The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • Changing times and fortunes

    Changing times and fortunes

    There is no doubt that banks and bankers have fallen on bad times and fortunes in these hard times when people find it hard to make ends meet globally. Nowhere is this more acknowledged than in usually buoyant Europe where both the people and governments earnestly believe that bankers are the architects of the misfortune of both the state and the people. A Conference of Businesses in EU and Latin American and Carribean nations took place in Santiago the capital of Chile on January 25th. . . This confab provides a unique opportunity to compare the changing fortunes of these two parts of the world since the global financial and economic meltdown started in 2008. Before this the 6th EU – Brazil Business Summit took place in Brasilia, Brazil on January 23.

    Also during the week the 44th President of the USA Barak Hussein Obama was sworn on for a second term and he made the usual brilliant and moving speech from which the experts have distilled the new challenges he is determined to address in his second and final term as the helmsman of that nation. Those priorities in themselves will shock and please Americans and Africans in turn and will show indeed that the world is moving on and all of us are no more that the six blind men who touched a part of an elephant and thought they had seen it all – when all they experienced was just a part of the whole.

    Thirdly, in Greece, which is in a bitter debt crisis and socially disruptive austerity measures, the former finance minister George Papaconstantinous who started the much hated austerity measures has been charged to court for deleting the names of his relatives from the Lagarde List. This is a list named after Christine Lagarde the MD of the IMF and former Finance Minister of France who was given the list by some HSBC bank workers and who in turn gave the list to the Greek government some time ago.

    The list contains the leading tax evaders in Greece and was the source of a Name and Shame Campaign by the Greek government to make such people pay their taxes and reduce the burden of austerity borne mainly by the poor, which has been the cause of the street anger and demonstrations in Greek cities. If you recall that towards the end of 2012 a journalist Costas Vaxevanne was brought to court by the government but later freed for publishing the list you will see how the fortune of the Minister and that of the journalist have changed indeed for good or bad.

    Let us go back to the EU-Latino /Carribean Conference – CELAC- in Santiago in Chile on January 25th and make a comparison of the economic and financial status of the two regions of the world. Europe still remains the most prosperous continent of the world contributing a third of world GDP and is the biggest foreign investor in Latin America. But the EU is in economic turmoil and debt crisis and Spain and Portugal are amongst the debtor nations of Europe stigmatized as the PIGS nations with that acronym translating into Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain. Incidentally Both Spain and Portugal were the former colonial masters of Latin America with Portugal holding sway in Brazil while Spain ran the rest of the Latino nations in the region.

    Today, the nations of Latin America have moved millions of their people away from poverty lines and millions more have joined the middle class. None of the Latino nations is facing debt crisis like Argentina did in 2001 when it defaulted and exploded in crisis, like the EU nations and zone are reeling in right now.

    Brazil is preparing to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympics and both are ecpected to generate growth and boost the Brazilian economy. Brazil is also a prominent member of the BRIC nations – namely Brazil, Russia, India and China. The BRIC nations are seen as the emergent, global economic and financial powerhouse of the 21st century and no EU nation is amongst them. Even Argentina in Latin America has struck oil and has recovered from the harsh IMF conditionalities which made its economy prostrate and caused riots in Buenos Aires, its capital similar to the new riots in, Spain and Lisbon, Portugal nowadays.

    Really, between these two regions especially between the Latinos and their former colonial masters one can recall the saying that the mills of justice may grind slowly but they grind exceedingly fine.

    The Washington Post in its report on – line on the 57th Inauguration of the US president had the headline – Obama calls for greater equality – observed that the Obama Inauguration speech highlighted three modern challenges to pursue in his second term. These are fighting climate change; welcoming immigrants and ensuring gay rights. Obviously then, it is the gay rights community that is the greatest beneficiary of the Obama second term as it has been pointed out that this is the first time any US president has referred to gay rights in a speech. Actually immigrants too all over the world should breathe a sigh of relief as Obama stressed he would lead the US towards being the land of opportunities for all immigrants, just as the founding fathers wanted it to be.

    So the good times are there in the US for both immigrants and gays. As for global warming or climate change this has become an old issue in that nature has defied the predictions of the scientists and shown them to be largely alarmist or even downright wrong. This is because glaziers have expanded when Scientists said they would thaw, and storms and tornadoes have increased in frequency and intensity in some instances they have predicted otherwise.

    However, it is with regard to ensuring gay rights that I think Obama too has realized he was charting a different, new and controversial course altogether even in the US. With regard to Africa some will be distinctly shocked at his mission on gay rights. This is because here in Nigeria and at least in Uganda in East Africa the governments have passed laws banning lesbianism and homosexuality and the laws are popular in these nations, no matter what the Americans may think about gay rights. Britain has reacted violently as it were on these ant gay laws and gone on to withdraw aid to African nations like Lesotho and Malawi which depend on such aid massively.

    That to me is ethnocentrism on the part of the British although they too may think it is the anti gay community that is being ethnocentric or biased. That also must be what Obama had in mind in that part of his second Inaugural Speech when he said almost lamentably – ‘Being true to our founding documents does not require us to agree on every contour of life. It does not mean we all define liberty in exactly the same way or follow the same precise path to happiness. But it does require us to act in our time‘. Obama surely has acted and is understood by his American audience while his African admirers are stupefied and alarmed by his all – American stance on enforcing gay rights. Anyway since Africans don’t vote for a US president I think Obama does not need to lose any sleep over African horror on his fight to enforce gay rights in the US.

    Let us look at events in Greece again where the former Finance Minister Papaconstatinou is to face trial for removing the names of his relatives from the Greek State Name and Shame list of tax evaders. The former Finance Minister has alleged he is being singled out because he introduced the austerity measures. But what did he expect? What is good for the goose must be sauce for the gander and he who comes to equity must come with clean hands. That really is the measure of the accountability and transparency expected of him and that is why he must have his day in court – to explain his role and even exculpate himself if he can, for the law is no respecter of persons.

    Austerity measures involve retrenchment of bread winners, layoffs and unemployment, and these may not have been necessary in Greece if the Minister’s wealthy relatives had paid their taxes as expected, and as when due. That is what this Minister must account for, as in his former capacity as Minister of Finance driving austerity measures, he was expected, like the fabled Caesar’s wife, to be above reproach.

     

  • The permutations begin

    The permutations begin

    Here we go again. All manner of permutations are being arranged to convince ourselves that the Super Eagles will go beyond the second round matches at the Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa.

    As we propound the theories whereby our group mates must beat the others for us to qualify, we must remind ourselves that a second place finish pitches us against the Elephants of Cote D’ Ivoire. Did I hear you sigh “O Lord, have mercy on us”? That will be the day for us to truly measure the depth of the destruction of the game and how we have allowed sentiments to becloud our judgment in deciding how to change our fortune. Some may argue that the Ivoriens are not “indomitable”. But they must recognise the fact that they would want to beat Nigeria en route to lifting the trophy, if they truly want to be crowned African champions. But such intricate matches bring the best out of the Eagles, even if it means not lifting the trophy. Eagles know how to play for pride. I digress.

    We hate to be told the truth. We repeat the same mistakes and expect changes. Nigerian coaches ask for free-hand to run the team’s technical functions, yet they always inflict on us pain and anguish with every competitive game.

    The talk of our foreign legion transforming into good coaches based on their experiences with their European clubs has blown up in our faces. We really don’t know where to start after every poor outing by the Eagles. And it really hurts because we would have wasted time. We keep rebuilding the team, with many cynics asking when this house will be fully built.

    Pundits cannot understand how the Eagles with an armada of stars, can play such unimaginative football. Could it be the case of the Falcon no longer hearing the Falconer? Could it also be that the coaches didn’t give them the script to pummel the Burkinabes? What was it that the coaches were saying to the players in the dying minutes? Many would want to know, especially as we cannot fathom how the Eagles lost three valuable points with 39 seconds left on the clock. Did they see the big clock inside the stadium? The South African coach kept drawing Bafana Bafana’s attention to his wrist watch in the closing minutes of the team 2-0 victory over Angola. Did our Eagles get any instructions as the match raced to the back-breaking close?

    With the Eagles, thunder can strike on the same spot severally. Otherwise, how do you explain our coaches’ inability to fix the team’s wobbly defence after the Cape Verdeans ripped it apart in a pre-tournament friendly?

    In the game against Cape Verde, the coaches replaced Efe Ambrose with Omeruo. Why they chose to field him against Burkina Faso remains a mystery. As the team’s defence wobbled against the Cape Verdeans, the coaches made changes that stabilised it. Shouldn’t Ogenyi Onazi have started the game against Burkina Faso, given the remarkable form he showed in the friendly matches?

    Do our coaches know where our players’ best positions are? We saw how Efe Ambrose held tightly to Lionel Messi as the central defender for Celtic FC of Scotland over the two legs of the UEFA Champions League. Yet they fielded Ambrose in the right back position. Were the coaches expecting a miracle from him? Again, I was aghast when our coaches picked John Mikel Obi to take the penalty kick against Zambia. If they knew the players’ potentials, goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama would have taken it. Enyema takes such kicks for his club. Perhaps, the coaches trained the players on such kicks. The flipside is that bigger stars than Mikel have lost penalty kicks. I dey laugh o!

    I still don’t understand how an average height player, such as Godfrey Oboabona, can function in the central defence for the Eagles, when he plays at the right back for Sunshine FC of Akure.

    It is laughable that the defence is the Eagles’ worst department, yet the coaches, except Daniel Amokachi, played in the defence for Nigeria in their heydays, with Ike Shorunmu in goal.

    Our coaches blow hot air about the strength of the team. Yet it is apparent that it lacks depth, in terms of finding substitutes who will change the tide of games whenever they are introduced.

    The Eagles have left their best players in their European clubs. The home-based experiment is laughable, more so when some of them may not be fielded at all.

    Aside the wrong deployment of players, fans watched in awe as the Eagles played without direction against Bukina Faso. They were unable to string passes together to rip apart the Burkinabes’ predictable formation. Little wonder they didn’t know what to do when it was time to keep the slim 1-0 lead in the closing seconds.

    Nosa Igiebor forgot that he was a defensive midfielder and stayed far apart from the defenders, leaving a lacuna which the Burkinabes exploited. Our coaches didn’t observe this major flaw throughout the game. This explains why some people keep rooting for foreign coaches when our soccer is in dire straits.

    The Eagles were tactically inferior to the Burkinabes. Our players stood behind their markers, hence when they launched their tackles, they were quite vicious to attract yellow cards, culminating in the red card issued to Ambrose for a second bookable offence.

    Interestingly, Mikel Obi excelled in the central midfield position where he plays at Chelsea. I hope that the coaches have seen his best position. They have to look for players who can complement his effort.

    A major flaw of our domestic coaches is their inability to read matches and make changes.

    Globally, some coaches recruit match readers to help them. They limit their job to providing the templates, which other technical hands implement. It is, however, difficult to say whether it was Keshi himself who did not know the value and need for match readers or it was that he saw one in his Nigerian assistants.

    Or better still, he never wanted one. But given the way things are panning out in South Africa, for the Nigerian team, you will agree with me that the Nigerian bench is in dire need of a sound and technical match reader.

    What is clear in the Eagles’ technical crew is that Stephen Keshi’s assistants cannot give him the support he needs. They are not experts in any department of the game as seen with the disjointed game that we played against the Burkinabes.

    Looking at the Eagles’ bench during matches, tells the story of how well or badly the players exhibit their skills. The coaches only sit on the bench and watch like spectators. They only hold their heads when we miss chances, like the fans in the stands.

    Even when they stand up, of course, after a scare in our goalpost, they give signals that look like passing vehicles in a gridlock. The players don’t improve their performance. Instead, they diminish.

    Emmanuel Emenike has earned his shirt, not because of the goals that he has scored but his predatory instinct in front of the goalpost.

    It is difficult to describe how the Eagles have played in the two matches. It is also impossible to believe that we have 12 players playing in both games plying their trade in Europe. Yet they haven’t shown us the stuff that made them compete with the best in the world. They have been a complete letdown. We have been unable to deliver passes to rip open the defences of the opposition.

    On Tuesday, the permutations will include the need for Eagles to beat Ethiopia resoundingly and pray that Zambia and Burkina Faso play a draw for Nigeria to top the group.

    We want to top the group because we know the implication of not doing so, especially if, Cote d’ Ivoire tops her group. Can these Eagles beat a resurgent Tunisia? I doubt it. Not with our lethargic displays so far.

    Did Eagles coaches see how Burkina Faso with ten men scored three goals against a complete Ethiopian side?

    Our saving grace if we do qualify will be that the Ethiopians will not confront us on Tuesday with dogged determination.

  • In defence of presidential umbrage

    In defence of presidential umbrage

    If there is any positive point to be taken away from President Goodluck Jonathan’s on-the-spot assessment of the state of infrastructural decay at the Police College, Lagos, it is the fact that it indicates that after all, our President is far from being clueless as most of his critics would want us to believe. As should be expected, most Nigerians wasted no time in joining the bandwagon of Facebook and Twitter ‘abusers’, labelling Jonathan “clueless” all because he fingered his enemies as the brains behind the Ikeja Police College rot. And there lies my problem with the Nigerian electorate. They are simply difficult to govern. They complain over every step taken in the name of governance. They complain incessantly over the hilariously unique brand of good governance that our President exemplifies. Oh, come off it! You can accuse the President of anything but definitely not a charge of inability to handle all the problems confronting this country…in his own way. Surely, a clueless person would not have answers to all questions like he has been doing lately. Please, you may wish to have another view of the interview conducted by Christiane Amanpour where the President scored himself high on power supply, saying: “Power is one area that Nigerians are pleased with this administration. I prefer you ask ordinary Nigerians on the street of Lagos or Abuja this question.” Ha! Holy Moses!

    Question is: must we heckle for heckling sake? Or are we saying that the President should keep quiet while critics run him out of Aso Rock? By the way, I am of the opinion that Jonathan’s indignation against the media and the yamheads that allowed the filming of that great institution is justified! In fact, no one worthy of being described as a patriot would have allowed such sacrilege. What exactly was the television station trying to prove by showing footages of police trainees queuing to answer the call of nature in open and dirty spaces; scrambling to be part of a sharing ratio of 50 trainees per fish head; bathing in the open; adopting the ‘shot put’ method in the disposal of human wastes; and sweating for sleeping space in overcrowded, poorly ventilated and stuffy dormitories that could pass for an utterly unkempt prison in saner climes? Didn’t it occur to these dumb heads that these processes are deliberately designed for the trainees with the aim of getting them psychologically prepared for the arduous task of policing in the country and sadistically taming citizens in the open prison called Nigeria?

    They said the environment under which the police are trained is dehumanising and lowers the integrity of trainees. And I ask: how? Has any policeman complained to the public or has that affected the “your boys dey here” mentality? Besides, if the environment under which officers are trained were to be squeaky clean, would it have been easier for trainees to, with lightning speed, adjust to the real condition of the police stations and barracks? Or have we not given a thought to what it would cost the authorities to maintain a Shock Therapy Unit whereby freshly recruited officers would be lectured on how to cope with the ghetto lifestyle of police barracks should the government succumb to the call for an upgrade of the police colleges of which the Lagos centre is described by one of the interviewed senior police officers as “the best in the country?’ How long, really, can the pig last outside its stinking sty?

    On a serious note, I am shocked that Nigerians have refused to see the business sense in this whole matter. They dissipate needless energy on the social media, faulting the Otuoke-born leader for his “un-presidential remarks” by quipping: “This is a calculated attempt to damage the image of the government, as the college is not the only training institution in the country.”  They said he missed an opportunity to show leadership and seize the moment to explain what his administration would do to the correct the rot of countless years. Haba, what else do we want him to do? Has he not reminded us that he should not be blamed if he was annoyingly slow in correcting the decay he inherited from our long inglorious past? Has he not explained that these things take time and that 2013 promises better prospects of regular electricity supply, infrastructural development, employment generation and a robust security network? So, why can’t impatient citizens exercise some patience with our leader’s ‘Papa Go-Slow’ principles of leadership so that we can all benefit from the good luck that 2013 holds?

    Still on the fish head matter, a bird whispered to Knucklehead that some smart foreign investors are already asking questions on the magical formula being used in sharing the poor thing. Even Arsene Wenger, the coach of my favourite EPL club, Arsenal, would sacrifice an eye to learn one or two economic lessons on the Almighty Theory of feeding 50 men with one fish head. Yet, here in Nigeria, we are shouting blue murder. In the first place, must trainees eat fish or even its fins? In fact, we ought to thank the police hierarchy for their magnanimity in sparing the fish head to ordinary trainees while they manage the softer parts! For this great sacrifice, all they get as rewards are visible pot bellies. Oh, what a great sacrifice!

    Predictably, the Action Congress of Nigeria joined the fray for all the wrong reasons. It lampooned Jonathan for demanding to know how a private television station’s camera “penetrated’ the walls of a 70-year-old institution, with a collateral damage of exposing its stinking innards to the world. Playing the role of an unsolicited advisor, the party went to say that:  “Mr. President, those comments were totally unnecessary, and they put a damper on what would have been a great moment for you. Terrible as the state of the Police College in Ikeja is, it represents a tip of the iceberg when compared with the pervasive rot in police barracks and police stations as well as the generally poor welfare of the police.” What gall! Why should any unremunerated citizen or political party dare to render quality advice that seems to put them above dimwit fat cats in high places? Rot ko, eyesore ni.

    I wonder why Dr. Doyin Okupe has not taken exception to this outright fallacy by the ACN. Yes, our policing system may not be the best in West Africa but it is definitely not the worst. All it takes for the government to prove this is to commission a high-powered committee to understudy policing in the sub-region; submit a report to be examined by another white-paper drafting committee; and leave the razzmatazz of the great findings to Minister Labaran Maku to handle! For a man who conveniently maintained a permanent smirk on his face while announcing a magical 80 per cent daily electricity supply in all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria in 2012, dabbing the police rot with sweet-smelling fragrance should be a piece of cake for Nigeria’s innovative Information Minister! Even if the result turns out to be negative, I doubt if that should be a veritable ground for making a “calculated attempt to damage the image of an administration’s” transformation agenda?

    And so, Mr. Jonathan was right on point for lashing out at those whose calculators only work to perfection whenever the subject was an assessment of his performance in government. His riotous outrage is not without validation. Why were those cameras not focused on the millions of jobs that have been created since Jonathan became President? Why can’t the affected television station zoom its camera on the smiling faces of in-patients at our hospitals as they receive qualitative treatment from doctors who no longer go on strike? Why, for crying out loud, can’t they run a documentary on the historically unique state of our public schools and juice it up with the stories relating to the world standard graduates that we now bake here at home? Didn’t they know that parents no longer send their children to Ghana and Togo for secondary and tertiary education? Have they not seen the high reduction in the money being wasted on medical tourism? Were they not there when the First Lady visited Iginla Hospital for medical check-up only to make a brief shuttle to Wiesbaden, Germany to collect the result? How about the transformation of Nigeria into an investors’ paradise in the face of explosive insecurity? Why are these ungrateful Nigerians courting the rage of Jonathan by directing their camera lens on the activities of a ‘local terror group’ called Boko Haram, an insignificant institution like the police college or the corruptive tendencies of some bad apples in high places?

    Why are they drawing the President’s ire needlessly? Why are these persons confusing our rulers since it is mutually agreed that they are yet to be blessed with true leaders. They make all the right noise about voters’ power but hardly make wise use of it on Election Day. They sell their votes for a pot of porridge and still have the balls to demand for accountability from the one who bought their conscience. They want to eat their cake and still have it as takeaway.  Why can’t they understand the unwritten code of the deadly game and join the bandwagon of those who applaud blind larceny. Why can’t they settle for the usual crumbs and watch as the nation slides further into egregious rot? Why?

  • Preconditions for meaningful reforms

    Preconditions for meaningful reforms

    In spite of her honest admission that the process of reforms still has a long way to go in Nigeria, there is still the prevalent optimism that runs through the new book by the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, that considerable progress was made towards ‘Reforming’ a hitherto ‘Unreformable’ Nigeria during the Obasanjo presidency. This column disagreed with this view last week contending that the country remains as ‘unreformable’ as ever today despite Dr. Okonjo-Iweala’s best efforts between 2003 and 2007. Of course, the economic team under her leadership made valiant efforts to launch reforms in several sectors –the budgetary process, public procurement, fiscal transparency, re-invention of the customs and ports, revitalisation of the civil service, privatisation of unprofitable state enterprises and tackling the country’s debilitating debt crisis among others. But today, the country is again heavily indebted. The civil service remains as lethargic and unproductive as ever. The budgetary process is still grossly inefficient and lacking in efficacy. Nigeria remains a cesspit of abominable corruption. Privatisation has become another profitable mechanism for criminal enrichment. The oil sector remains as opaque as ever while an abundantly blessed country remains unfathomably under the spell of oil dependency.

    As I argued last week, the fundamental problem was that the reform process between 2003 and 2007 was undertaken as an essentially technocratic and elitist enterprise. As Dr. Okonjo-Iweala writes on page 124 of her book, “It was clear to me from the outset of the reform process and the formation of the Economic Team that President Obasanjo saw the team as technocratic and wanted to keep it that way. He also had political advisers, and he was politically adroit himself. He wished for this team to focus on economic issues. Initially, we also clearly saw ourselves in this light. We would keep away from politics since in any case most of the politicians left a lot to be desired”. This gulf between politicians and the reform technocrats is well documented in the book. Nowhere, for instance, does Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala makes any reference to the manifesto of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP). In fact, she mentions the PDP only once in a book that runs into nearly 200 pages. What this tells us is that the PDP was and remains essentially an election winning machine. It is not guided by any grand policy goals or vision. Since the PDP was philosophically, programmatically and ideologically famished, it had to surrender policy direction and leadership to a group of technocrats who held the party in utter disdain and saw their loyalty as being first and last to the President personally.

    The Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala-led technocrats therefore crafted the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) entirely on their own and later vigorously marketed the programme to the political class! But the politicians were supposed to have won elections based on a social contract with the electorate as regards a policy platform to be implemented. However, there was hardly any nexus between NEEDS and the PDP manifesto with the result that many leading members of the ruling partywere not only lukewarm but openly subversive of the reform agenda. Reforms in a democracy cannot be ends in themselves. Efficient budgetary processes, transparency in public procurement or a more effective civil service are means to the qualitative delivery of specific promises to the electorate by a political party. A political party can only be meaningfully judged by the electorate on the basis of its success in fulfilling its pre-election promises. The PDP can confidently assert that it will win future elections emphatically partly because, despite the dismal state of the country under its watch, it is difficult to pin the party down to any specific policy platform. The party has no doubt been a huge success in holding down the Nigerian cow for the various factions of its ravenous elite to continue milking the dying animal to their heart’s content.

    In the second republic, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), despite its nebulous ‘One Nation, One Destiny’ mantra, concretely committed itself to reviving agriculture (Green Revolution) and the mass provision of shelter. On its part the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) had its four cardinal programmes: Free education, free health care, full employment and rural integration. Alhaji Aminu Kano’s People’s Redemption Party (PRP) had far reaching radical policies to liberate the talakawas of the North from the chains of feudal tyranny. The nearest we have to these policy-oriented parties in this dispensation is the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) with its emphasis on the provision of affordable education, health care, massive job creation and radical modernisation and expansion of infrastructure. Meaningful reforms are thus possible only when a disciplined, visionary, focussed and purposeful political party is at the vanguard of the process.

    A second precondition for meaningful reforms is a visionary, committed, decisive yet restrained presidency. Under our current constitution, the presidency is the centre of gravity of the governance process. The wellbeing of the polity depends largely on the energy and dynamism of the presidency.

    The Nigerian presidency, I have said before, is perhaps the most powerful political office in the world. It has been deliberately granted such enormous powers to be able to hold the country together and be a positive force for development. But the fierce contest by contending social groups for this plum position has had fractious implications for the polity. Moreover, only a saint would have the enormous powers of the Nigerian presidency and not misuse it. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely is an unalterable law of politics from which the Nigerian presidency cannot be exempt. Since the commencement of this dispensation in 1999, we have seen the capacity of the president to castrate his own party, destabilise the opposition, ignore the National Assembly, muzzle the judiciary and utilize his vast powers of patronage for purposes subversive of democracy and development. As Sam Omatseye graphically put it, the presidency is an albatross on the neck of the nation. Taming its excessive powers is a necessary condition for meaningful reforms and modernisation. And this is also true of the expansive powers of the executive at the lower levels of government at state and local government levels.

    The third precondition for meaningful reforms and transformation is the radical decentralisation of powers, resources and responsibilities from an overbearing and unproductive centre to the lower levels as I argued last week. The current so-called federal structure is abnormal and deformed. Unfortunately, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala appears to believe that the current system is not even centralised enough. In her words on page 125 of her book “Another problem was that in Nigeria’s very decentralised governance set-up the governors of states controlled almost half of the country’s revenues and, according to the constitution, enjoyed considerable autonomy in the use of those resources. They also enjoyed immunity from prosecution, courtesy of the same constitution, and they had very little accountability to anyone”. In reality, the Federal Government controls more resources than all the states combined. Yes, there is monumental corruption at the state and local government levels, but this pales into insignificance compared with the rampant criminality at the centre. The solution to the problem is not more centralisation as Dr. Okonjo-Iweala’s analysis indirectly suggests, it is to enhance the institutional autonomy of the police, judiciary and anti-corruption agencies to deal decisively with corrupt elements at all levels. Right now, corruption cases are prosecuted at the behest of the presidency and mainly against its perceived adversaries. That is surely no path to the much desired reforms and transformation. I enjoin opposition leaders and their strategists to read Dr. Okonjo-Iweala’s book. There are useful lessons there to guide future action.

  • The national interest in education

    The national interest in education

    Last week, I raised and addressed the question, “how have our contemporary society fared with regard to discharging the grave responsibility to educate its offspring?” The question presupposes an affirmation of the society’s responsibility to educate. For it is only with that presumption that we have reason to evaluate its performance in discharging that responsibility. The presumption is not difficult to defend, as I did two years ago.

    “While the provision of good education is just one of the many functions of a government, it is one that is central to the challenges of any nation including that of violent disturbances that have overrun African nations since independence.

    “Education is central in several respects. It gives an individual a sense of self-esteem and self-respect. It gives an assurance that he or she can make a contribution to the society. It is a mind-opener enabling the individual to see the many aspects of the complexity of the human predicament. Even when an educated person is a radical critic of the establishment, he or she can make relevant distinctions, giving the proverbial Caesar his due. Above all, a good education stands an individual in good stead to see other human beings for what they are as humans with inviolable dignity. It is this ability to make distinctions and to move back and assess from a judicious perspective, and to bring to an issue a sense of proportion that prevents an educated person from engaging in senseless acts of genocide.

    “Surely, history is replete with highly educated persons that have led their nations in genocidal campaigns. Hitler is the most famous. I do not deny the eccentricity that even good education can produce. What I deny is that such is common or rampant. What is common is for a few educated eccentrics to mobilise and use mobs of less educated or uneducated gangs with less hope for their future and virtually no self-esteem. This is the common phenomenon. A person with good education who is dissatisfied with her position can channel her frustration to useful purposes and will not be easily cajoled into regrettable path. A frustrated person with no functional education is an easy prey for rabble rousers. It’s just a fact of life borne out of our experiences. Politicians know better.”

    Now, while there may be a tiny minority of the leadership cadre that does not share the foregoing reasoning, I am pretty sure that most leaders appreciate it and they are very passionate about the responsibility of society to educate its citizens. But when we look at our national score card, it’s pretty grim. And it doesn’t just exist in research reports; it’s out there in the street corners of our downtowns and inner cities in the sea of heads that we contemplate every day. How the spectacle doesn’t prick our conscience and we are unmoved by the obvious irreparable damage to human dignity is mind-boggling.

    For the majority of those who care, the issue has always been the scarcity of resources. This is no doubt true. Ours is a nation that appreciates the joy of large families. Whether from a religious or cultural perspective, we cannot see ourselves imposing limitations on the reproductive freedom of citizens and so, we rightly leave the choice of reproduction to individuals and families. I think it’s the correct policy. What comes with it, however, is an adequate planning that enables us to project for the needs of those children for their first twenty one years of life, that is, from elementary to tertiary education.

    Of course, while such planning and projection may tell us what we need in terms of resources, they are not substitutes for those resources. In other words, with adequate planning, we may come to know that in 2023, we would need ten trillion naira to provide good primary education for the nation’s children. We still have to source for those funds and start doing so right now. It is the nation that has to do the planning, the projection, and the search for the funds, even when it is clear that the public sector cannot do it all alone.

    The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Article 18, states that (1) “Government shall direct its policy towards ensuring that there are equal and adequate educational opportunities at all levels. 2. Government shall promote science and technology. 3. Government shall strive to eradicate illiteracy; and to this end Government shall as and when practicable provide (a) free, compulsory and universal primary education; free secondary education; free university education; and free adult literacy programme.” We have the constitutional provision; we must summon the vision and the will to effectively implement it.

    Statistics don’t lie and ours go a long way to demonstrate the correlation between the underdevelopment of the mind and the pathetic underdevelopment of the nation. Eight years ago in 2005, education expenditure in Nigeria as a percentage of Gross National Income (GNI) was 0.85%. As a result, the country was ranked 167 out of 168 in the world. In comparison, Brazil’s education expenditure was 4.09% of GNI with a ranking of 83. Nigeria’s public spending on education as a percentage of GDP was 0.89%, with a ranking of 136th out of 136. While the duration of our compulsory education is 6 years, Brazil’s is 8 years. Of course, it is needless to add that we do not enforce the 6 year-rule in any way and we have a majority of under-6 who never attend school. While we rank 104 in the completion rate of primary education, Brazil ranks 13. While our adult literacy rate is 48%, Brazil’s is 82%. (NationMaster.com)

    What Nigeria fails to put into the education of her citizens, she cannot expect to get out of the economy. Thus while the number of Brazilians living with under $1 a day is 11.6 million, with a ranking of 44th in the world, Nigeria has 70.2 million living with less than $1 a day and a ranking of 2nd in terms of poverty. In other words, Nigeria enjoys the infamy of ranking 2nd in the incidence of poverty. While Brazil has 1.82% share of world’s poor, Nigeria has 8.03%; and while the Human Development Index of Brazil is 0.792, with a ranking of 63rd, that of Nigeria is 0.452 with a ranking of 159th. (NationMaster.com). It is the whirlwind that is naturally stirred up by these grim statistics that we experience on our streets on a daily basis.

    While public education suffers neglect, private education blossoms because government has outsourced its responsibility to educate its citizens. When officials at the highest level of government applaud private education, assessing it as the model to embrace, it appears that the nation has lost an important moral bearing. Private investment in education cannot be and has never been altruistically motivated. The closest to altruism in motivation were old mission institutions. But we always knew that they had their primary mission (no pun intended) which was not necessarily the national interest. On the other hand, individual private entrepreneurs in education have never been ambiguous in their mission, which is to fill the gap created by the inaction of the state and in doing so, make some profit.

    The reasoning in the preceding paragraph is not to suggest that all private involvement in the education of the public is ill-motivated or to be discouraged. What it means is that the public sector must be the driver of the nation’s educational vehicle, and public schools must take the lead. There is room for public-private partnership in every aspect of national life, including education. However, the cart of private initiative must not be allowed to pull the horse of national interest in citizen education. For the nation, like the individual, is the best source and judge of its interests.

  • Nigeria, as it could be made (4)

    If we should go our separate ways, we shan’t stop being the brutes we are nor shall we stop pretending to have answers to everything, except our duplicity and greed. We shan’t stop exulting by sick dialectics like treacherous revolutionaries in a dusk of compromise.

    A simple lust remains our woe; it invalidates the elite class and its infinite abstractions. It amplifies the tragedy of the working class and the Nigerian youth. It is the lust for luxury and unearned greatness.

    Like pond scum over moss, the Nigerian elite ingratiate himself to the predatory ruling class in every circumstance and clime even as he makes a big show of speaking all manner of truths, except “truth” to power. Now that his duplicity drags, like a rickety wheel caught in quicksand, the Nigerian elite will forswear youth. He has chosen to play the daunting-Thomas where resolute will and burning heart commands the infinite perspective and possibility of the Nigerian youth.

    Not a few people, self-acclaimed elite and progressives, have written to fault my call for the Nigerian youth to save Nigeria. They claim the Nigerian youth is incapable of such human qualities like wisdom, altruism, maturity and tolerance. One particular “progressive elite” wrote to say that “Nigeria can never thrive in the hands of the Nigerian youth.” He said leadership and nation-building are serious matters that shouldn’t be left in the hands of youth whose idea of citizenship revolves around the acquisition of the trendiest luxury ride and whims of every political predator and criminal mastermind.

    I am tempted to believe him given the brutal reality of his assertion. But then this”progressive elite” goes on to recommend bloody revolution to wipe out the incumbent ruling class and a secessionist palliative by which “every ethnic group would go its separate way “peacefully or violently” to forge its destiny away from the madness of the Nigerian dream.” This secessionist agenda, he claims, “should be driven by the Nigerian youth whose fire and spark is variously misapplied in the current political enterprise.”

    In a nutshell, our “progressive elite” and lest I forget, an Associate Professor of Political Science, believes the Nigerian youth is incapable of leadership and positive steps at nation-building but this same youth would serve well in a bloody massacre of the ruling class and secessionist agenda of every ethnic group.

    If you are in your youth and you are reading this, then you have known what the almighty elite and articulate hero of practicable politics thinks of you. Maitama Sule, Anthony Enahoro, Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Tafawa Balewa to mention a few, united to build the heritage we destroy, in their youth. But you and I are never considered as worthy of such dignified human endeavours as conscientious leadership and statesmanship, like our late leaders (although Maitama Sule is very much alive). Of course, they had their faults, they made mistakes, but every unforgivable blunder of theirs is acceptable to our next best attribute.

    Today, the Nigerian youth becomes the butt of damaging critiques and interminable cynicism. Are we going to do anything about it? Or shall we continue to wallow in self-pity and hate even as we continually pursue an agenda to self-destruct, according to the whims of the incumbent ruling class?

    We should never serve as cannon fodder by which familiar shady politicians and activists will achieve their secessionist agenda. If every Nigerian soldier, police officer, student, banker, journalist, doctor, accountant – to mention a few – in his youth could endeavour to scorn the call for bloody revolution or secession and rather advise its propagators to recruit their sons and daughters, mothers and wives, fathers and other blood relatives to propagate their agenda, the end result will spell infinite good for you and me. Trust me.

    But many Nigerian youth and self-acclaimed “progressive elite” will continue to pound the drums of violence and bloodshed from their safe havens abroad while they stay far away from the scenes of genocide they incite. Many more have their escape strategies activated and their escape routes marked, in preparation for the hour when Nigerian drowns in the bloodbath they excite.

    Such elite class represents the purely physical evil whose limit we can never be sure of. Our ultimate goal should be to neuter them, everlastingly to be precise. The abolishment of the infinite evil they epitomize should be perpetuated by ample use of the ballot box. We cannot totally abolish the inhumanity of such contemptible characters but like pestilence, we can diminish their influence by securing a fair and healthy socio-political system for all.

    It’s about time we accepted the racism and infinite prejudices of this class of Nigerians as a grievous fact, unpardonable in its intensity, unfortunate in results, and dangerous for the future, but nevertheless a hard fact which only time and conscientious efforts can efface. The Nigerian youth owes it to themselves and subsequent generations to assume that selfless citizenship and leadership that the Nigerian situation so eloquently demands.

    Let us dispel notions of our incapacities to produce such leadership and citizenship by exorcising ourselves of the damaging culture and common insensibilities of modern political civilization. Let us rise to the imperative demand for trained youth leaders of character and intelligence; men and women of ability and missionaries of culture, thoroughly adept at harmonizing traditional and modern civilization in the establishment of precepts of self-sacrifice and the inspiration of common identity and ideals.

    But if such men are to be effective they must have political power; they must be backed by the best public opinion and be able to wield for the attainment of our aims, such weaponry as the experience of the world has taught, are indispensable to human progress.

    Of such weaponry, the greatest perhaps, in the modern world is the power of the ballot. The only effective means to deny the patent weaknesses and shortcomings of the Nigerian youth is to dissociate from such weaknesses and shortcomings. This could be achieved by positive citizenship and incursions into political activity.

    It would never serve us to remain armchair Trotskys like a reader satirically noted penultimate week. It is time for the Nigerian youth to champion the cause of that prosperous future of our dreams by effecting a change of guardianship of the Nigerian State. Let us do away with the predators we have allowed too much leverage on our power plinths. Let us deny their wives and children continued access to our seats of power.

    It is no longer acceptable for us to bemoan our luck and curse the times while we serve as pawns in the designs of every politician and lobbyist with deep pocket. The Nigerian youth should establish a veritable platform to prosecute its pursuit of freedom and self-determination. To achieve this, we need to establish political leverage, like a youthful and citizenry-centred political party and interest group.

    It is not enough for us to declare that the incumbent ruling class is the cause of our social condition and for us to aver that our social condition would spell the doom of any promising political enterprise. We must change in order to effect the change in leadership and governance that we seek.

    To be continued…

  • Holiday pickings

    I have been away on holiday for about forty days. Though I was only able to remove myself from the buzz of the newsroom and the whirls and paranoia of the news process, I could never extricate myself from the news and the Siamese companionship it has provided over these years. In spite of vows to the contrary, a day without my morning dew of news seemed like a void in the history of mankind. So as I lolled between Lagos and the Southeast and particularly, waddling through the red-cloud dust of long- forgotten roads in Igbo countryside where I holidayed, I still managed to get a whiff of the news.

    Being garroted by news, so to speak, was distracting enough; I did not realize I was taking a mental note of major activities to boot. My mind simply would not play to instruction as football coaches would say of their boys when they fluff a game, by shutting down its news compartments. Well, what to do than to take advantage of a bad situation by compiling a list of the big issues that broke while I was away – in some order of importance…

    The Police College metaphor: This yeoman’s job of Channels Television that is bound for awards was not high on my list of big issues until our dear President Goodluck Jonathan visited the scene of the ‘crime’. What had we not written about the Nigeria Police – their subhuman nature, their demonic tendencies, their habitations – but never before was it captured on camera like Channels did. And when the president did his impromptu inspection, the first I have seen, I was full of admiration and fresh hope welled up in me… but it seem I rejoiced too soon. Then President Jonathan laid an egg, to paraphrase a classic newspaper headline.

    One brilliant moment that laid a template for eternal validation of the president and he quenched his light! The Ikeja Police College muck is a metaphor for the Nigerian condition. Nigeria is a big muck that requires a Nehemiahian drive, energy, character, vision and tenacity. For a brief moment, as the president gawked at the ruins of the college, I thought a Nehemiah had come to work. But woe alas! I was cut down by a re-revelation of the Jonathan persona. The president was re-voided in the eyes of watching Nigerians. It was as if we woke up suddenly and returned to death.

    NNPC’s $1.5 b loan caper: until the Channels expose on the Police College, this was my pick for the news of the period. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, was about concluding a clandestine foreign loan! The deal was almost concluded but for the expose from a foreign wire service. Questions: how many other such ‘loans’ had NNPC taken in our name in the past? And before we enquire about what NNPC does with money, the real question is what really does NNPC do? It does not drill crude, it can’t run refineries or build new ones, it lacks the capacity to import and distribute refined products, it cannot safeguard the pipelines or stem oil theft, it is stumped by its most important duty which is managing the Joint Venture process. But most painful of all, it is violently corrupt. And with its new reach of hijacking foreign funds in our name, it has grown to the status of an evil enclave.

    Let us rename NNPC tormentum, some kind of crude machine for dishing punishment to the people; it has epitomized the ‘oil curse’ and somebody must document a case study on how not to manage oil wealth using the NNPC. Former federal minister, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili was so moved by this new scam to aptly come up with the phrase, “Republic of NNPC”. But that explains it all for after the incoherence about taking a loan to pay off even more loan, you would expect that heads would roll. But no such sanctions, the oil minister, the group managing director, everybody is still on his or her sit plotting more plots for that is all they seem to do. And the plot, make no mistake, often goes deep to the bottom of the very top. That is why it has remained unchanging seemingly but let’s be consoled brethren: bad behaviours only last for so long.

    Governors on AWOL: speaking of bad behavior, the photo of four Nigerian governors decked in winter coats and posing on a heap of London snow turns out an eloquent repudiation of the lies they try to sell Nigerians in that fake wintry posture. That carefully cropped photograph also corroborates the lie and fakery that Nigeria, no, Nigerian leaders and Nigerian governance have unrepentantly become. The picture on the front page of many newspapers on Wednesday January 23, 2013 had Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom State), Gabriel Suswam (Benue), Sullivan Chime (Enugu and), Rotimi Amaechi, governor of Rivers State and chairman of governors Forum, Nigeria.

    They had taken the pains (and our pound Sterling) to go to London and pose in the blistering snow just to prove to Nigerians that Governor Chime who had been away from office since September is hale and hearty. It was Turai, the wife of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua who was quoted as saying that she would rather her husband died in office than returned home to proper rest, care and recuperation. And truly, that gentle soul was chaperoned to his death by a greedy cabal’s lust for power and relevance.

    Governor Chime, like Suntai and a few others is obviously seriously ill. It would have been most honorable to come clean to his people, even at the pain of losing that seat. That is the hallmark of character and that is the cornerstone for building a great nation. Yes when leaders show character a nation and her people are edified. Surely the governorship isn’t the utmost for Chime and his ilk. There must be more important things in life than being a governor. And for all the governors aiding and abetting falsehood: we say, shame.

    And several other pickings… what would it pay you to extend this rehash the way they do in Nollywood films. Bad governance in Nigeria is in a torrid flux and the more we report, the more rapidly things happen. It would suffice to reel out a list of some of the key issues I found deserving of your notice while I was away. I picked an interview granted by Mr Elias Mbam, chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) in which he claimed that political office holders are literally robbing the people. Hear him: “While the basic salaries of political office holders are largely known and perhaps pegged to what RMAFC has determined them to be, their allowances are mammoth, opaque and unconstitutional.” But the National Assembly would rather not discuss this matter but time will come when it must be discussed, by fire or by stones.

    · There were pictures of the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi frequently wearing his turban to the office. It is as if he can’t wait to be the emir of Kano. Well mum is the word here o!

    · Did you read it tucked inside the papers somewhere that 100 companies have been forced out of the Nigerian Stock Exchange since after the crash? Nobody has told you how many thousands of investors – poor Nigerians suffered in all this. No resolution, no recompense, no lessons learnt but more money has been dole out to many of the miscreants who caused the crash.

    · Malam Adamu Ciroma granted an interview in which he stated categorically that former President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Jonathan “bought PDP delegates with dollars in 2011” presidential primaries. Sadly, we all know that ‘fact’ and we live with it!

    · Nigeria’s telecoms subscriber spent N111 billion talking in 10 months (January to October 2012). What a loquacious people.

    · Ten million mobile telephones for Nigerian farmers. What boondoogle scheme? Does Nigeria really have 10 million people who can be truly called farmers? Not likely.

    · And lastly, the power situation worsens and Prof Chinedu Nebo comes in smoking like all previous power minister. Hmm.

  • An orphan’s legacy

    “Who shares his life’s pure pleasure and works the honest road; who trades with heaping measure and lifts his brother’s load; who turns the wrong down bluntly and lends the right a hand; he dwells in God’s own country and tills the holy land.” Louis F. Benson

    No man in history has ever been as fitting to the above poetic description as Prophet Muhammad (SAW) the undisputable greatest man who ever lived. His legacy is the solid foundation upon which the contemporary civilisation is built. But despite the vivid visibility of that legacy it remains invisible to many eyes that are alien to Islam. Thus, the Prophet’s legacy is like the beaming sun which no blind can see and no seeing eyes can perceive in its natural nakedness. Yet, both the blind and the seeing feel the burning effect of the sun ‘Willy nilly’ even as it photosynthesises the plants around them.

    This article is not meant to celebrate the birth of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) for which yesterday was declared a public holiday in Nigeria.

    As far as ‘The Message’ is concerned, what is to be celebrated about this great Prophet is by far much more than his birthday. His achievements clearly transcend his birth. Thus, there is no need wasting time on his birthday here.

    From the creation of Adam, the first human being, till date, no man’s biography has been so much written and read as that of Muhammad (SAW) the son of Abdullah and Aminah. This man’s biography has been written from all perspectives, positive and negative, by various men and women of diverse races, tribes, ideologies and religions in the past 1444 years or there about. And the biography is still being written and re-written authoritatively and un-authoritatively, today, in uncountable languages.

    Through the writings of the Prophet’s biography, some people have zoomed into un-dream-able fame. Others have sunk into the abyss of a permanent oblivion. But virtually all the writers have benefitted from their writings directly or indirectly in coins and in kind. No other Prophet’s biography has attracted as many writers from believers and non-believers, from friends and foes alike as that of Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

    Every aspect of this Prophet’s life including the dresses he wore, the food he ate, the way he spoke, the wives he married, the children he bore, and the wars he fought, has formed the basis of his biography. In short, next to the Qur’an, no book is as much read daily in the world today as the biography of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in one form or another. But there is a vital question: why is global focus so much on this unlettered Prophet from Arabia?

    The answer to this question is not far-fetched. The world has not produced any other personality like him. And it will not. He is the seal of all Prophets and the epitome of human exemplariness. In him alone are found all the traits of what a perfect gentleman should be in all ramifications.

    If Prophet Muhammad had not been an orphan, he would not have been able to guide humanity on how orphans should be treated especially with regards to inheritance. If he had not been a husband, his marital life would not have been an excellent example for others to emulate and women’s rights would have been permanently ignored. If he had not been a widower the world would not have realised the plight of widows and learnt how to provide for them. If he had not been a father, the proper care for children by parents would have been relegated to the background in Islamic doctrine. If he had not been trustworthy, the value of trust would have been totally lost on mankind.

    His migration from Makkah to Madinah paved way for the culture of hospitality universally imbibed today and the wars he was forced to fight engendered the law of war, armistice and peace. Without the conquests he achieved, the word magnanimity would not have found a place in the dictionary of man and if he had not suffered defeat in war, the vanquished would not have learnt the act of gallantry. If the Prophet had not been a judge, the virtue of justice would have been globally thrown to the winds and survival in all societies would have been for the fittest.

    If he had not being a democratic ruler, the relationship between the ruled and their rulers, all over the world, today, would not have been dissimilar from that of slaves and their masters and dictatorship in governance would have known no bounds. If Prophet had not been poor despite being a Head of State, the policy of social welfare adopted in civilised societies today in favour of the poor, would not have been possible. If he had not been an illiterate, the world would not have known the difference between literacy and education. And, if, despite all these qualities in him, he had not been humble and affable, arrogance would have been the main character of all privileged people in the world today.

    Who else can be compared to this man in history? And, in which any other single person have all the aforementioned qualities ever been found in history? There can be little wonder then why so much attention was and is still being focused on the personality of this extra-ordinary human being. That is Prophet Muhammad (SAW) for you, the like of whom the world has never seen and will never see again. If this man is celebrated anywhere in the world, anytime, therefore, it is definitely not because he was born. His achievements transcend his birth.

    But for him, the world would have remained in the dungeon of ignorance and primitivism and humanity would have remained at the level of crude beasts. It was he who brought back the manual of life to mankind after it had been lost in the search for sheer vanity. Manual of life is the divine instruction which came gradually from Allah to mankind according to the growth rate of human intellect. But such manual is not peculiar to man alone. All other organisms have their own instructions from Allah which in a way constitute their own manuals of life.

    However, due to the intellectual superiority of man, the various divine instructions to other organisms were incorporated into man’s own manual of life. This is to enable man understand the complexity of his environment vis a vis the essence of his own existence and thereby act effectively as Allah’s vicegerent on earth. Although because of the differences in times and methods, Allah’s message is perceived differently, the fact remains that the message is only one coming from only one and same God. This message is the ‘RIGHT PATH’ to salvation which came to mankind after several millennia of wondering in the wilderness of ignorance and vainglory. And the man, Muhammad (SAW), through whom that message reached us is the ‘PATH FINDER’. There are many attestations to this. For instance, after many years of scientific experimentations, a German-born American physicist and Nobel Laureate, Albert Einstein, the inventor of atomic bomb who is generally known as the 20th century creator of special and general theory of relativity, compared his works with the contents of the Qur’an and concluded as follows: “Science without religion is lame and religion without science is blind”.

    He then called on fellow scientists to endeavour to read the Qur’an without bias in order to know the true origin of science in human life.

    And as if responding to Einstein’s call, Professor Tagatat Tajasen, Chairman of the Department of Anatomy at Chiang Mai University in Thailand accepted Islam on the strength of just one scientific sign accurately mentioned in the Qur’an. He had spent a great amount of his time, as a Professor, in search of pain receptor. When his attention was drawn to the Qur’an, he did not believe initially that such a highly sophisticated aspect of science could have been mentioned over 1,400 years ago. But when he confirmed it by himself in the translation of the Qur’an, he became so much impressed that he purposely attended the 8th Saudi Medical Conference held in Riyadh where he publicly embraced Islam.

    Another leading scientist, Professor Marshall Johnson, the Head of the Department of Anatomy a Director of Daniel Institute at the Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, USA, was asked to comment on the verses of the Qur’an dealing with embryology. In response, he said it was probable that for Prophet Muhammad (SAW) to have given such vivid description of foetus, he must have had a powerful microscope. But when he was reminded that the Qur’an was revealed over 1400 years ago and that the invention of microscope took place only a couple of centuries ago Professor Johnson laughed and made the following remark: “I see nothing here in conflict with the concept that Divine intervention was involved when Muhammad recited the Qur’an….”.

    Yet another Embryologist, Professor Keith Moore of the Department of Anatomy, University of Toronto, Canada, after carefully examining the translation of the Qur’anic verses presented to him admitted thus: “most of the information concerning embryology mentioned in the Qur’an is in perfect conformity with modern discoveries in the field of embryology and does not conflict with them in any way”.

    Professor Moore had no prior knowledge of anything leechlike about embryo until he read chapter 96 of the Qur’an where Allah says “Read! In the name of your Lord Who created. He created man out of a leechlike clot…” He then went to verify this fact in an embryo under a powerful microscope and compared his observation with a diagram of a leech. He was astonished at the resemblance of the two. That prompted him to go fully into studying the Qur’an and Hadith to acquire more knowledge until he was able to answer about 80 hitherto unanswered questions in that field.

    That prompted him to correct the contents of his book ‘The Developing Human’ which he published earlier and he re-published it in 1982. It was with that revised edition that he became the recipient of an award for the best medical book written by a single author in the 20th century. That book has been translated into many major languages of the world and is mostly used as textbook of embryology today in the first year of medical studies in various Universities in the world.

    Yet, despite talking about all sciences, the Qur’an is not a book of Sciences but that of ‘Signs’. Those ‘Signs’ invite man to realise the purpose of his existence on earth and live in harmony with nature.

    Judging the above verses of the Qur’an revealed over 1400 years ago with the wonderful reality of scientific civilisation of today what further proof does anybody need of the genuineness of the Qur’an? And who else can give better guidance than the Supreme Creator Himself? And who else can be better called the ‘PATH FINDER’ than Prophet Muhammad (SAW) who showed humanity the way to that all time guidance?

    Perhaps, this was why Michael Hart, a Jewish American Astrophysicist, named Prophet Muhammad the greatest man that ever lived in his famous book entitled ‘The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History’.

    If all the descriptions given above about Prophet Muhammad (SAW) sound exaggerated because they are given by Femi Abbas, a Muslim and an ardent follower of that Prophet, and if Michael Hart is seen as crazy in his judgment let us read the views and impressions of some other non-Muslims about this great Prophet. One of them (Alphonse de Lamartine of France) had the following to say in his book ‘Histoire de la Torque’:

    “Never has a man set for himself, voluntarily or involuntarily, a more sublime aim since this aim was superhuman; to subvert superstitions which had been interposed between man and his Creator; to render God unto man and man unto God; to restore rational and sacred idea of divinity amidst the chaos of the material and disfigured gods of idolatry, then existing.

    Never has a man undertaken a work so far beyond human power with so feeble means, for he (Muhammad) had in the conception as well as in the execution of such a great design no other instrument than himself, and no other, except a handful of men living in a corner of a desert…. If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astounding results are the three criteria of human genius, who could dare to compare any great man in modern history with Muhammad? The most famous men created arms, laws and empires only. They founded, if anything at all, no more than material powers which often crumbled before their very eyes. This man moved not only armies, legislations, empires, peoples and dynasties, but millions of men in one-third of the then inhabited world; and more than that, he moved the altars, the gods, the religions, the ideas, the beliefs and the souls. On the basis of a book, every letter of which has become law, he created a spiritual nationality which blended together peoples of every tongue and of every race…..As regards all standards by which human greatness may be measured we may well ask, is there any man in human history greater than Muhammad?”

    On his own, Napoleon Bonaparte, the great 18th century French conqueror of Europe was so much amazed by the traits of Islam which he saw in Egypt during his military expeditions that he made the following historic statement about that divine religion and its great Prophet:

    “Muhammad, in reality, was a great leader of mankind. He preached UNITY among Arabs who were, till then, torn asunder due to internecine quarrels, sometimes resulting in bloody war fares. He brought them out of the obscure world in a short time and the discipline which they maintained under his leadership was simply marvellous, and so was their bravery, courage and devotion to the cause which they loved and cherished. This, coupled with the contempt for death, as taught by their leader, made them great soldiers and fighters like of whom history rarely produces. I simply marvel at the achievements of this great ‘Son of the Desert’ within a mere period of less than 15 years; a thing which Moses and Christ could not do in 15 centuries. I salute this great man; I salute his qualities of Head and Heart….”

    And, in corroboration of the above statements, variously made by renowned men of letters and intellect, another foremost Orientalist, playwright and dramatist, George Bernard Shaw, had the following to say about Islam and Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in his book ‘The genuine Islam’ (vol. 1 No 8 of 1936):

    “The Christians and their missionaries have presented a horrible

    picture of Islam. Not only that, they also carried out an organised and planned propaganda against the personality of Prophet Mohammad and the religion he preached. I have carefully studied Islam and the life of its Prophet. I have done so both as a student of history and as a critic. And I have come to the conclusion that Mohammad was indeed a great man and a deliverer and benefactor of mankind which was till then writhing under a most agonizing pain. I have always held Islam in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion which appears to me to possess that assimilating capacity to the changing face of existence which can make it appealing to every age. I have studied him-the wonderful man and in my opinion, far from being an anti-Christ, he must be called the saviour of humanity. I believe that if a man like him were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world, he would succeed in solving its problems in a way that would bring it the much needed peace and happiness.

    I have prophesied about the faith of Muhammad that it would be acceptable to the Europe of tomorrow as it is beginning to be acceptable to the Europe of today”.

    For confirmation of Bernard Shaw’s remark quoted above, see ‘The Genuine Islam, vol. 1, No. 8, 1936.

    These are just some of the facts that make an orphan and unlettered Prophet, Muhammad (SAW), the greatest human being that ever lived on earth. None of the attestations above made any reference to his birth or birthday because they knew that his birth had nothing to do with his achievements. If non-Muslims could go as far as shown above to benefit from the greatness of Prophet Muhammad’s mission on earth what is expected of Muslims for whom that mission is primarily meant?

  • Jonathan and a nation in self-denial

    Jonathan and a nation in self-denial

    President Jonathan recent unscheduled visit to the decaying Ikeja Police College has been hailed by many of his country men and women including hundreds of his erstwhile ‘Facebook’ friends. The visit was remarkable in many respects. It was the first time the president would create time to address a domestic issue in the midst of his ever busy international engagements, which this time, was taking him to Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

    The international engagement was to consolidate the war efforts of ECOWAS and international community’s resolve to chase out Islamists that took over half of Mali even in the midst of our own unfinished war with Boko Haram that has made the North-eastern states of Borno and Yobe ungovernable for close to two years.

    The visit was also remarkable because the police institution in terms of power and influence, touches every body’s life; the privileged, the deprived the dispossessed, the depressed, as well as the depraved. Others that look up to the police to survive our harsh environment include musicians, independent oil fraudsters, and even politicians who all have so much to hide or fear from those they claim elected them. The police’s power and authority, as we can see, surpass that of soldiers, priests, doctors, lawyers and even judges.

    The visit, said to have been provoked by a week-long expose by the Channels Television on what was described as ‘the dehumanising conditions trainee policemen go through in the college’, was carried out unannounced by the president accompanied by Mamman Tsafe the Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Zone Two, and the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Umar Manko. They inspected the women’s hostels, the kitchen, and the dining halls.

    Amidst the decay and stench of what goes for a police college, President Jonathan ought to have been persuaded that if we have a brutish, sadistic and corrupt police force, it was because that was exactly what we cultivated. The president was visibly enraged, but unfortunately not by the decay he saw but by the fact that Channels Television was allowed to film and wash our dirty linen in public. But it is sardonic that while all Nigerians can see is a parallel between the rot in the Police College and Jonathan administration, described as the most corrupt in our recent history even by his PDP leading lights, what President Jonathan saw was “a calculated attempt to damage the image of his government”.

    When the president, like an ostrich that buries its head in the sand claims “Ikeja Police College is not the only training institution in the country,” the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Police Affairs , Mr. Usman Kumo, insisted he cannot pretend to be unaware that “All police colleges, barracks and formations in Nigeria are dilapidated and uninhabitable.”, attributable to poor funding, welfare and lack of equipment, problems which ‘had not been addressed for many years’.

    The President’s attempt to play the ostrich has once again demonstrated why his administration has been involved in ‘motion without movement’ (apology to Olatunji Dare) for about two years. Nothing demonstrated this better than the on-going Boko Haram war against government institutions and innocent Nigerians resulting in the recent bombing of St. Andrews Protestant Military Church located in the Command and Staff College, Jaji.

    As it is now the practice, each of President Jonathan’s periodic reassurance to end the Boko Haram insurgency has in the past two years been met by a more devastating bloody attack on innocent Nigerians. Instead of seeking help, we seem to be more interested in expending about $1b monthly on security as recently alleged by El Rufai, the former minister for Abuja Federal Territory.

    Whilst we continue to live in self-denial, the former French ambassador to Mali, an expert in Islamist insurgency, only last Friday told the world during Amanpour CCN program what our president has refused to admit that “Nigeria cannot overcome Al-Qaeda backed Boko Haram without external help”. A day after this bitter truth, the new British High Commissioner, Dr Andrew Pocock, told reporters in Abuja that “Nigeria is not alone in the fight against terrorism” and that. the “United Kingdom (UK) wants to increase its aid to the Nigerian military in its fight against the Islamist sect, Boko Haram, and other terrorists in the West African sub-region.”

    Outside our shores, we can also see the French President François Hollande, who instead of living in self-denial, quickly appealed to the United Nations and European Union immediately France discovered after its troops encounter with Islamist militants in Mali, that the desert fighters are better trained and equipped than France had anticipated before its military intervention. The result was that the EU met the following day, and decided to throw its weight behind the multi-national military operations while also “reiterating the EU’s commitment to providing swift financial assistance to the African-led international support mission in Mali (AFISMA).”

    Government attempt to play the ostrich by its handling of the twin suicide bomb attacks on St. Andrews Protestant Military Church located in the Command and Staff College, Jaji, Kaduna State on November 27, 2012, was a shame and a disservice to our men in military uniform. Why do we delude ourselves by keeping everything in secrecy? Journalists who accompanied Governor Yakowa and other non-military officers were barred from both the scene of the bombing and the hospitals. Officials of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, and the Kaduna State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, and the Red Cross were also barred.

    As a nation, we continue to live in self-denial long after America with her unquestionable scientific advancement and as the world biggest military budget has admitted it cannot prevent all militant and suicide attacks. Last year a deranged soldier turned his gun on his fellow American soldiers killing and maiming many before he was overpowered. American authorities and the military did not bar journalists from reporting and celebrating those who lost their lives in the service of America.

    But here, all we were told was that the death toll in the bomb blast was 15. That was the figure the Commandant of the College, Air vice Marshal Ibrahim Abdullahi Kure, gave while conducting the then Kaduna State Governor, late Patrick Yakowa round the church. Apart from the speculation that many more were killed and injured, no one has told Nigerians anything about these courageous men who made the supreme sacrifice for our nation. In the US, when a foot soldier dies in the service of the nation, he is celebrated. Stories are written about his state, town, family, siblings and his abridged hopes and dreams.

    Of course few days ago, when the Deputy Director, Public Relations of the SSS, Ms. Marilyn Ogar, paraded before newsmen an 18-year-old Ibrahim Mohammed who she claimed confessed to have accompanied two suicide bombers to the gate of Command and Staff College on the day of the attack and one Mohammed Idris, a yam hawker and a native Jalingo, Taraba State as the prime suspects in the mindless murder of innocent Nigerians at Jaji, she met with an incredulous audience.

    Frustrated Nigerians who are now calling for foreign intervention have lost faith in the police and the military precisely because government that should ordinarily see them as citizens and focus of governance, has continued to play the ostrich and has reduced them to periodic participants during elections.

  • Obasanjo meets Tukur

    Obasanjo meets Tukur

    ALL is not well with the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The political behemoth is seized by a debilitating fratricidal war which has stretched to the limit the ability of its elders to make peace.

    In one corner is Chairman Bamanga ‘I have forgiven all’ Tukur, backed by the Presidency, a few members of the National Working Committee (NWC) and some hangers-on in the corridors of power. On the other are governors. They are rooting for sacked National Secretary Olagunsoye Oyinlola, who is believed to be in the camp of the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, who suddenly threw in the towel as chair of the Board of Trustees (BOT) to launch blistering criticisms of the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

    The other day in Abeokuta, some party chiefs joined a ceremony in honour of Obasanjo. It was not meant to be an all-wine-and-dine affair. In fact, Obasanjo and Tukur were believed to have met briefly to discuss the PDP civil war. It was after the talks, according to a reliable source, who swore that he was briefed by another source, who claimed to know a source close to the talks, that Tukur told reporters that he had forgiven all those who offended him.

    No communiqué was issued after the meeting, but Editorial Notebook ran into an old source – a truly reliable one, of course – who claimed to have met a friend of his whose maternal uncle was present at the talks. He pleaded not to be named because of the security implications of the matter.

    Here is his unconfirmed account of the meeting: Tukur and some party chiefs sit in a room, waiting for Obasanjo, who walks in briskly, holding a file. He stretches out his hand to shake Tukur.

    Obasanjo: Chairman, welcome. Thank you so much. Yaya de (How’re you?)

    Tukur: I’m fine sir. I would like us to discuss these problems, Baba. It’s not good for people to think that we can’t settle our differences, despite the fact that we are blessed with elders like you; people who are experienced and you’re a major factor in the resolution of these matters. And (Obasanjo cuts in, raising his left hand).

    Obasanjo: Please, please, Mr Chairman or whatever they call you. If there’s a crisis in your party, our party, what’s Obasanjo’s business in that? Am I still chairman of BOT? You see, if you want to hear the truth, I’ll tell you. Okay, tell me, is this whole thing not a self-inflicted accident? For instance, that boy…em em em, what’s his name now? Oyinlola. What did he do? You said a court asked you to remove him. On what basis? Forget the nonsense going on here in Ogun. It’s all fuelled by some despicable characters who think they can reap where they didn’t sow. Ignore them and let Oyinlola return. Is that not how to make peace?

    And, baba, we’re disturbed by the way you attack the President nowadays. The other day you said he was too slow in his handling of Boko Haram and that when you faced such a problem in Odi you were…

    Thank you, Mr Chairman. I don hear. Please, let’s move on. I don’t have any comment on that. If I criticise him nko? Don’t I have the right to talk? Is that why he unleashed his boys to be calling me a confused man? Haba! You look at it now. (He frowns, shaking his head).Today you say dialogue; tomorrow you send in soldiers. Is that how to be decisive? In any case, what did I say that I shouldn’t have said? That he’s slow? That he’s not decisive? That he should employ the carrot and stick system?

    You see, sir, it is the office that we are talking about, that it deserves some respect from us all, no matter our grievances.

    Okay. Thank you. You have forgotten that I once occupied that seat? Three times! (He raises three fingers and frowns again). And I tried my best. Our legacies are there for those who want to see them to see. We tackled corruption. Are they fighting corruption now? So, if I see anything, because of the office, I should keep quiet ba? Nobody can gag Obasanjo. And this is my position, oga chairman. Office my foot!

    I’m here for peace. I want elders like you to help me rebuild this great party. That is why I’m here.

    You see, this is a simple matter. Anybody who takes up a job, an office, appointed, elected or whatever, whatever. Hmm! Hmmm!(He clears his throat).And you discover that you can no longer do the job, that you lack the capacity to carry on, that you can no longer be decisive, you know what to do. If you say you don’t know what to do, that na your toro. Didn’t I quit the BOT job? It has not diminished my stature and ability to contribute generously to the development of our dear country and our great party. It is unfortunate now that you are having this mutiny, but I will always tell the truth, where there is no justice, there will be no peace. How can I be here as an elder of the party and some boys, some characters, nonentities are coming to you that they are the authentic leaders of our party and you’re listening to them?

    They say you should remove the party secretary, that a court said so and you removed him, even when their case get ‘k leg’. And now you say you want peace; peace ko, piss ni.

    Honestly, baba, we need to move on. Look at Ghana; they have just had an election and all is peaceful, but here we are tearing at each other as if we are at war and we call ourselves Africa’s biggest party.

    Yes. Ghana is becoming a model. Don’t forget I was the chief observer at that election. I ensured that everything went on smoothly. The people listened to me. Some people alleged rigging, but I was there to clear the air. No rigging. Here, any little instruction, you people begin to misbehave. You start shouting ‘do-or-die’! If you’re not doing the right thing and people are talking, you must listen. We must remember one thing: action and reaction in physics are equal and opposite. It is so in human interaction. No reaction is greater than action; you know that and I know that.

    Now, people are saying it’s all about 2015; the next general elections.

    Oh! 2015? You mean some people are already positioning themselves for 2015? Are they performing now? I dey laugh o.

    What is the way forward? We can’t continue like this. Elections will soon come. I am in a hurry to rebuild this party.

    You see, a leader must step on toes. The issue of leadership is a great issue, especially for a country like Nigeria, if we’re going to move forward. And you can’t be a leader if you will not step on toes. Even if you’re a leader in a church or in the mosque, if you have to do what is right, you will occasionally step on toes. Leadership is a responsibility. And anybody who is not prepared to accept responsibility should go. Simple.

    Baba, I see your point. I don’t think there is any deliberate plan to embarrass you because of what you say and…

    Please (He raises his hand and voice) chairman, hold it. Please. Please. Hear me clearly, you can’t embarrass me. Nobody can embarrass Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo. Go and tell them. If anybody is planning any such thing, that is a joke taken too far. Good day and good luck in your self-appointed crusade to unite the party. He stands up to leave and his guests are forced to get set to leave.

    Thank you sir. I take it that we have made some progress.

     

    Super Eagles in South Africa

    SOCCER fans were shocked on Monday when the Super Eagles failed to hold on to a 1-0 lead against Burkina Faso, conceding a last second goal to give the Burkinabes an equaliser they truly deserved. What went wrong?

    The Eagles lacked strategy. They lost concentration and were confused. They were lucky to have escaped with a draw. They played like giants with little hearts. Now Nigerians have started cracking bitter jokes about the team’s fate. Here is one of such rib-crackers:

    Judge to a child during a divorce case: Do you want to live with your mother?

    Child: No

    Judge: Why?

    Child: She beats me

    Judge: Okay. So, you want to live with your dad?

    Child: No

    Judge: Why not?

    Child: He beats me too.

    Judge: So, who do you want to live with?

    Child: Super Eagles

    Judge: Why?

    Child: They never beat anyone!

    I hope Stephen Keshi’s Eagles will prove this child wrong. They can do it.