The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

Budgets, elections and mandates

Last Wednesday the Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan presented the 2013 National Budget Proposals to a joint session of the National Assembly and got a mixed reaction from both the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The President of the Senate commended the timing of the budget and noted that three issues have always dogged the budget issue in Nigeria namely its timing, the powers of the National Assembly over the budget and the implementation of the budget. The Speaker on his part noted that revenue from gas running into billions of naira was not reflected in the 2013 budget proposals as well as the external borrowing.

The Speaker reportedly said that NASS is closer to Nigerians and can know better, what their budget needs and plight are, than the government making the budget proposals. Since the presentation of the budget proposals however, the usual analysis of figures have begun with the attendant fanfare on government priorities arising from the various sizes of the budget allocations. It is however the spirit of the budget as well as the underlying principles that govern budgeting in a democratic dispensation like ours, which is a presidential system like the US, that concerns me today.

Let me start by using an event in another nation this week to illustrate what I have in mind about the 2013 budget proposals put before the NASS by Mr President. In Israel the Prime Minister Mr Bejamin Netanyahu has announced fresh elections for next January 2013 because he could not agree a budget with his coalition partners in Government. The elections were originally scheduled for October next year but because his partners in government were not cooperative on the budget proposals he is asking all stakeholders in government to go back and refresh to their mandate in governance   from the source – which are elections into political office from the ballot box.

Personally, Netanyahu is said to be popular according to the polls but the elections will determine what sort of freehand he will have in forming a coalition that will endorse his budget proposal. The election result may throw out the parliamentary irritants to his budget proposals by giving him a solid majority that does not need a coalition to lead Israel. The elections results are also perfectly capable of making him lose his majority and go into opposition and out of government. Also the mere announcement of early elections can possibly make the coalition partners, who may not be popular with those who sent them to parliament – their electorate – to kow tow and play ball by approving Netanyahu’s budget – therefore rendering the election in January unnecessary which anyway is a strategy that Netanyahu had used in the very recent past. This to me is the essence of budgeting in a democracy which is that those elected use the budget for the benefit of the state and those who elected them or lose their mandate in case of default or any other unwarranted and      extravagant usage or diversion.

The same principle is inherent in the ongoing US presidential elections and the concluded first debate in which the two contestants took part. In addition Mitt Romney the Republican candidate has criticized the foreign policy of the Obama administration in strong terms saying that it is not protecting global US interests sufficiently, relative to the huge resources at the disposal of Pentagon and the mammoth industrial military complex involved in the global war on terror. During the presidential debate which Mitt Romney won, he accused Obama of creating the largest deficit in US history. Obama countered that he had used good money to chase bad and had saved jobs in banking, industry and the auto industry and that the economy was on a rebound which really showed up in government statistics a few days after the debate.

However the credibility as well as the suddenness of the economic rebound was questioned by one of the most respected and successful corporate managers in the US and a former Chairman and Chief Executive of General Electric Mr John F Welch who sneered – ‘these Chicago politicians cannot debate and they change figures’. Which is like saying that the economic statistics of the US are being politicized because of elections to favor the party in power   which also is as unfortunate as it is as Obama is from Chicago. But this too is as mischievous and dubious as saying that the polls or rating of presidential debaters may not be affected by success or otherwise at the debate. This is because the TV debates provide a visual assessment of the intellect and personality of a leader of the nation and that should affect voters’ decision or choice – for good or bad anywhere, and more importantly in the highly wireless, virtual and digital environment of the US.

In effect then, the media polls or ratings as well the debate performance of presidential candidates provide a clue as to who can win a presidential election in the US and they must be objective, and transparent, just as elections are expected to be free and fair in an old democracy like the US. Some cynics have said that the elections are too close for the debates to affect the polls meaningfully and reverse the Obama lead, but until November 6 when the elections hold, neither Romney or Obama should rest on their oars. The close competition also shows that Americans bother greatly about who will rule or lead them and direct the spending of their budget on coming to power.

Even though the political or ideological differences are wide in that Romney represents free market extreme of individual wealth and widening income while Obama stands for massive social welfare, reduction of social inequalities and income disparities;   the closeness of the race shows that all Americans know what is at stake for the next four years for the winner and the loser in their winner takes all brand of presidential politics which we have copied in Nigeria.

Going back to Nigeria   I think it is now apparent why we took a detour to Tel Aviv and Washington to arrive in Abuja where our president presented a 10.84 trillion naira budget that has a deficit that is within the   limit stipulated in the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 which according to the president, highlights the government’ s commitment to fiscal prudence. This I think is commendable. This is more so since as now know that fiscal indiscipline can cripple a nation economically sooner than later and bring opprobrium in global financial circles abroad and harsh austerity measures leading to redundancies and strikes at home.

This has happened   in the nations called PIGS namely Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain in the euro zone, in recent times. No one wants that to happen in Nigeri . However as   I said earlier I am not interested in the budget figures but the spirit behind those figures and it is on this score that I take on the comments of the principal officers of the NASS on the budget.

Of course a budget should be presented in time   for vetting by the appropriate authority and released for implementation to the appropriate cost centers . So the observation of the Senate President is in order. Similarly   all sources of revenue should be identified and recognized so that Nigeria stops being a ‘wild economy that does not know all its sources of revenue‘ – like someone said a few years back. Plugging revenue leaks will certainly eliminate wastage and the creation of an informal economy which is another name for looting and plundering of the economy

On deficits, it is important to stress that keeping within budget limits is of no use when no one knows or sees what the budget has been spent on. Budget book keeping should not be on paper alone but should be manifest concretely in terms of physical structures or services put on the ground from the approved budget. Indeed budget deficits, where they are productive as in construction of airports, roads and highways or the making of power turbines are desirable and preferred to deficits acquired for renovation of official residences or loans for purchasing existing official accommodation by incumbents or present occupiers.

On the powers of the NASS on the budget which is largely that of vetting, such process should not lead to an increase in personal emoluments of legislators or a negotiation for such   with the executive to pass the budget. That is pure blackmail of the executive and is indeed unethical. In addition Ministers who have just signed performance bonds with the president should be held to their commitments and undertaking to implement what has been approved as it had their input in terms of time, cost and viability of implementation.

As the Israeli and American examples have shown government expenditure and its direction can make or mar the electoral prospects of any government in power. That to me should be the guiding principle in the implementation of the budget proposals tabled by the government to the NASS last Wednesday. It is my fervent hope that our legislators and the government of the day can use the 2013 budget proposals to win more votes by implementing them to the letter in providing jobs, roads, security and light   for our people – rather than alienating them by poor or non implementation of the budget on the eve of the next elections in 2015, which is just around the corner.

October 13, 2012
Above all, democracy

Nigeria’s Socio-Economic Maladministration: Any possibility of a Revolution?’ That was the topic of this year’s 8th Chief Gani Fawehinmi Annual lecture/symposium delivered at the Airport Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos, by the distinguished scientist, Marxist scholar and social activist, Professor Omotayo Olorode of the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Abuja. With his characteristic brilliance and analytic clarity, Professor Olorode clinically dissected contemporary Nigeria’s political economy and its glaring revolutionary pressures. In his contribution to the discourse on that occasion, the Chairman of the event, Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Raufu Aregbesola, stressed that the fundamental key to resolving the country’s contradictions is to deepen the emergent democratic culture. A skilled Marxian dialectician himself, Ogbeni Aregebesola has obviously tempered his revolutionary zeal with the realities of practical politics in a complex geo-cultural entity like Nigeria.

But then, I believe that the governor’s contention is being proved more and more correct by the day. Yes, the country confronts frightening realities. Insecurity is pervasive. Corruption is endemic. Infrastructure has collapsed. Structural deformities impede progress. Social services are anemic. Moral values are famished. But in the midst of this gloom, democracy remains the only feasible light out of darkness. But then, democracy is no magic wand. It can promote development only if the people understand the ‘grammar of politics’, appreciate the issues in contention and utilize the power of the vote in a rational and enlightened manner. It is only through the constant and consistent practice of democracy that the political instincts of the people can be sharpened and they become increasingly acculturated over time to utilizing the power of the vote in a way that can promote development.

It is all too easy to focus always on those myriad of things that are wrong with Nigeria. Equally tempting is the tendency to give up hope on the country and assume that things have irreversibly fallen apart. That is why last week I wrote, borrowing from Garcia Marquez, of hope in a season of national cholera. For as long as we keep striving to strengthen the structures, processes and values of democracy as well as the culture of the rule of law, we will gradually and systematically overcome the obstacles to national transformation. While Nigeria has unquestionably regressed in virtually every sphere of national life since 1999, she has in the last few years shown signs of democratic resurgence. The people are clearly becoming more aware of the power of the ballot box. It is becoming increasingly more difficult for governments to take the people for granted.

President Goodluck Jonathan’s minders understandably try to give him credit for the growing reliability and credibility of our elections. I really do not think he has a choice in the matter. Nigerians are gradually coming of age politically and there is no stopping them. In spite of his incumbency, President Jonathan himself had to campaign most vigorously to win votes in the last election. In the process, he made so many extravagant promises that are today haunting his administration. The President battles daily with the deep frustrations arising from the yawning gap between his promises of national transformation and the lack lustre performance of his administration. If things do not change, the people will surely be waiting for both he and his party at the next election. Even in Lagos, where he is universally acknowledged as having excelled, Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola had to campaign rigorously throughout the nooks and crannies of the state for his re-election. It was the same story for Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State who eventually triumphed after being given a stiff competition by the opposition despite his impressive record in office. Welcome to the age of peoples power and the gradual erosion of the arrogance of incumbency.

The latest theatre in the ongoing battle for the deepening of democracy in Nigeria is Ondo State. What is becoming obvious in the run up to the October 20 governorship election in Ondo State is that propaganda not backed by actual performance on the ground can only be of negligible electoral value. My good friend and brother, Mr. Kayode Akinmade, the Ondo State Commissioner for Information, is clearly doing a yeoman’s job. But it is only a magician that can sell a non-existent product. As I travelled extensively through Ondo State last week visiting Akure, Ikare, Ore and Ondo, the chasm between the contrived television images and the actual developmental realities in the Sunshine state was glaring.

It was no wonder that in Thursday’s debate among the candidates of the Labour Party (LP), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), a usually confident and self assured Governor Olusegun Mimiko was testy and tense. He was clearly on the defensive. For a man who had nursed the ambition to be governor for so many years, Mimiko is clearly not in an enviable position. From whom so much was expected so little has been delivered. The PDP candidate, Olusola Oke, is obviously a confident and competent debater. But he stands on the flawed platform of a party that has grossly underdeveloped the country over the last 13 years. Like Governor Fashola of Lagos State, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), is no soaring orator. He is more legalistic and serious minded rather than populist in his approach to issues. Given his track record as a professional over the years and his brilliant tenure as President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), which has named its national head quarters in Abuja in his honour, Akeredolu has the pedigree to replicate in Ondo the transformational feats of his fellow SAN, Fashola, who Mimiko has admitted is performing excellently in Lagos.

Mimiko’s handlers have effectively publicised endorsements for the governor’s re-election by such figures as Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Chief Olu Falae, Chief Reuben Fasoranti, Dr. Tunji Braithwaite, Dr Frederick Faseun and Mrs Ganiat Fawehinmi. Even though these are highly respected Nigerians, it is unlikely that their endorsements will be of any meaningful electoral value to Mimiko on October 20. In any case, none of them has come out with any detailed facts and figures on why they believe Mimiko deserves a second term. The charismatic and controversial Lagos preacher, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has also emphatically backed Mimiko. In Bakare’s words, “Mimiko will win hands down in Ondo State and nothing will happen. Thereafter, he will muster strength and there will be an alternative party as people would begin to see leadership by living right and not by material acquisition of flying jets over the people, without letting us know how you come about the jets when you have little or no money in your pocket when you became the governor of Lagos State.”

Now, it is difficult to categorise Bakare’s words here as prophesy or analysis. He merely makes assertions without attempting to demonstrate them logically or empirically. On what basis, for instance, will “Mimiko win hands down”? Is it based on performance or because Bakare has heard an authoritative voice from God on the matter? Utilising helicopters for campaigns is not new in Nigeria. The great Awo used this mode of transportation for his campaign in the run up to the 1959 elections. Awo even used sky writing mechanisms that emblazoned the name and symbol of his party in the sky! The Labour party is a hollow shell and does not pretend to be an alternative to any party. If Pastor Bakare has evidence of corrupt enrichment by anybody, he should petition the anti-corruption agencies rather than making unsubstantiated insinuations.

It is important that a person of Pastor Bakare’s stature and integrity does not make frivolous statements lacking in empirical accuracy and analytic rigour. Must the people of Ondo State vote for Mimiko because Bakare says so or because the Governor has performed? Is it true that the state has received over N600 billion in the last three and a half years including the N38 billion inherited from the Agagu administration, Federal Allocation and Internally Generated Revenue? Do the projects executed by the Mimiko administration do justice to this huge inflow of resources, which makes Ondo the second richest state in the South-West after Lagos? Is it true that the Mimiko administration has incurred a debt of N20 billion and yet has borrowed another N50 billion from the capital market?

Is it true that the following projects promised by Mimiko have either been abandoned or not even commenced at all? : the N273 million stadium at Ile-Oluji; the N1.5 billion Dome project in Akure; the Akure stadium; the Ondo-Akure dualisation project; the Arakale road dualisation project; the Owena Dam at Owo; the five kilometre road dualisation project in Owo town; the Igbokoda township road from Ugbo junction to the jetty; the N5 billion Ore sunshine Mega plaza City planned for 153 hectares of land along Ore-Sagamu road; the expansion of Oyemekun road in Akure to a six-lane Mega highway or the promised water project in Akure to name just a few? Surely, Nigeria’s democracy has grown beyond political pastors hoodwinking the people in the name of God.

October 13, 2012
About Hajj

This article is not new. It was published in this column during Hajj period last year. It is being repeated here today with some alterations in response to readers’ popular demand. Here it goes:

Hajj in the life of a Muslim is like pregnancy in the womb of an expectant mother. The experience varies from woman to woman. The foetus in the womb undergoes various stages before reaching the stage of delivery. But by the time the child is finally delivered the mother feels a relief of her life. And the child assumes a tabula rasa (clean slate) that makes him absolutely innocent.

A pilgrim is like a newly born child, spiritually, if he strictly performs Hajj as prescribed by Allah. But if he returns into the world of vanity he automatically becomes like a person in snow white attire who finds himself in a palm oil market. Unless he spiritually guides his loins, he may immediately become a tainted person both in body and in soul.

Pilgrims who are going on Hajj must be prepared to go through series of rigour both spiritually and physically. The rigour of getting the money with which to perform Hajj; the rigour of getting the travelling documents including visa; the rigour of taking care of the home front before embarking on the Holy journey; the rigour of boarding the plane with a sense of high risk; the rigour of going through the security search at the embarkation point as well as in Saudi Arabia when entering and when departing; the rigour of performing the Tawaf and Sa’y; the rigour of moving from Makkah to Mina on the 8th of Dhul-Hijjah, then to Arafah on the 9th of Dhul-Hijjah, and back to Mina via Muzdalifah on the 10th of Dhul-Hijjah; the rigour of locating the tents at Arafah; the rigour of throwing the pebbles at the Jamrat in Mina on the three or four days known as Ayamu-t-Tashrik; The rigour of performing Tawaful Ifadah at the Sanctuary in Makkah after the first day of throwing pebbles; the rigour of shaving the head and slaughtering the rams, the rigour of performing the farewell circumambulation otherwise known as Tawaful Wida‘i all in the midst of millions of people can be too much to forget so soon after Hajj.

Whoever is not bothered by the money spent on Hajj should at least be bothered by the various stages of the rigour involved including that of visiting Madinah. To lose all these to the forces of Satan after Hajj is like losing one’s travelling passport after obtaining visa. The prayer of every genuine pilgrim is to retain the validity of Hajj forever.

Performance of pilgrimage must be based on genuine intention and high spiritual standard. An intending pilgrim must have attained puberty. He must have been an ardent practitioner of the first four pillars of Islam: (Salat, Zakah, and Sawm) all of which are fervently based on faith (Iman). Hajj without these pre-requisites is like a tree without roots.

Money is a major pre-requisite for Hajj but it is not absolute.

Hajj, the last pillar of Islam shows very vividly, the similitude of what mankind will experience on the Day of Judgment. Looking at the unique way in which pilgrims dress for Hajj and how they assemble at Arafat leaving their luggage behind in Makkah, one will realise how ephemeral this world is.

The various stages of preparation through which pilgrims pass before arriving at Arafat are symbolic of our peregrination in life as human beings. Like the Day of Judgment, Arafat is the climax of Hajj performance. Anybody who misses Arafat misses Hajj. But Arafat is not by physical appearance alone. It takes a combination of factors to participate effectively in that great assembly which serves as the climax of Hajj.

For Hajj to serve its spiritual purpose in the life of a pilgrim, certain steps must be taken before leaving home. They are as follows:

• Fine-tuning the first four pillars of Islam very sincerely

• Packaging the intention to perform Hajj

• Ensuring the security of the way

• Providing for the family and dependants at home

• Paying all the outstanding debts including promises

• Ascertaining the condition of health

• Perfecting immigration procedures and undergoing all necessary medical services including inoculation

• Assuming a mood of humility like that of a servant approaching his master.

• Readiness to endure hardship and to tolerate fellow pilgrims’ attitudes.

Admonishing Muslims on spiritual journey, including Hajj, Prophet Muhammad once said: “Actions shall be judged according to intentions. Whoever embarks on a spiritual journey for the sake of Allah will be adjudged on that basis. And whoever bases his/her intention for pilgrimage on marriage or material gains should not expect any reward beyond that for which the intention is based”. The steps to follow in the performance of Hajj are as follows:

The Miqat

Miqat is the specified place for the wearing of Ihram dress. There are five of such places in all. But the one earmarked for pilgrims from Nigeria cannot be reached by pilgrims travelling by air. It is over-flown while crossing the Red Sea. What most Nigerians do therefore is to wear their Ihram dress in Jeddah which has now been adjudged right through a Fatwah. Thus, Nigerian pilgrims can now wear their Ihram dress on arrival at the pilgrims’ airport in Jeddah.

Tawaful Qudum

Tawaf means circumambulation of the Ka’bah. The very first Tawaf to be performed by any pilgrim on entering Makkah is Tawaful Qudum. It is performed before a pilgrim settles down in any residence. Tawaful Qudum is an obligatory Sunnah from which only residents of Makkah among pilgrims are exempted.

Residence in Makkah or Madinah

Most Nigerian pilgrims often seek their accommodations in Makkah or Madinah close to the Haram. This is to enable them walk to and back from the Haram conveniently at the time of any Salat. To minimise pilgrim’s regular occurrence of missing their ways, they are provided with hand bands bearing the addresses of their residences. Pilgrims are therefore advised to wear such bands at all times to enable them show it to either the Hajj guides or policemen when the road is missed. It is also important for pilgrims to always be with their identity cards provided by Nigerian Pilgrims’ Commission or private agents. This is to enable them to be identified in case of sickness, accident or even death.

Movement to Mina

Pilgrims must be ready to undergo some rigour in the process of moving to Mina from Makkah. The rigour which normally affects all pilgrims is engendered by limited time available for millions of pilgrims who must move to that spiritual camp before the sunset on the day preceding Arafah day.

Arafah

At the Plain of Arafat, pilgrims are advised to stay under their tents and concentrate on the spiritual activities that take them to the place.

They must reach Arafat by mid day when Salatu-d-Dhuhr and ‘Asr should be observed combined. Anybody who is not at Arafat by mid day is considered not to have taken part in the assembly and therefore missed Hajj. Immediately after observing the combined Salatu-d-Dhuhr and ‘Asr the Imam who leds the two Salat is expected to give a sermon. Listening to such sermon is as compulsory as giving it.

The great assembly of Arafat terminates shortly before sunset (Magrib) and the pilgrims return to Mina via Muzdalifah.

Muzdalifah

At Muzdalifah, pilgrims are expected to halt their journey to observe Magrib and ‘Ishai combined. They are also expected to pass the night there and observe the Salat-s-Subh of the following day before proceeding to Mina. Muzdalifah is adjacent to Mina and is therefore a walking distance.

Jamrat

Stoning of the devils (Rajmu Jamrat) begins a day after Arafat and continues for the next three or four days that the pilgrims are supposed to spend at Mina. This exercise is obligatory and without it Hajj is incomplete. There are three points at which stones are to be thrown. Seven pebbles are to be thrown at each point on every one of the three or four days to be spent in Mina.

While going for the pebble-throwing exercise, pilgrims are advised to take their pebbles along with them. Except for the first day when seven pebbles are supposed to be thrown at only one spot, pilgrims are required to throw twenty one pebbles each day the three spots provided while they remain in Mina.

Picking such pebbles at the point of throwing them is forbidden. All pebbles must have been picked before leaving the tent for the ‘Jamrat’ or on the way.

Majzarah (Abattoir)

Slaughtering of all sacrificial animals is done at the abattoir in Mina. Pilgrims do not need to bother themselves by going to the abattoir for the purpose of carrying out this compulsory obligation. They can simply buy the guaranteed ticket sold by designated Saudi agents. The ticket is the evidence that one has performed that duty. The slaughtering is done on behalves of the pilgrims by some authorised artisans who are paid by the Saudi Hajj authorities from the money paid for those animals. The animals to be slaughtered at Jamrat range from rams to camels. A pilgrim should slaughter one ram or more while seven pilgrims may combine to slaughter one camel or five of them may jointly slaughter a cow.

Tawaful Ifadah

For pilgrims who can afford to go to Makkah after throwing the first seven pebbles, it is good to perform Tawaf-ul-Ifadah. For those who cannot, the exercise can be deferred till the end of Tashrik.

Pilgrims who have performed Tawaf-ul-Ifadah are free to shave their heads and change from their Ihram dress into civil or traditional dresses.

The only reason for any pilgrim to go to Makkah from Mina during the camping period is to perform Tawaf-ul-Ifadah. No pilgrim should break camping rule by going to Makkah without performing Tawaf-ul- Ifadah. And after performing Tawaful Ifadah, no pilgrim should remain in Makkah or elsewhere without returning to Mina before sunset.

With the completion of the camping days in Mina and the arrival of all the pilgrims in Makkah, Hajj has been completed except for Tawaf Wida‘i otherwise called farewell Tawaf. That Tawaf is compulsory.

It is then left for pilgrims to decide whether or not to go to Madinah. Going to Madinah is not compulsory. It can neither validate nor invalidate Hajj. But it will be spiritually odd for any pilgrim to choose not to visit the Prophet’s Mosque.

Throughout the Hajj exercise, what should be uppermost in the mind of a pilgrim is the spiritual benefit.

Hajj is made compulsory only once in a life’s time for those who have the wherewithal to undergo it and can satisfy the conditions attached to its performance.

On arriving home finally, pilgrims are not expected to start organising parties in celebration of a successful Hajj performance as ignorantly done by some Nigerians. Maintaining Hajj is a necessity for those who know the value of doing that. Whoever is privileged to perform Hajj once should forever be grateful to Allah as no one is sure of getting another chance.

October 12, 2012
And there was an ‘elder’ (1)

Nobody knows Chinua Achebe more than Chinua Achebe. But many have grown to love him as a world renowned novelist and elder of repute. So great is the love and respect enjoyed by Achebe that just recently, when Reuben Abati, ex-fiery columnist and critic turned Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Media Affairs, insulted him for refusing a national merit award, Nigerians of all politics and ethnicity scolded Abati. Even Abati’s kinsmen, the Yoruba, reprimanded him, and rightfully so, over what was considered his brazen boorishness to a Nigerian elder and literary icon.

Such is the love and respect enjoyed by Achebe and no national honour could best that; neither could any coordinated slander or slight sully that, ever. Achebe parades his knack for speaking the truth and quite unapologetically too, and this has over time, presented him as a writer and elder statesman worthy of note.

But truth could be ugly; hence it will always be in a language alive to the just and dead to degenerate hearts, when it is true. When the truth is untrue, no degree of sophistry or arrant sentimentalism will justify it or make it acceptable enough. Thus for all its worth, the jury will forever dither over the honesty or vice versa of Chinua Achebe’s recently released civil war memoir entitled, There was a country.

The memoir among other things, seeks to present a vivid and very honest account of the events that culminated in Nigeria’s civil war. Most contentious and inciting statement made by the author in his memoir was directed at the late nationalist, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Achebe says: “It is my impression that Awolowo was driven by an overriding ambition for power, for himself and for his Yoruba people…Awolowo saw the dominant Igbo at the time as the obstacles to that goal, and when the opportunity arose with the Nigeria-Biafra war, his ambition drove him into a frenzy to go to every length to achieve his dreams. In the Biafran case, it meant hatching up a diabolical policy to reduce the numbers of his enemies significantly through starvation eliminating over two million people, mainly members of future generations.”

Predictably, Achebe’s attack on Awolowo has provoked reactions from political pundits across the Yoruba and Igbo ethnic divides. Verbal bricks bats are being hauled even as you read but no matter what anyone thinks; Achebe possesses the inalienable right to narrate his account of the civil war debacle as he deems fit.

However, when the war started, it is unclear what Achebe expected Awolowo to do; did he expect Awolowo to become a spy for Odumegwu Ojukwu in Gowon’s cabinet and help defeat the Nigerian government? Awolowo claimed Biafran soldiers persistently ambushed food and provisions the Nigerian government sent to the Biafran people, why couldn’t he blame the Biafran army for robbing vulnerable Biafrans of the food? Why didn’t he advise Ojukwu against turning down the Nigerian government’s offer of a food corridor for starving Biafrans?

Why couldn’t he provide Biafra the intellectual capital to win the war given his unassailable wisdom? Why wait till they suffered agonizing defeat before summoning courage to write embroidered truths that neither Ojukwu nor Awolowo will read? Why support a war he and his Biafran leadership had no means of prosecuting? Why couldn’t he suggest less violent means by which Biafra could attain statehood?

During the war, while soldiers like Christopher Okigbo marched to the front and fought till the death, why did he flee for the comfort of ambassadorial portfolio? Did he really lack the courage to pick up a gun and fight even as poor Igbo kids were forced to fight to the death? Given his self-acclaimed sense of morality, why couldn’t he protest and condemn the Biafran leadership’s forceful conscription of child-soldiers?

Although many would argue that he opted for the ambassadorial role because he was best suited for it in light of his growing literary acclaim at the period, the flimsiness of such argument subsists in Achebe’s inability, despite his respectability, to counsel Ojukwu to throw in the towel for the sake of millions of vulnerable Igbo who suffered excruciating deaths as a result of the Biafran leadership’s arrogance, immaturity and self-centeredness.

That Achebe worshipped Ojukwu and couldn’t tell him the truth is glaring in his feeble rationalization of the late Biafran warlord’s elopement at the certainty of defeat. Although Ojukwu’s flight invites accusations of cowardice, Achebe applauds his ability to declare a war, goad over two million people to untimely death only to desert them at the very end. Thus while poor Chukwuebukas, Ijeomas, Chikodis, and Amarachis died of starvation, disease and ‘enemy’ bullets, Achebe and company perfected their escape from a ghastliness that they jointly orchestrated with the Nigerian government.

By his acceptance to serve in the Biafran government, did he not betray irrepressible narcissism and despicable bloodlust he tiresomely attributes to Awolowo? Aside his incendiary literature, aren’t there less provocative means to improve Nigeria’s lot or the lot of his beloved Igbo nation? Beyond arm-chair criticism, can he not foster viable means to eradicate societal evils like youth unemployment, terrorism, kidnapping, prevalent sense of insecurity, societal corruption, substandard health and education systems to mention a few, across the country or his beloved Igbo land to be precise?

Were he a true patriot, Achebe would stay back to contribute his quota to the development of his beloved Igbo nation and actualization of whatever fantasies clutter his dreams of bliss. But he has chosen to abscond and fuel from his safe haven abroad, the fiery embers of bigotry, hatred and bloodlust in Nigeria.

Thus is the tragedy of Achebe’s psyche. Despite his unassailable wisdom, literary prowess and acclaim, he has not learnt the nobler dialects of humaneness and elevated tact; instead he prizes and lusts after a cheap, self-serving, supremacist politics of ignorance and hate.

Nonetheless, Achebe is unrepentantly sincere in his propagation of Igbo supremacy and his version of the Biafran debacle; and that is what makes his incendiary literature absolutely dangerous to the Igbo youth and Nigeria as a whole. There is little the younger generation can learn from him in terms of forgiveness, rationality, perception, honesty, courage and altruism. He does not believe in one Nigeria yet he lacks the courage to actualize his Biafran dream.

And now, in his twilight, his treasured thoughts manifests like an accident to society. His heartfelt truths wander in logic and polemic like an untamed gypsy, burnishing a world in which he ought to serve as a bastion of love with hate, urging it into bitterness and everlasting darkness.

In the final chapters of his memoir, Achebe provides his wish list to eliminating ethnic bigotry and state failure – that is, after stoking the scorching embers of ethnic bigotry and state failure in the preceding chapters. Convenient, isn’t it?

His recent literature will accomplish no miracles, save its affirmation of Igbo victimhood and pathetic mindsets which sentimental fops are primed to perpetuate, simply because it’s socio-politically correct to do so. It’s a treacherous theorem of truth, written to brainwash the Igbo youth and sully their humanity and thought-process, in frantic bid to actualize Achebe’s lust for political immortality.

• To be continued…

October 12, 2012
A sick society

The brutish killing of four University of Port Harcourt students was another poignant reminder that we live in a sick society. For, it has provided us with a powerful MRI of the society from which we are able to see clearly the multiple maladies that afflict it. This society is full of monsters in human garb, savages fit only for the wild and downright brutes ill-equipped for civil society.

We have often been delusional, and I do not exclude myself from the mental hubris that romanticises our golden age of decent humanity. Many of us have attributed the degeneration of values in our contemporary society to the neglect of our traditional heritage, which presumably privileged human dignity over material wealth. I think this is largely true and there is ample illustration in words and practice to support the view. What we have not emphasised enough is that the break with that past has been gradual and persistent even prior to the so-called colonial imposition but certainly sharper and cleaner thereafter.

The various internal civil wars within each ethnic or nationality group predated the Atlantic slave trade and the horror of the Middle Passage. Indeed, there were ample evidences of the complicity of local chiefs in the facilitation of the capture and delivery of their kith and kin to slave traders. Just a few years ago, some African chiefs were moved to offer atonement for the involvement of our ancestors in the barbarism of enslavement. We may choose to ignore the past, but we will continue to relive it.

Every society has a past that shames their present and a history that embarrasses. It is what is done to shape a present narrative to ensure a glorious future that separates one from the other. If we vow that the horrific past of savagery will not define our future, then we—leaders and followers— have our work cut out for us. It cannot be left to chance. It has to be a deliberate and methodical plan of action to redeem the dignity of individuals and the integrity of the nation.

The video clip that announced the gory scene in the university town of Aluu speaks volumes. First, here is a village that is privileged to have a university located within its vicinity. How can it be that the values that are implicated in the idea of a university fail to percolate to the Aluu community? How is it that jungle justice is favored by the people of Aluu when the university prides itself in championing civil and humane justice system? Is there a meeting of minds between town and gown? If not, why not?

In the video are young men and women many of whom are looking on with glee and some of whom are actively participating in the clubbing of fellow human beings to death! Young people? These are the ones we count on to mold a nation into what it will become? It’s scary stuff. I am sure that these young people have some form of education or another. They are not illiterates. I will not be surprised if a good number of them have university education. What does this mean? What values are we inculcating in our youths through the nation’s education system? That laptops and cell phones are so invaluable that their loss can only be atoned with human lives?

Assume that these young people watching and participating in the lynching of their fellow human beings never stepped into a formal classroom. Is it too much to ask if they never had parents and grandparents? How were they brought up? What lessons did the village community impart? We used to be told that it takes a village to raise a child. And communities raise their children the way they—the communities would like to be identified? Aluu is now identified as a community of lynch mobs and barbarians. Was this their original idea of a community?

Religion is equally implicated. Africans in general, and Nigerians, in particular, have been variously described as incurably religious, notoriously spiritual, and acutely God-loving. Now you could consistently be God-loving and brutal in practice if you have a divine revelation that God enjoins a savage procedure in dealing with crime. Moses ordered stoning to death of adulterers for that reason. And versions of Sharia law belong to that tradition. But that justification has not been presented by the Aluu community lynch mob. And if they did, should we accept it? Consistent with religious ideals, we know now that even the most Mosaic of modern religions has not followed the injunction to club or stone culprits to death. And for Christians, which I assume is the professed religion of a good number of the Aluu community mob the effect of the cross has been a redemption from bestiality.

Nothing can morally justify what the Aluu mob did to the four young students. It turned out also that the end of their action is not justified by the means. They imposed a punishment of death without trial. But the community has suffered an equally stern punishment—without trial—in the hands of the youth that sought to revenge the brutal killings of their colleagues. This is what a sick society looks like. With no respect for socially accepted principles and processes of law and order, one evil and wicked act summons the other and a vicious circle of vengeance and counter vengeance continues.

Who will save the sick society from its self-inflicted ailment? In anticipation of this possibility, rational human beings are assumed to create a decent procedure for resolving issues. They put in charge a leadership corps to ensure that everyone abides by the accepted procedure. Where that leadership functions, it promotes and sustains institutions that effectively carry out the objectives of a decent society. Such institutions will promote effective and functional education that not only trains the youth for jobs but also inculcates the values that are to sustain the welfare of the people and promote their peaceful interaction. Such institutions will effectively adjudicate conflicts and punish crimes, including the crimes of a privatised justice system. It bears emphasising that the leadership we have in mind must be visible at every level from local to national. Even in this dehumanised epoch, leadership can make a difference.

October 12, 2012
Achebe’s tintinnabulating truth

Good truth – yes, there is good truth – it tintinnabulates. It continues to ring in the mind (ear) and jars its target (victim) until he succumbs to it or even goes crazy as the case may be. Good truth is an ever ringing bell that will never stop until assuaged. This is what Nigeria’s patriot-extraordinaire, Professor Chinua Achebe has told his compatriots in his new Biafra war memoir, There was a Country. For a book just released in the United States, hardly been read by anyone in Nigeria, the tome of reviews and commentaries on just an excerpt of it is a testimony to the stature of the author and the weight of what of his proclaimation in the book.

In the extract, published in The Guardian of London, Achebe simply says that the story of Biafra is being suppressed and sandbagged in order to put a veil over one of the worst genocides of human history. He wants our collective Biafra to be properly investigated, interrogated, discussed, debated and reconciled so that we do not walk blindly, into such gruesome history ever again. He said vicious policies were deployed in fighting what was a civil war and that even post war (on-going) attrition against Igbo is in itself, the worst kind of warfare. Achebe mentioned the food blockade to Biafra, the 20 pounds policy and oblique economic warfare as facts of that war and its aftermath. He then went on to mention some of the dramatis personae who were the master-minds and architects of the ideas that shaped Biafra.

Achebe mentioned specifically, the role played by Chief Obafemi Awolowo who was the war regime’s Finance Minister, chief strategist and certainly, the second most powerful man in the land at that time after the Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon. An attestation to this was that Chief Awolowo, as part of the strategy to damage Biafra’s position, single-handedly changed Nigeria’s currency during the war with General Gowon knowing about it only the day before. Such was Pa Awolowo’s power that only two other Nigerians knew about his stratagem.

These issues have been with us since after the war in 1971 prompting journalists to ask Chief Awolowo for explanation during the 1983 presidential election campaign. And he had thrown some light on them as much as possible. This in itself is a strong suggestion that these questions are still live and latent. Now the grouse of many commentators is that this matter need not be raised anymore so long after the end of the war. Some wonder why Achebe, an elderstatesman would be ‘opening old wounds’ 41 years after Biafra. But there is no better mind to profile Chief Awolowo today than Achebe. He had said earlier that the sage was tribal and now; overly ambitious. One says why not; in fact one wished the great Nnamdi Azikiwe had such virtues, Igboland would have been better for it. But then there are consequences too, which Achebe points to.

Most people missed Achebe’s point. Even the First and Second World Wars are still being interrogated and written about; ideas are never time-barred. On the other hand, the Biafra imbroglio is being muted and muffed by the perpetrators as if it were a taboo. And in fact, the victims are being dared to tell their story. The truth, however, is that the blood of about two million Igbo people spilled in the most brutish genocide of our time will not rest until atoned. The ghosts of innocent people including pregnant women slaughtered on the streets of the north and other parts of Nigeria will continue to walk those streets until they are reconciled.

Most disturbing is that many accuse Achebe of hate and bitterness. That is a very illiterate summation. Achebe is a transcendental mind. Anyone who understands this would know that he long outgrew such baseness. Imagine a Wole Soyinka hating people or being bitter. Their ilk only exhibit hateful abhorrence for injustice, arrogance and suppression of truth as has happened in the Biafra case. Even if we disagree with Achebe, we must at least accept that he knows what he is talking about. Here is a man who had written all his epic novels – including the prophetic, A Man of the People – over a decade before the upheaval. Even at the lower level, hate and sustained bitterness are not in the nature of the Igbo man; that is why he moves freely to every corner of the world. Ojemba e nwe iro is how we say it in Igbo.

The real problem is that the rest of Nigeria doesn’t want to hear it but you cannot put down two million kinsmen and expect to sweep all that heap under the carpet. It won’t keep. You must clean out those carpets someday. That is Achebe’s thesis.

2015 and Orji Kalu: where Greg Mbadiwe got it wrong

One was taken aback reading Ambassador Greg Mbadiwe in this newspaper last Friday on how former Abia governor, Orji Uzor Kalu got it wrong in his 2015 Igbo presidency calculations. Greg in his very articulate piece suggests that Kalu need not go on the offensive in seeking to actualize the Igbo presidency agenda in 2015. Here is Greg’s summation: “while it is the turn of Igbos to produce the President in 2015 it can only be achievable if President Jonathan is not re-contesting. If he is, and PDP endorses him, the bargaining chip left for Igbos would be to insist on succeeding him after his tenure.”

The logic in the above conclusion is so flawed that I was troubled whether it is the Greg I had encountered several times who is not terribly compromised. Here are a few questions for Greg: why should the lot of the entire Igbo race be left solely to President Jonathan’s decision to run or not to run? And while he decides, we Ndigbo must go home, lock ourselves in and wait? Don’t you find that to be terribly self-deprecating? Don’t you think Kalu has an inalienable right to discuss 2015 presidency, to rally his people, to even contest? Who says PDP is the be all and end all party in Nigeria? Who told you PDP will win in 2015? Why should Jonathan run for a second term? Does he deserved to run; why should Nigerias vote him again; has he lived up to expectations? Did he not give his word that he would serve only one term? Where is our honour?

And lastly my brother Greg, if perchance PDP gives him another ticket, do you think Ndigbo still have a bargaining chip with a ticket in Jonathan’s pocket? Why would he not bargain with other regions with higher ace? My brother, though I am no fan of Kalu’s, I wager that he is doing the right thing. We must rally ourselves first, harness Ndigbo to one strong, loud voice then we can go to any bargaining table and get our due. Dear brother, let us shun that cheap platter of porridge they dish to us, it is overnight manure that amounts to nothing; let’s work on things that endure.

LAST MUG: Wow, Gov. Rochas parties while Igbo governors were strategizing: Governor Rochas Okorocha’s obscene 50th birthday celebration would never have found space here had he not been conspicuously absent in Enugu last Sunday during the parley of Southeast governors and political leaders. To say the least, it was very embarrassing to read that the Imo governor was absent because he was celebrating his birthday. What vanity, what self-glorification? Did Imo people vote Rochas to office to celebrate lavish birthdays? If he would rather wine and dine than attend to state affairs, why would he not send his deputy as Enugu State did? At a meeting why the most crucial issue (state creation) to the Igboman was decided, Imo governor chose to party.

Seized by the evil spirits of vanity, Rochas shut down his State (offices, schools, markets) and invited a foreign head of state and five state governors to a lavish party. Meanwhile, the workers’ salaries had not been paid and there is no factory humming in the state. Why would a sitting governor throw such a lavish party in a State that has no economy other than federal allocation and whose money is being spent? Only emperors of old exhibit this manner of recklessness and impunity…

October 12, 2012
Mushrooming private universities in Nigeria

There is no doubt that there is a great need for university placement in Nigeria for the millions of young Nigerians streaming out of secondary schools. The total enrolment of young Nigerians in tertiary institutions including universities, polytechnics, monotechnics, and colleges of education both private and public is not more than one million. This, in a country with a purported population of about 160 million people shows the low level of access to tertiary education. It follows therefore that there is a need for expansion of tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Virtually all the state governments now have universities and there is also a federal university in each of the states of the federation and Abuja.

After the pandora box of private universities was opened, there had been a mad rush of various sectarian organizations and individual businessmen and all kinds of do-gooders to establish universities. The result has not been uniformly good. In general, most of the sectarian universities are likely to have some quality, although no one can vouch for this, but very few of those established by individuals have any quality whatsoever. Unfortunately, this tendency is undermining the genuine efforts of those who are committed to public good like Chief Afe Babalola and Chief Ade-Ojo who by all standards have built institutions that are certainly physically imposing. The National Universities Commission (NUC) needs to be very careful in approving licenses to all and sundry in establishing universities. I know that the NUC has various criteria including money in hand, huge hectarage of land, staffing and so on and so forth but one has doubts as to whether these criteria are being enforced. The most dangerous trend that most of us in the system have noticed is that because of shortage of staff, criteria for promotion of staff across academic levels are being jettisoned to the extent that people are being promoted and even appointed professors without proper assessment in the traditionally acceptable way. Not only that, some universities rent staff and even books and equipments for the purpose of securing accreditation. Some young academics sometime teach in three or four universities at the same time all in a mad rush to make money and certainly at the expense of academic quality and integrity.

Some of the names of some on-coming universities make one to laugh because the names are so foreign that one wonders the reason for approving such names.

I have just had the opportunity of travelling to some universities in England and Scotland and noticing new trends in university education and the stupendous resources needed to realize the academic goals of the well-established universities in these countries. To be specific, the University of Glasgow was established in 1451 and over these centuries, the university has built first-class infrastructure that has enabled it to produce Nobel laureates but in spite of this, the university is still building to renew itself and this year alone, it has a budget of about N266 billion for its services. If one were to compare this with any of our so-called universities in Nigeria, one would get the picture of why no university in Nigeria can be in the first one thousand league globally. The universities in Nigeria generally are poorly funded, poorly governed and poorly staffed.

When the University of Ibadan was the only university in Nigeria, some of its products were acclaimed as one of the best in the whole commonwealth and at a time, the College of Medicine in the University of Ibadan was one of the best in the world. Those were in the halcyon days when things were done properly in Nigeria. Since the mushrooming of universities in Nigeria, things have gone to the dogs academically speaking, but what worries one is the speed and rate at which these so-called private universities are springing up. The Federal Government and even some state governments have also joined in this madness of announcing the establishment of universities apparently without thinking them through and locating them sometimes in inaccessible areas presumably in the interest of even development as if universities were roads, railways and ports. The whole situation is so confused and confusing that one worries about the future. Universities are about people, they are about the future of the country, and they should be anchored on the idea and notion of building our youths for the future of Nigeria.

In a world of knowledge industries, the preparation of the youths for the future is very critical but the way we are going about it in our country raises fundamental questions about our plans for the future. We need to do things a little differently. Of course, every section of the country’s economy is crying for development whether it is telecommunication, transportation, electricity and health but all these are predicated on availability of the right kind of manpower, this is why education is critical. So, what do we do? We need to go back to the regime of planned development as was the case after independence when we used to have five-year development plans at the state and federal levels instead of the haphazard so-called “rolling plans” that was foisted on us by the military. This was the way the old Soviet Union, India, China and the entire Eastern Europe were able to attain the technological level in which they are today. There is no miracle about it, planning is essential to development. The lack of planning in the educational sector is symptomatic and a reflection of the lack of planning in the country as a whole, licensing and building mushroom institutions and calling them universities is not the way out. There are minimum standards of university education all over the world and what we have in Nigeria is by and large a travesty of these universal standards.

October 11, 2012
Salami : A Daniel has come to judgment

When in August 2010, President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Isa Ayo Salami, was suspended, right thinking members of the society kicked against the irrational act. They were ignored because the government was working towards the answer in a calculated and clinically executed plot to get Salami out of the judiciary.

Out of the way? Yes, the ruling government considered and still considers him a threat to its ‘political fortunes’. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is not comfortable with having Salami around because he does not stomach nonsense. This judge is not ready to dine with the devil even with a long spoon.

As a party, the PDP believes in doing things in the dark. Openness and transparency do not exist in PDP’s dictionary. They are Greek words to the party, so, wherever people of light like Salami are gathered, it feels threatened and is ready to do anything to tar them.

They have applied different kinds of tar brush on Salami, but this incorruptible judge has always come out clean. But they are unrelenting; they are determined to give him a bad name in order to hang him. Nothing will be more pleasing to the party than to lay hands on evidence to do Salami in as a corrupt judge. It has searched everywhere for such evidence to no avail.

If the party had been able to get such evidence, I bet you, Salami would have been history today after an ignominious sack from the bench, with a trial to boot. Salami, probably never knew that a day like this would come when he was joining the judiciary, but being an upright person, he stood firmly by his oath in the discharge of his duty.

And as fate would have it, he made it to the pinnacle of his career following his appointment as PCA after the retirement of Justice Umar Abdullahi. He was doing his job without any hassles until politicians came with their troubles after the 2007 elections. The Appeal Court, which he headed, played a crucial role in the post-election matters.

The court upturned the election of sitting governors all of who were elected on PDP platform. The party was aghast. It was shocked by the temerity of the court in unseating its governors, wondering why the judges could not turn a blind eye to the rigging which brought them to power.

Rather, the court dug into the rigging by doing a forensic analysis of the ballot papers on the strength of which it removed the governors. The court was about delivering judgment in the Sokoto State governorship election appeal when former Chief Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu, in his wisdom, intervened.

All he wanted Salami to do was a simple thing, at least, according to Nigerian standard. He invited Salami to his office and told him to please ‘’arrest’’ the verdict. Salami asked why and when he did not get a plausible answer, he rejected Katsina-Alu’s request.

The chief justice could not believe it that a judge in the judiciary headed by him could turn him down. He forgot that he could only throw his weight around where he is acting true to his oath of office. There is nothing in the rules of court that allow the chief justice to use other judges to subvert justice as Katsina-Alu tried to do in the Sokoto case. Salami resisted him and for that Katsina-Alu plotted his suspension.

Reversing that asinine

action has become a prob

lem for the Presidency, which hastily intervened in a matter, which was best left to the judiciary to sort out by itself. Instead, President Goodluck Jonathan listened to no-gooders and appoved the suspension of Salami.

When the president took that action, Salami was in court to challenge his planned elevation to the Supreme Court by Katsina-Alu and also stop the National Judicial Council (NJC) from giving effect to the report of the panel, which recommended his suspension. The president sidestepped the case and suspended Salami instead of sacking him as demanded by Katsina-Alu.

The plotters have had their day on the political turf, but Salami has continued to rubbish them in court even though judgment is yet to be delivered. The matter is becoming more interesting by the day. The Presidency and NJC seem to have parted ways on the matter; they are no longer on the same page.

This is a plus for Salami because those hitherto against him are now backing him, demanding that he be returned to office, without any input from the president, who thinks that Salami can only regain his job just by his saying so. Last week, the NJC, which has been hiding in between the Presidency’s legs on this matter, came out to assert its authority to reinstate Salami without recourse to the president.

My fear is that the same set of people, who advised him to suspend Salami over two years ago are still around him and may urge him to ignore NJC. To them, NJC’s well-informed position may not be more than the rantings of an ant. That is where they are making a mistake.

NJC is constitutionally empowered to discipline judges and in the exercise of that power, it does not report to anybody, including the president, but politics has changed things. This is why today, the NJC is tied to the apron string of the Presidency to which some of its past leaders sold its birth right. NJC under Katsina-Alu was a toothless bulldog in the Salami case because the former chief justice was working hands in glove with politicians to get the PCA out of the way.

What the present NJC leadership is trying to do is to reverse the wrong done Salami and restore the people’s hope in the judiciary as the bulwark against oppression and injustice. Salami has suffered indignities in past two years despite his high office. If Salami could be so treated, what will be the fate of those who are not as privileged as him? The NJC has said it all that it reserves the right to recall him.

In papers filed in court, it said the president has no power or role under the 1999 Constitution or any other law to recall or reinstate Salami or any other justice of the appellate court. It also frowned on the retention of Justice Dalhatu Adamu as acting PCA for two years now in contravention of the Constitution, which Jonathan swore to uphold.

By now if the Presidency is actually acting with sincerity of purpose in the Salami case, it would have reinstated him in light of the NJC’s stand. But then as we have always maintained in this space, there is more to its action than meets the eye. No matter what happens, one thing is sure, a Daniel has come to judgment, with NJC’s new found courage to state the true position of things. It is a matter of time before Salami returns to his job.

October 11, 2012
A nation hijacked by brigands

President Jonathan last week paid glowing tributes to Nigerian founding fathers, who 52 years ago ‘brought joy and hope to the hearts of our people after six decades of colonial rule’. They, as he has rightly observed, achieved the near impossible by working together to restore dignity and honour to a ‘multicultural and multilingual nation of diverse peoples, with more than 250 distinct languages and ethnic groups.’ It cannot be more ironic than that while their unique contributions were being acknowledged, the general lamentations of the people has been about the exploitation of this very diversity by brigands that have left in their trail, a legacy of inept leadership, missed opportunities, corruption, greed and debilitating poverty in the amidst the bandit’s illegitimately acquired opulence.

But then our current state of affairs was a tale foretold by the colonialists who were forced from their hostile environment where life was the survival of the fittest, by a desire for exploitation. If the misery of others will guarantee the attainment of goals of better life for those escaping from an environment where life was ‘nasty, brutish, and short’, sowing the seed of distrust and instability among the newly conquered territories was not considered immoral.

We have since observed from ‘The End of Empire’ (BDEE) (ed Martin Lynn) that the British influenced the outcome of the pre-independence census and elections in favour of the north which as a result went ahead to hold onto power for about 40 years of the 52 years of independence producing nine of the nation’s 13 leaders. And as was pre-planned, all with exception of Buhari, supported the West’s economic policies that merely ensure we continue to pay for the social problems of Europe. Today as equal member of globalised economy, cattle farmers in the West get government daily subsidy of $2 per cattle while 80% of Nigeria so called equal partners live below a $1 a day.

And as it is always the case, nationalism itself is not often driven by a deep sense of altruism. In this regard, it soon became obvious that our celebrated nationalists were no exception. Their resistance to foreign rule was driven more by personal ambitions and as representatives of ethnic nationalities. Thus they craved for their own nation states within the greater Nigerian nation. Nigeria, they said was a ‘geographical expression’ or a British intention’. Two years into independence after their epic battle against the unrepentant exploiters who merely replaced slave trade, the outdated and primitive tool of exploitation with neo-colonialism, which Nkrumah pronounced the worst form of colonialism, signs of cracks became noticeable and by 1966, the whole edifice had collapsed.

It started in 1962 when Balewa encouraged hoodlums to take over the South-west and legitimized the action by an illegal declaration of state of emergency with tacit support of Zik, ostensibly over throwing of chairs by a few hoodlums in the Western House of Assembly. The hoodlums were to be further rewarded with the 1965 Western Region rigged election. The mayhem that followed the federal government perfidy was the only excuse required by more vicious brigands to unleash terror on their benefactors and comrades in arms. An orgy of more mindless sectional killings of military personnel was to follow in July 1966.

From then on, every new set of hoodlums have been more vicious than the last.

If we thought the reign of brigands ended with the civil war, we were living a lie. Babangida emerged in 1985 at the head of economic brigands that was to finally bring the nation to its knees. Just as colonialism held no pretentions to exploitation, the military with a culture of pillaging conquered territories descended on Nigeria under western-inspired Structural Adjustment Programme, (SAP). With its dubious privatisation and commercialisation policies, they sold all the commercial concerns established by the founding fathers to themselves and their cronies. For about 13 years stretching through Babangida and Abacha periods, the economy came under severe strains. Part of SAP legacy is that an exchange rate which was almost at par with American dollar in 1985 is today N160 to$1.

For 13 years, Babangida and Abacha groomed new breed of politicians that bred nothing but corruption. When unleashed on the nation in 1999, it instantly took the form of an economic gangster. El Rufai’s recently disclosed how, through the instrumentality of Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), members of the gang shared among its members most blue-chip Nigerian companies. As if to confirm they are all brigands, nearly all their leading light such as, former party chairmen, ex-Senate presidents, ex-Speakers of the Lower House, ex-Governors, serving House Committee chairmen, top bankers and other leaders of industries have by different judicial pronouncements in the past 13 years been declared ordinary felons.

Now we have been reminded by those who have always benefited from our instability and stand to gain even more if we descend into warring sects of ethnic nationalities that we are rated 14thon the index of failed state. Some of the signs we are told include endemic corruption by the governing political class, absence of transparency and accountability by the political class and loss of confidence of the ruled in the existing institutions

They gave as further evidence; absence of functional government that can guarantee safety of lives and properties, the two major reasons why people trade their liberty for government protection; corrupt judiciary which in own case has in recent months ceded its function to other nations’ judiciary, endemic corruption, as evident in the mindless looting by government agencies as we have catalogued above. A recent study has also shown 80% of businesses in Nigeria bribe government officials. An earlier study has also shown the police, the customs, the road safety agency are all havens for corrupt officials.

But is there any light at the end the tunnel with the on-going reign of economic gangsters, political brigands and hoodlums that have taken over parts of the South-east, South-south and the whole of North-east? President Jonathan thinks so. Curiously, he is putting his bet on the old strategies that brought the nation to its knees. He alone for instance thinks repeating Babangida, Abacha, Obasanjo fraudulent approach to constitutional review will produce a good architectural design that is needed to build a new edifice for the future of our children. He alone thinks economic whiz kids who have been alleged to be part of the banking scams and who are benefiting from the current anarchy will guarantee development.

And as for the rest of us, the submissive members of a nation of miracle-seekers who dream of victories without wars, we have become prayer warriors. In my church, our bishop composed for us a very powerful prayer for Nigeria in time of distress which we have recited with glee all through Babangida, Abacha and PDP’s 26 years. Our Pentecostal cousins are praying hard to ‘stop evil men from ruling us’. Our Muslim brothers are engaged in the same ritual, doling out huge amounts to Muslim clerics. The only thing missing in all this is our refusal to hearken to God’s admonition that ‘we reap what we sow’.

Perhaps it is time to stop mocking our Almighty Father who has lain down in all the holy books, the precepts on how to govern societies including details on how to curtail the excesses of brigands and hoodlums, to whom God in his infinite wisdom assigned roles.

October 11, 2012
Nature and dynamics of insurgencies (III)

The 1914 amalgamation of Nigeria was a sham. It was certainly unpopular in both Northern and Southern Nigeria at the time. In the North, the powerful Moslem Emirates were opposed to it, as it was feared that a centralized administrative system would weaken their authority, while in the South the fear of the Lagos based educated elite was that it would lead to the extension to the South of the obnoxious practice associated with indirect rule, and the curtailment of the few political rights that they enjoyed under the legislative council system. Lord Lugard and most of his successors as governors were committed to the maintenance of the existing aristocratic Emirates and social order in the North. They admired the Islamic way of life in the North. Northern Nigeria seemed more orderly and stable. Why disrupt this order by bringing in foreign cultural influences, including western education? While allowing the Christian missionaries to start schools in Southern Nigeria, the British colonial authorities did little to encourage education in the North. Churches were virtually barred by the British colonial government from starting schools in the North. The practical effect of this basic commitment by the British colonial authorities to maintain and protect the Islamic way of life in the North was that a yawning gap between the North and the South in western education began to develop rapidly. This gap in education between the North and the South is one of the major sources of conflicts and instability in the country, even today. It is directly responsible for the emergence of religious sectarian groups in the North such as Boko Haram. The pre-independence political process in Nigeria has also contributed to sectarian violence in Nigeria. On the surface, the constitutional framework at independence appeared flexible enough to permit compromise, adjustment, and change. It seemed loose enough to satisfy regional aspirations and at the same time to accommodate conflicting national interests. What it did in reality, however, was to conceal the essence of the Nigerian political process which, in practice, showed that there was a basic incompatibility between the formal side of the system and the political needs of the country. As one observer of the post independence situation in Nigeria rightly remarked, “the organization of power in Nigeria for the creation of political stability, whether for democratic or non-democratic purposes, is extremely weak’.

Economic and social factors account for some of the friction between the largely Moslem North and the largely Christian South. The lack of a consensus over societal values, including a division over religion, is also a major source of the frequent religious conflicts in Nigeria as exemplified in the Boko Haram insurgency in Northern Nigeria which, despite years of political domination of the country, continues to lag far behind the South in terms of economic and social development. The North is far poorer than the South. Per capita income in the North is less than half of that of the South where, until recently, economic progress had created a small but rapidly mobile middle class. Some of the educated Southerners have migrated to the North for jobs and commercial enterprise. Most of these Christian emigrants in the North have been largely successful financially as their education has given them an advantage over their Northern Moslem brothers. There are vast economic opportunities in the North. But the Northerners are ill equipped to take advantage of these opportunities because they lack access to education. They are simply unable to compete with the better educated Southerners who dominate commerce in the region. The Northern Moslems resent this development for which they blame, not only their own selfish leaders, but Christians who have lived with them for generations as well. Even without religious differences, this situation of economic inequality was bound to generate some hostility against Southerners living in the North. The grievances of the Boko Haram insurgents range from religious and cultural differences with the South to their inability to take advantage of the economic opportunities available in the North. Over time, they have seen how their hopes for a better society and living conditions have failed to materialise.

The progressive breakdown of the old and powerful Emirates has also created an opportunity for these insurgents to challenge the old traditional authority in the North. The old and powerful emirates no longer have any power of coercion and rely on state security forces for the maintenance of law and order in their domain. Over time, they have also lost the moral authority that they enjoyed in pre-colonial times. Even though the process of modernization has been slower in the North, the hold of the Emirates on political and economic power has declined significantly. They have lost their political stranglehold on the people. Recently, there have been physical attacks by the sect on some of the Emirs. The insurgents want a return to the old values of a society governed under Islamic laws. They want to establish an Islamic theocracy in the North as they believe that this would provide them with equal opportunities for social and economic development. They believe it will end the corruption of their own Northern leaders and make the Northern ruling class more accountable to the talakawa, the poor. Their vision is that of a strict Islamic society in which their basic needs would be met by the state. This is the religious nexus binding the insurgents to one another. The widespread poverty in the North has provided the Boko Haram insurgents with a formidable instrument for seeking the overthrow of the existing order in the North. This order has not served the people well.

When the Boko haram insurgency first came to light in 2009, it was a weak, poorly organized, and inchoate movement. Since then, it has been transformed into a powerful organization posing a serious threat to national security with an impressive strategic strike capability. This transformation has been made possible by a more determined, better educated, and committed leadership.

•To be continued

October 11, 2012