The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • New political deals, security and sports

    New political deals, security and sports

    Last Thursday British PM David Cameron hosted the presidents of Pakistan and Afghanistan in London in a conference aimed at brokering a peace between the two neighbors and subsequently achieving peace with their common enemy, the Taliban, in the region. Similarly during the week the leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, announced that his organization was ready to form a government of national unity with the leader of the PLO, Mamoud Abbass with whom Hamas clashed to set up its own government in Gaza sometime ago.

    Also, an assassination of a politician in Tunisia, the first since the Arab Spring Revolution began in January 2011, set the tone for the formation of a government of technocrats without political affiliation in that nation from where the Arab Street revolutions started two years ago. Thirdly, Nigeria’s qualification for the finals of the African Cup of Nations for the first time since it won it last in 1994 and the way and manner Burkina Fasso beat Ghana to get to tomorrow’s final in spite of the refereeing at that match last Wednesday, throw up issues of fairness justice and security both off and on the pitch in sports and politics.

    David Cameron’s peace broker’s role probably stems from a desire by not only Britain and the US to stop money down the drain over the war on terror in that part of the world, but also to maintain domestic peace in Britain given Britain’s large Pakistani population and the huge resources committed to the Afghan war from which the Allies are committed to withdraw from 2014 . But if David Cameron is sincere in intention, the same cannot be said of the two characters he parleyed with in London this week. This is because the two presidents from Kabul and Islamabad carry heavy luggage in terms of corruption and legitimacy to the talks and these have always dogged or sabotaged their communications with the final objective of the Cameron peace, which is the Taliban.

    President Karzai was elected to a second term recently in Afghanistan, in an election which even the US that midwifed it conceded was far from free and fair. But it was the best available option to keep the Taliban at bay while at the same time propping up a puppet government in a semblance of democracy. This has not however stopped Karzai from telling the Americans that he is free to visit any nation and receive any head of state including that of Iran, the sworn enemy of the US, the sole guarantor of the same Karzai government in Kabul.

    The government of President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan faces a different challenge and carries a peculiar burden. The Pakistani president faces money laundering charges in Switzerland for which a warrant has been issued for his arrest and for which his incumbency as president initially provided immunity. In fact his party or indeed the party of his wife Benazir Bhutto who was assassinated on her return from exile to contest parliamentary elections, won the last general elections riding on the wave of sympathy for the wife’s assassination. That however was when the judiciary needed the politicians in Pakistani’s volatile politics to drive away the military dictatorship of Parvez Musharaff who wanted to shed military fatigues to become a civilian president.

    The CJ of Pakistan then ruled against Musharaff’s ambition as illegal and the politicians rallied round the beleaguered CJ who was reinstated after Zardari’s party came into power. Now it seems the relations between the CJ and the government in power has soured as the CJ has dismissed two PMs for contempt charges for failing to initiate criminal proceeding against Zardari for his earlier money laundering charges.

    The army is standing aloof in all these because it has lost face in Pakistan over the way the Americans came and killed Osama Bin Ladin literally in its backyard. In addition outgoing US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has always taunted the Pakistani authorities – military or politician – alike with hypocrisy and treachery in taking US dollars while hiding the where about of Bin Laden – a situation made worse and more embarrassing in the way and manner of the killing of Bin Ladin.

    So in effect, what sort of peace can Cameron broker with these leaders broken in integrity and credibility in their own socio political environment? Can such a peace be respected by the Taliban who hold the two leaders in contempt and boast that but for the Americans and their allies they would have made short work of these leaders? This is what the British should ponder about after all the fanfare and hullaballoo of the London Peace conference on Pakistan and Afghanistan.

    In the case of a truce between Hamas and the PLO in Palestine, this is a clear case of political pragmatism prevailing over deep rooted mutual resentment. The Hamas leader had left his base in Syria in a hurry after criticizing the Assad regime in the way it has been killing its people . He took refuge in one of the Gulf States but it seems life has not been cosy. This again is because one of Hamas own backers and sponsors – Iran – has been tight fisted in providing funds because of the Hamas leader’s criticism of its surrogate and ally, the Assad regime. Now the Hamas leader knows that there is no where like home and even though the Israelis are always looking for the Hamas leader to do him in, a truce of sorts with the PLO will provide some form of cover and shelter for the Hamas leader, at least in Palestine. This too should remove the bottom from the Netanyahu charge and argument that the Israelis are not ready for peace because they are divided. Which really is a wicked excuse for building on the occupied territories against UN resolutions and international law that Israel is violating with impunity. The Hamas rethink is therefore a welcome development that gives peace a new chance in the Middle East. It therefore should be encouraged.

    With regard to the assassination in Tunisia of opposition leader, anti Islamist Chokri Belaid who was shot in the neck and head by unknown people on motor bikes in front of his house this week, one can only tremble at the prospect that holds for democracy and stability in post – street revolution N Africa. I heard a lamentation on BBC that the assassination means the end of democracy and is a betrayal of the revolution in the Middle East. Which is really sad and makes one shudder that the huge human price to remove dictatorships may well end in anarchy and instability which again makes a mockery of the entire Spring Revolution that started in Tunisia two years ago.

    Most Tunisians have held the government Islamist Party in power – Ennahada – responsible but all hope is not lost that such anarchy will prevail in Tunisia. This is because the PM of Tunisia, Hamadi Jebadi has now said he will form a government ‘of competent nationals without political affiliation. Which resonates the concept of zero party politics similar to the one Museveni introduced in Uganda some time ago as well as the type practiced in Nigeria also some time ago. That also creates some fear as well that a sectarian majority may not be the goal of the Spring Revolution in N Africa even though on paper this should be a fait accompli given the census and statistics of the region as well as the fact that there is one religion prevalent.

    That was the problem the President of Egypt Mohammed Morsi was reacting to when he told the CNN – there is no Islamic Democracy but democracy. Which again shows that first Egypt and now Tunisia have become a case or battle ground for the clash between religion and democracy in the quest for freedom, stability and security in post revolution N Africa – and one can only watch and pray.

    Lastly the AFCON final tomorrow between Nigeria and Burkina Fasso promises to be a thriller and is a befitting end to a series of soccer games that have made Africa proud in terms of standard of play and discipline, except the refereeing . It was bad enough that CAF sent home the referee of the Nigeria – Zambia match for the penalty against Nigeria and for – ‘ trying to rewrite the rules at the competition‘. But the referee in the Burkina Fasso – Ghana match was the ‘twelfth player’ for the Ghana team. He was so biased against the Burkina Fasso team that it was a wonder they were able to defeat Ghana after extra time and penalty shoot out. One can only wait to see what CAF will make of such officiating as a form of deterrence.

    Let me say clearly that as a Nigerian I want Nigeria to win. But let me also, like most Nigerians say boldly, that the Nigerian team has surprised all of us in getting this far, given the way they played their first two drawn games against Burkina Fasso and the outgoing champion Zambia. But it is in the way that the Nigerian team has lifted its game since those two dismal draws that I doff my heart to the team and its coach Stephen Keshi.

    Nigerians lost confidence in the team after its first two games but the team held its own, kept its head and focus, and gave a brilliant performance against Ethiopia and Ivory Coast to win the hearts of all Nigerian who are now rooting for them to win today. It is therefore the Super Eagles and it coach that deserve kudos for believing in themselves, against the 11th hour, new found supporters of today who were yesterday‘s doubting Thomases and who now expect them to win today, as I am sure they will, all things being equal.

  • JKF at 48: The music has just begun

    JKF at 48: The music has just begun

    In a recent encounter with journalists during an inspection of projects in some parts of Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, Governor Kayode Fayemi was asked how he manages to raise funds for the numerous projects his administration is undertaking in the state. The reporter had asked the question upon realising that the Operation Renovate All Secondary Schools in Ekiti (ORASE), which led to the renovation of the 183 public secondary schools in the state and the purchase of 40,000 units of furniture for teachers and students cost the state a whopping N2.5billion.

    For a state that is ranked number 35th on the federal allocation ladder and gets a little above N2billion monthly from the federation purse, the reporter’s concern seems apt, especially given the fact that the comprehensive renovation of public schools and the computer-per-child initiative of the administration are running side by side with other projects.

    When the journalist was told that the state would soon commence the comprehensive renovation of all hospitals and primary health care centres in the state beginning from January, he simply retorted: “Your Excellency must be a magician!”

    Fayemi had politely told the reporter that the passion to see poverty and sickness banished from the state and the determination to make the Ekiti the number one destination of choice for business and leisure remain the vital tonic that drives the developmental agenda in Ekiti and provides the creativity that unlocks the required funds. What perhaps is unknown to the journalist is the fact that JKF, as Dr Fayemi is popularly called, remains one of the few leaders in the country who view their call to serve as a privilege and therefore put in everything to ensure that they leave a legacy.

    Caroline Mcloughlin, Executive Director of the Washington-based Centre for Visionary Leadership, vividly captures the essence of visionary leadership in one of her works. According to her, “Visionary leaders are the builders of a new dawn, working with imagination, insight, and boldness. They present a challenge that calls from the best in people and brings them together around a shared sense of purpose. Their eyes are on the horizon, not just on the near at hand. They are social innovators and change agents, seeing the big picture and thinking strategically.”

    Mcloughlin’s definition, no doubt, encapsulates those key attributes that have marked JKF as an innovative leader with a great ability to inspire others and an insatiable appetite for setting and attaining developmental goals. Through a combination of forceful imagination, prudent spending, compassion for the led and placing much premium on the concept of doing development with the people, JKF has, in the last two and a half years, been able to launch the state on an irreversible path of development.

    In theory, JKF has espoused the concept of good governance and the concomitant empowerment of the citizens as well as the strengthening of the institutional framework at the various lectures and discussion groups he has participated locally and at the global stage. In practical terms, he demonstrates this in the running of the affairs of Ekiti State by laying emphasis on key elements of good governance, including accountability, transparency, efficiency and effectiveness, responsiveness, the rule of law and forward vision.

    JKF stated this much in his most recent publication – “Reclaiming The Trust.” He admits that what he has brought into governance in the last two years is the kind of trust that is based on and compels competence, openness, concern and reliability. “Trust is a public good; we cannot do great things collectively without trust. But trust has to be earned,” he stresses.

    Within two and half years, Fayemi has been able to place Ekiti on the centre stage by re-awakening the Omoluabi concept in government and laying a solid foundation on which a more prosperous Ekiti would be built. The Social Security Benefit Scheme which pays monthly stipends to indigent elderly citizens of the state; the computer-per-child initiative, where each student in the public secondary schools gets a solar-powered lap top computer are first of its kind in the country. The massive investments in industrial, infrastructure and tourism development in the state as well as diverse youth and women empowerment programmes in an atmosphere devoid of the brigandage and violence of yesteryears have greatly enhanced the profile of the state.

    Perhaps this explains why the rain of endorsements of his person and leadership style continues to pour in torrents since the September 18, 2012 endorsement by a former Nigerian Permanent Representative at the United Nations, Alhaji Maitama Sule, at the Leadership Awards in Abuja and that of the 26 Pan-Yoruba groups under the auspices of the Oodua Nationalist Coalition (ONAC) in Ibadan, recently.

    As JKF turns 48 today, the question is no longer about what he is capable of doing as a leader. For he has been able to demonstrate his capability as an imaginative leader. Rather, the question will be about what he would not do as a leader. Regarded in some circles as ‘an activist in government’, many believe that his past has adequately prepared him for the present and the future.

    John Kayode Fayemi was born on February 9, 1965 into the family of the late Chief and Mrs. Francis Falade Fayemi. A native of Isan-Ekiti in Oye Local Government, he had his elementary education in Ibadan before attending Christ’s School, Ado- Ekiti for his secondary education between 1975 and 1980.

    He received his first degree in History and Politics from the University of Lagos in 1985, a Master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Ife, Ile-Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), in 1987 and a doctorate in War Studies from the King’s College, University of London, England in 1993, specialising in civilian-military relations and defence planning.

    Prior to his active involvement in politics, Dr. Fayemi  was the pioneer Director of the Centre for Democracy and Development, a research and training institution dedicated to the study and promotion of democratic development, peace-building and human security in Africa.

    Dr. Fayemi was a Georgetown University Leadership Fellow in 2000 and a Senior Visiting Fellow in African Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, USA in 2004. He is also an Associate Fellow of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Ibadan and was on the Adjunct Faculty of the African Centre for Strategic Studies, National Defence University, USA, between 2001 and 2005.

    He was a member of the Governing Board of the Open Society Justice Institute, New York and African Security Sector Network. He was Technical Adviser to Nigeria’s Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission (known as the Oputa Panel) and also served on three Presidential Advisory Committees on Conflict Management and Security Sector Reform; NEPAD and the Millennium Development Goals under the Olusegun Obasanjo administration.

    An advocate of true federalism, Fayemi has written and lectured extensively on governance and democratisation. He is also a recipient of several awards, fellowships and grants, including the Ford Foundation grant on the Special Initiative on Africa and the Macarthur Foundation research grant. He was named Governor of the Year, 2011 by the Leadership Newspaper.

    With forty and eight fruitful years in the kitty, the music has just started for Fayemi, the one Ekiti people love to call ”Ilufemiloye “.

     

    •Oyebode is Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Ekiti State.

  • SUPER EAGLES: Pray Nigeria, pray

    Nigerians are prayer warriors no doubt. I want to wager that no other country prays more fervently than the raucous millions of the Niger area. What I do not wish to find out however, is how much of our prayers break through the atmosphere and up into heaven. Would God in his omniscience, open up the heavens for us in order to reveal the flow of our prayers and benedictions, most of us would be surprise how we have been firing blank. We pray long, we pray noisy, we pray with vehemence and exertion, we keep vigil and go into lengthy dryness and observances yet to no avail it seems. We as a nation, as a people, as families we are still overtaken and tormented by the evil one.

    The prince of darkness seems to have found his domain and refuge here in Nigeria. The chief principality of this realm seems to have built his operational headquarters on our shores from whence he fans out evil, misery and pain to the rest of the world. Before you think one is exaggerating, is there any other land on the face of the earth blessed with so much riches and yet abounds with so much human misery? There is no other place in the world today where there is such criminal round-tripping of crude oil; that is the rich endowment of a country’s crude oil is shipped out to surrogate refineries abroad and the bye products returned to Nigeria as expensive and economically unviable commodities.

    Now this treasonable economic crime has gone on for nearly three decades and still continues till tomorrow. No other major oil producing country in the world imports petroleum products; on the other hand, they export to the rest of the world so as to maximize the benefits of their God-given resource for the good of their citizenry. But the reverse is the case here. This is a country where a mere civil servant could access and purloin state funds in billions. Consider the recent example of a certain civil servant named John Yesufu who stole all of N27 billion naira; he is only a deputy director, imagine what directors, directors-general, auditors-general, accountants-general, permanent secretaries, ministers, governors and presidents who have better leeway to the treasury, would have. We are in a country where numerous public servants are so rich they can buy up a country or two, they are so shamelessly rich because they hijack and cart away entire budgets of their ministries, departments and agencies. And they are so proud about their ‘achievements’, the have no qualms whatsoever and indeed, they are the most voluble prayer warriors at the least opportunity.

    Praying football prayer

    But pray we must for where would we be without the vigil of the faithful. In prayer we must persist, especially where there is no trace of HIM like in Nigeria, to paraphrase Pastor Adeboye above. Let us pray for the Super Eagles, our national football team not because we need the Africa nations’ cup so badly or that the lifting of it would change our unrepentant evil ways and make our leaders and public officers less greedy and covetous. We pray for victory if only for that brief moment of ecstasy and uproarious revelry; for that ephemeral moment of national ‘unity’ and ‘rejoicing’. We must pray, hoping that in that moment of ‘white’ madness, some wellness would be triggered in our leaders and the scales would fall from their eyes so that they can see their monumental failings, so that they may see Nigeria’s missed opportunities; so that they may see that Egypt, Britain, USA and such other places they are quick to shuttle off to are built by leaders who are better than them only because they are patriots and they are truly godly. We will pray hoping that our God who works in wondrous ways might just adapt our moment of national ‘joy’ into our hour of national salvation and redemption.

    We all should rise as one to pray this football prayer hoping that this flitting gold cup would not ‘pass over us’ this time. It is not because the hollow metal is worth its weight in gold, no, we are praying, hoping that our leaders may be led into a sudden burst of inspiration to see the untold potentials in organizing our football and sports properly. We pray that they would realize that if they get just our sports right, millions of our youths who are jobless and broken today would not only be engaged but gainfully so; and not only in Nigeria but all over the world. Nigeria has the capacity to furnish the world with one tenth of its outstanding sportsmen and women. One of the greatest natural resources God has endowed us with is awesome physical strength combined with speed and acute power of mental co-ordination. It is a rare gift only found in few other countries in Africa and Latin American countries. Carefully harnessed, the result is a human specimen of immense grace and spectacular physical feats. Applied to football, basketball, boxing, wrestling, tracks and field events, etc, it is a talent that is in hot demand all over the world. It is a resource that could yield as much revenue to Nigeria as crude oil.

    But here we are, unable to manage our stadia; we allowed a forest to grow in our number one stadium in Abuja right under the nose of the presidency. Our national stadium in Lagos has been in a state of decay for more than ten years. The national league is in perpetual turmoil having been infiltrated by ragamuffins, the sports associations are comatose with most so called administrators scurrying about looking for morsels. Nobody is thinking or attempting to seek out and groom talents. School sports where virgin talents were plucked is long dead and forgotten. For instance I have a 13-year old who has been sprinting with seniors and running invitational relay since she was 11. In serious places, she would have been placed under special watch but nobody cares.

    160 million voices praying

    Another reason we must pray is that our opponents, Burkina Faso, prays too. They probably pray better than us. Did you see them after their grueling duel with Ghana last Wednesday how they went on their knees – players and officials, forming a large circle and pointing heavenwards, showered thanksgiving to heaven? Something tells me that our match on Sunday would be first a divine showdown. I see a game of celestial favours; who does our Maker want to favour most? Who needs it most, who is seeking and knocking and asking more? As we meet in the mosques, churches and even in our homes, let us all say a prayer for the success of the Super Eagles on Sunday February 10, 2013 – if 160 million people, in spite of their blemishes pray, our God is bound to hear. Amen.

    LAST MUG: National Assembly and 2013 budget: as it has become our practice, the 2013 Appropriation Bill is yet to be passed into law. The National Assembly and the Presidency continues to squabble while the country bleeds. Dawdling over the budget has become a national pastime in the last few years. NASS, one must say, is mainly to blame for this; the body still does not seem to assimilate the magnitude and import of this document. It seems to view it more from the prism of contracts and ‘constituency’ projects. It cannot exact proper oversight on the executive if it has its hand deep in the cookie jar. We need a high minded NASS.

     

  • Of current‘messiahs’ and ‘spent forces’

    Of current‘messiahs’ and ‘spent forces’

    The public has been thrown into theatrical frenzy over the bombshell in an article written by Reuben Abati, Senior Special Adviser (SSA) on media to President Goodluck Jonathan. The article published in virtually all major newspapers last weekend was titled: ‘The hypocrisy of yesterday’s men.’ That well crafted piece was definitely the consequence of former Minister of Education and one-time World Bank Vice President (Africa), Dr. Oby Ezekwesili’s allegation at the convocation lecture she delivered at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) that the administration of the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Dr. Jonathan squandered $67 billion left behind by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

    Oby had alleged that $45billion in foreign reserves account and another $22billion in Excess Crude Account being direct savings from increased earnings during the Obasanjo regime in 2007 were squandered by Yar’Adua and Jonathan’s administrations.

    Since then, Jonathan’s hirelings including Labaran Maku, his Minister of Information, and Doyin Okupe, media aide on public affairs have not given satisfactory explanations on how the money was spent. They all blabbed endlessly. Maku left issues raised by calling on Ezekwesili to account for over N40billion voted for education between 2006 and 2007 when she was in charge as minister. Okupe merely accused her of ‘grandstanding’.

    Abati, however, threw a punch through this piece that drew the ire of more men of yesterday from the Obasanjo camp out of their cocoon of comfort. Nasir el-Rufai and Femi Fani-Kayode, both ministers under the former president joined the scrimmage. Even their boss/mentor, Obasanjo has inexorably been virulent in his criticism of President Jonathan’s handling of especially insecurity and other challenging issues.

    Abati wants Obasanjo’s ‘navel-gazing, narcissistic…and loosely-bound group of yesterday’s men and women’ to stop criticising the policies of his boss through their arrogant and pretentious posturing as know-it- all persons simply because ‘…they were privileged to have been in the corridors of power once upon a time in their lives.’ He added: ‘We are in reality dealing with a bunch of hypocrites.’

    Beyond the name callings between today and men of yesterday, it is apt to find out what the issues are: First is the issue of whether or not Obasanjo’s administration left N67billion in foreign reserve; second is whether the response of the government on the matter really addressed the allegation that was raised by Oby: Third is to determine whether there is what in law is calleduberimei fidei behind the actions/inactions of today and yesterday’s men of hypocrisy.

    Without mincing words, it is very clear that Maku was found wanting in his official response on behalf of government to the allegation raised by Oby. Rather than brilliantly address the issue raised, he adopted the obsoletely ruthless method: ‘You Tarka me, I Dabor you’coined by the media to describe the quarrel that transpired between Joseph Tarka and Godwin Dabor during the General Yakubu Gowon era as Head of State of over four decades. He brazenly accused Oby of not accounting for the N40billion she collected as Education Minister. On the second leg of the question; the government should tell the public the time at which it realised that its accuser and one of the precursors of ‘transparency and due process’ in government mismanaged the money released for her to salvage the still epileptic educational sector? The delay by the government in accusing Oby in this regard defeats equity.

    The most important leg of the posers is to determine whether or not both parties in this exchange of brickbats acted with utmost good faith, that is, in the interest of Nigeria and Nigerians. The truth is that both are playing politics with the welfare and wellbeing of Nigerians. One group criticises from the position of hurt, the other defends from the position of pressure.

    For instance, the hypocrisy of men and women of yesterday, including Obasanjo, towards Jonathan would have been impossible if the president is working hard and well enough to lift the nation out of her current doldrums. The truth as it is today is that most things seem not to be working for the country because the president in the saddle does not understand the real meaning of governance. As an Ijaw man, he seems to perceive governance from the privileges and respects that are normally accorded the position forgetting that a leader can only be effective when he has good vision and purposeful mission in power.

    Jonathan does not have this because those (Obasanjo and company) that put him there wanted him to be playing their game. And he was not doing that and worse still doing badly for Nigerians. They didn’t put him there so that they can go back to their different professional callings after office, contrary to Abati’s postulations that ‘People are called upon to serve; they do so with humility and great commitment, and when it is all over, they move on to other things. The quantity surveyor returns to his or her quantity surveying or some other decent work; the lawyer to his or her wig and gown; the university teacher, to the classroom, glad to have been found worthy of national service. When and where necessary, as private citizens, they are entitled to use the benefit of this experience to contribute to national development; they speak up on matters of public importance not as a full-time job.’ The contrary is what we all currently witness in Nigeria.

    For instance, what job does he expect Femi Fani-Kayode to go into after leaving government? He was known to have written the most virulent articles against Obasanjo while he was in power but the moment he was appointed, he changed his tune. Today, those in his shoes still see Obasanjo as a godfather they must protect so that he can still make things happen for them in the corridors of power. Oby was also visible in the civil society group activities articulating views on how to make her country forward. She got to power under Obasanjo and her most visible achievement was her attempt to callously privatise Federal Unity schools, our collective patrimony. Her likes laid the solid foundation for the destruction of public institutions in the country today. What were el’Rufai’s achievements in the Bureau of Privatisation? Nothing but capitalist confusion and unbridled superciliousness! They are the people that Abati describes in his piece as ‘a group of power-point technocrats who have mastered the rhetoric of public grandstanding.’

    Well, Abati might talk gleefully about his concocted achievements of this administration but the truth today is that majority of Nigerians perceive this administration as the weakest in their history. Abati himself ought to have seen clearly that his boss’ administration is a hard sell to Nigerians in view of his lacklustre performance. What would Abati have written today on this administration of Jonathan were he still to be with the Guardian? While admitting that the Obasanjo group are spent forces, the messianic status accorded the Jonathan group of men of today in Abati’s piece cannot be justified. Therein lies his own hypocrisy and those of the other hirelings of Mr President.

    For today’s men and men of yesterday, the louder they talked of their honour, the faster we counted our spoons. They all mask their self-interest as public’s and are always ready to manipulate collective aspirations for personal good. The two groups, to adopt Abati’s words, try ‘to play God, forgetting that the case for God is not in the hands of man.’

  • Metaphor of the round leather (5)

    The rambling youth who abandons his farm to seek greener pastures on his neighbour’s land is never as manly as the starving cow which kicks over its food bucket, leaps over the barnyard fence to run after its calf at milking time. Even the maternal cow commands greater respect than the Nigerian youth. Even a plough-wearied bullock tilling barren land excites greater dignity than the youth who passionately maligns Nassarawa United, Rangers of Enugu and Gateway FC to worship A.C Milan, Manchester United among others.

    Some would rave that I have made a sweeping statement but the tragedy of the Nigerian youth at home isn’t any different from that of his peer in diaspora. A pitiful lust remains their woe; it’s a hankering for undeserved luxury, base sentimentality and unearned greatness. It is what drives a 38-year old Masters Degree holder and soccer enthusiast in the United Kingdom to call Super Eagles’John Obi Mikel, a failure even though he, the 38-year old, washes the anuses of mental patients in a low budget geriatric home in the UK and Mikel earns about £80, 000 a week playing for Chelsea Football Club in the same country.

    The 38-year old soccer buff was pissed with Mikel and his team mates’ performance at the on-going African Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2013. He thinks they constitute monumental disgrace to Nigeria. And he painstakingly states so on his Facebook social networking page. Some would claim he has every right to criticize and condemn the Nigerian Super Eagles, so does every Nigerian who loves to see and breathe and talk fantastic football.

    But this is hardly about the ignorant youth’s debatable logic or Mikel’s deep pocket, it’s about the rabid inclinations of the Nigerian youth and soccer enthusiast to criticize and condemn everything Nigerian within and outside the exciting world of soccer. It was fascinating to see the nation’s youth unite in condemnation and virulent abuse of Nigeria’s Super Eagles over their perceived lackluster performance at the ongoing AFCON 2013. It doesn’t matter that the hastily constituted squad was meant to use the on-going tournament fine-tune in depth and strength. No sooner than the tournament began than the Nigerian soccer enthusiast began to fantasize of the team’s incontestable right to excellence and invincibility even though it was ill-prepared to function and gel as a team.

    It took Clemens Westerhof four years to build the excellent squad that served Nigeria for well over a decade but the Nigerian youth and soccer enthusiast wants Stephen Keshi to parade a perfect team in three months. When the team drew against Zambia and Burkina Faso, not a few of their peers cursed and demeaned them as the worst things to ever happen to Nigeria. When they beat Ethiopia 2 – 0, their peers at home ridiculed them endlessly, claiming they shamefully managed to win by penalties. However, nothing compares to the ill-will accorded the team as it prepared to face the Ivorien team.

    The”Super Chickens” will fall to the might and soccer prowess of Didier Drogba, Yaya Toure, Africa’s current best footballer and their Ivorien team mates, claimed the Nigerian press and other soccer buffs. Eventually, the Super Eagles put a lie to prophesy of doom by their peers at home and abroad; they simply outclassed and dominated Drogba, Toure and team mates from the first blow of the whistle to the end of the match. The Super Eagles beat Ivory Coast 2 – 1.

    It hardly matters what final fate await the Super Eagles in the ongoing tournament, what truly matters is their spirited disavowal of the abject disloyalty and rabid sentimentality of Nigeria’s soccer loving youth.

    Currently, Nigeria is afflicted with youth irredeemably dim and misty in persona and worth; like spent shadows, they incarnate an insensible perspiration towards the sun. Their contempt for Nigeria extends beyond their disdain for Nigerian soccer. Like the beautifully dull and half-witted, this generation of youth encapsulates an inordinate contempt for everything Nigerian. They would dump the Nigerian dream for scraps and crusts of the American dream, British dream, South African dream, Malaysian dream, Ghanaian dream and even the Malian dream to mention a few.

    One cannot pontificate enough – even by unrelenting self-righteousness –to lay a foundation of true understanding and compassion for their plight. I speak of the unrepentant critic forever mounting the soapbox in his living room, courtyard or public bar to curse our leadership and curse the times even as he does nothing to improve the times.

    It’s even more tragic to see a journalist in his youth incarnate such pitiful citizenship despite expectations that he ought to know better. Such character that will play muscle to the most hideous politician for the paltriest fee often turns around to blame politicians for everything that is wrong with Nigeria. This young Nigerian journalist that I speak of espouses more bleakness and disdain for the Nigerian dream than his contemporaries from every other professional divide.

    By his contemporaries, I speak of children of the rich acquiring the best of Ivy League education abroad funds stolen by their parents. I speak of Nigerian youth cum self-styled intellectuals washing the anuses of the senile in geriatric homes and hospices abroad, even as they return home to belittle the impoverished teacher and farmer burning out under the worst living conditions, with dignity.

    I speak of postgraduate alumni from Nigeria driving cabs, cleaning public toilets, robbing, scamming and trafficking their sisters, daughters and mothers to foreign brothels for a fee. Then I speak of the very successful living abroad and yet propagating as much venom as bloody solutions to every problem in our fatherland.

    Lest I forget the maddening horde of Nigerian youth whose clamour for change is meticulously smothered no sooner than they gain access to vulgar privileges they whole-heartedly condemn as the excesses of the ruling class. With this shameful lot, the Nigerian journalist in his youth brazenly casts his lot every time he incites cheerlessness and contempt for everything Nigerian.

    What pleasure is there to be derived from ridiculing one’s heritage just for the pleasure of doing so? The one who derives his thrill from doing so, himself becomes an everlasting jest, oftentimes to his great loss. The Nigerian youth who does so besmirches the essence of true citizenship and grace. But aren’t we all identifiable with such character?

    To this, many will vehemently object but it still doesn’t belie the fact that left to our devices, we shamelessly abide with degeneracy. Little wonder, the hue and cry over the removal of fuel subsidy has abated to a burp. Little wonder the profligacy and sleaze of the Nigerian ruling class became acceptable to hordes of cowardly revolutionaries that threatened to “Occupy Nigeria.”

    The infinite cowardice in our hearts shall continue to betray the mutinous duplicity of our battle cries. The Nigerian youth is undoubtedly a researcher’s delight; every hour he substantiates the fraudulence of grief and revolutionary marches this side of the divide.

    Why are we in desperate haste to protest the corruption of the ruling class only to cower at decision time? Why do we demean the electoral process despite its worth as the most powerful revolutionary tool yet?

    • To be continued…

  • Family involvement in education

    Family involvement in education

    In the past several weeks, I have argued for the need to bet on our innocent children whom we voluntarily choose to bring into the world. I submit that we bet on them when we create a future that is worthy of them and the country which they in turn can be proud to call theirs. We create that future by investing in their education from the cradle so that from the first time they open their eyes, they see a nation that cares and educates, just as they behold the love of an extended family of mother, father, siblings, uncles, aunties and grandparents who first welcome them with loving hands and cheerful faces. Today, I discuss how this initial joy of welcoming a new member of the family must lead to a lifetime of involvement in the education of that original bundle of joy.

    The idea, popularised by former First Lady, former Senator and now former United States Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, that it takes a village to raise a child is originally an African belief and no indigenous African brought up in the tradition of the ancestors can escape its practical import. We come from social settings in which any older person in the village, whether a blood relation or not, has the traditional authority to discipline you so you don’t bring the village into disrepute and so that you don’t cause yourself avoidable harm. We all have stories of great uncles who are more fearful than our fathers. But more to the point, we have cases of perfect strangers who, on account of their consideration of our best interests, may choose their own way of bringing us back to our senses. I have one such story, which weaves together in an interesting way, the elements of my thoughts for today.

    It was my last year in the elementary school, the Okeho Literary Society—a group of young men and women who had advanced in the education ladder—put together a program of after-school study group to prepare us for the final regional examination, the Primary School Leaving Certificate Examination. My cousin, Iyabo Ojeleye and I were enrolled by our parents. On our way to the evening class one day, we chose to walk by a fence littered with broken bottles. Unbeknown to us, Mr. Longe, the local pharmacist, sitting by his shop had been watching us. Now Mr. Longe wasn’t an indigene of Okeho. However, having been persuaded that we were endangering our lives, he knew what to do. He secured a horsewhip hanging on his door, and as we neared his shop, he pulled up his almost 7-foot body frame, with the horse whip in hand and shouted at us: e fee foju ara yin sera yin? (“do you want to hurt yourselves?”) Iyabo has been a sprinter all her life and before I knew what was going on, she had left me behind. I too managed to escape. But of course, the matter had been reported to our parents and what we escaped in the hands of Mr. Longe, we eventually received in the hands of Papa. Later in life, Isaac, Mr. Longe’s son, was one of my very good students in every respect, an outcome that I attributed to good family background and parental involvement.

    The event that I just recalled is narrated to underscore the point of this discourse. First, it takes a village to raise a child. But second, as our people also understand, there has to be a demarcation of ownership in a matter of joint property. Parents have to take effective ownership of family responsibility in the education of children. And this has always been our tradition even in the pre-colonial days when our focus was on practical education for skills that were considered essential for a successful life—farming, trading, crafts, and family professions. Parents secured apprenticeship for their children, and developed good relationships with the masters training their kids. And when “western education” was introduced, in spite on their deficit in that area of knowledge, many parents understood that the future of their wards was in the hands of the teacher and the school. So they got involved in various ways.

    My father was a self-taught reader and writer and was always proud when he would converse with me in English in the presence of his friends. In my student days away from home, I always enjoyed reading his letters in what I thought then was an archaic cursive writing until my children had to learn cursive in the elementary school in the United States. My friend, Bisi Adesola’s father, and my father became close on account of our education. They never missed a Parent-Teacher Association meeting and, interestingly, even after each of us had left the schools, they would still attend those meetings. For them, just as there are student alumni, there are parent alumni with responsibilities to be involved.

    I followed my father’s lead almost to a fault. While he had no choice but to let me leave home for higher education, since there was no secondary school or secondary modern school in Okeho after my completion of the elementary school, I had a choice, and my wife and I decided in favour of keeping our children close to us. All our children gained admission to the popular Unity Schools when those schools were supposed to be the best. But we decided that they would be better off with us if we were actively involved in their schooling. We chose to be active in the Parent-Teachers Association of Moremi High School, Ile-Ife, a public school located on the campus of Obafemi Awolowo University. I served as the Chairman for a couple of years. I knew that the school had a dedicated staff led by Deacon J. A. Ogunwuyi who is now a proprietor of his own school. And of course, my children still tell tales of how hard it was for them in the house when they had to study for several hours a day. The point is that a school is what its clientele makes it and these include the teachers and the parents.

    The literature on parental involvement in education is convincing. There is copious evidence that when the family is actively involved in the education of their children, it has a positive influence on the achievement of the children not only in school but throughout life because it enables them, not only to do well in examinations and earn good grades, but also to develop better social skills which help them in life. Initiating and nurturing family involvement in the education of children is a double-lane approach by parents and schools because there is a lot at stake for both but certainly more for the parents. A school where accountability is taken seriously and where there are consequences for failure would leave no stone unturned in getting all hands on the deck for successful students outcomes. On the other hand, parents know that the future of their kids, and their own happiness and peace of mind are at stake. They therefore have a lot more reason to get involved. Careers are important, but as the elders remind us, the probability is very high that a child that is inadvertently let untrained and unskilled may end up destroying whatever legacy an illustrious career has succeeded in building.

    Surely, not all parents have the patience, skills, or self-confidence that are essential to an effective involvement on all fronts. A parent may not be able to offer direct help for a child’s home work. This is where the entire family structure has to be deployed. We pride ourselves as communal in orientation. We create the phenomenon of aso-ebi. And as I recalled above, it has also been our tradition for community organisations to get involved in the education of their members. What it requires is a new orientation that privileges the very idea of community which our urban-centered individualism has jettisoned. Then what one lacks, others can supply and together we can build a new coalition of committed family and community for the education of our children.

  • Where are the Muslims?

    It may not be strange to say that the similitude of Islam and Muslims is like that of a snail and its shell. They share a common destiny and remain as inseparable as the sun and its beaming light. None can afford to part with the other without dire consequences. Today, as the world’s fastest growing religion, Islam has a population of about 1.7 billion adherents. This means that one in every five human beings on earth is a Muslim. But in concrete terms, where are those Muslims?

    Islam totally personifies the divine legal theory that sustains the magnificent grandeur of the universe. That theory is fully embodied in the Qur’an. Muslims, on the other hand, stand as the agents supposedly showcasing the norms of Islam. Without Islam, there would have been no Muslims. And without Muslims, Islam would have remained a permanent abstraction randomly tapping the imagination of mankind. This brings a vital question to one’s mind: where is their meeting point?

    Long before the Almighty Allah informed the Angels of His intention to create man, Islam had been in existence. And contrary to the misconception of many uninformed elements, Islam (meaning peace) had been in place before the creation of man. It was the harmony that held all the pre-Adam elements together in a perfect co-existence. Without that harmony, the primogenitor of mankind would not have found a peaceful abode in the Garden of Eden. Thus, the unification of peace and man came to promise the continuity of the universe.

    Ironically, however, the world of Islam, especially in contemporary times, has turned a new phase at the instance of its adherents called ‘Muslims’. And with that new phase, the falconer seems to have been estranged by the falcons. Muslims, like the shell of a snail are found everywhere but without Islam. And the latter, as long prophesied by the Messenger of Allah (SAW), is rapidly becoming an orphan.

    Now, Islam is like a snail without its shell. If that great religion is vividly and effectively present in any part of the world today, it is in the West. And that confirms the fact that effective quality rather than idle quantity is what Islam needs to thrive as a divine religion. Muslims in the West are not merely facing a day to day war, they are permanently living on the battle ground. All the raging wars against Islam today, as in the past few centuries, are from the West. And the arsenal used by the West to execute those wars is funded directly or indirectly by Muslim countries.

    There are about 23 Muslim Arab countries mostly in the Middle East and North Africa. These countries together control one fifth of the entire wealth in the world because of the enormous natural resources with which they are endowed. But in their quest for security other than that of Allah, they entrust virtually all their endowed assets to those who are waging war against Allah. More than 90% of the Muslim Arab wealth is invested in the West or kept in Western bank accounts in the name of foreign reserves. A major chunk of those assets is not only used to fight Muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine, it is also dished out as loan to poor African countries at throat-cutting interest rate in the name of London and Paris Clubs.

    And when those Western oppressors want to manipulate African mentality to their own advantage, they bring to Africa some pittance as grants, foundations and scholarship out of the profit they made from Muslim Arab money kept in their custody. This is to create the impression that they are friends of Africans. Yet, when the beneficiaries of such largess try to show gratitude, they (the oppressors) come out in their true colours by dictating certain terms and conditions which may fetter those beneficiaries to the stake of indebtedness. It should be noticed that Western largess flows to Africa only when military attacks on Muslims in some other parts of the world are raging or about to rage. The largess is a sort of Greek gift with which to gag the innocent Africans and thereby prevent them from joining their brothers and sisters in condemning such attacks. Thus, the Westerners strangely serve as proxy for Muslim Arab philanthropy.

    Today Muslim Arabs are so disunited, disorganised and Islamically disorientated that they cannot even cooperate among themselves to confront a common problem. Rather than jointly solving a common problem, some of them prefer to team up with antagonists to fight their fellow Muslim brothers.

    That is what happened during the Iranian revolution in 1979 when that country was seeking to liberate self from the Western imperialism imposed on her by Shah Pahlavi on behalf of the United States. Rather than cooperating with Iran to rid the region of imperialism, what the neighbouring Iraq did with the support of other Arab countries was to take advantage of the then prevailing situation to attack Iran on behalf of America using the weapons freely supplied her by the latter. The devastating war which ensued from that attack lasted for eight sorrowful years before the aggressor called for peace having realised the impossibility of winning the precipitated war.

    Not long after that, the same Iraq was instigated by America to invade Kuwait as a compensation for her military losses in the war with Iran an incident that caused the 1991 Gulf war which was waged by some American led Western allied forces against Iraq. And, ironically, in that war, Egypt, a fellow Muslim Arab country was found on the side of the European allies that bombarded Iraq and killed Muslim women and children in their thousands. Egypt’s gain in the war was a debt relief from America to the tune of $20 billion.

    For a long time, there was no love lost between Egypt and Libya while Hosni Mubarak and Muammar Gaddafi held sway as Heads of both countries. The neighbourhood of Algeria and Morocco has for decades been hotter than a battle ground between two sworn enemies. There is also a permanent cold war which began in the 1930s between Saudi Arabia and Yemen which is still ongoing till date. Syria and Iraq continue a diplomatic cat and mouse game as they do not realistically see eye to eye though they are both Arab countries. Iran, the only non-Arab (Persian) country in the Gulf sub-region, is constantly suspicious of her neighbouring Arab countries because the latter have tacitly ostracised her on the basis of racial discrimination and denominational ideology. Yet, they all subscribe to Islam and claim to be Muslim countries.

    In her own bid to imbibe the so-called Western civilisation, Turkey, an Islamic but non-Arab country, has voluntarily enslaved herself to secularism, a notion imposed on her in the 1920s by Mustapha Kamal Ataturk and which became entrenched in the country’s constitution. It must be recalled that Turkey, with her 89% Muslim population was the last seat of Islamic Caliphate which ended in 1924 at the instance of Ataturk. In all these, where are the Muslims?

    Here in Nigeria, the situation is by far worse. Mosques, which Prophet Muhammad (SAW) established as the permanent axis around which all Muslim activities must rotate, have been totally reduced to the level of meeting for Salat alone. Only very few Mosques have the necessary facilities useful for the Ummah. Even bank accounts are not considered necessary as the Imams and members of the Mission Boards of most Mosques act as unofficial treasurers in which capacity they pocket the money collected daily or weekly. Against the Prophet’s prescription, most of our Mosques are without libraries or study rooms where the young ones can take advantage of computer and internet to be thoroughly educated. It does not bother those Imams that only few Muslim youths come to worship in the Mosques. What bothers them is the absence of rich Muslims who can donate remarkable sums of money to the Mosques for them to pocket. Against Islamic prescription, those Imams are the collectors, the distributors and the recipients of Zakah to the detriment of the Ummah. Where are the Muslims?

    In Nigeria today, only a few Muslim schools are good enough to compete with schools established by non-Muslims. Even those few especially in the Southwest, are mostly without Mosques since the motive of establishing them transcends religion. For instance, the very first secondary school in West Africa (Ahmadiyyah College, Agege, Lagos), established in 1948 by Ahmadiyyah Movement in Islam (now Anwarul-Islam Movement of Nigeria) had no Mosque for many decades after its establishment. Yours sincerely was a teacher of Arabic and Islamic Studies in that school for about six years between 1971 and 1976. And all efforts to encourage its founders to provide a Mosque for the students yielded no result. It is doubtful that the school had any Mosque until it celebrated its 60th year anniversary recently. The same is the case with Ansar-ud-Deen College, Isolo, Lagos, which was established in 1954 purportedly for the purpose of giving Muslim pupils Western education with Islamic orientation which those pupils could not get in Christian schools.

    Whereas, the first building to be erected on the site of any Christian school is a chapel where pupils can worship in Christian way, this is not the case with Muslim schools. As a result, most of those pupils have often had cause to regret attending Muslim schools even years after their graduation. If the situation was that bad in the past and there is no plan for the future where are the Muslims?

    Three Universities are known to be the oldest in the world today. The three are situated in the Arab world confirming that the idea of University education got to the West from the Muslims. They are Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, Qarawiyyin University in Fez, Morocco and Zaytuniyyah University in Tunis, Tunisia. All of them, established well over one thousand years ago, started in the Mosques. Yet, they were all preceded by the University of Cordoba which was the very first University established in the world. The objective of starting each of them from the Mosque was to enable students know that whatever knowledge they acquired ought to be used in the service of Allah.

    The Christian West which borrowed from the Muslims the noble idea of using a religious sanctuary as the foundation of a school or a University saw the sense in it and made it the cornerstone of their educational orientation. Thus in Nigeria and elsewhere, no Christian Missionary schools are established without the Church serving as their first buildings.

    What is the objective of the Muslim schools established in Nigeria without Mosques? In Islam, Mosque is not for Salat alone neither is it to be headed by half-educated elements in the name of Imams. It is rather an all-encompassing centre for all aspects of Muslim lives. For Muslims, Mosque is a school, a library, a hospital, a trade centre, a bank, a Parliament and a court of law. To limit the Mosque to prayer alone therefore, as done in Nigeria is a terrible disservice to Islam.

    Muslims who worship regularly in the Mosque must have something to gain economically, socially, politically and perhaps medically besides the rewards accruing to them from observance of Salat. Coming for congregational prayers five times every day without any temporal gain does not help the course of Islam. Islam is about temporal and spiritual lives and not about the latter alone. The Mosque ought to have endowments for widows. It ought to have scholarship programmes for orphans and indigent pupils. It also ought to have empowerment programmes for the jobless. And those employed as Imams and other officials in the Mosque ought to be well treated in terms of remunerations and social welfare if only to avoid corruption and redundancy. But how can all these be provided when the Mosques themselves are erected without any plan for the future?

    On my way back from Hajj in 2007, I was asked to pray for a Christian who spent a lot of money to renovate the Mosque at the Hajj camp of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, who felt irritated by the nonchalant attitude of Muslim moneybags to the ramshackle state of that Mosque. And shortly thereafter, I also observed Jum’at prayers at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan Mosque where the Imam told the congregation that the renovation of that Mosque had just been completed by a concerned Christian. Yes, it is true that some Muslims also build or renovate Churches but the fact remains that there is no much negligence on the part of Christians towards their Churches as there is on the part of Muslims towards their Mosques. Where then are the Muslims?

    Islam preceded Christianity in reaching the shores of Nigeria by about 500 years. The one came in the 11th century. The other came in the 16th century. Yet the gap, in terms of education and development between both today, is as wide as that between the rise and the set of the sun. If this is blamed on colonial rule, on what should failure of Islamic education be blamed? The Qur’an which embodies the language of Islamic worship is known to have been translated into only two Nigerian languages (Hausa and Yoruba). And this is the best that has been done so far, in about 1000 years, to make that sacred book understandable to millions of Nigerian Muslims. Arabic is not a Nigerian language. Most Muslims do memorise some contents of the Qur’an and recite them when observing Salat without comprehending what they are reciting. If majority of the adherents of a religion are tied to illiteracy and ignorance, how can such a religion be understood? The Bible which came to Nigeria 500 years after the arrival of the Qur’an has been translated into at least about six Nigerian languages and further efforts are being made to do more. Where are the Muslims?

    In the 1960s and 1970s, most of the praise-singing records especially in the Southwest were waxed for Muslim money bags who hardly saw any need to train their children. And that was the time when non-Muslims would rather starve than see their children out of school. Today, the result speaks clearly for itself. Currently, it is said that over 10 million Nigerian children of school age are out of school. There are no readily available figures to delineate their percentages on the basis of religion. But one can be sure that over 80% of them will be Muslims. If this is the case in the age of internet, why won’t Muslims form majority of the touts in motor parks as well as hooligans working for politicians? And there is a glaring evidence for this especially in Ibadan, the political Centre of Yoruba nation where hooliganism is taken for a calling. Where are the Muslims?

    After many years of struggling to get their economic and political rights failed, the people of the Southsouth of Nigeria discovered the enormous power of the media to win wars where weapons are helpless. They quickly invested heavily in it. And today, they are not only getting their rights on demand, they are also compelling the entire world to listen to them as they now control the Nigerian media which they use to command the attention of all and sundry. Where are the Muslim media after the demise of Bashorun MKO Abiola and the dysfunction of his Concord newspaper? Rather than investing in the future, an average Nigerian Muslim moneybag prefers to eat his cake now with the hope of having it again later. Rather than fighting a just course, an average Nigerian Muslim elite pitches his tent with the wrong camp just to gain a momentary benefit. Or how does one place a situation like that of Abiola who, as a matter of right, contested Presidential election and won only for fellow Muslims to gang up and annul the election unjustifiably and thereafter clamped the winner into prison as a transit towards his final demise? That ugly episode is the seed of cord of the bitter political fruit that Nigerians are now being forced to eat and swallow.

    If there is any hope for the future of Islam, the focus must be towards the West. And that is in confirmation of Prophet Muhammad’s prophecy of over 1,400 years ago when he said that one of the signs of recognising the nearness of the ‘Last Day’ was for the sun to start rising from the West. The sun which the Prophet meant was not the physical one. That sun is ISLAM. And we have started to see its rays coming from the West where the divine religion is growing geometrically and recognised as the fastest growing religion in the world today. It could not have been otherwise. Islam is a religion of knowledge. It takes only the knowledgeable to recognise it as such. The West today is the home of knowledge and not a mere region of literacy. That is why it takes a religion of knowledge to be fast spreading among knowledgeable people.

    However, for those of us who are so much concerned about the situation of Islam vis a vis the Muslims especially in Nigeria today, there is consolation. That consolation is from Allah who says in Qur’an 15 Verse 9 thus: “It was ‘We’ who revealed the Qur’an and it is ‘We’ who will certainly preserve it”. We pray Allah to wake up the Muslims from their slumber so that in the future, our grand children will have no cause to repeat the question: “Where are the Muslims?

  • Re: Access Bank versus Capital Oil

    Re: Access Bank versus Capital Oil

    My attention has been drawn to the commentary in page 19 of The Nation newspaper of Friday, February 1, in regard to the above subject matter.

    The commentary was interesting not for the facts presented, but for the ignorance and or prejudice behind it. The editorial chose to distort facts especially when it stated that; “Justice Abang concurred with Ubah’s counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), who reportedly argued that, in seeking the English court’s freezing order in respect of a matter that happened in Nigeria, the bank “ridiculed the Nigerian judiciary” and demonstrated disrespect for the restraining order issued by the Nigerian court. Olanipekun further described the bank’s London suit as “an attempt to undermine the judicial process in Nigeria. In doing so the arguments of Wole Olanipekun SAN were lumped together in order to achieve the insidious objective of making the judge look bad.

    This reply is intended to correct the erroneous impression that the judge is trying to force Access Bank not to litigate a matter in the UK. Far from it.

    When the matter came up before Honourable Justice Abang on Friday January 25, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN referred the judge to documents filed by Access Bank before a London High Court, wherein the bank alleged that part of the reasons it avoided instituting an action against Capital Oil and it’s Managing Director, Ifeanyi Ubah in Nigeria was because the Nigerian judiciary was corrupt. Olanipekun said that Access Bank denigrated the Nigerian judiciary as well as dragged its image in the mud in the United Kingdom, as a result of the unfounded allegation against the judiciary. He also informed the court that in two affidavits filed on behalf of Access Bank in the London trial, Access Bank alleged that it decided that its dispute with Capital Oil and Ifeanyi Ubah because should be tried in the UK because of the corruptive influence that could be exerted on the Nigerian judiciary. He then informed the court that the above statement was made by Access Bank at a time it had flagrantly disobeyed the orders of the court.

    Olanipekun submitted that the claim by Access Bank that a person can have “the judiciary in his pocket” is understood to mean that the dispute between them can only be tried in the UK because the Nigerian judiciary was corrupt and could not be trusted to do justice in the matter. The allegation he further stated was intended to paint the entire Nigerian judiciary as so corrupt. He also said that it was contemptuous of Access Bank to suggest that the Nigerian judiciary could be so corruptly influenced by an individual, that Access Bank can ever get justice against such an individual in a Nigerian court. He admitted that while there may be some corrupt judges in Nigeria, the allegation by Access Bank gives the impression that no judge can be found in Nigerian judiciary who has not been corrupted or is capable of escaping the alleged corrupt influence of his clients.

     

    He regretted that the unfounded and unpatriotic allegation that the judiciary in Nigeria was corrupt was deposed to by Andrew James Preston relying on documents and facts presented to him by a Nigerian lawyer working with Access Bank as her Corporate Counsel, Fatai Oladipo and Deji Awodein one of the bank’s Deputy General Managers. Olanipekun then expressed further regret that no Briton would make such unpatriotic allegation against a British judge talk less of the entire British judiciary. In his opinion the allegation by the Bank as well the violations of the orders of the Nigerian court were attempts by Access Bank to undermine the Nigerian judiciary and amounted to criminal contempt of the court. The court was also informed that orders made by the court on two occasions had been violated by the bank.

    It was the above arguments that the trial judge agreed with in holding that by supplying information which scandalized 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. The court also held that Access Bank and Coscharis Motors flouted the orders of court made on 12/11/12 and 21/01/13 respectively. It is therefore obvious that the Nigerian court had no grouse per se with Access from suing in a British court. In any case, Access Bank variously obtained orders from the London court ordering Capital Oil and Ubah to discontinue their suit in Nigeria or it would hold them in contempt of its orders. The court threatened to fine, imprison them or to have their assets seized if they disobey the order.

    As if that was not bad enough, the English court held that “any other person who knows of this order and does anything which helps or permits either of the respondents to breach the terms of this order may also be held to be in contempt of court and may be imprisoned, fined or have their assets seized”. We suspect that this may include the Nigerian trial judge, Capital Oil and Ubah’s lawyers led by Wole Olanipekun SAN and even any court official who participates further in the matter.

    One can understand why Justice Abang in a bid to uphold the integrity of the judiciary and the judicial process held that the two Access bank officials were in contempt of court. Access Bank cannot insist on maintaining its action in London and seek to prevent others from doing so in Nigeria and at the same time smear our judiciary in a bid to ride rough-shod over everybody.

    Capital Oil’s main grouse for bringing the action in Nigeria is because the Deed of Guarantee which purportedly vets jurisdiction in the English court violates Section 20 of the Admiralty Jurisdiction Act 1991.The Act clearly provides that “Any agreement by any person or party to any cause, matter or action which seeks to oust the jurisdiction of the Court shall be null and void, if it relates to any admiralty matter falling under this Decree and if (a) the place of performance, execution, delivery, act or default is or takes place in Nigeria ; or (b) any of the parties resides or has resided in Nigeria ; or (c) the payment under the agreement (implied or express) is made or is to be made in Nigeria. Capital Oil and Ubah’s contention therefore is that the provision is void as the admiralty jurisdiction of the Federal High Court includes “any banking or letter of credit transaction involving the importation or exportation of goods to and from Nigeria in a ship or an aircraft, whether the importation is carried out or not and notwithstanding that the transaction is between a bank and its customer”, which is what the debt they guaranteed dealt with.

    These are facts and I so present them for clarity.

     

    • Hayes is spokesman, Capital Oil

     

  • The second coming of britain

    The second coming of britain

    The western nations have become apprehensive in recent years about their post colonial states degenerating to failed states characterised by weak ineffective and corrupt central government as a result of misrule by their new rulers. Thousands of hungry and jobless immigrants from ex-colonies are flooding the metropolitan nations in droves. At home the falcon can no more hear the falconer. The resources from their satellites states that once supported welfare services have been cornered by multi-nationals driven only by greed. To forestall the looming anarchy at home and abroad, the western nations seem to have started the new ‘scramble for Africa’.

    The new scramble has become more compelling because of globalization, the new god that proclaim all of us, the rich and the poor, equal participants in the globalised economy. The west also need to forestall the looming anarchy as a result of migration of frustrated, desperate jobless youths to Europe where the percentage of the unemployed is in some places is as high as 30%. Some two years back, France experienced first-hand, the anger of the hungry when frustrated homeless immigrants descended on the properties of their wealthy hosts. Last year, it was the turn of Britain as angry youths freely moved around London, looting and setting fire on malls.

    Anarchy is slowly creeping into Italy, Greece and Spain.

    Now, western leaders have decided to check the greed of their citizens and their collaborators in the poor African countries manned by incompetent thieving political class. Only last month, US President Barack Obama had during his second inauguration warned “The patriots of 1776 did not fight to replace the tyranny of a king with the privileges of a few or the rule of a mob”. The French, after the massive destruction of property by disgruntled immigrants two years back have become very active in Ivory Coast, Guinea, Tunisia and Mali. UK Prime Minister David Cameron, speaking in Davos last week ahead of the G8 meeting scheduled for June 17 and 18 in Lough Erne, Northern Island, UK, had complained openly about squandered “Nigeria oil exports worth almost a hundred billion dollars”, an amount he said was “more than the total net aid to the whole of Sub Saharan Africa”.

    Also making reference to Nigeria where a few years back “a $800m discrepancy between what companies were paying and what the government was receiving for oil”, was discovered, Cameron had hinted “the western leaders and Japan are going to push for more transparency on who owns companies; on who’s buying up land and what purpose; on how governments spend their money, on how gas, oil and mining companies operate; and on who is hiding stolen assets and how we recover and return them.”

    Now that we all know sovereignty is dead and finally buried by globalization; if you ask me, I would suggest we formally invite the British to take over. Some two decades back, long before the current surreptitious move by Britain, late Olabisi Onabanjo, alias “Aiyekoto”, an accomplished newspaper columnist and a resourceful Second Republic governor of Ogun state had echoed the same sentiments.

    Today, there are more pressing reasons why Britain should come back. First we have been betrayed by our ill-equipped and ill-educated military adventurers starting with Gowon who said ‘money was not our problem’, (Of course the western companies provided wide range of consumer items to wipe out his ill-advised Udoji award) to General Ibrahim Babangida that fraudulently claimed there was no alternative to Structural Adjustment Program, (SAP). SAP which supported importation of Italian tiles, Italian shoes and Italian clothes and tyres sounded the death knell of our own budding industries. Today our exchange rate which was approximately one naira to one pound in 1982 is N260 to one pound sterling.

    Their military new breed politicians have not fared better. Infrastructural decay, unemployment and collapse of industries have come to characterize their war against Nigeria these past 13 years. To feed ourselves we depend on massive importation of rice, fish, chicken, palm oil, ground nut oil etc.

    There are other reasons we must support the return of Britain to Nigeria.

    Fifty two years after independence, no one can say precisely what the population of Nigeria is. We don’t even know who is and who is not a Nigerian. Since 1963 controversial census figure decided by the courts, we have not been able to have a credible exercise outside the 1953 colonial figure which defied all known demographic laws.

    Our judiciary lost its innocence when, under the guise of celebrating our sovereignty, we did away with the ‘Privy Council’ in order to cage the opposition Action Group (AG) party. We have since moved from “Coker’s My hand are tied” judgment, to twelve two-third ridiculous judicial pronouncement to install President Shehu Shagari in 1983, to plea bargaining where our judges and senior advocates have been claimed to smile to their banks while those who have stolen the nation blind escape with a slap on the wrist. Nigerians also earnestly yearn for a British Chief Justice to derail the ambitions of ’thieves in the state Houses’ currently preparing for a comeback as governors, senators or on the verge of installing their minions as governors with stolen money.

    Of course, if there is a survey of the police, they will probably opt for a British Inspector General (IG). First, many occupants of that position since the departure of the last British IG ended up as villains. Some have been paraded in chains like mere criminals for siphoning billions of naira meant for police welfare and police equipments. Some have demonstrated their prowess in election rigging. None has excelled in the task of protection of life and property, the only reason we traded our freedom for government protection.

    Unlike America, where President Obama only this last Tuesday insisted American street police will not be allowed to be outgunned by criminals, our ill-equipped and ill-trained police men have become sitting targets for criminals. They are neither safe on the streets nor in their barracks. We read on the pages of newspapers often how criminals walked into police barracks, killed those on duty, cart away their weapons and set the police station of fire.

    Since we can neither secure our water ways or borders, we need a British head of the armed forces. The Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala recently told us that the nation loses $7b annually to oil bunkerers in the creeks. The Pipeline Professional Association of Nigeria (PPAN) put the figure at N100b annually.

    With a standing army, navy and air force, the federal government was said to have awarded a security contract of $103m to Tompolo to help fight crime on the sea particularly against pirates, who are credited to be ‘too powerful for the Nigerian Navy to control’.

    To protect our pipelines, it was claimed ‘General’ Government Tompolo Ekpumopolo, got contract to the tune of N3.6bn; Asari Dokubo, 1.44bn; ‘General’ Ateke Tom, N560m and ‘General’ Ebikabowei Boyloaf Victor Ben, N560m. While defending the government action, which Okupe said was done by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, he said, “since this exercise began, the crude oil production has jumped from 1.8mbpd to 2.6mbpd. It is safe to suggest British takeover of our armed forces because it will be seditious to suggest a change of their Commander-in-Chief.

    As I watched Dr Anwen White, a female neurosurgeon of Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital, who on BBC Monday evening described as ‘routine’ a skull reconstruction and a cochlear implant surgery on 15-year-old Malala Yousufzai, shot by the Taliban for advocating women education, I secretly wished for the return of British to a teaching hospital like the UCH rated as one of the best three in the commonwealth of nations in 1960.

    With the death of sovereignty, and the ascendancy of globalization, the new god, we have nothing to be ashamed of by asking Britain to start from where they stopped in October 1, 1960.

  • A guide to legal battles

    A guide to legal battles

    WHAT seems to be a new drive to seize suspected corrupt government officials is causing so much anxiety in the land.

    Those who have stolen from the public purse are worried that they may soon be hauled before the courts for taking too much and keeping it all for themselves and members of their families. Law offices are jammed by panicky officials seeking a way out of what looks like an imminent legal cauldron. I guess juju men, necromancers and Bar Beach prophets are also busy.

    But, do they need to panic like kindergarten kids before an angry teacher? No. Here is a guide on how to stay above the storm. It is the result of years of a painstaking research. It is practical; not a mash of esoteric theories that are good only for the classroom, lacking in efficacy when put to the test in the simplest of cases. Neither is it a textbook stuff that can easily be snatched off the shelf and run through for some academic exertion nor a Lagos pickpocket’s guidebook. It is for those with vast assets, incredible assets in cash and property, those suspected to have their hands in the till. Here we go:

    Today’s anti-corruption agencies are polite. They will never storm your home in the dead of the night, bearing arms and handcuffs. Neither will they come in broad daylight with an army of operatives decking bullet proof vests and steel helmets as if they are after some armed robbers or their cousins, the kidnappers. No. They will simply invite you for “a chat” or “clarification” on “a petition that this office is investigating”.

    Find a damn good lawyer; the best money can get, the type called SAN. He will accompany you to the agency’s office and stay with you for the few hours that your interview – sorry, a wrong word there – your interrogation will last. You will be allowed to go home on what they call “administrative bail”. They may even ask you to surrender your travel passport. Don’t panic; it’s all about due process. Whenever you need to travel, you can simply go to court and secure an order for the release of your passport to go on a long overdue medical check-up. You need to be alive to face trial, your lawyer will tell the court. Your passport secured, you can then go on that delayed yearly family summer break.

    The investigation will go on for months. During this long break, seek help from your powerful friends – every big man has some – so that the case can, as they say here, die naturally for “lack of diligent prosecution”. Let them talk to the Attorney General who can order a discontinuation of the case because, in his highly respected view, the investigation has been shoddy and no prima facie case has been established. In other words, the chief law officer will say it is better for 99 criminals to be set free than for one innocent person to be punished unjustly.

    If that route proves unworkable and the agency insists on prosecuting you, you can check into a hospital, a good government hospital with a facility for privacy (an air conditioned room, a television set with cable facility for you to watch the Premiership, a refrigerator and all those other appliances of comfort to which you are used). Your lawyer will then rush to the court, pleading for the protection of your fundamental human rights. He will tender a doctor’s report stating that you are down with any of those cabbalistic diseases (Atherosclerosis or Dilated Cardiomyopathy or whatever).

    He, the SAN that is, will push for a perpetual injunction restraining the agency, its servants, proxies and officers or whomsoever it may nominate from harassing or intimidating you. You may be lucky to get such an injunction. In case you do not, take it easy.

    Your lawyer can go back to argue that the court lacks the jurisdiction to hear the matter. The prosecution will insist that the court is vested with such powers. Either way, the judge will fix a date to decide whether it has jurisdiction or not. Your lawyer will then stand up, bow sharply and look His Lordship straight in the eye, saying: “Milord…em…em I would like to crave your lordship’s indulgence for a longer date because I have another matter in Maiduguri on that day. A longer adjournment will be okay for me, Milord.”

    “Objection granted. April 12 suitable?” “Yes Milord.” “Since there is no objection from the other side,” the judge will say, “I take it that the new date is okay for everybody. Case adjourned till April 12.”

    If the agency is the stubborn type, it will insist that you must come to the court. Go there. Your lawyer will simply tell the judge that there is no need forcing a sick man to face trial and that, in any case, you have been on bail without breaching the terms. If your plea is taken, never plead guilty. The court will eventually ask you to go home on bail.

    But never you think the matter has ended. Remain firm. Don’t flee overseas. Doing so will give your enemies – remember every rich man has them aplenty – enough time to arm the anti-graft agency with dangerous documents to cause your extradition to a friendly country where you could be sent to jail in a jiffy.

    Remember your lawyer had told the court that it lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the case – he will also add that the charges, which usually come in a deluge, looking repetitive to the untrained eye – and that it should be thrown out. The court may insist it has jurisdiction. Never fret.

    While all this legal calisthenics is going on, your lawyer can open talks with the prosecuting agency. He will tell the agency how good a man you have been, a man of conscience, a true patriot and a responsible family man who should not suffer unjustifiably. This is called plea bargain. Many – those arm chair critics and out-of-job lawyers – will be crying that this is alien to our laws and that it is an attempt to shield you from trial and pervert the course of justice. Remain calm.

    You will be persuaded to surrender some property, perhaps 10 out of 22 mansions. That’s not bad; is it? After all, you can keep the cash you have safely stashed away in some finance houses or stocked up in the stock markets.

    Your long list of charges will be compressed or consolidated, as they say, to about three counts. Stealing, you need not be reminded, is no murder or armed robbery. His Lordship, who must have been well briefed of the terms of settlement, will simply apply the law, ask you to go to jail for two years on each of the three counts or pay N150 fine on each and go home in peace to sin no more. Pay cash and walk home a free man.

    Then, there will be uproar. Those self-appointed moral policemen will start criticising the judgment, crying as if it is their inheritance you have stolen. Again, be calm. It is not strange. Coram non judice. They are only ignorant of the law, which the judge can apply as he pleases.

    If the noise is so much, coming from all manner of legal wannabes in the guise of amicus curiae, the anti-graft agency may come after you again, alleging that you have stolen some millions and that you did not declare your assets. Stay cool. Isn’t that the work of the Code of Conduct Bureau? Your lawyer will argue that this move is an attempt to start your trial de novo and cause you double jeopardy. The judge, as firm as ever, will dismiss the case as an abuse of court process and lash the prosecution for testing the court’s integrity and wasting its time. Case closed.

    If you follow this guide, you are sure to emerge from it all a hero. Your people can then buy an Ankara uniform, hire an army of drummers and dance round the town, singing your praise.

    One last thing: All rights reserved. No part of this Guide may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of this author.

     

    Super Eagles… so super

    GAINST all odds, the Super Eagles are in the finals of the Cup of Nations. Nigerians are excited. They were the subject of all manner of jokes.

    Keshi’s post-match interview was instructive. He spoke of two key elements of a great team – “mentality and character”. How I wish our politicians would embrace these values and more – the Eagles’ fighting spirit, agility and faith.

    Now that we have, for this moment, forgotten all that ails our polity–corruption, decaying infrastructure, insecurity, ethnicity and all others– I hope our leaders will reflect on the verdict of history that will surely come.

    As for the final game, my money is on the Eagles. How about you?