The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • Eagles: Pregnant with surprises

    It is the beginning of a new year. It is time for resolutions, which serve as guide for good or bad conducts in the course of the year. For the Super Eagles, 2013 offers the players and coaches best opportunity to shed off the toga of Super Chicken.

    This unwholesome sobriquet arose from the Eagles’ grace to grass status in global football after their meteoric outing at the USA’94 World Cup, where Nigeria emerged as the fifth best entertaining team in the world, despite our second round ouster from the Mundial.

    Several methods have been adopted to rejuvenate the Eagles, with little to show for it. Coaches, players and even chieftains of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) were removed to make the Eagles fly.

    Many pointed at the gross indiscipline in the team. A few others hinged the team’s sloppy display on lack of determination, commitment and the will to win among the players.

    The rebuilding of the team started in 1998, with many asking when it would stop. But the new helmsman, Stephen Keshi, has promised reforms which appear to be manifesting, if this writer isn’t accused of jumping the gun.

    Suddenly, it is dawning on us that we need to rebuild the Eagles by giving the domestic league players an opportunity to fight for shirts with the better exposed stars in Europe, Asia, the Americas and the Diaspora.

    Home grown players have broken their yoke of naivety and have stood toe-to-toe with the foreign legion such that Keshi feels strongly that they could make his final list to the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations holding in South Africa from January 19 to February 10.

    The biggest impetus in the Eagles today can be traced to the fact that the foreign legion recognises that the home lads can play the game with their hearts, because they too want to join them in Europe.

    Again, Keshi is prepared to drop anyone who doesn’t play well in training and matches. There is no second chance for flops. This trait rubs off on the team’s play during matches.

    Interestingly, we are beginning to see bigger boys playing in the Eagles, unlike in the past where pint-sized players dominated the team and were easily out-muscled in ball possession battles. Muscular, athletic, taller and determined players make Keshi’s squad. What this writer feels is lacking in the team is the variety of tactics during games.

    Eagles’ style is predictable. The only difference with the past is that Keshi may have told them to fight for the ball as soon as they lose it.

    Secondly, Keshi appears to have broken the fixation that haunted previous coaches when selecting players. It was easy for fans to sit at home and pick those to be fielded. This flaw gave room to certain players to feel that the Eagles shirt was their birthright. This group formed the cabal that held the team and the nation hostage anytime they felt aggrieved. They chose the games they wanted to play, picked the coaches they wanted to work with and cared less about how the country plays during big time competitions, such as the World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations.

    With 16 days to Nigeria’s first game against Burkina Faso in South Africa, it is difficult for anyone to pick the 23 players that Keshi will take to the Africa Cup of Nations.

    The last two matches against Venezuelans and the Catalonians on Wednesday in Espanyol further heightened the suspense in the camp in Faro, Portugal.

    Watching the Eagles against Catalonia on Wednesday, what struck me was the confidence of the home-grown goalkeeper Agbim. He was calm and even controlled his defenders, a trait goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama lacks, resulting in some cheeky goals he has conceded recently.

    Agim’s positioning was awesome. He gripped the ball firmly from set-plays, especially from the corner kicks. His judgment of aerial balls was impeccable. He was calm enough to initiate the team’s attacking onslaught by throwing the ball to the nearest defender, not kicking it aimlessly towards the opponent’s goal area.

    One will not be surprised if Vincent Eneyama doesn’t start Nigeria’s game against Burkina Faso. If Keshi drops Enyeama from the first game, he would have solved the problem of using experience to pick players for matches than their current forms. Younger players garner experience from playing games instead of sitting on the bench.

    The Eagles defence has been problematic, although some of the cheap goals conceded have come from poor goalkeeping. Perhaps, keeping Enyeama on the bench in South Africa will be the panacea since the team has conceded just one goal from two games without Enyeama.

    Joseph Yobo’s inclusion in the defence could strengthen it, more so when John Mikel Obi is made to play in the defensive midfield like he does at Chelsea. Interestingly, Mikel hasn’t been playing for Chelsea, no thanks to the three-match ban occasioned by the punishment from using abusive words on referee Mark Clattenburg.

    Eagles’ defensive network would be impregnable if Keshi includes Nosa Igiebor and Dike in the midfield quartet. Keshi should play Victor Moses to complete the Eagles’ midfield quartet, comprising Mikel, Igiebor and Dike. Mikel and Moses will propel the Eagles’ attack like they do in Chelsea. Keshi got a tip of this fluid midfield play against Liberia in Calabar when Mikel spotted Moses with a curly lob which the diminutive midfielder converted with aplomb.

    If Keshi parades selfless players who would be prepared to pass the ball upfront for freer strikers to convert into goals, then half the assignment of beating Burkina Faso and others at the Africa Cup of Nations would have been decided.

    Eagles’ attacking options are legendary, although a few of them are wasteful with converting goals. Keshi can ignite adequate competition among the strikers, if he teaches them how to handle one-on-one situations against the opponent’s goalkeeper.

    The strikers should be taught how to inter-change passes such that they know who to pass the ball to in match situations. Rehearsals in training are perfected on the pitch. Scoring goals is no guess work. A team that does not encourage its players to shoot the ball accurately cannot win matches. The catalyst that wins matches is goals, not the number of passes strung together to elicit applause from the spectators. Practice, they say, leads to perfection.

    Keshi’s substitutes must be as good as the first choices. Matches are won by those on the bench. There shouldn’t be any form of sentiments. Recuperating players should be asked to go home. We want a squad of equally likely players not 13 stars and 10 wastepipes. Every change made during matches should galvanise the team to play better.

    A team is as good as the coach’s proficiency in reading matches. Keshi should open his eyes during games and ensure that tactical changes are informed and not based on panic.

    The fruits of Keshi’s rebuilding exercise must be evident in the way the Eagles play in South Africa. The team’s style should be inspiring. They must be made to give their best. Anyone who is not prepared to lay down his life for Nigeria should be excused to go on holidays. Nigerians have been left crest-fallen by Eagles’ shambolic outings in big competitions. The time to stop that trend is now.

    Nigerians are tired of praying and banking on luck for the Eagles to win matches. We are also tired of permutations to ensure that the Eagles progress during tournaments. If we can beat a team, we should do so convincingly. There should be no half measure; after all, we know that it takes seven matches to lift the Africa Cup of Nations’ diadem. It is a task that can be done, with the right attitude from the players and sincerity from the technical crew when picking players for games.

    This writer feels strongly that the Eagles can spring surprises in South Africa. You want to bet on it? Don’t dare; you rule the Eagles out at your own peril.

    Good luck Keshi; good luck Super Eagles. Please, make this a happy year for your fans.

  • At INEC’s Workshop

    At INEC’s Workshop

    Innovation is man’s intuitive invention which may be positive or negative depending on the intention and objective of the innovator. In recent times, three great Nigerians have come up with three different beneficial innovations to the great relief and comfort of Nigerian citizens. The first of them is Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi whose financial ‘Midas Touch’ through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has saved Nigerian economy from total collapse. The second is Mallam Muhammad Abubakar, the Inspector General of Nigeria Police, whose ingenuous policy of ‘QUIT THE ROAD BLOCKS’ order given to the Police Force has brought tremendous succour to millions of Nigerians who had been technically conditioned to extortion siege just as it has drastically reduced the rate of accidental deaths caused by ‘accidental bullet discharges’. And the third is Professor Attahiru M. Jega, the Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) whose new innovation in respect of electoral awareness in Nigeria has lifted the veil of ignorance from the faces of the electorate. Incidentally, the trio are from the same geographical (Northwest) zone. This further confirms that the late General Murtala Muhammed’s unprecedented performance as Nigeria’s Head of State in the mid 1970s was not a mere accident after all. It should be recalled that Gen. Murtala Muhammed was also from the Northwest zone.

    In his usual research work, Professor Jega discovered that the campaign for electoral awareness in the country had skipped a substantial chunk of the national population and this might take a toll on the success of future elections. That chunk is the Madaris (Arabic and Islamic schools) in Nigeria. Madaris is the plural of Madrasah. Jega saw such a skip as a major error which required immediate rectification. He therefore embarked on an effective campaign by organising workshops and seminars for that sector of the population. One of such workshops was held in Sokoto for the North last year November while another was held in Akure, Ondo State for the South, last Thursday of December 2012.

    The Northern session of the workshop was well attended by participants from all the 19 states of the North just as the Southern one was equally well attended by participants from all the 17 states of the South. The Southern session was organised on behalf of the INEC Chairman by Professor Lai Olurode, the INEC National Commissioner in charge of the Southwest and Chairman of INEC Institute. The workshop was coordinated by Ustadh Daud Adegbenro Badru who is the General Secretary of the Federation of Arabic School Proprietors and Principals of Nigeria. Yours sincerely was invited to the Southern session as a guest speaker. The theme of the paper I presented was: ‘THE RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE ELECTORATE IN NIGERIA’. Below is the text of the paper. Please read on:

    “It is a matter of delight that for the first time in contemporary Nigeria, a programme of this type is being extended to Madaris. This is an indication that things are beginning to take a better shape in our country. Hitherto, this sector of the society was not considered for an entitlement to any right, including enlightenment, simply because it did not akin enough to Western education which is a colonial heritage. The thought within the ruling elite was that whoever did not understand English could not be taught anything hence the official nonchalance to this sector of the society. Thus, bringing this programme to Madaris at this time is not only a realistic correction of an unjust policy of the past but also a right step in a right direction. At least the formulators of democratic policies in Nigeria would expect this formidable chunk of the society to bear certain responsibilities as a matter of patriotic duty. And wherever responsibilities are expected rights must not be denied. In every civilised society, citizens’ responsibilities to the nation go hand in hand with the rights to which those citizens are naturally entitled. No responsibility should be imposed on citizens to the exclusion of their rights.

    What most Nigerians, including those in government, do not seem to know is that constant communication between the government and the populace through indiscriminate tutorials or workshops of this type is a foremost means of ascertaining peace and harmony in a pluralistic society. Ostracising a major sector like the Madaris, therefore, particularly in areas of sensitive national projects like election, is an evidence of exclusiveness in governance. And that can never augur well for democracy.

    In Nigeria today, the population of those who are engaged in Madaris either as students or as teachers or as Qur’anic reciters or even as book printers and sellers is not less than 30 million people. Officially, the Almajirai (Pupils of Madaris) alone are said to be about 10 million. Any government that ostracises such a chunk in policy formulation or implementation is only promoting ignorance and possible discord in the society. I therefore salute and commend the thoughtful initiators of this laudable idea and those who planned it to this successful stage. Their initiative is an innovation that can broaden the horizon of the populace and ventilate the atmosphere for concord and harmony. I wish them God’s bountiful blessings.

    My assignment in this workshop is to give a pep talk on the rights and responsibilities of the electorate in Nigeria. The word electorate here presupposes that elections are held and people are expected to vote. But can there be elections without democracy? And can there be democracy without constitution? This is the premise from which my pep talk will commence. Constitution is the foundation of democracy. Every democratic process is or should be based on an existing constitution or democratic convention. There can be no democracy in the absence of a constitution or a relevant convention.

    The very first constitution in the world as mentioned in this column last Friday was that of Madinah initiated and championed by Prophet Muhammad (SAW) who facilitated its draft and ensured its writing and promulgation. That constitution variously called the ‘Madinah Constitution’ and the ‘Charter of Madinah’ was written shortly after the Prophet’s emigration from Makkah to Yathrib in 622 CE. It was that historic emigration that changed the name of the city from Yathrib to Madinah. The constitution which had 63 Articles was very detailed and all-encompassing as it introduced to the world, for the first time ever, what later came to be known as ‘Human Rights’.

    The Medina Constitution upon which the establishment of the first democratic state in the world was based is truly a remarkable political/constitutional document for the primordial and the contemporary times. Contrary to the Western claim that Aristotle wrote a constitution for Athens, which preceded that of Madinah, the document called constitution and attributed to Aristotle which was written on a papyrus and discovered by an American missionary in Egypt in 1890 and published in 1891, was found not to be a constitution after all but an historical account of the governing system in the City-State of Athens. Some other legal documents on the governing conduct of the ancient societies have since been found, but none has proved to contain the letters and norms of a constitution.

    The Madinah Constitution, therefore, is the first and oldest constitution in the world and no individual or corporate intellectual body has disputed this with any significant proof. It was from that constitution that the English feudal bill of rights written in 1215 C. E and called Magna Carta was adapted. That is why Magna Carter also contains 63 Articles like Madinah Constitution. Incidentally, just as 55 people sat down together to draft Madinah constitution so did 55 people sat together to draft Magna Carta. And the fact that Magna Carta was followed by Habeas Corpus in 1679 as a means of rescuing the judiciary from the claw of the Crown in England is also an evidence that Magna Carta closely followed the example of Madinah Constitution. It should be remembered that a few years after the promulgation of Madinah Constitution there was a review that brought into it some addendum. It was that addendum that increased the number of Articles in that constitution from 47 to 63.

    Although, when American constitution came into existence in 1787 as an offshoot of Magna Carta, some Western historians took it for a landmark document which they classified as the oldest written national constitution in operation while the fact of its Magna Carta origin was deliberately overlooked. This was to avoid linking its origin to Madinah Constitution from which the idea of Magna Carta was derived. Nevertheless, no matter how it is viewed, the Madinah constitution remains the mother of all constitutions in the world as it preceded Magna Carta by 593 years and American Constitution by 1165 years without itself having been preceded by any. If there is any innovation in the American Constitution which distinguishes it a little from Magna Carta and Madinah Constitution, it is the reduction of that Constitution to Seven Articles which had to be divided into many sections and clauses.

    The Madinah Constitution is both historically and realistically significant not only for being the world’s first written constitution, but also for being ultramodern in the sense of its promulgation for a pluralistic society in which equal rights were guaranteed for all citizens, including women and children as well as tribes and religious blocks. That Constitution also spelt out the responsibilities of individuals and communities to the state. It should be recalled that Madinah at that time was inhabited by Muslims, Jews, Christians and Pagans all of whom jointly endorsed it as a charter of co-existence for the federating units. And that was why the City State of Madinah founded on the basis of that constitution was not initially called an Islamic State by Prophet Muhammad (SAW). It only became an Islamic State after the Muslims overwhelmingly outnumbered all others put together and the rule of majority was applied.

    Madinah Constitution was the first to provide a federal structure of government with a centralised authority in which various tribes and districts constituted federating units and enjoyed autonomy in certain matters of social, cultural and religious characters. In the constitution, the provision for district autonomy (under which came tribal and religious entities) was repeated severally in Clauses 3 to 11 and 26 to 35. In fact, many matters were left in the hands of the autonomous units except state security and national defence the provision for which could be found in Clauses 17, 36 (a) and 47 while the real provisions for centralised matters were made in Clauses 13, 15, 17 and 44. It was only in cases of disputes at the units’ level which could not be resolved at that level that was allowed to recourse to the central body. This confirms Madinah Constitution as truly the first democratic Constitution with federal disposition in human history.

    Democracy, on the other hand, is the political system in which the people of a country are ruled through any form of government of their choice. In modern democracies, supreme authority is exercised on behalf of the populace through the representatives elected by popular suffrage (this is called Shura in Islam). Such election may come in form of secret balloting as currently obtained in Nigeria or open physical indication as adopted in Nigeria’s 1993 elections. Popular suffrage is not about voting to choose the president or the governors or the representatives alone. It is also about accepting or rejecting a notion that may affect governance in one way or another through voting. Such voting may take the form of referendum or that of plebiscite. Here in Nigeria, suffrage has been limited to the choice of rulers alone through voting. As a matter of fact, Nigeria has never involved referendum or plebiscite on any national issue since independence in 1960. The only time a referendum was ever used in this country as a means of resolving a national issue by popular votes was 1961 when the status of a major area of the then Eastern Nigeria was to be re-determined as to whether to remain a part of Nigeria or to join Cameroon as a region. It was through that referendum that what is called Southern Cameroon today became an integral part of Cameroon.

    The problem with Nigeria, however, in adopting a foreign policy or innovation, be it social, cultural, economic or political, is the refusal by those in authority to give it a local flavour by adapting it to our national cultural mannerism. And this has consistently constituted the bane of democracy in our country. Given the fact that Nigeria, like many other countries of the world had been accustomed to monarchy for many centuries before colonisation, one would have expected a thorough study of who we are, what we want and how we hope to progress before adopting any system of government. But this did not happen. Rather, we chose to continue the management of our common life as we inherited it either from the British colonialists or from imperial America. The result is that we continue to drift aimlessly today on the high sea of life without being equipped with a guiding compass.

    But, by and large, whichever type of democracy is adopted, the essence is for the government in place to let the majority of the people enjoy maximum social and economic benefit as well as adequate security. Part of the security is for the citizens to know their rights and guard them as much as they identify their responsibilities and bear them. These can hardly be achieved without adequate awareness and information about electoral process.

    Going by the rules and regulations of elections in Nigeria as contained in our national constitution, there are responsibilities for us to bear as citizens in order to sustain our country and there are rights for us to guard in order to resist any economic or political oppression. Some of those responsibilities are spelt out in the various documents published by INEC for free distribution to the electorates. These can be obtained from any INEC office in the country.

  • Nigeria, as it could be made (1)

    There is no odor as vile as that which arises from despoiled citizenship. It is insidious, human and outright malevolent. And it is all that we represent as Nigerians. Let us not make a mockery of citizenship; we are not the model citizens we profess to be.

    We whose idea of citizenship gravitates from arrant skepticism to dilettantism, gruesome criticism to cynicism and utter insincerity will never court hope even when we see it. And the consequence abounds all around us.

    Yesterday, our grief was of marginalization, unemployment, religious and ethnic bigotry, corruption in high places and enfant terrible godfathers. Today, we grieve because our youths are unemployed, our mothers are impoverished and our daughters litter dimly lit brothels and recesses of the sidewalk within and outside the country.

    Today, we talk of going to war and sing to ourselves, blood-spattered choruses of youthful rebellion. We love to sing such ballads that beguile our will and caress our eardrums; that is why we court and fete such leadership as we have now. It is that time of the year when they promise us stable electricity, gallantry in governance, dependable economy and security. It is that time of the year when they recite the same old platitudes to the same old electorate.

    They promise us honor, status, glory, and a prosperous future as usual and as usual, we fail to hold these promises up against their culture of leadership; that flagrant norm of theirs that blesses us with dead-end jobs of small-town life, religious and financial terrorism, bankruptcy, ethnic bigotry, substandard healthcare, inferior education and unemployment.

    But we believe them anyway. We who are conditioned by poverty and lust for unearned riches perpetually seek all manners of benefits and self-actualization, like greater State autonomy, more States and secession. We, who have learnt to enjoy dwellings like hell, are promised nations like Eden, by men who couldn’t enrich their households had they all the riches in the world.

    The dream of secession is the call of the Sirens, the enticement that has for generations seduced old and young Nigerians struggling to keep inadequate jobs in fast food restaurants, construction sites and bus parks, and behind the counters at city malls.

    We desperately crave and embrace the secession alternative because every other cul-de-sac in our lives breaks our spirit and dignity. Pick up advocacy group manifestos or human rights reports of genocide and marginalization. Listen to self-acclaimed youth leaders, weepy politicians and activists, the allure of greater autonomy, self-determination or whatever they choose to call it is touted as our next best alternative.

    They will not tell you it’s a trap, a ploy, an old, dirty game of deceit in which the powerful and informed who will not go to war, promises a mirage to youth who will. We have seen this in the tragedy of suicide bombers, political thugs and ethno-religious death squads holding the nation by the jugular.

    We have seen and felt this in our tragic obsequiousness to the ruling class on the political, economic and socio-cultural turfs that condition you and me to serve the privileged class, even as we are perpetually consigned by them to the backwaters of the breadlines.

    Some of us, the somewhat privileged to be precise, get to travel between two universes: one where everybody gets a chance and a second chance to break out of our socio-political and economic jailhouse, where education, connections, money and influence almost guarantee that you would not fail if you strive. In the other universe, no one ever gets to enjoy a first or second chance. In this universe, when the poor fails and falls, no one picks them up even as the rich stumble and trip their way to the top.

    It is not my wish to attack or castigate the rich; they didn’t get to enslave us simply by ordering us to be poor, did they? You and I are willing participants in the impoverishment and eternal enslavement of the Nigerian citizenry.

    We are in such dire state because like ones habitually programmed to self-destruct, we love to identify and propound practical solutions to our tragedies but when puts gets to shove, and we are faced with the chance to change our stars, we begin to speak in discordant voices.

    Thus this year as all others, we have begun to criticize and speak the thoughts of a growing number of natives seeking relief. What is so sad however is that despite our pretentious protestations and insight, we go about our daily lives perpetuating the same old oddities, self-interests and absurdities.

    Thus this year, President Goodluck Jonathan and our league of extraordinary looters have promised to improve our lot even as they get set to further pauperize us. And while we curse our luck and cry, many of us continue to foster the status quo by abhorrent citizenship and conduct. We who lament corruption in high places wholeheartedly nurture duplicity and corruption in low places.

    Bloody revolution is never the answer. Neither shall greater autonomy or secession improve our lot; if eventually, every agitating part of Nigeria gets to secede, every new nation we establish shall parade the same old brutes with the same old lusts and self-interests in high and low places.

    Any story of secession is a story of elites preying on the weak, the gullible, the marginal, and the poor. The pageantry ends the day we pronounce we secede, particularly for those of us that will occupy the low places. The pageantry will wear off and there will be fewer patriots, and fewer patriots, until there is not a single cheer but tireless shrieks in the street. Whatever contraption we manage to create shall evolve into the monstrosity we have made Nigeria to be.

    People who are singing the secession song are the real traitors – like the average Nigerian who scorned merit and conscience to elect President Goodluck Jonathan and company. Such characters would sell out Nigeria for an offshore account, picturesque mansion, soothing sentimentality and membership of high society.

    To achieve their plot, they would sentimentalize and hoodwink everyone else to buy into their fount of deceptive freedom. To escape such grotesqueness, we need to raise our voices in dissent, and rally in protest in our communities, on the streets and our square gardens. We need to produce the candidates that will fight our fight and take our risks. We need to unseat the men making our fatherland more toxic and hateful to the rest of the world.

    If you don’t think that the policies and actions of the incumbent ruling class is costing us immeasurable damages, then do nothing. But if you can see through the smoke and mirrors, and you realize that you’ll be paying more state and local taxes, while your assets continue to depreciate and the cost of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and staple food continues to soar out of reach, then you’ll understand the need to invest in producing and supporting the candidates who will successfully defeat and tame the army of predators and executioners occupying our seats of power. Be ready to contribute the most you’ve ever given for a political cause. Be ready to sacrifice.

    • To be continued…

  • Responsibility of citizenship: The youth in focus (3)

    Responsibility of citizenship: The youth in focus (3)

    Today, I offer the third and final installment of the lecture delivered under the auspices of a group of progressive indigenes of Oyo State on December 18 at the Ibadan Civic Center.

    I now return to the role of the youth in recapturing the essence and consequence of thinking including cooperation to solve challenges. Let us not lose sight of the fact that the indigenous administration that took over the reins of government in the Western region in 1953 made investment in human resources its priority because it believed that human beings are the most important agents of development. As that administration struggled along with other nationalists for independence, it persuaded itself that it needed to invest in educating the youth. Human resource development was its mantra. If we failed to credit that administration with anything, it would be grossly unfair if we failed to recognise its success in the education of the cadre of human power that laid the foundation for the pace-setting achievements. And as the saying goes, if you were promised a gift of clothing and dresses, it is wise to first check out the appearance of the promiser. The members of the Awolowo administration were well-educated. Here then is the first challenge for the ThinkOyo group. Education is the key to all aspects of development.

    The independence era was one of will to excellence. Competition was productive for the regions. Other regions sent delegations to study the success of Universal Primary Education in the West. And building on the fame of its deviant rejection of federal funds in order to have the freedom to use its internal funds for development as it saw fit, the West simply matched on with one achievement after another. This was the case in the pre-independence and early independence periods. When you think Oyo, you must think of what positive achievements could be made with a truly federal structure.

    Your challenge as a group is to engage in collaboration and cooperative endeavors to rebuild the walls of Oyo State. This is a challenge that must be met. I have no doubt that you can do it. Of course, there are obstacles and challenges. But there are also resources to meet those challenges.

    The foremost challenge is the provision of quality education for the masses of children and young adults that are drifting in the ocean of hopelessness so that they are well-placed to make substantial contributions to development. Education is the most effective leveler and an effective education policy that levels the playing field is desperately needed in order to realise an era of ajumose.

    The matter is simple to my mind. I was informed that ThinkOyo is an organisation of successful upwardly mobile young men and women. I would like then to call your attention to an old proverb of our ancestors: Ajooje ko dun beni kan ko ni (it’s impossible to motivate cooperation between haves and have-nots). But just as it is in consumption, so it is in the matter of production: Ajoose ko dun benikan ko ri se. You cannot expect the cooperation of a person of your age who has not been as privileged as you are in educational achievements and employment opportunities. Public education is still the greatest leveler and the greatest contributor to the closing of the inequality gap in a number of countries and you must pay your due to sustain it.

    Second, there is the challenge of youth alienation and despair. The youth are now more than ever especially at risk of drifting in the ocean of individualism where there are only a few islands of community and social responsibility. As a member of the ThinkOyo organisation, you must avoid the temptation of drifting in that ocean. You must join forces in the membership of an inclusive community of responsibility. That community is one that places more emphasis on what can be done for the community and less on what the community can do for it.

    No member of ThinkOyo must consider him or herself as successful just because the Governor knows him or her. Surely, the governor appreciates your loyalty as individuals. However, you must believe that your success as a member of ThinkOyo is because of the success of your mobilisation of others to the cause of helping the Governor to build a new Oyo State where everyone recognises and participates in the work of reconstruction.

    Third is the challenge of inequality. Ajumose entails a shared sacrifice. But glaring inequality militates against “ajumose.” Because it simply means that some are sacrificing much more against their will. Therefore an effective reduction in the gap of inequality is a prerequisite to the implementation of ajumose.

    We should remind ourselves that the original idea and practice of ajumose was in the form of traditional cooperative and collaborative efforts in rural agricultural communities that we all hailed from. In those communities there was no rampant inequality. Communal ownership of land, the principal means of production was a sure guarantee that people needed one another to survive and thrive. Therefore self-reliance was advanced in part by inter-personal assistance between friends and families. The realisation of the idea of the goodness of communal cooperation was not independent of the reality of equality of means and commonality of poverty and need.

    That the youth have a duty to rally to the cause of Oyo in particular and the nation in general is no news. Indeed, it is a duty that grows out of the duty of self preservation and self promotion. For the youth of today, the future of Nigeria as a nation has never been more uncertain. With unemployment skyrocketing and education nose-diving, the youth have good reason to panic about the future that may be their inheritance. And this is why they must see themselves as having a huge stake in the matter. Even if they have little or no memory of history; even if they are not aware of the labours of our heroes past, they can at least relate to their personal needs and appreciate the task that must be done to realise those needs. It is my hope that they are ready to show themselves worthy of the call of their generation to rebuild the walls of Oyo State, Yorubaland, and the nation at large. It’s all in the hands of the youth.

    I am here reminded of a story that must have been told a million times and for which there have been many versions. I first had my version from a Baptist preacher and later from a former university president. I have myself told it many times with different nuances. It is the story of an old sage and a bunch of youthful rascals. The sage was fond of admonishing the youth, always citing historical episodes laced with words of wisdom. The youthful rascals on their part were more like contemporary area boys.

    On the day that the story in question unfolded, the rascals had been out doing one mischief after another. Then they got tired but not until they got hold of a small bird. They argued about what to do with the bird. Some suggested torturing the bird for the fun of it. Others suggested frying it alive for good taste. Then the leader came up with the idea of testing the intelligence and wit of the old sage. They would ask him a simple question: is the bird alive or dead? If the sage replied that the bird was alive, the one assigned to hold the bird will suffocate it and proclaim the stupidity of the sage. If on the other hand he answered that the bird was dead, they would release the bird to freedom in triumph. Either way, they would claim victory and silence the old sage forever.

    The old man was not a sage for nothing, As soon as the rascals encountered him with their question, he knew it was a set up, and he answered them in kind: Whether it is a dead bird or a live bird, it is in your hand. In like manner, I say to ThinkOyo, what Oyo State is and would be is in your hand. Happy New Year!

  • Rev Joseph Abiodun Adetiloye (1929-2012)

    Rev Joseph Abiodun Adetiloye (1929-2012)

    The People’s Prelate

    The year 2012, a leap year, ended with the sad death of many Nigerian public figures from all walks of life. Of these, I should mention two; the death of the Hon. Justice Kayode Esho, a brilliant and distinguished former Judge of the Nigerian Supreme Court, and that of the Most Revd. Joseph Abiodun Adetiloye, a former Archbishop of the Ecclesiastical Province of Lagos, and Primate and Metropolitan, of the Anglican Church in Nigeria. He died on December 14, barely 11 days from what would have been his 83rd birthday. Justice Esho, at 87, was four years older. His death was the occasion for the outpouring of grief and sadness in the country. On account of his judicial integrity and erudition, many regard him as the best Chief Justice Nigeria should have had but chose not to have. For me, both deaths were very sad and painful as I knew both of them very well.

    Archbishop Abiodun Adetiloye, the subject of this tribute, succeeded the Rt. Revd. Festus Segun as the Bishop of Lagos in 1985. In 1988, three years later, he succeeded the Most Revd. Timothy Olufosoye, the Bishop of Ibadan, as the Primate Metropolitan of the Anglican Communion in Nigeria. Altogether, he had quite a remarkable career in the Church where his rise in the Church was both unconventional and meteoric. He was born to a humble family in Odo-Owa, in Ekiti, on Christmas day, December 25, 1929, in the most inauspicious of circumstances. He was only three years old when his father, a peasant farmer, died leaving him in the care of his poor mother at Ijero-Ekiti. After his primary school education at Ijero, he could not proceed to a secondary grammar school due to lack of financial means. But he was lucky and clever enough to enter Melville Hall, a theological college of the Anglican Communion in Ibadan, where he did not have to pay any fees. It was at Melville Hall that he received his preliminary training for entry into the priesthood, and showed the academic brilliance and mettle that was to open the doors for him to his subsequent glittering career as an Anglican clergy. He was made a deacon and ordained a priest in 1954, the year he left Melville Hall. In 1958, four years later, he entered the King’s College, University of London, on the sponsorship of the Anglican Communion in Nigeria to study Theology. In 1961, after three years, he graduated with an honours bachelor’s degree in Divinity (B.D.). At King’s College, he was the contemporary of Bishop Olajide and the classmate and close friend of the Very Revd. Sope Johnson, the former Provost of the Cathedral Church of Christ, Marina, Lagos, another brilliant cleric.

    In 1962, the year after he graduated from London, he arrived as a lecturer at the Immanuel College of Theology, Ibadan, famous for the training of Anglican priests. There he made his mark as a diligent, brilliant, and highly respected theologian. In 1966, after four years at Immanuel College, Adetiloye was inducted as the Vicar and Provost of the Cathedral Church of St. James, Ogunpa, Ibadan. The appointment was a rare feat as, before then, he had not been a Vicar in any parish church. It was there that he began to make his mark as an affable cleric. In 1970, after only four years at St. James’s Cathedral, he was consecrated as the first Bishop of the new Diocese of Ekiti. He had declined an offer of appointment as the Provost of the Cathedral Church of Lagos in succession to Bishop Festus Segun, preferring a bishopric in Ekiti. It was from the Ekiti bishopric that, in 1985, he was consecrated a bishop at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Marina, Lagos, in succession to Bishop Festus Segun.

    Initially, there was some objection from a few parishioners of the Cathedral to his appointment as Bishop of Lagos. Virtually, all his predecessors as Bishop of Lagos had been appointed from the diocese, or had worked there before. These critics wanted somebody from the Diocese of Lagos to be appointed Bishop. Bishop Festus Segun had been the Provost at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos, before his translation as the Bishop of Kaduna, from where he was transferred to Lagos as bishop. In fact, the matter was taken to court but later settled amicably. Adetiloye had not worked in Lagos before and was virtually unknown in the diocese. His appointment as Bishop of Lagos from the Ekiti diocese was controversial and marked a water shed, as it ended the domination of the Anglican diocese in Lagos by such ‘princes’ of the Church, as the two Bishops Howells, father and son, and the Phillips, all from distinguished ecclesiastical families in Lagos. Since the appointment of Irunsewe Kale as Bishop of Lagos, it was the first time a Bishop had been appointed for Lagos from outside the diocese. Before his arrival in Lagos, there had been a dispute over liturgy in the Cathedral. Bishop Adetiloye was able to restore amity and peace in the Cathedral. He remained the Bishop of Lagos until 1988 when he was translated as the Archbishop of Province 1 (Lagos) and Primate, Metropolitan of the Anglican Communion in Nigeria. He retired from this position in 1999 on attaining the age of 70, but remained in Lagos for a while until his health began to fail.

    As Bishop and Archbishop he made his mark in Lagos and in the Anglican Communion in several ways. First, he made the training of Anglican priests his top priority. In 1987, he established the Lagos Anglican Diocesan Seminary for the training of the clergy, opening its doors to other non-Anglican Churches. Second, he continued with the Kale policy of admitting professionals, such as engineers, medical doctors, architects etc, into the priesthood after training at the Seminary. Third, as Archbishop and Primate, he initiated an unprecedented programme of evangelism in the Anglican Communion in Nigeria. Between 1987 and 1997, he created 15 new dioceses in Northern Nigeria, another 15 in Eastern Nigeria and 13 in Western Nigeria. It was during his incumbency that the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) was divided into three ecclesiastical provinces. When he arrived in Lagos as Bishop in 1985, there were only 66 priests. When he retired in 1999, there were a total of 281 priests. In 1985, there were only 26 dioceses in Nigeria. Under his episcopacy, this figure rose to 76. The four archdeaconries increased from only 4 to 15. Fourth, he initiated the system of directorates in the diocese as a means of promoting evangelism more vigorously in the diocese. These directorates, which included the Prison Chaplaincy, Evangelism, the Elderly Helpline, and Health and Welfare, brought the Church closer to the congregation as never before. He also started at the Seminary site, a secondary grammar school, the Thomas Babington Macaulay Junior Seminary, named after the Revd. Thomas Babington Macaulay, the founder and first Principal of the famous CMS Grammar School, Lagos, the first secondary grammar school in Nigeria. The Revd. Macaulay was the father of Herbert Macaulay, the great leader of the Nigerian nationalist movement in the 1940s.

    Archbishop Abiodun Adetiloye was a charismatic and vastly learned man, steeped in Theology. As bishop, he was humble and not given to any form of ostentation. He was a man of great spiritual strength, moral courage, and evangelical fervour. He was admired as a most inspiring preacher, often delivering his sermons without any notes at all. His sermons in the Cathedral were quite memorable and immensely enjoyable. In political matters, towards which all successful prelates must cock a sensitive ear, he was alert, well informed and, when occasion demanded, very responsive. He was a fearless cleric and spoke out strongly against social injustice under military rule in Nigeria. So strong was his persistent criticism of the repressive Abacha military regime that many people feared for his personal safety. The security agencies kept him under their close watch together with Bishop Gbonigi of Ekiti, another courageous cleric, he was tagged a “NADECO Bishop”. In those days, I met him often and had conversations with him concerning the disturbing political situation in our country. I admired his great courage despite some well known health challenges in his own family. A totally unpretentious, easily accessible, and humble bishop, he attracted to himself the admiration and affection of the diocese, including a few parishioners who had initially objected to his appointment as the Lord Bishop of Lagos Diocese. He was, indeed, a steadfast bishop in the mould of Bishop Leslie Gordon Vining, the last expatriate Bishop and Archbishop of Lagos (Anglican Communion). I join all his admirers in offering his family my condolences. May his gentle soul rest in perfect peace.

  • Imo’s battle of convoys

    Senator Chris Anyanwu, beautiful and charming is at all times an embodiment of grace. Brilliant, resourceful and imbued with supreme self-confidence, she is not the one to easily cave in to pressure or intimidation by men. Long before the latest assault by Owele Rochas Okorocha, she had dazzled and dazed powerful men in power who had attempted to pull her down. For instance, despite wielding nothing more than her pen, Abacha who just couldn’t stand her guts, roped her in to an attempted coup, slammed her with a life sentence. From her Gombe prison she became a recipient of many international awards including the International Women’s Media Foundation Courage in Journalism, the CPJ International Press Freedom Award and the UNESCO Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.

    And like a cat with nine lives, Anyanwu outlived Abacha to emerge a senator on the platform of PDP representing of Owerri Zone of Imo state. “I felt I could do more than observe and moan the things that were not going right … I felt I could be more useful in helping find solutions to the problems”, she had said to justify her decision to join partisan politics. She decamped to APGA and was again elected senator in the April 2011 election.

    No less intimidating are the credentials of Okorocha, the governor of Imo State and Senator Anyanwu’s opponent in this epic ‘battle of convoys’.

    His Excellency is a former member of National Constitutional Conference, former chairman, Board of Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, former Special Adviser to President Obasanjo on Inter-Party Relations and former PDP chairman aspirant.

    Like Anyanwu, Okorocha is a tough fighter, who through hawking of groceries in Jos bought his first bus before he was 14. He also sold fairly used cars via Cotonou.

    Okorocha like Anyanwu also started as a PDP member. When he lost a bid to become PDP governorship candidate, he decamped to ANPP. He decamped back to PDP and was promptly made special assistant to President Obasanjo. He left PDP to form his Action Alliance (AA) from where he decamped back to PDP hoping to grab the plum job of PDP chairman. Fortune smiled on him when he decamped back to APGA in 2010, and fought a brutal battle, allegedly by storming the Imo State Secretariat of APGA with dozens of thugs, who beat up several top officers of the party who were trying to frustrate his efforts. The serial cross carpeting ended on a good note as he was declared winner of the 2011 Imo State governorship election.

    These then are the duo of PDP turned APGA warlords that fought the ferocious ‘battle of convoys’ in Azaraegbelu, Owerri North of Imo State last Wednesday.

    Senator Anyanwu, by her own account, had visited Okorocha earlier in the day ‘to felicitate with him on the up-coming wedding of his daughter,’ with a convoy of cars probably bought, fueled and driven by public officials at the expense of the tax payers. With the convoy she proceeded to Mbaise for a function. It was on her way back that her own convoy was confronted by Okorochas’s “intimidating convoy bearing down on her convoy with full compliments of security operatives, conventional and non-conventional”. Even after directing her convoy to veer off the road and stop for the governor’s convoy to pass, the governor’s security men stopped and blocked her convoy, dragged out the driver of her pilot vehicle and beat him to pulp, before dragging him to the bush with the aim of shooting him but for the shouting and wailing of our delectable senator. The senator also claimed she was miffed and ‘in utter shock’ to see that “Okorocha was watching the entire episode complacently and had even shouted orders to his men saying “disarm her security’.”

    Not exactly so, said Ebere Uzoukwa, the governor’s Special Assistant on Media. The governor, he claimed, narrowly escaped death when the senator’s convoy rammed into his convoy. Thereafter, the senator, in his words, ‘alighted from her vehicle, ‘went berserk by descending on the security men slapping both the governor’s Aide-de-Camp and Chief Detail’, and also ordered her Naval security personnel to open fire.

    The senator denied, saying the governor who she called a ‘psychopath and a threat to decent society,” has ‘pathological fixation on lying”.

    The governor hit back, through APGA chairman Okafor, who should ordinarily be an arbiter, at the senator describing her as having a “penchant for fighting in public”, and with “a history of impulsive violence and disrespect to elders”.

    This disgraceful acts and hilarious tales might have taken place in Imo, but it is symptomatic of the rule of warlords, cliques and gangs that go on in the name of political parties in our nation today.

    The absence of real political parties with vision, and programs aimed at improving the welfare of the governed, is responsible for the gross indiscipline, corruption, and abuse of office or what President Jonathan recently described as unacceptable attitudes of our political office holders.

    PDP that fraudulently ascribed to itself the title of the biggest political party in Africa, APGA and some of the opposition parties are nothing but instruments of warlords to settle political scores and for sharing spoils of war after periodically rigged elections.

    We have since learnt that the seed of Boko Haram that has rendered the north eastern Borno and Yobe states ungovernable for over two years was planted by cliques and gangs that employed its services for balance of terror to win election in 1999 and 2003. It has also emerged that South-south disgraced ex-governors like Alamieseigha and James Ibori, behaved like warlords sponsoring the various militant groups for balance of terror while sharing their people’s common patrimony. It has also been established that PDP government at the centre equally armed its own preferred militant group.

    In the South-east, the fact that kidnapping for ransom has become an industry, in an area controlled by a small regional party with capacity to mobilize more effectively clearly shows that APGA is just an instrument in the hands of cliques of former PDP members.

    Political parties, even when they end in the dictatorship of a small oligarchy, endure only when they treat discipline as a badge of honour among its members. Sadly we cannot say the same of many of our current political parties.

    PDP is an unruly clique that treat every scandal from the fuel subsidy scam, pensions scheme fraud, the privatization and commercialization scam, as ‘family affairs’.

    The governors like our overpaid legislators are wasting public resources because that is the only political culture they inherited from the self-serving military that suddenly cut off our age long political culture that predates the emergence of modern political party in 1926 which emphasized our various cultures, traditions, ‘passion and collective reasoning,’ and group priorities .

    Anyanwu and Okorocha, like our over paid lawmakers and undisciplined governors who behave like warlords are part of thousands of ‘newbreeds’ that breed only corruption unleashed on our nation after the so-called training by our equally fraudulent state house political scientists.

    We have to start afresh. And this is the challenge before the opposition as they haggle over their differences in order to create a strong opposition party that can confront PDP, an instrument used by gangs to protect interest of their gang members.

    The opposition must also take note of the current culture of overpaid opposition legislators’ disingenuous deployment of parts of their disproportionate earnings that run into millions, to build schools, recreation centres, buy cars and motorcycles ostensibly to alleviate poverty of members of their constituencies. It is not only self-serving, but also a fraudulent way of using illegal earnings to embark on gubernatorial race instead of focusing on law making.

  • Infrastrucural decay in South Western Nigeria

    I have a feeling that what I am going to write about the South Western part of Nigeria would be true of the entire country. But for clarity, it is better to begin from the particular to the general. I live in Ibadan and in the Redemption Camp in Mowe, Ogun State and I commute between Lagos and Ibadan every week. I also travel regularly between Ibadan and Ado-Ekiti and between Akure and Ilesha. I have also had to travel for research purposes between Ibadan, Oyo, Ogbomosho and Ilorin. The only major axis of the South-west routes which I do not frequent is Lagos-Abeokuta road and Abeokuta-Ibadan road. I had written in the past about the need to connect Sokoto with Badagry which was in the masterplan in road development in this country. If done, this would have relieved the Lagos, Ibadan, Ilorin axis considerably. I am also of the opinion that the Maiduguri-Calabar road needs to be developed in order to ease the transportation of goods from the coast to the North-east. I am also an avid supporter of the coastal route from Lagos going through Warri, Port-Harcourt to Calabar. If done, this will have the effect of the opening up vast areas along the coast for exploitation and development. That belt would provide all the paddy field necessary for the production of rice for the entire country. In short, a comprehensive road development of the country remains a necessary condition for economic development. This is not rocket science; it is what anybody with some modicum of intelligence can understand. If done pari pasu with railway development, this country will be opened up for business. Until this is done, we are just wasting our time. It is a truism that a country that is not in permanent motion is stagnant. In advanced countries, there is usually an integration of all transportation grid involving air, sea, river, surface train, street train, underground train and road network. Anybody who has ever been to Western Europe and the United States would appreciate this point. This is why it is so sad that the only way we move around in Nigeria is by road transportation even though we have two major rivers, Benue and Niger, they are hardly used. Everybody is travelling by road and because of this, the rate of mortality and morbidity on our road is one of the highest in the world.

    This preambular statement is an important background against which my discourse on the South-west will be placed. Whether for good or for bad, the major entry points into Nigeria is Lagos whether by air or by sea. Because of this and as a former capital of the country, Lagos remains the hub of transportation network in Nigeria. It does not matter where you live in the country, Lagos plays an important role in the lives of our people. Most of the goods coming into the country come through Lagos and most of the agricultural products exported out of the country goes through Lagos. At least 60% of the air traffic to and from Nigeria has Lagos has its departure or arrival point. It follows therefore that any serious government must keep the transportation lines to Lagos free all the time because every gridlock in terms of movement of goods and people undermines the economy. This is why it is the height if idiocy that there is only one major road linking Lagos to the North and the East and this is the so called expressway from Lagos-Ibadan and Benin. The Lagos-Ibadan expressway built about 30years ago has collapsed because ab-initio this road was not built to carry the kind of loads it is carrying. Since 1999, this road has not been touched by the federal government. As if to rub salt into our injury the road was given to Bi-Courtney on concessionary basis. After three years, the concession has now been cancelled. We are not interested in the reasons for the cancellation, what interests this writer is the fact that thousands of souls have perished in the course of the three years the road was held hostage by Bi-Courtney. It is surprising that the most important road in the country was used as an experiment and a guinea pig in somebody’s fanciful theory of privatization as the mode of economic development. As far as I know, there was no advertisement and no competition before the road was concessioned to the company that has proved unable to do the job. Nigerians, not only from the South-western part of the country but from everywhere are now victims of this arbitrariness. One of the things that amaze one in this country is the lack of scientific basis of policy formulation. Thus we have a situation where the Lagos-Ibadan road linking the South-west to the North is put on the same pedestal as any other road in the country just for the sake of federal character and geographical balance. We forget that this axis of Lagos-Ibadan-Oyo-Ogbomosho-Ilorin-Kaduna-Kano is where more than two-thirds of the Nigeria population lives. Development is about people, it is not about land. This is what our politicians and policy makers should understand. I am for equal and balanced development, for equitable share of development but it must be people based and people oriented. A situation where the money used in building 10 lane express road between Abuja Airport and Abuja city is freely allocated and disbursed while totally neglecting the centres of population calls into question whether planners in this country are sane or absolutely raving mad.

    Some have suggested that there is a deliberate policy of neglect, isolation and marginalization of the South-west by this present Federal Government. There is a plausible case that can be made but I will refuse to make it. This is because since 1999 well before this government came into power, the South-west has suffered total abandonment and neglect. The Ibadan-Ilorin expressway was awarded for construction and we were told that funds had been sourced from ADB (African Development Bank). The road itself is less than 150km in fact Ibadan is almost equidistant from Lagos as it is from Ilorin. In these 14 years, it is only a stretch of about 25km that has been constructed on this highway. The state of the Lagos-Abeokuta highway awarded at the same time leaves much to be desired and the road stopped in Abeokuta instead of continuing to Ibadan. The Ibadan-Ife road that was scheduled to continue to Akure, the center of Cocoa production in Nigeria stopped abruptly after Ilesha and even this shortened form of the express road has virtually been abandoned. The Akure Ado-Ekiti road, Akure-Ilesha road, and the Osogbo, Iwo, Ibadan road suffered the same neglect as other roads in South-west part of Nigeria that are federal roads. The policy of neglect if not the policy of President Jonathan must be the policy of the PDP, a policy that started under Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999.

    As I stated, I would not want to blame President Jonathan for the neglect of the South-west even though the signs of marginalization are everywhere in road construction and in appointments. Whatever the case maybe, the cumulative decay of infrastructure in the South-west is on the watch of President Jonathan and he has to do something about it. We have a saying in my place that when a baby’s head is wrongly positioned on the back of his mother in the market, it is the duty of any old person to put the situation right. This is what I am doing. My credo is that; if any part of Nigeria is hurting, the whole country suffers greatly. What is good for the South-west would also be good for the South-east and for the much neglected North-east, a neglect that has bred the rebellion camouflaging under the rubric of Boko haram. A lot of injustice has been committed in this country and we need to start making things right for everybody. Redressing obvious neglect in one area, while abandonment and marginalizing other areas is not in the interest of the country. We should embrace the Jeremy Benthamite’s doctrine of ensuring the happiness of the greatest number of our people.

  • Dipo Ayeni vs the police

    Until his retirement from the police some weeks ago, Emmanuel Dipo Ayeni behaved like the typical Nigerian, who saw evil but kept quiet. We are all like that. As long as we are not directly affected by what is happening around us, we keep mute. W e pretend that all is well when we know that things are going awry. Why are we like that? Is it because of the fear of being roped into something that we know nothing about? Whatever may inform our decision, our experience over time has shown that this is not the best way to be our brother’s keeper. Keeping silence in the face of danger or when evil is being perpetrated does not portray us as men with balls.

    Some people tend to behave this way because of what they have gone through in life or what they have learnt from the experience of others. Yet, the question is does this make it right for us to feel unconcerned about other people’s plight, especially when they suffer injustice? Until Ayeni found his voice following his retirement, he was like all of us. He pretended to see no evil even when it was being perpetrated right under his nose in the police. What Ayeni feared most by not speaking out then seems to be catching up with him now. He was probably afraid of losing his commission by speaking out while in office. The safest thing to do, he reasoned, was to wait till after leaving Service to blast the oppressors.

    His thinking was after retirement, they cannot do anything to me. Yes, that should be the case in a decent society, where civil and human rights are respected. This is not the case in our country and it is so painful that what many countries have taken for a given are considered a big deal by us. In those places, the police are in the vanguard of protecting the people’s rights and they do everything to uphold these rights. In our own case, the police infringe upon these rights at will and go scot-free. This is why today, the people fear the police more than soldiers, who are trained to kill because they operate on short fuse. Our police operate on shorter fuse these days as they kill and maim at the slightest provocation. These days, it is only a fool that argues with a policeman with a gun.

    No matter how you look at it, we are not safe with the police, yet they refer to themselves as our ”friend”. Friends who kill, maim, loot and rape innocent women! This is the type of police that we have and in which Ayeni served for long before retiring last year. It is not his fault that the police is what it is today. We cannot blame Ayeni for that. But we can ask him what did he do to make things right as a very senior officer? Did he complain about the rot in the police to the authority? What did he do in his own Command to set example for others? Were his complaints looked into by the Police Service Commission (PSC)? But then, we cannot blame Ayeni too much because he might not have been in a position to change things. What about the PSC? Is it just concerned with the appointment and promotion of officers because it is usually during this exercise that we hear about the Commission working?

    With his retirement, Ayeni appears set to fight the evils he saw in the police from outside. He has taken the first step in his crusade by letting us into what is happening there. ”The way the Nigerian Police Force is operating today”, he said, at his pulling out and farewell parade in Jos, Plateau State, over three weeks ago, ”leaves much to be desired not because its personnel are not professionally competent but due to some dangerous chemistry that has been badly mixed against the soul of this vital organisation. I must talk on this now or I will be condemned by history. This is in the best interest of the progress and development of our dear country”. Ayeni was talking as an insider and he was not done yet.

    ”The reform that is going on in the police is extremely cosmetic and it cannot take the Police Force to the next level . Frankly speaking, the white papers on the different committees’ reports on the Police Force are not being properly implemented. We should embark on a wholesale reform that is fundamental, that is, the reform that will properly position the Nigeria Police Force for effective service delivery. If the Nigerian Police is well organised, it will perform its constitutional and statutory duties very well”, he noted, adding :

    ”There are rules governing promotions in the police, but in the name of reform, promotion is done with decoration of heavy conspiracy between the Inspector-General of Police (IG) and the PSC. The known criteria for promotion particularly based on seniority and merit have been consigned to the dustbin of history. Promotion is now a reward for parochial loyalty to the IG and PSC chairman. How can one justify the promotion of some officers to the rank of Deputy Inspectors-General of Police (DIGs) and Assistant Inspectors-General of Police (AIGs) by the PSC, elevating junior officers above their seniors. What is the professional reason for the retirement of 13 AIGs that were cut down in the prime of their career without committing any offence known to law. The president should have intervened when officers who served their fatherland patriotically were butchered by the PSC and its cohorts”.

    Strong words, yes, very strong words, but I believe that Ayeni must have his facts to have spoken the way he did. True to type, the PSC has taken him up on his remarks. From its reaction, it is glaring that the PSC is not happy with Ayeni, who the IG has already queried. His offence, I guess, will be that he opened his mouth too wide at his farewell parade. Pray, if a man cannot express his feelings while in Service because of certain rules must he still be gagged by those rules after retiring? Rather than query Ayeni, I think what the IG should do is to look into Ayeni’s claims. Are they true or not? Are people being promoted on the basis of their relationship with the IG? Are such promotions on merit or a reward for subservience? Should a man be queried for his honest and frank opinion about an organisation he diligently served for 32 years, rising to the position of Commissioner?

    It is in the character of the po

    lice to harass and hound bold

    and fearless officers. Remember Alozie Ogugbuaja? For speaking out at the Akanbi panel , which probed students’ riot during the Babangida regime, Ogugbuaja was eventually forced out of Service. Is the police better for it today? The answer is no. Now, they seem to be threatening Ayeni with the same treatment, forgetting that he has already retired from Service. With his new status as a retiree, is Ayeni still subject to the authority of the IG or PSC, which is also spoiling for a fight with him over his December 10 remark in Jos? The issue should not be to hound Ayeni, the messenger. If we do that, we will be missing the point. The message is what we should look at. Is there anything in it that the police can use to better themselves and become people-friendly?

    ”Police is your friend” is a mere phrase we see on paper in police stations nationwide. The police do not live up to this legend. As presently constituted, the ”police is not our friend”. How can they be the people’s friend with some of the atrocities they perpetrate across the country? These atrocities are well known to the IG and PSC. But they have never done anything to restore our confidence in the police, which have a crucial role to play in national development. Rather than join issues with Ayeni, the IG and PSC should look inwards and do the right things to give us a people’s police. Denying Ayeni his retirement benefits will serve no useful purpose. Did he breach any law by expressing his opinion on a matter he felt strongly about upon retirement?

    The IG and PSC should tread cautiously on this matter. There is no need making a scape-goat of Ayeni for saying what we already know about the police. This is the more reason why he probably didn’t talk while in Service. He has said his piece and he should be allowed to go with his peace of mind, rather than being served with a query, which end result can be predicted.

  • Goodbye 2012, Welcome 2013

    Goodbye 2012, Welcome 2013

    Yesterday, Tuesday, January 1, marked the beginning of yet another year. This event, as usual, was heralded by pomp and ceremony all over the world. The ceremonies were rather spontaneous. This is because regardless of previous or past experiences, people are always nostalgic in welcoming a new year. And so is the joy and optimism that goes with it.

    But then wait a minute. Let us take a look at 2012 and see whether the year justified all the ceremonies and expectations that heralded it this time last year. We might just look at the good, the bad and the ugly scenes or events that characterized 2012. As I was saying earlier, there is something so special about January 1 of every year. It is a day people give thanks to God for many things. High on the agenda is the gratitude for surviving the previous year. And it does not matter if the previous year was either good or bad. Everybody will be united in looking forward to a pleasant new year.

    In Nigeria, January 1, 2012 brought sorrows, tears and even blood. That was the day Nigerians woke up to the reality that the Federal Government had removed ‘subsidy’ on petroleum products. The exercise led to astronomic hike in the cost of fuel. It rose from N68 to N140. Many people who had travelled to their villages and hamlets for the New Year festivities were stranded. Tension enveloped the entire nation.

    What followed were huge protests all over the place. In Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria, the Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Square at Ojota, on the outskirts of Lagos, came alive. For days, protesters trooped there to register their displeasure over the sudden hike.

    For some people, it was fun all the way as the organizers of the protests, the Save Nigeria Group, added innovations like bringing musical bands to play, and people volunteered food that was served freely. This kept the protests alive for several days. Every day, the crowd grew in number. The more the crowd grew, the more worrisome it was for the government in Abuja. For a government that had all the time stuck to its gun, by the time it was apparent that things might snowball out of control, the Federal Executive Council scrambled to the negotiating table. By this time, the whole country was in turmoil. Lives were lost.

    It was a fidgety President that later addressed the nation, and reduced the price of petrol as well as promised the nation a number of steps to right the wrongs in the oil sector. Had it been that there were no protests or that the protests did not assume the fearful dimension it took, I am not sure the government was prepared to look into the oil sector to actually see what was going on. Though attempts have been made by the government to rubbish the protests by labeling it as the handiwork of the opposition, that protest will go down as the first well-organised civil disobedience in Nigeria.

    We are all witnesses to the subsidy probe that followed. That probe opened a can of worms in the oil sector. It was like turning up the underbelly of a bad car. A lot of earth-shaking revelations on the financial malfeasance and sleaze that have bedeviled the oil sector were unearthed. However, what is left is the will by the government to successfully prosecute those involved in the subsidy scandal. The scandal dominated the polity in the first half of 2012. Many of the so-called ‘big boys’ driving around in posh cars were unmasked as thieves.

    Take for instance the case involving the oil magnate, Femi Otedola, and Farouk Lawan who headed the subsidy probe instituted by the House of Representatives. Otedola is known to be one of the commercial hangers–on around the president. Therefore, many people believed the bribe between him and Farouk could have been stage-managed or instigated from above to rubbish the exercise. Otedola’s company was one of the companies allegedly indicted. Till date, nothing concrete has been heard over that case. Yet, in Nigeria, it is a crime to offer or receive bribe. In that case, both the giver and the receiver are culpable. Nigerians are still waiting.

    In June 2012, a major diversion was the news of the crash of Dana Aircraft on a routine journey from Abuja to Lagos. All the 150 passengers, including the crew, perished. The crash threw the entire country into grief. The Aviation industry came under the binoculars as people asked questions. Anyway, that did not prevent further crashes in the sector.

    Danbaba Suntai, the governor of Taraba State, was involved in an air crash in October 2012 while ‘personally’ flying an aircraft from Jalingo to Yola. He, along with some of his aides, were badly injured and they are still receiving medical treatment abroad. If Suntai and his aides were lucky, Sir Patrick Yakowa, former governor of Kaduna State, along with Gen. Andrew Owoye Azazi, immediate past National Security Adviser, the pilots and aides, were not so lucky. Six of them perished on December 15 in a helicopter crash in the mangrove forest of Bayelsa State.

    Nigerians had thought that that helicopter crash would complete the unfortunate events of 2012. Another tragedy, this time, on the road, occurred when the vehicle bearing Idris Wada, the governor of Kogi State, was involved in a fatal accident on Friday, December 28, 2012. The crash occurred when the governor’s Lexus Jeep suffered a tyre burst on the Ajaokuta-Lokoja Road while returning to the state capital after attending an official function. Though Wada sustained a leg fracture and other minor bruises, Idris Mohammed, his Aide-De Camp, an Assistant Superintendant of Police, died in the crash. He has since been buried in Kaduna.

    I will not want to bother my readers with the numerous terror attacks in the northern part of the country in 2012. As it seems, that has come to be a permanent feature in that part of the country with an apparently helpless government blowing hot and cold each time the terrorists strike. It is a big relief that 2012 is gone with the loads of highs and lows that confronted the nation.

    If our recent experience is anything to go by, Nigerians welcomed 2013 with mixed feelings. We surely need a new beginning this year. It is obvious that issues of the economy, security, employment, fighting, corruption and official cover-ups, to name a few, will dominate 2013 in Nigeria.

    On the political turf, though the president has confessed that his government is “slow”, Nigerians will want to see a more invigorated government that will alleviate the sufferings of the people. The first way to ensure this is for the President to tinker with his cabinet and his aides. Some of them are dead woods who have nothing to offer than to sing praises and tell the President what will make him happy at all times. When you look at the performance indices of some of the ministers and aides, you could see that they are not worth to be councillors in their local governments. They are simply bereft of ideas and the wherewithal to move this country forward at the pace it deserves.

    It is obvious that many of them have become fronts for fortune seekers and profiteers. Majority of them have become too stupendously rich to continue in their present positions. It is for this reason that the president must take a second look at those around him and his cabinet. Nigerians don’t want a slow government. What is at stake in this country today cannot be handled slowly anymore. Afterall, the resources – human, natural and capital – are there. The president only needs to see beyond the present narrow prism and confront the challenges facing the nation headlong. To do this, he must act like a tiger and not a snail!

  • Waiting for Jonathan’s transformation

    Waiting for Jonathan’s transformation

    When President Goodluck Jonathan took over as President in May 2010 following the demise of his principal, Umaru Yar’adua, expectations were high. Despite the fact the he appeared unprepared for the task fate and circumstances had placed on his shoulders, a good number of Nigerians expected him to be different from his predecessors. Perhaps because of his saintly visage, peculiar name and the fact he was from a minority ethnic group, they believed that he was the messiah destined to lead the country out of the cesspool of failure where it had found itself.

    In those early days of his administration, Jonathan carried himself with the air of a messiah. Without talking much, he hoodwinked Nigerians into believing that he was heaven’s answer to their prayers. Between when he was sworn in as Acting President till when he declared his intention to contest the 2011 election, he did nothing other than firing his perceived enemies and planting his cronies in key areas of government in order to establish a firm hold.

    After about 10 months as President without any credible achievements, Jonathan threw his hat in the ring for the 2011 elections. Even though the decision clearly contravened the zoning principle of his party and almost threw the country into a political turmoil, he didn’t care a hoot because he felt it was his time.

    After a protracted battle with some northern political elites who were opposed to his ambition, he won his party’s ticket and embarked on a heavily funded campaign to become Nigeria’s president. It was in the peak of that campaign the he came up with this thing called ‘Transformation Agenda,’ with which he hoped to turn the country around for good.

    Lest we forget, what Jonathan did before the election cannot be described as a campaign. It was simply a jamboree where people ate, drank and got free souvenirs. As he crisscrossed the length and breadth of the country in search of votes, there was nothing inspiring in his speeches. There was no blueprint of what he wants to achieve and how he intended to go about it. The most memorable aspect of his entire campaign was that ‘I had no shoes’ speech in Abuja which has now become a satire for critics of his administration.

    When the time finally came to elect the country’s president it, many Nigerians voted for a man they barely knew. They willingly gave their nods to a man who had no direction, destination or commitment other than an abstract document called transformation agenda. Many of those who voted for him were naïve and overly sentimental. They stood for hours in the scorching sun to elect him not because his achievements but because like him, they felt it was his time and nobody should stand in his way.

    Now that the euphoria of winning a presidential election so cheaply has subsided, the real Goodluck Jonathan is gradually unveiling himself. He is showing Nigerians that there is more to a man beyond the look on his face and the clothes on his skin. What many citizens are experiencing today is the exact opposite of what they anticipated when they defied harsh weather conditions to cast their votes for him.

    Under Jonathan’s watch, things seem to have gone from bad to worse. The transformation agenda he spoke passionately about is fast becoming a forlorn dream that may never materialise.

    Counting from when he was sworn in as acting president till date, it almost two years and there is no worthwhile achievement that can be traced to Jonathan’s administration.

    In his inaugural speech as President, Jonathan promised to hit the ground running and almost 19 months down the line, he is yet to get his bearing not to talk of running. He promised to make some reforms in power, economy and other critical sectors but nothing has changed.

    With all the mouthed reforms of the Minister of Finance Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s economy is still at its nadir. Even now that the fuel subsidy has been partially withdrawn, ours is still one of the poorest economies in the world where thousands of citizens are unemployed and live below the poverty line. Like other Jonathan apostles, she goes about analysing improvements in figures and graphs when the realities on ground show otherwise.

    The President recently gloated that Nigeria now generates 4,500 Megawatts of electricity, yet the entire country still languish in darkness. Somebody needs to remind him that South Africa generates almost 50,000 Megawatts which has made life better in the country. Because of the epileptic power situation in Nigeria, industries are collapsing and moving out of the country. The few surviving ones spend a chunk of their profits to run generators and it is only a matter of time before they collapse too. Yet, the president thinks he is working.

    In education, it is the same tale of woes. Jonathan established six new universities when he came on board but they are not different from the other derelict ones. Is it not a shame that no Nigerian institution is ranked among the first 20 universities in Africa?

    With the ways things are today, one can’t help but ask what Jonathan’s transformation agenda is all about. Is it a plan by Jonathan and his acolytes to make the country worse than they met it? If this is how he hopes to turn the country around, then we are on a journey to nowhere.