The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • Global power play – Between change and consolidation

    Next  week will see a sea change in the politics of power in the two most  economically powerful nations on earth. The US  presidential election  holds  on November 6 while the 10-yearly transfer of power conference of the Chinese Communist Party, the ruling party of China,  starts two days later on November 8. In Russia, Vladmir Putin, the president and strongman of Russian politics cancelled some state engagements sparkling speculations that he could have a nagging injury but even then no one doubted his hold on power  as the  Czar  of Modern Russia. In Nigeria , Primate Nicholas Okoh, head of the Nigeria Anglican Communion at a news conference on next week’s 2012 Divine Commonwealth Conference in Abuja asked that the British government should appoint an Archbishop  of Canterbury who  is ‘ biblically based and not someone with wide theologies‘.

    Yet, before discussing the power plays already identified for this week let me acknowledge with awesome respect the natural fire power of Hurricane Sandy or Sandy Storm t in the US that brought life to a halt in New York  and New Jersey  this  week. The storm halted, albeit briefly,   the acrimonious US presidential campaign   and allowed the US President Barak Obama  a rare opportunity to use his incumbency maximally to his advantage in the elections,  in the way  he responded   like a father of the nation  to the crisis.

    Even  the late George Washington  and the founding fathers of the American nation must smile in their graves at the sight this US president in Airforce one charging down the plane’s doorsteps to bring succor and hope to those blighted by an inhuman storm that threw out even caskets from their graves in its fury and wanton, destruction of lives and property on its path. Hurricane Sandy showed  very clearly that in terms of raw power  and  its  display, science and man are yet to conquer nature  and both are well advised  to be extremely   cautious as to how they try to control the elements in their midst and in their  various global environment. The fact that the US Metrological   Authorities could identify the   path of the storm as well as its speed but could not stop it,  is enough testimony to the fact that man is yet to be able to control his environment, in spite of the  huge technological achievements of our age and time . Which really is a frightening truth to live with, in a world with enough man made horrors of its own.

     In similar  manner and undoubtedly then,  the result of the forth coming US elections  can bring new horrors of its own depending on who wins. Most Nigerians expect or pray that Obama  should win .But  Nigerians are not going to vote in the elections . From the utterances and campaigns of the two candidates  Americans must make a choice come November 6. From what Mitt Romney has articulated so far, his administration will look after the rich and mighty and will not raise taxes from them but will want the poor and middle class to fend for themselves or perish in the process if they cannot. If Romney wins he will give full backing to the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu and will encourage  an attack on  Iran’s nuclear facilities which he thinks are the most potent threat to world peace today. Iran on its own has said that it would wipe out Israel and there is no doubt that it  is  not about to make itself a sitting duck  for  any US – engineered, Israeli attack ,  on its nuclear facility. This, in addition to the violence in nearby Syria which is an ally of Iran whose plane drones are reported to have been sighted in Syria  helping the Assad regime, is bound to complicate issues and make the world a dangerous place to live in indeed   in a Mitt Romney presidency.

    Obama,  on the other hand ,  is tested hand whose foreign  policy of engagement with friends and enemies alike has made the world a safer place to live in so far. He has beheaded Al Qada in the killing of   Bin Laden and his foreign policy has flowered the growth of democracy in the Middle East. Obama’s foreign policy in the Middle East   has destroyed  some old animosities  and created new  friends that make the prospect of a lasting peace in a combustible region possible after all. Hamas has moved away from Syria in protest at the killing of the Syrian people by their president. Hamas has lost sanctuary and funding from Syria but it has found a new friend in equally rich Qatar whose Prince visited Hamas territory recently and Qatar is an ally of the US, and Saudi Arabia,   great  enemies of Syria.

    In  Lebanon the EU  has refused to follow the US in categorizing Hizbollah, an ally of Iran, as a terrorist organization because of the humanitarian work it is doing for all parties concerned fleeing the carnage going on in Syria and becoming refugees in Lebanon. Such realignments and reappraisal of relations make diplomacy a potent tool for peace in the region as the prospects of war recedes  in the face of pragmatic politics and emerging relationships. At  home in spite of the ailing domestic economy Obama   has shown more empathy with the poor and down trodden of the US economy more than any US president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt-FDR -who led the US during the Great Depression of 1929  and the thirties. To  me as a citizen of the world Obama is a safer option for world peace and stability and I wish him God’s speed on his reelection bid.

    China too will be busy next week organizing its own orderly and party guided transfer of power. 2000 party faithfuls will be gathered in Beijing next Thursday to name Vice President Xi Jinping    to succeed outgoing President Hu Jintao while Vice Premier Li Keqiana will replace outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao . About 5 to 7 seats on the Chinese Communist Party Politbureau are expected to be filled at the closed shop conference which is unlike the hullaballoo that attend American presidential campaigns and elections. That  is politics and democracy – Chinese style -as in the  global interplay of power politics one man’s food is another man’s poison and as long as there is political stability and security , the end can always be used  in any political  system to justify  the means. Already about 1.5m volunteers have been mobilized in Beijing to ensure stability during the Party Conference next week. So  whoever wins the US elections already knows who to deal with on the Chinese side but the same cannot be   said  of the Americans till  after the elections of November 6.  Really,  I wonder which one is neater or  preferable.

    Russia’s Vladmir Putin’s postponement of state events may bother his guests but his absences  are really of his own making and are indeed  due to the fact that he has too much time on his hand in running Russia  and has injured himself in the process. This is because in addition to  dangerously  flying planes along with migrating birds, Putin is a judo black belt who inspired the large haul of gold medals in judo for the Russian contingent at the just concluded  2012 London Olympics. That not with standing Putin must  or should wear the ultimate ‘gold medal‘ in Russian politics for the way he organized his return to power  in 2012 after ruling  as   president for the mandatory two terms of four years from 2001  to 2008. He  simply appointed a stooge who ruled as president of Russia for four years while he demoted himself as Prime Minister  for four years  only to get his presidency back in a stage managed election later. Now, Putin is expected to be in power till 2020.  Who  can challenge him for the gold medal of power in Russia? Definitely no one –  so the postponement of  state engagements are an inconsequential distraction that can be overlooked by the state;  as Putin, indeed, is the state in Russia.

    Nigeria’s Anglican Primate Nicholas Okoh’s advice to the British government to stop the politicization of the appointment of the Archbishop of Canterbury should be looked at in the context of the   appointment  as well as the performance of  the   outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury,  Rowan Williams;   as well as the personality and views  of the appointing authority of the next Archbishop   of Canterbury  who is the present British PM.

    In simple terms former British PM Tony Blair appointed Rowan Williams while the present  British PM David  Cameron is to appoint his successor. This is what the Nigerian Anglican  Prelate is objecting to. This to me is because David Cameron is on record as threatening to cut aid to African nations that have laws against homosexuality and lesbianism and Nigeria is unrepentantly one of such nations. Outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams turned a blind eye to the ordination of gay priests in the US and ignored the objections of African bishops during his tenure. This divided the global Anglican Communion deeply and created a Schism.

    Rowan Williams played with words,  philosophies and theological arguments to justify his nonchalance on gay priests in the Anglican Communion hence Primate Okoh’s advice to the British government to appoint a new Archbishop that knows the bible and respects it and not just another radical intellectual like Rowan Williams who  fiddled like Roman Emperor Nero while the global Anglican Community burnt like Rome over the consecration of gay priests and bishops during his tenure.

    I  think Primate Okoh is trying to preserve the Commonwealth heritage of the Anglican Communion and the teachings of the bible in spite of the  apparent swing of British politics and government in the direction of accommodation for gays and lesbians. It  is really a complicated power play and pot pourri of religion and politics  fit only for the high priests and princes of the Church to be watched  only from a safe distance by a curious laity.

  • A princely exit

    A princely exit

    Life has meaning. Life and death are intricately connected. Without life, there is no death. And as the sages may add, without death there is no life. The Master Sage once declared that His death must be recognised as the beginning of a new life. And our ancestors concur. For them, death is simply a transition from one mode of existence to another. With this connection between the two, we must conclude that if life has meaning, death must also have meaning. Yet, if this were the only connection, an important question would remain unanswered: why is one so deeply perceived as the stark opposite of the other?

    The meaning of life, its essence or the purpose it serves, is the good it promotes. That is the reason of existence, the creator’s objective. The meaning of death is the opportunity it affords the living for the lessons of life. In death, we have a powerful MRI of life in all its simplicity and complexity. Death shows us that life is as simple as the setting of the sun, the imagery that we adopt as its metaphor. But death also demonstrates to us that life is as complex as the riddle of the Sphinx. Walking on four legs in the morning, then on two in the afternoon, and on three in the evening, human life is as complex as it is conflicted.

    One—life—appears to be the stark opposite of the other—death—because the former seems to open doors of opportunity while the latter seems to close them up. As the Yoruba would say, ba o ku ise o tan. When there is life, there is hope, we gleefully remind ourselves. But death ends it all. Hence, poor humans, we dread death.

    The wise know better. They recognise the uncertainties and vicissitude of the duration of time between one mode of being (life) and the other (death), grab the opportunities that life affords them to serve the creator’s purpose, promoting as much good as they can, while they can; and when death knocks, they are ready for it. For them, the intensity of the suffering that life may throw at them at the end stage of existence does not disable their will to do as much good as possible. In their suffering, they reflect God’s purpose.

    Prince Oyemomilara Okunlola had a faith in his creator akin to Abraham’s. He was endowed with wisdom close to Solomon’s. His kinds don’t suffer destruction. Instead, they are transformed into greater realm of perfection where, face-to-face with their creator, they continue to promote the good.

    Bros. Oye, as he was fondly called, determined from the beginning of life’s journey to excel in the delivery of the message of his destiny, which was simply to do as much good as possible. To accomplish such a mission, he knew that he had to prepare himself. He knew that he had to remake himself. “I have been made, I have to remake myself” is the witty saying of the sage. Education is the key to remaking oneself, and Oye took a great advantage of the opportunities of sound education in the old West.

    Of course, as we know, limitations of heritage could place one at a disadvantage relative to others. In the days of his youth, Oke-Ogun had limited opportunities for educational advancement. At the end of primary education, one had to relocate to pursue further education, which was also mostly limited to secondary modern school education. It was not unusual that at 12, a young boy or girl must make that move. And after three years of secondary modern school, the next available opportunity was teacher training, a boot camp of sorts with its harsh discipline and character training. Bros Oye and generations of Oke-Ogun indigenes before and after him passed through this rigour of life. He and his friends once labeled Oke-Ogun as New Nigeria, partly in reference to the people’s innocence of spirit, and partly in the hope of a national mobilisation toward the discipline and moral rectitude that their beloved rural life forced on them.

    After receiving the Teachers’ Grade III and Grade II certificates in 1961 and 1965 respectively, Oye had to study for the General Certificate of Education to qualify for university admission. During this period, when he was still struggling for his own future, he was not deterred from helping others, including the younger ones who were fortunate to secure university admissions before him. My friends Adebisi and Oyediran were students at the University of Ibadan. I was then at the University of Ife. We all had summer jobs at Ibadan. While I stayed with Bros. Gbade Adejumo, Bisi and Diran stayed with Bros. Oye. This was the pattern in those days. We stood on the shoulders of those who cared to lend a hand. They did it without grudge. We are all the better for their generosity of spirit.

    Bros Oye was an undergraduate at the University of Ibadan from 1972 to 1975 at the end of which he received the B. Sc. (Hons.) in Economic, Second Class Upper Division. He later obtained the Advanced Diploma in Project Analysis and Management from the University of Connecticut and an Advanced Diploma in Public Administration from Obafemi Awolowo University.

    After a stint in the private sector, Prince Okunlola joined the Oyo State Public Service in January 1977. This was where he made an indelible mark, leaving a legacy of hard work and integrity. Public service could be privately rewarding in the sense that it enables one to serve the public and thereby promote the most good. From the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to the Office of the Governor dealing with Chieftaincy and Parastatals, there was plenty of good to share, and many wrongs to right. He was always on top of his league. He capped his civil service years with service as the Administrative Secretary of the National Electoral Commission (NEC) in Oyo state until his retirement on 1994. And because of his meritorious service in that capacity, in retirement he was tapped to serve as the Chairman of the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC) from January 2004 to 2008.

    Outside of government, Prince Okunlola was a foremost community leader and advocate for the people, serving in various capacities and initiating many development projects for the communities. He was National President of Okeho Development Association, Secretary of Okeho Socio-Economic Club, President, Iwajowa Union of Okeho, President, Ifeoluwa Society of Agodi Baptist Church, Secretary, Council of Oke-Ogun Indigenes (COIN), President Emeritus of Oyo Club 79, Former Oyo State Chairman, Planned Parenthood Federation of Nigeria (PPFN), among others.

    If promotion of the most good is the meaning of life and the purpose of existence, I can reasonably assert that Prince Okunlola lived a meaningful life. But there is another lesson of life that he taught us. Recall that in suffering and in death, the meaning of life is revealed to us. And in the suffering that he endured before his final passing, Prince Okunlola demonstrated to us that nothing can separate him from the love of his God. I mentioned earlier that he was endowed with wisdom close to Solomon’s; he also had a spirit of perseverance and trust that almost rivaled Job’s. In his suffering, he never cursed God. Indeed, many recall that he was always praising God and praying for others even as he lay in bed. He was an unusual human being; one that was sent here to teach us how to live, how to love and how to suffer with dignity.

    Grace, a loyal and dutiful wife to the end demonstrated the true meaning of the marriage vow—for better or for worse—in her devotion and tender care of her husband. Bros Oye could not have wished for a more sympathetic and understanding companion. Children, brothers and, friends, including Chief Bayande Ayanlowo, did their best and all must now take consolation in the knowledge that the Prince is with the King and that son and father are in eternal bliss. For the anointed never dies, the anointed never sees destruction; the anointed only transits to Itunla; itunla is the home of the anointed.

    So long, Bros. Oye.

  • South-south in government, North in power, yet…

    Arising from last Sunday’s suicide bombing of St. Rita’s Catholic Church, Kaduna, the seeming Christians bating and unmitigated bloodletting in the North of Nigeria, many readers of this column urged that the piece below, first published last week, be re-run. Some readers also express shock that some highly placed leaders of the North are even suspected of masterminding and funding this incremental destruction of Nigeria. Below is the article of last week:

    If anyone needed evidence that President Goodluck Jonathan panders unduly to the North, the recent sale of the Nigeria’s power plants is sufficient proof. While one may not begrudge them their ‘good fortune’, what galls most other Nigerians is that some of the people from the North would still not be appeased. If bombs are not going off, uniformed security personnel and innocent people are being gunned down at will, for no just cause. If it is not senators of the Federal Republic being accused of aiding and abetting this senseless carnage, it is former governors or other members of the privileged elite. Perhaps the only condition for peace is for the rest of us to scurry across the border into the hills of the Cameroons, and the hinterlands of Benin and Togo? Almost everything we have in Nigeria has been conceded to the North yet it won’t be appeased.

    First, the recent sale of Nigeria’s electricity distribution companies by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) shorn of the technical details and the little devils inherent in them, one must say that the broad ground norms required for fair and equitable bidding process are flawed. If we are privatizing, let it be truly private and competent companies (not transferring from federal to state governments); no private company should get more than one facility (they should build more in the future if they are so capable); no former head of state should be allowed to buy utilities they were instrumental to their failure.

    But what did BPE do? It allowed state governments to throw in all sorts of bids by proxy; thus while some states won, some did not win. That is bound to breed rancor. Second, it allowed a company chaired by former Head of State, General Abdulsalam Abubakar (rtd) to bid. Now Abubakar’s firm, Integrated Distribution Marketing a Company (IDMC) did not only bid, it got the three biggest facilities in the North, East and West. This is utterly unacceptable. The North will never accept this inequitable arrangement. Even the gentleman governor of Anambra State well known for pandering to the dictates of the Presidency raised his voice saying the action was ‘shocking’. Says Obi: “It was more shocking because Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Bayelsa succeeded, but the South-Eastern states totally lost out.”

    Yes, the South-East seems to always lose out in everything especially in this dispensation. South-East has the worst power facilities in the land. What about road network, federal presence, not to mention the vexatious state and local government allotment deliberately skewed to eternally hurt the South-East. But we digress.

    What the BPE led by Mr. Atedo Peterside has done in doling out all the key power distribution companies to Gen. Abubakar, we dare say, is an extension of the appeasement of the North which has gone on so rather nauseatingly under the Jonathan Presidency. The result is that while Jonathan is in government, the power and influence in all arms of government are firmly secured in the North. The South-East and the West are the sorry losers.

    Let us take a quick roll call: barring the president himself, the next five positions down the pecking order of protocol in our federation today is held by the North viz; vice president, senate president, speaker of the House of Representatives, chief justice of the federation and attorney-general of the federation. It must be put on record that this is unprecedented in the history of Nigeria. Thus apart from having a leg in the Presidency, they control the National Assembly and the judiciary effectively. It is particularly overwhelming in the judiciary as the North also heads the Court of Appeal, the High Court and indeed all other positions down the judiciary chain.

    The North also dominates most of the strategic positions in the land. In defence, it holds the defence minister’s slot, the Chief of Defence Staff, the National Security Adviser and the inspector-General of Police; three most important position in the security and defence of any nation. These are complemented with headship of the Customs, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, (NDLEA), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Other key positions held by our brothers from the North include governor of the Central bank of Nigeria,(CBN), headship of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC), and chairmanship of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, (FIRS), Petroleum Trust Development Fund, (PTDF), Nigerian Ports Authority, (NPA) and the Pensions Commission, (PENCOM). There are so many other no less important positions like headship of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Education Trust Fund (ETF), the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), among others.

    We must state it clearly that there is no prejudice whatsoever towards the various gentlemen and ladies occupying these important positions; most of them are well qualified for the positions they occupy and most important, some of the positions are elective and hierarchical. As has been noted earlier, there is no grudge towards the North over what can be considered their good fortune; what we say is that they must appreciate that they have the upper hand in the polity today, they must do a lot more to contain the raging violence in their part of the country. They must also remember that when their fortunes change tomorrow and the pendulum swings to other parts of the country, they should show equal magnanimity and the desired equanimity. They must remember that equity and justice are the bases of peace in any society.

    LAST MUG(S): why is NASS hounding Oteh? The story of the delectable Ms Arunma Oteh, the director-general of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is well known to enlightened Nigerians. After exposing the corruption of members of the Committee of the House of Representatives who deigned to be probing her activities at SEC, the members of the National Assembly would not give her a breathing space. The fact that the lawmakers probing her office compromised themselves, they have lost the moral ground to insist that she must be dismissed. Sounds like sour grapes. The fact that they could not establish any solid case of corruption against her and the fact that the Presidency which appointed her still finds her worthy of that seat, the wise thing for our law makers to do is to back off for the moment. Well, they are allowed to have their searchlight quietly trained on her if they insist on their vendetta by all means. They should look for something better to do and allow the executive do its job.

    Gov. Fashola’s mishandling of the Okada riders: does the Lagos State Government know the number of commercial motorcycle riders in Lagos state? Is there any unit or department of government managing this huge block of an economic unit? Did anyone do a thorough analysis of the cost of taking this group off the Lagos roads? Apart from the huge opportunity to be tapped from this horde of hapless city transporters if we looked carefully, it is disheartening that the LASG is growing into the habit of throwing ill-digested laws at the people; laws seemingly motivated by anger and intent to punish are often flawed laws. Laws should not destabilize, frustrate and damage people, it should on the other hand, support the populace, cooperate with them and enrich their lives. What callousness informed the crushing of the property, the basic livelihood of the lowliest class? What manner of law permits us to confiscate and crush other people’s property? We must rethink such a law. LASG must show more rigour and humanness in managing a social ferment manifesting as okada.

  • Prodigals’song

    At the end, our vanities shall ruin us and our truths shall attain clarity of sort. I speak of that moment when lies we tell shall evolve into half-truths and the grotesqueness we swore to escape begin to thrive on our watch.

    The beaming brightness of good shall be visible to all but we shan’t appreciate it even if we tried; because we shall be too blinded by deceitfulness and greed to do that. Thus our descent. As we descend, sophistry and trite banalities shall no longer serve us. Nothing will improve; we shall remain pitiful prey for pathetic predators to plunder, to the death.

    When we protest, riotous court sessions shall be mooted to silence our rancor even as plea bargaining is furnished to protect our light fingered leadership and thieving industry titans. But we shall continue to sit back to watch the news, read the news and curse the times.

    And when self-pity and deceit can no longer serve us, we shall grope through the lattices of personal disaster into the ruins of national disaster. We shall be puzzled how genocide found its perch past corruption and greed, in our hearts – even as we burn and blaze in the name of self-determination, ethnicity, mammon and “God.”

    The language of our madness shall still not be understood by all even as our madness is enabled and patronized by all. From our madness, our vanishing neighbours in the ‘first world’ shall nourish and thrive. Nigeria shall become that perfect prey for the ‘first world’ to rip off.

    We who should be aid-givers shall tirelessly scream and plead for aid. In the name of aid, more weaponry shall arrive our shores than the deplorable glucose and rice rations. Every Nigerian, a revolutionary soldier; every Nigerian child, a gun-totter.

    Secession shall offer no solution. But we shall have it anyway. The South-south shall go with her oil; the South-east with her Achebe-confessed supremacy and monopoly of entrepreneurship. Northern Nigeria shall go with her nuts, itinerant herds and religious fundamentalism; and the South-west shall go with her tottering agriculture, exaggerated sophistication, double standards and arrant complacency.

    In our new republics, civilization shall improve our houses and husks no doubt but little shall be done to improve the men that are to inhabit them. Our government houses shall dwarf the most grandiose Persian castles even as we fail to create statesmen to inhabit them.

    In our Biafra Republic, Oodua Republic, Niger-Delta Republic, United States of Arewa, to mention a few, the “civilized” citizen and elitist’s pursuits shall be no worthier than the savage’s.

    We shall all get the leadership we deserve; our quality even as newly emancipated people shall be reflected in the nature of our leadership. But neither violence nor spite shall rid us of treacherous leadership, corruption in high and low places.

    In the spirit of the revolt, the Nigerian working class and breadlines shall turn on one another, brandishing steel upon steel, bayonet against bayonet, shooting, maiming and decapitating our lavish spirits in the interests of the ruling class; until we become too bloodied to go on.

    Every national treasure and cash-cow shall become principal targets of assault. Every personal asset shall become a spoil of war. Cars, houses, certificates, jewelry, enviable marriages, careers and everything that everybody has ever labored to achieve shall vanish in pillage and devastating bomb blasts.

    We shall watch the deployment of arms to our lost and brainless youth. Having seen too much bloodshed and suffered it; we shall learn to think with the machete and speak with bullets. We shall hound and hack to death, people with whom we used to be next door neighbours, in-laws and “best friends forever (BFF)” simply because they are Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Itsekiri, Ibibio etc. We shall watch our mothers and wives get raped to the death. Our daughters and sisters shall become “comfort women” and hyper-active courtesans to at least, four or five soldiers and revolutionaries at a go.

    Within such stew and stink, President Jonathan and company will be nowhere near the scenes of ravage nor would every technocrat, industry leader and self-acclaimed political leader on whose watch Nigeria depletes by pilferage and sabotage. As they do in our state of prewar, they shall be comfortably tucked away in their safe houses abroad, while they monitor and direct the carnage back at the home front.

    And after the bloodbath is over, they shall re-emerge from their safe havens abroad to continue excitedly where they left off; knowing there would be greater chances for consequence-free pillage, murder and fraud. It wouldn’t matter if we are forced to reassemble to rebuild a more broken and battered Nigeria nor would it ever matter if every tribe eventually secedes and attain its nirvana; we all shall be forced to endure the same brutes at the reins of power. Corruption and death shall eclipse the rising sun of Biafra; it shall bury hope in the Federal Republic of Oodua; make more militants in the Niger Delta and silence dissent among the Arewa.

    We do not for instance foresee that terrible thing called betrayal, and chaos, do we? We do not prevision that this heady fantasy of ours will become an everlasting nightmare. When we get to breaking point, fat shall thin on our bones and our skin shall hang loosely on our sketchy skeletons. We all shall become bonier than the Tilapia; with the exception of our elder statesmen and their scions, who shall continue to feed and fatten like the fabled hog, off the hides of us commoners.

    After our battles have been fought and won, we shall live at a loss about how to manage the prize for which we ruined our lives, back when we used to be Nigeria. Our people shall go hungry and since we dare not denounce the oligarchy, we shall vent our venom on one another. The middle class would have died with this era; and all we would have shall be the haves and have-nots. There shall be nothing in between.

    Unemployment will worsen. The plum jobs shall only be for the children of the ruling class and their thug-associates. Today, our local government chairman is a park-thug. Tomorrow, our Senate President will be an outlaw – a professional cultist, arsonist, robber and assassin to be precise – and Mr. President shall be puppet to worse thug-fathers than we have now.

    We should be inching towards freedom but we aren’t. We should have attained freedom, but we haven’t; makes me wonder what manner of patriots we have become. It is our so-called intellectuals, labour leaders, social media activists and human rights activists that amaze me; add to the mix every mercantile journalist, columnist of note and substance, and you have a perfect blend of Nigeria’s worst enemies.

    It will no longer do to excuse our idiocy and greed as significant elements of political and socio-economic expediencies; everybody knows that every one of us seeks to feather his own nest. Yet we who ruin Nigeria are dying to break Nigeria. We who couldn’t love Nigeria enough to save her will ruin the seceded lands of our dreams with all manners of love.

  • The election in Ondo state

    The election in Ondo state

    The gubernatorial election in Ondo state has come and gone. Dr. Olusegun Mimiko and his Labour Party have won. In spite of the protestation of the PDP and the ACN, it seems that the people have decided. This is the spirit of democracy. The people have foolishly or wisely chosen who their leader for a while should be. Most of us independent observers are convinced that the economic integration platform of the ACN is in the longer interest of our people in the South-western part of Nigeria. I have a feeling that Mimiko himself would not be opposed to integration and I do not see how Ondo State can avoid integration with the rest of the Southwest even if Ondo state is not in the same party with its neighbours.

    In politics, one can choose his friends, but one cannot choose his neighbours. It’s like in life generally; one can choose one’s friends, but not members of one’s family. If this is a given position, both Mimiko and leaders of the ACN would have to get used to each other. If they do not, it is our people who would suffer. It is not necessary for elders to jump into the affray between the two contending ideologies in the South-west. Statesmanship should dictate that reconciliation is the way forward. Our interests are permanent, even though the strategies to attain these interests may change and there is no need to reduce political contestation to struggles between individuals and to personalize issues as it is being done in the story of Ondo State. There is absolutely no need to demonise and denigrate Bola Tinubu who by all accounts and yardstick has been a positive force in Yoruba politics. Whether we like it or not, Tinubu for the foreseeable future, will remain a relevant and constant force in Nigerian politics.

    I have read comments glamorizing one group while demonizing leadership of another group. There is no doubt that the leadership of the ACN has been largely successful in mobilizing people in the South-west and asking them to begin to look inwards, so as to find salvation from collective efforts, rather than looking towards an external saviour from Abuja. This trend has always characterised politics of people in the South-west over time and anyone who goes against this tendency would eventually find out that he has backed a wrong horse. This is the evidence of history and the political history of the South-western part of Nigeria is clear on this. This is also in tandem with global trend where cultural awareness accompanied by local autonomy is the order of the day. This is why I find it ridiculous for anybody to accuse the leadership of the ACN of tribalism. Politics is about defending group or collective interest and political parties are organised for this purpose especially in a situation of competing and conflicting interests as we find in Nigeria. Politics is war by other means. Instead of resorting to violence to defend one’s interest, one is involved in organised party politics. This is the real meaning and advantage of party political organisation.

    In advanced countries like the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Germany, Denmark and Belgium, political parties exist specifically to defend regional or cultural interests and they don’t have to be apologetic about this; and anybody who feels defending regional interest is against the national interest is living in a fool’s paradise, because after all, the national interest is the aggregation of the interests of all.

    Dr. Mimiko should settle down and face the reality of the need to relate positively with the main political force in the South-west and he should avoid being used to fight intra and inter ethnic battles. He has enough on his plate at home and he must understand that his support in Ondo State is statistically very weak. He should concentrate on the task of development and creating jobs and economic opportunities at home. And that should take all his time, so that he doesn’t have time for indulging in self-adulation and praises from his A-men corner. Mimiko is an intelligent man and personally likeable, I have respect for his sense of judgement. He should avoid being used as a Trojan horse or bridgehead of those who may be opposed to progressive development in the region especially at a time when it is obvious the region is under intense and programmed marginalisation.

    The ACN as a political party needs to be seen as a mass movement that is ready to work with other mass movements in other parts of the country in preparation for 2015 election. The party must therefore be structured in such a way that its leadership is collective and not domineering. There is also need for internal democracy within the party so that candidates who contest elections command the support of the electorate. This is not a time to apportion blame, but this is a time for reform and democratization of all party organs. This is the bitter lesson that it must learn from the Ondo election.

    Political parties grow when challenged. Parties without opposition tend to ossify. This is why I believe the ACN has no reason to feel discouraged or despondent, after all, it made a good show in Ondo in spite of the loaded dice against it. The electoral process must be transparently fair and not subject to the shenanigans of party hawks who would like to use federal might and muscle to win elections. We have seen this before and it has not always been in the interest of Nigeria and Nigerians. If this country is to progress, we must allow a contestation of ideas from which the right way forward would evolve.

     

  • Hell of a country

    Hell of a country

    NATURE seems to be furious nowadays.

    The floods in Nigeria have spared neither the rich nor the poor, submerging homes and businesses, turning many into refugees and scavengers. Canoes are gliding over flooded asphalt lines that used to be roads. People are dead. As the fear of an apocalypse stalks the land, many are rushing to check the holy book, asking: the days of Noah and his ark again?

    But Nigeria is not alone in suffering this anger of the elements. Super storm Sandy has been pounding some parts of the United States, killing people, uprooting trees and smashing them on cars, flooding streets to submerge homes and disrupting power supply. The cataclysmic effect of it all has strengthened the spiritualist’s thought of a world coming to a grievous end and many are screaming: “Oh no; not now, Lord!”.

    There is, ironically, a comical side to the furious floods. Nollywood’s old kids, the naughty Aki and Pawpaw, visited the displaced people’s camp in Asaba, Delta State, shaking hands with the people who lined the road to welcome them. It was hilarious seeing the “kid stars” carrying kids they are barely taller than.

    Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan said he brought them to the camp to address the displaced people because of his experience when he once visited in the night. He said the people never bothered about his presence as they stayed hooked onto the television, watching the pranksters, Aki and Pawpaw. So he decided to bring them to the camp to address the people. It was a hit.

    With the disturbing news of storms and floods have come stories of human disasters and wickedness, of graft and greed. Those who have got an insight into the Ribadu Committee Report are shaken at the level of corruption in the oil industry. There is no trace of $183million signature bonuses paid by oil companies. Shell is said to be owing N137.57billion for gas sold. Addax’s debt is reported to be $1.5billion in royalties. Between 2002 and 2011, $5billion is said to have been lost in oil sales to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

    Petroleum Resources Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke has said the “final” report, which was compiled by a 21-man revenue task force, is not final because it needs the government’s input. There are also Governance and Control and the Refineries task forces, according to the minister, who said a team had been set up to examine the various reports. It is after the team is done that the issues in the Ribadu Report can be addressed. Now, what is that?

    Why has the rot in the oil industry taken this long to uncover? Who are the big cats feeding fat on this? Isn’t this a case of leadership deficiency? Who supervises the NNPC?

    The Presidency, after lashing those commenting on the report, has said it is yet to get the document and that nobody indicted will be spared. Good talk. But, can we match our talk with action? Can we really go all the way and clean up the rotten system?

    Even as we examine the Ribadu Report, the Halliburton scandal – remember this? – has suddenly resurrected. President Goodluck Jonathan is said to have directed that the book be reopened, two years after the investigation was surreptitiously dumped. The fresh probe is said to have been initiated because of the United States’ insistence that those indicted in the $240million bribe-for-contract scandal must be punished before Nigeria can recover the seized $180million bribe cash. But, there are unconfirmed reports that the President is under pressure from two former heads of state not to reopen the case.

    Will Dr Jonathan go ahead with the case? Who are the people asking him not to? Why should it take America to nudge us to action, even as we make a huge noise about fighting corruption? Why do we always allow corruption to slap us in the face before we start boasting of fighting back?

    After a brief lull, the suicide bomber returned last Sunday, striking at a Kaduna Catholic church. It was like a Hollywood movie scene; full of action, deadly action, but real. Kids were the worst hit. Eight people died; scores were injured.

    The implacable Boko Haram sect is believed to have been the architect and executor of the violence. The world keeps wondering what Boko Haram’s anger is all about. Perhaps there would have been no Boko Haram, if the police had not executed its leader, Mohammed Yusuff. Perhaps.

    The sect has the right to demand justice. In fact, there can’t be peace without justice. This is the point that many of our leaders got wrong in their Sallah messages. They urged us to embrace peace and pray for the unity of our dear country. Can there be peace without justice? But, this is not to say any group, no matter how versatile in violence, should take the law into its own hands. No. I think it’s time for Boko Haram to change its tactics.

    The wickedness continued in Plateau State where unknown (?) gunmen killed six patrons of a drinking bar enjoying the local brew, burukutu. A week before last Sunday’s attack, two men had been killed in the community, Gindin Akwanti, in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area. They were on their way from the market when their assailants pounced on them.

    In Onitsha, a four-man gang shot dead a car dealer, Chief Emeka Ekwerendu, in broad daylight; 7.30am. The gang trailed their victim to a school where he dropped his kids. They shot his vehicle’s tyres, taking it off control. It hit a parked vehicle and got stuck. The assailants then shot Ekewerendu, opened his car’s boot and carted away a huge sum of money.

    Why do people kill for money? Would the chief have resisted his assailants, if they had asked him to surrender the cash? Was it robbery or assassination? Will the police get the killers?

    And talking about the police. They lost five men in Ogun when robbers ambushed a team responding to a “distress” call. How will the police differentiate a fake distress call from a genuine one? Poor guys.

    In Abuja, a senator and a former governor are quarrelling over who wears the father of Boko Haram crown. The State Security Service (SSS) is questioning Senator Ahmed Khalifa Zanna about his relationship with a suspected commander of the sect, Shuaib Bama. Zanna says the man, his nephew, was not arrested in his Maiduguri home, but in former Borno Governor Ali Modu Sheriff’s. The ex-governor fought back, saying the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senator is “the engine-room” of Boko Haram, which, according to him, the lawmaker nourished through his hajj-by-road programme.

    Why did Sheriff wait till now before speaking? When will the SSS question him, in the light of the new allegation? Could this be why some people insist Boko Haram is all politics?

    Also in Abuja, there is the seemingly needless quarrel over the oil benchmark for the budget. The executive says it should be $75. The Senate says no; $78 is appropriate. The House insists on $80. I doubt whether the common man knows how this row will better his lot.

    Amid the natural and human calamities, Nigerians continue to see everything as a joke. I don’t blame them. There is so much to cry over; they may have been losing gradually that human feeling that provokes tears. Now, they laugh at their leaders. Consider this sent to my mobile by a colleague:

    “Three former leaders – from UK, US and Nigeria – went to hell. The first asked the devil to allow him make a call to London to inquire about the country’s welfare. He spent five minutes on the telephone. Satan billed him $5million. The ex-US leader also made a call and spent eight minutes. The bill: $8million.

    “Then, the ex-Nigerian leader called Abuja. He spent two hours. ‘How much be my bill?’ he asked Satan. ‘$1,’ he replied. Surprised, the former leader said: ‘But I stayed longer than them.’ Satan smiled, saying: ‘Calling hell from hell is not expensive; it’s a local call.’”

    So long!

     

    A governor and his hobby

    GERMAN doctors are battling to save the life of Taraba State Governor Danbaba Fulani Suntai, who crashed an aircraft last Thursday. His five passengers are begging to also be flown overseas.

    When Suntai got his licence at the Nigeria College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) in 2010, this newspaper splashed his “initiation” pictures on its pages. His Excellency, decked in a shirt and a tie with a pair of brown trousers, stood erect like a soldier as an official emptied a bucket of water on him. What a ritual!

    People have been wondering what may have happened. Was the weight of office too much for the mind to concentrate on the risky but exciting business of flying? Who owns the aircraft; another of His Excellency’s toys? Will Suntai fly again?

    I often wonder how things that are made for man’s comfort easily become agents of pains. May the Almighty restore Suntai’s health. And may the authorities listen to the distress call to fly the others out for treatment. Amen!

  • NFF’s, Keshi’s sack letter

    The presidential directive that the Super Eagles must lift the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations’ diadem in South Africa is clear to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

    Equally instructive is an NSC chieftain’s fiat to NFF chiefs to sign the performance bond in the aftermath of the presidential order to ministers in the Goodluck Jonathan’s government.

    Jonathan’s message is meant to motivate the players and challenge the NFF chiefs to ensure that we present a good team at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations. Or was anyone expecting the president to ask the Eagles to lie down for their opponents without a fight in South Africa next year?

    Besides, the presidential performance form was served on those appointed as government functionaries. People shouldn’t hide under such umbrella to set traps for perceived enemies in the NFF and the Eagles. The NFF board came into effect through elections, not as Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) supporters but as apolitical Nigerians.

    I ask that the NSC chief who is insisting that NFF must sign the performance form, if the decision is binding on distinguished members of the National Assembly.

    Are we not witnesses to the country’s worst outing at the London 2012 Olympic Games? Did anyone ask those hounding the NFF with this form to quit? Anyway, Sports Minister Bolaji Abdullahi warned me to discountenance any government policy not signed or/and voiced by him. I digress.

    Yet, these two instructions may be the death knell on Nigeria’s quest to appear at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. I don’t need to be a seer to know that the Eagles won’t lift the diadem in South Africa. We are rating the Eagles based on their talents and exploits in European clubs.

    What we have failed to appreciate is that the depth of talents in these European clubs is not what we have in the Eagles. We have also not recognised the fact that the players in these European clubs have spent more time together as a team, playing matches weekly. These matches provide the platform for the players to gel and produce scintillating performances that send the fans into a frenzy.

    Rebuilding a national team is not a hasty assignment. It includes identifying new talents, weeding out ageing ones through competitions and finding the right combination of players to do the job. I don’t think that the Eagles have played 14 games under Keshi. And it would be the height of unbridled patriotism for anyone to expect such a team to win the Africa Cup of Nations.

    It is true that football is unpredictable. What is also true is that no ill-prepared side such as the Eagles, in terms of quality time to prepare the players for the assignment, wins big trophies.

    Unfortunately, that NSC chief didn’t have the balls to explain to President Goodluck Jonathan why the Keshi-led Eagles won’t carry the day in South Africa. Is anyone surprised? Don’t ask me if he was a member of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) that wrongly advised the president to withdraw Nigeria from all football competitions.

    Since those PTF foes lost face after the President’s recant in 2010, they have latched onto any opportunity to sustain their campaign with every poor outing by our football teams. The President has listening ears – from what I saw during the Presidential Sports Retreat in Abuja two months ago.

    Super Eagles has the highest population of Europe-based players who warm the bench in their clubs.

    This presidential fiat seems to me another way to prepare the ground for Stephen Keshi’s and the NFF’s board’s sack in the event that Nigeria doesn’t win the Africa Cup of Nations. If that happens, the hawks in high places would pounce on the confused setting. And I can take a bet that Nigeria’s flag will not be hoisted at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

    If we don’t lift the Nations Cup, it would be because we wasted time in recruiting the last Eagles coach. It also should serve as a lesson because asking Keshi to step aside (God forbid), will destroy what he has painstakingly built. The ripple effect will stop us from the Brazil 2014 World Cup.

    I have prayed fervently that we don’t win it. My prayer stems from the fact that we would spend precious time celebrating and end up not qualifying for the World Cup in Brazil.

    We don’t need a pilgrimage of appearances at the World Cup to become the first African nation to play in the semifinals and ultimately win the trophy. That dream will be actualised if we build blocks. And that includes taking the positives from whatever happens to the Eagles next year in South Africa and build on it.

    God forbid jail term for Emenike

    The media was awash with the heart wrenching story Wednesday that Super Eagles striker Emmanuel Emenike will be jailed for close to three years, having been indicted in the match-fixing case in Turkey last year.

    The manner of speech of the prosecutor Ufuk Emertcan clearly indicated that they had sufficient evidence to hound Emenike to jail, if he had been in the court on Tuesday.

    The prosecutor submitted that Emenike feigned injury in the landmark match-fix ing case where it was alleged that Fenerbahce officials had fixed that season’s match against Karabukspor, demanding that Karabukspor should not name Emenike in its team. The caveat to this match fixing case was for Emenike to dump Karabukspor for Fenerbahce after the game.

    Ememike said in his defence that Karabukspor’s doctors asked him not to play the fixed game because he was injured. Emenike added that he called the Super Eagles coach, who asked him not to play the game with pain killers, obviously because of the repercussions.

    The questions to ask this prosecutor are: Did the Karabukspor doctors dent their medical advice to Emenike? Is it Emenike’s duty to field himself in a match? Did Emenike go the hospital? If yes, has the hospital denied that he didn’t come there? Did they discover any transaction where money was transferred from an account to the Nigerian’s? Is it not laughable that a player would fix a match and yet prevent himself from featuring in the game? How then would he facilitate his team losing to the opponent? From off the pitch?

    There are certainly more questions than answers. But my plea to NFF chiefs and officials of the National Sports Commission (NSC) is to immediately contact Emenike and his lawyers to get the brief of the case.

    A Nigerian international as a match fixer is no palatable news. We shouldn’t fold our arms and allow an incompetent lawyer send our soccer ambassador to jail.

    We need to fortify Emenike’s legal team. He must not be left alone. The time to intervene is now. It could start with an appeal. Emenike must not go to jail, except he is found guilty after a transparent trial. Over to you Sports Minister Bolaji Abdullahi. We must save our son from this show of shame. Emenike gives his best during Super Eagles matches. We need to show concern in this matter, please sir.

    Good night Dr. Anthonia Onouha

    Last week, I refused to disclose the ailment of Nedum Onouha’s mum, Dr. Anthonia Onouha, even though she told me. She didn’t ask me to re-broadcast it.

    But I was shocked to the marrow on Wednesday night while reading through my e-mails. A message from one Davis broke the sad news that Dr. Anthonia Onouha had died on November 8. She may be buried this weekend in Manchester in the United Kingdom. My heart sank.

    I never met her. But from our telephone discussion, she was quite a homely person. It still hurts to know that she has passed on. My prayer is for God to grant her soul eternal rest and give Nedum the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.

    I just hope that chieftains of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), and indeed, Super Eagles Chief Coach Stephen Keshi will remember to call Nedum to express their condolences. That is the way forward. Nedum may embrace us, you never can tell. Sleep well Anthonia.

  • Terrorism, politics and the law

    The bombing of a church in a military barrack in Kaduna

    in Nigeria and the placement of a bounty of 50m naira by the army on leaders of the terrorist group Boko Haram highlight Nigeria’s intractable and messy problem with terrorism. Unlike Nigeria, however Egypt faces a new problem from the use and misuse of power from its new president Mohammed Morsi, who recently issued presidential orders granting him powers that are not challengeable in any court in Egypt.

    In Nigeria again, in a strange concoction of politics and finance, the nation’s Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi, the Champion of Islamic banking in Nigeria asked the Federal government to sack 50% of its civil servants because it is spending 70% of its revenue on paying the salaries of these civil servants. In far away New York, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon asked the UN Security Council to approve the sending of an ECOWAS force to Mali to rescue that nation from invaders both Tuaregs and religious militants but asked the UN body not to provide the funds said to be worth $50m.

    The issues highlighted above raise issues of terrorism, authoritarianism, economic planning and finan ce, national, regional and global stability and I intend to highlight these issues in that light and context today. Let me stress that it will require a huge balancing act to do this and it is in that regard that I will make reference to an article by Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyii titled -‘A Sense of Balance‘in The Economist which stressed that both peoples and nations will need to balance their acts to make the world a peaceful place to live in.

    In that fine article Suu Kyii noted that the end of authoritarianism is not synonymous with the end of dissent or the demise of fundamentalism. Dissent she said should be channeled towards concensus and compromise while she stressed that fundamentalism, which can be volatile in times of change and uncertainty, is in reality the natural enemy of balance. Suu Kyii identified terrorists as those people lacking in self respect who are incapable of compassion and restraint when they have an opportunity to deal with those who they think put them in a state of incapacity to attain what they perceive as their deserved niche. Such people who lack self respect are incapable of respecting others. The terrorist mentality she concluded is spawned by intellectual and social influences that widen to an extreme ‘the gap‘ between the terrorist and others – and this destroys the essential balance that promotes a common bond of humanity.

    It is in the light of the wisdom of the Burmese and Nobel laureate that I take on the issues raised first on terrorism in Nigeria and the resurgence of authoritarianism in Egypt in the wake of President Mohammed Morsi,s surprising and bold move to concentrate power in his hands. In Nigeria terrorism is waxing stronger as terrorists this week bombed the headquarters of the special police unit in Abuja where terrorists are being kept and some were said to have escaped. There have been reports that some suspected terrorists were found round the State House in Ekiti State while Members of the National Assembly are said to be apprehensive that the Assembly could be the target of Boko Haram terrorists.

    It is my considered view that no government should allow terrorists to operate with such impunity as this weakens respect for constituted authority and casts aspersion on the sovereignty of the state. It is ironically to protect such sovereignty that President Mohammed Morsi in Egypt seized the powers of the courts and decreed they could not be used to challenge him in his bid to control law and order in Egyp. In Nigeria’s case it is apparent that the state is lax in tackling insecurity and terrorism for reasons best known to the authorities. But human lives should not be treated with levity and nonchalance by the rest of us because we have not any relatives killed by terrorists. It is dehumanizing to see churches bombed on a weekly basis while Christians elsewhere and those not directly involved just pause for a moment and move on while the state wrings its hands in futile admonitions and does nothing to deter the terrorist against the next attack.

    In Egypt where there is no such terror as in Nigeria, President Morsi has seized power ostensibly to forestall such state impotence in the face of expected terror. Morsi is acting proactively in anticipation of spurious litigations to hamstring the state even though his anticipation and actions are decidedly undemocratic. The difference between the Nigerian and Egyptian situation is that the party of President Morsi, the Islamic Brotherhood is a Fundamentalist Party and secular Egyptians are afraid that Morsi and his party will use the power he has seized to introduce Sharia Law in Egypt, to the detriment of opposition parties and other religions in Egypt. Whereas in Nigeria the terrorist is rampant and running amok as it were.

    Yet, there is still some caution and restraint in the way the stakeholders and politicians in the Egyptian state deal with each other. When the demonstrations against Morsi started, the Muslim Brotherhood planned its own counter one for last Tuesday. But it cancelled this to avert bloodshed when it saw the turn out at Tahrir Square against the president’s usurpation of the power of the Egyptian Courts.

    Such restraint is barren in the way Boko Haram bombs Churches killing and maiming Christians and passers by in Nigeria. Worse still the business as usual stance of the security forces as well as the ‘not my turn yet‘ attitude of the rest of us has portrayed Nigeria as a nation of people thick skinned to murder and mayhem in their midst. Which simply means that human life is cheap here as in the Hobbessian theory that says that in a state of terror, where might is right, human life is violent, brutish and short. Surely that is a sad and unfortunate image for any nation not enmeshed in America’s war on terror like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq where suicide bombing has made a mockery of the sanctity of human lives.

    Again, it is in that light that I consider the call by the CBN governor to sack half the work force of our civil service as well as the posture of the UN not being ready to spend money on rescuing Mali. The CBN governor’s call reminds one of ‘the shoot the messenger‘ syndrome while the UN parsimony on Mali’s survival reminds one of the proverbial cat that would eat fish without getting its paws wet. What the CBN governor has said is the correct thing for any government spending 70% of its revenue on salaries to do but even he knows that no politician or government in Nigeria will do that and survive.

    Even the host governor at the venue where the CBN delivered his stricture said it was not possible. So the CBN governor was just barking at the moon even though every one knows that sacking of civil servants was never part of his schedule of duties and that makes the civil servants happy as they plan his downfall in the full Nigerian retaliatory syndrome. Anyway, the CBN governor is as impervious to criticism as the politicians in the way he carried through his Islamic Banking agenda which is in tune with his Master’s degree in Islamic studies from the University of Khartoum. Really what is good for the goose should be good for the gander.

    Lastly, Ban Ki Moon has shown that he or the UN does not understand the gravity of the situation in Mali. ECOWAS states alone cannot fund the reclamation of Northern Mali because they all have financial problems of their own .They mostly rely on Nigeria as the father Xmas of such military adventures. But Nigeria has problems of its own such as the one pointed out by the CBN governor, the oil subsidy theft, the huge allowances of its legislators as well as the fight against Boko Haram to which huge funds have been committed.

    The UN should not turn the proposed Mali ECOWAS force into another laughing stock like the blue beret UN Congo troops who stood by and watched unconcerned as M23 rebels seized the town of Goma from government forces in the DRC recently. Mali is a member state of the UN that is in trouble because of regional problems stemming from the growth of militancy and fundamentalism on the northern part of all ECOWAS states and needs help, especially the financial type to maintain its stability and sovereignty.

    If Mali falls there will be a wrong signal to militants in the Sahel that they can simulate the situation in Mali in any state in ECOWAS. That is one message that is lost to the UN Scribe for now. Not funding the military rescue of Mali can be counter productive and very costly for the UN in the short run not to talk of in the long. A word is enough for the wise.

  • A governor’s ‘suicide’ flight

    A governor’s ‘suicide’ flight

    It is no longer news that Danbaba Suntai, the second-term governor of Taraba State, north-east of Nigeria, was involved in an air crash last Thursday. The crash, which occurred in Yola, Adamawa State on the eve of the Muslim annual festival of Eid-el-Kabir, involved the governor who flew the private light aircraft alongside others, including three of his top aides.

    A pharmacist by profession, Suntai crashed with his chopper near the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) depot, along Numan-Yola Road around 7.45 pm on the fateful day just 38 miles from the Yola Airport. The first set of people who arrived at the crash site were Fulani herdsmen. Officers and men of the Nigerian Air Force NAF’s 75 Strike Force Command in Yola later arrived at the scene of the crash and recovered the victims from the Fulani herdsmen.

    Suntai is said to be a keen pilot who obtained his licence from the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, NCAT, Zaria, Kaduna State in 2010. When he had a successful solo run on an aircraft at NCAT in August 2010, he was reportedly bathed with water as a symbol of his integration into the flying club. One of the national newspapers boldly displayed this initiation photograph on the front page in its last Friday’s edition. Captioned “For the love of flying”, the photograph showed Suntai dressed in a brown trousers and purple-stripped white long-sleeved shirt with a long tie to match being poured a whole pail of water by Bin Na’Allah, a member of the House of Representatives.

    In another newspaper report, stunned journalists who sighted the governor at the Zaria event asked him to comment on his first solo flight. The governor said: “I feel excited and grateful to God for the opportunity to fly my first solo flight. Personally, right from the onset in my life, I chose aviation as a career and pursued it. I was able to obtain admission to Mbrevidaila Aeronautical University in Florida, but coming from a very poor background, I could not sponsor myself in the school, so I started seeking scholarship, but I couldn’t obtain one.

    “So that was how I ended up in the pharmacy profession. However, aviation has continued to bite me in my blood. And when I learnt that I could even fly at my age, I decided to come over here (NCAT, Zaria) to see the rector and inform him about my ambition and he enrolled me. And after some training, today, I was able to undergo this solo flight. So, in my blood, I have it as a passion.”

    Sunta’s incurable love for aircraft and flying is so deep and passionate that he radiates it everywhere. When he became the governor of Taraba State in 2007, he met a partially completed airport in Jalingo, which was started by his predecessor in office. He immediately set about rehabilitating it at a cost estimated at about N9 billion. The construction of the airport was later abandoned following the order of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, who observed some ‘runway defects’ at the airport. Suntai’s government later announced that it would construct a new airport which will be sited on the Mambila Plateau.

    Though the Jalingo airport was not good enough, the governor was said to have acquired a small aircraft during his first term and added yet another one to the fleet only last year. Even though none of them could still land at the Jalingo airport, the Suntai administration acquired a helicopter for which the governor built a heliport in Government House.

    Since becoming governor, he hardly travelled by road. Most of his trips to local government councils within his state and to his village, Suntai, in Bali Council, are always undertaken through the use of chopper, which many stakeholders in the state have continuously criticized. He is said to have also built an airstrip in Suntai to accommodate his penchant for moving around in choppers.

    It is all about passion, passion and passion. Here was a man whose background was so poor he could not afford aviation training to become a pilot, a career of first choice. He went into pharmacy instead. But the fire of aviation that had ignited in his mind continued to burn. It was like an everlasting glow. When he could no longer resist this, he dashed to NCAT, Zaria and poured his mind out to the rector who wholeheartedly encouraged him by enlisting him to train as a pilot. He was told that age was not a barrier since he had a passion for the profession as if all that was needed to become a pilot was to express a mere passion for it. Besides, the money that was hard to come by in yesteryear was now at his beck and call as governor.

    Think about the colossal sum of money involved in building and rebuilding airports, construction of airstrips in Suntai village, construction of heliport at the Government House in Jalingo, buying of light aircraft and helicopter and so on. What picture does this portray? How much is sunk into this? How will this boost the economy of the state and increase the state’s internally generated revenue, IGR? As far as I am concerned, Taraba is one of the poorest states in the country. Although the state is blessed with abundant natural resources, a good environment and all that, harnessing the resources of the state towards optimum economic growth would be more like it, rather than this “passionate drain pipe” created by a flying enthusiast of a governor.

    Now we are being called upon to offer prayers. From the wreckage of the chopper featured in some of the national newspapers at the weekend, Suntai and the other victims of the crash will need tons and tons of prayers to see them through their present predicament. All of them emerged from the wreckage with varying degrees of life-threatening injuries even though attempts were made to paint the picture as less grievous.

    Remember that those who first arrived at the scene of the crash last Thursday were Fulani herdsmen who had successfully retrieved the victims from the belly of the aircraft before the arrival of the NAF rescue team. And nobody is sure whether the rescue team had any specialist in their midst or even the right medical equipment for the evacuation from the crash site. Also, it is not quite clear if all the necessary precautions for such evacuation were observed.

    And whilst we are at it, maybe we should ask a few salient questions about Governor Suntai and the ill-fated chopper ride. Was he adequately trained in night vision or instrument landing which he will need to rely on for flying at night? How many hours’ flight does he have to his credit as a pilot? Who was the co-pilot with him in that aircraft?

    My take is that with the distance from Jalingo to Yola, he could have possibly strayed off course, relying on radio communication for the flight until he finally sighted the airport. And of course, night had set in; in which case, he needed to rely on instruments in the aircraft to land. Anything could have gone wrong during the flight – poor knowledge, poor visibility, heavy wind on the route, absence of a co-pilot and all that.

    We have even been inundated with the fact that there was a security report against the governor flying that aircraft. That warning could have been ignored. And now the consequence of that is the seemingly bad case we have on our hands. We have been asked to pray, and pray we shall. But we must pause and ask: was this accident preventable? If this is the case, it smacks more like a suicide flight!

     

  • Between the Presidency and the National Assembly

    Between the Presidency and the National Assembly

    Easily the most important and most controversial of all the assumptions for next year’s budget is its crude oil price benchmark. As we all know, for decades now King Crude has, far and away, become the biggest source of public revenue and has since become the central, some would even say virtually the only, pillar of our annual budgets.

    Figures from a sampled history of its prices at the New York Mercantile Stock Exchange from December 31, 2005 to this month, shows that this year the prices opened on January 6 at $101.56/barrel, fell to $98.7 in the first week of February, rose to $103.77 third week of February, fell back again to $98.49 on May 4 and closed at $86.28 last week on October 26. This shows volatility in its price but with a trend towards decline.

    This volatility and decline has become the source of a sharp dispute between the executive and legislative arms of our Federal Government; whereas the executive says the price should be benchmarked at $75 and the difference of a little over $11 from the current price put aside for the probable rainy day, the National Assembly wants it at $78 (Senate) and $80 (House of Representatives).

    As usual, the executive has been on a media blitz in an attempt to convince the public that the federal legislators are either demonstrating economic illiteracy or are being unreasonable – or both. Leading the media onslaught is the Finance and Coordinating Minister herself, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, darling of the West as managing director of the World Bank on sabbatical to her country.

    According to the super minister, there are at least five reasons why the benchmark must remain at $75/barrel, actually six reasons if you consider her argument that this price was itself a concession to the hawkish legislators. The more prudent benchmark, using what she called “oil-price based fiscal rule,” which is “a standard technique commonly used by commodity-dependent countries to protect them against the volatilities of oil,” was $71. This, she said, was rounded up to $72. However it was, she said, eventually pushed up to $75 after consultations with governors and the National Assembly.

    A benchmark of $80, the minister said at a recent press conference would, first of all, lead to excess liquidity which would, in turn, lead to inflation and exchange rate depreciation. Second, the current relatively high oil price on which the legislators are basing their benchmark is, she said, “overly optimistic” because the price is not predicated on any economic fundamentals but is rather based on the current crisis in the Middle East, the world’s biggest source of cheap oil.

    Third, the current prices, she said, are not sustainable because of decline in demand occasioned by the recession in Europe, slow growth in America and economic slowdown in China and India, coupled with an increase in supply from new discoveries in Africa and elsewhere and the end of hostilities in Libya.

    Fourth, a benchmark of $80, she said, would lead to lower savings which would in turn remove the cushion the country would need should the current price crash, as it did in 2008 when it eventually bottomed out at $37.71 on December 26, from a peak of $145.29 on July 4.

    Finally the higher legislators’ benchmark would, she said, send the wrong signal to foreign investors that we are imprudent and lead to the two international credit agencies that are soon expected in the country – Fitch and Standard & Poor – to downgrade our credit rating which in turn would discourage foreign investors and at the same time make it difficult, if not impossible, for our own local investors to borrow from abroad.

    The minister has since been echoed in her criticism of the legislators by, among others, my friend and onetime colleague at the New Nigerian, Abba Dabo, a senior special assistant to the vice-president, and by a non-governmental organisation with the impressive title of Economic Advancement Advocacy Initiative (EAAI), but which is possibly of dubious existence.

    Abba not only criticised the legislators on their rejection of the executive’s benchmark. He went on, in a widely published article last week, to severely reprimand the Speaker, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, for seizing the occasion of his moving the National Assembly’s vote of thanks following President Goodluck Jonathan’s presentation of the 2013 budget to generally criticise the President for his style and substance of governance.

    On its part, the EAAI not only rehashed several of Okonjo-Iweala’s arguments in a full page advert in several newspapers including Thisday (October 25). It also purported to show that, at $72 per barrel last year, Nigeria had the highest oil price benchmark among most members of OPEC and it also had the lowest foreign reserve ($41.30 billion) among a number of disparate African, Middle-East and Asian countries, including Malaysia ($134.50 billion), Saudi Arabia ($592.30 billion) and China ($3,240.00 billion).

    No doubt the executive arm seems to have all the right arguments on its side. In any case it’s difficult, if not impossible, to quarrel with the dictum that one should always save for rainy days. The problem is that with this country the rainy days have always been with us, what with its terrible infrastructure and services in every sector of the economy – security, transport, energy, education, health; name it.

    Yet we earn enough revenue from oil alone to make a huge difference in the quality of our infrastructure and services, and still have a little to spare for savings and investment in days stormier than the merely rainy ones. The trouble is that since oil took over our political-economy as king, the public has never had value for the money their leaders have claimed to have spent on their behalf. This, and not the size of our savings either as Excess Crude Account or the new-fangled Sovereign Wealth Fund, is the central issue.

    Given the volatility of the price of crude oil alone, it makes more eminent sense to have a benchmark of $75 per barrel than of $80 for next year’s budget. The trouble is that experience has shown there has been little or no transparency in the management of the difference between the benchmark and the subsisting prices. Instead, it has become like a slush fund for the executive arm to spend as it likes, at times in cahoots with the leadership of the legislative arm, at other times in spite of it. As Tambuwal said in his vote of thanks which apparently did not go down well with the Presidency, the public has, for example, never known whether the figures of our foreign reserve we are told include the interests accrued or not.

    We are also told little or nothing about the foreign banks that manage those reserves, the criteria used in choosing them and how they manage the reserves and how much we pay them as management fees.

    In any case what kind of economics is that which keeps huge sums of its revenues in relatively idle savings and at the same time makes a virtue of borrowing heavily at home and abroad less to invest in profitable ventures than to squander on, among other things, the creature comforts of its leaders – their lavish residences, their frequent and expensive foreign junkets, etc – as is so apparent from the size of our recurrent expenditure?

    President Goodluck Jonathan and his super minister of finance and economic coordination are right to push for an oil price benchmark of $75 per barrel for next year’s budget. But they can only seize the moral high ground from the legislators in their campaign for prudence and transparency in our political-economy if they are seen to make as much, if not even more, sacrifices in how they conduct themselves in and out of office as they demand from the rest of us.

     

    Feedback

    Last week’s piece on Chinua Achebe’s personal history of Biafra elicited well over 100 texts and several emails, as usual some of them sensible and profound, some downright silly and abusive. My original intention was to devote today’s column entirely to my selection of those responses. I changed my mind when I realised it was easier for me to write the piece above than edit the responses in time for my deadline. So I decided to publish only a couple of the texts today and the rest next week. Here they are:

     

    Sir,

    “The Igbo man will spoil a good case with a useless lie”, Achebe wrote in The Arrow of God. The child’s lie of how Igbo politicians were wonderfully lucky on coup day is still boldly told. A grievously wounded North returned! It’s been 40 years of destabilising response and ravage. We have all lost! Ironically, the North is the worst hit. The madness continues.

    Ebelegi Kponam Newton. +2348092856001

     

    Sir,

    What led to the pogrom is neither here nor there. I was just going through the list of the majors who struck in January 1966 and only one, Ifeajuna, was Ibo. Nzeogwu you know is an Ika. The lie that it was an Ibo coup remains Nigeria’s albatross.

    Tony Chigbo. +2348050494477