The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • Champions Africa needs

    Champions Africa needs

    It was the great economist, Joseph Schumpeter, who observed that the individual caught up in a crowd tends to drop to a lower level of mental performance as the herd instinct takes over. Following Nigeria’s unexpected victory at the last Orange African Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2013, the country has become one huge crowd of cheering fans of the Super Eagles. It has been quite comic watching members of the Federal Executive Council, Governors, legislators, business moguls, oil subsidy rogues, pensions thieves, armed robbers, kidnappers, jobless victims of the Nigerian system and all sorts of characters all shouting themselves hoarse in applause of the soccer heroes of the moment. All of a sudden, the boys and their handlers are being described in superlative terms. After 19 long years, they are said to have restored Nigeria’s glory as kings of African soccer. While I enjoyed the matches I watched during the tournament, I have resolutely refused to join the maddening crowd – and with no apologies. Was this truly a deserved victory; a feat we really planned hard, organized efficiently and worked systematically to achieve? I think the ‘gods’ have only conspired once again to give us an undeserved short term ‘goodluck’ triumph, which will have long term negative consequences in sports and other spheres of national endeavour.

    Of course, this is to take nothing away from Coach Stephen Keshi, who did the best he could to produce positive results in difficult circumstances. I am sure that not even the one time Captain of the all-conquering 1994 Eagles Squad was confident of attaining this level of success given the level of our preparations compared to other participating countries. For over two decades, we allowed our sports facilities, including major stadia across the country, to deteriorate abysmally. Virtually all youth and schools competitions, through which new talents were spotted and developed, were abandoned. The once vigorous local football league that supported a vibrant, ever soaring Super Eagles national team became a huge joke. Just as an oil-producing country, we embarrassingly export crude oil only to import the refined commodity thus creating a huge ‘fuel subsidy’ scam, we export local football talents to better organised foreign leagues and import the refined ‘products’ to play for an externally dependent national team. Yes, kudos to Keshi for his courage in injecting six players into the victorious 2013 Super Eagles Squad. But there is no doubt that those lucky players will soon be on their way out of bondage to a mediocre local league that offers them little or no future. The system is thoroughly broken. It will take more than the current illusory euphoria to fix it.

    During the last London Olympics, Nigeria achieved the superlative feat of not winning a single medal. It was at the Paralympic games that what some perceived as the dented reputation of the country was somewhat salvaged. Of course, I did not join the bandwagon of competitors who lamented our barren performance at the Olympics. Rather, I was miffed that a poverty stricken country like ours could have expended close to $2 billion in participating in an event that is of little practical significance to the living conditions of the vast majority of our people. What would we have lost if we had simply sat at home and expended our time, energy and resources on issues of more crucial significance to a country in the suffocating grip of pathetic underdevelopment? What the hell does it matter whether or not Nigeria is football champion of Africa? Will that status of dubious value feed millions of our hungry compatriots, create jobs for the teeming unemployed, fix our dilapidated infrastructure or save the lives of those who die from easily curable diseases as a result of a health sector that has practically collapsed? African champions my foot!

    I seriously think that African countries must seriously re-think their sports policies to reflect both the abject living conditions of their people and their own fragile position in the political economy of global sports competitions. I do not want to be mistaken. Sports and other forms of leisure play a crucial role in human life. They help promote physical fitness and emotional wholeness for individuals and groups. Sports can help channel the energies and talents of youths creatively and nurture healthy bonding in communities. But focussing expenditures on thousands of functional sports facilities to serve the recreational needs of communities makes infinitely more sense than erecting difficult to maintain multi-billion dollar structures with the aim of hosting meaningless mega-competitions for the financial benefit of global sports associations like FIFA and their global corporate collaborators. Commenting on the perhaps unintended consequences of spectator sports like soccer in our contemporary world, Professor Noam Chomsky stresses their tendency “to divert people,” to “get them away from things that matter,” to “reduce their capacity to think”. From this standpoint, sports is for him an example of the indoctrination system, something to pay attention to that’s of no importance, which keeps people from worrying about things that matter to their lives that they might have some chance to do something about”.

    Just imagine someone describing the Super Eagles AFCON Cup victory as “an achievement of the Jonathan administration!” This is both diversionary and illusionary. I remember the euphoria that gripped Greece when that country unexpectedly won the European Cup in 2004. The 2004 Athens Olympics also contributed significantly to the country’s latter economic meltdown. Today, Greece is one of the fiscal basket cases in Europe. Let no one deceive us. Global Sports supremacy is no path to meaningful national greatness. It is a luxury that can be indulged later when a country has got the vast majority of its citizens out of the horrible pit of poverty. When South Africa was bidding to host the 2010 World Cup, for instance, former President Thabo Mbeki said, “The basis of South Africa’s bid was a resolve to ensure that the 21st century unfolds as a century of growth and development in Africa…We want to ensure that one day, historians will reflect upon the 2010 World Cup as a moment when Africa stood tall and resolutely turned the tide on centuries of poverty and conflict…” Can you imagine such utter nonsense? Reflecting on the 2010 World Cup, Professor Patrick Bond of the University of Kwazulu-Natal noted that nine host cities across South Africa built ‘white elephant’ stadiums at a cost of above $400 million. This amount of money, he said would have covered home upgrades for 100,000 homeless people in each of these cities! Yet, none of these stadia can consistently fill their stands at events today. To add insult to injury, FIFA refused to allow the Kwa Zulu-Natal provincial government to use its original World Cup logo, which had ‘KwazuluNata’l added to 2010 FIFA World Cup. That right to use the World Cup branding and display their logos was reserved for six FIFA- accredited corporate giants – Adidas, Sony, Visa, Emirates, Coca Cola and Hyunda-Kia Motors- at a cost of $125 million each.

    As part of the marketing strategy, the 2010 World Cup in South Africa was dubbed the People’s World Cup. Yet, as another study of the event notes “…with an unemployment rate estimated between a low of 27% (including hunting of wild animals and begging as employment) and a high of 40% (including those who have given up looking for a job) and with many in employment earning around $150 or less a month, it is difficult to imagine many celebrating the game by actually going to the stadium”. I cite these as examples to show the illusion of global sports as routes to true greatness. Dear Nigerians, wake up from this dream today! Let us strive to be African champions in good governance, transparency, healthcare, education, science, technology, accountability and infrastructure. That is true championship! The President of France visited Mali the other day and was welcomed by the masses as their saviour because of that country’s decisive action against extremists in Northern Mali. Let this illusory celebration of emptiness in Nigeria stop today. Re-colonization of Africa beckons – dangerously.

     

  • Still on FCT’s whimsical appropriations 

    Still on FCT’s whimsical appropriations 

    Some lead at various levels, with a view to leaving indelible footprints on the sands of time. Many others, with

    limited perceptions of what leadership truly means, occupy public office and leave like handwritings on the sand – leaving memories that are easily washed away by coming waves. Whether leaders put down our action or inaction down in diary form or not, it matters less; yesterday’s men and those occupying the hallways of power today are all bound to become part of history in due course. We are all but slaves to history and the passage of time. And we do all have a story to tell, don’t we?

    Just last week, my very good friend, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, made public his own story in a book titled ‘The Accidental Public Servant.’ If el-Rufai’s book has not berthed with the kind of controversy trailing it, I would have been shocked for the pint-sized former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory is controversy personified. I’ll explain.

    There is more to the el-Rufai personae than all that he has recorded as his story in public service. Well, some have accused him of sexing-up the book with half-truths, pure lies and warped illogic. They may be right. Personally, it is my belief that some things could have been left unsaid by the author. But, as someone wrote, we can expand the scope of intellectualism and avail history of more materials by writing our own books instead of baying at a man who sees himself as an accident in the public service sector.  If his book is an accident, then it is our responsibility to heal it and dress the injuries by setting the records straight with another book! And I guess those mentioned in the book will take up that challenge and stop whining.

    Somehow, el-Rufai’s book has reawakened my desire to put my experiences on this job in black and white. When I eventually settle down to doing that, maybe I will summon the courage to reveal one or two things about this “yesterday’s man” (apologies to Dr. Reuben Abati) and how we struck a friendship that has confounded many. It was a friendship that cost me a job and truncated a blossoming career all because some persons misinterpreted my affinity to the man former President Olusegun Obasanjo would rather call “short  man!” Whenever I get around to writing that book, maybe, just maybe, I will expose the deceit, intrigues, back-biting and the deadly power game that go on in that corridor. One thing is clear: pettiness is an essential commodity in the corridors of power here. If in doubt, take a peep into el-Rufai’s book.

    It illustrates the unfortunate reality that pettiness and prebendal politicking have become veritable tools being exploited by many to hang on to power. Even the national budget is ‘doctored’ to meet this queer arrangement in which otherwise principled men pander to the whim of a powerful few. Many examples abound but let us stick to the most recent revelations on the floor of the National Assembly when the budget of the FCT was unveiled for thorough scrutiny. If you thought the FCT management would have learnt its lesson with the dust raised over the plan to spend close to N15bn on the remodelled official residence for the Vice President, then you are yet to come to grips with the template of shenanigans that pass as governance process here. It is as if some persons delight in swimming in the ocean of multi-billion naira scandals.

    Without any intent of giving credence to the beer parlour rumour that a select group of ministers derives their staying power from a complete subjugation of their authorities under that of the goddess of Aso Rock, I strongly want to believe that the FCT Minister, Sen. Mohammed Bala, understands that it takes a lot more than satisfying the narrow bourgeoisie tastes of the hawks in power to succeed on his present seat. Does he appear to be one who wants history to be kind to him at all? At least, he should be wise enough to make a clear distinction between the FCT budget and that of the Presidency. Sadly, with the frenetic pace his men have been quoting extant laws to justify every profligate appropriation for The Presidency, including an unknown Office of the First Lady, it is doubtful if Bala can escape the charge of being guilty of running a budget that was tailor-made for the clearly humongous (that word again!) taste of Aso Rock denizens while the real people come a distant second!

    For a capital city that is buffeted with loads of developmental and security challenges in the face of inadequate funding, many had expected the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) to adopt cost effective measures in its budgeting process. But if the details of the 2013 appropriations were anything to go by, one is tempted to assume that voyeurism consideration must have taken precedence over prudence in the compilation of the figures. It was so bad that the yamheads under Bala’s watch allocated a princely sum of N5bn to “rehabilitate prostitutes and destitute” in the city.

    Now, don’t ask me if the authorities have any accurate data of prostitutes and the destitute in the city. That will be asking for too much in a society where prostitution and destitution have many faces. For example, how do you rate the corporate sex-for-contract ‘business tycoons’ hanging around the corridors of power in Abuja, including Bala’s FCDA? What do you make of the corporate beggars in suits and ties that ply their trade in the Central Business District? How about the young graduates who hawk items in offices and make no bones about their readiness to do “other stuffs” if the price is right? Are these persons captured in the FCT”s N5bn rehabilitation programme and what is the modus operandi? Besides, what informs Bala’s fixation to an eternal battle with prostitutes when any resident would gladly tell you that that is the least of the city’s problem?

    Mallam el-Rufai might be an accidental public servant but he was clearly not a mistake in the FCDA as a Minister in the Presidency. He revived the belief that Abuja can work if primordial sentiments are thrown overboard and key elements of the master-plan are strictly implemented. In his four-year stay, he injected life back into a dying dream. At least, he deserves a genuine bragging right for this even if I disagree with some of the things he said in his book. We may quarrel with the way he allegedly gifted land and government houses to some lackeys of former President Obasanjo and his friends. What we cannot deny him is his commitment to seeing that the capital city regains its sanity. It was also to his credit that, despite his endless face-off with the National Assembly over bribery allegation before his appointment could be confirmed, the FCT’s budgets were never subjected to the kind of outlandish ridicule that one witnesses today. Allocating billions for the First Lady’s office is only a recent achievement for the history books under Bala’s watch.

    And there lies my beef with Mr. Bala and his team. It is, to say the least, outrageous that his administration could bold justify the proposed N4bn African First Ladies’ Peace Mission building on its “statutory duty to build for the good of the public” including the smart excuse that the construction of the AFLPM building would not only save cost but also “ serve multiple roles in providing office accommodation as well as housing not just African First Ladies’ Peace Mission but other international bodies as well.”  Now, if I may ask, wouldn’t it have been more cost-effective to rehabilitate the dilapidated Women Centre to satisfy the desires of the First Lady instead of embarking on another white elephant under the pretext of fulfilling a statutory duty? And if Dame Patience Jonathan must get her wish from her ‘son’ by all means, wouldn’t it have been more cost-effective to include the AFPLM office in the architecture of the proposed new Banquet Hall that would befit the high taste of her husband’s guests? Or do African First Ladies have higher cravings than those of the men they marry?

    Like one of the senators puts it, the Bala administration is simply wearing its magnifying glass wrongly. It is cuddling shadows instead of doing something about the grim realities of daily living in Abuja. Who needs a white elephant when basic infrastructures are begging for attention in Nigeria’s political capital? Access to basic healthcare remains poor; water supply to urban districts like Maitama, Asokoro and Wuse is perennially inadequate; pupils still take lessons under trees in some council areas; housing problem persists; the transportation system is in chaos due to ill-thought policy and power supply is epileptic. But how can they care when they are sold to an ideology of misplaced priorities? That is what Oby Ezekwesili called tragic choices!

    Listen to Senator Babajide Omoworare: “I’m worried about the provision of bogus figures (and) there’s a lot of disconnect. This (FCT) budget hasn’t shown the reality of what’s happening in and around Abuja. We have not set our priorities right. I’m of the view that the committee should look into this. Again, I remember that in this chamber last year, we voted N1bn only for new federal universities yet, we are being asked to appropriate N4 billion for an office (of the First Lady) that is alien to the .Constitution.”

    Another Senator, Babafemi Ojudu, was said to have expressed fears about the consequences of allowing the news of the curious, outright mundane and profligate appropriation to get to the public, especially to the youth who are being taken for granted. Does it really matter anymore? Budgeting at the whim will continue to thrive until such a time when the National Assembly takes its responsibility seriously and curtail its prurient dalliances with the executive. After all, has the persistent umbrage by the lawmakers halted the ratifications of such questionable appropriations in the past? Even this one, bad as it looks, may get the nod of the lawmakers having passed the crucial Second Reading! One thing is sure though: as long as otherwise principled men continue to shirk their responsibilities and allow those who accidentally find themselves in power to rule by the whim, Nigeria will continue to be haunted by its tragic choices! For a capital city that has had the misfortune of being headed by a successive gang of underachievers, Bala cannot afford to fall under that categorisation. Unfortunately, nothing tells us that he is set to be the kind of accident that el-Rufai turned out to be. Or would his story be told differently by history?

  • Now some home truths

    Now some home truths

    It’s almost one week since Nigeria clinched the diadem at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations. The nation has been agog with celebrations and – rightly so. The players and the coaches are smiling to the banks.

    Now is the time for some home truths. The praise singers are gone. So are the emergency patriots flashing toothy smiles, fake prophets struggling to be part of the success and erratic officials singing victory songs.

    Can’s we see that the world is sneering at us? How could we be celebrating a feat achieved after 19 years, with our players wearing Adidas track suits at a presidential dinner? Will the English, French, Germans, Spaniards and Italians have such lavish ceremonies with their players wearing attires that give visibility to a foreign firm? What happened to our national attires for? Where is our foresight? We knew after the Cote d’Ivoire match that we stood a chance of lifting the trophy, giving what the other three semi-finalists had shown in previous games.   Would it have been out of place for the Super Eagles to enter South Africa in our one of our national attires before the competition began? If they did, it would have been easier for the tailors to cut out the ceremonial dresses for the Tuesday night show. Would anyone blame those who organised Tuesday’s ceremonies when such events are meant to enrich a few people?

    It was quite disgusting watching our heroes arrive in the country in a commercial airline. This can only happen in Nigeria because leaders have refused to copy what they see in other civilised climes. Such pictures are monuments which countries keep in their archives to celebrate events, such as what we have next year, when we will be marking our Centenary.

    When the Spaniards retained the European Cup, they returned home in their national carrier. They wore smart fitting suits that typified the European culture. Not so for us. Anything goes.

    Is anyone, therefore, shocked by the team’s chief coach’s grandstanding, which painted us an unserious country? What was it that he needed that couldn’t wait until he returned to the country? If he didn’t trust his employers’ promises, couldn’t he have trusted one of the continent’s richest men to give him $200,000, provide a car and house for him? Has this man of honour not fulfilled his pledge to him and the players? Did he think he was embarrassing his employers and not the country? Are his employers not representatives of the government? Why do we like to wash our dirty linen in the public?

    What the coach did in South Africa was cheap blackmail because the Sports Minister was there. If he was angry, he could have resolved the matter with him without this show-of-shame. It smacks of utter disrespect for constituted authority by the coach to announce his resignation on a radio show in South Africa. Put simply, it was a slap on our President’s face for dishonouring his representative (the Sports Minister). Was it not the minister who resolved the matter? This shameful act has been swept under the carpet in the euphoria of celebration. It shouldn’t shock us next time if our sport ambassadors throw punches outside the country to settle domestic matters. Can a minister announce his resignation in that manner and we send emissaries to intervene?

    We are jesters; otherwise, how could a high officer in government condescend to the level of begging a coach to rescind a decision he first disclosed to a foreign medium? It shows that such a person is not busy. Is anyone surprised that Nigeria is a huge joke?

    What was it the coach was complaining about, many have asked, that we didn’t know already? Did he not say that he was a the country to settle domestic matters. Can a minister announce his resignation in that manner and we send emissaries to intervene?

    We are jesters; otherwise, how could a high officer in government condescend to the level of begging a coach to rescind a decision he first disclosed to a foreign medium? It shows that such a person is not busy. Is anyone surprised that Nigeria is a huge joke?

    What was it the coach was complaining about, many have asked, that we didn’t know already? Did he not say that he was a patriot and understood the predicament of his employers? Why did he choose to play the spoil sport?

    We must learn to do things with decorum. If the coach had any grouse with his employers in terms of job security, he could have reverted to his contractual agreement and followed what is enshrined in it to the letter.

    Come to think of it, is there anyone who has not received the butt of his employer even when he/she thinks he/she is doing the utmost? Is there any employer who doesn’t know his employee is dispensable? Is it strange for an irritant employer to tell his employee during review meetings that he would be sacked?

    Review meetings are meant to tell the truth, for things to move smoothly. Such meetings are done in enclosed places. So, what was the coach trying to prove by divulging what transpired between him and his employers? Immaturity? Did he not scold his players in Rwanda when they played poorly in the first half? Was that not where his brush with Taye Taiwo started? Did he take Taiwo to South Africa?

    So, what makes what happened in South Africa any indecent? Or are we saying that we didn’t share some of the employer’s fears with the way the Super Eagles prosecuted its first three matches?

    What the coach did in Johannesburg can be likened to this writer publicly abusing his Managing Director and then resign. Only for my publisher to intervene and I rescind my decision. Do I expect things to run smoothly when I return to work? No way!

    Is it right for the employee to dictate to his employer what he wants? Where in the world does a coach take instructions directly from the President/Prime Minister? Uninhibited access the president is the fastest route to failure because he has other important national issues. Is this how it is done in England, France, Germany, Spain, Holland etc? Can’t we see that the world is making jest of us? Today, it is the NFF men that have been ridiculed. Tomorrow, it could be the turn of the sports minister or the Director of Sports (God forbid).

    The reasons why the coach didn’t get his car, salaries and house until recently are not new to sports lovers. After all, the cash to prosecute the team’s campaign in South Africa got to them three days to the opening of the competition. Why didn’t the coach announce his resignation then?

    The coach should have been asked to return to South Africa and rescind his decision. He should also have been asked apologise to the sports minister and NFF eggheads for the blackmail. Or was it the coach’s uncanny to secure a plea bargain from the president? I dey laugh o!

    Jonathan should tell the coach that football is the least of his worries. He should tell the coach to learn how to work with people. After all, nobody dictated to him the players he took to the Africa Cup of Nations.

    Mr. President sir, can the coach of England do what our coach did and be celebrated? The flipside to this question is that the English coach gets all that he needs from the government and the football association. But the delay in providing the required cash to the NSC and the NFF came from this government’s scrutiny of both bodies’ requests ala due process. In a way, the coach has tacitly indicted the Jonathan administration for failure of leadership.

    Suddenly, those who should have provided the cash for the National Sports Commission (NSC) and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) chieftains to ensure that nothing went wrong with the players and coaches were smiling at the presidential reception organised.

    All the problems associated with early preparation, which is the key to success in competitions have been swept under the carpet. The implication is that nothing will change since the disjointed arrangement prior to the Africa Cup of Nations held in South Africa fetched us the coveted trophy. But, must we continue to do the wrong things?

  • Resignations, mandates and security

    Resignations, mandates and security

    I take what I call a triple-two approach in analyzing the topic of today and you don’t need to wonder much before seeing what I mean. On resignations I take on the recent one of a Pope and a successful Nigerian soccer coach and show that each actor has performed contextually brilliantly in spite of the abrupt and negative connotation of resignation. This is despite the withdrawal of the resignation of the soccer coach moments after and the fact that the Pope’s departure from the Vatican is not immediate but till month’s end. On mandates I examine the lamentation of an African leader on the inability of ECOWAS leaders and their armies to bail out Mali, leading it to former colonial master France to be the avenging angel for the African state in its hour of need.

    I contrast this with the political merger of opposition parties involving 10 governors in Nigeria to form a mega party – All Progressives Congress – APC – to counter the dominance of the ruling PDP in Nigeria. Thirdly I look at the issue of security from the perspective of the emotional appeal on gun control by US President Barak Obama in the US Congress this week, in his first State of the Nation address and compare that with the comments of BBC journalists who covered a train journey from Lagos to Kano in Northern Nigeria and the implications of their comments and jokes for the security of the newly introduced train services linking the north and south of Nigeria.

    Back to resignations again . The resignations of Pope Benedict XVI and Super Eagles Coach Stephen Keshi caught the world by surprise for different reasons. Firstly the Pope has been one of the most respected Popes and someone who has been in the Vatican for over three decades .He was the anchor man throughout the papacy of his predecessor Pope John Paul ll for -23 years – and it was difficult to imagine him being any where else till his death. Now that has changed and we have been told he will spend his last days in a monastery studying and meditating as the first Pope to resign in 600 years! Let me say that the outgoing pope will be remembered for his strong views on birth control and homosexuality as he insisted in all his writings on theology as a professor that the church should not bow to the fashion of the times but must maintain the faith always. He was no friend of the former Archbishop of Canterbury and accommodated Anglican priests and their families that left the Anglican Church after gay bishops were ordained in the US. He was no friend of the Obama White House either with its promotion of gay rights.

    Before hearing the reason for the Pontiff’s resignation, which turned out to be his failing health, I had indulged in some speculations of my own. Let me confess that although I am not a Catholic, I am an admirer of this Pope who had just resigned because I listened in 2005 to his sermon as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger then aged 78, at the funeral of Pope John Paul ll and thought then that he spoke like a saint and his sermon was like a modern beatitude. I was later pleasantly surprised when he was elected Pope by the Conclave of Cardinals and chose the name Benedict XVI immediately. I later bought a biography of him written by an author who featured prominently this week on CNN on the coverage of Benedict XVI’s most unexpected resignation.

    That book featured six reasons why Ratzinger could not be elected Pope and included reasons like he was a disciplinarian Cardinals in the Vatican and had stepped on toes and the Cardinals would not vote for him; he was an academician and not a priest; the myth that a fat pope had never succeeded a fat one; his being a German and not an Italian and his that his predecessor was from Poland and there was need for an Italian Pope. All these came to nought however and Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope by the Cardinals in Rome in 2005. This made me to believe a claim in the book that the Cardinals had been schooled to believe that when the time comes to elect a Pope, the potential pope will exhibit exceptional and unusual spiritual qualities that will stand him out from other candidates; and I believe that Ratzinger’s actions at the funeral of his predecessor clinched his election as pope by his fellow cardinals eight years ago.

    However this also created problems for Benedict XVI as some American Catholic bishops who fled the US at the beginning of the shameful pedophilia crisis on which the Catholic Church paid a huge amount to placate victims in the US, were seen playing crucial roles at Pope John Paul ll ’s funeral at the Vatican . Indeed I had thought a fall out of this had led to Benedict XVI’s resignation before I learnt with great relief of the real reason, which was his failing health. Please help me wish my favorite Pope a happy retirement.

    In Stephen Keshi’s case his resignation was a shock because he had just won the highest football trophy-the AFCON Cup – for Nigeria and made history in the process as the first Nigerian player to captain his nation to win the coveted trophy as he did in 1994; and to do so again as a coach as he just did in S Africa, in 2013. Although Keshi has been persuaded to withdraw his resignation his reason for this was apparently a standing threat by his employers to engage foreign technical advisers for the team he had just guided most unexpectedly and most professionally to a fantastic victory in S Africa. I think Keshi used the adage that an actor quits while the ovation is largest to get the better of his bosses and this has worked well for him and I think the nation and the Super Eagles.

    I also think Keshi’s fears and anxiety were apparent earlier at a press conference after the Mali Match in S Africa when he seized the microphone literally and spoke in French to say he did not hate white coaches but that they should be qualified before coming to Africa. In addition Keshi had been fired before by Togo after leading that nation to qualify for the last world cup and that experience must have emboldened the Nigerian coach not to be a sitting duck this time around and once bitten quite shy became a good strategy to show his concern and get not only official redress and recant on his fears, but overdue national approbation and commendation .I wish Stephen Keshi and the Super Eagles the same success they have earned in S Africa, in spite of the doubts of all of us, at the coming Continental competition and the World Cup and assure them that their victory in AFCON has earned them the respect of all Nigerians willy-nilly for these important events.

    I listened to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni this week on BBC saying that it was a shame that African nations could not help Mali till France came to do so. Museveni wondered what the armies in the region ECOWAS were in uniform for and why they could not perform . This to me was a genuine African indignation with which I associate myself. Museveni definitely knows what he was saying. He was a history teacher who came to power as guerrilla who went to the bush to fight after he had been rigged out of elections in Uganda . He has kept a tight rein ever since on the Ugandan army which is well trained.

    Museveni also knows his onions as he and his friend President Paul Kigame of Rwanda are the regional guarantors of stability in their part of Africa, notorious for incessant rebellion and they have maintained order and stability in spite of frequent violent military assaults and disruptions in the area. His indignation on the non performance of ECOWAS leaders and army is a righteous one and is an indictment of those responsible for national and regional stability and security in the ECOWAS sub region.

    It is in that light that I see the challenge of the 10 governors who have formed a mega party -APC – ostensibly to prevent the decline or castration of Nigeria into a one-state under the ruling PDP. The fact that some of the governors are from the ruling party, shows that all hope is not lost in fighting the slide to corruption and infamy that has characterized the present political dispensation which has eroded the integrity, respect and leadership of Nigeria at regional level resulting in the Museveni outburst. Without saying it, the Ugandan leader was wondering what Nigeria was doing on Mali. But then no one or nation can leave the fire on its thatched roof to be putting out that of his neighbor. That is why the challenge of the 10 governors is a step in the right direction to retrace Nigeria’s steps both at home and abroad and restore her to her rightful position, hopefully after winning the 2015 presidential election, for which I wish them God’s speed and goodluck . I mean the genuine and real one, this time around

    Lastly at his state of the nation address President Obama whipped up emotion in support of security measures aimed at curtailing the violence and senseless killings with guns in the US. To a long and standing ovation the American president harangued his audience that the victims of poor gun control deserve a vote and mentioned the various locations of the gory killings. This was made more moving and poignant by the presence of the slain victims’ relatives at the occasion. The emotional appeal nevertheless brought home vividly the insecurity inherent in the inadequate gun control measures in the US right now. Which means that the National Rifles Association-NRA, the main opposition lobby to gun control has an uphill task in countering the high pitch Obama salesmanship for better gun control in the US at his last state of the nation address this week.

    To round up l want to compare Obama’s use of emotion to secure better security on guns in his country, with the BBC crew coverage last Wednesday of the newly introduced Kano – Lagos train line, a journey which took 31 hours according to the BBC traveler. Which is an improvement as one of those interviewed said he had spent three days before to get to Kano. The programme was a fine travelogue but for the fact that it gave the impression that the service was an easy prey for a potential Boko Haram attack. Yet, I admire the spirit of Nigerians interviewed, who showed such danger never crossed their mind especially the policeman who said the presence of the police was to secure the service at all cost.

    To me that program was marred by the insinuation in the BBC programme that Boko Haram could sabotage a link between the north and south, a fear the Nigerians interviewed never exhibited from their cheerful response to leading questions from the traveler. In addition the presenter at the end of the program jokingly called the traveler a ‘coward‘ for returning by air from Kano which to me was coarse humor at the expense of the gravity of the Boko Haram menace in Nigeria. Definitely I do not think it is part of the BBC mandate to alert Boko Haram to potential waiting targets in Nigeria. I had goose pimples listening to that program with its utter disregard for the security implications of the comments of the BBC journalists. Definitely more care needs to be taken in the future on such extravagant comments as life has no duplicate.

  • Ihejirika’s Army and Igbophobia

    There is an emerging consensus today that the trouble with Nigeria is low leadership quotient among successive leaders of the country in the past four decades. The kind of low quality leadership that is lacking in vision, patriotism and a sense of history; the type that has been replicating and preserving itself via an uncanny multiple fission. But the other matter with the polity is the unstated but deep-seated apathy towards the Igbo race in Nigeria. In a country where agreement is hardly reached on any national issue, Igbo-stomping is hardly one of such. Anything to stymie the Igbo is game in the national scheme of things. This may well be the real problem with Nigeria.

    And the Igbo, the merry victim of his habitat generally trudges on, oblivious, raucous, rampaging and foraging into new ‘enemy’ territories seeking sustenance in an environment that wishes it turns to vapor. Igbophobia was at the root of the 30-month civil war in which this fellow was goaded into near-extermination by majority of his hate-filled neighbors. It started by simple peer envy – oh, he has taken over the Army, all the top officers are Igbo; ah he has taken over the civil service, the Stock Exchange; oh he has taken over the country – they kept ringing the hate bell until it became a consensus. Then all that was needed was the precipitant, the rationale to trigger their hate. Then it came, they swooped on this fellow, this hateful mob, they stripped him to his pants, to the bones and they left him kwashiokored and half dead.

    This is a better forgotten era in our history is often called up when one sees traces of it in the polity in any guise at all. Such fresh case is the impertinent accusation thrown at the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. General Azubuike Ihejirika recently that he is ‘Igbonising’ the army as reflected in the recent recruitments in the force. Beyond the obvious assault of the accusation, the ‘poor’ General was put on the stump and made to sweat out a rebuttal before the watching world. Not exactly the way to treat a General and a COAS unless he is an Igbo that he is. To think that this is the first Igbo to hold this position in post civil war Nigeria; after over 40 years; the simple import is that no Igbo could head the Nigeria Army all this while no matter how competent, brilliant or high in ranking.

    It is not possible that Ihejirika could ‘Igbonise’ the Nigerian Army even if he so desires because there are ample checks in the recruitment process, which includes the Army Council, headed by the president; there is the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and there is also the Minister of Defence. And if one must add, if the Army is ‘Igbonised’ for once so what? Igbo remains an important part of this polity and has as much right as any to have a dominant number in the Army as other have had in the past. It is called equity.

    It is important to note that military politics in Nigeria is almost one and the same with Nigeria’s politics and it has been dominated by the North especially in the past 40 years. At a point in the 80s and 90s, the military, police, civil servant, the entire polity was ‘northernised’ and indeed, with impunity. No COAS was put through the sufferance of sweating through a public explanation of any purely military exercise. Today an Igbo general has to come under live media to tell the whole world why he has a few more men in one or two states.

    But nobody quarrels about the fact that in the Council of State, the highest consultative body in the land where decisions that could affect the very life of this country may be taken, no Igbo man is represented. This is the result of years of inequity in the distribution of political power in the land. Nobody is weeping about the fact that two or three states in the North were skewed to have more military personnel, more police, more federal civil servants, more local councils, more federal allocation, etc, than the entire South East zone put together. In other words two states in the North probably have more soldiers in the army than the entire South East quota yet the Igbo is not going about raising hell over such deep injustices that the polity heaps on him.

    This is why today, when the Igbo ask for one more state for her zone to bridge the gulf of injustice her neighbors have dug around her over these years, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) would stand up with so much licentious impunity to say: no, the Igbo can never have another state just because we say so; others would deliberately obfuscate the argument with shouts of unviability of states. But we are talking about equity in the sharing of what belongs to us all – give me the measure that you measured for yourself. If the South East gets at least one more state as it rightly deserves, it will get a few more soldiers, a few more policemen, civil servants, students in federal schools, more local councils more allocation… it is called equity, we cannot hide from it if we seek to build a proper nation.

    Finally, if perchance Ihejirika managed to wangle a few more okoros and okorobias into the army so what! Supposing they are more qualified, more competent? What about the prerogative of the chief? Isn’t it what happens in other establishments? Someone should see the staff list of the Central Bank of Nigeria (?), the Customs, the Federal Capital Territory, etc. Let us close by saying that we know what to do if we want to set things right. In this matter for instance, the Federal Character Commission (FCC) is the body that ought to do staff audit of all federal establishments, publish their findings and make the necessary corrections. But the FCC works in the breach these days. Nothing seems to matter in this polity anymore; well, unless there is an Igbo ‘consensus’.

    LAST MUGS: (1)Anambra budget hiatus: could it be true what was in the news about Anambra state budget still being reviewed by the State House of Assembly? Is it true that some commissioners did not know a thing about their budget while many of them refused to answer the call of the House? We are more inclined to believe that this report about Anambra’s 2013 budget is incorrect because the first quarter of the year is almost gone!

    (2)Lagos VIO’s overtime: we read the other day that the Vehicle Inspection Office (VIO) of the Lagos State Government is going to start working 24/7 henceforth in order to rid the state of un-roadworthy vehicles. Hmn, we can only chuckle at this new-found overdrive and we can only beg the VIO to take it easy on the populace. If they could please keep to their normal official time; things are tough enough as it is.

    (3)FRSC’s grand jamboree: it has been reported that the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, is planning a bumper international conference perhaps worthy of its status. And how about this: 11 international speakers will ‘grace’ the occasion. Wow, how we love to jaw, jaw and the more foreigners we get to talk down at us and tell us what we already know, the happier we are. Well let’s just caution that the FRSC seems to do everything else these days but its job. How will this conference safe lives on our highways?

  • A progressive agenda

    A progressive agenda

    With the announced merger of four political parties, there is a renewal of our hope in the political stability of the nation. We have to thank the leaders who put aside their private interests in pursuit of the nation’s interest.

    In a democracy, there must be a viable opposition that can stand as a viable alternative to the party in power. This is true of a parliamentary system as it is of a presidential system. Where there is a proliferation of splinter groups competing for the support of the people against a massive well-oiled single party that intimidates with its network of the mighty and powerful, the outcome is predictable. We can expect avoidable instability in the system as groups and individuals move in and out of splinter groups to seek out their fortunes elsewhere. With a system of two or three strong political parties, aspirants presented by such parties for national offices know that they have as good a chance as any other candidate.

    In another more important sense, however, the announced merger also renews the hope of progressives that the principles and ideals they live for finally have a good chance of not only gaining national attention but of also serving as the policy direction of the national government. Of course, there is still a long way to go and many treacherous rivers to cross with externally-induced intrigues and internally generated crisis to contend with. So we are well-advised not to count our chicken before the hatching of the eggs. Still there is hope and we must keep it alive.

    Were the merger to sail through and the nay-sayers shamed, the question that readily comes to mind must be how the new party must differentiate itself from the old Leviathan, the self-acclaimed largest party in Africa. For starters, the new party cannot afford to be known just for that kind of title without having anything to show for it. It is tantamount to having the title of the king of vultures without the ability to hunt for a chicken.

    The size of an entity, whether it is a political party, an academic institution, or a social club, cannot by itself be the standard for judging its efficacy. There are good-for-nothing behemoths. This is where the name that it has chosen to be known by must be the basis of its being, and the motivation for its actions and policies. An All Progressives Congress must embrace a progressive agenda as its article of faith and stick to it with religious fervor. If it does, it can be sure of winning the hearts and souls of the masses, and with this, it can be assured of victory at the polls.

    All things being equal, there is really little or no magic to a party or a leader’s acceptance by the people. Understand their challenges, feel their pains, make visible efforts to offer efficacious relief without demeaning them, and you can become their hero. The most recent example for us is the last presidential elections in the United States. While the masses perceive one party as the party of hope with an empathetic understanding of their plight, they saw the other as hostile and out of touch. Thus even with a high unemployment rate and a depressing economic outlook, there was an unprecedented turn out of voters for the man and the party they believed understood their condition and was adjudged best to deal with it.

    I am the first to admit that all things are not equal, but it is only a difference of degree not of kind. Recall that in many jurisdictions, American electorates had to overcome human-made hurdles in order to cast their ballots. Voters patiently stood in line for six hours to cast their ballots. A 102 year-old woman was on queue for four hours. The wealthiest democracy is still in search of the solution to election malpractices. The point worth noting is that the people are always going to be the ultimate decision makers in terms of who governs them. And no matter how much funds are disbursed, if they do not believe that a party or candidate shares their interest, they are more than likely to reject such party or candidate.

    A progressive agenda is necessarily a populist agenda and it is a winning agenda not just for the party or candidate in a selfish way, but also for the nation. On the latter, we have the example of how a region excelled in the fifties even as the colonisers made efforts to frustrate the agenda. Focusing like a laser beam on the education of the youth enables a government to invest in the human resources that are going to take on the challenges in all other areas. The policy yielded visible dividends. We can do it again and we can do it for the entire country. Our present structure that privileges the centre in the distribution of resources does not make it possible for the regions or states, which are nearest to the people, to fully implement all the ideas embedded in a progressive agenda. Thus while the progressive governors are doing their best with the resources available to them, it would make a lot of difference if a progressive party were to control the central government.

    The priorities of such a government would include huge investment in education that would see the country moving away from a paltry 0.85% education expenditure as a percentage of Gross National Income (GNI) and a ranking of 167 out of 168 in the world. We must improve on our public spending on education as a percentage of GDP. Of course, there are competing demands in health, power, transportation and road development, and employment. But no one can deny that all these are related and investment in education must have a domino effect on every other. A progressive party must understand and articulate the connectedness and champion policies that are implementable for the overall good of the masses.

    The experience of the country thus far is that the privileged minority have had their backs covered by various administrations at the centre since independence. And the masses have had to depend on the good will and charitable disposition of the powerful. An All Progressive Congress that hopes to take control of destiny of the nation in the centre must have an agenda to reverse this course and in doing so undo the curse of human tragedy that has been the lot of the nation.

  • Opium based on ignorance

    Opium based on ignorance

    History is an invisible object with two wings flying across generations in time and space. One wing is positive, the other is negative. With history, the present becomes the heritage of the past even as the future awaits the baton of continuity from the present. No living nation or tribe or even individual can dream of a realisable future without a viable present based on the experience of the past. The web of life is like a magnet which no iron element can bypass on its way to ornamental glory.

    Against what ought to be her heritage, Nigeria is, today, passing through a fabric of uncertainty as she rolls back the fibres of the future into those of the present and weaves both into the vestiges of the past. Such is a sign of a dead nation waiting to be buried. What war is not ravaging Nigeria today in spite of Allah’s abundant bounties? The forces of the present seem to have connived with those of the past in planning to wrestle the future aground thereby depriving the generations yet unborn of any hope of existence. From all indications, Nigerians live in a country where the ruled are evidently enslaved to their rulers.

    For decades, this country had been forced by her so-called rulers to fight wars ranging from political to economic to social and to ethnic without winning any. Now, a religious war with political ember is being added. Religion is likened to opium in human beings because of its seeming addictive effect on an average believer. Literally, opium means a brownish gummy extract from unripe seed of the opium poppy that contains highly addictive narcotic alkaloid substances like morphine and codeine. When such a substance is mixed with an unstable powdery matter, it turns it into a disadvantageous hardened substance.

    Thus, like a billow vigorously storming around at the instance of an invisible tempest, a melee of religious hullabaloo engendered by a vicious political Pandora has virtually turned Nigeria into a land of curses.

    Ordinarily, by its design and intent, religion is supposed to be not only a panacea for all human psychological ailments but also a soothing balm for any spiritual ache. But ironically, it has been turned into a poison in our society which seemingly has no provision for an antidote. And through our attitudes, we seem to be bent on swallowing the pill of that poison without minding its consequences.

    The factors that culminated in what we now variously call religious militancy, extremism, fanaticism and terrorism emanated only from the yoke of ignorance which bad governance has come to aid. And could anything have influenced bad governance as much as ignorance? Yet ignorance would not have had a role to play in our religious or political lives if we had demonstrated the will to genuinely follow the tenets of our religions and learned from the lessons of history without banking on mere assumption and rumour. History as a teacher always has a lesson to teach those who are ready to learn. But unfortunately, most human beings especially Nigerians refuse to learn any lesson from history and the price is what we are paying today.

    In 1962, Nigeria’s Governor General, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe (who later became Nigeria’s first President), paid a three day official courtesy visit to the Premier of Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello in Kaduna. He was accompanied by his wife, Flora. The host Premier mobilised all the paraphernalia of office in honour of his guests whom he gave an unprecedented, flamboyant hospitality. The visit enabled their wives to become so familiar with each other that Flora also invited the Bellos to the East on a similar visit. By the end of the visit, Dr. Azikiwe had become so much impressed that at the point of departure he held Ahmadu Bello’s hands and gently told him to “Let us forget our differences”.

    In response to that emotional but infatuating gesture however, Sir Ahmadu Bello said in an equally gentle but emotional baritone voice: “No sir! Rather than forgetting our differences, let us understand them. I am a Muslim and a Northerner. You are a Christian and a Southerner. It is only by identifying and understanding those differences that our friendliness can truly endure”. There and then, Dr. Azikiwe nodded in agreement with his host’s logic and accepted the fact that one could not forget what is not understood.

    The lesson to learn from this experience is that of mutual understanding without pretentiously sweeping anything under the carpet. That is the principle upon which the marriage of political strange fellows who find themselves in the same political party is often based in Nigeria. It is also the principle upon which the partnership of many Nigerian businessmen and women is based despite their cultural incompatibility.

    For thousands of years, peoples of all races and tribes across the world thrived vaingloriously on cultural ignorance attributing their calamities to mysterious forces and blaming such mysteries on what they called witchcraft. Here in Nigeria, millions of children were forced to die in infancy by their own parents out of sheer ignorance while the same parents turned round to blame what they called ‘ABIKU or OGBANJE’ for the mass infanticide. With time, however, education and knowledge of science brought about the invention of various vaccines with which children are now immunised against all diseases thereby giving them the opportunity to survive. And this has enabled us to know today that the mystery once called ‘ABIKU or OGBANJE’ was a euphemism for ignorance in the days of ignorance.

    And now that the days of cultural ignorance seem to be over, Nigerians have devised another means of restiveness by shifting to religious ignorance which enables them to replace the infanticide of the yore with modern day genocide in the name of religion. It is however hoped that one day, knowledge will also help us to overcome the spectre of religious ignorance and enable tomorrow’s generations to tell the story as we are doing today about ‘ABIKU or OGBANJE’.

    If it had pleased the Almighty Allah to make all human beings one single race with one colour, one tongue and one religion, He would have done so without receiving any query from anybody. But as the Omnipresent and Omnipotent, His decision to diversify His creatures cannot be faulted as it is from that diversity that all creatures have consistently derived benefits. In the world today, there are different races and tribes of human beings with different colours, languages and cultures each functioning as predestined and yet they all interact positively with one another to the benefit of all and sundry. This is in accordance with the words of Allah in Chapter 49 verse 13 of the Qur’an thus: “Oh mankind! We have created you from a male and a female and classified you into races and tribes that you may interact with one another (and thereby draw from the advantages therein). Verily, the most honourable of you before Allah is the most pious among you. Allah is All-knower and most acquainted with all things”.

    What is true of human beings here is equally true of other creatures. For instance we can all see that on a single arable plot of land, a variety of plants may grow to form an orchard but each with different foliages and fruits. Some of those fruits may be sweet, some may be bitter and some may be sour. Some plants may be fruitful and some may be fruitless. On that same plot of land some may grow to become trees of gargantuan posture while others may not grow beyond ordinary shrubs and legumes. Yet they are all fed by the same soil, watered by the same rain and photosynthesized by the same sun. Their different foliages, sizes, heights and tastes notwithstanding, they all function effectively and advantageously according to the purpose for which they are created.

    In the ecosystem, no tree in an orchard will ever accuse another of bearing fruits different from its own and no animal will blame another for carrying a different feature or wearing a different colour. Neither will a whale denigrate even a fingerling in the ocean for sharing the same water with it. Ditto the world of birds and that of insects. Even as plants, animals, aquatics, birds and insects they all know that for everything Allah creates there is a purpose which may not be known to them as creatures. It is only among human beings that discrimination and segregation exist based on ignorance.

    In Islam, all revealed religions are believed to be like an embassy established by a nation in another nation to strengthen her relationship with the host country. The Ambassadors appointed to manage such embassy, may be changed from time to time just like the foreign policy which guides those ambassadors but the embassy remains intact barring any unforeseen circumstances. So is the case with the Prophets of Allah. They might have come at different times, and from different lands and tribes. They might have brought different books and spoken different languages but their mission was one and the same.

    Muslims believe that all the Prophets and Messengers who have come into the world to guide mankind were from one and the same God who created the universe. Thus, Prophets Ibrahim (Abraham), Ismail (Ishmael) Ishaq (Isaac), Musa (Moses), Daud (David), Isa (Jesus) and Muhammad (SAW) as well as others who preceded them or came in-between them brought the same message of monotheism through which mankind was counselled to worship one God and be upright in conduct.

    As a Muslim, you cannot believe in one of those Apostles and disbelieve in others. Neither can you believe in one of the revealed Books while disbelieving in others. That is why no true adherent of Islam will ever express foul language against the person of Jesus. Though the modalities for worship may differ from faith to faith and from sanctuary to sanctuary this does not change the course of their faith in only one God. Thus, the rivalry between Muslims and Christians especially in Nigeria over who is spiritually right or wrong is a product of ignorance.

    As taught by Christianity and Islam through their respective revealed Books, the areas of life that need our cooperation are by far more comprehensive than those in which we differ. For instance, both the Bible and the Qur’an counsel humanity to worship one God. They preach good deeds to neighbours and other fellow human beings in public and in private irrespective of religious lineage. They advocate good care of our parents, our children, the aged ones amongst us and the handicapped. They urge kindness to our wives and leniency with our adversaries. They admonish us against cheating and any form of corruption. They forbid theft, adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism and above all the killing of fellow human beings extra-judicially for whatever reason. They also warn us against provocation, aggression, exploitation and transgression even as they emphasize the ephemerality of this world and the eventuality of the hereafter. In all these, we have a common affinity to jointly guard.

    The few areas in which we differ are abstract and quite personal. They are not areas in which human beings are given the power to pass judgment. Only the Almighty God can judge on them. Such are the areas which we believe will pave our ways towards the Paradise. But since paradise is for individuals and not for religious blocks why are we fighting each other? After all, the journey to Paradise or Hell is a matter of choice for every individual. And no one can tell with precision who will go to Paradise or go to Hell. Such is the prerogative of God which He has not assigned to any human being and which no human being can and should arrogate to himself or herself except one who wants to play God.

    As an adherent of a religion, you can only perceive your God according to your faith and that should not cause any rancour between you and adherents of any other religion. As Nigerians, we dwell in the same country, eat the same foods, drink the same water, wear similar dresses trade in the same markets and spend the same money. Our children attend the same schools, write the same examinations and obtain the same certificates. We intermarry across tribes and ethnicities as well as religions. All these form a stronger bond that ought to unite us much more than the abstract ones which often threaten to separate us. In a situation where the factors of life that unite us grossly surpass those that divide us will it not be stupid to sacrifice unity and cooperation?

    This is the time for change. We cannot wait any longer. Let the Christians in Nigeria engage in Crusade and the Muslims in Jihad against all vices in the society which their two revealed Books (Bible and Qur’an) abhor. Let all of us jointly work towards upholding the values of life as contained in the Bible and the Qur’an that we may find ourselves in a new world of peace and harmony in the very near future. As for how we became entangled in opium and terrorism in the first place, please, read this column next Friday in sha’Allah.

  • Fair weather patriots

    Suddenly everybody is proudly Nigerian. And the maniacal hooting of the Nigerian citizenry and State attains the eerie melodiousness of owls. It is tragic to see everyone celebrate the Super Eagles’ victory at the recently concluded

    African Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2013 tournament. It is even more frightening to see what record lows Nigerians would descend in pursuit of unearned sentimentality and delight.

    Nobody gave the Super Eagles a chance. Nobody wished that they did well and emerge Champions of African soccer. Every soccer enthusiast, sports writer, analyst and even the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) predicted and wished upon the Super Eagles, doom, and a disgraceful outing at AFCON 2013.

    NFF chieftains reportedly sought to force a foreign technical adviser on Coach Stephen Keshi even while the tournament was on, in a desperate plot to embezzle state funds. They never cared or wished that the national team do well at the tourney. And like the NFF, everyone else wished that the Super Eagles crash out in the early stages of the tournament.

    They claimed they were only being objective. They claimed they were simply making informed analysis and extrapolation based on the team’s lackluster and disgraceful approach to the game. Many of my colleagues in the media even went as far as forecasting that the national team will not win a single match at the tournament; they also hinged their analyses on towering objectivity and dispassionate love for the beautiful game of soccer.

    And so do I, by similar standards of unimpeachable objectivity, dispassionately analyze and infer that many Nigerian soccer enthusiasts; sports writers, analysts, et al are intellectually challenged and handicapped by their base inclinations to be failures. Little wonder they denounce anything and everything Nigerian.

    Today, we see a perversion of brotherhood and faith. Today we see the sickly manifestations of blundering fanaticism and the Nigerian spirit, for the love of football. It’s ridiculous to see everybody show love to the Super Eagles. Suddenly, the ones on whom many invoked doomsday prophesies and disgrace have become compatriots with whom they are well pleased.

    Shame. Shame that it took the victory of the Super Eagles at AFCON 2013 to reveal the average Nigerian for what he truly is; a bumbling coward and a fraud. It is even more shameful that the media which should serve as the last bastion of hope for the incurably disillusioned and cynical cheerfully championed the forecasts of doom and irreparable disgrace of the country’s national team at the soccer fiesta.

    More worrisome was the attitude of columnists who ought to desensitize the citizenry of arrant cynicism but derived a perverse pleasure from riling the national team and predicting its failure. Many a columnist and TV soccer analyst likened the team to every other failed project in Nigeria. They predicted the team’s failure and inexorably relished the prospect of saying to every believer in the chances of the team, “I told you so!”

    Now that the joke is on them and every other disparager of the Nigerian team, they have suddenly learnt to cheer in support of the Nigerian team. But a paltry few of this disgraceful band of Nigerians have remained resolute in their antagonism of the Nigerian team. They say: “Let’s see how they will fare against the Spaniards at the Confederation Cup in Brazil.”

    As if they are doomed to stereotype the dying moans of human guinea pigs; their continued disparagement of the national team resonates like the whining of relics of mortality who discountenance hope to howl like an owl at the break of a new dawn. Their cynicism is reflective of a mind which has reached the gooey stage in the mortification of all hopeful and courageous thought.

    Although Thoreau would claim that they remind him of ghouls and idiots and insane wailings, I would say that they are merely symptomatic of a vast and undeveloped nature best suited for the base and cretinous amongst mankind.

    Yes, this is very personal. But lest I am attacked for being too acerbic, let me reiterate that I am only being ‘very objective and dispassionate’ as every Super Eagles’ critic was and still is perhaps.

    The Nigerian youth had no business wishing that much ill on their peers in the national team. By their shameful attitude, they managed to affirm that the biggest challenge facing the Nigerian youth is the Nigerian youth.

    The quality of support given the national team by the Nigerian citizenry and State is reflective of our persistent struggle against the ruling class’ tyranny. It is always quite sufficient to keep us busy and enthusiastic even as our fervor for the struggle is always half-hearted and uncoordinated.

    Having experienced more hardship than necessary in the formation of our character, we imagine a dark pall after every dark cloud and thus react with unforgivable cynicism to anything and everything.

    There is no special reason for this circumstance; the ones that were, have been rendered unjustifiable by our immoderate lust to circumvent the universe’s carefully ordered path to the good life. Not only is the Nigerian youth unable to believe the benefits in honest labour and patriotism, we are unable to believe in anything else. This reveals a worrisome state of affairs that emphasizes the loss and irredeemable corruption of old loyalties. Today, every lofty ideal of nationhood, honesty, justice and truth are ultimately far-fetched in our eyes.

    That is why we are reduced to a cesspool of nonstop tragedies. That is why we have Nigerian terrorists playing with bombs and snuffing our lives like unstable candlelight in a storm. That is why we have very lazy and jobless youth threatening war if anything should happen to “their son,” Mr. President.

    That is why we suffer incessant cases of armed robbery, advance fee fraud and hooliganism. That is why we have more youths picking up charms, bullets and machine guns than a stethoscope, complete works of Wole Soyinka, Christopher Okigbo and chalk.

    It is the Nigerian youth that is blowing up Churches, Mosques and killing people in the north. It is the Nigerian youth that is passionately serving as assassins and political thugs. It is the Nigerian youth that is tirelessly totting guns and machete to rob and decapitate poor, helpless citizenry on our highways. It is the Nigerian youth blaming his lot on the ruling class even as he unquestioningly agrees to serve as canon-fodder in the ruling class’ inhuman designs.

    It is also Nigerian youth like the Super Eagles, that passionately attempts to propagate the Nigerian dream against all odds but the efforts of such human elements are wholly inconsequential amidst the psychosis of the unbelieving and rampaging hordes. Goaded by such abject reality, the Nigerian youth, submits to the decadent and tirelessly projects it, arguing as he does that since he can neither beat nor correct the system, it is better he serves it. He conveniently forgets that it is by the honest fervor and citizenship of human elements like him that the foundations of the most powerful nations are built.

    Thus is the tragedy of the Nigerian youth; he excitedly perfects the parable of a man who looks around for a coffin, every time he smells flowers.

  • Olanipekun’s rebranding of judiciary

    Olanipekun’s rebranding of judiciary

    Chief Wole Olanipekun, (SAN) is a veteran of many wars. As student leader, he fought against Gowon who at the end prayed for him. As NBA president he confronted Chief Obasanjo and came out unscathed. As a resourceful lawyer, he has secured victory after victory for his clients usually the high heeled in our society. For him water has no enemy. He approaches all cases with passion because according to him “We as lawyers must appreciate our calling as a covenant with God.”

    In this regard, On November 21, 2011, he defended Bola Tinubu, the ACN national leader before the Code of Conduct Tribunal. “I led his very formidable team to ask the Tribunal to discharge and acquit him. By 2.30 pm same day, I was in the courtroom of the Court of Appeal in the same Abuja to as part of defence team of the Jonathan election petition”. This did not stop him for also defending Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) governor in Nasarawa against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    It is therefore not surprising that Chief Wole Olanipekun has brought his usual passion to bear on his current defence of Ifeanyi Ubah against Access Bank. He is capitalising on Access Bank’s decision to file “documents before a London High Court, wherein the bank alleged that part of the reasons it avoided instituting an action against Capital Oil and its Managing Director, Ifeanyi Ubah in Nigeria was because the Nigerian judiciary was corrupt.”

    Such action, the chief insisted, amount to the denigration of Nigerian judiciary and dragging its image in the mud in the United Kingdom. Contrary to Access Bank’s deposition before the London court, no one person according to the chief can have “the judiciary in his pocket” in Nigeria.

    The judge, Justice Abang in a bid to uphold the integrity of the judiciary and the judicial process, agreed with him and ruled that “by supplying information which scandalised the Nigerian judiciary, the bank’s Corporate Counsel, Fatai Oladipo and Deji Awodein one of the bank’s Deputy General Managers were guilty of criminal contempt”. This may win a case but will unfortunately not win the battle over the minds of Nigerians who have come to see the judiciary as our major problem.

    Chief Olanipekun who has indicated he is uncomfortable with the situation of things in the country, whereby “we are running people’s affairs like a game of chess” however did not see anything wrong with the judiciary. If the third tier of government has any problem at all, it is because it has been overwhelmed by those created by the executive and the legislature.

    First, I am sure the outside world is amused by the chief’s attempt to exonerate the judiciary from the current problems bedevilling the nation, chief of which is corruption. In a globalised world and with the ascent of the new social media, everyone is a witness to history as it unfolds. The macabre dance between the senior members of our judiciary (SANs), some corrupt judges, thieving members of the political class, criminals as bank owners and oil fraudsters are daily documented for the world.

    Besides, UK of all places is a wrong choice for a rebranding effort of our judiciary. This is a nation that has just jailed James Ibori proclaiming him ‘a thief in the state house’ along with his counsel, long after the Nigerian judiciary had found him not culpable of the same set of charges. Besides, Britain is one place where some of our judges and SANs, would have been disrobed and banned from practice for life.

    A few sickening events that are currently playing out in the judiciary which make Nigeria feel like throwing up and unfortunately shared with the rest of the outside world will suffice.

    Recently, after a long deafening silence in spite of calls by Nigerians that erstwhile chairman and secretary of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on fuel subsidy probe, Farouk Lawal and Boniface Emenalo, be taken to court, their very resourceful SANs, to satisfy all righteousness brought them to court where they were detained. A week later, trial Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi okayed their release.

    This followed a ‘profound’ argument of the SANs that the’ ‘court should take cognizance of the fact that prior to his (Farouk) arraignment, he had ample opportunities to run away, having travelled outside the country four times since investigation into his alleged complicity in the bribery scandal began.’ Thus a man caught by video camera receiving bribe from Otedola in a sting operation master-minded by government will now attend trial from home and have the rights to attend to health issues abroad.

    The globalised world is also watching with keen interest how our resourceful SANs have effortlessly secured relief and shield their high profile clients such as Mahmud Tukur, son of the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Bamanga Tukur; Mamman Ali, son of the former national chairman of PDP, Ahmadu Ali; and Abdullahi Arisekola-Alao, the son of Ibadan based businessman, Abdulazeez Arisekola-Alao facing a ‘nine-count charge of conspiracy, fraud and forgery,’ of N1.8 billion from the Petroleum Support Fund.

    The suit first fixed by judge Onigbanjo for November 13 and 14, 2012, for trial has again been ‘fixed for the 6th and 7th of May 2013. The defense SAN, has already persuaded judge Onigbanjo to grant his clients bail while Abdulazeez Arisekola-Alao also got his impounded international passport back to enable him travel and take care of his sick son in the United States.

    The prosecution of Erastus Akingbola, the former owner and Managing Director of Intercontinental Bank for an alleged stealing of N47.1 billion has dragged on for three years. This is despite his indictment by a London court which directed him to refund about N164b back to the new owners of his former bank. The case against Akingbola who had earlier been discharged in another case at the Federal High Court for what the trial judge, Justice Clement Archibong, blamed on “lack of diligent prosecution.” has according to Human Rights lawyer, Femi Falana(SAN) now been ‘technically resolved in his favour’ because of the new appointment given Justice Abiru, the presiding judge.

    In 2010, Cecilia Ibru accused of a 25 count charge of money laundering and mismanagement of depositors funds totaling over N160 billion, was aided by her celebrated SANs to sign a plea bargain deal. Two years after she was sentenced on 25 counts of fraud and ordered to reimburse $1.29 billion in assets and cash, Anti-Corruption Network executive secretary Otunba Dino Melaye has alleged that many properties in the United States and United Kingdom claimed to have been forfeited are still in Ibru’s custody directly or indirectly.

    The SANs that negotiated on her behalf probably know where “these properties, monies and aircraft are since there was no evidence they were “deposited with the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Company (NDIC) and AMCON for onward transfer to the shareholders of Oceanic Bank”.

    Corruption may be another name for the executive and the legislature. The press might have been greatly compromised according to Sonala Olumhense whose views count for much in the media, but a failed state beckons when the judiciary is turned into the last bastion of the privileged scoundrels by its SANs and some corrupt judges while lonely petty thieves or vagrants arrested for wandering spend years in prison awaiting trials. These are facts not lost on Nigerians.

  • Obama’s second administration

    Obama’s second administration

    I have just returned from the United States precisely from New York and Atlanta Georgia. During my stay, I noticed the deep division among the people of the United States and particularly between Democrats and the Republicans. It will not be an exaggeration to say that the Republicans do not wish President Obama well. The divide between the Republicans and Democrats is partly ideological but unfortunately partly racial. Somebody as eminent as President Jimmy Carter has said that Republican opposition to President Obama is sometimes rooted in racism.

    The Democratic Party has no equivalent in Europe but it is probably close to the old Liberal or Social Democratic Party in England. It is a party that believes that the state has a role in the welfare of the poor and those that cannot make it in a highly competitive society. The party is also committed to making health affordable to as many people as possible. It also believes in the upward mobility provided by education. It is therefore committed to providing subsidy for students to acquire higher education. It is committed also to gun control because violence by gun-crazy Americans has become the bane of the society. In recent times, the party has been seen as the party of the young people, women, visible minorities i.e. Blacks and Latinos, labour and also of the gay community i.e. homosexuals and lesbians.

    In foreign policy, it is a party of environmentalism and international cooperation and peaceful co-existence. The party heroes are F. Delano Roosevelt, John. F. Kennedy, Lyndon .B. Johnson and Bill Clinton. In recent times, the party has become associated with big government and consequently huge government deficits.

    On the other hand, the Republican Party is increasingly identified as a party of professional associations such as those of lawyers, medical professionals, the big churches, elderly people, white male and the military industrial complex. It is the party of big business and Wall Street. It likes to see itself as the real American party that believes in individual success and enterprise. A party of survival of the fittest. In its foreign policy, it is the party of intervention in other country’s affairs in order to preserve America’s hegemony. Its heroes are Theodore Roosevelt the 26th President of the United States of America (1901-1909), Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. The closest party in Europe to the Republican Party would be the Conservative Party in England. Incidentally, President Abraham Lincoln the abolitionist President was a Republican but he is more likely to be seen today by democrats as one of their heroes. The Republican Party is also opposed to non-white immigration into the United States because of wanting to preserve the United States as a White man’s country. The party’s support for small government and balanced budget is also because of its opposition to the welfare of the poor who are invariably non-white. The Republican Party is fighting for its very life because of the increasing number of non-white immigrants into the United States and it seems the Democratic Party of Obama wants the 11million illegal aliens in America to be given the chance of becoming legal immigrants and possibly citizens in the foreseeable future. This is the kernel of the ideological rift between Obama and the Republican Party.

    Unfortunately the debate between them is very acrimonious and bitter and the extreme wing of the Republican Party, the so called Tea Party is not averse to using racial epithet for Obama. Some of the party’s supporters while demonstrating against Obama’s policies carry placards with the caricature of Obama as a monkey and asking him to go back to Africa to feast on bananas. Some members of the Republican Party in Congress in a knee jack reaction to Obama’s policy always oppose him no matter how sensible his policies may be.

    As an outsider, one can see the point of the Republican Party in wanting balanced budget and small government and that no country can provide maximally for all its citizens. Since the rich in America do not want to pay high taxes, government will therefore have to cut back on expenditure. But taking care of the poor provides a safety valve for the American society. This simple logic does not seem to appeal to the Republicans because they think that poor people’s rebellion will be shot down by the Police and if necessary by the National Guard and perhaps individually armed Americans since the second amendment to their constitution allows individuals to carry weapons either openly or in concealed forms. This is why the National Rifle Association (NRA) is a staunch member of the Republican Party. The division in America is deep and sometimes troubling. But at the same time, one must praise America for being the only western country that would throw up a black man and a Mormon as presidential candidates of the two major parties.

    The immediate problems that would face Obama in his second term would be how to get confirmation for new members of his cabinet, how to raise the debt ceiling beyond the current 16.4trillion dollars and how to get his budget through congress and how to avoid automatic cut of defense spending and in other areas critical to the United States. If previous debates are something to go by, he is going to have a Herculean task in persuading the Republican dominated House of Representatives to go along with him. I had expected that his inauguration speech would be a unifying speech rather than a partisan speech. Unfortunately, this was not so and I think the President missed an opportunity to be conciliatory to the Republican Party. He probably felt that offence was the best strategy of defence. But I think this is wrong unless he bends over backwards to accommodate the Republican Party, he will not achieve much in his second administration. Yet he has plans to invest in education, infrastructure, environment and to make the United States self-sufficient in energy through support for appropriate technology and the development of Shale gas in continental North America. In his foreign policy agenda, he wants to wind down the war in Afghanistan and avoid getting into any war in the Middle East and elsewhere but the signs are not so good because of Iran and its nuclear programme and the determination of Israel to stop it as well as Korea and its missile programme and then the problem between Japan and China over disputed Islands in the South China Sea. All these problems may make nonsense of Obama’s pacific intentions. This is why he cannot afford to follow a policy of antagonism to the Republican Party. Because if there were to be a crisis outside the U.S in which vital American interests are at stake, he will need unity at home. Of course if history teaches us a lesson, nationalist fervour always manifest in times of crisis, particularly if it is not a long drawn out military entanglement.