The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

Nation Nov 28th Bomb victims compensation. What about Nigeria’s ‘secret’ billionaires and the $12.5b 1st Gulf Oil Windfall?

Nation Nov 28th Bomb victims compensation; What about Nigeria’s ‘secret’ billionaires and the $12.5b 1st Gulf Oil Windfall? Tony Marinho Yet another Church bombing. This time in Kaduna at the military base-the safest place in the world, abi? Another 11 Nigerians simply trying to live and worship as they are directed by their Maker are blown up, killed and 30 injured for that very reason. And this in spite of our massed Christian prayers nationwide.

What is the compensation for bombed families? The N260m Boko Haram reward may backfire and be given to Boko Haram secret members. The 2012 top 10 Nigerians whose combined wealth comes officially to $20b or $20,000,000,000 or N3,060,000,000,000 was recently published by Forbes. By a malicious coincidence the court case demanding to know the whereabouts of the Financial Times documented missing $12,500,000 ‘First Oil Windfall’ during Babangida’s ‘benevolent’ time was again adjourned.

Does that not tell you something? The Forbes Nigerian billionaires’ money mostly comes from Nigeria, a developing country paradoxically dependent on generators for power, and with nearly the highest maternal and infant mortality, lowest literacy, lowest housing and highest pothole rates in the world. Was Nnaji sacked from the Ministry of Power for doing too good a job at trying to fix the abysmal power problem?

After all some think that Nigerians do not deserve power 24/7. A lot of this $20b came from Nigerians buying cement, a commodity which has mysteriously increased in price by over 300+% from N600 to over N2,000. Petroleum industry and products made up a lot of the rest, though Nigerians suffer nationwide queues and citizens suffer high fuel prices because the refineries are sabotaged by greed and officials. Some of the $20b is from transporting those same petroleum and other products having ensured that the railways are dead or being so slowly modernised as not to make a difference. Nigeria’s potholed roads groan under the overloaded axle weight of cement, petrol and other goods in unnecessary armada of over 70,000 articulated tankers and trailers too frequently crashing, catching fire, delaying and killing citizens and constantly clogging-up.

Those are the true cost to Nigerians of the $20b in profit for the few. Some of the $20b is in banking, whatever that is.

No honest Nigerian can enter any bank and walk out in three months with an overdraft or a short term loan even after depositing DNA, birth certificate and the keys to a grandparents grave in Ikoyi Cemetery, and the exchange rate is N153.5 to the $1, so where is all this banking money coming from?

Is it magic money only for shareholders? Banks expect congratulations for removing a probably illegal but multi millions naira daily ATM charges which should never have been charged in the first place. But bankers have left an equally questionable COT charge. Communications, yes we can see and pay the exorbitant fees, are hoodwinked by the phone-in, vote for so-and-so, bonanzas and promo scams. Such money comes out of the pockets of the gullible faster than the customer can earn it or ask ‘who is speaking’.

Nigerians should realise there is nothing like ‘Free air time’ unless someone can give you airtime while your money remains in your pocket and can be found in your pocket next morning. And when you check it is never there but in the pockets of the Forbes List of African Nigerian billionaires. Some people have certainly made ‘free billions’ from us mumus etc enjoying ‘’free” midnight chats.

Cumulatively are hands and dealing of the billionaires clean? There is blood on the roads, in the hospitals, in the schools, in the Niger Delta oil polluted lands and from the bombs of Boko Haram. This blood cannot be washed away with petty donations to victims of water, flood, and other disasters. The citizens should not be over-grateful to the billionaire donors as the money came from the citizens in the first place.

It does not matter if the whole list of top money men and women are Nigerians in the Forbes Africa Rich List. Nigeria will still be poor until the price of cement comes down, banks reduce interest rates and make loans available, the naira appreciates against the dollar, the communications watchdog extends its ban on promos and bonanzas and reduces tariffs. In a country with 70% living on less than a $1/day, is it a good boast that you are a $ billionaire?

What is the point of a corporate body ‘boasting’ of giving away a plane costing N48m or N68m when the funds come, not from the company, but from poor gullible Nigerians seeking ‘instant millionairism’. The Nigerian customer is the loser. Nigeria probably has 50 secret billionaires but do they translate to communal wealth or national financial health?

No, it is all selfish wealth, greed wealth and some of it is cheating wealth? There is a saying that behind ‘every billionaire are a million bad secrets’ and ‘every fortune is a misfortune for others’. Making billions from exploitative cement prices or exploitative banking or computer prices and giving N700,000,000 back to flood or AIDS victims is not charity or the answer. Reduce the price of cement and computers to the masses, reduce the cost of loans, reduce the cost of fuel, increase the naira value and reduce the cost of living. The grave has no space for even $1. Bill Gates seems to know this now. Forbes Africa and the secret billionaires, can sit on the side lines and watch Nigeria die.

November 28, 2012
APGA leadership and judicial activism

It is said that the Court is the temple of justice. The ministers in this sacred temple are expected to live above suspicion. The credibility of a Court and its rulings is a function of the integrity of the presiding Judge. In the words of Franz kafka in The Trial; “Justice must stand still, or else the scales will waver and a just verdict will become impossible”.

Justice can only stand still and the scales firm if Judges are not bias in handling cases.

How justice is dispensed will determine the level of confidence the common man will have in the presiding judge in particular and the judiciary in general. The law should not be seen as a cobweb where the small flies (masses) are caught while the great (politically exposed people in government) break through and influence the course of justice with impunity.

Most Nigerians still have confidence in the judiciary and administration of justice in Nigeria. The judiciary played a major role in stabilizing our nascent democracy through its landmark judgments. Many see it as an impartial arbiter and bulwark against injustices, it ought to be so. Anthony Aniagolu, a retired Justice of the Supreme Court admonished Judges while celebrating his 85th birthday on 25th October, 2007. He declared:

“Of all the professions, you are the one that most directly represents God on earth, because God is justice and so by delivering justice on people you are sitting on his throne. For this reason you will be judged harsher than any other profession, so you must be careful how you deliver justice…Yours is the only profession directly created by God when he asked for twelve judges to be appointed for the twelve tribes of Israel. He did not ask for teachers, doctors or engineers to be appointed, but judges who will help him administer justice on earth. You must deliver justice as if it were God himself that is sitting on the bench. Justice must be your focus and the rule of law your guide”.

It is obvious that some judges are not aware of the sanctity of their chosen profession or decided to ignore. Justice Olufuntola Oyelola Adekeye of the Supreme Court who retired recently alerted a bewildered nation of the enormous financial inducements politicians offer Justices of the apex court during proceedings on election petitions to deliver judgment in their favour.

The Justice Kayode Esho Panel on Judiciary set up by General Sani Abacha on 29th December 1993, indicted 47 Judges in the country for corruption, incompetence, misuse of ex-part orders and abuse of office.

Esho urged Abacha to act on the report if the Judiciary must be saved the shame and utter destruction. Various administrations have failed to act on the report despite pressure from eminent Jurists including Justice Akinola Aguda (retired), former Chief Justice of Botswana and late Chief Rotimi Williams demanded the release of the report.

In the current dispensation, many Justices have been granting indiscriminate ex-parte orders that have paralyzed organizations, political parties and confused INEC on election issues despite cautions by past Chief Justice of Nigeria that Judges should desist from doing so. The fact that some high court Justices take pleasure in granting ex-parte orders and even extending them beyond the period approved by law even when there are no applications for such extension as was granted in the case of the All Progressives Grand Alliance involving Ichie Okuli Jude Ejike V. Victor Umeh (Suit No. E/270/2012).

Victor Umeh’s opponents in the party decided to use one Okuli said to be a former member of APGA in Udi LGA of Enugu State to challenge the tenure of the Enugu State Chapter chairman of the party at an Enugu State High Court but lost. The court dismissed the suit as being a political matter which is not justiceable based on Supreme Court judgment in the case of Onuoha V. Okafor where the apex court decided that the court cannot dabble into political issues. The Judge advised Okuli to join another political party if he is not comfortable with APGA. The ruling subsists till today. In the present case Okuli re-circled the same case against Chief Victor Umeh, National Chairman of APGA.

This time he sought and procured an ex-parte order restraining Umeh from convening a national, state and local government executive meeting of the party even though APGA is not joined in the suit.

Umeh’s lawyer Patrick Ikwueto (SAN) filed a preliminary objection. The judge restated the ex-parte order restraining Umeh to 17th September 2012, when he would rule on the objection. The APGA boss frowned at it saying nobody requested for such a long extension of ex parte order. It is obvious that an ex parte order lasts for a maximum of 14 days. In this case it was extended to 48 days. The Chief Judge’s unilateral and unsolicited action grounded the party activities to the pleasure of the plaintiff and his sponsors. Ironically, the presiding judge said if the court cannot contribute to the development of the law, it cannot help in destroying it.

A bewildered Umeh rushed to the Court of Appeal Enugu Division to vacate it describing it as a travesty of justice and asked the judge to withdraw from the case in the interest of justice. Umeh was stunned and suspected that the judge was acting a script by his opponents who had boasted that he must be removed at all cost. He reported the judge to the National Judicial council. The council queried him immediately. The nation eagerly awaits NJC’s decision.

In what looked like a retaliation Justice Umezulike vacated the long ex-parte order and replaced it with an order of perpetual injunction that restrained Umeh from parading himself as National Chairman of APGA and adjourned for judgment. The Judge also refused to hear the motion praying the court that he should withdraw from the matter and re-assign same to a neutral judge.

It is a common practice in all democracies for a judicial officer to withdraw from a matter if a litigant has no confidence in him to adjudicate on his case. That is the essence of fair hearing and faith in the judicial process.

The Daily Sun newspaper of November 6, 2012 reported a similar matter where a petition was sent to the President of National Industrial Court demanding that Justice Moren Esowe should withdraw from a case instituted by Ambassador D. C. B. Nwanna against the Director General of the Nigerian Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Ezekiel Oladeji to prematurely retire him from service. The Judge was accused of manifest bias in favour of the claimant. She honourably withdrew from the case without shaking the foundations of the Judiciary and the nation.

Perhaps if the Federal Government in collaboration with the National Judicial Council had sanctioned the 47 Judges indicted by the Esho Panel on Judiciary in 1994, the corruption and abuse of office in the Judiciary would have been eliminated.

Although INEC in its letter dated 26th July 2012, recognized Chief Victor Umeh as the APGA National Chairman, one is at a loss why the Enugu Chief Judge would paralyze the activities of a party with two Governors; Federal and State legislators and numerous Local Government Councils’ Chairmen and Councillors.

The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Maryam Alooma Muktar is very competent, decisive and pragmatic in the way she has piloted the affairs of the judiciary so far. Nigerians are of the view that she will halt the slide and drift in the temple of justice and restore hope in the common man that justice will be done even if the skies fall. The NJC should intervene in the APGA/Enugu Chief Judge matter immediately with a view to preventing a miscarriage of justice. The era of judicial impunity and recklessness in this matter and others must be stopped.

• James Attamah is a public affairs analyst based in Lagos

November 28, 2012
Jonathan’s government and anti-corruption crusade

Fighting the hydra-headed monster called corruption, which is seriously afflicting the Nigerian economy should never be a lone effort. This is the crucial reason why the Goodluck Jonathan Administration certainly requires the support of all patriotic and well-meaning Nigerians to fight corruption, towards heralding a new beginning in the scheme of things in the country.

It is an established fact that one of the fundamental factors working against the attainment of marked socio-economic, cultural, educational and political developments in the major facets of the country’s economy over time is the pervasive unalloyed corruption. And, for President Jonathan’s Administration to tackle this monster headlong, the support of all and sundry is definitely required.

Nevertheless, one may ask what essentially constitutes corrupt tendencies or practices in human affairs. According to Transparency International (TI), corruption is defined as “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. It hurts everyone who depends on the integrity of people in a position of authority.”

Thus, in any human society, corruption erupts when elected representatives make decisions that are influenced by vested interests rather than developmental societal values. Therefore, in an attempt to demonstrate his administration’s seriousness in tackling corruption in Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan urged the National Assembly (NASS) to accelerate its delivery of two key executive-sponsored legislations, namely: the anti-corruption bill and the anti-terrorism bill, expected to assist his administration in dealing with burning critical national issues, including identified deficiencies in the battle against corruption, money laundering and illegal funding of terrorist activities.

Jonathan had said in a correspondence to the 6th Session of the House of Representatives at the time: “Given this administration’s commitment to combating corruption and terror and boosting the country’s economic development, a blacklisting by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will no doubt seriously hamper these laudable efforts.” The current Administration has continued demonstrate that it means business in fighting corruption tooth and nail in this regard.

Recall that the President had also hinged his Administration’s determined efforts at pushing for the National Assembly’s passage of the anti-corruption and anti-terrorism bills into Acts on possible blacklisting by the FATF and possible stifling economic consequences for Nigerians.

In walking his talk with regards to dealing decisively with any indicted individual or institution found to be corrupt, President Jonathan has vowed that his administration will not shield any corrupt person from investigation or prosecution by the anti-graft agencies, including Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

With the required measure of independence to execute its mandate effectively, the EFCC while still beaming its search light to discover more, has been able to recover several billions of dollars corruptly stashed away in foreign lands by some former political leaders including governors and other public officials.

The president, again, re-assured the nation and international community at the opening of the 8th National Seminar on Economic Crimes held at the Training and Research Institute of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Abuja. With a change of leadership in the agency for improved delivery, the government, indeed, has continued to support and encourage the EFCC and other anti-corruption agencies to confront corruption more decisively, while charging them to spare no culprit, regardless of status or position.

No doubt, landmark legal battles involving certain prominent Nigerians as Cecilia Ibru, ex-Managing Director/CEO, Oceanic Bank International; Erastus Akingbola, former CEO, Intercontinental Bank, among others in the Banking sector who have stood trial for their roles in the near collapse of their organisations. The legal prosecution and eventual imprisonment of Chief Olabode George, a former People’s Democratic Party’s Vice-Chairman, South West, for his role in the mismanagement of Nigerian Ports Authority’s finances as the Chairman remain green in memories of Nigerians till date.

Likewise, a former Minister for Interior and owner of Integrated Oil and Gas Limited, Captain Emmanuel Iheanacho (rtd), was summarily dismissed from the President Jonathan’s cabinet for alleged official corruption. As regards the thorny issue of the indicted fuel subsidy companies and suspects, following the report of the Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede Presidential Committee on Verification and Reconciliation of Fuel Subsidy Payments Committee, it is no longer news that the current administration has allowed the EFCC to commence the prosecution of no less than 25 oil marketing firms and their Directors.

Some of the companies reportedly, had claimed payments for consignments brought in by ships which investigations revealed were either non-existent, or were somewhere else in the world. While some have been ordered to refund various sums of money unjustly benefited from the Petroleum Support Fund (PSF), the continued trial of these suspects is, of course, commendable. In other words, justice is being allowed to take its full course in the matter. This is especially laudable.

This administration actually is not “soft on corruption” as is being suggested in certain quarters. The Government is merely being methodical in its approach to tackling the corruption monster by allowing the anti-corruption agencies and courts of competent jurisdiction to do their jobs effectively without fear or favour. Therefore, for the current Administration to remain fully committed to fighting the war against corruption, the need for Nigerians from all walks of life to consciously support the efforts cannot be over-emphasized. Arm-chair criticisms without active involvement in the prosecution of the war against the common enemy called corruption will not bring about any enduring change in the nation’s system.

It should be noted that a diligent fight against corruption, in the interest of national peace, stability, progress and development, can guarantee an atmosphere for the effective implementation of the Jonathan’s administration’s Transformation Agenda and for the much-expected paradigm shift in key sectors of Nigeria’s economy.

• Aliyu Mohammed is a Kaduna-based lawyer and public affairs commentator.

November 28, 2012
This Okada Country (1)

There is a silent ‘war’ going on in Lagos at the moment. You may call it ‘Okada War’. The war was ignited recently when the Lagos State Government placed a restriction on the operation of motorcycles, particularly the ones being used for commercial purpose, popularly called okada, along certain routes in the state. The okadaoperators are saying that the restriction, which emanated from legislation by the State House of Assembly, has put them out of business. This is more so as they claimed that the 451 roads and bridges in the state along which their movement have been restricted are the most lucrative routes.

On its part, the Lagos State Government has maintained that the government is determined to curb the rate of fatal accidents involving these okada riders, check the rampant use of okada to commit violent crimes as well as bring sanity to the Lagos chaotic traffic system. Many public enlightenment and sensitization programmes have been held by the government in its attempt to make these okada riders to see reason and comply with the law. The okada riders too have held protests and even introduced violence to their resentment of the law.

A few weeks ago, there was tension on Lagos roads as the commercial motorcyclists took up ‘arms’ and vandalised government vehicles on sight. Mostly affected were the state’s mass transit buses, popularly called BRT. Some of them were torched, while many more had their wind screens and side glasses shattered. In the orgy of violence, the government and security agencies in the state quickly employed tact and caution to bring the situation under control. For almost a week, it was a hide-and-seek game as security agencies battle the warring okada riders to submission.

As they say, when two elephants fight, it is the grass beneath them that suffers. But in this case, the fight was between an elephant, which is the state government, and a ‘horse’, which is the okadariders. And instead of the proverbial grasses, it was the Lagos commuters that bore the brunt of the crisis while it lasted, although the smoldering effect could take eternity to overcome.

I have metaphorically referred to okada riders as the ‘horse’ instead of dismissing them as mere ants waging war against the elephant because of their resilience and die-hard spirit to fight any perceived ‘injustice’. For this group of people, the first thing that takes flight is their sense of reasoning. Otherwise, what particular importance or benefit will wanton destruction of public property and brigandage do to their agitation, if not to further portray them as good-for-nothing hoodlums.

It was a pitiful sight and it is still much so to see hundreds and thousands of stranded commuters at bus stops in Lagos metropolis waiting for the few buses on the roads. In many instances, many of the commuters have always resorted to trekking to their various destinations no matter the distance. Even the few buses available, I mean both private and government vehicles, have been overwhelmed by the flood of passengers.

Anyway, a regime of relative peace has since taken over. The new phase of the ‘struggle’ is the ongoing silent war between the okadaoperators and policemen. Perhaps, for lack of other things to do, by this I mean for lack of any gainful employment, the okada riders have been indulging in occasional forays to many of the routes where they have been banned. The incursions are done mostly in the evenings and early in the morning to avoid the prying eyes of security agents.

The police are not relenting either. Many a time, you notice them running after these okada riders who take the risk to thread where they are not wanted. This is why I believe that most of them still do the business for lack of any other thing to do. Otherwise, when you weigh the risk involved – police brutality, extortion, confiscation of motorcycles and the rest – you may begin to wonder why people still indulge in the business. That is the never-say-die spirit of the okadariders or mafia.

But why is this so? Lagos is the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria. It is this status that is responsible for the influx of people to the state in search of the proverbial “milk and honey” which, perhaps, may no longer flow as it used to be. That is, if at all there had been anything near that in the past. It is also a fact that Lagos is home to indigenes of all the states of the federation. What this means is that there is no state in the country that does not have a good presence of its indigenes in every nook and cranny of Lagos State. Many other people from other African countries and the diaspora have found sanctuary in Lagos.

Though small in terms of landmass, the population of Lagos is conservatively put at an amazing 20 million people. This burgeoning population is daily in search of their daily bread. In a situation where white-collar jobs are in short supply or outright unavailable, the next easiest option appears to be okadabusiness. This situation is further fuelled by lack of adequate capital to embark on any tangible small or medium- scale business by those who are interested in trading and other commercial preoccupations.

Therefore, over the years, okada business has become a major stake in the economy of many families both in Nigeria as a whole and Lagos in particular. A cursory peep into history could lead us to this okada age. In the 60s and the 70s, there was nothing like okada business in Nigeria. If it existed at all, it was in some neighboring countries like Republic of Benin and Togo. Then it crept into places like the old Cross River State and some other far-flung states from Lagos. Today, the whole country has been engulfed by the okada business.

“Why okada?” you may ask. In the good old days, especially in the late 60s and early 70s, riding a motorcycle was both a social and status symbol. The one commonly used then was a brand of motorcycle called Vespa, with its tiny tires and alluring body design. Then there was Mobylette, a smaller version. And of course, there were Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki and other brands. By the mid-70s, the Yamaha brand had entered the scene with its outstanding features.

To own a motorcycle then was regarded as a rare luxury because the cars were very few and the motorcycles had come to displace the bicycles, especially the popular brand known as Raleigh. The motorcycles became more conspicuous on the roads after the salary windfall of 1973 commonly referred to as “Udoji Awards”.Salary arrears amounting to huge sums of money were paid to workers at that time. Many bought motorcycles, some small cars, others built houses while some married additional wives. Depending on what you wanted to ride – a motorcycle, a car or even a woman – there was enough ‘free’ money to do this courtesy of the military dictatorship of General Yakubu Gowon (retd) at that time. This was a scenario that gradually snowballed into today’s harvest of okada in Nigeria.

However, the socio-economic importance of okadacannot be easily overlooked. It has filled the vacuum of inadequate transportation in most parts of the country. Where the vehicles are in drastic short supply, okada seems to be making up for the shortfall. Similarly, where the roads have been rendered more or less impassable either for lack of maintenance or poor construction, okada has come in handy for the commuters. This is because okada don’t discriminate. It can navigate its way along bush paths or many of the pothole-infested roads all over the country. Lagos is no exception.

November 28, 2012
Exit Esho, model jurist

In a spate of one week, four of the most accomplished Nigerians died: Lam Adesina, former governor of Oyo State, Olusola Saraki, strongman of Kwara politics, Justice Bobakayode Esho, activist jurist and retired justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and Hope Harriman, debonair surveyor, estate valuer and industrialist of the live-and-let-live philosophy.

Of the four, the passage of Justice Esho (18 September 1925-16 November 2012) must be the most roiling – at least in Ripples’ opinion. Alhaji Adesina was a thorough-bred progressive and NADECO prisoner-of-war in Sani Abacha’s gulag. But he got gubernatorial reward for his “war wounds”.

Dr. Saraki was a prodigious philanthropist, and no matter what opposing ideologues think of his politics, he was truly caring and compassionate. But he forged his winning trait into a winning political machine – and he rewarded himself as the Kwara lord of the manor.

The frothy Chief Harriman worked hard, played hard and enjoyed life to the fullest. He was among a rare breed whose wealth was not tied to recurring public sector racketeering, in an elite generation of equal opportunity racketeers. He was the exemplar, if there ever was one, of the stark axiom of “no food for lazy man” and its contrast: “the industrious have earned their munificence.”

And Justice Esho? He was the model citizen who put his prodigious intellect and steely courage at the service of the common good. Imagine the Jeremy Bentham dictate of the greatest happiness of the greatest number, as the apogee of governance? Esho was the puny individual who aimed for that Bentham societal elixir, sans government might, sans government perks. His unrepentant motto was Justice for all. His only tool? Profound knowledge of the law; and stubborn courage that the law rules.

Just imagine how different Nigeria could have turned, had the majority in the Supreme Court adopted Justice Esho’s famous dissent, in Obafemi Awolowo Vs Shehu Shagari in 1979, at the birth of the troubled Second Republic (1979-1983).

Chief Richard Akinjide, SAN, national legal adviser to the then National Party of Nigeria (NPN), had come up with a clear legal stratagem that two-thirds of the then 19 states was twelve-two-thirds and not 13, as the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO), under Chief Michael Ani, had hitherto decided in all electoral matters.

The motive was not so hidden. The presidential election was heading for a run-off, with NPN Candidate Shagari winning the majority of popular votes but falling short of the required one-quarter of votes cast in two-thirds of the 19 states of the federation. Alhaji Shagari had the one-quarter requirement in 12 states.

On the other hand, Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) Candidate Awolowo, was running second on popular vote, though far less behind on the electoral spread requirement, so much so that had the envisaged electoral college held to pick the president as the 1979 Constitution stipulated, it would have been great injustice if Awo had won as a result of the rest of the four parties – Nnamdi Azikiwe’s Nigerian People’s Party (NPP), Ibrahim Waziri’s Great Nigeria People’s Party (GNPP), Aminu Kano’s People’s Redemption Party (PRP) and the UPN – ganging up to thwart the NPN candidate.

But that was not even likely to happen, even if the UPN optimists were ready and eager to take their chances; and the NPN camp and their federal backers expected the worst. For starters, the rivalry between Zik and Awo was alive and well. Besides, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo’s government’s body language that Awo was not the man was all but clear, even if Awo was widely perceived to have the best credentials. Enter then Chief Akinjide’s legal dues-ex-machina!

The 6-1 (or more appropriately 5-1-1, for Justice Andrew Obaseki’s verdict was neither-nor) Supreme Court judicial validation of the Akinjide theory sank the new Second Republic in a legitimacy bog it never recovered from. But it was this equivalent of a roaring judicial ocean current that an unfazed Justice Esho swam against.

The Supreme Court too must have realised its own judicial cant – who didn’t? – as it committed a further outrage that its twelve-two-third decision would not be cited as precedent at future electoral litigations!

But that legal legerdemain by the highest court of the land cost Nigeria the collapse of the Second Republic, and the subsequent infliction on the polity, of the most virulent set of military dictators – Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida and the nadir, Sani Abacha. This relay also birthed the second coming of the ever-grandstanding and self-adulating Obasanjo, the luckless Umaru Musa Yar’adua and the clueless incumbent, Goodluck Jonathan.

Besides, that Supreme Court decision further entrenched the regnant folly that the executive could manipulate elections anyhow, and suborn the judiciary to toe the line – until the judicial rebellion after the shameful 2007 general elections, with President Yar’adua clawing his stained mandate by a split 4-3 Supreme Court decision, thus forcing conscious efforts at electoral reforms.

With the failed military-in-government and wobbling successor non-democrats in a supposed democracy, judicial manipulation of electoral matters brought the country perilously close to state failure, despite the heroics of the Court of Appeal under the presidency of Justice Ayo Salami, now ironically being tarred and tanned for doing the right thing! Yet, if only the Supreme Court of his time had shared Justice Esho’s golden sense of justice, all these would perhaps have been averted!

The moral? Those who now play politics and expediency with the Salami case only lay land mines that may yet blow up the polity.

Very early in his judicial career, the fearless jurist was involved in the famous “unknown gunman”, a charged political case involving the young Wole Soyinka, during the Western Region’s season of [political] anomie in the First Republic, to borrow the Nobel Laureate’s novel of that title.

He ruled against government and the bully Leviathan bared its teeth. For his judicial temerity, the Ladoke Akintola establishment hauled Esho into judicial Siberia in Akure. For following the dictates of the law, therefore, persecution was his lot. Yet, that did not deter the judicial lion heart from giving justice, even if the heavens fell.

Even among their peers of titan jurists, in an era regarded by legal historians as the Golden Age of the Nigerian Supreme Court, Justice Esho and Justice Chukwudifu Oputa (aka Socrates) – still very much alive – sparkled for their sheer brilliance, deep intellect, profound learning, towering character and stubborn courage to be guided not only by the letters of the law, but also by its spirit. That none of the two ever became Chief Justice of Nigeria is a salute to the Nigerian penchant to settle for the ordinary when the absolutely brilliant wastes away.

Justice Esho was a model citizen who put his character and learning at the disposal of his country. Despite his strivings, his country bluntly refused to be a model nation. That is the tragedy of contemporary Nigeria, which the present and oncoming generation must throw over-board for the country to find true greatness.

November 27, 2012
EFCC: Same old story

Are you a businessman or woman with substantial dealings with the Federal Government, or a politician fiercely opposed to the sitting government at the centre and eyeing a top position in Abuja? If you are, then take heed of this warning, it is in your own interest; don’t do or say anything that could make the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) come after you, because that could spell danger for you as the commission appears poised once again to go after the supposed enemies of their paymaster, the Presidency.

Why am I saying this?

Have you not been following the travail of Lawyer/Businessman Dr Wale Babalakin (SAN), the billionaire with connections in high places, who wines and dines with the high and mighty; the businessman who sits atop an emerging conglomerate that includes Bi-Courtney Highway Services, the firm that won the concession agreement to fund, build and manage Lagos/Ibadan Expressway for 25 years and recoup his money (of course plus profit) within that period, but has done little or nothing on the road almost four years after; the owner of the rebuilt terminal (MM2) at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja?

Yes, the same man who has been battling the Federal Government to stop the construction of another domestic terminal at MMIA, which he claims contravenes the terms of the agreement with Bi-Courtney Aviation Services, leading to the construction of MM2. Recall that the Federal Government recently revoked that concession on the Lagos /Ibadan Road citing non-performance on the part of Bi-Courtney Highway Services? Now the man is in trouble, real trouble, multi-billion naira trouble, courtesy EFCC.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has brought charges of money laundering against Babalakin and four others totaling N3.4billion. The 25-count charge were slammed on the accused barely 48 hours after the revocation of the concession agreement raising concern that the Federal Government could be using the EFCC to prosecute a political agenda of witch hunting and vendetta against its opponent. It also raises doubts about the sincerity and impartiality of the commission in its drive to rid Nigeria of corruption.

Make no mistake about it, this is not a defense of Babalakin or a call on EFCC to go soft on the anti corruption crusade, but then it must be seen to be working devoid of government influence for it to continue to enjoy the support and confidence of all Nigerians, including the accused.

Ordinarily, matters like this should not raise dust anywhere other than in the camp of those involved, but the timing of EFCC’s move against the accused when the man is involved in a contractual dispute with the government definitely points at more than ulterior motives on the part of the commission. Did this money laundering issue come up just yesterday? Why immediately after the man lost his contract for the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway reconstruction? Couldn’t EFCC have waited for this contractual problem between Babalakin/Bi-Courtney and the Federal Government to be resolved or even go down before bringing these corruption charges against him? All the commission needed to do if it was convinced it has a strong case against Babalakin and others, was to put them under watch while their contractual dispute with the government lasted and move in immediately. No matter the merit of their case against the man, the timing of their action has tainted the motive behind it and the public is likely to view it as such, whether the man is freed or convicted if and when the matter gets to court.

Pursuit of vendetta by our leaders against political opponents in particular has been part of our politics for long. But this was raised to its peak by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who deployed every tool, trick and power at his command to fight his political opponents both real and imagined. The Nigeria Police used to be the willing tool for this, but since everything is a matter of cash to our policemen as they are always on the side of the highest bidder, the government, it seems needed a super agency with enough teeth and muscle and which enjoys public support and confidence to fight its dirty war against its opponents. I am not saying this was why the EFCC was created but over the years, especially under Obasanjo, the agency was used effectively to fight opponents of that presidency.

Recall the K-Leg story of then candidate Rotimi Amaechi who was running for the governorship seat of Rivers State in 2007 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)? He was stopped by Obasanjo and his clique using the EFCC to cook up and manufacture evidence of corruption against him. Eventually nothing was established against the man, but Obasanjo had his way as he was dropped as PDP’s candidate in the election. I am sure you know the rest of the story. Amaechi is today the governor of Rivers State.

The story of the failed presidential ambition of a former Governor of Rivers State, Dr. Peter Odili and the role played by Obasanjo’s EFCC in his botched attempt to clinch the presidential ticket of the PDP in 2007 is known to not just a few. There were many people like that who were politicians in PDP and who at one time or another were close to Obasanjo but fell apart with the former president when their interests collided and the man punished them using EFCC.

Some opposition politicians also suffered similar fate, but just as this was going on, a whole lot of Obasanjo’s friends politicians and businessmen alike accused of one form of corruption or another were left untouched. The EFCC pretended not to see them. They were untouchable. You still remember the story of Chief Olabode George, the erstwhile deputy National Chairman of PDP, who wielded so much power and influence under Obasanjo that he became untouchable. Until he fell out of favour with Obasanjo the EFCC defended him stoutly against accusations of corruption during his tenure as chairman of Nigerian Ports, but once he became an “enemy” of the Villa, the EFCC story changed and Bode George went to jail.

I am not sure to what extent this trend continued under President Umaru Yar’Adua but definitely it wasn’t as rampant as it was under Obasanjo if it did happen. But then who knows, maybe illness and eventual death robbed us of knowing what kind of leader Yar’Adua would have been and how he would have deployed the EFCC under his watch. But this move against Babalakin by EFCC could eventually lead us into a clearer picture of what the anti-graft agency would look like under a Jonathan presidency. His EFCC is beginning to bear its fangs now and ready to bite. Good. But how far he can go, remain to be seen, especially considering the fact that he might need to bite some of the fingers that put him in the Presidential Villa. But if he has to bite and even cut off some of those fingers in the fight against corruption Nigerians won’t mind, but then he shouldn’t do it selectively; nobody should be untouchable. No sacred cow.

The untouchables have been the pillars of successive administrations in this country and are somehow linked to this corruption we are all talking about. Until last week, Dr Wale Babalakin could rightly be classified as one of them, but whether he remains so after Jonathan’s EFCC onslaught or if indeed the onslaught can stand the stern test of the judiciary remain to be seen. But as things stand now, the man and his co-accused are innocent until found guilty by competent authorities.

The lesson for EFCC here is that if it doesn’t assert its independence and be seen to be doing so by the public, it risks the erosion of its fragile credibility with the public and could easily go the way of the Nigeria Police. It should not allow itself to be used by anybody or be seen to be used by anybody, especially the government. It is about time it focuses attention on the government especially those ministers perceived to be corrupt to prove its independence. Let charity begin at home.

To Babalakin and his co-businessmen/politicians, I don’t envy them. Mixing business with politics is tough and navigating that dangerous terrain requires tact and delicate balancing in order not to breach any unwritten rules. My advice to them is to stick with the international best practices in business relations especially with government and be fair and even handed/minded in their dealings with politicians. They could be dangerous.

November 27, 2012
Putting those teeming graduates to work

To do a riff on the old mealtime prayer: Some Nigerians have money, but no style. Some of them have style, but no money. For those Nigerians that have both, like our own Aliko Dangote, we give thanks . . .

His wealth is legendary, and has been for the better part of two decades. According to Forbes Magazine, the authority on such matters, he is far and away the wealthiest man in Africa. And he didn’t just stumble into fortune; the money-making gene is locked into his DNA.

Dangote’s mother, so the story goes, was a granddaughter of the legendary Kano businessman, Alhassan Dantata, whose enormous wealth was talked about with awe throughout the length and breath of West Africa. His father was Dantata’s business associate. From that vantage position, Dangote’s father must have acquired an arsenal of money-making skills of his own by osmosis, assuming he did not have them in his DNA to start with.

But the older Dangote was not content to take a chance on osmosis. He married Dantata’s granddaughter, thus ensuring that the money-making gene that runs through that famous family was implanted in his son, Aliko.

The rest is history.

While in primary school in Kano, then home to the confectionery industry in Nigeria employing hundreds of workers, young Aliko would buy up cartons of candy at wholesale price for retail to customers. He had found his calling. At the earliest opportunity, he headed to Al Ahzar University, Cairo, in Egypt, to nurture his talent, majoring in business.

Dangote would transform a trading firm he started when just out of his teens with a business loan of N500, 000 in today’s money into the sprawling empire spanning four countries, and encompassing cement, sugar, and flour, among other products, with assets reckoned in the gazillions. He is set to enter the telecommunications market as a major player.

So, give it to Aliko Dangote: money is not his problem.

But until recently, not much was known about whether he also has what I here call style, for want of a better term. The verdict is now in.

Who but a person of great private wealth and style to match could stipulate a university degree or Higher National Diploma as the basic qualification for being considered for a truck driver in his business empire?

Give him none of your hell-raisers plucked from motor parks in the most notorious parts of town, cursing and swearing at the slightest provocation and oftentimes with no provocation at all, please.

Only those who have been tempered by university education and have attained the cultured sensibility that goes with it should aspire to drive a Dangote truck – but only after earning the coveted post-graduate diploma of the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology.

If that is not style, I beg to be enlightened.

Nor is that all. Those who survive the winnowing will enjoy pay and conditions compatible with their qualifications, and could under a hire purchase scheme end up owning the very trucks they were hired to drive.

No wonder, then, that applications poured in — some 13,000 as the last count, a good many of them from candidates with master’s degrees and doctorates from reputable universities in fields ranging from archaeology to astrophysics.

So, full marks for style to Dangote. But only for style, not novelty. The prize for novelty in this area belongs to retired Vice Admiral Mike Akhigbe.

Back in the late 1980s, Navy Captain (as he then was) Akhigbe, military governor of Lagos State, had launched with great fanfare a Graduate Bus Drivers Scheme, the goal being to place the municipal transit service in a class of its own.

So, out with all those ‘Oluwole” drivers. Forward with newbreed graduate drivers who could in stalled traffic on the run from Oshodi to Obalende engage passengers in enlightened discourse on the Maastricht Treaty. During break, a dutiful bus driver with an honours degree in mathematics could give commuting students a tutorial on the binomial distribution, and the geometric properties of polyhedrons.

Another driver could during his run parlay the unfolding topography of Lagos into illustrations of the problems of ecological conservation and environmental planning for future students of urban geography on the bus.

It would be a win-win proposition for all concerned. The graduate driver would never get to own the bus, of course. But he would get a salaried job plus the usual benefits, and learn what they never teach in those stuffy universities, namely, that there is great and ennobling dignity in labour. Commuters would get free lectures and tutorials that will transform them into engaged citizens, the type that can move the nation forward.

The scheme took off all right, sputtered on for some six moths and collapsed within a year, remembered now if at all as a monument to misplaced priorities. Its putative gains never materialised. And Akhigbe lost nothing by it, since it was government business.

While the Graduate Bus Drivers Scheme lasted, there was no lack of imitators, potential and actual.

Brigadier-General David Mark, then Minister of Communications, was widely reported to be mulling the idea of a Graduate Telephone Operators Scheme. A panel of experts, it was said, had concluded that the woes of its Telecommunications Division NITEL stemmed primarily from the fact that only the most rudimentary qualifications were required for serving as telephone operators. In many cases, no qualifications were required.

If the telephone operator could engage a caller from Lahore in an informed discussion on the subtlety of Urdu poetry, or a caller from Outer Mongolia on how some edict from the Ying Dynasty sowed the seeds of its present subjugation — if an operator could do these things and much more while putting callers on hold, NITEL’s fortunes would grow dramatically, the experts said.

Unfortunately, the proposal never got off the ground. Contemplating NITEL’s fate today, the authorities must be regretting that they never saw it through.

About the same time, the Better Women were devising an innovative scheme of their own. Scandalised by the quality of service they were getting from their houseboys and housemaids, they were reported to have come up with the idea off setting up a Graduate Housemaids and Houseboys Scheme that would be entrenched in the Constitution. When not doing cleaning house, those recruited under the scheme could help the children with their homework.

Initially, entry would be restricted to holders of bachelor’s degrees with First Class Honours. If no appreciable quality in service resulted, the position would then be opened up to applicants with higher degrees.

The project went the way of the Better Life Programme. No novelty there, and the money wasn’t theirs. But who can deny that the Better Women had a style that was all theirs?

With Aliko Dangote’s Graduate Bus Drivers Scheme now up and running, interest in some variation thereof is surging. The Jonathan Administration, I gather, is already studying how such schemes can be incorporated into the Transformative Agenda to stem the country’s daunting employment crisis.

The possibilities are endless, Mr President.

November 27, 2012
That Deltans may live well

If governance was an Olympic sport, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State would surely be a gold medallist. Since he took over the reins in the oil rich state, he has done so many things that have brought smiles to the faces of Deltans. By virtue of his achievements, the governor has etched his name in the good books of history. He will be remembered as one of the best leaders the state ever had.

Unlike other governors who devote all their resources to a singular sector, Uduaghan’s achievements span across various sectors that are critical to the development of the State. There is virtually any sector that has not been transformed under his administration.

I am particularly interested in the health sector where the governor has continued to blaze the trail for other states. Perhaps because of his background as a Medical practitioner, he understands that good health is germane to the development of the society. With the avalanche of initiatives he is introducing in the health sector, Dr. Uduaghan is working to ensure that Deltans live a healthy and prosperous life. He is giving credence to the words of Mahatma Gandhi that the wealth of a nation can only be measured by the health status of its people not just with pieces of gold and silver.

At the twilight of his first term in office, the governor initiated a free health care delivery programme for old people in the state. Some naive critics who did not share in his vision were quick to dismiss the initiative as another campaign gimmick. But the governor has proved them wrong by sustaining the scheme. As of today, free and quality healthcare is available to anyone above the age of seventy in the state.

The mother and child healthcare programme is yet another initiative of Uduaghan’s administration that deserves commendation. Before now cases of infant and maternal mortality were rampant especially in the rural areas within the state. The governor was able to stem the tide by providing free medical services for pregnant women, nursing mothers and their babies at various locations around the state. The best thing about this initiative is its grass-root approach. Unlike what obtains before where pregnant women had to walk several miles to get treatment, the Mother and Child initiative takes the treatment to them because the centres are located in various parts of the state. Although there are still some challenges, it is obvious that there have been a significant reduction in cases of infant and maternal mortality in Delta State. We should not forget that reduction of maternal and child morbidity is one of the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations. It is not for nothing that the Nigerian Medical Gynaecology and Obstetrics Association recently honoured Dr. Uduaghan with a fellowship award as a result of his laudable programmes in health care delivery. To be honest, he deserves more than that because there is no one in the history of this state that has done better than him in the health sector.

Governor Uduaghan’s passion for a disease-free Delta is infectious. It is therefore no surprise that he has gone as far as partnering with private organisations in his effort to rid the state of various deadly diseases. In the wake of the devastating flood that ravaged some parts of the country about two months back, Delta State collaborated with Pfizer Nigeria to vaccinate about 2,000 children with Pneumococcal vaccine, PCV 13 in the Asaba, Kwale and Isoko camps for flood victims in the State.

In a relief camp that houses various categories of people, the Pneumococcal vaccine is a proactive step that would help curtail the spread of Pneumococcal diseases that are usually common such environments. It is on record that of all the states that were affected by the flood, only Delta did such.

It is hard to talk about Uduaghan’s strides in health without mentioning the state-of-art facility at the Delta State University Teaching Hospital (DELSUTH), Oghara. With the massive investments on ground there, the governor has not only brought quality health care closer to the people, he has made Delta the envy of other states. It is a source of pride for every Deltan that our Teaching Hospital that is barely three years old successfully carried out the first knee replacement surgery in Nigeria.

To further demonstrate his commitment to quality healthcare for Deltans, the governor recently led a team of delegates to the United State to sign a memorandum with the University of Texas.

At a time when deaths from terminal diseases are becoming rampant, the governor is leaving no stone unturned in his bid to ensure that his people live a healthy life.

It was heart-warming to learn that the DELSUTH and the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Centre (UTSMC), would work together to develop a centre of excellence for kidney transplant and treatment of kidney related cases. With this development, the Dialysis Centre, Laboratory, Radiology and Theatre Departments of DELSUTH will be upgraded to become centres of excellence where world-class treatment can be accessed.

The implication of this is that Deltans and other Nigerians suffering kidney related problems can get quality treatment without going abroad since facilities for nephrology and kidney transplant will be available at DELSUTH at a cheaper rate.

Like the governor rightly noted while signing the memorandum, the centre will boost medical tourism and enhance the internally generated revenue of the state.

To in his usual ways of backing words with actions, the governor has promised that the next ten month will be dedicated to putting infrastructures and personnel in place for the take-off of the centre. This will no doubt create jobs for more people in the state.

For everyone who lives or knows about health care delivery in Delta before Uduaghan’s administration, it is hard not to doff your hat for him. What he has done in that sector is highly commendable. Today, Deltans both in rural and urban parts of the state who used to throng other states for treatment of various ailments now enjoy quality healthcare without paying much.

• Oghenerkaro, a medical Doctor writes from Warri

November 27, 2012
Plateau State: the hidden stories

The dissonance between an outsider’s perception of Plateau State and the reality can be so striking as to provoke not just amazement at the many positive sides to the state, but also some measure of disgust at being fooled by the relentless media focus on crisis and conflict as the reigning identity of Plateau. Thus, any scholar who is still interested in news flow patterns—after the debacle of the New World Information and Communication Order during the 1980s—should find Plateau a suitable laboratory for documenting and analysing the distortion of reality.

True, a serving Senator and another lawmaker were killed this year, and villagers are routinely savaged by mercenaries and other warmongers in some parts of the state. True, also, that there have been migrations, as residents flee conflict areas when trouble flares, leading many to believe that Jos and Plateau in general were well within the province of a failed state—deserted and falling back into the dark ages. But Plateau had pleasant surprises for members of the National Good Governance Tour Team who visited the state in late October.

To me, the source of stunning surprise was as follows: if peace is a predicate to development, how have the state and Federal governments carried on with the many projects that are so visible, when guns are supposed to be booming? A sampler: well-paved inner city roads, sprouting from the dilapidation of yore; dualised arterial roads in Jos complete with a flyover, stretches of road networks in local government areas, resuscitation of water treatment plants in Jos-Bukuru, and an ambitious effort to build the 45,000-seat Zaria Road Ultra Modern Stadium that was first awarded in 1988, then the contract fell into limbo until Dec. 2010, when Gov. Jonah Jang re-awarded it.

The concept for the stadium is fascinating. It is intended to attract high-profile national and international competitions, and also be available for high-altitude training that will save the country forex, while boosting the state’s coffers. The completed tartan tracks and astro turf pitch wowed the Good Governance Tour Team, with some exuberant frolicking on the turf. The government is looking farther ahead, with a Greater Jos Master Plan, covering six local government areas, to be implemented over a 17-year period. There is also a new Government House under construction, with proposals to make it a revenue-earning tourist attraction. It could have been so easy to proclaim that Gov. Jang is on an ego trip with the new Government House, except that his cogent response that the project won’t be ready until 2015, when he leaves office finally, silences critics.

With uncommon zeal, Jang has focused on infrastructural renewal and delivery, giving it his trademark quality. Only a man of towering confidence can boast that even when President Goodluck Jonathan came calling, riding in a chopper for two days, he could not finish commissioning the many projects that studded his itinerary. Jang is striving mightily to exorcise ghost workers (some of them infants and school children whose names have been wangled into the payroll by collusive officials) who bilk the state of nearly N1billion monthly. He is also scaling up agriculture through mechanised services, green house technology, training, agro know-how, diary technology, and post-harvest marketing all through the Agricultural Services, Training and Marketing Ltd.

Jang is driven by a peculiar yet admirable stubborn will. I applauded him when he said during the Citizens’ Forum that the government would not pay for the five or so months that local government employees had been on strike, citing the no work no pay rule. But he provided an exit window for the workers, saying that if they resumed and worked for even only a couple of days in October, he would direct that they receive full pay for the month. The significance was also not lost on many at the Forum when Jang offered what was a public apology for the incursion of the military into politics, which led to the country’s arrested political development. Yet, without doubt, he is guided in his current engagement partly by his experience as a former Military Governor of Benue and later Gongola states, and his well-known frugality that is unpopular among the rent-seeking class.

But, crucial as health is, it is only now—five years since he first took office in 2007—that the sector is beginning to appear under his radar. He was always subliminally confident perhaps that the Jos University Teaching Hospital, a Federal Government facility, which has now moved to its permanent site and is a magnet for healthcare seekers, was a dependable source of access to healthcare. Gov. Jang is also unfazed by the security challenges in the state, blaming it partly on agents provocateurs, the absence of state police (which he says compromises his role as chief security officer of the state), and a dysfunctional judicial system, whereby arrested suspects never seem to answer for their atrocities.

Plateau has its pristine aesthetics: rolling hills, balancing rocks, a kaleidoscope of greenfields punctuated by scenic ravines, and an equable climate. But there has been a recent magnificent man-made addition to Plateau’s beauty. The latest beauty enhancement lies somewhere along the 43.2km Vom-Manchok road constructed by the Federal Government. The road provides an alternative route from Jos to Kaduna. The point of attraction lies somewhere in an escarpment, where up to 30 metres of igneous rock was drilled down and blasted, to make way for the road. As you drive down the slope, the allure of the hill top ahead and the greenery below is simply breathtaking. Model agencies, glossy magazine publishers, film makers and advertising agencies would find the site a perfect location for a priceless shoot. Reassuringly, the Vom-Manchok road is not within the range, where mercenaries and herdsmen, clad in fake fatigue and armed with assault weapons, occasionally sweep down the hills to launch hit-and-run attacks on defenceless villagers.

Paradoxically, beyond the regular conflict stories, which do not represent the greater scope of life and living in the state, Plateau has another bad news, which has not been sustained in the headlines, obviously because its import is far less appreciated. During the courtesy call by the National Good Governance Tour Team on the Governor, and at the subsequent Citizens’ Forum, Gov. Jang announced the prevalence of a silent pestilence that is ravaging Plateau: cancer. According to him, some of the abandoned pits used for mining tin and columbite in the past, have been found to contain radioactive materials. People use the water from the pits for domestic purposes, while dredgers also mine plaster sand for construction. Exposure to the radioactive elements, Jang said, was a worrisome source of cancer among men and women in the state. He provided no statistics, but that is for any diligent reporter to follow up on.

Jang appealed to the Federal Government, and to the international community, to come to the aid of the state. This would require remediation of the affected sites, massive public enlightenment to reduce further exposure at the sites, and care for those already struck with cancer. A catalogue of issues arises from the cancer scourge. First, considering its alleged source, this is a matter that is fodder for environmental activists to be properly seised of, and then be up in arms over what is perhaps Plateau’s biggest quest for survival and sustenance, over and above the ethno-religious conflict. There are also posers over what the proper role of the Ecological Fund Office should be in such a matter. But there are legal dimensions as well.

Where are the tin mining companies today? Or, where are their successor companies? Did they follow acceptable practices for the many decades that they operated in Plateau? Even if they did follow acceptable practices, now that there is evidence of instances of cancer arising from the radioactive materials in the abandoned pits, what is the legal remedy, and payable by whom? Or, is the causation too remote in time as to be a valid source of claim against the tin mining companies or their successors? In any event, when will Plateau and Nigeria internationalize the issue?

• Osadolor is Special Assistant to the Minister of Information

November 27, 2012
Jonathan, Obasanjo and terrorism

President Goodluck Jonathan and former President Olusegun Obasanjo have been embroiled in some controversy over the appropriate strategy to tame the scourge of terrorism in this country. Obasanjo believes Jonathan’s response to the Boko Haram menace has been rather slow. For him, Boko Haram would have been nipped in the bud if the government had been fast, as according to him, he did in Odi in 1999 when he deployed troops there. But Jonathan disagreed, contending that the deployment of troops in Odi did not solve the problem of militancy in the Niger Delta region. Rather, that exercise resulted in the premature termination of the lives of mainly old men, women and children. He was also very emphatic that none of those militants was killed in that invasion even as it did not succeed in stopping militancy. To him therefore, that exercise did not achieve the desired objective and to that extent was a failure.

Apparently piqued by these assertions, Obasanjo, through his former spokesman Femi Fani-Kayode has come out strongly to justify his invasion of Odi in Bayelsa and Zaki Biam in Benue states arguing that the objective of both operations was to uproot terrorists and discourage their resort to the killing of law enforcement agents. For him, after both exercises, the killing of soldiers and police men diminished in those areas.

But Obasanjo seemed to have contradicted himself when he sought to argue that he never recommended the “Odi treatment” to be adopted to quell the Boko Haram onslaught. He claimed that what he meant was that “a solution ought to have been found or some sort of action ought to have been taken sooner rather than allow the problem fester overtime like a bad wound and get worse”

If that is the new argument, what was the purpose in drawing parallels between his handling of the Odi killings and Jonathan’s handling of the security challenge posed by the Boko Haram insurgency? Why did he not go ahead to say what he had in mind rather than engage in comparisons that have tended to convey the impression that he is recommending the Odi approach to the festering Boko Haram challenge? It would appear to any discerning mind that the latest attempt by Obasanjo to clarify what he had in mind by comparing his approach to the Odi affair with the current handling of the Boko Haram insurgency cannot tie up. It looks more like an attempt to revise himself apparently having realized the incongruity in any attempt to equate one to the other.

The truth of the matter is that the security challenge posed by the killing of policemen and soldiers by the militants is substantially different from the current terrorism levied on the nation by the Boko Haram menace. While the militants were demanding greater share in the resources which nature benevolently bestowed at their backyards and compensation from years of exploitation through pollution, the propelling imperative of Boko Haram is substantially different. Its grouse is with western education even as it intends to impose an Islamic state in this country. In terms of venting their grievances, the approaches of the two are also very different. The militants largely targeted oil installations, facilities and their personnel especially foreigners whom they kidnapped, extracted ransom from and subsequently released. Some of their captives were unlucky as they did not come out alive.

But Boko Haram is a different thing altogether. It is a classic case of a well organized terrorist and fundamentalist religious group pursuing some weird ideology. Its original claim to be pursuing an anti- western agenda has been contradicted by the senseless killing of innocent people through its suicide bomb attacks targeted at churches. Apart from its initial attack on the United Nations building in Abuja which wreaked immense havoc on lives and property, the churches and their worshippers have been the greatest victims of these senseless attacks. This gives the impression that the ultimate agenda of the sect is to impose Islamic religion in this multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious country.

Besides, militancy was largely limited to the creeks in some areas of the Niger Delta region but Boko Haram has its operational base in the northern part of the country even as its activities are more felt in some states than others. I am not well groomed either in military science or military theories. So what can be considered eclectic in handling the challenges posed by the Odi matter and the Boko Haram onslaught is better left to military experts.

But one thing that seems to stand out very distinctly is that the two cannot be handled in a similar fashion as Obsanjo’s comparison would lead us to believe.

Before now, we have been told that one of the factors that fuelled the Boko Haram insurgency was the brutal manner their leader Muhammed Yusuf and his followers were killed in Maiduguri some years back. It was for the same reason that the same Obasanjo had to meet with some leaders of the Yusuf group in a peace deal brokered by the leader of the northern civil society coalition, Mallam Shehu Sani. If the Maiduguri operation which can in some way be compared to the Odi invasion became the leitmotif for the upsurge of the sect’s insurgency, it stands to reason that that strategy proved counterproductive in the circumstance. Instead of stopping the group, it rather reinforced their determination to wage an all out war against the government. It is doubtful given its spread and operational mode, Boko Haram can be wiped out through the type of operation Obasanjo conducted in Odi. But then, that operation as we have been told by Jonathan did not even succeed in uprooting militancy.

Even then, some northern leaders have been crying out against the activities of the Joint Military Taskforce JTF in areas suspected of harboring the insurgents. There have been allegations that each time there is a bomb explosion or an attack on the JTF in an area, their response will be to cordon off that area and raze it down. In such operations, innocent souls suffer immeasurably, they seem to be arguing. The point being canvassed here is that the Odi approach is in a way also playing out in the handling of the Boko Haram sect. The whole idea of razing down hamlets where some insurgents are suspected to be residing is guilty of punishing the innocent for crimes they know nothing about. So if this is the approach Obasanjo had in mind, it is in some sense being applied in the war against Boko Haram. But as events have shown, it has proved unsuccessful in taming the monster.

Moreover, we have also been told that Boko Haram has serious foreign backing as our porous northern boarders have been exploited to their devious benefit. It is therefore very unlikely that given the spread in its activities; agenda, lethal sophistication and doctrinaire motivation, Boko Haram can lend itself to the Odi handle. It possibly cannot.

Again, the fight against terrorism is now a global affair. It may be an exercise in wishful thinking to suggest that an all out war can be a solution to it. And since ours is a very recent development, we need to get at those political, social and developmental issues that are at the root of this insurgency. We also need to get at the root of those sponsoring it for us to overcome the menace. Rather than military action, what has failed us most in this matter has been either the dearth of intelligence information or lack of the political will to confront the little information at our disposal.

November 26, 2012