The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

Re: Four Yoruba and Nigerian Avatars

Snooper is at it again, in his elements in “Four Yoruba and Nigerian Avatars.” Clinically incisive, especially your characterisation of “The Four”. Yes, “Obasanjo…is arguably the outstanding political games-master”, sugbon , “elewon maa..nloga.” Ask him about “The Lion of Bourdillon”, whose heroic exploits in our political firmament are still unfolding. We pray he would not falter. Just fire on, Tatalo Alamu, we will be reading and enjoying you. ——Feyisola Famutimi .

This writing business, osa, often dreary and torturing, is like prospecting for gold. You came close to a prize find in the second essay on Yoruba avatars dripping with rich insights. A book on such lines will be seminal. How does Asiwaju fit into the picture? Professor Ayo Olukotun.

December 16, 2012
The horrible year 2012 (1)

President Jonathan woke up the first day of this annus horribilis to give Nigerians a gift from the very pit of hell

So horrible has the current year been for Nigeria and its hapless citizens that even though my distinguished senior at The School –read Christ’s School, Ado-Ekiti, Emeritus Professor Jide Osuntokun, had his last two columns devoted to the morbidity aspect of this subject, I still could not shy away from the subject. All I succeeded in doing, therefore, is translate ‘Annus Horribilis’, my original title, into its anglicised form.

Happily too, we are looking at the subject from different perspectives.

Without the slightest doubt, my readers know that neither Professor Osuntokun nor I own the patent to the cryptic epigram, Annus Horribilis’. Rather, it belongs to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth 11, of England who, on the 40th anniversary of her coronation at Guildhall, London, on 24 November, 1992, decided to bring to the public space, the views of one of her trusted correspondents who had described the year as such.

‘Thank you’, intoned Her Majesty, the Queen, ‘this great hall has provided me with some of the most memorable events of my life. The hospitality of the City of London is famous around the world, but nowhere is it more appreciated than among the members of my family. However, 1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure. In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents, it has turned out to be an ‘Annus Horribilis’. I suspect that I am not alone in thinking it so. Indeed, I suspect that there are very few people or institutions unaffected by these last months of worldwide turmoil and uncertainty,’ concluded her incandescent Majesty.

This 3- part article which should round off the column for the year will commence with something of an analysis of the horrible events that shaped the world, but especially our own corner of it, during the year, the second will interrogate the roads, which if taken would have, most probably, turned things around significantly while the third, and final part, will showcase those few areas of the country where we have seen courageous examples of leadership demonstrated.

Not even the first part will attempt to limit the horrible happenings to our unfortunate country. As you read this, Syria is burying its own innocent children, needlessly despatched to the great beyond in a most unreasonable internecine war; the young Afghan girl, Malala Yusufzai, a 14-year-old education rights activist, shot by a Taliban gun man on her way home from school in the Swat Valley region of that blighted country, is still in a London hospital being treated for head injuries; just as Hurricane Sandy showed Americans that there is more than elections, even in democracies, the way it mowed down everything on its way in a deluge that so easily reminds one of Hurricane Katrina; that demon which, but for God, would have swallowed up our own Niyi Osundare. We thank God for little mercies.

Meanwhile, Greece is in a shambles, humbled by a protracted debt crisis that has thrashed the reputation of some leading world economists and politicians the West believed they could rely onif push came to shove, economically speaking, that is. Nearer home in Central Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo lies flat on its belly. The list goes on, but our emphasis today is on the only country we can legitimately call our own –the ruined and heavily violated, modern day ‘Garden of Eden’, given the resources it pleased God to endow it with.

As if propelled by some evil spirit, President Jonathan woke up the first day of this ‘annus horribilis’ to give Nigerians a gift from the very pit of hell –withdrew a so-called oil subsidy, which has since turned out to be nothing more than the colossal sums of money the well-connected – election financiers, families of PDP top men and sundry hirelings – had fraudulently fleeced from our common purse. The whole country went into a tailspin with extra-judicial killings by trigger-happy police men as the icing on the cake. A convulsion erupted with conscientious men and women, leading lights of the Nigerian civil society, the trade unions, renowned artists, musicians and the hoi polloi, thrown into the mix, all leading to a truly horrendous melt down. Happily, and for once, the National Assembly, especially the lower House, rose in defence of the powerless. The reverberations are still here with us as the federal government continues to use decoys to mess up every attempt to get to the bottom of the rot in the oil sector. Without a doubt, that cesspool will not dry up soon since government is adept at rubbishing every committee report aimed at sanitising the industry; just so, their behind can be protected.

To further demonstrate how horrible the year has been, Nigerians only fortuitously got to know through a foreign medium – the Wall Street Journal to be precise – that the Jonathan government had entered into a whooping N5.6 Billion contract with militants to guard oil pipelines. Since lies have a short life span, it soon transpired that never in our history has oil theft in the country reached its current levels in spite of that humongous contract and the rumoured employment of some 5000 militants. Meanwhile, nobody in government has told Nigerians that the Navy, whose primary duty it is, has been annulled from our books. And while Dr Doyin Okupe could talk animatedly about a jump from 1.8mbpd to 2.6mbpd, he has not volunteered a word about the high level oil thefts and the consequent plummeting of daily production to levels achieved before the contracts.. This way, it will be reasonable to suggest that loyalties are already being surreptitiously bought and caressed, ahead the next set of elections knowing full well that Boko Haram will not stay idle when the jockeying begins for political supremacy between the North and the South-South.

This therefore takes us to the issue of security of life and property, failure in which respect, we should be able to conclude that this president has failed; no matter what else he got right. The three menacing threats here in order of their seriousness are the Boko Haram menace, kidnapping and armed robbery. Beginning from the last, one can conveniently say now that nowhere is safe in this country, irrespective of what time of day you are out there or even when attempting to sleep in your own house at night. All our roads are infested with the menace and whole streets are ransacked by hordes of armed robbers who may, in fact, have written ahead that they will visit since they are fully aware of the state of preparedness of our under-funded police force. In the Ijebu area of Ogun state, nay, in any part of the South-West, God forbid a bank open for business when the ‘boys’ have announced their coming. This has gone on for years now without the police having an answer. Without a doubt, the yuletide period will most probably be .worse.

For some areas of the country, kidnapping has become an industry –real big business- and it has been suggested that in the South-East, as much as N750 Million is made per month from this horrendous evil. One interesting development had been that in the South-South where kidnapping started, deaths of victims are a rarity. This was because they were satisfied once their sponsors, which at a time allegedly included serving state governors, told them to simply hold on to their victim in the sure knowledge that money was coming.

To be continued.

December 16, 2012
America’s petroleum and Nigeria’s future (1)

Nigeria will never be the same again after the United States becomes an exporter of petroleum

Two of the regular readers of this column have asked me to comment in the fashion on the implications of the news that the United States will by 2020 become the largest producer of petroleum in the world and that many multinational oil companies are bent on reducing their investment in Nigeria’s oil exploration and exploitation. I would have preferred to ignore this request on the ground that I am not an economist and thus not intellectually equipped to make economic forecasts, if my readers had not given me the permission to give their question just a commonsensical approach, given my lack of expertise in economics.

It is my belief that Nigeria will never be the same again after the United States becomes an exporter of petroleum. But the country will not go under because of this and may very well finally have an opportunity to escape what Michael Ross calls the Oil Curse: the view that countries that are not developed before discovering the black gold are more likely than other countries to have less democracy and less economic stability.

There should be little concern about American, French, and Dutch oil companies selling some of their business in our country’s oil sector. That there are buyers for such business indicates that the business is not dying and that Nigeria may still earn some foreign exchange from whatever oil business is sold by multinational oil companies. The minister of finance’s disclosure that foreign oil companies make 43% of the revenue from oil while Nigeria makes 57% shows that many oil companies are likely to continue their business in the country. In addition, the fact that China has already replaced the United States as the biggest importer of Nigeria’s crude oil also indicates that buyers of the Nigeria’s oil are likely to be around for years to come.

What is likely to constitute a major challenge to the country is the news that the United States will become the largest supplier of petroleum and gas by 2020 as a result of United States’ capacity to obtain light crude and gas from shale formations through fracking. The possibility that fracking may become available in other technologically advanced countries (including China and India) should be the greatest source of worry for Nigeria, especially its economy and polity.

Since petroleum export accounts for over 80% of Nigeria’s revenue, it is logical that the loss of the 12% of Nigeria’s sweet light bought annually by the United States is going to lead to reduced revenue. Already, in contrast to US import of 11% of Nigeria’s light in 2011, United States’ import from Nigeria in 2012 is put at 5%, a reduction of about 50% revenue flowing into Nigeria from the United States annually. By 2020, the United States may not need to buy one barrel of oil from Nigeria. Moreover, increase in US oil export is also likely to reduce the percentage of Nigeria’s oil imported by other countries. The news that Russia is building pipelines to make delivery of its petroleum to other countries including Germany more cost effective and faster than it used to be will certainly reduce the volume of oil imported from Nigeria worldwide. The discovery of oil in many countries, including the fact that Somalia may have more oil than Kuwait will certainly lead to a glut in the oil market and decline in revenue coming to all oil-exporting countries.

The bad side of reduction in revenue from oil for a country that is largely dependent on oil export is that there may be less money for infrastructure development. Electricity, road and rail transportation will be affected adversely by the flow of less revenue to the country. Consequently, the country’s chance of starting new industries may be hampered substantially. Such situation will fuel further migration of manufacturing companies to other countries with better infrastructure in West Africa or elsewhere on the continent.

Correspondingly, there will be less funding to education by government at all levels, since all the three tiers of government depend on revenue from oil export. The current situation of decline in the quality of education in the country is, more likely than not, to worsen. Consequently, the country’s competitiveness even within Africa will diminish, thus creating the scare of vicious cycle of underdevelopment. The rate of unemployment will also increase nationally. Economic activities in the informal sector (responsible for over 50% of the country’s economic activities) will also decline.

On the good side, there will be less corruption in the country. The demands on dwindling revenue will increase to the point that government at all levels will be more aggressive on taxation. This will increase citizens’ awareness and resistance to stealing of their taxes by their leaders. The current nonchalance by citizens about the stealing of public funds will be replaced by citizens’ anger and hunger for accountability and good governance. The attitude to public funds as deriving from manna and not from contributions from citizens as tax will disappear. Citizens will be more concerned and sensitive to those they elect to rule them; become more critical of the civil service and more aggressive in their demand for transparency and accountability at all levels of government. For example, serious struggle against emoluments to elected officials at federal, state, and local government level will become part of government-citizen relations.

Furthermore on the good side, Nigerians and their leaders will stop hoping for miracles, as the source of economic miracle in the economy will have diminished too much for responsible political to risk not countenancing, as it has been the case for decades since large-scale export of petroleum. As the country struggles with the problem of revenue decline, citizens and their leaders especially will see the sense in shifting their focus from derivation and revenue allocation to production and revenue generation from agriculture in all the states of the federation, as it used to be before discovery of petroleum at Oloibiri. State or regional governments, rather than the federal government, will become drivers of development. And the political structure and culture of the country will be more prone to transformation than it has ever been since 1966.

To be continued next week.

December 16, 2012
We’ve lost a crucial war

For five whole days last week, a battle was afoot in Ogwashi-Uku, Delta State, as it still is in Ibadan, Oyo State and who knows where else in the country. It is a struggle against crime, against abomination and indecency.

Until Friday, the security community was trying to locate and rescue an octogenarian queen in Ogwashi-Uku kingdom, Prof Kamene Okonjo, from kidnappers. Two policemen were detained for not being on duty at the palace when the queen was abducted. Questions were also asked as to why the traditional palace guards were either not around when the kidnappers came or, if they were, why they failed to protect the queen. On Friday, we learnt that 63 suspects had been arrested over the incident. This was followed the same day by reports that the queen and professor of sociology had been freed. Her release coming five days after her abduction, brought a huge relief to the Ogwashi monarchy. Seeing Prof Kamene again put the king, Prof Chukwuka Okonjo and their children, among who is Finance Minister Prof Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, out of their torment. It also eased tension, somewhat, on the entire state, which is fast notching up a notoriety for kidnap, and whose governor Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan did his utmost to assure agitated Deltans and Nigerians that the woman would be found. Her assailants were to review downwards a billion dollar ransom placed on her to N200m.

In Oyo State, unfortunately, the wife of a former governor of Western Region Brig Gen Oluwole Rotimi, kidnapped also in the week, was still not found as this column took shape on Friday. As in Delta, security personnel also deployed to battle, and with a bit luck, she too will be found unharmed.

Still, the worrying fact remains that we have lost a crucial war. The police, detectives and military may win the battle of freeing abducted grandmothers from their kidnappers, aided in some cases by a huge pile of cash payout, but it is clear that the country has since lost the moral war, one that perpetually fights to keep its values intact.

Every society, no matter how remote, has in-built mechanisms and sanctions to keep itself sane. Age, for instance, is valued in traditional societies. Hard work is a thousand times better than cheap fame or fortune. A title is earned, not bought. Africa’s literary pride Prof Chinua Achebe captured this eminently in his Things Fall Apart. Okonkwo amounted to something because by dint of hard work he defied his ineffectual background to make himself heard. The hero of TFA is a self-made man, not one who stole to become a chief or a layabout who slipped into the fortunes of his father. In Okonkwo’s case, his father left him nothing except perhaps debts and an unflattering lifestyle of palmwine drinking and daylong melodies.

In the sane societies with which Nigeria was once richly blessed across its landscape, crime was decisively punished. In some places, a thief was made to wear a garb and crown of shame while dancing round the community in the hope that he will be mortified. A murderer paid dearly for his crime; in some cases, he was even banished. While hard work was encouraged, becoming wealthy was not a do-or-die. The end did not justify the means.

Not anymore. Our moral fabric has since been ripped to shreds and tossed out the window. Hard work has taken the back seat. Leadership grandstanding has taken over, as have trickery, subterfuge, thievery in high places, opulence, contract inflation and what have you. Things we once cherished no longer count. They do not make sense anymore.

When this new, ugly order crept in us is hard for me to determine. But I know that things are no longer the way they used to be. As the economy continues to slump and the naira weakens and more jobless youths roam the street, some bizarre opulence flaunts itself still. More SUVs or Jeeps, as we prefer, cruise our pothole-ridden roads. Mansions continue to spring up in swanky neighbourhoods, leaving lesser mortals in subdued protest. It is news if in a day or week the dailies do not lead with high profile fraud or something similar.

I believe that is why the youths seem to have lost patience with everything. Many now risk all to own their own Jeeps and their own mansions. Many take to violent crime such as piracy and kidnapping, their sights set on the millions that will accrue after each operation. They are emboldened, as one arrested pirate inferred last week, by their highly placed sponsors.

Some are no longer interested in merely watching their peers, even subordinates, cruise around in sleek cars simply because those rich dudes are leaders. The poor are taking their fate in their own hands by simply joining the bandwagon of vice, of kidnapping, piracy, contract fraud, robbery and the like no matter the cost.

That is why kidnappers no longer care if their target is old enough to be their grandmothers. Or perhaps, that is why they care. The older and more connected to cash, the better. That was why they swooped on 82-year-old Prof Kamene, never minding her grey hair or weak frame. That was why they seized the equally aged wife of Gen Rotimi and took her away. That was also why gunmen shot and killed a soldier in Delta and abducted a Lebanese construction worker.

Nothing matters anymore. All care is gone. Sanctity is lost. So is integrity.

It is not hard to explain. We have since lost the most crucial war of defeating forces and tendencies that snatch our sanity. We are now grappling with problems of different kinds.

December 16, 2012
Let Sambo have his N14bn palace

It was such bad news when on December 6, the Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) rejected plans by the FCT Administration to spend an additional N9billion to provide infrastructure at the residence of the Vice-President. Then the newspapers went to town the next day with sensational headlines, depicting our country as a poor one which could not afford to splash a mere N14billion on the official residence of its Number Two citizen. The project was awarded in 2009 at a cost of N7billion. The Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) initially wanted N9billion more, but had to scale it down to N6billion plus, perhaps after the intervention of the Bureau for Public Procurement.

For once, I was compelled to agree with our Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, that it is the media that should be blamed for projecting the country in bad light, thus influencing outsiders’ perception of what is happening in the country. Instead of descending on the senators who want our vice president to live in some ramshackle house, the media started faulting the additional funds requested for the laudable project. What a pity!

Now, when an important decision is about to be taken on an equally important personality like the country’s Number Two citizen, one expects those taking the decision to advance impeccable reasons why theyson advanced by the Senate committee? Senator Smart Adeyemi who led members of the committee to the project site said the amount was huge, considering the abject poverty in the land. “The National Assembly is not going to appropriate additional N9bn for the project, especially at a period in this country when people cannot get a square meal. The N9bn is far more than the original cost of the project”. We cannot blame Smart for having such a low esteem of our vice president. He is from Kogi State where tailor, carpenter and some pilot once held sway as governor. So, this parochial mindset must have influenced his decision.

Smart is talking as if he is just back from Germany or the US, or wherever. Who in Nigeria does not know that contract variations have become part and parcel of us and we hardly review contract cost down here? Again, imagine a ‘learned’ legislator like Smart talking about people not able to ‘get a square meal’ and the abject poverty in the land. He should tell us when last a government provided Nigerians that square meal a day. I left the university in the mid-‘80s and I know that people had been going on all kinds of methods to reduce their food bills, even since then. We had ‘0-1-1’ and ‘1-0-1’ (the first meaning minus breakfast, plus lunch and dinner; and the second: plus breakfast minus lunch, plus dinner). This is the way it has been at least since the ‘80s. Whereas before then, parents had enough to give their children and they were always confident to ask the children if they were satisfied. These days, most parents merely ask whether the children have eaten. They would have taken off before the children start complaining that the food is not enough!

Again, Smart talked about ‘abject poverty’, is he pretending not to know that is what governments have been spreading in the country for the past few decades? And they are now talking as if it is the fault of the vice president that there is abject poverty in the land. I guess that people like Smart are advancing all these reasons because President Goodluck Jonathan and his team are largely democrats with human kindness flowing in their veins. Imagine if it had been in the Second Republic, Smart and his colleagues would have been put where they belong by some outspoken public officials who would have asked them whether they have seen any Nigerian eat from the dustbin yet. It was the then President Shehu Shagari who was quiet; but he had ministers and other subordinates that were garrulous. As a matter of fact, one of them was so loathed that they organised for him to be ‘crated’ home from Britain, but for some eagle-eyed British police who aborted the plan.

The senators ignored all the explanations of the executive secretary of the FCDA, Adamu Ismail, who tried all he could to make the senators see sense in the idea. The man said the place needed furniture, fencing, two protocol guest louses, a banquet hall and security gadgets. According to Ismail, these were omitted by those who conceived the project. Now, tell me, which of these is our vice president not entitled to? Is it the furniture that you want to disagree with? Or you want to say the man should not be protected with a fence as thick and strong as the wall of Jericho in these days of high profile kidnappings and bombings? Are two protocol guest houses too many for the vice president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria? Are the senators also saying the banquet hall is unnecessary? We should realise that those who prepared the initial estimate are human beings likely to forget that these items were not included in the original project. Or, they must be some other Smarts who believe in Spartan lifestyle for our vice president!

In view of all these points, we should show understanding for why the supplementary budget for the project is higher than the original estimate. All these items could not have been provided with the initial N7billion! Moreover, what if technologies have changed between when the contract was awarded and now; would we want our vice president’s palace to be fitted with yesterday’s technology, today?

Now that the Senate committee has made Ismail look incompetent, how will another FCDA official come again next year to ask for another variation, this time including the cost of transporting all the needed items to site? And the cost of painting, electrical fittings, bottled water and champagne and stuff like that? And what of the cost of the cassava bread that the vice president will eat? And the exotic fura de nunu to wash it down?

These are what Smart sat in judgment over and declared, rather off-handedly, that “Fourteen billion Naira to me is huge for the Vice-President’s house. If you are even talking of N10bn, that would be understandable …”. When has the simple question of budgeting suddenly become this rigorous in the country? Have Smart and Co. forgotten that here, we don’t simply spend, we sink money into projects? How come we find it difficult to sink a mere N14billion into our vice president’s lodge? Since when has that paradigm changed? These senators should come off it! They should not infect our vice president with their poverty-stricken mindset. In case the senators do not know, some of our leaders are like my friend who always reminds us that he had been taking Irish Cream since he was in his mother’s womb; whenever we tease him that he has a poor man’s mentality. We should appreciate our leaders’ sacrifices by at least spoiling them a little.

The reasonable thing that Senator Smart should have done was to have asked Ismail to ‘take a bow and leave’! All hope is however not lost. Thanks to the empathetic vice-chairman of the committee, Senator Domingo Obende, who urged the officials to submit the details of the additional scope of work for which the fund was required to the committee for scrutiny. Scrutiny? Don’t start smelling any rat. And never ask what the senators have been doing since.

December 16, 2012
Beyond Mrs Okonjo’s rescue

With denials heaped upon denials, some even amounting to classic refutation, we may never know whether ransom was truly paid to secure the release of Professor Kamene Okonjo, the abducted mother of the Finance minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. And if anything was paid, we may still never know for sure just how much, perhaps after protracted haggling, was eventually paid. Was it N10 million, as some sources say, or was it a little over that figure? Indeed, how many of us would be so stouthearted as not to yield to the blackmail of parting with money to secure the release of a loved one? If a man could resist blackmail when the ‘merchandise’ is an octogenarian, could he resist without panicking if the commodity were his young bride?

So, whether anything was paid or not, the Finance minister’s family must be relieved that their mother is now free and safe. The trauma will undoubtedly live with them for a long time, and the Goodluck Jonathan government, if it is capable of any delicate feeling, will feel the humiliation of a distasteful strike hitting close to home. At least the victim is now free and safe; therefore to blazes with morality and principles. Few are, however, going to believe nothing was paid, especially judging from the manner Queen Okonjo strolled into freedom. As the police acknowledged, the elderly woman was released, not rescued. In spite of the avalanche of security agents that descended on the small town of Ogwashi-Uku in Delta State, Professor Okonjo was held by the kidnappers for about five days. The kidnappers evidently got in contact with the family, and some sort of discussions took place between the kidnappers and the Finance minister’s family. Those discussions, or as the police elegantly put it, pressures, led to the release of the 82-year-old queen.

The police may not be equipped to fight the sophisticated crimes they frequently confront, but in the case of this high-profile kidnap, they at least honestly admitted some of the details surrounding the ugly incident. They were not too keen to entertain the fanciful theories some commentators were bandying about in which they suggest that what was essentially a simple kidnapping was in fact a classic political weapon to force the government to embrace wrong policies. It would be far-fetched indeed for any group to hope it could compel the Finance minister alone, no matter how influential she is, to redirect government policy on fuel subsidy payments, or modify any other policy for that matter, simply because a close family member had been abducted. The police believed Queen Okonjo was kidnapped for ransom, and they said so simply and plainly. They were also honest enough to admit she was released rather than rescued, though some dramatic shootouts a little removed from the actual kidnapping were reported to have taken place, leading to the death of an alleged kidnap kingpin.

What humiliates every Nigerian is not just the helplessness he feels in the face of bold and innovative criminal gangs, for which the poorly equipped, distracted and disoriented police are sometimes unfairly blamed. Nor is the problem just one of a lacklustre presidency that appears increasingly incapable of responding structurally to the complex challenges of the times. I think that more than anything, the problem is that this government, like all the ones before it, is negligent in appreciating the gravity of the problems confronting it and in summoning the willpower and wisdom to respond to them.

The federal government, which unadvisedly retains total control over law enforcement agencies (See Box), should naturally and agilely respond to security breaches like kidnapping with all the means at its disposal. Instead, it has right from the beginning treated kidnapping leisurely and with indiscernible air of resignation. It displays indignation only when children and top government officials and their families are victims, as if one Nigerian is less human than the other. The Okonjo-Iweala’s mum’s kidnapping deeply embarrassed the presidency; but surely even the government could not claim to be inured to the anomalousness of deploying, as it were, an armada to tackle a rather simple case. The security agencies not only overwhelmed the town in search of the kidnappers, by arresting 63 people in one fell swoop, they became almost irrational. Once again, for an admittedly good cause, and as they are wont, government agents exhibited the idiosyncratic excesses that tend to undermine the citizenship of Nigerians. It was lazy, reckless and counterproductive to herd so many Nigerians into detention in order to prise one doubtful tip from them. The net was disrespectfully cast too wide. But I fear that government officials will miss this nuanced point.

More salient, however, is the Jonathan government’s disconcerting lack of appreciation of the foundations upon which a government must anchor its policies and responses. No one will believe ransom was not paid for the release of Mrs Okonjo because the Jonathan government has not shown the will and wisdom to make it a cardinal policy not to negotiate with terrorists and kidnappers, and to make it unlawful for anyone to do so privately or otherwise. By announcing its readiness to negotiate with Boko Haram Islamic fundamentalist group, the government showed it lacked the spine to stand its ground for the things that ennoble humanity. It has, therefore, become convenient for the police to feign ignorance of negotiations with kidnappers, as they did in the Okonjo kidnap saga. According to them, they have a policy of not negotiating with kidnappers, and were thus not part of whatever negotiations took place between the Finance minister’s family and the kidnappers.

Kidnapping will continue to flourish in one form or another for as long as there is no government courageous enough to draw a red line against that crime. The lowly will be abducted, as the high and mighty will fall victim. Kidnapped women will be violated, with families keeping mum over the cruel fate that would befall their loved ones, and children will be brutalised and traumatised. Some will lose their lives, and some parts of the country will remain tense, insecure and volatile, despoiled by kidnappers, its populace dehumanised by government agents who can’t tell the difference between citizen and alien, freedom and servitude, and between democracy and autocracy. Above all, knowing how alone they are, victims’ families will strenuously ignore the impotent government and enter into amicable and productive negotiations with kidnappers.

The only option left for victims of kidnapping, such as Brig Oluwole Rotimi’s family, is to appeal to the government to deploy as much resources as it cheerfully did in the Professor Okonjo case. Government officials said pressure on the kidnappers, not ransom, led to the release of the abducted queen. The people would like to see more of that pressure applied in subsequent kidnap cases, for kidnapping will not cease overnight, especially given the report that ransom was paid to secure the release of the powerful Finance minister’s mum. If the powerful could pay ransom, so reasoned the populace, who could withstand the kidnappers?

If only the Jonathan presidency could see the futility of its attitude towards kidnapping (plausible deniability) and terrorism (constructive engagement), it would appreciate why it needs a backbone to fight those twin crimes with the enlightened and principled doggedness great governments are known for. If he finally decides to stand and fight, it will be bloody, it will even expose the weaknesses of his security machine and publicise the incompetence of some of his men, and it will test his nerves. But in the end, as history ineluctably underscores, sometimes in surreal imagery too powerful to put into words, he would succeed, and his government, which has failed so disastrously to regenerate the country economically and re-engineer it politically, would be defined by the courage with which he met the most important security challenges of his day.

December 16, 2012
EFCC, Larmode and his critics

Nigerians are a very delightful lot, with varied and swinging moods, interests and inclinations. And we constantly keep to the Biblical injunction of either blowing hot or cold, but never to be lukewarm. We also have a profound proclivity to argue about every thing under the sun, while at the same time being enthusiastic praise-singers and excellent traducers. And with a robust and free press, we enjoy ourselves thoroughly praising or condemning whomever it catches our fancy to.

But the calamity though, is that we dish out praises and condemnations not on the basis of good performances and achievements or on the other hand failures and non-performances but on the dial of our swinging moods, interests and very often from the prisms of ethnic colouration.

Or how else can one explain the constant flow of offensive propaganda, laced with intellectual crookedness and a dash of scoffing whims emanating from the stable of the Sun Newspapers against the person and office of Ibrahim Larmode, the incumbent boss of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Within a short space of two weeks, two of their best minds and leading columnists have trained their pen to churn out articles that cast aspersion on the good work that Mr. Larmode has been doing at the EFCC since its inception, first as pioneering director of operations and now as its Chief Executive Officer.

First it was Levi Obijiofor in his column ‘Insights’ and writing on a piece entitled A hopeless EFCC and a corrupt judiciary, where he upbraided the EFCC for not doing enough to convict big criminals in government. And then it was the turn of Amanze Obi, erstwhile Commissioner for Information in Imo State under former Governor Ikedi Ohakim and now the Chairman of Editorial Board of the Sun Newspapers in his own column ‘Broken Tongues’ and in his own piece entitled Larmode’s Lamentations. However, there is an irresistible urge among observers that have been following this media bashing to conclude that there is no smoke without fire as it would be said in the local parlance.

And to think that both of them hinged the plank of their attack on the man, on his mere appearance before the Senate Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Financial Crimes to defend the Commission’s 2013 budget where he tried to solicit for a better funding of the agency as most other chief executives have done and will continue to do for their various organisations is to say the least reprehensible and weighing heavily against balance of reason.

At least, it is expected that Dr, Amanze Obi having been Commissioner for Information and later that of Culture and Tourism in Imo State would have, given this experience and background appreciated the importance of good budgetary allocation and funding for a crime fighting outfit like the EFCC under Lamorde, except if he never bothered about budgetary provisions for the ministries he headed while serving in Imo State.

For him to be regaling in the fact that the EFCC budget proposal for the coming year is being slashed from N21billion to N9 billion is regrettable. And his depiction of Lamorde as being unable to defend the budget proposal of his agency is not only untrue but uncharitable. If Larmode wore any perturbed countenance at all at the budget defence, it is because he knew and appreciates the fact that the buck stops at his table and that crime fighting of the magnitude that EFCC does, cannot be done with bare hands.

The very prime suspects that we press on the EFCC to chase all over the world and bring to justice have enormous resources at their disposal with which they use to thwart the efforts of the Commission’s agents and officers.

Even the long adjournments that they procure in some of our courts, during trials still boils down to their effective deployment of these stolen funds to evade the course of justice. We have seen it happen here in the past and at the end it is the Chairmen of EFCC that were castigated and hounded out of office.

While the near excessive desire of Nigerians to see that corruption and graft in government’s official dealings in our polity is tackled head on is understandable given the apparent drawback and negative tendencies it casts on the genuine efforts of some leaders to improve the living standard of Nigerians.

And particularly given the mind-boggling disclosures by the various instituted probe committees and panels of both the National Assembly and the Executive on how politicians, senior civil servants and other associated interests helped themselves to the public till, especially on the issue of oil subsidy scam and the workers pension fraud, then the drive for the anti-corruption crusade becomes a self-evident project.

Yet all of these are still not enough to permit the kind of rush that may infringe upon the rights of any suspect, because in the eyes of the law such a person is presumed innocent, until proven guilty. This is more so in a democratic environment like ours that thrive on the rule of law and equity.

Moreover, even when President Goodluck Jonathan has acknowledged the legal axiom that it is better for 10 guilty persons to be set free than to convict one innocent person, yet his government is doing its utmost to contend and contain this hydra- headed monster in a very unmistakable terms as is evidenced in the ongoing trials of those indicted by such probe panels mentioned earlier and the large sums of money said to have been recovered from them.

Mr. Amanze Obi is no doubt a brilliant and seasoned journalist that can play effortlessly with words in some sort of literary calisthenics display. But I pray he uses this gift to advance the good cause of the nation and not use it as a tool to dampen the morale of those who have put in all they have on the line in the fight to salvage this nation.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission needs our complete and unequivocal support in order to achieve the success that we all envisage for it. To do otherwise would amount to doing ourselves a great disservice, and to condone any act of omission or commission that will undermine its efforts at optimal performance as in this instant case of poor budgetary allocation of funding to the agency by the National Assembly is to aid the escape of the same corrupt persons Nigerians want brought to book.

As for Larmode his records are there for all to see. An otherwise seasoned operative of international repute who even at the time Obi and his ilk are touting as the glorious moments of EFCC was credited as the unseen hand behind the successes so achieved as the then director of operations. Even though, his achievements now as the Chairman of EFCC is not being celebrated with media and publicity blitz as was the case in the past era, due to his nature of being a silent achiever, those who have followed the activities of the commission closely of late will attest to a renewed and re-strategised approach that is highly effective and not playing to the gallery.

Interestingly, Obi in the said piece, approbates and reprobates at the same time as the lawyers would say, for while he pretends to be bemoaning the fact, as he claimed, that the ‘EFCC under Lamorde is anything but inspiring, the fire is gone and what is left is an impotent ash’. Yet he wouldn’t subscribe to Larmode getting the much needed fund with which to relight the fire if indeed it is gone. ‘ Larmode should not put himself under pressure for the sake of the Commission——whatever he gets may be enough for what the government wants him to do’, he surmised.

If this is not mischief and a ploy to drag a good man’s name into the mud, I wouldn’t know what it is? But for the first time in a long while, I saw Obi’s ‘Broken Tongues’, really sounding broken like an old piece of record. What has a name really got to do with it?

Francis Ede is a poet and journalist based in Abuja.

December 16, 2012
Who’s driving?

When a man seizes the right of way from another man, it becomes an unprovoked invitation to the third world war. Then, the epithets begin to flow

One of my few fond memories of my national youth service corps days (don’t ask me where) was climbing a mountain, and I have never attempted it since over three decades ago. And no thanks; I do not look forward to a repeat of the performance, mountain climbing that is, not youth service; not that I look forward to another of that either. When we were given the schedule of activities for the programme, we found to the dismay of us girls that mountain climbing was conspicuously placed somewhere in a proud corner of the second week or so of camp life. The dreaded day soon came for our platoon and we set off. First, we had to walk for some meters, a distance that seemed endless to my lazy feet but which the same now stronger feet would regard as chicken length. At the end of our trail, we saw the mountain loom large before us, in all of its glorious ten feet or so. We shrieked but the mountain refused to bend lower for us so we had to literally go to the mountain.

Ten steps up, most of us females were panting and at the end of our lungs’ supply of air. Not so the sergeants in charge of us. Their own lungs appeared to be perpetually full of air for they never ceased to bellow commands at us at the top of their voices, making us girls not only not even remotely think of giving up but to even become fearful. I think their horror was the thought that should any girl fail to make it up the top of the mountain they would be obliged to carry the lump of flesh down back to the camp. Not that they would not relish such a prospect at saner times, but certainly not while going up a mountain. So, they alternately badgered, begged, bellowed, cajoled, hollered, threatened and physically supported us either by giving us a hand from above to pull us up a landing or by pushing us up from below to take us to the next landing. What a sight we made that day, weak female civilians and ever-patient soldiers who made the females feel that by conquering a ten-foot mountain, they could conquer the world. I have never forgotten those soldiers nor their hand prints on my uniform.

That experience came in handy when I needed to learn to drive a car. That car looked no less like a mountain that I needed to conquer, and the traffic was even worse. And both had to be overcome, but without the kind soldiers. There was only my teacher, a very impatient and impersonal fellow (who sometimes went by the name of husband) who did not understand why on earth everyone did not come into the world with the knowledge of how to drive a car. So, out in the traffic, any reluctance to absorb a lesson was greeted with a bellow of anger. ‘How can you drive backwards with your eyes closed just because you are afraid of heights?’ ‘Please don’t shout. The soldiers did not shout at us like this in the camp.’ ‘That’s because in the camp you were government property.’

Now, everyone knows that when a learner is unhappy, he/she cannot be psychologically well-tuned to exploit the learning experience to the maximum level. I believe most women have had to learn to drive under the tutelage of trying and discouraging husbands; so they have not been sufficiently primed to learn well. Why, most of the time, you would think that the war of the sexes was coming to its apogee at the learning wheels. And now, reports are claiming that women do not know how to drive. How can, when their teachers have been these most unsympathetic teachers who are secretly scheming that they would not allow their learners to know everything about driving so that they can retain male mastery somewhere: if not at home, at least on the road. So, yes, women have been badly taught; and yes, the reports have been prejudiced.

I was lucky though. My first driving lessons came at the hands of a woman who drove like a pro, so I had learned most of what needed to be known about driving before my teacher changed. Yep, I had learned to drive straight, hold the car steady, not back up into other people, cut people off the road, weave in front of other cars and generally handle my car like a pro cowboy would handle his horse: expertly. Now, when I drive on the road, I am your regular Schumacher without the sports car or the pay.

More, I find that I am able to guess the gender of the driver in front of me by how erratically he or she is driving. Have you ever seen a woman drive? Phew! It just makes me want to whistle through my teeth. Whenever you see the car in front of you weaving around a bit, then take cover; the driver is most certainly likely to be a woman and she could be doing any number of things. She could be telling her husband off on the phone for cutting the housekeeping money yet again. She could be changing her child’s nappy in between the lights, and yes, yes, she could also really be tired of keeping house, children, husband and work in different compartments of her brain. Occasionally, they all just merge together into one indistinct mass, drive her insane and it could happen while she’s out in traffic. This is why men do not like to be driven around by women. They have no idea of when the zero hour can come.

I have also seen men drive. Indeed, the state of the world is messy right now because men are driving. When men drive, driving tests go on all the time. They want to test whether the car can go as fast as the end of the speedometer, and what better place to do that than the highways. This is why all the highways in the country are no longer safe for women to drive on: too many men are out testing the limits of their speedometers.

Then, have you ever seen men pitch their nerves against other men’s? To determine who owns the road, two grown up men would let their cars drive some meters fender-to-fender close until one caves in and allows the other to go, ‘for now’. Men hate giving way to each other; they’d sooner be caught giving way to a woman. Worse, when a man seizes the right of way from another, it becomes an unprovoked invitation to the third world war. That’s when the epithets begin to flow: ‘why don’t you fold up the road and take it home with you, you this … this … this …!’; ‘Why don’t you drive over me, you …?!’ and many other unprintable things until your poor passenger ears are quite full. It’s got to the point now that when couples go out, the big question is ‘Who’s driving?’ Neither trusts the other.

This is why, when I drive and appear to be a little distracted, shouts of ‘Go get a driver!’ are flung at me from several quarters. But you see, they come from men who are themselves racing inexorably to occupy the bed reserved for them in the hospital; so who are they to tell me I don’t know how to drive. Yes indeed, o, that report about women not knowing how to drive is lying out of its teeth. The sanity of the road right now depends on women drivers. They force the men to slow down.

December 16, 2012
Wahala dey

Without doubt and more than ever before, our nation is facing threats to national security and we urgently need solutions before we slip into chaos and anarchy.

From what can be described as a relatively peaceful country, we have assumed a frightening status of one of the most dangerous countries to live in. Bombing, kidnapping, terrorists’ attacks have become so frequent in Nigeria that it is no longer a major news item.

T he popular P- Square duo sang, Wahala dey. (There is trouble).

We have lost count of people who had been killed in various attacks especially in northern parts of the country and many have been forced to relocate to safer parts that are also prone to danger. Kidnapping has also become an almost daily occurrence that no one is sure who is going to be the next victim.

Professor Kamene Okonjo, mother of Finance Minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala was recently kidnapped and it took the deployment of soldiers along with other security agencies for her to be released. Others who had been kidnapped before her and after are not as lucky as she is. Families of some kidnapped persons have had to pay ransom, while others have been killed.

In my travels out of the country, I get asked how we are coping with the Boko Haram attacks and other violent incidents that make major headlines in the foreign media. The International community is worried about the implication of major crisis in Nigeria and we have no choice but to stem the very dangerous degenerating security situation.

The threats are social, political and religious in nature. They are very intricate and require a lot of wisdom to resolve.

My hope is that we would be able to come up with some solutions which hopefully those in government and various leadership levels can consider as we struggle to save our country from disintegration.

Let no one be deceived, crisis, no matter how aggrieved some of us may feel, is an ill-wind that blows no one any good. Those who experienced the civil war and other instances of crisis have frightening stories to tell.

The experiences of some African countries are heart-rendering and personally my prayer is that sooner than later when it could be too late, we would get our acts right and learn to live together as one. It’s hard to forget two films on the Rwandan genocide I watched, Sometimes in April and Hotel Rwanda. Hopefully we would not get to that stage of man’s inhumanity to man.

What is the way out of our present predicament?

Our government has to really be on top of the situation as they always claimed.

The government, through the various security agencies, has to ensure the safety of the citizens in whatever parts of the country they live.

We need good governance, lack of which is the root cause of some threats we are experiencing. The ordinary Nigerian needs to feel the impact of the government through well thought-out policies that will guarantee better standard of living.

Where dialogue is needed, it should be considered to address whatever grievance any good any group may have. Community and religious leaders have to keep campaigning for peace since the perpetrators of the criminal acts belong to one community or religious group.

To keep Nigeria peaceful is a task that has to be done. We all have a role to play even if it is talking about it and proffering solutions like we have been doing.

Excerpt from a speech at the launch of Cry for Change by Biodun-Thomas Davids in Lagos on Friday, December 14, 2012

December 16, 2012
A police officer’s indescribable anguish

The police often cut a pitiable sight whenever they are spectacularly wrong-footed by criminal gangs. The kidnap last Sunday of Professor Kamene Okonjo, mother of the Finance minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was not the first time the police would have egg on their faces. It will certainly not be the last. Their public image, they know too well, is sullied, and the competence of their men, not to talk of their public relations, leaves a lot to be desired. Unfortunately, everyone, including policemen themselves, knows the problems the Force is battling with; and to some extent, everyone has a fair idea of what the solutions are. The problem with the police is that there is simply no president willing to tackle their problems. With every test the police fail, its personnel, serving and retired, get increasingly disenchanted and demotivated. Sometimes they take out their frustrations on the public, and at other times they simply turn their backs on the job. This mounting frustration perhaps explains why the just retired Plateau State Commissioner of Police, CP Emmanuel Oladipo Ayeni, on his last day in office, publicly vented his spleen on the system that continues to ridicule the Force and render it ineffective.

His views on what has gone wrong with the police were uncharacteristically candid and trenchant. Hear him: “The state of the Nigeria Police Force is worrisome. The personnel of the police do not have necessary logistics to work with in all the states of the country. There are no sufficient vehicles to perform our statutory duties of protection of life and property, maintenance of law and order, apprehension of offenders and enforcement of all laws with which the force is directly charged.

“Virtually all the state police commands rely on the assistance of state governments for the provision of vehicles, communications and necessary logistics. I came to Plateau State on July 11, 2011; a state that is facing serious security challenges. No single vehicle has been given to the command by the Federal Government. Apart from that, a single litre of fuel has not been given to the command as well. How does the Federal Government want the police to function and perform its statutory duties under this type of climate? If not for the assistance from the state government, everything would have collapsed.

“Therefore, if we want the problem of security to become something of the past in Nigeria, the Federal Government must take the issue of internal security serious by giving the Nigeria Police the attention it deserves. If this is not done, there will be increased criminal activities in the country. Police cannot perform magic because you cannot build something on nothing. The Federal Government must wake up and play its constitutional role of providing security for the people living in the country.”

I have never been a fan of the police. But I am sensible enough to appreciate that that security organisation has been neglected for far too long. The federal government retains control of the police and pays their meagre salary, but it is the states, which exercise very minimal control over the agency, that sustains it operationally. I have said it here before that notwithstanding the suavity and determination of the Inspector-General of Police, MD Abubakar, he is fighting odds so daunting it is hard to see him making the kind of progress he envisions. If there is to be a change in the fortunes of the Force, it will have to come primarily from the presidency.

That change, sadly, eluded both the excitable Olusegun Obasanjo presidency and the lethargic presidency of the late Umaru Yar’Adua. Yet, either man was a fairly gentler conservative than President Jonathan, a conservative dyed-in-the-wool. It will take a tectonic shift in Jonathan’s worldview for him to author the radical change that would be the saving of the Nigeria Police. His presidential credo is to pass on the country as it is, a lousy and unworkable nuisance, to his successor. The Force had better wait for that successor and hope he would be a progressive and a patriot par excellence.

December 16, 2012