The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • Party palava; volume I

    Yo folks, it’s that time when I chime out in rhyme.

    To chronicle the thyme and the chaos sublime, Abound in our nation of organised crime.

    As I witness Nigeria go back in her climb,My pen and my paper will mimic my mime.

    The line of this fine rhyme has to do with the grime, Of our political parties; their lemons and lime.

    With two years before our election’s in prime, The spinning and plotting have started their slime.

    I’ll speak of the parties in volume this time.

    In a two week edition of ‘Party Palava’ Prime.

    This week the laundry hung on this clothing line, Will be that of Africa’s biggest party of time.

    Next week, the opposition will be given their dime!

    This screed starts with PDP; the party of greed.

    Where members behave just like zombies who feed.

    For 14 bad years, they force feed us their creed.

    By mislead and misdeed, they misread us indeed.

    At every election, they exceed what’s agreed, And proceed to stampede on the rights of the freed.

    Those decreed with the deed to lead our breed, Succeed only in their own self-serving need.

    Our plights supersede a Balm of Gilead.

    We’re treated like vermin and rattlesnake weed.

    Nigerians recede, live a life where we bleed; An existence where heartache with speed’s guaranteed.

    In this race to accede on that Aso Rock Stead, Already we read that some might just secede.

    Now in my small position, I’ll give a rendition, Of the war of attrition in the PDP mission.

    The competition for admission in the 2015 edition, Was the ignition for the demolition of their old coalition.

    You see, for Johnny’s acquisition, he needs ammunition, So in the party’s transition, he brought an old politician.

    The imposition of Bamanga Tukur amidst no real audition, Created suspicion and opposition partition.

    The composition of the governors in their juxtaposition, Saw ‘this near-sedition’ as their own decommission.

    For it’s just not tradition, in the governor’s supposition, For their views to be in omission in the power transmission.

    Since ‘that’ imposition and Johnny’s decision, The party’s disposition looks more like nuclear fission!

    Now it’s just so insane that this causes such strain. I’ll try to explain this, ‘their hunger to reign’.

    You see, for one to maintain ‘that’ power domain, Their campaign must be lain at the start of the chain.

    It’s plain that our Johnny was using his brain, To retain his best ‘hommie’ as the parties One Main.

    His reasons were plain, his facts were germane.

    In his party’s terrain, he could feel the disdain.

    The bane of resistance, the rain of complain, Are from those who want to attain his leadership crane.

    It’s the governors, who drain their second term grain, That are out to detain John’s jugular vein.

    For, after their gain in the full governor’s lane, Their wish (to be plain) is ‘that’ presidential train!

    Now, in my opine, that’s the bottom line!

    A fight for ‘that’ shrine that powers define.

    At least quarter the governors; around about nine, Have align to fight Johnny in a design most devine.

    To consign his decline, they must as one combine,

    To entwine every swine Johnny forced down their spine.

    The sign for this drama is clearly in shine;

    ‘Infighting Treatens the Giant’; “Oh Golly, Oh mine!”

    Every reason benign, every rant, every whine,

    Will be used by both sides to supine and malign.

    But the one potent vine they will use in refine, Will be about tribe; The North will be asked to realign.

    ‘It’s the turn of the North to recline and to dine’.

    “That’s the tagline that, I’m telling you, we must now decline!”

    If I’m right in my guess and that’s what will transgress.

    Those who possess their full senses must remain convalesce.

    For, how can people who suppress our success,

    Address us like Yoyos just for their own progress?

    In the 2011 mess, our Johnny they did bless.

    At the time of that press, their second terms they’d caress.

    Now they want to address the North’s dispossess,

    When the repress of the region comes from their own excess.

    Unless they transgress their own selfish obsess, The dress of the North will never impress.

    Nevertheless, I must confess, it’s just my assess, I don’t want to digress from our political chess.

    I’m just trying to express my countries depress; Through the voice I possess, through my freedom of press!

    The update does not abate at the governor’s gate.

    To reinstate their weight, they went to Tukur’s state.

    In a move to deflate the Chairman’s dictate, The Adamawa Exco slate was dissolved outright, straight!

    With members of the great NWC joint plotting his fate,

    At this rate, Johnny aint no ‘Alexander the Great!’

    He’s looking more like a knackered ‘Junior Lightweight!

    In attempt to communicate with all those who’ve shown hate, Johnny did conjugate a meeting to reinstate his estate.

    But the negate from the irate does seem to translate, Into a restate where they just want a new Head of State.

    Only time can equate which side will win the debate.

    Whether Johnny’s ambition will at the end procreate, Or if the governors who berate can desecrate on his freight!

    The drama is on another degree in this party grand prix.

    Now, who will be the draftee for the Board of Trustee?

    First they called Anenih, Mr Fix-It, Mr Gutsy, As the ‘Gee’ with the decree to head their family tree.

    Obasanjo did not agree and with the jerk of his knee, Named his fellow retiree, Ahmadu Ali.

    “That just will not be!” said the PDP bourgeoisie.

    They did foresee Baba’s choice as the worst nominee.

    Baba must feel like a ‘Pea’ smack in the Aegean Sea, Coz he created this debris with his skeleton key!

    In this battle of spree between Obasanjo and Johnny, Who will win to guarantee their draftee as top honouree?

    If you ask me, Ekwueme is the best by a million degree.

    But I’ve no say in this Potpourri…, “Hey, I’m just the Emcee!”

    Now I’ll wind down this volume; the first part of two, But already we can see the bamboo breaking through.

    So Oyinlola went askew, when they told him adieu, As the internal kung-fu rages on fresh as new.

    As the governors renew their internal party coup, To subdue and outdo Ebele Jonathan’s view.

    But they must not misconstrue, that only ‘One’ can debut,

    The ‘Cordon Bleu’ that they ALL vehemently seem to pursue!

    Nigerians generally construe, that PDPs time is overdue.

    But only time will review whether the party can make it through, To undo their murky, adverse and unfavourable hue.

    This ‘Party Palava’ in lieu, is a drama that’s starting to brew.

    Gonna take off my shoe and find some popcorn to chew.

    “Gonna watch me some drama folks; God Bless and Thankyou!”

    As I close down this volume of my first critique, My daughter is telling me that I have a cheek!

    I don’t mean to be rude in the words that I speak, I’m just stating the obvious with a different technique.

    When I speak out on politics, my passion’s not meek.

    ‘With our future so bleak’, I bespeak and I shriek.

    A sneak peak at Nigeria gives one such mystique.

    It’s a nation, on paper, that’s blessed and unique; A nation where leaders have led us oblique.

    But we have a chance to seek out our peak, And tweak the main leak where our havoc is wreak.

    It starts with what we allow government to seek!

    I’ll examine the physique of the oppositions’ batik, In ‘Party Palava, Volume II’, which I will write for next week. Let’s make it a date so you can all take a sneak!

  • As unreformable as ever

    As unreformable as ever

    It was shortly after she had assumed office as Nigeria’s Finance Minister after resigning her prestigious position as Vice-President and Corporate Secretary of the World Bank. She was attending a retreat convened by the President along with other members of the Economic Management Team. At one of the sessions, the President abruptly announced that the Budget Office along with its Director had been transferred from the Ministry of Finance to the Presidency. Shocked that such a crucial decision affecting her ministry could be taken without her knowledge, the new appointee promptly packed her papers and left the venue of the retreat. After consultations with family and friends, she tendered her resignation letter to the President the following day. The President flung the letter at the bewildered former international civil servant saying she was free to go. She later learnt that was the ex- soldier turned farmer’s exceedingly polite way of turning down her resignation. The President later rescinded his position on the relocation of the Budget Office and Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was fully welcome aboard the post-colonial national economic jungle known as Nigeria.

    These and other interesting insights are provided in the book titled ‘Reforming the Unreformable: Lessons from Nigeria’, published last year by Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. This highly readable book gives an account of Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala’s stewardship as Nigeria’s Finance Minister between 2003 and 2007. In lucid prose devoid of arcane and obscurantist academic jargon, the author paints a graphic picture of her diagnosis of the country’s economic challenges on resumption of office, the steps taken by the economic team under her leadership to find solutions and the immense challenges they confronted in the process.

    Of course, there is much to disagree with in this book. Given her over two- decade career at the World Bank, for instance, it is not surprising that Mrs Okonjo-Iweala adopts rather uncritically the neo-liberal philosophical and ideological underpinnings of western International Financial Institutions. Thus, state intervention in the economy is inherently bad. Privatisation, liberalisation and deregulation are inevitable, redemptive panaceas for national transformation. She gives no inkling that greedy and reckless international creditors were as culpable for Nigeria’s huge debt overhang as corrupt, unpatriotic and visionless Nigerian leaders. On the appointment of Charles Soludo as Economic Adviser to President Obasanjo, she writes, “we needed a sound macroeconomist – something Nigeria had not had in many years…” This is very untrue and insulting. On the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS), Okonjo-Iweala avers that “…we could truly say that NEEDS was a home-grown Nigerian strategy and action plan to reduce poverty and create wealth- a plan put together by Nigerians for Nigeria”. This is an exaggeration. Most Nigerians were absolutely unaware of what NEEDS was about. In any case, NEEDS died with the Obasanjo administration. Not even Mrs Okonjo-Iweala has mentioned the acronym once in her second incarnation. Transformation agenda is the new mantra.

    In spite of these observations, however, the book as I said is extremely well written. The author’s mental clarity is not in doubt. Her analysis of the country’s economy is pungent and penetrating, which is not surprising given her intellectual and professional antecedents. But then, why the rather condescending title ‘Reforming the Unreformable’? Is it a reflection of her frustration at the impediment of her many ambitious reforms by the forces of graft, stagnation and retrogression? On reading through the book, I discovered that this is not the case. Rather, Mrs Okonjo-Iweala is convinced that the Economic Team under her leadership in the period under consideration indeed made considerable progress in reforming institutions and processes hitherto considered unreformable.

    Thus, in the first paragraph of her concluding chapter she enthuses “The implementation of reforms in the second Obasanjo Administration (2003-2007) broke a cycle of despair and cynicism among Nigerians about the prospects and future of their country. It showed that it is possible to bring about change, that there are Nigerians selfless enough to do this without sinking into corruption or personal gain, and that indeed it is possible to reform this hitherto unreformable country”. Of course, very few Nigerians will agree with this assertion. Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala is more realistic in the very next paragraph when she writes “But did the reforms launch Nigeria on a path of sustainable growth and development? The jury is still out. Nigeria has certainly been growing at a respectable 7 percent average annual rate since the reforms, but it is clear that the Nigerian economy has not yet fundamentally transformed, is not yet creating the number of jobs needed to absorb the youth, and faces a large unfinished reform agenda”.

    Make no mistake about it. Dr. Okonjo-Iweala and other members of her economic team – Nasir El Rufai, Nuhu Ribadu, Oby Ezekwesili, Charles Soludo etc. – did a yeoman’s job in the most difficult of circumstances and amidst intense opposition as detailed in the book. An annual Fiscal Strategy Paper was introduced to map and monitor expenditure to enhance fiscal discipline. They initiated the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Medium Term Sector Strategies (MTSS) as three year rolling budget frameworks to ensure continuity in execution of long-term projects, most of which were usually abandoned. The Due Process mechanism was instituted to enhance transparency in the procurement process while a Cash Management Committee was put in place to regularly reconcile accounts between the Budget Office and the Office of the Accountant General to ensure timely quarterly release of budgetary allocations. Mrs Okonjo-Iweala even made sure budgetary allocations to all tiers of government were published in the media for public awareness. The War Against Corruption was intensified through the EFCC and the initiation of the Fiscal Responsibility Bill. But all Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-‘Wahala’s’ efforts hardly made a dent on an unreformable structure.

    Attempts to enhance transparency in the management of public funds only made corruption more efficient by ensuring adherence to due process in the looting of the public treasury. The privatisation process was often perverted by graft and cronyism. Even the publication of budgetary allocations to the different tiers of government did not arouse the public to demand greater accountability from public officers. More people only clamoured for their own share of such an abundant national bounty! Mrs Okonjo-Iweala was elated that Nigeria paid $12 billion in 2005 to get a debt cancellation of $18 billion and exit the Paris Club of debtors. Not only have the promised benefits of debt forgiveness not materialised, today, Nigeria is smiling all the way back to debt peonage. She was happy that during her first coming, fuel subsidies of at least $1 billion were eliminated. Today, the economy groans under a far heavier weight of the contentious fuel subsidy. We take one step forward and ten steps backwards. The more things appear to change, the more they remain the same. What then is really wrong?

    I think the answer partly lies on page 19 of Dr. Okonjo-Iweala’s book. The Economic Team she writes decided that “…if we were to make any headway in improving economic and social performance of the country, we had to begin with macroeconomic and budgetary reforms”. Wrong. Any meaningful social and economic transformation agenda must begin with fundamental political reforms. Of course, this is beyond the brief of any economic team. It requires determined, principled and visionary political leadership that will push through a fundamental restructuring of our deformed federal polity; radical decentralisation of powers, responsibilities and resources; greater institutional autonomy for the police, judiciary, electoral and anti-corruption agencies among other measures. In the continued absence of such a selfless and purposeful leadership, Nigeria will remain as unreformable as ever no matter Okonjo-Iweala’s exertions.

    Just think of it. Right now, a President who is supposed to give Okonjo-Iweala and her team the full backing of his office for the realization of the transformation agenda is deeply embroiled in the raging civil war within his party with 2015 firmly in focus. As he dodges scud missiles from the direction of Ota, launches bazookas of his own, keeps an eye on suicide bombers from the northern sector and seeks to contain possible snipers among governors and legislators of his party, will he have any time for any transformation agenda? I pity the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and her team. They are severely on their own. After her current tour of duty, I hope Dr. Okonjo-Iweala will not have to write another book titled: ‘Abandoning The Unredeemable’.

  • Fly Eagles, fly

    Fly Eagles, fly

    The battle line is drawn. The 2013 Africa Cup of Nations begins today with pomp and ceremony. At stake is the prestigious trophy for the best country on the continent. There is also a new vista for home-grown lads who will be competing for honours with the established stars.

    The talk among pundits is that Nigeria’s Super Eagles will be in South Africa to make up the numbers and not to wrest the trophy from the surprise winners in 2012, the Chipolopolo of Zambia. They are tipping Cote d’ Ivoire to lift the trophy as consolation for last year’s nail-biting penalty shoot-out loss to the Zambians in the final game.

    The cynics among these pundits mock the Eagles with the sobriquet Super Chicken and are beating their chests that the team, at their best, may shed the toga and emerge as the best entertainers when the curtains fall on the fiesta on February 10 in Johannesburg.

    Will anyone blame these cynics? Could they have made such unsavoury comments in 1996 when the Super Eagles were the toast of the world’s football community?

    Certainly not. Not with what the Super Eagles showcased at the USA’ 94 World Cup and the Dream Team 1’s flawless display of football artistry that fetched Nigeria the gold medal at the Atlanta’96 Olympic Games.

    Seventeen years ago when the last Africa Cup of Nations was held in South Africa, the Super Eagles were matchless in the quality and capacity of talents to deliver scintillating soccer – compared with any other African country.

    In fact, in 1996, the world waited with bated breath to see the mincemeat that the Super Eagles would make of their African foes. There was an armada of stars, such as the late Rashidi Yekini, Peter Rufai, Stephen Keshi, Emmanuel Amuneke, Nwankwo Kanu, Daniel Amokachi, George Finidi, Uche Okechukwu, Ben Iroha, Taribo West, Victor Ikpeba, Tijani Babangida, Chidi Nwanu, the late Uche Okafor et al.

    Pundits placed their last bets on the Eagles strolling to South Africa to lift the trophy. The Eagles were going to the 1996 edition as defending champions, having beaten a Zambian side that lost all the members of the senior side, the Chipolopolo, in a plane crash in Gabon.

    No one dared bet against the Eagles lifting the trophy in South Africa. But Nigeria’s head of state then, the late Gen. Sani Abacha, had other ideas. Abacha, for political reasons, prevented the Eagles from defending their title, despite appeals from the global body’s chieftains and leaders of thought in the world.

    South Africa’s Bafana Bafana won the trophy and not a few pundits felt that the Eagles would have swept other options away, if Abacha had listened to good advice.

    But on Monday, the Eagles have a date with history against the Stallions of Burkina Faso and we are back to our old ways of asking Nigerians to pray for the team’s victory as if the Burkinabes don’t worship God too. Our players must play to their potentials. Only the cup is what Nigerians want and they cannot be asking for too much.

    The truth is that the Eagles ought to be the default winners of any African football competition. The talk ought to be about likely opponents of the Nigerian side in the finals and not otherwise, if we had sustained the tempo of performance after the 1994 and 1996 feats.

    The Eagles attained the heights that the current Spanish senior side enjoys, such that many would easily tip the Spaniards to qualify for the finals of the 2014 World Cup, if they continue with their steady rise in the world’s ranking.

    Nigerians want to see against the Burkinabes, boys who are hungry to fight for the balls and beat the opposition at dusk. We want to see committed players who won’t disappoint us. Nigerians are tired of excuses. They want to sleep fulfilled, waiting for the next game against the Zambians on January 25.

    Nigerians want to return to their offices on Tuesday to savour some of the exciting moments of the defeat of the Burkinabes. They want to sit in their homes to analyse trends in the game and make projections.

    Whenever the Eagles are doing well, everything comes to a halt. We forget our ethnic differences and see ourselves as a united nation.

    The talk about the Super Eagles not getting funds early is cheap. The Eagles owe Nigerians a credible outing to atone for the pain and shame of previous heart-wrenching displays.

    The present bunch of Super Eagles must utilise the platform the Africa Cup of Nations offers to return the team to where it was before they came. The Eagles were world beaters. They played in some of the best leagues in the world. Nigerians were proud every time foreigners recognised them as Jay Jay Okocha, Nwankwo Kanu¸ Daniel Amokachi et al.

    They cherished such moments when foreigners asked after our sports ambassadors and talked about their exploits with glee. It made us proud. Soccer was our brand identity and the domestic game benefited from it as European scouts made our league centres their second home to get cheap talents for export.

    The European scouts’ invasion emboldened the domestic league players to give out their best. It changed the mindset of the local stars, who hitherto, relied on shylock middlemen to take their trade to Europe in search of the proverbial Golden Fleece.

    Nigeria’s Eldorado years in football witnessed our players making Belgium their home whilst other European countries were hustling to have some of our best in their country. The ripple effect of the star-trek to Europe gave the domestic game the impetus for growth that has now been corrupted by the failure of leadership at the Nigeria Premier League since its inception.

    The new dawn should start with the Eagles lifting the trophy. Anything short of that is a misadventure and absolutely unacceptable. So, can the Eagles fly in South Africa?

    Is Ejide jinxed?

    In the year 2000, Shuaibu Amodu informed this writer that Austin Ejide was the best goalkeeper he had seen in the domestic league. Amodu moved five steps; punched the air and prayed that Ejide should stay out of injury.

    Ejide was then a goalkeeper at Gabros International. Amodu was convinced that he would be Nigeria’s greatest. In fact, Amodu confirmed Ejide as a specialist in catching penalties – a trait many Nigerian goalkeepers do not have.

    Months later, I saw Amodu wear a forlorn look. He said: “Old boy, that Ejide has problems o! He sustains injuries, especially when you need him most. Anyway, I will help him. He has this recurring shoulder injury. I have contacted doctors who can help him.”

    Ejide’s story has been that of injury today; fit tomorrow. But when he is fit, he is best – a fact former German legend and Super Eagles coach Berti Vogts attested to by picking him ahead of fans’ favourite, Vincent Eneyam, at the Ghana’2008 Africa Cup of Nations.

    Is Ejide too fragile? Or is he jinxed? I don’t think so; not with his big physique that is his greatest asset. He needs to be very careful. He also should charge out of his goalpost like a lion. He should also expect those crunchy tackles and learn how to dodge them.

    Indeed, not many people know that Ejide was at the 2002 Korea/Japan World Cup as the team’s third goalkeeper behind Ike Shorunmu and Enyeama.

    One only hopes that Ejide gets well for the South Africa 2013 Africa Cup of Nations.

    Missing Super Eagles

    Stephen Keshi has picked his 23-man squad. We need to support him. Yet watching the European leagues last week, I was restless whilst watching Victor Anichebe play for Everton against Swansea at the Goodison Park Stadium.

    Anichebe troubled Swansea’s defence for the 83 minutes he played. The game ended on a barren note, yet you could see delighted Swansea players hugging the Nigerian.

    He will surely be missed by Keshi and the Eagles. He missed out due to recurring injuries. We expect him back for the 2014 World Cup qualifiers.

    Another lad the Eagles would miss is Inter Milan’s Joel Obi, who returned to full fitness last week. If he had returned two weeks earlier, Keshi would have picked him. He held Eagles’ midfield in matches where others tottered.

    Joel Obi was Keshi’s pick-of-the-pack in most matches. He too will be missed. The good news though is that Obi is available for Nigeria’s 2014 World Cup qualifiers.

  • The nation and the education of the public

    The nation and the education of the public

    Last week, I ended my comments with a reference to Nyerere’s idea of the purpose of education, which, for him was to transmit from one generation to the next the accumulated wisdom and knowledge of the society, and to prepare the young people for their future membership of the society and their active participation in its maintenance or development. I then suggested that traditional communities of old paid serious attention to this important area of their responsibilities within the scope of the resources—tangible and intangible—available to them. And I suggested that we must ask ourselves a pertinent question: “how have our contemporary societies fared with regard to the discharge of this grave responsibility?” Today, I deal with this question.

    Let me first try to explain and defend the view that traditional societies paid attention to the responsibility to educate, which again, is simply preparing the young people that society brings into its world for meaningful membership of the society and for active participation in its maintenance and development.

    Whatever little doubt there is about the theory of a fundamental selfishness in the motivation of individuals and societies for wanting children and bringing them into the world is removed if we pay close attention to the very idea of reproduction, which connotes the act of producing again the same entity. We want to reproduce ourselves because we crave immortality. Bina ba ku a feeru boju. Bogede ku a fomo e ropo. Death must not be final; there must be continuity. This was and still is the understanding of traditional communities. This is why individual families and communities at large would always place a premium on preparing their young for their future membership of the society so they can carry on; so families and communities do not suffer extinction.

    The preparation of the young, which is what education is about, takes different forms but with the same goal and objective. Thus families prepare their young to take over the traditional role that the family is identified with in the community. Music making, crafts making, hunting guild, and healing are activities for which particular families are known and the children of such families just grow into the activities and thus maintain the horizontal division of labor within the society.

    A second but complimentary approach to preparing the young is the transmission of the family’s and society’s values of the dignity of labor, honesty, self-respect and dependability. No family wants its family name put to shame through the actions of any of its sons and daughters. Preparing the young for membership of the society is arming them against the disease of shamelessness. Note that preparation for the acquisition of material possession has nothing to do with this philosophy of education. The major goal is for the values of society to be transmitted and sustained, that everyone is empowered to make meaningful contributions to the society, and that the society is thereby primed for perpetuity.

    The foregoing enables us to understand why none of the samplers of our traditional communities boasted of overly rich or overly poor people. And in none of those societies did we ever have loafers and idlers. This is not romanticism. There was the full engagement of every member of the traditional communities in one form of activity or another. That was the outcome of the system of traditional education. Thus, unless during festivals, it would be very unusual to behold a sea of heads in the central square of any traditional village community, roaming about aimlessly and hopelessly.

    Ponder then over the present condition of our downtowns, inner cities and urban communities and ask yourself the question: “how have our contemporary societies fared in the grave responsibility of preparing the young for meaningful membership of the society and for its maintenance and development?” And the answer is not in doubt: Our contemporary record has been woeful and absolutely not comparable with the achievements of traditional society in the education of the young.

    Surely, we cannot compare apples and oranges, it might be argued. The world of traditional society was/is parochial and closed, with little or no ambition. The transformation of that world into the modern nation-state is something to appreciate and celebrate. But with that transformation come the difficulties of reconciling different outlooks and mobilising opposing forces. The fact that our own particular mode of transformation was mediated by foreign forces, which had little to no regard for the antecedent value orientation did not help matters. Indeed, it may be noted that, through the instrumentalities of those foreign forces, we moved away from the traditional notion of education as preparation for meaningful membership in society to one that emphasises the goal of individual advancement.

    I am not persuaded by the kind of defence of failure that is represented in the preceding paragraph. The point is this: whether we accept the traditional conception of education as preparation of the young for a meaningful membership in the society or we affirm the so-called foreign mediated version that sees education as the promotion of individual advancement, our contemporary efforts have failed to produce results. We have failed to prepare the majority of our young for meaningful membership of society and we have not quite succeeded in putting the majority of them on the ladder of individual advancement. In fact, I don’t see a serious conflict between the two conceptions. A young person that is successfully prepared for individual advancement does not thereby stop being a meaningful member of society provided he or she is not ego-centric or ego-driven.

    The caveat just entertained is the crux of the matter. There is a shortsighted mentality that views individual advancement in clearly egocentric terms and it is represented in the majority of those who took over from the foreign forces. To this group, the good of the self takes precedence over the good of the whole and their educational policies reflect this mindset. That was why even in our nation, it took the courage and foresightedness of only one regional leader to uphold and argue the view that human beings are the most important resource and must be the subject of societal and national investment so they can become meaningful members of society.

    This philosophical position was then combined with a visionary planning that ensures that the policy of Universal Free Primary Education (UFPE) was successful. Teacher training, schools construction and classroom space were prioritised. Additionally provision was made for the products of the UFPE to proceed to post primary institutions with the establishment of secondary modern schools and technical and trade schools. This was why the phenomenon of area boys was a rare occurrence in the fifties and sixties.

    That vision has only been furthered in a few progressive islands that dot the ocean of intellectual and political stupor that makes up our national existence. And it is not a surprise that our young ones are hopeless and aimless. We brought them into the world without a plan for their becoming meaningful members of society. We don’t seem to have a clue as to how to make provision for the masses of drop outs from every level of the system so they don’t become useless to themselves. And the ones that make it through the systems become despondent because they have no jobs and they have no means of self-employment. Until we come to the realisation that the nation must educate its public for meaningful existence, we will continue to live with the consequences of our collective denial.

     

     

  • Nigeria, as it could be made (3)

    I will not dare to think that this grave we dig today shall bloom tomorrow. But it could. Nigeria could become that mass grave we dream to bury the shoots of nationhood and bliss nurtured by men we may never measure up to. But this is hardly about the founding fathers in whose hands Nigeria pirouetted and prospered.

    This is about you and me. This is about our knack for turning logic on its head to complement our innate greed and perversions. If we could help it, Nigeria would die on our watch, today. This minute, every civil dream and seed of State shall evaporate, if we could incite our will to humour our wile.

    We think Nigeria is a mistake. But Nigeria was never a mistake. It is never the mistake. You and I are the mistake. You and I are the emblems of hope serving as crops of wrath where covetousness and deceit whets inhuman appetites.

    As you read, the myth of war and secession holds fast. Despite the bitterness that trails the Nigerian civil war, characters that ought to know better acidly pronounce the necessity of war and violent secession like the next best thing that could ever happen to you and me.

    This myth holds particularly among the youths because it is all they could manage today. War and separation remains appealing to the Nigerian youth not just because politicians, activists and journalists of vulpine intent and intellect claim it’s our next best alternative, our youth lust for war and secession because the idea offers fleeting moments of sentimentality that reinforces their dreams of acceptance and self-worth. Even those who know it to be a farce are loath to jettison that infectious romanticism that gets them giddy as overfed cattle gorging on barn supplies.

    The youth are told that the only times in their lives that they would be worth something and enjoy a hopeful reality is when they agree to serve as cannon fodder for the total balkanization of the Nigerian State.

    They do not know the import of the politics they perpetuate. It’s not about defending the interests of a minority tribe nor is it about paving the way for a more responsible and humane government. It’s about working for some tyrant activist who works for some rich and privileged cabal with all manners of interests.

    Many have made a case for a Sovereign National Conference (SNC). They argue that if Nigeria is to move forward or attain progress of any kind, we must sit down to reconsider and decide if really it would serve everyone’s interest to preserve the Nigerian dream.

    I agree that the nation needs to sit down to deliberate over the most dependable and progressive path forward. However, it would be the greatest fraud and disservice to you, me and posterity if we claim that splitting Nigeria remains the most practicable solution to our grief.

    The very voices that cry for a referendum will get to the SNC to pound drumbeats of dissolution and rancor. Suddenly they will become strange to relate, largely silent or antagonistic to the preservation of the Nigerian State. It is alright for a people to determine what course of action would best serve their interests but it would be suicidal for us all to believe that our travails shall end in a new Biafra, Federal Republic of Oodua or United States of Arewa.

    In every new, independent nation we build, there shall be no secure civilization or the usual securities by which a nation thrives. That is because whatever new States we create shall comprise of ignorant, turbulent proletariat stymied by crushing poverty and interminable penchant to play dumb. Such manner of working class or grassroots would as usual be dominated by the same ruling class whose insensitivity and wile informs our desire to separate.

    Were the nation’s legislature at its best not a coven of rats and perfidious bums, there would be no wisdom in the convention of a sovereign national conference. But the Nigerian legislature is what it is and you and I are to blame for it.

    There is a better life to be had by the Nigerian dream if our youth could endeavour to look inwards and channel that latent reserve we’ve scorned for ages. It is about time we understood that in any new nation we get to create, the current youth shall never become part of the ruling class.

    As it is now in contemporary Nigeria, every new leadership we have in every new nation we create shall effortlessly dominate us and impose upon us their children, relatives and political associates while they make labourers and thugs of the youth by whose blood, bestiality and sweat whatever new nation was achieved.

    The choice is ours to make; we either choose to remain a bunch of fools and clueless agitators or we could choose to leave the current leadership to the madness it perpetuates while we chart fresh paths to the future of our dreams.

    Some of our greatest problems in this country, besides corruption, are racism and greed. However, the Nigerian youth need not be handicapped by these but we seem not to know that. The future of Nigeria lies in our hands. Sovereign National Conference or not, no solution or highfaluting socio-political or economic policy would work under the leadership and citizenship of unrepentant racists and self-aggrandizing characters like you and me.

    It is time to heal. It is time for the Nigerian youth to take its rightful place in the scheme of things. I will never tire from saying that it’s about time we sought and identify our own candidate – the untiringly just and humane candidate. And let it be known that we shall never find such candidate amidst the coven of predators to whom we have learnt to serve as prey.

    In order to heal, the Nigerian youth need to create and unite under a socio-political platform immune to and jealously guarded against the madness of materialism, racism and intractable wile.

    We need to identify the demons that drive the ruling class and dispossess our minds of every vanity that makes us habitable to similar fiends. The tragedy of our generation subsists in our seemingly uncontainable prospects and our desperation to be lorded over and contained, at a price. We are more endowed in intellect and humanity than the current ruling class. Thus let us not continue to serve as disposable pawns in its politics of bitterness and plunder. Rather let us seek to foster such political base as I advocate in the interest of you and me.

    It is time to heal and while the healing of our seemingly vast sores is progressing, the Nigerian youth, irrespective of personal politics and tribe, should learn to live and strive, united in common effort, in pursuit of a common government, sensitive to mutual thought and feeling, yet subtly and silently separate in matters of politics and individuality.

    If this unusual and unpredictable development is to flourish amid peace and order, reciprocal respect and budding intelligence, it will call for that truest and most dependable social surgery I advocate: revolution by the ballot system.

    To be continued…

  • The world’s best

    The world’s best

    Greatness of a nation is invariably determined not by those who govern her but by the use to which the ordinary citizens of such a nation put their endowed talents and skills. No nation can ever be great in the absence of her citizens. As a matter of fact, nothing is called a nation without the people who inhabit the landmass of the concerned area and deploy their skills for the development of its resources. In a nutshell, it is the combined greatness of individual citizens that often constitutes the greatness of any nation. That is why all responsible governments encourage citizens of their countries to strive for lofty heights in all field of human endeavour. Ironically, however, while some nations become great because of their citizens’ skills, others remain static because of their governments’ inaction. Nigeria belongs to the latter. But despite the continuous inaction of her government, this most populous African country luckily continues to enjoy the benefit of international glory often wrought by the personal efforts of her talented citizens.

    Saturday, November 29, 2012 was a unique historic day of glory for Nigeria at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, where the 2012 global Annual Youth Conference was held. Two special themes were chosen for the conference which is generally known as Annual Youth Assembly (AYA). One of those themes is ‘Millennium Development Goals’ (MDG). The other is ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDG). The main objective of AYA is to encourage some focused world youths to exhibit their intellectual prowess in proffering solutions to contemporary and future global challenges. It is organised at the instance of the ‘Friendship Ambassadors Foundation’ (FAF).

    Present at the November 2012 conference were some shakers and movers of global events from all parts of the world including permanent representatives of the various countries at the United Nations. They clustered the venue of the conference like a galaxy of stars waiting to usher the world’s most ingenuous leaders of tomorrow into today’s Hall of Fame with a chorus of KUDOS! The event was beamed live to virtually all parts of the world through various TV Cable Networks. The historic announcement of the winners which climaxed the one week event was greeted with a thunderous applause and overwhelming ovation. Out of the 700 hundred contestants from more than 70 countries of the world, three best winners emerged at the occasion. One of them was from Africa. Another was from Asia while the third was from South America. When the glorious moment of announcing the very best of the three finalists came, a grave but anxious silence descended on the hall. This was followed by a lone baritone voice that announced thus: “…..And the winner is RAHMAH ADERINOYE FROM NIGERIA!!!!! The audience roared into an unprecedented ecstasy of jubilation hugging and shaking hands with one another just as the chanting of CONGRATULATIONS rented the air for several minutes with songs of joy. Rahmah had beaten the two other finalists from China and Haiti to the second and third positions respectively. It was indeed, a rare moment of glory for a comatose country like Nigeria dangling ceaselessly like a pendulum with a noose on the altar of dysfunction. History was made once again by a Nigerian for Nigeria but without an input from the latter. An unfortunate incident at that moment, however, was the conspicuous absence of any official from Nigeria. While all other participants were officially accompanied and supported by the representatives of their countries, as usual, no notable Nigerian official representative was there. Unlike what obtains in focused countries, Nigeria does not attach any importance to assisting or supporting her own citizens in making any glory of that sort. As a country, she prefers to proclaim any individual who, out of personal effort, makes glory as her worthy citizen. And that preference was demonstrated again at the 2012 AYA conference. That Nigeria was not officially represented on such a glorious occasion cannot be a surprise to anybody who knows this country very well. After all, a similar incident occurred in March 1987 when a onetime Grand Qadi of Northern Nigeria, the late Sheikh Abubakar Mahmud Gumi won the prestigious King Faisal Award just six months after Wole Soyinka won Nobel Laurel in September 1986. And while the foreign press was celebrating the honour days and nights, the same Federal Government which sent a powerful delegation to accompany Wole Soyinka to Stockholm (in Sweden) six months earlier remained nonchalant. It took yours sincerely to write on the matter severally (then in The Concord) pointing out the government’s hypocrisy and religious bias before something could be done at the federal level. And by the time the then General Ibrahim Babangida-led government decided half-heartedly to congratulate Sheikh Gumi and accept to play a role, all arrangements had been privately completed by the late Bashorun MKO Abiola who volunteered to bear the entire cost.

    It was he (Abiola) who invited about 200 eminent Nigerians to form a delegation which was to accompany Sheikh Gumi to Riyadh, (the Saudi Arabian capital) where the award was to be given. He also provided their travelling tickets and Basic Travelling Allowance (BTA) even as he chartered the Jumbo Jet that conveyed them. The then government only stepped in belatedly following my series of articles and that was on the suspicion that Bashorun Abiola might use the event to score a political point. Thus, if we have a government in place today which repeated such episode by choosing to be indifferent to the great honour won for Nigeria by Rahmah; it should not be a surprise. The sadistic tradition has long been established. Thank God, however, that the name of this brilliant future leader did not come up at that level in connection with cocaine pushing or human trafficking which would have automatically attracted the attention of our government and Nigerian Press. The 1987 episode is recalled here because yours sincerely was on the two mentioned (Stockholm and Riyal) delegations.

    Who is Rahmah Aderinoye?

    The common question on the lips of most people who witnessed the 2012 MDG event and which may also become the main question from many readers of this column is the one above. Who is Rahmah Aderinoye? And the answer to that question is not far-fetched. Rahmah Adebodun Aderinoye is a tender female University student with the heart of a brave male. She is the fifth and last child of her parents but also the fourth daughter. Her natural visage betrays her intellectual mien. In appearance, she looks half her father and half her mother an indication that she cuts a chip of each of the two parents. Rahmah Aderinoye, a Nigerian student of Biology at the University of Texas (USA), is vigorously proving to be a sucker rather than a bud in her family tree. And like any potent sucker, her burning desire is to outgrow the stem and foliages of that consanguine tree without minding any local tradition accorded her gender. Her pedigree is strong, no doubt, but her towering surge is independent of that pedigree as she charts her course ahead with little expectation of any assistance from any particular individual. She has caught a niche for herself in a world where even older adults refuse to be weaned from their parental ladle. Born to Professor Rasheed and Hajia Biqis Aderinoye in Ibadan about 23 years ago and christened Rahmah (meaning Blessing) this courageous young woman is truly becoming a universal blessing not only to her parents or her country but also to African continent as well as the global Muslim Ummah. Already, without prompting, she has chosen to be an Ambassador Plenipotentiary for her fatherland as she flies the latter’s green-white-green flag loftily and admirably at the international level without asking the forbidden question of ‘what can my country do for me?. By all means, Rahmah epitomises the new dream generation with a life ambition to put Nigeria on the special map of success story. Now a final year biology student at the University of Texas, Arlington, USA, Rahmah had her elementary education at the University of Ibadan Staff School and her secondary education at the International School, UI, Ibadan before proceeding to South Carolina University from where she moved to the University of Texas on scholarship.

    What qualified her for this laurel?

    Motivated by a burning desire to give a helping hand to fellow Nigerians in alleviating the crushing poverty and squalor in the land, Rahmah established a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) named ‘Youth for Intellectual Interaction Initiative (YIII) with more than 20 volunteers in Nigeria, United Kingdom and the US. It was this NGO that she used in applying for participation in the 2012 MDG project that fetched her the glorious laurel that now makes her a global star. And with that laurel she has automatically become a ‘Fellow of (UN) Resolution’. Already, she has been commissioned by UNICEF to develop and work on a concept to empower the vulnerable youths in Africa an assignment which she sees as a veritable opportunity to further propel the African youths into continental development through a deserving renaissance. Thus, she is a UNICEF global Ambassador.

    Shortly before the announcement of the results of the competition, Rahmah called her father on phone to inform him of her nervousness having been overwhelmed by the galaxy of other contestants. But in response, her father, an experienced professor of education, told her to calm down saying: “I won’t be surprised if you win”. And when the event was over, she made the following confession: ‘So, when my name was announced, I became frightened and was shaking. Three winners emerged at the end of the day from three continents (Asia, Africa and South America) and these were a Nigerian, a Chinese and a Haitian. I was proudly thrilled to represent Nigeria at the Youth Assembly at the UN. For me, participating in that Social Challenge Venture was pretty exciting but it involved a lot of work. I had to submit some drafts before presenting my project in front of over 700 delegates from the world and face the judges and the crowd. I was really, really nervous…” Throwing light on the real nature of the competition, she said: “At the annual youth assembly, Resolution Project looks at youthful students in colleges, asks them to present a problem peculiar to their localities and suggest possible solutions to such a problem. If the proposal is accepted, the project then gives both mentoring and financial assistance to help them bring about the solution they proposed.” She continued: “I was supposed to pick a problem staring Nigerians in the face and propose a solution to it. So the problem I chose was poverty which is the number one set goal of the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations. I proposed empowerment through skills acquisition. This means that I will basically be empowering people in some vocations thereby making them self-sufficient and ultimately working towards the set goals of the UN. Thus, the solution I proposed was empowerment through skills acquisition.”

    Narrating her planned approach to tackling poverty especially in Africa, Rahmah said: “The best approach to tackling poverty as far as I am concerned is to train people in some vocations, stressing that “what we will be doing is training people in some vocations such as baking, bead making, farming, tailoring and some couple of others but it’s going to be one vocation at a time. Now, after these people are trained, we will provide them with basic materials they need to start up and that way, they can start making money for themselves.” Asked to state specifically what she will now be doing as a Fellow of (UN) Resolution and UNICEF Ambassador the 23 year old eloquent student of Biology said: “I presently volunteer with UNICEF USA to raise funds and create awareness for various projects. Recently, for instance, I led a number of fellow youths in the US to raise funds for the Children of Syria who are being subjected to all sorts of abuse and insecurity of life. We were trying to get more relief materials for them in their various refugee camps. And now, I am working on what is called Zero Project. It is estimated that about 19,000 children die daily of preventable causes and this figure comes from just five countries in the world. Sadly, Nigeria happens to be one of them. “At UNICEF, USA, we believe that number can be reduced to ZERO. For this reason we raise funds to be invested in the affected countries and we shall continue to do so until we get to ZERO level. As for her future plans this is what Rahmah has to say: I want to complete my undergraduate studies at the end of the current academic session and start post graduate studies. Also, I am planning to go ahead with my project in Nigeria if only as a fulfillment of my dream of bringing zero project to my country alongside my proposed solution at the United Nations. So I need every Nigerian to team up with me and my teammates in this initiative.”

    When ‘THE MESSAGE’ asked Rahmah’s father to comment on his daughter’s performance he simply said “I am highly impressed Alhamdu Lillah”. Professor Aderinoye, a Professor of Education at the University of Ibadan who is currently the Deputy Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) however explained that he earlier entertained fear about the project because his daughter started it when her examination was approaching. But she assured him that she would cope.

    Perhaps if Osun, the ‘State of Integrity’ had not been Rahmah’s indigenous state, nothing would have been heard about her great achievement from any government circle in Nigeria. It was the State of Osun alone that officially invited her for the establishment of a branch of her NGO in that state and provided an office for it. The state government, represented by the Commissioner for Youths and Women Affairs, Mrs. Folake Adegboyega and the Senior Special Adviser to the Governor on Youth and Women Empowerment, Mr. Abdullah Binuyo also sponsored the launching of the NGO. And such is quite in line with Osun State’s policy of youth empowerment.

    Lesson to learn

    For parents who discriminate in the training of their children, this is a lesson. Rahmah is the fifth and last child of her parents. Only one of those children is a male. And all of them are doing as fantastically well in their respective callings as the only male child among them. What else does any sensible person want in a child? More than 90 per cent of Nigerian problems are currently caused by male children. And on the contrary, it is female children who take care of their parents better in old age. Besides, isn’t it ingratitude to Allah on the part of those who think parochially that male children are better than female children? That is a food for thought. We pray the Almighty Allah to prolong and protect the life of Rahmah Aderinoye with further guidance and blessings even as we implore Allah to give our Ummah many more of her type. Amin.

  • Jonathan in the hot seat

    Jonathan in the hot seat

    Life is being made increasingly difficult for President Jonathan and his administration by his critics, including some leading members of his own party. Some of them are in open rebellion against him. There is also growing public impatience, discontent, and disillusionment with his PDP government. Last week, “The Patriots”, an old and normally sedate pressure group of some prominent public figures, drawn from all sections of the country, joined others in criticising the government. It issued a press statement attacking President Jonathan for what it claimed was the drift and lack of direction in the nation. The group, which includes Professor Ben Nwabueze, Chief Philip Asiodu, General Alani Akinrinade, and Chief Ayo Adebanjo, the veteran Afenifere leader, among others, made the following specific demands on the Jonathan PDP government;

    •the convocation of a National Conference to review the Constitution

    •the reconstruction of the government and the appointment into the federal cabinet of a selfless, patriotic, and energetic team

    •an end to the huge and outrageous remuneration of holders of public offices

    •the reduction of government agencies and cost of governance

    •a more vigorous fight against public corruption through the punishment of those found guilty of it, and

    •improved public safety and security

    These demands by “The Patriots” are not new. They reflect the massive discontent in the nation over the perceived failure, or inability, of the Jonathan PDP Federal Government to tackle these long standing national problems.

    To be fair, President Jonathan actually inherited some of these problems from his predecessors. Some of his critics did not do any better when they were in office. But he has failed to tackle them effectively. There is a palpable sense of fear and resignation that the nation is heading to the precipice unless the government acts swiftly and with greater determination to tackle the myriad of problems facing the country. Despite his best efforts, President Jonathan appears overwhelmed by these national problems which have lingered for far too long. Of these, the present threat to public order and safety by Boko Haram and the mass unemployment remain the major sources of public concern in the nation. Fuelled by rising oil revenue, the economy has recorded an impressive average annual growth rate of 7% since last year. But the vast majority of the people remain poor. Some will say they are even poorer today than ever before. The impressive economic growth has not translated into a better life for the people. That is the primary purpose of an elected democratic government. The bulk of the nation’s wealth remains in private hands, while the majority of the people wallow in abject poverty. In the circumstances, criticism of the PDP government for its failure to govern effectively is right and legitimate.

    The timing of the criticism by “The Patriots” is not without some significance. Right now, the PDP Jonathan government, through its seeming inaction, is highly vulnerable to political barbs. The party leaders are badly divided. Instead of facing the nation’s problems squarely, they have continued with their unrestrained political bickering. The party now has very little electoral appeal. The political situation in the nation remains tense and disturbing. The nation is in ferment as the politicians begin to jockey for positions in anticipation of the Presidential elections in 2015. Though the elections are three years away, the politicians are already on the hustings and have abandoned all pretence of governing. Most of the nation’s problems are increasingly being swept under the carpet, left by the government unattended to. The deepening crisis in the PDP, the ruling party, has made the situation worse. It is as if no one is in charge of the nation now, as the President is deeply involved in the political horse trading now taking place in the PDP.

    President Jonathan will, undoubtedly, seek his party’s nomination for the 2015 presidential elections. It is this quest by him that is directly responsible for the crisis in the party. But it is by no means certain that he will get it. There is a lot of opposition from Northern political leaders who want power to revert to the North. Political alignments and alliances change very swiftly in Nigeria. Tribal politics has again taken the centre stage in Nigeria’s politics. President Jonathan cannot even count on the support of his political mentor, former President Obasanjo, with whom he has fallen out politically. President Obasanjo has recently been one of his worst critics. Under the control of the ACN, the Southwest is playing its cards very close to its chest. It wants to be part of a grand political alliance that can stop the PDP and President Jonathan from winning the 2015 elections. But this remains a major challenge. The party has leant from its previous experience that some of its possible political allies cannot be trusted and lack credibility. For the party, the options are really limited. At best, it can only play a second fiddle if it enters into an alliance with the other opposition parties which, on their own, cannot win any federal elections. The party is on the horns of a dilemma.

    In many respects, ‘The Patriots” have hit the nail right on the head with their stinging criticism of the Jonathan PDP Federal Government. But to be blunt, some of them have, in the past, been in government before, and have been a source of some of the problems now confronting the nation. One of them helped the Abacha military dictatorship to draft and impose the draconian military decrees under which the nation was ill governed for long. When in office, many of them contributed to the public corruption they now decry. But this should not detract from the quality of their demands, nor be held against them in present circumstances as they articulate the voice of the people.

    However, the call of “The Patriots” for a national conference to review the Constitution is questionable and possibly impractical. Neither the Executive nor the National Assembly is favourably disposed to the idea. Their support for such a Conference is vital if it is to succeed. There is a parallel exercise now going on in the National Assembly. But there is no consensus there on what amendments are deemed desirable, or necessary. There is squabbling in the Legislature over the creation of more states and state police. And re-writing the Constitution, a mere legal framework, will not necessarily solve our problems.

    Since the 1959 Independence Constitution, we have had several major reviews of the Constitution. We have moved from the Westminster model to the White House model without being able to solve our national problems. As Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos rightly observed in his recent interview in The Nation, it is not a new Constitution that will solve our national problems of insecurity, increasing poverty, public corruption, poor infrastructure and ineffective governments at all levels in Nigeria. In 2005, President Obasanjo called a National Political Reform Conference, in which I participated, to work out a new Constitution for the nation. Some of the recommendations of the Conference were quite useful, but they were never seriously considered by the National Assembly. That Conference cost the nation billions of naira. But President Obasanjo called it off when he did not get his way on the third term issue. In any case, the Conference hit a brick wall on the issue of a review of the formula for the sharing of the national revenue from oil. Another conference will almost certainly fail over this contentious issue.

    If we must have a national conference, then it should be sponsored and financed by those calling for it, and not by the government. It will be another political jamboree. We should not continue to waste our meagre national financial resources on Conferences that are unlikely to solve our problem What the nation needs is good and effective government under a disciplined and committed leadership, not endless political conferences that will not get us anywhere.

  • The Arepo conundrum

    The Arepo conundrum

    From the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway end leading directly into Arepo, everything looks quiet. With such a false appearance, you will think that nothing is happening in that little village called Arepo, which you are about driving into. As you branch off the express road and head into Arepo, you will see a filling station by your right and a row of shops. You will see many more shops as you drive down the washed out road. Arepo had no road at all until about five years ago. Is it even up to five years? What it had then was a dusty patch which passed off as a road. Until journalists arrived there about nine years ago, Arepo was a rustic community peopled by those living in mud houses. Now things have changed, with beautiful houses dotting the Arepo landscape. In Arepo today, there may be no fewer than 25 estates, with the Journalists’ Estate Phases 1 & 11 leading the pack. Arepo is fast developing and it has become popular within a short time. It has all what it takes to rival Lekki in Lagos State.

    But and this is a big but, the problem is that of vandals. Arepo can be loosely translated in English as where oil is found. It is not that oil was found in Arepo; no not at all. The only nexus between it and oil is that a pipeline passes through the village. The System 2B Pipeline has been in existence for years, but it has suddenly dawned on some criminals that they have been living close to a goldmine without reaping from it. What benefit they want to reap from their proximity to the pipeline other than regular supply of petroleum products, I don’t know.

    Arepo is bordered by the sea and the pipeline passes through this sea. But the daredevil vandals are not bothered. Times without number, they have vandalised the pipeline to siphon fuel. Those who live in that axis know what they go through virtually on a daily basis because of these vandals’ activities. Most nights, pungent smell of petrol waft in the air as if there is a refinery nearby. At such times, you don’t need to be told that these vandals are at work. The smell is so strong that it can leave those with respiratory disorder breathless. Only God knows the number of people that may have suffered heart seizure from inhaling this pungent fuel smell.

    We are now at the mercy of these vandals whose illegal activities the government seems not to have an answer to. With the Arepo vandals virtually declaring a war against society, the people living there are in for a hell of a time. The vandals have stepped up their illegal activities, hitting the System B2 Pipeline at will. In August, last year, they did not only vandalise the pipeline, they also killed three officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Last Saturday, they hit the pipeline again.

    These attacks cannot be brushed aside with a wave of the hand because of their security implication. If the vandals can be so bold as to attack the Arepo pipeline twice in five months, it means that they may strike again in the nearest future if nothing is done to curtail them now. Besides, they have constituted themselves to a menace to Arepo residents. Sooner than later, we may be in a situation where vandals and security agents will be shooting themselves on the streets of Arepo just as smugglers and Customs do on some major roads in the country.

    If government has not been paying serious attention to the security of the Arepo pipeline and those living around the place, it is high time it reconsidered its stand because of the seriousness of the case at hand. A few years ago, the government deployed troops in Arepo to deter the vandals. The soldiers rather than move to the pipeline site, stationed themselves at the gate leading into the Journalists’ Estate Phase 1, which is far from the pipeline. They were there for months, yet it made no difference because they saw it as an opportunity to make money.

    The government should be concerned with what is happening at Arepo or else, it will be confronted with a problem that may not be easy to solve in future if nothing concrete is done now to stop these vandals. I have a strong feeling that this vandalism have been going on for long and ever before the opening up of Arepo. Then because everywhere was a bush it was easy for the vandals and their sponsors to operate. The opening up of the place, as it were, seems to have spoilt business for them, but they are not ready to give up without a fight.

    What will it cost government to cut these vandals to size? It will cost it nothing to carry the fight to them in their lair and make them realise that no person or group can hold a nation to ransom. There is no individual or organisation, no matter how powerful or rich that can take on the government. If there is any government might, this is the time to show it in order to stop the Arepo vandals in their tracks before it is too late. They have declared war on the people with their criminal activities and the government cannot fold its arms and watch them perpetrate this heinous crime with relish. Except if we are saying we don’t have a government.

     

    The Sultan’s homily

     

    The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar does not pull punches. If he wants to say something, he goes straight to the point, without beating about the bush. He does not believe in rubbing people on the head when there is a serious issue which deserves urgent attention to thrash out. Not once, not twice, he has spoken on the problems of the North.

    And on each occasion, he has been forthright and candid in his assessment, telling his people that the problem is more with them than outsiders. The North, he believes, should look inwards in solving its problems instead of blaming others for where the region is today. There is no better time to tell the North the truth than now and there is no better person to do that than the Sultan.

    To be sure, the North like its southern counterpart has a lot of problems. But while the South seems to appreciate the enormity of its problems, the North appears to be comfortable with what the Sultan rightly described as its self-inflicted problems. The region is not prepared to do anything about its problems, but is busy looking for scape-goats. To the average Northerner, the region’s problems are located in what they have come to see as the South’s bid to ‘lord’ it over the nation.

    If that assertion is true,then the North has itself to blame because for years the region ‘lorded’ it over the South. Since the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates in 1914, the North has been the elder brother in what some perceive as a forced union by the British imperialists led by Lord Lugard. The North had everything going for it before and immediately after the amalgamation. Even up till as recent as 1999, the North was in full control of the power structure.

    It may not have done well in commerce, but with power, it had everything. That the North is where it is today is not the fault of anybody, but that of itself. ‘’The fault is not in our stars but in ourselves that we are underlings”, says Shakespeare. The North’s problems became compounded about four years ago with the Boko Haram menace. Rather than come together to fight the Islamic sect, which appears bent on destabilising the country at all costs, Northern leaders are speaking from both sides of the mouth.

    They say one thing today and tomorrow, they take a different position on the same matter. The question is are Northern leaders serious about solving the Boko Haram riddle? If they are, they are on the way to resolve the region’s security challenge as well as revive the age-long brotherly love between the North and South, because let’s face it many Southerners have fled that region, which they once considered home, for security reasons.

  • Fire in Alaafin’s palace

    Fire in Alaafin’s palace

    The recent fire in the Alaafin’s palace presumably caused by electric power surge is a great tragedy for Yoruba people. This is because several historical artifacts, records and beaded crowns have been lost and cannot be recovered or replaced. The Palace of the Alaafin is a monument to Yoruba people because of the role the Alaafin institution has played in the history and culture of the Yoruba people. The institution of the Alaafin is about a thousand years old. Over this period, this institution has served as a repository of Yoruba history and culture. There are very few dynasties in the world that are older than that of the Alaafin. When the remains of such an institution is threatened by fire, there is need to look at how archival and historical materials are collected and preserved for the edification of the past and education of the present and future. From around the 12th to the 19th century, the old Oyo Empire existed with the sister Empire of the Benin to the East and the kingdom of the Nupe to the North and the subject nationality of Dahomey to the West. The reach of the empire extended to present day Togo and possibly eastern part of Ghana incorporating the Ga, the Ewe, and other Aja speaking people west and south-west of Metropolitan Oyo. At the height of its glory, the Oyo Empire was arguably the biggest and most sophisticated empire straddling the Savannah and the forest regions of West Africa. Of course by the time the British and French came to West Africa during the 19th century, this empire was in decline but later continued in a new form with the Ibadan forces dominating most of Yorubaland under the flag of the Alaafin. This is a period which a senior colleague of mine has described as Ibadan Imperialism in the 19th century.

    This preamble is necessary for our people to know the place of Oyo in the political history of Yoruba land. Oyo and Ife played different roles in Yoruba history. Ife is the spiritual home of all Yorubas. This is the place where, according to the myth of origin of the Yoruba, life started (Ife ode aye) and where the dispersal of Yoruba princes that established kingdoms all over Yorubaland and Benin took place. There is therefore no clash between the roles of Oyo and Ife in Yoruba history. European writers have sometimes suggested that the position of the Oni vis-à-vis that of the Alaafin is like that of the Pope and the Emperor in medieval Europe. This description may not be totally apt but it captures the essence of Oyo- Ife relations. In other words, the role of Ife and Oyo are distinct and also complementary. Unfortunately in recent times, this has not always been so because politicians have succeeded in knocking the crown heads of Ife and Oyo against each other.

    A people without a history are not complete. Historical and ancestral background are very important for any people and this is why civilized countries all over the world spend a lot of money and make effort to preserve as much as possible the past in the present. This is why museums are built, palaces are maintained, archives are preserved and past dynasties are celebrated as a part of a people’s cultural heritage. Any visit to any European country whether England, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Germany, Russia, Spain and other smaller European countries is not complete until one has been to the various museums and palaces. One could spend a whole week going to the Tuileries and Versailles in France and the various palaces in England from the Windsor and Buckingham Palace to the various estates and palaces in Scotland and Wales. Even in Germany, a visit to the country without going to the Sans Souci the winter Palace of the Hohenzollerns in Postdam is not complete. The palace in Berlin that was destroyed by Russian tanks during the 2nd World War is now being rebuilt as part of German heritage. If countries that have had the advantage of written documentation as a source of history are doing everything possible to preserve their past, African countries that have had to rely on oral tradition must do everything to preserve what is left of their cultural heritage. It follows from the above that our country particularly our states must have comprehensive policy on historical preservation. Our northern compatriots are doing much better than we in the southern part of this country. Yorubaland and Benin in particular must do everything it can to preserve the dynastic heritage of our people. In this regard, there should be a policy of palace development, renewal, refurbishment and replacement where necessary. The fire that has destroyed the palace in Oyo should be a signal for us to have a policy of palace development. A palace is not a building belonging to an individual; palaces all over Yorubaland belong to the people. It is true that kings are born, not made but these kings represent our collective African personality and culture.

    Cynics may argue that there is no place for monarchy in a democracy. A writer once described Nigeria as “a republic of a thousand kings”. This sounds rather contradictory and exaggerated but there is an element of truth in it. Not all Nigerian ethnicities have kings. Generally speaking, every Igbo man is a king in his own home and the title Eze and Igwes in modern day Igbo land should not be equated with real kings. So when I call for a palace development in the southern part of the country, I am referring only to the Yoruba and the Edo people and not to traders in the afternoon and kings in the night as most of the Igbo Ezes are!

    The palace of the Alaafin should be re built on a grandiose manner with the architecture reflecting the tradition and culture of the people based on what exists in the architecture of the old palace. In the same vein, all Yoruba states should have plans to build modern palaces at least for first class traditional rulers. This is long overdue and the fire in the Alaafin’s palace as tragic as it may be should be a call for action.

    The starting point should be a palace construction fund to which all lovers of Yoruba heritage should be encouraged to contribute. Secondly, all the local governments under the sovereignty of the Alaafin would have to contribute while the state government should provide the remaining resources needed to build a befitting edifice for a thousand year old throne. In doing this, we will be preserving the past in the present and for the future. This is what civilized people do and if we have any claim to any measure of civilization, this is what all Yorubas must join hands in doing.

  • Re: Okorocha, Chris Anyanwu flex muscles over 2015

    Re: Okorocha, Chris Anyanwu flex muscles over 2015

    I  write in direct response to two of your publications on the face-off between Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State and Senator Chris Anyanwu who represents Imo East Senatorial district (Owerri zone) at the Senate. The first was the opinion piece written by Jide Oluwajuyitan on January 3, while the second was the features article in The Nation Politics of your January 7 edition, written by Okodili Ndili.

    In the January 7 piece titled “Okorocha, Anyanwu flex muscles over 2015”, Okodile got the facts obfuscated, leaving the innocent reader with a confused impression of what happened that fateful day of December 26, 2012 and the real issues at stake.

    Without attempting to rehash the accounts of the incident, it is necessary to state clearly that contrary to the writer’s statement that “the convoys of the two eminent politicians nearly collided in Owerri, the state capital…”, what happened was an unwarranted excessive show of power by the governor and his men. Senator Anyanwu and her “convoy” of three cars had pulled off the road to make way for the rampaging convoy of the governor coming behind them. Instead of passing, the governor’s men blocked their way, swooped on them and unleashed raw, brutish violence on her men.

    Again, Okodile quoted the governor’s spokesman, Ebere Uzoukwa. as saying that “the senator’s vehicle suddenly rammed into the governor’s car, close to the staff car….” The question to ask here is “how could Senator Anyanwu’s car, which was ahead of the governor’s car ram into it?” Could it have suddenly made a backward movement?” He equally reported Uzoukwa as having said that Senator Anyanwu ordered her security orderlies to open fire on the governor’s convoy. How conceivable is it, that an individual with only three security escorts would give such an order in the face of over 50 better armed security personnel in the governor’s convoy. Such a person must be on a suicidal mission, especially after having the temerity, as Okodile reported, to slap the governor’s ADC; but definitely not Chris Anyanwu.

    Okodile also passed a very wrong impression when he stated in his own words that “Okorocha in his New Year message has forgiven the erring senator”. This implies that the writer himself is telling the reading public that Senator Anyanwu was in error. He thereafter quoted Okorocha’s spokesman asking “her to apologise for her wrongs”. This is a clear case of turning the truth on its head. Here is a classical example of an individual’s fundamental human rights being grossly abused by the very same person who is supposed to protect him. Instead of the aggressor swallowing his empty pride to apologise, he is demanding apology from the oppressed. Yes, Governor Okorocha owes Senator Chris Anyanwu an apology, and he knows it.

    Unfortunately, most of the reportage published so far on the incident interpret it as flexing muscles over 2015 race for the governor’s seat in Imo State. Chris Anyanwu is perceived as having gubernatorial ambition, while Okorocha wants to hold on to the coveted seat or go for the presidency. But can anybody say that Anyanwu has declared that intention to him or her, or at any forum? Yet, is the right to run for an office not her constitutional right? Assuming she comes to say “I want to run for the governorship seat in Imo State”, should she be killed for it? Should her rights be grossly abused by the governor? Should she be harassed and intimidated so that she chickens out? What gives Rocha Okorocha or anybody else more right to contest than Chris Anyanwu? Is she not eminently qualified for that position, going by her education, capability, experience and her position as a distinguished two-term senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    Yet Anyanwu has not declared any interest so far. If anything, she is pre-occupied with how to deliver to the people of Owerri Zone, who took extra-ordinary steps to get her re-elected in the face of overwhelming odds. Knowing her passion for uplifting the living standards of her people and put smiles on their faces, she would rather devote good time now, delivering on this, than focusing on 2015, which is still two clear years ahead.

    My guess is that she will not let herself to be distracted. She will continue to work hard to satisfy her conscience and the people she represents and if in the end she decides, and the people decide too, that the next step in her record of service is to run for governorship, why not?

    So why should gross violation of human rights by Governor Okorocha be seen from the prism of her so-called 2015 ambition. What does 2015 have to do with breaking the head of Anyanwu’s driver and injuring others in her team? Yet, Okodili described this deliberate brutality as resulting from an accident. His words: “one of the senator’s drivers was injured in the accident”. What gross misinformation is this?

    Equally in his own analysis titled “Imo’s Battle of Convoys”, Oluwajuyitan wrote without having all the facts at his disposal. True enough, Senator Anyanwu visited the governor earlier that day on a courtesy call, but not in the manner Oluwajuyitan presented. According to him the Senator visited Okorocha “with a convoy of cars probably bought, fueled and driven by public officials at the expense of the tax payers”. Haba! Dr. Oluwajuyitan, this is a very unfair assessment of Chris Anyanwu, who I believe you should know to some reasonable extent; at least that she is a woman of means enough to afford and maintain three cars in her entourage: one for her escorts, another for herself and a back-up, in a state and country where insecurity is quite high.

    I also think it was most uncharitable of you to describe Chris Anyanwu as a “warlord”, when all she did was to make way for the all-powerful governor, who didn’t consider her human enough to ply the same route with him. You also overdid it by grouping Senator Anyanwu in the class of overpaid legislators and undisciplined governors who unleash corruption on our nation. Accepted, there are corrupt politicians in our system, but there are also very good politicians in Nigeria, who are doing their best for the society. It is definitely on overstatement to brand all of them in the negative.

    Chris Anyanwu is indeed one of the new breed politicians who are out to serve. Just check out her records since she entered politics and you will discover a hard working, passionate woman who takes her job very seriously; she would rather leave the job than not deliver on her mandate. I think such persons should be encouraged, rather than being harassed, intimidated and lampooned.

    Onuoha, is Special Assistant to Senator Chris Anyanwu.