playing the ball in their box area, shouldn’t a coach, our coach stand up, scream, shout and bag at the boys not to be complacent but to push balls out of the box? These are normal things in football. People who are critical of Keshi are typical Nigerians, and Keshi in his I –know-it all attitude is a typical Nigerian. We are all learning and should accept it so.

    •Deji Fasuan,

    P.O. BOX 1020,

    Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State.