The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

Honoured today, dishonoured tomorrow

It is better to scrutinise awardees’ credentials before honouring them

“Prevention”, we have always been told, “is better than cure”. In line with this wise saying therefore, one would have expected that the Federal Government would have sifted the wheat from the chaff before announcing people to get the national honours. But the wise saying was inverted with President Goodluck Jonathan’s announcement at the presentation of the awards to recipients last Monday when he said undeserving people who were given the awards would lose such whenever the government finds reason to withdraw it from them. “In the light of the foregoing, I have directed that the National Honours Committee compile a list of persons conferred with the national honours but that their current credibility is questionable. If they are found wanting, our prestigious honours will be withdrawn.” This is not good enough.

Granted that it is possible for some people to misbehave after being honoured, the fact remains that we do not need any special committee to know that some of the recipients did not merit it. And we would have expected the government to know that. Or, do we need foreign countries to help us select people who merit national honours as they have done with the cases of some of our big thieves who used to be walking our streets free but who are now languishing in some foreign prisons? How, for instance, could we have honoured people that were suspected to have swindled the country through fuel subsidy? Yes, we might argue that suspects are deemed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, the fact remains that the awards are not running away. They are too many to go round. So, why must we rush to give people with question marks against their names? Why can’t such people wait till sometime in the future?

The honour, unless we are being told otherwise, is supposed to be conferred on people who have contributed meaningfully to the country’s development and who are of impeccable character. It is an annual event; that presupposes that it should not be a ‘fire brigade’ thing. If the awards are truly important, there should be sufficient time for selection and screening of the nominees such that by the time the list is released, it would be accepted by a wide spectrum of Nigerians and there won’t be need for the kind of medicine after death that President Jonathan has in mind. But the kinds of confusion that trailed the event, especially last year, and even the last exercise, did not show that even the government that is conferring the awards appreciates its essence. Last year, the medals did not go round. This year, accommodation and other arrangements were shoddy as many of the recipients had to make personal arrangements for their stay in Abuja last Sunday, on arrival for what was supposed to be a major national event. Or, is the shoddy preparation part of the statement that the thing has become more of an annual ritual that no one thinks should warrant any especial care for essential details?

These are some of the things that President Jonathan does that attract criticisms from Nigerians. With due respect to the president, many of these policies were hardly well-thought out. That is why, unfortunately Nigerians protest when such are made public. It has nothing to do with whether they like the President’s face or dislike it. But, as I have always argued, if the same Nigerians who voted overwhelmingly for him last year now find his policies reprehensible, then he should know that there must be reasons for that. And it would be better for him to see it from this point of view rather than keep assuming that it is the handiwork of some political detractors as he tried to rationalise last week on the fuel subsidy protests that rocked the country in January. Were these same detractors not around when Nigerians voted for him last year? President Jonathan has to wean himself off this misconception and change for better. Has the President seen any child that is being flogged that would not cry? That was what removal of fuel subsidy amounted to; it is what also the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) plan to introduce N5000 note amounts to; any wonder then that Nigerians cried foul before they were dispatched to untimely graves while some fat cows keep ripping them off in the name of fuel subsidy, or before the country embarks on a journey of no return if the N5000 note had seen the light of day? It is good that the President has seen sense in what Nigerians are saying by asking the CBN to forget about this poison! President Jonathan would do well by not taking, hook, line and sinker, the advice of so-called experts on such a serious matter because they have wider implications. He should not allow himself to be bamboozled by high-sounding theoretical assumptions that would fall flat in the face of reality or our peculiar socio-cultural circumstances.

I am not someone to be fanatical about all things foreign. But I believe we should copy whatever is good from any part of the world. What stops us from copying a country like the United States of America which has given, in its 200 years of existence, national honours to less than 500 people, whereas Nigeria has in less than 40 years of the awards, given to more than 30,000 people? If the awards truly have meaning, that is if it is all about patriotism and contributions to national development, Nigeria may not be as developed as the United States today, but it also has no excuse to be in this sorry pass. What this tells us is that the so-called awards are not worth more than the pieces of paper on which the awardees are listed. The thing has become too cheap, such that it is even believed it is sometimes sold to people with the means.

For the awards to have meaning, we have to depart from the past. And that we can start by drastically reducing the number of honorees and giving it to those who actually merit it. It doesn’t make sense that people get award just for being made Senate President or Speaker, House of Representatives. As a matter of fact, being elected President should not be automatic qualification for the award. Neither should one’s fat bank accounts. Contributions to the country should be the essential prerequisite. President Jonathan can start the revolution because it can only take a revolution to do that, and he would see that Nigerians would stand solidly behind him. The important thing is that the thing should be fair and should be seen to so be. This is in line with his view that “… holders of national honours are truly worthy representations of our national values and honour, and especially are patriotic Nigerians or real friends of Nigeria.”

We have to recognise and reward good deeds, but the way we have carried on with the national honours is apparently not the way to go. Giving honours to 155 Nigerians and friends of Nigeria in just one year is rather unwieldy. That explains why some eminent Nigerian have rejected the ‘honour’ over the years. The honours need not be debased as we have many chieftaincy titles.

September 23, 2012
Piercing the fog of revolution

It is uncritical to think that all the policies of unification established by military governments are good for all seasons and contexts

This column once described Nigeria as leaning more toward a Union of Policy than a Union of Affection, a conceptual distinction borrowed from Daniel Defoe’s comment on the Act of Union that brought England, Scotland, and Wales under one flag in 1706. The recent Yoruba Assembly in Ibadan raised new issues that need to be addressed, if the Nigerian Union is to become a union of affection and thus a functional and sustainable union. Many of the issues to be raised in the next few weeks of this column are by no means original. Most of them were ventilated at the recent Yoruba Assembly by conferees that passionately want Nigeria to survive as Africa’s largest country.

There is no doubt that Nigeria started as a union of policy. Frederick Lugard’s amalgamation of 1914, once characterised by Sir Ahmadu Bello as the Mistake of 1914, did not consider the feelings of the diverse peoples the Act fused into one country. But with time, those now being referred to as founding fathers of the country forged some understanding among themselves to the point that they agreed to seek independence from the United Kingdom as one country, even though after several threats from the colonial government that no section would be given independence outside the framework of Amalgamation.

Building on the understanding that cultural diversity was not enough to throw away the Nigerian baby of Lugard with the bathwater, the founding fathers agreed to seek independence as one federation. In the process, two of the three regions fused in 1914: Eastern and Western Regions sought self-government two years before the third one, Northern Region. All of them received independence in 1960 on a duly negotiated constitution that gave each of the three regions substantial political autonomy to develop its economy, enforce its laws, and cooperate with other regions to sustain the country’s territorial unity.

Unification policies emerged on the country’s political landscape after the emergence of military governments in 1966. Pre-1966 local and native authority police systems were abolished by federal military governments under the excuse that the police systems in existence during the colonial period and for six years after independence were abused by state governments, thus giving the impression that the Nigerian Police Force was not abused by trustees of federal power. It is often forgotten that the military rulers at that time needed to have an unchallenged military and police force(s) to sustain their unelected government. The federal monopoly over law enforcement decreed by military government is what is being cited today by apologists for a central police as the only way to police a multicultural federation.

Most of the defenders of federal monopoly over law enforcement today are from the northern part of the country which also supplied most of the military rulers at the federal level between 1966 and 1998. A few retired police officers from the western part of the country are re-echoing passionately the view championed by northern leaders that Nigeria is not ready for state police. That former police officers from the North and the West have the courage to say that the force they served is an indispensable model should not worry citizens. Such statement is a way of defending the job they did or did not do. What is irrational is the view by northern cultural and political leaders that a state police is synonymous with disintegration of the country. Is the vehement opposition to decentralisation of law enforcement by several northern leaders an indication that the current federal police system provides hidden advantages to the North?

The question of the moment, which also came up at the Yoruba Assembly, is whether one central police force can protect life and property in the country or sustain public order all over the federation. The facts on the ground with respect to the intimidation of Nigerians from all parts by the Boko Haram terrorist sect do not support an affirmative response. One central police system may be effective to sustain military dictatorship in a multiethnic society; it is not likely to be effecient in sustaining public order in a democratic context, as the rampant insecurity generated by Boko Haram has demonstrated.

The imposition of one central police in the country, which started as a Unification Policy after 1966, has now become one of the sources of division in the country. Southern governors want decentralization while northern governors want continued centralisation of law enforcement. The feeling of insecurity all over the country and the ongoing division between the North and the South over methods of maintaining public order demonstrate that forty-six years of one central police force has neither produced an effective police system nor created lack of suspicion among different regions. One policy that military dictators believed was capable of unifying the country has turned out to be a source of controversy that requires a national conference to resolve much better than northern leaders’ bogey regarding state police as a sure bet to break the union.

It is uncritical to think that all the policies of unification established by military governments are good for all seasons and contexts. There is an urgent need to de-militarise the polity. While it is appropriate for leaders in a post-military era to repeat the mantra of indivisibility of the country, it is unimaginative to insist on non-negotiability of the distorted federation and ineffectual unification policies left behind by military governments.

To be continued next week.

September 23, 2012
Ondo State under the radar (1)

The battle for the soul of Nigeria is on in deadly earnest. Let no mistake be made about it. The much advocated sovereign national conference, a veritable dialogue of the swamp dwelling ‘tribes’ of a much abused stunted nation is in full swing. No, as Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, subtly insinuated in his characteristically perspicacious keynote address at the last South-South Regional Summit in Asaba, Delta State, it may be time to forgo the rather romantic idea of a grand, once for all dialogue to resolve all national contradictions. There is unlikely to be any such thing. In reality, a nation is a sustained enterprise in perpetual dialogue. The national discourse that shapes the terms and texture of communal co-existence within a given territorial jurisdiction takes place daily in the media, academia, think-tanks, social clubs, religious communions, market places, beer parlours, board rooms, party caucuses and sundry other locations. At times, the exchange is verbal, peaceful and conciliatory. At times it degenerates into fisticuffs, belligerent militancy or even booming bombs exploding in the name of God! If, in the final analysis, the beleaguered nation is to survive as a going concern, some amicable compromises must be reached among contending forces or else the state must overwhelm the challengers of its authority through the monopoly of superior legitimate force.

Edo State provided the last critical theatre of conflict in the ongoing titanic struggle to either sustain Nigeria in her present highly incendiary and alarmingly precarious condition or fundamentally transform her in the direction of greater stability, cohesion and prosperity. The last governorship election in the state was another phase in the ongoing informal national conference. The Edo polls were a veritable referendum on the state of the nation. In the aftermath of his emphatic victory in the contest, the comrade governor, Adams Oshiomhole, was surprisingly effusive in showering fulsome praise on President Goodluck Jonathan for allowing the polls to be free and fair. I think the encomiums were totally misplaced. Jonathan did Oshiomhole no favours in that election. The latter won clean and square, on the basis of his track record and wily political instincts.

Let Oshiomhole be under no illusions. Jonathan and his tendency within the PDP needed to ‘capture’ Edo State badly. Only the politically blind and the perceptually bland cannot discern Jonathan’s obvious ambition to contest for a second term in 2015. Jonathan and his strategic ‘fixers’ of unlamented political memory thus badly needed Edo State in the PDP bag as a major pro-Jonathan South-South statement. It was not for nothing that Jonathan visited Edo twice to campaign for the PDP candidate. It was not for fun that troops were deployed in the state for the election. But neither appeal to primordial sentiments nor scare tactics could work any electoral magic for the PDP. Oshiomhole’s victory dealt a resounding blow to the PDP mainstream philosophy of elite cake sharing. It was an emphatic statement by the people that the current situation in Nigeria is unacceptable.

Like the Edo governorship polls, next month’s election in Ondo will have implications far beyond the confines of the Sunshine state. Once again, that election will be a referendum on the Nigerian condition. As they make the voting decision, the electorate in Ondo State must ask themselves: Are we better off today than we were in 1999? Can Nigeria and by implication our state survive and prosper as currently led without vision or dynamism? Will the outcome of the election be an endorsement for continuity or for change in Nigeria? The stark truth is that a vote for Governor Segun Mimiko’s Labour Party (LP) will be a declaration of confidence and support for the current underdevelopment-generating status quo in Nigeria. Dr. Mimiko is in many ways an interesting, even charismatic, politician. But his political philosophy, if any such thing exists, has been exceedingly eclectic and syncretic as to lack any discernible concrete content. In this political dispensation, Mimiko has at various times been at home in the Alliance for Democracy (AD), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and now the Labour Party.

The LP is today only a shell for an assortment of strange bedfellows to contest for power. The party is ideologically vacuous and programmatically famished. It is difficult to know the LP’s vision and action plan for the structural and functional efficiency of the Nigerian state at a time when contending power blocs are embroiled in a bitter struggle to refashion the country in their desired images. Yet, the actualization of the potentials and well being of the component states of Nigeria will depend fundamentally on a workable and clear strategy to transform the character of power at the centre and the structure of the relationship between the centre and the states. How can a party without any such serious strategic vision be entrusted with the destiny of a state like Ondo at this critical juncture of the country’s evolution? The ever blunt former President Olusegun Obasanjo once said, during a visit to Ondo State, that even though Mimiko is in the LP, the Governor’s spirit remains in the PDP. Mimiko’s silence on this claim was deafening implying consent. Any supposedly progressive politician who is amenable to helping the PDP consolidate its hold on power after 14 years of plunging the nation into abysmal depths of misery is a clear obstacle to progress at a time when the primacy of change has never been more urgent in a country tottering on the edge of state failure.

In Edo State, Oshiomhole carefully and deftly balanced his membership of the ACN with the sensitivities and imperatives of South-South regionalism where all the other states are PDP. In Ondo State, Mimiko assumes a most curious position. The governor is not ideologically or philosophically opposed to an overbearing, visionless, unproductive and exploitative centre that has been systematically ‘under-developing’ every part of the country. Indeed, his body language suggests that if he gets a second term, he may be a willing tool in any PDP attempt to try to re-impose its vanquished ‘mainstream’ hegemony on the South-West. At the same time, Mimiko is at best lukewarm and at worst completely indifferent to the imperative of South-West developmental integration. Yet, the South-West in particular is well placed to demonstrate to the entire country how integrated developmental regionalism can be a powerful vehicle for stimulating path-breaking national development. The region already has Lagos as a huge resource – a global Megacity of immense cultural diversity, commercial dynamism, innovative creativity, emergent first class infrastructure and entrepreneurial energy.

How then can Lagos as a Megacity serve as the centre of gravity for the transformation of the South-West into what development experts envision as a ‘Mega-region’? As Richard Florida, Tim Gulden and Charlotta Mellander explain the concept, “Mega regions are more than just a bigger version of a city or a metropolitan region. As a city is composed of separate neighbourhoods, and as a metropolitan region is made up of a central city and its suburbs, a mega region is a polycentric agglomeration of cities and their lower-density hinterlands. It represents the new, natural economic unit that emerges as metropolitan regions not only grow upward and become denser but grow outward and into one another.” Can Ondo State afford to be left out of a process that promises the unleashing of such tremendous developmental energy and transformation of the South-West into a magnet for international capital and labour flows for greater global economic competitiveness? Can the rest of the South-West allow Ondo to pursue a collectively ruinous path of autarchic isolation? Do the projects on ground in Ondo State relative to its substantial receipts as the only oil producing state in the South-West justify the triumphal chest beating that has characterized the Mimiko re-election campaign? We will, God willing, examine these issues next week.

September 22, 2012
Tackling political and economic adversity

In William Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It‘, the exiled

Duke Senior famously said – ‘Sweet are the uses of adversity, which like the toad, ugly and venomous, bears yet a precious jewel on its head.‘ Global adversity therefore, and reactions to it in the political and economic lives of some nations and the lessons   there from,   for the rest of us   in   the   global community, form the basis of my analyses today. I start in France where the Socialist regime that has just been elected is fulfilling its campaign promise of taxing the rich to cut France’s huge budget deficit and some business men are fleeing France to do business in other parts of Europe. We move next to the US where the president, Barak Obama had to remind his opponent in November’s presidential elections that a president must be father of all and not just a few. We look at a part of the world – Latin America- where the global financial crisis has had no adverse effect at a nation called Chile, which has managed growth positively in a largely mono product economy like Nigeria. We examine all these three   situations and events meticulously to see how the issues they throw up affect the way nations manage both their economic and political systems as well as their regional and global environment at large.

Let us go back to France where the Socialist government of President Francois Hollande is poised this month to tax any rich person 75% of earnings in excess of 1m euros which is $ 1.3 m. Since this was not a secret agenda but a campaign issue, French businessmen bolting from France into safer tax havens in other European capitals know what they are doing since they know it will be suicidal for the new government not to fulfill its electoral and campaign promise for which it was elected. Such businessmen must be commended for their commercial pragmatism as he who runs today can still fight tomorrow. Indeed this may be a right operational strategy for such people as the new tax regime will be for only two years and will be in force for that long to wipe out France’s budget deficit and return it to 3% of GDP as required by EU standards. Which to me is a new way of fighting budgets ,most different from the IMF and World Bank budget deficit solutions of retrenchments, austerity and layoffs leading to social discontentment in such environments. I could not but wonder at the French Socialist government’ s ingenuity and boldness in taking this step and not creating social resentment and upheaval led by the rich who are so massively taxed and seem to have taken it in their stride. A radio program I listened to later convinced me that it is French history and political culture that is responsible for the rich accepting such high tax as a fait accompli by a government that won an election on such a campaign promise.

One of the business men affected who said he will not flee France because of the 75% tax gave his reason and it is that , that I find most fascinating   and educative as a Nigerian. He said French business men would get by in the two years of the high taxes for a number of reasons. France, he said, has good infrastructure, high levels of education and productivity and the energy prices and affordability are reasonable enough for businesses to survive the two year period of the high taxes. That to me is wonderful and I wish I could say the same for my country Nigeria. Another businessman though was not so optimistic saying that the taxes targeted rich young entrepreneurs and some   will bolt abroad and never return to France which is a sort of brain drain or flight from which no nation can recover. But it is the reason that the French rich have become used to bridging inequalities that I find most fascinating as it reminded me about the French revolution of 1789 when the rich were murdered en masse and a unique murder equipment was made for the operation called the guillotine. Really I suppose that memory more than anything else made the rich resigned to their fate on the 75% tax as the historical alternative or its dark memory in France’s revolutionary history is not a fate to be contemplated or wished on French businessmen of today. Yet, it was from the same French Revolution that brutalized and murdered the rich and mighty in France that the cry of liberty, equality, and freedom rose to make democracy the ascendant ideology of our time. Really, sweet indeed and in very bloody terms, are the ‘uses of adversity‘ for the rich and poor in France.

Next is the US where I have decided to start with Barak Obama’s rather patronizing response to his opponent’s testy gaffes on US politics and diplomacy. Mitt Romney at rich men fund raisers of the Republican party – at $50000 per head-reportedly told his audience that Americans who rely on government hand outs like health care, who rely on government for food and   housing-about 47% of them – will rather vote for Obama and will never vote for him in the November US presidential elections. He called such people – victims. In another video he said the Palestinians are not at all interested in peace with Israel judging from their utterances and actions. The two incidents center on US domestic politics and Middle East or world politics and Mitt Romney has not been politic on either.

In the victims categorization he displayed a billionaire’s arrogance   and contempt for lesser opportuned human beings not to talk of the poor. He could count himself lucky he was not born and living in France during the French revolution. Yet even in the US he seemed to have committed political hara kiri since he assumed that if the 47% victims don’t vote for him the remaining 53% would; which is very faulty arithmetic as his disrespectful statement   will diminish that phantom 53% faster than he can ever contemplate. Romney has ridiculed adversity in American politics and would rue the day he made those two statements come November 6. The bitter sweet thing about his utterances though is that he has firmly put the mark of the unbending rich on a Republican party that is trying to portray itself as having the common touch and has created an electoral liability and burden for the party in its run off to the presidential elections.

On the Palestinians not wanting peace he needs to be educated not to say such things since the US is the major peace broker in the Israeli –Palestinian debacle -which is a major threat to world peace given its global religious and socio political ramifications. He should be asked to look at events in the China Sea where Japan, a US ally, is at dispute with China, a foremost US trade partner, over the sale of some Islands to Japan and note that the US cannot be seen to be taking sides as he did when he condemned the Palestinians and seem to be favoring Israel as striving for peace in the Middle East.

In effect then, these   two examples of socio political values and political cultures in both the US and France provide   lessons from which Nigeria can draw lessons, analogies and inspiration. Our attempt at making power constant and available even as the performing power minister is rusticated; as well as the publication of the names of those who received fuel subsidy without delivery of anything are similar at least to Greece’s ‘name and shame‘ tactics of making the rich pay tax and contain Greece’s budget deficit – just as the French taxed their rich astronomically to achieve the same effect. The recent debate on the introduction of the 5000 naira bill is a democratic exercise but it needs to take place in a constitutional milieu and not just because the CBN has the approval of the presidency to do it and this is where the example of Chile comes in handy for the rule of law.

I listened to a BBC Hard talk program involving a Chilean Minister on Development and I was impressed by the level of economic management and respect for the rule of law in Chile . Chile according to the Minister has long realized that high debts, high deficits, nervous markets and high interest rates are the symptoms of economic malfunctioning and financial mismanagement and Chile has grown economically on its major product, copper,   while trying to avoid these pitfalls stringently. Chile is the largest global exporter of copper and China is the biggest importer and the two are doing brisk and mutually beneficial business but the Chinese economy has slowed down and the Minister admitted this too will affect Chile’s growth which is one of the highest in the world at 6% just like that of India. Chile, the Minister said will decelerate but in a planned way that will not affect jobs but still attract foreign investment while accelerating diversification to reduce its dependence on copper. When challenged that certain important projects like power and hydro electric plants approved by the Chilean governments have met obstacles in terms of operations from court rulings on environmental breaches the Minister replied that the government respects the judiciary which he said is quite independent in Chile. Which means that Chiles prosperity has not gone into the head of its leaders in such a way as to make a mockery of the rule of law. Which makes one to conclude easily that in Chile’s case -sweet are the uses of prosperity-when it is not allowed to be high jacked by adversity in the midst of plenty;   just as the fuel subsidy beneficiaries did recently with Nigeria’s oil revenue- right before our eyes.

September 22, 2012
Will Sanusi floor our honourable men again?

He who fights and runs away, they say, lives to fight another day. The stage appears set for a full expression of this aphorism in the brewing confrontation between the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Alhaji Lamido Sanusi, and members of the Senate and House of Representatives over the planned introduction of N5000 note to the economy next year. Two years ago, the CBN governor engaged the National Assembly members in a similar confrontation. He did not only emerge as the victor, he was lionised by millions of Nigerians who saw his victory as a symbol of the people’s triumph against their rapacious representatives in the two chambers.

It all began at the eighth convocation of the Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State where Sanusi, as a guest speaker, threw a verbal missile at the lawmakers, declaring them as a burden on the nation’s exchequer. A quarter of the nation’s recurrent expenditure, he said, was being consumed by the two chambers. If that continued, he argued, the nation’s economy would never improve to meet its target of being one of the 20 largest economies in the world by year.

His statement drew public applause, but it was a sword driven into the hearts of the legislators. They roared in exasperation as they summoned him to appear before an investigative panel led by Hon. Alli Ndume. The panel accused Sanusi of deliberately inciting the public against the National Assembly by dishing out false information about its finances. If what they expected was an apology, they were wrong through and through. Sanusi reached for his bag, waved a document he had sourced from the Budget Office and insisted that the Federal Government’s recurrent expenditure for 2010 was N536 billion out of which the National Assembly spent N136 billion.

“This is a document of the Federal Government of Nigeria prepared by the Budget Office of the Federation, endorsed by the Minister of Finance, approved by the Federal Executive Council and submitted to the National Assembly by the President. If these figures are correct, then N136 billion is 25 per cent of the Federal Government overhead,” he said. The lawmakers stood crestfallen and helpless as Sanusi and his retinue of aides sauntered out of the chamber in a gesture of triumph.

As fate would have it, the planned introduction of N5000 note has provided a golden chance for the lawmakers to get even with the banker. It was no surprise, therefore, that it was the issue the Senate latched on as soon as it resumed from its long break on Tuesday. The senators took turns to condemn the introduction of the high denomination, describing the arguments marshalled by Sanusi to justify its introduction as nothing but mere sophistry.

The Senate President, David Mark, said: “If Nigerians say they don’t want a particular policy at any given moment, there is no harm in government retracing their stance on the issue, and I think that is the situation that we find ourselves. I have listened to the arguments from those who support it, but those arguments are simply not convincing. They appear to me to be highly theoretical and technical in nature, and they do not address any practical issue on ground. Any policy that does not address issues directly but just talking about indices we cannot verify for now should wait.

“We have not reached that level where we are just talking of hypothetical cases all the time. I think the disadvantages of the N5000 notes at the moment far outweigh not introducing it and on balance, we should not go for it. And also, from the contributions on the floor, we are all in support of the fact that the timing is wrong and the policy is unnecessary at the moment and the arguments being advanced are not convincing, and there is no urgent need for it to take place now.

“There is no ambiguity on our stance on the issue. I am not sure that Sanusi is aware of the Constitution. If he was, he would make reference to us before addressing the issue.”

Sanusi says the new note is a fait accompli, and the only choice left for Nigerians is to learn to live with it. The Senate says the denomination should not proceed beyond the realm of conception. The lawmakers believe that a policy endorsed by only 16 per cent of the population and vehemently opposed by the remaining 84 per cent cannot be said to represent national interest in a country that runs a democracy and not aristocracy. The tail, they insist, cannot wag the dog.

A stalemate thus ensues and Nigerians wait with bated breath to see who blinks first. To be sure, Sanusi is not a stranger to battles. Indeed, he had warned in an interview he granted the Financial Times of London less than two weeks into his tenure that he was prepared for battles. As the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, he said, he would not restrict himself to talking about money supply, interest rates and inflation like the governor of the Bank of England. “The financial system plays such a pivotal role in the economy that the governor of the central bank has to see himself, even though not a politician, as an important part of the government with a responsibility for delivering economic growth,” he declared.

In the said interview, he also threatened to fire the chief executive of any bank found to have cooked the books, but many Nigerians took his words as empty threats, saying he had no power to remove a bank’s chief executive without the consent of the board of such a bank. It took Sanusi only two months to make good his threats. On August 13, 2009, he fired the managing directors of five banks in one fell swoop and appointed new ones. He also showed the executive directors of the affected banks the exit door.

His turbaning as the Danmajen Kano in June this year at the height of Boko Haram insurgency in the ancient city was proof that Sanusi is a man that treads on roads the devil himself dreads. Surprisingly, the ceremony held and not a single shot was fired by the dreaded sect throughout the period. To convince anyone who was in doubt about his new status, he went to the office six days later in his full chieftaincy regalia.

His audacity also came to fore a few days ago with a verbal missile he launched against former President Olusegun Obasanjo for saying that the introduction of N5000 note to the economy would result in further inflation and compound the continually dwindling value of the naira. Sanusi responded by saying that Obasanjo is not just a bad economist but a very bad one too. “This is an interesting country because my uncle or my father, who is our former Head of State, Gen. Obasanjo, is a very successful farmer, but he is a very bad economist. He stands up and says that this higher denomination will cause inflation and improve hardship,” he said.

With its outright rejection of the new notes on Tuesday, the National Assembly has set the stage for a fresh battle with the Central Bank Governor. Unlike the clash between the two parties in December 2010, the odds appear to favour the National Assembly with public resentment of the policy and Jonathan’s reported promise to persuade Sanusi to put the new denomination on hold. But after all the grandstanding, it will be a surprise if the Sanusi we know gives up without a fight.

September 22, 2012
The Master Mariner goofed

Many People who have a stake in the Nigeria project, especially the nation’s maritime sector, must be amazed at the recent call by Captain Solomon Omotesho for the closure of the only nation’s premier maritime academy.

Omotesho, one of the country’s foremost master mariners, is known in the International Maritime Organisation, IMO, and he occupies a place of honour in this country. Remarkably too, Nigeria, Omotesho’s fatherland is well-respected among top world-maritime nations. And several factors are responsible for the pride of place Nigeria occupies. One is the nation’s training standards, Nigeria’s membership of the IMO’s white list. Omotesho many years ago, joined a ministerial task force during the tenure of Ojo Maduekwe, former transport minister, to ensure that Nigeria surmounts the problems to achieve a successful enlistment in the IMO’s white list. The admittance of Nigeria into the IMO’s white list was made possible after the task force successfully restructured the Government’s Inspection of Shipping, GIS, office. The restructuring also included ensuring a good maritime safety administration, and the formulation of a syllabus for the training of merchant navy cadets both on deck and engine, based on the STWC 95 convention now STWC 2012 convention, of course in order to remain in the IMO white list, work was also carried out on the nation’s maritime legislation.

Imperatively, the IMO, prior to the 1978 STWC convention, emphasis was on sea knowledge alone, but with the amendment in 1995 the STWC emphasised not only on knowledge, but also on competency of seafarers. Before the recent 2012 STWC convention, all countries are expected to come forward on how to comply with the new convention stipulation.

The convention is specific in its requirements. First, there must be a legal backing to all documentations, which was why the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, was formed. The government ensured that it was gazetted in order to give it legal backing. Besides, countries which are signatory to the STWC convention must show their syllabus or what they intend to teach in their maritime academies / universities in compliance with the STWC convention.

In all, Nigeria’s documentation and presentation of what it intends to teach and the syllabus it intends to use, was drawn from the Maritime Academy of Nigeria, at Oron, Akwa Ibom State. In fact, when Nigeria was working on its enlistment in the IMO white list, members of the committee were camped in a guesthouse for five days to put their documentation together and one of the principal participants was from the Maritime Academy of Nigeria. This was during the tenure of Ferdinand Agu, former Director General of NIMASA, then referred to as NMA and now Special Assistant to Secretary of the Government of the Federation.

Indeed, Nigeria’s election into IMO council and its listing on the white list are as a result of many factors. But training standard, syllabus and maritime legislature were key. To therefore call for the closure of the same Maritime Academy that has remained the barometer of measurement of our maritime training standards/ curriculum, is to many not a patriotic demand. And contrary to Omotesho’s demand, in 1999, he got a vessel for the academy for their sea experience, but was later rejected in 2001 by the committee set up by the school management to examine the vessel and was subsequently abandoned in Calabar Port until former Governor Donald Duke got it pulled out of the port.

At this time in our nation’s history when President Jonathan is calling for a maritime retreat to address the myriads of problems facing the maritime industry, everyone needs to be patriotic and passionate about the nation’s maritime potential. In 33 years that the Maritime Academy of Nigeria has existed, first as a nautical college, then as an academy for the training of merchant navy, Nigeria and the West-Africa sub-region have benefited tremendously, and Omotesho knows this. Agreed, Greece, Japan, Singapore and United States have flag vessels just like Great Britain, Norway, France and so on that engage in coastal operations as well as ocean-going vessels that can cross the deep ocean into other countries, Nigeria has no national carrier. Whereas, Greece has over 1045 vessels (national carriers) competing with other 1821 foreign flagged vessels.

Similarly, Japan has over 1077 national carriers to compete with at least 1824 vessels of other countries. The Nigeria National Shipping Line, NNSL, of which Omotesho was a pioneer master mariner, has long been liquidated with Nigeria not having a national carrier. Does Omotesho want the only recognised maritime academy in Nigeria by the IMO and other world-maritime institutions to suffer the same fate?

This is certainly not a criticism of Omotesho, but a call for collaboration. This is because most disputes in Nigeria simply end up with both parties withdrawing their fingers from each others’ face. I believe that if Omotesho has been to the Maritime Academy of Nigeria in the last six to nine months, he will rather call for the up-grading of the academy to a university instead of calling for its closure. Even the Senator Zainab Kure-led Senator Committee on Marine Transport which include former Governors Joshua Dariye and George Akume, as well as Pius Ewerhido among others were amazed at the infrastructural development currently ongoing at the academy in line with the President’s reform agenda, with a view to turning the school into one of the best in Africa and among the top 10 in the world. If the school is closed and another established in Omotesho’s homeland, how many years will it take for IMO to recognise it? This is the time to support the maritime academy located at Oron, Akwa Ibom state. To do otherwise would be a disservice to the nation.

This time the master mariner got it wrong.

• Edomi is the Publisher/Editor in chief of The South South International magazine

September 21, 2012
Four ministers and an ex

What really do ministers of the Federal Republic do? Or if you want to put it across in street parlance: wetin ministers dey do sef? The impression out there is that they are a bunch of privileged people living in splendor, who attend meeting after meeting, sign some contracts that are never executed but which feather their nests and before you could accuse them of anything, they are reshuffled or removed so that a new set of people could come enjoy the cozy seat. It sounds like a nice game of musical chairs doesn’t it? This week we share our note on four federal ministers, an ex- minister and what they have been up to recently:

Minister Adesina and the power of redemptive initiatives: Unknown to many readers, columnists and critics are actually looking for opportunity to laud public officials and celebrate their modest accomplishments in office; especially around here where there is hardly anything inspired or inspiring going on. But the matter of Dr Akinwunmi Adesina came up with some colleagues a few months back and I said to them that there seemed to be something there and they were unanimous that it was mere hype and hoopla. What really has he done than reel our sad statistics of our agric sector woes some wondered?

But something he did recently has moved me to start taking a closer look. He gathered the managers of 18 oil palm estates across Nigeria to Abuja to discuss way of partnership with them. I want to wager that no agric minister in recent times had rallied stakeholders of the palm producing sector to the city in a long time. Not those smelly palm bush people.

Adesina, by his gesture, has given them recognition, he wants to partner with them to stop importation of palm oil from the West Coast boarders, he is offering them improved palm seedlings from the Nigerian Institute of Oil Palm Research (NIOPR), he wants oil palm firms quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange to do even better. He is desirous of expanding the holdings of the palm estates by about 500 hectares.

One notes that he has catalysed the revitalization of some rice mills across the country and there is also the hee-haw about cassava bread initiative even though that remains an exclusive presidential repast now. But even if Adesina ends up not creating world standard palm estate, one is impressed by what I want to call his redemptive initiatives or the power of simple gestures that go a long way. We are used to seeing ministers sit on their bums and grumble about no funding; and we have often been told that trillions would be required to grow rice in Nigeria or that a cabal of importer would never allow homegrown rice. But here, we see a thinking man applying his mind to his duties. Please keep up the tempo sir!

Minister Ngama saying it as it is: Dr Yerima Lawan Ngama, Minister of State for Finance did not try to coat his observation with sugar or saccharine as government officials are wont. He served us the coffee black without sugar or cream. He said nothing new; he only lent weight to what we have been saying for decades.

It was at the Annual Conference of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria in Abuja recently. Ngama jolted his banker audience when he told them to their face that they were the prime wreckers of the economy. He noted that they contribute little to the Gross Domestic Product of the country as their high interest rates keep the real sector at bay. Hear him: “the banks had continued to show preference to financing import trade and by implication, contributing to the crisis in the real sector and the volatility of the foreign exchange market.”

But we ask: why is the finance ministry which has some oversight over the Central Bank not influencing action in this direction? Why is the endless reform in the banking sector not yielding this kind of salutary result that Ngama speaks about? How, for instance, would the review of the Naira proposed by the CBN governor make our banks support the economy better. Are we not doing reform for the heck of it? That is something for Ngama to chew on while we applaud him for his frank talk.

Minister Okonjo-Iweala’s $1.1bn Chinese loan: there are so many distressing points about this loan that one could make a whole book discussing it. Let’s look at a few. First why would you borrow money that you can well afford only to pay it back 100 fold in future? This sum we borrow today will in 20 years’ time, amount to about $10 to $15 billion. Two, it is baffling that Nigeria cannot muster $1 billion to build airport terminals and light rail. I thought we ought to borrow for economically viable and priority projects like huge refineries and petrochemical complexes which are self sustaining and would reduce the drain occasioned by fuel imports. Third, Mrs Okonjo-Iweala unpromptedly, led Nigeria’s repayment of $12.4 billion loan to Britain and France about 10 years ago. This sum well deployed then, would have gotten Nigeria out of the power and energy bind she finds herself today.

We think Nigeria taking $1 billion from China in this age is tokenistic, demeaning and portend no long term value for the economy. By the way, CCEC has been doodling on this Abuja light rail since 2006. How much have we spent on it so far?

Minister Abdullahi and his jungle stadium: it took a photograph showing the tropical forest growing on the pitch of our prime national stadium for the Sports Minister, Bolaji Abdullahi to awaken. Meanwhile people had written, commentators had shouted and the national teams could not find pitches to play international matches. The minister was even once quoted as scoffing that he would not fix the pitch just because an English team, Arsenal was visiting early in the year. That promotional visit had co be cancelled at a huge loss to the promoters and of course the country. Now an inter-ministerial team had to be set up to plant grass and maintain our stadium pitch. If Mr. Abdullahi would not do his work, let the entire FEC team up to do it abi? But what on earth is the FG doing fooling around with stadia management by the way? Wetin government dey do sef?

Ex-minister Ihenacho versus Nigeria Militia Navy (NMN): this is a matter of serious, if not ominous national significance, lest we forget. Recently, former Minister of Interior, Mr. Emmanuel Iheanacho was according to his press release, abducted and taken hostage in a federal government agency. A siege was laid to his business premises and he was humiliated and treated like a common criminal. All of this indignity was carried out, according to Iheanacho, by the gang of a certain fellow called Government Ekpemuokpolo Tompolo.

The detail of Iheanacho’s ordeal is not our concern here. Our brows are furrowed because the evil egg has hatched. We warned of the dire consequences when the presidency handed our maritime space to an extra-legal ‘navy’ headed by an ex-militant, Tompolo. We ask, why would the presidency need a militia navy when it has the full compliment of the Nigerian navy, Nigerian Air Force, Nigerian Army, Nigeria Police, SSS, DMI, NIA,NSCDC, etc. Why does the presidency think that these well constituted forces and agencies cannot do the job Tompolo and his rag-tag gang would do? Let it be on record that the presidency is grooming another terrorist group that five years hence would be worse than anything we have seen hitherto. This is how the Niger Delta militancy and Boko Haram started. This is sheer failure of governance on a grand scale. Today it is Iheanacho, tomorrow it may be Ihyembe or Hambagda or Hammond. There goes the millipede.

September 21, 2012
Ideas that live

Steve Biko was one of the iconic figures of the South African struggle against the racist, oppressive and immoral system of apartheid. Throughout his involvement in the struggle, and especially in his last days, he epitomised the best in the tradition of resistance movement, defying the arrogance of the operators of a system that denied its victims one of the most precious gifts of the creator—freedom and justice. In the end, he was brutally murdered in prison. But he left a lasting legacy with words to guide and advance the cause for which he died. He reminded us that “it is better to die for an idea that lives than to live for an idea that dies.” These words, crafted on the commemorative stone that marked Biko’s final resting place are worthy of the attention of intelligent human beings.

It is better to die for an idea that lives because in the life of the idea, the immortality of the dead is assured. On the other hand, living for an idea that dies makes one a living dead. We still remember the like of Steve Biko and Martin Luther King Jr. Indeed Dr. King has his memorial monument alongside those of former presidents in the prime real estate of the United States capital while those who tormented him and organised his premature death lived in ignominy, and, in death no one remembers any of them.

Freedom has long been recognised as the inalienable gift of the creator to human beings. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the French philosopher of the enlightenment era agonised over the plight of humans in political societies when he observed that “man is born free but is everywhere in chains.” Whether in the bondage of enslavement, colonial domination, racial oppression, or pseudo democratic arrangements that deny the humanity of citizens, the struggle for freedom and justice have always loomed large. These are the ideas that live. It is the struggle for the realisation of these ideals that move nations and societies to the centre stage of history.

Our societies have not lagged behind in such endeavours even though it is disheartening, as I would argue, that the burden of the struggles has been disproportionately endured by a few while the freeloaders almost always end up the beneficiaries of the successful outcome. For, while the struggle may be long and brutal, it almost always ended up with victory for the ideas that live. It cannot be otherwise. The human being is not made for bondage or injustice. The spirit would always reject oppression and tyranny. And even those that for selfish reasons side with oppression while it lasts will always take full advantage of its demise to advance the same self interest.

There are copious resources from our history. The struggle against colonial imposition pitted natives against natives, with some siding with the colonisers. And the battle for independence tarried for a while because of indecision on the part of some about its benefits. In the end, those that hesitated and slowed down the process turned out to be the greatest beneficiaries of the struggle.

Independence was earned on the proverbial platter of gold because there was no formal war of independence. But those who lost individual rights and privileges because they stuck out their necks knew what they endured.

Then democratic governance descended into the hell of military dictatorship and the struggle for freedom assumed a different dimension as an internal one among citizens with different ideas of governance. While the military might claim that circumstances forced them to take over and defend national integrity, there was no denying the fact that the hard-earned freedom was in jeopardy. Th e same individuals and groups rallied to its cause, fought the military and won the battle, not without a significant loss of lifes and property.

In the struggle against military tyranny, there was the usual corps of egotists for whom it is better to live for an idea that dies. They were the praise singers, the fifth columnists, and the plain traitors to the cause of freedom. They were the ones who, while not clearly preferring servitude to freedom, sought to advance their interests at the expense of the larger whole and the integrity of the nation. They enjoyed the patronage of their military friends while it lasted but the idea for which they live has since suffered a fatal assault. Now, they cannot proudly reference their once passionately held convictions. Isn’t this sufficient lesson for everyone to steer clear of ideas that die?

At present there is another battle going on between ideas that live and ideas that die. This is actually not a different battle; it’s just another front of the same old battle. It is still the battle for the fullness of freedom. The nature of our independence from colonisation meant that we are to be one entity without regard to ethnic or national identities. We concurred because it was a condition for freedom. But then we accepted our differences and agreed that the best means of enlarging our freedom is to preserve our various cultures and languages through a federal system of governance universally acknowledged as the most effective method of governance in a multi-national society.

The abrupt end to the independence and republican constitutions which gave teeth to that understanding dealt a fatal blow to the practice of federalism replacing it with military unitarism. The idea of militarism has since died but the concomitant idea of unitarism has not been discarded. Why?

The reason that unitarism has not been discarded is because there are still those who live for an idea that dies. There are still those egotists who benefit from the sustenance of decadence and whose sole purpose in life is not the immortality of existence through the promotion of ideas that live. They are attracted to unitarism for as long as they command the levers of power and are in the position to dole out favours. But it is certain that unitarism will go the way of other ideas that die and their present promoters will, again, shamelessly turn out to embrace true federalism and its attendant benefits. In the fullness of time, it will all happen before our very eyes. It always does.

September 21, 2012
Kindergarten god (1)

The saliva in his mouth probably tastes sweeter than fresh dates. That is why he opens his mouth like one who has gotten drunk on his own saliva. Yet for all his cheek and bluster, you have to give it to Sanusi Lamido Sanusi; somewhere within his mass of vanity and sense of worth subsists that proverbial patriot who could be hero.

Hero is probably too trite a word to encapsulate the patriot that he was meant to become. Now that the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) is desperate that he becomes President, shall we belabor why he is not yet ripe to become President?

The man who is supposed to be anything and everything to us has become a brute in our recurring nightmare. Bet this is the moment he swallows spittle to summon a sharp retort; who cares? I couldn’t really care even if I tried; it’s healthier to damn what he thinks of this just like he damns what we think of his oppressive policies and actions.

We have gone from people who do not understand him enough, to ‘dimwits’ who couldn’t appreciate all his “patriotic” gestures, even if the benefits stared us in the face. Beats me incessantly at times, but then, I remember that he is only human, and the mysteries begin to disappear, and his mutation attains some exposition of sort.

Nobody knows what it feels like to be Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. Nobody knows what guilt unmans him or what passion inflames his soul in his dominion over our fatherland but going by his antecedents till date, there is little he could get from us in understanding and empathy.

Just yesterday, he joined ballsy and cocky Okonjo-Iweala to force the bitter pill of fuel subsidy removal down our throats.

Stuck in his element, he dished out “economic facts and figures;” “truisms” and then insults, tongue in cheek and self-righteously. According to him, the argument is never about “ideology but about simple basic economics and common sense.”

For a presumably brilliant economist, he is yet ideologically confused – despite identifying himself as a pragmatic Marxist, reality depicts him as a pathetic illusionist. In the thick of his confusion, Sanusi has perfected the art of mounting the soap-box, at any given opportunity. “The bulk of government spending is revenue; revenue expenditure. That is a big problem; 25 per cent of overhead of Federal Government goes to the National Assembly. We need power; we need infrastructure. So we need to start looking at the structure of expenditure and make it more consistent with the development initiative of the country,” said the CBN Governor in the heat of his spar with the National Assembly.

Lamenting further, he said, “Very often, you look at the problems of the country and you look at the powerful vested interests that are benefiting from these problems and you think that the problems cannot be resolved, let me tell you one thing; stand up to them, face them, the country belongs to you and we must claim it.”

If his words are meant to pack a punch; they do. It doesn’t matter that they reverberate like cheap shots; Sanusi is the next best thing Nigeria has to a truth-sayer, within the ranks of our ruling class. But of what calibre is he? How dependable is he in the light of his ‘honesty?’

Nigerians won’t forget in a hurry the promises he made in the wake of the fuel subsidy controversy. He claimed that the N1.3 or more trillion saved by removing fuel subsidy will be used to develop other sectors of the country. They won’t forget the conceit with which he made his awfully valid points. Fuel subsidy has been removed and Sanusi has suddenly lost his voice even as Nigeria smarts from absence of the economic palliatives promised all.

Few weeks ago, he incited another controversy with the planned restructuring of the naira. Trust Sanusi, his approach was hardly different from that by which he conspired to force the bitter pill of fuel subsidy removal down Nigerians throats.

Clearly unperturbed by criticisms of his plan, at a press conference in Abuja on August 23, Sanusi told journalists that the CBN would, as from 2013 introduce N5,000 note, while N5,

N10 and N20 notes would be converted to coins. According to Sanusi, the redesigned N50 and N5, 000 notes will be introduced in early 2013. He explained that the naira was being restructured to encourage the use of coins, curb inflation, enhance the quality of bank notes and promote cashless economy. And backing him predictably in his bid is the ruling class and the crème of the nation’s aristocracy.

How realistic is Sanusi Lamido Sanusi? How intelligent is the CBN Governor? How dependable is he? The answer lies as much in his utterances as his deeds. Are his utterances and deeds the characteristic of an exalted intellect, something which Nigeria’s incumbent ruling class pitifully lacks? Does he possess that towering immensity of tact and strength of character that remains prime attributes of a progressive leader?

Is his lust for controversy and acclaim reflective of an awfully preadolescent wile? Could he be said to be ruling or serving Nigeria in his current capacity? How immune is he from ghastly manifestations of self love, wantonness, and sense of worth?

By his utterances and deeds, Sanusi demands to be heard and taken serious at all costs. But to what do we owe such reverence of him? Some would say it is his brilliance and oratory. Anyone could be brilliant and outspoken from time to time but wisdom is what a leader has to affect all of the time. Is Sanusi Lamido Sanusi a wise man?

That, I cannot tell, but I know that the CBN Governor is an orator. I know he is a pragmatic CBN Governor. I know he was courageous enough to call Nigeria’s lawmakers on their shameful fiscal indiscipline. I know his enthusiasm for economic rejuvenation of the country is undeniable and infectious.

I also know that he only pays lip-service to the plight of the average man on the street. I know he is far removed from the realities plaguing Nigeria’s poor such that his mantra about subsidizing domestic production and creating job opportunities smacks of insincerity, and a wantonness to play to the working class’ gallery even as he emasculates it.

I know he is yet to evolve such ideals that would make him mature into that purity of being that scorns egocentrism and narcissism. But no matter what anyone thinks, Sanusi does not have to apologize for being privileged to anyone. He does not have to be ashamed of his pedigree in order to be politically correct.

Yet if he is to be judged by what Greek philosopher, Pythagoras, deems the human measure of all things, he shan’t fare excellently. Not yet. And that is because he is still an ordinary human sound bite. He is yet to evolve into that purity of being that makes a leader, despite all of his flaws, iconic.

But it isn’t too late for Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. It isn’t too late for the one who gets drunk on the sweetness of his own saliva?

To be continued…

September 21, 2012
Poll 2015 campaigns began yesterday (part 2)

Whose who say it is too early to talk of and plan towards 2015 obviously do not understand what politics is all about, or of the crushing burden of clearing the filth and stagnation years of misrule have brought upon the country. Nothing, not even universally accepted convention, excuses leaving things undone till the last moment. If Nigeria is to be liberated from the clutches of visionless rulers, the plans and permutations must begin early, whether President Goodluck Jonathan fears distractions or not. The next polls are a little over 30 months away, but the opposition is still struggling to design a vehicle for that great task of liberation ahead, while the ruling party itself, shorn of vision and the doggedness and commitment needed for societal re-engineering and transformation, sits complicit in ruminative indifference to the country’s destiny.

I have not encountered anyone not beholden to the ruling party who thinks the PDP has a concise vision for the country. If the party had a vision for the country in the excitable days of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and in the considerably sedate days of the late Umar Yar’Adua, it would have been fairly obvious, even if implemented shoddily. We would have blamed Jonathan for poor implementation of the vision, not condemn him for lack of one. But there really was none, and there still isn’t any. As I have indicated here so many times before, and even shortly before the last elections, we must, without necessarily being members of opposition parties, begin to look beyond the ruling party. The PDP has held the reins of power for more than 13 years since the beginning of the Fourth Republic, and in all that period, the party was never able to articulate a vision for the country beyond the routine and cavalier adumbration of five-point, six-point, seven-point or x-point programme.

I think it is time once again to reiterate the point that it is not projects, roads, education and health, etc. that drive a country’s greatness. The first grand task is to find either a party or a leader with an inspiring vision capable of freeing the country from the mediocre orbit in which it is locked. It is ideas that beget projects that beget greatness. Ask American how they got to the moon. There is no other order of precedence. We must find a leader who has been to the mountaintop and has conceived in his mind the heights he wishes to take the country. He must be clear in his mind what the dimensions of the Promised Land would be, and must also be able to articulate how to get there. He must understand the kind of democracy required to midwife a great country and be a convinced democrat himself, not a democrat as an afterthought. He must understand how comparably high the shoulders of his countrymen must be in relation to the other peoples of the world.

What gives concreteness to vision, however, is ambition. The leader (I use leader interchangeably with party) must himself be highly ambitious to imbue his country with great ambition. If he does not think Nigerian democracy should be better than Britain’s, for instance, or our roads better than those of Canada, we will never put the structures in place to achieve those goals. And even if the constitution provides viable structures to underpin democracy and guarantee certain inalienable rights, as indeed the 1999 constitution has imperfectly done, the unambitious leader would undermine or exploit the document, as in fact Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Jonathan have done. The ambition described here is, of course, not personal ambition, for both Obasanjo and Jonathan, in particular, have displayed personal and humungous ambitions that war against their modest talents.

But while it is fairly easy for a leader to generate ambition, it is not quite as easy to generate vision, for vision, much more than ambition, comes from much studying, exposure to other civilisations, private character development, and an indefinable intuition and canniness that propel him into doing the right thing and making the right judgements. As the sectarian troubles in North Africa, Middle East and northern Nigeria are showing, the quality of leadership is declining precipitously virtually everywhere to the point where the so-called leaders in many places have become captives of the prejudice, hate and populism of the rabble. It was not until I read Chief Obafemi Awolowo copiously that I fully appreciated the depth of his knowledge and ambition, the breadth of his vision, his courage both in the face of adversity and opposition, and his solid and cosmopolitan endowments in democracy, administration and planning. It was not until I read books on Sir Ahmadu Bello, the eponymous Sardauna of Sokoto, and perused his files in the days of the Northern Region, that I was struck also by the grand scale of the society he envisioned, his Spartan discipline, his administrative acumen, and the remarkable balance he maintained between his private piety and the liberalism the regional politics of the day required.

It was also not until I read books by and on Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe that I began to understand how impossible it is for a leader to generate vision without reading about others, and without having one’s own heroes. Zik dreamt big, perhaps far bigger than his region of birth could accommodate, and probably much bigger than his country could fathom. This perhaps accounted in part for why he was in some ways the least successful of the three great leaders in terms of regional idolisation, and maybe, too, why he seemed to have been overshadowed by the more charismatic and enigmatic Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu in the East. It is indisputable that all three or four gentlemen displayed leadership and visionary qualities incomparable to the mediocrity Nigeria has been inundated with since the collapse of the First Republic. All of them were at least deeper, braver, and more imaginative than today’s leaders, and would probably have attempted to respond boldly and innovatively to the sectarian menace and small-mindedness undermining the stability and future of Nigeria. Even if they failed, it would not be because of indolence, cowardice or lack of determination.

I also recall how imperative the visions and dreams of some of the world’s great leaders were to their societies. Recall Napoleon Bonaparte’s Grand Army (imagine the inspired name), his Continental System, and his military achievements. These followed his dream of recreating a new (Roman) Empire, equal or superior to that of Charlemagne or even the Caesars. There could also never have been the Soviet Union had Lenin not first envisioned it. And there could not have been a modern and liberal Turkey rising from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire had Mustafa Kemal Ataturk not recognised that that was the only way to secure the rump of the empire and drag it into the modern era.

Nigeria is enfeebled and humiliated by lack of dreamers and visionaries. Much more despairingly, for the past 50 or so years, primordial and even primitive considerations have been at the bottom of leadership selection in Nigeria. The PDP under Obasanjo was supposed to lay a solid foundation for Fourth Republic democracy, but due to the limitations of his vision, his temperamental unsuitability, and the constriction of his unpresidential heart, he was incapable of laying a foundation for a modern society he could not conceive. He worsened the problem by foisting the wrong kind of leadership on equally prejudiced, fearful and passive electorate.

You do not have to belong to the opposition to know it was a tragedy enduring eight years of Obasanjo, three or so chequered years of Yar’Adua, and now halting, half-hearted opening years of Jonathan. It would be a disaster, however, to wait till 2014 to begin planning for the country’s liberation, or to succumb spinelessly once again to zoning, tribal or sectarian considerations in selecting a liberator capable of dreaming big for Nigeria. By all means, let 2015 begin now. The task ahead is too serious to be delayed for one or two more years.

September 20, 2012